this blog be movin'

thou shall now change thy linkage of this site to...

here.

CNN-you gotta love it

so, i think i am the only person who actually enjoys watching senate committee hearings. doesn't matter what they are about - i am intrigued and humored at the non-partisan partisan comments and questions tossed about on CNN and any other national channel who chooses to televise against soap operas and jerry springer.

i watched the armed services committee hearing in which rumsfield testified concerning the iraqi prisoner abuse. i've never been a big fan of rumsfield but my respect for him increased somewhat today. it is too bad that people who regurgitate diatribes about prisoner abuse and offer comments, opinions and accusations don't watch the hearings. yes, it takes discernment to understand what is being said and if it is politically motivated.

what did i hear? i heard that there are 18,000 investigations going on currently regarding prisoner abuse across the country. many of the iraqi problems have been and are being addressed. everyone who testified on the panel knew about the problems; NO ONE knew the extent of the current prisoner abuse. (i also heard from one senator that in world war II there was NO abuse by american soldiers. yea, right.)

i was most impressed by a senator who was a former navy officer who obviously had the respect of every single person in the auditorium. space won't allow me to recall all that he said (and i believe he was a democrat - not a bush supporter). it was very simple, he said. he was told by his superiors that if he got a dui, did drugs, mis-represented america in a negative way, he was fired. he turned around and told his subordiates the same. they turned and told their subordinates the same. he said he NEVER had one problem with "his kids".

i want the abuse to be exposed. i want those responsible to be held accountable. but when one senator asked rumsfield what will we now tell other countries about OUR OWN country when talking about human rights, rumsfield spoke exactly what i was thinking. the abuse at the hand of the soldiers who did it is not government-sanctioned. it is a big difference from a government-run "extermination program".

sometimes i don't like watching the hearings that i love watching. because it is obvious as the republicans and democrats take turns, that the questions and the comments ARE in fact partisan. i saw some of that today. but by the end of the day, rumsfield was crusty, impassioned, apparently honest but gracious and cordial.

and when the senators said, "you know you can come to us. we want to work on this WITH you. we can help you." etc. etc. i had to laugh...politics. it will never happen.

i also learned that there are more atrocities that will be revealed; more sordid and dispicable. specifics that on one on this side of the ocean knew about or could imagine; specifics that are learned of by congress, the president and the pentagon on Dan Rather's 60 minutes. meanwhile, these soldiers who conducted the abuse, who have no moral characater and who do not have the decency or value system that most of us uphold reflect on my friend's nephew, my sunday school student's brother and a host of other soldiers who deserve our respect and adulation.

usually the fish DOES stink from the head down; but this time, it appears that what the head didn't know was just how dirty the water was. and hey, it's an election year. the water is sure to get dirtier. on both sides.

and incidentally, i'm still waiting for bin laden and hussein to offer apologies for 911.

Fixed On You - A True Story

i've begged you to leave again and again. and yet, you insist on staying. you smother me with your need to be close. when i rise, you are there. when i walk away, you are there. when i try to forget you, you won't let me. you make my skin crawl and yet you force me to take you everywhere i go. you won't let go. why do you torment me this way?

it matters not that i am warmed by the sun or cooled by a spring rain - you cling to me desperately against my will. my experiences with you i would rather forget. most i will. but one i will not.

when i was shopping at dillards and reached to select the perfect purse on the sale table you brought me to my knees in humiliation. for as i reached, a bra dangled out of my sleeve - seemingly attached to my shirt, but on closer inspection the truth was apparent. for as you held fast, i knew from whence commeth the undergarment. ... ....static cling.

why can't you leave me alone?