Quote of the Day:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington, DC, August 28, 1963

Revisionist SCIENCE

According to an EPA Report on its response to the WTC collapse released on August 21, 2003, it told the public that the air at "Ground Zero" was "safe to breathe" even though it did not have "sufficient data...to make the statement." It also says that the White House "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones." (page 17, EPA Report No. 2003-P-00012) They knew that there were cancer-causing asbestos particles in the air yet they announced to the public that the air was "safe to breathe."

^{© 2003 Tribune Media Services, Inc.}

God Bless the US of A

Quote of the Day:

"Look, the primarily difference -- to put it a little too simply -- between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil."

-- Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Saturday, May 31, 2003

My Afternoon on a Bus

My doctor's office is about two miles away from me, or about a five minute walk and a 10 minute bus ride away. Usually I like to be a few minutes early but the bus only runs once per hour so I would either be an hour early or right on time; I chose the latter.

When I got to the bus stop I saw the bus about two blocks away at the bottom of the hill. It was running right on time. I waited a few seconds and moved out to the curb so the driver could see me. Still the bus was at the same spot. After about five minutes it came up the hill and I boarded.

So now we are running about five minutes late but the doctor is usually farther behind than that, so no big deal. About half a mile later a passenger in a wheelchair wanted off so the driver put the lift out and it got stuck. He tried a few things to get it working with no success so he called for assistance. About twenty minutes later some mechanics showed up and they managed to get the passenger off but the lift would not stow properly. Now an hour behind schedule, a second bus finally showed up to get us.

I walked in to the doctor's office an hour and fifteen minutes late. I explained what happened and they mercifully fit me in.

I was surprised how calm everyone was, especially since it was so hot. Nobody was screaming at the driver. A few passengers even tried to assist. I guess people ride busses don't feel as self-important as some other people.

Quote of the Day:

He is richest who is content with the least.
— Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC)

Propagator of the Faith

I watched Life is Worth Living with Bishop Fulton J. Sheen on EWTN today. This Roman Catholic bishop had a hit television show in the fifties on the Dumont network up against Milton Berle.

Whenever I flip across EWTN and Sheen is on I always find myself drwn in. He was so dramatic and had such a stage presence. He was also a spiffy dresser. I want a cape. I just love how he always ended right on time and with a flourish. He would wave his right hand and end with it above his head. As Sheen lectured he would stride across the set and stop with his body at a 45 degree angle to the camera, he would look into the camera and grab his garment at the chest with both hands. Then back to the chalk board where he would write "JMJ" at the top and then write key words and phrases as he went along.

He was just a lot of fun to watch. He was not always a popular guy at the Vatican but I believe that John Paul II reconciled with him shortly before Sheen's death.

Site of the Day:

Iraq Coalition Casualties

I hope Dubya is enjoying his vacation...

and raising lots of money at those GOP fundraisers. Meanwhile, the sons of the working class are still dying in Iraq.

26 American Soldiers Have Lost Their Lives in Iraq Since President Bush Began His August Vacation

August 23, 2003

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY by Barbara

As I write, 26 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq since President Bush began his August vacation.

The President has been busy during his vacation. He's traveled to several fund-raising events, for example, and played a lot of golf. However, he has yet to attend a single funeral or speak to even one widow or orphan or mother of our dead soldiers.
As I write, on August 22, President Bush is in the northwest. He's making a couple of speeches in Burbank, WA, and attending a private fundraising luncheon at the Seattle home of cell phone magnate Craig McCaw.

While in Washington, Bush might have made time to contact the family of Army Specialist Justin Hebert, 20, of Arlington, WA. A rocket-propelled grenade killed Spc. Hebert, serving in Iraq, on August 1 as President Bush traveled to Crawford to begin his vacation. (read more)

Al Franken 1, FoxNews 0

Franken explained that even if people (right-wing whackos) don't find his humor funny it is still protected by the First Ammendment. Yes, it still exists. Ashcroft has been doing his best to eliminate that pesky thing but it is still there.

Hey maybe THIS will be "The Al Franken Decade." Congratulations to you...Al Franken.

Fox loses battle to block entertainer's 'fair and balanced' book

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- A federal judge Friday denied Fox News Channel's request for an injunction to block humorist Al Franken's new book, whose title mocks the Fox slogan "fair and balanced."

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said the book -- "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" -- is a parody protected by the First Amendment.

"There are hard cases and there are easy cases," the judge said. "This is an easy case. This case is wholly without merit, both factually and legally." (read more)

Quote of the Day

Socrates is a doer of evil, who corrupts the youth; and who does not believe in the gods of the state, but has other new divinities of his own. Such is the charge. — Plato

Site of the Day:

JobForJohn.com

John, who was recently "down-sized," did his own Economic Reality Tour in response to the Monsters of Government Tour.

Propaganda Tour under scrutiny by Congress

At least one Democrat in Congress has the guts to stand up to Generalissimo Ashcroft. Rep John Conyers of Michigan has called for the Attorney General to stop with his rah-rah tour to promote the USA PATRIOT Act (UPA) because it violates a ban on the use of Department of Justice (DoJ) money for "publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress."

The DoJ must know how much opposition there is to UPA because they are doing this tour and they also felt the need to create a new website with the sole purpose of defending the UPA.


See the New York Times story: Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror by ERIC LICHTBLAU

"Stand up for your right to sit back down again!"

Happy National Slacker Day!

We need a holiday like that in the US.

The average Amercian worker gets 9.3 vacation days¹ while the average German worker enjoys 30 vacation days. ² In fact, workers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France and Spain are by law guaranteed 30 paid days of leave. Canadian workers are legally entitled to two weeks of paid leave. But American workers are not legally guaranteed any paid holidays or vacation.³


Holly Sklar, co-author of Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us, points out

Since Congress last raised the minimum wage in 1997 to $5.15, it has raised congressional pay from $133,600 to $154,700, an increase of $21,100 – nearly the pay of two minimum wage workers. ⁴

So while Dubya is enjoying his month-long vacation at his ranch in Texas, the waitress at the coffee shop that he and Colin Powell visited probably gets no paid vacation. And, compassionate conservatives look at the brown-skinned workers in the nearby fields and think that they should be grateful to be working at all, how dare they want a living wage and paid leave.

Anyhow, take the rest of the day off.



¹ _{U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics}

² _{Brouwer, Steve, Sharing the Pie: A Citizen's Guide to Wealth and Power in America . (3rd ed., Henry Holt, 1998)}

³ _{Jorgensen, Helene, Give Me A Break: The Extent of Paid Holidays and Vacation. Table 1
Legally Mandated Paid Leave in Europe and United States, 2000.}

⁴ _{Sklar, Holly, Poverty Wages Are Toxic}

Good News

Anne Garrels reports that Hilma Al-Saadi, the wife of an Iraqi science adviser in US custody, has been found alive. She had been evacuated to a field hospital an hour and a half south of Baghdad.

** Listen **

Dear Mr Ashcroft:

Please read the US Constitution. Particularly the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,....

The so-called USA PATRIOT Act clearly violates this basic right by allowing the government to search and seize one's property and records without probable cause. The FBI only has to say that the records or items are sought for an authorized investigation. That's not all. They can come and take stuff from your home and they don't need to tell you that they did it--ever. Nor can anyone from whom they requested records (library, hospital, university, video store, membership organizations, etc.) reveal that the FBI seized those records.

see: http://www.libraryprivacy.org

Take Action

Hey Arnold...

Gratuitous Republican full frontal nudity
at Brian Flemming's Fair and Balanced Weblog

Another victim of Dubya's War

Sometimes it takes an articulate English speaking person to make Americans care about things beyond our borders. Listen to this report by Anne Garrels called Love and War. It is the story of a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time. The German-born wife of an Iraqi scientist who is in US custody was at the UN headquarters when it was bombed and now is missing and presumed dead. Hear her story in her own words as she was interviewed by Garrels just days before her presumed death.

** Listen ** (7:17)

Quotes Lies of the Day:

"I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons."
—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14, 2003

"We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."
—Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

'tis the season...

Summer is ending and school is starting, that means that is that time of year again--shopping season. See the link below and organize or participate in a Whirl-Mart in your community.

WWWD?

Photo from GQ Magazine