Please, Nancy, put Impeachment back on the table

Walter C. Uhler

Were the United States still a shame-based country, as it was even when Henry Stimson wrote about Nuremberg, the criminals in the Bush administration who unleashed this whirlwind would resign and surrender themselves to the proper authorities, or commit suicide. But, America is not Japan and, as we already know, our officials possess neither character nor shame. Instead, they already are plotting to escape justice.

"Justice," for the crime of invading Iraq, already has been splendidly stipulated by the renowned conservative military historian, Martin van Creveld: "For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C. sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins."

But, in order to thwart justice, the Bush administration's "Plan A," is to win at least one house of Congress in November and, thus, stymie and delay investigations and impeachment proceedings. If "Plan A" fails, "Plan B" is to invade Iran.

Thus, the percentages offered by Middle East expert, William R. Polk, seem correct -- "at least a 10% chance of an American attack on Iran before the November 7 Congressional elections and about a 90% chance before the administration's end on 2008" [History News Network, 10/16/06] -- even if scaring Americans in order to ward off impeachment doesn't figure among his reasons.

And, thus, Congresswoman Pelosi, by taking impeachment off the table, you will have given the Bush administration an adequate substitute for "Plan A" while effectively removing any penalty for pursuing "Plan B."

Please, scrap your bad idea of taking impeachment off the table. Although making the Bush administration lame ducks may be good enough for you, America's lost self-esteem and its lost honor around the world require much more - as does the need to prevent additional Bush administration crimes against the peace. It requires that we Americans "repair" to the standard to which we seek to hold everyone else.

What Wally said.

Unseemly Circus

Military.com columnist Joe Galloway has a few thoughts about this administration:

This unseemly circus and its clowns in Congress can't go away fast enough and with enough dishonor and disgrace to suit the circumstances. Their place in America's history is secure: They will go down as the worst administration and the worst Congress we've ever had. Period.

They deserve to lose both the House and the Senate on Nov. 7, and the White House in 2008. They bullied their way into a war that they thought would be a slam-dunk and then so bungled things that the only superpower left in the world has been humbled and hobbled in a world that they've made more dangerous for us.

Thanks, guys. You've done a heckuva job. We won't forget it.

Those are the last three paragraphs. Go read the first twelve.

Florida gets early start on vote flipping. Duh.

Miami Herald

Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen -- the final voting step.

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That's exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists into high gear -- especially in South Florida, where a history of problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

Interesting example, and there's a couple of others like it. I wonder how many times people chose the Repug candidate only to have the Dem come up? My bet is somewhere between zero and none.

House Races

Here's a Projection Map of quite a few House races, including those the Brain is particularly interested in. Click the dots.

Dave

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer campaigning with Dave Mejias this weekend.

It's nice to see the Dem leadership making the campaign rounds with the candidate:

FARMINGDALE - Yesterday Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland visited New York's Third Congressional District in a show of support for Nassau County Legislator Dave Mejias, Democratic Candidate for Congress. During the visit, Hoyer and Mejias talked about the failures of Peter King and this Republican-controlled Congress to protect New York because of their refusal to provide necessary oversight. Because of these failures New York's homeland security funding was cut this year by 40%, Homeland Security contractors are unpunished when significant waste, abuse and mismanagement occurs, and the 9/11 Commission recommendations have not been fully implemented...

"This Republican-led 'cover-up Congress' has been complacent and complicit in rubber-stamping virtually everything the Bush Administration has asked for," said Hoyer. "We believe Dave Mejias is going to win. Americans want a change. Incumbents like Peter King offer only the status quo while Democratic challengers like Dave Mejias provide an opportunity to take our country in a new direction." [my ems]

...

You're damn right Dave is gonna win. Would have been nice to see the big shots from the party on Long Island a couple months ago but better late than never.

Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America

Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.

Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?

"Do you want America to win in Iraq?"

The Abstract Factory

Apparently this is the latest sound-bite for Republicans trying to defend the Bush Administration --- see this Oct. 27 Lynne Cheney interview...

Well, right, but what is CNN doing running terrorist tapes of terrorists shooting Americans? I mean, I saw Duncan Hunter ask you a very good question and you didn't answer it. Do you want us to win?

...and O'Reilly in this Oct. 27 Letterman interview...

O'Reilly: But they don't want to hear about the bad world that we live in. It's an evil world that we live in. Let me ask you something. And this is a serious question. Do you want the United States to win in Iraq?

The clarion call has been sounded, the marching orders have been given, and all the little troopers across America are no doubt repeating this mindless sound bite --- "Do you want America to win?" --- even as we speak.

The proper sound-bite response to this sound bite is: Yes, and I want the Mets to win the World Series this year too. But that train has left the station, and we were not on board.

Bonus additional sound bite, in case you don't like that one: Yes, I want America to win. I also like puppies and apple pie. But none of those things has anything to do with continuing the war in Iraq.

The United States has already lost in Iraq, in the only sense that matters: we have failed disastrously in every single one of our war aims. The Bush administration's holding out because it cannot admit failure, and it knows that if it delays long enough then the next administration will come in and the failure can then be blamed on them. As long as America does not withdraw from Iraq under his watch, the President can continue to indulge in the delusion that history will judge him kindly. Or, in other words, the United States continues to spend untold blood and treasure, more or less, to protect George W. Bush's frail self-esteem. [...]

Georgie's 'self-esteem' is gonna get a lot frailer before this is over.

If anyone asks me that question, I feel like deckin' his ass and sayin', "Sure, but since we're not gonna, I thought I'd just go ahead and win that one."

We won the war part of the Iraq clusterfuck. It was easy. What we're losing is everything that came afterwards, and everything we had before.

That outcome was pre-ordained the day Bush committed treason and lied us into an unnecessary invasion of a nation that posed us no immediate threat. As bad and previously-un-American as that was, it was compounded and exacerbated by an order of magnitude by the incompetence of the Bush administration and by the subsequent piling-on of degradation after degradation of the Constitution, and lie upon lie, in the futile attempt to avoid having to admit their failures and answer for them.

What goes around, comes around, Bushie boy. Stand by for a ram.

Bursting Bubble Blues

My main money-mindin' man Paul Krugman:

Here are the five stages of housing grief:

1. Housing bubble? What housing bubble? "A national severe price distortion [in housing] seems most unlikely in the United States." (Alan Greenspan, October 2004)

2. "There's a little froth in this market," but "we don't perceive that there is a national bubble." (Alan Greenspan, May 2005)

3. Housing is slumping, but "despite what you hear from some of the Eeyores in the analytical community, a recession is not visible on the horizon." (Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, August 2006)

4. Well, that was a lousy quarter, but "I feel good about the U.S. economy, I really do." (Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, last Friday)

5. Insert expletive here.

We've now reached stage 4. Will we move on to stage 5?

In case you're wondering, I don't blame the Bush administration for the latest bad economic numbers. If anyone is to blame for the current situation, it's Mr. Greenspan, who pooh-poohed warnings about an emerging bubble and did nothing to crack down on irresponsible lending.

Ah, but Paul, at whose direction? Are we forgetting that 'moneylenders' are major Repuglican contributors? Remember bankruptcy "reform"?

Still, the bad news will have political consequences. The Bush administration has been trying to shift attention away from the disaster in Iraq to an allegedly booming economy. That strategy wasn't working too well even when the headline numbers were good, because it never felt like a boom to most Americans. But now even the headline numbers have turned lousy.

And if that hurts the G.O.P. in next week's election, well, there's a certain poetic justice involved. The administration tried to claim undeserved credit for the positive effects of the housing boom, so why shouldn't it receive some blame for the negative effects of the housing bust?

I dunno. 'Cuz it was all Clinton's fault?

Please go read the rest.

Arming your executioner

NYT via Holden:

...

The answers came Sunday from the inspector general's office, which found major discrepancies in American military records on where thousands of 9-millimeter pistols and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons have ended up. The American military did not even take the elementary step of recording the serial numbers of nearly half a million weapons provided to Iraqis, the inspector general found, making it impossible to track or identify any that might be in the wrong hands.

Exactly where untracked weapons could end up - and whether some have been used against American soldiers - were not examined in the report, although black-market arms dealers thrive on the streets of Baghdad, and official Iraq Army and police uniforms can easily be purchased as well, presumably because government shipments are intercepted or otherwise corrupted. [my em]

...

Let me tell you, from personal experience, that when we were arming Osama and his Mujaheddin in Afghanistan 20-some odd years ago, we knew exactly what we were giving them.

Simple logic

From Digby:

Let's say you have a problem. You have the choice of two people to solve the problem --- the one who caused the problem, refuses to admit it even is a problem and won't change anything even as the problem grows worse --- or the other one. Which do you choose?

That's the simple logic of this election.

...

Nice and neat.

Left, Hardly Ever Right, and Center

Blondesense Liz asks:

What do you think? Can we stand centrists- it's better than neocons, right?

Sliding down a railing coated with broken glass is better than neocons!

Of course we can stand centrists. Not right now, though, but I think it's where we should be.

I'll make a little analogy here. Any mechanic or electronics technician, well, the ones old enough to remember analog gauges and meters anyway, can tell you that a meter is most accurate in its mid-scale. Let's use a car's gas gauge as an example.

If you're like me, the needle spends most of its time somewhere near its center, neither all the way to the right (full of gas, like wingnuts), nor all the way to the left (runnin' on empty, like left-wing loonies). Although the needle occasionally goes all the way full-scale to the right, after a fill-up, and all the way to the left, just before an invigorating hike, usually it's somewhere between its extremes.

Do ya see where I'm goin' with this? I sometimes have issues where my stance puts me to the right of Sean Hannity, and other issues that put me far left of Michael Moore, but most of the time I'm somewhere in between.

To carry the gas gauge analogy a step further, if you have enough money that your tank is always full, you get the feeling that you can go anywhere you want, and you needn't concern yourself with the poor slob who's sitting beside the road out of money and out of gas. That your gas money might have come from that same guy, or possibly your gas was given to you by the gas station, is not of concern either: you got it, he ain't got it, and that's the way it should be.

If you're the guy sittin' by the side of the road, you see it a little differently: "Geez, I can't go anywhere". When you see the guy whizzin' by on his way to wherever without so much as a glance at you, you might think, "I gave that guy five bucks for gas, but he's on his way to where he'll get a free tankful. Why can't he stop and siphon me off a gallon?" The world is against you, and you think you'll never get anywhere.

People who've never been stuck by the side of the road outta gas and broke will never understand, but folks who have are a lot more likely to stop and help: There but for the grace of a little gas money, sit I.

It's the same in politics. On the left, you have ideals, which are sometimes unrealistic. You strive for them anyway, hoping to do someone that needs it some good. If we'll all chip in, everybody will have enough gas to get where they need to go.

On the right, you have ideology, which is sometimes unrealistic. You strive for it anyway, thinking that needy people shouldn't be that way, and if they'll just buy you all the gas you want - not need - they can get themselves where they need to go, and if they can't, well, it's their own damn fault. You'll get there, and fuck them.

I think after reading my own words, my tank is less than half full. I've been told before that I'm a little short of a full tank. That's OK, I got enough.

To end my blathering about the gas gauge, the most accurate reading lies somewhere near the center, on either side, rather than all the way either way. The needle will go right, the needle will go left, but we can generally feel good when it's in between one-quarter and three-quarters.

To get back to Liz's question, it will be a great day when our nation can be be governed from the center. Right now we're in a deathgrip from the Far Right. We'll never break that grip by compromising with them. If we're nice, or even reasonable with them, we'll die.

We have to be aware that right now we're fighting for the breath, life, and soul of our country. We can use their own rules to fight them, of which there aren't any. Remember, a good fight is one which you walk, or crawl if need be, away from and your opponent doesn't.

Once we get loose from these evil Repugs and can get a few decent breaths, then we can work on a little compromise while they're recovering from their injuries, which I hope take a long time to heal in the prison ward. It'll give 'em time to think about the harm they've done and how they might act a little more decently in future..

Until then, HAMMER! HAMMER! HAMMER!

November 7th.

This came out in one long sentence from my stream of unconsciousness. I could barely get it slowed down enough to put in some punctuation.

GOP Porn scandal spreads and widens...

Always plumbing new depths to bring you interesting political stuff, but never (cough) to appeal to prurient interest, here is Americablog's take on GOP contributions from the biggest industry in the San Fernando Valley.

Embiggen these, Big Boy!

You'll recall that late last night Josh Marshall reported that the national Republican party has repeatedly accepted donations from one of the top gay porn producers in the country. This story is relevant since the Republicans have been hitting Democrat Harold Ford in Tennessee with ads claiming he took donations from a Hollywood porn producer.

Now, as you might imagine, the Republicans will probably say they had no idea they were taking money from a man whose living is making films such as "Fire in the Hole", "Flesh and Boners", even a "Velvet Mafia" series. (Links at site. Made my typing finger blush. G)

But that excuse rings hollow when you consider that the GOP had no problem tarring Harold Ford with the same charge. But far more damning is the fact that the Republican party has a history of accepting money from the porn industry. It hasn't just happened before - the GOP openly welcomed porn money.

Case in point, my girl Mary Carey, who just last year gave $5,000 to the GOP, the GOP knew who she was, and they gladly accepted her money made from screwing guys on film. (Visit Mary Carey's Web site, but be warned, this link is not work-friendly, though Lynne Cheney might disagree.)

If you work at home like I do, it's almost too friendly, although I did discover a draft coming from under my desk...

Mary is one of the top female porn stars in America. She is the lead thespian in such movies as "Tit Happens," "Lesbian Big Boob Bangeroo" ("Eight kinky, nasty, big-titted, snatch-sucking, muff-diving, pussy-eating, horny sluts can't seem to get enough of that sweet cooch juice!"), and "Everybody Loves Big Boobies."

Sounds like a lotta thesping!

And before you say the Republicans had no idea they were taking a porn superstar's money, think again:

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Carl Forti admitted as much to the AP and said, "Their money was donated to the NRCC. The NRCC's job is to elect Republicans. We'll take that money and use it to elect more Republicans."

Yes, Mr. Reynold's top staffer on the NRCC knowingly, openly, and gladly, took money from one of the top porn stars in America. And he had no qualms doing it.

Now ask yourself again if the Republican party had no knowledge that they were taking money repeatedly from the the gay porn king of America? And then ask yourself why the Republicans seem more concerned about Democrats accepting porn money than the porn-lovers in their own midst. Answer: The GOP only pretends to care about religious right values. And so long as the religious right doesn't make the GOP pay a price for taking them for granted, the GOP will continue to cavort with gay porn kings.

And they'll even continue to take the money of a porn superstar who told me last year (and I have it on tape) that she wants to have a lesbian menage-a-trois with the Bush twins:

"Oh my God, his daughters! I'd LOVE to party with his daughters. I'd love to meet them. I totally want to have sex with them. You can write it the day after I leave here."

This ain't your daddy's Republican party.

It is, however, Jenna and Not Jenna's daddy's Republican party. They don't seem to care what their money is dripping with, but let the Democrats get some boobie and ballsack bucks, why, that's a sign American culture and family values are under Librul attack.

Republican porn money is good for America, but Democrat porn money means the terrorists are coming to kill you in your bed.

I have nothing in particular against adult porn, and politicians take money from whomever they can get it from (a whole 'nother subject under "what's wrong with American politics?"), but they oughta own up to it and not dish the other side for doing the same thing, if for no other reason than they oughta know it's going to backfire on 'em eventually. Like it's doing now.

Fuckin' hypocrites. Stupid ones. Nothing new. What's new is their 'base' might be catchin' on.

Gotta go see if Americablog's assignment editor takes "contributions"...

Oh I am SO doing this,today

What would the liberal blogosphere be without Crooks and Liars? Not as rich or well informed,that's for sure.

I simply Love this idea.

One lollipop and a stamp.(IMO,a baby's pacifier would work too,though you'd have to get a padded envelope and spend a bit more to send it) To piss off Sean Hannity and his hair. What a return on your investment. Tell all your friends. Don't forget to send it with love and smootchies from Crooks and Liars.

I've got bills and Netflix movies to drop at the post office today,might as well add in one more piece of mail.

HeeHee.

I didn't sign up for that ...

Over hill, over dale
As we hit the dusty trail,
And the Caissons go rolling along.
In and out, hear them shout,
Counter march and right about,
And the Caissons go rolling along.

Then it's hi! hi! hee!
In the field artillery,
Shout out your numbers loud and strong,
For where e'er you go,
You will always know
That the Caissons go rolling along.

...

Yeah, well you're now an infantry troop. Same thing for air defense guys. [sarcasm] This should work out well. [/sarcasm]

...

The Army is moving soldiers from specialties such as artillery and air defense to high-demand roles: infantry, engineering, military police and intelligence, Special Forces, civil affairs and psychological operations, said Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, deputy chief of staff for Army personnel.

The Army has more soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan than the other services combined. It has sped up the realignment that started in 2001 and is expected to end in 2011, Rochelle said. [my em]

...

So, they think we're gonna be in Iraq another 5 years, huh? The Rethug victory strategy, endless war.

Mejias interview

I was gonna post this here but YouTube was acting stupid this morning. Peter King Watch has Dave's interview on Up Close with Diana Williams from our local ABC affiliate yesterday. Dave slams Peter King's poicies on just about everything, especially Homeland Security and illegal immigration, and puts forth his own solutions. If you haven't heard Dave Mejias speak, you owe it to yourself to watch this (about 10 mins.), especially if you're a Long Islander living in NY-03.

Update:

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer has come out squarely behind Dave.

...

Hoyer, D-Md., is touting Democratic candidates around the country as part of his party's effort to gain 15 seats or more to win control of the House of Representatives. Election Day is Nov. 7.

In going after King, Hoyer and Mejias cited a Bush administration decision earlier this year that provoked widespread outrage among New Yorkers of all political stripes: a 40 percent cut in the amount of federal anti-terror grants to New York City and Washington, the two cities targeted in the Sept. 11 attacks.

...

And Peter King didn't say a word. Do you know who got our anti-terror funding restored? Yep, Hillary Clinton. Now tell me how the Republicans are "keepin' us safe".

And just a note to vets: Listen when Dave says, and I'm paraphrasing, "I'm not a military man, but I know enough to let the military fight the war". Dave wants us out of Iraq and he'll look out for our troops. He's listened to me, and other vets, when we spoke to him of the horrible funding cuts at the VA and for brain injury research, and he's pledged to help. Peter King talks a line, but he only cares about vets when it comes to gathering them around him for a photo op. Typical Republican coward like Chimpy McFlightsuit. Dave Mejias supports the troops, he doesn't give 'em lip service, and he knows the mission won't be accomplished until every last one of them is out of "Mess o' Potamia". (Credit - Jo Fish)

Rogues Gallery

Moderate rounded 'em all up. Even Scroff.

Update:

D broke down too. Heh ... Still waitin' for Lurch.

Semper Shazam!

All us Olde Fartes (Lctp) have been having fun posting our old o-fish-ul service photos. Well, Scroff's balkin' at doin' it, so I went and found his. H'yar 'tis:


It's probably not all that far from the truth. For every Chesty Puller or "Manila John" Basilone in the Corps, there's about 10,000 of us Gomer Pyles.

As promised ...

More Mejias press conference photos here. Now I ask you, looking like I do, would you have me standing next to you if you were running for Congress? Personally, I'd make me stand as far away from the cameras as possible.

And, via PKW, an open letter to Peter King.

James Webb's Navy Cross

Bush thinks he's Sgt. Rock in his little fantasy world in which he has never been in danger, but James Webb did it for real, with real blood. His own. Go read his Navy Cross citation at the Hampton Roads Pilot.

Here's a 'comment' after the article:

Webb served as a Marine in Vietnam where he was awarded a Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts. He served as counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, and Secretary of the Navy. Sen. Allen has never served in the military. According to an independent evaluation by the Retired Enlisted Association, Allen supported their interests 0% of the time in 2004. According to another independent evaluation by the Disabled American Veterans, Allen supported their interests 0% of the time in 2004 and 50% of the time in 2005. On the basis of this objective information, I trust that military personnel, veterans, and their families will be able to decide which candidate will best represent them in the Senate.

I hope so.

"You called me a what?"

Will Durst

So even the President has agreed that the phrase "stay the course" is a dirty word. And to all the Republicans candidates whom he seduced into repeating that phrase often enough to be used for opposition election ads, it won't be long before the phrase "George Bush" is also a dirty word. And I envision a day not too far in the future when just mentioning the President's name on the radio will result in getting hit by the FCC with a $350,000 fine... for obscenity.

I hope it's retroactive. Heh.

On Infallable Victims

Ann Coulter did it to the Jersey Girls. Rush did it to Michael J Fox. It's a tried and true tactic, not only do they blame the victim and blatantly call them liars(and tell lies about them), they completely shred the victim's experience and discount it. And for some fucked up reason,it works,at least enough to plant seeds of doubt.

While victims of any tragedy are not infallable,their perceptions and experiences are indeed of worth. While not perfect,those who have gone through trauma and lived to tell the tale are indeed among the first people we should listen to. Who better to tell you what something feels like than one who has had that experience? Would you see a podiatrist for a brain tumor? Of course not,you'd want someone who had actually had the experience and treated brain tumors,or you would if you had any sense at all. Wingnuts and authoratarian bootlickers have no concept of cause and effect,which if you think about it,makes them especially NOT qualified to run their yaps. This is especially glaring in these troubled times with them giving military advice and warmongering when they haven't spent one second in uniform.

Coulter,in her attacks on the Jersey Girls,made up some nonsense about their husbands getting ready to divorce them anyway. She said those men's deaths were a delight for those widows who are now rich as a result of their speaking out and demanding answers. This is coming from someone who has never married or been in a long term relationship with anyone,who has never had a hand in raising a family. Coulter lost NOTHING on 9/11. I'd go as far as to say that Coulter is the one who got rich off 9/11,using it as a springboard to write more books,make more TV experiences, find more paid speaking gigs, she,who lost nothing in the wake of 9/11. Except some more of her mind that is.

If you've never been in a car accident,you can't know what it's like.

If you've never cooked a gourmet meal,you can't tell a gourmet chef they're doing it wrong.

If you've never raised a child you cannot tell someone else how. Ok,you can,but any parent with half a brain would tell you to STFU.

If you've never worked on cars, you'd be the last person anyone would take auto repair advice from.

Experiences matter. The people who have those experiences matter even more.

This sort of dismissal happens to poor people alot in our country. People who have never been poor pontificate and cluck at great length about what causes poverty,how to fix it(or really,how to blame the poor and not lift a finger to solve the problems that allow poverty to flourish. If we had the political and national will to end poverty we could. The answers are right under our noses.), and of course there's the old"just pull yourself up by the bootstraps and shut up". Which would be fine if you had boots. But what if you have no boots,no way to get boots,and no way to get to the boot seller? And if you've never been poor,don't talk to poor people and do nothing to help them,how in the hell are you qualified to "solve" that problem? The short answer is,you're not. And this is the heart of many problems this Nation has,not just poverty.

Our schools are a mess,but does anyone ever ask the kids,their parents and the teachers what sort of things might work to fix what's broken? Nope. Instead,school systems hire "consultants"who rarely if ever have set foot in a public school classroom,at least not since they were kids. Many of these folks spent their school years in private schools, explain to me how the hell THAT makes any sense. Is it any wonder then,that by the time kids reach middle school that many of them are bored out of their ever loving minds?

When civic leaders talk about "cleaning up" a particular area of their city(code for the ghetto),do they enter those communities and talk to the people who live there? Do they ask the people living hand to mouth in those places what would make their lives better? Not so much.

Consider the plethora of child rearing"experts" in the marketplace today. It's rare to hear any one ask them what credentials they have,besides some sort of degree. Yes,an education is important,but so are the experiences of mothers and fathers and families and children. They live this stuff,every single day. I'd trust an experienced,successful mother's advice over a self proclaimed expert any day of the week.

As many of you know,I have an autistic child. We're lucky,my son has defied the odds and is not the "average" one thinks of when the word "autism" is used. When he was much younger,I knew something was wrong,but had no idea that's what I was dealing with. And so began a LONG journey to various doctors,psychiatrists,psychologists,neurologists,speech therapists,physical therapists,and hundreds of hours of my own research into autism. Had I listened to all those experts and discounted my own experiences,here's a small sampling of what might have been:

1) Insitutionalizing my child. I was told he'd never speak,read,or write. The most I could hope for was a silent child incapable of love or emotion. So,"to be fair to him" I should lock him away in a mental institution.

2)Medicating my child. With the anti-schizophrenic drug Risperdal. To be fair,some severely autistic children have used this drug with success,but in my son's case,the autism is not that severe,and the use of this drug would have harmed him. This diagnosis came after 20 minutes in a psychiatrist's office,on the first(and in this case,last.And this woman charges 250 dollars an hour for her "expertise"AND she doesn't take insurance)visit. I also had to deal with an idiotic elementary school principal who tried like hell for three years to badger me into putting my son on Ritalin(our pediatrician,who gives out Ritalin like candy,told me this drug in particular would most likely result in my son becoming violent and hyperactive and he would not prescribe it to him). I finally stomped into her office one afternoon and told her if she didn't knock it the fuck off I was going to an attorney and the local media. Which wouldn't have been pretty considering her hubby works as an executive for Big Pharma. The subject never came up again. I often wonder how many parents she bullied into medicating children who didn't need to be.

3)Placing my son in a school for the mentally retarded. My son is not mentally retarded,he's autistic. Big difference. Needless to say,I walked out of that particular specialist's office while he was in mid sentence. If anything,had I listened to this guy,my son would have not recieved what he needed to learn,because he's not mentally retarded.

My final encounter with"specialists" happened when my son was about to enter second grade. On the way into the office,my son looked up at me and asked,"Mommy,am I going to die?Am I sick?". I told him no,but his brain works different than most people's and we just needed to find out the best way to work with that. He replied"well,I HATE these dumb doctors,because they talk about me like I'm not even there,and treat me like I'm sick.I'm not sick,I'm not stupid,and I hate them". We never made it out of the parking lot,we turned around and went home. I realized that I had made a big error, I had not asked my son what he needed,what his world looked like,how he felt and how he saw and experienced things. In my quest to do the best thing I could for him,I had left him out of the process entirely. The progress made after that day was amazing,and while we have many miles to go, I realized ALL the progress we had made since he was born came from my research,my trial and error,my work with him on his speech and language skills,my 24/7 presence and my relentless search for answers. It wasn't the experts,it was me and my son,hand in hand walking through this wilderness alone that did it. Today he's an avid reader,talks a mile a minute,is a budding artist,and extremely bright and outgoing. He lags behind his peers socially and emotionally,but other than that,you can't even tell he's autistic unless you spend alot of time with him. That's no accident,it was work and years of uphill struggle. And my work pales in comparison to his. He's one of the bravest kids I know,and it's me who is blessed by his presence,not the other way around. Being his Mother is not my right,it's a privledge and a commitment.

So,while I may not be infallable(nor is my son),that does not,in any way invalidate our experiences. I'd also never in a million years presume I could tell any parent of an autistic child what they should do because every autistic person is different. But what I can offer is our personal experience,our insight,as part of the big picture. Infallable? Oh hell no,but valid? You bet your ass it is. And I'll be happy to kick ass and take names with anyone who dares to dismiss my journey who has never been there and never will be.

Fuck anyone who thinks otherwise.