My Recent Trip To Washington D.C.......

I had some business in D.C. last Thursday and Friday. I just wanted to share with you some things that I encountered while there.

It started out with my ride from the airport to the hotel. I had a 73 y/o Korean cab driver. We got to talking and he confided in me how embarrassed he and the whole Korean community in the area was with the VT Massacre. He said this incident brought shame to his country and their people. He told me that he is a member of a choral group and that instead of singing this past week – they prayed and discussed the massacre. He said he really felt bad for Cho’s family – whom he said was under protective custody – because of death threats they received.

He went on to tell me that he served in Viet Nam and there was an incident that happened there that brought shame on the Korean community. He said that the Korean’s are proud people and they take things like the VT massacre personally. He was genuinely distraught. I felt bad for him. I tried to make him feel better and told him that this could have happened to any nationality and not to take it personally. That the Cho boy had a mental problem - and all the good bringing up a parent will do during the formative ages - couldn't stop this person from doing what he did.

I asked him about the North Korean situation and he indicated that we should just go in and take Kim Jong-il out. All and all – he and I had a wonderful conversation. We connected. He shook my hand for listening to him and being so supportive.

I was in D.C. when Gonzo was ‘not recalling’ his testimony in the Senate hearings. I was bummed because I couldn’t listen to it as I was working. I was also bummed that the Marriott hotel I was staying at didn’t offer CSPAN. This was unusual – because this is the first hotel in D.C. that I stayed in that didn’t offer CSPAN. I really wanted to attend his historic session in person – but couldn’t work it into my schedule.

D.C. has changed a lot since 9/11 or the change might have started right at the beginning of Bush’s first term. It now looks like a city under siege. Lots of concrete and steel barriers. Lots of streets blocked off. Inspections of the underside of cars with mirrors on a stick. A show of police virtually everywhere on the mall and by monuments and buildings. Even when you go to the Smithsonian – you have to go through security – just like the drill at the airports.

The police are none too friendly. I stopped to ask to cops in front of the Supreme Court Building which is right across the street from the Capitol – when the new Capitol Visitor Center will be finished (it’s been being worked on for a least 4 years now – if not longer). They didn’t know. One told me I have to ask the Capitol police across the street. I got to believe that they are asked that question a number of times a day – I couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t tell me. I still don’t have an answer. They kind of blew me off – because there were a group of young college students protesting the genocide in Darfur that they had to harass.

When I travel I pick up all kinds of local newspapers. I must say that in D.C. the local papers are most interesting. The Express had an article about the Gonzo hearings on page 3. AG Gonzo confronted a fresh Repug call for his resignation Thursday as he struggled to survive a withering, bipartisan Senate attack on his credibility in the case of eight fired prosecutors. This was the first line in there article about Gonzo. Page 4’s article was “Doolittle Quits Committee – Repug takes leave from post as FBI probe continues.

One of the most interesting papers I picked up was the Rock Creek Free Press. I grabbed it because the headline got my attention: “Al Qaeda Funded Out Of the VP’s Office”. Talked about a Seymour Hersh piece in the New Yorker called “The Redirection”. The gist of this article is that veterans of the 1980’s Iran-Contra scandal learned their lesson – that the Iran-Contra operation would have been a success if the CIA and military had been kept out of the loop and the whole thing was run out of the VP’s office. The article had a big finish – “A cynical observer might conclude that the complete destruction of Iraqi society and the descent into sectarian violence and chaos might just have been the neocon plan all along. If so: Mission Accomplished.
Here’s a link to this paper:

http://rockcreekfreepress.com/

Other articles that caught my eye where: U.S. Behind Death Squads in Iraq; 9/11: Looking for Truth in Credentials: The Peculiar WTC “Experts” ; Did the BBC become “Part of the Conspiracy” about the WTC7 collapse; Debunking 9/11 Debunking; Fighting 9/11 Disinformation; 9/11 Truth Movement Permeates Popular Culture (this one complete with a picture of Rosie); and New Fort Detrick “Biodefense” Laboratory May Reflect A Bush Germ Warfare Effort.
To read all this in newsprint just blew my mind. And right under the nose of the Capitol Building and White House. Made me proud to be and American – and this is a genuine feeling by me and not sarcasm.

All of these articles were both provocative & informative. Here’s a couple of more links from this paper:

www.9/11truthDVDproject.com
and
www.dc911truth.org
and
www.911truth.com.

Another paper – The Politico (their website (www.politico.com) was chock full of stories about the VT massacre. Including: Why the Gun Lobby Usually Wins; Some Say Debate Should Focus On Mental Health Policy, Not Guns; Rep. Paul: More Guns Will Deter Shootings; NRA’s Power Extends Beyond the Dollar. It had one full page of Pending Gun Control Legislation – both Senate and House Bills – This one was entitled “The Politics of Tragedy”.

After reading this paper – I picked up a copy of The Examiner Washington (website: www.examiner.com). I flipped it open to a page that had a nice size ad for a “Ruger Factory Day Sale – 2 Days Only – Atlantic Guns” A P95 9mm Blue for $299.95 and a 10/22 Carbine 22 LR cal Blue for $189.95. The ad went on to say in bulleted points (no pun intended) – meet Ruger Factory representatives; - register to win a Ruger target pistol; - see the latest Ruger models; factory 2 Day Only Pricing on All Ruger Firearms. How ironic given the VT tragedy. I'm anticipating that in late August and early September they'll have another sale - Back To School Special.

An article in the same paper in a column called “Risque Reporting” talked about Sex Scandal day at Nathans of Georgetown (last Thursday). This session was attended by Jeff Gannon and Harlan Ullman – joining owner Carol Joynt (no I didn’t make that last name up – too good given the discussion topic) for the lunchtime Q&A Café discussion series.

Ullman, is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Atlantic Council who supposedly was the one that coined the phrase “shock and awe”. Well it turns out he was recently named by “DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey” as “one of the regular customers” of her prostitution ring. Ullman said it was rubbish. He said “The allegations are outrageous and do not dignify a response.” He went on to say “My wife and I view this as most bizarre….It’s like being in a bad Franz Kafka novel.” They asked him whether he’d ever met Palfrey and he said “absolutely not – I have no idea why lightning happened to strike me.”

Gannon or Guckert supposedly acknowledged his wild and crazy past. Said he was linked to a pretty wild crowd when he first move to D.C.” But his comment that really got to me was “If I Had Been A Liberal, I’d Be A Hero!

I could go on and on – but I’ll close here by relaying my cab trip back to the airport. My driver this time was a Ethiopian chap. He’d been driving a cab in D.C. since the early 70’s. Said he loved it. Put his two kids through college. Wouldn’t trade it for the world. He said he loves the U.S. because it gave him this opportunity. He said that what he doesn’t like is our government officials – meaning Bush Co. He went on to say that it was sad that most people in the world now take a dim view on the U.S. They don’t like what our country is doing to the world. He said he couldn’t understand that Bush talks a good show – but supports dictators all around the world. He went on to say that D.C. has changed during the years. He said when a Pres or VP motorcade rolled by that they used to stop all traffic on the side of the street that the motorcade was on. Now he says - they block off both sides of the street. They won't let people get within two blocks of the Pres and VP.

All and all this D.C. trip was both a worthwhile business trip for me but also – and probably more importantly – a learning experience.

My 14-year-old daughter is going to D.C. on a school trip next weekend - lucky girl! Hopefully, she'll have wonderful, worthwhile learning experience as well. She's been warned to wear comfortable shoes because she's going to be walking her little feet off. I'll let her know about all the barricades and the not-so-friendly police - damn shame.

Thanks again.

They do that all the time to me.

Great post.