Life, death and baseball

The baby is two months old now and today was shot day. He was very happy through the whole appointment. Then the doctor left and sent the nurse in. The baby was on the exam table smiling at the nurse as she readied the syringes. She gave him the first shot and it took a second to register but then he screamed. By the third shot he was bright red and screaming and shaking. Within a minute he was calm again and he even smiled and cooed on the way home. We'll see how the next few days go.

I can't complain, he is a very content baby. He is now sleeping through the night (9:30pm until 6:30am) so I've been getting some rest lately. He has to have an operation in a couple weeks so I'm a bit worried about that. I know that doctors are doing these operations on kids every day but it is a little scary to think of him going under the knife.

My sister-in-law who has a week old baby and a two year old had a stroke and is in intensive care. They were not sure if she was going to make it but she seems to have stabilized and is now showing signs of improvement. I kept thinking of her kids. How terrible it would be to grow up without a mother.

We also had sort of a family reunion. Not under the best circumstances but it was nice to see everyone. My father's brother died so my aunts and uncles and some cousins were all in town for the funeral. I had not seen my one cousin since she spent the summer with us in 1976. My uncle from New Jersey was there, I hadn't seen him since I ran into him on campus during my junior year of college.

It was nice to hear some of the same old stories from a different perspective. My dad always tells us the story about how he was so poor growing up that the family dog hung himself. Well, my uncle told the same story. He said that they kept the dog on a long rope attached to the clothesline and one day the dog got into a tree and the rope got wrapped around a branch and then it jumped to its death.

Then there were the baseball stories. My uncle who died was a very good ball player for the local team in the 1940s and 50s. In fact, three of the four brothers played baseball and my grandfather was a local celebrity in the 1920s and 30s because of his baseball talents. My dad was the only brother who did not play organized baseball. He was sick for most of his childhood so he did not play but he always loved the game. My grandfather and my uncle were both catchers and my brother played catcher on the high school team.

My playing days ended after Little League. I could hit but my eyesight was already at 20/800 by then and there were no plastic or lightweight lenses back then. After Little League my playing was limited to games with the neighborhood kids. One game I was pitching and I caught a line drive in the sternum from about 40 feet. I had purple stitch marks on my chest for a week.

Anyhow, that's what has been going on in my life. Political ranting will resume with my next post.

Cry Babies

from Mary

State of the Union

Members of Congress saluting Bush





Members of the Reichstag saluting Hitler

Key points from the SOTU speech

1. Cut Social Security benefits


2. Protect corporations from lawsuits


3. Put Lady Bush in charge of The War on Gangs


4. Freedom

The Arcade Fire

I was up feeding the baby the other night and turned on the television. I flipped over to NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien just in time for the musical act. I am so happy that I did. The act was The Arcade Fire. This was my favorite group since the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, and like the Tractenburgs they need to be seen to be appreciated.

You've gotta love any band that has a girl out front playing an accordian. This is the best use of an accordion since Nirvana showed up at their Unplugged gig with one. They also had two violins and a percussion section. It was really quite a show visually as well as musically.

There are three streaming audio files here. They played the first one (Neighborhood #2) on Late Night.

I have to get the CD now.

This is madness

From the very beginning of this country's history we have used a technique to marginalize foreign (and some not so foreign) leaders with whom we disagree. From King George III to Napoleon to Saddam Husssein, all have been deemed mad.

I watched a rerun of a television program called No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed. I believe the episode was titled "The Tyranny of Reason". In it they discussed the (at the time) imminent US invasion of Iraq and the idea that Saddam was mad or pre-modern therefore we could not use diplomacy to deal with him so we were left with no option except force.

Below is a list of some of the leaders whom we have deemed "mad":

• Muammar al-Qaddafi
• Fidel Castro
• Manuel Noriega
• Ayatollah Khomeini
• Saddam Hussein
• Kim Jong-il
• Nikita Khrushchev
• Slobodan Milosevic
• Mao Tse-tung
• Hugo Chavez
• ...and many more

This isn't really unique to the United States, many European monarchs were rumored to be mad, even back to Roman times there were "mad" rulers--Caligula, Claudius, Nero, etc. And in America, even Lincoln's opponents called him mad.

This would be an interesting dissertation topic.

The funny thing is that it works every time. Americans are willing to believe that an unstable madman has taken over some country and is a threat to the world and we must act to stop him.

"But," you say, "Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba for 45 years. Why haven't we overthrown him?" Well, we tried. This version of the bearded madman is 90 miles away from us and has klled tens of thousands of his own people, yet we go half way around the world to "bring democracy" and "liberate" the people of Iraq.

If George W. Bush were leader of some distant country what would we say about him?

Alberto Gonzales is Not Fit to be Attorney General

STOP

TERROR

STOP

TORTURE

STOP

GONZALES

 

 

Call your Senators NOW!

Freedom goes too far

...according to high schoolers.

A third of American high school students think that the First Amendment goes "too far" and over half think that newspapers should get government approval to print stories.

From BBC:

US teens 'reject' key freedoms

Two-thirds believed it was illegal to burn the flag
A significant number of US high-school students regard their constitutional right to freedom of speech as excessive, according to a new survey.

Over a third of the 100,000 students questioned felt the First Amendment went "too far" in guaranteeing freedom of speech, press, worship and assembly.

Only half felt newspapers should be allowed to publish stories that did not have the government's approval.

The US government has committed itself to spreading "freedom" abroad.
[read more]

God bless America!

Response to comments

I had to respond here in a new post because of the limited space in the comments.

In my comments to a previous post I stated:

I also have a problem with a policy that encourages soldiers to not follow the rules of war. A policy that encourages them to torture prisoners and that looks the other way when they murder civilians

Mr Glacked is referring to that when he asks:

Glacked () @ 02/01/2005 09:52:
Rob, just what 'policy' are you talking about? One of my closest friends is at Abu Grab right now working on prosecuting the soldiers who did this. He hasn't mentioned anything about a policy... or are you just making that up? Don't let the illegal actions of the few overshadow the honorable actions of the many. Then again, I guess soldiers doing the right thing doesn't help your cause...

Policy is defined as "a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc." or "a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, political party, etc." If it is US policy to look the other way when soldiers commit acts of torture it does not need to be prionted in a handbook or printed on a poster next to the "Employees must wash hands after using restroom" sign.

All well-trained soldiers are taught to follow the orders of superiors. If their orders are simply to "soften up" the prisoners for interrogation and they do that by going beyond what is internationally accepted as legal treatment of prisoners yet they get an attaboy, well, I would argue that that is policy. And those "attaboys" work their way up the chain of command with nobody stepping in and questioning the torture.

Of course your friend is prosecuting soldiers at the lowest level and the government's official stand is that they are "a few bad apples." When this is all over we will see Rumsfeld and the military commanders facing charges of war crimes. I have no doubt about that.

Then there is the case of two American soldiers who were convicted of murdering an Iraqi woman who was working for the Americans. They shot her in the head. One soldier was sentenced to 3 years in prison and the other 18 months. Is that justice? A child will grow up without a mother and these guys will be safe behind bars for a few years and then go home to their families.

Glacked () @ 02/01/2005 09:58:
Rob, just who do you think you are? I've never done one thing in your name - has anyone? We serve(d) our country - if you'd be kind enough to give me YOUR percent of the county's population, I'd be happy to give you your due. Should take less than one second of my day...

Everything that you do as a member of the United States military is done in my name--and Gia's name and your mother's name and the name of every other American citizen. It is the American people who pay you and decide to send you to war through their representatives in Congress. Although in this war Congress told the president that he could do it if the evidence (of WMD) was there--only later did they find out that the president lied to them. Every time that you put on the uniform of the US military you represent the the people of the United States (including me). When uniformed American soldiers killed an innocent civilian they did that in the name of the American people and in my name. When the US military supposedly "liberates" a country they do that in my name.

You military types are always telling us how you are out there defending our freedom. You tell us that we are only free because of you. You took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution"; it is the Constituion which protects us. As the Declaration of Independence states: all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". That means that we are born with such rights. They are not granted to us by the government or by the almighty US military.

As much as I disagree with the current war of agression in Iraq, I recognize that a military is necessary. I respect any person who willingly puts on a uniform and goes in harm's way to defend his country. That does not mean that I agree with how the governmant uses the military on every occasion.

Quote du jour

Hey look! Morons! Children, gather round: we're seeing a moron's rare forays outside of its home turf. If we're very quiet, maybe they'll eat out of our hands!
-- jasmine

Bush advertorials

Another conservative columnist was exposed for taking money from the Bush Administration to promote one of its programs. This time it is Michael McManus, whose column "Ethics & Religion" appears in 50 newspapers.

This guy writes a column about ethics and he did not disclose that he was being paid to promote the program that he was lauding in his column.

see: Third columnist caught with hand in the Bush till at Salon.com

That bring the total to three so far.

• Michael McManus $10,000
• Maggie Gallagher $41,500
• Armstrong Williams $241,000
• 50.8% of the electorate duped into voting for a second term...Priceless

Apparently the Bush Administration knows how bad their programs are so they have to pay people in the media to promote them. They also paid a PR firm more than double what the Clinton Administration spent on PR in its second term.

Who will be next in this scandal? And has anyone in the Bush Administration lost his job because of this?

Iraqi Elections

I just want to interrupt the GOP's self-congratulations to remind everyone that voter turnout in Cuba's last election was 95%. And, as Mr. Zakaria points out "Elections Are Not Democracy." Let's see what happens in the next few months. I hope that Iraqis take control of their country and ask the Americans to leave.

Elections Are Not Democracy
The United States has essentially stopped trying to build a democratic order in Iraq, and is simply trying to gain stability and legitimacy

By Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek

Feb. 7 issue - By the time you read this, you will know how the elections in Iraq have gone. No matter what the violence, the elections are an important step forward, for Iraq and for the Middle East. But it is also true, alas, that no matter how the voting turns out, the prospects for genuine democracy in Iraq are increasingly grim. Unless there is a major change in course, Iraq is on track to become another corrupt, oil-rich quasi-democracy, like Russia and Nigeria.

In April 2003, around the time Baghdad fell, I published a book that described the path to liberal democracy. In it, I pointed out that there had been elections in several countries around the world?most prominently Russia?that put governments in place that then abused their authority and undermined basic human rights. I called such regimes illiberal democracies. In NEWSWEEK that month, I outlined the three conditions Iraq had to fulfill to avoid this fate. It is currently doing badly at all three.
[more]

Goons

In the past few days we have seen how much of a uniter George "Dubya" Bush has been. The supporters of the Bush Administration's with-us-or-against-us policies and rhetoric have shown their true colors here and other places. They made false allegations of harassment, they have themselves harassed others who disagree, and they've even go so far as to say that they wanted to visit me and do me physical harm.

These paratrooper goons think that I am behind some plot bombard dumbgirl's blog with nonsense posts filled with foul language. Why? Because that paranoid attention whore that we all know told them so. So I got a ton of hits from their forum and the another forum of one the members. The results of those hits is in the comments of my posts below. But on their forum they posted stuff like this:

rlbgfish173
'Nam Vet
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:48 pm Post subject:
Kids, being I am from the old school paying someone a visit ment going there not sending e-mail to this fag, so where does he live?

Jumper208
Creator of this Mess!
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:24 am Post subject:

donna wrote:
He lives on the east coast, PA, I believe.

It appears he's in Harrisburg. Hell sticky, that's only a few miles from us!

gixxer
US Paratrooper
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:31 am Post subject:
This dude is a chump!!! A serious grade "A" O2 thief....Reminds me of some of the jackass kids I attend college with, too much time on
their hands and no value of service to one's country.


Jumper208
Creator of this Mess!
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:40 am Post subject:
I still have his email, and yahoo messenger, so I can still play with him!

These guys remind me of middle school bullies who pick on the kids in the lower grades.

Actually being falsely accused of something and then being harassed by these guys brought back a forgotten memory that has been tucked away in my brain for many years. I went to an elementary school that consolidated the neighborhood schools in town but the schools in the outlying townships stayed open and the kids from those schools joined us in 6th grade. This school also had no walls between classrooms and we sat at round tables instead of those little individual desks. Well, at the start of 6th grade I sat at a table with three other people and two of them were friends from another school. From day one those two, a boy and a girl, did things to get me in trouble. The teacher would come over and yell at me because they threw something or made a loud noise. They also threatened to beat me up after school.

Up until that point I loved school. But that year I did not even want to go. My grades even suffered that year. I had always gotten all As but that year I got lower grades in a class or two. I was so shy that I could not even approach the teacher to tell him what was happening.

I hadn't thought about that period of my life for many years. I guess I would not be the person I am today if I had not gone through that.

"Everything Is For The Best In This, The Best Of All Possible Worlds."
-- Dr. Pangloss in Candide by Voltaire

So, back to the goons. They don't know me. I doubt that they read any of the posts on this site. Yet they come her and call me a traitor, a "goddamned fucknut", a "sorry ass peice(sic) of shit liberal", a "FUCKING PUSSY", etc. Why? Because they don't agree with my politics.

A while back a guy named Jake used to visit this blog. He was a former military guy who was 100% behind Bush. He'd come here and comment on my posts and I'd comment on his site. We disagreed yet we were civil and read what each other had to say. This was back before the war. I haven't come across many so-called conservatives since then who are willing to participate in a conversation. I usually get "you don't support the war therefore you hate the military and you hate America so go live in France."

So much for being a uniter.

Quote du jour

What is the goal toward which we are heading? The peaceful enjoyment of liberty and equality; the reign of that eternal justice whose laws have been inscribed, not in marble and stone, but in the hearts of all men, even in that of the slave who forgets them and in that of the tyrant who denies them.
-- Robespierre, "On Political Morality", 5 February 1794

That is Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robspierre trying to justify "The Terror".

[W]e have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.
George "Dubya" Bush, Second Inaugural Address

Hmmmmm...*scartches chin*

That is George Walker Bush trying to justify...

Welcome Paratroopers!

Ms. Donna is now whining on yet another message board about being harassed by me. Okay, not exactly, now I am supposedly harassing DumbGirl. Nonetheless, she used the same old tactic that we've seen many times before. She has a new group of people willing to believe her stories.
see:
http://www.usparatroopers.org/nuke1/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2758

click on images to enlarge:



It's funny, she falsely accuses me of something and then recruits a bunch of people to do the very thing that she claims I did. At least Amy is above that. Amy only left one comment where she vented through an alias because she honestly thought that I was harassing her. No big deal.

Anyhow, all of you military types are welcome to comment here but please read the posts before commenting.

Thank you.

Evangelical Christian

...does The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
watch the video

"...religion does not have a monopoly on morality."
--Jim Wallis

Dubya: a modernday (albeit dumber) Robespierre?

President Bush's second inaugural speech is Jacobin to the core. It stands outside the American tradition. Declaring American values to be universalist principles, Bush promised to use American power to spread democracy and to end tyranny everywhere on earth.
-- Paul Craig Roberts

Isn't it treason to compare Dubya to anything French? Not yet.

Jacobin to the Core

by Paul Craig Roberts

After listening to his inaugural speech, anyone who thinks President Bush and his handlers are sane needs to visit a psychiatrist. The hubris-filled megalomaniac in the Oval Office has promised the world war without end.

Bush's crazy talk has even upset rah-rah Republicans. One Republican called Bush's speech "God-drenched." It has begun to dawn on the formerly Grand Old Party that a bloodless coup has occurred and Republicans have lost their party to Jacobins, who cloak themselves under the term "neoconservatives."

What is a Jacobin? Jacobins ushered in the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. The Jacobins saw themselves as virtuous champions of universalist principles that required them to impose "liberty, equality, fraternity" not merely on France by a reign of terror, but also on the rest of Europe by force of arms.

Unlike America's Founding Fathers, who exhorted their countrymen to cultivate their own garden, Jacobins were not content with revolutionizing France. They were driven to revolutionize the world

President Bush's second inaugural speech is Jacobin to the core. It stands outside the American tradition. Declaring American values to be universalist principles, Bush promised to use American power to spread democracy and to end tyranny everywhere on earth. As one of Bush's neocon puppetmasters, Robert Kagan, approvingly wrote in the Washington Post on Jan. 23, "The goal of American foreign policy is now to spread democracy, for its own sake, for reasons that transcend specific threats. In short, Bush has unmoored his foreign policy from the war on terrorism."
[more]

There's more good stuff there, go read the rest.

Scenes from today's anti-abortion march in DC

There were religious fanatics who want their religion to be the law of the land.

Sorry lady, evangelicals don't even consider you catholics as christians.

You lost--32 years ago--get over it.


Pro-life president?


A nod and a wink to DumbGirl et al.

My friend went to catholic school from 1st through 12th grades (and is a practicing catholic today), she told me that the nun who ran the school's Pro-Life Club would hand out a sign up sheet with two choices on it:

Do you want to join the Pro-Life Club?

1. Yes, because I believe that human life is sacred.
2. No, because I believe in killing babies.

They also got extra credit if they signed up to go on the bus trip to DC for the march.

More on the inauguration

From Greg Palast:

Oaf of Office
by Greg Palast

Watching John Kerry lip-synch the oath of office, I couldn't help wondering, 'what if.'

Here on stage in Washington was the winner-class warmed and protected by cashmere and tax cuts against the strange, nipple-chilling cold. Hell had frozen over.

Our President said, "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation." Well, no, it isn't.

Our President said, "We will widen retirement savings and health insurance." No, he won't.

Our President said, "America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains." Yes, he will.

Our President said, "And our country must abandon all the habits of racism." Oh, sure.

He doesn't believe a single word he's saying. And all over America, everyone knows he's lying and America is truly relieved.

America doesn't want to give up the habit of racism. Karl Rove doesn't. Jeb Bush doesn't. If not for challenging hundreds of thousands of voters in Black precincts of Ohio and other swing states, if not for purging thousands more from voter rolls for the crime of voting while Black, you wouldn't be president now, would you, Mr. President?

You won't "pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains," unless they are chained by your buck-buddies in Saudi Arabia.

You'll "support democratic movements" so long as the citizens of Venezuela don't get carried away and decide that democracy means they can choose a leader you don't like.
[more]

Lisa Rein has video of the Daily Show coverage of the inauguration speech here.
I liked this part:

Dubya: "When you stand for your liberty, we will stand for you."
Jon Stewart: "offer not valid in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and all of Africa."

And he could have added quite a few more. When Bush said that I thought about the Palestinians in the occupied territories. After all, the Bush Administration claims that it was only enforcing a UN resolution when it decided to invade Iraq. Israel is in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 yet the US government continues to supply Israel with military aid and weapons. Why is Bush not enforcing those UN resolutions?

Panfish on Desperate Republican Houswives

I saw this posted by Panfish and I had to smile:


Why you shouldn't waste your time arguing with Republican Christian fundamentalist housewives.

Celebrating Freedom, Honoring...

Corporate donors.

Dubya smirked his way through another inauguration yesterday. It made me physically ill to watch, I had to leave the room during his speech (I caught the replay on CSPAN).

I thought back to the 2000 election. After the Supreme Court ruled and the House certified the election I put aside my active opposition to this tool of the neo-cons for a while. I remember thinking that this form of government has held up through bad presidents before in its 212 years, how much harm could could this guy do in four years? Well, we found out, didn't we.

So rich, white evangelical christians converged on the Capitol yesterday to celebrate another four years in power. Four more years of war! Wooohooo!!! They danced and drank champagne. Meanwhile, the kids that they sent to fight their war of American imperialism are dodging bullets and bombs in Iraq and 1,370 families of American soldiers are mourning. These balls and celebrations were largely paid for by corporate donors who the GOP spokesman kept calling "volunteers".

I flipped around to see if any of the networks were covering the protests. ABC had several reporters covering it and CSPAN2 televised the ANSWER protest. It was not until I watched Democracy Now! this morning that I got a sense of what was happening.

Nonviolent protesters were met with force by the over 7,000 uniformed police. At this event, which the Presidential Inaugural Committee dubbed "Celebrating Freedom", people were arrested for heckling the president. The police even had people dressed as protesters in the crowd--in this photo the two men wearing kuffiyehs are actually undercover police arresting the female protester.

My favorite group of protesters yesterday:

Here we go again

...another 'pre-emptive war' in our future?

Special forces 'on the ground' in Iran

Ian Traynor
Monday January 17, 2005
The Guardian

American special forces have been on the ground inside Iran scouting for US air strike targets for suspected nuclear weapons sites, according to the renowned US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

In an article in the latest edition of the New Yorker, Hersh, who was the first to uncover US human rights abuses against Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison last year, reports that Pakistan, under a deal with Washington, has been supplying information on Iranian military sites and on its nuclear programme, enabling the US to conduct covert ground and air reconnaissance of Iranian targets, should the escalating row over Iran's nuclear ambitions come to a head.

Acting on information from Pakistani scientists knowledgeable about Iran's nuclear programme, Hersh reported, US commandos have penetrated territory in eastern Iran seeking to pinpoint underground installations suspected of being nuclear weapons sites.

Hersh told CNN yesterday: "I think they really think there's a chance to do something in Iran, perhaps by summer, to get the intelligence on the sites.
[more]

Euphemism of the day

Pre-emptive War:

American imperialistic aggression

Torturer

Tsunami, pt 2

It took nearly a week but some of the "christian" bloggers have chimed in on the tsunami. I guess they had to wait to get the official word from the Bush Administration before they could comment.

A big surprise, they are comparing aid to the the victims of this natural disaster to Iraq. Dumb Girl has a map of Asia with the words "worth humanitarian aid" across it and a map of Iraq with "not worth humanitarian aid" on it. Mr Dumb Girl writes in the comments section, "The US has 4% of the world's population and provides nearly half of the world's food relief/aid EVERY DAY..." I would also point out that the US has about half of the world's wealth. Also Japan has about half the population of the US and they led the world in foreign aid for most of the past twelve years. Mr Dumb Girl goes on to say, "The US also supports international stability with its global reach military capability and ALL nations benefit from the sacrifices of the US soldier and the taxpayer behind him....The world owes President Bush and the US taxpayer a hearty THANK YOU instead of criticism." Is he serious? That is just laughable. Ask the people of Nicaragua, Chile, Cuba, Iraq, Vietnam, etc. how grateful they are to US for intervening in their affairs.

...more later

Tsunami? What tsunami?

I'm just popping in quickly to make an observation. Then I'll get back to diaper duty.

As I write this the estimated death toll for the Asian Tsunami Disaster has risen above 76,000 and is expected to top 100,000. I thought that I would peruse some of the blogs of our "christian" friends and see what kind of relief efforts were going on and what they had to say about the event in general. Well, apparently they haven't heard about it.

The great leader of the free world originally promised $15 million in aid and then when he was called "stingy" the US announced that it would up the amount to $35 million. Democracy Now! put this in perspective by pointing out that Bush will spend between $30 and $40 million on his inauguration celebration next month and he has spent an average of $228 million per day in Iraq.

Maybe Bush thinks that if he ignores this there will be that many less muslims in world to deal with. But I can't understand why our christian bloggers aren't organizing fund drives for the victims of God's wrath in Asia.

Santa's Helper 2004

Yesterday was my annual day as Santa's helper. I think we made twelve stops this year--three senior citizens and nine with kids. The kids were the cutest ever.

This little girl talked to Santa non-stop in her own special language.


All of the families were very happy and thanked Santa for coming to see the kids. This year we a had a couple of parents who were laid off because their employer shut down and moved out of the country, we had one family with two kids and the mother had a stroke after the birth of the second, a couple of kids with health problems, and the senior citizens were so happy to see us. The one lady even asked me to change the filter in her furnace (which was in the kitchen) for her.



The only thing that I didn't like was being away from the baby for that long.

Quote of the Day

"That kid is soooo bleeping cute!"
-- Aunt Katie

Birth story

Birth is the most exciting thing and scariest thing I have ever witnessed. It was a long labor. She planned on doing it without any kind of pain relief but after suffering through back labor and going without much sleep for over two days she changed her mind. I am so glad that she did. The midwife suggested an epidural so we talked to the anesthesiologist and agreed to do it. Within minutes she was asleep and she slept through contractions for a few hours.

About twelve hours after we arrived she was able to start pushing. She pushed on almost every contraction for 3 1/2 hours. I could see the baby's hair but he just wouldn't come out. The midwife brought the doctor in and they said that they wanted to use a vacuum to help get the baby out. We asked about the risks and after they explained them we tried a few more pushes and then agreed to the vacuum.

So the pediatrics team showed up and manned the baby warmer, the doctor and the midwife put on gowns and eye protection and we were ready to have a baby. I was right there as the doctor pulled the head out. Then an arm and another arm and the rest of the baby. As soon as it was out they put two clips on the cord and cut between them. They took the baby's limp blue body right to the warmer where they suctioned his nose and mouth and rubbed him and gave him oxygen. He took a breath and and then let out a scream. His face and torso turned purple then pink. His arms and legs remained a bit purple for a while.

By this point my knees were getting weak and my head was spinning. I thought for sure that there was something wrong with him. I went over to get a closer look him and he was beautiful. My eyes filled with tears. I went back over to his mother and held her hand. She asked if he was okay and I told her that he was beautiful.

We spent the next two and a half days there. The baby is extremely pleasant. He is being followed for a few minor (we hope) health concerns but he is great. It seems like we've always had him.

Quote for today

"You are a citizen of a great and powerful nation. Are you not ashamed that you give so much time to the pursuit of money, and reputation, and honors, and care so little for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul?"
--Socrates, The Apology

Teaching Peace

The fall 2004 issue of Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy is a special issue devoted to "teaching peace." There are some interesting things in it, including an article entitled "Conversations in the Blogosphere: Weblogs in Inclusive Pedagogy of Peace and War" by Jo Ann Oravac. But two things caught my attention. The first was in a review article called "Eco-pedagogy: Philosophy and Praxis for a Peaceful World". Below is an excerpt:

For my students at least, the possibility the "war" might include the gross inequities between the industrialized and the developing nations--or practices such as clear-cutting which destroy not only wildlife habitat but the lives of local people; or the targeting of the world's disenfranchised for the siting of waste dumps and landfills; or the continuous, unavoidable, deadly exposure of all organisms to biocides and other toxins in food, water, soil, and air; or the consumerism, globalization, and Wal-martization" which are the underlying causes of all the above--is a novel, unnerving, and often unacceptable concept.
-- Jeri Pollack, "Eco-pedagogy: Philosophy and Praxis for a Peaceful World", Tranformations Vol XV No. 2

That is one sentence. In the first paragraph. There is one even longer in the next paragraph. I think I'm a fairly intelligent guy but by the time I got to the end of the that sentence I could not remember what the beginning was. This was only a five page article but I gave up part way though the second page. I think she had some good things to say but who is going to pay any attention.

That's part of the problem with "us"--the left, the intellectual elite, or whatever they are calling us these days--we can't just say "weapons of mass destruction" or "terrorists" or "flip-flopper" and get six million people to grunt in agreement. We have this need to over-explain everything.

The other piece in this issue that I liked was a poem:

The Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the flag
we tremble as the fireworks erupt
on the Fourth of July
red, white and blue stars exploding
deafening sounds of friendly fire
helicopters hover above war ships
echoes of jungle warfare, chemical rain
naked children running
through their own rice fields
filled with enemy bombs, not yet detonated
weapons of mass destruction
made in the homeland

of the United States of America
we broke bread with the Indians
the history books tell us
when November rolls around
we eat turkey, give thanks
for food and friends and freedom
we do not tell our children about the slaughtered
the mass graves of men, women, and children
who lived on this land before we did
or those who came here after us, in chains

And to the Republic for which it stands
our forefathers shaped a "finders' keepers" America
we were all created equal:
white, educated, male, land and slave owners only
the blood of wounded spirits, wounded people
stains the flag that our children face
as they recite the pledge each morning

One nation, indivisible
while we cover our blood soaked soil
with rows of identical houses, strip malls,
Wal-Marts, gated communities
and one
big
white
house
filled with "evil doers"
let's remember never to forget
the suffering of the past
the motherless-fatherless children
let's speak for those who were and continue to be
silenced
pledge allegiance to the truth
use your mind as your bow, and your words as your
arrows
to fight the good American fight for peace
with liberty and justice for all

--Maeve D'Arcy

And that is by a seventeen year old student.

Transformations is published semi-annually by the New Jersey Project.

The true meaning of...

Samantha Bee made the following observation on tonight's The Daily Show Mark Your Calendar segment (paraphrased):

Christmas: it's the only religious holiday that is also a federal holiday. So christians can go to their services and everyone else can stay home and reflect on the true meaning of separation of church and state.

Attack of the Yes Men

The Yes Men struck again on Friday, December 3, the 20th anniversary of the Union Carbide Bhopal disaster. BBC World Television emailed them through their site DowEthics.com and asked for a Dow representative to come on and discuss the anniversary.

The Yes Men call what they do "identity correction". They impersonate leaders of corporations and organizations "to publicly humiliate them." It would be refreshing if a corporate PR person actually said things like Mr. Finisterra was saying. He said that DOW accepted full responsiblity for the disaster and intended to compensate the victims because it was the right thing to do.

watch the video

Union Carbide took two hours to respond and said this
from Men's News Daily:

* The Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) will NOT be liquidated. (The fake "Dow plan" called for the dissolution and sale of Dow's fully owned subsidiary, estimated at US$12 billion, to fund compensation and remediation in Bhopal.)

* Dow will NOT commit ANY funds to compensate and treat 120,000 Bhopal residents who require lifelong care. The Bhopal victims have ALREADY been compensated; many received about US$500 several years ago, which in India can cover a full year of medical care.

* Dow will NOT remediate (clean up) the Bhopal plant site. We do understand that UCC abandoned thousands of tons of toxic chemicals on the site, and that these still contaminate the groundwater which area residents drink. Dow estimates that the Indian government's recent proposal to commission a study to consider the possibility of proper remediation at some point in the future is fully sufficient.

* Dow does NOT urge the US to extradite former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to India, where he has been wanted for 20 years on multiple homicide charges.

* Dow will NOT release proprietary information on the leaked gases, nor the results of studies commissioned by UCC and never released.

* Dow will NOT fund research on the safety of Dow endocrine disruptors (ECDs) considered to have long-term negative effects.

* Dow DOES agree that "One can't assign a dollar value to doing what's morally right," as hoaxter Finisterra said. That is why Dow acknowledged and resolved many of Union Carbide's liabilities in the US immediately after acquiring the company in 2001.

Again, most importantly of all:

* Dow shareholders will see NO losses, because Dow's policy towards Bhopal HAS NOT CHANGED. Much as we at Dow may care, as human beings, about the victims of the Bhopal catastrophe, we must reiterate that Dow's sole and unique responsibility is to its shareholders, and Dow CANNOT do anything that goes against its bottom line unless forced to by law.

Turn Your Back on Bush

Controversial TV ad

Two major US television networks have refused to run this controversial ad--see it here.

CBS, NBC refuse to air UCC television advertisement

United Church of Christ ad highlighting Jesus' extravagant welcome called 'too controversial'

Nov. 30, 2004

CLEVELAND -- The CBS and NBC television networks are refusing to run a 30-second television ad from the United Church of Christ because its all-inclusive welcome has been deemed "too controversial."

The ad, part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.

According to a written explanation from CBS, the United Church of Christ is being denied network access because its ad implies acceptance of gay and lesbian couples -- among other minority constituencies -- and is, therefore, too "controversial."

"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."

Similarly, a rejection by NBC declared the spot "too controversial."

"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," says the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president. "What's going on here?"
[read more]

But they happily ran those SwiftVet ads that were full of lies...over and over and over.

Keep the war criminal out

Apparently war criminal Bush can not be indicted in Canada because he is still in office. Canada does, however, have an immigration law banning war criminals or suspected war criminals from entering the country.

November 26, 2004 A Memo to Canada's Ministry of Immigration Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada By MICHAEL MANDEL and GAIL DAVIDSON The Honourable Judy Sgro, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Ottawa Canada K1A 1L1 Tel: 1 613 954 1064 Fax: 1 613 957 2688 Minister@cic.gc.ca sgro.j@parl.gc.ca Dear Minister Sgro, Re: President George W. Bush proposed November 30th 2004 visit to Canada. We wrote to Prime Minister Martin on November 19 2004 protesting the invitation of President Bush to Canada on the grounds of the President's flagrant commission of the most serious crimes against international law. Our letter is enclosed. As that letter indicates, many of the crimes of which President Bush stands accused are crimes under Canadian law, specifically under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. We are writing to you now to remind you that these crimes render President Bush inadmissible to Canada under our immigration laws. Because responsibility for the operation and enforcement of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act lies with you and your Ministry, we are calling on you to advise the Prime Minister of this fact and to insist that he rescind this invitation out of respect for our laws. As you know, section 35 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, 2001 2001 provides as follows: 35. (1) A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of violating human or international rights for (a) committing an act outside Canada that constitutes an offence referred to in sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act; Paragraph 2 of section 35 allows for exceptions to be made for other classes of inadmissible foreign nationals 'who satisf[y] the Minister that their presence in Canada would not be detrimental to the national interest.' However, these exceptions specifically do not apply to those who have committed acts constituting offences referred to in sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Section 6 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act incorporates by reference all international crimes against humanity and war crimes, and, explicitly, all crimes enumerated in Articles 7 and 8(2) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Section 7 of the Act places special responsibility on 'military commanders' and other 'superiors' for crimes committed by their subordinates that they knew of, or were criminally negligent in failing to know of, and with respect to which they did not take necessary and reasonable steps to prevent. Section 33 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act specifically provides that 'facts that constitute inadmissibility under sections 34 to 37 include facts arising from omissions and, unless otherwise provided, include facts for which there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have occurred, are occurring or may occur.' The evidence of President Bush's past and ongoing criminality is overwhelming. A recent editorial in the Washington Post commented on some of the now well known facts regarding the chain of memoranda from the President and White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, now Attorney General, that led to the use of torture by the US Armed Forces. These memoranda clearly establish the President's culpability for the torture used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons. We also refer you to the many careful reports prepared by respected human rights organizations, journalists and scholars and also to recent decisions by US Courts, some of which are referenced in our letter to the Prime Minister and others we have listed below. These clearly provide far more than 'reasonable grounds to believe' in President Bush's legal and moral responsibility for the gravest crimes under numerous provisions of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. [read more]

Thanksgiving poem

On my way to Thanksgiving dinner yesterday I heard a poem on the radio. It was "As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse" read by the poet Billy Collins.

As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse

I pick an orange from a wicker basket
and place it on the table
to represent the sun.
Then down at the other end
a blue and white marble
becomes the earth
and nearby I lay the little moon of an aspirin.

I get a glass from a cabinet,
open a bottle of wine,
then I sit in a ladder-back chair,
a benevolent god presiding
over a miniature creation myth,

and I begin to sing
a homemade canticle of thanks
for this perfect little arrangement,
for not making the earth too hot or cold
not making it spin too fast or slow

so that the grove of orange trees
and the owl become possible,
not to mention the rolling wave,
the play of clouds, geese in flight,
and the Z of lightning on a dark lake.

Then I fill my glass again
and give thanks for the trout,
the oak, and the yellow feather,

singing the room full of shadows,
as sun and earth and moon
circle one another in their impeccable orbits
and I get more and more cockeyed with gratitude.


by Billy Collins from Nine Horses © Random House

Buy Nothing Day

Don't forget about Buy Nothing Day on Friday here in the US and on Saturday in the UK.

You can even take part in a Whirl Mart. Also see Consumer Monster. Or see 101 THINGS TO DO ON BUY NOTHING DAY. And of course Buy Nothing Christmas (see article).

Deer 5, Hunters 192,934

Hunter kills five, injures three after tree stand dispute

By JOSHUA FREED
Associated Press Writer
BIRCHWOOD, Wis. - A deer hunter shot and killed five people and injured three others in northwestern Wisconsin over a dispute about a tree stand during the hunt's opening weekend, authorities said.

The 36-year-old alleged gunman, who lives in the Minneapolis area, was arrested at about 5:15 p.m. Sunday at the Rusk and Sawyer County line, Sawyer County sheriff's officials said.

Jake Hodgkinson, a deputy at the county jail, identified the suspect as Chai Vang but would give no additional details.

Two hunters were returning to their rural cabin on private land in Sawyer County when they saw the suspect in one of their tree stands before noon Sunday, County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. A confrontation and shooting followed.
[more]

U2 Rocked SNL

Tonight's Saturday Night Live viewers were treated to a third song by U2. After the last commercial break host Luke Wilson and Bono were sitting on the edge of the stage with the cast behind them when Bono got up and went over to the music stage and U2 performed "I Will Follow". It looked like the live audience was even treated to one more song after that. I've wanted to go see SNL in person for years but I never did. This would have been a good one to see live.

I remember buying my first U2 recording in 1983. I saw them live in 1992. I actually heard them live all summer when I was working at Hersheypark and they were practicing for their outdoor ZOO TV tour. I still love U2. I'm not like a crazy fan or anything but I enjoy seeing them perform.

Anyhow, this was a welcome change from the Ashlee Simpson lip-sync fiasco.

****update****

Here is a link to the video of the "I Will Follow" performance at the end of the show.

Why we love Molly Ivins

Read this by Molly Ivins:

A long four years
November 17, 2004

AUSTIN, Texas -- My, my, gonna be a long four years. House Republicans have rewritten the ethics rules so Tom DeLay won't have to resign if indicted after all. Let's hear it for moral values. DeLay is one of the leading forces in making "Republican ethics" into an oxymoron.

The rule was passed in 1993, when Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was being investigated for ethics violations. And who helped lead the floor fight to force him to resign his powerful position? Why, Tom DeLay, of course. (Actually, it's sort of a funny story. The D's already had a caucus rule that you had to resign from any leadership position if indicted. The R's changed their rules to match the D's, except they deliberately did not make their rule retroactive, so the highly indicted Rep. Joseph McDade, senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, could, unlike Rostenkowski, retain his seat.)

DeLay has already been admonished by the House ethics committee three times on separate violations of ethics rules. Please note, that is the Republican-dominated ethics committee. The hilarious rationale offered by the R's for the new rule to exempt DeLay is that no one can accuse them of taking the moral low road here because, "That line of reasoning accepts that exercise of the prosecutor in Texas is legitimate."
[read more]

Bless our Wal-Mart Nation

PBS showed Hedrick Smith's "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" on Frontline last night. The whole Wal-Mart thing is eerily similar to the Bush Administration's America. Wal-Mart convinces its low wage employees and its shoppers that Wal-Mart is good for them. Meanwhile, they are responsible for shutting down American manufacturers. Responsible for sending American jobs to China.

So Americans lose their jobs, communities lose their factories and their tax base, and Wal-Mart makes gobs of money for a very few people. And dumb Americans continue shop there.

The "far left" (me) responds

This is from a certain Bush-mo-tized blogger:

Where is the outcry from the far left? Where are the feminists? Where are the bloggers who were obsessed with what happened at Abu Ghraib? Why are they silent when civilian contractors are burned and hung from brides, when civilians are kidnapped and have their heads sawed off, when mass graves containing men, women, children and babies are discovered, when innocent school children, parents and teachers are tortured, raped and murdered in Beslan, Russia? Far left liberals would rather bitch and cry about the humiliation of men in panties or the justified killing of insurgents (terrorists!) who fire upon our troops and would kill us if given the chance.

This is my response:

1. Civilian contractors (mercenaries!) should not be in Iraq.


2. The US military should not be in Iraq. Therefore every US and British military death, every civilian death (Iraqi and otherwise), and the destruction of Iraq could have been avoided.


3. The humiliation and torture of prisoners of war is a war crime perpetrated in the name of the people of the United States.


4. It is illegal under the Geneva Convention to kill a wounded person. Period.


5. While the Beslan school massacre was horrible and disturbing, it was not done in my name.

This is what 'liberation' looks like

"I am pleased to have been part of a team that launched the global war against terror, liberated the Afghan and Iraqi people" -- Colin Powell (from his resignation letter)

Join The Revolution

The Revolution Starts Now I was walkin' down the street In the town where I was born I was movin' to a beat That I'd never felt before So I opened up my eyes And I took a look around I saw it written 'cross the sky The revolution starts now Yeah, the revolution starts now The revolution starts now When you rise above your fear And tear the walls around you down The revolution starts here Where you work and where you play Where you lay your money down What you do and what you say The revolution starts now Yeah the revolution starts now Yeah the revolution starts now In your own backyard In your own hometown So what you doin' standin' around? Just follow your heart The revolution starts now Last night I had a dream That the world had turned around And all our hopes had come to be And the people gathered 'round They all brought what they could bring And nobody went without And I learned a song to sing The revolution starts now by

Who are we

I saw this posted by someone who is proud to be a "Red State" voter:

We are the red states. We listen to talk shows and Fox News. We tear up when we hear the National Anthem. We drive SUVS and fly business class. We go through drive-thrus, have mortgages, and shop at Wal-Mart. We attend BBQs, football games, fire hall meetings, and places of faith. We believe life is precious and marriage is sacred. We believe there are some things worth dying for. We have the utmost respect for those who lay their life on the line defending our freedom and protecting our streets. We believe religion is not a philosophy but a way of life. We raise our children as best we can. We'll help anyone who really needs it, and not blame others for our own bad choices. We read our Holy Books. We pray because we know wisdom comes from God, not man. We go about our lives quietly as we care for our families. We might not have time to demonstrate, but we make time to vote. We expect the values we teach our children to be respected in our schools. We expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say. We expect to work hard and earn the just rewards of that labor. We expect to be able to watch a football game with our kids and not have to worry about the content of the half-time show. We expect terrorists and those who harm the innocent to be punished. We are farms, ranches, small businesses, and town squares. We are BBQs, baseball games, fishing holes, and civic clubs. We are little league games, piano recitals, Bible Studies, and car pools. We are grandfathers in Iwo Jima, fathers in Vietnam, and sons and daughters in Iraq. We are fly-over country. We are the red states.

I came up with my own list. I do not intend to speak for everyone in blue states, nor do I intend to speak for everyone who voted against Bush.

We are informed and educated about the rest of the world. We listen to Democracy Now! and the BBC. We write for and read our local newspapers. We know that talk radio listeners think they are more informed but are really less informed. We take public transportation and drive hybrids. We walk our children to school or to the bus stop. We shop at co-ops and corner stores and local merchants, while they brag about shopping at Wal-Mart despite the cost to their community and our society. We volunteer at food banks and thrift stores. We use our libraries and public schools. We believe in education and rehabilitation. We know that they believe in incarceration and execution. We believe that children should be allowed to pray in school--silently by themselves, not led by teachers. We know that in 2004 there have been 58 executions in the US, 57 of them in Red States. We know that since 1977 there have been 937 state executions, 889 of them in Red States. We know the top ten states in inmate incarceration rates are all red. While Red State voters talk about values, we act upon our values. We know they allow their neighbors to live in poverty, yet claim to be Christian and "moral". We read; and not only "holy books". We have passports and we have been to "Old Europe". We know that practicing religion is a right and a choice. We don't believe in writing our religious beliefs into law. We know that forcing our "values" on others is wrong. We know that the rights of the minority must be protected from the tyranny of the majority. We manned the Underground Railroad. We immigrated from Asia and Europe to build railroads and work in coal mines. We fought for workers' rights and against child labor. We refused to name names. We walked with Martin Luther King, Jr. We were the Stonewall Girls. We protested American agression in Vietnam and Cambodia. We were killed for exercising our First Amendment rights. We died for what we believed in. We are anti-globalists and eco-feminists. We are librarians and professors. We are business owners and artists. We are waitresses and teachers' aides. We are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. We are black and white, yellow and brown. We are Christian and Buddhist, Jew and Atheist. We are thinkers and laborers. We are Americans and citizens of the world.

And we are a lot more than that, but it's a start. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments. (And you red staters do not have to to add that we are godless commies, or that we are terrorist-loving tree huggers, or baby killers. We already know that you believe that.)

More from Ashcroft

He won't go away. So I guess that judges who disagree with Bush are terrorists too.

Ashcroft condemns judges who question Bush

By CURT ANDERSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.

In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.

"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers group.
[more]

Ashcroft / Jesus in 2008

I know, I really have too much time on my hands.

But what else can I do.

Specter must go

...according to the Evangelical Christians.

Last week Pennsylvania's senior Senator Arlen Specter who is in line to head the Senate Judiciary Committee warned Bush about appointing people who are pro-life to fill judicial vacancies. Well, ever since, the extreme christian right has been on a crusade to stop Specter.

From NPR's All Things Considered:

"We would like to see him gone. We don't believe that Arlen Specter represents what the president stands for, we don't believe that Arlen Specter represents what the Senate leadership stands for, particularly on the abortion issue. Arlen Specter is a man who's time has gone, and he ought to go too." -- Tom Minnery, Vice President of Public Policy for Focus on the Family

So the Evangelical Christians, who are responsible for giving Bush a second term, want to get their religious beliefs passed through Congress and they don't want a MODERATE Jew from a blue state slowing them down. They're even having a "Pro-Life Pray-In" to stop Specter. They make the guy sound like Ted Kennedy.

It's really sad when there is no place in the Republican party for moderates. The GOP better start to take their party back from the bible thumpers before it self destructs. On second thought, maybe that wouldn't be so bad.

Definition

From The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911

Christian, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.

Site of the Day

fuckthesouth.com

Site of the Day

turnyourbackonbush.org

Quote of the Day

"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved" -- John Ashcroft
(from his resignation letter)

Today I feel a bit safer

ASHCROFT RESIGNS!

One of my wishes came true. I am not very optimistic about his successor, but I don't think that anyone could be worse (except maybe Alberto Gonzales). Ashcroft has no regard for the Bill of Rights or civil liberties and the country will be better off with him gone from the Justice Department. Now if only we can get rid of his USA PATRIOT Act I'd be even happier.

Good riddance Brother Ashcroft!

Lewis Black on the election

From The Daily Show last week:

Eleven states proposed anti-gay marriage amendments and after record voter turnouts every single one passed by a considerable margin....But in the end these ballot initiatives remind us that America is the land where people are free to dream whatever they want, so long as that dream doesn't make midwesterners feel "icky". -- Lewis Black

The blog it is a-changin'

I had a busy weekend and haven't had much time keep up on all of the news. I spent two days surrounded by pregnant women and learning what to do when it's time for the baby to come out.

There's going to be some changes around here (in case you haven't noticed). The most obvious is a new template. I've also added back the BackBlog comments; I think that they are easier to use than the Blogger comments.

Also, at least 55 million of us voted to remove Bush from office. There are signs that actually a lot more than that voted against him. The corporate American media has decided not to cover the story but Greg Palast and others are on it and Bev Harris has filed the largest Freedom of Information Act request in history to get election records. In one Ohio precinct Bush got 4,258 votes out of the 638 votes actually cast. Any findings will not change the fact that Dubya will be our "President" for another term but we can see where there were problems and get them corrected so that the votes of all of those people who stood in line for hours will in fact be counted next time.

Anyhow, people are working on that. What we have to do is focus on stopping the Bush Administration from doing anymore damage. That means keeping ultra-conservative judicial nominations from being approved. It means getting the UN and Europe to put pressure on the Bush Administration to get out of Iraq.

Also, check out the "I am not afraid" campaign and join us. ~~~~~>

Help us take back our country.

More on political capital...

"My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade...if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
-- George Dubya Bush to Mickey Herskowitz (ghost for writer Dubya Bush and Poppy Bush) in 1999

*****

and Ted Rall on the election: GUILTY, DISGUSTED, AMERICAN

Coming home for the holidays

I have a feeling that the 59,054,087 "dumb Americans" who voted to allow George W. Bush and the neo-cons to keep their jobs will be having second thoughts after the imminent attack on Fallujah. I know that most of that 51 percent of Americans who voted for Dubya don't give a rats ass about brown-skinned foreigners but it might hit home when they start to hear the stories of all the (white, christian) fathers, sons and brothers who will be coming home for the holidays in flag-draped boxes.

The first casualties of the upcoming battle have already occured. British troops from the Black Watch were reassigned from Basra in the south to Baghdad to take over for US troops that will be headed to Fallujah. On the way there several of the Black Watch soldiers were killed in an attack.

Maybe the British people will put pressure on Tony Blair to get their troops out of Iraq. Maybe they can do what the American people are incapable of doing--restraining neo-con aggression.

In his victory speech Bush said that he would reach out to the 55 million people who voted against him.

So today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent: To make this nation stronger and better I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation. -- GW Bush, November 3, 2004

Then, yesterday during a rare press conference he said, "I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals." Hey, that's big of him. It's not much of reach though.

These guys can't even stop spinning after a victory. On Wednesday Cheney called the election results "a broad, nationwide victory" and that "the nation responded by giving him a mandate." Has he seen the map?

So the neo-cons are probably sitting in their bunkers laughing at all of those people who went out to vote for "moral values". They got the job done. They mobilized enough scared old people and homophobic white people to get their boy elected. Now they can carry on with their plan for world domination--until the people realize and admit that they were duped.

Go read this

This Is Where We Begin
by Gia

Four more years

• of erosions to our freedom


• of war without end


• of US imperialistic aggression


• of tax cuts for the rich and corporations


• of lies


• of us and them


• of alienating the world

Poem du jour

by John Greenleaf Whittier

The Poor Voter on Election Day

To-day, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
To-day, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people's hall,
The ballot-box my throne!
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong to-day;
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretence
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man's common sense
Against the pedant's pride.
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!

It was read on NPR's Morning Edition this morning.

Site of the Day

KerryHatersForKerry.com

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.