Any Which Way - Back in The Fray

Although they never really officially left, scroff and Ruthie at Any Which Way just seemed to fade away. Posts were more and more infrequent. Months would go by without a peep. The forums disappeared. Nothing new replaced them. The whole site became a memorial to the Left's failure to bring about necessary change in our government and our nation. This hurt me particularly, because scroff is my Brother and Ruthie is my Sister-In-Law and I am here today because of them. And I love them both very much.

From Left to Right: damarvelous44magster, deuddersun, Cardboard Elvis, scroff and Ruthalla

The picture above was taken the last time our family was all together. It was our Mother's last 4th of July. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely and I am so grateful that we had that moment together. There will never be another one like it.

Recently, I stopped by their site and to my surprise, they are back with a vengeance! The most recent post deals with a film that is scheduled for release in April called Body of War. It is a sobering look at the Iraqi War through the eyes of the men and women who fought it. It is a post all of us should see, if for no other reason then to strengthen our resolve.

The next post deals with the Fifth Anniversary of Bush's Folly in Iraq, entitled, "It is begun, Five Years Later"

Here's an excerpt and my response. This should tell you how important these people are in my life.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the fiasco in Iraq. Bush had all nice things to say about Arabs and Americans joining together to flush Al-Qaeda out of Iraq. Amazing, since there weren't any Al-Qaeda in Iraq to begin with... nor were there any WMD... nor was there any reason to invade at all but those in the imaginations of the PNAC and the neocons and of course Israel appreciates Iraq being torn to shreds. And there's the oil factor.

This is Bush's address from March 19, 2003, and my introduction to it. Read. Remember...

My response:

"How well I remember. I remember jumping for joy. Years of frustration over terrorist attacks by Muslim fanatics against the United States and it's citizens were finally being avenged. No more would we tolerate this. George Bush was President and I was glad we had a "cowboy" in the White House. I wanted someone tough enough to deal with the forces of evil. The invasion of Afghanistan had gone as well as Gulf I and Bin Laden, Al Queda and the Taliban who had supported them were heading for the hills, running for their lives from justice long overdue. I was all too willing to buy Bush's bullshit that Iraq was a willing partner on the attacks of 9/11.

Fortunately, my brother, scroff and his wife, Ruthie, woke me up from this dream turned nightmare. Patiently, they opened my eyes to the truth and I am forever grateful for that awakening.

In those days, both scroff and Ruthie were prolific posters, with new evidence and arguments daily. Time, and an unresponsive American public has long since tarnished and diminished their enthusiasm. They were scorned, threatened and bashed, both here and at Activist San Diego, a progressive site we all used to frequent. My brother, an Honorably discharged United States Marine was called a traitor, un-American, un-Patriotic and more. The Rightwing trolls would scream insults and rain obscenities down on both him and Ruthie. But they perservered. They knew they were right.

There were forums here then, and many Rightwing posters used to comment. Some were trolls. Others, like Mad Mikey, were welcomed for their willingness to discuss the issues. Even though we liked them, it soon became obvious that their discussions were merely the parroting of the Republican talking points we heard constantly from Limbaugh, O'Reilly and other Rightwing talking heads, talking out their asses. Eventually, scroff and Ruthie just stopped posting, and except for an occasional rant, not much was heard from either of them and this site became a memorial of sorts, a graveyard if you will, of good ideas and best intentions gone sour.

I am glad to see them posting again. I am glad to see new life here at Any Which Way. They changed my mind and perhaps my life, and that is important. They still have much to say. I hope they take the time and believe, as they once did, that a single post can make a tremendous difference.

Welcome back. It's been way too long.

yerbrudder"


Finally, there is this new post, Know What Sucks? If you want to see, first hand, what Bush's tax cuts really mean to our fellow Americans, this is a must read. It sickens me even now to think about it.

The War we are waging against Bush and the Neo-cons, (and make no mistake about it, it is a War), is a difficult one, as all wars are, and there are and will be many casualties. We on the Right side, that is to say, the Left side of the aisle, have suffered a few hard ones, the loss of strong voices like Lurch and Steve Gilliard. What would they have us do? Yet, the Always Wrong Right has suffered too. Many of the frothing Rightwing blogs of yesterday have passed into dust as every one of our predictions has been proven true. Many others have become more moderate. No longer do they troll our sites, baiting, bashing and blasting us at every turn, for at every turn they have been proven wrong, and a person's ego can only stand so much. Even Rightwing mouthpiece Tucker "The Bowtie" Carlson has been knocked from his soapbox at MSNBC thanks to the efforts of Progressive Bloggers

We are winning, friends. The tide is slowly turning. Now is not the time for the timid or weak of heart. Now is the time to turn up the heat, to shine the light of truth into all their dark corners, to show them for what they really are, mindless minions of an Administration so corrupt they make men like John Gotti and Al Capone look like Alter Boys.

To that end, to the restoration of our once great nation to it's former glory, as a leader in the areas of Human Rights, Human Dignity and Freedom and Justice For All, we must "screw our courage to the sticking point" and press on, harder than ever before, with dangerous resolve and deadly purpose. Nothing less than the Freedom of the World hangs in the balance.

Welcome home, scroff and Ruthie.

d.