Ash Wednesday in San Francisco
Rev. Michael Carter speaks on Ash Wednesday
Clergy prays on Ash Wednesday
The assertion that President Obama may have botched his chance for reelection in November because he didn’t start a war during the week of February 19 to 25 may sound absurd as that week comes to an end, but how will the President’s spin specialists respond if, right before the 2012 Presidential Election is held, the Republican candidate tells the voters that it is too late to stop Iran from developing an atomic weapon and that the last chance to prevent that development came during the last full week in February?
Usually avoiding American involvement in a new war is portrayed as a wise course of action, but with the Republicans this year the standard rules of political conduct seem to be in disarray, if not total chaos, and that leaves open the chance that the candidate who eventually wins the Republican Party’s nomination and who will attempt to limit President Obama to one term in office may not hesitate to point back at the last full week in February of 2012 and say that was when President Obama had the last chance available to use a surgical military strike to put a halt to the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
During the week of February 19 to 25, pundits and or journalists suggested that Iran might want to use a preemptive strike to protect their own country. The news media in the USA ran a story suggesting that Iran had individuals inside the USA doing scouting reports for possible terrorist activity.
If a President has solid intelligence asserting that another country is going to launch a preemptive strike against the USA, doesn’t that mean that the President should launch a preemptive strike against them to defend America from a new Pearl Harbor-type attack?
Some altruistic personalities were suggesting that the week would have been a good time to launch humanitarian air strikes against Syria to protect their citizens in much the same way as the war for humanitarian reasons helped diminish the carnage in Libya last year.
Now that the principle of war for humanitarian reason has been established (by President Obama) can any Democrat rationally defend a choice to skip waging a new war for humanitarian reasons?
The Republicans love to frame the issues and debates for the Presidential elections and so if they make the assertion that a surgical strike against Iran should have been launched this past week, then the Presidential campaign might be based on the idea that the winner should be the one who can most duplicate the war-like attitude of George W. Bush.
Wouldn’t it be über-ironic if George W. Bush’s brother used that bit of inverted logic to win the Presidency in November of this year?
If President Obama doesn’t attack some country soon, his fall reelection campaign might sound like a flashback to San Francisco in the Sixties. “Make Love, not War” and all that.
It seems that Occupy San Francisco has faded into history. The Republicans love to treat a problem by removing the symptoms. Where have all the Occupy Protesters gone?
Page one of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Wednesday, February 22, 2012 edition, reported “Peter Cukor, 67, was killed at his home in Berkeley minutes after reporting a trespasser. Police were responding only to emergency calls at the time.”
Since the Berkeley Police Department was busy monitoring an Occupy Berkeley Protest, critics immediately demanded a complete investigation into the BPD response to the citizen’s call on the non-emergency line.
Occupy Cal has been moving a protest encampment around to different locations on the Berkeley campus.
Occupy Oakland, Occupy San Francisco, and Occupy Berkeley encampments have been dispersed. The news media seems to have become distracted away from any questions about where the Occupy protesters have relocated.
On Wednesday, February 22, 2012, the San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP) had members of the local clergy present a letter to a representative of Wells Fargo Bank asking their bank to put a halt to foreclosure proceedings in the state of California until a study could determine if the paperwork had been done carefully and legally.
Would the clergy’s protest have received more news media coverage if any of the Occupy groups had provided additional protesters? There were no San Francisco Police Department officers in riot gear monitoring the possibility that the clergy protest might get out of hand and necessitate numerous arrests.
The Occupy San Francisco protesters have disappeared and news coverage of the possibility that the city will host the America’s Cup yacht races has become the hot controversy for local political observers.
To some cynical observers, it may seem that the politicians in San Francisco are giving away too many concessions to various parties. To others, the America’s Cup races promises to bring additional tourist revenue to the area.
If some average San Francisco citizens were to suddenly have the chance to do the tourist routine in Fremantle, Western Australia, which would they rather see: Bon Scott’s statue or the Museum with a yacht that won the America’s Cup?
Recently the World’s Laziest Journalist noticed what seemed to be a
T-shirt with a typo. It read: “Beat me up, Scotty!” Then we realized that was a San Francisco (Republican?) thing.
This week, folks in fog city learned that tickets would soon go on sale for a local venue for “Shatner’s World: We just live in it.” Wasn’t that predicted ages ago by the Mayan calendar?
Former area resident (and columnist) Hunter S. Thompson has been quoted as saying: “I wouldn’t recommend alcohol and drugs to anyone. But they have always worked for me.”
Now the disk jockey will play The Iron Butterfly song “Beyond the Milky Way,” the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” and Scott McKenzie’s “What’s the Difference?” We have to go see if flower power is still happenin’. Have a Haight & Ashbury type week.