Suddenly, I'm a big Cher fan

[zauberflote]

Anyone see this, Cher on C-Span? This is eloquent in its ineloquence and quite moving. Atrios has it transcribed. Read the whole thing.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/


Uh, I would like to say i had the occasion the other day to spend the entire day with troops that had come back from iraq & had been wounded and..um...I also visited troops during the vietnam era...but the thing that I was most shocked by...um...as I walked into the hospital the first person i ran into was a boy about 19 or 20 years old who'd lost both of his arms...and when I walked into the hosptial & visited all these boys all day long...uh...everyone had lost either one arm...one limb or two limbs or had lost one limb and there were...there were a lot of legs that seemed to be missing and a couple of the boys told me it was because that their vehicles ......that the rockets pierce the vehicles so much its like being kind of in a tin can...it doesnt have...there isnt...the walls of the humvees are very soft and theres no protection...but three guys in the same vehicle have lost a leg.

snip

I have to say that they had the most unbelievable courage and it took everything that I have as a person to...to not...you know... break down while I was talking to these guys...but I just think that if there was no reason for this war this was the most heinous thing I'd ever seen... and also I wonder why...why are none of Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bremer, the president, why arent they taking pictures with all these guys? Because I dont understand why these guys are so hidden and why... and why there arent pictures of them because you know, talking about the dead and the wounded...that's two different things but these wounded are so devastatedly wounded...you know...that I think that... the wounded...its just... it's unbelievable...its just unbelieivable to me and i'm an independent

[donco6]

1. Good questions on her part

Why ARE they hidden? Where's all the flag-waving patriotism surrounding these guys who've made such sacrifices? The only one who visits is a 50-year old pop musician? Sad.

[qanda]

2. Of all the mornings to miss Washington Journal!

I just completely ignored my alarm this morning. I'm going to go to the C-SPAN website and listen to the replay of it though. The transcript is great, sounds like Peter let her go on for a good while.

[Rich Hunt]

3. you forgot my favorite part

C-Span Moderator: what kind of work do you do?

caller: um, i'm an entertainer.

C-Span Moderator: oh, what kind of entertaining? are you USO?

caller: no, I actually was called by the USO but I'm...I'm...I'm just...I'm an entertainer. And I really dont want to go much past that but...um...

C-Span Moderator: Is this CHER?

caller: yeah.

I've always loved Cher.

[zauberflote]

8. Perfect, yes

You're right. That was a truly wonderful moment.

[sistersofmercy]

25. I love Cher always have. Just saw her in concert a few weeks ago

here in St Louis, great show. Cher has never been afraid to say what she thinks it's her most endearing quality IMO.

[Dookus]

4. I've ALWAYS been a big Cher fan, and

this just seals the deal. She's great.

[Swede]

5. I hope it doesn't take years like Viet Nam before the backlash

to this needless war gets really going. History will not be kind to GWB.

[bahrbearian]

6. To busy hugging widows ?

[patdem]

7. This was SO great...I watch C-Span every day..and today...CHER!!!

It was so wonderful to hear her talk. She sounded just like any caller...she was WONDERFUL! Just like any first time caller...long time listener...she just could not let the moment pass her by and regardless of how nervous she felt she was COMPELLED to speak her mind!! GO C-Span!!!

[Clete]

9. Other than that walk through the dark side when

she supported Ross Perot, Cher is pretty liberal in her politics. This was one of the frictions she had with Republican Sonny.

[zauberflote]

11. The Perot deal

She sort of answers that during the call, and I accept it, though I can't quite understand how anyone couldn't see from the getgo Perot had more than a few screws loose.

[Bertha Venation]

10. she's terrific

She had me when she appeared on the Oscars several years ago in a typically spidery, feathery, weird and ultra-revealing, uh, garment, and said, "As you can see, I've received my handbook on how to dress like a serious actress."

Okay, so that was just a great line. But really, this from C-SPAN seals the deal.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. I got a little choked up...

reading the transcript.

No star trip-- just an honest, and very real, woman saying she almost lost it seeing the horror and stupidity of war.

[Uzybone]

13. Im very impressed

I ddint know Cher was so far on the good side.

[rasputin1952]

14. I must have missed her by just a few minutes...

and when they went to the Dem debates instead of going to the replay, I just figured they wouldn't show it again.

thanks for that link Atrios...I can tell by the way she 'spoke' in that transcript, that she was just as 'normal' as the rest of us.

Over the years, Ive come to respect Cher and her music. Until recently, all I've seen of her is the 'gaudy' Vegas stuff, but I've seen where she is really quite intelligent and has a real heart. Guess it just goes to show me that I am never too old to learn something new and interesting.

:hug: for Cher!

[corarose]

15. Damn of all mornings I missed Cher

Maybe Cher is a DU member and we don't know it.

Do you know if cspan has an area that we can go into and listen to her call.

[Clark Can WIN]

16. This needs to be covered on Nightline

And everywhere. How long can they hide these poor guys?

[zauberflote]

17. Absolutely

You're right, this needs to be covered.

[Kinkistyle]

18. Cher is right.

Why are these soldiers so hidden? Maybe if the Whore Media would cover the injured and dead (not just the U.S. soldiers but also the Iraqis), there would be more people like Cher, who although may not be Democrats, would realize the horrors inherit in war.

Everyday, I wonder how many people there are in America who watch FUXNews and MSNBC and think they are getting the whole unbiased current events and are thinking everything is just hunky-dory roses and rainbows all around the world.

[CShine]

19. Pardon me for being callous..............

......but she just gave an account of every war in history. Ever heard of the hospital stories from the Civil War? How about either of the World Wars, or Vietnam, for that matter?

Once your evil leaders decide to go to war, the hospital stories are all the same. You can go back to the literature of ancient Rome and read the same stuff.

FYI, the tragedy here is not found in the young folks who got sliced and diced by bullets and shrapnel. The REAL tragedy is in the heartless indifference of a national leadership that sent its own people into the meat grinder without so much as a second thought.

[zauberflote]

21. callous but true, and yet...

Sure, every war is the way she describes, but it is in the nature of governments and their accomplices in the press to hide what actually goes on in war, because to do so would risk the good will of the people back home.
Everyone should be reading the great works of Paul Fussell, a brilliant writer who fought in World War II and has made a career since the 1970s of taking all the horrors of combat and stuffing them right in your face. When I read Cher, I thought I was reading a Fussell convert.

[rasputin1952]

22. During the Civil War however...

photography was in it's infancy, and once the citizens got a truly horrid view of the war, people who weren't there finally got to see just what was going on. Operating tables, piles of legs and arms outside of tents and the dead lying on the fields, bloated and horrific.

Perhaps we NEED to see these things. War is not pretty, and to FORCE the injured and dead behind a curtain does neither them, not anyone else a service.

bush & Co are trying to make this particularly unjustified war something of an art form, and that will not fly. If there were a valid reason for being there, I would not mind as much, but the 'cowboy from Texas' wanted to boost his image, and now our young men and women are paying the price for his hubris. That is not fair to them, nor to the rest of the country.

The withholding of the truth of the slaughter adds to the lies that brought us to this in the first place.

Where is Osama? this is what we should be screaming from the rooftops, I never let them forget that I am opposed to this particular action.

:kick:

[Hubert Flottz]

20. I was watching!

She made some powerful statements! I'm proud of her for standing up to the 4th Reich!

[mandyky]

23. I was in and out of the room,

but heard most of it. Callers (some) this morning are calling her a Jane Fonda. Jeez!

[rasputin1952]

24. ?....does anybody have a link on how to get in touch with Cher?...

I went to numerous sites, and there seems to be a few ways to send snail mail, but no e links. While I am not some kind of 'grouie' for any celebrity; I would like to send her a note telling her I am proud of her, and grateful for her bringing this out on C-SPAN.

Guess she got in because she is a celeb, but Thank God, she had the decency to come forth and say what she did.

Thanks....if you could get me a link. (I'll send a snail mail note anyway, but she may not get it for a year, considering her schedule and the fact you have to go through her agents).

:kick:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. me too!