HA HA HA! Ann Coulter gets booted! HA HA HA!

...we've decided that syndicated columnist Ann Coulter has worn out her welcome. Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives.

From the Arizona Daily Star.

Mr. Sharon, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL

BBC has some excellent photos of murals painted on the Israeli Wall.

We never learn.

Breaking the barriers to democracy

If you understand Arabic, listen to this song. It is part of the Egyptian Tomorrow Party's election campaign. The state television will not broadcast the pro-democracy song because "a section the music is taken from another song." Right, whatever. Because of this song, all campaign coverage of Ayman Nour has ceased. So, only in circumventing democracy will the regime "protect property rights." Despite this, the song is being distributed like crazy through e-mail all over Egypt. Democracy at its finest.

The election is September 7. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Muburak will win, especially when opposition parties are supressed. However, there is a firm democratic movement that has taken root, and barring any disasterous military suppression, it is there to stay.

Youth indoctrination

A tiny battalion of would-be sailors mustered yesterday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis for a few lessons on basic seamanship -- and a little pizza.

The academy's Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center sponsored the two-hour "Navy Way" boot camp for children 6 to 12 years old to stimulate their interest in the service.

Donning Dixie-cup hats, scores of youngsters from around the region were assigned to about a half-dozen "companies," in which they learned how to march, salute and sing Navy fight songs.

From the Washington Times

It may be cute, but it's also disturbing.

Putin creates Putin Youth

Le Kremlin encourage Nachi, le mouvement patriotique des "jeunesses poutiniennes"

Russia is becoming worse by the day. Putin has created the Nachi group, his version of College Republicans, to drum up youth support for his reelection bid in 2008. (Who knows if you can trust the results of a Russian election?) What is interesting about this is that these kids, ages 17-23, are too young to really remember life in the USSR, and what life they did live in it was after Glasnost and Perestroika. I wonder if they have a democratic streak in them or if the culture of Russian dictatorship has been instilled in them from birth. The article says there is a sense of nostalgia for empire surrounding the group, probably because things in Russia are pretty bad right now. People look back on better times; it's human nature. It's easier to think about the past because you know it. You can't know the future, and I suppose the uncertainty is what causes people to join groups like Nachi and Bush Youth, as they think a return to the past will fix all of their problems.

The gops are definitely stuck in the past. That's why their conversations go like this:

Gop 1: Good Reagan morning!
Gop 2: Good Reagan morning to you, too. I am going for a Reagan cup of family coffee. Do you Reagan want any?
Gop 1: No, thank you. Reagan family coffee makes me moonbat dizzy.
Gop 2: I Reagan know. Sometimes I Reagan drink two Reagan moral values family cups of Reagan family coffee, and I get moonbat dizzy. Reagan.
Gop 1: God bless Reagan America! Support the Reagan troops! Family moral values I hate gays Reagan Reagan.
Gop 2: See you Reagan later, too. Reagan.

We shouldn't continue to suck up to Putin when it comes to our foreign policy, and we definitely need to keep an eye on his campaign. The people of Russia (and the surrounding areas) have suffered enough. We need to think about the future and learn from the past, not live in it.

War between Canada and Denmark?

Not likely, but Canada is sending warships to protect its "territorial sovereignty", a worthless rock called Hans Island in the Arctic. What is interesting in all of this is not Hans Island, but "that global warming is causing the rapid melting of the ice across the Arctic, and that could make the legendary North-West Passage linking the Atlantic and the Pacific passable for ships for the first time." This has global repercussions, and competition between those countries that border the Arctic could become problematic in the coming decades as each of those countries seeks to explore what natural resources could be up there.

The next world war will be over energy, because most people can't be bothered with conservation. Just look at the "Energy Bill" of the bushwhacked gops that was recently passed.

Islam is a terrorist organization

Talk Show Host Graham Fired By WMAL Over Islam Remarks

Washington radio station WMAL-AM fired talk show host Michael Graham yesterday after he refused to soften his description of Islam as "a terrorist organization" on the air last month.

According to WMAL, Graham said "Islam is a terrorist organization" 23 times on his July 25 program. On the same show, he also said repeatedly that "moderate Muslims are those who only want to kill Jews" and that "the problem is not extremism. The problem is Islam."

If only Limbaugh would be fired... he says similar things everyday.

Joke of the day

Q: What's the difference between Iraq and Vietnam?

A: W knew how to get out of Vietnam.

We don't like you

36%

George W. Bush's overall job approval ratings have dropped from a month ago even as Americans who approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president are turning more optimistic about their personal financial situations according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 36% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 58% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 33% approve and 62% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 38% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 56% disapprove, and 36% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 60% disapprove.

Iraq brain drain

In stifling summer heat, Dr Muthanna al-Assal patiently waits his turn in a jostling queue. Like many doctors in Baghdad, he is making preparations to leave the country.

"If I can get a job elsewhere, I'll go," says the 35-year old chest and heart surgeon.

"Things are going downhill here both with security and basic services.

And there's no hope in the near future. I think conditions will take 20 years to improve."

And they have W to thank.

Awesome

Conservatives are jumping off the bushie bus. What can I say but

we told you so.

Gas stations closing

Some gas stations in Arkansas have been closed due to the cost of gas these days. It seems that the whole economy of the state is being adversely affected. Again, I ask the Dems to come up with a plan. It could get them some votes.

Oh say can't you see?

So, when does the civil war start in Crawford?

Meanwhile, more Bush supporters arrived at a downtown pro-Bush camp. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 150 people had visited the large tent with "God Bless Our President!" and "God Bless Our Troops" banners and a life-size cardboard cutout of Bush.

Puke.

Don't stick to principles

Why have ethics when you can have profits? Common in China, Kickbacks Create Trouble for U.S. Companies at Home

For multinational companies grappling with stagnant sales, China has become a magnet for investment and a huge potential market beckoning with growth. Yet the lure of China profits combined with pervasive local corruption is tempting foreign companies and managers and bringing them into conflict with U.S. anti-bribery laws.

In interviews, China-based executives, sales agents and distributors for nine U.S. multinational companies acknowledged that their firms routinely win sales by paying what could be considered bribes or kickbacks -- often in the form of extravagant entertainment and travel expenses -- to purchasing agents at government offices and state-owned businesses.

Housing bubble facts

The Center for Economic and Policy Research has produced a Housing Bubble Fact Sheet that Dems should use in developing their economic platform. I encourage every Democrat out there to read it thoroughly and to brainstorm ideas on how we can prevent the bubble from bursting.

Santorum has lowest approval rating of all senators

At 42%, he shares the same number as W. It should be noted that another Senate seat the Dems can pick up, Dewine, is at 42%, but he has a higher rating (#96) because his disapproval is at 43% as opposed to Santorum's 46%. Fifteen of the top twenty-five are Democrats, and the Republicans in the top 25 include such rational Senators as McCain, the Maine Senators, and Chuck Hagel, as well as Independent Jim Jeffords. Only 8 of the bottom 25 are Democrats.

Interesting.

Half of America thinks that aliens have visited Earth

...the latest polls confirm that roughly half of all Americans believe extraterrestrial life exists. The weird news is that a similar fraction think some of it is visiting Earth.

It's no wonder that Bush is President.

Student held over online mugging

Sounds to me like this guy is just better than the other players. I see no harm in it- it's actually innovative, as long as he pays his taxes on the sold items. If he is able to use bots to steal items in video games, he is just more skilled in computer games than the botless players.

It's all quite strange to me, like something out of a bad 70s sci-fi movie.

Democracy in Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq, Aug. 19 -- Gunmen in this northern city Friday abducted and publicly executed three Sunni Arab activists who had been working to draw the disgruntled Sunni minority into Iraq's political mainstream, and then draped their bodies in a get-out-the-vote banner, officials and witnesses said.

One witness, Muhammed Khalid, said armed men traveling in eight cars kidnapped the activists as they were hanging banners encouraging voter participation.

"Then they took three men out of their cars and killed them in front of us," said a witness, Harith Saleem. He quoted one of the killers as saying, "This is the punishment for those who promote the elections."

And the uncivil war rages on...

Dems, start listening to us

What Democrats Should Be Saying

This should be the Democrats' moment: The Bush administration is caught in an increasingly unpopular war; its plan to revamp Social Security is fading into oblivion; its deputy chief of staff is facing a grand jury probe. Though the Republicans control both houses of Congress as well as the White House, they seem to be suffering from political and intellectual exhaustion. They are better at slash-and-burn campaigning than governing.

So where are the Democrats amid this GOP disarray? Frankly, they are nowhere. They are failing utterly in the role of an opposition party, which is to provide a coherent alternative account of how the nation might solve its problems. Rather than lead a responsible examination of America's strategy for Iraq, they have handed off the debate to a distraught mother who is grieving for her lost son. Rather than address the nation's long-term fiscal problems, they have decided to play politics and let President Bush squirm on the hook of his unpopular plan to create private Social Security accounts.

I said this yesterday, but it's nice to see it in the paper from someone who gets paid to write it.

Commit a crime, be appointed for high office!

I just don't get it. Why are so many people who are involved in scandals rewarded in the Republican Party? Why isn't ethical behavior a part of "moral values"?

Bush's choice to head the Air Force is a longtime Pentagon official whose nomination will get strong scrutiny because of his role in a scuttled airplane lease deal that resulted in a prison term for a former top Defense Department official.

Taft is a criminal

I am a crook.

crook n.

1. An implement or tool, such as a bishop's crosier or a shepherd's staff, with a bent or curved part.
2. A part that is curved or bent like a hook.
3. A curve or bend; a turn: a crook in the path.
4. Informal. One who makes a living by dishonest methods.
5. One who is a member of today's Republican Party.

Like a bad neighbor, State Farm is there

The Illinois Supreme Court decide to strip class action status in State Farm v. Avery.

The case dates back to a 1999 challenge of State Farm’s use of generic aftermarket parts that resulted in a $1.18 billion judgment against the firm. The plaintiffs complained that State Farm repaired their vehicles using inferior replacement crash parts rather than original equipment manufacture parts and affirmatively misrepresented the quality of these replacements. The court found the company liable and certified the case as a 48-state class action.

So, if you want faulty equipment and another crash, buy State Farm "insurance."

I want a plan

While going over the 2004 Republican and Democratic party platforms for a project my organization is working on, I've made a few observations about the two.

Aside from the fact that the first thing under the title is a bit about Reagan (reminds me of how Muslims write "In the name of God, most gracious and merciful" at the top of their documents) and that the next 38 pages are a lot of "freedom" propaganda, the economic section is a real plan that is much more detailed than the measly four pages that the Dems produced. FOUR pages? It's no wonder why Kerry didn't win. It's almost like the whole platform was an afterthought and nobody put any time into developing the ideas.

Remember the Contract with America? It was a well thought out document and helped the gops take control of Congress, control which they have yet to relinquish. I'm not understanding why it is so difficult for the Dems to produce such a document. Gops are right to criticize us for not having a plan. I'm not even sure what the plan is. The bases are loaded, and we aren't even sending up a batter.

I want the Dems to develop a detailed economic plan. I'm tired of the complaining all of the time about the other side. I want ideas.

On the other hand, the 50 state strategy is a good start for a political strategy. So we have some progress.

Pat Buchanan is right?

September could see the coalescing of an anti-war movement that both bedevils the White House and divides a Democratic Party that seeks to benefit from a losing war, without having to offer a plan to win it or end it, without being held accountable for having supported it, or responsible for undercutting it.

Pat Buchanan is right, you know. The Democrats are like a team who keeps getting on base due to errors and fails to score every inning. He says Cindy Sheehan has become an anti-war catalyst since there has been no Democrat to step up and lead an anti-war movement. Our party's rising stars are young and are waiting for the dinosaurs to die out, but I don't think they should wait anymore. We need leadership NOW. Forget the DLC.

Congressman John Conyers has the potential to take charge of this movement. If he and Kucinich could hook up, a real anti-war movement could take off, but the question is, are we willing to risk a rift in the Demcratic Party at a time when we are becoming increasingly united in preparation for 2006 and 2008? I'm not sure what the answer is.

The gops are worried. It's time to take advantage of it.

Peace through television

Thais hope English soccer will calm Muslim unrest

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is dishing out free cable television in its restive Muslim south in the hope that sports coverage such as English Premiership soccer will calm tensions in a region plagued by violence.

Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana told reporters on Tuesday an initial batch of 500 televisions would soon be installed at village tea shops so those who could not afford cable TV at home could all watch their favourite sports together.

"Televisions and sports will help liven up the region," said Kongsak, the fourth interior minister in less than two years to be faced with ending the unrest in which more than 800 people have been killed since January, 2004.

"Most children love watching sports on TV, but they can't afford that at home. So we are giving them what they love, hoping it can help solve the problem," said Kongsak, himself an avid golfer and a soccer player.

My suitcases are packed...

AOUNDE, Cameroon (UPI) -- Beer bottle caps with prizes on the inside are replacing currency in parts of Cameroon, gripped in a fierce promotional battle between competing breweries.

Almost every $1 bottle of beer has a winning cap, with the smallest prize being another bottle, and larger prizes including mobile phones and luxury cars, the BBC reported.

Journalist Martin Etonge said using the winning caps in place of cash is most visible in the taxi business, where five beer caps would be enough to cover someone`s taxi expenses for a day.

"Taxi drivers are also using the caps in their fishy deals with the traffic police," Etonge said. "So they can get off by giving one or two caps to the officers."

The promotional battle has seen about 20 million bottles of beer given away since the start of the year, the report said.

More on the new Democrats

Business Week did an article on Democrats? Imagine that. And the gops still don't understand that the party is reforming faster than Newt Gingrich fell from power.

Business Week
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Democrats may take the rap for being a party of old faces and old ideas. But the party has new stars it could highlight to counter voters’ impressions of its weaknesses. Here are a few:

Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) has ranch roots, seminary schooling, and fierce-on-crime credentials as a state attorney general. Some Dems say Salazar, 50, a rare pol willing to work across the partisan divide, could become the first Latino President.

Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made a splash with his dynamic keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In his first year in Washington, Obama, 44, has concentrated on serving Illinois interests on issues like health-care funding for wounded veterans. But the party is likely to spotlight his talk of faith, family, and economic mobility, which appeals to voters across the political spectrum.

Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) may be the Democratic Newt Gingrich: the visionary and strategist who helps his party retake the House. Smart, pragmatic, and tough, the 45-year-old former Clinton political adviser is concocting a pro-investment economic agenda designed to attract the middle class and small business.

Virginia Governor Mark Warner, 50, proved a fiscally conservative Democrat could carry suburbs and rural regions in a red state. He has worked with a GOP legislature to turn a deep deficit into a surplus.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley has become the party’s go-to guy on protecting the homeland. The telegenic mayor, 42, has developed a detailed plan for rail and port safety and has been an outspoken critic of White House security priorities.

Bernie Sanders speaks

In this issue of Rolling Stone.

I'm a little torn on Sanders. On the one hand, I do like his politics. On the other, he is an independent. I'd like him to stick a D after his name to get us closer to a majority. With Dewine and Santorum looking like they'll be gone, we only have to pick up a few more seats. With Sanders' popularity, he could give us another one. I know, I know, I wish we had more than two parties, but the fact is, there have always been fringe third parties, and they're going to stay in the fringe.

2006 is going to be fun.

The end of a family dynasty?

Taft is going down

He has a 17% approval rating. His state has one of the most corrupt Republican parties out there. Ohioans aren't too fond of their politicos these days. A slight butterfly movement in my stomach... a little smirk.

Blue 88 are doing their best to combat Republicans in Ohio. Visit their site. Make a donation.

UPDATE: Taft is to be charged with a crime.

For the record...

Who are the real patriots?

Democrats: (Official Armed Services Records)
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max
Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: St! aff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete
Stark: Air Force 1955-57* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in
WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Republicans -- (Official Armed Services Records . . . . . and these are the guys sending people off to war who didn't serve):
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon! Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S!. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies.
* B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Vietnam POW, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem," although continued in NFL for 8 years.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Pundits, Preachers and others who stood or still stand for support of
the Republican Party
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a "pilonidal cyst.")
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.
* Charlie Daniels: did not serve.

UPDATE: Sen. John Warner R-VA of the Senate Armed Services Committee served in the Navy. Sen. Chuck Hagel R-NE received two purple hearts during his Army service in Vietnam.

Intelligent design

Google bomb for intelligent design. Because sometimes it's fun to send those intelligent design people a message: intelligent design is a myth. You know, like something the ancient Greeks would have believed. Or whatever you want to think.

When money is more important than people

No amount of money can replace those lost on 9/11, yet families are being torn apart over it.

Accompanied by a phalanx of lawyers and spinning through courtrooms in Manassas and Alexandria, a two-year dispute over Sept. 11 money between Craig and his three stepdaughters has engulfed several families, thousands of pages of court documents and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

How sad. How pathetic.

It's the economy, stupid

Whenever I watch a baseball game, which is nearly every day in the summer (you have your crack, I have my baseball:), I often marvel at how you can tell if a team is going to come back or if they are done for. Everything is different when a team is going to lose. They'll hit balls six inches foul instead of scoring the tying run, or the centerfielder will fly through the air to make a catch that defies the laws of physics, or an umpire will call an out which could just as easily be called safe.

Conversely, when a team is going to win, you can feel it. Even if they are down by four runs in the ninth inning, there is a certain energy that gives you hope that just maybe... and then you hear the fireworks.

I've been hearing the fireworks. I thought we'd have to wait until 2008, but now, I'm looking foward to 2006. We only need a few runs, and Dewine and Santorum have already struck out. We're going to take a lot of seats, too. BUT...

If we win these things, it will be because people are dissatisfied with the current regime. Everyone knows we've taken advantage of our 60 year-long dominance in America, except for a few dinosaurs in the Democratic Party. What we are missing, but what I know most of my generation of Democrats is developing, is a set of ideas that are marketable. We all have these principles that prevent us from bashing the other side (demonstrated by our outrage against the NARAL ad, which was pulled.) We've been a bit defeatist, though, because our principles make us respond to the unethical attacks from the right with outrage. I think, though, that the shock factor is finally over. Now, we must focus on ideas. IDEAS. They are out there.

I was thrilled to read the article in WaPo that stated that wealthy Dems are going to give so much money to liberal think tanks. I like the Center for American Progress. They are looking for economic policy people. This is the Heritage Foundation of the left. Won't it be nice to have an organization spitting out numbers that aren't twisted beyond recognition?

I think they are helping to develop an economic policy platform for the left, and I want to be a part of that. I have all sorts of ideas. First, I think the Dems should focus on small businesses. They are the backbone of this country. Small business owners aren't looking to dominate the world- they just want to make a living. Paying attention to small business owners bring them to our side.

Second, we need to focus on social security, making sure there's enough $$$ to sustain. I know that many of the forboding numbers were made up by Heritage, but we still need to address the issue of population growth that was not foreseen when it was created.

Ok, but maybe the most important thing to work on is this debt, not only the national debt, but also private debt. The level of personal debt is not sustainable (perhaps that is why the recent bankruptcy law was passed.)

The house built on hate is blowing down

Counter Clinton Library group folds

LITTLE ROCK - A group that had hoped to build two museums to rebut the displays at the Clinton Presidential Library with strong support from former Georgia Republican congressman Bob Barr is folding.

I wonder if the IRS will pursue them.

The library web site also claims that "donations above $250 are partially deductible." But it doesn't say under which IRS statute this will be permitted. (An e-mail from ConWebWatch to the library seeking answers to this and other questions was not answered.) One has to wonder, though, that since the library has an expressed political purpose -- LeBoutillier comes right out and states, boldface and italics and all, that "The Counter Clinton Library will be the headquarters of the Stop Hillary Now campaign" -- if the IRS will consider it a political organization and subject it to those rules -- which might also require a full list of donors be made available to the public. Donations are being directed to a post office box in Little Rock, which is being monitored by a man named Ron Crane, described by the Democrat-Gazette as "a local hospital employee."

The liberal media

Ratings For Political Blogs...

Progressive:
Daily Kos: 3,836,836
Democratic Underground: 1,563,608
Raw Story: 1,053,974

Conservative:
Instapundit: 916,976
Little Green Footballs: 744,717
Michelle Malkin: 633,187

Well, isn't this interesting? We've taken over their little corner of the world.

Same-sex marriage = jihad

Bruce Fein, a former associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, shows how the right loves Big Brother government.

The constitutional right of privacy was born of that evil [SCOTUS decisions], and has been brandished to overturn laws regulating abortion, homosexual sodomy and obscenity in the home. Same-sex marriage, polygamy, recreational drug use and jihad are clamoring for equal right-of-privacy protection.

He also writes:

Neither "privacy" nor a generalized "right to be left alone" appears in the Constitution.

Try the ninth amendment, buddy. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. What isn't enumerated doesn't mean that there is no right to it. We have something called "checks and balances", something the right tries to circumvent all the time. When the legislature is overstepping the boundaries, the courts come in to stop it.

I just don't understand how these people can be so afraid of gays that they have to legislate against them, unless they really do have closeted homosexual tendencies. And to equate homosexuality with the murderous acts of monsters is just another of the many shameless, disgusting acts of the right. Just for good measure, he throws in polygamy, as if that is such a widespread practice that it needs to be addressed and that it is like same-sex marriage. Rightwing hysteria.

Maybe Bruce should go out and buy a bigger sports car.

We are all so SAFE with these policies

Babies Caught Up in 'No-Fly' Confusion

Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the U.S. because their names are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly list."

It sounds like a joke, but it's not funny to parents who miss flights while scrambling to have babies' passports and other documents faxed.

While babies and old women are prevented from boarding airplanes, Bin Laden remains at large.

The carcinoma in Room B-2

The focus on profits, profits, and profits has taken away so much of what it is to be human in our time. More evidence of this is in today's NYT:

In the Hospital, a Degrading Shift from Person to Patient.

Mary Duffy was lying in bed half-asleep on the morning after her breast cancer surgery in February when a group of white-coated strangers filed into her hospital room.

Without a word, one of them - a man - leaned over Ms. Duffy, pulled back her blanket, and stripped her nightgown from her shoulders.

Weak from the surgery, Ms. Duffy, 55, still managed to exclaim, "Well, good morning," a quiver of sarcasm in her voice.

But the doctor ignored her. He talked about carcinomas and circled her bed like a presenter at a lawnmower trade show, while his audience, a half-dozen medical students in their 20's, stared at Ms. Duffy's naked body with detached curiosity, she said.

After what seemed an eternity, the doctor abruptly turned to face her.

"Have you passed gas yet?" he asked.

"Those are his first words to me, in front of everyone," said Ms. Duffy, who runs a food service business near San Jose, Calif.

I often wonder what it was like when you could go to the neighborhood pharmacy and the pharmacist would say, "Good morning, Mrs. So and So, how are you today. Can I get your [insert regular product] for you?" How does it feel to be looked at as a human being rather than a dollar sign?

The liberal media

WaPo is sponsoring the flagwaving slobberfest on September 11 they call the Freedom Walk. Fortunately, the WaPo guild is threatening to walk out if the corporation doesn't drop its sponsorship.

"Basically, the guild is calling for the Post to reconsider and drop sponsorship," said Rick Weiss, a Post reporter and co-chair of the Washington Post unit of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Local 32035. "As a matter of maintaining its appearance of neutrality on polarizing issues of policy."

The word "freedom" has been destroyed by the flagwavers. It means nothing anymore.

Ciao, red states! We don't need you!

Saw this on Left in the Heartland posted by Peter and had to post it.

Dear Red States:

We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home.

We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy League and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually
swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing
the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory,
53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,

Author Unknown in New California

Gold Star Bloggers for Peace

Cindy Sheehan list of blog supporters at Shakespeare's Sister.

Pirro is speechless

Great anti-Pirro ad by the NY State Dems. Watch it here.

Carlyle Group under investigation

The Freemasons of our time...

I love good news.

The board of an Illinois pension fund planned to ask District-based Carlyle Group last week about millions of dollars it paid a politically connected lobbyist for help in winning half a billion dollars in investments from the fund.

However, when Carlyle Managing Director David M. Rubenstein appeared in Chicago on Thursday, the board of the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System refrained from asking about the finder's fees paid to Robert Kjellander, an Illinois lobbyist who was recently elected treasurer of the Republican National Committee. The board wanted to avoid interfering with a federal investigation, said John Day, a spokesman for the pension fund.

These people are some of the most powerful people on the planet. Wealthiest, too. Asking questions leads to more questions. We'll see if anything develops from this. Hoorah for justice!

Labor gains a victory over Big Brother

Department of Volkland Security rules blocked

The Department of Homeland Security, after more than two years of work on new workplace rules, may have to scrap the plan after a federal judge questioned whether it protects union and employee rights.

The workplace rules would have dramatically reduced the clout of unions in the department, which has about 160,000 employees. Bush administration officials see the proposed rules as a key to moving forward -- and sidestepping union objections -- to more ambitious changes that would affect how employees are paid, promoted and disciplined.

It is disgusting how these people use 9/11 to try to advance every part of their elitist agenda, which includes the destruction of labor protections. Thank god we have a system of checks and balances that seems to function.

"War is bad" verses "War is morally wrong"

Snag makes an excellent point about how some anti-war protestors love war as much as the pro-war people. Some people seem to live for war just so they can have something to protest against. Still, I want to make a distinction between the slogan bearing sign carrying protest types and the more intellectual anti-war activists who hate the existence of war.

Those protesters who you say love war don't make up a majority of anti-war activists. There is a certain segment of the population that just likes to protest, and they are protesting war as often as they are protesting corporatism, nuclear weapons, or whatever the fad is. No one takes them seriously. Because they are so visible, though, they get a lot of attention, mostly from the right, who uses them to stereotype everyone on the left, including real anti-war idealists. The anti-war movement (if you can call it a movement) has been demonized and vilified by the warmongering right who needs an "enemy" at all times to make it feel better about itself.

Real anti-war activists truly hate war. We see war as the worst aspect of human nature and set out to devise ways to avoid war at all costs. The EU is the ultimate anti-war experiment. Here you have a continent that has been mired in war throughout its existence. Europeans just grew tired of it and decided that they would end it by mutually assuring destruction of the continent were war to break out. It is a brilliant use of economics to prevent war. Time will tell if the experiment will work, but sixty years of peace among EU countries today is the longest stretch of peace in the history of the planet.

Being a real anti-war activist requires a lot of work. Not only are there letters to be written, Congress people to meet, and money to be raised, but there is also the protection of troops to consider. Did you know about the various "anti-war" activities to raise money to buy body armor for troops? Some of the most virulent war haters are also the strongest supporters of the troops, because they see the troops as human beings and not as part of a behemoth military machine.

Being a real anti-war activist also requires a lot of reading. There are all sorts of philosophical and intellectual angles to consider. One cannot win an argument without understanding the views of the other side. Conversely, one also has to understand why he/she hates war. If you go up to one of those "No blood for oil" sign wielders and ask them why they hate war, you will sometimes hear such answers as "war is stupid." Not exactly a good response.

Finally, being a real anti-war activist requires an understanding of the human condition. Are people basically good or basically evil? Left to themselves, human nature dictates a constant state of war. This is why we have governments: to protect us from each other. Unfortunately, these governments more often than not fail in their capacity to protect their citizens, and we often find we have to protect ourselves from our governments. Such is the case of the current administration. Anti-war people aren't la-dee-da peace, love, happiness types, they are real thinkers, and they are anti-war for selfish reasons as much as they are for human reasons. After all, who can argue that life in times of peace isn't better than in times of war?

At the end of the day, though, it comes down to people. People make up the planet, one that we have to share, and no amount of bombs can change this fact. In the end, most anti-war activists DO care about people before themselves. The pain of war is the deepest of all pains and ultimately makes life a tragedy. The fact that there are people out there that actually like war is sickening, and THAT may be the greatest tragedy of all.

Another grieving family for the wingnuts to attack

I wonder if he was ever able to drink a beer legally.

FUNERAL FOR 21-YEAR-OLD LEXINGTONIAN

But, in a departure from the norm in Kentucky -- one of the reddest of red states -- some of Comley's relatives, including a few sitting in the front pews, have spoken out strongly against the Bush administration and the war that took the 21-year-old Marine's life.

A tear of hope for this country stains my cheek. Maybe he didn't die in vain. Maybe his death and the deaths of 1800+ others will bring the people of this country out of their intellectual slumber.

RIP, Chase.

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over

Frank Rich's column today is a must read.

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over

LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?

A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him... our current Texas president has even outdone his predecessor; Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. Neither bonuses nor fudged standards nor the faking of high school diplomas has solved the recruitment shortfall. Now Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that the armed forces are so eager for bodies they will flout "don't ask, don't tell" and hang on to gay soldiers who tell, even if they tell the press.

I can't believe that this has gone on this long. I hope I will never again see an administration that is so far removed from reality as this. I mean, if there is one, we might as well hit the bunkers.

I wonder if the damage these people have inflicted on this country will be repaired in my lifetime.

NRA may back Dem against DeWine in '06

But do we want their blood money?

Gun activists angry with Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and the state GOP are welcoming talk of Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) challenging the second-term senator next year.

Frustration with DeWine hit a new high late last month when the senator was one of only two Republicans (Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island being the other) to oppose a bill shielding gun manufacturers from liability for damages resulting from the use of their products. full

You know what they say: As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.

Bush says we're going to war with Iran

Bush: Force last resort on Iran

"All options are on the table," Bush, speaking at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, said in the interview broadcast on Saturday.

Deja vu...

Force against Iraq was a "last resort," too, so I guess this means we're going to war with Iran. Not like we didn't expect it anyway. We're going to get our asses kicked. I mean, look at the mess we've made in Iraq. We can't even win that one, a country with no organized military. Mothers, prepare yourselves for the draft!

At least he has time to take a five week vacation.

Hillary 2008

Excellent article on why Hillary can win.

Note: I won't delete your comments here unless they are full of unnecessary profanity, as I believe in free speech.

Harry Potter in Gitmo

Harry Potter mania hits terror jail
From correspondents in Washington
August 09, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse

BOOKS about boy wizard Harry Potter have become favorite reading material among Islamic terror suspects at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to reports. Citing a librarian working at the center, the newspaper said J.K. Rowling's tales about the boy and the school of wizardry are on top of the request list for the camp's 520 Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects, followed by Agatha Christie novels.

"We've got a few who are kind of hooked on it. A couple have asked if they can see the movie," the librarian identified only as Lori is quoted by The Times as saying.

Lori said she is compiling a list to provide to various lawmakers in Washington, who recently visited the prison at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay as part of a congressional delegation investigating accusations of torture, according to the report.

A US military investigation last month concluded that no torture has taken place since the prison opened in early 2002.

The Times said the Guantanamo library also has drawn interest because of a separate investigation into how guards handle the Koran, which is given to any prisoner who requests it under Pentagon policy.

DC Happy Hours

To recover from the stress of being a thinker in a non-thinking world, post-work happy hour is one of life's necessities. WaPo has just published an extensive and very informative list of happy hours in DC.

More cracking down on democracy in Uzbekistan

JAMESTOWN ANALYST ARRESTED IN UZBEKISTAN
Igor Rotar, Contributor to ‘Eurasia Daily Monitor', Detained in Tashkent

08/11/2005, Washington DC -- The Jamestown Foundation deplores the arrest of journalist Igor Rotar, a regular contributor to the Eurasia Daily Monitor who has been affiliated with Jamestown since 1998.

"Igor Rotar is an independent journalist covering conflict and instability in Central Asia," said Jamestown President Glen E. Howard. "He poses no threat, and we urge the Uzbek government to release him immediately."

Rotar was detained by the Uzbek Immigration Service on Thursday, August 11th. He has reportedly been unable to communicate with anyone since his arrest.

As a Russian citizen traveling on a Russian passport, Rotar did not require a visa to enter Uzbekistan. Colleagues with Forum 18 and other organizations believe his detention fits a broader pattern of press intimidation by Uzbek officials.

Rotar's is a frequent contributor to Eurasia Daily Monitor, the Jamestown Foundation's flagship publication. "He is one of the premier experts on Islamic movements in Central Asia," said Howard.

In recent weeks Rotar's reporting in Eurasia Daily Monitor covered issues including security, terrorism and human rights in Central Asia. His last story ran on August 8th.

Founded in 1984, the Jamestown Foundation is an independent, non-partisan research institution dedicated to providing policymakers and the public with timely analysis concerning critical political and strategic developments in China, Eurasia and the Greater Middle East.

Good thing Karimov isn't our friend anymore. We'd have to be hypocritical to be friends with a dictator.

WAR- human nature

Somali leader plans war

Somalia's president is planning to start an internal war with Ethiopian help, a group of rebel MPs has said.

Mankind is sick. Why is it called mankind? It should be called manevil. It seems as if evil always wins.

One small step for man, one giant leap for justice

Abramoff Indicted in Fraud Case
Washington Lobbyist Arrested in L.A.

Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday as part of a wide-ranging fraud case stemming from the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line from a businessman later murdered in Fort Lauderdale, the U.S. attorney announced.

I only have one thing to say about this: woohoo!

And the right wonders why the left wants gun control

Man Fires Gun at Car to Silence Alarm

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - A man annoyed by a noisy car alarm fired at least three bullets into a Toyota Camry, silencing the alarm and bringing out police who hauled him away in handcuffs, authorities said.

In addition to background checks, they should have IQ tests before selling guns to people. This guy obviously wouldn't pass.

This world makes me tired

LAGOS, Nigeria - It was a typical husband-wife argument. She wanted to visit her parents. He wanted her to stay home.

So they settled it in what some here say is an all-too-typical fashion, Rosalynn Isimeto-Osibuamhe recalled of the incident in December 2001. Her husband, Emmanuel, followed her out the door. Then he beat her unconscious, she says, and left her lying in the street near their apartment.

Domestic violence is endemic in Africa. Submission to the man is a social requirement. In some countries, half of the women's population is abused.

When Ms. Isimeto-Osibuamhe eventually sought help, others only seemed to support her husband's view. She went to the police. "They told me I am not a small girl," she recalled. "If I don't want to be married, I should get divorced."

She told her father-in-law. He advised her that "beating is normal."

She told her local pastor, who counseled her that "I shouldn't make him so angry," telling her "whatever my husband says, I should submit."

This view is widespread in the US as well. Ann Coulter champions it (that Adam's Apple she has explains a lot.) I will be labelled feminazi by the white-male dominated right for condemning this.

Doing something to combat our shameful education system

Kaine Backs Offering Free Preschool for 4-Year-Olds

And I back Tim Kaine for Virginia governor.

For more info about Kaine, see Raising Kaine.

Oh, I wanna drive the Zamboni...

This is why we can't win a war. Pathetic.

Larry Diamond's Iraq Talking Points

Larry Diamond: So I would say that the truly cardinal sin was not the war itself but the decision to go to war without adequate preparation or support: leaving Iraq to burn in chaos in the days and weeks after Saddam fell, having no effective plan for the postwar period, not having nearly enough troops, not giving them nearly enough protection and equipment, not having fully mobilized our own country for the scope of challenge we were clearly going to face in the postwar period. It was war on the cheap, war without sacrifice except by the soldiers and families asked to risk--and too painfully often to make--the ultimate sacrifice. It was war without any fiscal discipline or sense of urgency; "we're at war--let's party" as Tom Friedman wrote in a column in the months leading up to the invasion. This was truly sinful and inexcusable, what I call in the book (speaking metaphorically and morally, rather than legally) criminal negligence. I think history will render a harsh judgment on all of those responsible in this Administration.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Nothing is trickling down

Treasury Secretary John W. Snow acknowledged yesterday that the fruits of strong economic growth are not spreading equally to less educated Americans, as he and the rest of President Bush's economic team prepared to meet today to discuss wages and income distribution in an otherwise surging economy.

Is this really even news? The left has been saying this. The thing is that the wealthy Bushocrats don't give a damn, because they are more than comfortable. The gop system is designed to make the wealthy wealthier. When are people going to come to their senses? What economic level will people have to fall into before things like gay marriage and abortion cease to be the issues at the front of the minds of the masses?

US has won the war, right?

Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia.

The deposed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, recounted the events in a telephone interview on Tuesday and called the move a municipal coup d'état. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life.

"This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal."

The goal was to create a second Iran, right?

They knew Mohammed Atta was Al-Qaeda

Today's biggest outrage:

More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

The incompetence of the bushies never ceases to amaze and anger me.

Big Brother is Watching

The British government is preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away.

Officials in the United States say they'll be closely watching the British trial as they contemplate initiating their own tests of the plates, which incorporate radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags to make vehicles electronically trackable.

So authorities can know where you go at all times. Is ANYONE concerned about civil liberties these days???

Preparing for the future

Ancient Egypt provides key to storing nuclear heritage

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has undertaken an £8bn project to dismantle 26 research reactors and bury nuclear waste (that will remain dangerous for thousands of years) in concrete bunkers and storage facilities.

The problem is that the details of the dismantling and the dangers in handling of the plutonium, uranium and other wastes are outlined on computer software that will become outdated in a decade.

Fortunately, someone remembered their ancient history - and the papyrus scrolls beloved of the Egyptians. When stored in the right conditions, the scrolls can preserve readable records for millennia, making them perfect for the nuclear waste industry.

Straight from a sci-fi movie. Look for The Papyrus to come out next year, starring Bruce Willis as the dad who works on the project to figure out what the writing on the papyrus says.

Good news week

In an effort to keep some sanity in my head, today I am going to examine good news and try to avoid anything depressing.

1. The space shuttle did not explode.

2. The Russians in the stuck sub were rescued.

3. Christians are being real Christians.

4. News Corp. giving $$$ to Dems.

It's really difficult to find "good news" stories these days. Life is so tragic.

Godless Capitalism

There is plenty of food, but children are dying because their parents cannot afford to buy it.

The starvation in Niger is not the inevitable consequence of poverty, or simply the fault of locusts or drought. It is also the result of a belief that the free market can solve the problems of one of the world's poorest countries.

The UN, whose World Food Programme distributes emergency supplies in other hunger-stricken parts of Africa, also declined to distribute free food. The reason given was that interfering with the free market could disrupt Niger's development out of poverty.

I work for an organization that promotes democracy through free market development. Sometimes I wonder if we are promoting free market economics through democracy instead. The common idea is that democracy and free market economics go hand in hand, but I think they only go together to a point. So often you find that free market growth comes at the expense of what makes up the planet: people. The growthmongers are so cracked out on their free market rhetoric they forget that without people, economics would not exist. You don't think that gorillas are going to become entrepreneurs, right? What about some fish setting up a shop to sell empty shells or elephants marketing ivory to the masses?

The more I learn, the more I am inclined to seek alternatives to the free market. If governments weren't necessary, we wouldn't have them. I'm thinking something along the lines of social capitalism is better than laissez faire economics. Not socialism, per se, and definitely not communism (and I will be accused of advocating it despite the bold color), but something where economic policies are made to help all people, not those who are the wealthiest. That is how democracy is supposed to work. You know, equality for all.

Gops are always crying "class warfare" anytime we say something about how greedy are the rich. A man once said,

"That in every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch; that consequently the whole history of mankind (since the dissolution of primitive tribal society, holding land in common ownership) has been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes; that the history of these class struggles forms a series of evolutions in which, nowadays, a stage has been reached where the exploited and oppressed class cannot attain its emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class without at the same time, and once and for all, emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinctions, and class struggles.

Do we want to be known in history books as a people who thought that buying cheap junk was more important than feeding people? Do we want to be looked at as a nation of idiots who let the ruling corporations exploit us through distorted marketing schemes while they continued to sop up the world's wealth? Do we want teachers in the future to have to explain to children that America was once the world's wealthiest and powerful nation? Some say, I don't care, it doesn't affect me. I say to them, then shut up! You should have no say in policymaking, because the policies you advocate affect others and will continue to affect others for years to come. You don't like it when others affect your life negatively. Do unto others... it's the only way we survive as a species.

There is more to life than economic growth. Putting a Charmucks on every corner, regardless of the fact that it provides a couple of low paying jobs, does not improve the quality of life on this planet. Why, instead of rampant corporate growth, can we not be a nation of small, diverse, interesting entreprises? Why, if we are making enough to live on, is it not acceptable to keep our one store the way it is? Why, instead of the Pakistani immigrant down the street from where I work opening a Subway franchise, doesn't he open a Pakistani restaurant? God knows there is a dearth of Pakistani restaurants in DC. There sure is a plethora of Subways, however. The only thing that stops us from all of these things is the prevailing theory on free market growth. Newsflash to the growthmongers: IT'S A THEORY, NOT FACT. Maybe we've hit a wall. Africans are starving at the expense of godless capitalism. A mother put her child's life in danger because she wouldn't allow the fire department to break her car window to get the child out of the locked car. We've become a soulless species in our relentless pursuit of growth. It's time to start thinking up alternatives to corporatism.

HT: Comments from Left Field

Update: Finland is an excellent example of social capitalism.

The War between the Brits and the Germans

Want to go for a dip after sitting in the hot beach sun? Better bring your chair with you. A German lawyer has discovered that leaving towels on chairs is not a legally binding entitlement to that chair!

Furious British tourists have gained an unlikely ally in the form of German lawyer Ralf Höcker, who told the Guardian that his research into Spanish and German law had revealed that leaving towels on loungers was not legally binding.

"A British tourist would be quite within their legal rights to ignore the reservation implied by the towels if there is nobody there," said Cologne-based Mr Höcker, 34.

Peace is dead! Long live peace!

US military drafts war plans

It takes a second to change a life forever. Out of two billion seconds most of us our given (unless we are victims of war, violence, poverty, or disease that often mars the planet), only one second, or even a fraction of one, is needed to end it.

It takes a single bullet to change life forever. A single bullet is manufactured for the purpose of killing. A rain of bullets can take many lives at once.

It takes a single man to put a stop to a war, a ruler who needs only to say "enough" to cease the needless and pointless deaths of so many who just want to live their lives. Fighting violence with violence incites nothing but violence. It does not bring peace, as Orwell so brilliantly showed.

It takes a village, a nation, a globe, to persuade that man to stop. It takes an unarmed army of voices to halt the warmongering bastards. I hear the beating of the drums of war from my place at the keyboard, but I don't have much faith in human nature these days that anything will ever change.

The US is making war plans, people, as if they expect to be attacked. God help us all.

We never learn...

I saw long lines of refugees, just quiet, I don't know why they were so quiet. There were long lines, like ghosts.

Most of them were stretching out their arms because the skin was peeling off from the tips of their fingers. I could clearly see the hanging skin, peeling skin, and the wet red flesh and their hair was burned and smelled, the burnt hair smelled a lot.

...or the warmongers just don't care.

Google is gas!

Go to www.google.com. Type in the word "failure." Look at the first entry. Good stuff.

Rightwing domestic terrorism

Ten years after the Oklahoma City bombing left 168 people dead, the guardians of American national security seem to have decided that the domestic radical right does not pose a substantial threat to U.S. citizens.

A draft internal document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that was obtained this spring by The Congressional Quarterly lists the only serious domestic terrorist threats as radical animal rights and environmental groups like the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. But for all the property damage they have wreaked, eco-radicals have killed no one — something that most definitely cannot be said of the white supremacists and others who people the American radical right.

In the 10 years since the April 19, 1995, bombing in Oklahoma City, in fact, the radical right has produced some 60 terrorist plots. These have included plans to bomb or burn government buildings, banks, refineries, utilities, clinics, synagogues, mosques, memorials and bridges; to assassinate police officers, judges, politicians, civil rights figures and others; to rob banks, armored cars and other criminals; and to amass illegal machine guns, missiles, explosives, and biological and chemical weapons. What follows is a list of key right-wing plots of the last 10 years. list

These are full-blooded Americans who have conspired to commit or have committed terrorist activities, but since they are rightwing, the right doesn't consider them as a threat to domestic security. Apparently, destroying property is far worse than destroying people. You'll notice that many of them planned or committed their acts in the name of Christianity.

Sanity in an insane world

Novak apologizes. Ha, ha, another gop is showing his true nature. These people are falling apart. I revel in their self-destruction.

In related news, Our Great Leader's poll numbers continue to tank.

When gops come to their senses

Speaker of Idaho House considers legislation to require insurance

The speaker of the state House of Representatives is mulling a proposal that could require businesses to provide employees with insurance, or reimburse Idaho for publicly funded health care costs.

Medicaid costs have grown tenfold since 1990, and now account for about 14 percent of state spending.

To try to reverse the trend, Rep. Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, is proposing that employers buy health insurance for their workers, or pay the state to offset Medicaid costs.

Newcomb's target: Wal-Mart stores.

I wonder what will happen if this passes- will the gop Congress, at the insistence of the US Chamber of Commerce, step in to force the state of Idaho to change its law? The gops seem readily willing to trample on states' rights anytime they do something against the gop agenda. (See here, here, and here for a few of the many examples.)

Ohio gets hammered

Just last week from Iraq, Marine Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder e-mailed his parents in Cleveland. Two members of his unit had been killed.

"He wanted to let us know as fast as he could that he was OK, and that we didn't worry," said his mother, Rosemary Palmer. "We worried all the time."

On Wednesday they received the news they dreaded. Edward had been killed. He was 23.

He was among 20 Marines from the same unit based in Ohio killed this week in an offensive in Iraq.

This state voted for this war. Since they've started to get hammered, the flagwavers aren't raising those flags so high. Some of them actually stooped to the level of voting for an anti-war candidate in Paul Hackert. These deaths will no doubt motivate more people against the war. Still, some who've lost will continue to blindly follow the call to patriotism.

RIP, victims of an unjust war.

At least it's clear now...

President Makes It Clear: Phrase Is 'War on Terror'

The gops are scared

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) warned fellow Republicans yesterday not to ignore the implications of the party's narrow victory in Tuesday's special election in Ohio, saying the public mood heading into next year's midterm elections appears to helping Democrats and hurting Republicans.

"It should serve as a wake-up call to Republicans, and I certainly take it very seriously in analyzing how the public mood evidences itself," Gingrich said. "Who is willing to show up and vote is different than who answers a public opinion poll. Clearly, there's a pretty strong signal for Republicans thinking about 2006 that they need to do some very serious planning and not just assume that everything is going to be automatically okay."

Some Democrats said the outcome spells trouble for Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), who is up for reelection next year, but the party has not yet found a serious challenger.

Be wise, Dems, in your choice. We could take a bunch of Senate seats next year, but we have to pick wisely. This means no John Zzzzz Kerry types.

Another country falls victim to the War on Terror

... or the Global War on Whatever the Name is Today...

Mauritanian soldiers have seized control of the state radio and television station and main routes in the capital, Nouakchott. President Taya had been out of the country attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd. He took power in a bloodless coup in December 1984 and has been re-elected three times since. Correspondents say he later made enemies among Islamists in the country, which is an Islamic Republic. Critics accuse the government of using the US-led war on terror to crackdown on Islamic opponents.

This coup leader just looks like an evil terrorist bastard.

Cincinnati, there's a reason you're stuck in the 1950s

Schmidt Defeats Hackett

You'd think that a city that lost so many businesses over the past few years would wake up... some did, but more did not. They LIKE being stuck in the fifties. There was more tolerance for racism back then, and the Klan needs a place to rally.

"You can support the troops but not the president"

Quotes in reference to Kosovo (HT: Blogging for Freedom):

"Bombing a sovereign nation for ill-defined reasons with vague objectives undermines the American stature in the world. The international respect and trust for America has diminished every time we casually let the bombs fly."
-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"You can support the troops but not the president."
-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"This is President Clinton's war, and when he falls flat on his face, that's his problem."
-Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

"You think Vietnam was bad? Vietnam is nothing next to Kosovo."
-Tony Snow, Fox News 3/24/99

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today"
-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

Hmm... when the left says these things about Iraq, we are labelled traitors or America haters. Thing is, the left supports freedom of speech, so we let them say these things without having to resort to the T word. The right advocates killing liberals, because freedom of speech is an awful thing, I guess.

Gas prices in San Francisco above $6

Photo taken by Toxic-JamRock8 at Road Warrior Chronicles.

Thank you, Global Struggle for Ideological Extremism Because They Hate Our Freedom.

Musharraf is an ally...

...but he is an evil dictator like those the Bushies want to overthrow.

Part 2 of Kristof's story of Dr. Shazia Khalid's rape ordeal in Pakistan.

Dr. Shazia's ordeal offers us a glimpse of life for women in much of the developing world today, and it's also a reminder of the one factor that gives me hope. That's the growing number of people who refuse to cower in the face of injustice and instead become forces for change. To me, Dr. Shazia is a hero, for her courage and determination - and, yes, her purity.

Kristof says,

I'm sure I'll get inquiries from readers wanting to help Dr. Shazia and Mr. Khalid. Since they are lonely and isolated in London, but have friends and relatives in Canada, the single thing that would help the most is if Canada reconsidered its refusal to grant them asylum. You can suggest that by writing to Joseph Volpe, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1, Canada. You can send e-mail to Minister@cic.gc.ca. If Canada gives Dr. Shazia asylum, this love story can still end well; otherwise, I'm afraid it'll be one more tragedy.

Uzbekistan- a human rights mess

Bush's War on Terror, I mean World War III, I mean the Crusades, I mean the Struggle Against Ideological Extremists Who Do Not Believe in Free Societies Who Happen to Use Terror as a Weapon to Try to Shake the Conscience of the Free World has given dictators like Karimov free reign to suppress their populations. All they have to do is say dissenters have ties to terrorists and voila, the opposition disappears. More than 400 refugees were flown to Romania by the UN a few days ago because neighboring Kyrgyzstan wants to deport them back to Uzbekistan, where they no doubt would suffer cruel fates at the hands of the murderous Karimov regime.

Since Karimov has kicked the US out of Uzbekistan, perhaps the Bush administration will no longer let the War for War's Sake get in the way of condemning the regime's brutal abuse of its people. Then again, the Bushies don't give a damn about human rights.