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Iraq for Sale - The War Profiteers
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"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine." - - -
William Blum

September 30, 2004

Where are we going?

 

Guy Dauncey has some ideas:

....The core of the problem may also be that we can’t agree if there is a spiritual reality or not. If there is no spiritual reality, we are confined to material choices in a material world, governed by the laws of entropy, with or without free will. If there is a spiritual reality, we have to decide if spirit and matter are separate and conflicting realms, as most religions propose, or harmonious, in which case the laws of physics and the laws of spirit must integrate, and will one day be a post-mathematics of heaven and the soul. And if they integrate, they have presumably always integrated, even before there was time. This, in turn, means that evolution carries a spiritual dimension, which people like Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo and Ken Wilber have been saying all along.

So what do you think? Where are we going? Here are 12 possible answers which could start a dinner-party discussion...

1. Nowhere. We’re just material organisms, driven by selfish genes. There is no inherent direction; it’s up to us to make what we want out of life.

2. To heaven. As soon as the conflict in the Middle East has triggered Armageddon, everyone who has accepted Jesus into their hearts will rise into heaven in the Rapture. Amen.

3. To heaven on Earth, United Church style. Everyone will become kind and loving.

4. Nowhere. We’re caught on an endless wheel of suffering, with or without reincarnation. Spiritual enlightenment is the only way out.

5. Into space. Our destiny is out there among the stars. Let us boldly go!

6. To freedom, and the American way. Bring em on! God, democracy, Wal-Mart and Visa will prevail over all unbelievers.

7. To scientific socialism, and the sister/brotherhood of all humanity. Marx, Lenin and Castro were right after all.

8. To ecological collapse. We humans are too powerful a predator species. We are out of balance with nature, and will cause Earth’s ecosystems to collapse into disorder.

9. To entropy, and the final collapse of material order. The sun will go supernova, and the universe will experience a heat death. Meanwhile, it’s up to us to make what we want out of life.

10. To syntropy. Spirit will continue to evolve as it seeks spiritual, natural, planetary and cosmic harmony.

11. To a super-technological future. All problems will be solved by robots, nanobots, and the crew from Red Dwarf.

12. Nobody knows. And that’s the scariest (or most exciting) thought of all.
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Save Iraq: Vote for Bush

 

President Bush says things are getting better in Iraq. He's our PRESIDENT, so he must be telling the TRUTH. There's NO REASON to doubt a man of such honesty and integrity. In case you have any doubts, here's all the proof you need:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A series of bombs killed 35 children and seven adults Thursday as U.S. troops handed out candy at a government ceremony to inaugurate a new sewage treatment plant. Hours earlier, a suicide blast killed a U.S. soldier and two Iraqis on the capital's outskirts. The bombs in Baghdad's al-Amel neighborhood caused the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the conflict in Iraq began 17 months ago.

"The Americans called us, they told us, 'Come here, come here,' asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded," said 12-year-old Abdel Rahman Dawoud, lying naked in a hospital bed with shrapnel embedded all over his body. Two bombs went off in quick succession at the ceremony about 1 p.m., then were followed by a third explosion a short distance away, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman. He said there were two suicide car bombs and one roadside bomb; the Americans said all three were car bombs. The explosions killed 42 people and wounded 141, including 10 U.S. soldiers. The wounded included 72 children under the age of 14, said Dr. Mohammed Salaheddin.

The day of violence across Iraq, including insurgent attacks and U.S. airstrikes in Fallujah, left a total of 46 people dead and 208 wounded. In the northern city of Tal Afar, a car bomb targeting the police chief killed at least four people and wounded 16, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. The chief, whose name was only given as Col. Ismail, escaped the assassination attempt, police said.

Also Thursday, the Arab news network Al-Jazeera showed video of 10 new hostages seized in Iraq by militants. Al-Jazeera said the 10 - six Iraqis, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women - were taken by The Islamic Army in Iraq, a group that has claimed responsibility for seizing two French journalists. A Lebanese official later said kidnappers had released one Lebanese captive, although it was not clear if he was among the 10.

In the al-Amel bombings, grief-stricken parents wailed over the bodies of their children at the Yarmouk Hospital morgue. One woman tore at her hair before pulling back the sheet covering her dead brother and kissing him. One man carried his younger brother - both legs bandaged - to the hospital, where some children were put two to a bed because of the many wounded. Outside, women sat on the ground and wept as they awaited news about their children. The hospital received 42 bodies - including those of 35 children - and 131 wounded, said Iyhsan Nasser, head of the facility's statistics department.

At the site of the blasts, body parts were strewn in the streets amid pools of blood. A U.S. helicopter evacuated some of the wounded while other aircraft circled overhead and soldiers sealed off the area. Lt. Col. Jim Hutton, spokesman for the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, said 10 American soldiers were among the wounded. American troops were taking part in the ceremony to inaugurate the sewage plant, said Maj. Phil Smith, another division spokesman, calling the attacks "despicable." Officials earlier had said a U.S. convoy was passing through the area. Smith said the first two explosions targeted the ceremony, while the third was aimed at a nearby Iraqi National Guard checkpoint. The children were at the ceremony because the school year in Iraq has not yet begun. "This attack was carried out by evil people who do not want the Iraqis to celebrate and don't want (reconstruction) projects in Iraq," said Iraqi National Guard Lt. Ahmad Saad.

Hours earlier, a suicide car bomber struck in the Abu Ghraib area outside of Baghdad, killing the American soldier and at least two Iraqis, and wounding 60, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. That bomb targeted a compound housing the mayor's office, a police station and other buildings, police 1st Lt. Ahmed Jawad said. A U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle parked in front of the compound was hit, Hutton said.

Elsewhere, insurgents fired a rocket Thursday at a logistical support area for coalition forces on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding seven, the military said. No further details was disclosed - including whether or not it was a U.S. soldier.

Meanwhile, the United States targeted a suspected terrorist safehouse in Fallujah. The military said intelligence reports indicated the house was being used by followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S.-led forces and Iraqi citizens. At least four Iraqis were killed - including two women and one child - and eight were wounded, said Dr. Ahmed Khalil of the Fallujah General Hospital. Witnesses said two houses were flattened and four others damaged in the strike. "Significant secondary explosions were observed during the impact, indicating a large cache of illegal ordinance was stored in the safehouse," the military statement said. Explosions continued for hours.

American jets, tanks and artillery units repeatedly have targeted al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah recently as U.S.-led forces seek to assert control over insurgent enclaves ahead of elections slated for January. The military says the attacks have inflicted significant damage on the network, which has claimed responsibility for bombings, kidnappings and other attacks. Doctors say scores of civilians have been killed and wounded in the strikes.

Al-Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed responsibility for several beheadings and kidnappings. Al-Jazeera's video of the latest hostages showed three captives, who were not identified, and two masked men pointing weapons at them. There was no mention of demands by the militants or when or where they were captured. The network said the 10 were employees of the Jib electricity company. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister in charge of intelligence, later confirmed that two Lebanese had been kidnapped along with a group of others that included women. More than 140 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq and at least 26 have been killed.

Bush: Good for Iraq, Good for America. We should definitely elect him.

Hey, want some candy, little boy?
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Around for Everyone

 

Don't miss today's Fresh Air on NPR, as Jon Stewart will be interviewed. Should be a blast.

Moore/Bush (flash video)
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September 29, 2004
 
The blatant lies about Kerry, liberals and Democrats, that are now airing in the media, are so outrageous it is getting embarrassing and infuriating for me to watch or read them. I know it is going to get much worse as the election nears. I only hope that the incredibly ignorant people who still think Bush can succeed as our Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief will somehow tire of getting incessantly bashed over the head with all this b.s. and say that they've had enough, or just have enough courage to stay home on November 2.
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Bush & Iraq: Mizaru kikazaru iwazaru (see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing)

 
"I'm not surprised if people in the administration were put on the defensive. We weren't trying to make them look bad, we're just trying to give them information. Of course, we're telling them something they don't want to hear."

--- CIA spokesman's response to the Bush Administration's scathing attack of the former following a National Intelligence Council (NIC) assessment, completed in July, that gave a dramatically different outlook than the administration's and represented a consensus at the CIA and the State and Defense departments.
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Around for Everyone

 

Eisenhower endorses Kerry.

HERE is a refreshing anti-Bush web site. THIS AD is very effective. These are real people.

What Bush Will Do If Re-elected.

Bush prepares for debates (flash video) ...and... Kung Fu Kerry saves choking Bush

ABC News shows Bush lying (video).
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Why Bush's home town newspaper endorses Kerry

 

From the editors of The Lone Star Iconoclast of Crawford, TX (excerpts):

Few Americans would have voted for George W. Bush four years ago if he had promised that, as President, he would:
• Empty the Social Security trust fund by $507 billion to help offset fiscal irresponsibility and at the same time slash Social Security benefits.
• Cut Medicare by 17 percent and reduce veterans’ benefits and military pay.
• Eliminate overtime pay for millions of Americans and raise oil prices by 50 percent.
• Give tax cuts to businesses that sent American jobs overseas, and, in fact, by policy encourage their departure.
• Give away billions of tax dollars in government contracts without competitive bids.
• Involve this country in a deadly and highly questionable war, and
• Take a budget surplus and turn it into the worst deficit in the history of the United States, creating a debt in just four years that will take generations to repay.

These were elements of a hidden agenda that surfaced only after he took office.
The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda. Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry, based not only on the things that Bush has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says our country needs.

[big snip]

John Kerry has 30 years of experience looking out for the American people and can navigate our country back to prosperity and re-instill in America the dignity she so craves and deserves. He has served us well as a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and has had a successful career as a district attorney, lieutenant governor, and senator.
Kerry has a positive vision for America, plus the proven intelligence, good sense, and guts to make it happen. That’s why The Iconoclast urges Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country.

The Iconoclast wholeheartedly endorses John Kerry.
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September 28, 2004
 
"If anyone ever thought Saddam Hussein wasn't killing enough of his own people, rest assured the Americans have more than satisfactorily taken over that job." --- Left is Right
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Around for Everyone

 

"The Cat" speaks.

Good: Edward Kennedy speech. Better: George Soros speech.

Bush's own hometown (Crawford, TX) newspaper announces its endorsement for President.... KERRY!

Let the Fun and Games Begin!

Be wary of the Gallup Polls.

It's Time To Close Ranks, Says Dennis Kucinich.

Fired Bush Administration environmentalist/whistleblower gets day in court.

Top 10 Reasons for the US to Get Out of Iraq.

The Dunce: Former Harvard Business School professor recalls George W. Bush. (note: subscription req.)

Nothing to see, here. Move right along. We've got it under control.

How Evangelical Christians view Kerry's voting record.
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"You know, back in 2000 a Republican friend warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what: I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true."

--- James Carville, Democratic strategist and Clinton campaign manager
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September 27, 2004
 

Dan Gillmor, a Silicon Valley guru, begins a series of online articles comparing the economic and technology policies/stands of Bush And Kerry. Today Dan looks at globalization, the federal budget and competition.
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Around for Everyone

 

Revised EPA Dress Code Now Includes Ball Gags

Before-and-after USGS photos of Ivan's effects on Gulf Coast.

"Slow Rolling" - It hurts us all. (reg. required)
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Quote of the Year

 

"Absolutely."


----President Bush, replying when asked by Fox News if he still would have put on a flight suit to declare major combat operations in Iraq over.
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Irony for Everyone

 

Supersizing our kids.

vs.

100 Children Die Daily in Iraq

Would John Kerry allow such evil dichotomy to exist? I don't think so. You need to make sure that your Republican relatives and neighbors either stay home November 2 or vote for Kerry.
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Nothing Left to Rapture

 

Here's an excerpt of a post by Jack Kinsella, a "rapture expert". What's so funny is that now even the rapture proponents are starting to get so scared about the potential of world destruction resulting from Bush's policies, they fear that their rapture may never get a chance to pass.

....World peace or global annihilation.

The Bible doesn’t say when the Rapture will occur. It says we will know when it is near, even, at the door. And we know that Jesus said of the Tribulation Period which follows the Rapture, that the destruction and death will be so great that, if the days be not shortened, there should be no flesh saved.

Logical secular analysis suggests either an historically elusive and seemingly impossible world peace that will result in the destruction of these weapons, or the historically probable global war that will result in their deployment. And it is impossible to imagine that if we don’t achieve one, we are doomed to face the other, as certainly as our 1904 Nebraska farm boy.

Except that we live in a world where 19 guys with box cutters can destroy two 110 story buildings and kill 3000 people, all by themselves.

Now we return to the central question of the timing of the Rapture. I don’t know the day or the hour, but I know the odds that we will achieve world peace, keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists and avoid total war with the Islamic world in the next twenty years.

And, unless we do all that, if the Rapture hasn’t already happened, there will be nobody left to Rapture....

How hilarious is that, in a warped sense? There you have it, a "logical" argument to give to your fundagelical neighbor on why not to vote for Bush.
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Bush Family Helps Hitler. Big Deal.

 

Published on Saturday, September 25, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
How Bush's Grandfather Helped Hitler's Rise to Power
Rumors of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president.

by Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave laborers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy....

Guys, guys. This kind of stuff makes Kerry look like he's scraping the bottom of the political smear barrel. We've been rolling for a while now with effective stories about how George H.W. Bush helped with his son's "rise to power" with primo sissy-assignments in the Air National Guard, etc. Why can't we focus on that?
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September 26, 2004
 

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." ---John Adams
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September 24, 2004

Bless the Rich, Screw the Poor

 

So, what's new?

The administration and most of the mainstream press are billing the tax package passed by Congress yesterday as a "middle class tax-cut." The reality is that the new law is more of the same: tax cuts that benefit the rich and, in many cases, exclude the neediest families.

An analysis from the Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center shows that the middle 20 percent of earners "will receive an average tax cut of $162 in 2005 from this legislation." The top fifth of earners, however, "will get an average tax cut of $1,317." As a result, the top fifth will receive two-thirds of all benefits.

The bill excluded a provision that would have extended the child tax credit to four million low-income families who currently don't qualify. Extending eligibility to these families would have cost $4 billion.6 Meanwhile, conservatives included $12 billion in tax cuts for corporations.
Courtesy, Daily Mis-Lead
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Around for Everyone

 

This is what al Qaeda and bin Laden want.

Why Electronic Ballots Won't Work.

This guy is after another Nobel Peace Prize.

The long, painful demise of AT&T Wireless.

Here Comes Jeanne.

What if Bush Steals the Election (Again)?

Bullies at the Voting Booth.

LiberalOasis gives us Suggested Answers For Tough Questions About John Kerry.

Kevin Drum explains why we need a Plan E.

University of California gives finger to minority students.

2004 Election Summarized in One Cartoon.

Howard Dean opines about a national draft.

Mark Morford explains Kerry's conundrum.
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Hybrid Owners In California Can Use Carpool Lanes

 

Groperzenegger OKs hybrids using carpool lanes...

Sacramento --

Supporting hybrid drivers and upsetting car collectors, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed bills Thursday allowing some hybrid vehicles carrying one person to use freeway carpool lanes and requiring older autos to pass smog checks.

....Hybrids that will qualify must get 45 mpg, which currently is only the Prius or Honda Civic hybrid. Pavley said she set the standard high to encourage automakers like Ford, which is about to release a hybrid sport utility vehicle that gets well under 45 mpg, to increase their vehicles' efficiency.

Pavley's bill has some caveats. Hybrid drivers will have to buy a decal to use carpool lanes, and they won't be able to use some lanes that are classified as already congested by the state Department of Transportation....
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FRIDAY FUN

 

20 Questions (play against the computer)
All about the Ottomans
Balance (game)
Faces of Tomorrow
Godfather Horsehead Pillows
How to use PowerPoint to Break Up with Your Lover (note: you do need PowerPoint)
Not enough water to fill your pool? Try SYRUP
Photograpy by Jill Greenberg (click picture to start)
Ping Pong (game)
Slow Motion Video
The Ultimate Citrus Page
Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments
Your Life According to Me (site sometimes down)
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September 23, 2004

Did you know that....

 
CBS aired the wrong story?
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The Technology Debate

 

Michael J. Miller (of PC Magazine) compares Kerry's and Bush's Technology agendas. Not much to compare (you'll see why). Great read. Intro:

While technology policy isn't the most central issue of the current presidential campaign, government policy, rules, and regulations have had significant effects on the development and spread of many of the technologies we use. So I recently posed a series of technology questions to both major presidential candidates. The Kerry campaign responded directly, while the Bush campaign said it was unable to respond and directed me to the campaign Web site. Below are the answers from John Kerry and the responses I could find from the Georgewbush.com Web site....
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Holy Flint, Michigan!

 
Moore on Fire!
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New Math: War = Peace

 

Atrios cooks it just right:

Voting for the War

Let's consider Bush's recent rhetoric. His latest ad says "Kerry voted for the Iraq war." When he asked Congress for the resolution, when Andy Card rolled it out after Labor Day, Bush claimed it was a vote for peace:

you want to keep the peace, you've got to have the authorization to use force. But it's -- this will be -- this is a chance for Congress to indicate support. It's a chance for Congress to say, we support the administration's ability to keep the peace."

At the time he signed the resolution, he claimed it was a vote for peace.

"Our goal is not merely to limit Iraq's violations of Security Council resolutions, or to slow down its weapons program. Our goal is to fully and finally remove a real threat to world peace and to America. Hopefully this can be done peacefully."

And, even today, as the ad is running he says:

"Of course, I was hoping it could be done diplomatically. But diplomacy failed. And so the last resort of a president is to use force. And we did."

He claimed then it was a vote for peace. He told Congress it was a vote for peace. He then says that the vote for peace that he asked John Kerry to make was actually a vote for war. The previous March he'd said, "F*ck Saddam, we're taking him out." So, he told people it was a vote for peace even though he'd decided it was a vote for war. Maybe war is peace. Who the hell knows anymore.

Sure, we all knew in October what this vote was really for, and Kerry should have too. But, it wasn't what Bush said.
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What If....

 
If America were Iraq, What would it be Like? Juan Cole asks those questions we've been thinking.
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New Journal Debuts

 

A great, new journal debuted online today, The Economists' Voice. As the press release says:

The first issue of "The Economists' Voice," a new journal featuring analysis and opinion by leading economists about key national and international policy issues, is being launched today (Wednesday, Sept. 22) by two University of California, Berkeley, economists and Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate from Columbia University.In its premiere edition, the journal tackles such topics as the fair use of intellectual property, political party flip-flops on federal deficits, the mysteries of international capital flow, and evaluation of former U.S. President Clinton's claim that he put police on the streets and took guns off while President Bush has done the opposite. The full story is online at:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/09/22_16698.shtml

Check it out. There's even an article in it by Brad DeLong!
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Karmic Justice?

 

So Hurricane Jeanne is headed toward Florida (I swear, that state is a storm magnet!) and Son-of-Ivan is headed toward Texas, two states that have given U.S. democracy a black eye these past 4 years. Maybe there IS a god.
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Here's What The Iraq War Has Cost California

 

From National Priorities Project

The costs of war in California:
120 soldiers killed
752 soldiers wounded
$19.5 billion for what Congress has allocated so far
Another $6.4 billion more for each year the U.S. remains beyond 2004
7,453 Reservists and National Guard troops on active duty
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Flying Flu, Meet Walking Flu

 

Bush Administration should do something about this...

Warning on flu pandemic
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Thursday September 23, 2004 The Guardian

A new superstrain of the flu virus capable of triggering a global pandemic could emerge from east Asia, health officials have warned. Scientists working for the World Health Organisation fear that the arrival of the flu season in Asian countries could see the human flu virus merge with a lethal strain of bird flu that is already in circulation, producing a more deadly flu virus that could rapidly infect humans, leading to a global outbreak.

Recent cases of flu in Thailand have been reported in areas already struggling to control the spread of bird flu, a virus that mostly affects poultry, but has claimed the lives of at least four people in recent months. Health officials warn that people living in regions where the viruses are circulating could catch both at once, raising the prospect of a new and highly virulent form of human flu emerging.

"The reality is that if these two viruses meet, they will exchange genetic information and a new virus could emerge that's as pathogenic as the bird flu virus, but as infectious as human flu. It's a real scenario for the emergence of a pandemic," Klaus Stöhr, head of the WHO's influenza programme, told the Guardian....

We keep hearing warnings similar to this, year after year it seems. Should we take this one any more seriously?
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From Fred Langa:

30 Things Hurricanes Teach Us

1. An oak tree on the ground looks four times bigger than it did standing up.
2. Even after all these years it is still nice to spend time with Col. Mustard in the ballroom with the lead pipe.
3. When house hunting look for closets with lots of leg room.
4. Water from the shower is much colder than water from the kitchen sink--and tastes just as bad.
5. AA, C and D are the only alphabet we need ( batteries ).
6. The four-way stop is still an ingenious reflection of civility.
7. Radio can be the best way to watch television.
8. Chain-saw wielding men are nothing to be afraid of.
9. SUV's are the best makeshift tents on the market.
10. You can use your washing machine as a cooler.
11. It's your God given right to sit on your back porch and eat Chinese takeout by candlelight in your underwear.
12. We shouldn't complain about "useless" tools in the garage-- we actually DO need a generator.
13. You can' t spell "priceless" without I-C-E.
14. Downed power lines make excellent security systems.
15. Lakes can generate waves.
16. Gasoline is a value at any price.
17. Cell phones: Breaking up isn't hard to do.
18. The life blood of any disaster recovery is COFFEE.
19. The need for your dog to go out and take care of business is inversely proportional to the severity of the storm.
20. Candlelight is better than Botox--- it takes years off your appearance.
21. Air Conditioning: BEST. INVENTION. EVER.
22. Water is a comfort food. But 3-day-old Cheetos are too.
23. Shadow animals on the wall---still fun.
24. No matter how hard the wind blows, roadside campaign signs will survive.
25. You should never admit to having power at your house in the presence of co-workers or neighbors who do not.
26. There's a plus to having NOTHING in the refrigerator.
27. Getting through the day should be an Olympic event.
28. The movie theater can be a most pleasant place, even if the feature is Alien vs. Predator.
29. Somebody's got it worse.
30. Somebody's got it better. Obviously, they're getting preferential treatment.

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September 22, 2004
 

This is great (found on Rubber Hose, originally from Flickr):


Lines are hurricanes' paths, Red counties voted for Bush in 2000, blue for Gore.
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One Year Ago, Today

 

"Next year at about this time, I expect there will be a really thriving trade in the region, and we will see rapid economic development…And a year from now, I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush."

------Richard Perle, Top Bush Adviser - September 22, 2003
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September 21, 2004

Finally!

 
John Kerry's speech yesterday at NYU. This is what we need for the next six weeks!
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The Rapture Racket

 
This is a GREAT summary of the Rapture/Tribulation/Armageddon craze curently sweeping through America and the Republican Party.
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"Bush is al Qaeda's best recruiting sergeant."

---- Sir Ivor Roberts, Britain's ambassador to Italy
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September 20, 2004

How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to replace a lightbulb?

 

The Answer is TEN:

1. one to deny that a lightbulb needs to be changed,
2. one to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the lightbulb needs to be changed,
3. one to blame Clinton for burning out the lightbulb,
4. one to tell the nations of the world that they are either for
changing the lightbulb or for darkness,
5. one to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Haliburton for the new lightbulb,
6. one to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner "Lightbulb Change Accomplished",
7. one administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally "in the dark",
8. one to viciously smear #7,
9. one surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along,
10. and finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a lightbulb and screwing the country.
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Around for Everyone

 

Bush's Failed Policy Allowing Terrorists to Pour into Iraq

How well do you know Bush? (Comedy Central Quiz; I scored a 7... beat that!)
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Bush Ordered 9/11??

 

I'll often jump on good-sounding conspiracy theories, but this one sounds over-the-top (snippet):

....Our case is alleging that Bush and his puppets Rice and Cheney and Mueller and Rumsfeld and so forth, Tenet, were all involved not only in aiding and abetting and allowing 9/11 to happen but in actually ordering it
to happen. Bush personally ordered it to happen. We have some very incriminating documents as well as eye-witnesses, that Bush personally ordered this event to happen in order to gain political advantage, to pursue a bogus political agenda on behalf of the neocons and their deluded thinking in the Middle East. I also wanted to point out that, just quickly, I went to school with some of these neocons. At the University of Chicago, in the late 60s with Wolfowitz and Feith and several of the others and so I know these people personally. And we used to talk about this stuff all of the time. And I did my senior thesis on this very subject - how to turn the U.S. into a presidential dictatorship by manufacturing a bogus Pearl Harbor event. So, technically this has been in the planning at least 35 years....

Then why did Osama B.L. take credit for it? It's one thing to create grade-school quailty accusations, such as the one where Kerry shot himself in the foot in order to get a medal and be sent home from Vietnam. However, claiming Bush & Co. set up and executed 9/11 is a major league accusation that needs more amounts of backup documentation than has ever been accumulated, due to the severity of the charge. All I've seen so far is he-said she-said b.s. Where's the real evidence?
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Around for Everyone

 

Way to go, Captain Kirk!!!

There ARE WMD in Iraq

Deadlier Planet
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September 17, 2004

It would be bad enough just seeing Bush floating up naked

 

Bill Moyers connects the Rapture Index to the November election (snippet):

....How do we explain the possibility that a close election in November could turn on several million good and decent citizens who believe in the Rapture Index? That’s what I said – the Rapture Index; google it and you will understand why the best-selling books in America today are the twelve volumes of the left-behind series which have earned multi-millions of dollars for their co-authors who earlier this year completed a triumphant tour of the Bible Belt whose buckle holds in place George W. Bush’s armor of the Lord. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the l9th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative millions of people believe to be literally true.

According to this narrative, Jesus will return to earth only when certain conditions are met: when Israel has been established as a state; when Israel then occupies the rest of its “biblical lands;” when the third temple has been rebuilt on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques; and, then, when legions of the Antichrist attack Israel. This will trigger a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon during which all the Jews who have not converted will be burned. Then the Messiah returns to earth. The Rapture occurs once the big battle begins. True believers” will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts and frogs during the several years of tribulation which follow.

I’m not making this up. We’re reported on these people for our weekly broadcast on PBS, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you that they feel called to help bring the Rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That’s why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It’s why they have staged confrontations at the old temple site in Jerusalem. It’s why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the 9th chapter of the Book of Revelations where four angels “which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released “to slay the third part of men.’ As the British writer George Monbiot has pointed out, for these people the Middle East is not a foreign policy issue, it’s a biblical scenario, a matter of personal belief. A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed; if there’s a conflagration there, they come out winners on the far side of tribulation, inside the pearly gates, in celestial splendor, supping on ambrosia to the accompaniment of harps plucked by angels.

One estimate puts these people at about 15% of the electorate. Most are likely to vote Republican; they are part of the core of George W. Bush’s base support. He knows who they are and what they want. When the President asked Ariel Sharon to pull his tanks out of Jenin in 2002, over one hundred thousand angry Christian fundamentalists barraged the White House with emails and Mr. Bush never mentioned the matter again. Not coincidentally, the administration recently put itself solidly behind Ariel Sharon’s expansions of settlements on the West Banks. In George Monbiot’s analysis, the President stands to lose fewer votes by encouraging Israeli expansion into the West Bank than he stands to lose by restraining it. “He would be mad to listen to these people, but he would also be mad not to.” No wonder Karl Rove walks around the West Wing whistling “Onward Christian Soldiers.” He knows how many votes he is likely to get from these pious folk who believe that the Rapture Index now stands at 144 --- just one point below the critical threshold at which point the prophecy is fulfilled, the whole thing blows, the sky is filled with floating naked bodies, and the true believers wind up at the right hand of God. With no regret for those left behind. (See George Monbiot. The Guardian, April 20th, 2004.)

I know, I know: You think I am bonkers. You think Ann Coulter is right to aim her bony knee at my groin and that O’Reilly should get a Peabody for barfing all over me for saying there’s more to American politics than meets the Foxy eye. But this is just the point: Journalists who try to tell these stories, connect these dots, and examine these links are demeaned, disparaged, and dismissed. This is the very kind of story that illustrates the challenge journalists face in a world driven by ideologies that are stoutly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. Ideologues – religious, political, or editorial ideologues – embrace a world view that cannot be changed because they admit no evidence to the contrary. And Don Quixote on Rocinante tilting at windmills had an easier time of it than a journalist on a laptop tilting with facts at the world’s fundamentalist belief systems....

This isn't the least bit funny. These religious zealots may very well end life as we know it. They have the resources and the blind desire to pull it off. The only people who can stop them are US. No one is going to do it for us. So get off your keister, get Kerry into office and then really start working on this, because it's going to take a whole lot more time and energy to subdue these people, as Dr. Robert Adele points out:

....There are many perils to our democracy today, many of them coming from within it: paperless voting machines, invasion of countries without pretext, and single-minded ideologies posing as monolithic truth, with the supporters galvanized around the notion that no truth exists apart from theirs, and who will go to any length to force that putative truth through the political process. Eternal vigilance against their eternal hostility is the responsibility of all who truly respect the democratic process. Such is the case with the "Christian nation" hypothesis: it does not stand against the weight of history or reason, and must be rejected by all who can think critically.
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Today's succinctly-worded Talking Points bear repeating:

With the number of casualties and wounded in Iraq rising daily, and entire cities destabilized by insurgent forces, President Bush's chest-thumping message of progress appears increasingly out of touch and counterproductive. Although the president's own intelligence officials have warned him for months that Iraq was dangerously unstable, his administration has sugarcoated the sobering reality and failed to make necessary changes to win the war.

The president's own intelligence estimates conclude that Iraq will remain dangerously unstable through 2005. The 50-page National Intelligence Estimate – ignored by President Bush – provides a “dark assessment” and concludes that Iraq is headed toward major political, economic and security difficulties in the coming months, including possible civil war.

Efforts to rebuild Iraq's economy and create democratic institutions cannot move forward while insurgents run free. The president claims Iraq is on the path to democracy, but months before scheduled national elections, major portions of the country remain under attack as the nationalist insurgency continues to grow. Reconstruction has failed to move forward and the United Nations remains unable to fully assist in planning for the January elections.

President Bush's grandstanding on Iraq does not help the situation. Putting his own reelection needs ahead of the welfare of American troops and the Iraqi people, the president continues to deny that serious problems exist in his strategy and refuses to make necessary changes to win the war and build peace in Iraq.

So many of us were screaming, before March 19th, 2003, that all this would happen if Bush was given the power. Saying "I told you so" is only selfish, arrogant and self-serving. But, jesus christ, I TOLD YOU SO! (That didn't help at all... I feel just as bad.)
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Around for Everyone

 

Bush Administration has failed to complete more than 70 percent of its own regulatory agenda

Groperzenegger redefines "The Special Interest Governor"

Women: The Heritage Foundation (AKA the Neocon Movement) sez: Wear a Dress to your Job Interview!

Your Marriage is Under Attack! (Apparently.) Save it HERE.
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FRIDAY FUN

 

3-Foot Ninja (game)
Alice in Physics (learn physics)
Ants in you Pants (video)
Celebrity Bad-Hair Days
ColorCell (interactive)
Feeling Cramped in Your Hummer?
High School Senior Photos
Keyboard for Pirates (Rrrrrrrr!)
Magic 8-Ball
My next boat and plane
Yeti Pentathlon (game)
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September 16, 2004

"Suspected" nuclear industrial site in Iran

 

Call me crazy for saying THIS, but then go look at THIS. Are you all going to let this happen again? For shame!
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Let's Ice the Sport

 
Frankly, I could care less if the NHL goes on strike and the season is lost. I don't mean to offend ice hockey fans, but throughout my life every time I sat down to watch a game and try to learn it, there would eventually be players hitting and fighting and rough play that had nothing to do with the actual game. Ice hockey is a primitive, uncivilized game, much like boxing, that is attractive only to our basic, violent nature which is genetically inbred in each of us. Violence is no longer acceptable in our culture, thus all the thousands of laws created to repress it. Why on earth it is acceptable in an ice rink is beyond me.

Football is rapidly becoming excessively violent in my lifetime and I no longer enjoy watching it (like I once did) because of that; however at its current point of evolution I don't think it's time yet to outlaw the sport. Baseball is great for insomniacs, so go yankees! About the only sport I now enjoy watching for the competition and excitement is basketball. There's less violence in an NBA game than during recess on the school playground.
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A quote for today

 

"...this court has never, in its 24 years, reviewed a record of agency action that contained such a compelling portrait of political meddling."

---San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who last month overturned an earlier Commerce Department finding that dolphins were not harmed by Mexican tuna boats
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Around for Everyone

 

Moderate Republican Senators Getting Antsy With Bush's Iraq Policies

Kerry falling further behind in electoral college projections

Assault weapons: The arguments

It's Official: Iraq Invasion is Illegal (video)

Bush administration trying to block report on impact of global warming on the people of the Arctic

And the 2004 Voter Disenfranchisement Games Begin

Cheney's illegal business with terrorist nations
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Shame!

 

Your elected government, hard at work for you and your family:

Democrats Lose Bid for Energy Task Force Info
Wed Sep 15, 2004 06:00 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans on a House committee squelched a Democratic attempt on Wednesday to seek information on Vice President Cheney's energy task force, in a rowdy session punctuated by cries of "Shame!" from Democrats.
On a party line vote of 30-22, the panel voted down the Democratic motion for the committee to ask the White House for the names of members and other information about the 2001 task force that formulated energy policy. Republicans, including chairman Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, noted Democrats had failed to get the information in various court cases, and charged they were now trying to embarrass the Bush administration ahead of elections with a motion they knew had no hope of approval by a Republican-majority committee. "I am not going to allow the Energy and Commerce Committee to become a political circus," Barton declared. But he had some trouble keeping order after he announced he would not allow any debate on the subject.

"Shame on you, Mr. Chairman," shouted Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat. Committee Republicans booed her, and some in the audience applauded, while Barton observed in his Texas drawl: "The lady is entitled to her opinion." Another Democrat, Rep. Henry Waxman of California, walked out of the room in disgust, announcing that lawmakers were acting like teenagers.

The unsuccessful "resolution of inquiry" was the latest effort by Democrats to pry loose information about the energy task force Cheney headed three years ago, which endorsed more oil and gas drilling and a revived nuclear energy program. Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas summed up for the Republican majority: "Politics, politics, politics."

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Here in America we have a government that is elected by the people who hope that their elected officials will actually represent their needs and interests. Oops!
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September 15, 2004

Around for Everyone

 

Bush and Groperzenegger Apparently Not After Teachers' Votes

Infrared Image Loop of Ivan's Approach of Gulf Coast
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America the Great

 

I heard on the news today that as may as 50,000 New Orleans residents could possibly drown if Hurricane Ivan continues its current course, due to insufficient evacuation procedures. The Cuban government was able to evacuate, in an orderly and safe manner, 1.9 million out of Ivan's path. Normally U.S. National Guard troops are used for domestic emergencies such as that posed by Ivan. Unfortunately most of them are on the other side of the planet, busily slaughtering innocent Iraqi civilians. Get ready for those incessant requests for your money from the Louisiana chapter of the Red Cross, because all our government's spare change is over in Iraq lining the pockets of Halliburton et al.

Is this a great country or what?!
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The Left Coaster summarizes Bush's failings in Iraq:

  • Using lies to get us into Iraq.
  • Undercutting the number of troops needed so Rummy can prove Americans can have an empire on the cheap. (After all, you have to have troops available to invade Syria, Iran, North Korea, etc.)
  • Providing no post-invasion plan for stabilizing country.
  • Allowing riots to rampage city, except for the Oil Ministry. The worst aspect was allowing the robbery of the Baghdad Museum.
  • Using Saddam's Palace for the US Occupation Headquarters.
  • Installing Paul Bremer, true believer of the miracle of the market whose first act was to disband the Iraqi military.
    Giving no-bid contracts to Halliburton, etc. It wouldn't be so bad if they actually delivered what they promised for a reasonable price.
  • Gloating Mission Accomplished long before there was any such accomplishment.
  • Using nepotism and ideology to pick ineffective and unqualified people to run the CPA (or as the Iraqis called it: the Cannot Provide Anything" gang).
  • Ordering the Marines to teach Falluja a lesson.
  • Presiding over the worst foreign policy scandal in US history with release of Abu Ghraib photos. (Seymour Hersh points out that the senior leadership - at least Rumsfeld and Rice - knew of this scandal in January and didn't do anything to change the policies that led to this catastrophy.)
  • Accelerating handover of "sovereignty" to Iraq so that he could blame problems in Iraq on the Iraqis in charge.
  • Criminalizing Sadr and his followers.
  • Abandoning significant portions of Iraq for political reasons. After all, if Iraq doesn't blow up before the election, then perhaps Bush will be around to make more incompetent and destructive decisions.
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Around for Everyone

 

Bush in Early Stages of Alzheimer's Disease?

Kerry Campaign Hires Person Fired for Sporting Kerry Bumper Sticker

Mark Morford Says We Need Four More Years of Bush

Iraqi Invasion/Occupation Driving U.S. Soldiers Crazy - Literally

Bush Leaps Ahead of Kerry in Electoral Vote Projections

Live near a high power line? Move!
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I think that at this point most Democrats don't even care what Kerry says. All they want him to do is act like Dean by raising his voice a few decibles and sound and look like he cares about what he's saying. Is he waiting for us to beg him? Fine. Senator Kerry, PLEASE, PLEASE START YELLING LIKE THE REST OF US!
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It's time to pack our bags and leave.

 

As Kos sums up:

Body armor is the only thing keeping Iraq from producing Vietnam-type KIA figures. As Newsweek noted, this is Phase II of the insurgency. Phase I, recruitment, is finished. Now the insurgents are out for blood (to the tune of over 70 attacks every day). We've lost this war. We've literally lost entire swaths of Iraqi territory to the insurgents. We've empowered Al Qaida and Islamist militants with new recruits and pictures of prison torture and rape to fuel their cause. We''ve stretched our military thin, hurt recruitment, made it impossible to respond to actual threats. In short, this is the biggest political and military blunder this country has faced since -- I'll let the historians decide when. But as things are going, this is going to have worse repercussions for our nation than Vietnam ever did.

Even worse are the 100+ Iraqi civilians getting slaughtered each day. This is madness instigated by an American government led by Christian fundamental extremists who place no value on human life other than their own or those who give them money. How on earth can any voter even consider placing a mark next to any of their names on the ballot in November? What kind of warped perception of the world has much of America formed during the past 4 years? If your child blatantly lies to you about the need to do something, then does something terrible and then lies about the reason he/she did it, do you say to that child: "It's okay, I understand; and if you lie to me again, I'll understand and I'll support whatever you think you need to do in the future"? Apparently 47% of all parents do. We are all responsible for what's happening. We are all at fault, because of our laziness and pathetic humanitarianism, for allowing so many of us to gain such a warped perception. You are, I am, and every other reader is responsible for each and every civilian death in Iraq today and we must stop it now, because those unelected White House residents are not going to lift a finger. Get off your ass, let people know what's wrong, join your local Democratic club, write e-mails to your congressperson, write to your paper's op-ed, send money to Move-On and Kerry, put a friggin Kerry/Edwards sticker in your car window, listen to Democracy Now! and then ask others if they listened... If doing any of that means you no longer have time to visit Left is Right, then FINE! Just do something, you lazy-ass Democrat!
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September 14, 2004
 

FactCheck.org does a piece on Kerry's criticism of Bush for "letting the assault weapons ban expire":

A new Moveon PAC ad implies machine-guns are becoming legal, which isn't true. And it blames Bush, even though Bush said he would have extended the ban on assault weapons.

September 14, 2004
Modified: September 14, 2004
Summary

This latest ad from Moveon PAC is about as misleading as it can be. Through words, graphics and sound effects, it invites viewers to think that the expiration of the ban on 19 semiautomatic assault weapons will allow people legally to buy fully automatic machine guns that can fire "up to 300 rounds per minute." That's false.

It has been illegal to buy a machine gun without federal clearance since 1934, and remains so. The ad also claims that Bush "will let the assault weapon ban expire," which is misleading. In fact, Bush spoke in support of the ban during his campaign four years ago and his spokesman said as recently as May of last year that he still supported it. It was Congress that failed to consider extending the ban and didn't present Bush with a bill to sign.

Technically, FactCheck is completely correct. The Move-On ad is misleading and Bush didn't actively cause the ban to expire. You can't argue with FactCheck.

However Bush did inactively allow the ban to expire, in the best interests of the NRA, not in the best interests of the people for whom he works (American citizens). Bush swore in 2001 to protect the citizens of the United States. The Presidency is an active job, not a job where one sits around letting things happen. In this case Bush let things happen. A role of goverment is to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and Bush totally failed the test on this issue. He should be raked over the coals for allowing the expiration of a ban that had saved hundreds if not thousands of lives during the ten years it was in effect. Bush once again proves that he has no respect for any of our lives, unless of course our living involves sending money to the GOP. Since the day Bush took office I have yet to see him do one humane thing, one that did not involve a photo-op. Bush has become the most dispassionate President in the history of the United States and will no doubt be remembered throughout eternity for his blatant and extremely consequential prevarication and hypocracy.
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Around for Everyone

 

California Due to Heat Up

Iraq Gets To Play With 3,500 Tons of Depleted Uranium For Next 4.5 Billion Years

Lead Poisoning: a Much Greater Danger to Children's Health than Previously Realised

Bush blog vs. Kerry blog
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Fixing AFA's agenda

 

I received this note from the AFA and took the liberty of doing a small amount of, ahem, [editing] to "correct" its errors:

CREST, TIDE MAKER GIVES MONEY, CLOUT TO REPEAL LAW FORBIDDING SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR HOMOSEXUALS
P&G policy leads to support for homosexual marriage
Dear Mike,
Procter & Gamble, makers of Crest toothpaste and Tide detergent, has publicly thrown their support and money behind the homosexual political agenda.

P&G recently wrote to their Cincinnati employees urging them to support the repeal of a city law that forbids giving special rights to homosexuals. In 1993, the citizens in Cincinnati adopted the law by a vote of 62% to 38%. P&G is now working to get that law repealed and has given $10,000 toward that goal.

To our knowledge, Procter & Gamble is the first company to support the political agenda of the homosexual movement. While not explicitly saying so in their public announcement supporting the repeal, P&G clearly showed their support for homosexual marriage. P&G said they "will not tolerate discrimination [against homosexuals] in any form, against anyone, for any reason." To keep homosexuals from being legally married is discrimination, which P&G says they will not tolerate. Taking them at their word, P&G supports homosexual marriage.

Take Action
[snip]
Call Chrm. A.G. Lafley at 513-983-1100 and politely let him know that you are [appreciative of his political stand] and will ask others to do the same.
[snip]
Please forward this email to your friends and family.

Sincerely, Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman, American Family Association

Okay, first and most important, Mr. Wildmon needs to improve his grammar: "...has publicly thrown their support..."? I mean, the local elemantary school's Spec. Ed. class can do better than that, NCLB and all. Seriously, notice how AFA spins P&G's stated support of not tolerating "discrimination in any form, against anyone, for any reason" into support of homosexual marriage; that's soooo Republican. Anyway, please do notify Chairman Lafley and praise him for his maverick stand. HE is a real patriot.
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September 13, 2004

Rapture-Ready? Almost...

 

Afghanistan, check. Iraq, check. Iran:

Iran rejects EU call to abandon uranium project
Ian Traynor - Monday September 13, 2004 - The Guardian

Iran yesterday flatly rejected demands to abandon its uranium enrichment programme, as a leading hawk in the Bush administration warned that America would act to prevent Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons. The escalation came as France, Germany and Britain joined forces with Washington for the first time to demand a halt to Iran's fuel enrichment work, signalling possible sanctions unless the Islamic republic pledges to abandon the activity by November.

On the eve of an important board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, starting in Vienna today, Britain, France, and Germany have drafted a board resolution on Iran demanding concrete action and answers by November. The draft resolution also asks the IAEA to deliver a final verdict on Iran's nuclear programme. The draft threatens "probable further steps", which means referring the country to the UN security council for reprimand and penalties if Tehran fails to persuade the IAEA that it is not working on a covert nuclear weapons programme. Iran responded by rejecting the key demand contained in the European draft - that its ambitious uranium enrichment programme be ditched. The Washington hawk dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue, meanwhile, said the US would act, if need be, to stop Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons.

John Bolton, the Republican "neo-con" who is in charge of nuclear counter-proliferation at the US state department, told journalists in Jerusalem: "We are determined that they [Iran] are not going to achieve a nuclear weapons capability". Last Friday in Geneva, Mr Bolton helped to draft the EU troika's resolution, which sees a narrowing of transatlantic differences over how to deal with Iran...

Sound familiar? Mark my words, this is the start of another gear-up by Bush for invasion. The Neocons will stop at nothing in their attempts to further destabilize the Middle East in order to fulfill the prophesies of the Rapture. If you still have not figured out that the primary (or rather, only) driving force behind the Neocons and the religious ultra-right agenda is personal salvation at any cost, then you are truly not in touch with reality. Corporate America is tagging along only for the financial ride. We all have known for decades now that the Iran-Saudi Arabia-Israel region is the focal point of destabilization in the world. Hell, we learned that in high school.

The Neocons purposely bungled Iraq in order to start the process. Actually, I would say it started in Afghanistan, where the U.S. forces had Osama & Co. cornered and then "mysteriously" let them get away, fueling a rapid rise in their power and influence. Since then Bush has done everything he can to appear concerned about our heroin source's situation, while simultaneously diverting to Iraq the products necessary to finish off Osama's organization. How clever. Elections in Afghanistan? How stupid are we Americans, believing our current White House squatters when they tell us that democracy will take hold in such a religiously extremist nation, when we can't even hold fair elections here, after nearly 230 years of practice?

Bush purposely invaded and occupied Iraq with no (serious) post-combat plan in order to not only destabilize that nation but encourage terrorist-inspired unrest to bleed into Saudi Arabia and Iran. Before 3/20/03 Iran was steadily on course to a stable and increasingly progressive society. Following the Iraq invasion Iran has been slipping back into the control of the extremist and militant religious clerics, perfect fodder for Neocon "rage". Saudi Arabia? About two steps away from civil war.

The Neocons need the political and financial support of coprporate America in order to fulfill their agenda. As long as the White House continues to give tax breaks to the wealthy, relaxes environmental regulations on big business and stomps on American workers (increased tax burden, decreased real wages, regressive health care, deteriorating education), they will receive all the reciprocal support they could possibly need.

Global warming? Who gives a damn! We'll all be in heaven (fundagelicals) or hell (the rest of us) before it really matters. The rapture is scheduled to start in roughly 6-8 years. Bush's timeline is perfect so far. We've got one crazy, alcoholic, completely-out-of-touch-with-reality religious fanatic with more power over our destiny than any other individual at any time in our planet's history.

So I say keep one if not both eyes on Iran over the next several months and see how the current Neocon demand for cessation of Iran's nuclear weapons programs evolves into a military intervention almost guaranteed to bring an end to the current world order. And go ahead and take that once-in-a-lifetime vacation of which you've been dreaming for years. It's probably your last chance.

ddjangoWIrE has a poll (right sidebar) about the chances of an invasion of Iran. Check it out.
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Kerry, speaking to Time Magazine:

"America is not as safe as we ought to be after 9/11. We can do a better job at homeland security. I can fight a more effective war on terror. The standard of living for the average American has gone down. People's incomes have dropped. Five million Americans have lost their health insurance. The deficit is the largest it's been in the history of this country. They're taking money from Social Security and transferring it to the wealthiest people in America to drive us into debt. They're shredding alliances around the world with people we have traditionally been able to rely on. That's what bothers me."

"...not as safe as we ought to be..." "...standard of living...has gone down..." "...the largest it's been in the history of this country" "That's what bothers me." These are not fighting words. I don't feel the slightest bit of urgency in his message. Everyone is losing everything in Iraq, starvation and genocide run rampant on the African continent, the earth's atmosphere and oceans are heating up, Bush is ramping up an invasion of Iran as we speak, and this country's economy is slowly but surely sliding into a 1930's redux. Will someone please light a fire under the junior senator's pants?!
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Around for Everyone

 

Did the RNC lease Pier 57 to the NYPD? (holy m.o.g. if they did!)

Malise Ruthven warns that George Bush’s undiscriminating war on terror only serves to win new recruits for osama bin laden

Explaining Bush's post-9/11 swagger
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And Now... A View From the Right

 

From that wacky yet lovable Jack Kinsella:

...When a Syrian student reads in the New York Times that the White House invaded Iraq to steal its oil, why should that student believe America's REAL objective is to bring democracy and freedom? To someone raised in a totalitarian society, invading to steal makes perfect sense. Invading in order to help does not. What's in it for America? So, having read in the New York Times that America is stealing Arab oil, why would he believe America when it denies it? By definition, a thief is also a liar. Especially since the New York Times came right out and told him the President was a liar who concocted an excuse to invade Iraq to steal oil in the first place!

In the Bible's Big Picture scenario for the last days, there are four spheres of world power; Gog-Magog, the Kings of the East, the Kings of the South and the antichrist's revived Roman Empire. But there is no mention of a fifth, overarching superpower resembling the United States of America. Nobody can dogmatically say what happened to remove the US from the Big Picture -- it simply isn't there. One possible reason might be the Rapture of the Church. In this view, the Lord returns for His Church. The instantaneous disappearance of millions of Americans, together with most of the Bush Cabinet, the military leadership and at least part of the House and Senate would cripple America beyond recognition. Therefore, America is absent from Scripture because the Rapture made her inconsequential. Personally, this is my favorite explanation, but only because I prefer it, not because I have any Scriptural reason to believe it.

Quoting once more from Senator Miller's speech: "Now, while young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander in Chief." It is just as possible that America hands its future over to the liberals who bear the responsibility for its international reputation as a dishonest, thieving, immoral paper tiger that so much of world now believes deserves to be destroyed.

I'd love to be able to write colorful and entertaining crap like that. Unfortunately, I have a conscience.

UPDATE: You know, when you think about it, the part about "The instantaneous disappearance of millions of Americans, together with most of the Bush Cabinet, the military leadership and at least part of the House and Senate...", folks, I think we just solved our problem! Those who will instantly disappear are exactly those we wish WOULD disappear! Therefore, I say: THE RAPTURE? BRING IT ON!!!
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Tom Maertens: Are we safer now?

 

If U.S. policy persists, so will the danger (excerpt):

...The current administration has exacerbated Arab hostility. It has abandoned our traditional evenhanded role as the honest broker in the Middle East peace process and -- for the first time in U.S. history -- endorsed Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

Previous administrations, including George H.W. Bush's, called the settlements "an obstacle to peace" and even deducted Israel's expenditures on West Bank settlements from the U.S. yearly aid payments.

Why would George W. Bush change our policy? The Guardian of London reports that almost one-third of Bush's electoral base favors war in the Middle East. This group of apocalyptic Christians reportedly believes that Israel must occupy all its "historic Biblical lands" as a precondition for the final struggle against the legions of the Antichrist in Armageddon. This in turn will bring on the end of days and the "rapture." Although this concept doesn't exist in the Bible, Attorney General John Ashcroft and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay are said to be among the believers.

To Arabs, the invasion of Iraq is another example of the United States defending Israel's interests. They know that the so-called neoconservatives had long advocated overthrowing Saddam Hussein in order to establish U.S. military bases in Iraq, ensure access to oil and improve Israel's strategic position. The same neocons devised the theory of preemptive war, giving us a permanent rationale to invade any country we choose....

Note: 1-time reg required; or use dailykos/dailykos to log in.
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September 12, 2004

Around for Everyone

 

Is this year's devastating hurricane season linked to global warming?

El Niño is back

Bush Administration's cover-up of 9/11 toxic pollution will kill more than actual attack.

China's countryside peasants victims of deadly pollution from expanding industrial base. (1-time reg. required)

Who Profits? (video) and Down the Drain
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John on John and George

 

John Chuckman doesn't think John Kerry is the answer (snippet):

....It is beyond rational explanation why the Democrats have wasted tens of millions running dobbin against an opponent whose sole merit was his determination to finish a story about goats after planes struck the World Trade Center. Except for that single shining moment of holding a steady course, Bush is an opponent who possesses every shortcoming and vulnerability it is possible to imagine - an inarticulate dope who has spent four years running the United States into the ground and reviving anti-Americanism throughout the world. Can anyone now have the slightest doubt about the overwhelming prevalence of insanity in the country?

There is really only one way I can see of injecting some excitement and interest, not to mention purpose, into the election, short of Bush's miraculously, peacefully passing to his reward, succumbing finally to the cumulative effects of all those years abusing drugs and every human being who crossed his path with less family money than he had. My proposal is for Kerry to step down as the Democrats' candidate. Here is a chance for Kerry to display some genuine heroism.

It would be a desperate step, but considering the fact that Kerry has no chance of being elected, it would at least provide a statement of principle, something Kerry, to date, has not managed to utter. The Democrats would be left in the lurch, but maybe, just maybe, they could quickly name someone with some purpose and principles to carry on, although it is easy to forget there seem to be remarkably few of those left in America. The worst that could happen is what is now virtually set to happen, Bush, the boy psychopath who relished watching frogs being ripped apart, being returned to office for four more years of watching people being ripped apart.

Yeah, well, Chuckie, it's a bit late to start looking for someone else, plus you don't really say why Kerry has no chance. But I like your Bush descriptions...
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September 10, 2004
 
Regarding Cheney's recent campaign remark:

“It’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we’ll get hit again and we’ll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States.”

In actuality, Cheney could be right. He does not refer specifically to Kerry. In fact, if Bush is reelected, this could very well happen. Thus one could correctly interpret this remark to mean that voting for Bush, such that he wins the election, could result in a terrortist attack.
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I came across this today. I don't know the source and I don't know how accurate it is, but if someone told me it was true, I wouldn't doubt them.

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is? It's the 535 members of the United States Congress.
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A LOOK AT THOSE WHO DIED (interactive; registration required)

Look at some of those faces and then tell me that you're voting for Bush.
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FRIDAY FUN

 

Humorous Road Signs
Jet Man
Mars Rover - The Music Video
Ninja Massage Therapist (video)
Tall Buildings (interactive)
Top SF Films of All Time?
University of Nigeria
View From Above (photos)
Vintage Postcards
World's Finest: Trailer Without a Movie (video - takes a while to load)
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September 9, 2004

Yin Yang

 

Two facts bear repeating up to election day:

  • The winner won't be determined by the number of votes cast. The winner will be determined by how the votes are counted. With rampant Democratic voter disenfranchisement, and electronic voting software skewed toward Republican control, a Bush victory clearly is favored.
  • It's not the national polls (that currently show Bush leading) that are indicative of voters' intentions. It's the state polls that count, and they clearly show Kerry winning by a comfortable margin in the electoral college.
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Available today at: "Go Cheney Yourself" Campaign Products.
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Eric Alterman on why so much of the world despises the U.S. because of the special treatment given by the Bush Administration to Israel:

Think of it:

The American people were purposely misled and are paying for it dearly, in both blood and treasure; The war was planned by neoconservatives, many of whom worked directly with their counterparts in the Israeli government, who helped perpetrate the deception; The war did improve the security of Israel, but not that of the United States. No other country’s population thought it was a good idea, including Britain, save that of Israel. Some of the very people who helped perpetrate the deception, most notably Richard Perle and R. James Woolsey, have used the opportunity to make millions for themselves in the process. Pentagon neocons were spying for Israel and using the Israel lobby as a conduit. (How perfectly paradigmatic is that?)

It seems to me all of the above constitutes a gift of enormous generosity to those who seek to blame Jews for divided loyalty, dishonesty, and duplicity in the service of their own financial interests. Of course, those of us who point this out, just as the people who recognize the fact that Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians endangers Jews all over the world-- will somehow be tarred as anti-Semites or “self-hating Jews” rather than those who, like the Neocons, have themselves poured gasoline on the fires of anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred the world over.

On this issue of Israeli endangerment of Diaspora Jews, as well as the cost to America of its perceived unwillingness to reign in Israel’s behavior—made worse recently by the Bush administration’s reversal of policy and, alone among civilized nations, endorsement of the expansion of the West Bank occupation- see this report in The Forward on the Jewish Agency's newly created policy-planning institute, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, chaired by the former U.S. Middle East special envoy Dennis Ross.

Add that to yet another spy scandal in which it appears that the Israel lobby is directly implicated and have the entire package, sealed with a blue and white ribbon in the shape of a star of David, delivered directly to the anti-Semites, bought and paid for by Neocon arrogance, incompetence, and perhaps we shall also see, disloyalty....

Neocons and Jews... strange bedfellows.
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A Caesar

 

"I think he was the worst skunk that ever invaded the White House, to be honest with you. I think he was pure evil. The man was like a Caesar of ancient years. A Caesar, the man was a Caesar. He seized America, and almost destroyed the country -- weakened us, degenerated us, and made us open to this attack by Al Qaeda because they figured we were all like him."

Quote from a far-left screaming liberal pundit about George Bush? Nope. This was by Michael Savage talking two days ago about Bill Clinton following his quadruple bypass surgery.
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Kerry's Landslide

 

Global poll shows a Kerry landslide
Thomas Crampton/IHT Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Poll finds him preferred around world

PARIS If the world could cast a vote in the United States presidential election, John Kerry would beat George W. Bush by a landslide, according to a poll released on Wednesday that is described as the largest sample of global opinion on the race.
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"It is absolutely clear that John Kerry would win handily if the people of the world could vote," said Steve Kull, director of The Program on International Policy Attitudes of the University of Maryland, a co-sponsor of the survey. "It is rather striking that just one in five people surveyed around the world support the re-election of President Bush."
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The poll of 34,330 people older than 15 from all regions of the world found that the majority or plurality of people from 32 countries prefer Kerry to Bush.
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Asia was the region showing the most mixed results, although Kerry still did better than Bush. Kerry won clear majorities in China, Indonesia and Japan, but slipped past Bush by only a slight margin in Thailand and India.
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The most negative attitude toward the U.S. came from France, Germany and Mexico, where roughly 80 percent of those surveyed thought that the foreign policies of President Bush had made them feel worse about the United States.
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In addition to presidential preferences, the poll also inquired about people's views on U.S. foreign policy.
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"We found an unusually low level of support for U.S. foreign policy," Kull said. "This runs in line with trends from recent attitude surveys by the Pew Research Center and may have implications when the U.S. wants to move forward on issues with its closest allies."
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The polling in a total of 35 countries was conducted by The Program on International Policy Attitudes and the polling company GlobeScan Incorporated during a period ranging from several days to several weeks, starting in mid-May and running through early September.
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Most traditional U.S. allies came out strongly favoring Kerry, while only those polled in Nigeria, Poland and the Philippines preferred Bush.
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"Even where the president does beat John Kerry, there is no enthusiasm apparent from the numbers," Kull said. "Those countries that support him for re-election also tend not to like his foreign policy."
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The only country where Bush received support from more than half of those polled was the Philippines, where 57 percent supported his election, compared with 32 percent who supported Kerry. About one third of those polled in Nigeria and Poland gave their support to Bush, while support for Kerry ran at a margin of about five percentage points lower.
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Norway and Germany tied - at 74 percent - as the countries where those polled most strongly support Kerry. Canadians preferred Kerry by a ratio of 61 percent to 16 percent for Bush.
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...Another pattern that became apparent in studying the data was that those people with higher education and more income were more strongly in favor of Kerry, Kull said.
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"Those at the top of world society are more negative towards Bush than those at the bottom," Kull said. "The most likely common link is that those who have the most access to information tend be more negative towards Bush than those with less access to information." Overall, only 20 percent of those surveyed supported Bush for a second term, while just under half support Kerry and one third did not express a preference.
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"Keep in mind that most people probably know very little about John Kerry," Kull said. "In that way, you can really count the one third who do not support either candidate as holding back their support from Bush." Of the one third responding to the poll who expressed no preference between the candidates, roughly half said that it would make no difference who was elected.
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Polling among some traditional U.S. allies found strongly negative attitudes toward Bush.
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In Germany, France, Norway, Italy and the Netherlands, the portion polled as supporting Bush amounted to 14 percent or lower, while more than half in each country supported Kerry.
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In Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair has been the foreign leader most closely allied to U.S. policy in Iraq, those polled preferred Kerry by a margin of 30 percentage points. Of the 1,001 Britons polled by telephone across the country, 47 percent preferred Kerry, while 16 percent preferred Bush.
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Among the 12 countries that took part in the war in Iraq as what Bush has termed the "coalition of the willing," only in the Philippines did the majority of those polled prefer Bush. More than half of those polled in seven "coalition of the willing" countries said that U.S. foreign policy was worse under Bush.
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The only country in Europe that supported Bush was Poland, where he was preferred by 31 percent, compared with 26 percent for Kerry. But 41 percent of those polled in Poland said that the foreign policy led by Bush had made them feel worse about the United States.
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In the Czech Republic, a new ally and member of the Iraq coalition, 42 percent supported Kerry while 18 percent supported Bush.
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All 11 Latin American countries polled supported Kerry. While Kerry received support from a bit more than 50 percent of those polled in two countries in the region - Brazil and the Dominican Republic - the spread was wider in other countries. In Venezuela, for example, Kerry received support from 48 percent of those polled while Bush received 22 percent.
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International Herald Tribune

So if Kerry wins, our standing in the world will instantly and significantly improve. One more reason to vote for Kerry-Edwards.
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From the Sept. 2004 Hubert Humphrey Democratic Club Newsletter:

Don’t Mess with Johnny!

A teacher in a small Texas town asks her class how many of them are George Bush fans. Not really knowing what a George Bush fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raise their hands except one boy.

The teacher asks Johnny why he has decided to be different. Johnny says, "I'm not a George Bush fan."

The teacher says, "Why aren't you a George Bush fan?"

Johnny says, "I'm a John Kerry fan."

The teacher asks why he's a John Kerry fan. The boy says, "Well, my mom's a John Kerry fan and my dad's a John Kerry fan, so I'm a John Kerry fan!"

The teacher is kind of angry, because this IS Texas, so she asks, "What if your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot, what would that make you?"

Johnny says, "That would make me a George Bush fan."
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Something I added recently must be really slowing down the loading time for this site. I apologize for this, thank you for your patience and continued patronage, and hope to be able to figure it out (and eliminate it) shortly.
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Republicans AWOL on Weapons Ban

 
I normally don't like the information from NDOL, because it represents the non-progressive arm of the Democratic party. However, their most recent e-message today has some good points:

It's official: the Republican-controlled Congress is set to let the 1994 ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons expire on Monday. That's happening even though the public strongly supports it; the Republican Speaker of the House supports it; the late Ronald Reagan supported it; and the man who thinks of himself as Reagan's spiritual twin, the president of the United States, at least claims to support it.

There is no earthly reason for this action other than the ideologically driven hostility of the National Rifle Association to any gun safety measures, however mild and reasonable, and to the bizarre determination of some conservative Republicans to wipe out every vestige of the Clinton administration.

Nobody pretends this issue has anything at all to do with the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Nobody uses these weapons to protect themselves or their homes. Nobody uses them to hunt. They are useful primarily to criminal gangs who want to kill law enforcement officers, which is why cops almost universally support the ban. And the ban has worked: crimes traceable to assault weapons have declined by two-thirds since 1994.

Asked yesterday about the president's passivity towards the expiration of the assault gun ban, White House spokesman Scott McClellan had this to say: "The president supports the reauthorization of the current law," but "the president doesn't set the Congressional timetable. Congress sets the timetable."

Lest we forget, just last week the president was feted by the Republican National Convention as a colossus of strength and unwavering leadership; a brave, Churchillian figure willing if necessary to defy the whole world in the pursuit of his convictions about what's right for America. But he apparently cannot bring himself to pick up the phone and tell his allies in Congress to support his position on the assault weapons ban.

There's some talk in Washington that the NRA and other conservative groups intend to use Democratic support for the assault weapons ban to tar John Kerry as a "gun control" candidate, one of the attack-lines that hurt Al Gore in several key states in 2000.

If that's the rationale for the president's weakness and vacillation on this issue, it's based on an illusory assessment of Kerry's actual position on gun legislation. Al Gore favored national licensing of gun owners. John Kerry explicitly supports the right of private gun ownership, and like most Americans and most gun owners, believes gun rights carry certain responsibilities, including a willingness to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of terrorists, felons, and children. This year's Democratic Platform included, for the first time, a straightforward endorsement of Second Amendment rights.

The assault weapons ban is not an issue that pits "gun rights" advocates against "gun control" advocates. It's an issue that exposes the weird extremes to which conservative interest groups will go to oppose even the most reasonable gun safety measures. And now, it has also exposed the craven unwillingness of the Congressional Republican leadership and the president of the United States to stand up to those interest groups. In the fight to keep military weapons off our streets, the president and his closest friends have simply surrendered.
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September 8, 2004

Well, It's One Way to Say "Sayonara" to the Fundagelicals

 
Mark Morford:
...How else do you explain it? How else can you understand the most aggressive, war-hungry, abusive, nature-loathing, isolationist administration in American history? How else can you explain BushCo's overall "F" grade from every environmental organization in the world? How can you explain his mauling of long-term Social Security planning? The decimation of the idea of universal health care? A pre-emptive, attack-first-ask-questions-never, warmongering policy that creates more anti-U.S. hatred by the minute?
How can you explain the fact that every human rights organization on the planet is appalled by Bush's actions? Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib to John Ashcroft to the Patriot Act to gutting funding for international women's health care(?)...
How else indeed? Read Mark's entire column. It's a good one (as usual).
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Red Shirt Fridays - Your Silent Protest

 
Remember that Fridays are RED SHIRT DAYS. Raise your visual voice with this form of fashion expression.
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September 7, 2004

Whiners and Losers

 

UC Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff, in the fourth and final installment of his series analyzing the framing aspects of the RNC speeches, takes on Bush's acceptance speech (snippet):

...Freedom was the thread linking his domestic policies to his foreign policy. In domestic matters, it is freedom from the United States government.

George Bush: "I am running with a compassionate conservative philosophy: that government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives. In all these proposals, we seek to provide not just a government program, but a path -- a path to greater opportunity, more freedom, and more control over your own life. We must strengthen Social Security by allowing younger workers to save some of their taxes in a personal account nest egg you can call your own, and government can never take away."

Conservatives have long sought to destroy Social Security and Medicare, for two reasons: First, from their moral perspective, all social programs take away the need for discipline and create dependency. Since discipline is seen as the basis of all morality, all such programs are immoral. Second, there is a business motive. Businesses can make more money if they can get their hands on all the Medicare and Social Security money as investments in them, not in the people whose health and future are insured. The conservative solution is to privatize both programs, creating "personal accounts." More freedom.

The motivation for government-run Social Security was that each generation would pay for the next. In Medicare, as in any insurance program, the lucky (those not injured or diseased) would pay for those less lucky. In addition, there were the twin motivations of economy of scale and of protection, from stock market declines, bad judgment, and from an individual's squandering. But in conservatism, those not sufficiently disciplined deserve what happens to them. If you're undisciplined enough to squander your personal savings account or not shrewd enough to invest wisely, then you deserve to lose your health and retirement money.

After all, conservatism posits a natural moral hierarchy of winners and losers. Conservatism gives you motivation (a pathway) to win. If you lose, your loss is a motivation to win in the future. If you're not disciplined enough to take advantage of the opportunities, too bad for you. You just won't make it in the opportunity society. And you don't deserve to.

This frame hides the 25 percent of our work force who are stuck in low-paying jobs, jobs that 25 percent of our people will always have to do and that may never pay much more. Not having spare money to invest, they can't take advantage of the tax credits to set up these accounts. Well, the losers will always be with us....

I recommend reading this brief four-part series. It's quite enlightening.
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Around for Everyone

 

Taking the Security out of Social Security
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"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."

--- YOUR Vice President, Dick Cheney, explaining why a vote for Kerry will guarantee a terrorist attack against the U.S.

Talk about stepping way beyond the line of campaign ethics... No, really, talk about it! Don't any of you Republicans, with a shred of moral decency remaining, feel anything revolting about supporting such depraved people? This is total bull.
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Huh?
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September 3, 2004

Around for Everyone

 

Here's a cool tracking map of Hurricane Frances
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FRIDAY FUN - Part II

 
Part I is HERE.

Gutterball (game)
Obsession with Orchids and About Orchids
Padi Sky Diver (game)
Pork Brains in Milk Gravy (9 worst convenience foods)
Priorities (video)
Protecting your umbrella (video - implied sexual content)
Rodent vs. Bike (hilarious story of one motorcyclist's encounter with a squirrel)
Top nine unintentional comments made by commentators at the 2004 Olympics
Weboggle (word game)
Why leaves change color (c'mon, you always wanted to know)
Words Without Borders (translated books)
Yo-yo Mania (video - give it a minute, it gets better)
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September 2, 2004

Bush Will Try to Raise the Dispassionate Conservatism Bar Tonight

 

Greg Palast on Bush's recommendation tonight to invest some of our Social Security in the stock market (emphasis mine):

Of all the bone-headed, whacky, breathtakingly threatening schemes George W. Bush is trying to sell us in his acceptance speech tonight is something he and his handlers call, “the Ownership Society.”

...Here’s what the President has in mind. Social Security is an insurance plan. You pay in, you get back. But it’s hard to get your money back when there’s a war where the Clinton surplus used to be. It’s not the war on terror, or the war in Iraq, though Lord knows those have cost us a bundle with nothing to show for all the lost loot. I’m talking about the class war that Dubya and his Dick Cheney have waged on the average working person. We’re talking an economic Pearl Harbor here. While firemen and policemen went running into falling buildings, the Bushmen were preparing to relieve some gazillionaires, such as say, the Bush family, of the need to pay the taxes that the rest of us pay. Work as a teacher, you pay Social Security and income taxes on every darn penny. Sit on your yacht and speculate in the stock market casino and you are off the hook on taxes on the “capital gains.” Bill Clinton proposed putting his big surpluses into a Social Security “lock-box” for that predictable rainy day. But tonight, Bush instead proposes to give the stock-options class a boost by lopping off a chunk of Social Security insurance revenue for gambling in the stock market. He had this same idea in 2000. If he’d had his way on his inauguration day, the average “owner” in America, investing in the stock market, would be 7% poorer, many flat busted. Some “security.” Happy elderly “owners” would be hunting for lunch in the garbage cans under Madison Square Garden.

Here’s the latest report from the front lines of the class war: The World Bank reports the USA has more millionaires than ever—we’ll see them at the Garden tonight. Median household income’s down—most of us are median—while the bottom has fallen out for those at the bottom. Our poorest 20% have seen incomes drop by a fifth. America’s upper one percent now own 53% of all the shares in the market.
And now the uppers want to crack open your retirement piggy bank, cut some of your retirement benefits, then “allow” you to give them the remainder of your money to fund their latest stock float schemes.

If betting trillions on stock market ponies doesn’t produce a big win, what does Mr. Bush propose to do with all the hungry old folk? I think I heard George say, “Let them eat Enron certificates.” And the future market fall, Mr. President, is a slam-dunk certainty. Let’s do the math. OK, class, we all buy stock this afternoon to fund our retirement. In fifteen years, baby-boomers are ready to kick back, take it easy and retire on the stock they’re about to sell. Did I say, “SELL”? And HOW. Around 2020, tens of millions of “owners” will be selling their shares … to whom? CRRRRASH!

A deliberate policy of aiming for another 1929 is appropriate for the top-hat and pinky-ring party of Herbert Hoover. The big problem is that supposedly non-partisan and even Democratic poobahs are rushing to “reform” Social Security. We have Alan Greenspan, who has barely a word to say about the multi-trillion dollar deficit wrought by Mr. Bush’s tax cuts, yet is already warning about some disaster in Social Security based on “trends.” Well, if we go by his own trend, the Fed chief will soon be marrying a 12-year-old Girl Scout. Hey, Alan, back to Economics 101 for you. As the boomers hit retirement age, we’re going to need added borrowing for transfer payments like Social Security to maintain purchasing power to keep the economy alive while millions of old folk dump assets.

Listen, Mr. President, we had an “ownership” society once before. Luckily, it came to an end when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Kerry Framed by Cheney

 

UC Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff, in the third of his series analyzing the framing aspects of the RNC speeches, takes on Cheney's speech from last night (snippet):

....More distortion: consider what Cheney does with a portion of a speech by Kerry at the UNITY 2004 Conference in Washington, D.C. Here is Kerry’s actual statement:

John Kerry: I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history. I lay out a strategy to strengthen our military, to build and lead strong alliances and reform our intelligence system. I set out a path to win the peace in Iraq and to get the terrorists, wherever they may be, before they get us.
In context, the word "sensitive" means "sensitive to the concerns of other nations we should be trying to recruit as allies." The whole context is about waging a strong and effective war on terrorism. Here is Cheney’s rendition:

Cheney: Even in this post-9/11 period, Senator Kerry doesn't appear to understand how the world has changed. He talks about leading a "more sensitive war on terror," as though Al Qaeda will be impressed with our softer side.

There we have the anti-Kerry frame: We are in a historic war to defend freedom itself. The war absolutely requires every possible advanced-weapons system. Kerry, by voting against a single 1991 appropriations bills, has shown that he is against national defense and the defense of freedom. He doesn’t even want our soldiers to be protected. A president in such a war must be strong and unchanging. Bush has "a spine of tempered steel," Miller tells us. Kerry is a flip-flopper ­ he changes his mind and is therefore undependable and weak. He would turn America into a weak child throwing "spitballs" (Miller) and "asking for a permission slip" (Cheney). He thinks we can carry on a soft-hearted "sensitive" war against a ruthless enemy. He is weak, deluded and would not protect our country....

Fascinating series. Strongly recommended.
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Food for thought, courtesy American Progress Action Fund (emphasis mine):

Last night's vitriolic and factually challenged speeches by Sen. Zell Miller and Vice President Dick Cheney showed the GOP's true colors. Cheney devoted just 50 words of his speech to health care, 92 to the economy and 102 to education. The number of words Cheney devoted to personally attacking and distorting the record of John Kerry? 671. This is not a party that is willing to reasonably discuss the issues. This is not a party that wants to unify the country. This is a party of fear; a party that thrives on dividing Americans and stoking hatred rather than offering hope.

Pursuing hateful, critical attacks rather than focusing on real issues does not offer hope to Americans. The GOP offers nothing but attacks and personal assaults on opponents because it has no successful record to run on and no hopeful vision for the future.

Stoking fear on terrorism rather than offering real solutions does not offer hope to Americans. The GOP talks non-stop about 9/11 because it can't talk about its massive missteps on terrorism since that day – its failure to capture Osama bin Laden and its disastrous war of choice in Iraq that has created more terrorist opportunities, not less.

Talking up the economy while the middle class suffers does not offer hope to Americans. With the number of Americans living in poverty continuing to rise under the Bush administration and millions of middle class families still struggling, the GOP says the economy has "turned the corner" and that the hard-pressed middle class should just stop whining and see the sunshine. Rather than offer policies to help people move ahead, the GOP offers more tax cuts for the wealthy, more subsidies for corporate America, and more fiscally irresponsible priorities that create massive budget deficits.

"Factually challenged"?? People, when are we going to stop being so spineless and start calling lies "lies"?
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Around for Everyone

 

For Children and pregnant women, it pays to buy organic food.

If you have Windows XP you can order a free SP2 update disk directly from Microsoft

Front Pages (thanks, Tim Bishop)

Updated: Bush's Death Crusade
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September 1, 2004

Nailing the frames of the Republican National Convention

 

GREAT article which, by analyzing several of last night's RNC speeches' lines, allows you to understand the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
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Since the economy is reeling, annual income is down, unemployment is up, poverty is up, and energy prices are up, Bush is doing the only thing a compassionate President can do: he's SLASHING RENT VOUCHERS.
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Arianna's Summary

 

Never, ever say that Bush was a "do nothing" President:

...Since he took office, 1.2 million people in America have lost their jobs, bringing the total to 8.2 million. The number of Americans living below the poverty line has increased by 4.3 million to 35.9 million - 12.9 million of them children. The number of Americans with no health insurance has increased by 5.8 million - with 1.4 million losing their insurance in 2003. The total now stands at 45 million. Forty percent of the 3.5 million people who were homeless at some point last year were families with children, as were 40 percent of those seeking emergency food assistance. Median household income has fallen more than $1,500 in inflation-adjusted terms in the last three years, and the wages of most workers are now falling behind inflation. Average tuition for college has risen by 34 percent, while 37 percent of fourth graders read at a level considered “below basic.” One third of the president’s $1.7 trillion in tax cuts benefits only the top 1 percent of wealthiest Americans. President Bush also failed to fulfill his pledge to get Osama Bin Laden “dead or alive,” traded the moral high ground for preemptive war and the horrors of Abu Ghraib, never attended a funeral or memorial service for any of the 975 soldiers killed in Iraq, pulled out of the Kyoto agreement on global warming, gutted the Clean Air Act, initiated the rollback of more than 200 environmental regulations, backed a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriages, and refused to follow through on his promise to extend the assault weapons ban...
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Repeatedly Clicking Doesn't Work, Either

 

I wasn't surprised, after reading about how roundly the Bush twins' convention speech (link to text two posts down) was criticized by all parties (yes, even Neocon commentators), that the link to the video (found on this GOP Convention page) doesn't seem to work. Hmmm...

UPDATE: It's working! Go check it out.
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Ironic Quote of the Month

 
"It is funny that we boycotted the 1980 Games [in Moscow] in support of Afghanistan, and now we're bombing Afghanistan."

---Carl Lewis, winner of nine Olympic gold medals

Funny? FUNNY?
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Around for Everyone

 

What if Bush Wins

Text of Bush twins' RNC speech (and remember, they're college graduates!)

1001 Things to Hate About the Convention

Framing the Convention Speeches

Bloggers: You gotta love this photo.
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Well the weight of the world is FALLING
And on my back I've been CRAWLING
The state of affairs is APPALLING
And the 6 o'clock news keeps CALLING

Well I've been trying to see the world through their eyes
Where black is white and day is night
Left is Right
Left is Right
Left is Right, For me

Well negotiations keep STALLING
The United Nations keeps CALLING
The Skeletons you're HAULING
Won't hold when you're FALLING

Put your head in the sand and you'll never know
What's waiting for you in the depths below (below)
Don't believe everything that you read
Take what you want and keep what you need

TWISTED NIXON



CHICK HEARN, THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE MEMORIES.

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