Category Archives: Connie Wilson – Misc.

Connie Wilson: Cheney Draws Tiny Crowd in Davenport

Posted on November 1, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Cheney Draws Tiny Crowd in Davenport

by Connie Corcoran Wilson

The King of the Evil-doers couldn’t GIVE away tickets – does anybody STILL think that Bush will take Iowa?  Connie Wilson does a smashing job of pulling Cheney’s statements to pieces.

Click on “more >>” to see all the fine photos and to read about how Connie's book is being removed from bookshelves in the QC because of her political slant!
October 30, 2004

It was appropriate that Dick Cheney showed up in Davenport at Halloween. He’s certainly scary enough, even without the benefit of a costume.  Cheney and company came from Columbus, Ohio; Nazareth, Pennsylvania; and Zanesville, Ohio…battleground states all.

Introduced by his wife of 40 years, Lynne, the Cheneys brought their three small grandchildren with them, and Mrs. Cheney shamelessly played the “fear card” that the Republican Party has been using to woo the female vote they need to win the election. Her words: “When I think of this election, I think of my kids and grandkids and their safety and security.” (And this is the same woman who complained, saying that John Kerry was “not a good man” because he mentioned the Cheney’s out-of-the-closet gay daughter, Mary, in a very tactful answer to a debate question.)


A group of Deaniacs joined Billionaires for Bush to protest the
Cheney visit. One of their signs reads, “Health care is already
affordable.”  Another reads, “Education is NOT for everyone.”
I love the “Thurston and Lovey” look of the couple in the front.
Connie captured this photo at Peabody's, down the street from
the Cheney event in Davenport.


After an outside camera projected the approaching motorcade of SUVs (at least 15, all dark colored gas guzzlers) on a large screen inside the Mississippi Room of the River Center, the pseudo-VP entered to the musical question: “Are you ready to rumble?”

Actually, no, Mr. Cheney. I am not “ready to rumble.” I think that “rumbling” is now and remains a very bad idea. The next song was “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor….another very old song to pump up the crowd.

In the spirit of Halloween, some of the scarier things I heard at the Cheney rally were these:

 1)    The prayer (by Pastor Carl Roberts of the Bettendorf Christian Church): “We’re thankful that we have servants like pResident Bush and Vice pResident Cheney.  We believe that they are the best men for the job at this time.” (Speak for yourself, Pastor.)

2)    “I’m sick of Democrats mocking our pResident, aren’t you?” Actually, it is more the entire world that is “mocking” our “pResident.” The reason? Aside from being voted the “scariest villain in a movie this year” by Europeans, (a nod to Bush’s appearance in Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”), he is quite possibly the worst pResident we have ever had. Most of the civilized world regards him as a loose cannon and the greatest threat to world peace (an actual poll result, in Europe, “greatest threat to world peace: 70% said “George W. Bush”). If you tried to script a president who appeared more foolish, uninformed and unintelligent (despite his legacy Yale degree), a movie audience wouldn’t believe that someone this ignorant, uninformed, arrogant and out-of-touch could be elected. (And, actually, class…does anyone really believe that he was elected in 2000?)
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Connie Wilson: Kerry and Company (Bon Jovi et al.) Pack U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 27th

Posted on October 29, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Kerry and Company (Bon Jovi et al.) Pack U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 27th

by Connie Wilson

When Tom Harkin spoke to the assembled crowd of close to 8,000 cheering Democrats at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Wednesday, October 27th, he came with some “good news.”

Harkin noted that 50,000 new Democratic registrations have been processed in Iowa. 20,000 new independent voters have registered in Iowa for the 2004 election. And new registered Republicans? Why, only 9,400 of them.

These statistics add to the news (reported in Tuesday’s Quad City Times) that a record 2.1 million Iowans were registered to vote by Saturday’s registration deadline. That is 6% more than the number registered in the 2000 election. 95% of eligible Iowans are registered to vote and the total number, for 2004, is 2,106,658, compared to 1,969,199 Iowans registered to vote in the 2000 general election.


Jon Bon Jovi  performs at the Kerry rally
in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday


The Quad City Times also reported that there were 604,277 registered Republicans, versus 598,296 Democrats, and 736,007 registered with neither party.

Supporting Harkin’s announcement at this rally, however, was the Quad City Times’ contention that Democrats have gained 66,409, while Republicans have added only 21,903 new voters.  
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Connie Wilson: Kerry Speaks at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo, Iowa

Posted on October 21, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Kerry Speaks at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo, Iowa

By Connie Wilson

[To see Connie's photo of John Kerry, click on “more >>” at the bottom of the main page excerpt of this article.]

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

John Kerry brought a strong military-influenced message to Iowa, under the slogan “A Fresh Start: Succeeding in Iraq and Winning Against Terrorism” on Wednesday, October 20, 2004, at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in downtown Waterloo, Iowa. About 1,000 listeners heard retired Admiral Stansfield Turner, (former head of the CIA from 1977 to 1981), list the reasons why he and many other military men feel that Kerry will make the better President this election year.

Said Turner: “John Kerry will make us safer and more respected around the world. The country cannot afford four more years of George W. Bush. He dragged us into Iraq unnecessarily and now there are 87 attacks a day on U.S. troops. All of us believe that John Kerry will make a far better Commander-in-Chief than George W. Bush.”

 The military experts on the platform (the “all of us” referenced), included Lieutenant General Edward D. Baca, retired head of the National Guard; Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy, (who appeared with Edwards at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds earlier), the nation’s highest-ranking female officer until her retirement; Major General Melvyn S. Montana of the National Guard and Turner, himself. Kerry noted that he also has the support of two former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Reagan and Clinton, Admiral William Crowe and General John Shalikashvili.

Turner was a very effective, forceful and plain-spoken speaker for Kerry. First, there are Turner’s own impeccable credentials: Commander of the US Second Fleet and NATO Striking Fleet; Atlantic Commander-in-Chief of NATO’s Southern Flank; an expert on foreign policy, arms control, nuclear weapons and terrorism, who is currently serving as a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, former head of the CIA (1977-1981).

Turner spoke clearly and forcefully. He noted that there were many other military experts who also hold the opinion that Kerry would be the better peace-time or war-time leader. He cited George W. Bush’s sending troops into battle without sending sufficient numbers of them, without sufficient equipment for them, and without sufficient planning for their exit from the country. “He dragged us into Iraq unnecessarily.”

Internationally, said Turner, “In four years as pResident, he (“W”) has not learned about the world”. Turner noted that Bush came to office not knowing much about international affairs and did not even have enough interest in the wider world to travel widely.
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Connie Wilson: Michael Moore’s 2004 Slacker Tour Visits Ames

Posted on October 20, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Michael Moore’s 2004 Slacker Tour Visits Ames

By Connie Wilson

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Michael Moore had some difficulty getting to Iowa State University in Ames on Sunday, October 17, to continue his Slacker Tour 2004. His plane was delayed in Wisconsin; then, the airport in Ames wouldn’t let the plane land (he had to drive in from Des Moines). Once inside Hilton Coliseum, Moore hit the ground running and kicked b-tt…two things that are hard to do simultaneously.


Michael Moore in Ames


Some of the gathered faithful (estimates range from 7,000 to 12,000, depending on your source) left, due to the 90 minute wait. Those of us who had arrived late, anyway, were gratified to arrive in time for the entire event. Doors were to have opened at 4:30 p.m.; the speech was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The speech didn’t get underway until closer to 9:00 p.m.
The faithful stayed and were not disappointed. All floor seats were filled and the entire lower bowl was full. Because of a large video screen, no seating behind the screen (and Moore, onstage) was possible. Upper bowl seats were empty, but, with a capacity of 14,178, I would estimate that 12,000 were present. Republicans said 5,000. (You decide whom you want to trust on these numbers: a Democratic County Treasurer’s daughter…me… or the President of the Young Republicans.)
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Connie Wilson: John Edwards Holds A Conversation with Women and Families

Posted on September 27, 2004 by bfialindathieman

 Connie Wilson: John Edwards Holds “A Conversation with Women and Families”

Thursday, September 23, 2004, Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, Davenport, Iowa

By Connie Wilson

First Lady Christie Vilsack introduced a pinch-hitting John Edwards, who filled in for the vocally-challenged John Kerry (impending laryngitis) at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds building in Davenport on Thursday afternoon, September 23, as Edwards hit the ground running hard, challenging the current administration on Iraq and the much-vaunted “war on terror” in front of a standing-room only crowd of over 1,000 partisan supporters. The gloves are finally off!

With Edwards, in addition to Iowa’s First Lady, were four other female supporters of the Kerry/Edwards ticket: Lt. General Claudia J. Kennedy, the nation’s highest-ranking woman officer (now retired); Kristen Breitweiser, a founding member of September 11th Advocates and a founding member of the 9/11 Commission’s ‘Family Steering Committee;’ Gwen Waltz, a teacher from Mankato, Minnesota; and Cammie Pohl, a Democratic candidate for state office.


Young Democrat: 4-year-old
Caeleisheal Kurylo from Davenport


When Edwards begins speaking, he announces that his topics will be the war in Iraq and the war on terror. I am delighted to hear this….finally! I feel like I am ten years old at one of those old westerns where the cavalry is riding in (Noise of cavalry bugle here) to help the soldiers isolated in the fort, which is being circled by blood-thirsty Indians. (In this case, make that blood-thirsty Republicans.)

To quote Matthew Brzezinski’s new book Fortress America: An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State (Bantam Dell Publishing Group), “In the game of smoke and mirrors that is otherwise known as national politics, Americans will go to the polls in November to choose a leader who they think can best protect them from terrorist attack. Other issues will be important in the presidential election–Iraq, the economy, taxes–but none will be as central as which candidate can keep us safe.”
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Connie Wilson: The Fog of War, Part 3

Posted on August 30, 2004 by bfialindathieman

The Fog of War, Part 3

by Connie Corcoran Wilson

Where we left off:  We hear LBJ saying, “We’re not getting out, but we’re trying to hold on to what we have,” and, later, “This is a nasty little war that has turned into a nasty middle-sized war. But America wins the wars she declares. Make no mistake about that!”

McNamara tellingly declares (after Lesson #8, “Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning,” appears onscreen), “What makes us omniscient? Do we have a record of omniscience? None of our allies supported us. If we can’t persuade nations with comparable values of the rightness of our cause, we had better re-examine our reasons.” In Robert Dallek’s extensive biography of JFK (An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963.), on page 685, Dallek notes, “Briefings of McNamara tended to be sessions where people tried to fool him, and he tried to convince them they cannot.”  In the film, McNamara also relates how Tommy Thompson, former Ambassador to Russia, stood up to the President during a meeting, telling him that he (JFK) was wrong about whether Russia would accept the intended blockade of Cuba. “We must try to put ourselves inside their skins,” said Thompson, echoing McNamara’s Rule #1. Were it not for cautionary voices like Thompson’s, war might have erupted with the Soviet Union during three crises that occurred on JFK’s and McNamara’s watch. But, during the Kennedy years, open debate was the name of the game. Intelligent dissent was encouraged, not discouraged. The lack of healthy debate in the current administration is a point made most tellingly in Paul O’Neill’s book “The Price of Loyalty.” Dissent is not encouraged and nobody dares stand up to the President. One is “assigned” to speak.  In fact, Cabinet members are not even encouraged to speak in their areas of expertise, such as Christie Whitman (former Governor of New Jersey) of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) on topics that one would think should be their bailiwick, such as the issue of global warming and what the US position on the Kyoto Protocol should be. There is no debate in the George W. Bush White House; it is filled with ideologues who have already made their conservative Christian minds up, and who follow few, if any, of McNamara’s “eleven lessons.” They most certainly do not attempt to apply Lesson 6 (Get the data), as we now know from the 9/11 Commission report, nor Lesson 7 (Belief and seeing are both often wrong), nor Lesson 8 (Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning.).
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Connie Wilson: The Fog of War, Part 2

Posted on August 23, 2004 by bfialindathieman

The Fog of War, Part 2

By Connie Corcoran Wilson

Picking up from the first installment, last week:

But the President from Texas (LBJ), after John Kennedy’s assassination, said, “You can have more war or more appeasement.  I always thought it was bad to make any statements about withdrawing,” remembering that, when McNamara and Kennedy had discussed such conciliatory actions, in previous cabinet meetings where he had been present, he did not agree, but remained silent. Now, with LBJ in the driver’s seat, the new President pushes through the Tonkien Gulf Resolution, which gives complete authority to one man, the President, to take the nation to war.  

McNamara relates how, on August 2, 1964, the destroyer Maddox was attacked in international waters by North Vietnamese patrol boats. “We didn’t respond,” he says. Two days later, on August 4, 1964, skittish sonar operators reported 9 torpedoes fired at the Maddox at 12:22 p.m. and, again, 97 minutes later, reported additional attacks, as charted by sonar. Years later, says McNamara, it emerged that, “Our judgment that we had been attacked that day (on Aug. 4, 1964) was wrong. We hadn’t been,” quickly adding that it was true on August 2, however. From this poor judgment regarding the August 4th attacks emerged stepped-up bombing raids on North Viet Nam. Says McNamara, “We were wrong, but we had in our mind a mindset that led to that action.  And it led to such heavy costs,” agreeing with the narrator that “we see what we want to believe.” All this ancient history sounds so current, and makes the saying, (roughly paraphrased) “If we do not study history and learn from it, we are condemned to repeat it,” seem very timely, indeed.

McNamara related a heated conversation with the man who had once been President of North Vietnam, which occurred many years after the conflict: “We (the North Vietnamese) were fighting for our independence. You were fighting to enslave us.” That was the viewpoint of the North Vietnamese: that the United States was attempting to follow in France’s footsteps as a colonial power. The North Vietnamese leader insisted to McNamara, “We weren’t the pawns of the Chinese or the Russians,” (a popular opinion of the day, expressed often as “the domino theory” of Communism in that part of the world) saying that his men were fighting to be independent as a nation, and that they “would have fought to the last man”, since they viewed the conflict entirely differently than we (the United States) did. (McNamara’s Point #1).
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Connie Wilson: The Fog of War, Part 1

Posted on August 16, 2004 by bfialindathieman

The Fog of War, Part 1

by Connie Corcoran Wilson

Throughout “The Fog of War,” the 2003 Oscar-winning documentary produced and directed by Errol Morris, interview subject Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the Viet Nam war, offers these eleven lessons which could serve us equally well as a nation today:

1)    Empathize with your enemy.
2)    Rationality will not save us.
3)    There’s something beyond one’s self.
4)    Maximize efficiency.
5)    Proportionality should be a lesson in war.
6)    Get the data.
7)    Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8)    Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning.
9)    In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
10)    Never say never.
11)    You can’t change human nature.

While sharing these lessons, learned during his 85 years on the planet and his many years of public service, (including the first non-Ford family member President of Ford Motor Company and President of the World Bank), McNamara also shares some quotes that seem very, very relevant right now. For one, “Learn from your mistakes. Try to learn. Try to understand what happened.  If people do not display wisdom, they will clash like blind moles, and then mutual annihilation will commence.” While talking about how close the United States came to war during the famous “Missiles of October” crisis with Cuba and the Soviet Union during JFK’s presidency, McNamara relates a conversation that occurred, many years after the crisis, when he learned, in January of 1992, that there had been 162 nuclear warheads and 90 tactical warheads on the island during the famous October, 1962, blockade of Cuba.

McNamara asked Castro, “Did you know (the extent of the weapons on the island)?” — to which Castro answered “Yes.” He then asked Fidel, “Would you have recommended to (Nikita) Khrushchev, (then the Russian Premier), that he use them?” Castro responded forcefully, that he HAD told Khrushchev to use them! McNamara’s final question to Castro was, “What would have happened to Cuba?” (if Khrushchev had listened to Castro’s advice and used the weapons stockpiled on the tiny island 90 miles off the coast of Florida).  Castro admitted that the island would have been totally destroyed. McNamara shakes his head in incredulity, seemingly stunned to learn that this was Castro’s position. “Pull the temple down on our heads? My God!” says McNamara.

It was John Fitzgerald Kennedy who told the United Nations, in an address to them on September 25, 1961, “Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory.  It can no longer serve to settle disputes.  It can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.  For a nuclear disaster, spread by winds and waters and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” Certainly Castro’s comments to McNamara illustrate this very danger, and the new threats of biological and chemical weapons certainly belong in the same “to be avoided at all costs” category as nuclear weapons, for the very reasons so eloquently expressed by JFK at the United Nations over 43 years ago.
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Connie Wilson Goes On Book Tour

Posted on July 26, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Connie Wilson Goes On Book Tour Quad-City Times Yes, OUR Connie, beloved Deaniac extraordinaire, gets the full write-up in the Quad-City Times! CONNIE Wilson’s got guts. She’s hitting the road next month to plug her book of essays and poems, … Continue reading →

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Connie Wilson – Richard A Clarke’s Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terrorism

Posted on July 12, 2004 by bfialindathieman

Richard A Clarke’s
Against All Enemies:
Inside America’s War on Terrorism
Some Thoughts

By Connie Corcoran Wilson, M.S.

I just completed Richard A. Clarke’s book, and, with the Bush-dominated media bashing President Clinton, once again, (claiming he didn’t do enough against terrorism during his eight years in office), it seems like a good time to share a few timely quotes from Mr. Clarke, the true expert, on both that subject and the entire subject of the Iraq War and its effects on us, as a nation.

Let’s just begin by quoting Clarke from page 272-273:

It is difficult for the world’s sole superpower to be popular, but it is not impossible.  A superpower has different responsibilities and perspectives than other nations, but many other nations’ governments and peoples will understand and sympathize if they believe that the super-power is a good global citizen that respects the rights and opinions of other nations.  I thought this was the concept behind candidate Bush’s call for a “more humble” U.S. foreign policy (presumably one more humble than the Clinton foreign policy.)  That thought seemed to be lost quickly after candidate Bush because pResident Bush. It was not just that the United States objected to the Kyoto Treaty on the environment, or the International Criminal Court….it was the arrogance in the way we objected.  At a meeting with my staff in the summer of 2001, I suggested, “If these guys in this Administration are going to want an international coalition to invade Iraq next year, they are sure not making a lot of friends.”
    
No kidding! Talk about your understatements! When the invasion of Iraq did come, in 2003, Clarke notes that it “lost us many friends….Elsewhere, we were now seen as a super-bully more than a superpower, not just for what we did but for the way we did it, disdaining international mechanisms that we would later need.”

Adds, Clarke, “When the United States next needs international support, when we need people around the world to believe that action is required to deal with Iranian or Korean nuclear weapons, who will join us, who will believe us?”

Who, indeed?  Not many. Not unless we replace the current untrustworthy occupant of the White House, who is viewed as a loose cannon throughout the civilized world. And a loose cannon about three fuses short of a full set.
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