Asked and answered: The interview meme

Mysterious stranger forty-one recently answered a set of interview questions, then invited readers to sign on for similar exposure of the innermost self. I volunteered because it’s always about me, all the time, 24/7. Here’s the Q&A for Waveflux:

1. If you could live anywhere and not worry about cost of living or getting a job or any of that stuff, where would you live?

If the genie of the lamp agreed to provide it, I’d wish me and mine to London and its environs forthwith. M and I have been there twice and loved it. The diversity and überhipness, the wealth of history and culture, the awesome Tube, the utterly cute accents, the short train ride to Paris-freaking-France. Also the chance of running into Nigella Lawson. Actually, for us living in “London” = living inside of tourist-ridden Zone 1. Or in Bath, which is very pretty.

2. You seem like a decent and peaceful person. Who would you just love to beat the crap out of? Tell us about the fighting technique you would use.

There are so many who deserve a right ass kicking. How can I choose?

Okay, Dick Cheney. I’m pretty sure I could take him, and I think many would approve. Some mixed martial arts style sprawl-and-brawl would probably do the job.

If Cheney wasn’t available for said ass kicking, Donald Rumsfeld or Paul Wolfowitz would be serviceable substitutes.

3. If you were a tree - seriously - what kind of tree would you be?

Weeping willow, most likely. I am very sentimental.

4. You are an accomplished writer and an avid reader. What writer has inspired you the most in your own writing? In your life in general?

Inasmuch as my admiration for writers manifests mostly as burning envy, I most admire Charles Dickenson for his short story collection With or Without. His prose is always understated and clear, yet very generous in its view of we poor mortals fumbling through life. I feel similarly about Ron Carlson, whose fundamental wry optimism is very appealing. I’m not sure which writer has most inspired me in my overall life, but I’m pretty sure it was some Marvel Comics writer from the 70s and 80s, before Marvel went all to crap.

5. Why does the Army continue to tarnish the memory of PFC LaVena Johnson by insisting that her suspicious death was a suicide when it most likely was not? What can we do to help get them to reopen the investigation?

I believe that a sexual assault lies at the heart of LaVena Johnson’s death, and that the Army would sooner conveniently label her death a suicide and move on than explore that terrible likelihood. I think that the most important thing that people can do in this matter is to determine which of their legislators serves on the Senate or House Armed Services Committees and contact that person, asking them to use their oversight powers to compel the Army to reinvesigate LaVena’s death. I believe that such an act is even more vital than signing the general petition to the members of those congressional bodies - though that too is important.

So endeth the interview portion of our program. I thank mysterious stranger forty-one for her questions.

Now it’s your turn, if you dare. Leave a comment here asking me to interview you. I’ll then prepare five questions here in the comments. You’ll have to check back here (though I may contact you) and answe the questions, truthfully as you can, on your own weblog.

MichaelMoore.com returns to LaVena’s story

The website of activist and filmmaker Michael Moore has once more brought the attention of its readers to the case of LaVena Johnson with a front page link to the overall story, an audio clip of Representative Wm. Lacy Clay’s opening statement on LaVena at the recent House Oversight Committee hearing, and a link to the petition addressed to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. Many thanks to Mike and the website staff for their continued help in bringing public attention to LaVena’s story.

Assuming that’s a lie

The NY Times reports on Bush’s suddenly kinder, gentler stance regarding Iraq War financing. With this administration, the question to ask is always “What’s the real story?” Inasmuch as the president fully intends to veto the bill, why bother to drop the attack-dog bellicosity?

Perhaps Bush was told by one of his handlers that calling people traitors makes for a poor prologue to negotiation - and negotiation is where the White House and Congress are headed just now. Maybe a staff poll-watcher informed the president that the Democrats’ bring-them-home bill is more popular with the public than stay the course or stand-up stand-down, or whatever homily the White House is offering this week on Iraq.

The most likely scenario is that Bush is just making nice for the audience at home in his standard “my way or no way” fashion:

“I invite the leaders of the House and Senate, both parties, to come down, you know, soon after my veto, so we can discuss a way forward.”

Of course, it’s also possible that Bush has no earthly idea, really, what to do next.

So when does he throw his Medal of Freedom into the Potomac?

Accepted with a smile

The problem isn’t that George Tenet protests too much over having been scapegoated by his ex-employers, it’s that he does so much too late to benefit anyone except himself, his literary agent, and his publisher. This business of coming clean well after the fact - after having followed the script for a ginned-up case for war while in office - has gone from being tiresome to insulting.

One wonders if that medal is displayed prominently in the Tenet home.

FOX 2 in St. Louis links to LaVena Johnson petition, website

St. Louis-based FOX affiliate KTVI (FOX 2) followed up on the LaVena Johnson story in the wake of Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay’s televised statement on the case. The FOX 2 story is available for viewing at the station’s website. The story’s page also links prominently to both the petition page and the LaVena Johnson website. Many thanks to KTVI and reporter Chris Regnier.

Send thanks to Congressman Clay

Representative William Lacy Clay of Missouri’s First District brought LaVena Johnson’s story to national attention in his opening statement at yesterday’s Pat Tillman/Jessica Lynch hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. If you would like to send him a word of thanks, you may use the information on this contact page. Please note that the email form only allows use by constituents, citizens living in Rep. Clay’s district. No such limit applies to phone, fax, or postal mail messages, however.

Everybody lies. Yawn.

I’m a fan of House, and I’m not averse to supporting charitable causes, and the work of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is as worthy as any. But sporting the good doctor’s surliest and least-interesting neologism on my chest is not at all appealing.

Surely they could have found a catchier Houseism for the shirt.

Yeltsin, interred

Catching now the end of the funeral ceremony for Boris Yeltsin at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. I’d never given any thought to Yeltsin’s religion and am mildly surprised that he’s getting a Christian sendoff. The Russian Orthodox Church is apparently returning a favor. The ceremony is beautiful, majestic, quite moving even though I can’t understand a word of what’s being sung. A little jarring to hear the voiceover exchange between BBC correspondent Bridget Kendall and experts, as though this was the prelude to a political speech or the middle of the Rose Parade rather than a funeral service, but I suppose Ronald Reagan’s departure got the same treatment.

One thing of note from the exchange between Kendall and Dr. Ekaterina Genieva, Director General of the Library for Foreign Literature. Kendall remarked on how the grand nature of the ceremony matched the outsized personality of the departed on this day, and Genieva said nyet: Russian Orthodox funeral rites are, she said, quite democratic. The only difference between this service for Yeltsin and that of a regular Joe would be the number of clergy involved. I can’t verify that one way or another, knowling nothing of the faith, but for some reason or other I hope it’s true.

Rep. Clay speaks about LaVena at Tillman/Lynch hearing

Perhaps not entirely forgotten

The case of Pfc. Lavena Johnson finally edged into official light today at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Cpl. Pat Tillman and Pvt. Jessica Lynch. Representative William Lacy Clay of Missouri’s First District spoke briefly about LaVena’s death, the unsatisfactory investigation by Army officials, the refusal by the Army to revisit the case. To my knowledge, it is the first time that any member of any congressional body has spoken LaVena’s name before the public and the wider press, and certainly the first time that her family’s struggle to force a a new investigation of LaVena’s death has been officially linked to the wider topic of deception by the military.

There was some question of when Congress would finally bring any sort of attention to the case of Pfc. Johnson; now we see that the search for justice for one military family just may bring light to others as well. Rep. Clay’s remarks, welcome as they are, represent only the barest beginning of the kind of official attention that is required to prompt a reinvestigation of LaVena’s death…but it is a beginning nonetheless.

UPDATE: This is the text of the opening statement made by Rep. Clay:

Mr. Chairman, honorable colleagues, good morning.

Throughout history, it has often been said that “the first casualty of war…is the truth.”

That has certainly been the case in Iraq and Afghanistan. And this morning’s testimony will demonstrate the depth of that problem.

Private Lynch, I want to thank you for being here today. Your courage and dedication to duty, both while under enemy fire and then as a wounded P.O.W. are heroic. And your commitment to making certain that the truth about what happened to you and your unit finally emerged is equally heroic. It honors the memory of your fallen comrades and is in the best tradition of our armed forces.

Mrs. Tillman, as a parent, I want to express my sincere condolences to you on the loss of your brave son, Patrick. And I want to commend you for having the courage to pursue the truth about your son’s death, while bearing the terrible burden of losing a child.

We know now that your painful loss was compounded by having had to confront a pattern of deception, misleading information, and in some instances, deliberate misinformation.

And unfortunately, that pattern of misinformation and deception is not limited to just your son’s case.

Back in my district in St. Louis, I had a brave young constituent by the name of Private LaVena Johnson. And sadly, in July of 2005, at the age of 19, she became the first female soldier fro Missouri to be killed in Iraq.

Just like Corporal Tillman, Private Johnson was an exceptional young American. She was an honor student, a gifted musician, and very active in her church and community. And just like Corporal Tillman, after 9-11, she was inspired to join the Army to help protect her country.

Private Johnson came from a proud military tradition. Her father, Dr. John Johnson, is an Army veteran and worked for the Department of the Army for 25 years. Her two uncles served in Vietnam. And her grandfather served in World War II.

For almost two years, Dr. and Mrs. Johnson have been trying to get at the truth about what happened to their daughter. And my office has tried to assist them in that effort.

Unfortunately, they have been met by a wall of disrespect, evasion, and a failure to provide them with the answers that the parents of any fallen soldier deserve.

I am thankful that this committee is taking action to get them the information they have requested.

Private LaVena Johnson gave her life for her country. And her country has a responsibility to tell her family the whole truth about how she died.

Thank you.

The specific information of which Rep. Clay spoke - particular documents relating to the investigation of LaVena’s death - was requested on behalf of the Johnsons by Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Representative Clay in his capacity as chair of the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Affairs. Their letter, addressed to Acting Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, is available for download.

Errand boy

Running errands the balance of the workday. Since my hands-free Bluetooth mobile blogging device hasn’t yet been installed in the car, there’ll be little posting.

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