DNC
Many people are asking why I’m not in Boston this week, so here’s why.
First, I don’t expect there to be any news there.
Second, neither the party or the shadow convention invited me. Unlike George W. Bush, I don’t go where I’m not wanted.
Third, I just got back from the San Diego Comicon and wanted to rest up.
West Coast Book Signings
It looks like I’ll be hitting the West Coast to sign WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL and GENERALISSIMO EL BUSHO during late October. Cities on the agenda include:
San Diego
Los Angeles
Santa Cruz
San Francisco/Berkeley
Portland
Seattle
Vancouver
Boise (maybe)
If you live in one of those cities and have a contact with a good independent or chain bookstore that might be interested in having me sign then, please email me at chet@rall.com.
I’ll do other appearances along the way, including speaking and/or showing comics, so if you have a good venue and guaranteed decent attendance (i.e., good promotion), please let me know.
Update to This Week’s Column
There’s an interesting development in the Jack Idema case, the subject of this week’s syndicated column. Idema is the ex-Special Forces soldier arrested for running a private torture chamber in Kabul.
As the invaluable Asia Times reported:
During a press briefing on Wednesday at the US State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher repeated that the United States had had no official contact with Jonathan Idema, the leader of three US civilians on trial in Afghanistan accused of kidnapping and torturing suspected Afghan resistance fighters.
“That’s their story now,” I wrote. That story is already changing. Now they admit that Idema wasn’t quite as “off the reservation” as the Pentagon would like us to believe. Sez the BBC:
The US military has admitted it detained an Afghan man handed over by a US citizen accused of running a freelance counter-terrorism operation.
A military spokesman said the prisoner was handed over by the American, Jonathan K Idema, in May.
A BBC correspondent in Kabul says that the disclosure is embarrassing for the US, which said it had had no links with the alleged American mercenary. “We did receive a detainee from Idema or his party,” said Major Jon Siepmann, spokesman for the coalition forces. “The reason we received this person was that we believed that he was someone that we had identified as a potential terrorist and we wanted him for questioning,” he said. But forces strenuously deny that Idema was working for the military in any official capacity and insist that he is a mercenary. They argue that they were not aware of Idema’s “full track record” prior to his arrest earlier this month along with two other Americans and four Afghans.
Don’t be surprised if it ultimately turns out that Idema was on the books after all. Should that happen, neither he or we should hold our breath for an apology.
Nor should the three innocent Afghans found hanging by their feet in Idema’s home.
The Soldier as Spitoon, Redux
On the other side of the post-Vietnam spitting argument comes the following email. Again presented without comment:
I enjoy your cartoons and columns and visit your Web site regularly to read them.
Your latest column, “Boycott the Military,” was particularly interesting. Among my circle of male friends and relatives, we are nearly all veterans of the Vietnam era, most of us with in-country duty and quite a few with combat experience. I have never heard one of them say they were spit on, yelled at or otherwise reviled when they returned to this country. That this myth and others persist is a testament to the right wing’s skill with propaganda.
I hope young people, especially the poor, will boycott the military during Bush’s war. As far as I can tell, the children of the wealthy are doing a good job of boycotting. The stories I read of the dead and maimed all seem to involve the lower economic classes of our country.
Anyway, stay on Bush’s case, and the Republicans, and the weak-kneed Democrats that are fearful of stepping too far left.
Even More Death Threat Phone Fun!
Just got another call from the death threat fascist. Same guy, new number. This time this right-wing resident of Palo Alto, California warned me that I had better “stop drawing those cartoons and writing those columns,” told me that “my face is going to be rearranged” and, that timeless classic, “we know where you are, you fuck.”
His new phone number is (650) 868-8365 and the name on his voice mail is Ron Erickson.
The Soldier as Spittoon
In this week’s column I quote an expert who says that there are no documented cases of Vietnam vets being spat upon when they came home to the United States. I received several replies from vets taking issue with that claim. Few were credible, some were, but the standout for what I think are obvious reasons was the following. Without comment, here it is.
I read you column semi-religiously, as an wonton agnostic should. I usually agree with you on theory, but this time I have to add to your details.
While not the returning wounded Vietnam veteran, I do have a spit story.
I was attending the State University of New York Maritime College in
1965-1969. On my first trip into NY City as a cadet, I was wearing my brand
new dress uniform. It was a Merchant Marine cadet uniform, dress blues, and
I was pretty uncomfortable in a new costume, but very proud of the fact that
I had it on. Being a freshman in college, and it being 1965, I really did
not come to a personal conclusion about Vietnam, but I was not anxious to go
there, nor would I have volunteered. My college position deferred me from
the draft, and I was going to graduate as a Merchant Marine officer which
would have deferred me as well.
I got off the subway at Lexington and 42nd Street and was walking to Times
Square. I was walking tall trying to support the look of the new uniform.
An rumpled old lady walking the other way was mostly looking at the ground.
As she came close she looked up and without any visible thought process at
all she hacked up the largest loogie you can imagine and hawked it right on
my lapel. As you can imagine, my 18 year old psyche was devastated. I
found some old newspaper to wipe it off, but I never again wore that uniform
without a though about her. That might have been good.
After graduating, in 1969, my first two assignments turned out to be in
Vietnam. The first 8 months out of school I was transporting Korean troops
from Pusan to Vietnam and taking 1 year vets home. (the group going home
was always smaller and much quieter) Following that I got a ship that
wasn’t supposed to be going there but ended up going to Vietnam forever. We
shuttled containers from Cam Rhan Bay to Saigon, Qui Nhon and Da Nang, back
and forth. The ship was shot at several times and hit once.
I went there dubious of our need to be involved, and while there fell in
love with the beauty of the country, and its people. I read and studied its
history and politics, and when I left after being there for about a year and
a half, I was no longer dubious. We were not there for the right reasons,
we were clearly not there for the Vietnamese and we were doing much more
harm than good. The body count kept rising, there was a big dent in the
number of baby boomers, but the sheer number of Vietnamese who were killed
was staggering.
My conclusion is that war has no winners. All losers, some worse than
others, the poor of both countries were devastated the most. Wealthy
Americans got deferments, or at worst, some post at Cubi in the Philippines
counting beer kegs at the O’Club. A very few ended up as officers away from
the fray, some like Kerry actually saw combat. Poor Americans were grunts,
and had a terrible rate of repatriation.
I am sure that we need a military, but wish we could take our lessons from
Switzerland. Train everyone, build fortifications at home, be ready to
defend, maybe even help police troubled areas so stability can be restored
but an offensive army is just that, offensive! Offensive to our values and
our Constitution and to the ideals of the founding fathers.
I wish I could thank that old lady!
Air America Appearance
I’ll be on Air America’s “Unfiltered” on Wednesday morning, at about 10:30, to discuss right-wing pro-Iraq War types who are now backpedaling. If the left had been as wrong as the right has been on Iraq, we’d be losing our jobs right and left, totally discredited. But the right shrugs it off and moves right along. Why the double standard?
REPOST: Limited Offer: Signed Copies of WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL and GENERALISSIMO EL BUSHO
Yes, this offer remains in force! If you’ve emailed me already and haven’t heard back, my spam filter probably caught your stuff. Please try again. If you haven’t, now would be a good time to take advantage of this.
As long as they and I last–probably a month or two–you can buy your copies of my new books WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL: HOW WE CAN TAKE AMERICA BACK FROM THE RIGHT and GENERALISSIMO EL BUSHO: ESSAYS AND CARTOONS ON THE BUSH YEARS directly from me. And I’ll sign the books to whomever you want!
Here’s what you do:
1. Send an email to me at chet@rall.com letting me know: (a) your address, (b) which books you want, (c) how many of each you want, and (d) how you’d like them all signed. I’ll email you back; don’t do anything until you hear back from me.
2. Figure out your payment. WAKE UP is $15.95 a copy. Priority mail is $3.95 to anyplace in the United States, so send me $20 (money order or check) for EACH copy of WAKE UP you want. EL BUSHO is available in hardback and softback. EL BUSHO hardback is $19.95 each, so send me $24 for each EL BUSHO hardback. EL BUSHO paperback is $13.95 so send me $19 for each EL BUSHO paperback.
3. Send your payment to:
Ted Rall
P.O. Box 1134
New York NY 10027
4. Payments by cash or money order result in quick shipping, within a week. Checks must clear first, so that means more like 2-3 weeks.
5. EXTRA BONUS OFFER: For an extra $50, I’ll throw in a unique 7×10 sketch of whatever I feel like–a rough draft of a published cartoon, an EL BUSHO, whatever. I’ll even take a request–but won’t honor it unless I feel like it. I will only do this for people who buy at least two books. Price is $200 for all others.
6. I will post notice on the when this offer expires.
