Happy Birthday, America.

I sat down at my computer a little while ago to write a 4th of July post. I had planned to write about Oh The Joy’s recent George Costanza dreams, and joke about how unpatriotic I am because Bryan and I are pretty much the only people in all 50 states who hate Seinfeld. (Yes, we HATE Seinfeld. Not the man, just the show).

But then my friend Dave forwarded me an email containing Keith Olbermann’s special commentary: Bush, Cheney Should Resign.

And I read it.

And I sat here.

Sick to my stomach.

And I thought about all those people who have died in the last 7 years because of one man. (OK, I know that is oversimplifying the issue, but for the sake of this blog post, we’ll call it one man). And I cried a little.

I have quieted my liberal big mouth here on Greeblemonkey recently, mainly because… well, I was tired. And confused. The world is a big, complex place and I do NOT claim to understand the ins and out of it – especially the crazy world of politics.

As we have been approaching the 4th of July, we have been trying to teach to Declan what the holiday means. Yeah, that’s been fun. Explaining “civil disobedience” to a near 5-year old. Bryan had an *absolute ball* explaining what “no taxation without representation” means. (Seriously, he LOVES explaining it). When I got to the Boston Tea Party, I threw in the towel. Yeah RIGHT, let’s just give the kid tools to the rebellion, why don’t we?

But then, as I got here to my keyboard and started to joke about Seinfeld, it just felt wrong.

Our forefathers gave up their lives for this? For me to call Jerry a smirking egomaniac while I laughingly have the day off and make potato salad while people are dying all over the world and our President besmirches our entire legal system the week of our most patriotic of all holidays?

Fuck that.

I am pulling Keith’s words out and using my civil disobedience today. I call my President a liar, an abuser, a bully, a cheat… and yes. A murderer. Because when you knowingly do things that cause people to die, that makes you a murderer.

Keith Olbermann:

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this Republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

Happy 4th of July, America.

This article has 32 comments

  1. zenrain

    In total agreement with you…I almost feel guilty having the day off…
    and does Bryan bring out his Jon Stewart book for Declan’s history lessons??? 🙂

  2. Sizzle

    this post is so right on.

  3. joansy

    What I don’t get is where are the protests? Why aren’t we marching in the streets? (ok, in Las Vegas we may hit 120 degrees – so I think we should march inside somewhere, but you know what I mean). Where are the great protests songs, and the letters to the editors, and the shouting out of the windows that we’re just not going to take it anymore.
    I’m so damn disappointed in my generation, but there’s still time for us to change. I hope we do so soon.

  4. Wayne

    Keith and Mika Brzezinski are my two new journalistic heros!

    You saw the video right?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdNcCcweL0

  5. Alpha DogMa

    joansy,
    the lack of protests is because so many people feel tired and confused and believe that “the world is a big, complex place and I do NOT claim to understand the ins and out of it – especially the crazy world of politics” and they just don’t know where to start.

    As a non-American, I am boggled by the complexities of your political system. Primaries that amount to popularity contests and straw polls, conventions that ignore the masses and put ALL the power into the hands a few ELITE delegates who make backdoor deals that effect those masses, a president who sits apart from and (often) in opposition to the senate and the congress. Two parties that span a complex and contradictory scale of politics in the modern era.

    Screw the Republican model of rule. Parliamentary systems kick ass. Straight forward, flexible with direct representation.

    Come back to the Commonwealth. Come back to your roots. We have tea. We’ll have a wee tea party to welcome you home. It’ll be cool. You can put Wills and Harry on all your money!

    PLEASE. We have scones.

    So let me just conclude by saying “HEY LIBERAL BIG MOUTH, start preaching the word. You’ve got a blog use it.”

  6. Bryan

    Awesome! Love it! Whole hearted and fully supporting agreement here. It is difficult to speak out sometimes, but when everyone does it just a little, things happen.

    Zen, he reads it on the potty. No lie. I almost took a photo the other day.

  7. Izzy

    I agree. They SHOULD resign. It’s a sad day when, incompetence aside, you can’t trust your country’s leaders.

    As a sidebar, I can’t tell you how weird this is but we were just this morning telling my daughter about the Boston Tea Party and “taxation without representation” and lots of other American history stuff that she didn’t care much about (She’s six so it’s okay).

  8. Jodi

    Sent here via rude cactus and what an amazing post. I could not agree more. I’m going to link to this also, I think it’s so important.

  9. Johnny Smoke

    Greeblemonkey,

    Not only is it murder, it’s first degree murder.

    Definition – The first definition of first degree murder is causing the death of another person with either the intent or knowledge that the conduct will cause death and with premeditation. Premeditation is often described as ‘malice aforethought,’ which basically means that you probably considered the consequence of your conduct for at least a second before you committed the act.

    Thanks for the post.

  10. Anonymous

    you go girl.

  11. Sue

    You said what I wanted to say but didn’t feel up to.

    Just that morning I’d been listening to NPR in the car and caught the tail end of a discussion on the fear of speaking out that many Americans feel.

    As someone who is still in line for permanent residency, I feel it even more — the reluctance to speaking out, for fear of seeming ungrateful or rude.

    My fourth of July post? I’d made two of those cartoons — one with a regular flag and one with a flag that had a peace sign where the stars should be. But the whole Libby thing just wiped me out — I felt frozen by the audacity of it, and exhausted by the sheer arrogance and abuse of power.

    When stuff like this happens, I often say to Dave, “Why aren’t people rioting in the freaking streets!?

    Thanks for voicing what I didn’t feel up to saying myself!

  12. aimee / greeblemonkey

    Thanks to you all for your support! And welcome to Greeblemonkey for the newcomers. 🙂

    Wayne, I did see the video. It was *AMAZING.* I couldn’t find it on YouTube to embed it into the post yesterday. Everyone, please watch the video too. Keith is very stirring.

  13. ali

    sometimes i’m glad i live in canada… he 🙂

  14. monstergirlee

    Good post Aimee – ITA with everything you’ve said. sometimes I lay awake at night wondering what kind of world my kids will inherit. grrr….

    Sullivan was asking about why the 4th of July was a holiday, and hubby explained alot of stuff including Taxation without representation, the Boston Tea Party etc.

    btw – I love seinfeld, but I have plenty of room in my heart for seinfeld haters too. My TV secret that’s not so secret – I’ve never watched an episode of Friends, and I’m proud of that.

  15. Emmie (Better Make It A Double)

    I think I love you. It’s going to take decades to undo this administration – I just hope we do it at all in a meaningful way.
    I hate Seinfeld too, BTW, and so does my spouse. We keep it a secret, lest people equate us with. I don’t know, puppy-kickers or something. So glad to know there is at least one other Seinfeld-hater out there…

  16. Wack-A-Do

    Oh my gosh! I am so relieved. I was sent here by Rude Cactus. Yesterday, when I posted something similar, I was worried about possible backlash by the two people who might stumble on to my site. Thank you. I know that I do not exist in a vacuum but sometimes, living in the bible belt and being left of center can be isolating.

  17. Amaya

    I watched that video on July 3rd and felt like the blood in my veins had gone up 10 degrees.
    It’s so frustrating to be associated with THAT man and his poor but deliberate choices. I’m not sure I can wait another year.

  18. Kimblahg

    well said- both of you.

  19. JennyMoose

    We, like, (ha ha) totally hate Sinefeld too. Did you know his newest house in the Hamptons is worth 32 million? All this, and he isn’t even funny. You are way funnier, Aimee.

  20. roxy

    This is a brilliant post- so glad I followed the link from NoBadDays. I’m looking forward to digging into the blog and admiring your photos. I love designer mamas- especially those who, unlike me, have some idea what they’re doing. Um, design-wise. None of us knows what we’re doing with regards to parenting. Or is that just me?

  21. soccer mom in denial

    For the 4th of July, I just posted an interview from 1999 in which he mocked Karla Fay Tucker. You did it so, much, better.

    He’s a pig. And I couldn’t agree with Joansy more – folks just aren’t outraged…

  22. K

    Thank you so much for having the courage to posting this! I too feel hatred and anger toward the Pres and VP, but am too chicken/wimpy to put my foot out there.

    Thanks!!

  23. aimee / greeblemonkey

    I wanted to again thank you all for the support… and welcome the new folks!!

  24. Anonymous

    This is Gill. And this is my first comment on this. This blog post is the most patriotic – in the true American sense – thing that I have read for a long while. Ms. Greeblemonkey, you have it right. As a member of an older generation that did finally get in the streets over Vietnam, we all need to remember that that took a long time as well. We may wind up there over this, and it isn’t just the younger generation’s responsibliity to get us there. But for now, sharing the outrage is what we should do, and this post does it in the finest style and tradition of the long history of American dissent. Kudos to Greeblemonkey and Keith Olberman.

  25. sue

    Came by way of Chris – You hit the nail on the head with this one. Somebody has to say it. Glad it was you.

  26. Catherine

    I needed a good cry. Thank you for this, Aimee. It’s hard to sum up feelings that range from utter disbelief to confusion to indignation when it comes to our administration. As it turns out, I didn’t have to. You said everything I could have/should have/would have… only you did it coherently. Beautifully.

    Off to watch the video!

  27. Gunfighter

    HUZZAH!

    HUZZAH!

    HUZZAH!

    Well said, new friend. I was directed here by Jodi, and I am so glad.

    Cheers,

    Bill

  28. aimee / greeblemonkey

    Thanks Catherine and Gill!

    And again, thanks and welcome new friends!

  29. Tammy

    WOW!!! Great post Amiee.

  30. Anonymous

    WELL SAID!!!

  31. Stephanie

    I just found your blog through Dad Gone Mad’s blog and read this post…you couldn’t have said it better! I am glad that I found this.

    Hi, My name is Stephanie and I am a blog addict! 🙂

    Keep it going! 🙂

    Stephanie
    steph.thewilhelms.com

  32. Jenny, the Bloggess

    1. You rock the casbah, my friend.

    2. This was featured on GoodMom/BadMom so get down with your bad self. http://blogs.chron.com/goodmombadmom/2008/05/blog_round_up.html

Comments are now closed.
Send this to a friend