Rosie O'Donnell Doesn't Mince Words: 4,000 Dead, Impeach For Peace
 Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Rosie O'Donnell Doll, circa 1999 / Image via Tikallover

This week, as we all know, it is the 5th "anniversary" of the Iraq War.  Few networks are covering this tragic placemarker in history with the full weight of significance it holds.  You can find clips and snippets, quick mentions galore.  The networks are still wrapped up in the issue of "Barack Obama and Race" (that was the actual search phrase with the highest volume on redlasso yesterday); or still stuck on the Eliot Spitzer scandal, chasing after young Ashlee Dupre, who got caught in a national firestorm much larger than one tiny woman, branded a "would-be" singer by CNN.

Race...gender...sex...scandal...anything to distract from actual politics.  On TV, in print media, and on the news blogosphere, focuses drift around "hot news topics" of the day, all of which hunger to grasp scandal...there are plenty of blurbs about this 5th year occupying the Middle East, but they're mostly just that:  blurbs.

And then there is one brave website that held up its hand - peace sign intact - and said, "enough."  It belongs to Rosie O'Donnell, who risks much more than we'll probably ever know to be so vocal; to exercise her rights to the First Amendment.

The headline on her homepage yesterday was changed to read, "4000 dead;" the blog entry of the day, of the same name, read in part:

five years 1825 days

3 die every 24 hours husbands - daughters sons - mothers 6 times as many wounded... a hero each bring them home now"

It is accompanied by a video of images of U.S. soldiers set to music.  Alongside the blog of the day, where Rosie usually places recommended books, three words:  Impeach, impeach, impeach.  They link to ImpeachBush.tv.

"4000 dead video needs to be broadcast on the nightly news for all to see," a reader commented on Rosie's "Ask Ro" section yesterday.  "Only then will we remember and be reminded of what Bush doesn't want us to remember.  PEACE."

Rosie replied with five words:  "who owns the tv stations?"

Risk.  Courage.

The very next comment:  "I needed to see that.  Not easy to look at but why is it that we are not being shown these images on the nightly news and daily newspapers?"  And many more of the same.

For some reason, when we post something on Rosie O'Donnell, people freak.  Last month, when we posted the article "Rosie O'Donnell To Star In New Sitcom" on Rosie and Fran Drescher's plan(s) to create a new show, it brought angry commenters like "Gun Owner," and "Angry White Man."  And I am not making those names up.

"Time to START the BOYCOTT!!!!  Let's stop this before it gets on the air," self-titled "Angry White Man" posted.  "Anyone that sponsors this program I will personally never buy anything from.  We don't need her mouth and face on TV anymore.  She is a boil on the buttcheek of America."

"So, does this sociopath liberal hypocrite...really think that anyone on this planet (well discounting more sociopath liberal hypocrite Democrats) really *want* to see her back on anything?  Except for, maybe the back of a milk carton," a writer named "Gun Owner" submitted.

A successful author (O'Donnell released Find Me in 2002, Celebrity Detox in 2007, and Crafty-U this year), a media personality, and a household name, O'Donnell has also created and maintained a strong internet presence as a blogger.  Her site is very popular, ranked the #1 Celebrity Blogger on Blogger's Choice Awards.  Apparently, some people don't like that.

The "Ask Ro" section is flooded with a network of bloggers that yearn for truth in news--and share info, links, tips, and commentary on a huge spectrum of topics.  Oftentimes, stories of the day in the MSM hit "Ask Ro" before your local newscast.  As surely, though, as there are dear fans and supporters to Rosie, there often follows a trail of "haters," and I think I'm only beginning to understand why.

The truth is just so much harder to swallow.

It's why I have to take days off from real news, and remind myself what matters to me - it can get to be too dark, too all-encompassing in its tragedy.  And people don't tend to want to read something in their free time bound to break their hearts.

Don't get me wrong - I don't agree with everything Rosie writes - there are things I've read that have really bothered me over the years.  We support different presidential candidates, have differing views on religion, and many things.  But I've never met a single person (including myself) who agrees with everything I have to say.  Have you?  And politics, as we all know, are very different from person to person.

I think that's the entire problem:  collectively, thanks to tabloid journalism and the sensationalism that passes for "news" these days, the general public doesn't view celebrities as people, at all.  We're free to cast stones from a distance, trapped in an audience that's given everything on a slant, anyhow.

This is a human being who is vocalizing the shortcomings of the very business she bloomed in for the purpose of not only informing, but spreading a message of peace.  Her lifelong career stems from being an insider to a form of media that's really owned by just a handful of networks, that hold title to hundreds of channels that she could easily burn bridges with by being "too" outspoken.   A woman who is a normal, red-blooded, New Yorker American mother who dedicates her life to funding arts, music, and enrichment in the lives of children through multiple charities she founded for kids.  And who puts her cards on the table for America to see, analyze, and even attack.

Does that not take unprecedented strength?  How could anyone harbor so much hate towards that?  You tell me, because I don't get it.

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