Good Friday's No Shame Theatre Piece

Friday Nights I'm always at No Shame Theatre...Tonight is Good Friday and it is no exception. Here's the piece I'm doing--

Easter Greetings from the Heart of Archie
(Lights up on Archie at his desk. He is eerily calm and serene.)

Hey, I'm Archie Levine...and THIS is what I think....I think you're probably wondering where my anger is.

Why aren't my veins popping out of my head?

Why aren't I yelling and screaming?

God knows I've got plenty I could be yelling and screaming about.

There are more retired generals calling for Rumsfeld to resign than there are Americans who think Bush is doing a great job.

(Rising anger through this section)

There's Tom DeLay's resignation, there's the Homeland Security official caught in an online underage sex sting, and there's the Scooter Libby revelation that Bush was the leaker he said he'd fire for leaking the information that led to the outing of a covert CIA operative in a time of war.

There's Bush telling us that for our protection and to help America understand why he was saying what he said in his speeches about the war, he declassified the tiny part of the National Intelligence Estimate which addressed his claims of WMD in Iraq, but didn't declassify the overwhelming majority of the same classified document which contradicted that very claim...

There's fact that even Rush Limbaugh is saying you can't execute Moussaui for not telling us something because we have a 5th amendment right not to incriminate ourselves.

There's the insane perversion of logic in the argument that Moussaui deserves to be put to death because his not telling everything he knew to the FBI was the cause of the deaths of 3,000 innocent people on September 11th....even though Bush not telling us everything he knew caused us to launch a pre-emptive war which killed at least 33,000 innocent people!

There's the Council on Family Relations who are bankrolling lawsuits by students around the country who want to use the courts to force universities with anti-discrimination codes of conduct to repeal those codes so that Christians can have the freedom to express their religion by telling fags that God hates them and will make them burn in Hell.

There is John McCain speaking at the Liberty University where Jerry Falwell is putting everything he can into the creation of a biblically based Law School so that there will be wave after wave of Dominionist End Time Theologians with the legal credentials to sweep secularists from the benches in our courts and liberals from the seats of power in our government.

(At the peak of apoplexy)

There are revelations after revelations about the lies, greed, corruption, and incompetence of our current government that are staggering in the extreme and so dangerous I can't get to sleep at night without taking a bottle of vodka to bed with me!

(Calming to serentity again)

So, why am I so calm?

Because it is Holy Week. Because instead of thinking about what the Theocratic Elite are telling me Jesus says to hate, and destroy, and punish...instead of watching Pat Robertson and Falwell and the Council of Conservative Christians try to figure out how to get God to start the End Times ahead of schedule....I had a little look at what Jesus had to say about his life, and his message...and his death...which we commemorate this day.

If I were to meet Judge Roy Moore, who said his Christianity had moved him to donate a graven stone image of the Ten Commandments to the foyer of the Alabama Courthouse in which he was the sitting Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court...I'd ask him why he didn't instead donate a stone memorial to the commandment Jesus gave, just before he was taken by the Romans?

Jesus told his disciples, "I have a new commandment for you...that you should love one another."

Wouldn't that be a world changing thing to have inscribed above every courthouse in the nation? Or, for that matter, above the front doors of every school, church, and town hall in the land? Emblazened on every drinking fountain, every fountain pen, every bumpersticker, on every lapel pin, every coin, every dollar bill, and every prison gate in America?

"I command you to love one another" --signed, Jesus.

God gave Moses Ten Commandments. Jesus gave us one.

And so, I'm trying to fulfill that commandment.

At least through Easter.

George Bush, I love you. John Ashcroft, I love you. Judge Roy Moore, I love you. Donald Rumsfeld, I love you. Dick Cheney, I love you. Zacharias Moussaui, I love you. Mohammad Atta, I love you. Osama bin Laden, I love you. Saddam Hussein, I love you.

And I love each of you, too.

Who Would Jesus Love?

(You can read more of Archie's thoughts on religious issues at his other blog, Stop Hurting Jesus.)

They lied to you. More proof. How much do you need?

Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War: Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary, By Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer,
Wednesday, April 12, 2006

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.

They knew their claim was bogus and they put it on the shelf because they knew the only way to get you to do what they wanted was to keep the truth from you and then tell you whatever it took to convince you of the lie they wanted to believe.
(follow the above link for the full story)

With a track record like this, do you really think he's telling the truth when he says plans and preparations for an invasion of Iran are just wild speculation?

This administration takes the joke out of the old saying, "Don't believe anything until it is officially denied."

Please read these and be proud of your president:

• Bush Wrong 36 Ways, by Edward Jayne
  
• Ex-Bush aide denies calls on phone jamming, By KATHARINE WEBSTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
  
• Is George W. Bush the worst president in 100 years? He has always been a polarizing figure, but now his constant battles at home and abroad are taking on historic proportions
  
• US Election Commissioner (EAC) Martinez Resigns
  
• Gallup: Most Americans Critical of President in CIA Leak Case
  
• The Bush Administration's Final Surprise?
  
• Adventures in Testifying
  
• A President's Promise
  
• Bush leads Muzzle award winners
  

Deserving of Death for Lying?

I'll admit up front that I am opposed to the death penalty.

This comes from my Christian Values. Christ submitted to his own execution not because he believed strongly in the death penalty as a deterrent to crime, but because he knew that regardless of what men on this Earth call justice there is a higher judge to which we will be held accountable. Jesus was not only innocent of the crime he was executed for, but innocent of any crime. That, coupled with his stopping what was, by Jewish law, a legal execution leads me to think the only stance on the death penalty a Christian can take is to oppose the death penalty. Death cuts a person off artificially from the chance for redemption and forgiveness.

Perhaps this is why so many Christians are proponents of the death penalty. They, like Hamlet delaying his murder of Claudius, want to deny those they hate the chance of redemption and to more quickly get them into hell. I'm not sure how they can continue to call themselves Christians if this is how they feel, but Jesus was well aware of the problem of hypocrisy even among his most ardent followers. That is why he constantly warned against it.

In the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, we are seeking the death penalty not for what he actually did do, but for what he says he wanted to do and for what he failed to prevent by lying to the FBI. Why is it that many of the people rabidly hungering for this execution are often the same people claiming that hate crime legislation is wrong because you can't try someone for what they are thinking?

If we execute Moussaoui on the grounds that if he had not lied to the FBI the deaths of thousands of innocent people could have been avoided, then it certainly begs the question as to what the consequences should be for Bush, since the lies told to the American people by our president mislead us into a war which has killed tens of thousands. Telling us the truth could have avoided this war.

And yet, even today, knowing all that has been revealed, Bush continues to express pride rather than remorse over the loss of life he has willingly caused.

This war happened because we were told false information, and were not told important information which contradicted the false information that we were given.

Because the President lied to us about the threat posed by Hussein, because the President has actually admitted selectively declassifying only that information which supported his case and not the preponderance of information collected by intelligence services which contradicted his conclusions about WMD and the threat posed by Iraq...tens of thousands of people are dead. That is a fact.

Should we hold this lunatic terrorist rejected by Al Qaida to a higher standard of punishment for not fully disclosing their knowledge of a possible threat than we do our own president? If we don't, then what does that say about us as a people?

Bush either lied to us or is dangerously incompetent. Which do you prefer? Neither is worthy of continuing to hold the office of the President of the United States.

We are going to put Moussaoui to death because he wanted to kill Americans and we have decided he lied to us about his knowledge of the impending 9-11 attacks.

We invaded another nation on the grounds that our leader claimed its leader wanted to kill Americans and we claimed their leader was lying about his inability to attack us.

Our President wanted to tart a war that he knew would kill thousands of innocent Iraqis and lied about his intention to do so. He lied about the justifications for doing so. He is using the same rhetoric again about Iran.

Of the three, our President is the only one who actually did what he wanted to do.

If we are going to embrace the doctrine of pre-emption we should not be surprised when any other nation also embraces that same doctrine.

If we are going to embrace a hunger for vengeance, we must accept that those whom we harm will also seek vengeance with the same justification.

It is time to accept that the only "total victory" which will make us safe is the complete and utter removal of all who oppose or question Bush from the face of the earth. The President has said time and again, you are with us or you are against us.

Nothing could be more dangerous for the world than a Domoninionist and a proponent of End Times theology with more power than any other human has ever had before.

George Bush cares about only one thing...that he has looked Evil in the face and said "Bring it on." No price is too high for him to ask us to pay in his effort to destroy evil.

How willing are you to allow him to spend of the blessings God has given you--your lives, your hopes, your families, your treasure--and how willing are you to allow him to define for you what is and is not evil?

I am not asking for Bush's execution. I am crying out for justice for all people. You can not condemn one man to death and exalt another man as heroic for the same action...telling lies which lead to the deaths of thousands.

Deny Moussaoui the martyrdom he craves and knows he did not earn.

Hold Bush accountable for his deceptions and abuses of power.

Be more careful about what you choose to believe.

Be just.

Be fair.

Be Americans who uphold the ideals of our republic.

Be vigilent in defense of our nation and its democratic principles. Much more than your individual security is at stake.

Bomb Iran, bomb bomb Iran...

Well, they've said it. Regime change in Iran is the option they are looking for. Today they are denying it, so you know it's got to be true.

Why don't people in this country get nervous when Bush says, as he did recently, that "future presidents" will have to deal with Iraq and the pull out of troops? FUTURE, as in NOT HIM, and PRESIDENTS, plural. Iraq is going to be, by the president's own admission, a war which will go on for four, if not eight, if not 12, if not 16, if not 20 or more years into the FUTURE.

Is this what he told us and what Congress approved?

No.

Given the monumental degree of misrepresentation and the complete failure of the Iraq War, how can they even think about a similar invasion of Iran?

Would they even be able to consider putting the master plan of the Project for a New American Century into action if they didn't know for certain they were going to hold all three branches of government in this nation for that entire century?

In a democracy, how can you be sure of that?

You can't.

One thing Bush has proven about the PNAC and the Neo-Cons...they barely even need a human being to be a candidate.

Nothing they are doing or have done indicates that their actions are tempered by any thought of gaining the approval of the electorate. In the last "election" even Republicans like Bob Barr were telling other Republicans not to vote for Bush. They weren't saying vote for Democrats...so how did he win by 11 and a half million more votes than he did in 2000? Where did those votes come from?

Why is it that the same machines we are saying aren't reliable enough to justify a Chavez victory are more than reliable enough to validate a Bush win?

Before we do anything else. Before we talk about impeachment or immigration, or education, or taxation, or going to war. Before anything else, we need to demand election reform. Not just campaign finance reform, but real election reform.

We need elections with paper ballots and verifible results. We need standardized voting machines made by people who are banned by law from making contributions or statements of support for any candidate.

And we need to stop believing that an administration so clearly opposed to the fundamental principles of democracy is honestly trying to spread democracy around the world at gunpoint.

Nothing we do as a nation matters at all unless we continue to uphold and defend the basic democratic principles which made this nation great and a beacon the world over against tyrany and despotism.

We are a nation of laws, not of men. We are a nation that strives toward ideals, not a nation which sacrifices those ideals in the name of greater power and security.

Give me Liberty or Give me DEATH.

One man, one vote.

Of the People, By the People, and for THE PEOPLE.

FREEDOM.

PRIVACY.

TRUST.

HONOR.

LIBERTY.

JUSTICE.

EQUALITY.

Where did these words go? When did they stop meaning what our founding fathers thought they meant?

They created this system of government, our great CONSTITUTION, as a bulwark against abuses of power.

They knew that power and liberty are naturally incompatible and so they created a system of checks and balances so that as the nation gained power, that power would never so erode liberty and freedom that all their work and pursuit of the ideal would be undone.

The federalists are not patriots.

The dominionists are not following the example of Christ.

Diebold is not furthering democracy.

Do something about it, America. For the love of God and Country, please do something about it. NOW.

I AM THE LAW

George Bush was against the leak before he was for it.

I can't understand two things...how there can be a liberal media bias when we're focused on The Davinci Code and Cynthia McKinney during a week where Bush is revealed as the source of the NIE leak, Tom DeLay resigns, the US courts are going to give the gift of martyrdom to Moussaoui, and a high ranking official in the Department of Homeland Security is arrested for seducing a 14 year old girl over the internet with naked pictures of himself wearing his DHS security badge.

And I can't understand why even 37% of America is so deep in denial that they continue to support George Bush.

Holy Crap, America.

Get your head out of your ass and ask yourself a couple of hard questions once in a while, instead of pretending the only thing keeping your boy down are liberal traitors in the White House Press Corps.

The official motto of this White House is "I won't comment on an ongoing investigation."

So much for restoring dignity to the White House. They have no credibility because they don't think they need any more credibility than their own say-so. You call that Democracy?

That dog don't hunt. That's like a prostitute preaching celibacy. Harry Taylor had it right, Bush should be ashamed. And scratching the W off the back of your SUV isn't going to be enough to remove your shame when you finally wake up and smell the catastrophe your support of this amoral idiot made possible.

Told You It Was Bush!

I said all along, Bush is the White House source for the leaked information that led to outing CIA covert operative Valerie Plame. He leaked classified information, outed an operative engaged in WMD investigations all to silence critics. I think, as this line of investigation continues, we're going to find he was much more actively involved than it sounds like now...And now it sounds pretty bad.

He has a history of vengeful reprisals on critics and lacks any understanding of the rule of law which might prevent him from abuses of power. The kind of thing that usually gets a person labeled a mad man.

What is it going to take for you people to turn on this guy who is destroying our nation more effectively than Osama bin Laden could ever dream of doing?

I also pointed out how carefully he put it in his statement, that he would fire anyone on his staff who was involved in the leak. Bush is not on his own staff. He thinks he's clever. I think he's a liar.

What do you think?

And what are you going to do about it?

Throw Her Ass In Jail

I think that Rep. Cynthia McKinney is a disgrace to her gender, race, and political party. I think she should set an example by accepting responsibility for her actions. I think she should be arrested and get her day in court. I think she should plead guilty. When convicted, I think she should do the same kind of time any other person would--be they white, black, Muslim, Catholic, man, woman, or any other category you can think of dividing people up into.

Maybe some community service time in an orange jumpsuit would remind her of what the hell she is supposed to be doing in Congress.

How can the Democratic Party attempt to hold Republicans responsible for their actions when someone like McKinney refuses to be responsible for hers?

Regrettably, she is one of ours. Regrettably she helps the other side to diminish our credibility and to distract the country from their own failings of leadership.

SHE HIT A COP.

She hit a cop who was doing his job of protecting her and every other member of Congress during a time of war. A time of war in which Congress itself has been attacked by terrorists. (Even if the Anthrax Mailer probably was a domestic terrorist and we have completely forgotten about trying to capture and arrest him, her, or them.)

I don't care what motives you ascribe to the cop after you hit him, the fact is you committed a crime by hitting him and it is up to the courts to determine the justification. The cop did not yell, "Hey, Ghetto Slut, you ain't allowed in Congress!"

By all accounts (except hers, I guess) the cop was civil, polite, and tried three times to get her attention. Maybe members of Congress ought to be a little more attentive to the police, or at least be attentive to them when they are going through security check points.

Or, here's an idea, if you know people are having a hard time recognizing you--wear your security badge and make an effort to get them to recognize you by reaching out to meet them yourself. How many names and faces of capital police, who risk their lives to protect yours, have you bothered to learn?

Here's another idea. If you can't go on television to talk to Wolf Blitzer without two lawyers sitting next to you....DON'T GO ON TELEVISION.

Hitting a cop and then claiming the criminal act was justified by a motivation you ascribe to the cop that has not been proven is, in principle, exactly the same as what we are doing in Iraq and criticizing the President for!

Given McKinney's leap of logic in this case, I would say she suffers from a degree of prejudice. Perhaps the origin of which is even justified. She has been treated badly in the past, even by Clinton administration staffers, but a justified origin for prejudice does not justify individual actions taken by the person as a result of that prejudice. The responsible thing to do is to recognize that you have reasons to be sensitive to slights and take actions which reduce, not inflame, prejudice in others.

And you don't sidestep the fact that you committed a crime by attempting to reframe the debate about your crime to one of broader and more incendiary issues like race and gender bias.

How dare you, Rep. McKinney, distract this nation from the important and serious issues your constituents sent you to Congress to address in order to pursue an agenda of personal aggrandizement and racial division? Is this really how you want to get name and face recognition?

You hit a cop. That was a greater wrong than the alleged slight to your dignity you are claiming motivated your illegal action. Like it or not, not knowing who you are is not a crime.

I bet you a million dollars that Senator Ted Kennedy has a more recognizable face than you. He comes from one of the most famous families in the world. Did Senator Ted Kennedy throw a punch at airline security when they told him he was on a no fly list?

HE WAS STOPPED AT THE AIRPORT FIVE TIMES! It took him THREE WEEKS to clear his name and fly again.

If it were me, and I were him, I would have wanted to throw a punch, or at least make the accusation that putting him on the no fly list out of Washington had to be politically motivated. But he didn't do either of those things. He had the grace and class that we expect from our national leaders.

Grow up and lead, Congresswoman, because that is what we expect our leaders to do.