Rock on, soldiers! Even in anonymity. A soldier is suing the government for keeping him in Iraq.

Check it:

Soldier Sues Military Over Extended Service.

Even though he is named "John Doe" if you are feeling particularly sneaky you could try to hunt him down by a process of elimination. The article states:

"The San Francisco-area man, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Northern California, fought during the invasion of Iraq. Married with two young daughters, he is seeking a release from service when his Army National Guard term ends in December.


The suit names the plaintiff's commander as Capt. Kincy Clark, who heads Bravo Company of the First Battalion, 184th Infantry regiment based in Dublin, California. The unit reported for duty on Monday and is expected to train for several months before going to Iraq in February or March."

So much for being anonymous.

I read a really inspirational essay on Commondreams.org by Medea Benjamin, an organizer for Code Pink, which is in theory an exceptional idea for women activists but in reality is all about PR for themselves by making grandiose protests and trips to places like Iraq. A dear friend of mine, Kayhan Irani, is an actress/activist and she accompanied them to Iraq and she said that really it was just "feminist adventure tours." Regardless, I am hoping that what she says about Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela that just had an election recall where millions of people stood in lines for hours to cast a vote, is true. Check it out:
Why Hugo Chavez won a Lanslide Victory.

Also in the news, W. has decided to shake things up with the military a bit. He has made plans to move the global positioning of the Army because we are now in a post cold war era and we have to fight terrorism better. This sounds great because we hear that Russia is our ally, forget about its proximity to places like Serbia and other countries in the region which has had recent terrorist activities. Didn't Clinton just kick ass in Kosovo a few years back? I have to check my history and geography. What scares me is the fact that he is readying the troops to leave South Korea. Why? Because North Korea is no longer a threat? What happened to all of that Axis of Evil business? Do we forget about it now? "Mission Accomplished"?

I am not the only one that is worried about this. According to an article on Voice of America, Japan is none too happy either. Bush Troop Plan Vague on Movements in Asia, say Analysts
The article states: "Communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea are divided by a heavily armed border. The two countries are technically still at war, since they never signed a peace treaty at the end of the Korean War in 1953." Mission accomplished, indeed.

Meanwhile in South Korea many demonstrators marched recently to appose the government's decision to send more troops to Iraq. So America is telling South Korea that they should send more troops to Iraq because they are our allies and we are going to pull out on them while they are still technically at war with North Korea as N. Korea builds nuclear weapons. No wonder we have no international friends anymore. Look how hard we are working to alienate everyone. We have to buy our allies by hiring private security firms to protect our soldiers and our army bases because no one has our back.

Speak to y'all tomorrow.

Oh, Mahmood, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mahmood! *clap, clap, clap* Hey Mahmood! *clap, clap, clap*

I don't know if any of you are watching the Olympics like I am. It is a chance to see blind nationalism at its best. The shock and awe as the US basketball team got slaughtered by *gasp* Puerto Rico! I do have to say that is one sexy team! What I hated was the way in which the sports writers wrote things like: "Look at it this way, Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the U.S., so it wasn't a total loss!"

Excuse me, but the way in which Puerto Rico has been mistreated and abused by the US should then be called by the truest words to describe our relationship to Puerto Rico: colonizer and colonized. For over fifty years, Puerto Rico has been stuck in this limbo state in which they are not actually part of our country, but they are not an independent nation either. The way in which their economy and educational system has been raped by the US ensures that they will never have true autonomy. In short, these writers could say, he at least this team is our property.

I guess the Iraqi soccer team knows a little something about that condition, huh? Here is a team that no one thought was going to achieve anythin. The President is even taking credit for their success and presence. He has said in public that there are more countries participating in the Olympics this year due to the war on terror, so I guess it was all worth it, right? If you google Iraq and Olympics, chances are the first entry will lead you straight to the white house web page. It's great to be able to get all of your news in one place, thanks W. for the new sports page!

I love the nationalistic way in which the Olympics is being broadcast. Sure, its our country and we should have pride in the people that represent us. I don't watch it though to look at the athletes and judge their abilities by what uniform they are wearing and I think that it discredits them and all of the hard work that they have put into training for this event. I look at them and see their ability to play their sport and perform what drives them.

In this years Olympics I am cheering for the underdog. The Iraqi soccer team, the Puerto Rican basketball team, and any other team or athlete from an underdeveloped, oppressed country that no one believes in.

The Following is a personal rant on my own emotional issues that are easily transferrable to the women of the world. The disease to please, as Oprah calls it, is apparently carried on our chromosome.


I have this problem that most women have. I try to help people. I try to save people. I try to lift them up when they are down. I try to make them smile. I try to make their lives a little easier. However, I realize over and over two things. I can't save anyone. You are the way you are because you have brought yourself to wherever it is you are for a reason and it is up to you to get yourself out of it. I can offer a suggestion, a shoulder, an ear, a hug, a smile, but that's about it. I need to cut the cord so to speak. The second thing I learned is that I am just using other people's problems as a distraction from the wasteland that is my life. Okay, I am being overly dramatic. I am very blessed to be alive, to have a roof over my head, to have a job, to have the opportunity to pursue an education. Yet I am not entirely happy and instead of spending energy on improving myself and my life I am spending it finding people jobs when they don't really want to work, giving motivational speeches that deserve AWARDS to people that really couldn't care less. WHY?

If I made other people happy, if I improved their lives would I be better off? What kind of a payoff am I hoping to receive here? Do I get a gold star? Does that mean that I am a good person? Does that mean somehow I am worthy of praise and adoration, that people can't love me until I have served them in someway? A pat on the head, perhaps? A fucking doggy biscuit?

When a woman is in a relationship she gives her all. That is a general statment, sure there are tons of crappy women out there. Most women spend a lot of time trying to improve their spouses. They do everything for that person. A friend of mine told me that your spouse is a reflection of who you are. But of course. As a woman, my identity lies soley in the success of my partner. If I want to climb the social ladder, then my partner needs to get a great job and earn a decent salary. We kill ourselves trying to make sure that spouse gets an education. Don't worry, we will stay at home and care for the children and the house. We will help you study and type your notes for you. We will cook you nutritious meals that will give you energy and strenght. We won't question you about your comings and goings, who you talk with, what you are doing when you come home late for work, why you don't want to talk anymore, why you are not studying anymore, why you aren't showering anymore, where all that weight is coming from or where it went, why you are dressing differently, where the money in the bank went, why the phone was turned off, why you are going to the gym all of the time, why you never spend time with the kids, why you bring up having more kids when we want to get a job or go back to school. No questions means no lies. But if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound? If a lie is unspoken, does it exist?

The lie I speak of is the lie we tell ourselves as women. Somehow we are under the impression that it is our burden to bear this great weight and we are selfish for pursuing our own happiness. It's not. If we don't travel our own path we haven't been true to ourselves, if we even recognize who we are in the mirror.

It's hard to shake this feeling that we have been taught all our lives of being silent and subservient. When women are aggressive I feel myself shrinking. How dare they? This immediately follows with envy; I wish I could be so confident and aggressive to get what I want when I want it. To know what is right for me and follow my heart without reservation. I wish that I could live my life without all of those ever-tangling strings attaching me to people that in the end will just take care of themselves, forgoing loyalty or some feeling of obligation to return kindness.

In the movie Shrek, Shrek says ogres are like onions. They have layers. So does happiness, I imagine. You keep peeling back the layers looking for joy, even though it stinks, even though tears are flowing down your face and your eyes are blinded by the sting, you keep peeling until you find it.

I haven't written for the longest time. I feel deep shame because even though I write about being strong and fighting the good fight, I haven't really gotten out in a while and the only fighting I have been doing is with my own personal demons. I feel shame for it because I feel what one might feel if they went on a diet with their friends and at night they go home and eat a dozen cupcakes. In order to not be a hypocritcal fraud, I stayed away from my own blog.

Now that I am back, I don't feel really compelled to talk about the world of politics or the democratic convention. I think Kerry did a great job and I think momentum is building. Good for him. I just worry if it will be enough. What more can we do if they might steal or postpone the election anyway? I don't want to be a defeatist, however, I do have to be realistic and prepare myself for what might be.

I watched this film on HBO tonight called, Capturing the Friedmans. It was a very bizarre mix of home movies and documentary about a father and son-The Friedmans-who are arrested and later plead guilty to sexual abuse of minors. Now this film was in no way impartial. You can tell the director was really trying to prove a case for their innocence and show their was misconduct by the lawyers and police officers involved. I agree that all of it was really mishandled. I don't know how much of it was truth and made up after the fact. For example, after the father pleads guilty, the younger son eventually cuts a deal as well on the advice of his lawyer and is convinced that if he tells the judge he too was abused by his father he would get off easy. It didn't work that way. He served 13 years. He blames the lawyer, the lawyer blames him. Who knows what is truth? Who knows what is fiction? The father was disturbed; there was no doubt about that. The son got fucked over. The mother was a looney and the oldest brother was in the deepest denial I have ever seen and totally blamed his mother for everything, completely forgetting that his father admitted to being a pedophile and eventually committed suicide, which the eldest son called a "surprise heart attack."

I recommend you watch this film and share your thoughts with me. I also saw The Village by M. Night Shamaylan.
(I really don't know if I spelled that right). I thought it was really awesome. Next up for me is The Manchurian Candidate.

I really must say how tired I am of mainstream media. I can't even watch the news or any of those smiling, empty vessels as they read in a monotone from a teleprompter. During the DNC you could tell just how mentally incapacitated these anchorpeople were because as stirring and emotional the speeches were, they could not think of anything intelligent to say regarding Al Sharpton except that he went over his time limit and other complaints about the steamers and balloons. I refuse to watch it anymore. These are not trained journalists. (Sorry Katie Couric, even you ask questions that are without merit and then you end up answering them for the guests so all they do is smile and nod back at you.) I only read the news now. If you have to string a sentence together, if you have to write out an article and put it in print you are immortalizing your claims in a very concrete way. You are promising the public that what you say is true because they can SEE it right there in front of them. It's a pact with your readers that you believe more fervently in a what you say and it is a challenge for them to challenge you on your investigations. There are some great websites to get your news from. I read them all with the same critical eye that I use to read mainstream newspapers such as the NY Times. Don't be afraid to write the papers with your opinions. The media is under the impression that they can go unchecked and that has made them lazy. They report sensational stories instead of searching for truth and reporting it with a neutral tone and disposition. If it happened, the public should know. End of story.

On Air America the other morning, one of the Marks on the morning show commented that there was no television personality like Walter Kronkite to turn to and just know that he spoke the truth. Really I have no words about Walt. He was great and I can't think of anyone my generation has that comes close to that. Except maybe Kurt Loder of MTV. He has matured along with the channel. He has gone head to head with Courtney Love and Madonna at their bitchiest and at the same time, thank you very much, and he has seen me through Kurt Cobain's suicide and the many legal troubles of Michael Jackson. If it happened, he lets us know. Thank you Kurt. Keep up the good work.