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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

San Francisco Republicans Slither Into Hiding!


Believe it or not there are actually some Republicans in San Francisco. I've lived in San Francisco all my life and I've only met a few, and they are diminishing rapidly, but word has it that there are still some Republicans around. There is a retired FBI employee who lives out in the Sunset (or used to ... last I heard he was complaining about San Francisco and was threatening to move down to San Diego). There is the owner of a florist shop. He's actually a very nice guy and he runs one of San Francisco's better known and better quality florist businesses. But ... that's about all the Republicans I know at the moment. Republicans in San Francisco keep a pretty low profile. They live an almost underground existence.

The photograph shows the Army Congressional Medal of Honor

Of course there are a lot of Republicans in the Financial District. That's where I work ... right in the heart of the skyscraper jungle and I can personally attest to the fact that there are, indeed, Republicans on the loose in the Financial District. Most of them (in fact, nearly all of them) live someplace else other than San Francisco. Many live in the East Bay. A good number of them come into work every weekday from Marin County and, of course, there are those who drive up from the peninsula. Still, the total number of Commuter Republicans is reasonably low.

Republicans like to think that we Democrats do not support our troops in Iraq, a concept which clearly demonstrates the limitations of the Republican thought process. Of course we support our troops. We just don't support that Texas buffoon Commander in Chief or his sidekick, Vice-President "Lon" Chaney. We support our troops but we despise the jackasses who sent them to fight in an ill-conceived war that was never necessary.

In fact, some of us support our troops with an enthusiasm and level of dedication that is reserved for veterans. Veterans do not see themselves as "former members of the military" and therefore, in some way, isolated and separated from the U. S. military. The only difference we (I am a U. S. Army veteran) see between us and those currently fighting in Iraq is that they are active duty and forward deployed. We are non-active duty. Our sense of kinship is very high. Only veterans understand this. There is not a one of us who would not gladly put on a uniform again and stand beside our active-duty comrades to defend this country when it is under attack. There is not one of us who would not still perform his or her duty if we had to.

Obeying the orders of a war criminal, an insane person, a megalomaniac or a dictator are not values held by members of the American military, veteran or active duty. I know from personal experience. I was an active-duty member of the military during an earlier time of insanity and we were put in the position where we had to obey the orders of the man who was our Commander in Chief at the time. He was another goddam Texas idiot. His name was Lyndon Johnson.

So, as someone who was in an eerily similar set of circumstances 40 years ago, I know this is a very difficult time for our active duty forward deployed brothers and sisters. They are struggling with a deep-rooted call to fulfill their duty and obey the Commander in Chief. I imagine the problem they are facing today, as I faced forty years ago, is this one, searing, burning question:

We all took oaths to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. When that oath begins to come into conflict with the orders we receive from our Commander in Chief ... exactly where, when and how do we honor our oath. That question was unanswered 40 years ago and it is unanswered today.

So, my active-duty forward-deployed comrades who are wounded in the line of duty come home to the gem of the U.S. Army's medical care, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and they are cast aside like some goddam welfare bums who make babies, sell crack and live off the rest of the workforce. In fact, the latter group, the welfare crowd, gets better treatment by our federal government than the men and women who wear our uniforms.

Now, Republicans don't have any kind of preference when it comes to the military, defense or veterans. There are just as many veterans in this country who are Democrats as there are veterans who are Republican. In San Francisco Democratic-party military veterans well outnumber Republican-party military veterans.

So, I want to register my extreme screaming outrage at the way the Bush-Cheney administration is treating my fellow veterans. It has long been known to us that the V. A. is corrupt from the bottom to the top, and not many vets from my era hold the V.A. in very high esteem, but we still had a measure of faith in the ability of the United States Army to take care of our own.

Bush and Cheney have stretched our Army dangerously thin, have exhausted the energies of some of our most brilliant field commanders, have fired some of our best generals, have caused the needless deaths of thousands, have failed to provide the armor and equipment needed by forward deployed units, and now, have failed miserably in their charge to provide medical care and support for our wounded comrades.

Scooter Libbey is today's designated Bush Administration fall guy. But let's make this absolutely crystal clear: it is George Bush and his gun-happy sidekick who deserve to serve long sentences in the federal prison system.

I sincerely hope the Congress reams hell out of the Bush Administration and uses all its thunderous power to assure that our forward-deployed members of the military who are injured in the line of duty come home to America to open arms, multiple opportunities, a deeply grateful nation, and outstanding support.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, the just-fired Secretary of the Army, and all the boat loads of advisers, assistants, think-tankers, lobbyists and major contributors to the Bush Administration and the Republican Party should all be shipped to Iraq and provided only with the under-protected Humvees that are blown-up by roadside bombs on a daily basis and issued those lousy cheap-ass protective vests that won't stop a BB gun. And when they come home (if they do) let's cram them into mold-infested rat-running rooms like Walter Reed has been doing to our returning heroes.

Meanwhile, let's let the Medal of Honor recipients sleep in the Lincoln bedroom.

Then justice will have been served.
on Tuesday, March 06, 2007

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