The Petraeuyal

I was recently in a motel room in Minnesota - miles from my computer, and enjoying it - when I turned on HBO to see James Gandolfini's post-Soprano effort, Alive Day Memories; Home From Iraq. As I quickly found out, ALIVE DAY is what modern soldiers call the day they are out of the Army & Iraq; free, and still alive.

As moving as Art can be, Tony Soprano interviewing some of the over 27,000 injured & maimed soldiers that have lost limbs in the conflict planned from DAY ONE of the Bush Administration, intercut with actual insurgent released video of the very moment their sacrifice for George W. Bush was caught on film, made me proud to be an American.

At one point, the images were so horrendous that I thought: "If Bush were to see this, he'd kill himself."

The first President to die by his own hand in the White House.

The night before, I'd watched "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" with Fred Thompson as Ulysses S. Grant; the second worst President in history (a role Fred appears hell-bent on reprising), nodding his tacit approval of the destruction of the American Indian. Ward Churchill has been right about the manifest destiny of the little Eichmanns all along.

I couldn't find any Minnesotans that were proud of their President.

His suicide; not such a leap when the only place he can go is a secure military base with a captive audience, might just be triggered by a lethal comment from his Wife at the wrong time, in the wrong place, for the right reason.

In defending George's baby-boomer tears, I told my Minnesotan hosts that his "crying" admission spoke well of the kid that grew up under his Father's thumb, and is still in there somewhere, but had to close with: "there's two kinds of people that are moved to tears. Those that are thankful and overwhelmed by the life that they have lived, and those that are guilty and ashamed of their actions and are ever more afraid of the impending punishment they know they deserve.

Six years after 9-11, it seems pretty obvious to America which their President is.

I had found it suspicious that the Petraeus Report would bookend 9-11, but with the arrest of Cindy Sheehan (again) speaking out in the most logical place for the Mother of a dead son killed by United States foreign policy, it's now obvious why.

With the newest Executive Orders that define dissent against the Bush Administration as a threat to National Security, one can only wonder if hoping to goad us into revolutionary action so we can be thrown into jail as enemy combatants to the cheers of Bill O'Reilly, Michell Malkin, and Geraldo, isn't the real reason they've "waited until September" in the first place.

I coined "The Petraeuyal" before Independence Day. It spoke to independence, not Gen. Petraeus himself, but today, the anniversary of 9-11 is giving FOX NEWS the perfect platform to set up their guillotine for the heads of moveon.org for the obvious rhyme: "betray us".

This is still America.



My Name is Michael Sterling, and I'm responsible for these images.