Let the fiasco begin

Attention Florida cops: please see the U.S. Constitution.

From The Miami Herald November 1, 2004:

Writer hit by police at poll

A journalist and author from New York was punched in the back and arrested by a deputy after he refused to stop photographing early voters waiting on a public sidewalk in West Palm Beach.

By JANE DAUGHERTY

Palm Beach Post

WEST PALM BEACH - A widely published investigative journalist was tackled, punched and arrested Sunday afternoon by a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who tried to confiscate his camera outside the election supervisor's headquarters.

About 600 people were standing in line waiting to vote early when James S. Henry was charged with disorderly conduct for taking photos of voters about 3:30 p.m. outside the main election office on Military Trail near West Palm Beach.

A sheriff's spokesman and a county attorney later said the deputy was enforcing a newly enacted rule from Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore prohibiting reporters from interviewing or photographing voters lined up outside the polls.
[more]

My Prediction
I predict that Senator Kerry will win by a fairly substantial margin and that the Republicans will challenge the votes in several states and Dubya will not concede gracefully.

The end is near

In less than 60 hours all votes will be cast in the presidential election. With any luck we will know shortly thereafter that we have elected a new President. Then the real work of righting this great ship of state begins.

These last four years and especially these past few months have made me almost a hateful person. I have all but lost faith in the American people. After all that the current administration has done (or failed to do) in the last four years, there is no way that this election should even be close. Yet the polls tell us otherwise.

Shortly aftert 9/11 when Dubya stood with the firefighter and spoke with the bullhorn and when he addresssed Congress I thought that maybe I was wrong about the guy. Nothing would have made me happier than for him to prove it; sadly, in the three years that followed he has only proven that my initial feelings about him being an incompetent tool of evil men were correct. I cannot stand to even listen to Bush any more, I get so enraged.

After the 2000 Florida debacle and subsequent Supreme Court ruling I felt sure that all of those people who were disenfranchised and those who just decided not to vote would make sure that their voices would be heard this time around. We will see shortly if that happens.

I can understand why selfish rich people want to reelect the guy, but most of the people that I see out there at Bush rallies and with Bush/Cheney bumper stickers on their cars are working people. The Jimmy the Cab Driver spot about tax cuts gets it right, most people who work for a living get no benefit from Bush's tax cuts. But just try to tell a Bush supporter that.

So the self-proclaimed uniter has succeeded in polarizing this country and the world. This man who can't think of any mistakes that he has made has the blood of tens of thousands on his hands. His black or white view of things has spread to his followers yet some of us can still see shades of grey.

Please...

...go read this:

From The New Yorker

THE CHOICE
Issue of 2004-11-01
Posted 2004-10-25

This Presidential campaign has been as ugly and as bitter as any in American memory. The ugliness has flowed mostly in one direction, reaching its apotheosis in the effort, undertaken by a supposedly independent group financed by friends of the incumbent, to portray the challenger--who in his mid-twenties was an exemplary combatant in both the Vietnam War and the movement to end that war--as a coward and a traitor. The bitterness has been felt mostly by the challenger's adherents; yet there has been more than enough to go around. This is one campaign in which no one thinks of having the band strike up "Happy Days Are Here Again."

The heightened emotions of the race that (with any luck) will end on November 2, 2004, are rooted in the events of three previous Tuesdays. On Tuesday, November 7, 2000, more than a hundred and five million Americans went to the polls and, by a small but indisputable plurality, voted to make Al Gore President of the United States. Because of the way the votes were distributed, however, the outcome in the electoral college turned on the outcome in Florida. In that state, George W. Bush held a lead of some five hundred votes, one one-thousandth of Gore's national margin; irregularities, and there were many, all had the effect of taking votes away from Gore; and the state's electoral machinery was in the hands of Bush's brother, who was the governor, and one of Bush's state campaign co-chairs, who was the Florida secretary of state.
[more]

Movie quote for today

The Big Lebowski

Donny: Are these the Nazis, Walter?

Walter Sobchak: No, Donny, these men are nihilists. There's nothing to be afraid of.

GOP steps in Al Qaqaa

Who's lying now?

Video Suggests Explosives Disappeared After U.S. Took Control
Evidence Indicates U.S. Military Opened Al-Qaqaa Bunkers, Left Them Unguarded

Oct. 28, 2004 -- The strongest evidence to date indicates that conventional explosives missing from Iraq's Al-Qaqaa installation disappeared after the United States had taken control of Iraq.

Barrels inside the Al-Qaqaa facility appear on videotape shot by ABC television affiliate KSTP of St. Paul, Minn., which had a crew embedded with the 101st Airborne Division when it passed through Al-Qaqaa on April 18, 2003 -- nine days after Baghdad fell.
[more]

Pentagon Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, "Another explanation is that regime loyalists or others emptied the facility prior to coalition forces arriving in Baghdad in April." And Dubya finally responded while campaigning in Pennsylvania yesterday using the same line, "the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived at the site."

TV Crew Photographed Explosives Cache at Al-Qaqaa
Images Suggest Explosives Were There When U.S. Troops Arrived
JOHN MASON and JOANNA HJELMELAND, KSTP-TV


Oct. 28, 2004 -- A Minnesota television station news crew reporting from Iraq in the spring of 2003 came very close to the spot where tons of high explosives are alleged to have disappeared.

Based on GPS data and confirmation from officials of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, KSTP-TV 5 Eyewitness News determined its crew was on or near the southern edge of the Al-Qaqaa installation on April 18, 2003, nine days after the fall of Baghdad.

KSTP in St. Paul is an ABC News affiliate station. Its journalists were embedded with the 101st at the time and shot exclusive footage that may raise new questions about the controversy surrounding the fate of those munitions.

Some 377 tons of high explosives -- HMX and RDX and PETN -- are said to be missing from the Al-Qaqaa weapons depot and questions have arisen about what the United States knew about the site and what it did to secure it.
[more]

Meanwhile Rudy Giuliani went on NBC's Today show to bash the troops in Iraq:

"No matter how you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?"

Farewell baseball, see ya in '05

Thank god the Red Sox finally won a World Series. Now we won't have to hear New Englanders whining about "the curse" and always coming up short. The Phillies may be the losingest team in baseball but at least I've seen them win a World Series and I've attended one of their World Series games in person.

It was an exciting post season this year. Boston's comeback from three games down to the Yankees and then a World Series sweep was quite a feat. And in the NL I happy that Houston was not in the World Series. First, because they're from Texas and I find it hard to cheer on anything from Texas. Second, because I don't like Roger "I-don't-make-roadtrips-unless-I'm-pitching" Clemens and Andy "Power for Living" Pettite.

I thought that the Phillies had a good shot at the post season this year, but they had a major meltdown in July and never recovered. Ah well, next year starts in five months.

More Jimmy the Cab Driver

More Jimmy the Cab Driver ads from MoveOnPac.org:

• Number 4
• Number 5
• Number 6
• Number 7
• Number 8

And log in to MoveOnPac.org to watch Rob Reiner's "Mistake" from week three.

Maps

I was looking to see where lynchings took place and found this map:



I thought that it looked strangely similar to the 2000 election map:



Hmmmmm

An atheist president?

I vowed to stop commenting over there but I read this so I will comment here (and be accused of stealing content and making mean personal attacks).

You can read the whole thing in context at http://dumbgirl.bravejournal.com/entry/8105, but here's what disturbs me:

Eric: "I heard a poll quoted last week, credibillity unknown, that said the American People where far more inclined to elect a devout muslim to the White House, than a confirmed Athiest. This disturbs me..."

Amy: "...I understand why you find it that poll distrubing. I hope neither will ever be President"

And Amy seems to be one of the more level-headed Bush backers. Are Muslims and atheists somehow less than Christians? What is so scary about atheists or muslims? I am more scared of a leader who claims to be guided by God than one who makes decisions based on knowledge and understanding, whether he or she is christian, muslim, jew, atheist, or whatever.

Religion is a private thing. We have a constitutionally protected right to practice our religion and to be free from someone else's. Why must our leaders be seen praying at all. I would be much happier if there were absolutely no talk of religion during the campaign and during the president's term in office.

Matthew 6:5-6: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret...."

Fundamentalist Christians and and their followers can spout off all they want about the Founding Fathers being christians but the facts prove otherwise. Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, Washington, and others were deists. As Deists they did not believe that Jesus was God, they did not believe in the Trinity, they did not believe that God took sides in a war, or that God intervened because of prayer. They believed that a Creator God made the world and set down natural laws and then was hands off.

Republicans please keep your God to yourselves; out of our laws, out of our Constitution. Thank you.

Site of the Day

shardsoglass.com

Live TV

...exposes no-talent frauds like Ashlee Simpson. She obviously lip-synched her first song and then this happened during her second song:
watch the VIDEO
...and she had the balls to blame the band.

Whatever...

Over the past few days (and months) I've been accused of many things, some true and some not true. The only thing that really bothers me is being chacterized as a mean-spirited liar and having people believe it to be true.

I foolishly jumped in to defend myself when someone wrote in the comments of this post that "(p)eople like...Rob and others of their thinking lash out with disgusting personal attacks, lies and false accusations." I'm sure that her motive was to get her friends to tell her that she is wonderful and those mean liberals should leave her alone, and I played right into it. It's useless trying to have a civil discussion with some people.

Anyhow it worked and one of the little ladies came to her defense:

Rob, I am going to get the last word. You have been provoking, teasing, and writing about Donna for months. I have seen it over and over again. All she has ever done is write in her own blog and commentate on her friends' blogs... I, for one, am sick of you acting so innocent like you have never done a thing. Like she would just feel this way towards you for no good reason... Come on! She has done nothing to you, yet you continue to obsess with commentating on your journal about her." -- Alice

Well, I've had enough of them. I tried to present them with another view of things, i.e. other than the Bush-is-chosen-God-and-can-do-no-wrong viewpoint. They don't want to know about it. I'll leave it to someone else to expose them to some of reality.

I don't write people off if we disagree about politics or religion. My best friends both happen to be medical doctors and both serious practicing Roman Catholics. We disagree about almost everything politically but that does not stop us from enjoying each others' company. They even chose me to be the godparent of their child--me the atheist. So there are open-minded conservatives and christians.

In fact I read this article today by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst of JesusOnTheFamily.org:

Why Are Some American Christians So Bloodthirsty?

Understanding Pro-war Christians' Indifference to Civilian Deaths
by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst

It's been going on for years now. Almost daily we read that another child, another parent, another sister or brother, another grandpa or aunt, is killed in Afghanistan or Iraq by U.S. weaponry in Mr. Bush's "war on terror." Sometimes it's a wedding party, or a bunch of kids, or a family of six. Sometimes it's a journalist, or a whole group of journalists, who may even be killed on camera in real time for all the world to see and hear.

But no matter how bad it gets, nothing seems to change Americans' support for war, which for some reason is stiffest among Christian supporters of the Bush Administration. "Stuff happens in a war zone." "Don't worry because God is in control." With these and other slogans, I've been reassured by countless pro-war Christians that, as long as civilians aren't intentionally targeted, taking their lives is okay, maybe even predestined, God's will.
[more]

So in my last two posts I've cited The American Conservative and JesusOnTheFamily.org and I'm the intolerant, close-minded fool? Okay.

The American Conservative endorses Kerry

Kerry's the One
-- Scott McConnell, Executive Editor The American Conservative, November 8, 2004 issue

You Bush supporters who claim to stand for "conservative" and "traditional" values please take note.

Remember this is the Executive Editor of The American Conservative writing in his endorsement of Kerry:

Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president is supposed to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort of conservatism for generations. The launching of an invasion against a country that posed no threat to the U.S., the doling out of war profits and concessions to politically favored corporations, the financing of the war by ballooning the deficit to be passed on to the nation's children, the ceaseless drive to cut taxes for those outside the middle class and working poor: it is as if Bush sought to resurrect every false 1960s-era left-wing cliché about predatory imperialism and turn it into administration policy.

Exactly what I've been saying for the past two plus years. Thank you Mr McConnell.

Women's libbers

I took a trip to Women's Right's National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. It was a beautiful drive up there throught the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania and through Elmira and Watkins Glen and up the west side of Seneca Lake through the vineyards. It has been raining in this part of the country for about a week but the trees along the way were green and gold and red and orange.

There are some little shops in downtown Seneca Falls. My favorite was WomanMade Products which carries just that, all kinds of great stuff. They also had all kinds of bumper stickers and buttons from BushMustGo.net, so I picked up a few of those.

The exhibit at the park's visitor center is a bit dated. I don't think that anything has been updated since the late 1980s and it seems to present things from the perspective of a very 1970s idea of radical feminism. The park rangers, however, are very knowledgeable and were eager to answer questions about the Women's Rights Convention of 1848 and the participants in that convention.

I thought that it was interesting that only one signer of the Declaration of Sentiments lived long enough to see women get the right t vote in the United States.

Today I saw a film about a lynching in Delaware in 1903. One of the commentators noted that these "spectacle lynchings" were ritualistic events that involved the whole community. He said that more often than not it was a well-organized event that was very orderly and involved thousands of people, including women and children. Many of the more than 3500 documented lynchings from 1865 to 1920 took place outside of "The South". I think that everyone in this country that allowed lynchings to take place was just as guilty as the people who lit the fire or tied the rope or shot the gun. Just like today, those of us who allow our government to invade and occupy sovereign countries, to drop bombs on civilians, to hold torture and detain prisoners indefinately are just as guilty as those actively participating in such things.

Jon Stewart does Crossfire

Thank god for Jon Stewart. He refused to play their game at Crossfire. He told Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson that they are partisan hacks masquerading as a news program.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

Watch the video

CARLSON: I do think you're more fun on your show. Just my opinion.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: OK, up next, Jon Stewart goes one on one with his fans...

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.

I also liked this exchange:

CARLSON: Wait. I thought you were going to be funny. Come on. Be funny.

STEWART: No. No. I'm not going to be your monkey.

"It's a day for the good Lord, not for the devil"

Bible-belt fundies are freaking out about Halloween on a Sunday.

Sunday Halloween Irks Some in Bible Belt

By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press Writer

NEWNAN, Ga. - Across the Bible Belt this Halloween, some little ghosts and goblins might get shooed away by the neighbors ? and some youngsters will not be allowed to go trick-or-treating at all ? because the holiday falls on a Sunday this year.

"It's a day for the good Lord, not for the devil," said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter Maliyah out trick-or-treating in a princess costume on Saturday instead.

Some towns around the country are decreeing that Halloween be celebrated on Saturday to avoid complaints from those who might be offended by the sight of demons and witches ringing their doorbell on the Sabbath. Others insist the holiday should be celebrated on Oct. 31 no matter what.
[more]

Words of wisdom from Gore Vidal

From: We Are The Patriots, GORE VIDAL / The Nation v.276, n.1, 2jun03

It was Benjamin Franklin, of all people, who saw our future most clearly back in 1787, when, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, he read for the first time the proposed Constitution. He was old; he was dying; he was not well enough to speak but he had prepared a text that a friend read. It is so dark a statement that most school history books omit his key words.

Franklin urged the convention to accept the Constitution despite what he took to be its great faults, because it might, he said, provide good government in the short term. "There is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other." Think of Enron, Merrill Lynch, etc., of chads and butterfly ballots, of Scalia's son arguing before his unrecused father at the Supreme Court while unrecused Thomas sits silently by, his wife already at work for the approaching Bush Administration. Think, finally, of the electoral college, a piece of dubious, antidemocratic machinery that Franklin doubtless saw as a source of deepest corruption and subsequent mischief for the Republic, as happened not only in 1876 but in 2000.

Franklin's prophecy came true in December 2000, when the Supreme Court bulldozed its way through the Constitution in order to select as its President the loser in the election of that year. Despotism is now securely in the saddle. The old Republic is a shadow of itself, and we now stand in the glare of a nuclear world empire with a government that sees as its true enemy "we the people," deprived of our electoral franchise. War is the usual aim of despots, and serial warfare is what we are going to get unless?with help from well-wishers in new old Europe and from ourselves, awake at last?we can persuade this peculiar Administration that they are acting entirely on their vicious own, and against all our history.

We can correct the Court's mistake in a few weeks. We will not stand by this time around.

End of the century

The documentary film festival is now over. I went to see Ramones: End of the Century on Wednesday. What a good film.

The two hours flew by. It features some excellent interviews mixed with performance footage. Also, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder is credited. He shot some super 8 film with The Ramones in South America. And according to co-director Michael Gramaglia, who spoke after the film, Vedder will be a featured commentator on the DVD release that is scheduled for next spring.

The star of the film has to be Dee Dee. The filmmakers did two extensive interviews with him and everything he said was funny in his own naive way. At the other end of the spectrum was Johnny who seemed to be a miserable person his whole life. Dee Dee said that Johnny was the adult of the group, to make his point he said that Johnny would buy hamburger and potatoes and cook himself dinner while Dee Dee would eat hash and some chips. Joey was already sick when they started filming but they found an older interview with him that they used. Tommy, Marky, Richie and CJ are also in the film.

The documentary is limited release but if plays anywhere near you it is well worth a trip to see it on the big screen.

Stop Sinclair

via NewsHounds.us:

Sinclair Affiliates Ordered to Run "Stolen Honor"

The Baltimore Sun reported yesterday that, shortly before the election, media giant Sinclair Broadcasting will pre-empt normal programming to show the politically motivated anti-Kerry movie, "Stolen Honor". According to the article, the stations will be required to broadcast the movie. One wonders how the "fair and balanced" FOX News will handle this information. Will they use their power and influence to declare that this is a clear example of conservative media's attempt to influence an election? Or will they gleefully report and report and report on the story, giving Sinclair and "Stolen Honor" masses of free publicity.
[more]

Please Take Action
or call Sinclair's headquarters:
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
Corporate Headquarters - Hunt Valley, MD
410-568-1500

What is terrorism

"Terrorism is not the weapon of the weak. It is the weapon of those who are against 'us' whoever 'us' happens to be."
-- Noam Chomsky, The New War Against Terror, October 24, 2001

Debate tonight

After the last debate the right wingnuts spent a day or two saying the Kerry cheated. They showed video of him pulling a pen out of his pocket and insisted it was notecards.

Indymedia, on the other hand, posted this:

Bush Blows Debate: Talks to Rove in Earpiece!

During the Presidential Debate Bush made what may be his most costly error- he exposed that he?s using an earpiece to help him answer debate questions. In the middle of an answer bush said, "now let me finish" as if someone was interrupting him - yet nobody did - he was talking to the person in his earpiece.

Listen to the mp3 yourself- or watch the video at c-span
rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/project/c04/c04093004_debate1.rm
ffwd to 40 min 30 sec

Listen - Let me finish

Even Salon, which is semi-mainstream, published an article entitled Bush's mystery bulge with a photo of Bush from behind where there is clearly some sort of box between his shoulder blades.

Maybe they will have to pat down the candidates tonight. Or maybe even do full body cavity searches to ensure no cheating.

***update 8:14 am***
Dissent will not be tolerated. The FBI is continuing the US governmment's harassment of Indymedia.

From Sydney Morning Herald:

FBI seizes Indymedia servers
By Online Staff
October 8, 2004 - 3:53PM

Rackspace has offices in the US and the UK. Independent Media Center, which is better known as Indymedia, was set up in 1999 to provide grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) protests in Seattle.

Rackspace complied with the FBI order, without first notifying Indymedia, and turned over Indymedia's server in the UK. This affects over 20 Indymedia sites worldwide, the group said.

Indymedia said it did not know why the order had been issued as it was issued to Rackspace. Rackspace told some of the group's volunteers "they cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the parties involved on what is happening.
[more]

The Daily Show headlines

After ranting about the news yesterday I saw this:
Mess O'Potamia: Off the Record
...and had a good laugh. Thank god for The Daily Show.

"Sixty-four words explaining why he wouldn't cede power, now guess which two the Bush Administration jumped on like a fat kid on a Smartie."

"My guess is that if John Kerry said all americans should step up and do their duty, they'd attack him for talking about doody."
-- Jon Stewart

News?

For the past few months I have not been watching much of the 24-hour news channels. I used to just leave the TV on MSNBC or CNN while I was working and try to keep an eye on what was going on. But lately I have been looking elsewhere for my news.

Right now MSNBC is televising a Bush campaign speech in Wilkes-Barre and over each shoulder there is a sign reading "A SAFER AMERICA / A STRONGER ECONOMY". The crowd is chanting, "Four more years! Four more years!" Is this news?

Last night after the debate I saw Ken Mehlman on one channel and Joe Lockhart on another. What possible analysis could they give? This morning they have the candidates' daughters on their news programs and asking for their reactions to the debate.

Last week on 60 Minutes Andy Rooney suggested that CBS broadcast a one-hour news program every night as a public service:

Turn our Evening News With Dan Rather into a one-hour broadcast seven nights a week. Provide it as a public service in exchange for the license that CBS has to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the entertainment shows that Les Moonves puts on. -- Andy Rooney

That would be a great start. I would take it a step further and make the CBS news division completely independant. Make Viacom put a set amount of their operating budget into news but give them no control over the news division. Heck, tax anyone that uses the public airwaves for commercial purposes and fund a BBC-like news organization. I think that Viacom, Disney, GE, Murdoch and the others forget that they don't actually own the airwaves.

Anyhow, I downloaded the BBC desktop alert and now the little box pops up and plays that BBC sound and I know if there is anything important going on. Otherwise I try to catch All Things Considered on the radio, Democracy Now! on FSTV, and several news sources through their RSS feed online.

I know that Dubya wants to go around "the filter" to get his message directly to the people, but sometimes a filter is good. Fact checking is good. Questioning the government is good. Pointing a camera at something and televising it does not make it news.

GOP wants me to "fight the spin"

I just got this from Ken Mehlman and my pals at the GOP:

Dear Friend:

The debate tonight presents a tremendous opportunity for the campaign to attract undecided voters, but people's perceptions are shaped as much by their conversations around the water cooler as by the debates themselves.

The Vice President`s goal is to do what he`s been doing throughout this election: explain to the American people why the President`s policies are right for America and the world we live in today - in fighting the war on terror, in keeping our economy growing and in responding to the new challenges of the 21st century.

After last week's debate, the Kerry campaign spin machine managed to mask their candidate's flip-flops on the war in Iraq, imposition of a "global test" for protecting America, and repeated denigration of our troops and allies.

If we plan to win the election, we must fight back against their spin and make sure our friends and neighbors get the truth.

We need your help tonight!

oVisit www.GeorgeWBush.com/DebateFacts tonight during the debate so you will have the facts. Print and share them with your friends.
oImmediately after the debate, visit online polls, chat rooms, and discussion boards and make your voice heard. The major news networks will all have internet polls after the debate. Make sure you vote in polls on:
oMSNBC.com
oFoxNews.com
oABCNews.com
oCNN.com
oand even CBS.
oMake sure swing state voters know why you support the President by sharing your thoughts on message boards in target states.
oCall Talk Radio shows in your area
oWrite letters to the editors of your local papers.
oVisit Chat rooms on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!

This is how they run their campaign and this is how they run the government. They think that if enough people repeat something that makes it so.

I just want November 2 to get here already.

Documentary film festival

A local independant movie theater is in the middle of a two week documentary film festival. I got to see two films this weekend--Control Room and The Corporation.

Control Room looks at the coverage of the Iraq War from the US Central Command Media Center in Qatar with a focus on Al-Jazeera. You get a real sense of how the US military uses the news media as a propaganda machine. From the story of the US attack on Al-Jazeera headquarters in Baghdad, which killed one of its reporters, to the Jessica Lynch rescue story this film gives you a feel for how news is "made".

The film seems to lack any real direction. It follows several people, including Hassan Ibrahim of Al-Jazeera. Ibrahim, who is described as an Arab nationalist, seems to be the most level-headed, intelligent, and likeable guy in the film.

The Corporation, on the other hand, is well-structured and pretty much focused. It starts with a history of the corporation and then the film is broken up into "chapters", each with its own thesis (some more persuasive than others). The film uses talking-head interviews interspersed with vintage clips to illustrate points. Among the talking heads are Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Peter Drucker, Vandana Shiva, and Michael Moore. Like Moore's films, The Corporation is satirical and witty yet it is weightier and not as easily dismissed by detractors.

The film takes a lot of time making the case that the corporation is by definition a psychopath. It uses a checklist of the characteristics of a psychopath and then uses experts to make the case that corporations exhibit all of these characteristics.

The Corporation made me think and I learned a few things. At one point Chomsky makes a comparison to slavery. He notes that while the institution of slavery is inherently bad there were slaveholders who were not necessarily bad people. One CEO that they use to illustrate the point is Ray Anderson, Chairman of Interface, Inc., who described how he had an epiphany about the impact of his company on the environment. Another part that made me think was a public meeting deciding whether the locality would allow more corporate fast food restaurants to open. One person said that people can choose not to do business with those places thereby voting with their dollars. Another person responded that rich people have more votes than him in that scenario.

Control Room just made me feel helpless and angry, The Corporation at least gave me hope that we can do something and that some people actually are doing something.

The other films I want to see are lighter fare. Ramones: End of the Century, Slasher, and Bukowski: Born into this all look pretty good. We'll see.

Debate: Round 1

Unfortunately, I had to attend a lecture last night (which was very good) so I missed a lot of the debate. I caught the last hour of it on the radio. I got home and saw only the last few minutes of The Daily Show and then switched over to C-SPAN and they were replaying the debate and it was at about the same point where I started listening on the radio.

So I am at a bit of a disadvantage here, I haven't seen the full debate nor have I heard any real commentary. But from what I did see Bush did not come off as a complete idiot. He did look (and sound) angry a lot of the time. I think he just does not like to be challenged on anything. I could hear the anger in his voice when Kerry or the moderator suggested he might have made a wrong decision.

I bet that he was the kid who would show up at the ball field with the bats and balls so he would get to decide who was on his team and he appointed himself pitcher, and batted first, etc. And then he gets to organized ball (Little League or whatever) and then he doesn't get to do what he wants to do all the time so he quits.

Back to the debate. I was surprised that Kerry was able to articulate his positions in only a sentence or two. I know Bush wanted to say "flip-flop" so bad. But I think that Kerry may have scored some points with people who were seeing at length for the first time. He may have pulled in a few people...or maybe not.

I'll have to turn on the cable news programs this morning and see how they are spinning it.

Jon Stewart on Fresh Air

Those of you who missed this can hear Jon Stewart on Thursday's Fresh Air. Yes, he's pushing his book, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction , but it's a good interview.

Remember

Prayer works better than actually voting.

Please, if you believe in the power of prayer stay home and pray.

Bubble Boy Bush

Here is an interesting essay from a member of the liberal academic elite.

Published on Friday, September 24, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Rip Van Winkle had nothing on the Boy in the Bubble
by Rosa Maria Pegueros


Perhaps the most astonishing pronouncement of the inarticulate President of the United States is that he doesn?t read. George W. Bush says that his advisers tell him what he needs to know. What an amazing thing for the husband of Laura the librarian and the son of Barbara Bush, campaigner for literacy, to say! But more than that, it is deeply disturbing that the president of the dominant global power, the leader of the free world, the most powerful man in the world, would choose to have his perceptions of the world censored and spoon-fed to him by his underlings. It is simply unfathomable.

However, it does help one to understand how Bush could honestly say, as he did in a recent interview with Larry King on CNN, "I don't have a sense that there's a lot of anger [towards me]." *

If Bush reads nothing and his campaign workers screen all the members of the audiences at his campaign stops and require them to sign a loyalty oath promising to vote for him, how could he perceive anger towards him? If his critics are described to him as the usual pot-smoking, hippie malcontents that he expects them to be, can he know that protestors against the war in Iraq cut across age, race, and class lines?

As he makes his proclamations about creating an ownership society, does he have any idea that many working-class people are living without medical insurance, without drug coverage, and the terrifying prospects that catastrophic illness, disability and old age pose to them? Such elaborate lengths to insulate him can only result in a clueless leader who ambles along, convinced that he is universally admired.
[more]

Veterans for truth

Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist David Horsey had this cartoon in today's paper (it is from Sunday but it was in our local paper today).

One nation under evangelical christians

"God is pro-war"
-- Rev. Jerry Falwell

Who needs the Constitution, why don't we just scrap it and replace it with The Holy Bible as interpreted by Evangelical Christians. Soon we will adopt their perverted form of christianity as our framework for government.

I just don't understand these people. Is it that they think they are right and everyone else is wrong? They claim that their God commands these things and you can't argue with God. They not only want to dictate how their own people live but how the rest of us live. If I don't accept Jesus as my personal savior I am going to burn in hell.

This is nothing new, I guess. It has been going on from the time that the Puritans, fleeing religious persecution in "Old Europe", landed here nearly four centuries ago. It just comes in waves. From witchhunts to abolition to McCarthyism. We don't really learn about these things in school from the football coach that is supposed to be teaching history.

Although I am not a practicing christian, most of my family members are church-goers and I was raised as a christian. More specifically in a Congregationalist church. There were about fifty members of this little autonomous country church which was established in the late eighteenth century. Each Sunday it was pretty much the same: a few readings from the Bible, a few hymns, the Apostle's Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and a sermon from the minister. Forty-five minutes a week of "religion", the rest of the week was spent on community things like bloodmobiles, bake sales, dinners, food drives, etc.

While I enjoyed the community aspects of the church I do not believe in God. I could not stand there every Sunday and say "I believe in God, the Father Almighty," because I don't; I never have. So I stopped attending church as soon as I was able to make that choice.

Now I live among Old Order Mennonites and Nebraska Amish. Their horse-drawn buggies share the roads with the evengelicals' SUVs and pick-up trucks. The clip-clop of their horses is part of the daily background noise. They, however, do not proselytize. They believe what they believe and they live their lives according to those beliefs and let the rest of live as we want.

They are not very popular among some of the mainstream protestants in the area. Interestingly the Mennonites ended up here after some Old Order Mennonites were incarcerated here during World War II for being pacifists. They noticed the land surrounding the prison and after they were released they told their families about the land and they bought some farms here.

I have been religion free for many years now. However, it is getting harder to escape other people's religions. I cannot listen to several public radio stations that used to come in clearly because there are now evangelical christian radio stations with national programs that block out the community radio stations. Even the local AM radio station carries James Dobson's daily message of hate. There are billboards lining the country roads with messages like "Have you personally accepted Jesus Christ as your savior?" Every meeting or dinner that I attend seems to start with a christian prayer.

Maybe I am just noticing it more these days. I don't know.

I am pretty sure though that the God I learned about in my church-going days was not pro-war.

From: BBC

Religion and politics in America
By Richard Allen Greene
BBC News Online in Colorado Springs and Boulder, Colorado

The first bumper sticker I saw when I arrived in the United States said "Got Jesus?" So did the second one. And the third.

Americans are divided about the role of religion in politics
The stickers - a religious take on a milk advertising campaign - were plastered on a Ford van in Detroit.

The next day I ran across a lawn sign asking "Need prayer?" There was a free phone number on the sign: 1-800-541-PRAY.

Americans are a deeply religious people - and one - as the stickers prove - comfortable with public displays of faith.

In fact, although the United States has a constitutional barrier separating church and state, the vast majority of Americans want their leaders to be religious.
[more]

Cat Stevens: Terrorist?

The former singer boarded a plane from London to Washington despite being on the US "no-fly" list. He was quickly sent back to London. I feel much safer now.

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Now I?ve been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun
-- from "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens

From: Agence France-Presse
Cat Stevens's expulsion causes rift

The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has complained to his US counterpart, Colin Powell, about the deportation from the US of the former pop singer Cat Stevens as a possible terrorist risk.

Mr Straw, in New York for United Nations meetings, told Mr Powell that "this action should not have been taken", a British spokesman said.

The singer, who changed his name to Yusuf Islam in the 1970s, said on his return to Britain yesterday: "I'm totally shocked. Half of me wants to smile, and half of me wants to growl. The whole thing is totally ridiculous." He described Mr Straw's intervention as very kind.

A United Airlines flight from London to Washington was diverted to Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday after US authorities discovered that he was on board.

Who says

they say
America needs no permission slip
we are above the law
you are with us or
you are with The Terrorists
God is on our side

they say
the law does not apply to the rich
taxes are for the poor
we are right, you are wrong
we are righteous
you are un-american
maybe even french

they say
you are not safe
we will protect you
we are sent by the Almighty
pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

they say
if you question us you hate america
rights are only priviledges
when we are at war
just call them enemy combatants
Ashcroft decides
so let the eagle soar

they say
war is peace
slavery is freedom
ignorance is knowledge
occupation is liberation
Iraq is al Qaeda
al Qaeda is Islam

they say
you are
un-american
a traitor
on the side of terror
the cause of 9/11

Totenberg hits back

Nina Totenberg had a piece about Dick Cheney on Morning Edition today.

Totenberg describes Cheney's political role: "In this campaign Dick Cheney is the hitman, whose task is to discredit the Democratic presidential candidate. It's an assignment he's carries out with a monotoned zeal."

She also mentioned Rick Lyman's recent article (below) in The New York Times about his attempt to cover Cheney which was made difficult because the Bush/Cheney Campaign has not allowed a reporter from The New York Times on Cheney's campaign jet.

From: The New York Times (free registration required)

Desperately Seeking Dick Cheney
By RICK LYMAN

OREGON CITY, Ore. -- They say that most stalkers imagine themselves to be the victim, and I guess I'm no different.

My first look at Vice President Dick Cheney was from a baking lawn on Ellis Island as he made his grand entrance into New York on a National Park Service tugboat, waving to the sweating crowd. I was just part of the small pack of reporters watching as he posed before the backdrop of Lower Manhattan, my first day on Cheney duty.

The vice president travels on Air Force Two, a tech-packed wide-body with private areas in the front, a Secret Service buffer in the middle and a media cabin in the back. A crew of about 10 reporters flies with him, representing all the networks, the wire services and two or three newspapers. There are snacks, cable television and camaraderie.

But there is not a seat for me.

Nor has there been a seat for the previous two New York Times reporters sent to cover the vice president. I am told not to take this personally. Nor, I am told, is this intended as a slight against the paper, which normally maintains a seat (paid for handsomely) on all campaign planes, presidential and vice-presidential.

Frankly, there are some colleagues who suspect that antipathy toward the newspaper may be behind it. Anne Womack, the vice president's chief spokeswoman, says such suspicions are baseless. There simply are not enough seats for all of the press, and other publications got their names on the list before us. If someone drops out, they'll let me know.
[more]

Don't expect Totenberg or Lyman to be invited aboard that jet anytime soon.

Bush apologist calls for pullout of American troops

This is a war, and there should be no limits for our troops to winning it!

As much as I have supported the war in Iraq (my brother just went over two days ago for his second tour) I have found that I don't even care about the Iraqi people anymore. I voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and I will do so again in November but I don't think the Iraqi people are worth one American life and sometimes I really wish we would withdraw our troops and be done with the place. Let those ungrateful, hateful people self-destruct. I'm just sick of it.

I'm sick of the liberals whining and crying about Abu Ghraib while ignoring the massacre of innocent children in Beslan and the beheadings of innocent men who were kidnapped and slaughtered. The enemy we face doesn't wear a uniform. The enemy we face murders innocent people with pleasure. In fact the innocent are targeted! And yet the only bitching I?ve read from most libs is how our soldiers are killing innocents in Iraq. Can they not see their own hypocrisy? We don?t target innocent civilians but in all war such causalities happen and it?s always unfortunate and sad. The difference is that terrorists HUNT the innocent and rejoice at their destruction. Who do you defend? I say take them out before they take us out...and always remember who struck first.
© 2004 Donna Schoenrock aka Nativeborn

Who struck first? It seems to me that the United States decided to invade and occupy Iraq in the name of regime change (or was it WMD or 9/11 or Saddam is evil). The United States waged an illegal war after failing to win the support of the rest of the world. Now they are having a harder time trying to establish a foothold in the Middle East because the Iraqis are using any means necessary to fight back. Do I think it is right for Iraqi insurgents to take and kill hostages? Absolutely not. But is it right for the United States military to fire rockets into a crowd of civilians or to torture prisoners of war? No.

Those of us who have oppsed this war from the instant that Washington started suggesting it have nothing that we have to explain away. We have been pointing out that Iraq was not involved in the 9/11/2001 attacks. We have said from the beginning that Saddam was no immediate threat to the United States or Western Europe. You call us hypocrites? Ms Pro-Life says, "take them out before they take us out," yet she calls us hypocrites.

"Who do you defend?" she asks. Well, one can't really defend murderers on either side. I think that the world has a duty to defend the civilians of Iraq. They have gone from being ruled by a brutal dictator to being invaded by the Imperial West and they have seen their cities destroyed and their neighbors killed.

Mrs. Schoenrock also posted a link to video of the latest beheading. A shocked Amy Proctor commented that the web site on which beheading video is hosted "is full of porn and perversion". Really?! I replied that a video of a beheading is itself pornography. My comment was quickly deleted.

Anyhow, Donna writes, "I really wish we would withdraw our troops and be done with the place. Let those ungrateful, hateful people self-destruct." Ungrateful? What do they have to be grafetful for? Before March 2003 they could walk to the market without dodging bullets. Their children had schools to go to. They could lead relatively normal lives. Now they live with an occupying army. There are bombs exploding around them. Thousands of civilians have been killed. I'm sure many Iraqis would be happy to see the Americans leave.

Home again

I'm back.

I had another long drive yesterday from Indiana to central Pennsylvania. The weather was beautiful; clear blue sky for as far as one could see and a comfortable 65 to 70° F. The trip was pretty much uneventful for nearly 600 miles until I got about 30 miles from home.

It was about 9:30pm and I had to decide whether to go over the mountains or through the valley. The mountain route is bit shorter but the road winds and you go through a bunch of small towns so I chose to go through the valley. The road is as straight as any road in this state and runs though a state forest and Amish farmland. I had gone through the only town on the route and the speed limit went back up to 55 mph. I was cruising along closer to 60 and I came over a small hill and noticed that something did not look right up ahead. The double yellow line in the middle of the road seemed to have a gap in it. I slowed down and before I knew it I came face to face with a black horse standing in the middle of the road. I swerved around it and then I saw a car in a ditch to my right. I stopped my car, flashed my headlights at an oncoming vehicle to warn him and then got out to help.

As I went towards the car an Amish farmer met me and asked if I could call 911. He was about half a foot shorter than me. The old farmer wore grey beard, black pants and vest, a straw hat and he spoke with a Pennsylvania Dutch accent. He told me the address for the 911 operator and said that there were two people hurt and one trapped in the car. I relayed the information to the operator, she took my cell phone number and said that that help was on the way.

Apparently there were three horses tied to fence near the house and they got loose and wandered onto the road. The other car hit two of them. One was on its side a few feet from the crumpled car. One of the Amish boys was talking to it in Pennsylvania Dutch and he kept patting and stroking the horse.

There were about six or seven of the Amish boys already on the scene. two or three were assisting the people in the car, two were tending to the injured horses and two were trying to get the other horse off of the road. I don't know what I would have done had I come upon the scene and was the first one there. I did not know exactly where I was and I am not very good with blood; and there was a lot of it. The woman in the car was covered in blood but she was alert and asked for a blanket, which one of the boys went to get.

The EMTs and fireman got there in about five minutes and took over. I got back in my car, a bit shaken, and made my way home.

My sojourn to the Midwest

I spent my day driving to the Midwest. Five hours of my nine hour trip I was trekking accross the cold reainy Buckeye State. If bumper stickers are any indication I'd say that Ohio is pretty evenly split between Kerry and Bush. Ohio might even be first in bumper stickers per capita.

Two cars with bumper stickers stuck out. One was a lemon curd yellow '80s model Buick with the trunk tied shut. It was driven by a guy who sort of looked like Jerry Garcia and was sporting a big blue bumper sticker that read "Dennis J Kucinich". I thought that one was fitting.

The other was an early '90s Chevy Cavalier driven by a man in his late 20s. The car was dented and rusting and apparently the defrost did not work because all of the windows were fogged. This guy had three Bush/Cheney stickers on the back of it. I was trying to thnk why this guy might be a Bush supporter. Does he support Bush's tax policies? Does he think that Dubya was chosen by "The Almighty"? I kind of hope it's the latter, I'd have an easier time accepting that. But I have a feeling that it is the former. Even though he will probably never earn enough to benefit from Bush tax cuts. But then he is probably one of those guys who doesn't want to work overtime for $12/hour instead of his normal $8/hour because "they take out too much in taxes". I have never understood that.

I also listened to Rush Limbaugh for three hours today. That is the first time in years that I've listened to him. He's not as funny as he used to be.

Some other observations:

• Is Ohio the only state that does not have a rectangular flag?


• Why do old guys on Harleys insist on riding on the middle line?


• Do all fast food restaurants in Ohio have signs on their doors asking patrons not to bring firearms inside? If the sign wasn't there would Ohioans assume that it is acceptable to have a gun in a restaurant?


• I saw the Weinermobile on the interstate. It's not as big as I thougt it was.

America (the book)

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have a new book out. If it is half as funny as the show will enjoy reading it.

Makes a great xmas gift ;-)

Among the topics:

• Ancient Rome: The First Republicans


• The Founding Fathers: Young, Gifted, and White


• The President: King of Democracy


• The Supreme Court: 18 Legs, Four Tits, One Mission


• Running for Office: What Are You Thinking?


• The Media: Can It Be Stopped?


• The Future of Democracy: The Constitutional Robocracy and You!

Thou shalt not speak ill of Dubya

This is just priceless. The police handcuffed and hauled away this grieving mother.

(In the name of compassionate conservatism.)

First Lady's Speech Interrupted By Dead Soldier's Mother
Woman Blames Bush For Son's Death

HAMILTON, N.J. -- First lady Laura Bush made a campaign stop in New Jersey Thursday.

The visit comes as her husband, President George W. Bush, gains strength against John Kerry in the Garden State.

"There is a lot of intrigue with this race in New Jersey. Imagine if we were competing at full throttle, and that's why the first lady came here today," said Sen. Joseph Kyrillos Jr., chairman of New Jersey's Republican party.

The firehouse trip was a first visit by Bush/Cheney campaign to New Jersey that wasn't a fund-raising event.

The visit didn't go exactly as planned. One woman was arrested and removed from the event.

Bush talked about more tax relief for businesses, healthcare reform and defeating terrorism. Many people in the crowd had lost relatives on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's for our country, and our children and our grandchildren that we do the hard work of confronting terror and promoting democracy," Bush said.

[more]

Assault weapons on TDS

"There's good news for anybody looking to kill lots of people quickly!"

watch video

• "Why can't cops look at the reintroduction of assault weapons as a challenge; an opporunity to dodge faster bullets."


• "IRONY people!"


• "AK forty-schmeven"


• "If you have an assault weapon you don't need to make sense."


• "Really relaxing to squeeze off a few, Jon...oh yeah...I fired my gun too."

Featuring Senior Armament and Ordinance Analyst Stephen Colbert

Army: killing civilians "clearly within (its) rights"

from LA Times:

Army Defends Baghdad Battle That Left 16 Dead

• Helicopters targeted insurgents opening fire near a damaged military vehicle, U.S. officials say.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD -- U.S. commanders acknowledged Wednesday that their helicopters fired seven rockets and 30 high-caliber machine-gun rounds onto a crowded Baghdad street this week during a battle that killed 16 Iraqis and sparked a heated debate about how civilians often become the victims of U.S. firepower.

Army officials said the helicopter attack was an appropriate response to insurgents firing on U.S. soldiers from the vicinity of a Bradley fighting vehicle, which had been set ablaze by a suicide car bomb.

"The actions taken by our soldiers and pilots were clearly within their rights," said Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which patrols Baghdad.
[more] free subscription required

How do you defend firing rockets at civilians in the street?

Even worse, they go on to say that it was necessary to disperse the crowd so that they did not loot the Bradley fighting vehicle. So in the US Army's book one Bradley fighting vehicle is worth at least 16 Iraqi lives (plus injuries to 61 others).

Site of the Day

TRUTH BE TOLD
Commentary From A Thinking Individual

Johnny joins Joey and Dee Dee

Punk guitarist Johnny Ramone dies

Johnny Ramone had battled cancer for five years
Johnny Ramone, guitarist in punk band The Ramones, has died at the age of 55 following a long fight against cancer.

He passed away at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday, surrounded by friends and family, said the band's artistic director Arturo Vega.

Johnny Ramone, real name John Cummings, battled prostate cancer for five years.
[more]

"God bless President Bush, and God bless America"
--Johnny Ramone, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2002

John Kerry: job creator

Kerry Hires Ala. Woman Fired for Sticker

DETROIT - Democrat John Kerry has a new campaign worker helping him drum up support in Alabama after hiring a woman who was fired for displaying the presidential candidate's bumper sticker on her car.

Kerry called Lynne Gobbell on Tuesday after reading a newspaper story describing how she had been fired last Thursday from her job packing cellulose insulation at a Moulton, Ala., plant.

Gobbell said her former employer had told her she could either work for him or Kerry. She said Kerry told her, "Let him know that as of today, you're working for John Kerry.
(more)

I think that is one more job than Dubya has created.

John Kerry: terrorist-loving baby killer

I think that our friends on the right secretly like looking at pictures of dead babies and children. Why else would they keep linking to pictures of them?

From our old pal Donna:

Where's your outrage libs?

OMG!
Pupils tell of siege hell
And the left refers to these EVIL terrorists as freedom fighters? This is unconscionable! Then there's John Kerry who says we should have a "sensitive war on terror"! Are these "EVIL THINGS" sensitive to the innocent when they rape and murder young girls and bayonet a six-year-old boy in the throat because he dares to ask for water? How would John Kerry feel if his two daughters were among the raped, tortured and mutilated? Do you really think we can negotiate with terrorists? Why would you want to?!

Hmmmm...

"And the left refers to these EVIL terrorists as freedom fighters?"

What??

It was the REAGAN Administration who sold arms to Iran to fund "freedom fighters" in Nicaragua. Those "freedom fighters" who became a CIA-trained army of terror and killed tens of thousands of people.

It was the REAGAN Administration who funded and trained those "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan (including Osama bin Laden).

The US Army runs the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation training camp. The former School of the Americas has trained many terrorists.

"Then there's John Kerry who says we should have a 'sensitive war on terror'!"

Kerry actually said, "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history."

Effective? Thoughtful? Strateg(er)ic? Proactive? Hmmm?


I wanted to comment on the post directly but comments are not open on it. From past experience they would have been deleted anyhow. Also from past experience she'll accuse me of harassing her and "Hubby" will leave a comment for me.

'I'm Batman'

I'm Batman

'Batman' protest at palace
By Justin Davenport and Robert Jobson, Evening Standard
13 September 2004

A protester dressed as Batman breached Buckingham Palace security today.


Jason Hatch, 33, from Gloucester, managed to reach a ledge beside a balcony despite the presence of armed guards, said the group.

Fathers 4 Justice. After climbing a fence at the side of the palace courtyard, dodging police and highly sophisticated alarms and cameras, he crossed the palace courtyard and scaled the walls of the building using a ladder. A second-protester, Dave Pyke, dressed as Robin, tried to join Mr Hatch but climbed down when police threatened to shoot him.
more

SLC Punk

...gets visit from Secret Service because of his bumper sticker.

Things getting sticky for owner of sticker
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune

Derek Kjar is not the president's biggest fan.
But the 19-year-old Salt Lake County man says he does not intend to harm President Bush with anything more than a vote for John Kerry come November.
Just to be sure, though, agents from the Secret Service recently paid Kjar a visit, telling him that his neighbors had alerted them to a potentially threatening bumper sticker on his car.
The sticker, which can be found on a number of Web sites, features a black-and-white likeness of Bush, a crown tilted slightly on his head. Under the image are the words "KING GEORGE - OFF WITH HIS HEAD."
Glen Passey, agent in charge of the Secret Service's Salt Lake City office, would not confirm that agents visited Kjar.
But Passey said his office investigates all threats against the president.
"Oh, please," said David Hudson, a research attorney who works for the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. "It's political hyperbole. However distasteful you might think it is, it's pure political speech."

Quote du jour

"Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she [America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."
-- John Quincy Adams, Independence Day Address, 1821

One of the new entries in the 2004 edition of Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Jimmy the Cab Driver

MoveOn.org recently released some new ads. I like the Jimmy the Cab Driver series written by and starring Donal Logue. I thought that the cab driver character was hilarious in the old MTV promos, but these ads are a much better use of his talents.

• Ad 1


• Ad 2


• Ad 3

New Look

After two years of black and blue and and extremely screwed up code I switched to one of the standard Blogger templates. Bleh.

Fetus Update

We had another ultrasound visit today. We requested a different perinatologist this time and it made a big difference.

The VSD is still present as is the spot on the heart. The kidney problem seems to have corrected itself.

The difference this time was the doctor. The first doctor was a woman who was all business and no people skills. The doctor we saw today is an older man who was very friendly and reassuring. He said that all of the findings above are markers for Down's Syndrome but that he thinks the odds are against it.

We have three more months to go. No more ultrasounds; just visits with the midwife.

A blast from the past

My Movabletype db blew up (or something) so I have brought back my old faithful Blogger.

I will try to get this thing up to date in the next week or so. Until then you're stuck with this.

Quote du jour

"Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their...their love with women all across this country."
-- George Dubya Bush, Sept 6, 2004

Quotes for today

"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason..... if a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar.... There is no America without labor, and to fleece one is to rob the other."

-- Abraham Lincoln




"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country"

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933

September Saturdays

...are for football.

I spent the day at Penn State for their game against Akron. Below are some photos (click on each to enlarge).



The first is some whacko guy with a bloody cross preaching outside of Beaver Stadium. He was positioned near another guy that was handing out free Penn State football schedules that had Bush/Cheney on the back. Even at a college football game you can't escape politics and religion.

The middle photo is the view from our seats during the Blue Band's pregame show,

The last photo shows a trumpeter in the Akron band who uses a wheelchair. I don't know how he plays and maneuvers the chair at the same time.

Penn State won 48-10. This looked like a Penn State team of old, except for a few needless personal fouls. The Phillies also won today. Lidle pitched his second straight shutout.

New Blog

I finally took the time to install Movable Type yesterday. I will leave this blog up but new posts will be at:

http://www.conniptions.net

come visit.

Bush's America...

where the rich get richer...

Internal Revenue Service statistics as presented by Steve Brouwer in Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America, Common Courage Press, 2004

Redistribution of Income	1970s	2000s
Richest 1%	9.3% of all US income	20.8% of all US income
Bottom 90% (the rest of us)	67% of all US income	52% of all US income

...and the rest of us pay for it.

BushCo admits no WMD

From nytimes.com:

White House Shows Less Certainty Now on Iraq's Arms

By JAMES RISEN

Published: January 27, 2004

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — The White House began to back away on Monday from its assertions that Iraq had illegal weapons, saying it now wanted to compare prewar intelligence assessments with what may be actually found there.

The evolving position followed criticism of the intelligence reports about Iraq from the C.I.A.'s former chief weapons inspector, David A. Kay, comments that increased pressure on the C.I.A. and intensified the political debate in Washington over who was responsible for shaping the prewar intelligence that President Bush used to justify toppling Saddam Hussein.

While Republican leaders have focused on the C.I.A. and how it gathered intelligence, Democrats have called for a close look at how the White House used that information.

On Monday White House officials were no longer asserting that stockpiles of banned weapons would eventually be found.
more

Vincent Simmons

I watched part of a documentary called The Farm on Sundance today. One section struck me. It was about a man, Vincent Simmons, sentenced to 100 years of hard labor for two rapes that he denies committing. There is nothing unusual about an inmate claiming that he was wrongly convincted but I believe him.

The scene is of Mr. Simmons's first parole hearing after 20 years in prison. He is brought in before the board, they ask him a few questions, he presents them with new evidence--the line-up photo in which he is the only one handcuffed, a doctor's report that states that the accuser was a virgin, and more--that was not revealed during his trial. As soon as he left the room the men on the board said that they had no doubt that he is guilty. They also tell his accuser that she doesn't have to worry about them letting him out.

He was also shot in the police station while he was handcuffed and he said that the officers who transported him to the prison stopped along the way and told him to get out and run. Imagine how many black men have been unjustly accused, arrested, convincted, and even executed in this country.

There is a whole film about Mr. Simmons and his case that I want to see. It is called Shadows of Doubt: The State Vs. 85188 Vincent Simmons.

Judge rules part of USA PATRIOT Act unconstitutional

Part of the USA PATRIOT Act has been ruled unconstitutional.

Part of Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a portion of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations.

The ruling marks the first court decision to declare a part of the post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism statute unconstitutional, said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who argued the case on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project.

In a ruling handed down late Friday and made available Monday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said the ban on providing "expert advice or assistance" is impermissibly vague, in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments.

John Tyler, the Justice Department attorney who argued the case, had no comment and referred calls to the department press office in Washington. A message left there was not immediately returned.
(read more)

Katrina on Dubya's SOTU

"In a time of revolutionary despair, during the Great Depression and World War II, President Roosevelt gave America a vision of hope, confidence and courage and told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Instead, Bush just reminded us last night that this Administration has nothing to fear but the end of fear itself."
-- Katrina vanden Heuvel, Thoughts on the SOTU

Howard Dean Remix

From NPR's Day to Day:

* Listen *

State of the Union

Dubya's State of the Union Address sounded to me like a one hour campaign ad.

We've not come all this way -- through tragedy, and trial and war -- only to falter and leave our work unfinished. Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same from us. In their efforts, their enterprise, and their character, the American people are showing that the state of our union is confident and strong.
- as read by G.W. Bush

He told senior citizens that they will get free prescription drugs, he told small businesses that they are getting tax breaks, he said that the economy is recovering. Someone who didn't know better would think that we are better off now than we were four years ago. It just isn't true.

Activist judges have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process.
- as read by G.W. Bush

Huh? Now we're going after those scary men in long black robes--judges. Well, only "activist" judges.

I had to go and find Kennedy's Inaugural Address from January 20, 1961. *listen* Of course the world was different then, the bogeyman then was Communism and now it is Terrorism. But listen to that speech, that is what a statesman sounds like. That speech helped to inspire a generation to public service. Has anything that Dubya said inspired anyone besides CEOs and millionaires?

Iowa Caucuses II

C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 were each televising precinct caucuses. I watched them as if they were NFL playoff games. People from non-viable groups were trying to convince others to join them in order to become viable while members of already viable groups were trying to get the non-viables to join them to get more delegates.

Pretty sad, isn't it, that I can get excited about such things. Just wait until November. In 2000 I was watching coverage until 5am. I hope that this time it isn't quite so exciting.

Iowa caucuses

I predict that John Edwards will win Iowa tonight, followed by Kerry, Dean, and Gephart.

Academic Freedom?

Now I it looks like you have to watch what you say even in the halls of academia. A professor at Penn State's Altoona campus is facing termination because she dared to speak out against the University. Welcome to John Ashcroft's America.

Professor battles to keep tenure
By Gwenn Miller
gmiller3@centredaily.com

UNIVERSITY PARK - A tenured associate professor of theater arts at Penn State Altoona is in the midst of a private battle to keep her job.

In a rare move by Penn State, closed hearings are being held this month at University Park to determine whether Nona Gerard will be given the ultimate penalty -- unemployment -- for her vocal criticisms of a Penn State program.

Gerard received a letter Aug. 11 from William Cale, dean and CEO of Penn State Altoona, outlining the charges of "failure to perform" and "grave misconduct."

The letter states that in numerous e-mail messages to various faculty members, Gerard has refused to "work positively to develop and promote the IA (integrative arts) program."

Gerard, who earned tenure in 1994, admits that she criticized aspects of Altoona's four-year integrative arts degree but said it was within her First Amendment rights and rights as a tenured faculty member to do so.
(read more)

I pledge allegiance to GOD...

I am still amused by the jesussave.us website. Today's highlight: A Godly U.S. Flag with certified vexillologist "Diamond" Jack Holgroth.

Who are these people? Why do they insist on forcing their religion on us? They can't even agree on one version of their religion. Even different groups of Baptists fight among themselves, how do they expect to unite an entire country when they cannot even get along with other christians.

Abstinence Shorts?

I was checking out a "youth rock ministry" site and found these cool abstinence shorts.

I think that are trying a bit too hard to be hip or cool or whatever "the kids" are calling it these days. But Pastor "Skeet" Hoskins does have that rockstar look.

Look at some of the phrases on the site:

• Joyful praise rocks da house!


• Rocking the world with the word!


• Jesus can rock too!


• Radically Abstinent, Saved & Saving it!

This site is almost a parody of itself. Check it out. http://objective.jesussave.us/index.html

Health Update

My doctor's office called today with my blood test results. He wants me to come back in two weeks for another blood test. One of the liver function tests (ALT) was high (64). Until then I am not allowed to have any aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, or alcohol.

My First Mister

I watched the film My First Mister the other day on Sundance. I enjoyed it. It is not the best movie I've ever seen, but I enjoyed it.

Albert Brooks plays a 49 year old "square" and Leelee Sobieski plays a pierced and tattooed 17 year old with a strange family. The two of them become unlikely friends.

Also in the film are Michael McKean as "Bob" the stepfather, John Goodman as the pot-smoking-aged-hippie dad, and Carol Kane as the mother.

Sobieski as "J" needs to earn some spending money so she gets a job at Retail Slut. She is soon fired for having a bad attitude, so she heads to the mall to look for another job. After being denied many times she sees Brooks (as Randall) dressing a mannequin in a conservative clothing store. She finds him amusing and heads in to ask for a job. He tells her to leave because she is scaring the customers, but adds that she should go home and remove the "silverware" from her face and return in a week. She does and their relationship begins. He buys her clothes for work and she takes him to her favorite coffeehouse called Bourgeois Pig.

Powell on Iraq-Al Qaeda link:

"I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection"
-- Secretary of State Colin Powell, January 8, 2003

No WMD.

No link to Al Qaeda.

Iraqis are no safer than they were a year ago.

Who me?

Yeah, I took some time off. But, now I'm back!

Not much to report. I got a new computer. I went from a PII 350Mhz to a P4 2.66Mhz. After six years it was time for an upgrade.

I still have my doctor peplexed. I was there yesterday and he ordered more blood tests. It was actually pretty painless, but I'm a wuss. I am still hyperreflexive (?) on my left side, my left leg kicks spastically when he taps my knee. I still have a tremor and occasional fatigue that lasts for days. He said he's pretty sure that it is not MS or ALS but he's sending me back to the neurologist.

So that's about it. I know that there has been lots of news to comment on but I haven't had the energy to post anything lately--maybe later this week.

Phils lose a reliever

Tug McGraw
1944-2004