Yes and yes!

Here's Digby's wonderful view on today's events....

Just a note to say that while I'm glad the president has decided to get congressional authorization --- it is a necessary concession to democratic principles --- it does not change my calculus about the wisdom of bombing Syria. I've thought a lot about this since the war with Iraq, when I made arguments repeatedly about "norms" and just war theory and constitutional requirements and the necessity of UN approval.  And I realized later that it was all a dodge on a certain level.  Yes, international norms are important as are our adherence to treaties and constitutional obligations.  But they don't trump the fact that it is unwise to take certain actions even if all those conditions are met. I do not think it makes sense to bomb Syria on the merits, regardless of who approves it.  I think the US is needlessly running into a buzzsaw and may very likely make things worse. In my view, the correct approach for the US is energetic diplomacy with an eye toward pulling Russia and China away from their positions and getting the other Middle Eastern countries to put pressure on Assad. We have become dependent on the idea that bombing and killing is the only way to affect change despite the evidence that it doesn't work any better than using other approaches. The US has a lot of power and influence aside from an ability to launch cruise missiles.  I think we've gotten tremendously uncreative. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thoughts for the Day...

1.  Went to the MLK anniversary event on the Mall yesterday--no big TV screens available for the crowd in back.  Thanks, Republicans, for cutting funding for anything that benefits the people as opposed to the rich. 

2.  Got this on Twitter from @AJEnglish this a.m.: http://aje.me/1dSI1DR "Obama is closer to Nixon than MLK"?  O has outdone RMN in prosecuting leakers.

3.  War is stupid in addition to all the other evils it is.  

The Chelsea and Larry Show....

Let's leave our distraction du jour, Chelsea Manning, for a moment to live her brave life and read some more about the world financial situation.  I want to find out just WHY OH WHY our preznit is so big on Larry Summers.  Can you figure that one out?  Not me.  It's like we voted for one person and got someone else.  Someone very different.

There's a great post on Greg Palast's VICE that sheds some light on this.  One of my favorite blogs is Juan Cole's Informed Comment, and he leads off today's post by asking "Is the US Government the Managing Committee of the Pirate Banks?"

Pirate Banks?

Managing Committee??

Larry Summers, for pete's sake??

Free Bradley Manning! (And More....) (And More Yet!)

Three years of torture* is enough punishment.  Why are we being so vindictive toward him?  The real scoundrels of the Iraq war are walking around free, smiling, acting like big shots.  Manning has helped us see the real cost of this war.  For once, the NYT and I agree.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/opinion/bradley-mannings-sentence-is-excessive.html

Addendum:  http://www.juancole.com/2013/08/36925.html

 Cole's last paragraph:

Manning was tortured for nearly a year*, and that should have been sentence enough. Without him, we might not even know about the Panopticon of total suveillance in which we are living. Manning helped spark a new civil rights movement. He deserves Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize in a way the president does not.  [Italics mine]

*Well, depends on what you consider torture.  

The following paragraph is from The Nation in an article by Chase Madar. 

Update, 8/22/2013: Yesterday, Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Today, Chelsea Elizabeth Manning announced through her lawyer that she will live the rest of her life as a woman, and we have amended our comment from yesterday in conformity with who she is. Chelsea Manning will most likely be imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, which like all other US military prisons and many civilian ones, does not provide hormone therapy or gender transition surgery to transgender prisoners. These policies should be reversed immediately.

 God love ya, Chelsea!  You're one hell of a brave woman, a true American heroine.

Anyone Else Wonder What's Going On??

Juan Cole has a wonderful column on the "10 easy steps" to creating a dictatorship.  I fear we in the US are going down the wrong path with our obsession with "security."  Freedom these days seems to
scare more people than captivity. 

Meanwhile, I learned from Facebook last night that my oldest child and her husband have taken another diving vacation.  Guess where?  Egypt!  Now I know that Sharm El Sheikh (one of their favorite diving venues) is not Cairo, but still....Nothing slows that woman down, however.  She adores diving, is a registered diving instructor in Scotland, and she has loved diving in the Red Sea especially. 

Be safe, dear Peggy and Henry. 

Thanks, Eydie!

Singer Eydie Gorme died two days ago.  Her first big hit, "Blame It on the Bossa Nova" came out in 1963, the year I lost my hearing.  Nice to be able to listen to this on YouTube.  Interesting to me that Gorme grew up speaking Spanish as a Sephardic Jew in the Bronx.  She was a cousin of Neil Sedaka.

   

Curious about what the bossa nova looks like as a dance, I went back to youtube and found this cute bossa nova line dance.  Looks like fun!!

From the Right-Hand Column.....

Earlier this summer I copied and pasted some advice on writing by Sarah Schulman on the "Thoughts for th' Day" on XE's home page.  I love Sarah Schulman's writing, and she is one of the kindest people I know.   She spoke at a conference in Montreal recently about how change is made.  She opened her remarks by saying, "Just change is made on the governmental level in the same way that it is made on a personal level.  Just change is made when all affected parties are taken into account. Injustice is by definition unilateral."  Her talk emphasized communication, among many other things.  Schulman believes in communication, so I want to reemphasize the Thought for th' Day. 

Today's lesson in writing class: Other people are real. Ask people for their experiences, there are always more sides to a story than you realize, don't condemn, be compassionate. If someone makes a mistake, forgive. Understand. Be decent. Don't denounce. Be able to apologize and forgive. When offered a chance to communicate take it. All this is necessary to be a good writer. You don't have the right to punish. Care. Shift your position, listen. Negotiate. Negotiate. Negotiate. Reach out. Talk. Share.
--Sarah Schulman

That's a tall order these days.  Many of us are so ready to condemn (poisonous)* people like Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or that blonde woman....what's her name?....Ann Coulter.  And Republicans in the House of Representatives seem to want to destroy American society, not just wipe out Obamacare or Obama's administration/legacy, period.

I don't know what's going on here, other than great turmoil. Clearly we need to talk.

*oops

WashPost.....

Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post.  Or, as the WaPo has it today, "After decades of presiding over The Washington Post, the Graham family quietly and quickly maneuvered a deal with Jeff Bezos to give the newspaper what they believe is its best shot at success."  Whew.  I'm so relieved to learn the Graham family was behind this, not Bezos.  THEY offered their paper to HIM.  He didn't go begging to buy it, he just agreed to take it off their hands before they lose their shirts*.  And for billionaire Bezos, isn't $250 million something like chump change?  It'll still take about 60 days for the check to clear the bank, but we're sure it will.

We on the outskirts of the village are happy to learn that "nothing will change."  Katherine Graham's granddaughter (the one who came up with the idea of having important people PAY THEM to eat dinner at their house so as to, um....what?) will still be the publisher, and Charles Krauthammer will still be around on Fridays to give us his right-wing views (notice they announced this on Monday). 

*stuffed

Gracias a la Vida....

This is one of my favorite songs, composed by the Chilean poet and singer, Violetta Parra.  The singer is Mercedes Sosa, a native of Argentina.  Parra's famous song has become one of Sosa's signature offerings.  I think of this song when I am very happy.  I'm usually happy, but sometimes my heart is full.  Today was one of those days.  Welcome home, chica!

English Lyrics for "Gracias a la Vida" ("Thanks to Life")

Posted By: hobie [Send E-Mail]
Date: Sunday, 4-Oct-2009 15:24:36

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyOJ-A5iv5I
Mercedes Sosa - Thanks to life (written by Violeta Parra)

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me two beams of light, that when opened,
Can perfectly distinguish black from white
And in the sky above, her starry backdrop,
And from within the multitude
The one that I love.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me an ear that, in all of its width
Records— night and day—crickets and canaries,
Hammers and turbines and bricks and storms,
And the tender voice of my beloved. 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me sound and the alphabet.
With them the words that I think and declare:
"Mother," "Friend," "Brother" and the light shining.
The route of the soul from which comes love. 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me the ability to walk with my tired feet.
With them I have traversed cities and puddles
Valleys and deserts, mountains and plains.
And your house, your street and your patio.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me a heart, that causes my frame to shudder,
When I see the fruit of the human brain,
When I see good so far from bad,
When I see within the clarity of your eyes... 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me laughter and it gave me longing.
With them I distinguish happiness and pain—
The two materials from which my songs are formed,
And your song, as well, which is the same song.
And everyone's song, which is my very song. 

Thanks to life
Thanks to life
Thanks to life
Thanks to life