Happy Appomattox Day

If SpongeBob SquarePants has taught me anything, it's that I can celebrate any holiday I want.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R) has gone a step further though. With his authority he has proclaimed April to be Confederate History Month in the state of Virginia. But somehow, in the excitement of the festivities, he forgot to mention slavery. Actually, he didn't forget, but he didn't think slavery was "significant" enough. Huh?

It's a grave distortion of the past to recognize Confederate history without mentioning slavery. Let's just make this clear: the American Civil War was about slavery. Just take a moment to read the Declarations of Secession of Southern States:

Mississippi:

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product, which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.”

South Carolina:

We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.

Georgia:

The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic.

Texas:

Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated Union to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility and secure more substantially the blessings of peace and liberty to her people. She was received into the confederacy with her own constitution, under the guarantee of the federal constitution and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery– the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits– a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time. Her institutions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and other slave-holding States of the confederacy.

Yes Virginia, the American Civil War was about slavery. Don't let Gov. McDonnell and his white supremacist friends tell you it was about independence, taxes, or the other common canard, "states' rights." Confederates supported fugitive slave laws requiring the federal government to assist in the capture and return of runaway slaves in all states. To hell with states' rights, right?

The Confederate States of America was formed to defend an ideology and an economy built around owning black people. And as you all know, the Confederate States lost.

The Appomattox Campaign was a series of battles fought March 29 – April 9, 1865, in Virginia that culminated in the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the effective end of the American Civil War.

Hey McDonnell, I would be fine letting the events of 145 years ago remain in the past, but you guys keep bringing them up as a point of pride. How can you be proud of what the Confederacy stood for? Whether you're honestly proud or not, it's pathetically clear that you are pandering to a racist constituency.

So let me just say, "I'm glad your side lost." Oh, and happy Appomattox Day. The Union kicked your ass.

Misplaced October Surprise?

Remember back in August, right before the Democratic National Convention, when there was that little five day South Ossetian War fought between Georgia on one side, and Russia, and the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other? Remember when McCain spoke of his conversation with Georgian president Saakashvili? "And I told him that I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"

I thought McCain sounded totally cocky. I'm not a Georgian. I never have been and I never will be. I'm an American. Between McCain's saber rattling and pretending to be president, what was really going on?

Last week the New York Times reported on the observations of international monitors working under the mandate of OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) in South Ossetia when the conflict started:

Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

As the conflict was developing, I noticed how the media framed the entire thing in terms of the U.S. presidential election and portrayed McCain as the tough guy who would put Russia in its place even if that meant using Georgia as an unwilling proxy in a long, bloody guerrilla war... as if the world needs another war.

But McCain's posturing during election season was no accident. Tom Hayden on TPMCafe asks if the Georgian war was a neocon conspiracy and early October Surprise:

The new evidence increases the likelihood that the August 7-8 clash between Georgia and Russia was an "October Surprise" that would highlight John McCain's greater foreign policy experience at the height of the presidential election.

The Georgia fighting occurred immediately before the Democratic convention in Denver. McCain, the leading public advocate for Georgia, immediately declared "we are all Georgians now" and promised "to blast Russia." Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, at first called for greater diplomacy, but quickly fell in line with a bipartisan consensus of national security advisers and the mainstream media. Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, openly applauded the White House for its rapid response, including support for NATO's inclusion of Georgia and the Ukraine and a one billion dollar emergency appropriation.

The relationship between McCain and his top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, definitely adds credibility to Hayden's claims.

Although Russia has withdrawn all troops, and the U.S. State Department has admitted that the Georgian attack was a mistake, we shouldn't forget about this incident. Indeed I think we need to learn more about it. Hillary Clinton has introduced S.3567 "to establish a Commission on the conflict between Russia and Georgia, and for other purposes."

I hope that president-elect Obama will favor diplomacy in these situations, and I hope that he will rethink the U.S. relationship with Georgia, because I'm afraid this misplaced October surprise will come back to haunt us.

Unhinged

I think President Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili have taught us one important lesson. Even leaders of democratic nations can become unhinged. (If the video doesn't show, click here.)

Recklessness

On Tuesday I wrote a quick post about the South Ossetia War. I said I hope the presidential candidates are listening to the experts on the situation, and then I added that it was a scary thought that Bush is still president. I wanted to expand on that thought.

I don't think Bush listens to experts. He never listened to the CIA in 2002 when they said Saddam Hussein was not an imminent threat. He didn't listen to General Eric Shinseki when he famously said that the military would need "several hundred thousand" troops to secure Iraq. However, he does listen to Cheney, but what really worries me is that Bush bases way too much on blind faith. Here is an example of an evangelical preacher he studies:

If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you. Never start to say, "Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?" Be reckless immediately— totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything— by casting your all upon Him. You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him. You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness— being willing to risk your all.

That quotation is from the widely-read devotional My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (1874 - 1917). It's not the kind of advice I want my president following.

So of course I'm worried about this new crisis involving Russia, Georgia and Ossetia. The truth is already a casualty in this war. The majority of Americans believe that the Russian army invaded Georgia first. If that's not true, then the mainstream media is misleading the public -- again -- just like in the run up to the Iraq war.

And just to complicate matters more, John McCain is now stepping in and sending his own delegation to Georgia which will certainly confuse our foreign policy further. In fact, McCain is so confused himself that he believes the Georgian conflict is the "first serious crisis" in the post-Cold War era.

I can't decide what's worse: Still-President Bush, or Pretend-President McCain?

Geography Lessons

War: God's way of teaching Americans geography.

If you're trying to follow developments in the South Ossetia war, I hope you're not completely relying on the major networks, because we all know their coverage is utter rubbish. They automatically frame the war in terms of our presidential election. And looking at our presidential candidates, it's become painfully clear that after all these years we still don't know how to handle Russia.

I prefer not to listen to the bellicose posturing of McCain. I prefer to listen to those with some practical experience with the former Soviet Union... like Henry A. Kissinger and Richard Holbrooke. I hope the candidates are listening. Also, I hope still-President Bush is listening. I keep forgetting he's still the one in charge. That's a scary thought.