Bill Kristol and John Bolton, in separate interviews, seem to be leaking a Bush plan to take out Iranian nuclear facilities before he leaves office. If it is done before the election, Obama is sunk.

http://patriotroom.com/?p=462

What I did with clip art on Christmas day!

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

It's a bit of a challenge writing a campaign diary on Christmas.  Vituperative attacks on one's opponents seem a bit out of place, while a treacly sweet Christmas piece is not likely to persuade anyone, nor is it my style.

So I decided to, um, borrow a bit from a well known source.

Ghost of Edwards Christmas Past

By now, many of you may have heard that John Edwards is the Son of a Millworker, whose parents had to borrow money to bring him home from the hospital. While I don't think it's the strongest argument for Edwards, in age where a 'very serious person' like Fareed Zakaria can argue 'identity trumps knowledge and experience,' it is certainly worth a visit:

The desire to get ahead--to win--is no small thing for Edwards. He was raised in the depressed town of Robbins, N.C., where his father, Wallace, worked in a now long-gone textile mill. It's a biographical detail the candidate mentions so often in speeches and campaign ads that it can sometimes border on self-parody. Yet his father's story is what Edwards's campaign, and political career, is all about. His dad worked his way up in the mill and was promoted to supervisor. But without a college degree, there was only so far he could rise. "He heard his mother and I talk about it at the dinner table, so he knew what I was faced with," his father tells NEWSWEEK. Money was scarce. Wallace was determined that John and his younger brother and sister, Wesley Blake and Kathy, would attend college. He set an example of self-improvement. He took classes offered by the mill, and tuned in to the education channel on TV early each morning when the station aired lessons in statistics and probability.

Of course, John Edwards took those lessons of growing up in humble circumstances and striving to get ahead to become a very successful lawyer  battling on behalf of ordinary folks injured by corporate negligence. Some of whom have joined Edwards on the campaign trail this year to testify to Edwards's compassion, fight and skill.

Ghost of Edwards Christmas Present

This Christmas finds John Edwards leading a populist campaign in the top tier the Democratic nomination.  As the New York Times wrote in a great contrast with plutocratic phony Mitt Romney, Edwards is applying those lessons from his humble Christmases past in a bold populist campaign:

"I think most Americans think that the economic disparity that exists in America today is worse than they can remember in a long time," Mr. Edwards said. "Every step of my life has reinforced the notion that -- unless there's some obstacle that you can't do anything about -- that if you work hard enough in America, you can do anything. I think, though, that those obstacles are too high and too difficult for most people."

To restore what he considers the right balance, Mr. Edwards would go further than either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama on several economic issues. Mr. Edwards would try to repeal the Bush tax cuts for everyone making at least $200,000 -- not $250,000 -- and he would do so as soon as he took office, not waiting until they expire in 2011. He also favors a law forbidding banks from giving subprime mortgages, which have higher average interest rates, to people who could qualify for loans with lower rates.

(Emphasis Added)

This Christmas, in Iowa, New Hampshire and around the nation Edwards is applying his call to be Patriotic About Something other War to our duty to global warming and our duties to our fellow Americans, as he does in his 'Seasons' ad, transcript below.

Full Transcript of "Season:"

One out of every four homeless people on our streets is a veteran.

Thirty-seven million Americans live in poverty.

Who speaks for them? We do.

This is the season of miracles, of faith and love.

So let us promise together: you will never be forgotten again.

We see you, we hear you, and we will speak for you.

In America, the chance to build a better life is a promise made to each of us, and the obligation to keep it rests with us all.

Ghost of Edwards Christmas Future

We should be so lucky to get the Christmas, OK, November Future, outlined in the New York Times on Sunday, Mitt Romney vs. John Edwards.  Pitting our sunny populist verse their robotic plutocrat.  Luckily any Edwards November Future, against the nasty Giuliani, the somnolent Thompson, the clueless Huckabee or the war-mongering McCain, would be as nearly good for us, both in prospects for victory and contrasts in policy.

If Democratic primary voters propel John Edwards to the nomination and his likely victory in the fall, the Ghosts of Edwards Christmases Future will show us some very bright Christmases indeed.  

Future Christmases with a President of United States committed to ending poverty in this country.  

A Future Christmas with President Edwards passing landmark anti-global warming auction cap ad trade systems.

Future Christmases with a President committed to rebuilding economic opportunity to working Americans and restoring One America.

Future Christmases with a President who stands up for working people and their unions.

Future Christmases with Elizabeth Edwards as our First Lady.

Future Christmases where the President of the United States works to give a voice to the voiceless.

And, of course, a Christmas in the not too distant future after a President Edwards has passed universal health care, with a public option, for everyone in the country.  Tiny Tim,  with his pre-existing condition and his working class parents included.

Merry Christmas- AJ

This Christmas season, I'm excited to offer a few thoughts on capitalism, consumption, Christmas and crookedness -- while also summing up this week's posts at the Movement Vision Lab.  Here goes.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CAPITALISM

(to the tune of: The Twelve Days of Christmas)

On the first day of Christmas, Amaad Rivera says we have: 

an economy that favors rich whites.

On the second day of Christmas, even Adam Smith would add:

two separate classes
and an economy that favors rich whites

On the third day of Christmas, Minsun Ji points out:

(way more than) three exploited workers
two separate classes
and an economy that favors rich whites

On the fourth day of Christmas, Tiny talks about:

(at least) four presents instead of presence
(way more than) three exploited workers
two separate classes
and an economy that favors rich whites

On the fifth day of Christmas, Amy Wolf made a great film:

(cue organ music)
five problems with big box stores!
(at least) four presents instead of presence
(way more than) three exploited workers
two separate classes
and an economy that favors rich whites

On the sixth day of Christmas, Kathy LeMay taught:

six taboos about wealth
(cue organ music)
five problems with big box stores!
(at least) four presents instead of presence
(way more than) three exploited workers
two separate classes
and an economy that favors rich whites

On the seventh day of Christmas, I still somehow bought:

seven overpriced trinkets
six taboos about wealth
(cue organ music)
five problems with big box stores!
(at least) four presents instead of presence
(way more than) three exploited workers
two separate classes
and an economy that favors rich whites

Okay.  This is getting tedious.  Let's cut to the end....

Eventually by some day of Christmas, we all wised up:

we started shopping local
gave more time then stuff
valued more than money
tackled structural racism
spread the wealth and love
because we're...

(cue organ music)
ALL IN IT TOGETHER!

no more shallow culture
no more credit debt
no more rich and poor
an economy that favors us all!

Happy holidays from the Movement Vision Lab!

And you know you get major props if you record yourself singing this, upload to You Tube and post the link at the Movement Vision Lab!  

Things were booming in Central Pennsylvania, as I like to say "Coal was King", and my Dad had worked his way from dozer operator to foreman. He had a company truck and gas and was making about $35,000 a year (1980 $s). The house we lived in was paid for as far as I can recall, we vacationed at Disney World, spent the summers and Easter in Benson and Wrightsville, and Christmas was spectacular.

We had a tradition that started in those years of going out to a nearby tree farm, walking through the woods and rows of trees looking for just the right one. We even got to the point where we could afford those big, beautiful, blue spruce trees and still to this day I consider THAT a Christmas tree. My mom was nuts about Christmas, we had tinsel on the tree, every ornament we'd ever made, garland up the banister, the stockings were hung with care, a Santa outside upon whose plastic list my mom had written the names of every kid in our town - you get the picture.  Christmas was magic, pure magic, the whole season. The cookies, the pies, the cakes, the turkey, ham, nutbread with cream cheese. Uh, it was awesome.

Until we stole that Christmas tree.

Gerald Ford, former President of the United States, died today December 26th, 2006. One day after Christmas, a day he loved.

Many will remember that it was President Ford who became the first President or Vice President to ascend to the office without being elected.

Cross-posted from the Huffington Post

On Christmas Eve, 1967, Lyndon Johnson landed in Washington after one of the longest days in presidential history. His plane departed Australia for Thailand, then Vietnam, and on to the Vatican to discuss the war with Pope Paul VI. Finally, the weary President returned to the White House to draft a Christmas message.

With exhaustion evident in his words, he told of his journey.

Now, on the airstrip at Camranh Bay, your sons and I exchanged "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year." I told them that I wished I could bring them something more -- some of the pride you feel in them, some tangible symbol of your love and concern for them.

.....

I decorated 20 of them for gallantry in action. Their faces seemed more grave than the others -- preoccupied, I thought, with the savage experience of battle they had endured.

In the hospital, I spoke with those who bore the wounds of war. You cannot be in such a place, among such men, without feeling grief well up in your throat; without feeling grateful that there is such courage among your countrymen.

That was Christmastime in Vietnam -- a time of war, of suffering, of endurance, of bravery and devotion to country.

.....

Now that the Holy Day itself has come, I wish each of you a full
measure of happiness. I hope that all of you may remember this
Christmas, the brave young men who celebrate the Holy Season far from their homes, serving their country -- serving their loved ones -- serving each of us.

I hope, too, that your hearts may be filled with peace within, as your country seeks peace in the world.

It was a somber Christmas message from a deeply conflicted man. Perhaps Johnson saw his own folly: escalating violence in the search of peace. In doing so, he found "neither peace within nor peace without."

This search for peace was the basis of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermon that Christmas Eve in 1967. He said, "Let us this morning think anew on the meaning of that Christmas Hope: 'Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men.'"

At his home church in Atlanta, Georgia, King spent his last Christmas urging the President, the country, and the world to see that peace cannot be borne from violence. That night, he spoke of how the distant must be our dependents (and we, theirs), how the hateful must be our loved, and how our ends must be our means.

King spoke of the suffering he'd witnessed at home and abroad. A great mass of humanity was going hungry -- without peace within -- in a world that had mountains of surplus food. Neglecting them, he thought, would be to neglect our peace.

Because we would not find peace, King said, until we came to the realization that we are all brothers and sisters and that "as nations and individuals, we are interdependent." Today, in the age of terrorism and globalization, we can see more clearly how our interdependence underlies our peace.

And even more today, in our world of polarization and hatred, we must come to a new understanding of love, just as King suggested some 39 years ago. This love "is more than friendship," it is "understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill toward all men."

This is what Jesus meant when He said, "Love your enemies." And I'm happy that He didn't say, "Like your enemies," because there are some people that I find it pretty difficult to like. Liking is an affectionate emotion, and I can't like anybody who would bomb my home. I can't like anybody who would exploit me. I can't like anybody who would trample over me with injustices. I can't like them. I can't like anybody who threatens to kill me day in and day out.

Here King spoke of violent racists, but it applies today in our struggle against extremists, of any sort. We cannot allow others' hatred to destroy what is best in us. As King put it, "We must never let up in our determination to remove every vestige of segregation and discrimination from our nation, but we shall not in the process relinquish our privilege to love."

And to all those seeking peace -- and as if in reply to Johnson's anguish -- King said,

[W]e will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.

... Every time we drop our bombs in North Vietnam, President Johnson talks eloquently about peace. What is the problem? [He is] talking about peace as a distant goal, as an end we seek, but one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

A conclusion that escapes those in power, still today.

Increasing violence had failed President Johnson that Christmas Eve, yet he chose escalation, upping 1968's draft call by 720,000 less than a month later. Now, another Christmas Eve, another war, and seemingly another escalation.

It's likely King knew his idea was still a distant dream. Because that night, he closed his sermon with another famous dream -- the one he shared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial -- adding to it,

I still have a dream that with this faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when there will be peace on earth and goodwill toward men.