I've been involved in a sort of debate re:  Afghanistan policy.  Some people think an escalation of the war is a good idea; others not so much.  When I posted my contribution to the discussion, a friend asked that I make it public.  Here it is:

This is so hard.

I served in the USMC for four years and remember bootcamp well.  It wasn't an intensive course in moral philosophy; we were primarily taught to kill and encouraged to enjoy it.

I was young when I joined.  Less than 2 months past 17.  Most of my peers were within 2 or three years of me.

I remember marching past platoons of WM's (women marines).  Our drill instructors would lead our platoon in rhythmic chants about the virtues of hair pie.  The service I was a part of was filled with benign racists... Irishman from Boston and good ol' boys from Kentucky and Mississippi.  We were integrated by day, but everyone knew that Sunday night was black night at the E-club...  And no blacks (or hispanics for that matter) spent a lot of time at our keg parties and bonfires out in the woods.

I was invited to debate energy on the floor of the House yesterday.  It's not that I was special, by any stretch of the imagination...  it was just a stunt pulled by GOP Rep. Wowie Herger.

Stunt or no, I wasn't about to let my opportunity to speak on the floor of the United States House of Representatives pass me by.  This morning I hopped in my car and drove about 100 miles from Charlottesville, VA to Washington, DC.

I should have known that Republicans weren't about to keep their word.

So I improvised.

Yeah, she keeps making blatant sexual references in the title of her diaries; we all recognize those titles for what they are:  naked attempts to pimp her work.  

The truth is, she could just as well eliminate the tit-elation; her diaries would stand up of their own accord.  The are infused with intellectual Viagra.

But all of that is beside the point.

I'm writing because there is a side to OrangeClouds that you very well may not know.

She's a risk-taker, and for all the right reasons.

Follow me over the flip for the true dirt.

Update [2008-7-24 0:37:9 by Mike Stark]:  This diary will be effective only if you 1) read the whole thing; and 2) click on the rec button.  Do it for OC115.

A few weeks ago, the California Nurses Association asked me if I'd be willing to attend the insurance industry's version of Netroots Nation (AHIP) and do what I do... capture bad guys being deceitful, bad and ugly.

I, of course, leaped at the chance.  (Shout out to nyceve – without her, I wouldn't have gotten the gig).

To get to San Francisco, I had to fly from my home in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The 7 hours spent in cramp-inducing airplane/airport seats surely contributed to a key issue that comes up later in this narrative.

So I arrived Wednesday afternoon and met up with nyceve, the activist crew of CNA, and all the nurses that flew in from hospitals around the country.  We had a nice dinner buffet and heard from several people that have really been screwed by health bottom-line care corporations.  Nataline Sarkisyan's mother and cousin spoke; the cousin left us all speechless and teary.

So, of course, we lost the battle.  

That much was pre-ordained; I (and almost every other astute political observer that I know) knew exactly what to expect when I sent the email that seeded the idea for the group.  I’d be shocked to learn that anyone with any political savvy at all believe there was the remotest of chances that Barack Obama would change course.

So why did I create the group?  Why risk damaging Barack Obama’s candidacy and hard-earned image of change-agent?  After all, if I was convinced the prospects of success were zero, why bother organizing 22,000 people?  If no good can come from the venture, why venture?

I think the questions are fair and I’m going to do my best to answer them.

And I’m going to answer the question by invoking Ralph Nader.

Senator Obama opposes FISA's grant of retroactive immunity.  He realizes how much such a grant hurts the rule of law.

We, the people, those that have joined the largest group (by far) at my.BarackObama.com are committed to helping the Senator strip immunity from the new FISA legislation.

To that end, we've sent the Obama campaign the following letter:

Update [2008-7-3 15:58:23 by Mike Stark]:
Obama says he wants the bill stripped of immunity.

We've offered to help him.

We're with Obama on this.

To the naysayers:  whose side are you on?

The last two days have been unbelievable.

Last week, after Senator Obama went public with his decision regarding the new FISA legislation, most of us took the news with varying degrees of disappointment.  A few people vowed they’d never lift a finger (or reach for their checkbook) ever again.  Others expressed outrage, but recognized a conundrum:  electing Barack Obama is probably every bit as important as electing John Kerry was in 2004.  These people couldn’t fathom the idea of rebelling against the candidate or charting any course (of action or inaction) that would hurt his chances of victory.  They got over their anger in a hurry.  Finally, there were some who, inexplicably, seemed unbothered by the whole mess; to them the fact that people were decrying Obama’s decision seemed to be the real problem.

I’m not here to applaud or decry any of the aforementioned reactions; instead, I hope you’ll let me tell you about my own response and what it’s spawned.

Yesterday a new group was created:  Senator Obama, Please Vote Against FISA

When he first announced his support of the bill, I wrote an email to friends suggesting that online organizing/social network tools can - and should - cut both ways.

When we are happy with out candidate, by all means, we should be more than willing to express our support.

On the other hand, when our candidate disappoints, we should not shrink from offering full and frank criticism of where he went off the rails.

More than any candidate that has ever come before, Barack Obama has engaged the people of this country.  A central campaign plank is his promise to open government up and involve more people.  FISA may provide us with the perfect test of these new tools.

This morning, I did not have a my.barackobama.com account.  A friend emailed me the link to the group and within 60 seconds, I had an account and I was part of the group.

Here's the link.  You know what to do.

We aren't presented with opportunities like this too often, but these folks have the right idea.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan used his persona and charisma to absolutely bury the liberal brand.  Until the election that year, liberal was not a dirty word.  I remember the debates; I was only 11 years old, but even at that time I knew I was a liberal and remember debating the merits of liberal vs. conservative ideas.

In the court of public opinion, Ronald Reagan ended up beating me all to shit.  So I apologize.

But...

Now the tables are turned.  We have the charismatic candidate and a population that has been beaten down at every turn by the consequences of conservative policies.  We have an opportunity to destroy the conservative brand the same way the liberal brand was so effectively destroyed 30 years ago.

And it is starting to happen.  Look what these guys are doing (I promise you're gonna love it):

flip

An AP report just out:

Judge reluctant to wade into White House subpoena fight
Congress was trying to be diplomatic when it brought an unprecedented lawsuit to settle its subpoena fight against the White House, a lawyer told a federal judge Monday. After all, lawmakers could've just arrested the president's former lawyer for refusing to testify.

The judge's response?

Maybe they should have.

Essentially, the judge (a Bush appointee) said the same thing we've been saying.  Congress should have used its own powers to hold the Josh Bolton and Harriet Miers in inherent contempt.  Congress should have taken it upon themselves to enforce their own subpoenas.

It gets better:

The judge spent much of the time, however, talking about whether he should issue a ruling at all.

"Both sides have the same argument," Bates said. "Whether I rule for the executive branch or I rule for the legislative branch, I'm going to disrupt the balance."

Flip for the punchline.

Davefromqueens does a pretty good job summing up the event in a currently recc'd diary, but I just got back to Virginia and I think you'll enjoy my story as well.  

It's funny how much Dave's report runs parallel to the mental notes I made about the event; I was going to say something about the 3/4 full gymnasium (as opposed to 10s of thousands of people at Obama events); I was going to mention how much the pledge of allegiance felt like foolish nationalistic pomp (this comes from a Marine); I was going to mention the way certain people (like the African-American girl that asked the question about education) seemed to have had their seats strategically placed (in her case, front-row, center).

Flip for more - including my question and how I came to be called on.

I just registered the domain TakeTheTestJohn.com.

The idea is this.

We've reached critical mass in John McCain YouTube moments.  Strung together, I'll bet there's 15 minutes worth of McCain flip-flops, false denials, inconsistencies or otherwise just plain incoherent claptrap.

I'm not joking when I assert that this country cannot afford to elect a President whose mental acuity is diminishing by the day.  We need someone with an agile intellect that is not prone to forgetting what he said the day before.  Imagine Reagan saying "I never said 'Tear down this wall Mr. Gorbachev!'"

So I'm creating a petition website that asks John McCain to be tested for indications of Alzheimer's or similar degenerative mental conditions.  I'd like to see him take the test and make the results available to the public.

(more)

This interview aired on Sean Hannity's radio show about 3 weeks ago.  I thought it was interesting to note how ol' Joe, marcher for civil rights, framed Obama in his introductory remarks.

I figure if we have guys on our side that shape our language and consult on communications... well, they do too.  And I think this is probably just about perfect pitch if your trolling for certain votes.

It's maddening though because it is just plausible enough that this could be an innocent gaffe - or not even a gaffe.  In bringing it up, you risk blow-back for being touchy about race.

Anyway, I thought I'd flag it.  We'll see if this metaphor (or metaphors like it) comes up more frequently as the campaign heats up.

Also, I marvel at the sequence of Joe's rhetorical recipe. Shorter Joe (audio available here, my comments in square brackets).

Hi folks!

Some of you know that Ruppert Murdoch's NY Post published Keith Olbermann's address.  I won't be doing that here.  But...

It is summertime...  and time for some more BillO fun.  

Listen - I know not all of you are down with this.  Even Keith Olbermann gave me second worst person in the world for this stunt last year.  That said, as far as I am concerned, O'Reilly's body of work can best be described as grossly corpulent - sagging with deceit and swollen with dishonor. The man is the closest thing we have to a modern-day Goebbels and his acidy bile corrodes the entire body politic.  From what I understand, Barack Obama will make an appearance on BillO's show sometime before the election.  As the political season heats up, we can be quite certain that BillO will surely engage in the most depraved smears of every progressive within reach of his icky (sticky?) loofah.  I know many of you would rather mock BillO from afar, but that's never been my style.  I'm not one to remain behind my keyboard.

So...  Flip for more details.  We're taking a bus or two (or three... or four???) to Billo's house.

Bruce Wilson’s career as an activist is a classic one thing leads to another story.

In 2004, Bruce started paying close attention.  He had taken time off from his antique car restoration business to research and write about global warming when the election returns came back.  Unacceptable.

Then, in early 2005, Jeff Guckert (aka Jeff Gannon), the male prostitute that attended White House press conferences (and according to Secret Service logs overnighted in the White House with some frequency) was exposed by activist bloggers.  Soon after, Bruce and several other bloggers founded E Pluribus Media – an open source media outlet for those of us that want real news.

From Kurtz at WashPo:

Murdoch's call to Zucker, which was polite in tone, involved a request that Olbermann not air video from a Daily Kos blogger who had made a scene at O'Reilly's Long Island home. That, Murdoch said, should be off limits.

Activist Mike Stark had confronted O'Reilly when he was retrieving his newspaper, planted derogatory signs on his street and distributed derogatory material to neighbors. Olbermann says the only time he ever talked to Stark was to interview him about a stunt in which he called O'Reilly's radio show and mentioned Olbermann's name.

Olbermann says that NBC Senior Vice President Phil Griffin called to ask him to exercise restraint but that he had already decided to criticize Stark for going to O'Reilly's home. He told viewers, "with great regret," that Stark's behavior was "not acceptable."

Kinda makes it worth being named the second worst person in the world...

And because I just can't get enough of that "derogatory material" out there, follow me over the flip to see what I gave to his neighbors...

On April 10, 2008, Justice Antonin Scalia was given an award at the University of Virginia. Scalia was a founder of the Federalist Society; while he was at the school, he spoke at a lunch for UVa Fed. Soc. members.

Guess what? I'm a member. I went.

When he was done speaking, I was able to chat him up a little bit. And, what do you know? It looks like this lil' ol' blogger scooped 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl.

Here's the audio.

Some comments on the rest of the audio after the flip.

Chris Bowers brings us the news that Barack Obama will sit down with Fox News' Chris Wallace this Sunday.

I've been discussing this with other Barack supporters.  One of them said this might be OK - that it might be Barack's opportunity to redeem his disappointing showing at the ABC debate.  That if he can show that he can handle the hardest questions, he'll blow holes in Hillary's "I've been vetted" argument.

Wow.  That's such bullshit.

The purpose of this visit cannot be to play defense - he's got nothing he needs to prove to the moral deviants that run Fox.  No...  the only justifiable excuse to go on Fox is  confrontation.

(flip)