Has the True Blue Liberal blog's raison d'être been resurrected?

Yesterday I posted here for the first time in a while. With war drums beating again and one of America's most prominent war drummers, John Bolton, again in a position of power, it seemed necessary.

Today I went back and looked at one of the earliest posts on this blog from December 2004, while we were still dealing with the trauma of George W. Bush's re-election and I felt the need to jump into the leading social media of the time. I titled the post "Peace Bloggers." It had occurred to me when I decided to start a blog of my own to look up "Weblog" on Wikipedia. That article placed a lot of emphasis on the role of organized "War Bloggers" in the run-up to the Bush/Cheney war on Iraq as a key factor in the history of blogging (the current Wikipedia entry no longer even mentions "War Blogging"). So I proudly proclaimed that this little corner of the web would be a place for peace blogging, and that's why it's time for me to become more active again. If Trump thinks that war on Iran (or Venezuela or wherever) could help his popularity in the run-up to next year's election, does anyone believe that he would restrain the most hawkish of his advisors? Can some of us help to make war unpopular? Isn't it worth trying?

"...before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran..." --Mustachioed Chickenhawk John Bolton to M.E.K. terrorists on July 1, 2017

As we get closer and closer to the 2020 election, we should never forget that Donald Trump has selected the number-one cheerleader for war against Iran as his National Security Advisor, especially since Bolton's publicly-proclaimed deadline for meeting his terrorist allies in Tehran has already passed. This New York Times video from last year, "John Bolton Wants Regime Change In Iran. What's His Alternative?" should be seen by all Americans before the Trump Administration's gunboat diplomacy turns the Persian Gulf into another Tonkin Gulf with trumped-up reasons for yet another disastrous American war. There have already been many too many misguided military adventures carried out under our flag in my lifetime.

"I have said for over ten years, since coming to these events, that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs' regime in Tehran." -- Chickenhawk N.S.A. John Bolton speaking to the M.E.K., July 1, 2017

I haven't posted much on this True Blue Liberal blog in the past year, but with the current administration currently rattling sabers in Venezuela, Iran, Yemen, North Korea, and elsewhere, we should all be prepared to speak out loudly and immediately and publicly (especially since we have a Congress that has handed all of its constitutional war powers to an authoritarian executive branch elected by a minority of Americans) whenever military action seems imminent. It doesn't seem like it's enough to type #ImAlreadyAgainstOurNextWar on Twitter every day. I need to start stating my anti-war opinions more clearly than can be done in 280 characters.

Legal Strategy 101 for War Criminals

With the Senate report on CIA torture during the Bush/Cheney years being released today, it's important once again to remember that Administration's intense opposition to United States participation in the International Criminal Court as soon as they came into power in 2001 (long before September 11th of that year). It's almost as if they knew that there might be Americans committing war crimes in the near future.

I couldn't find any lengthy statements from George Bush or Dick Cheney about their principled opposition to a permanent Nuremberg-inspired war crimes court, but I did find an interesting video explanation from the Captain Kangaroo they placed as their recess-appointment ambassador to the United Nations. John Bolton puts the reason the Iraq Warriors objected to the ICC clearly in the following lines delivered about three minutes into this video:

"And yet, the threat of prosecution -- the threat of being accused of being a war criminal -- can have an inhibiting effect. And since there's no accountability for these institutions, it could pose a threat to the United States -- or to the will of American friends and allies -- to take actions that they should undertake for their own self defense." --John Bolton [Emphasis Added]

Isn't that the point of all police and prosecutors and courts? To have an inhibiting effect on potential criminals?



And without American participation in an International Criminal Court, shouldn't even Bolton agree that it's therefore incumbent on American judicial institutions to look into and possibly prosecute the people behind the numerous war crimes listed in the report released today?

The 2016 Clown Circus Casting Couch is Open!

Before any of them actually arrive for their first auditions, here are the very early TrueBlueLiberal.org front runners for the 2016 GOP Clown Circus:

• In the role of Michele Bachmann, we'll see the return of Sarah Palin.
• In the role of Herman Cain, we'll have the inimitable Allen West.
• In the role of boring Jon Huntsman, we will see boring Tim Pawlenty.
• In the role of boring Tim Pawlenty, we will see boring Jon Huntsman.
• In place of Rick Perry, Texas will be represented by Ted "Tail Gunner" Cruz.
• In the role of Mitt Romney, we will have the sixth Romney son, Paul Ryan (but only if Tagg, Trigg, Tugg, Tigger, and Craig Romney refuse the honor of defending the honor of car elevators and the beleaguered 1%).
• In the role of Newt Gingrich, we'll have the even more corpulent and egotistical Chris Christie.
• In the role of Rick Santorum, John Bolton will be the one to inject a frisson of real fear into the race.
• In the role of Game Show Host Donald Trump, we will see Game Show Host Chuck Woolery (unfortunately dropping out before the first debate to the chagrin of true aficionados of world-class slapstick clownfoolery).
• In the role of Ron Paul, we will see Rand Paul.

And stepping in to pick up the royal family banner with a minimum of effort after the inevitable entertaining clownpocalypse, the statesmanlike pandering flip flopper John Ellis "Jeb" Bush.

Note from TBL to the Member Nations of the UN: JOHN BOLTON DOES NOT REPRESENT ME (and he doesn't think much of you)

This man will be appointed by George Bush as the US Representative to the UN without congressional approval. We would have American troops in Cuba today looking for nonexistent biological WMDs if it were up to him.
He's a nut.

If you are a representative of another nation at the United Nations, please know that he hates you, he has no respect for you, but take some solace in the fact that he has no support from the American Congress or the American people.

Snub him, as he would snub you,
True Blue Liberal

Update 11:50am on 8/1/05: It's official. Bush has made the cowardly recess appointment of John Bolton to avoid any congressional scrutiny of his role in fixing intelligence about Iraq, making up fairy tales about Cuba, and filling in blanks, under oath, about the role of the Downing Street Memo and the actions of the White House Iraq Group.

"It's Not Dead," Frist sez of Bolton nomination (despite his medical degree, he may not be the person we want to trust on opinions of life and death)

Frist Reverses Himself on Bolton Vote, Saying He'll Try Again - New York Times:

"It's not dead," he said. "It is going to require some continued talking and discussion." [and maybe a feeding tube]

Didn't we learn anything from the Schiavo case? Didn't we learn that "Doctor" Frist doesn't have any idea what death looks like?

Do we really want this right-wing rabbit abuser representing us in the United Nations?!?

I THINK NOT!

Roll-Call Vote on Bolton - yesterday's result was a success, but guess which Democrat wasn't voting?

click here for the full list: Roll-Call Vote on Bolton - New York Times

Why didn't you vote y esterdayJohn? Why couldn't you add your voice to this important stand? Do you have more important things to do than to take every chance to vote on the record against John Bolton? Are you too busy (secretly) publicizing The Downing Street Memo? Or is it just that you don't want to be called a flippity flopping filiblusterer or an obstructionicating massachusetts librul in your next Presidential debate against a Rove-coached Jeb Bush in 2008?

You know what? To get to that debate, you have to win some Democratic primaries first.

Just saying,

True Blue Liberal

The Next Fight (& A Caption Contest)

“There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.”

-- John R. Bolton, GWB's harebrained image of an
Ambassador to the United Nations

Who's he pointing at?
&What's he saying?

Bolton falls for "... uncorroborated and admittedly speculative theories ... continuously recycled among hard-line exiles. "

"Bolton does not provide any evidence or even say who the analysts and defectors may be. His comments, however, seem to reflect those made by one analyst and one defector whose uncorroborated and admittedly speculative theories are continuously recycled among hard-line exiles."

from: "Antiterroristas"

Interesting that the "hard-line exiles" in question here are not the well-known Iraqis who deceived the Bushies into war by inventing WMD fairy tales, but the Cuban exiles who have been dying to have America try the Bay of Pigs again for the last forty-five years. So who's it going to be next? Iran? Syria? North Korea? Cuba?? China??? George Jr. and Dick (and you have to believe that it's Dickie & Donnie pulling the strings on this one) can't really be serious about presenting John R. Bolton to the United Nations as our nation's representative, can they?
That would be tantamount to telling the Chinese and the Cubans and the rest of the non-USA-USA-USA-chanting world to go fuck itself. And they couldn't be saying that, could they?

Just Asking,
True Blue Liberal

The real Captain Kangaroo would not approve of Guantanamo Kangaroo Courts (but this imposter would)

The New York Times > 7 March 2005>
"Bush Picks Critic of U.N. to Serve as Ambassador to It"

"Mr. Bolton is widely quoted as having said at a panel discussion in 1994 that 'if the U.N. secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.' And in 1998 he dismissed a vote at the United Nations as irrelevant, saying, 'this will simply provide further evidence to many why nothing more should be paid to the U.N. system.' "

Obviously, Bush the Younger has almost as much respect for the United Nations as he does for Social Security. Is it only a coincidence that both are keystones of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's liberal legacy? -- that both are rare instances of our attempts to make our country and our world more equitable and more peaceful?

This abrasive Captain Kangaroo lookalike may have the moustache, but he does not have the dear late Captain's heart, or soul. He'll undoubtedly be confirmed without debate by all the little yes men in Congress, but he is obviously no diplomat and he is NOT MY AMBASSADOR to the world.

Just wanted to get that on the record,
True Blue Liberal