Why has 'Downing Street memo' story been a 'dud' in US?

CSM posted May 17, 2005

"In a piece published on the Political Gateway, a website which "tries to bring input from all sides of the political arena to allow free and open discourse on a range of subjects," columnist Bud Beck writes that the British memo story "isn’t news by any stretch of the imagination.."

This is not the Watergate burglary and it is not a fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident. It is nothing new, just a new version of something that is old - so old it has become all but too boring.

The critics of the war, all of them Democrats, have accused Bush and his top aides of misusing what has since been shown as limited intelligence in the prewar period. The notes of the meeting between Dearlove and Blair now prove it. So what? The same critics have been unsuccessful in getting an investigation into the misuse of the intelligence and as long as they are in the minority they never will. What are they expecting to happen here that didn't happen in Britain?”

There’s lots more in this article in the Christian Science Monitor.

News

Deep Throat comes forward.

Bush lies again: "It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world," Bush said of the Amnesty International report that compared Guantanamo to a Soviet-era gulag.

The Big Brass Alliance is Formed

Please spread the word and take action.
You may see this plea on hundreds of blogs today.

AfterDowningStreet.org is a Coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups, which launched on May 26, 2005, a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

The name is a reference to the Downing Street Memo, a British memo recently made public in the London Times, which contained the minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq. If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution.’"

Congressman Conyers is now seeking 100,000 signatures to sign a letter on the Downing Street Inquiry. Please sign it now, if you haven't already. Write to your Congresspeople here.

Another important piece of information that has been overlooked in this story, as reported in a recent Salon article by Juan Cole, is that Tony Blair had to convince George Bush to go after al-Qaida in Afghanistan, and Bush would only do so in exchange for Britain’s support of the Iraq invasion:

“Astonishingly, the Bush administration almost took the United States to war against Iraq in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. We know about this episode from the public account of Sir Christopher Meyer, then the U.K. ambassador in Washington. Meyer reported that in the two weeks after Sept. 11, the Bush national security team argued back and forth over whether to attack Iraq or Afghanistan. It appears from his account that Bush was leaning toward the Iraq option.

Meyer spoke again about the matter to Vanity Fair for its May 2004 report, "The Path to War." Soon after Sept. 11, Meyer went to a dinner at the White House, "attended also by Colin Powell, [and] Condi Rice," where "Bush made clear that he was determined to topple Saddam. 'Rumors were already flying that Bush would use 9/11 as a pretext to attack Iraq,' Meyer remembers." When British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Washington on Sept. 20, 2001, he was alarmed. If Blair had consulted MI6 about the relative merits of the Afghanistan and Iraq options, we can only imagine what well-informed British intelligence officers in Pakistan were cabling London about the dangers of leaving bin Laden and al-Qaida in place while plunging into a potential quagmire in Iraq. Fears that London was a major al-Qaida target would have underlined the risks to the United Kingdom of an "Iraq first" policy in Washington.

Meyer told Vanity Fair, "Blair came with a very strong message -- don't get distracted; the priorities were al-Qaida, Afghanistan, the Taliban." He must have been terrified that the Bush administration would abandon London to al-Qaida while pursuing the great white whale of Iraq. But he managed to help persuade Bush. Meyer reports, "Bush said, 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.'" Meyer also said, in spring 2004, that it was clear "that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn't be to discuss smarter sanctions." In short, Meyer strongly implies that Blair persuaded Bush to make war on al-Qaida in Afghanistan first by promising him British support for a later Iraq campaign.”

We must inquire if this underreported outrage is true.

-----------------------


BIG BRASS ALLIANCE ASKS FOR YOUR ACTIVISM

Be A Political Activist From Your Computer Chair!

• Write your Representative Now!
• Sign Rep. Conyers' Letter to Bush
• Contact Your Local Media
• Email Everyone You Know
• Print, Copy, Hand Out Flyers

Other information that may be useful:

Memorial Day/Praise bravery, seek forgiveness, By the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Smoking Bullet in the Smoking Gun?
Bloggers Support Call for Resolution of Inquiry
A plea from Military Families Against the War in Britain to friends in America
$1000 Reward for Getting Bush to Answer Question
.
Thanks to Shakespeare's Sister for her dedication to this cause.

Love Makes You Crazy

Or vice versa. Or both.
But it's perfectly natural and we are wired that way. So don't commit suicide yet.

Scientists can actually watch, via brainscans, the mechanics of new love. "It is closer in its neural profile to drives like hunger, thirst or drug craving, the researchers assert, than to emotional states like excitement or affection," according to an article in the NY Times called Watching New Love as It Sears the Brain.

Scientists suggest that the desire to love can be more powerful than the reason to live. People need love as much as they need food and shelter! It's no wonder that people can act so crazy when they are falling in love and even become suicidal when the love isn't returned. Thankfully, new love progresses to a more sane state where affection, companionship and possibly a long term commitment take the place of the blind desire to fall in love. There is a long term commitment part of the brain. Who knew? The part of the brain that registers passionate love is distinct from the part of the brain that registers sexual arousal and attractiveness.

I've read in this article and others, that being dumped heightens romantic love. If you have come to the place where you have internalized some of your beloved's character traits/flaws and it is suddenly removed, it plays havoc, according to scientific findings, with one's "emotional, cognitive and deeper reward-driven areas of the brain." Most of us can relate to that. With time and hopefully without having to see the object of your affection after being dumped, we can recover from this and our passion center in the brain will allow us to find someone new. It's rare for love relationship to go from that to a mutual platonic friendship unless both people are involved with another love. So don't bet on being just friends with your former lover if you've found someone new and your former "other" feels dumped. It is scientifically and biologically not going to happen.

My thoughts after reading some of these articles (see below for links) and still not fully digesting these findings seem to prove that the old adage of "not shitting where you eat" is a good one. If a relationship should end and the object of your desire is still in your life, it will take much longer to heal and it can bring you to temporary (hopefully temporary) insanity. Conversely if you move on without the consent of your once beloved, be prepared to be stalked. Now they tell me. It's a chemical thing. They can't help it. When you haphazardly play with such a strong biological and chemical reaction, you ARE playing with fire.

When they say, Love is real. They aren't kidding.

More Reading
THE Biochemistry Of What You Feel
Brain in Love and Lust
The Chemistry of Love
Learning to See Things From Your Partner's Point of View
The Science Of Love
.

Satirical Bush Poster Banned After Complaint

Posters that depicted Presnut bush with a Groucho Marx-style mustache and cigar were ordered torn down at a high school after a student complained. Seems the theater students, who had created the posters to advertise a satirical play, countered with new posters with a First Amendment message.

The principal ordered 100 posters removed from the campus of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills tow weeks ago on grounds that they promoted smoking and "endorsing one ideology over another." Gee, didn't Groucho Marx smoke cigars?

The school-funded posters were advertising the student's play, "The Complete History of America (Abridged), " which satirizes the U.S. history.

A senior who supports the presnut wrote a complaint letter to the administration, teachers. The principal asked the drama students to come up with new posters. The new designs all feature a silhouette of bush and a burning cigar, along with inscriptions such as "Free Expression for All (unless you are in high school)" and "What First Amendment?"

This story warmed my heart. Maybe the youth of America aren't as ready as our government thinks to live in a police state. [link to story]

Bush Joke Prompts Yearbook Recall

From the Associated Press

"Winfield, Colo.---High school yearbooks were recalled so that administrators could black out a joke caption under one student's picture: "Most likely to assassinate President Bush."

Mesa Ridge High School officials recalled about 100 yearbooks earlier this month and had staffers use markers to obscure the words in them and in the still-un-distributed copies. The Secret Service even launched an investigation.

"They kind of ruined our yearbook," said Christina Tredway, who just graduated from the school just south of Colorado Springs. Most Students thought the blacking-out was a bad idea because the caption obviously was a joke, she said.

Widefield School District officials called the caption a prank that wasn't caught before the yearbooks were printed, district spokesman James Drew said.

Lon Garner, special agent in charge of Secret Service's Denver District, said that all threats against the president must be investigated."

Give me a break! Do you really consider this a serious threat to the presnut?

There were several other joke captions in he book, including "most likely to forget his gown at graduation." Am I crazy or what? Wait, don't answer that. But seriously, dose this make ya kinda wonder if the secret service doesn't have to much time on their hands?

Memorial Day

I have been really angry lately. May be it is all the pressure on me to study and retake the Bar in July. May be it is the war, President Bush, the Senate. May be it is every time I look at television someone else says something incredibly stupid. (Note to Tom Cruise. Leave Brooke Shields alone.) I am so pissed that I am pissed!

Anne Lamott's new book Plan B is a must. No, it won't help you with your anger, but at least you won't be alone with your anger. She is really angry, too.

____

Memorial Day. When my dad went to work for himself and couldn't afford health insurance, I had a come to Jesus with him about his service to his country. Dad was eligible for V.A. benefits.

When he was in his early twenties, he had a friend at the draft board who told him he was going to be drafted and sent to either Korea or Southeast Asia and that he should join the National Guard. So he did. President Kennedy then called my dad's unit to active duty for the Berlin Wall Crisis and then the Cuban Missile Crisis. My parents had just bought a new house and new furniture and found that they were going to have me. My dad lost his job, they lost the house and furniture but the Army paid for me.

So, I convinced my dad to get to the V.A. for his health care because, while he considered it charity, I told him I thought it was pay back for his sacrifice. Our sacrifice.

It is difficult for me to remember my dad's status as a veteran. I can't really sympathize with it. He never really talked about his experiences, except to tell me that even though I had two college degrees in political science and foreign service, I didn't know anything about war. Even though I had studied the Cold War in the Soviet Union in 1983, that I was just ignorant about war. Once because my dad was angry with me over my voiced opposition to our conflict of the month in Panama, before my husband could stop him, he beat me in my own home, after he kicked in my locked bedroom door. That wasn't the first time, but it was the last and I remember it more vividly than the other incidents. And there were more than I can recall. My marriage, my college degrees, my integrity as another human being were no match for his military training and his untreated rage at his horrific childhood.

When the police got to my and my husband's home, my father told them that I had been seeing a psychiatrist and was on medication. The cop told him, "I don't care if she is certifiable, you have no right to hit her. Ever."

Somehow the fact that I was trying to cope with his rage gave him, in his mind, the ability to beat me with no shame. He confessed to the police that he was beating me because I was getting treated for depression?

His parents stole money from him when he was a boy that he raised selling seeds for a school project and allowed the school to tell him he would go to jail. They abandoned him and his younger brothers in a house until an older brother defied his father and went back for them. The floors in his childhood homes were dirt and he washed and ironed and rotated his two shirts so he would have clean clothes for school.

He told me about those things, but not how he felt about them. He beat me regularly and never once apologized for the rage or how I triggered it.

I didn't want for anything material as a child. Just safety from the fear of him threatening me in front of my friends, beating me for not picking up my toys when I was eighteen months old, the migraines I had at five because I was so afraid. Afraid that I would get in trouble at school and he would beat me when I got home. Afraid of going to school because he beat me the night before. Afraid of my mother going to work because I told her he had choked me when she left me with him.

This Memorial Day, I wish I could talk to my father about how the V.A. could help him with his anger. When he got cancer, he went to therapy groups, and he even makes public speeches about his survival. But he never sought help for his cancerous rage. We kept it a secret and told no one.

I now wonder how I survived him. I never thought about surviving him then. I just never knew when it was going to happen. May be I sneezed and the mucus through my fingers before I could grab a tissue would set him off. May be I didn't sweep the grass off the sidewalk right. There are times now, even when I know that he is eight hours by car away from me, I think I see him when I am out and about living my life. He haunts me. I see him. And then I realize that it isn't him, just a man that looks like him. And sometimes it doesn't even really look like him.

A few days ago, when the local paper reported that a man was sentenced to prison for beating his daughter to death with his belt, I disassociated for several hours. My psychologist once asked me if I was aware that my dad could have killed me. I said no. I didn't know that he could. I really wasn't present for the beatings. I told my doctor of how when I was small I was playing with some children and I imagined that I was a dog. I took my dad's belt off the door nob on his bedroom door and bit it and shook it. I was two and I was trying to kill that evil snake.

He took one of my dogs away one day. I don't know what triggered that episode, but the dog was so afraid of him, he urinated every time my dad touched him. I can't let a stray animal alone now. I can't go in pet stores without wanting to bring them all home with me.

Today, on this Memorial Day, I am thinking of my mother's brother's wife's brother. My mother's brother in law. His body was found in a parked car on a construction site in California a few weeks ago. We are still awaiting the tox report, we don't know what killed him. He was a Viet Nam vet. He wasn't ever comfortable after the war. I wish I was one of those people who could say that he is comfortable now. But I am not. He is just dead. He died alone.

Outrageous

'What would happen in this country if the young women would say no [to sex] until they're 20?' he asked. 'Disease would go down, the pregnancy rate for unwed mothers would go down, the social costs for the next two generations would go down.'
-Sen. Tom Coburn in a slide show shown to Capitol Hill staffers about the ravages of STDs. Washington Times

Early starts, late nights and endless meetings may be good for the bank balance, but professional women beware. You could be making your husband sick.

Research will this week say that the more committed and successful a woman is at work, the worse her partner feels. The findings blame a syndrome called "unfulfilled husband hypothesis" for making men feel inadequate when women stray too far beyond their traditional roles. The man of the house, it seems, is still not cut out for domesticity.
- A New Report via Feministing

They [Muslim women] are there for hymenoplasties, or the repair of hymens, which, when intact, are widely recognized as evidence of virginity. The surgeries could save their lives, noted the physicians who perform them, because, according to some interpretations of Islamic law, if a male relative suspects them of having premarital sex, the woman is a criminal. In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, the penalty could be death.
- From: Restoring Virginity Becomes Risky Business

Fascism Anyone? A Reminder

The 14 characteristics of Fascism
by Dr. Lawrence Britt
Free Inquiry magazine, Spring 2003

Dr. Britt, a political scientist, studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). He found the regimes all had 14 things in common, and he calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. ]

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -- Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -- Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to 'look the other way' or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -- The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military -- Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism -- The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and antigay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media -- Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or through sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security -- Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -- Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected -- The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed -- Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -- Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -- Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses, and even forego civil liberties, in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -- Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions, and who use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections -- Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against (or even the assassination of) opposition candidates, the use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and the manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

In Memoriam

Break out those white shoes, baby. It's Memorial Day. It's time to remember those who died on behalf of their country. To commemorate the occasion, Jones Beach State Park will charge $8 admission for the next 3 months. Payless is having a sale on white shoes. The boyscouts are marching with the few vets left from WWII.

Yesterday, Jones Beach presented the Thunderbirds, an aerial demonstration of millions of dollars of flying war machines to dazzle the youngsters and old alike. I did not attend as the planes flew over my house for most of the morning anyway whereby I could contemplate the speed of sound, the Doppler effect and sonic booms... not to mention how much fuel these babies were burning. I was busy with my pre-cookout preparations and icing the beer. Boom!

I read in Newsday this morning that military recruiting booths were also set up at the beach yesterday. I'm now sorry I missed that as harassing recruiters is one of my favorite pastimes. I'd pay $8 for that. I can picture the used car salesmen of the military telling the children that flying planes in loop the loops is but the least of the magnificent opportunities available to those willing to sign up to fight in America's undeclared wars and kill the terr'rists from Iraq (heh) who changed our view to the west. "See that nothingness over yonder? You used to be able to see the WTC's from the beaches back in the day. Now you can kill those who removed our symbols of freedom."

Last evening as our friends got drunker in my backyard, we spent several moments remembering 'dubya dubya too' as was recounted by our parents. That was a time of sacrifice in our country. Everyone did their part, unlike today when we are told to go shopping.

My dad "fought" the great war from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands watching out for submarines from under a lime tree wearing binoculars around his neck. Don't ask. He told me about his discovery of "Cuba Libres" (rum and coke with lime) which eventually became my favorite cocktail. I recalled how my dad brought the family to St Thomas years later to show us the 'battle grounds'. Daddy, let's see if we can find the lime tree that prevented you from getting scurvy.

My father in law stormed the beaches at Normandy but lost track of his platoon because his jeep was AWOL. He was in charge of arranging food and artillery for the troops. He, uh, was the only one to survive from his platoon.

My mother in law was an Army nurse in London. She saw more devastation and death than any of our fathers. I once asked her if she ever wanted to visit Europe again and she said, "No, everything is so old there. Too much rubble."

My dad married a woman he met on St Thomas (she later died in childbirth). My father in law met my mother in law at a USO dance in London. He was a hep cat and digging the band. She was a country girl from Massachusetts and thought he was a pompous New Yorker, but oh could he dance. My mom was doing her patriotic duty by dancing with the GI's who came to Manhattan during the war. She was engaged to a man who never returned.

That was a different war. No one wants to talk about the Vietnam war though. It's funny though, how in retrospect, Nixon doesn't seem like such a bad guy afterall. He didn't hide from the protesters like some people. A lot of men and women never returned from wars. After Vietnam, many of us believed that something like that would never happen again.

There's a good editorial at the Mn Star Tribune today. An excerpt:

In exchange for our uniformed young people's willingness to offer the gift of their lives, civilian Americans owe them something important: It is our duty to ensure that they never are called to make that sacrifice unless it is truly necessary for the security of the country. In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed them; we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes. Perhaps it happened because Americans, understandably, don't expect untruths from those in power. But that works better as an explanation than as an excuse.

What're They Trying To Sneak Past Us This Weekend?

Rant, rave, inform.
Here's an interesting thought I came across somewhere:
It's not a war about oil.
It's not a war about money.
It's not a war about empire.
Or, maybe it's a war about all of the above.
It's a war of genocide.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
One entry found for genocide.
Main Entry: geno·cide
Pronunciation: 'je-n&-"sId
Function: noun
: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group

Quote for the Day--Memorial Day, 2005

"Only among men is Nature's Law of 'Survival of the Fittest' thwarted
and indeed, reversed; for in almost every generation the fittest are sent forth to be
slaughtered by orders of the stunted, the twisted, and the senile". -- Sidney J. Harris

The Fascists Try to Take Over the Weather

Santorum tries to privatize the freaking weather in order to help the private weather companies in his state. So now the whole senate has to be involved in this nonsense while the middle class is being systematically eradicated before our eyes.

President said Another Darnedest Thing

“Asked if the Iraqi insurgency was getting more difficult to defeat militarily, Bush answered with a classic Dubya-ism.

"No, I don't think so," he said, "I think they're being defeated. And that's why they continue to fight."

It's the sort of answer that makes you pause and scratch your head for just long enough to give him a chance to change the subject. He's quite masterful at doing this, which made me wonder if he hadn't taken Karzai aside before the press conference and whispered in his ear, "Listen, Hammie, these reporters are tricky. You better let me handle 'em. I've got 'em wrapped around my finger with this whole newspeak war-is-peace idea Karl found in some book from the 1980s."

Sun Times There’s some great stuff in this article

Under the heading of, read it and weep, today.

Analysts Behind Iraq Intelligence Were Rewarded

“Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.”

The film US TV networks dare not show

If you don’t know about this film you absolutely must read the entire article. This ought to get you going.

“The Power of Nightmares” by Adam Curtis

“But the film is even more incendiary for its analysis of what Curtis controversially insists is the largely illusory fear of terrorism in the west since 9/11. Curtis argues that politicians such as Bush and Blair have stumbled on a new force that can restore their power and authority - the fear of a hidden and organised web of evil from which they can protect their people. In a still-traumatised US, those with the darkest nightmares have become the most powerful and Curtis's film castigates the media, security forces and the Bush administration for extending their power in this way. "It has really touched a nerve with people who realise something is not quite right with the way terrorism has been reported."

For these reasons, one might well think that The Power of Nightmares would provide a usefully chastening corrective to the prevailing orthodoxy if it were shown on US television. But it seems extremely unlikely that it will be. While a two-and-a-half -hour film version is to be given a prime-time Cannes screening, and while the original three-hour series will be shown tonight on al-Jazeera along with a live interview with the director, US telly has run scared from showing it. "Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11," says Curtis.”

Childless Couples Need To Try Having Sex If They Want To Start A Family

From Ananova:

Childless couple told to try sex
A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless - they weren't having sex.

The University Clinic of Lubek said they had never heard of a case like it after examining the couple who went to see them last month for fertility tests.

Doctors subjected them to a series of examinations and found they were both apparently fertile, and should have had no trouble conceiving.

A clinic spokesman said: "When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: "What do you mean?".

"We are not talking retarded people here, but a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate."

The 30-year-old wife and her 36-year-old husband are now being given sex therapy lessons while the university clinic undertakes a study to try to find out if there are more couples with a similar lack of sex education.

Thanks to astute reader Paul A. for the heads up on this most interesting story. I find it especially puzzling because this couple knew about fertility clinics but didn't know about sex? C'mon. Really now.

Should I Talk Into It?

Most Media Activists Are Over 40

Interesting article in alternet.org on this subject. It claims "Getting young people to give up their school breaks for a policy conference is not an easy task, though Free Press should be commended for attracting as broad a range as it did. The Youth Caucus that gathered about 40 partakers, revealed a broad cross-section from different sides of the map. There were 14-year-old high school students who in some cases heard about media reform for the first time, as well as 30-year-old veteran student organizers."

Getting young people together for a policy conference? yawn. Progressives suck at marketing compared to the Rovian genius that sucks millions of Americans into its yaw. Progressive parents can do a lot to get their kids involved in the movement but to get most kids involved you need to have a marketing strategy and stage a multimedia event with today's top politically active bands and musicians. Keep the message short... keep it simple... keep it free. It can be done. A movement can be started on campuses across America when the marketing majors over 40 put their heads together.

DeLay angry at Law & Order, but not Boston Legal

"WASHINGTON -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is upset that a popular NBC crime drama used his name as part of its show.DeLay wrote NBC to complain that one of the characters on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" invoked his name in a story line about the shooting death of a federal judge.

"Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt," the fictional [female] police officer [sic, detective] said.

DeLay, in a letter to NBC Universal Television chief Jeff Zucker, called that reference a "slur."

"This manipulation of my name and trivialization of the sensitive issue of judicial security represents a reckless disregard for the suffering initiated by recent tragedies and a great disservice to public discourse," he said.DeLay, R-Texas, criticized the federal judiciary after the courts refused to stop the death of Terri Schiavo. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," he said in a statement on March 31, hours after Schiavo died."

--snip--

It was not a trivialization of judicial security, DeLay's remarks were the insensitive remarks which appeared to open season on judges that follow the law and not DeLay.

Notice, however, when William Shatner's character, the eccentric if not unbalanced Denny Crane, said in an ABC episode, "Boston Legal": "Tom DeLay always told me to keep a gun in my office," DeLay didn't fire off a letter. While, arguably ABC's shot at DeLay was, while made by a male character, more sarcastic because Shatner's character is considered the "Boston Legal"'s less than stable legal eagle.

Message. DeLay has no sense of humor. Kathryn Erbe's character said what millions of Americans are thinking. He also doesn't understand a subversive attack on how idiotic he is. He wasn't upset that William Shatner's character said that his character, a loose cannon, takes security advice from DeLay who is a dare I say it, a loose pop gun. He also doesn't understand that he has a negative impact on the culture he so desperately wants to dictate. He has become a household word for "out of control" and an associate of "the lunatic fringe."

Of course the "Law and Order" episode ran this week when yet another DeLay associate finds himself in trouble with the law. Seems a treasurer of one of DeLay's tentacle like political action committees didn't report hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. DeLay gets that off the front page by fighting with a fictional television show.

Ask Dan Quayle how successful it was for him to fight fictional television character, Murphy Brown. You can catch Candice Bergen on "Boston Legal". There is a whole generation of young people who wouldn't know Dan Quayle if he appeared as a guest villain on "Law and Order".

Letter to Pres Bush Concerning "Downing Street Memo"

In addition to other statements, the letter which can be signed and e-mailed by those who so choose, contains these questions:

"As a result of these concerns, we would ask that you respond to the following questions:
1) Do you or anyone in your administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
2) Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization to go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain’’s commitment to invade prior to this time?
3) Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
4) At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
5) Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to “fix” the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?"

Access the entire letter HERE.

"Love Is Blind" for real this time:

Some Viagra users report blindness-Pfizer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators said on Friday they have received more than 40 reports of a type of blindness in men taking impotence drugs, mostly involving Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra, but have not determined if the medicines were responsible.

Here's the rest of the article for those of us who can still see.

Presidents Say the Darnedest Things

May 25, 2001

“Another 3,800 sailors and Marines stand guard nearby with the Boxer amphibious ready group, deterring and mischief Saddam might contemplate. The USS Enterprise is in the Mediterranean, along with the Kearsarge amphibious ready group. They're supporting NATO efforts to maintain peace in the Balkans and deterring those who would break the peace. And in the Pacific, the USS Kitty Hawk is on call, ready, if needed, to defend America's interests.”

--George W. Bush—

Commencement Speech to Naval Academy Whitehousenewsreleases

(Note this was months before 9-11-01 but he was already talking about Saddam’s “mischief”)


Today

The Commencement Speech to Naval Academy Foxnewslink

“The U.S. military is on the offensive in the War on Terror to prevent terrorists from reaching America's shores, President Bush said Friday, adding that 20 years from now, historians will look back on the Iraq war as "America's golden moment."

(Someone please define “America’s golden moment”. Is it like the moment when we are pissing on the world?)


May 26, 2005

Rose Garden with President Abbas Whitehousereleases:

“And so I'm -- I think there's something healing about asking people to vote. And hopefully, as more people participate and more people see progress on the ground, in terms of real tangible benefits when it comes to democracy -- like being able to make a living, or being able to send your child to a school that works, or being able to get good quality health care -- that more and more people will reject the notion that the only state based upon violence is a positive state.”

--George W. Bush--

(Okay, I just tossed this one in because it’s so bush-like)

Clinton Finance Director Acquitted of Fundraising Charges

From Foxnews:

Another Clinton Hunting Trip comes back empty. How many have there been?

All those hunting trips and all they have found is a lie about a sexual encounter. Either they aren’t good hunters or there is nothing for them to find.

Friday Goddess Blogging

Some bitchy repressed scientist lady says:

"...female orgasms are simply artifacts -- a byproduct of the parallel development of male and female embryos in the first eight or nine weeks of life. ...In boys, the penis develops, along with the potential to have orgasms and ejaculate, while "females get the nerve pathways for orgasm by initially having the same body plan."

Mark Morford says:

"Woman's orgasm has no evolutionary purpose? Bull. Woman's orgasm is proof of evolution, baby. Spiritual, karmic, celestial evolution. It is what propels us forward, brings us light and awareness and deep laughing cosmic moan and makes much of life worth living. And if we lose our grip on that notion and insist on devolving at our current rate, we will be in deep trouble indeed."

Mark's got it going on.

Friday Florida Cat Blogging

Fred the Cat, Listens for the Sound of the Ocean

What do you hear when you read this sentence?

“The problem was signaled when the 9/11 attack on America did not generate the enlistments expected.”

I lifted the sentence from a piece by Robert Novak (Chicago Sun-Times).

He’s writing about recruitment being down. It’s worth reading the entire article.

I'LL BE REMEMBERING THIS STORY ON MEMORIAL DAY:

TITLE: The FBI, the Torture and Murder of Kenneth Trentadue and Advanced Knowledge of the Oklahoma City Bombing

SUBTITLE: Uncovering a DOJ Coverup

AUTHOR: Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration

OPENING PARAGRAPHS: "In 1995 Kenneth Trentadue was murdered by federal agents in a federal prison in Oklahoma City. A coverup immediately went into effect. Federal authorities claimed Trentadue, who was being held in a suicide-proof cell, had committed suicide by hanging himself, but the state coroner would not buy the story.

"Prison authorities tried to get family consent to cremate the body. But Trentadue had been picked up on a minor parole violation, and the story of suicide by a happily married man delighted with his two-month old son raised red flags to the family.

"When the Trentadue family received Kenneth's body and heavy makeup was scraped away, the evidence (available in photos on the Internet--GRAPHIC!) clearly shows a person who had been tortured and beaten. His throat was slashed and he may have been garroted. There are bruises, burns and cuts from the soles of Trentadue's feet to his head, wounds that obviously were not self-inflicted".

REST OF STORY: In Counterpunch

Slain Soldier's Mom Rejected by Gold Star

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Everyone agrees that Ligaya Lagman is a Gold Star mother, part of the long line of mournful women whose sons or daughters gave their lives for their country. Her 27-year-old son, Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Lagman, was killed last year in Afghanistan, but American Gold Star Mothers Inc., has rejected Lagman, a Filipino, for membership because - though a permanent resident and a taxpayer - she is not a U.S. citizen. Rest of AP article:


And how do we treat our own citizens?: (From Tom Feeley at ICH)
Charge Him or Release Him
Jose Padilla : U.S. Citizen Imprisoned Without Trial or Charges
for 3 Years and 18 Days

Play Nice

What’s wrong with us? Why can’t our side ever win? I’ll tell you why. Everything that makes us liberal also makes us just too damned honest and nice. We don’t aspire to confrontations. We try to play by the rules. We aren’t comfortable telling lies. That, my dears, is why we are getting our liberal asses kicked daily. We are lying and cheating challenged.

The game is no longer played by a set of rules, but we continue to obey the rules of the old game. We all cringed when President Clinton went on TV and told us he had in fact gotten a bj. We didn’t give a good damn about what he had done, it was his lying that made us angry or sad or both. None of us saw it as the unforgivable transgression the Repubs did, but rather, damn it, he told a story, a fib, a lie. So we tried to rationalize why he did it and so forth. At least I did. I always felt his punishment was the morning he confessed to his wife. I would think that would be one of the most difficult situations any man could have to face. But see, it wasn’t enough for the Republicans. They made it the transgression of all evil transgressions, and ergo an impeachable offense. I swear that if bush had not totally screwed our country and had been even a half decent human being, and if he were to be caught lying about a bj, there is no way in hell I would think he should be impeached.

Now we are in a disastrous war that was entered into based upon, shall we say lies. We aren’t raising hell because we aren’t by nature hell raisers. Sure we spout and spurt our unhappiness about the insanity, but that’s all we do. Everything inside us knows that bush should be impeached because he has ventured out way beyond lying about sex. He lied about life and death issues. Sure he knew he was lying when he repeated information that Tenet had told him was wrong. That’s a lie. He lied. He did the very same thing that Clinton did except the stains left behind are blood stains on the sands of Iraq. That’s bush’s blue dress and the stains are only too visible.

They tell us to question the war is to tell the families of the fallen soldiers that their sons and daughters died in vain. No it’s not. To question the war is to tell the families that their fallen sons and daughters died because the president of the United States lied to them. Tell them the truth. Tell them it was all bullshit. Let them get mad too. They should. They deserve to be allowed to get mad and raise holy hell about the wool that was pulled over their eyes. Remind them of the speech on the Abraham Lincoln and all the other sleight of hand that has been choreographed by this administration. Tell them we support the troops and not just by slapping a magnet on the ass end of our car. Tell them we support bringing their kids back home, not sending more to die. I call that support, don’t you? We support the culture of life that keeps kids from dying in war. Couldn’t be any simpler that that.

We don’t slap anti-war magnets on our cars, because the good Christian followers of the bush doctrine would most likely key the hell out of our cars. Do we key the cars with their magnets? Hell no! Why? Because we are just too damned nice. We respect other people’s property and rights and opinions, as misguided as we may see them to be. We’ll stand up for someone else’s right to call us unpatriotic assholes because we still believe in free speech. We play by the rules and we think if we play that way long enough we can win the game. That’s the way it used to be. Used to be that honesty and fair play was rewarded. Now honesty and fair play seem to result in getting your butt kicked royally and repeatedly. Meanwhile, the other team makes their own rules and breaks them on a whim. There’s no honesty or fair play involved, but they just keep on scoring. Is it time for us to come up with new rules or shall we just keep playing nice and getting our asses kicked? We’ll keep playing nice because we can’t play any other way. We’re liberals.

What Really Scares Me

At Corrente there are some dots and when you connect them the picture is worse than frightening.

What picture do you see after reading this post?

Almost All Life is Precious

“US forces have shot dead a child which they say was being used as a human "shield" during an exchange of gunfire near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul”.

But no fetuses or embryos were harmed.

Well At Least it Wasn’t a Bomb

(LINK)
Hey, this is a story from Florida, do you think it’ll be sorta weird? I know, you answered “yes” without even thinking, and you were damned sure right.

See someone was driving down the road. They saw something in the road that looked like a pipe bomb. Well holy shit, they go into full panic alert. The mental threat level goes above red, it’s some color we haven’t even given a name to yet. Alerts go out. Alerts come in. We have alerts flying all over the place. People sweat. People cry. Families huddle together and watch their lives flash before them like a family picture book in the wind. Mothers kiss their babies good bye. Fathers actually turn the TV from ESPN to the news station. Life is in turmoil. What to do? What to do? Do we bring in fighter jets? Do we alert george Jr. during his bike ride? Hell, what do we do?

Wait, someone has been brave enough to approach the “pipe bomb” Wait, what the hell is that? Ah, it doesn’t look like anything most of us have ever seen. We’ve heard men speak of them but we’ve never seen one. What the hell is it? Oh my god, look at that!

“"Someone took construction-grade plastic, molded it into a penis and wrapped it with duct tape," said Lee County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Charles Ferrante. "They wrote 'Happy Father's Day' on the duct tape."

The device — discovered by a motorist shortly after 3 p.m. Monday — was first described by the sheriff's office as a prosthetic penis. However, it was later released that it was plastic that had been molded to look like a penis.

Ferrante later spoke with a member of the bomb squad who described it in more detail.”

Some one spoke with a “member”? The damned thing talks?

"Somebody molded it to look like a penis," Ferrante said. "It was not detected until the suspicious package was removed."

A motorist called the sheriff's office about a suspicious package on the side of the road under the northbound I-75 overpass.

The object was more than a foot long and looked like a pipe bomb.”

Did he really say “suspicious package”?

I guess for a guy, a penis over a foot long would be da bomb.

Both lanes of I-75 were closed for about an hour during the capture of the pretend plastic pee-pee.

ACLU Says Not So Fast

Maybe Scotty should apologize to Newsweek now. Maybe Scotty should be asked by Newsweek to say something nice about them. Seems it’s Scotty’s turn to check his sources. According to the FBI files obtained by the ACLU, somebody has some splanin’ to do. Scottyyyyyyy?
Click here for some fascinatin' readin'

Bill Maher answers Congressman Bachus

...a congressman, there's someone who can actually DO SOMETHING to help our troops. In fact, a case could be made that it's a lot more treasonous for someone in his position to be wasting his time yelling at a comedian. Shouldn't he be training his outrage at such problems as troops not having enough armor? Wouldn't that ACTUALLY support our troops more? And citizens of this country who claim to support our troops should write this man and tell him GET BACK TO WORK! DO SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO SOLDIERS IN IRAQ!

full story

Not surprising news

Not only is Gitmo the Gulag of our Times, according to the FBI files, the Koran was reported as being flushed down the toilet. Of course the Pentagon says that it's not true.

Here's some more stuff that was reported in this Washington Post article (I wonder if they will have to retract it?):

About a dozen of the FBI interviews included allegations that guards or interrogators at Guantanamo Bay either mishandled the Koran to outrage prisoners or engaged in religiously offensive behavior that included, in one instance, throwing a prisoner's prayer cap in the trash.

The records also include numerous allegations that guards or interrogators at Guantanamo Bay used sexually suggestive techniques designed to humiliate Muslim men. One said he was forced to stand naked in front of a female interrogator. Another said he was "touched sexually" by male guards.

The government has said two female interrogators at Guantanamo Bay have been reprimanded for sexually related techniques, including one for smearing ink on a detainee and telling him that it was menstrual blood.

The FBI records also include at least 19 separate allegations of beatings or other severe violence on the part of guards or others in control of the prisoners in Afghanistan or at Guantanamo Bay. One captive said he was kicked in the stomach, back and head by U.S. military personnel at an unknown location and suffered a broken shoulder.

"The evidence that there was systemic and widespread abuse of detainees in U.S. custody continues to mount and the government continues to turn a blind eye to this evidence," said Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer.

.

New Leads In The Johnny Gosch Case

Breaking News in the Gosch/Guckert/Gannon Case
Here's some quotes:

"A cold case is heating up. Iowa paperboy Johnny Gosch vanished without a trace in 1982. But, now, after KWWL's story last month on Johnny's disappearance, there is new information on the case.

"A private investigator working Johnny's disappearance believe his kidnapping was part of a government conspiracy....Rothstein now believes the CIA was involved and tried cover it up.

"This man has told us that at the end of their investigation that there were 834 kids involved that were kidnapped," says James Rothstein."

Here's the link: KWWL CHANNEL 7 WATERLOO, IOWA


I'm beginning to slightly revise my estimate of NBC, of which KWWL is an affiliate. I guess we'll have to see if the politicos start running for cover. Sure have been a lot of outages lately.

US Gulag? You Bet!

Scotty Says, Am Not, Am Not, Am Not.

LONDON May 25, 2005 — “ Amnesty International castigated the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay as a failure Wednesday, calling it "the gulag of our time" in the human rights group's harshest rebuke yet of American detention policies.

Amnesty urged Washington to shut down the prison at the U.S. Navy's base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 540 men are held on suspicion of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network. Some have been jailed for more than three years without charge.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Amnesty's complaints were "ridiculous and unsupported by the facts." He said allegations of prisoner mistreatment are investigated.”

More here

.

Culture of Life, Indeed.

By Aikane
(Blondesense reader and POP's brother in love)

I have long held that the "culture of life" is actually the "culture of Republicanism," which is nothing beyond the detestable human trait of feeling superior to someone else.

Find a group to hate--the interchangeable liberals, socialists and communists, gays and lesbians, baby-killers, welfare cheats, the godless, foreigners in all their manifestations (immigrants, the French)....

Republicanism is simple: If you're not with us, you're the enemy. If you don't vote Republican, you're the enemy. If you oppose anything we want, you're the enemy, even if you're a "pretend Republican" like warhawk John McCain.

Anything going wrong is not my fault; it's the liberal Democrats' fault.

Ultimately, my bank account is bigger than your bank account and my god is bigger than your god. If I can't use my money to kill your "agenda," I'll have my goons kill you politically if you're a traitorous American; I'll have my army kill you if you're a foreigner. Otherwise, god will do the dirty work.


Thank you for your rant, Aikane.

Irony Watch

The headline of my local paper, Newsday, caught my attention this morning. A very disabled looking little girl is caught up in Medicaid red tape. It seems that the battery needed for her automatic bath chair has been repeatedly denied by Medicaid. A doctor said, "many more requests for specialized equipment have been delayed or denied, leaving thousands of disabled people in the area without equipment that means independence for many." (Story) But isn't this what Medicaid is for? It could happen to any of us or to people we care about. What's the story?

You may remember from a post I submitted earlier this week that Medicaid pays for Viagra... even for sex offenders. For the life of me, I can't understand why Medicaid should pay for erectile dysfunction drugs for anyone. If you're on Medicaid, a limp one is the least of your problems. But President Bushie made it clear that he doesn't mind if Medicaid pays for Viagra just as long as it isn't for sex offenders. I mind. From this article: "The Bush administration is warning states they face federal sanctions if they don't end Medicaid coverage of Viagra for convicted sex offenders, according to a directive obtained Tuesday." The article also states that $38million a year is spent on erectile dysfunction drugs by Medicaid. That money could be used to help immobilized people to become productive.

$38 million is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. Medicaid is ripped off repeatedly by well to do seniors who use it as an inheritance protection program... so that they can get free nursing care. We're all paying for it. Where's the outrage? Most of us won't reap any benefits. Are they deliberately screwing up so that tax payers will revolt and call for an end to social services?

Medicaid and Social Security are needed safeguards for our citizens but it's got to be overhauled. You've got drug addicts collecting SS and men with limp dicks getting viagra for free... as far as I am concerned Bushies's exhortation didn't go far enough. SS could be saved if wasteful spending was eliminated. Medicaid funds could be better used helping handicapped and poor people. Period.

How many times have people bragged to you that they hid all their assets so they could collect? Think about it.

We Shouldn’t Have Ordered the Freedom Fries

Remember Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast?

Who started that silliness? It was Walter Jones, the Republican congressman for North Carolina. (guardian)

“It was a culinary rebuke that echoed around the world, heightening the sense of tension between Washington and Paris in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. But now the US politician who led the campaign to change the name of French fries to "freedom fries" has turned against the war.”

The insanity with the name change continues to this day. But what of Rep. Jones today?

“Walter Jones, the Republican congressman for North Carolina who was also the brains behind French toast becoming freedom toast in Capitol Hill restaurants, told a local newspaper the US went to war "with no justification".
“…an idea Mr Jones said at the time came to him by a combination of God's hand and a constituent's request - he replied: "I wish it had never happened."

Although he voted for the war, he has since become one of its most vociferous opponents on Capitol Hill, where the hallway outside his office is lined with photographs of the "faces of the fallen".

"If we were given misinformation intentionally by people in this administration, to commit the authority to send boys, and in some instances girls, to go into Iraq, that is wrong," he told the newspaper. "Congress must be told the truth."

Senfronia Thompson is the one telling you the way that it is

Molly Ivins reports that Senfronia Thompson, Houston Democrat and member of the Texas House gave her fellow members a piece of her mind and a side order of truth. Of course the Lege, not the one I want to jump from, but the one that runs the State of Texas ignored her and passed laws banning cheerleading ass shaking and gay marriage. Are they not the embodiment of "someone is having fun somewhere and those persons must be stopped?"

Representative Thompson said, "I have served in this body a lot of years, and I have seen a lot of promises broken... So... now that blacks and women have equal rights, you turn your hatred to homosexuals, and you still use your misguided reading of the Bible to justify your hatred. You want to pass this ridiculous amendment so you can go home and brag -- brag about what? Declare that you saved the people of Texas from what?

"Persons of the same sex cannot get married in this state now. Texas law does not now recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions, religious unions, domestic partnerships, contractual arrangements or Christian blessings entered into in this state -- or anywhere else on this planet Earth.

"If you want to make your hateful political statements then that is one thing -- but the Chisum amendment does real harm. It repeals the contracts that many single people have paid thousands of dollars to purchase to obtain medical powers of attorney, powers of attorney, hospital visitation, joint ownership and support agreements. You have lost your way. This is obscene...

"I thought we would be debating economic development, property tax relief, protecting seniors' pensions and stem cell research to save lives of Texans who are waiting for a more abundant life. Instead we are wasting this body's time with this political stunt that is nothing more than constitutionalizing discrimination. The prejudices exhibited by members of this body disgust me.

"Last week, Republicans used a political wedge issue to pull kids -- sweet little vulnerable kids -- out of the homes of loving parents and put them back in a state orphanage just because those parents are gay. That's disgusting.

"I have listened to the arguments. I have listened to all of the crap... I want you to know that this amendment [is] blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry."

If Democrats don't get off their asses, get in the street, get out the vote, they are going to hurt themselves, their friends, their neighbors. Gays should boycott the state, take their money out of Texas investments and institutions, refuse to attend Texas colleges and universities, pull up roots and get the hell out of this wasteland. Anyone with any sense needs to say this is wrong, say it loud, and say it at all those polite social gatherings like church. People should stand up in church and say, "I will not support an institution that supports this evil," and walk out.

Democrats need to stop socializing with the enemy. No one is going to change anyone's mind. Tell your friends if they don't act to stop this, you can't be their friend. This friendly fascism has gone too far.

Civil disobedience is the answer. Jam the streets, boycott businesses, and write to newspapers and television stations and ask them to cover these church sermons and anti-gay protests. Let's have some pro-civil rights protests. I believe in the rule of law, but Hitler used the law to discriminate and to murder.

When your congressmember or statehouse member speaks somewhere, go ask them how they could vote for such discrimination. Get arrested. If protesters can be in front of abortion clinics, why can't protesters be in front of fundamentalist churches? That is where the evil originates in the name of religion.

When is it ever going to be enough? These Christians were the same people who wanted to impeach Earl Warren, go to nuclear war with the Russians, wouldn't vote for a man because he was Catholic, believed Joe McCarthy, hated Roosevelt, hated civil rights, cheered when Kennedy and King were murdered. They have never changed their minds. And all the civil rights laws on the books and in the courts didn't change them at all. Decent people must vote and act. It is the only thing that ever changes anything.

Are You Opposed to Embryonic Stem Cell Research? Put It in Writing

Are you opposed to embryonic stem cell research? If so, I challenge you to draw up a directive similar to a living will. Please create a form and sign it. This form would direct all medical personnel to deny you or your family any medication or treatment derived from embryonic stem cell research whether developed in this country or any other country. Please have your wishes witnessed and notarized. Give a copy to your lawyer and to several friends and family members whom you trust.

The first person I would ask to do this would be George W. Bush, the President of the United States. I would then ask all Senators and Representatives who vote against embryonic stem cell research to do the same thing. This way they may display their sincere dedication and free their conscience of any guilt. They may protect themselves and their families from benefiting from something they say creates life to destroy life, something they condemn as morally wrong. Unless and until they do this, they must allow the research to continue.

To profess to be against embryonic stem cell research but to refuse to sign such a form would display the ultimate hypocrisy.

Senate Deal on Judges May Help Environment

BushGreenWatchLink

This is a must read article for those of us who believe the environment is
worth fighting for.

“But environmentalists appear to have cemented a landmark victory
in the so-called "Gang of 14" deal, reached by a bipartisan
coalition of Senators: namely, the defeat of William Myers, a
long-time grazing and mining lobbyist nominated for the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals. If the Democratic filibuster on Myers
holds, as it should, this will mark the first time in history a
judicial nominee has been defeated primarily on environmental
grounds.”


(You might want to sign up for their daily newsletter while you’re there. I did a long time ago)

House Approves a Stem Cell Research Bill... but

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
May 25, 2005
NY Times
WASHINGTON, May 24 - The House passed a bill on Tuesday to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, defying a veto threat from President Bush, who appeared at the White House with babies and toddlers born of test-tube embryos and warned the measure "would take us across a critical ethical line."

The vote, 238 to 194 with 50 Republicans in favor, fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to overturn a presidential veto, setting up a possible showdown between Congress and Mr. Bush, who has never exercised his veto power. An identical bill has broad bipartisan support in the Senate; moments after the House vote, the Senate sponsors wrote to the Republican leader, Bill Frist, urging him to put it on the agenda.

The article gets weirder and weirder with comments by Frist and Delay...

Bush Receives well-known Accomplice of Posada at the White House

"On Friday, May 20 at the White House Oval Office, US President George Bush received a small Cuban-American delegation headed by terrorist Luis Zúñiga Rey, founder of the Cuban-American National Foundation’s paramilitary committee in Miami, which for years assured the financing and logistics of Luis Posada Carriles’ terrorist activities".

Here's the rest of the article.

A Mental Timeout

I am mentally tired. I don’t know for sure what the compromise in the Senate meant last night but I do know that the two women who were the sisters of evil yesterday afternoon are today very likely to be approved by the Senate. Not sure what changed there. But, it’s happened and there isn’t a whole hell of a lot I can do about it.

There’s not a whole hell of a lot I can do about anything today. I’m whipped out. My brain is on overload trying to understand Iraq, Afghanistan, the president, the congress and all the other questions whirling around in the world we live in today. I know one thing for sure, I don’t like any of it, I’m burned out, and I’m of little good if I’m burned out. Having become literally sick this morning after staying up too late last night and munching on too much chocolate, I have been riding low in the saddle today. When I try to think, I draw a blank.

Here’s my plan for tonight. When Mr. Pop comes home we’ll have a cocktail and then dinner. Later after the pets are fed and in for the evening I’ll get a shower, put on a comfy nightie and get ready to watch to see who wins American Idol. I’m going to sing along with them if I know the words. Maybe I’ll even have another cocktail while my brain runs free. I’m going to put all the ills of the world out of my head tonight. I have to.

That’s how I handle things. When I was in school and the stress got to me, I would buy a copy of MAD magazine and read it just for the hell of it and for the fun of it all. It was like a mental timeout.

So forgive me if tonight I don’t know the important things happening in the world. Forgive me if I don’t pay attention to the news. Forgive me if tomorrow I’m way behind on current events. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I care too much.

Maybe you want to join me tonight. You too get your dinner and your shower. Put on something comfy. Then snuggle in on the couch or the bed and let’s have a drink and sing along with TV, it might be fun for a change. You might need a mental timeout too.

Things Look Bad In Afghanistan, and Familiar

Will There be Two Civil Wars?

“DEFENCE chiefs are planning to rush thousands of British troops to Afghanistan in a bid to stop the country sliding towards civil war, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

Ministers have been warned they face a "complete strategic failure" of the effort to rebuild Afghanistan and that 5,500 extra troops will be needed within months if the situation continues to deteriorate.

An explosive cocktail of feuding tribal warlords, insurgents, the remnants of the Taliban, and under-performing Afghan institutions has left the fledgling democracy on the verge of disintegration, according to analysts and senior officers.”

And

“But American military experts last night claimed an increase in the British presence in Afghanistan would inevitably threaten the numbers committed to Iraq.

Charles Heyman, a senior analyst with the defense information group Jane's, told Scotland on Sunday: "There's no doubt whatsoever that Afghanistan is caught in a very difficult position, where it is very hard to progress without committing more forces.”

There’s more.

Is it just me or does this sound just like the news coming out of Iraq now?

The unknown unknowns of the Abu Ghraib scandal

Seymour Hersh: The 10 inquiries into prisoner abuse have let Bush and Co off the hook
Saturday May 21, 2005 Guardian
Here's a tidbit...

Three days later the army began an investigation. But it is what was not done that is significant. There is no evidence that President Bush, upon learning of the devastating conduct at Abu Ghraib, asked any hard questions of Rumsfeld and his own aides in the White House; no evidence that they took any significant steps, upon learning in mid-January of the abuses, to review and modify the military's policy toward prisoners. I was told by a high-level former intelligence official that within days of the first reports the judicial system was programmed to begin prosecuting the enlisted men and women in the photos and to go no further up the chain of command.

Pre-marriage counseling hits the conservative churches

According to the LA Times in a good article, "It Must Be Love, but Let's Be Sure":

All over the country, social conservatives are examining marriage with a scientific eye. While the Bush administration touts traditional marriage as a centerpiece of its social policy, the country's highest divorce rates are in Bible Belt states such as Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas. The lowest rate — 2.4 divorces a year per 1,000 inhabitants — is found in Massachusetts.

A movement is afoot to rethink the structures around marriage. Lawmakers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Arizona have passed bills creating "covenant marriage," a contract between bride and groom that limits grounds for divorce to extreme conditions including adultery and abuse. Lawmakers in Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, Maryland and Minnesota have passed bills offering a financial incentive for couples who attend counseling or marital education before they marry. In the conservative heartland, couples counseling, offered at many churches, has become ordinary.

Southern churches highly recommend counseling to engaged couples because the divorce rate is much higher among conservative Christians than atheists, agnostics and main stream religions such as Catholic and Lutheran. Gay marriage seems to be the least of conservative Christian's problems. The Catholic church has had counseling before marriage for as long as I can remember. It's a good idea. I took the classes and it really made me think. We ended up postponing our marriage for a year while we got our shit together. It was still no fairy tale.

ReligiousTolerance.org has some very interesting statistics about marriage and divorce by faith/or not. The lowest divorce rate is in the Northeast-probably because most religious people belong to mainstream churches. There are also good reference articles at the bottom of the page. The national divorce rate doesn't appear to be 50% however.

As far as I am concerned:

• Just because you're in love at the time doesn't mean that your marriage is going to work.
• Banning gay marriage isn't going to make a marriage work.
• Avoiding pregnancy before marriage would eliminate some doomed marriages.
• Sow those wild oats before you get married.
• Fairy Tales lie. "They got married and lived happily ever after..." is bogus. It should be "They got married and after the party was over they had to deal with reality and the stresses of life for ever after..."

.

Where's The Beef

From Newswriter's website

The letter your News Writer sent to Ari Rabin-Havt in Sen. Harry Reid’s office upon receiving a copy of Reid’s statement on the compromise:

Dear Sen. Reid,

Sadly, the emasculation of the Democratic party shines through on this deal. True, the right to filibuster judicial nominees remains, a good thing, but I suppose as Democrats can now decide when to filibuster “in extraordinary circumstances,” so can the Republicans decide it’s not “extraordinary circumstances” and invoke the nuclear option.

And watching the number of nominees that will be kept out dwindle was saddening … particularly that in the end, the worst of them all will get a vote, and, most likely, a permanent seat on the appellate court.

Sad, Ari, even recognizing that the alternative was the disastrous handing over of the entire country to one political party. Sad to see that this is the best we can do, and STILL the extremist right screams bloody murder.

Still, it’s good to see Bill Frist and the White House lose one, even if it was a narrow loss.

I counsel my fellow progressives constantly to recognise that there are times when we can’t always get what we want (oh for some Stones tickets), and that we must see the small victories. But it doesn’t mean we don’t keep pushing for more and better, nor that we are not disappointed, or even alarmed, at how much we must give up to make even small gains.

Thanks for your efforts, though. I still have hope we will survive this drive toward theocracy.

.

Found, The Holy Grail of Why Our Country is in so Much Trouble

Check out these USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poles
Note they tell you exactly how the questions were asked and also check out the number for those who gave “neither” or “”never heard of” responses. I’m fairly sure the “no opinion” numbers could be added to the “never heard of” numbers. The “no opinion” folks probably didn’t want to admit they had no idea who the questioner was talking about.

Example taken from the results on the page. I highlighted the numbers that appear here in bold print
.
“Next, we'd like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people -- or if you have never heard of them.”

F. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist

	Favorable	Unfavorable	Never heard of	No opinion
2005 May 20-22	26	24	32	18
2005 APR 29-May 1	32	21	31	16
2005 APR 1-2	26	24	31	19
2003 Jan 3-5	36	11	30	23

Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid

	Favorable	Unfavorable	Never heard of	No opinion
2005 May 20-22	22	19	42	17
2005 APR 29-May 1	21	18	44	17

The Senate Calls a Ceasefire a Compromise

A good compromise means that each side gives up something and neither side is completely happy. The devils lay down their pitchforks and the angels lay down their halos. Neither side is what it used to be and both look more alike.

Sponge bottom Bob’s nemesis is not happy. We are not happy. So maybe we have a compromise. The nuclear option has had a parachute strapped on it’s future and the filibuster can take a deep breath for now but it has to ask permission to move in the future. Seems this part is more of a ceasefire than a compromise in many ways. One thing seems apparent, we will get judges who we don’t like and they won’t get some judges that they do like.

Meanwhile, this happened in Iraq.

A 4-year-old is treated at a hospital Monday after a car bomb exploded outside a mosque in Mahmudiya.

The Old Double Standard

If you're for the fascists, then it's ok to say whatever you want on the air, but "A congressman says comedian Bill Maher's comment that the U.S. military has already recruited all the "low-lying fruit" is possibly treasonous and at least grounds to cancel the show."

Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., takes issue with remarks on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, first aired May 13, in which Maher points out the Army missed its recruiting goal by 42 percent in April.

"More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club," Maher said. "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies."

"I think it borders on treason," Bachus said. "In treason, one definition is to undermine the effort or national security of our country."

read story

What Do You Think?

Was the filibuster compromise a sellout?

Judicial nominee Priscilla Owen gets the vote she's been awaiting for more than four years, the most immediate beneficiary of a deal worked out by Senate moderates to avoid a debilitating fight over filibusters. ugh

I'm with Talk Left on this: "All this compromise did was pass the buck to another day, while allowing three extremist judges to be elevated to lifetime appointments on federal appeals courts."

Crooks and Liars has the rundown on views from the right and left.

Forum on Media Bias

Air America will be broadcasting this today. Be sure to listen at airamericaradio.com

NEWSWEEK FALLOUT
House Dems to hold forum on media bias Tuesday with Franken, Brock, others
By John Byrne | RAW STORY

In the wake of a firestorm on the House floor over a Newsweek article about desecrating the Quran, a dozen members of Congress have planned a forum next Tuesday on media bias, RAW STORY has learned.

Among those scheduled to testify are Air America Radio host Al Franken, Media Matters chief David Brock, AmericaBLOG's John Aravosis, a Washington bureau BBC reporter, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's Steve Rendell and Mark Lloyd, from the progressive thinktank Center for American Progress. Wonkette's Ana Marie Cox has also been invited.

The panel will be hosted by ranking House Judiciary Committee Democrat Rep. John Conyers, Jr (D-MI). [raw story]

SIGN PETITION: Don't Let Republican Leadership "Go Nuclear" on Supreme Court

We could lose our fight against a right-wing Supreme Court takeover before a vacancy and nomination occur if Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist can get 50 votes to pass the “nuclear option,” which would target the 200-year-old Senate filibuster – a tool that empowers 41 or more senators to prevent a narrow majority from abusing its power.

Frist needs the votes of half the Senate plus Vice President Cheney’s tie-breaker to succeed. That means we must win the votes of all 44 Democratic senators, the one Independent, and at least six courageous Republicans to stop him. That’s why we need you to sign the petition that will go to senators whose vote we need to win this fight – and then pass it on!

To get and sign the petition CLICK HERE.

What Tomorrow May Bring

“All presidents seek power, but President Bush is setting a new standard with his efforts to consolidate and expand presidential authority.

He may be on the verge of his biggest victory yet as the Senate debates whether to change its rules for dealing with judicial nominations. A decision to bar Senate filibusters - unlimited debate - against judicial nominees effectively would give Bush a free hand in picking judges. It also would reduce the inherent power of every senator, and the Senate itself, to exert leverage against any president.”

Please read the rest by Ron Hutcheson, here

Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night...

and wouldn't you love to love her...

The Pope Slept Here

I mentioned the other day that a Doritos chip resembling the Pope's hat was auctioned last month on eBay for $1,209. Today I learned that the pope's old apartment in Bonn is listed on German eBay.

Also featured on the site is a copy of a page from a 1962 phone directory, listing a Joseph Ratzinger at the address of the apartment house, "Wurzerstrasse 11" in Bad Godesberg, which is now part of greater Bonn. The pope is said to have lived there from July 1959 to May 1963 when he was a professor at the University of Bonn.

Prisoner Abuse Makes Karzai “Sad”

“President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have signed an agreement calling for increased U.S.-Afghan cooperation on political, economic and security matters.

The White House has yet to release details of the agreement, but both men spoke of a "strategic partnership" during a news conference that followed their meeting at the White House Monday.

Mr. Bush said American troops in Afghanistan will remain under U.S. control despite indications from Mr. Karzai that he would like more authority over them. Mr. Karzai said he was "sad" about recent reports of abuse of Afghan prisoners by U.S. troops, but that it does not reflect on the American people.”

whole story

This is what they say

Novak and O’Reilly speak

Pat Tillman's Death

I Got In A Big Fight With Someone Over This


We were pretty good friends up until then. He knew I was anti-war all the way but we didn't argue over it until one day I got an Email from my friend when Tillman was killed and I thought that he knew Tillman personally the way he went on and on about what a great American he was. I told my friend I was sorry to hear it. That still didn't stop me from saying that it was such a shame that this guy died for nothing. Then I was informed that Tillman was such a patriot that he gave up his lucrative football career to kill the "bad guys". I was still not impressed and perhaps I said something to the effect that he must have been dumb or something like that. I was then accused of being a football bigot. That was pretty much the end of our cordial relationship.

Now I read that Tillman was killed by "friendly fire" which is about the stupidest thing you could ever call this. People who signed up for the military out of anger or fear after 9/11 are not what I would call friendly... but nevertheless, my sympathy goes out to the family of Pat Tillman. Maybe he didn't die in vain afterall. Maybe we learn from this.

More than a year after their son was shot several times by his fellow Army Rangers on a craggy hillside near the Pakistani border, Tillman's mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country. They say the Army's "lies" about what happened have made them suspicious, and that they are certain they will never get the full story.

...

"After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this," Patrick Tillman said. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."

...

"Every day is sort of emotional," Mary Tillman said. "It just keeps slapping me in the face. To find that he was killed in this debacle -- everything that could have gone wrong did -- it's so much harder to take. We should not have been subjected to all of this. This lie was to cover their image. I think there's a lot more yet that we don't even know, or they wouldn't still be covering their tails.

"If this is what happens when someone high profile dies, I can only imagine what happens with everyone else."[Read Story]

Indeed.

They Are Killing Each Other Over There

... and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

They would go on killing each other whether our troops are there or not. It's a civil war now and it's religious. Our troops are getting killed for nothing. This is not about WMD's, Saddam Hussein being a bad man, their freedom, our freedom or anyone's freedom. It's time to bring them home.

Call your representatives today. Tell them that enough is enough.

Someday, It Will be Us

I am about three quarters of the way through the book, “The Kite Runner”, by Khaled Hosseini.

If you haven’t read it, please do. It’s out in paperback now, so you can save a few bucks. This is the most amazing novel I have read in years, maybe ever. You learn what the Russians and then the Taliban did to Afghanistan. I don’t know if the book is going to address what we did to the country or not. As I said I’m not to the end yet. I will tell you that as you read about the destruction of that country, you will be thinking about not only what we did there, but you’ll be thinking about what we are doing to Iraq.

The book isn’t only about the destruction of Afghanistan. There is a second intertwined story. The other story is about relationships and lives. There are so many parts to this other story. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone, but especially men. When you read it, you’ll understand why. If you are a gentleman who might shed a tear while reading, be prepared.

Yesterday morning I read several blogs and news items. I found myself in a funk as I thought about the war and all it encompasses. My post yesterday told you where my head was at the time. Mid-morning Mr. Pop said he would be trying to catch up with some work and he would be using this computer. That’s when I decided to read more of “The Kite Runner”. As I read my way through the story, I found there were tears streaming down my face. At that point the story wasn’t sad, what I was crying about was that I fear someday someone in Iraq will write a book just like this one only they will speak of the crimes and destruction my country caused theirs. We will be the villains. They will tell of our awful treatment of their country. They will tell of our atrocities and our evil ways. The fear and sadness of someday reading that book is what made me cry.

Mr. Pop wanted to take a break from his work about mid-afternoon, and I needed a break from the impact that reading the book had on my emotions. We decided to drive up to our local Target store and pick up a couple of things. As Mr. Pop was driving I tried to explain to him the emotional fallout of the book. I tried, but I couldn’t because the tears began again. They seemed to freely roll down my face and would not stop. I don’t recall a book ever doing that to me before. I would try to talk, but the tears messed up my conversation. Maybe I don’t recall a book ever having that kind of influence on me, because I have never found myself so deeply fearsome of what I see our country becoming. We are becoming the country that other countries will despise for years to come. That’s new to me and I’m not handling it very well emotionally.

I think I was crying for about a million reasons and the story was the straw that broke the salty dam.

Last night I had nightmares. I can’t recall the details but when I awoke at three o’clock this morning I was glad to be awake. Fearful of going back to sleep and reentering the same nightmare zone, I forced myself to get out of bed. I would rather be up and sleepy than asleep and frightened.

Today, no matter what, I will finish reading “The Kite Runner”. I’m almost afraid to begin reading again because I don’t know what to expect. But I know one thing, reading this book has had a profound effect on my life. Not only because it is so beautifully written, not only because the two parallel stories of the book are so amazing, not only because the author is truly gifted, not only because he has the ability to draw you away from reality and right into the story with him, but because it made me realize that I am so very deeply ashamed and afraid of what the future holds for my country. We will suffer for what we have done. I’m sure of that now.

Good Old Medicaid

If you are on Medicaid, erectile dysfunction is the least of your problems. Why the hell should taxpayers be footing the bill for this stuff in the first place? Stories like this make my head spin.

N.Y. Audit Shows Sex Offenders Get Viagra

ALBANY, N.Y. - Scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years, the state's comptroller said Sunday.

Audits by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office showed that between January 2000 and March 2005, 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said.

Hevesi asked Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in a letter Sunday to "take immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers."

A call to Leavitt's office was not immediately returned Sunday.

According to Hevesi, the problem is an unintended consequence of a 1998 directive from federal officials telling states that Medicaid prescription programs must include Viagra. His office discovered that the state was helping sex offenders pay for Viagra by checking Medicaid pharmacy expenditures against the state's sex offender registry.

New York's two senators said Sunday the problem should be corrected.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement that it was "deeply disturbing and runs contrary to the purpose of Medicaid, which is to provide health care coverage for uninsured, low-income individuals." Clinton, a Democrat, urged Leavitt to look into the matter, and said she would explore legislative options.

New York's other senator, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said at a press conference in New York City that he hoped the issue could be resolved without a bill, but he's prepared to offer one if needed.

"While I believe that HHS did not do this intentionally, when the government pays for Viagra for sex offenders, it could well hurt many innocent people," he said.

New York auditors are reviewing whether other prescription drugs for sexual dysfunction are being reimbursed by Medicaid for convicted sex offenders, Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt said.

While the auditors didn't review the situation on Viagra reimbursement by Medicaid in other states, he said they have no indication that the policies are different elsewhere.

How about Medicaid not paying for Viagra? Period. These legislators are hell bent on banning the morning after pill... but god forbid the heavenly viagra.... do you see a pattern here?

America, keeping the men hard and the women knocked up...

Dean, Feisty and Unbowed, Stands By Words on DeLay

"Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said Sunday that Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, was likely to go to jail over ethical transgressions and called on him to step down pending the outcome of inquiries into his actions".

Let 'er rip, Howard. Here's the rest in The NY Times.

And if Delay does get sent up, I must remember to send him the lyrics to that seasonal favorite that goes something like: "There ain't no cure for the Summertime jizumshits". Maybe we could get some of that army crew that are facing time for the Abu Ghraib business to interrogate him while he's in the slammer. I always wondered why they referred to it as the "slammer". Now I know. PoLT prepares to laugh himself to sleep tonight.

This Week in Laura

Laura Bush Visits the Middle East

'' "We're reminded again of what every one of us would want. ... What we all want is peace and the chance that we have right now to have peace, to have a Palestinian state living by a secure state of Israel, both living in democracy, is as close as we've been in a really long time," she said at an ancient home of Islamic spiritual leaders. '' [Protesters Mob Laura Bush in Jerusalem]


" "Women who have not yet won these rights are watching,'' Bush said at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Center on the banks of the Dead Sea. ``Freedom, especially freedom for women, is more than the absence of oppression. It's the right to speak and vote and worship freely. Human rights require the rights of women. And human rights are empty promises without human liberty.'' " [Laura Bush calls on Arabs to embrace women's rights]

" "I think he should have been interrupted, but I'm not going to second-guess the Secret Service that were with him," Laura Bush told reporters during her flight to Jordan to start a five-day visit to the Middle East." [ Laura Bush: President Not Alerted About Plane]

Cries in Darkness

I wonder if he ever hears them. When the president of the United States is alone in his bedroom at the end of the day and he turns off the light, I wonder if he hears them. Does he ever hear somewhere in his head the cries of a soldier as he lays dying? Many say that a wounded and dying soldier will cry out for his mother. I imagine that’s right. I imagine that’s exactly what goes through a dying soldier’s mind, his mother. As he feels his life slipping away, why wouldn’t he want to cling to the woman you gave him that life. She was his source. I wonder if the president ever hears that cry and if he doesn’t, how does he avoid it?

Perhaps he might hear the cries and screams of the tiny children who lay dying in a land far away from the presidential bedroom. Or maybe it’s the sound of mothers and fathers caressing the bodies of their lifeless children. What must those sounds be like? Do they curse the man whose soldiers dropped the bomb or fired the shot? Do they wail at the top of their lungs or do they suffer the deep and retching sobs as only a mother or father can? Do you think those sounds ever make their way to the president’s pillow? How can he avoid hearing this sad concert of sadness?

Maybe there are reasons the president doesn’t hear the mournful cry of the dead and dying, the living and hurting. Maybe he’s praying. Maybe he prays out loud. Maybe he prays as loud as he can to drown out the voices and the sobbing.. Maybe he prays himself to sleep each night and maybe he thinks if he prays loud enough and long enough the cries will fall silent. If he prays, what is he praying for? He’s probably praying that the voices will stop and leave him alone. Will his prayers be answered? They won’t.

Another morning will come, another day will begin. He will have managed to make it through another night. The sun will rise and he may escape the darkness and the voices for one more day. But with the new day will come more voices, more deaths, more pain, more suffering and those new voices will await him on his pillow tonight. Tonight there will be more voices and they will be louder. He will need to pray louder and longer than he did last night. Will he be able to avoid the voices forever? Cries from the darkness never go away. No matter how loud or long he prays, the voices will be patient and they will linger until one day he will be unable to pray any longer or any louder and then he will hear them. He’ll hear them and he may go mad, because once he listens to the sounds of their pain, he will hear it forever. The next cry in the darkness may be his own.

These Colors Don't Run?

Photo by Blondesense Jr.

Wit and Wisdon from a Southern Belle:

(Commenting on "getting along" with her mother-in-law):
"Every time I start to get really upset with her, I always remember that, after all,
she did give birth to the father of my children". -- Julie Mae of Rogers, Arkansas

We love our freedom

UPDATE: This is a satire. This is a real photograph from Iraq but the Fox News headline is photoshopped. But honestly, isn't that the kind of headline you would expect from them?

Oh yes!

Comprehending is Hard Work

From the BBC

“But President George W Bush said he did not think the photos would encourage insurgents in Iraq.

"I don't think a photo inspires murderers. I think they're inspired by an ideology that's so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think."

Spoken like a true idiot-ologist. We comprehend how many of them think. They think a country invaded their country and it’s been a disaster ever since. They have had too many murders and not enough of that life that bush treasures so much. They see, not just this photo, they see the great big picture of reality. What’s so difficult to understand?

What I do have trouble understanding is how he could, in his role as Commander and Chief, lead our country into war based on a fantasy. That’s where the understanding gets tough for me. Now that the cat is out of the WMD bag, I guess we have to try to understand that he was inspired by an ideology too. Sounds pretty barbaric and backward to me.

Bush to Kill Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding in The Name of Life

Bush was all about “life” today as he threatened to veto a bill that would allow taxpayer money for embryonic stem cell research.

He basically says that if you have a horrific disease, tough shit. He’s not going to allow something akin to a minute blob of jelly to be murdered just so you can possibly have a few more years of life to enjoy. So if a bill comes to his desk and anywhere inside is a request for federal money to do more embryonic stem cell research, he will veto the bill and give an embryo a reprieve. How cavalier of him. Brought to you by the same man who sent soldiers to die in Iraq “so we don’t have to fight the terrorists here”. Same man who giggled about Carla Fay Tucker’s execution. But damn, he will save the embryos, cause he’s all about life

"I made very clear to Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayer's money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life - I'm against that," Bush said. "Therefore, if the bill does that, I would veto it."

“Bush began the day at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast where he was cheered for urging people to "pray that America uses the gift of freedom to build a culture of life."
The remark was a public reaffirmation of his position on sensitive issues such as abortion and stem cell research.

Bush recalled the legacy of the late Pope John Paul II and said, "The best way to honor this great champion of human freedom is to continue to build a culture of life where the strong protect the weak."

Culture of Life indeed, but just certain lives, the lives that please his base. Otherwise, to hell with the innocents and soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. To hell with people suffering from life threatening diseases who might benefit from this research. Why don’t their lives qualify to be saved too?

Is the killing of existing human beings okay? Is it the destruction of the tiny blobs of cells that really bothers him? Judging by his actions, guess so.

Quote for the Week:

"Galloway didn't, as some are saying, expose the Republicans.
Someone with a full frontal lobotomy could expose a Republican politician.
He exposed the spinelessness of the Democrats." -- Stan Goff

Someday I hope to See Bush in this Position

hat tip: GD Frogsdong

UPDATE: Wish and you shall receive. Reader, MadMustard made my wish come true below.

Missouri Senator Souffer is a Big Fat Idiot

Calgon take me away! One of Long Suffering friends has practiced as a defense attorney in my county and an assistant prosecutor for the last 12 years, so I read with interest Senator Bill Stouffer's claim that the reason for changing the eligibility rules for Medicaid was to reduce fraud. Yeah right! Those like my friend who executed upon receipt of a completed investigation from the various divisions of the Department of Social Services can spec from experience that in our little county those who fraudulently receive government benefits are vigorously prosecuted upon receipt of a completed investigation from various divisions of the Department of Social Services.

To justify his vote for a bill reducing the availability of Medicaid to the working poor, asswipe Senator Stouffer , cited someone he knew who was apparently fraudulently receiving benefits. One would think that given his obligation to make budget decisions for the 'don't show me state', Senator Stouffer knows which agencies have responsibility for investigating fraud. Well, one would think. Perhaps his staff could call any of the nine prosecutor's offices in the district (including his brother, the prosecuting attorney for Saline County) for this information. Then again, maybe like our invented ruler that would be "hard work." I mean really picking up the phone can just flat wear ya out.

Given his justification for the Medicaid cuts, I took a quick look at this year's appropriation bill for the Department of Social Services. I started with the Division of Legal Services - the agency that does the actual investigations when someone has fraudulently received funds. Comparing last year's budget to this year's budget showed a reduction in staff. Humm.....I moved on to the field staff for income maintenance - the people who initially review applications to make sure that people are qualified to receive Medicaid. Again, there here was a reduction in staff. Finally, I moved to the field staff for Child Support Enforcement - the people who make sure absent parents provide health insurance so Medicaid does not have to pick up the bill. There were staff reductions there as well. Is there a pattern here or what?

Now I know that funds are tight in Jefferson City, but these cuts simply do not make a lick of sense, blondesense or otherwise if the General Assembly is concerned about fraud. If there is extensive fraud, as Stouffer proposes, additional staffing in these agencies would pay for themselves by catching all this fraud. Notably, child support enforcement is 100% reimbursed by the federal government. Cutting child support does not bring the state budget any closer to balance. It is merely returning our tax dollars to Washington to be spent in some other state.

These staff reductions make it clear that the claims of Senator Stouffer and his butt and buck buddies in Jefferson City about reducing fraud are just a fig leaf covering the real agenda -- cutting Medicaid and other programs which assist the working poor. Oddly, while eliminating minimal health care coverage for those working full-time at poor-paying jobs, our lovely state senator had no problem accepting the extensive health care benefits he gets at the taxpayer expense for his part-time job. More of what Jesus would do, I suppose!

When there was a bipartisan reform of programs aiding the poor in the mid-90's, both parties agreed that these programs needed to be altered so that unemployed individuals would not be worse off if they took low-paying, minimum-wage, entry-level positions. The intent was to have programs in which benefits were gradually reduced as income rose above poverty level. As a result of the actions of Senator Stouffer and his cronies, however, the state has created a strong incentive for a poor person to not seek employment.

The people deserve the courtesy of a real debate about who should be eligible for Medicaid. Instead, Senator Stouffer hides his real agenda behind pleasant sounding lies and bullshit. These working poor do get sick--really sick--doctors will see them in emergency rooms. And just like Mr. Stouffer's own health care coverage, who do you think will foot the bill? God bless America and Jesus politics.

Any Doubt about Santorum?

A little reminder

“In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.

Upon their son's death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen's parents' home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.

"That's my little guy," Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father's hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense.”

Oh yes, there is lots more at the link above.

To each his own, but……

Santorum, Insane?

From the Raw Story

“…TO STAND UP AND SAY, HOW DARE YOU BREAK THIS RULE. IT'S THE EQUIVALENT OF ADOLF HITLER IN 1942 "I'M IN PARIS. HOW DARE YOU INVADE ME. HOW DARE YOU BOMB MY CITY? IT'S MINE." THIS IS NO MORE THE RULE OF THE SENATE THAN IT WAS THE RULE OF THE SENATE BEFORE NOT TO FILIBUSTER. IT WAS AN UNDERSTANDING AND AGREEMENT, AND IT HAS BEEN ABUSED. IN A SENSE, WHAT WE SEE HERE ON THE FLOOR OF THE UNITED STATES”

So Senator Santorum compares the Democratic Senators to Adolph Hitler. Has he completely lost his mind? Did he actually ever have one? This man should not be on the Senate floor.

The statement Santorum made is inexcusable and at the very least his own party should publicly take him to task. Add that to the words used by Frist, when he said that the Democrat’s opposition to the bush judicial nominees was “leadership-led use of Cloture vote to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees.” And you see that we have members of the Republican Senate who have lost control of their senses.

Now might be an excellent time to read, “Senator Byrd is Correct to Equate Bush With Hitler” by Harvey Wasserman “Many of Harvey Wasserman's relatives perished in the Nazi holocaust”

New Rules

Bill Maher's final New Rules! Of this season. (May 13, 2005)

New Rule: The next reality show must be called "America's Stupidest State." We'll start at 50, and each week, if your state does something really stupid with, say, evolution or images of the Virgin Mary, you'll move on to the next round. Now, of course, the final five will always end up being Alabama, Utah, Kansas, Texas and Florida. Sorry, Tennessee…

New Rule: The people in America who are most in favor of the Iraq war must now go there and fight it. The Army missed its recruiting goal by 42% last month. More people joined the Michael Jackson Fan Club. "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit." And now we need warm bodies. We need warm bodies like Paula Abdul needs ...warm bodies!...

Now, I know you're thinking, but, Bill, I already do my part with the "Support Our Troops" magnet I have on my Chevy Tahoe. How much more can one man give? Well, here's an intriguing economic indicator. It's been over a year since they graduated, but neither of the Bush twins has been able to find work. Why don't they sign up? Do they hate America or just freedom in general?

And that goes for everybody who helped sell this war. You've got to go first. Brooks and Dunn, drop your cocks and grab your socks! Ann Coulter, darling, trust me, you will love the Army…

We're bringing freedom to the wrong countries

On May 2nd, I posted some links to stories that indicated that our "friends" in Uzbekistan are really Unocal and Halliburton's friends.

According to the Nation, "When not personally gunning down his opposition, [dictator] Karimov keeps busy by instructing his security forces to boil, rape or asphyxiate political prisoners." Last week militants stormed the prisons in Uzbekistan to free prisoners. Karimov instructed soldiers to open fire and up to 745 were reported dead.... women and children.

How did the bushistas respond to this? "We have some concerns about human rights in Uzbekistan, but we are concerned about the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist group freed from prison," Scott McClellan said. "The people of Uzbekistan want to see more representative and democratic government, but that should come through peaceful means, not through violence." Please read the story while I throw up. It's not long.

Al Franken on the Bill Maher Show, May 13th: ... I've gone on a few USO tours, and a couple of years ago, I went to Uzbekistan . Okay, now, Uzbekistan , you know, is right above Afghanistan . I went to an Air Force base that serves the war in Afghanistan . And I always like to talk to the PSY-OPs guys when I go ...And they're real loose-lipped. They'll talk to a comedian.
And so I said to these guys, I said, “Now, how is the Uzbekistan regime?” And they went, “Ah, they're great! They're so cooperative.” And I said, “No, no, no. I meant, I've heard they're like the most repressive regime of all the former Soviet republics.” And they said, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're horrible.” “They boil people. They boil people.”

So much for bringing democracy to the world.

Last week in Latvia, Bush lied, "We will not repeat the mistakes of other generations, appeasing or excusing tyranny, and sacrificing freedom in the vain pursuit of stability."

We're allies with plenty of tyrants. Mark Morford's column today "Saudi Arabia, Off The Hook
The 9/11 terrorists were mostly Saudi. Suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudi. And we're allies?"

Do we need justification? Sanctimonious moral authority? More pseudo-Christian rationalization, besides the fact that we've known since a month after 9/11 that the vast majority of the WTC terrorists were Saudi? We've got plenty.

Did you know that Saudi Arabia treats its women one barely noticeable notch above that of the brutal Taliban? ...

... The Washington Post points it all out, right here, all about how a huge number of suicide bombers in Iraq are turning out to be mostly Saudi, and how both 9/11 and BushCo's negligent and insidious actions in the increasingly volatile Middle East have created the most incredible hotbed for new and crude terrorists since Osama started a summer camp.

... America now cares about one thing: empire. The rush to neoconservative power. And the perpetuation of fear as a means to securing that power for many years to come.

Historian Gore Vidal on Bill Maher's show made an interesting point about the US's lousy ability to be an empire:

MAHER:You think there's no hope that this could actually turn around and become something more decent than it was before under that dictator?

VIDAL: Like Guatemala ? Like Nicaragua ? Like all of those countries that we wrecked down in—[applause]—Central America? We are lousy at this sort of thing.

MAHER: Yeah.

VIDAL: We are not made for the empire game. We were supposed to be republic. And not in the empire business. And every time we set our foot in, we fall on our face.

If we had a real media, Americans would be furious to know what is happening. Read Crooks and Liars' take on the bullshit media complete with phone numbers to the evil cable news companies.

I still maintain that people of conscience need to sacrifice their comforts of cable tv. Call your cable companies and demand that they take CNN, MSNBC and FOX off your cable service or cancel your subscription. Demand that they provide a real news channel... not opinions.

Conspiracy Friday

I'm not saying I agree with it.. but it's got some interesting things to ponder.
Aliens and Occult Initiation Rituals

hat tip to Peter of Lone Tree

There go my plans for moving to Australia:

CANBERRA (Reuters) - "Australia's populous east coast could be struck by a devastating tsunami during the next decade, researchers said on Friday as the government prepares to create a national tsunami warning system".

Here's the rest.

And more from the Guardian.

I Don’t Care How Many Monkeys Had Typewriters

The Patriot Act was signed by bush, October 26, 2001. Just about 45 days after September 11, 2001. Am I the only one who thinks that was an amazing short period of time to assemble and write something that all encompassing? Had they even had time to figure out all the details of how and why the attacks happened? Assistant attorney general Viet Dl Dinh was the chief architect of the act. Just how many monkeys with typewriters did Mr. Dinh employee?
The Patriot Act isn’t something that would fit on a pamphlet, it’s a hefty piece of work.

Think about it. Did the writers have a head start? Even if they began writing the afternoon of 9-11, I still don’t see how they could have finished it and the President signed it in only about 45 days.

Bird Flu Closer to Becoming Serious Threat to Humans

"A deadly strain of bird flu has claimed the lives of more than 50 people in Asian countries since early last year. The majority of recent cases have been in Vietnam -- 49 since December 2004.

"Seventeen were fatal, and some have occurred in clusters, raising fear of a change in the transmission pattern".

Read more.

Kinky shopper KOed by vibrating knickers

"The following cautionary tale must surely rate in the top five of "most embarrassing things that can happen to you in public - ever". According to UK tabloid the Sun, a 33-year-old Welsh housewife ended up in hospital after wearing Ann Summers vibrating Passion Pants to her local Asda supermarket in Swansea".
Read on.

New Meaning To Mary on the Half Shell

You're familiar with the Mary of the Half Shell Grottos [left] that dot the landscape in Catholic communities, but an Ebay seller swears that this one [right] is the real thing. Somehow, miraculously the Virgin Mary etched herself into an actual seashell. What's more you can bid on it. It's about the size of a penny.

Unfortunately, this bidder might not make the thousands that the famed Holy Toast (a/k/a: Mary on Grilled Cheese) brought in recently. But perhaps if we spread the story around, some faithful person with a whole lot of money and mush for brains will purchase it. We can only hope and pray. The seller wants $1000 but so far it is up to $101. Last month a Doritos chip resembling the Pope's hat was auctioned for $1,209. Full story

This is not the first time that a famed Catholic icon appeared on a shell. This is an amazing [left] oyster shell that some believe represents Jesus Christ himself. It takes a bit of imagination stretching. He looks like he's been stricken with Bell's Palsy.

"This piece is unique - it is the work of nature, it is neither grilled nor cooked." said Matteo Brandi, owner of oyster shell. Full story

Thanks to dear Spin Dentist of the All Spin Zone for this important heads up to the latest eBay auction sparked by heaven's revelations.

From Another Point of View.

Suppose a reporter from your local newspaper calls you and tells you they are planning to do an article about you. The reporter says he will email you the contents of the article before they run it. You say, okay. When you get a copy of the article, you find it claims that at some point in the past you painted a swastika on your Jewish neighbor’s garage door. Of course you have never done such a thing. So are you going to tell the reporter that you see no problem with the article? I doubt it. Most likely you would tell him that you have never committed such an act and demand that he remove that part from the article before it goes into the paper.

If you ignored the charge, didn’t respond to the reporter, and he published the original article, who would be at fault if the Jewish Defamation League comes knocking on your door?

Perhaps if you had committed such an act and you believed everyone already knew you had, maybe you wouldn’t object to the article’s content. But when you discover that your past wasn’t as well known as you thought and the article causes the Jewish Defamation League to come calling, you just might try to deny that you committed the act. You might even try to say that the story was a lie and blame all your resulting problems on the reporter and the newspaper in an attempt to protect yourself from further harm.

Or perhaps you have never committed such an act but you ignore the charge and let the reporter run the article because you plan to sue the paper for defamation of character. By not objecting to the contents of the article you have neither avowed nor disavowed the story’s veracity. Could you then successfully sue the newspaper for any personal damages you might sustain as a result of the charge? I doubt it, because you had seen the article before its publication and had every opportunity to tell the paper the charges were false.

So, why is Newsweek on the hot seat?

The So Called Liberal Media Forgot to Report This

While the right wing bloviators in the media and the White House continue to beat up on Newsweek's recent article that they claim incited tragic deaths because of America, as if it's something new, have neglected to mention that Michael Isikoff who co-wrote the article in question was also the reporter that incited the Clinton feeding frenzy of the 90's. He was once lauded as a fabulous journalist when he exposed the tragic Paul Jones fiasco (which turned out to be unfounded) and the horrific Lewinsky disgrace but today the same bloviators who adored Isikoff, vilify him for reporting a story that makes their boys look bad.

It's the old double standard. The crazy thing is that the Koran being flushed down the toilet is an ongoing story that was coming out of the American torture chambers yet people are just horrified. When the actual photographs of abuse from Abu Ghraib came out, the corporate media reported that Rumsfeld claimed it wasn't really torture. They attempted to tell the masses that what they were seeing wasn't really that bad.

The blabber mouths of the right wing claimed what went on in Abu Ghraib wasn't that serious despite what your 2 eyes told you unless you're some kind of pervert. The troops who followed orders and tortured the prisoners are now denigrated by the same people who said they were just blowing off steam, while the higher ups in the military got a slap on the wrist or even a promotion (Sanchez).

Now we are expected to believe that the flushing of a Koran down the toilet is the very worse charge you can make against the military?

Is this 1984 or what?

This story is so bizarre

that I don’t where to begin to tell you about it.

You really have to read it for yourself. Once you do, you’ll understand why I didn’t know where to begin.

Three Arrested in Sex Ring Involving Kids, Animals, and Church

“Sheriff's officials say certain church members allegedly raped children and animals in a cult-like fashion at the Hosanna Church. A neighbor says when he found out about it, "It surprised me. But I wouldn't put it pass them. They were weird looking people to begin with."

Livingston Sheriff's Detective Stan Carpenter says church minister Louis Lamonica turned himself in on Monday and admitted to having oral and anal sex with kids for years... and that's not all.

"He was basically showing the kids how to have sexual relations at a very young age. That is just something children at that age, they shouldn't have to know anything about that," says Carpenter.

Lamonica also allegedly named other church members in the child sex ring. They include Austin Bernard and Chris Labat. Labat is a patrol deputy with the Tangipahoa Sheriff's office.”

Check out the entire story and see the pictures of the three who “were weird looking people to begin with."

Oh Lordy, I'm a Liberal

I really didn't think I was liberal until I read the Pew Research Center's latest results and took their little test. I always thought I was rather moderate. It seems that the moderates are leaning towards bush and that's a bit alarming. It's no wonder considering that the media leans bush almost all the way. Liberals aren't necessarily comfortable with the Democrats according to the poll results either. That's for sure. I know I'm not happy with the Democrats. There aren't a hell of a lot of real Democrats out there. But then again, looking at the statistics, a lot of the Republicans aren't real Republicans either.

Reading the typography for each group was enlightening. Beyond Red and Blue. As suspected the "Enterprisers" or the extreme right, are mostly white males who are rather well off. Almost half have college degrees, more than half have a gun in their homes, almost half attend church weekly, more than half are evangelical christians. They know the most about world affairs and follow the news closely, however their main source of news is you guessed it, Fox News. This probably accounts for the fact that they strongly support military force rather than diplomacy, think poor people are lazy, believe that corporations make a fair and reasonable profit and think environmental laws hurt the economy.

The Liberals who are on the extreme left make up the largest voting block. Liberals are mostly well to do white men and women with as much wealth as the enterprisers, are the most educated of all the groups with about half having a college degree or more. Liberals are the most secular group and least religious, less likely own a gun, and most live in or near urban areas. Liberals are the second most informed group using the internet as their prime source of news rather than Fox News. Liberals feel that the government is too involved with peoples lives, yet doesn't do enough for the poor, believe that diplomacy promotes world peace more than military intervention, least likely to own a gun, are pro-choice and have the least objection to gay marriage. Liberals are also the least married group.

The Upbeats who are in the middle seem to be the group, if you ask me, that sways the votes towards GOP. They are just so darn optimistic! They are mostly young, mainline christians such as Catholic and Protestant, they make good money, are active in the stock market like the liberals and enterprisers, and except for their support of the war, they suspect US Foreign policy and have moderate views of morality. That is most likely because they are mainline christians. They cite the internet and newspapers as their media source. They are upbeat because they believe that Americans will always find a way to solve the problems and they have more faith in government than any other group. They also overwhelmingly believe that immigrants strengthen our country. I fell into this group when I was younger. That's why I was a registered Republican, but I never voted for Republican presidents.

A rather dumb group of conservatives (social conservatives) are middle class, evangelical, southern white women over 50 years. While they are not too keen on big business, they are suspicious of immigrants, homosexuals and poor people. Unfortunately their votes support this fascist regime coming into power. I imagine if they weren't so fear based, they wouldn't have supported bush.

Another sad group of conservatives and I'm sorry to report this, are women again, but younger (Pro-government conservatives). This group could be swayed to the left with the right information at their disposal. They vote against their own interests. They are less educated than other conservatives, financially insecure and very religious. They support assistance for the poor, regulations for businesses, don't own guns, face unemployment but believe you should fight for America-right or wrong. They don't cite cable news as their media source.

Education seems to be key for enlightening our citizens. It is no wonder that the elite enterprisers are doing such a good job of luring less educated people to their side with fear tactics and misinformation. With a better education, most conservative Americans wouldn't stand for their selfish and greedy nonsense. If liberals could convince people that living in a secular country doesn't threaten their religious beliefs, it could be a turning point, in my opinion.

The demographics are interesting. None of us really fall into one group exactly. Politically, both sides are divided as well. I cited statistics above from the polls but the analysis is my own personal liberal, northern, blonde opinion.

This is how bad things are in journalism:

The second group of stories available from GoogleNews under the heading "WORLD" this a.m. is this pitiful offering:

"Hello! wins appeal over stars photos
Gulf Times - 3 hours ago
LONDON: Hello! magazine yesterday claimed victory in its epic court battle over the wedding pictures of Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas. The Court of Appeal allowed its challenge to a High Court order ...
Magazine claims victory in battle over stars' photos Financial Times
Court Overturns $3.6M Magazine Settlement ABC News
Independent - Guardian Unlimited - ic Wales - Reuters - all 153 related »"

Some places I go for real news are Asia Times,
Islamic Republic News Agency,
and Antiwar.com.

Spreading Something, but It’s Not Freedom and Democracy

Dahr Jamail’s most recent post (LINK):

"All Sunni mosques in Iraq will be closed for three days...an ominous symbol of things to come.

"Thus, any argument that the US military should remain in Iraq to prevent a civil war can be flushed. Besides, anyone arguing that the US military was there to protect the Iraqi people is either blind, in denial, or knows absolutely nothing about the reality on the ground in occupied Iraq. The US military in Iraq are unable even to protect themselves, let alone civilians.

"I conducted an informal interview two days ago with a UN official here in Amman...thus I'll leave his name out of this...for now. He told me that 95% of the reconstruction funds for rebuilding Iraq have been spent outside of Iraq.

"So the argument of staying in Iraq to help rebuild the country-that too could have been flushed long ago. Want to find someone accountable-look to some of the larger contributors to the Bush Administration. We all know their names by now. Check their profit margins as of late while you're at it."


I watched the news about the aforementioned statements by al-Dahri on Al-Jazeera with one of my close Iraqi friends here. As we watched the large funeral procession with the body of the murdered cleric while al-Dahri made his ferocious statements, I watched her head drop into her hands as she said softly, "This is so horrible what has happened to my country since the Americans came."

Please follow the link above and read the entire post.


Also, U.S. Claims Over Siege Challenged

Idiot Ass Quote Of the Day

"The issue is not cloture votes, per se. It's the partisan, leadership-led use of cloture vote to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees."
- Bill Frist answering Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) who asked him if he had voted on March 8, 2000, to uphold a filibuster on Judge Richard Paez, a Clinton nominee. Frist did. It's the hypocrisy, stupid.



And speaking of hypocrisy...

Paul Wellstone, Norm Coleman And Yesterday

Paul Wellstone, Norm Coleman And Yesterday

“Paul Wellstone is regarded as one of the most liberal members of the Senate. During his 12 years in Washington he has been fighting for our issues: the environment, education, human rights, health care, labor rights, fair trade and not free trade, campaign finance. Now he's helping to lead the charge in the Senate against war on Iraq.”

And

“Karl Rove, Bush's leading political strategist, has made defeating Wellstone a priority. Twice, President Bush has come to Minnesota and raised millions of dollars for Norm Coleman, Wellstone's opponent. What Wellstone has working for him that Coleman doesn't is one of the largest grassroots organizing efforts in the country.”

Senator Wellstone was running against Norm Coleman before that awful plane crash that killed the Senator and all aboard his plane. There was never a pat reason given for the plane crash and many still speculate. After the death of the Senator the Dems replaced him on the ballot with former Vice President Walter Mondale. Coleman won the Senate seat. The rest, as they say, is history.

Yesterday as we watched British Law Maker, George Galloway, rip into Coleman, you had to wonder, was Senator Wellstone’s ghost sitting there beside Mr. Galloway and silently saying, Give the little bastard hell, George. Don’t let him wiggle, just keep on jabbing. He deserves every damn thing he gets.

I hope that’s just the way it happened. I hope Senator Wellstone sneaked a cooler of cold beer into the room. I hope he was sitting there with his feet up on the table, having a ice cold one and enjoying the show. I hope every time Coleman took a direct hit that Paul nudged Galloway in the ribs and said, Keep giving him hell, he deserves every bit of it. Yeah, I hope that’s just the way it went especially when Galloway was talking about the Iraq war . Paul Wellstone would have loved that part, don’t you think?.

Was Galloway’s Name Forged on the Documents?

From icBerkshire.co.uk

“Rebel MP George Galloway's Respect Party has claimed that evidence he profited from Saddam Hussein's regime was forged.

Ahead of Mr Galloway's appearance in front of a committee of US senators in Washington, his party said the committee was relying on a counterfeit document created in Baghdad.

It said Mr Galloway's name had been pasted on to a list of people and companies alleged to have made money out of the Oil For Food programme.

His name appeared in a different typeface to other words on the same line, the print was lighter in colour and Respect suggested it had been stuck on and then the page re-photocopied.

His name also appeared at a slight angle and Respect said that would be impossible on the computerised document unless it had been artificially added.

Mr Galloway's party said there was a clear link between the list in the Senate Committee's report and one which appeared in a Baghdad newspaper in January last year.

Respect highlighted the claims of Sajad Ahmad Ali, who has previously claimed to have been involved in forging that list.

Mr Ali said: "We forged this list of names and titles of people who got money from the Ministry of Information, the palace and the Oil For Food.

"We worked for 10 days and then we steamed the papers a bit then dried them out so that they would look old. I beg anyone who reads his name in these papers to ask for the original version and check the date of the writing with carbon dating."

Nationalist super-patriotism

I met my new neighbor yesterday. He's a middle aged school teacher who absolutely loves his job and from what he was telling me, a very creative teacher with a sense of humor and genuine love for his profession. He also started telling me how much he loves our country. Well I wouldn't argue with that. I suppose I do too or I wouldn't be so mad at it.

He was telling me that he always displayed his American flag on last home and suddenly after 9/11 everyone was displaying their flags. He was excited that everyone joined in his nationalism. Not me. I told him that I noticed that all the businesses which are owned by foreigners were hanging multiple flags on their storefronts after 9/11- probably so that they wouldn't be attacked or boycotted by angry and frustrated Americans.

Then I told my new neighbor that I used to hang a flag on my house and stopped after 9/11. He grimaced. I didn't need a piece of fabric to show that I was a citizen of this country and was affected by the terror of 9/11. If anyone dared to question my patriotism, they would get a big "Fuck you, asshole" from me in my NY accent.

Right before the election last November, I purchased a bunch of red, white and blue bunting to hang on my house when the fascists were ousted. It's still in the box. I told my new neighbor that too. He was disappointed. He is my new project.

He was the second person I spoke to yesterday that was very 'pro-America right or wrong' and quite comfortable with the idea that the government needs to rein in the press in order to keep us safe. Once again, that fear factor comes into play.

I almost had a similar discussion with the husband, who seems to be reading the political parts of the WSJ even though I warned him not to, but my best friend came over and we listened to Air America, drank beer and pondered just how much money these fascists actually need and why. When is enough enough? Never. I surmised that they won't be happy until they control all the money in the world. Why our home grown fascists make the evil villains in Batman look positively meek.

Howard Zinn in The Scourge of Nationalism, sums up our sordid history quite nicely.

Is not nationalism--that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder--one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking--cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on--have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

I urge you to read the whole article. It really gets you thinking about America's role in the world. There are a lot of good points that you might want to arm yourself with the next time you meet someone who cannot even think for one minute that American government just might be very bad for the people.

Don’t You Dare Think About World Peace

We’re developing “Rods from God”

Yeah baby, in God’s name our Air Force is developing a weapon that “aims to hurl cylinders of tungsten, titanium or uranium from the edge of space to destroy targets on the ground, striking at speeds of about 7,200 miles an hour with the force of a small nuclear weapon.” And they have nicknamed this killer, “Rods From God”. Don’t you know that would make any god proud to have his name associated with something like that. Just the idea of naming something that could kill people “Rods From God” gives you a sick feeling, doesn’t it? It implies that God has joined up with the US in some sort of global killing mission.

They have other plans too. “While the Missile Defense Agency struggles with new technology for a space-based laser, the Air Force already has a potential weapon in space.

In April, the Air Force launched the XSS-11, an experimental microsatellite with the technical ability to disrupt other nations' military reconnaissance and communications satellites.”

And what should be called projects Mirrors & Smoke and Radios & Toast, are these plans.

“A third program would bounce laser beams off mirrors hung from space satellites or huge high-altitude blimps, redirecting the lethal rays down to targets around the world. A fourth seeks to turn radio waves into weapons whose powers could range "from tap on the shoulder to toast," in the words of an Air Force plan.”

Pretty soon, if all goes well, the military can recline in their La-Z-Boy recliners and fry the rest of the world.

It won’t be cheap to kill people by remote control. “The Air Force does not put a price tag on space superiority. Published studies by leading weapons scientists, physicists and engineers say the cost of a space-based system that could defend the nation against an attack by a handful of missiles could be anywhere from $220 billion to $1 trillion.

Surveillance and reconnaissance satellites are a crucial component of space superiority. But the biggest new spy satellite program, Future Imagery Architecture, has tripled in price to about $25 billion while producing less than promised, military contractors say. A new space technology for detecting enemy launchings has risen to more than $10 billion from a promised $4 billion, Mr. Teets told Congress last month.

But General Lord said such problems should not stand in the way of the Air Force's plans to move into space.

"Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny," he told an Air Force conference in September. "Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future."

Space supremacy is our vision for the future? How about a present vision of supremacy on the six mile stretch from Baghdad to the airport?

Are You Abnormal?

Ever wonder if you were normal? Well, I sure have. I’ve not wondered about me, I wondered about you. LOL
Now you can have fun and find out where you rank.
Are You Normal?

Yours truly is only 65% normal, much better than I expected, all things considered.
According to my score; “Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal
You're like most people most of the time
But you've got those quirks that make you endearing
You're unique, yes... but not frighteningly so!”

Yeah, but it’s those quirks, those quirks that make all the difference.

(Thank you Anntichrist S. Coulter for the link)

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"I never did see a hearse with a luggage rack." -- George Strait

Tailgunner Tony Pretending To Be A Neo-Con:

Blair Introduces National ID Card Plan
Read it here.

Galloway Expresses Himself

And, he is not happy

Oh my god, if you missed it this morning you missed a lot. Senator Norm Coleman went hunting for criminals in the Oil For Food subcommittee hearings. He must have seen something move and he fired a verbal shot. The shot missed, but his prey got real damned pissed and it came after him. The prey’s was British Law maker, George Galloway and to Coleman’s surprise, Galloway was armed too. Galloway came in with verbal guns blazing. Coleman was no match for Galloway.

Here’s some of Galloway’s arsenal in no particular order.

• “100,000 are dead because of your policies,”
• “This group of neocons is involved in the mother of all smokescreens,”
• “I want to turn the tables on this neocon, pro-Israel, pro-war, Republican lynch mob.”
• “I gave my heart and soul to stop you from committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that the case for war was a pack of lies”
• "The real sanctions busters were your own companies, with the connivance of your own government."
• "As a matter of fact I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns, I met him to try and bring an end to sanctions, suffering and war."
• “You have nothing on me, senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq - many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Iraq,”

Watch it here at Crooks and Liars

More on Luis Posada Carriles:

The main stream media is starting to pick up on the story of "our" terrorist.

Three Things Worth Your While

US and Arabs: Winning Hearts or Psychological Warfare?
by Linda Heard

This is an excellent piece and it just makes so much sense.
******

Harman Tells Her Story
This is an interview for 20/20 from January of this year.
“Spc. Sabrina Harman, one of seven Army Reservists charged in the abuse of prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, told "20/20" she wishes she could apologize to the Iraqi people, but doesn't think she did anything wrong while she was stationed as a guard at the prison.
****

Bill Moyers’ Speech
I heard and saw a rerun of this yesterday. You’ll probably want to print it out and keep it. It’s that kind of good!

Thinking the Unthinkable

Cheney 2008?

This weekend on the Chris Matthews show, Bob Woodward tossed in the possibility that Cheney might be the GOP presidential candidate in 2008. Yes, I know you didn’t need to hear those words from anyone, especially a reporter that has some good inside sources. But let’s face it, Bob Woodward knows people and people talk to him.

The year 2008 is three and a half years away and lots could change in that time, but what if, instead of being in Federal prison, Cheney is the man on the republican ticket? What and who would the Democrats have to use to beat him?

We have it on pretty good authority that our troops will yet be in Iraq. That is if we have any left by then. If nothing major happens, our economy should be tanking due to the continual cost of this war and god only knows what our national debt will be by then.

If the present neglectful pattern continues, our environment could actually become something that people finally see, if for no other reason than selfishness, as an issue to be concerned about.

By the year 2008, where will the conservative extreme religious right have taken us? Will they have changed the laws, not for the betterment of our country, but for what they perceive to be the betterment of their chances of one day shaking hands with Jesus? There are more Americans with common sense than it appears today, but after another three and half years of this smothering of government with dogmatic religious theories, there could be a loud and serious rebellion via the ballot.

So in 2008 who will Cheney appeal to and will there be enough of them to hand him the White House? Right now I can’t see how he could win. He is a strong reminder of bush’s policies. Bush’s approval rating right now is less than fifty percent and unless Carl Rove pulls a very large and very furry rabbit out of his hat, I don’t see any reason for bush’s approval rating to grow.

If Cheney does run in 2008 who would run as his vice president? Probably Frist, but there are others just as bad and even worse.

Powerful Megachurches

Yesterday, Randi Rhodes talked about an article called "Soldiers Of Christ" in Harpers Magazine that is making heads spin. I will be reading it in its entirety this morning. The first part of the story is here at TheReavealer.org

Unfortunately the story stops where it gets really really interesting. I have found a place where you can read the story from scanned pages from Harpers right here.

I'll be back after I read all this stuff. Did anyone hear Randi or read the article yet? You can get the thread going...

General Myers Didn’t Get the Memo

“However, Myers said an after-action report provided by U.S. Army Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, commander of the Combined Forces in Afghanistan, indicated that the political violence was not, in fact, connected to the magazine report.” State Dept

I guess General Myers missed the memo and as a result he didn’t play along. He didn’t get the memo that said due to Newsweek’s article about the big flush, “people have lost their lives”. He apparently wasn’t informed that due to Newsweek’s story, all hell had broken out around the world and this was just one more reason to abolish the American press. Maybe General Myers was so busy “winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis” that he didn’t have time to poison the minds of the zombie-eyed Americans. This being the same order of Americans who trampled over Dan Rather’s sad body and story. As this dangerous herd of people were all about destroying Newsweek magazine, General Myers either forgot to salute them or slipped up and told the truth.

Last night on one cable news show there was already talk about how Americans were fed up with the press because of stories like this one in Newsweek and Dan Rather’s bush/National Guard story. There was not much mention of whether either story had legs but instead it was about predictions that more and more Americans would be turning against the liberal, left-leaning, let’s just call them Communist, Jesus hating, non-troops supporting, wimpy, peace loving, gay loving, baby killing, press. Not one word about the White House news channel, the one that’s aptly named Fox News. I say aptly named because it goes along so nicely with the old analogy about the fox guarding the hen house. If we had to rely solely on Fox News for our news, the fox would have a never ending supply of chickens for its dinner and he would never have to face any consequences of his deeds. When the foxes own the chicken house the chickens are at the foxes’ mercy. As it is now, Fox news tends to be little more than a PR station for this administration, an outlet and extension for GOP propaganda, if you will, and the viewers of Fox news are at its mercy. Truth is not in high demand.

So let’s cut the knees out from under what little press and media we have and instead just wait to be told what the government wants us to think happened in the world. Let’s keep Americans as ignorant as possible, even more than we do now. Let’s just hand them bibles to read and tell them to rest easy, as the government will be doing things that the public has no need to know about.

That might be their dream, but it must never be their reality. To reconstruct Rumsfeld’s infamous quote, we have gone to war with the press we have, not the press we might wish we had. But, at least we have a press and we must defend and support their right to be free for as long as they can.

Let’s watch and see what happens with this Newsweek story. Just because its been retracted doesn’t mean it’s over and done. Newsweek may have killed the article, but the story is not dead.

If you doubt that freedom of the press, the essence of a democracy, is an endangered species in the US, read this.

“The Connecticut survey also showed 43 percent of the public says the press has too much freedom. Six in ten people feel the media shows bias in reporting the news, and a fifth said the government should be allowed to censor the press.”

Newsweek Caves To Bushistas

Newsweek Retracts Story on Quran Abuse (yahoo)

"It's appalling that this story got out there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she traveled home from Iraq.

"People lost their lives. People are dead," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "People need to be very careful about what they say, just as they need to be careful about what they do."

Loose lips sink ships. War is hell. Kill the messenger. yadda yadda yadda.

Following the criticism, Whitaker released a statement through a spokesman later Monday saying the magazine was retracting the article.

"Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Quran abuse at Guantanamo Bay," Whitaker said.

But he didn't say that the story was fake.

"Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we," Whitaker wrote.

Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman said the magazine believes it erred in reporting the allegation that a prison guard tried to flush the Quran down a toilet and that military investigators had confirmed the accusation.

Does anyone find this story hard to believe? I mean, look what our troops did at Abu Ghraib. This is an old story too. This isn't the first time it's been reported.

Many of the 520 inmates at Guantanamo are Muslims arrested during the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in Afghanistan.

In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the original story was "demonstrably false" and "irresponsible," and "had significant consequences that reverberated throughout Muslim communities around the world."

So who made up the story? Karl Rove?

"Newsweek hid behind anonymous sources, which by their own admission do not withstand scrutiny," Whitman said. "Unfortunately, they cannot retract the damage they have done to this nation or those that were viciously attacked by those false allegations."
Breaking News Yahoo

Oh brother.
The bushistas are stealing the news.
News=Democracy
America?

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged. There are some who are opposed to the United States and what we stand for who have sought to exploit this allegation. It will take work to undo what can be undone." - Scottie McClellan

UPDATE: "McClellan said a retraction was only "a good first step" and said Newsweek should try to set the record straight by "clearly explaining what happened and how they got it wrong, particularly to the Muslim world, and pointing out the policies and practices of our military."" yahoo

McClellan wants Newsweek to point out the policies and practices of our military? heh. No one knows the policies and practices if you ask them.

UPDATE2: "Washington – The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says a report from Afghanistan suggests that rioting in Jalalabad on May 11 was not necessarily connected to press reports that the Quran might have been desecrated in the presence of Muslim prisoners held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." -US Dept of State

It just keeps on getting more interesting doesn't it?

Staying What Course?

Today’s must read is Krugman’s op ed in the New York Times.

“But the Iraq war has, instead, demonstrated the limits of American power, and emboldened our potential enemies. Why should Kim Jong Il fear us, when we can't even secure the road from Baghdad to the airport?”

Newsweek Buzz and The Buzz You Won’t Hear

Here we go again. First it was Rather-gate and now it’s Newsweek-gate.

The events are almost the same. The article about flushing the Quran down the toilet was not disputed by the administration and when Dan ran his story by the administration, its contents were not disputed either. So will the outcome be the same? Newsweek may take a different sort of hit due to the violence and death their report apparently ignited.

Is the administration giving the press rope for its own hanging? Is the press being given bait by the administration and then being caught in a trap? Neither Newsweek nor Rather would issue a report they knew to be untrue, and I don’t believe either of them have. But the right is not going to see it that way. They will see blood in the “liberal press” water. They’ll demand that someone pay for the perceived error or as they will call it, lie. They won’t give a tinker’s damn about the deaths. They’ll just see this as another sword for them to use in their fight against the “liberalization” of our country.

Are these two events worthy of examination? I think so, but I believe there is one more “gate”. What about war-gate? There were reports coming from the administration about the need for war in Iraq and those stories have proven to be false.

This administration has made a few “errors” of its own, and heads rolled, but not in Washington. The heads rolled in Iraq. This administration has issued some fake documents of its own. Remember Colin Powell’s report to the UN? Where’s the uproar over those “errors”? The damage resulting from this administration’s false reporting has been much more deadly than anything Dan Rather or Newsweek could ever publish.

So, today while the buzz continues about the Newsweek article, who will recall the false and most vile report of all? While citizens and soldiers continue to die in the war, who will question the report that came from the White House that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were connected to Iraq? Where’s the scrutiny of the most untrue and deadliest report of them all?

Abstinence Only Rallies in Florida- will they work?

Florida health officials with Bush backing are "spending $281,000 in federal grants on "Great to Wait" rallies, public-service announcements, mailings and similar efforts."

Let's see what the kids say about the rallies:

"I don't want to be one of these young men running around with children or a sexually transmitted disease."

"I'm glad I came. I've learned there's no such thing as safe sex," said Alexis Young, 14 who took first place in the "Abstinence Idol" talent contest.

Their sentiments are admirable. Teen pregnancy and STD's should be avoided. Girls shouldn't have to use abortion as birth control in this day and age. I don't want my kid to get VD or be a teenage dad. I told my son about abstinence and the consequences of getting his girlfriend pregnant: living in a mobile home in tornado country with a screaming baby, flipping burgers for a living and finding it really hard to ever make ends meet. That was a realistic deterrent. I didn't threaten to kill him however.

When I was in all girls Catholic HS, we were taught that if you had intercourse it was a sin and you'd go to hell. If you really loved a boy, you had to think of more creative ways to spend time if you found yourselves in the back seat of the car. ahem. Apparently our parents couldn't conceive of what we would figure out on our own.

Since I lived in a suburb, there was a drastic shortage of farm animals and I really don't know what the boys were doing on the side, but I kind of get an idea based on today's conservative religious right. Not sure that kinky animal and homoerotic sex was practiced in my neck of the woods... but I can't be sure. I had a rather studly brother, but I don't think was kinky.

Fear of hell was a pretty good deterrent for Catholic kids but not fool proof. Mostly, we just didn't want to have kids while we were still kids. Still, there were a lot of adopted kids like me in the Catholic schools. Proof that premarital sex was not something new.

Abstinence-only education, supported by President Bush, teaches youngsters that not having sex is the only way to stave off STDs and unwanted pregnancy. The federal government will spend $170 million for such programs this year.

Some critics of abstinence-only programs say teens also need information on birth control and access to condoms. But federally funded programs cannot advocate contraceptives or condoms.

Abstinence "is the only 100-percent guaranteed way to prevent teen pregnancy and STDs," said Lindsay Hodges, Health Department spokeswoman.

I don't see why teaching about proper birth control and condom use means you have to "advocate" it. It should be taught as a "just in case" scenario to our children. There is always the point where you're suddenly not abstinent anymore. Wouldn't it be prudent if kids were taught proper birth control methods for those "just in case" moments?

Bill Maher maintains that abstinence pledges suck- literally. (salon)

New Rule: Abstinence pledges make you horny. A new eight-year study just released reveals that American teenagers who take "virginity" pledges of the sort so favored by the Bush administration wind up with just as many STDs as the other kids.

But that's not all -- taking the pledges also makes a teenage girl six times more likely to perform oral sex, and a boy four times more likely to get anal. Which leads me to an important question: where were these pledges when I was in high school?

Jamail on Condi

Dahr Jamail tells you his feelings regarding Condi’s calling today
Please read his report

would you like some more rice with that?

"WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from racist whites in the segregated South, said Wednesday that the constitutional right of Americans to own guns is as important as their rights to free speech and religion.

In an interview on CNN's Larry King Live, Rice said her view was built on personal experience. She said her father, a black minister, and his friends armed themselves to defend the black community in Birmingham, Ala., against the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would have been able to defend themselves.

Birmingham, where Rice was born in 1954, was a focal point of racial tension. Four black girls were killed when a bomb exploded at a Birmingham church in 1963.

Rice said she favored background checks and controls at gun shows. However, she added, 'we have to be very careful when we start abridging rights that the Founding Fathers thought very important.'"

Yes and it is very important when we start assigning thoughts to the Founding Fathers that they didn't have.

It is very important that we listen to Ms. Rice's comments about the police. The police were very much a part of the Klan or White Knight Riders or Knights of the White Magnolia. One couldn't complain to the police about the Klan because the police were a part of the Klan. As were legislators in the South. As were preachers, teachers, and my great uncles.

But the founders didn't think about gun shows and lists and they certainly didn't think about private individuals with mental health issues buying guns and shooting up elementary schools.

It is a straw man argument. Establish some terrible fear, grounded in some truth--the government is in the Klan today--that isn't really based on logic and then knock--er--shoot the straw man down. The government is coming to your house in the middle of the night to get you and your gun.

Perhaps it is just because I live in Texas where we keep our liquor and guns in the same stores, but law enforcement here just assumes that everyone has a gun. They don't need no stinking lists. Once a week some disturbed person gets their gun and goes up in a tower or a school book depository or and office building and works out their "issues."

If we had better mental health care it might not happen so often.

May be the local police assumed that the blacks in their town had guns because they ascribed all sorts of violent activities to blacks. Black men want our white women. What was that based on? Knowing that Blacks had guns didn't stop these knight riders.

Guns didn't stop segregation. Free speech and religion did. Had blacks shot up the Klan and the town, it would have created sympathy for whites.

James Earl Ray didn't have any trouble getting a gun. No background check, no lists. And he certainly wasn't exercises his free speech or religion rights, was he?

Iraqis are Force-Fed Rice

Here’s some stuff from the ABC News
It’s all about Condi’s jaunt to Iraq today.

Condi says, “"Obviously there is a security situation … I want and have wanted to go to Iraq at the right time, and the right time is when they had a new government.”
Okay Condi, just stop it. We aren’t buying one word of that.

How Condi got around in Iraq- “Rice flew immediately to the mountain stronghold of Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani. She rode in an Apache military helicopter under extremely heavy security.”

Oh yes, that sure tells me it was the right time for her visit.

Here’s Condi explaining why things are such a mess over there and why it’s so dangerous.
"It says there are terrorists and old Baathists who want to destroy the seeds of democracy in Iraq and the seeds of democracy in the Middle East, that's what it says," Rice said.

Those poor little seeds are probably about as dead as the thousands of innocent Iraqis upon whom we were sowing them.

Condi’s bio. “Rice was a chief architect of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as White House national security adviser during President Bush's first term and she accompanied Bush on his own surprise visit to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day 2003.”

If I knew she went to Iraq with bush on that Thanksgiving trip, I forgot about it.

Condi also said today that, “she wanted to discuss the new government's upcoming tasks including writing a constitution, as well as addressing the country's security and infrastructure needs.”

How about she keeps her nose out of THEIR government. How about she gets her ass back home and begins looking into our country’s security and infrastructure needs. While we are creating the new Iraq, the old America has some problems of its own, but we can’t afford to fix them due to her architectural genius of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Condi said something else, she said, "Yes, the insurgency is very violent, but you can beat insurgencies not just militarily," Rice told reporters. "You can beat them having a political alternative that is strong," and in which all Iraqis are invested, Rice said.”
Pissed off Patricia would add that the chances of that happening in our life time are not so good as you might hope.

According to this article, she was supposed to go to Iraq last week but word got out about her plans. When you read the article you’ll see how freakin’ tight the security had to be for her to go today. The Iraqis just don’t take kindly to senior liberators, ya know.

Condi said one more thing, and this is my favorite. "It's very hard what the Iraqis are being asked to do which is cast off years and years of tyranny and dictatorship and come to political unity in what is a very complicated place," Rice said.

She said bush’s favorite two words. It’s “hard” and it’s “complicated”. I see this trip as so much bs and there is nothing hard or complicated about that. I would guess that she went over there to tell the members of the Iraqi government to get their asses in gear and proclaim the war over and won by the Americans, ASAP. Just for the hell of it, couldn’t she have done that over the phone?

Text of an e-mail I sent this morning to one of the few U.S. Senators who appears unafraid to speak the truth:

"Subj: Here's an idea that might save the country from the Nazis/Fascists:
From: PETEROFLONETREE
To: info@pacforachange.com (Ms.Barbara Boxer)

Ask John Conyers if he'd be interested in being your running mate in '08?

And another thing--get your own blog, like John. John's Blog? It's here:
( http://www.conyersblog.us/ ).
A sample of John's latest: "Why I asked for a Special Counsel to Examine the Torture and Prison Abuse Scandals".

One more thing: If you get the job, make Scott Ritter the Secretary of Defense."


There it is, gang. Barbara Boxer's address. Shall we inundate her with e-mails urging her to run for president? Most of the rest of the Democrats are a bunch of candy-asses anyway.

Insolent Question of the Week:

For Donald Dumshit: Wanting to close all the military bases around the country doesn't have anything to do with raising the death benefit for soldiers killed in action from $12,500 to $100,000 does it?

What's the Story with Anti-Gay Right Wingers

I don't care what consenting adults do behind closed doors but wouldn't it be prudent if you're a mule or wife's ass raper, a pervy scout leader and lurers of boys into your lair that you should just shut the hell up about gay rights and the abortion issue and keep a low profile? Lucky for us, that they don't. It makes it easier to expose them.

It's the damn hypocrisy. It's time to turn this witch hunt around. It's not even hard to figure out who's a gay woman hater among the vocal homophobes. It's probably all of them. Why are the most outspoken anti-abortion activists men? I don't believe for one second that they give a flying fuck about fetuses.

After this week in the news, we found out that some of the most "christian" and outspoken anti-gay and anti-abortion activists (woman haters) have sexual practices that are not deemed ordinary by most heterosexual secularists and religious people alike. Where's the outcry at the hypocrisy? It's hidden in the newspapers that hardly anyone ever reads.

Today's NY Times article Just How Gay Is The Right?, Frank Rich declares that the anti-gay movement really isn't about gay marriage because gay bashing has been going on long before the marriage issue. That's true. It's a smoke screen. And...

Which judges do these people admire? Their patron saint is the former Alabama chief justice Roy S. Moore, best known for his activism in displaying the Ten Commandments; in a ruling against a lesbian mother in a custody case, Mr. Moore deemed homosexuality "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature" and suggested that the state had the power to prohibit homosexual "conduct" with penalties including "confinement and even execution." Another hero is William H. Pryor Jr., the former Alabama attorney general whose nomination to the federal bench was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. A Pryor brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Texas anti-sodomy law argued that decriminalized gay sex would lead to legalized necrophilia, bestiality and child pornography. It was Justice Anthony Kennedy's eloquent dismissal of such vitriol in his 2003 majority opinion striking down the Texas statute that has since made him the right's No. 1 judicial piñata.

What adds a peculiar dynamic to this anti-gay juggernaut is the continued emergence of gay people within its ranks... read the whole thing

I'll say. And how very christian are these men. NOT.
I suppose that Judge Pryor should know all about necrophilia, bestiality and child pornography. Who are the people who get busted for this stuff anyway? Christians. Judge Moore would like to see his homeys executed as per the bible. Could that be a turn on for these guys? Did these guys masturbate to the bible when they were kids? Makes you wonder. How the hell kinky are these people?

Bilderberg 2005 Full Participant List

It's here.

So many Christians, so few lions...

51 House members call on Gonzales to appoint special counsel on alleged U.S. 'war crimes'

"Congressman John Conyers will be issuing a letter cosigned by roughly 50 House members calling for a special prosecutor to investigate claims that the U.S. has violated the War Crimes Act at secret detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, RAW STORY has learned".

The entire article including the letter can be read HERE.

And while you're at it catch John Conyer's blog HERE. His lead post begins:
"Three New Stories on Secret Downing Street Memo"
"From Good to Bad To Worse"
"This morning, several newspapers pick up the Downing Street Memo story. Two of three largely miss the point. Strangely, the best story and one of the two mediocre ones share the same byline".

The list of capable, concerned, and conscientious legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives is a short one, but John Conyers is at the top of it.

The Part You Haven’t Heard

From Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches

“The situation around Al-Qaim where “Operation Matador” is ongoing, appears to be a micro-version of Fallujah. The military and corporate media continue to portray the situation as if “foreign fighters” have taken control of Qaim and surrounding villages (as was said about Fallujah) when reports from the ground state that interviews with the fighters have them all saying they are Iraqi.

Of course it behooves the military to claim they are battling “foreign fighters,” because as in Fallujah and elsewhere, it doesn’t look good in the press to admit that they are fighting Iraqis who are fighting for their independence from the occupiers of their country. Even the marines in Fallujah admitted they had killed a grand total of 35 foreign fighters there. That kind of debunks the myth of a foreign terrorist group taking over the city and terrorizing the citizens.

Another similarity between Qaim and Fallujah is that now there is a humanitarian crisis in Qaim from the fighting. There are 1,300 displaced families (approximately 80,000 people) from Qaim and the hospital there was destroyed amidst fighting on 8 May between resistance fighters and locals. On the 9th there was no electricity or water in Qaim and the surrounding areas and schools were closed. On the 11th US warplanes continued to bomb Obeidy and other nearby locations.

All of the aforementioned statistics were provided to me by a friend who is here working with the Italian Consortium of Solidarity, an Italian NGO based in Amman which provides humanitarian aid and has set up an emergency working group for al-Qaim and has contacts on the ground there. She also reports that people there need shelter, food, water and medical care.

The loss of life continues unabated….in the last week at least 37 US soldiers have been killed, while at least 450 Iraqis have died amidst a huge surge of ongoing attacks since 28 April, when the Iraqi government was officially announced.

Abdul-Khaliq al-Raqwi, the director of communications for the Iraqi Government in al-Qaim, confirmed to Al-Jazeera that 2 US helicopters were shot down in Qusaybah this past Wednesday. The military denied this, even though witnesses on the ground confirmed the report as well.

Another interesting incident which occurred the beginning of the month was when two F-18 Hornet jets crashed in Iraq. The military claimed there was no indication of hostile fire, yet they crashed in different locations. On the day of their crash, Baghdad airport was closed to commercial air traffic for three days with no reason given by authorities.”

Now just sit back in your chair for a minute and let’s think about this. Why is all of this happening? Why don’t we hear more about the memo that tells how bush and blair planned reasons for this war? And if Dahr can contact people in Iraq, why can’t our journalist? Why can’t they tell us the truth? What secret is hidden in the truth?

The Real Story of Friday the Thirteenth

Why is today considered so unlucky?

There’s lots of reasons.

Caption Anyone?

Thanks Michael.
This is the story.

Out of the mouths of babes

I was driving to the vet with my kitty and my son this morning. We noticed all the stick on ribbons on the cars that say "Support the Troops". People seem to have several of them stuck to their cars.

My son said, "Wouldn't it be funny if the manufacturers of the ribbons were a front group for Osama bin Laden and all these gas guzzlers sporting those ribbons were actually funding the next terror attack?"


"Yes honey. That would be hilarious."

"Hey mom, why don't you design one that says, "Am I patriotic yet?"

Health Warning

“BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's health ministry warned size-obsessed men on Friday to avoid trying to enlarge their penises with liquid injections, saying it could cause deformities.

The warning followed media reports that male teenagers in central Thailand had rushed to have their penises injected with olive oil or other liquids.

"Injecting olive oil or any liquid into penises is extremely risky," Chatri Banchuin, chief of the Department of Medical Services, said after his office issued the public warning”

I would suspect it could also be extremely painful too. So bottom line don’t inject shit into your penis, idiots. Olive oil goes on you salad, not in your shorts. If you must inject something into your penis, try common sense. Any guy who would inject olive oil into his penis probably uses that same organ to do all his thinking.

Activism

The American Family Association is mounting a campaign against Kraft Foods for its sponsorship of the Gay Games.

from gay365.com
(Washington) The American Family Association is mounting a campaign against Kraft Foods for its sponsorship of the Gay Games.

The AFA is urging its supporters to call Kraft and express their anger at the sponsorship. "Kraft is ignoring emails. Please make a personal phone call to Kraft and tell them to pull their financial support from the 2006 Gay Games," the conservative Christian group told its members in a mass email.

Here's the phone number for Kraft foods: 1-800-323-0768
Why not call them and tell them not to cave. if you'd rather drop them a note.
Here's their contact page if you'd rather drop them a note.

Hat tip to Liberal and Proud.

Friday Kids With Guns Blogging

Impotence costs Italian Man Money

BBC: An Italian man who married without telling his bride he was impotent must pay damages for abusing her "right to sexuality", a top court has ruled.

The couple had married without having had sex and their wedding night proved to be a disaster.

The woman said her husband should have warned her in advance and described his conduct as "contrary to the principles of loyalty, fairness and good faith".

Courts in Palermo, where the couple were married, rejected her argument, saying that the man "was not responsible for his ailment".

I wonder what the hell "was not responsible for his ailment" is supposed to mean?

But the Supreme Court has now overturned the lower courts' rulings, saying the Italian constitution upheld the right to sexuality.

Hooray for the Italian constitution!

The court ruling said Cristina S had suffered "a violation of her fundamental right to fulfilment, in the family and in society, as a woman, a wife and possibly as a mother".

As we learned from Orgasm Day in Brazil earlier this week, the mayor of the orgasmic town said, "I've seen scientific studies that show when a woman is unloved, when her husband can't bring her to orgasm, it affects all aspects of her life, her relationships with her children, at home, with the city and at work," Santolia said.

So there ya go. Where should we move?


PS. Excuse me... An Italian man is supposedly a virgin on his wedding night? That should have been a tip off, lady.

And guess who's enabling drug traffic into the US

FBI drug sting nabs soldiers, law enforcement
Tucson, Arizona

... Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, seven members of the Arizona Army National Guard, five members of the Arizona Department of Corrections and a police officer, officials said.
...

The defendants in the nearly 3 1/2-year-long sting were not arrested and agreed to cooperate with an investigation expected to bring more arrests and involve people from additional agencies, said Hillman and FBI Agent Jana D. Monroe, who is in charge of the bureau's operations in Arizona.

...

Hillman said the defendants drove cocaine shipments past checkpoints manned by the government while they wore official uniforms, carried identification and used official vehicles.

"Many individuals charged were sworn personnel having the task of protecting society and securing America's borders," Monroe said. "The importance of these tasks cannot be overstated and we cannot tolerate, nor can the American people afford, this type of corruption."
Read whole thing at CNN

But it's a good thing that the Minute Men are keeping the Mexican's out of our country because they are such a threat, eh? Our own home grown terrorists are keeping up the tradition of getting drugs to our kids. Sick.

Class Act

Last night during the DeLay support, whatever the hell it was, DeLay said the Democrats have no ideas, no leadership, and no class. Yes, the guy from the party of mule abuse, wife abuse and general truth abuse, said the other party has no class.

No class? That’s right. The party that believes in freedom of choice and equal rights, has no class. While the party that believes a woman’s body is not her own, believes that gay couples have no rights and believes that God is registered as a red blooded Republican, does have class. Fine man, that DeLay. What happened to a united America? So now we are really and truly a divided country. He made it official last night. There’s his party, and the classless party. His party puts their stamp of approval on war, the death penalty and putting doctors in jail for performing an abortion. Class act there, no?

Did Jesus have class? The New Testament presents Jesus as a kind person who went out of his way to help the needy. Jesus wasn’t into monetary wealth. Jesus appears to be a man of peace. Sorry Jesus, you have no class either, not according to Mr. DeLay. Going by what Mr. DeLay said last night, only those with dirty hands have class. Jesus’ hands were much too clean. So Jesus would probably be in the same classless class as you and me. I can think of a lot worse situations to be in, can’t you?

So Mr. Delay, move on with your sharp tongue and your smarmy looks. Move on with your truth challenged messages. Move on with your hypocritical words. Last night you implied that Republicans have class, but your own words and your own actions proved you were wrong, at least about one Republican...

King of Jordan to pardon Iraq's deputy PM over $300m bank fraud

“King Abdullah of Jordan has agreed to pardon Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi political leader, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for fraud after his bank collapsed with $300m (£160m) in missing deposits in 1989.

Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President, asked the king to resolve the differences between Jordan and Mr Chalabi, now Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, during a visit to Ammanthis week.”

There’s more here

Voinovich (R) Ohio, Says he CANNOT support Bolton

Ladies and gentlemen, we have found a Republican who thinks for himself and puts our country before his party. He is to be applauded for speaking from his heart. This man is a true statesman, not just another politician.

More hypocrisy from the Christian Right

Excerpts from The Nation Dr Hager's Family Values
Ass raping? (is someone keeping track of this stuff?)

Late last October Dr. W. David Hager, a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush Administration appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), took to the pulpit as the featured speaker at a morning service. ...

...With the autumn sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, Hager opened his Bible to the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel and looked out into the audience. "I want to share with you some information about how...God has called me to stand in the gap," he declared. "Not only for others, but regarding ethical and moral issues in our country."

...And because of his warm relationship with the Bush Administration, Hager has had the opportunity to see his ideas influence federal policy.

...Hager cast himself as a victim of religious persecution in his sermon. "You see...there is a war going on in this country," he said gravely. "And I'm not speaking about the war in Iraq. It's a war being waged against Christians, particularly evangelical Christians. It wasn't my scientific record that came under scrutiny [at the FDA]. It was my faith.... By making myself available, God has used me to stand in the breach.... Just as he has used me, he can use you."

Up on the dais, several men seated behind Hager nodded solemnly in agreement. But out in the audience, Linda Carruth Davis--co-author with Hager of Stress and the Woman's Body , and, more saliently, his former wife of thirty-two years--was enraged. "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever heard," she recalled months later, through clenched teeth.

According to Davis, Hager's public moralizing on sexual matters clashed with his deplorable treatment of her during their marriage. Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent. Several sources on and off the record confirmed that she had told them it was the sexual and emotional abuse within their marriage that eventually forced her out. "I probably wouldn't have objected so much, or felt it was so abusive if he had just wanted normal [vaginal] sex all the time," she explained to me. "But it was the painful, invasive, totally nonconsensual nature of the [anal] sex that was so horrible."

Read the article for the gory details. He's a pig.

Being President is Child’s Play?

Yesterday, while our country was in a state of paranoia as a small Cessna flew within three miles of the Capitol and White House, the president of the United States was in Maryland riding his bike. While people scrambled out of many Federal buildings, looking like so many extras in a, monster attacks the city, movie, the most powerful man in the nation was peddling his bike. And, as I understand it this morning, he wasn’t even notified about the emergency until after it was over.

Shouldn’t he have been the one to kick start the panic? Wouldn’t you think he would be one of the very first to be informed about what they thought might be about to happen? Were they afraid he would panic and fall off his two wheeler? Did they not want to interrupt his first wheelie? Were they afraid he would become excited and get his foot caught in the spokes? You and I knew what was going on, shouldn’t he have known?

Remember, the morning of 9-11 he was reading a kiddy book to elementary school children. Yesterday, when people were being told to “run” from the Capitol as the plane was approaching, he was out playing on his bike.

The next time we elect a president, I think we should look into electing a grownup.

By Pissed Off Patricia
-------------------------

and now a snarky photo essay by Liz

He Doesn’t Need No Stinkin’ Intelligence Agencies

New York Times

“With a vote scheduled Thursday on his contested nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton has told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that a policy maker should maintain the right to "state his own reading of the intelligence" even when it differs from that of intelligence agencies.”

So how about we just shut down the CIA and all the other intelligence agencies and turn it all over to Bolton and his staff of imaginary friends. Maybe cut Disney in on the action too. Hell, let’s just make up facts to justify war. No wait, I forgot, we already do that, don’t we? Well, if Bolton becomes our ambassador to the UN, that makes it official, our country no longer demands credibility, just fictional creativity. We are about to see another reward given to someone who least deserves it.

What’s “his own reading” on this?

Pierced, Crooked, Straight and Fake

If It Exudes Crude and Lewd, We’ll Post It, Dude!

Harassment at Wal-Mart ?

“The lawsuit filed in Alabama also claims that Brown's co-worker asked "whether she wore granny panties or a thong," and told her "about the size of his penis and how he would make her 'baa like a goat."'

Was he from Georgia?

And for a chaser

Get it Straight

“As soon as Dr. Anthony DeLuco heard a former patient testify that he had a crooked penis, he says, he wanted to set the record straight.”

And as a chaser for a chaser

All Spin Zone clues their readers in to this story.

Lawmakers object to fake penis for drug tests

“A life-like prosthetic penis called the Whizzinator and other products promising to help illegal drug users pass urine tests provoked U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday to take legal action with subpoenas of manufacturers.”

leave every child behind

From the Houston Chronicle

"Houston ISD students could earn high school diplomas without taking a single math or science class after their sophomore year under a proposal that is drawing criticism from some national education experts.

Critics say the change will leave students unprepared for college and the workplace.

'I'm surprised they would be considering this move,' said Anne Tweed, president of the 55,000-member National Science Teachers Association. 'That's a step backward.'

Superintendent Abe Saavedra wants to do away with a policy that mandates three years of math and science courses for all high school students. Instead, students who pass high school-level courses in the eighth grade would get credit toward a diploma. State law requires three math and science credits to graduate.

Saavedra's proposal, which is expected to win school board approval today, runs counter to a national trend of school systems requiring students to spend more time in math and science classes before they graduate. The decision is even more curious, some education experts said, given the fact that more than two-thirds of HISD's 2004 graduates who enrolled in local community colleges last fall were required to take remedial courses."

Every day I pick up the newspaper thinking, "Today will not be as ridiculous as yesterday." But it is.

This is outrageous. Many of my students today cannot figure their own averages in my class, are not curious about anything outside of bar hoping and protective orders and child support, and now Houston Independent School District is printing licenses for students to be just as ignorant and incurious as they are.

At least we don't have to worry about them learning evolution because we won't be teaching science. How are they going to understand the bus schedule to take them to their jobs scrubbing toilets? How are they going to know to mix baby formula for the next generation of impoverished people?

How are these kids going to figure out your bill at a restaurant? They won't be qualified to wait tables or cook a meal. They won't be qualified to know that vinegar makes a good floor cleaner. How are they going to run their meth labs if they don't understand chemical reactions?

But the Rocket's basketball coach gets fined for complaining about bad referees and that gets attention and big businesses to pay his fines. Why can't some Houston businesses step up to this? Why won't businesses come out and say that we are producing students too dumb to use logic and reasoning?

Bill Gates challenged the nation's governors recently. Gates "who has put more than $700 million into reducing the size of high school classes through the foundation formed by him and his wife, Melinda. He said high schools must be redesigned to prepare every student for college, with classes that are rigorous and relevant to kids and with supportive relationships for children."

"'America's high schools are obsolete,' Gates said. 'By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools - even when they're working as designed - cannot teach all our students what they need to know today.'"

I don't believe that education should necessarily train workers, but I do believe that education should improve people's lives. I believe we should teach people to want to know about themselves and their world. We have failed them and ourselves.

The Homosexual Element(s) in Alien Abductions

Okay, you explain this one to me. I’m lost in space.

(Remember the South Park episode with Cartman and the anal probe?)

Ridge reveals clashes on alerts

It was just as we thought

“Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

I had a dream.
In my dream the US was a safer place for others
than it had been for me in the past.

My dream country was a genuine democracy.

In it, torture, sexual assault, and murder
would never be committed or condoned by our government.

In it, our leaders were genuine, decent,
caring men and women.
They would never allow - or order -
government employees and private contractors to
wantonly torture, sexually violate, and murder defenseless humans.

I had a dream
but now the dream is dead
and I am crying. -- Kathleen Sullivan, a survivor of
CIA trauma-induced mind control programming

Hey, it wouldn’t be a day in Blondesense World without a little sex.

Of course, here we call it biology. So here’s something for everyone.

Lady fish likes well-endowed males

“A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that for some fish species, females prefer males with larger sexual organs, and actually choose them for mating. That does not exclude males with an average-sized sex organ, called a gonopodium. These fish out-compete the larger-endowed males in a predator-laden environment because they have a faster burst speed than the males with larger genitalia, who lose out because the size of their organ slows them down, making them ripe for capture by larger fish.

Brian Langerhans, Washington University biology graduate student in Arts & Sciences, has performed studies on mosquitofish (guppy-like fish, about an inch long) and found that female mosquitofish spend 80 percent more time with males who have a large gonopodium.

"A male with a larger gonopodium has a higher chance of mating, but in a predator environment he has a higher probability of dying," Langerhans said. "That's the cost, the tradeoff.”

.

Attention Music Lovers

911blogger points to a new song "The New Pearl Harbor"
I'd like to hear this one on the radio. But I am sure I won't unless maybe AirAmerica picks it up.

There's a list of 911 music on the site for your disquieting listening pleasure.

Bush Supporting Pastor Quits. Yay

Pastor Accused of Running Out Dems Quits

AP - WAYNESVILLE, N.C. May 11, 2005 — A Baptist pastor accused of threatening to banish from his church anyone who didn't vote for President Bush has himself chosen to depart, leaving in his wake a divided community and a cultural chasm.

The Rev. Chan Chandler, 33, walked out of the church he had led for three years Tuesday night after delivering a brief statement of resignation. With him went many of the young congregants he had attracted to the modest brick church on the outskirts of this small mountain town in western North Carolina.

The best part is that he brought his bush supporting congregants with him. There is no room for avid bush supporters in a "christian" church.

Someone should keep an eye on this character. He doesn't deserve tax exempt status.

Morford Today

It seems that Mark Morford was a boy scout in Spokane, Washington when that Jim West character, the mayor of Spokane now being investigated for soliciting boy sex is in the news. Read My Totally Gay Boy Scout Leader

And someone should really do a national, once-and-for-all study to back up what everyone already knows -- which is, of course, that the more repressed and sanctimonious and uptight you are about sex and love and gender and religion, the more likely you are to be involved in secret kink, in deep perversion, illegal perversion, perversion that crosses the line from healthy and slippery and delicious to degrading and morally reprehensible and Karl Rove.

I've been saying it all along. The more you hate something, the more you protest, the more you deny it... the more you are involved in it. My parents taught me that.

Things You Don’t Brag About

“I’m the guy who taught Jeff Gannon everything he knows about journalism. Okay maybe not everything.”

-Scott Baker

What Do You See?

One of the Saddest Stories

I know people are murdered every day here in the US and lately little girls seem to be the target of choice. But this story about the two little girls who were murdered in Illinois has bothered me so much. They were just two little girls playing and then they were stabbed to death. One of them must have seen what was happening to the other. Oh, they must have been so terrified and it must have hurt so much. There were a lot of stab wounds on each little body.


Now, according to Fox News it seems the father of one of the little girls may be a suspect in the murders. Should this turn out to be the case, and I hope it isn’t because I don’t want to believe any father could do this to his little girl, I surely hope he is put away for the rest of his life. A man who could commit such an awful act should never be able to walk the streets again. This is not only a sin, it may be the worst sin. Little girls are daddy’s girls, not daddy’s stabbing target.

Interesting Health News

NY Times: A new drug claims to help those who suffer from pathological laughter or crying.

NY Times: You got your cholesterol down, but you may still be at risk for heart disease.

Wired News: Science may have found a way to make tortilla chips lower your cholesterol.

Wired News: You must eat fat in order to lose fat.

Environmental Working Group: There's rocket fuel in your lettuce. Thanks Lockheed Martin.

Reuters: Chlamydia strikes San Francisco penguin colony

BBC: Take prozak rather than ecstasy, so you don't get depressed then forget to take your ectasy and then come down with cancer.

BBC: Studies have shown that that homosexual men and lesbian women prefer different body odour from heterosexual men and women.

Alrighty then.

Origami T Shirt Folding

This is an amazing MPG.
Learn how to fold a T shirt perfectly in a snap.

Holy Fucking Shit

Bizarre Sex Habits of The Extreme Right-Wing
Newshounds Link

Last night, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley was a guest on The Alan Colmes Show, a FOX News radio program. The topic was an interesting one - whether or not an internet service provider should allow Horsley to post the names of abortion doctors on his website. Horsley does that as a way of targeting them and one doctor has been killed. In the course of the interview, however, Colmes asked Horsley about his background, including a statement that he had admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex.

At first, Horsley laughed and said, "Just because it's printed in the media, people jump to believe it."

"Is it true?" Colmes asked.

"Hey, Alan, if you want to accuse me of having sex when I was a fool, I did everything that crossed my mind that looked like I..."

AC: "You had sex with animals?"

NH: "Absolutely. I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule."

AC: "I'm not so sure that that is so."

NH: "You didn't grow up on a farm in Georgia, did you?"

AC: "Are you suggesting that everybody who grows up on a farm in Georgia has a mule as a girlfriend?"

NH: It has historically been the case. You people are so far removed from the reality... Welcome to domestic life on the farm..."

Colmes said he thought there were a lot of people in the audience who grew up on farms, are living on farms now, raising kids on farms and "and I don't think they are dating Elsie right now. You know what I'm saying?"

Horsley said, "You experiment with anything that moves when you are growing up sexually. You're naive. You know better than that... If it's warm and it's damp and it vibrates you might in fact have sex with it."

OMG! Gag me with a spoon!
People who don't fuck animals are soooo removed from reality!!!!

I wonder if he wore a sinful condom?

No wonder these right wing fundamentalists are so quacked. They must think everyone is like them and needs to be saved. I knew they were all perverts. That's why they are so worried about our souls. B-b-but not everyone grew up in Sodom and Gomorrah, Georgia.

.

For Once I Agree With the Invented Ruler

My very own stupid white man is sucking the life out of my fun. I'm in an official pout. I was all excited and pumped. I was going to Garden Ridge to get this cool round ottoman/coffee table for my den. I haven't had a coffee table to pile my crap on in years and I was all excited about it. Then my husband, the only stupid white man I ever really loved, asked what I needed the truck for and I made the mistake of telling him. He pitched a mini-hissy and started up with the sarcasm and suggested that I take one tiny room and pick it up before I bring anymore stuff in this house.

Doesn't he understand? I'm just doing my job. Clearly defined roles and I'm just self-actualizing. I'm a gatherer dammit! He's the hunter. I'm into a ADD hyperfocus mode and I can't help it. So fine, I'll pick up one tiny room and then come hell or high water I'm getting that ottoman dammit. Just try to stop me, unless I find something else more interesting along the way.

For once, I agree with my Republican friends. george bush truly does have a good idea and its paying off big time. Surround yourself with people who never question your judgment or criticize.

From Russia With Love

Georgie and Pootie had waaay too much fun on our dime.
These pictures are too good. Yahoo Slide Show Here

caption anyone?

Thanks Mad Mustard