LEFT is RIGHT (blogging against The Bush-war) |
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Iraq War Cost
 
 
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| By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 30 November 2004 BERKELEY � Contrary to current conventional wisdom, deaths and injuries of American troops in Iraq did hurt the election efforts of President George Bush while gay marriage ban initiatives in 11 states had no measurable impact, say two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. "These findings don't mean the war was or was not justified, but that there was a political cost," said David Karol, a UC Berkeley acting assistant professor of political science. "What this shows is that it cost him votes." ... |
Read the entire article HERE.
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Virtuous Violence Is Upon Us
by Paul Craig Roberts
| The United States is in dire straits. Its government is in the hands of people who connect to events neither rationally nor morally. If President Bush�s neoconservative administration were rational, the US would never have invaded Iraq. If Bush�s government were moral, it would be ashamed of the carnage and horror it has unleashed in Iraq. The Bush administration has no doubts. It knows that it is right and virtuous. Bush and the neocons dismiss factual criticisms as evidence that the critics are "against us." People who know that they are right cannot avoid sinking deeper into mistakes. The Bush administration led the US into a war on the basis of claims that are now known to be untrue. Yet, President Bush and Vice President Cheney consistently refuse to admit that any mistake has been made. The chances are high, therefore, that the second Bush administration will be more disastrous than the first. The first Bush administration has cost America 10,000 casualties (dead and wounded). Eight of ten US divisions are tied down in Iraq by a few thousand lightly armed insurgents. Polls reveal that most Iraqis regard Americans as invaders and occupiers, not as liberators. US prestige in the Muslim world has evaporated. The majority of Muslims, who were with us, are now against us. Sooner or later, this change of mind will endanger our puppet regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In a futile effort to assert hegemony in Iraq, the US has largely destroyed Fallujah, once a city of 300,000. Hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians have been killed by the indiscriminate use of high explosives. To cover up the extensive civilian deaths, US authorities count all Iraqi dead as insurgents, delivering a high body count as claim of success for a bloody-minded operation. The human cost for American families is 51 dead and 425 wounded US troops � casualties on par with the worst days of the Vietnam war. The film of a US Marine shooting a captured, wounded and unarmed Iraqi prisoner in the head at close range has been shown all over the world. Coming on top of proven acts of torture at US military prisons, this war crime has destroyed what remained of America�s image and moral authority. On November 17, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for investigation of American war crimes in Fallujah. This is a remarkable turn of events, showing how far US prestige, and the morale of our armed forces, have fallen. However, for Bush administration partisans, war crimes are no longer something of which to be ashamed. Reflecting the neoconservative mindset that America�s monopoly on virtue justifies any and all US actions, Fox "News" talking heads and their Republican Party and retired military guests have arrogantly defended the marine who murdered the wounded Iraqi prisoner. Iraqi insurgents are condemned for deaths that they inflict on civilians. But when American troops fire indiscriminately upon civilians and US missile and bombing attacks kill Iraqis in their homes, the deaths are dismissed as "collateral damage." This double standard is a further indication that Americans have come to the belief that US ends justify any means. A number of former top US military leaders and heads of the CIA and National Security Agency have condemned Bush�s invasion of Iraq as a "strategic blunder." These are people who gave their lives to the service of our country and can in no way be said to be "against us." However, the Bush administration and its apologists regard critics as enemies. To accept criticism means to be held accountable, something the Bush administration is determined to avoid. Condoleezza Rice, who failed as National Security Adviser to prevent the Pentagon from using fabricated information to start a Middle East war, is being elevated to Secretary of State in Bush�s second term. Indeed, the entire panoply of neoconservatives, who intentionally fabricated the "intelligence" used to justify the US invasion of Iraq, are being rewarded by promotion to higher offices. Stephen Hadley is moving up to National Security Adviser. Hadley is the person who advocates "usable" mini-nukes for the US conquest of the Middle East. John Bolton is to be Deputy Secretary of State. Bolton is the person who wants the US to invade Iran. The few officials who are not warmongers, such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, are leaving the Bush administration. Right before our eyes, the CIA is being turned into a neoconservative propaganda organ as numerous senior officials resign and are replaced with yes-men. With its current troop strength, the Bush administration cannot achieve the Middle East goals it shares with the Israeli government. Either the draft will have to be restored or mini-nukes developed and deployed. As insurgents do not mass in military formations, the mini-nukes would be used as a genocidal weapon to wipe out entire cities that show any resistance to neocon dictates. Many Bush partisans send me e-mails fiercely advocating "virtuous violence." They do not flinch at the use of nuclear weapons against Muslims who refuse to do as we tell them. These partisans do not doubt for a second that Bush has the right to dictate to Muslims and everyone else (especially the French). Many also express their conviction that all of Bush�s critics should be rounded up and sent to the Middle East in time for the first nuke. |
This was lifted from the Hubert Humphrey Democratic Club's December, 2004 Newsletter.
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Blogger Continues Decline in Quality
I am so fed up with BLOGGER. What used to take a few seconds, editing or posting a post, now takes many minutes or longer (sometimes it times out). I pay a yearly subscription for BLOGSPOT, based on their promise that paid subscribers would receive faster service, yet each month service gets slower and slower. I thought that when Google bought BLOGGER that the former would use their resources to replace the BLOGGER servers with faster ones, but that doesn't seem like it happened. I've contacted BLOGGER Service but they're no help.
Before I started typing this post (in Notepad) I had clicked "Edit Posts", waiting for my list of posts to appear; I'm checking now... nothing yet. I'm on a T3 line, so the problem is not at my end. I have DSL at home and there is no difference in BLOGGER's editing performance. Occasionally I get a glimpse at what BLOGGER can do when I'll click a function and presto, the page appears. But this is becoming the very rare exception these days, and only confirms that it is not my index page that's too cumbersome to load for editing. (Checking again... still loading "Edit Posts".)
Since I've been on BLOGGER over two years and a gazillion other sites have bookmarked this one, I would hate to set up somewhere better and mess up all the links to my site that others have planted. Does anyone know how to do a "page redirect" that I could place here and instantly send the surfer to a new location?
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Around for Everyone
Arrested for Nothing
Fueling a Revolt by Using Sign Language
Black Cop, White Cop
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November 29, 2004
Rick Mercier analyzes moral values (excerpt):
When you comapre the political ideologies of the Republicans vs the Democrats, the Democrats hands-down represent much more closely the teachings of the christian bible. So the question is, why haven't the Democrats been drilling that point? Is it because we're primarily a bunch of woosies?
Never Surrender. Take the Pledge. Buy the brecelet.
Do you have Metabolic Syndrome?
Larry Caballero in the Los Cerritos Community News:
Let's all start referring to the Republican Party as the Pro-Birth Party. It's catchy and oh-so-true.
The Christian Right vs real Christianity
Rick Mercier analyzes moral values (excerpt):
| ....I have no doubt that the Christian right and their leader, George W. Bush, are sincere about their faith. But I also have no doubt--to paraphrase one of America's pre-eminent theologians, Stanley Hauerwas--that sincerity has precious little to do with Christianity. This "moral values" talk doesn't do much to sustain Christianity, either. The phrase is as banal as the hacks (of both the political and journalistic variety) who are busy fetishizing it. For political operatives, the phrase's beauty lies in its meaningless. It can be made to mean anything, and, in a culture with no meaningful moral narratives, it can be turned into a cudgel that's useful for political ends but has nothing to do with any coherent religious tradition. In the spiritual vacuum that exists in this country, the Christian right is well-positioned to argue that its menagerie of fears and chauvinisms--piled into a box labeled "moral values"--constitutes a serious moral narrative. It doesn't, but the Religious Right's contribution to the denigration of Christianity will continue unabated until other Christian communities come up with a compelling alternative. The trouble is, our society seems to lack the kind of exemplars who could build that alternative. What we need are the spiritual descendants of Martin Luther King Jr. and Dorothy Day, people who are willing to endure the enmity and scorn of the political establishment and mainstream culture. Maybe those people are out there, but I don't see them. That's why I'm not optimistic about the survival of the Christian tradition in our culture. What many view as a great spiritual revival looks a lot to me like another stage of rot in American Christianity's corpse. Can the cadaver rise up? It doesn't seem hopeful. In contemporary America, the Jewish Palestinian whom many call their messiah has become just another Middle Easterner to be ignored or reviled. |
When you comapre the political ideologies of the Republicans vs the Democrats, the Democrats hands-down represent much more closely the teachings of the christian bible. So the question is, why haven't the Democrats been drilling that point? Is it because we're primarily a bunch of woosies?
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Around for Everyone
Never Surrender. Take the Pledge. Buy the brecelet.
Do you have Metabolic Syndrome?
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The Pro-Birth Party
Larry Caballero in the Los Cerritos Community News:
| ...In truth, the Republicans are not really pro-life. Yes, I said it, and I mean it. The Republicans are pro-birth. There is a difference. They care about the unborn child, but once it is born, Republicans walk away. It�s up to the family, they believe, to take care of the child. No matter if they are unable or unwilling to do so. No matter if the child is underfed, poorly clothed, abused, ill, and receives a substandard education. The Republicans talk about being pro-life, but what about their support of capital punishment? People do die from those lethal injections! And how many innocent people, on both sides, have died in Iraq for a war that was not necessary? I wonder how many Iraqi citizens were pregnant women. What about those unborn children? So life is important if it�s an unborn American baby and maybe not so important after that.... |
Let's all start referring to the Republican Party as the Pro-Birth Party. It's catchy and oh-so-true.
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November 28, 2004
Received this e-message today:
I'm not sure how not displaying the Ten Commandments will cause the moral basis of our laws to be destroyed, and how that would cause some unspecified building to fall. If there are any morally superior Republicans out there that can explain this, please leave a comment. Thank you.
Received this e-message today:
| Dear Mike, As you know, the Supreme Court is currently studying the Ten Commandments issue. The Supreme Court is not immune to the will of the people. While we cannot directly influence the outcome of the decision by the Supreme Court, we can express our desires as citizens of the United States. I urge you to join with other Americans in expressing a desire that the Ten Commandments can be legally displayed in all public places. It is important that we have a moral basis for our laws. The Ten Commandments are in essence the foundation for our laws. Should the foundation be destroyed, the building will fall. Please join me in supporting the display of the Ten Commandments in all public places, including schools and courtrooms. From time to time the number of Americans who have expressed a desire to see the Ten Commandments legally displayed in public places will be released and forwarded to the Supreme Court. It will take millions of Americans participating for us to be successful. Thank you for participating in this effort. If we are to be successful, we need you to forward this letter to others today. Sincerely, Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman American Family Association |
I'm not sure how not displaying the Ten Commandments will cause the moral basis of our laws to be destroyed, and how that would cause some unspecified building to fall. If there are any morally superior Republicans out there that can explain this, please leave a comment. Thank you.
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The Bush Administration told us that the Iraqis would greet the invading U.S. army with "open arms". Maybe we should have looked up all the definitions of "arms" before disagreeing with them.
When will sanity break out?
Complete Exit Poll Results
NYC Tries to Recover $195 Million in Unpaid Parking Tickets - From Foreign Diplomats
The Politics of Victimization
Paralyzed woman walks again after stem cell therapy
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Moronic Republican Quote of the Hour
| "When the courts make unconstitutional decisions, we should not enforce them. Federal courts have no army or navy... The court can opine, decide, talk about, sing, whatever it wants to do. We're not saying they can't do that. At the end of the day, we're saying the court can't enforce its opinions." - - - Republican Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana |
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Around for Everyone
When will sanity break out?
Complete Exit Poll Results
NYC Tries to Recover $195 Million in Unpaid Parking Tickets - From Foreign Diplomats
The Politics of Victimization
Paralyzed woman walks again after stem cell therapy
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November 26, 2004
From Knowledge News (by subscription):
I still don't think we should let the kids read this. Chocolate might end up being the gateway chemical to other dangerously wholesome natural foods. If we put McDonalds and Burger King out of business as people start eating nutritiously, where will our kids get their first jobs?
Regarding #3: Actually I do eat pickles and salami, along wih chocolate, all of which seem to help me get in the mood. But, trust me, you need an incredible lover to make it all work.
Hecate suggests a different way to effectively protest (snippet):
Steve Gilliard feels otherwise:
Ooooh, my head hurts.
Scanning as Art
Ingenious (interactive online encyclopedia - not what you think)
Cybergenics 5 (photoshop contest)
50 Worst Guitar Solos
101-Word Novels
Elvis Lives!
Snake (game)
Birdlover's Site
Running Away in the Movies
Real Meanings of Nursery Rhymes
Street Art
How to do Everything
Constipation Song (flash)
Disappearing triple-jumper (video)
National Toy Museum
e-mail punctuation (video)
Dear Santa: Just Bring Me Lots of Chocolate
From Knowledge News (by subscription):
| Got a cough? You might want to put down that lozenge and pop a piece of chocolate instead. Earlier this week, British researchers announced the results of a new study that suggests cocoa might make a better cough suppressant than codeine, the active ingredient in many current cough meds. How can chocolate help control coughing? Turns out Willy Wonka's favorite treat contains a chemical called theobromine that calms the nerves in your lungs that cause coughs. It's the latest and greatest scientific news about chocolate. But wait, there's more. . . . 4 More Sweet Things About Chocolate You've heard the news. Some elements in chocolate have been scientifically proven to promote good health. Sounds crazy, but it's true. Your doctor's probably not about to start prescribing chocolate, but here are four (more) good things it can do for you. 1. Stop Cell Damage Chocolate doesn't just have flavor--it's chock full of flavonoids, along with similar chemicals called phenolics. Both are strong antioxidants, which we know fight cell and tissue damage. And they may help prevent clogged arteries, too. 2. Start Your Engines Along with lots of sugar, chocolate contains caffeine and another stimulant, theobromine (which can pick you up and keep you from coughing). It also contains a slight amount of a stimulant called phenylethylamine, which is related to amphetamine. Don't worry about getting the jitters, though. You'd have to eat 20 pounds of chocolate to get even the slightest buzz. 3. Start Your Lover's Engines Scientists haven't figured out for sure why it seems to work for some folks, but everybody from Montezuma to Casanova has used chocolate as an aphrodisiac. It may be that the rich blend of carbohydrates increases serotonin levels in the brain, just like Prozac. Or it could be the phenylethylamine, which your brain churns out when you're feeling good. Then again, pickles and salami contain phenylethylamine, too, and nobody eats those to get "in the mood." 4. Chill You Out While part of chocolate may rev you up, another part just might take the edge off your anxiety. Chocolate contains a chemical called anandamide, which mimics the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana. But don't worry. The tiny amount present in chocolate is too small to create the munchies for anything except, well, more chocolate. But Wait, There's More You've heard of chocoholics? Yes, we all know someone who practically lives for the next hit of cocoa. But experiments designed to discover whether chocolate causes a real addiction have yielded good news. When subjects with notorious sweet tooths took pills containing all of chocolate's chemicals, their cravings weren't satisfied. Apparently, nothing in chocolate creates chemical addiction--chocoholics' cravings are purely habitual. Taken in moderation, chocolate is even nutritious. Because so much of chocolate comes from the seeds of a vegetable--the tropical cacao plant--it contains a whole load of plant nutrients. Significant amounts of protein, iron, zinc, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin E can be found in just one bar of chocolate. Okay, That's Too Much "Taken in moderation"--ay, there's the rub. The big problem with chocolate is that it generally comes attached to lots of sugar and fat, two of the main culprits in the world's expanding obesity epidemic. If you want to have your health and eat chocolate, too, you'll need to take it in small doses. And be sure to get the good stuff. Cheap sweets are more sugar than chocolate. Christopher Call - November 26, 2004 |
I still don't think we should let the kids read this. Chocolate might end up being the gateway chemical to other dangerously wholesome natural foods. If we put McDonalds and Burger King out of business as people start eating nutritiously, where will our kids get their first jobs?
Regarding #3: Actually I do eat pickles and salami, along wih chocolate, all of which seem to help me get in the mood. But, trust me, you need an incredible lover to make it all work.
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An Idea - or Not
Hecate suggests a different way to effectively protest (snippet):
| ....This year, I�m urging everyone I know to refuse to spend money for Xmas as a protest. Stay out of the stores. For Goddess sake, don�t run up credit card debt. Give your family and friends the gift of your time and attention rather than a new sweater that they won�t wear or some object to clutter-up an already over-cluttered life. But just not buying isn�t enough. You�ve got to contact the retailers and credit card companies and tell them: I�m not going to be buying Xmas stuff and I�m not going to be charging Xmas stuff until this country has a system in place that ensures fair and verifiable elections. Reader Kate has done the research and discovered that The National Retail Federation �is the world�s largest retail trade association . . . .� Write to Their Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, Katherine Lugar. Here�s her contact info: National Retail Federation 325 7th Street, N.W. Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20004 Phone: 1-800-NRF-HOW2 Fax (202) 727-2849 Write to your credit card companies and tell them the same thing. You can find the address on the back of your latest bill. And, heck if you�re really angry about this last election, write to the large department stores that you patronize, or at least cc them on your letter to the National Retail Federation. CC your Senators and Congressman or Congresswoman as well.... |
Steve Gilliard feels otherwise:
| ....Jesus, people have to think this through. I don't want retailers and credit card companies demanding election law reform. Because their lobbies do as much damage as possible NOW. Don't let your frustration be your guide, because it leads you down blind alleys. You want to make a statement, don't act like a spoiled child, do something positive. Don't shop at Wal-Mart. Just don't do it. Shop at Costco and Target, places which treat their workers a lot better than Wal-Mart does. That's an affirmative statement. You don't need to ask the irrelevant to do the impossible, do the relevant and right thing. If sending a message is your concern, make sure Wal-Mart has a shitty Christmas and Target, Costo and Toys 'R Us have good one. Make a positive market decision, not a negative one. I won't buy anything sounds great, but to a six year old, it's pretty mean. To your parents, it's mean. To people who care about you, it's mean. We can decry consumerism, and I have gotten and given homemade gifts. Jen made me two bottles of preserved lemons and I made her spice rub. Cute, right. I also bought her a gift. Food gifts are nice. But this? No. Let's not be negative for once. Let's not whine and go after the wrong people. Let's be positive and make an affirmative statement. And all you have to do is not shop at Wal-Mart and avoid their American job-killing low, low prices. You want election law reform, you target the legislators who run the committees in your state and the people who give them money. You get good candidates for Secretary of State. You propose new laws. You don't do this. Even if they could do something, would you want them to? I wouldn't. |
Ooooh, my head hurts.
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Friday Fun - Holiday Edition
Scanning as Art
Ingenious (interactive online encyclopedia - not what you think)
Cybergenics 5 (photoshop contest)
50 Worst Guitar Solos
101-Word Novels
Elvis Lives!
Snake (game)
Birdlover's Site
Running Away in the Movies
Real Meanings of Nursery Rhymes
Street Art
How to do Everything
Constipation Song (flash)
Disappearing triple-jumper (video)
National Toy Museum
e-mail punctuation (video)
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November 25, 2004
HAPPY HOLIDAY BLOGGERS!
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The Parrot
| A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even MORE rude. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I am sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my unforgivable behavior." John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?" |
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November 24, 2004
Left is Right's Holiday Tip of the Decade
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Anyone seen the Comments? They seem to have disappeared. No Comments under here. None in here. Hmmm... Must be hangin' out with the WMD.
Update: Note to self: Don't put apostrophes in the blog title. It disrupts Backblog's comments.
Update: Note to self: Don't put apostrophes in the blog title. It disrupts Backblog's comments.
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On This Day Of Thank-You's
CAP has listed their thanks for the holidays. I've chosen a few:
|
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November 23, 2004
Help Save Sudanese Women and Children
This is great. Donate to a great cause and simultaneously add to your music collection. I just gave $25. What are you going to do?
From Union of Concerned Scientists:
At this point in time, I'll post just about anything that's good news for all of us.
Researchers advance potential to give sight to blind
These Dolphins Must Be Democrats
The Human Waste of Fallujah (flash/video)
Ronnie Earle writes in the NYT (excerpts, reg. req.):
From the Guardian:
It's only a matter of time, folks. The reelection of Bush has guaranteed a major economic downturn for all but the wealthy. Get ready for double-digit inflation, 12% home mortgage rates, rising unemployment and homelessness, and a really crappy 10-15 years of life.
Costs of Social Security Privatization (excerpt from CAP):
Ethnic and gender differences are only two facets of privatization that threaten the success of the system. Hardly mentioned these days are the effects on the financial markets of the surge in selling of account holdings as retiring baby boomers cash in their privatized accounts. The negative repercussions would affect both regular market investors and those with privatized accounts designed for future retirement.
True Majority Needs Your Help
Help Save Sudanese Women and Children
| Donate to humanitarian aid for Darfur, and get our new benefit album: the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project At this moment, with so much wrong in America and around the world, the work of people who care for their fellow human beings in places like the Sudan seems especially heroic, compassionate, and worthy of our support. So we are grateful to our friends at the international aid group Oxfam for introducing us to the Kebkabiya Smallholders Charitable Society, which it founded to support farmers in the region. Fifty thousand refugees from Sudan's Darfur region have flooded into Kebkabiya, and this local organization is working hard every day to keep their countrymen alive. We want to raise $100,000 for this small group, so they will have the tools they need to continue their work. To do this, TrueMajority has teamed up with a group of afrobeat musicians � their driving grooves and political lyrics can raise both awareness and funds for the refugees. If you can pitch in at least $25 toward the cause, we'll send you a copy of TrueMajority's new benefit album, the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project (ASAP) . Click here to donate, and let's give thanks for all those people in the world who try to help the destitute. |
This is great. Donate to a great cause and simultaneously add to your music collection. I just gave $25. What are you going to do?
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A Major Victory on Nuclear Weapons
From Union of Concerned Scientists:
| Dear Mike, Last week, Congress eliminated funding for two of the most provocative nuclear weapons programs and cut funding for two other nuclear-related initiatives. This is a major victory countering the Bush administration's dangerous nuclear weapons agenda and one for which we all can give thanks. And don't forget, you played a central role in our success. In July, we asked you to tell your senators to eliminate funds for these programs, and thousands of you sent emails and faxes. Your actions mattered. All funding was eliminated for both the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a dangerous--and scientifically questionable--program to design a new nuclear "bunker buster," and for research into other new types of nuclear weapons. In addition, funding was sharply cut for a new factory to make plutonium "pits," the core of nuclear weapons, and efforts to shorten the time required to prepare for a full-scale nuclear weapons test were pushed back. These programs all threatened to undermine the United States' leadership role in nuclear nonproliferation. We cannot credibly ask other countries to restrain their nuclear weapons programs while we aggressively advance work on new weapons. This campaign would not have succeeded without leadership from Representative David Hobson (R-OH), whose early cuts in the House set the tone for the eventual elimination of funding. Thank you again for your support in helping us achieve this victory. We have sent a clear message to Congress and the administration that developing new nuclear weapons is not acceptable, and that the United States must lead by example to achieve true security.... |
At this point in time, I'll post just about anything that's good news for all of us.
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Around for Everyone
Researchers advance potential to give sight to blind
These Dolphins Must Be Democrats
The Human Waste of Fallujah (flash/video)
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Observing Our Loss of Democracy
Ronnie Earle writes in the NYT (excerpts, reg. req.):
| "The rules you apply to yourself are the true test of your moral values." "There is no limit to what you can do if you have the power to change the rules. Congress may make its own rules, but the public makes the rule of law, and depends for its peace on the enforcement of the law. Hypocrisy at the highest levels of government is toxic to the moral fiber that holds our communities together. The open contempt for moral values by our elected officials has a corrosive effect. It is a sad day for law enforcement when Congress offers such poor leadership on moral values and ethical behavior. We are a moral people, and the first lesson of democracy is not to hold the public in contempt." - - - Ronnie Earle is the district attorney for Travis County, Texas, and currently under attack by supporters of House Speaker Tom DeLay. |
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Glimmers of a Catastrophic U.S. Recession
From the Guardian:
| "International investors will eventually adjust their accumulation of dollar assets or, alternatively, seek higher dollar returns to offset concentration risk, elevating the cost of financing the US current account deficit and rendering it increasingly less tenable." - - - Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, speaking at a banking conference in Frankfurt this week. |
It's only a matter of time, folks. The reelection of Bush has guaranteed a major economic downturn for all but the wealthy. Get ready for double-digit inflation, 12% home mortgage rates, rising unemployment and homelessness, and a really crappy 10-15 years of life.
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Social Insecurity
Costs of Social Security Privatization (excerpt from CAP):
| Social Security privatization is once again on the front burner of the public policy discussion. President Bush has indicated that he wants to make it a top priority of his second term to replace part of the existing social insurance with a system of individual accounts. Privatization not only exposes workers to additional risks, it also substantially raises the costs of saving for retirement. A number of these costs have been well-documented. Workers would have to pay management fees for their accounts. In addition, they would have to pay insurance premiums to private insurance companies if they want the same level of protection that Social Security offers for themselves and their families. Further, they would have to bear an enormous burden to pay for the transition from one system to the other. Another cost of individual accounts � so-called labor market risks � has often been ignored in the public debate. Typically, workers� earnings are below average in a recession, when it would be most opportune to purchase stocks because of a concurrent stock market decline. This risk affects all workers to some degree. The exposure to labor market risks is greater for women and minorities than for others. In essence, they accumulate fewer savings for each dollar they invest in their individual accounts compared to men and whites. This is especially pronounced for women, who consequently face costs that are comparable to the costs of turning their savings into lifetime monthly benefits � annuities. The link between the labor market and individual accounts essentially punishes women and minorities twice. For one, they have lower lifetime earnings than men and whites and thus proportionately lower savings. Second, they accumulate fewer savings for each dollar they put away because of greater fluctuations in employment and wages. Social Security is the only way to reduce the labor market risks. In the current setup, benefits do not depend on the performance of the stock market. Furthermore, Social Security pays proportionately higher benefits to low lifetime earners than to high lifetime ones. |
Ethnic and gender differences are only two facets of privatization that threaten the success of the system. Hardly mentioned these days are the effects on the financial markets of the surge in selling of account holdings as retiring baby boomers cash in their privatized accounts. The negative repercussions would affect both regular market investors and those with privatized accounts designed for future retirement.
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November 22, 2004
Kevin Drum summarizes the first five days of congress:
Kevin Sites explains the video he shot of U.S. soldier killing injured Iraqi soldier in cold blood. (If you read only one thing today, make it this.)
Indigenous peoples in the Arctic need names for new animals.
Help Eli Stephens create the Greatest Antiwar and Political Songs of All Time list.
U.S. helping Iraq bring population of children under control.
10 Reasons for not moving to Canada, versus The Only Reason Needed For Moving To Canada.
Green Chemistry: One solution to saving the environment?
2004's Most Tasteless Program of the Year: JFK Reloaded.
Things going well in Fallujah - NOT.
E-voting irregularities in Florida in 2004 election were examined by U.C. Berkeley researchers. Summary:
The entire paper is HERE.
Definitely not a do-nothing congress
Kevin Drum summarizes the first five days of congress:
| MANDATE WATCH....Congressional Republicans have now been back in town for five days following their big election victory on the 2nd. So what are they using their newfound mandate for? Let's take a peek: - At the request of Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Oklahoma), passed a law giving Appropriations Committee chairmen the right to look at anyone's tax returns without regard to privacy rights. When caught by Democrats, they said it was all just a big mistake and promised they'd never actually use this authority. - Overwhelmingly revoked a rule stating that Republican congressional leaders have to step down if indicted of a felony. This was done to protect House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who appears to be on the verge of being indicted for a felony. - Approved funding to buy President Bush a yacht. - Killed long-awaited intelligence reform legislation that was widely supported by both Democrats and Republicans, the president, the 9/11 Commission, and 9/11 victims groups. Pretty good work for five days! I wonder what they'll manage to get done when they actually have a full session on their hands next year? |
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| Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but, unlike charity, it should end there. - - - Clare Booth Luce |
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Around for Everyone
Kevin Sites explains the video he shot of U.S. soldier killing injured Iraqi soldier in cold blood. (If you read only one thing today, make it this.)
Indigenous peoples in the Arctic need names for new animals.
Help Eli Stephens create the Greatest Antiwar and Political Songs of All Time list.
U.S. helping Iraq bring population of children under control.
10 Reasons for not moving to Canada, versus The Only Reason Needed For Moving To Canada.
Green Chemistry: One solution to saving the environment?
2004's Most Tasteless Program of the Year: JFK Reloaded.
Things going well in Fallujah - NOT.
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Initial Findings: 130,000 or more free votes for Bush in Florida
E-voting irregularities in Florida in 2004 election were examined by U.C. Berkeley researchers. Summary:
| - Irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000 excess votes or more to President George W. Bush in Florida. - Compared to counties with paper ballots, counties with electronic voting machines were significantly more likely to show increases in support for President Bush between 2000 and 2004. This effect cannot be explained by differences between counties in income, number of voters, change in voter turnout, or size of Hispanic/Latino population. - In Broward County alone, President Bush appears to have received approximately 72,000 excess votes. - We can be 99.9% sure that these effects are not attributable to chance. |
The entire paper is HERE.
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November 20, 2004
Everychild Foundation: A New Approach to Philanthropy
As the Bush Administration continues to do its damnedest to curtail social programs, we will need to consider other ways to help those who cannot help themselves. This is one very admirable way. This foundation is a model for future philanthropy.
The Future of Philanthropy?
Everychild Foundation: A New Approach to Philanthropy
| The Everychild Foundation was born out of the belief that there is a group of women in Los Angeles who together can make a serious difference in the lives of children in need without requiring a significant time commitment. Our approach is simple: Create a small group of women �just over 200� who are each ready to commit $5,000 annually to make the dream of the Everychild Foundation a reality. Donations are, of course, tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, and matching grants are accepted. The Everychild Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation. Our EIN is 31-1693985; Target one non-profit organization each year with a dream project that our gift can make possible. Each project, carefully selected by the members, profoundly helps children facing disease, abuse, neglect, poverty or disability; Award $1 million to fund that project. All grant recipients are closely monitored by the Everychild Foundation, and grant money is delivered in phases, based on performance in meeting specific grant requirements; Limit membership in order to eliminate bureaucracy and red tape and to ensure a highly efficient, targeted orginization. To become a member of the organization, an opening must be available; however Everychild will always ... Welcome contributions of any size from anyone or any institution wishing to help further the mission of helping children in need. You may also want to consider including the Everychild Foundation in your will. |
As the Bush Administration continues to do its damnedest to curtail social programs, we will need to consider other ways to help those who cannot help themselves. This is one very admirable way. This foundation is a model for future philanthropy.
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November 19, 2004
Concerned Parents Councils and Moral Citizens for Righteousness and Morose Adults with Secret Margarine Fetishes... (Mark Morford)
I just know Ohio residents are just tickled pink about getting Bush elected. And now comes the payback:
A Time To Break the Democrats' Silence on Falluja and the Escalation of the War in Iraq
I wish we could have done this BEFORE the election.
God Hates Shrimp
Breaching Experments
Everyday Mysteries Explained
Front Lawn Ornament
Obi Wan Kenobi Shops for a Car (video)
Change This
Deep Sea Creatures (photos)
Lunch Slots (let the internet suggest a restaurant - just enter your zip code)
The 6 Pound Rubik's Cube
Nerd Gym
How to Pack Your Brain for Shipment
Click It (game)
A case against the internet (video)
The A**hole Song (a Denis Leary classic - mile profanity; click "play")
Around for Everyone
Concerned Parents Councils and Moral Citizens for Righteousness and Morose Adults with Secret Margarine Fetishes... (Mark Morford)
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OHIO CLOSING SCHOOLS
I just know Ohio residents are just tickled pink about getting Bush elected. And now comes the payback:
| Ohio schools, faced with drastic budget cuts, are struggling to stay afloat. Cash-strapped Cincinnati is planning to completely eliminate seven schools next year, cramming their students into other existing schools by raising class sizes and using mobile classrooms. This will also eliminate as many as 600 teachers and staff, or more than 10 percent of the district's 5,800 employees. The National Priorities Project estimates underfunding for the administration's No Child Left Behind Act directly affected these budgets with a $225.7 million shortfall in grants to the Buckeye State for Title I (the program designed to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged students) and an $8.8 million shortfall for programs to improve teacher quality. |
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Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party Announces First Policy Statement and Ongoing Mission
A Time To Break the Democrats' Silence on Falluja and the Escalation of the War in Iraq
| As Progressive Democrats we call on our Democratic Party leadership to break the public silence on the bloodbath in Falluja. Sixteen hundred Iraqi insurgents are said to have been killed and countless others maimed, crippled or injured in a single week. Over thirty American soldiers are dead and several hundred are wounded. Over eighty major attacks have been launched on American positions in several other uprisings from Mosul to Baghdad. Despite military and administration public relations, the US-trained Iraqi forces cannot or will not stand on their own. America is creating a slaughterhouse in the name of democratic elections. As foreigners, we are dividing Sunni from Shiite and Kurd in the name of a fragmented Iraqi unity. We are ominously alone, abandoned by fifteen of our Coalition allies - so far - and by the United Nations. This military strike was timed to occur after the American presidential election. While the main responsibility lies with President Bush, the national Democratic Party leadership has supported and encouraged the military offensive in Falluja as well. Both parties have bloody hands. It is time for the bipartisan collusion in this war to end. It is time for the Democratic Party to become faithful to its faithful rank-and-file through becoming the party of opposition. It is time to declare clearly that this war is a mistake. The conduct of the war is a mistake. America is squandering the lives of its soldiers, the revenues of its taxpayers, and the trust of its people for a mistake. When will our party leaders join in asking who will be the last American to die for this mistake? Progressive Democrats will neither wait nor be silent. We will organize locally as voices and voters for peace. We will hold our Congressional representatives accountable if they support a $75 billion blood-stained check for the Iraq war. We will point out the daily cost of the war to our deficits, our cities, health care, housing and anti-poverty programs. We will demand greater candor and respect for our combat soldiers while also honoring those troops and their families who choose to oppose the war in the tradition of the young John Kerry. During the presidential campaign, we gave one hundred percent for a Democratic ticket that felt compelled to defend a mistake. We do not believe that the November election was a mandate to destroy Iraq while saving it nor an endorsement of the President's management of the conflict. It is George Bush's mistake now, and the role of all Democrats and concerned Americans is to make him end his denial, accept responsibility and take significant steps to end the American occupation and leave Iraq to the Iraqis. |
I wish we could have done this BEFORE the election.
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FRIDAY FUN
God Hates Shrimp
Breaching Experments
Everyday Mysteries Explained
Front Lawn Ornament
Obi Wan Kenobi Shops for a Car (video)
Change This
Deep Sea Creatures (photos)
Lunch Slots (let the internet suggest a restaurant - just enter your zip code)
The 6 Pound Rubik's Cube
Nerd Gym
How to Pack Your Brain for Shipment
Click It (game)
A case against the internet (video)
The A**hole Song (a Denis Leary classic - mile profanity; click "play")
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November 18, 2004
Juan Cole attempts to justify U.S.'s action in Falluja. snippet:
I normally agree with Mr. Cole's opinion, but not today. Simply put, two wrongs don't make a right. I mean, come on... Would there be car bombings and hostage-taking right now if we hadn't illegally invaded this nation?
The next great flu pandemic - coming soon to strike dead someone near you.
Depleted Uranium: Gulf War Syndrome and the Expendable G.I.
With problems mounting in Iraq and a weakened economy, the first order of business for congressional conservatives is to abandon their own ethical standards.
This is cool: GOOGLE SCHOLAR
We taught them everything.
The Coming U.S. Economy Bust
New analysis places age of Grand Canyon at 4,500 years, rather than 6,000,000.
Fallujah FUBAR
Juan Cole attempts to justify U.S.'s action in Falluja. snippet:
| ....So, the Marines at Fallujah are operating in accordance with a UNSC Resolution and have all the legitimacy in international law that flows from that. The Allawi government asked them to undertake this Fallujah mission. To compare them to the murderous thugs who kidnapped CARE worker Margaret Hassan, held her hostage, terrified her, and then killed her is frankly monstrous. The multinational forces are soldiers fighting a war in which they are targetting combatants and sometimes accidentally killing innocents. The hostage-takers are terrorists deliberately killing innocents. It is simply not the same thing. Now, I don't like the timing of the Fallujah mission. I don't like all the mistakes made along the way, which produced this operation. I don't like its tactics. I don't like the way it put so many civilians in harm's way. I don't like the violations of international law (targetting the hospital, turning away the Red Crescent, killing wounded and disarmed combatants), etc. I protest the latter. I don't know enough about military affairs to offer an alternative on the former issues, and don't mind admitting my technical ignorance. You can't do everything. But the basic idea of attacking the guerrillas holding up in that city is not in and of itself criminal or irresponsible. A significant proportion of the absolutely horrible car bombings that have killed hundreds and thousands of innocent Iraqis, especially Shiites, were planned and executed from Fallujah. There were serious and heavily armed forces in Fallujah planning out ways of killing hundreds to prevent elections from being held in January. These are mass murderers, serial murderers. If they were fighting only to defend Fallujah, that would be one thing; even the Marines would respect them for that. They aren't, or at least, a significant proportion of them aren't. They are killing civilians elsewhere in order to throw Iraq into chaos and avoid the enfranchisement of the Kurds and Shiites.... |
I normally agree with Mr. Cole's opinion, but not today. Simply put, two wrongs don't make a right. I mean, come on... Would there be car bombings and hostage-taking right now if we hadn't illegally invaded this nation?
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Around for Everyone
The next great flu pandemic - coming soon to strike dead someone near you.
Depleted Uranium: Gulf War Syndrome and the Expendable G.I.
With problems mounting in Iraq and a weakened economy, the first order of business for congressional conservatives is to abandon their own ethical standards.
This is cool: GOOGLE SCHOLAR
We taught them everything.
The Coming U.S. Economy Bust
New analysis places age of Grand Canyon at 4,500 years, rather than 6,000,000.
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November 16, 2004
God Damn It.
Flashback of Our New Secretary of State (video)
Congratulations to Dan Gillmor, whose column we occasionally quote on Left is Right.
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Around for Everyone
Flashback of Our New Secretary of State (video)
Congratulations to Dan Gillmor, whose column we occasionally quote on Left is Right.
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Which Shirt Are You?
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| "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - - - H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) |
| "I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they stop telling lies about Democrats, Democrats will stop telling the truth about them." - - - Adlai Stevenson |
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November 15, 2004
Just great, as THIS PHOTO illustrates:
Aw shucks, here's another:
May as golly-gee-willickers well show more...
..
..
Of course I'm being sarcastically crude. The United States of America, headed by his holiness God-Bush, the moral compass of the world, has unilaterally masssacred hundreds if not thousands of Iraqi civilians in their own hometown of Fallujah, destroyed the holy city's sacred buildings, leveled hundreds of homes and other buildings, and caused deadly uprisings in surrounding cities to grow and fester to alarming levels. Simultaneously we are being led by a "right-to-life" Republican Administration hell-bent on the death and destruction of anyone and anything that may even hint at being an obstacle to its success.
I am not going to try writing with eloquent rage. We are, as tax-paying supporters of our government and citizens of our nation, completely responsible for this nightmare of evil, not seen by Americans since the Mai Lai Massacre, which was covered up by former Secretary of State Colin Powell of anthrax-in-a-vial fame.
Don't give me any of that "I didn't vote for Bush in either election" bullcrap. If you paid your income taxes or purchase gasoline, then you and I are directly funding this mission-from-hell. You and I are fully responsible for this slaughter of human beings. Why are we letting a handful of truly evil and morally corrupt persons get away with this? Why aren't we hanging them from the nearest flagpole? Why? Why aren't you overcome with debilitating rage every time you think about this?
We pretend to care and sympathize with our neighbor down the street who just lost their child-soldier to a roadside bomb outside Baghdad. "Ohhh, so sad, so horrible is this war; so sorry for your loss; and those Iraqis aren't really THAT bad, but they did kill an AMERICAN (salute flag here)". Goddam bullshit. Most of those American soldiers killed were poorly-trained and poorly-equipped members of the National Guard, who joined because they thought they would be called up to place sandbags around American homes during floods and provide assistance in local emergencies. Instead, our vile and corrupt Bush Administration has shipped them off to a poor nation that never wanted them, that desperately wants them to leave.
The time is now to get out of your homes and into the streets to passionately protest this outrage to humanity. 99.99% of the citizens of this nation want nothing to do with the murder of innocent civilians of any nation, including Iraq; and yet here we are, sitting idly by, watching in bemused horror while lip-synching to third-rate pop music trash, burping and farting while driving our monstrous SUV's on our way to Wal-Mart to purchase ridiculously cheap clothes made in sweat shops manned by children and women who are paid less in a month than you paid for that toxic, super-sized whopper combo you're washing down with that 40 ounce chemical-laden Slurpee... We Americans are a fuckingly pathetic and mentally/physically obese group of subhumans. All of us.
To quote a famous singing duo from the 60's: "And the beat goes on..."
Aww, come on. 51% of the American public can't be THAT wrong.
Bush: Largest Threat to Mankind
Revealed: True reason for Bush Admin. dissing of Kyoto Treaty.
Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.
Another "Why They Won" essay. And another.
Microsoft: The Ultimate Monopoly?
So, How's it going in Whack-a-mole?
Just great, as THIS PHOTO illustrates:
Aw shucks, here's another:
May as golly-gee-willickers well show more...
....Of course I'm being sarcastically crude. The United States of America, headed by his holiness God-Bush, the moral compass of the world, has unilaterally masssacred hundreds if not thousands of Iraqi civilians in their own hometown of Fallujah, destroyed the holy city's sacred buildings, leveled hundreds of homes and other buildings, and caused deadly uprisings in surrounding cities to grow and fester to alarming levels. Simultaneously we are being led by a "right-to-life" Republican Administration hell-bent on the death and destruction of anyone and anything that may even hint at being an obstacle to its success.
I am not going to try writing with eloquent rage. We are, as tax-paying supporters of our government and citizens of our nation, completely responsible for this nightmare of evil, not seen by Americans since the Mai Lai Massacre, which was covered up by former Secretary of State Colin Powell of anthrax-in-a-vial fame.
Don't give me any of that "I didn't vote for Bush in either election" bullcrap. If you paid your income taxes or purchase gasoline, then you and I are directly funding this mission-from-hell. You and I are fully responsible for this slaughter of human beings. Why are we letting a handful of truly evil and morally corrupt persons get away with this? Why aren't we hanging them from the nearest flagpole? Why? Why aren't you overcome with debilitating rage every time you think about this?
We pretend to care and sympathize with our neighbor down the street who just lost their child-soldier to a roadside bomb outside Baghdad. "Ohhh, so sad, so horrible is this war; so sorry for your loss; and those Iraqis aren't really THAT bad, but they did kill an AMERICAN (salute flag here)". Goddam bullshit. Most of those American soldiers killed were poorly-trained and poorly-equipped members of the National Guard, who joined because they thought they would be called up to place sandbags around American homes during floods and provide assistance in local emergencies. Instead, our vile and corrupt Bush Administration has shipped them off to a poor nation that never wanted them, that desperately wants them to leave.
The time is now to get out of your homes and into the streets to passionately protest this outrage to humanity. 99.99% of the citizens of this nation want nothing to do with the murder of innocent civilians of any nation, including Iraq; and yet here we are, sitting idly by, watching in bemused horror while lip-synching to third-rate pop music trash, burping and farting while driving our monstrous SUV's on our way to Wal-Mart to purchase ridiculously cheap clothes made in sweat shops manned by children and women who are paid less in a month than you paid for that toxic, super-sized whopper combo you're washing down with that 40 ounce chemical-laden Slurpee... We Americans are a fuckingly pathetic and mentally/physically obese group of subhumans. All of us.
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No Deficit of Horrendous Economic Policy
| Chattanooga, Tenn. - Chattanooga Times Free Press November 8, 2004 - Editorial - No link available "The deficit-ridden Bush administration will have to borrow another $147 billion mostly from Asian central banks � in just the first quarter of 2005 � to keep its checks from bouncing, the Treasury Department confirmed the day after the election. At that rate, the federal budget deficit for the 2004-05 fiscal year will end up close to $600 billion. And that's not counting the annual Social Security surpluses ($65 billion next year) the Bush team has been gobbling up every year since taking office to mask the true size of Mr. Bush's deficit-spending and borrowing binge. Nor does it count new funding, now estimated at $75 billion, that Bush officials have confirmed they soon must seek to pay the rising costs of the Iraq war in 2005� "The president's borrowing binge for the first four years has already increased the national debt by 40 percent, from $5.25 trillion to $7.35 trillion, making the United States by far the biggest debtor nation in the world. At the same time, the Treasury Department reports, annual revenue to the government from taxes has fallen by $100 billion this year below the level it was when Mr. Bush took office in 2001, due mainly to tax cuts, not the brief recession. In the same period, spending has soared; this year's spending by the Bush administration will be $400 billion higher than when he took office� "The most frightening part of all this rising debt for unsound policies is the risk to the national and global economies. Mr. Bush's policies invite excessive reliance on the Chinese and Japanese central banks that are now buying most of the Treasury notes Washington has to float to sop up its red ink and keep its checks from bouncing. That's extraordinarily risky because it makes the United States so vulnerable to Asian decisions. It compromises U.S. independence, as well. And it threatens global financial and economic instability: When we can't keep our fiscal house in order and catch a cold, the countries tied to our economy catch pneumonia." |
To quote a famous singing duo from the 60's: "And the beat goes on..."
Aww, come on. 51% of the American public can't be THAT wrong.
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Around for Everyone
Bush: Largest Threat to Mankind
Revealed: True reason for Bush Admin. dissing of Kyoto Treaty.
Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.
Another "Why They Won" essay. And another.
Microsoft: The Ultimate Monopoly?
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November 12, 2004
Build a Better Bush (interactive)
Have you seen Bungles twanger?
Room Defenders
L.A. to New York in 3 minutes (video)
Body Art (possibly not safe for under 17 y/o, although I didn't find any of it offensive; of course I'm not a Republican)
Philosophers' Break-Up Lines
Stupid Questions Answered (check out the archives)
Hulk's Blog (a classic revisited)
A Phone Call to Tempur-Pedic
View of [name of planet] as seen from [name of planet]
Wendy's Training Video
Joseph Wu Origami
My Best Friend Plank (video)
Lunar Landscapes
Play Doctor
Caffeine Replacement Therapy: Find the 7 differences in the photos (NOT for weak of heart!)
FRIDAY FUN
Build a Better Bush (interactive)
Have you seen Bungles twanger?
Room Defenders
L.A. to New York in 3 minutes (video)
Body Art (possibly not safe for under 17 y/o, although I didn't find any of it offensive; of course I'm not a Republican)
Philosophers' Break-Up Lines
Stupid Questions Answered (check out the archives)
Hulk's Blog (a classic revisited)
A Phone Call to Tempur-Pedic
View of [name of planet] as seen from [name of planet]
Wendy's Training Video
Joseph Wu Origami
My Best Friend Plank (video)
Lunar Landscapes
Play Doctor
Caffeine Replacement Therapy: Find the 7 differences in the photos (NOT for weak of heart!)
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November 11, 2004
Stolen from HERE.
Progressives: That's our wake-up call!
Stolen from HERE.
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| "If we can�t win this damn election with a Democratic Party more unified than ever before, with us having raised as much money as the Republicans, with 55% of the country believing we�re heading in the wrong direction, with our candidate having won all three debates, and with our side being more passionate about the outcome than theirs � if we can�t win this one, then we can�t win shit! And we need to completely rethink the Democratic Party." - - - James Carville |
Progressives: That's our wake-up call!
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| "The question you need to ask is this: what do we offer them when they wake up? What do we tell them? Who do we offer for them to vote for. We need to pick the fights closest to home and be credible. We should go after the liberterians and fiscal conservatives and tell them the GOP is leaving them. The Vets, who are being betrayed by them. We need to welcome these people and explain what the GOP is really turning into. We need to oppose them, not just in Washington, but at City Hall and the school board. We end the free ride we gave them. We oppose them at every turn." - - - Steve Gilliard |
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Okay, so you guys didn't want to do it because it might have seemed like a petty thing to do before the election and the voters would turn against us, yada yada yada....
No Sweat
"We should have let them go when they wanted to leave." (Some profanity)
Warming Up to New Beachfront Property
Mistaken Let the truth be told. (4:31 video)
No tooth Fairy (Boondocks)
Because it's a holiday and I'm burnt out from work and trying to instill common sense into our misguided conservative friends, I offer you some relatively worthless trivia:
Still think there's really little difference between red and blue states, other than emphasis on christian fundamentalism in the reds? Still befuddled as to why the red states' residents are called morons by other nations for voting for Bush? Maybe THIS will explain it. Still not convinced? Try THIS
So NOW can we impeach Bush? |
I mean, we've got a bit more than a stained dress for evidence.
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Around for Everyone
No Sweat
"We should have let them go when they wanted to leave." (Some profanity)
Warming Up to New Beachfront Property
Mistaken Let the truth be told. (4:31 video)
No tooth Fairy (Boondocks)
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Bettys
Because it's a holiday and I'm burnt out from work and trying to instill common sense into our misguided conservative friends, I offer you some relatively worthless trivia:
| Mental_Floss says "You Betty, You Bet!" * Betty White, who portrayed man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," was also up for the role of the man-hungry Blanche Devereaux on "The Golden Girls." As it turned out, she was perfect for another role on the series, the dimwitted Rose Nylund, while Rue McClanahan took the role of Blanche. * Betty Crocker was a fictitious person who answered letters for the Washburn Crosby Company during a contest the company began to promote its Gold Medal brand flour. She's gone through many "facelifts" over the years, and currently appears perhaps younger than she ever has. * Betty Cooper is the blonde-haired beauty in the "Archie" comic series. Others who appear include her main rival, Veronica Lodge, along with Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. Archie's last name is Andrews. * Betty Ford, former First Lady and wife of Gerald R. Ford, was born Elizabeth Bloomer Warren. The couple married in 1948. * Betty Joan Perske was one of Hollywood's sexiest female stars, and was married to a Hollywood heavyweight with whom she appeared in a few notable film classics. You may know her better by her stage name, Lauren Bacall. * Betty Jean McBricker was the maiden name of Barney Rubble's wife. Neighbors of "The Flintstones," the Rubbles adopted muscle-bound son Bamm-Bamm shortly after Wilma and Fred had little Pebbles. * Betty Friedan coined the term "feminine mystique," and wrote a book by that title which was published in 1963. Three years later, she founded the National Organization for Women, one of the country's leading women's rights organizations. * Brown Betty is a baked pudding made with apples and raisins, sometimes known as Apple Brown Betty. "Black Betty," on the other hand, was a heavy-beat song made into a hit by the group Ram Jam. |
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Red I.Q. vs Blue I.Q.
Still think there's really little difference between red and blue states, other than emphasis on christian fundamentalism in the reds? Still befuddled as to why the red states' residents are called morons by other nations for voting for Bush? Maybe THIS will explain it. Still not convinced? Try THIS
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November 10, 2004
Destroying the Village in Order to Save It.
Bush administration's environmental enforcement record is the worst in 15 years
Tragic Fun (Mark Morford)
PC Magazine's Fall Freeware Recommendations (a cornucopia of free software)
Today's Quote
| "...shooting a horse to scare a fly on it." --- Sheikh Ghazi Al-Yawar, Iraq's interim president, describing the decision of the U.S.-led coalition to bring Fallujah down by force. |
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Around for Everyone
Destroying the Village in Order to Save It.
Bush administration's environmental enforcement record is the worst in 15 years
Tragic Fun (Mark Morford)
PC Magazine's Fall Freeware Recommendations (a cornucopia of free software)
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| "Well, the company I worked for was a company named Chas. T. Main in Boston, Massachusetts. We were about 2,000 employees, and I became its chief economist. I ended up having fifty people working for me. But my real job was deal-making. It was giving loans to other countries, huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of the loan�let's say a $1 billion to a country like Indonesia or Ecuador�and this country would then have to give ninety percent of that loan back to a U.S. company, or U.S. companies, to build the infrastructure�a Halliburton or a Bechtel. These were big ones. Those companies would then go in and build an electrical system or ports or highways, and these would basically serve just a few of the very wealthiest families in those countries. The poor people in those countries would be stuck ultimately with this amazing debt that they couldn�t possibly repay. A country today like Ecuador owes over fifty percent of its national budget just to pay down its debt. And it really can�t do it. So, we literally have them over a barrel. So, when we want more oil, we go to Ecuador and say, �Look, you're not able to repay your debts, therefore give our oil companies your Amazon rain forest, which are filled with oil.� And today we're going in and destroying Amazonian rain forests, forcing Ecuador to give them to us because they�ve accumulated all this debt. So we make this big loan, most of it comes back to the United States, the country is left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they basically become our servants, our slaves. It's an empire. There's no two ways about it. It�s a huge empire. It's been extremely successful." --- John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man |
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November 9, 2004
This would be hilarious if the writer wasn't so serious (excerpt):
I repeat: They really, really hate us. And without California, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois, the remaining USA would become a third world country in no time.
Wow. Check out THIS new news site. Very cool.
Bush: Screw Greenhouse Emissions
And they want to get rid of us
This would be hilarious if the writer wasn't so serious (excerpt):
| ....The truth is, America is not just broken--it is becoming irreparable. If you believe that recent years of uncivil behavior are burdensome, imagine the likelihood of a future in which all bizarre acts are the norm, and a government-booted foot stands permanently on your face. That is why the unthinkable must become thinkable. If the so-called "Red States" (those that voted for George W. Bush) cannot be respected or at least tolerated by the "Blue States" (those that voted for Al Gore and John Kerry), then the most disparate of them must live apart--not by secession of the former (a majority), but by expulsion of the latter. Here is how to do it. Having been amended only 17 times since 10 vital amendments (the Bill of Rights) were added at the republic's inception, the U.S. Constitution is not easily changed, primarily because so many states (75%, now 38 of 50) must agree. Yet, there are 38 states today that may be inclined to adopt, let us call it, a "Declaration of Expulsion," that is, a specific constitutional amendment to kick out the systemically troublesome states and those trending rapidly toward anti-American, if not outright subversive, behavior. The 12 states that must go: California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware. Only the remaining 38 states would retain the name, "United States of America." The 12 expelled mobs could call themselves the "Dirty Dozen," or individually keep their identity and go their separate ways, probably straight to Hell.... |
I repeat: They really, really hate us. And without California, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois, the remaining USA would become a third world country in no time.
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Around for Everyone
Wow. Check out THIS new news site. Very cool.
Bush: Screw Greenhouse Emissions
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November 8, 2004
This is how I feel when I'm not sober:
When 9/11 happened, I'm sure at one point that Gore thought: If this was destined to happen no matter what, then I'm glad it wasn't on my watch.
When Kerry began his campaign, Iraq was VERY salvageable. By election day Iraq was completely unsalvageable, and Kerry knew it. I'm sure he would have assumed his role as POTUS with honor and integrity, after all he is a good soldier and statesman.
But given a nearly impossible situation (Iraq) with almost no support (Republican Congress) can you really blame him for bowing out when he did?
So let's lay off the Kerry-bashing and look at the whole picture. He gave it his best when it counted, nearly pulled off an upset against an election coup, and was the most forthright politician in decades to run for national office. Let's give Kerry the kudos he deserves. Save your bashing for those who deserve it: the bigots who drive the Republican steamroller.
From Knowledge News (snippet):
That's right, kids. When Bush reinstates the draft next year, you'll get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see foreigners really up-close! If you're not interested, Canada is looking for college graduates.
Liberals: Set aside about 15 minutes and read THIS BLUNT MESSAGE (micro-snippet):
Republicans Bigots: Don't waste your time on this. You'll never get it. Plus, it will take you several many days to read it... there are many words with more than two syllables parts.
A Christian Democrat speaks out:
Did Kerry screw us? PDA opines.
Blocking the Vote (video; give it time to load... it's worth it)
Warming up to a new world map.
Shades of Purple (cartogram of voting results)
Turn Your Back.
How to Vote (cartoon)
The Florida portion of the election coup.
A sober view of gays.
Some Feel-Good Words
This is how I feel when I'm not sober:
| "We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don't "win," there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope. An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." - - - Howard Zinn |
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| "Few people would use an automated teller machine at your bank if it didn't spit out a paper receipt. Yet many of us were blithely willing to trust our votes to similar machines, running flawed software, with no such backup." - - - Dan Gillmor |
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Why I Think Kerry Conceded So Quickly
When 9/11 happened, I'm sure at one point that Gore thought: If this was destined to happen no matter what, then I'm glad it wasn't on my watch.
When Kerry began his campaign, Iraq was VERY salvageable. By election day Iraq was completely unsalvageable, and Kerry knew it. I'm sure he would have assumed his role as POTUS with honor and integrity, after all he is a good soldier and statesman.
But given a nearly impossible situation (Iraq) with almost no support (Republican Congress) can you really blame him for bowing out when he did?
So let's lay off the Kerry-bashing and look at the whole picture. He gave it his best when it counted, nearly pulled off an upset against an election coup, and was the most forthright politician in decades to run for national office. Let's give Kerry the kudos he deserves. Save your bashing for those who deserve it: the bigots who drive the Republican steamroller.
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Hey, Kids!
From Knowledge News (snippet):
| ...A little-known truth, though, is that only about 16 percent of the servicemen in Vietnam were drafted. Those who were drafted were often assigned the most dangerous jobs. (For instance, 88 percent of infantry rifleman were draftees.) And that meant that draftees were killed in disproportionately high numbers. Draftees accounted for more than half of the Army's battle deaths. |
That's right, kids. When Bush reinstates the draft next year, you'll get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see foreigners really up-close! If you're not interested, Canada is looking for college graduates.
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They Hate Me. They Really, Really Hate Me.
Liberals: Set aside about 15 minutes and read THIS BLUNT MESSAGE (micro-snippet):
| ....Your kindness, your warm welcome, your generosity, your concern, your love and passion--it will never work. These people hate you. Understand? They HATE you. They want you dead. All your work, your energy, your wisdom, your experience--it means nothing to them and it reads as weakness. They see your open, extended hand, and they feel oppressed by it-- it reads as scolding, as hectoring, as judgment, as oppression. They think you're going to take away their children and their guns and their Bible that they never read and teach them evolution and force them to get gay married. They really, really believe that, even as they take you for all you're worth. In fact, this belief of theirs is what gives meaning to their sordid, hateful, fearful, resentful lives. They will never change. Your kindness and generosity only enables them. They'll take what we've got--our money, our art, our science, our technology, our wisdom, our humor, our compassion--and they'll spit on us and calls us communist traitor faggots. Time to let go. They hate us. It's time we realize that.... |
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I vs. We
A Christian Democrat speaks out:
| Column Left - Los Cerritos Community news - November 4, 2004 Republicans & Democrats: Opposite Starting Points - by Charlie Ara, President Emeritus, Hubert H. Humphrey Democratic Club I am writing this on the day before the election. Of course, I hope Kerry will win. We will know by the time this Column Left is published. However, what I do know from my years of experience, is that Republicans and Democrats have opposite starting points. Republicans start with the individual and the Democrats start with the common good. Rugged individualism is a hallmark of the republican philosophy while social justice is a hallmark of the democratic philosophy. To put it in another way, the Republican Party is the party of like-minded individuals while the Democratic party is the party of diversity embracing a broad cross section of the commonweal. When I talk to Republicans I hear "I want my taxes to be lowered" "I have the right to own a gun"... "My country right or wrong" and other sentiments that begin with "I" or "me or my." When I talk to fellow democrats I hear "the working poor need a living wage" "the poor, the disabled, the mentally ill, the elderly, the immigrant are our concern." "we need affordable health care for all" "we need decent low-income housing in our communities." Since the Republicans, disregarding the first amendment of separation of church & state, have brought faith into politics, let�s look at opposite starting points there. From the Christian perspective, Republicans focus on the concept of "Jesus and I." From the Christian perspective, Democrats focus on the concept of that beatitude that says "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice " In addition, from a Christian perspective, Democrats focus on those words in Matthew 25: "I was hungry and you gave me to eat, thirsty and you gave me to drink, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to me, etc." Without getting into the complex issue of biblical interpretation, salvation for the Christian Republican depends on personal conversion and for the Christian Democrat salvation depends on what we have done for our fellow human being. Again, we are looking at "I versus we" as a starting point. Now, let�s look at the issue of morality. Christian Republicans see morality in sexual terms. Christian democrats see morality in terms of life after birth. For the Christian Democrat the most burning moral issue of the day is the morality of war. I do not want to oversimplify this, but the Pope and all major Protestant denominations condemned the war in Iraq on the basis that the moral conditions for a just war were not satisfied. In the seminary, I studied ethics as one of the seven parts of philosophy. One of the most basic tenets of ethics is that the end does not justify the means. As I see it, from both a rational and a faith perspective, the Democratic Party promotes the common good by its concern for the good of all while it appears to me that the Republican Party uses whatever means it can to protect the rich and to deprive the poor of their God-given rights. |
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Around for Everyone
Did Kerry screw us? PDA opines.
Blocking the Vote (video; give it time to load... it's worth it)
Warming up to a new world map.
Shades of Purple (cartogram of voting results)
Turn Your Back.
How to Vote (cartoon)
The Florida portion of the election coup.
A sober view of gays.
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November 7, 2004
Today's Post by a SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER!
(APPLAUSE)
The Star Wars Trailer Bonanza!
Today's Post by a SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER!
(APPLAUSE)
| Yes indeedy, folks. The Star Wars: Episode III teaser trailer has arrived. Titled Revenge of the Sith, this may be the film to save the name of the crappy-thus-far prequel trilogy of the Star Wars saga. Technically available only to members of the Official Fan Club, AOL users, and anybody who saw The Incredibles, you can see it with your very own eyes HERE (warning: may be a slow load). Take a break from the unpleasantness of the election and get your nerd on! Watch it frame by frame! HERE we have another nerdy Star Wars treat, brought to you by the fine folks at LucasArts Video Games (warning: slow load). The game comes out May 5 for PS2 and Xbox, and the movie comes out May 19 at a theater somewhere in your general direction. Hooray! |
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November 5, 2004
Why does Bush have no lips?
UPDATE 11/4/04: This was a very powerful message. There are literally hundreds of comments (most recent ones at the bottom), many exceptionally good, and I strongly recommend that you visit this post and get a sample of what people are saying. It's simultaneously depressing and enlightening.
From Newsday:
Okay, fine. But how on earth are they possibly going to find a single molecule in an entire human body? Moral of the story: Newsday needs to find writers that make sense.
Never, in American history, has this popular quote been more pertinent:
The New North America and Ceding to Canada
We're so, SO SORRY
Calling a bigot a bigot
Global Warming Facts
Note to JS, Killjoy and other immature republican trolls who have wasted a lot of their valueless time leaving worthless and incendiary (but typical for the Right) comments: Please don't stop! I get paid by the page hit and it takes only two seconds of my time to delete your vile remarks, so please, please keep coming back!
Mark Morford pleads with the disillusioned (snippet):
Yeah, well, I'll think about it, Mark.
Here's an excerpt of an essay by Mark Levine found on Informed Comment:
Bush's New World Order is likely to make Hitler's Nazi Germany seem like a walk in the park.
Lost Frog (keep clicking images)
20 Reasons for Not Posting Your Picture on the Internet
Gallery of Stick Figure Warning Signs
Larry's Face
Pong (video)
How NOT to Decorate Your Home
Why does Bush have no lips?
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| click---> This was a coup. |
UPDATE 11/4/04: This was a very powerful message. There are literally hundreds of comments (most recent ones at the bottom), many exceptionally good, and I strongly recommend that you visit this post and get a sample of what people are saying. It's simultaneously depressing and enlightening.
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Talk About a Needle in a Haystack
From Newsday:
| WASHINGTON -- A single molecule may be partly to blame for nicotine's addictive allure, a finding that researchers say could lead to potential therapies to help millions of smokers quit a life-threatening habit. More than 4 million people around the globe -- 440,000 of them Americans -- die from smoking-related causes each year. And, the nicotine-laced smoke damages more than just their lungs. The California researchers not only pinpointed a molecule responsible for nicotine addiction, they also created specialized mice to make it easier to search for other molecules impacted by nicotine addiction. The research team started by fiddling with a single gene to create mice that were hypersensitive to nicotine. The genetically engineered mice were tripped up by the tiniest exposure to nicotine -- a concentration 1/50th of the strength of nicotine coursing through a typical smoker's blood. Once hooked, the mice experienced classic signs of nicotine dependence that keep smokers puffing, the research team reports Friday in the journal Science..... |
Okay, fine. But how on earth are they possibly going to find a single molecule in an entire human body? Moral of the story: Newsday needs to find writers that make sense.
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Duct tape your doors
Never, in American history, has this popular quote been more pertinent:
| "Of course the people don't want war... That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." -- Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitler's Deputy Chief and Luftwaffe Commander, at the Nuremberg trials, 1946 |
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Around for Everyone
The New North America and Ceding to Canada
We're so, SO SORRY
Calling a bigot a bigot
Global Warming Facts
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Trolls
Note to JS, Killjoy and other immature republican trolls who have wasted a lot of their valueless time leaving worthless and incendiary (but typical for the Right) comments: Please don't stop! I get paid by the page hit and it takes only two seconds of my time to delete your vile remarks, so please, please keep coming back!
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Morford: "Don't Leave"
Mark Morford pleads with the disillusioned (snippet):
| ....The nation has officially, stupefyingly handed the world's worst president a blank check to do whatever he and his cronies like, without fear of major repercussions or voter disillusionment or damage to an imminent re-election campaign, because there won't be one. Which is to say, Bush now has no one to worry about now but his true constituents (hint: it ain't mainstream Repubs, or even the born-agains), no one to answer to but the CEOs and the energy barons and the military-supply corporations co-owned by his father, and nothing to guide him but his own deeply regressive, monosyllabic moral compass. Hell, why stick around for more of that? But here's the catch. Here's the tough part to accept. Here's what everyone who's right now on the brink of packing their bags and checking the real estate prices in Vancouver has to know and has to have drilled into their disconsolate hope-crushed souls right this minute, before it's too late: You cannot leave. You cannot drop the armor now. Why? Because you are needed, more than ever. You are mandatory to keep the energy flowing, the karmic vibrator buzzing, to keep the progressive and lucid half of the nation breathing and healthy and awake and ever reaching out to the half that's wallowing in fear and violence and homophobia and sexual dread, hoping to find harmony instead of cacophony, common ground instead of civil war, some sort of a shared love of a country so messy and internationally disrespected and openly confused its own president can't even speak the language. After all, you don't hand over all your children the first time the flying monkeys bang on your door. You don't give up your dream house just because a bunch of gangbangers moved in down the block. You become a bit more wary and alert and you stock up on the superlative porn and the expensive wine and the deepened sense of true beauty and sex and love and hope and you hunker down and grit your teeth and dig in for the long haul, and you work on making your own goddamn garden more beautiful than even you could have imagined, because, well, the neighborhood -- and the world -- needs it, more than ever. Look. No one said it was gonna be easy. No one said it was gonna be painless. And no one said it was gonna be quick. As I've noted before, the neocons have been planning this takeover for decades. The Bush regime, despite feeling like a massive indigestible incomprehensible fluke, is no accident. The GOP is deeply entrenched and the razor wire is all around their compound and they are masterful at working the angles of fear and manipulation and of kowtowing to the least tolerant and least morally flexible segments of the population -- this is, after all, how Bush won a second term -- and hence they aren't about to just roll over at the first sign of outcry or dissent or a snowboarding senator, even if he's 10 times the man and a thousand times the intellect of the smirking lunk currently in office. And besides, most hardcore Republicans would, of course, love it if you'd leave the country, and take your gul-dang gay-lovin' tofu-eatin' tree-huggin' pierced-labia values with you. They would love it, furthermore, if the libs in the morally shredded red states would split for the coastal cities and the major metropolises of America, all those godless heathen places where the neighbors won't yank the Kerry/Edwards sign outta your front lawn and chase you down and beat you with it and call it patriotism. Remember: bullies never deserve to own the playground. And one of the most stirring e-mails I received during the outpouring of grief the day after the election was from a young female reader, "an artist, an intellectual and a Jew" who's been living in Mexico and who now says she's so enraged and saddened by the election's ugly outcome that she's preparing to return to the States ASAP, just so she can help, so she can join the resistance, keep the right-wingers from coming after our souls. Now, that's patriotism. The bottom line: Don't disband the newfound army just because one ugly battle was lost. Mourn, commiserate, lick wounds, lick each other, drink heavily, spit out your stale gum of disappointment and pop in a fresh clove of laughter and spiritual heat and then regroup and sober up and take an even deeper breath and watch in hot wet spiritually emboldened amusement as the cosmic circus unfolds. It's far from over. The tunnel is just a little darker -- and longer -- than we imagined. |
Yeah, well, I'll think about it, Mark.
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The Gist of It
Here's an excerpt of an essay by Mark Levine found on Informed Comment:
| ....So here we are, three years after the tragic day of 9/11. The smell of charred metal, fuel and flesh no longer pervades the five boroughs of New York; instead it wafts across the major cities of Iraq (where most Americans don�t have to smell it, but I can attest from personal experience that the odor in Baghdad is as pungent as in Queens). The Bush Administration is free to proceed with a violently imperialist foreign policy with little fear of repercussion or political cost at home--who cares about abroad?--the Left is stupefied at its own political and moral incompetence, and the people at large are increasingly split between a fundamentalist religious-nationalist camp, and a yuppie-liberal camp that has no real legs to stand on and has little hope of engaging the millions of poor and working class who have moved to the right because of �social issues.� Indeed, it is clear that they don�t care if the rich are getting richer and the environment is going to Hell, as long as they�re on the road to Heaven--or at least the Second Coming. This situation reveals something dark, even frightening about America�s collective character. Making the situation worse are the reasons why people voted for President Bush: the belief that he better represents America�s �moral values,� along with the faith that he, not Kerry, will fight a �better and more efficient war on terror.� What kind of moral values the occupation of Iraq represents no one dares say. What kind of terror the US military has wrought in Iraq most American don�t want to know. Better to �stay the course� and pray for the safe return of the troops. Leave the troubling moral lessons of Iraq to be exorcised by Hollywood�s or Nintendo�s latest version of Rambo, helicoptering across the sands of Iraq blasting away yet more hapless Iraqi soldiers (as if enough weren�t killed in the real war) and rescuing whatever is left of America�s honor once the reality of a determined anti-colonial resistance drives America out of Iraq--the common fate of occupying powers across history. Until such time, however, unimagined damage will likely be done to the world and America�s standing in it. What are progressives to do about it? Whether in Israel or the US the liberal opposition--the Labor Party in Israel, the Democrats in the US--have proven themselves to be politically and morally bankrupt. They are dying parties and should be abandoned as quickly as possible in favor of the hard work of slowly building truly populist progressive parties that can reach out to, engage and challenge their more conservative and often religions compatriots who today look Right, not Left, to address their most basic needs.... |
Bush's New World Order is likely to make Hitler's Nazi Germany seem like a walk in the park.
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FRIDAY FUN
Lost Frog (keep clicking images)
20 Reasons for Not Posting Your Picture on the Internet
Gallery of Stick Figure Warning Signs
Larry's Face
Pong (video)
How NOT to Decorate Your Home
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November 4, 2004
One reason why I want to leave this country: I despise my tax dollars being used to finance the killing of (so far) 100,000 innocent boys, girls, mothers, wives, and babies in Iraq, when that money could instead be used to shelter and feed the homeless here in America. I am horrified every time I think of the millions of Eastern Europeans and Iraqis who are slowly dying from exposure to spent depleted uranium munitions manufactured using my money. I am angry about my money being freely showered, by the billions, onto illegally-operated corporations such as Halliburton, when it could instead be used to fight AIDS here and around the world. I am filled with rage when I think that the government takes even more of my money through the guise of "invisible taxes" just so the wealthy - the only people on the planet who don't need money - can have more of it through lower taxes.
I want to live where my taxes pay for the government services that I and my family use, for protecting me from foreign invaders, and for assisting those fellow countrymen who, for whatever reason, cannot sustain their own livelihood.
Think of just $1 of your tax money, directly from your pocket, used to make one bullet that ends up in the chest of a 10-year-old Iraqi girl who was cowering in fear in the corner of her house as your fellow countrymen were outside spraying the village randomly with automatic rifles. Your dollar bought that bullet. Yes, it did. Now think of that $1 being used to pay for one day of meals for a homeless 10-year-old wandering the streets of skid row with her mother, willing to do anything for a home, clean clothes and a chance at attending a school.
Exactly where do you prefer that $1 be spent if you were given the power to choose? Why don't you want your government to spend your money the way you want? Basically, the function of government is to spend your money. Without money there would be no government. You elect the people who decide how to spend your money, and you try to make sure those elected have your interests in mind when they make their spending decisions. If the majority of my fellow citizens want my money to be used to kill innocent humans, rather than improving their lives, then I will go somewhere that doesn't follow this insanity.
Here's a taste, via an e-message I just received, of some Republican in-fighting:
Since we Democrats are now sitting on the sidelines of the political processes in Washington, let's hope there's a lot more of this to keep us entertained over the next 4 years.
By Greg Palast
Be sure to read the entire article. The above is only the intro.
A Double Whammy for the Edwards Family
Global Warming in the News: HERE HERE HERE (Reg's may be required)
4 Reasons Bush Won
Good News for Mother Nature: Birth Rates Declining
Smokey the Log (video)
Those gol-danged electronic voting machines
As many Left is Right readers know, about a month ago we posted a request from a marine in Iraq for donations to a certain drive to get certain types of items to a certain group of Iraqi civilians. The response from the readers was outstanding. However, a certain situation arose due to the fact that this blog has a certain political "persuasion". At the request of the marine, I have removed (I think) all posts regarding this particular issue.
If you have posted anything about this subject on a site that also is of similar political bent, please consider respecting the marine's request and also remove such references/posts from your blog. If you email me I may be able to give more specific info.
Thank you.
Arianna Huffington gives her post-election analysis (snippet):
Today's CAP Talking Points:
And that's just scratching the surface. The next four years are going to be ugly and we need to accept the fact that this nation has fundamentally changed for the worse. The corporate Neocons control literally everything except our hearts, minds and souls.
Here's the first good news I've received since Tuesday evening;
Why
One reason why I want to leave this country: I despise my tax dollars being used to finance the killing of (so far) 100,000 innocent boys, girls, mothers, wives, and babies in Iraq, when that money could instead be used to shelter and feed the homeless here in America. I am horrified every time I think of the millions of Eastern Europeans and Iraqis who are slowly dying from exposure to spent depleted uranium munitions manufactured using my money. I am angry about my money being freely showered, by the billions, onto illegally-operated corporations such as Halliburton, when it could instead be used to fight AIDS here and around the world. I am filled with rage when I think that the government takes even more of my money through the guise of "invisible taxes" just so the wealthy - the only people on the planet who don't need money - can have more of it through lower taxes.
I want to live where my taxes pay for the government services that I and my family use, for protecting me from foreign invaders, and for assisting those fellow countrymen who, for whatever reason, cannot sustain their own livelihood.
Think of just $1 of your tax money, directly from your pocket, used to make one bullet that ends up in the chest of a 10-year-old Iraqi girl who was cowering in fear in the corner of her house as your fellow countrymen were outside spraying the village randomly with automatic rifles. Your dollar bought that bullet. Yes, it did. Now think of that $1 being used to pay for one day of meals for a homeless 10-year-old wandering the streets of skid row with her mother, willing to do anything for a home, clean clothes and a chance at attending a school.
Exactly where do you prefer that $1 be spent if you were given the power to choose? Why don't you want your government to spend your money the way you want? Basically, the function of government is to spend your money. Without money there would be no government. You elect the people who decide how to spend your money, and you try to make sure those elected have your interests in mind when they make their spending decisions. If the majority of my fellow citizens want my money to be used to kill innocent humans, rather than improving their lives, then I will go somewhere that doesn't follow this insanity.
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Political Humor
Here's a taste, via an e-message I just received, of some Republican in-fighting:
| ...Arrogant Pennsylvania Senator, Arlen Specter who won a very narrow victory in both his primary and general election now purports to tell President Bush what to do. This pretender to being a Republican is scheduled to be the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee where he would be able to obstruct the nominees sent up by the President. �President Bush has made excellent choices for the Federal bench in his first term,� said Richard Engle, President of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, �and I expect that he will nominate similarly for the Supreme Court.� Throughout the campaign Bush repeatedly shot down Democrat nominee John Kerry�s assertion that there should be a litmus test for abortion for any judicial nominee. According to Engle, �The President�s only litmus test is the U.S. Constitution.� According to the Associated Press the Pennsylvania Republican is already threatening President Bush, as he has in the past. In a report release Thursday, November 04, 2004 they state that, �Specter, told Bush not to nominate any conservatives for the Supreme Court, especially anyone who isn't pro-abortion. "I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning," Specter said.� These presumptuous comments come only months after Specter said, " I think it's very important to focus on what President Bush wants." However, he now thinks it proper to command the attention (and obedience) of the President of the United States! The National Federation of Republican Assemblies has established an online petition to Republican Majority Leader, Sen. Bill Frist and the entire GOP caucus calling on them to prevent Specter from taking the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.... |
Since we Democrats are now sitting on the sidelines of the political processes in Washington, let's hope there's a lot more of this to keep us entertained over the next 4 years.
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Kerry Won. . .
By Greg Palast
| November 04, 2004 Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. In the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided�known as �spoilage� in election jargon�because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Drawing on what happened in Florida and studies of elections past, Palast argues that if Ohio�s discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots. So far there's no indication that Palast's hypothesis will be tested because only the provisional ballots are being counted.... |
Be sure to read the entire article. The above is only the intro.
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Around for Everyone
A Double Whammy for the Edwards Family
Global Warming in the News: HERE HERE HERE (Reg's may be required)
4 Reasons Bush Won
Good News for Mother Nature: Birth Rates Declining
Smokey the Log (video)
Those gol-danged electronic voting machines
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Self-Censorship
As many Left is Right readers know, about a month ago we posted a request from a marine in Iraq for donations to a certain drive to get certain types of items to a certain group of Iraqi civilians. The response from the readers was outstanding. However, a certain situation arose due to the fact that this blog has a certain political "persuasion". At the request of the marine, I have removed (I think) all posts regarding this particular issue.
If you have posted anything about this subject on a site that also is of similar political bent, please consider respecting the marine's request and also remove such references/posts from your blog. If you email me I may be able to give more specific info.
Thank you.
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The Undecideds Decided..... for Bush
Arianna Huffington gives her post-election analysis (snippet):
| ....With Iraq burning, WMD missing, jobs at Herbert Hoover-levels, flu shots nowhere to be found, gas prices through the roof, and Osama bin Laden back on the scene looking tanned, rested, and ready to rumble, this should have been a can't-lose election for the Democrats. Especially since they were more unified than ever before, had raised as much money as the Republicans, and were appealing to a country where 55 percent of voters believed we were headed in the wrong direction. But lose it they did. So the question inevitably becomes: What now? Already there are those in the party convinced that, in the interest of expediency, Democrats need to put forth more "centrist" candidates � i.e. Republican-lite candidates � who can make inroads in the all-red middle of the country. I'm sorry to pour salt on raw wounds, but isn't that what Tom Daschle did? He even ran ads showing himself hugging the president! But South Dakotans refused to embrace this lily-livered tactic. Because, ultimately, copycat candidates fail in the way "me-too" brands do. Unless the Democratic Party wants to become a permanent minority party, there is no alternative but to return to the idealism, boldness and generosity of spirit that marked the presidencies of FDR and JFK and the short-lived presidential campaign of Bobby Kennedy. Otherwise, the Republicans will continue their winning ways, convincing tens of millions of hard working Americans to vote for them even as they cut their services and send their children off to die in an unjust war. Democrats have a winning message. They just have to trust it enough to deliver it. This time they clearly didn't. |
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Mandate Shmandate
Today's CAP Talking Points:
| Let's be clear about what happened on Tuesday. There was no "nationwide" mandate for President Bush and his conservative policies as Vice President Cheney smugly concluded yesterday. President Bush ran on fear and divisive cultural issues and turned out more voters than his opponent. Despite the president's sunny calls for coming together, this election was a mandate for political division not unity. Progressives must remain strong and prepare for what is coming our way. The planks of this mandate include: A full frontal assault in the culture war. "Now comes the revolution," stated right wing culture war dean Richard Viguerie yesterday. The president's fundamentalist base will demand payback and the Bush administration and its cohorts will respond in kind. They will push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions; seek to criminalize a woman's right to choose; funnel more public funds to religious groups; and try to further erode the constitutional separation of church and state. Strategies that create more enemies than they eliminate. In the short-term, having postponed difficult operations in Fallujah and so-called "no-go zones," we face an enormously difficult task of preparing Iraq for elections in January that are unlikely to meet international standards as free and fair. Having admitted no mistakes in Iraq, it is doubtful that the president will be able to attract greater international support for Iraq. In this regrettable environment, Iraq will remain a terrorist safe haven and recruiting tool. Dismantling of the social safety net and more tax policies for the wealthy. On the economic front, the president's people have already promised to begin efforts to privatize Social Security and begin attacking the foundations of public education. They will certainly seek to fully eliminate the tax on massive inherited wealth and will seek to permanently shift tax burdens off of capital and investment and onto labor. |
And that's just scratching the surface. The next four years are going to be ugly and we need to accept the fact that this nation has fundamentally changed for the worse. The corporate Neocons control literally everything except our hearts, minds and souls.
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UCS: A glimmer of Hope?
Here's the first good news I've received since Tuesday evening;
| Dear Michael, Today, all of us who believe deeply in responsible stewardship of our planet are undoubtedly thinking about the difficult road ahead. During the past four years, the Bush administration has been openly hostile to science and the basic environmental protections that safeguard our health and our environment. A second Bush term presents challenges, but not insurmountable ones. I want to assure you that the Union of Concerned Scientists understands what is at stake and is moving forward undeterred. During the past 35 years, UCS has worked successfully for change under difficult political circumstances and we will continue to do so. Thanks to UCS supporters, we are in a stronger position now than we have been at any time in the past. Together we have engaged conscientious members of Congress from both parties, built a large and dedicated grassroots network, and are working closely with allies in key states and critical industries to advance sensible environmental and national security policies. I am confident that we can continue to make progress. On Tuesday there was good news from Colorado. In the first-ever opportunity for citizens to vote on renewable energy standards, UCS and a coalition of groups in the state secured a victory that requires utilities to provide 10 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other clean energy sources by 2015. Much like the historic climate change regulations we recently helped to pass in California, this success will be an effective tool for leveraging clean energy and clean air initiatives in other states and at the federal level. I hope you will join us as we continue this important work together. Indeed, now more than ever, our nation and our environment need conscientious citizens and scientists to work together to ensure our children inherit a world that is cleaner and safer than the one we have today. We have made important progress during the past three-and-a-half decades, and we will continue to do so in the months and years ahead. Sincerely, Kevin Knobloch President |
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| There are bad times just around the corner And the outlook's absolutely vile, You can take this from us That when they Atom bomb us We are NOT going to tighten our belts and smile smile smile, We are in such a mess It couldn't matter less If a world revolution is just ahead, We'd better all learn the lyrics of the old 'Red Flag' And wait until we drop down dead. A likely story Land of Hope and Glory, Wait until we drop down dead. ---Noel Coward |
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November 3, 2004
HERE ARE SOME TRULY INSPIRING WORDS.
From Andrew Sullivan:
Listen to The Charles Pierce:
I normally call this "Around for Everyone." But in honor of yesterday's earth-changing events, today I give it a more jaded title.
Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada
Young Adult Non-Voters: DON'T COMPLAIN
The Day After... Tomorrow
This is a country I do not recognize any more.
Arctic warming at twice global rate
"He's not as Christian as we are."
Dealing with it through poetry
Bush says he's pro-life, then ruins the Earth
People are consuming the Earth's natural resources 20 percent faster than nature can renew them
Young voters: We tried to warn you of the consequences of apathy. We supported you in your get-out-the-vote drives. We taught you how to vote. We begged you to support your own future. Oh how we tried.
And then you decided, instead, to just party. As described in the following article (thanks, Michael Miller), your future is looking mighty "drafty" and oppressed:
Thanks for nothing, kids. We raised you, fed you, clothed you, educated you, worried incessantly about you, and asked you this one time to be real citizens. Well, you've screwed us and the world, and more importantly you've really screwed yourselves.
Time for some comforting thoughts from Mark Morford:
Dammit, Mark, that didn't help...
The Left Coaster summarizes my feelings about this election:
And this key reason Bush won is what delineates the true division in this country, ignoring the socio-economic schism between the wealthy and the rest of us:
Obviously the Liberal faction in this country cannot overcome the power of the wealthy religious Right. We pretty much gave it our all. The domination of the ultra-conservative coalition keeps us at arm's length as we wildly swing away at their base, but the punches never land where it might hurt. We are stuck with our country and its failings, its imperfections, its unpredictability. More people are now going to die or starve or live in poverty or get tossed into prisons than would have otherwise had our government taken a more liberal direction. For the next four years we are not going to be led by hope, fairness and compassion, but ruled by fear, hate and domination.
Liberals must channel the loathing and anger we have, fed by the arrogant and dispassionate behavior of the ruling class, into an even bolder determination and more passionate fervor not seen since the civil rights movement of the 1960's. All is lost only if we think it. Now is the time to jumpstart the revolution.
Or move to Canada.
HERE ARE SOME TRULY INSPIRING WORDS.
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Hey, Gays! 51% of America Wants You Outta Here
From Andrew Sullivan:
| I've been trying to think of what to say about what appears to be the enormous success the Republicans had in using gay couples' rights to gain critical votes in key states. In eight more states now, gay couples have no relationship rights at all. Their legal ability to visit a spouse in hospital, to pass on property, to have legal protections for their children has been gutted. If you are a gay couple living in Alabama, you know one thing: your family has no standing under the law; and it can and will be violated by strangers. I'm not surprised by this. When you put a tiny and despised minority up for a popular vote, the minority usually loses. But it is deeply, deeply dispiriting nonetheless. A lot of gay people are devastated this morning, and terrified. We have seen, and not for the first time, how using fear of a minority can be so effective a tool in building a political movement. The single most important issue for Republican voters, according to exit polls, was not the war on terror or Iraq or the economy. It was "moral values." Karl Rove understood the American psyche better than I did. By demonizing gay couples, the Republicans were able to bring in whole swathes of new anti-gay believers into their party. With new senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, two of the most anti-gay politicians in America, we can only brace ourselves for what is now coming. |
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I don't know this country's mind any more, let alone its heart.
Listen to The Charles Pierce:
| They showed up. The Republican base, that is. The people who believe that their marriages are threatened by those of gay people, the people who believe there were WMD in Iraq and that Saddam waved a hankie at Mohammed Atta, the people who believe His eye is on every embryo. They all showed up, and there are more of them than there are of us. This was a faith-based electorate and, for whatever reason, their belief was stronger than our reality. This is a country I do not recognize any more. The kids didn't vote. African-American turnout seems to have stayed pretty much the same as it was in 2000, despite all the talk. We lost seats in the Senate and in the House. (Daschle is a pretty momentous beat, despite the fact that he's not a wartime consigliore and never was.) They elected a polite David Duke in Louisiana, and someone who doesn't believe gay people should teach school in South Carolina, and a creep in Oklahoma, and somebody who's fairly obviously drifting into the fog in Kentucky. The pretty clearly indictable DeLay tactics in Texas worked like a charm. These are all victories won on grounds on which we cannot compete. When gay marriage trumps dead soldiers in Iraq, how do you run a race without dissolving into fantasy? I don't know this country's mind any more, let alone its heart.... |
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Bad News for Everyone
I normally call this "Around for Everyone." But in honor of yesterday's earth-changing events, today I give it a more jaded title.
Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada
Young Adult Non-Voters: DON'T COMPLAIN
The Day After... Tomorrow
This is a country I do not recognize any more.
Arctic warming at twice global rate
"He's not as Christian as we are."
Dealing with it through poetry
Bush says he's pro-life, then ruins the Earth
People are consuming the Earth's natural resources 20 percent faster than nature can renew them
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Thanks for Nothing, Kids
Young voters: We tried to warn you of the consequences of apathy. We supported you in your get-out-the-vote drives. We taught you how to vote. We begged you to support your own future. Oh how we tried.
And then you decided, instead, to just party. As described in the following article (thanks, Michael Miller), your future is looking mighty "drafty" and oppressed:
| Damn politics, let's dance By Pepe Escobar Forget Ohio. Forget the mathematics. Forget all the lawyers. By any measure, in terms of direct - not indirect, Electoral College democracy - George W Bush has won this referendum. A president who was never above a 50% approval rate in the past few months, who lost all three debates with challenger Senator John Kerry, but now has a majority of almost 4 million in the popular vote, has in fact won the referendum on himself. Fasten your seat belts: it's going to be a bumpy ride. Control of the presidency, Senate, House. A popular mandate. Four more years. Possibly four more wars. In a nutshell, chief strategist Karl Rove got the evangelicals out in force. According to a series of Gallup polls, 42% of Americans declare themselves evangelicals or born-again Christians. Bush always had a head start of 42%. The widely sung-and-danced-to youth vote never materialized. The 18-to-29 generation voted in exactly the same numbers as in 2000: first-time voters - a pro-Kerry majority, worried about the economy and the war on Iraq - were only 10% of the electorate. The 30-to-44 group was even more scarce. So much for great expectations. An army of Democrats, an army of pollsters and even a few Republicans made fools of themselves. The youth vote meant, in essence, "damn politics, let's dance". The exit polls were all horribly wrong. The blogosphere was basically calling a Kerry victory as soon as the polls closed. A Harris poll was also predicting Kerry. The exits had Kerry leading Bush among men by 51%-49%, and among women by 53%-47%. The final exits for Ohio had Kerry winning 52%-48%. Blogger Kevin Drum was saying that "in a way it's the ultimate in navel gazing. The bloggers all read the media and the media call bloggers to find out what they're reading." Then the blogosphere went dead for an hour, an hour and a half, two hours - as if the virtual world was trying to absorb the avalanche of red states and the news from Florida and the nail-biting Ohio crawl. There was widespread talk that the Republicans were trying everything to steal the election in the courts, trying to get the courts to stop voting while people were already in line when the polls closed, trying for a ruling against provisional ballots. Desperate Democrats started spinning that provisional ballots in Ohio would decide everything. It would take at least 11 days, according to the Ohio state secretary. All this while Bush's lead in Ohio was increasing. PNAC's program The United States may have gone to the polls as a divided, uncertain, paralyzed-by-fear nation. Today it's still a divided, uncertain, paralyzed-by-fear nation, but now with a clear mandate for the state really to rock the geopolitical boat. The "most important election of a lifetime" has sent a clear message to the whole world: the face of America in the next four years - barring a Richard Nixon-style impeachment - will be of unilateralism, the "war on terror" possibly progressively escalating into a clash of civilizations. And pay attention to the "axis of evil" hit list - the official and the bootleg. Bush II will attack what it defines as "state terrorism" - Iran, Syria - instead of the global jihadi network. It will continue to rely on Pakistan to "decapitate" the odd "high-value al-Qaeda". It won't engage in diplomacy to address the political causes of terrorism. It won't engage in a cultural and ideological effort to try to counteract the global jihad - especially now that Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri have changed the rules of the asymmetrical game from a religious clash to a political struggle against imperialism. Total concentration of right-wing power - legitimized by the popular vote: this is the new neo-conservative dream turned reality. So the road ahead is to flatten the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah in Iraq, bomb Iran because of its supposed nuclear aspirations, depose President Hafez Assad in Syria, crush the Palestinian resistance, and remodel the Middle East by "precision strike" democracy. There will be serious blowback. A new pan-Islamic nationalism, for example, featuring Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's Shi'ite masses allied with the Sunni triangle to kick out the Americans from Iraq, eventually supported by both Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iraq crisscrossed by guerrillas and Iran penetrated by US intelligence, both leading - plus Shi'ite eastern Saudi Arabia, where the oil is - to a new, catastrophic oil shock. And then the neo-conservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC) - which virtually took over the US government - will create a major confrontation with China. Asia, beware. The faith-based, apocalyptic evangelicals have won this battle against the "reality community". Bush won despite Tora Bora, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib. The crusade continues. In God we trust - and also in Osama bin Laden. He got exactly what he wanted. |
Thanks for nothing, kids. We raised you, fed you, clothed you, educated you, worried incessantly about you, and asked you this one time to be real citizens. Well, you've screwed us and the world, and more importantly you've really screwed yourselves.
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Sorry, World
Time for some comforting thoughts from Mark Morford:
| ....It simply boggles the mind: We've already had four years of some of the most appalling and abusive foreign and domestic policy in American history, some of the most well-documented atrocities ever wrought on the American populace and it's all combined with the biggest and most violently botched and grossly mismanaged war since Vietnam, and still much of the nation still insists in living in a giant vat of utter blind faith, still insists on believing the man in the White House couldn't possibly be treating them like a dog treats a fire hydrant. Inexplicable? Not really. People want to believe. They want to trust their leaders, even against all screaming, neon-lit evidence and stack upon stack of flagrant, impeachment-grade lie. They simply cannot allow that Dubya might really be an utter boob and that they are being treated like an abused, beaten housewife who keeps coming back for more, insisting her drunk husband didn't mean it, that she probably had it coming, that the cuts and bruises and blood and broken bones are all for her own good. And this election, it might be all be very amusing, in a Mel Gibsony, blood-drenched hamburger-of-Christ sorta way, were it not so sad and dangerous. It might all be tolerable and cute, in a violence-engorged, sexist, video-gamey sorta way, were it not so lopsided and wrong. This election's outcome, this heartbreaking proof of a nation split more deeply and decisively than ever, it simply reinforces the feeling among much of the educated populace: It is a weirdly embarrassing time to be an American. It is jarring and oddly shattering and makes you rethink what it really means to be a part of this country. The answer: It doesn't mean much at all. Not really. Not anymore. This is the common wisdom on the progressive Left. Those first four toxic Bush years? A fluke. A phantasm. A stolen election. A gaff, a mugging, a crime. But this? An election this close makes you reconsider. Maybe, after all, we aren't nearly as far along as we think. Maybe we're not all that sophisticated or nuanced or respectable a nation as we sometimes dare to dream. Maybe, in fact, we're regressing, back to the days of guns and sexism and pre-emptive violence, of environmental abuse and no rights for women and an sincere hatred of gays and foreigners and minorities. Sound familiar? It should: It's the modern GOP platform. Here's the thing: For tens of millions of us, it is simply unconscionable that we could possibly be led for another four years by a small and spoiled little man who has very little real idea what he's doing and even less of how the hell he got there. It would be funny, in a Adam Sandler, toilet-humored sort of way, were it not so poisonous and depressing. And yet it looks like we're stuck with it, like a shard of glass buried deep in the eye. And the rest of the world? Well, it can only watch us and shake its collective head and wonder just what the hell is wrong with us, why so many millions of us would even consider re-electing the world's most inept and war-hungry and insanely inarticulate man to four more years of unchecked power, why our much-hyped much-coveted supposedly ultra-superior democratic system is so very deeply blotchy and knotty and spoiled. So then, to much of Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Russia, the Middle East -- to all those dozens of major world nations who want Bush out almost as much as the educated people of America, to you we can only say: We are so very, very sorry. We don't know how it happened, either. For tens of millions of us, Bush is not our president and never will be. That's how divisive. That's how dangerous. That's how very sad it has become. The GOP steamroller appears to be just too powerful, just too well-oiled and blood soaked and fear inducing to be stopped just yet. After all, the Right has been working on this master plan and building their takeover strategy for about forty years. It's gonna take those of us working for change and progress and raw spiritual juice a little more than one or two to dissolve it away like the cancer it so obviously is.... |
Dammit, Mark, that didn't help...
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The Canadian Flag is Pretty
The Left Coaster summarizes my feelings about this election:
| "If the Republicans win everything, like they hope they have, they also have total responsibility for the world they create. All the problems that have been incipient such as the disastrous fiscal policy, the catastrophe waiting our country in Iraq and the total blindness of what global warming means for the world, everyone of these things will be failures on their watch. The one silver lining in the Democratic picture is that we cannot be held responsible for total failure of these significantly important issues which the Bush administration has failed to address or has already totally screwed up. These issues are so critical that it would take a miracle to fix them and anyone waiting for Bush to address them should remember that he had a lot to do with making these crises worse." |
And this key reason Bush won is what delineates the true division in this country, ignoring the socio-economic schism between the wealthy and the rest of us:
| "....we Democrats have to face a depressing set of facts: the religious right and the Cult controls this country. By cleverly placing gay marriage bans on the ballots in several key swing states, Rove was able to ensure that the values issues would overcome pocketbook or war concerns and drive up the vote amongst the right wing base at a time when a majority indicated concerns about Iraq, the economy, and the direction of the country were paramount to them." |
Obviously the Liberal faction in this country cannot overcome the power of the wealthy religious Right. We pretty much gave it our all. The domination of the ultra-conservative coalition keeps us at arm's length as we wildly swing away at their base, but the punches never land where it might hurt. We are stuck with our country and its failings, its imperfections, its unpredictability. More people are now going to die or starve or live in poverty or get tossed into prisons than would have otherwise had our government taken a more liberal direction. For the next four years we are not going to be led by hope, fairness and compassion, but ruled by fear, hate and domination.
Liberals must channel the loathing and anger we have, fed by the arrogant and dispassionate behavior of the ruling class, into an even bolder determination and more passionate fervor not seen since the civil rights movement of the 1960's. All is lost only if we think it. Now is the time to jumpstart the revolution.
Or move to Canada.
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November 2, 2004
[1] CLICK HERE to find your voting location.
[2] Print out THIS CARD and put it in your pocket along with your I.D.
[3] Go Vote!
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Have you voted yet? No? Then, jesus christ, what are you waiting for? Take your hand off the mouse, get up, go get your keys and wallet/purse, and get to your voting station NOW!
311 - 213
Excerpt:
Complete Video Here
When polled, the pollee is aware that the pollster knows who he is, and often others in the pollee's location can hear what the pollee is saying. I think a healthy portion of polled Republicans will say they are going to vote for Bush. But when they enter the voting booth, their vote is anonymous and they don't have family/friends observing. They have a real opportunity to vote with their heart and conscience rather than their cowardice.
REAL TIME ELECTION TRACKER
Early exit polling #'s show Pennsylvania, New Hampshire & Minnesota for Kerry.
Interesting scenario by Andrew Tanenbaum, owner/operator of Electoral Vote Predictor:
"It could get ugly" would be the understatement of the year if this actually happens.
Kerry will receive a landslide of votes. Probably 55% of voters will choose him on their ballots.
Final count of those votes? Too close to call. Depends on how many Democratic ballots the Republicans throw away and how many electronic voting machines are rigged by the Republicans.
Number of American citizens who will try to vote, are qualified to vote, but who will be kept from exercising their right to vote (disenfranchised)? Two million. Percent of those 2M being minority? 80%.
Chance of my going to Washington D.C. to join the revolution in the streets if Bush steals another one? My bags are already packed.
:::::::: HOW TO VOTE NOV. 2 ::::::::
[1] CLICK HERE to find your voting location.
[2] Print out THIS CARD and put it in your pocket along with your I.D.
[3] Go Vote!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have you voted yet? No? Then, jesus christ, what are you waiting for? Take your hand off the mouse, get up, go get your keys and wallet/purse, and get to your voting station NOW!
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Zogby Predicts Kerry Win
311 - 213
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The last river poisoned The last fish caught Only then will man discover That he cannot eat money. ---Cree Indian wisdom |
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Eminem - MOSH
Excerpt:
| ....Now this is our, final hour Let me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six Teen million people are equal of this high pitch Maybe we can reach Al Quaida through my speech Let the President answer on high anarchy Strap him with AK-47, let him go Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes They've been swiped, washed out and wiped, And Replaced with his own face, mosh now or die If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight So come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed Carry on, give me hope, give me strength, Come with me, and I won't steer you wrong Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight, We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the door And as we proceed, to mosh through this desert storm, in these closing statements, if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences, and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president, for the present, and mosh for the future of our next generation, to speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator.... |
Complete Video Here
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Why I think the Polls Will Turn Out Wrong
When polled, the pollee is aware that the pollster knows who he is, and often others in the pollee's location can hear what the pollee is saying. I think a healthy portion of polled Republicans will say they are going to vote for Bush. But when they enter the voting booth, their vote is anonymous and they don't have family/friends observing. They have a real opportunity to vote with their heart and conscience rather than their cowardice.
REAL TIME ELECTION TRACKER
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Results
Early exit polling #'s show Pennsylvania, New Hampshire & Minnesota for Kerry.
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The Rehnquist Factor
Interesting scenario by Andrew Tanenbaum, owner/operator of Electoral Vote Predictor:
| ....Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist announced last week that he was going to return to the Supreme Court yesterday. He did not return. According to the New York Times his office released a terse statement saying that the Chief Justice spent 7 days at Bethesda Naval Hospital where he was treated for thyroid cancer. He underwent a tracheotomy so he could breathe and he is now being given both chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Medical experts say this evidence suggests that the cancer was not successfully removed and that even with heroic treatment, patients with this type of cancer usually die within a year. Should the election end up in the Supreme Court, it is not known whether Rehnquist will particpate in the case and vote on the outcome. Should he decline to participate due to ill health, the deadlock in the country might end up in a Court itself deadlocked 4-4. In such an event, the lower court ruling stands but no legal precedent is set. An alternative scenario is that Chief Justice Rehnquist resigns and that President Bush makes a recess appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation. If Bush were to appoint a new justice without Senate confirmation who then cast the deciding vote to make Bush president I fear for the future of the country. Let us hope somebody wins big today with no litigation. Do your part and vote..... |
"It could get ugly" would be the understatement of the year if this actually happens.
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Left is Right's Prediction
Kerry will receive a landslide of votes. Probably 55% of voters will choose him on their ballots.
Final count of those votes? Too close to call. Depends on how many Democratic ballots the Republicans throw away and how many electronic voting machines are rigged by the Republicans.
Number of American citizens who will try to vote, are qualified to vote, but who will be kept from exercising their right to vote (disenfranchised)? Two million. Percent of those 2M being minority? 80%.
Chance of my going to Washington D.C. to join the revolution in the streets if Bush steals another one? My bags are already packed.