If you can believe it, some of those on the far right don't like W

My dad found a nice letter from the Coalition for Traditional Values. Aparently, they are not too fond of the way the twins dressed for the big 40 million dollar bash last week. I couldn't find the letter on their web location. I did find a link to a PDF version on another blog. Here's a snip from the paper copy my father forwarded:

"We celebrate with you this week becuase Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. But already there is a challenge to the biblical norms that you stand for, and it comes from within your very own family. This Thursday, your two daughters, Jenna and Barbara, will appear before the earthly world in attire that cannot be described in any sense as modest.

As you knon, dress and appearance are an imporatant reflection of our Christian values. "We are what we wear," as the saying goes, and according to this edict, your own daugters, bejeweled and bedecked in garments that plunge of neckline and cling of fabric, cannot be said to reflect the deeply-held believes of the tens of millions of "values voters" who sent you back to that highest office in the land...

...You have four years - a brief time only - to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God. Do not risk offending Him in these early days of your second term by presenting forth your own daughters as Oholah and Oholibah, who, like Jezebel, painted their eyes and decke themselves with ornaments to entice men to commit adultery with them (Ezek 23).

Signed: Lewis Sheldrick (CTV)
Beverley Hayden, Concerned women of America
Robert Wilder, American Family Organization
Randy Thomas, Campaign for Families
Dennis Pattion, Silver Ring Thing
Sandy Slokum, Defend our Marriages
Roy deLong, Baptist Leadership Council

The CTV spells out their values for you.

I wonder if they are equally or more so appalled at the number of civilians killed in this Iraqi conflict...but you can't tell from their web site what their take is on that.

Let's pardon Jack Johnson before the 100th anniversary of the big fight

Looks like a posthumous pardon would be fitting in Johnson's case. I saw the documentary of the big fight in 1910 on PBS the other night. Couldn't turn the channel, which is sayin' something. The footage from the fight and all elements of the documentary were stunning.

There is a nice flashplayer sequence on the PBS site, which is mainly slides so it doesn't require too big a set of pipes. Who knew Jack London was such a bigot, but bigots were in no short supply then...and even today, bogotry remains.

More Red State Perversion

Hey, I am sure this is true for most, if not all states, but the study was conducted in Ohio. Sounds like some upstanding midwestern republicans need to have some frank conversations with their teens.

Slice:

They found a chain of 288 one-to-one sexual relationships at a high school in the U.S. Midwest, meaning the teenager at the end of the chain may have had direct sexual contact with only one person, but indirect contact with 286 others.

The sociologists who conducted the study said they were surprised by the findings, which also showed that despite reputations and popularity, most teens in their study did not engage in promiscuous behavior with many others.

"From a student's perspective, a large chain like this would boggle the mind," said sociologist James Moody, who led the study. "They might know that their partner had a previous partner. But they don't think about the fact that this partner had a previous partner, who had a partner, and so on."

This means that teens need a different approach to sexual health education and especially prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, the team at Ohio State University said.

End slice:

I suppose preaching about abstinance doesn't really work. I would like for those who believe that it does, please share their abstinance story with us.

It doesn't specify the gender of these relationships, now does it? It would be interesting to see the full study. Of course, the author of the article doesn't provide the source. If this were a blog, she would be spammed for that no doubt.

Mass Media Propaganda Machine is getting desperate

Saw this in our local rag: Aparently the print media is getting desperate for content. Reporting on blogging as a new form of news delivery. Some think this is good exposure. I suggest that this is the nell pealing for the decline of newsprint across the board.

I say, good riddance, and let's hope it saves some trees in the process.

W, Leaving Children Behind again!

The rhetoric of this Bushit administration smacks completely of hypocrisy. Here's yet another example for the Hypocrisy Index:

Slice:

President Bush may propose eliminating funds next year for two popular programs that help needy students prepare for college, in an effort to finance an expansion of his signature No Child Left Behind law to high-school students, higher-education advocates told The Chronicle last week.

The college-access programs, Upward Bound and Talent Search, have a combined budget of $460-million and serve a total of about 455,000 students and veterans. While Mr. Bush's proposal will not be certain until he releases his 2006 budget in early February, reports of the potential cuts have alarmed advocates of Upward Bound and Talent Search, which are part of the federal TRIO programs for disadvantaged students.

"These are popular, successful programs," Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, said of Upward Bound and Talent Search. "We'd be deeply reluctant to trade them in for an untried replacement."

Slice:

Of course, successful programs like Upwardbound and Talent Search don't have the cash to fund shills in the media to lobby to keep them alive.

Red States lacking in football prowess?

Looks like we are in for a fun, blue state battle for the superbowl. Too bad it has to be held in Jacksonville. It would have been fun to have it hosted in New England, in the snow.

Winners and Losers

It occurs to me, as of late, that there is a bitter division between the right and left wings (and those in between) of our fair nation. There has been a fair amount of whining in both the winner and loser categories of this past election. I thought it would be interesting to see if we could document the winnners and losers in the comments of this post. That said, let's resolve to identify the winners and their respective losers here in, and your interpretation of the result.

While this is not a new idea, I don't think it has been done as a rolling blog post. I'll get us started.

Winners, Republicans
Losers, Democrats
Result: Divisiveness and bitterness on both sides

Winner: Bush
Loser: Kerry
Result: Swing toward Monotheistic Theocracy

Added this one on 25 Jan 2005:

Winner: Halliburton (Lots and lots of unsolicited contracts, and over charging for gas)
Losers: American Tax Payers (to the tune of, oh, let's be soft, about 200 billion)
Result: A bigger quagmire than Vietnam, no end in sight.
You're next...

Amercians - disengaged and desensitized

The folks who champion this charade we call the "liberation" of Iraq, are do disengaged and desensitized to what life is like in a war zone that they will say anything to purport their righteousness.

What about these comments from the real people living in Iraq?

Slice:

"This election is bogus," Mr. Hazim said. "There is no drinking water in this city. There is no security. Why should I vote?"

...Let me tell you something important," lectured Walid Muhammad, the imam of a major Sunni mosque here. "As long as my country is under occupation, I feel that my vote means nothing."

Here's one blogger actually there and not in the service of the military:

Slice from yesterday:

Saturday, January 22, 2005

I probably won't be blogging for a while because I'll be in Amman, Jordan, for the next few days until after the elections. A police officer that I know mentioned something to the effect that movement would be very restricted this week in Baghdad after the Eid.

The interim government had announced that elections day will be a holiday, together with the day before and day after, so there probably won't be any work at all after Eid and until February.

There are rumours circulating that telecommunications and the Internet will be blocked during this period although the government seems to have denied them. Curfews will be imposed at 6 pm according to the police, borders will close and traffic between the governorates will be halted. All in all, it's going to be a tough two weeks.

Will post again as soon as this mess is over.

End slice:

Are these the chimes of freedom?

Good Bye, Johnny

He was the king of Late Night TV. No one has been able to match Carson's wit since. We'll miss you, Johnny.

Abstinece makes the heart grow fonder

I was out for my Sunday AM long run and happened past a cute bumper sticker on a beat up old geo prism. It read: Why screw an intern when you can screw the Country.

Doing a google search finds many more poignant slogans. Site 1, site 2, site 3, you get the idea.

The big difference, one is an impeachable offense, I suppose. If you ask me, I would rather have a sexually satisfied leader in the whitehouse, no matter how s/he gets it. And, frankly, I don't see George and Laura doing it that often. The man seems tense, and proving he has an itchy trigger finger, perhaps he needs a few good interns too.

No doubt, there are a number of fine upstanding republicans that would enjoy helping W particiapte in some kind of trist that allows him to break one or more of the commandments.

And if you are disgusted by this post, please, oh please, share your abstinence story with us in the comments. As we all know, abstinence makes the heart grow fonder, no?

NeoConservative = NeoNazis?

Check this out.

When does our "government" cross the line and become a a fascist, imperialistic government

Slice:


"This is real neoconservatism," said Robert Kagan, a foreign policy scholar who has been a leading exponent of neocon thinking — and who sometimes has criticized the administration for not being neocon enough. "It would be hard to express it more clearly. If people were expecting Bush to rein in his ambitions and enthusiasms after the first term, they are discovering that they were wrong."

... At her confirmation hearings this week, Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) named six countries as "outposts of tyranny" that would get special attention from the second-term Bush administration: Cuba, Burma, North Korea (news - web sites), Iran, Belarus and Zimbabwe.

End slice:

How many contries were on Hitler's list?

Trumped - Serial poligamy vs. Gay Marriage

How many marriages has Trump had? Which is worse, the gay partners together for these low 25 years in a monogmous relationship, or Trump, who practicies serial poligamy?

Slice:

Property mogul and reality television star Donald Trump married Slovenian model Melania Knauss on Saturday at a lavish social event in the exclusive Florida resort town of Palm Beach.

End slice:

Will this one last longer than his others? And by the way, who would marry someone with that big a comb over?

Is W a shill for Rice or Rove?

Interesting perspective from Colbert King:

Slice:

Boxer said to Rice: "I personally believe -- this is my personal view -- that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell the war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth." Loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell the war. Ponder the weight of that statement. It comes close, at least in spirit, to the picture of Rice sketched by political cartoonist Pat Oliphant a few weeks ago. In case you missed it, Oliphant drew a big-lipped, bucktooth Rice perched like a parrot on President Bush's arm. Bush was speaking to Rice in baby talk, with Rice replying: "Awwrk!! OK Chief. Anything you say, Chief. You Bet, Chief. You're my HERO, Chief."

It's hard to imagine a more demeaning and offensive caricature of a prospective secretary of state, let alone the most senior official on the national security staff. It's equally difficult to understand what prompted Boxer to imply that Rice is little more than a diligent echo of Bush's thoughts. There's nothing in Rice's background or in her performance to suggest that she is a mindless follower of presidential orders. In fact, Rice comes across as just the opposite.

End slice:

Either way, Bush is someone's puppet. He sure ain't working for over half the population.

Some actually think Bush is the antichrist, or has potential links with Satan. Hummm, Personally, I am not so sure W is that well connected, but close. Now, Karl Rove as the devil? I can see it.

Looks like Bush needs another Vacation

How much you want to bet, Bush goes on holiday after the elections in Iraq?

Slice:

President Bush started the first full day of his second term by attending an interdenominational church service, but otherwise stayed out of the limelight Friday, in part to give himself and his staff a breather before the work of his new term gets fully underway next week, officials said.

End slice:

This president has had more vacations than any other sitting president in the history of it.

CIA twisted plot gone awry?

How could we loose 300 million bux? Leave it to the government!

Slice:

Earlier this month, according to Iraqi officials, $300 million in American bills was taken out of Iraq's Central Bank, put into boxes and quietly put on a charter jet bound for Lebanon.

The money was to be used to buy tanks and other weapons from international arms dealers, the officials say, as part of an accelerated effort to assemble an armored division for the fledgling Iraqi Army. But exactly where the money went, and to whom, and for precisely what, remains a mystery, at least to Iraqis who say they have been trying to find out...

..Why was $300 million in cash put on an airplane?" Mr. Chalabi asked in an interview this week. "Where did the money go? What was it used for? Who was it given to? We don't know."

End slice:

Can airplanes fly in Iraq without the US Intelligence community knowing about it? I don't think so.

Would you be surprised if the bux turned up in some kind of Al Queda plot to blow something up? Not me.

More of Karl Rove's fingerprints on the W Administration

Looks like Rove has worked his magic again. Fooling people by "amplifying the rhetoric."

God, he is good! Continues to fool lots of folks. What's the old slogan, " you can never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American population." Or the other famous slogan, "Don't misunderestimate me."

Ha!

Slice:

The startling reference to an Israeli attack was "the kind of strong language that will get their attention in Tehran," said one allied diplomat in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"There's a rhetorical escalation here: They've ratcheted up the threat level by bringing Israel in," said Henri J. Barkey, a former State Department official during the Clinton administration. "They're using the fact of the inauguration, and the uncertainty people have about where they're going in the next term, to say, 'Look, we're not going to let up on Iran.' "

Safe Haven for sale

Found this dated, but interesting location for sale. In the event that things really turn south on this country, you could purchase your very own Biosphere. But then again, it is a sitting duck target out in the AZ dessert.

I checked Ebay, but apparently it is not listed there. The building cost was 200 million. Could it go for more than 1000 bux? There aren't many Howard Hughes's out there these days, are there? But then again, he chose Vegas.

The Star Spangled Banner

Okay, so I was tooling around the Springsteen site and found this awesome rendition of our National Anthem. Check it out.

Windows Media Player Broadband

Windows Media Player for Poor unfortunate souls with dial up

In Quicktime for Apple Fans

For Real Player

Enjoy, And Rock on Bruce!

Got my new used phone

As soon as I trot to the service provider's office to activate it, I will be out of Cel Phone Hell. Thought you all would like to know that I just got my new used phone - same model as the one I had - off of Ebay from some kind soul. As soon as I trot to the service provider's office to activate it, I will be out of Cel Phone Hell. Hope to use it until the contract runs out in November and get one with a camera feature on it...for taking snaps of things you are not ready to see, as evidence.

Hey, this post reminds me of an old Springsteen tune off the Nebraska (one of my favorites) album..."Used Cars." Had to click it on my Rio Music Player as I typed this note.

"Mister, the day the lottery I win,
I ain't ever gonna ride in no used care again.
Now the neighbors come from near and far
as we pull up in our brand new used car...
I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry
and tell 'em all they can kiss our asses goodbye

Well, okay, I wax nostalgic. Any smart invester knows that buying a new car is like sitting on the toilet and ripping up 100 dollar bills, wiping, and flushing them down with the shite.

In actuality, you can save yourselves the depreciation by buying used. See this nice, boring, mundane web location to calculate your savings on the money you don't borrow to finance the thing.

New Math for Presidents and Secretaries of State

I love these few paragraphs from Maureen Dowd's latest op-ed in the NYTimes:

Slice:

Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, has been pilloried for suggesting that women may be biologically unsuited to succeed at mathematics.

He may have a point.

Just look at Condoleezza Rice.

She's clearly a well-educated, intelligent woman, versed in Brahms and the Bolsheviks, who has just been rewarded for her loyalty with the most plum assignment in the second Bush cabinet.

Yet her math skills are woefully inadequate.

She can't do simple equations. She doesn't even know that X times zero equals zero. If you multiply 1,370 dead soldiers times zero weapons of mass destruction, that equals zero achievement for Ms. Rice, who helped the president and vice president bamboozle the country into war.

end of slice:

This from my Dad, who pointed me to the article:

Slice:

Condi doesn't do math. Joe Biden said 4K Iraqi troops, Condi said 120K. ''If so,'' Joe said (in effect), ''where are they?''

Bush should have a known liar as Sec't'y of State. That way foreign governments will know not to believe a word she says.

If Bush believed in the ''ownership society,'' he'd let people paying into SS keep the current overcharge and invest it or spend it themselves, rather than have the government borrow it at treaury rates and use the money to fund tax cuts for rich people. ''Ownership'' means being able to make your own mistakes. Bush wants to keep the SS privatization money in a government account. In other words, he doesn't trust the ''owner'' to be responsible. Big brother, big liar.

As for equality, he's still on the DOMA as good enough, no constitutional amendment required, turning gays into government-ordered 2nd class citizens. Next year, Pink Triangles!

Halt! Show me your papers.

Which god is the right god?

Another question came to me as our Theocracy is now official for four more years. When Islam, the world's largest religion is our target, what makes us think that our god is the right god?

All this talk about "god" raises the legitimate question, whose god is the right god? And why should we belive you?

Bush - Incubating hypocrisy from the Capital Steps

We are wearing black here. Memorializing democracy and hoping it doesn't get worse in four years or less.

Listening to our commander-in-thief make a mockery of all that is integrity. He spoon feeds us hypocrisy and the adoring public eats it up. There are way to many contradictions of behavior and espoused beliefs to point them all out in his speach.

Freedom at the barrel of a gun is a matter of perspective. At one end, you are the purveyor of freedom. At the other, you are coerced toward the oppressor’s agenda. A liberation operation looks more like an invasion depending whether or not you live in the country that has been “liberated.”

Freedom at the receiving end of a gun is not.

Certainly our freedom and democracy must be defended. And it will be. But we have to ask, Freedom by whose definition?

Long ago, I was at a UN Conference for Sustainable Living in Turkey. There was a large scale protest from second and third world countries. The main thrust of their argument was that the values of the "first" world countries were being jammed down their throats.

The president's message to the world is essentially, Freedom will come to you, whether you want it or not, and as long as it looks like our brand of freedom, we won't bug ya.

Who is the big bully now?

The question that came to my mind as I was running this morning is this: Does the executioner go to the same hell as the transgressor? For all the civilians lives lost about the globe due to our "liberation" efforts, how is slippery little W going to get out of meeting his own judgement and being banished from heaven? Perhaps it is the same logic the suicide bomber uses in exploding themselves up for the cause. Martyrdom isn't cheep. Simply becuase you believe your actions will take you to heaven does that mean it will be so?

Unity? More like Black Thursday: A Dark Day for Democracy

Unity, my ass. There is no unifying this country. Sorry to report that here, but the truth hurts.

The 20th of Jan. is going to be more like Black Thursday round about here. What a depressing day it is to actually have to acknowledge that will be to have to tollerate this arrogant, biggoted, classist, coke snorting, frat boy for four more years.

I am wearing black all day. Who's with me?

Boxer v. Rice - The exchange

Here's a link to the exchange between Barbara Boxer and Condi Rice. Which reminds me, when I was down at Stanford speaking with some colleagues, about two or so years ago, they said, "I don't know about Rice, we are scared. We were scared of her when she was here." For those of you who don't know Rice was provost at Stanford before embarking on the current line of work.

As one of the comments under the prior link suggested, perhaps Boxer could have been more confrontational indicating that she had been elected to represent the people, whereas Rice had not. Sort of separates the men from the boys, don't you think?

Personally, I love the whole line of the comic strip "The Boondocks," by Aaron Mcgruder where they are trying to find Condi a date. It had me in stiches...don't know what it has in terms of pertenance here, but hey. if you need a yuk, check them out.

Slice from Boxer:

Well, Mr. Chairman, again I thank you. I am -- Dr. Rice, I was glad you mentioned Martin Luther King -- it was very appropriate, given everything. And he also said, Martin Luther King, quote, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." And one of the things that matters most to my people in California and the people in America is this war in Iraq.

Now, it took you to page three of your testimony to mention the word "Iraq." You said very little really about it, and only in the questioning have we been able to get into some areas. Perhaps you agree with President Bush, who said all that's been resolved.

... SEN. BOXER: Well, you should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war, which I did not, but most of my colleagues did. It was WMD, period. That was the reason and the causation for that, you know, particular vote.

But, again, I just feel you quote President Bush when it suits you but you contradicted him when he said, "Yes, Saddam could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year." You go on television nine months later and said, "Nobody ever said it was" --

MS. RICE: Senator, that was just a question of pointing out to people that there was an uncertainty. No one was saying that he would have to have a weapon within a year for it to be worth it to go to war.

SEN. BOXER: Well, if you can't admit to this mistake, I hope that you'll --

MS. RICE: Senator, we can have this discussion in any way that you would like. But I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity. Thank you very much.

SEN. BOXER: I'm not. I'm just quoting what you said. You contradicted the president and you contradicted yourself.

End Slice:

If you ask me, Boxer was too easy on her.

Bring it On

Condi is busy defending herself, but I would have to say that her definition of integrity has to remarkably differ from mine. Telling the world that there was WMD, and then not having any evidence at all smacks of a lack of integrity if you ask me.

Slice:

"You sent them in there because of weapons of mass destruction. Later the mission changed when there were none," Boxer told Rice. "Let's not rewrite history, it's too soon to do that."

"It wasn't just weapons of mass destruction," Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, saying former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) supported terrorism, attacked Kuwait and Israel and needed to be removed given the new U.S. threat perception after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

"We can have this discussion in any way that you would like, but I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity," Rice told Boxer. "I really hope that you will not imply that I take the truth lightly."

End slice:

Even if Rice insists we were prepared to go to war, that implies one of two things. Either one, the bushits were planning to go into Iraq long before 9/11, and two, she was willing to go to war with the "army we've got." Either one is bad for the war and fear mongers in the admin.

Slice:

"This was never going to be easy," Rice said of the war and its aftermath during a confirmation hearing in which she painted an optimistic picture of the future in Iraq — and for resolution of the long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as well.

"It was always going to have ups and downs. I'm sure that we have made many decisions, some of which were good, some of which might not have been good, but the ouster of Saddam Hussein was worth the price," Rice said. "I think we made the right decision to overthrow him."

End slice:

"I think?!?" What the bleep? You had better damned well know definatively that it was the right decision. Given what we know about the situation, I would have to dissagree adamantly. The ROI is out right got us into one very deep hole that, in terms of both political and real capital, we won't get out of for a very long time.

What is more, she may be willing to testify that we were ready for the war, but we are most certainly not ready to establish and support the peace - more bombings today. I wouldn't want to be in Iraq and a normal citizen waiting to vote. Sounds like people going to the polls should be armed with a gun, or a death wish, hoping for martyrdom.

And another thing....what is she setting us up for? Fronts in Iran? Fronts in Israel/Palestine?


Slice:

“This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah—we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”

...“Rumsfeld will no longer have to refer anything through the government’s intelligence wringer,” the former official went on. “The intelligence system was designed to put competing agencies in competition. What’s missing will be the dynamic tension that insures everyone’s priorities—in the C.I.A., the D.O.D., the F.B.I., and even the Department of Homeland Security—are discussed. The most insidious implication of the new system is that Rumsfeld no longer has to tell people what he’s doing so they can ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ or ‘What are your priorities?’ Now he can keep all of the mattress mice out of it.”

End slice:

No doubt, these jesters are war and fear mongers sine qua non. That puts us in deep, deep, deep, with nary a way out. Just wait for the draft next. Booyah, we're in for a world of shit.

President Falling Down on another Front

Looks like we're on our own on the research front as well. This recent report was authored by folks in W's own administration.

Slice:

The federal government is not adequately supporting long-term research into protecting the nation's technology infrastructure from terrorist attacks, according to a report that a presidential advisory committee approved last week.

The report, from the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, concludes that networks supporting the country's financial, utility, telecommunications, transportation, and defense systems are "highly vulnerable to terrorist and criminal attacks." The report recommends, among other things, that the federal government provide more money for research and that it encourage university students to study cybersecurity.

End slice:

This would be advantageous to do some preemptive work here - Certainly it is less costly than waging war and could most certainly prevent some kind of large scale smoking gun incident.

God, Guts and Guns

I was driving my son to pre-school the other day and noticed a painted on tag line on the back end of a contractor's truck. This was no bumper sticker. It was an honest to goodness slogan posted across the back bumper - as if it were part of their company signage - and I quote:

"God, Guts, and Guns
Keep America Free"

...humm, as well as death, destruction, and maming innocent civilians as collateral damage.

Doing a google search on this slogan, you find that these folks are not alone. And, you can get it engraved on your belt buckle.

Aparently, there is a long history of people arguing about this slogan, willing to piss off and offend all manner of individual, even working to stifle one person's first amendment rights in order to prop up their own.

More on Social Security and the Rovian tactics employed by the Bushites

My dad pointed out two interesting links about the SS debate. The Rovian tactic of repeat, repeat, ad nausium seems to work in fooling about half the country. Let's hope it doesn't this time.

Slice one, from Rolling Stone:

To hear George Bush tell it, Social Security is about to go broke. Since his re-election, the president has launched a full-scale campaign to convince the public that the retirement system will run out of money starting in 2018. "The system goes into the red," Bush told reporters on December 20th at a rare press conference. "Many times, legislative bodies will not react unless the crisis is apparent, crisis is upon them. I believe that crisis is." Social Security, he concluded, "can't sustain that which has been promised to the workers."

To save Social Security, Bush wants to destroy it -- replacing government-guaranteed retirement benefits with private accounts that will be subject to the whims of the stock market. It's an expensive plan. Allowing workers to divert even a small portion of their payroll taxes into private investments, as Bush is proposing, would require the government to borrow at least $2 trillion to make up the immediate shortfall. It's also completely unnecessary, according to Paul Krugman, a prize-winning professor of economics at Princeton University. In a blistering series of columns in the New York Times, Krugman has marshaled the economic data to show that Social Security is not only solvent, it's in much better financial shape than the rest of the federal government. "The people who hustled America into a tax cut to eliminate an imaginary budget surplus and a war to eliminate imaginary weapons," Krugman wrote recently, "are now trying another bum's rush."

At his tree-shaded home in Princeton, New Jersey, Krugman took a break from working on a new economics textbook to explain why the crisis is phony -- and what's wrong with Bush's plan "to convert Social Security into a giant 401(k)."

Slice Two from another Blogger:

President Bush plans to reactivate his reelection campaign's network of donors and activists to build pressure on lawmakers to allow workers to invest part of their Social Security taxes in the stock market . . . The campaign will use Bush's campaign-honed techniques of mass repetition, never deviating from the script and using the politics of fear to build support — contending that a Social Security financial crisis is imminent when even Republican figures show it is decades away.

End slice:

Any way you cook the books. Social Security isn't really broken, but there needs to be some kind of tweaking besides trashing it to benefit the white wealthy folks Bushit wants to help so desperately.

Meanwhile, the envrionment and our fisheries are taking a spanking from the "Environmental" President

I was reviewing the EarthIsland Journal this AM. Read an interesting article about the tragic use of longlines for fishing. Here are a couple of links for those of you bored with the politics of killing humans (in Iraq, for example) where you can find resources to help out with the problems with our Oceans.

Sea Shepherd

Earth Island Journal

Greenpeace

I am sure other bloggers out there have other resources. Please post them as comments here or link my page to yours.

Looks like the Enron folks are going to get away with it

It is hard to fathom 12 million dollars as chump change, but for the Enron folks who bilked the citizens in many states of tons of cash...this means selling, perhaps, one or two of their luxurious homes in places like Aspen, etc...

Slice:

Ten former directors of Enron have agreed to pay $13 million from their own pockets to settle a class action suit stemming from Enron's collapse in 2001, which wiped out some $60 billion in shareholder value. Because directors almost never have to pay even a penny in such suits, the Enron settlement - announced just days after several former WorldCom directors agreed to a similar deal - was widely viewed as a significant development that could discourage potential directors from serving on corporate boards.

This view is mistaken. A close look at the settlement shows that Enron's directors have still not been held accountable in any meaningful way.

End slice:

These Enron style Capitalist pigs are greased and are willing to grease as they are the slipperiest of pigs going.

W - expert at making himself look good and the Dems in Congress look bad

Here's a nice little story about how W is helping higher education by "fixing" the Pell Grant system. Which, by the way, was really dismantled by Ronald Reagan round about 1983. Just ask my sister how much "financial aid" she recieved entering college in 1984 versus what I recieved by entering one year earlier in 1983.

Slice:

President Bush announced on Friday that he will seek to raise the maximum Pell Grant by $500, to $4,550, over the next five years, as well as to eliminate a $4.3-billion shortfall that has plagued the program for the past several years.

Speaking at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Mr. Bush made clear that he does not plan to request additional money to achieve these goals. Instead, the president said he would ask Congress to generate savings by "reforming" the federal guaranteed student-loan program, which relies on banks and other types of lenders to deliver money to students.

End slice:

You have got to love the legislate, but don't appropriate modus operandi that lets slippery politicians off the hook in the eyes of the media, but subjects the infrastructure to undue stress.

No doubt, the Demcrats in congress with any kind of conscience will need to oppose this measure - which will make them look bad, when in actuality they are working to save the system and others that will be hurt by the grand fiscal shuffle caused by a President who has really worked wonders in spending beyond his means.

Homelessness and Veterans (Vietnam to Iraq)

Two more excellent rough cut videos to view via Guerrilla News Network.

The Iraq Part II, is particularly salient for today's draftable generation.

Proving once again that the ROI is not worth it.

Why is Eeyore always sad?

I was playing a game of memory/concentration with my son this afternoon. This was the Winnie the Pooh version. He asked, "Why is Eeyore always sad, daddy?"

I really had no answer. Do you have one? He is two months shy of 3 years old. How would you explain that to him?

The thought crossed my mind to say, "Well, it is becuase we really have an imeicile for president and he has us stuck in a war that is untenable." But that would be a much tangled thicket to get into.

Another possible answer, "well, son, perhaps it is becuase he is always losing his tail."

So much for Security of the Social Sort

Lots of alliteration for over anxious anchors....Okay, I couldn't resist the line from Broadcast news after typing the headline for this post.

And while we are busy getting ourselves into a deeper end of the quicksand that is the Middle East, Bush continues to forge ahead and dismantle some high quality domestic policies.

Slice 1:

Behavioral economics has vital implications for retirement savings. But in his zeal to privatize Social Security - a quest which is itself driven more by ideology than economics - President Bush is obscuring better approaches to a comfortable retirement for all Americans.

End slice 1.

Slice 2:

This is what we should do about Social Security: At the same time we acknowledge that it is the most successful domestic program in American history, we should also admit that Social Security, in its present form, is unsustainable. And then we should come up with a plan that is different than what President Bush and most of the pundits are proposing.

End Slice Two:

All I know is that the 40 million dollars being spent on the big inagural party in a few days could go a long way for shoring up some of these endangered programs. Not to mention the hidden costs for the Big Bushit Bash (e.g. 12 Million of Homeland Security bux spent on the security for the event).

The Emperor has No Clothes

Bush is mad, and we will be the ones left hanging cleaning up his mess. He is just following the lead of his good buddies, Rove and Lay...fuck the people, stiff them with the bill, and leave the dirty sheets tossed about.

Slice:

George W. Bush is ill. He has a psycho-spiritual disease of the soul, a sickness that is endemic to our culture and symptomatic of the times we live in. It’s an illness that has been with us since time immemorial. Because it’s an illness that's in the soul of all of humanity, it pervades the field and is in all of us in potential at any moment, which makes it especially hard to diagnose.

Bush's malady is quite different from schizophrenia, for example, in which all the different parts of the personality are fragmented and not connected to each other, resulting in a state of internal chaos. As compared to the disorder of the schizophrenic, Bush can sound quite coherent and can appear like such a "regular," normal guy, which makes the syndrome he is suffering from very hard to recognize. This is because the healthy parts of his personality have been co-opted by the pathological aspect, which drafts them into its service. Because of the way the personality self-organizes an outer display of coherence around a pathogenic core, I would like to name Bush's illness ‘malignant egophrenic (as compared to schizophrenic) disease,’ or ‘ME disorder,’ for short. If ME disorder goes unrecognized and is not contained, it can be very destructive, particularly if the person is in a position of power.

In much the same way that a child's psychology cannot be understood without looking at the family system he or she is a part of, George Bush does not exist in isolation.We can view Bush and his entire Administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, etc), as well as the corporate, military industrial complex that they are co-dependently enmeshed with, the media that they control, the voters that support them, and ourselves as well, as interconnected parts of a whole system, or a "field." Instead of relating to any part of this field as an isolated entity, it’s important to contemplate the entire interdependent field as the ‘medium’ though which malignant egophrenia manifests and propagates itself. ME disease is a field phenomenon, and needs to be contemplated as such. Bush's sickness is our own.

End Slice:

Belive it when they say, "Ask not at whom the chimp smirks - he smirks at you."

Meanwhile, we are about to screw Iran

No wonder Bush is not willing to get our troops out of Iraq. He is ramping up and already authorizing troop secret incursions into Iran. With this new Condi approved strategy of pre-emptive invasions, no doubt, we will be crossing the line from Iraq to Iran very soon.

Many have predicted this, but now we know for sure. Like Cambodia in the Vietnam conflict, we are going where we dare not tread with covert special ops taking the lead. At least we know for sure that Iran has nuclear weapons capacity and the will to use it.

Slice:

The United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.

The article, by award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, said the secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites. Hersh quotes one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon as saying, "The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible."

End slice.

I predict that before we are finished with the next four years of Bushit we will be moving troops from Iraq to Iran. The Jihad has only just begun.

More Dead and Wounded In Iraq

There is a very telling graphic in the NYTimes today. Body counts in a snazzy wrapper.

Check it out.

Slice:

In the first two weeks of January, at least 202 people died as a result of the insurgency in Iraq. The killings have been indiscriminate. The dead include Iraqi officials, police officers, civilians and, of course, Iraqi, American and coalition soldiers. The attacks shown here took place across the country, but there is a clear concentration in the so-called Sunni Triangle, which stretches from Tikrit in the north to Baghdad in the east and to Falluja and Ramadi in the west.

End slice:

When will Bush realize the carnage has to stop and only he can give the command to pull our troops back to safety? The ROI is in a deep hole - about minus 12 Kelvin not worth it.

By the way, have we forgiven Bush for his little AWOL stint "serving" our country in the 70s?

I found some old posts about this subject and wonder why the media has completely bailed on the material. Just becuase CBS got stuck in the fact checking quagmire doesn't mean it is not a legit story.

Here are some links:

Bush Watch to catch him in the latest swindle.

A group wondering where Bush really was in 1972.

A UK article on the subject.

Slice:

On May 2 1973, Richard Nixon was still reeling from the Watergate scandal. American troops were on their way home from Vietnam. And outside Houston, in Texas, a 26-year-old named George Bush, a lieutenant in the National Guard, reported for drill duty as usual at Ellington air force base.

That, at any rate, is the impression given by military payroll records released by the Bush administration on Tuesday. Apparently, however, Lt Bush's superiors at Ellington didn't see it that way. In an annual evaluation of his performance - dated, coincidentally, the very same day, May 2 - they conceded that they couldn't actually evaluate his performance, because they hadn't seen him for months.

Which version is the truth?

end slice:

More people ripping off Lance Armstrong's Band

Looks like there are many bands that you can wear now. I particularly like the following:

The blue hope band

The I didn't vote for Bush Band

And the I live in a blue state band

I think one could go broke buying up all the swag related to the divisive nature of our country at this point.

I'm in cel phone Hell

Okay, yesterday, I lost my phone. The karma worked magically and my little flip phone was returned safe and sound.

Today, I found my phone...guess...bouncing around the dryer. Yes, I left it in my pocket and washed and dried it.

It's not working now. Hopefully, if I give it a bit of a rest, it might work in the Am.

I don't know. Perhaps it is time to give up the phone for good.

By the way, Ellen Macarthur is way in the lead

For those of you following the transglobal sailing race, FYI, Ellen Macarthur is currently 4 Days 6 hours and 18 mins ahead of the nearest competitor/current world record holder.

Accontability is always easier to push on other people

Another reporter points out the W adminstration hypocrites are at it again. Bush, flapping his gums about CBS fails to realize he hasn't fired anyone who told him false things (or lies as we like to call them here).

Read this article in the Washington Post:

Slice:

It took no less a sage than President Bush to put the firing of four high-level CBS News employees in perspective: "CBS said they would act. They did. And I hope their actions are such that this doesn't happen again."

This from the man who fired not a single person in his entire administration for getting nearly everything wrong about Iraq and taking the nation to war for reasons that did not exist or were downright specious.

Lucky for Bush he's only the president of the United States and not the head of CBS. Let us call the roll: George Tenet, who assured the president that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? A graceful retirement and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Don Rumsfeld, who approved a battle plan of such brilliance that a 30-day war against a weak Third World country is still going on and shows no sign of ending? He stays in the Cabinet.

Condi Rice, the national security adviser who allowed the president to tell the world of Iraq's nuclear weapons program when it had none whatsoever? She is nominated to become secretary of state.

Vice President Cheney, who insisted against all evidence and with no evidence that Iraq was fast becoming a nuclear power, and who maintained that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden? He stays on the ticket and remains a heartbeat away from the presidency.

End slice:

My dad puts it nicely: "Hypocrisy! such fun. The Administration has standards for others, none for themselves."

Lost my Cel

I spent the better part of the afternoon concerned after I lost my CelPhone today. Yikes. It wasn't the worries about someone making calls to New Zealand, but the long list of phone numbers I have not written down that were caused the most amount of angst.

Fortunatly, a friend of mine called me saying someone else had called them with my phone and they had found it. So, I picked it up from this person thanking them profusely. Some kid found it on a playground my son and I were at and gave it to one of the teachers. This teacher found me.

Bingo - the karma happens - I get my phone back and these fine upstanding citizens win more karmic points.

Be good all! What goes around comes around.

Reporters for sale, Reporters for sale...No Child Left Behind...Reporters for sale

Okay, some folks actually think Tucker Carlson is cute in a bowtie, and are willing to overlook his disgressions if he were to go out on a date with them, but hey...the Major Media Propaganda Machine (MMPM) has sunk to a new low.

Check out this article in the NYTimes

Slice:

On this particular "Crossfire," the featured guest was Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator, talk-show host and newspaper columnist (for papers like The Washington Times and The Detroit Free Press, among many others, according to his Web site). Thanks to investigative reporting by USA Today, he had just been unmasked as the frontman for a scheme in which $240,000 of taxpayers' money was quietly siphoned to him through the Department of Education and a private p.r. firm so that he would "regularly comment" upon (translation: shill for) the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind policy in various media venues during an election year. Given that "Crossfire" was initially conceived as a program for tough interrogation and debate, you'd think that the co-hosts still on duty after Mr. Carlson's departure might try to get some answers about this scandal, whose full contours, I suspect, we are only just beginning to discern.

But there is nothing if not honor among bloviators. "On the left," as they say at "Crossfire," Paul Begala, a Democratic political consultant, offered condemnations of the Bush administration but had only soft questions and plaudits for Mr. Williams. Three times in scarcely as many minutes Mr. Begala congratulated his guest for being "a stand-up guy" simply for appearing in the show's purportedly hostile but entirely friendly confines. When Mr. Williams apologized for having crossed "some ethical lines," that was enough to earn Mr. Begala's benediction: "God bless you for that."

End slice:

Yikes...I guess that Cornel West is right when he says in his book (Democracy Matters, page 36):

Slice:

The political nihilism in America today is not limited to the arena of party politics; it has infiltrated our media culture as well in the form of sentimental nihilism. While an essential mission of the news organizations in a democracy should be to expose the lies and manipulations of our political and economic leaders - and surely many media watch dogs devote themselves to that tast - too much of what passes for news today is really a form of entertainment. So amny shows follow a crude formula for providing titillating coverage that masks itself as news. Those purveyors of theis bastardized form of reporting are sentimental nihilists, willing to sidestep or even bludgeon the trusth or unpleasant and unpopular facts and stories, in order to provide an emotionally satisfying show.

End Slice:

Essentially, what passes for news, really isn't but watered down sentimentalism designed to make us feel good about ourselves, or conversely, terrified as we are pandered to by fearmongers supported by our tax dollars. All in the name of selling big blocks of very expensive advertising feeding the endless appetite Americans have for consumption and accrued creditcard debt. Good thing I own stock in some credit issuing banks. There will be no end to profit in that arena any time soon.

Here's a good idea

Now the government is actually encouraging exercise.

I just wonder how folks are going to get off their couches and into shape. Do I care? Not really; just as long as we don't have to shoulder the health care costs for obese individuals.

slice:

Tonight eat only half the dessert," Mr. Thompson said. "And then go out and walk around the block. And if you are going to watch television get down and do 10 push-ups and 5 sit-ups."

End slice:

As my father would say, "If exercise were a pill, it would be the best selling drug in the market place."

Weapons used for Mass Manipulation

I found this headline burried at about page 11 in the front section of our local news rag. I am wondering why it is that only the Washington Post is carrying this story...is it becuase it is such a resounding thump on the head of the Bush Administration? Is it because it is proof that the comander-in-thief really did lie to take us into Iraq? Humm...you be the judge:

Slice:

Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month
by Dafna Linzer Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 12, 2005

The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley.

In interviews, officials who served with the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas.

Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG's final conclusions and will be published this spring.

End Slice:

Perhaps the Blogisphere will be more receptive and dilligent in making this information widely known by the public, which is continually and in a manipulative way, being miss led by this "administration."

To all bloggers who see my post, please link this snip to your page and spread the word.

Big Brother is no Longer in Baghdad

I just got off the phone with my brother. He is back home and is set to enjoy a couple of weeks off to recouperate and then get back to work.

This is a great birthday present for two of his sons as their birthdays are coming up in a few days and the following week.

I, for one, am happy he is not in harms way any more than the average person at this point.

let's end this Iraqi operation soon, eh? The time to declare victory is neigh - once the elections are over, we should bail out and let them sink or swim on their own.

Inauguration Fun - Can you believe it takes 40 mill to toss a party like this?

I am still astonished that Bush and his supporters (if you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter), are doing their part to stimulate the D.C. drunken party circut economies to the tune of at least 40 million bux.

I put my name in for some tickets. Let's see if I get them. I have friends in DC that could use them in the event that I actually get some. I requested tix to the ball so that I might actually ask Jena and Barbara why they have yet to enlist in one of the Armed Services to better serve their country and help their pappy win the war on terror.

Here are some fun links that will help you negotiate your way through this opulent display and homage to the capitalist pigs and their voter-elected lackeys in the political arena.

Link 1 - Mike's Inauguration Guide

Link 2 - Ways to protest the inauguration

Link 3 - A place to request tix to see if you could get them and not use them
wouldn't it be fun to have no one show up to the parties they are throwing, or at least have half the room not fill up as an indication that just about half the country didn't vote for these bozos

Link 4 - A really good idea for those of us who do get in to act as witness

More free publicity for Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11

If this movie has so many critics, why is it gathering up so many awards? Because it really is a very fine production. I can also recommend Michael Moore's first flick, Roger and Me.

Here's the Email from Moore with a connection to the speach at the People's Choice Awards gig.

Monday, January 10th, 2005

Dear Friends,

Last night, at the People's Choice Awards, "Fahrenheit 9/11" was named the Best Movie of the Year. It was a stunning moment for us. And, somewhere inside the Bush White House, someone there must have been stunned, too.

21 million people voted in the People's Choice Awards. They chose our film over "Shrek 2," "Spiderman 2" and "The Incredibles." If we can beat that many superheroes, surely we can survive the next four years.

I can think of no greater honor for us this year than the award bestowed upon us last night by the American people. On live television, with no threat of my remarks being censored or cut short, I thanked all of you and the rest of our fellow Americans and dedicated the prize to the parents of our servicemen and women in Iraq, the Lila Lipscombs of America who suffer so profoundly by the reckless actions of the Bush administration.

(If you'd like to see what I said -- this time, no riot! -- you can click here. I even dressed up!)

It was an historic moment as no documentary had ever won the People's Choice Award for Best Picture. And I thank each and every one of you who voted and made that happen.

I took Congresswoman Maxine Waters and her husband as my guests last night. My family was there, too, as was some of our crew. We had a great time and I even got to meet Mel Gibson for the first time (he won a secondary prize for best film drama). More on that later!

Thanks again, and now let's get on with the serious work at hand -- winning more awards! Hahahaha. Just kidding. We have an inauguration to attend, don't we?

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

Big news slips in between the pouring rain drops

Just got off the horn with my Sister-in-law. My brother is now in Germany, waiting for a flight back home!

Now if we can extend that maneuver about two or three hundred thousand more times and bring all our troops home, we can really celebrate.

But for now, we are having a toast to him at this very moment. We celebrate on a smaller scale here. Germany is a lot safer than Baghdad...and no doubt, the beer is exponentially better.

More free publicity for John Stewart

I started reading the book, but got side tracked by the much more astute book by Cornel West. I don't know if I will ever get back to the Stewart, et. al. tome. It is cute, but really marginally funny. I recommend Aaron Mcgruder's book, "The Birth of a Nation." Much better. ISBN: 1400048591

As to banning books, perhaps that should be left up to the Nazis. Speaking of Nazis, these guys are also very scary. What are they afraid of?

If SS gets "fixed," chalk up another win for the Rich White Guys club

Bush is pushing for it because he is a Rich White Guy...how is the reshaping of the very winning SS program according to W going to help us common folk?

Slice:

Late February is now the time frame mentioned by the White House for unveiling President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. The timing is no accident. By waiting until then, the president will conveniently avoid having to include the cost of privatization - as much as $2 trillion in new government borrowing over the next 10 years - in his 2006 budget, expected in early February. In this and other ways, the administration is manipulating information - a tacit, yet devastating, acknowledgement, we believe, that an informed public would reject privatizing Social Security.

More fears for bad ROI in Iraq

Here's another questioning article on the ROI in Iraq. Every day we are there, it gets less and less worth it...At this point, there is nothing but pain/death/wounds in return. Positive gain? Where is it?

Slice:

The assembly line of carnage in George W. Bush's war in Iraq continues unabated. Nightmares don't last this long, so the death and destruction must be real. You know you're in serious trouble when the politicians and the military brass don't even bother suggesting that there's light at the end of the tunnel. The only thing ahead is a deep and murderous darkness.

Three very fun links with some good ideas amidst

Found these on a tip from my father:

Site 1 - freeway blogger
Click on the Join the Army Game mid web location.

Site 2 - Nobody died when Clinton lied

Site 3 - Give Bush a brain game


Enjoy and let us know how well you score on both games

One more time - The ROI in Iraq is not worth the outlay

Here are two snips from two different locations my father pointed out to me:

Slice one:

In its present form, the war on terror is a cripplingly expensive, meagerly productive effort to locate, catch, and kill bad guys around the globe. Its successes are hardly less random, or more effective in the long term, than those that might be achieved by a platoon of men armed with flyswatters entering a slaughterhouse whose refrigeration has been off for a week.

Slice two:

Three years after the attack on New York's World Trade Center, the manhunt for Osama bin Laden has failed to produce the world's most wanted terrorist, and, according to the former No. 3 man at the CIA, that's just fine.

Former Central Intelligence Agency executive, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, has told the London Times that letting the al-Qaida leader run free may actually make the world a safer place. "You can make the argument that we're better off with him (at large)," Krongard said. "Because if something happens to bin Laden, you might find a lot of people vying for his position and demonstrating how macho they are by unleashing a stream of terror."

More proof that fundmentalist-right-wing christians are fascists

Check out this url. It ought get your britches in a snarl. Sounds like these folks have their sphincters laced so tight, they hurt everyone. Just what we need are more gun toting, trigger happy Christians.

Slice:

Who We Are and What We (And God) Believe

Unsaved, not welcomed...

We Believe in the WHOLE Bible (1611 KJV). We don't throw out the parts that make us feel uncomfortable, like the book of Leviticus. We bid you greetings, friend. We do not read, eat, consume, digest, or 'try on' any product that is not made and manufactured by born-again, Bible believing, Fundamentalist Baptist Christians, and we would have you know that we condemn anyone that does, and pray as King David did, 'against them' for a quick end and a speedy journey to a very hot place, where they can spend out all eternity honoring our Lord and Maker in a literal lake of fire, Amen. Please find our site a blessing.!

End slice:

I suppose since they use 22pt bold faced font, that they really do believe the same things as god...I wonder, are they on god's side, or is god on their side?

Here's why Cornel West should run for President and win in 2008

..and moreover, I think he should choose Aaron Mcgruder as a VP running mate. They would get my vote - hell, I'd vote twice for them if I could. Or perhaps, we could contract with the same company that built the republican's voting machines for Ohio and ship them out to the rest of the country paying them to fix the machines our way....

Anyway Here's another slice from West's book (ISBN: 1594200297):

Page 35 - The Democratic Party elites are too often unwilling to tell the American people just how connected they and their Republican colleagues are to powerful corportions and influential lobbyists. Their caving in to Bush's Iraq war, and their support for the loosening of regulations on corporations that led to the recent wave of scandals, are two blatent examples. In these legislative votes, most Democrats failed to follow their conscience, following instead the polls and their reelection strategies...the vast majority of Democratic Party elites are rendered impotent by their timidity and paralyzed by their cupidity (their courting of corporate donors). Their unprincipled compromises reinforce the idea that corporate influence and lobbyists' clout run the U.S. government.

Wrap your mind around these gems

I can't resist. West is so very good. Here is more wisdom by Cornel West in his new book, Domocracy Matters:

Page 27 - The dogma of free market fundamentalism has run amok, and the pursuit of profits by any legal (or illegal) means - with little or no public accountability - guides the behavior of the most powerful and influential institutions in our lives: transnational corporations...Their frantic race to the bottom line indeed lifts some boats yet it often pollutes the water and empties out the democratic energies necessary to guide the ship of state....The saturation of market forces and market moralities has indeed corrupted our system all the way up. Our leadership elite have themselves lost faith in the efficacy of adhering to democratic principles in the face of the overwhelming power of those market forces...

Page 29: Teh hallmark of political nihilism is the public appeal to fear and greed, and too much of American politics today has been reduced to such vulgar appeals. Just so, Bush promoted his irresponsible tax cuts by offering the largely chimerical promise of a child-tax rebate, and promoted his repressive Patriot Act by appealing to the fear of terrorism. A political nihilist is one who is not simply intoxicated with the exercise of power but also obsessed with stifling any criticism of that exercise of power. He will use clever arguments to rationalize his will to power and deploy skillful strategies, denying the pain and suffering he may cause, in order to shape the world and control history in light of the pursuit of power.

Page 30-1: ...the hawks in the Bush administration - are not simply conservative elites and right-wing ideologues. More pointedly, they are evangelical nihilists, drunk with power and driven by grand delusions of American domination of the world. And they have been willing to lie and to abuse their control of American power in order to pursue that dominance... [unlike Ronald Reagan, their idol] the new hawks seem to believe that America's might actually determines what is right. In this tradition of thinking, we would't be so powerful if we weren't right, so our might show that we are right...who show no respect for Socratic questioning of their positions and actions. They even characterize such questioning as unpatriotic.

Good news doesn't get wet in the pissing rain

Got some great news from my sister-in-law. Seems like my brother may secure transit to the EU out of Iraq by Monday, and be housed at a US Military base for debriefing by Monday. Then it is a bit of sitting around saturating himself in beer and other unobtainables in Iraq as he waits for the big deployment back to the home base.

Again, hope cannot be dampened by the pissing rain we are having today...which seems like many days in a row now...Let's hope all is well and safe in the next few days in the big kitty litter box we like to call Iraq.

Which is worse?

Found this lament from some blogger in Canada.

What's the lesser of two evils: Bad blogs, or blogging about bad blogs?

Slice:

Have you seen some of these blogs? Granted, the owners have invested the time (or, in some cases, money) to create a flashy banner, a kick-ass title graphic, and an eye-catching color theme, something I have never been able to get around to myself. So, as each page pops up, you are teased with the unspoken promise of greatness. But what do you get?

Drivel.

End slice:

I say, back at you brother.

Blog on.

Let's ban celebrity marriages altogether

Lots of folks are blogging about the latest news: poor Brad and Jennifer, splitting up. Another famous couple, Gavin and Kimberly splitting...yikes, don't these famous folks know how to stay together? Forgedabout banning gay/same sex marriage, how about banning celebrity marriages altogether. They don't work. The real loser in this case are the children, if there are any. In the former, yes. The latter, no.

"Let us not be decieved..."

Cornel West again: page 22 - Let us not be deceived: the great dramatic battle of the twenty-first century is the dismantling of empire and the deepening of democracy. This is as much or more a colossal fight over visions and ideas as a catastrophic struggle over profits and missiles...We live in a propitious yet perilous moment in which it has become fashionable to celebrate the benefits of imperial rule and acceptiable to condone the decline of democratic governance...

End slice:

Okay, I am going to limit my posts from the book in favor of recommending you buy it. It's about 15 bucks or so. Go ahead, support the author.

Cornel West wins my vote for President 2008

As a stay-at-home father of two young children, I don't have that much time to read. Thus, I am savoring every word and page of Cornel West's new book (Thank's Rock City for the gift) , Democracy Matters. It is really too bad it wasn't published a year or two ahead of the elections. I am not seeing any media/reviews of the book, but perhaps I missed it. I would put this on a blogger's must read to put your eyes somewhere else besides the monitor for a while.

Here are a few of the more savory thoughts and ideas:

Page 18 - Aggressive militarism is false security - a mere diversion from attending to the necessary domestic policies of compassion that can "heal your wound" (Hosea 5:13). Escalating authoritarianism is a species of injustice that tightens the rope around one's own neck ("for not by force shall man prevail"; 1 Samuel 2:9).

Page 20-21 - The blues is not siply a music to titillate; it is a hard-fought way of life...the ugly terrorist attacks on innocent civilians on 9/11 plunged the whole country into the blues. Never before have Americans of all classes, colors, regions, genders,a nd sexual orientations felt unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated. Yet to have been designated and treated as a nigger in America for over 350 years has been to feel unsafe, unprotected, subject to random vilence, and hated. The high point of the black response to American terrorism (or niggerization) is found in the compassionate and courageous voice of Emmett Till's motehr, who stepped up to the lectern at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago in 1955 at the funeral of her fourteen-year-old son, after his murder by American terrorists, and said: "I don't have a minute to hate. I'll pursue justice for the rest of my life."

Since 9/11 we have experienced the niggerization of America, and as we struggle against the imperialistic arrogance of the us-versus-them, revenge-driven policies of the Bush administration, we as a blues nation must learn from a blues people how to keep alive our deep democratic energies in dark times rather than resort to the tempting and easier response of militarism and authoritarianism.

The W Snake, about sneak another rat into his inner sanctum

While Gonzales takes the heat, deservedly, another slippery rat is part way into the inner sanctum of our reigning theocracy.

Slice:

Margaret Spellings, President Bush's nominee to replace Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige, won unanimous confirmation in a vote Thursday by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Her nomination will go to the full Senate for confirmation this month.

Ms. Spellings, the president's domestic-policy adviser, is considered one of his most loyal aides. She has helped shape his education policies since he was governor of Texas. Higher-education groups have generally welcomed her nomination, describing the Houston native as a consensus-builder and experienced policy maker.

end slice:

As the principal author of the "no child left behind" policy, I would ask her directly, why are children still being left behind? Another good question would be to ask her how she would assess her response to the disbanning of Affirmative Action in Texas. Also, what is her boots on the ground experience in teaching/educating the children of America?

The once and future Crispy Klansmen

Humm, one too many boasts gets Edgar Ray Killen the trial he has deserved for over 40 years. Question then becomes, how crispy will this man get when the flip the switch on him and perhaps one or two of his other, fellow Christians.

Slice from the NYTimes:

...The sheriff said there would be more arrests in the notorious case, which helped to cement Mississippi's image as a haven of hatred and violence in the 1960's, when black churches, homes and businesses were firebombed and civil rights volunteers were beaten by white mobs. The case was the subject of several books and was dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

...But the state never brought murder charges in the case, and it was not until 1999 that the state's attorney general reopened the matter, after The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., published exposés, including excerpts from a secret interview given to a state archivist by Sam Bowers, the onetime imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, America's most violent white supremacist group in the 1960's.

In the interview, Mr. Bowers, who was serving a life sentence for ordering the 1966 firebombing in Hattiesburg, Miss., that killed Vernon Dahmer, a prominent civil rights leader, said he had thwarted justice in the killings of Mr. Schwerner, Mr. Goodman and Mr. Chaney.

Mr. Bowers also said in the interview that he did not mind going to jail because a fellow Klansman had gotten away with murder.

End slice:

Perhaps my father is right when he says: "Right-wing Christians are fascists. Live and let live is not their motto, they want to tell you what to do, they want to prevail. They believe that they are correct. No action is too extreme."

Iraq outlay sinks to new depths as unrecoverable sunk cost

Yahoo news uploaded 11 minutes ago. Nine more GIs no longer get to vote in any up coming elections.

Slice:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed seven U.S. soldiers in northwest Baghdad and two Marines were killed in western Iraq on Thursday, the deadliest day for American forces since a suicide attack on a U.S. base last month.

End slice:

Just wondering: At what point do we decide as a country - comprised of god fearing, moral individuals - that it is morally reprehensible and unthinkable that more lives are lost in an already lousy situation?

WMD? Nope.

Ties before the invasion/liberation to Al Queda? Nope.

Lies to get us there? Yup!

Home to terrorists of all stripes now? You bettter believe it!

Ahh, but the vote must go on.

I am starting to sound like a broken record - not like folks today have any sense (or recollection) of what a broken record is - but, again, the ROI for Iraq is simply and outrageously not worth the outlay.

Some cool shots of Mars

These are some very cool shots of Mars. Love the interactive nature of this site.

This one is sponsored by our gov't, which I found via the Ames Research Center.

There is no substitute for hope

Good news on the Iraq front. I just got word from my Mom that my big brother is in the process of figuring out transit home to his wife and family. May not make it back for his son's birthday, but that would be one heck of a gift. Dad, home from the big kitty litter box. Safe.

Let's hope he is playing it safe as the short-timer should.

Perhaps no on else wants to work for W

Gonzales, perhaps, is the only one willing/stupid enough to work for W. He may be a nut, and supportive of torture, but he's Bush's kind of nut, nonetheless. Once again, we are flunking the "Global Test," as we find out that he was one person in favor of no rights for prisoners.

Slice from Daily KOS:

To get around the inconvenience of the Geneva Conventions, the administration twisted the roles of the legal counsels of the White House, the Pentagon and the Justice Department beyond recognition. Once charged with giving unvarnished advice about whether political policies remained within the law, the Bush administration's legal counsels have been turned into the sort of cynical corporate lawyers who figure out how to make something illegal seem kosher - or at least how to minimize the danger of being held to account.

Here's a fun generalization about republican and conservative bloggers

Found this blogger on blogexplosion. Check out the post from today:

Slice:

Ladies and gentlemen I have stumbled upon a disturbing secret. 90% of conservative blogs are actually being written by brain washed monkeys. The monotonous tone of the content, mixed with the weird primal behavior patterns, leave no room for doubt. They all have a strikingly similar, some might say..Robotic, method of discourse and rebuttal. They are all quoting misinformation and faulty facts from the same play book. In an age when Dogs have their own blog and Cat's are being given college degrees online from prestigious universities, it would only follow that the Republican party would use both the power of the internet, and the trainablity of the monkey to accomplish their goals of ruling the world. Here are some of the things that tipped me off:

*They all get agitated when you try to get them off message for five seconds. It's like the computer chip in their brain sends a signal to a strategically implanted wire that then zaps them in the ass.
* The word "liberal" makes them foam at the mouth, bare teeth and squeal.
* When confronted with logic they all start ranting about Hillary Clinton. Even if the topic had nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. You mention the war in Iraq, and for some reason they throw up the Hillary Clinton shield. If you piss them off they will type Hillary Clinton five thousand times and then they will throw their poo at you....

End slice:

You get the idea. I had a good laugh. Enjoy as you click over.

Finally got it down

After three months shy of three years, I think I finally have this stay-at-home dad thing wired. Both boys went down for about a 2 hour nap this afternoon. Those of you who know understand how challenging getting an almost three year old down for a nap, let alone getting the 9 month old down at the same time. The big win, Daddy gets a nap too! Makes us all around less grumpy.

After naps and a snack, we are going to head on over to visit our friends who had their first daughter on 30 Dec (great tax planning). Named her Daisy. Should be fun as the boys haven't been around newborns much. Also, they are now healthy and shouldn't transmit any germs to the newbie.

Well, off to feed the little one, wake up the older one and then hit the road.

From Race to Democracy Matters

I just started reading Cornell West's new tome, Democracy Matters, the sequel to Race Matters. I recomend both books to you even after only reading a few pages of the former:

Slice:

on page 2 - "There is a deeply troubling deterioration of democratic powers in America today. The rise of an ugly imperialism has been aided by an unholy alliance of the plutocratic elites and the Christian Right, and also by a massive disaffection of so many voters who see too little difference between two corrupted parties, with blacks being taken for granted by the Democrats, and with deep disaffection of youth...."

page 3 and going forward....The problems plaguing our democracy are not only ones of disaffection and disillusionment. The greatest threats come in the form of the rise of three dominating, antidemocratic dogmas. These three dogmas, promoted by the most powerful forces in our world, are rendering American democracy vacuous. The first dogma of free-market fundamentalism posits the unregulated and unfettered market as idol and fetish. This glorification of the market has led to a callous corporate-dominated political economy in which business leaders (their wealth and power) are to bw worshipped - even despite the recent scandals - and the moste powerful corporations are delegated magical pwers of salvation rather than relegated to democratic scrutiny concerning both the ethics fo their business practices and their treatment of workers...

Page 5 - The scond prevailing dogma of our time is agressive militarism, of which the new policy of preemptive strike against potential enemies is but an extension...

Page 6 - The third prevailing dogma in this historic moment is escalating authoritarinism. This dogma is rooted in our understandable paranoia toward potential terrorists, our traditional fear of too many liberties, and our deep distrust of one another. The Patriot Act is but the peak of an iceberg that has widened the scope of of this repression of our hard-earned rights and hard -fought liberties...

There are many pearls laced within the slanted and powerful rhetoric (remember, the pen/keypad is mightier than the sword)...but I don't really want to steal West's thunder. Here's just one on page 5: How ironic that in America we've moved so quickly from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Let Freedom Ring!" to "Bling! Bling!" - as if freedom were reducible to simply having material toys, as dictated by free-market fundamentalism."

Like I said, I find this read to be very interesting and powerful and that is only after reading the first chapter. I highly recomend this book to bloggers everywhere, regardless of your position on the state of America today.

West gets my vote for one of the most intelligent thinkers of our time.

Telling quotes from folks in Iraq

Here's a few of the more tasty quotes that should raise the hackles on your neck a bit from an article in the Economist. I found it on Brad DeLong's blog.

Slice 1:

"Sometimes, they say, they fire on vehicles encroaching with 30 metres, sometimes they fire at 20 metres: 'If anyone gets too close to us we fucking waste them,' says a bullish lieutenant. 'It's kind of a shame, because it means we've killed a lot of innocent people.'"

Slice 2:

...Their [US Troops] contempt for Iraqis is undisguised and dramatically expressed: a soldier, confronted by "jeering schoolchildren," fires canisters of buckshot from his grenade-launcher at them, and marines busting down doors in Ramadi scream at trembling middle-aged women: "Bitch, where's the guns?" Small wonder, ventures the correspondent, that "many Iraqis are probably more scared of American troops than of insurgents."

Slice 3:

...That seems to have been the Bush administration's approach to Iraq. Take the mistakes of Vietnam and repeat them exactly. And at that you can't say they haven't succeeded...

Lifestyles of the Rich and Clueless

I found this article in the Washington Post today as refered by Wonkette.

Slice:

..The first few hours after the disaster seem almost unreal. My brother was worried about his other properties along the coast -- and we were all in a kind of trance. At one point, a helicopter hovered overhead, looking for survivors. "What they don't know is that we are all down here, eating Stilton," cracked one of the Aussies

...Only 12-year-old Jojo, a sports fanatic with a tough-guy persona, seems impervious to the wave of altruism sweeping through the Dobbs family. "The good thing about all this," he told us, as we cut short our vacation, "is that we will be back in Washington for the last Redskins game of the season."

End slice:

I guess the Tsunami wasn't all bad for everyone. ..and for those fortunate ones, there's still football games to be had.

Is Privitization of Public Schools the Answer?

Interesting article in the LA Times today.

Slice:

From "leading the nation [California] and the world with a model of a world-class education for everyone," the former Harvard law professor said, the state has settled for "something like 'better than Mississippi.'

End slice.


I think there is a big difference between taking a law school private to privitization across the board for public education. A law school, by definition, works to educate those of whom are already educated. Given the glut of overpaid attorneys, it seems as though, these are the people least likely to be in need of public support asside, perhaps, from their equivalents in Medical Schools and Graduate Business Programs. Perhaps it is time for them to step up and pay the full cost of their educations rather than be subsidized by the masses. However, it would be a mistake to think that privitization of education across the board is a solution to the ills of our systems. The problems are much more complex than simple market economies can solve.

Big Wave, Rising Tide

I have seen numerous posts regarding the Tsunami. Finally caught some video clips of the wave/torrent/tide in action. It really was an awesome force of nature.

Those of us living on a coast, hang our heads low and remember those who lost their lives to Neptune. Once again, we are reminded that Nature, stronger than any other force, will occasionally spank us pretty badly.

Anyone who has ever been tossed in the rinse cycle knows how lucky they are to be reading this sentence.

Blog into the new year while you can, friends