1 Boring Old Man

People who know me know that I can’t sit in front of the T.V. and watch the news anymore. I read it on the Internet. Sitting in front of the T.V. is too upsetting to me, either because of what’s on the news, or more frequently because of what’s not on the news. I listen from the porch or the computer room, and sometimes go sit on the bench outside where I can’t hear it.

Tonight, I was grilling supper on the back porch, and heard to lineup of stories. I found myself moving towards the sound rather than away from it. There was the Clinton interview on Fox News with Chris Wallace and the Generals testifying in Congress. Then there was the National Intelligence Estimate. Instead of the painful feeling that comes over me during the news, I felt comforted. The news was about the truth, it wasn’t reports of the current spin on the truth.

• You did not act to prevent 9/11.
• We do not know what you have done, to prevent another 9/11.
• You have failed us — then leveraged that failure, to justify a purposeless war in Iraq which will have, all too soon, claimed more American lives than did 9/11.
• You have failed us anew in Afghanistan.
• And you have now tried to hide your failures, by blaming your predecessor.
• And now you exploit your failure, to rationalize brazen torture — which doesn’t work anyway; which only condemns our soldiers to water-boarding; which only humiliates our country further in the world; and which no true American would ever condone, let alone advocate. And there it is, sir:
• Are yours the actions of a true American?

The news tonight was the truth about this Administration and the outrageous way it has performed in office for the last almost six years. It wasn’t a twisted version. It wasn’t some left wing diatribe blaming them for understandable human errors or things outside of their control. It was the plain facts about how arrogance, indifference, and outright lies have strangled us at a time when we needed some real leadership.

I actually enjoyed watching the news on September 25th, 2006.

I may not feel so good about it tomorrow. It may be back to he said this or that. It may be that another tragedy, like Congress tries to gut habeas corpus, or the Administration deperados try to go to war with Iran, or Bush finding some other way to sneak John Bolton into the U.N.

But for today, the bad news was comforting because it was simply the truth. It’s been a long time coming and I’ve missed it…