Heartland Diary of Betty B.

Let Them Eat Cake

2010-11-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

From Frank Rich in the New York Times, 11/13/2010.

"The top 1% of American earners took in 23.5% of the nation's pretax income in 2007--up from less than 9% in 1976. During the boom years of 2002 to 2007, that top 1 percent's pretax income increased an extraordinary 10% every year. But the boom proved an exclusive affair: in that same period, the median income for non-elderly American households went down and the poverty rate rose."

Republican policy has sucked the life blood from the American middle class, with free trade treaties, off-shoring of American jobs and two major stock market crashes during the reign of George W. Bush that crippled the IRAs and pension plans of most average wage earners.

Too bad the Democrats have not been able to grasp these facts and respond to the plight of middle America. I am pragmatic enough, that I went to the polls and voted for Democrats as the lesser of two evils. I realize that with Republicans in power I don't have a ghost of a chance, unless I can stomach a steady diet of cake. However, 29 million voters who supported Obama two years ago just stayed home.

Now Obama just rolls over for Repulican tax cuts for the rich, and I am not happy about it, but not really surprised either. I think Obama's nickname should be Rover, since rolling over is what he does best.

David Sirota Exclusive: UnitedHealth Lobbyist Announces Pelosi Fundraiser As She Begins Backing Off Pub Option

2009-09-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

From Open Left:

EXCLUSIVE: UnitedHealth Lobbyist Announces Pelosi Fundraiser As She Begins Backing Off Pub Option

by: David Sirota

Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 17:47

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time yesterday suggested she may be backing off her support of the public option. According to CNN, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "said they would support any provision that increases competition and accessibility for health insurance - whether or not it is the public option favored by most Democrats." When "asked if inclusion of a public option was a non-negotiable demand - as her previous statements had indicated Pelosi ruled out any non-negotiable positions," according to CNN. This was also corroborated by the Associated Press, and by Pelosi's own words, as quoted in those stories.
This announcement came just hours before Steve Elmendorf, a registered UnitedHealth lobbyist and the head of UnitedHealth's lobbying firm Elmendorf Strategies, blasted this email invitation throughout Washington, D.C. I just happened to get my hands on a copy of the invitation from a source - check out this OpenLeft exclusive:

From: Steve Elmendorf [mailto:steve@elmendorfstrategies.com] Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 8:31 AM Subject: event with Speaker Pelosi at my home

You are cordially invited to a reception with

Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi

Thursday, September 24, 2009
6:30pm ~ 8:00pm

At the home of Steve Elmendorf
2301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Apt. 7B
Washington, D.C.

$5,000 PAC
$2,400 Individual

To RSVP or for additional information please contact Carmela Clendening at (202) 485-3508 or clendening@dccc.org

Steve Elmendorf
ELMENDORF STRATEGIES GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS SOLUTIONS
900 7th Street NW Suite 750
Washington DC 20001
(202) 737-1655

Again, Elmendorf is a registered lobbyist for UnitedHealth, and his firm's website brags about its work for UnitedHealth on its website (Elmendorf was also a chief of staff for Democratic Minority Leader Dick Gephardt).

The sequencing here is important: Pelosi makes her announcement and then just hours later, the fundraising invitation goes out. Coincidental? I'm guessing no - these things rarely ever are.

I wrote a book a few years ago called Hostile Takeover whose premise was that corruption and legalized bribery has become so widespread that nobody in Washington even tries to hide it. This is about as good an example of that truism as I've ever seen.

Health Care According to the Show-Me Institue

2009-08-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Todays News Leader has lots of statistics about health care from the Show-Me Institute, a right-wing think tank funded by wealthy Republican Rex Sinquefield. Rex has shown us all a better world. Envsion this:

Health care for all is just a fantasy.

Let's imagine that Show-Me Institute mogul Rex Sinquefield invested all his money with Bernie Madoff, and now he has fallen on hard times. He can't afford to pay his insurance premiums or pay his doctor or hospital bills. Do we feel sorry for Rex? No, not really.

Rex is having chest pains at 123 Fat Cat Lane in Columbia, MO. But wait, can we send an ambulance out there if we can't make a profit off Rex? Can we admit him to the hospital if he can't pay the bill? No, absolutely not. Money is God in the world of the Show-Me Institute. Rex should know this, it was his brain child of how to make money above all else.

Thanks, Rex for showing us the error of being kind to each other and ministering to the sick. It's all about money and free markets and yachts for those who pile up the profit.

Great advice from the Show-Me Institute. I think I see the error in my thinking now.

Health Care Is A Human Rights Issue

2009-08-17T09:19:00.001-07:00

My letter to the president:

Dear President Obama,

Health care is a human rights issue. It is inhumane to deny access to 45 million Americans. Consider the thousands who line up for free care at tent cities set up by Health Expedition.

We are the wealthiest country in the world. Yet our health care dollars are being siphoned off by insurance companies and the drug industry. Compare our health spending with that of other countries:

Per capita health care spending (2003):

United States: $5711
France: $3048
Germany: $2983Denmark: $2743
Italy: $2314
United Kingdom: $2317
Japan: $2249

All of these countries deliver health care to every citizen, but not the U.S. France is rated #1 by the WHO, while we are rated #37. We can deliver excellence. You as president must stand up to profiteering in the health care business. If you cannot, and deliver us a crappy bill that makes matters worse instead of better, I will not support you in 2012.

We can have a single payer system such as Medicare for all, with supplemental plans, or we can have regulated private insurers and price controls on drug companies as in Germany. Either way the insurance and drug companies have to give up their gravy train.

Sick and dying Americans need your help. My sister was fired after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, presto, no insurance. My friend ***** was just diagnosed with Cervical cancer. She cannot afford treatment, but she has a little equity in a house so does not quality for MedicAid. She is treating herself with a raw foods diet. I think we both know what the end result will be.

Please get yourself together and be an advocate for a health care solution that makes sense. You have a majority in the congress. Make the case for we the people. It is the right thing to do, and it is what you promised us.

Sincerely,

Betty

George Bush, Chirac, The Gog and The Magog

2009-08-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

In a revelation from former French President Chirac, George Bush asked him in 2003 to join the U.S. in the invasion of Iraq in order "to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse."

This comes on the heels of the GQ magazines report on former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who "attached warlike Bible verses and Iraq battle photos to war reports he hand-delivered to Bush. One declared: “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”"

The Charleston Gazette is the only U.S. newspaper to report the Bush-Chirac story and the source comes from an article by James A. Haught, editor of the Gazette, A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush.

Another interesting note gleaned from an earlier Alternet story on the Chirac/Bush encounter:

"There is a curious coda to this story. While a senior at Yale University George W. Bush was a member of the exclusive and secretive Skull & Bones society. His father, George H.W. Bush had also been a "Bonesman", as indeed had his father. Skull & Bones' initiates are assigned or take on nicknames. And what was George Bush Senior's nickname? "Magog"."

My question: was dimwit W. schooled in these nutball ideas by his father, his associates in Skull & Bones, and egged on by cronies such as Rumsfeld? Those bones dudes are like, "secret" so I guess we may never know.

I always thought Bush 43 was an idiot, from the time he stepped on to the national stage and demonstrated that he had not quite mastered third grade grammar. But couple that with a religious fervor that gives W. the yearning for a starring role in his apocalypic vision, and it brings the sad realization that his eight years in the presidency allowed him to bring that horror to life in instigating the Iraq war.

Why We Need Single Payer Health Care

2009-06-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

Insurance companies are leeches sucking the life blood from policy holders. Why should any CEO command a salary such as this, when it represents the denial of health care to millions of sick people?

A single payer plan (Medicare for all) will send these people to the unemployment line and give coverage to every American.

ANNUAL COMPENSATION (2006 and 2007):

� Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
� H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
� David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
� Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
� Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
� Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
� Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
� Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
� William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
� Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
� James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
� Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
� Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
� Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
� Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
� Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
� Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
� Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
� Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
� Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751

Please Legalize Drugs And Stop The Violence

2009-04-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

As the drug cartels terrorize Mexico and various border towns, they are bringing drugs by the truckload to the streets of the U.S.

An article in today's Texas Observer talks about the border towns of El Paso/Juarez, as the embattled citizens of that area cope with the violence and kidnappings.

...While El Pasoans argue over semantics and statistics, residents in Juarez fight for their lives as innocent bystanders in a battle over who will sell cocaine and marijuana to the world’s biggest drug consumer. The Obama administration appears to be looking at the problem from a fresh perspective, shifting U.S. policy to focus more on the promotion of substance-abuse treatment and prevention, and less on the drug war. During her March visit to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that battling cartel violence should be a shared responsibility and emphasized that America needs to curb its demand for illegal drugs. That’s a decidedly different political tack from the Bush years, when all the talk was about bigger walls, increased firepower, and Mexico’s responsibility for the problem. Other high-level administration officials have been dispatched to Mexico with messages similar to Clinton's, including Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder...

Let's get real. The only solution to this problem is to legalize drugs and burst the money bubble that is fueling this frenzy. When cartel bosses can make millions, and illiterate street punks can be rolling in dough dealing drugs, there is no "war" that will ever stop the tide of drugs flowing into the U.S.

Another small matter is that the lax gun laws in the U.S. allows unscrupulous gun dealers here to supply these cartels with the weapons they use to enforce the terror they bestow. Guns and drugs flow across the border like water.

So, the bottom line is to legalize drugs, and sell them at low cost to all adults who want them. Put the money used in this futile war into prevention, education and treatment of drug users.

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

2009-04-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

Bobby Jindal's statements yesterday in support of President Obama, came as a surprise in a recent flurry of Republican teabaggers and naysayers. It was a start, but the GOP have a long way to go before they become a party that makes sense.

Commenter Osage replying on the Huffington Post says it eloquently:

BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

In order to gain the political control they've enjoyed over the last ten years, Republican moderates and fiscal conservatives made a pact with the devil (faux Christians, bigots and misanthropes) to achieve the numbers they needed to defeat Democrats. They made a strategic decision to manipulate and exploit the ignorance, fears and hatreds of dysfunctional and vulnerable voters in order to win elections rather than lose them by being intellectually and morally honest.

Today, those who conspired with the devil are caught between wanting to disassociate themselves with and or casting out the devil they empowered and the karmic reality that they don't have the numbers to hold on to or regain power without continuing to accept and "advocate" the immoral values, hypocrisies and corruptions that are dividing and destroying their party.

The survival of today's shrinking Republican Party has become so dependent on extremism that they have no significant power left WITH or WITHOUT the support of America's increasingly pernicious lunatic fringe.

The idiom "caught between the devil and the deep blue sea" is certainly appropriate as Republicans are facing the dilemma of choosing between two equally undesirable alternatives that both result in Republican impotence in mainstream American politics. They are suffering the consequences of their treachery.

Their irresponsible propping up of George W. Bush cost them their credibility, and their disgraceful and shameless licking of Rush Limbaugh's storm trooper boots is costing them their viability.

2008-12-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

Earl Durnell wrote a letter in today's News-Leader detailing why he is a Democrat. I so heartily agree with every word he said. My reply to him:

Mr. Durnell, What a great letter. I'm a few years younger than you, and we always had electricity, but some of my relatives living further back in the hills were slower to get electricity. If Roosevelt had not taken on the rural electrification project, progress would have been slowed by decades in areas like the Ozarks.

Being a Democrat has always seemed like a no-brainer for me. None of my family has ever made more than $250,000 per year, so they are more concerned with how to pay for college, and how to afford the health care they need, and living through their senior years without being a burden on the rest of the family.

Republicans are funded by corporate fat cats, who care only about the bottom line and how much money they can siphon off the efforts of the working class. That is what "free" trade is all about, their constant mantra of the last few years. It is all about closing our factories, and sending production to countries like China where workers are virtual slaves making a few cents per hour. (But, they are so lucky to have those jobs, we're told!) There are no environmental or safety regulations to worry about either.

The Republican platform of late is to clear cut the forest, neglect the infrastructure, ship the jobs overseas, outsource and privatize everything possible to make a profit for the corportate masters.Wake up, Ozarkers, and smell the economic disaster for the 95% of us who are not in the upper echelon.

Let's get back to the basics of clean air and water, healthy home-grown food, access to education for everyone, decent housing, jobs for everyone and universal access to health care for every US citizen.

Republicans have pulled all politics to the corporate view, its time to pull back to put government once again in the service of the people in both parties.

Bailout Fixes Problems, Sadly NO

2008-11-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

Sadly, No has a few words on the financial meltdown. Enough said.

Nov24
We Eated It
Posted at 18:34 by Gavin M.

Fed Pledges Top $7.4 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit

O hai! Here’s your US Goverment, Mr. Obama. Sorry we spended it all, hehe.

Blitzkrieg On Afghani Brides

2008-11-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

From TomDispatch, Nov.12, 2008:

On the day that Americans turned out in near record numbers to vote, a record was set halfway around the world. In Afghanistan, a U.S. Air Force strike wiped out about 40 people in a wedding party. This represented at least the sixth wedding party eradicated by American air power in Afghanistan and Iraq since December 2001.

American planes have, in fact, taken out two brides in the last seven months. And don't try to bury your dead or mark their deaths ceremonially either, because funerals have been hit as well....

Read the entire article here.

Paul Krugman Wins Nobel Prize For Economics

2008-10-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

I've been following Paul Krugman's column and blog in the New York Times lately, trying to make sense of the financial meltdown. He has often been the lone sane voice speaking out in a crowd of tinkle-down economists. Congratulations to him on his Nobel Prize for Economics.

From Editor and Publisher:

Krugman Wins Nobel Prize for Economics

By E&P Staff Published: October 13, 2008 7:45 AM ET

STOCKHOLM He's been hailed of late for being basically right in his months and years of warning about a coming financial crisis. Now New York Times columnist -- and Princeton professor -- Paul Krugman has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics.

A favorite whipping boy for conservatives, he's been getting more and more time on TV lately as a political/economic commentator.

Krugman, 55, won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity. He formulated a new theory to answer questions about free trade, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The McCain Campaign, Short Version

2008-10-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

From the comments at today's Huffington Post:

comment by thegreatgiginthesky:

Why don't I save us all the time and effort it takes to tune into the debate to see what McCain has to say about the issues

McCain's answer on the economy - "I know how to fix the economy"

McCain's answer on the war on terror - "I know how to win a war"

McCain's answer on healthcare - "I know how to fix healthcare"

McCain's answer on taxes - "Obama wants to raise taxes"

McCain's answer on the environment - "I know how to fix the environment"

--and from Gina322

And don't forget "I know how to catch Bin Laden"

The Zombie Of VooDoo Economics Resurrected

2008-09-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

From a comment on the blog of Paul Krugman:

Combine:

*the economic skills of Herbert Hoover,
*the foreign policy acumen of Lyndon Johnson
*the compassion of Calvin Coolidge
*the good luck of Jimmy Carter
*the voodoo witch doctor of Ronald Reagan (contributed by bettyb)
*the brainpower of Warren Harding
*the respect for civil liberty of John Adams (Alien and Sedition Act, anyone?)
*the honesty of Richard Nixon
*and the incorruptibility of Ulysses Grant in a suitable mixing bowl and thoroughly whip. Add at least 3 tsp of an economic deflationary death spiral caused by free-market fundamentalists, rational choice theorists, neoclassical economists, and associated right-wingers, bake for 8 years using a greased, Teflon-coated pan in an oven set to 700 billion degrees.

Serve with braised filet of Rand, spleen of Mises, or liver of Gekko, and finish with a savory demi-glace of privatized profits and socialized losses.

Serves 300 million with all the CheneyBushPaulsonMcCainPalin they can eat.

— Posted by katana0182

The Free Market Created A House Of Cards

2008-09-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

As we see the continuing implosion on Wall Street, it's apparent now to everyone that this economy of unregulated "free market" wheeling and dealing was just a house of cards inflated by hot, stinky air.

A market with no rules and regulations is what the fat cats have foisted upon us, and by adding that deceptive word "free" they have convinced the rank and file voter that these policies were best for the U.S.

Everyone, including Republicans, Democrats, financial executives and gurus need to come clean about their part in allowing this colosssal market failure to happen. We must have assurances that this will never happen again.

And please, all of the right-wingers who scream constantly about the evils of socialism--take a long period of introspection about what that word means as U.S. taxpayers take responsibility for shoring up these bloated too-large-to-fail financial institutions.

Oh, and in the meantime, we can't put in place a program for taking care of the healthcare needs of all Americans. This is the way it goes, we bail the fat cats out as they bring us to the brink of an economic disaster to rival the great depression, but when we ask for healthcare for all to be administered by an equitable, single-payer system they refuse by calling it "socialized medicine".

Take a long breath of that hot, stinky air and then think about whether you want this current crop of Republicans to continue in power.

I'm voting for Obama/Biden. Time for a sea change in Washington.

Slate's "Hillary Deathwatch"

2008-06-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

I just sent a letter to Slate. Their Hillary Deathwatch feature, which now boasts 45 entries beginning 3/27/08, has long pissed me off. If by chance Obama had been on their shit list, they would not have gotten by with this crap. My note to them:

If The Tables Were Turned...

This Hillary Deathwatch thing you have done is so uncool, not to mention tacky and biased.

Every president and many candidates lives are under the threat of physical harm. If the tables were turned and your miserable website supported Hillary over Obama, you would not have gotten away with this for one second.

I hope you at Slate, and the rest of the biased media assholes are happy now.

Thank You, Hillary

2008-06-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Hillary,

Thank you, for the strength and determination you have shown during the course of this campaign. Although, I'm disappointed with the outcome, I know that your candidacy has furthered the cause of all Americans, especially the 50 plus percent of us who are women.

I will now throw my full support behind Senator Obama, and your endorsement of him highlights all the reasons why we must elect a Democrat this fall.

But, please know Hillary, that if you seek any future office, that I will be first in line to support you with my donations and volunteer in any way I can on your behalf.

Sincerely,

Betty

99 Problems, Sweetie

2008-05-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

Obama dismisses a question from a woman reporter yesterday, calling her "sweetie." As pointed out by Shakespeare's Sister, it's not the first time.

Elizabeth Edwards is notably absent from her husband's endorsement of Obama, having gone on record recently endorsing Hillary's health plan as superior. John made a point to state that his wife was not a part of his link-up with Obama.

Obama is riding high on a wave of support from Hillary-haters, most of whom do not criticize her platform, but instead resort to misogynist slurs ranging from Chris Matthews' "She-Devil" to Randi Rhodes' "fucking whore" comment. And then there's Olbermann who suggests that a super delegate should take Hillary into a room "and only he comes out," as a part of the ongoing Why Won't The Stupid Bitch Quit saga. Even Charlie Rose has chimed in on that one several times.

Shakespeare's Sister has an ongoing Hillary Sexism Watch which is now up to post #90.

Marie Cocco weighs in at the Washinton Post today:

Misogyny I Won't Miss

I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan “Bros before Hos.” The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and are widely sold on the Internet.

I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker

I won’t miss episodes like the one in which liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a “big [expletive] whore”…

I won’t miss [nice use of anaphora!] Citizens United Not Timid (no acronym, please), an anti-Clinton group founded by Republican guru Roger Stone.

I won’t miss political commentators (including National Public Radio political editor Ken Rudin and Andrew Sullivan, the columnist and blogger) who compare Clinton to the Glenn Close character in the movie “Fatal Attraction.”

The airwaves will at last be free of comments that liken Clinton to a “she-devil” (Chris Matthews on MSNBC, who helpfully supplied an on-screen mock-up of Clinton sprouting horns). Or those who offer that she’s “looking like everyone’s first wife standing outside a probate court” (Mike Barnicle, also on MSNBC).

But perhaps it is not wives who are so very problematic. Maybe it’s mothers. Because, after all, Clinton is more like “a scolding mother, talking down to a child” (Jack Cafferty on CNN).

When all other images fail, there is one other I will not miss. That is, the down-to-the-basics, simplest one: “White women are a problem, that’s — you know, we all live with that” (William Kristol of Fox News).

Most of all, I will not miss the silence.

I will not miss the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven’t publicly uttered a word of outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Would the silence prevail if Obama's likeness were put on a tap-dancing doll that was sold at airports? Would the media figures who dole out precious face time to these politicians be such pals if they'd compared Obama with a character in a blaxploitation film? And how would crude references to Obama's sex organs play?

There are many reasons Clinton is losing the nomination contest, some having to do with her strategic mistakes, others with the groundswell for "change." But for all Clinton's political blemishes, the darker stain that has been exposed is the hatred of women that is accepted as a part of our culture.

Obama has played into this theme with his mime of the rapper Jay-Z's 99 Problems(but a bitch ain't one) during one of his campaign speeches, to the delight of his supporters.

I guess there are at least 99 reasons why my vote for Obama will be half-hearted in the fall, if it comes down to that.

Idiot Warmongers

2008-04-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

I have noticed for the last couple of days, all of the Republicans and their Neo-con henchmen are interjecting Iran into comments on the most recent Iraq status report by General Petraeus.

From Think Progress:

Lieberman, Bennett, And Kristol See Petraeus Hearing As ‘An Argument’ For ‘Going Into Iran'

During their appearance before the Senate on Tuesday, Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker accused Iran of “funding, training, arming and directing extremist ’special groups’ in Iraq.” “I think one might look for a reconsideration in Tehran as to just where they want to go in Iraq,” said Crocker. “This would be an excellent time for them to reassess.”

Liveblogging the hearings for the Washington Post, Fiasco author Thomas Ricks pondered what Crocker could have intended with his “reassess” comment, considering that “there will be a new American president in place in less than a year“:

But he also said, “This would be an excellent time for them to reassess.” What does he mean by that? Why would Iran want to adjust their relationship now, when there will be a new American president in place in less than a year? Or is there some sort of implied threat there: You guys better get smart, or this president still has time to pound you?

It is unclear whether such a veiled threat was Crocker’s intention, but some on the right are certainly seeing his and Petraeus’s testimony as cause to begin talking about striking Iran again.

On his radio show this morning, Bill Bennett told the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol — who had a personal meeting with President Bush yesterday — that a “conclusion” he drew was that the hearing was “less an argument for getting out of Iraq than going into Iran.” After suggesting that Iran may “have to pay some price at some point on their own soil,” Kristol said that President Bush authorizing an attack of some kind before he leaves office is not “out of the question”:

BENNETT: Do you think there’s any chance that, and we won’t ask you to reveal anything confidential, do you think there’s any chance that we might take some action against some aspect of the Ira…against Iran, let’s put it that way, before the president leaves office?

KRISTOL: We didn’t really talk about that, in all honesty, directly. I don’t think it’s out of the question. I think people are overdoing how much of a lame duck the president is.

Appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show last night, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said that he wished the Bush administration would tell the Iranians that “unless they stop it, we’re going to take action.” “I’m not talking about all out war,” added Lieberman before saying, “they ought to believe that we’re going to hit those training camps.”

Bush and the Romance of Soldiering

2008-03-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

This quote is from a Reuter's article (3/13/08) detailing President Bush's videoconference on the current situation in Afghanistan:

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you
know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

I seem to remember vividly, his evasion of service in Viet Nam, and this account from his professor at Harvard Business School. From a 2004 CNN interview:

Yoshi Tsurumi, in his first on-camera interview on the subject, told CNN
that Bush confided in him during an after-class hallway conversation during the 1973-74 school year.

"He admitted to me that to avoid the Vietnam draft, he had his dad -- he said 'Dad's friends' -- skip him through the long waiting list to get him
into the Texas National Guard," Tsurumi said. "He thought that was a smart thing to do."

Hillary Wins Over Those Who Listen

2008-02-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Jo Mannies, political blogger for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was on C-Span this morning. I just caught the last part, but wanted to paraphrase a caller from New York talking about Hillary Clinton.

A caller from New York called to refute the fact that Hillary is too "polarizing". That is just a myth perpetrated by Fox News and the we-hate-liberals talk radio hosts.

The caller said Hillary won her seat in the senate by winning over the Republicans in upstate New York. At first, mostly women came to her campaign events. She won them over, because she's smart, she knows the issues, she makes sense, and she is convincing. The women would go home and tell their husbands they had become Hillary supporters, and then the sh*t would hit the fan. A lot of the husbands wound up sleeping on the couch.

Then the husbands started talking to each other at the coffee shops, and a few of them started showing up to hear Hillary. She won them over, too.

Hillary won re-election to her seat by working hard and communicating with her constituents. She isn't perfect, but, well....who is?

Hillary has been smeared a thousand times, and 99.9 percent of it is pure right-wing B.S. They have not yet begun to smear Obama, but, trust me, they will do a major hatchet job on him and his lovely wife Michelle, too, if he is on the top of the ticket.

A Clinton-Obama ticket would unite the Democratic party, and have the best chance of winning and getting this country back on track. Let's make history and give the Democrats 16 years in the White House.

I'm Supporting Hillary Clinton

2008-01-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

I'm now an official Hillary supporter. She is so knowledgeable and well-versed on the issues. I've been favorably impressed with her in all the debates and town hall q&a sessions.

It's my "hope" for this campaign to see Obama as the Vice-Presidential candidate, and for him to run for President eight years from now. He has so much promise, but he isn't quite ready to take the helm. We will need sixteen years time to undo the damage the Bush-Cheney gang has done to the country. Obama has the lofty rhetoric down pat, but he started running for president immediately upon getting elected to the Senate. I have to land on the side of experience with Hillary.

I'm also hopeful that John Edwards will find a role in a future Democratic administration, and I can see Bill Richardson as a great Secretary of State.

Meth Addiction: Hope and Horror

2007-12-09T17:45:00.000-08:00

Missouri has been ground zero for the proliferation of meth labs and meth addicts in the last few years. If you live here, you probably have a family member or friend whose life has been impacted by meth addiction.

A woman I know recently died of the complications of a long-term meth addiction. She was beautiful and talented and was the envy of everone who knew her - before meth. The first time she tried the drug, she was hooked. Her family eventually deserted her, and her decline and eventual death from the effects of the addiction was a sad and lonely time.

Another friend has a son who is a meth addict. His daughter recoils when he enters the room. She is being raised by her grandparents, due to neglect by this man and his wife who is also addicted.

Tonight, 60 Minutes presented a segment on the Prometa treatment for addiction. I recently met a young couple who have received this treatment about six months ago. At first, I didn't believe that they were telling me the truth. This couple just did not look or act like meth addicts. They assured me that if I had met them a year earlier, I would not believe they were the same persons. They lost their home and children, and were basically on the skids. Their family heard about the Prometa treatment and scraped together the $15,000 to send them to Texas to undergo the treatment. Miracle of miracles, it has worked for them. According to them, it immediately relieved the craving for meth. They will be in therapy for a long time, and will probably attend 12-step meetings from now forward. But they have been given a chance for recovery due to Prometa treatment.

The 60 Minutes piece was more negative than positive about Prometa, interviewing just one addict who had allegedly been helped by the treatment. I'd like to see more coverage about this, pro and con. I know that if I had a family member addicted to meth, I would help get the funds together for them to receive the Prometa treatment.

Now, I'm going to say something nice about Aunt Norma. She recently sponsored legislation to make it harder to buy the over-the-counter medications used as ingredients by meth cooks. There is no reason that these drugs should not be strictly controlled by whatever means necessary. Legitimate purchasers of Sudafed and similar drugs are inconvenienced by having to show ID, and pharmacies are required to track sales and communicate with each other. This is a small price to pay, if it saves even one person from addiction to meth.

Schwarzenegger Vetoed Four Bills Increasing Firefighting Resources

2007-10-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

Yet another example of Republican stupidity.

From the Brad Blog:

What the Governor failed to mention is that he vetoed four bills that would have increased staffing and fire resources after the Cedar Fire, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. A fifth bill, signed by Schwarzenegger, requires local governments to first submit safety plans to the California Department of Forestry and will not take effect until 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported in a May 20, 2007 article titled “Fire danger acute as 2003 lessons fade.” That article has since disappeared off the newspaper’s website, but a copy is here.

National Guard Troops Denied G.I. Bill Benefits

2007-10-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

Another fine example of this administration's failure to "support the troops."

National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment Of Iraq War
Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer
Created: 10/3/2007

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NBC) -- When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers. "

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days. Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school."

Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.That money would help him pay for his master's degree in public administration. It would help Anderson's fellow platoon leader, John Hobot, pay for a degree in law enforcement."

I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home," Hobot said. Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730.

Now, six of Minnesota's members of the House of Representatives have asked the Secretary of the Army to look into it -- So have Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman.Klobuchar said the GI money "shouldn't be tied up in red tape," and Coleman said it's "simply irresponsible to deny education benefits to those soldiers who just completed the longest tour of duty of any unit in Iraq."

Anderson said the soldiers he oversaw in his platoon expected that money to be here when they come home."I had 23 guys under my command," Anderson said. "I promised to take care of them. And I'm not going to end taking care of them when this deployment is over, and it's not over until this is solved."

The Army did not respond questions Tuesday afternoon. Senators Klobuchar and Coleman released a joint statement saying the Army secretary, Pete Geren, is looking into this personally, and they say Geren asked a review board to expedite its review so the matter could be solved by next semester.Minnesota National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Olson said the soldiers are "victims of a significant injustice."

Chris Matthews: Bush Admin. Has "Finally Been Caught In Their Criminality"

2007-10-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

At the 10th anniversary party for his Hardball show (Thursday evening 10/5/07), Chris Matthews had critical words for the Bush/Cheney gang. After seven years of BushCo directed madness and mayhem, all I have to say is--Chris, what took you so long? You have the damn microphone.

From the St. Louis Examiner article by Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin:

Matthews says Bush administration has "finally been caught in their criminality"

...After praising the drafters of the First Amendment for allowing him to make a living, he outlined what he said was the fundamental difference between the Bush and Clinton administrations.

The Clinton camp, he said, never put pressure on his bosses to silence him.

“Not so this crowd,” he added, explaining that Bush White House officials -- especially those from Vice President Cheney's office -- called MSNBC brass to complain about the content of his show and attempted to influence its editorial content.

"They will not silence me!" Matthews declared.

"They've finally been caught in their criminality," Matthews continued, although he did not specify the exact criminal behavior to which he referred...

When reached, the White House declined to comment and NBC refused requests to release video of the event...

Mousie Cat Speaks

2007-10-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

From the blog of one of my favorite neighbors, Evolving In Kansas:

Matt Blunt kisses Religious Right's ass

Missouri's Gov. Matt Blunt says he thinks faith-based groups do a better job of helping people than government-funded programs. So he's created a small committee to see how Missouri can work more closely with those faith-based groups. Why now? He's looking at a 2008 run against Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, and he desperately needs that "social conservative" vote.

For those who don't live in red states, "social conservatives" are people who vote based on only three issues: (a) abortion; (b) guns; and (c) taxes. They constitute the 34% of the American public who still think George W. Bush is doing a heckuva job. In other words, they are either (a) totally misinformed, thanks to Faux News; or (b) irremediably ignorant...

Read the entire article here.

Future Shock: Peak Oil in Mexico

2007-09-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

Now that Greenspan has confirmed that the occupation of Iraq is about oil, it's time to pay close attention to the crisis in dropping oil production that some refer to as Peak Oil. Many say that oil production has already crested, and the evidence is clear and convincing.

Astute observers of the looming oil crisis are urging us to reconsider the way we build and site our homes and public buildings, the cars we buy and modes of public transport.

From James Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, writing at Civitas: The Broadside of Civic Design and Politics, talks about Mexican oil production and what Mexican Peak Oil will bring to the already troubled U.S./Mexican relationship.

...Something very interesting and rather ominous is resolving out of blizzard of statistics, reports, scenarios, and competing interests in the background. This is the oil export crisis.

It is now apparent that oil exporting nations are seeing their exports falling at a much steeper rate than their production declines. The aggregate global oil production decline is running between 3 to 5 percent annually now, but the export decline is running above 7 percent. In five years, it may be as high as 50 percent. That means the major importing nations (the US, Europe, Japan, China, India) will only be getting half the imports they get now -- and bear in mind that the US imports more than two-thirds of the oil we use.

The poster-child for this problem -- as far as the US is concerned -- is Mexico. 60 percent of Mexico's oil production comes out of a single super-giant field, Cantarell, off the Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico. Cantarell is the second largest oil field ever discovered (after Saudi Arabia's Ghawar). It came into production relatively late in the oil age and was subject to very aggressive drilling with the latest technology (horizontal bores, gas injections to keep pressure up) with the result that it was only depleted more efficiently. The aggressive production may have also damaged its geologic structure. The net result now is that production out of Cantarell is crashing very steeply, at a minimum of 15 percent a year. That means in six or seven years, Cantarell is finished. However, long before then, Mexico will lose its ability to export oil to the US.

That's going to be a mighty big problem -- or set of problems. For one thing, Mexico is America's number 3 source of oil imports (after Canada and Saudi Arabia). So, in two or three years, we will lose our number three source of foreign oil. By the way, there is no real evidence that "new discoveries" oil "new production" anywhere in the world will offset global production drops. The Mexican government depends on it's nationalized oil production (Pemex) for 40 percent of its operating revenue. So, what we're also looking at South-of-the-Border is the potential for a lot of economic and political turmoil as the Mexican government loses revenue and loses its ability to maintain its social safety net (which includes food subsidies).

The upshot of all this is that the US is likely to see a ramp-up in illegal immigration. The last time there was turmoil in Mexico -- the long revolution that ran from 1913 to 1940 -- one quarter of the Mexican population left, and most of them landed in the US. The population of Mexico then was about 23 million. Now it's over 100 million. If this turmoil escalates into violence, the US may even have a military problem with Mexico.

As this occurs, though, there will be plenty of other trouble with oil resources elsewhere around the world, and that will be reflected in global finance and the condition of national economies. The US consumes close to 20 million barrels of oil a day, and we produce less than 5 million.

Something will have to give.

Thank You, Rachel Carson

2007-09-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
Abraham Lincoln

Thank you, Rachel Carson and Bill Moyers for reminding me of this quote.

An Enduring Relationship With Iraq

2007-09-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

This morning's C-Span question was: Should we have an enduring relationship with Iraq?

We will have an enduring relationship with Iraq, especially with the millions of displaced Iraqi people, now refugees, who will teach their children to revile us.

We will have an enduring relationship with those Iraqis who are financially unable to leave, but desperately wish to move their families to safety.

We will have an enduring relationship with Iraqis who have lost loved ones as a result of our invasion and continued occupation of their country.

When we train and arm the Iraqi military and police forces, they turn those weapons on our troops. The Iraqis know where the IEDs and the ammo dumps are located, but they do not share that information with our troops. That speaks volumes about what our enduring relationship will be with Iraq.

It was an idiotic decision to go to war with Iraq, and every decision made thereafter has shown that same insight.

Bush Befuddled in Australia

2007-09-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

A really great example of why the U.S. is in such a mess.

From the Huffington Post:

Bush: OPEC or APEC
by Tom Raum, 9/7/07

SYDNEY, Australia —
President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.

He'd only reached the third sentence of Friday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe.

"Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.

Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully, joking
that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).

The president's next goof went uncorrected _ by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops."
That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying "Austrian," the official text released by the White House switched it to "Australian."

Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out _ the wrong way.

He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.

Regarding The Awaited Osama Bin Laden Video

2007-09-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

Regarding the awaited Osama Bin Laden video:

If Osama Bin Laden is indeed still alive, and plotting to continue his jihad from the mountains of Afghanistan/Pakistan, why are we not moving heaven and earth to find and apprehend him?

We have bombed and stomped over practically every square foot of Iraq. Why has our military effort not been directed at stopping Bin Laden and his organization as our #1 goal?

The war on "terror" began as an effort to bring to justice this band of outlaws. Surely we could have accomplished this. The $64,000 question is, why haven't we?

This is the question I would like to have answered.

The incompetence of the Bush administration in this matter astounds and saddens me. Nothing Bin Laden has to say will change my opinion about that.

My only hope at this point, is that we will elect a Democratic president who will focus attention on neutralizing this band of outlaws, and return to diplomatic efforts in bringing peace in other trouble spots in the world.

Hanging Chads 2000 Revisited by Dan Rather Report

2007-08-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dan Rather did an hour long report, The Trouble With Touch Screens, for HDnet last week.

The first part exposed shoddy touch screen machines built in the Phillipines by ES&S. Thousands of these machines were produced using cheap parts in sweatshop conditions by workers who were paid $2.50 per day. Quality control consisted of shaking some (not all) machines to see if anything rattled.

Watch the video, or read the transcript for full details.

The last part put the spotlight on Sequoia Pacific, the company that produced the punch cards used in the 2000 presidential election. We all remember the hanging chads, and thousands of ballots in Palm Beach County alone that registered overvotes or no vote at all for the presidential candidate. Palm Beach County traditionally is a Democratic stronghold.

...some of the best engineering minds in the country, at IBM, ...perfected the old Votomatic punch card system decades ago. Those punch cards, when they had been used by IBM for data processing, had been precise enough to help land a man on the moon. That's how reliable they were.

But by 2000, in an avalanche of hanging and falling chads, the punch card voting system was proclaimed to be "unreliable", old hat, out with the old and in with the new. Yet seven years and billions of dollars later, the public, especially in Florida, the public is clamoring for paper ballots again.

Rather interviews seven former employees of Sequoia Pacific with 171 years combined experience working for the company. They spoke with pride about the quality of punch card ballots their plant had produced over the years, and the company's about face in 1999 when producing punch cards for the 2000 election.

The company abandoned former suppliers of archival quality paper for a new supplier, and sub-standard rolls of paper, rejected by the plants quality control, were somehow ok'ed by upper management and used for those ballots.

To add to the insult of the inferior quality paper, E. Washington, a pressman at Sequoia for 26 years, relates that he was ordered to change the specifications for the cards bound for Palm Beach County, because they would "grow" in the Florida humidity...

E. Washington: We were told to run those cards short because they would grow by the time they got to Florida in the humidity.

Dan Rather: Running short didn't mean the cards were actually shorter. It simply means lowering, on the face of the ballot, the position of the chads. So the orders were for the ballots going to Palm Beach, don't make them meet the normal specifications?

E. Washington: Right. Because they would grow and if we met the normal specifications they would grow outside the specifications because of the humidity.

Dan Rather: Was this unusual?

E. Washington: Yep

Dan Rather: Were you surprised by it?

E. Washington: Oh yeah, I questioned it, and I even had the plant manager sign it. Because I was having arguments with quality control about the size. And so I said, 'The only way I am going to run it is if Brian comes out here and signs it.' He came out, he signed the 'okay' card to run 'em.

Dan Rather: Let me get this straight. You said, 'You are asking me to turn out a product that doesn't mean our usual specifications. To be sent specifically to Palm Beach, Florida'

E. Washington: Right

One employee speculates that Sequoia purposely produced faulty punch cards to give a jump start to sales of the touch screen machines, which so far had received a lukewarm reception.

Greg Smith: My own personal opinion was the touch screen voting system wasn't getting off the ground like that they, like they would hope. And because they weren't having any problems with paper ballots. So, I feel like they, deliberately did all this to have problems with the paper ballots so the electronically voting systems would get off the ground, and which it did in a big way.

Perhaps the company's greed was a factor in the failure of punch cards in Florida 2000. But given that the final "count" had Bush winning Florida by around 600 votes, it seems that something other motive is lurking in the shadows.

Management and employees involved in the production of these faulty ballots should be questioned under oath to determine exactly what happened. Our right to vote, and to have that vote counted is the foundation of this democracy. I, for one, would like to be reassured that when I step into the ballot box, my vote is counted. I'm sure millions of other voters feel the same.

Source: The Brad Blog

Planned Parenthood Supporters VS The Blunt Mini-White House

2007-08-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

Over the years, many low-income women I know have used the services of the local Planned Parenthood facility for pap tests, gyn wellness exams and contraception. When Blunt took funding away from this program, I decided to make donations to our local Planned Parenthood as often as I can. Contraception is the key to preventing unwanted pregnancy. This is just a no-brainer for me.

The KY3 news last night had a story about Planned Parenthood supporters who live in the Springfield neighborhood where Blunt resides. They have posted pink signs signifying their support for Planned Parenthood. The KY3 Political Notebook blog has photos of the signs and a link to the news segment.

Governor and Mrs. Blunt refuse to live in the governor's mansion. It just doesn't suit them, they have grander visions. Instead, they have taken up residence in a mini version of the White House here in Springfield. The governor spends around four hours of each working day communting to Jeff City, in a caravan of gas guzzling SUVs. No wonder the state is in such a mess.

RNC Letter to MO Democrat Raises Questions

2007-08-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Since Missouri voters do not register by party affiliation, there is confusion about the purpose of this RNC generated form letter, received by an elderly resident of Queen City, MO.

From Talking Points Memo:

RNC Voter "Audit" Letter Raises Questions
By Paul Kiel - August 10, 2007, 12:20 PM

What 83 year-old William Sidwell of Queen City, Missouri found in his mailbox last week scared him. It was a letter from the Republican National Committee, but it seemed to bear grave news: "Our records show that you registered as a member of our Party in Schuyler County, MO," the letter said. "But a recent audit of your Party affiliation turned up some irregularities."

Audit? Irregularities? Was he in trouble? Were they threatening him? Sidwell went immediately to his ask his son, Dennis, a licensed public accountant, for advice. You can see the letter, and the accompanying "Voter Registration Verification and Audit Form," right here. Particularly puzzling to the both of them, Dennis told me, is that his father is a life-long Democrat...

...The letter "appears to be in a gray area," David Becker, Director of People for the American Way's Democracy Campaign and a former voting rights attorney at the Justice Department, told me. "It could potentially run afoul of the law if it led an eligible voter to believe they're no longer eligible to vote." The letter, Becker said, "appears designed to give that mistaken impression..."

Pearl Jam's Anti-Bush Lyrics Censored

2007-08-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

Someone pointed out that the only ones who have "freedom of the press" are the ones who control the press. Hopefully, indidents such as this will help to Rock the Vote in 2008.

From Timothy Karr at the Huffington Post:

AT&T: Your World Censored

Over the weekend AT&T gave us a glimpse of their plans for the Web when they censored a Pearl Jam performance that didn't meet their standard of "Internet freedom."

Pearl Jam: Seen But Not Heard During the live Lollapalooza Webcast of a concert by the Seattle-based super-group, the telco giant muted lead singer Eddie Vedder just as he launched into a lyric against President George Bush. The lines -- "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush find yourself another home" were somehow lost in the mix.

"What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band," Pearl Jam band members stated in a release following the incident.

Indeed. AT&T routinely rails against Net Neutrality as a "solution without a problem." They say Net Neutrality regulations aren't necessary because they wouldn't dare interfere with online content. At the same time they tout plans to become gatekeepers to the Web with public relations bromides about "shaping" Web traffic to better serve the needs of an evolving Internet.

Such spin needs to be held up to the light of experience. AT&T's history of breaking trust with their customers includes handing over private phone records to the government, promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town, pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information online while hatching plans with the likes of Cisco, Viacom, RIAA and MPA to build and deploy technology that will spy on user traffic.

The moral of this story is never trust AT&T at their word. The company acts in bad faith toward the public interest and will do whatever it can get away with to pad its bottom line -- including sacrificing the freedoms its users have to choose where they go, what they watch and whom they listen to online.

The Future of Music Coalition have done great work to mobilize hundreds of rock bands against such censorship but it's a threat that concerns everyone.

AT&T's vision of a better Internet -- "Your World Delivered" -- is not one that is shared by the more than 1.5 million people who have spoken out in favor of a neutral, affordable and accessible Internet for everyone. For us, the Internet isn't about one company delivering our world. It's about simply offering a real high-speed connection at reasonable rates -- and then getting out of our way.

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

2007-07-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Roy Blunt doesn't think people earning the minimum wage of $5.15 deserved a raise, but he has no problem with approval of a hefty annual pay raise for congress.

From today's Turner Report:

Blunt: Nothing wrong with Congressional pay increases
Some members of Congress are putting themselves on the record as opposing their upcoming $4,400 pay increases, but not Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt: Defending the raise, Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said, "Every member has some obligation to the institution for the compensation to, as much as possible, keep pace with inflation. I think this should be as good a job when I leave it as it was when I took it."

Here is Blunt's view on the minimum wage 1/10/07 from the Columbia Tribune Politics Blog:

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Springfield, who came out today against the minimum wage increase.

"The last thing Congress should do is pass legislation that imposes an unfunded mandate on small businesses that employ millions of American workers and are the backbone of our economy," Blunt said in a news release.

The Fairness Doctrine

2007-07-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

We have two radio stations in our listening area that have 24 hours a day of Republican sponsored programming that ranges from obnoxious and misinformed to hate-filled invectives against the Democratic party and any viewpoint other their own. Anyone who disagrees is generally shouted down or ridiculed, with no effort to have a meaningful exchange of ideas.

I listen to those radio stations, and take note of sponsors so I can choose not to patronize them. My eye doctor was advertising on one particularly awful program, so I changed doctors. That's the only fairness I can derive from this hi-jacking of the air waves by right-wing loud mouths.

When people are unwilling to listen to each other and attempt to reach a middle ground, then the democratic process goes by the wayside. When one side has carte blanche to denigrate the other and present only their own viewpoint, no one is benefited.

I know most of the media people are not in favor of the Fairness Doctrine because they have to work harder to be inclusive of all view points. It's a "free speech" issue, they say. When one political party commandeers the airwaves, it would seem to me that the rights of the other party to speak are disregarded.

Some version of the Fairness Doctrine could help to remedy this situation.

News-Leader Omits Address of New Democratic Headquarters

2007-07-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

The News-Leader noted today that the Greene County Democratic Central Committee will hold a grand opening and open house Sunday, July 22 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm to celebrate the move to its new headquarters.

They failed to mention the location for those who wish to attend. According to their website, www.gcmodemocrats.org, that location is 1764 S. Fremont Ave. in Springfield.

Blunt Staff Misuses Highway Patrol Spokesman to Criticize AG Nixon

2007-07-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

From Howard Beale at Fired Up Missouri:

Blunt Takes Page Right Out of Bush's DOJ Playbook

Today's KC Star has a fantastic story by Tim Hoover about the Blunt administration's misuse of state government in pursuing its own partisan political goals. The nut:

Gov. Matt Blunt’s staff last month pressed the Missouri Highway Patrol to issue a public statement criticizing Attorney General Jay Nixon, Blunt’s likely Democratic challenger in 2008.E-mails obtained by The Kansas City Star through an open records request detail how deeply Blunt’s office was involved in crafting a June 7 patrol statement that bolstered Republican criticism of Nixon for deciding not to file criminal charges in the December 2005 Taum Sauk reservoir collapse...

The story goes on to excerpt various emails that show Blunt's office leaning hard on law enforcement agents to alter public statements in a way that would make them more critical of Attorney General Nixon...

Nike, Sweatshops and Slave Labor

2007-07-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

A Running Commentary is a new blog from a local journalist Matthew Lemmon. He and his wife are training for the Nike Women's Marathon, which will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Each person entering the marathon must raise $3800 to be eligible. I've been approached for contributions by two young women from the area who are also scrambling to raise the money to enter this race.

Nike, along with mega-retailer Wal-Mart, have been deservedly criticized in reports of human rights abuses in their factories in third world countries. People who create the shoes and other products for Nike are virtual slaves. They work long hours, often 7 days a week, for a few cents per hour.

From a 2005 report from the New Zealand Herald, Nike Admits Sweatshop Conditions:

In a 108-page report the company, based in Beaverton, Oregon, presented a surprisingly frank audit of labour conditions at 569 of 830 factories worldwide where Nike-branded footwear, apparel and sports equipment are made.

Nike's "corporate responsibility" report doesn't make for a pretty picture. From excessively long work weeks and wrong wage calculations to verbal abuse and curbs on toilet visits, the findings confirm a pervasive culture of exploitation. At risk are as many as 650,000 workers in factories located from Australia and China to the US and Vietnam. Most of them are women aged between 19 and 25.

In 2006, Nike spent $476 million dollars on celebrity endorsements, and CNBC reported Investors Fret About Nike Endorsements. The total Nike advertising budget for 2006 totaled $1.7 billion. A perfect picture of corporate greed and disregard for basic human rights, because, after all is said and done, profits count more than people.

Maybe Mr. Lemmon and his wife have not seen the PBS programs about sweatshops. Mainstream media seldom bothers to report on the inhumane working conditions in third world factories. The two young girls who asked me for a contribution for their Nike Marathon have never considered what happens to their counterparts who fall asleep on the job, like these two young girls in the documentary China Blue.

Before free trade agreements allowed the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, many of the shoes and clothing in U.S. retail stores were made in local factories. U.S. workers were protected by our labor laws and many of them also had unions looking out for their interests. U.S. factories were also required to abide by OSHA safety standards and prevented from large scale pollution of the environment. Third world countries have none of these impediments to profit.

Perhaps Nike is trying to brush up it's tarnished image by getting well-meaning people like these local marathoners involved in a charitable cause. Maybe, as they laboriously train for this marathon, in the far recesses of their memory bank, they know that their wonderful and charmed life is subsidized by human misery on a vast scale.

These people with good intentions are the ones who could and should say no to Nike, demand transparency and accountability. By all means, give to the deserving Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. But why not channel that energy used in marathon training into bringing attention to much needed change. These human rights abuses allow our stores to be filled with cheap merchandise, and companies like Nike to give people like Tiger Woods $20 million for an endorsement, while giving virtual slave laborers 20 cents an hour to produce their goods.

I already give yearly donations to several cancer charities. So, after considering these requests for donations to Nike marathoners, I have decided to give instead to a group called Educating For Justice who have produced a film (soon to be released) called SWEAT.

SWEAT is the athlete’s version of Erin Brokovich, The Insider and Serpico. In 1997, a soccer coach at St. John’s University said no to taking part in a $3.5 million dollar deal to endorse Nike products because of Nike’s use of sweatshop labor. He was forced out of his job and outcast from the coaching ranks. People told him that he didn’t know what he was talking about, that work in a Nike factory was a “great job for those people.” He went to find out for himself. In the summer of 2000, he and a friend took off to live with factory workers in a slum in Indonesia and they lived on the workers’ wages, $1.25 a day. They lost 40lbs collectively in the month, but more importantly, by living in solidarity with workers, they built bonds of trust. Over the course of three research trips, workers shared the real human suffering behind the Nike success story. Together with workers, they have spent the past four years educating tens of thousands of people about this issue and fighting to end the injustice that Nike’s workers face each day.

It's difficult to find a running shoe that isn't made in a third world country by slave labor. Nike is the leader in the field of athletic shoes. If they make changes for the better, the industry as a whole will be challenged to follow. Hopefully this film will make an impact, but basically it like a voice crying in the wilderness of sweatshop factories.

Think, Nike marathoners, with every step you take, if your energy and determination could truly be channeled to making a major difference in the world.

Eight Things

2007-07-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Eight things you don't know about me:

1. I wanted to be a concert pianist.

2. I'm a very poor correspondent. Before starting this blog, I had not written more than a brief note or business letter since graduating college in the 60's.

3. My eyesight is bad, so I have difficulty reading blogs with black or navy background, even at 150 magnification.

4. I have never baked a pie.

5. I do not own a cell phone or digital camera.

6. About half of my friends do not own a TV, but all of them have the internet.

7. Since Dan Rather pointed out that CBS has "dumbed it down and tarted it up" I now watch the CBS evening news exclusively.

8. Every room of my house is populated with stacks of books.

I think most everyone in my local blogosphere has completed this little exercise, so I'll let the tag rest.

Hate Radio Is A Part Of Republican Strategy

2007-07-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

In an interview in Mother Jones, GOP media strategist David All talks about his efforts to boost the right's utilization of the internet as a campaign tool. He confirms, once again, that hate radio is considered an integral part of GOP strategy:

... We've never needed the Internet before. When talk radio emerged in '94, it was a very taboo thing, and it wasn't until Newt Gingrich brought talk radio hosts into the Capitol that people started to engage talk radio. Now there's an entire strategy focused on it. The White House has a talk radio person, the RNC does, and it's seen as an effective medium. But the Internet-we haven't needed to run around the mainstream media like we do now.

As noted in my post from 9/18/06:

President Bush summoned several hate radio talk show hosts to the White House this past Friday for a 90 minute off-the-record chat.

According to Neil Boortz, " the subject matter ranged through domestic policy, immigration, the war on terror, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Jordan. President Bush talked of the leaders of countries ranging from Great Britain to China to Japan to Iran."

Also in attendance were Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mike Gallagher and Michael Medved. Rush Limbaugh was invited, but was unable to attend.

As someone recently remarked about the Fairness Doctrine - "Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair".

HT: Missouri Politics

Race to the Bottom

2007-07-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

From Think Progress:

The economic American dream “that children would be more prosperous than their parents, is in question as perhaps never before.” Since 1973, “median family income has been essentially flat,” and men in their 30s “earn roughly $5,000 less than their father’s generation.”

Bush Asks For Excessive Earmarks

2007-06-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

From an article in The Hill:

Bush is criticized for requests from the White House for earmarks to be inserted into legislation. "Legislators say that while Bush has warned them about earmarks, behind the scenes he seeks them just as eagerly as the members of Congress he criticizes."

Bush called out for his earmarks
By Alexander Bolton
June 28, 2007

Democratic and Republican appropriators are accusing President Bush of urging Congress to pack spending bills with pet projects despite his high-profile crackdown on earmarks this year.
A House Appropriations Committee report accompanying legislation funding the Department of the Interior shows that Bush requested 93 of the 321 earmarks in thebill. A panel report for the financial services and general government spending bill showed that Bush requested 17 special projects worth $947 million, more than any single member of Congress.

Senate appropriators have identified more than 350 earmarks in the military construction spending bill requested by the president. Lawmakers say these lists of earmarks are inconsistent with Bush’s tough talk on earmarks this year...

Read the article here.

While financing an irresponsible and immoral war on the U.S. credit card, he has the nerve to demand earmarks. What Republican party is this? It's a different kind of political animal. Have they shunned the elephant and adopted the pig?

Republicans are Creepy, And I'm Not Voting For Them Anymore

2007-06-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

I used to be an independent voter. I'm socially liberal, but do tend to be fiscally conservative favoring smaller government and disciplined spending. In the past, I have voted for Republicans who mirrored those views.

During my drive time, I often listen to Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Michael Savage. Today, Hannity was conversing with a Senator (didn't catch his name) about immigration. The Senator could not get out a full sentence before Hannity was all over him like a mad dog.

Republicans court these creepy media people. This is their "base". The Ann Coulter/Elizabeth Edwards exchange is the perfect example. Republicans have made this woman wealthy; they invite her to give speeches, buy her books, and hang on her every word. But, hey, it's a free country. So...

They can forget about getting my vote until they clean up their act. If I can't stomach the Democratic or Independent candidates in a particular race, I'll just abstain.

Elizabeth Edwards Vs. Ann Coulter

2007-06-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

These observations from Shamanic at Newshog do a great job of illustrating the bulk of the right-wing sponsored content that saturates the air waves.

Illustrating the Obvious

Yesterday I saw this video of Elizabeth Edwards' call to Hardball guest Ann Coulter, which revealed Coulter's inherent, vapid nastiness in all its glory. Chris Matthews kept Coulter's feet to the fire, but the bigger question is why he had her on to begin with, and why anyone should consider his show to be even remotely serious about politics as a result.
I do think the episode is revealing for what it illustrates about the state of partisan politics and the media today. Here's my big-picture take on the exchange:

Democrat: I think we should focus on substantive issues instead of personal attacks.

Republican: What personal attacks? Just because your husband dines on the raw corpses of dead babies and molests little boys doesn't mean I think he's a bad guy.
Democrat: This is the kind of negativity that drives people out of the political process.
Republican: YOU WANT TO CENSOR ME!!!
Democrat: Um, are your pens all filled with bile instead of ink?
Republican: YOU CAN'T CENSOR ME! YOU'RE JUST A WOMAN! YOUR HUSBAND GIVES SPEECHES!
Media Guy (doing an excellent impression of a concerned citizen): Why exactly did you say that "The Democratic party works constantly to destroy America, and anyone who votes for a Democrat should be dragged from his house under cover of darkness, hung in the town square, and stoned to death by a grateful community of patriots"?
Republican: Could you read me the sentence?
Next time Chris, instead of asking Coulter questions about the adjectives she uses, invite a real guest on instead. Think of it as donating to charity instead of sending flowers.

The Iraq Refugee Crisis

2007-06-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

The good news is that several million Iraqis have escaped the killing field that is now Iraq.

The bad news:

From the Independent:

UN warns of five million Iraqi refugees
Half of displaced people have no access to food aid
By Patrick Cockburn
June 10, 2007

Across Iraq, millions of people are looking for safer places to live, and not finding them. The United Nations High Commission for Refuge (UNHCR) reported last week that 4.2 million Iraqis have been forced out of their homes.

There are also ominous signs that the four-month-old US security plan for Baghdad is failing to reduce the level of violence despite an extra 17,000 US troops in the capital.

"The situation in Iraq continues to worsen," the UNHCR announced, "with more than two million Iraqis now believed to be displaced inside the country and another 2.2 million sheltering in neighbouring states."

The Iraqi refugee crisis is now surpassing in numbers anything ever seen in the Middle East, including the expulsion or flight of the Palestinians in 1948...

This crisis created by our invasion and continued occupation of Iraq has resulted in a refugee population which now outnumbers those of Darfur. Since half of the refugees have no food aid, it is certain that we will see a humanitarian crisis of mammoth proportions.

George W. Bush, this will be your legacy.

McClatchy Headlines

2007-06-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

From the McClatchy Washington Bureau: Some of the best coverage available of the Attorney General and DOJ, and Carl Rove misdeeds.

Justice official accused of blocking suits into alleged violations
By Greg Gordon McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Mon, June 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — A former Justice Department political appointee blocked career lawyers from filing at least three lawsuits charging local and county governments with violating the voting rights of African-Americans and other minorities, seven former senior department employees charged Monday...

And from yesterday:

Missing White House e-mails may have violated law, panel says
By Ron Hutcheson McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Mon, June 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — Presidential adviser Karl Rove sent more than 140,000 e-mails
through the Republican National Committee's computer system, circumventing a federal law intended to guarantee the preservation of presidential records, House of Representatives investigators have concluded...

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

2007-06-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

John Perkins' career as an economic hit man (EHM) has taken him all over the globe. He details his activities as an EHM in his best-seller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and in his new book just released, The Secret History of the American Empire.

His job as an EHM was to persuade third world governments to accept huge loans for modernization programs that would supposedly bring prosperity and economic growth. He was employed by a large contracting firm, MAIN, (no longer in business) similar to Haliburton or Bechtel. In essence, his instructions were to present falsified and very rosy statistics to seal the deal. The unstated goal was to set up a sweetheart deal for U.S. contractors and corporations to build the mammoth infrastructure projects and exploit the labor and natural resources of the countries involved.

The EHM worked in concert with the underbelly of the U.S. government to influence governments in these vulnerable third world nations by whatever means necessary.

Perkins joined the Peace Corps fresh out of college and was assigned to work with the indigenous inhabitants of the rain forest in Ecuador. It was a profound experience and one that gave him unique insight into the lives and struggle of exploited peoples in the countries he would later encounter as an EHM.

His seduction by the money, power, beautiful women and prestige he enjoyed as an EHM was never total and complete. His culpability for the exploitation of the people and devastation of the environment that were the end results of his EHM deals weighed on his conscience.

The end result of his EHM successes resulted in the funnelling of vast amounts of wealth to his corporate masters, and to the corrupt and elite people in positions of power in the countries he had signed deals with. Those governments he failed to persuade were targeted for assasinations and coups fomented by the covert operatives he refers to as "jackals".

Eventually, he resigned his EHM job and moved on in life. After expressing his intention to write about the activities of his former profession, he was alternately threatened and bribed to stay silent. After the events of 9/11, John Perkins felt that his story must be told, whatever the personal consequences. He wrote Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in secret, and after being rejected by every mainstream publisher, finally found a smaller publisher who was willing to risk it.

If you have not read his books, I highly recommend that you do so. The Secret History of the American Empire is just hitting bookstores. It picks up where Confessions left off, and ends on an optimistic note with suggestions about what each of us can do to begin to set things right.

Everyone I know who reads Confessions is profoundly affected to learn of the extent of the global political/corporate corruption described. Most of us sort-of know that the goods we buy at Wal-Mart, other big-box retailers, and malls are produced by people who are little more than virtual slaves working and living in squalid and inhumane conditions, but seldom is anyone in-your-face with proof of it. If this is not a wake-up call, I don't know what will move people to take action, and make changes in their buying habits. The expose of Nike factories is particularly heartbreaking, and they are just an example of the horrendous conditions in most third-world factories producing goods for the U.S. market.

Local blogger Bob Ranney (An Even Keel) has a few observations:

I have recently begun reading a book that will most likely end up next
to "Flyboys" on my list of required reading for all citizens. It is John Perkins', "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man".
In it he describes his recruitment, training and actions as an EHM as he and his colleagues call themselves.
It's worth a read just to learn about the existence and day-to-day doings of these folks, but he also includes a good bit of information about the effects of what they do, and the only conclusion a sane person can draw from it all is that our country has long been embarked on a soulless journey that drags everyone it touches through unnecessary hell. Our politicians spout high and mighty morality stories, but the results of their actions are pure evil.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

"Today we see the results of this system run amok.

Executives at our most respected companies hire people at near-slave wages to toil under inhuman conditions in Asisan sweatshops.

Oil companies wantonly pump toxins into rain forest rivers, consciously killing people, animals, and plants, and committing genocide among ancient cultures.

The pharmaceutical industry denies lifesaving medicines to millions of
HIV-infected Africans. Twelve million families in our own United States worry about their next meal.

The energy industry creates an Enron.

The accounting industry creates an Andersen.

The income ratio of the one-fifth of the world's population in the wealthiest countries to the one-fifth in the poorest went from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1995.

The United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could
provide clean water, adequate diet, sanitation services, and basic education to every person on the planet.

And we wonder why terrorists attack us?

Bob Ranney ends his remarks with a call to conscience for each of us:
"Putting your life on the line so we can rape another country is not patriotism, it is madness. Isn't it time we stopped? If we want to show our patriotism, why not show it to the world and not just to one country? Why not stand up and shout, "Enough?"
I hear you, Bob.

Thor Hearne's Ties to ACVR Erased on Wikipedia

2007-06-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

From today's Brad Blog:

Wikipedia Entry for GOP 'Voter Fraud' Front Group
Co-Founder, Thor Hearne, Scrubbed of References to ACVR
Latest Edit Performed by Someone at Hearne's Lawfirm, Lathrop & Gage, According to Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog...

Mark F. "Thor" Hearne must really want to hide something about
his discredited past as the front man for the GOP front group calling themselves the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR).

In the latest chapter of a string of attempts by Hearne to cleanse his public record as lead snake-oil salesman of the mysteriously-funded "non-partisan" group that he founded to push propaganda about a massive (if non-existent) Democratic 'voter fraud' epidemic, it seems his Wikipedia page has been expurgated of all references to the ACVR...

Read the entire article here.

Please Say No To School Vouchers

2007-06-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Turner Report has given us two recent summaries of Matt Blunt's attempt to load the State Board of Education with voucher supporters, exemplified by his recent nomination to the board of yet another voucher supporter, former state rep, Derio Gambaro.

The governor's resolve to do away with public education in Missouri is fueled by big donations from wealthy supporters of a voucher system. Now that there are no upper limits on campaign donations, their money is filling up Blunt's campaign chest to overflowing.

With a roll-over Republican majority in the state legislature , vouchers could be foisted on the people of Missouri before they can blink an eye.

Concerning Blunt's first appointment to the State Board of Education, Randy Turner has this to say:

Unfortunately, no one put the governor's first board appointment, Debi
Demien of Wentzville, under the microscope. She was promoted as a former public
schoolteacher and director of marketing for Demien Construction. A little bit of
digging would have shown that the Southwest Missouri State University graduate
is far more than that.

It appears all three of the governor's choices are closely in line with his
thinking on vouchers, meaning he most likely has the power to move state
education in whatever direction he wishes.

Mrs. Demien was appointed to the board in March. While it was noted that
she was involved in the family business, Demien Construction, what wasn't noted
is that she is director of marketing for the company's Building God's
Way division, which builds churches and Christian schools. Any sort of
movement of public money into private schools will obviously benefit Mrs.
Demien.

Seven years ago, she wrote a book entitled Stealing America, the
National Takeover of the Economy, Education and State
Governments, which primarily criticizes the school-to-work programs
being used in public schools. She is an outspoken critic of Missouri's A+
program, which allows students involved in the program to receive free schooling
at Missouri community colleges.

Please read The Turner Report articles linked below for his excellent coverage of the voucher issue:

Voucher Supporters Are Blunt's Biggest Contributors (6/11/07)

Blunt Appoints Another Voucher Proponent to State Board of Education (6/08/07)

It Started Before Donayle Whitmore-Smith (12/17/06)

Blunt Appoints Leading Voucher Proponent to State Board of Education (10/26/06)

Al Gore's 'Green' Nashville Home

2007-06-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

From Tennessee Guerilla Women :

Here's the photo of the new solar roof on Al Gore's Nashville home.

This is the home that houses the office from which Al Gore runs his world-wide campaign to combat the climate crisis.

When the far right Tennessee Center for Policy Research unleashed its attack of lies on Gore, the former Vice President was still petitioning for outdated zoning laws prohibiting the installation of solar panels to be changed. (Apparently, solar panels weren't 'pretty' enough for the neighborhood!)

The zoning laws were finally changed, and once again, Al Gore has helped to bring a little bit of Tennessee out of the 19th century.

Just imagine what Gore could do if he were president.

AP:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Al Gore, the environmental activist stung by criticism over his house's energy efficiency, said Friday that renovations are nearly complete to make it a model "green" home.

"This plan has been in the works for a long time," the former vice
president said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The only thing that has changed is that we're more public about it because of the misleading attack by a global-warming denier group."

Gore's renovation project, which he said has been in the works for months, seeks to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The former Vice President picked up another award this week. Gore was awarded Spain's prestigious Principe de Asturias prize for his unprecedented success in raising the global awareness about the climate crisis.

As predicted, Gore's new book -- The Assault on Reason -- is number one on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Next month, NBC and its affiliates will broadcast Gore's Live Earth Concerts to a worldwide audience of some two billion people!

Greenland Provides Clues To Tipping Point In Arctic Meltdown

2007-06-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

From the June 9, 2007 Washington Post:

In Arctic Ice, Lessons on Effects of Warming
Researchers Drill, Map, Blast In Greenland in Hunt for Clues

If Manhattan floods, it may start here, on an ice field that
stretches in frozen silence to every horizon.

Global warming is working away at the Greenland ice cap. The frozen
interior of the Arctic island is shedding ice much faster than simple melting
should explain...

As ice on glaciers moves over rock, it snags and lurches. That creates
"icequakes" measurable in the same way as earthquakes. In 1993, there were seven such quakes in Greenland. In 2005, as the ice accelerated, there were 32.

"For a long time it was thought that a change of climate could affect
the ice sheets very slowly," said Meredith Nettles, a scientist from
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, who monitors a large glacier in eastern Greenland. "Now we believe the Greenland ice can respond to changes in climate much more quickly than anyone thought."

In geologic terms, "quickly" still means decades or centuries. But some scientists say the Earth is approaching a point when the process cannot be stopped. Only in recent years did scientists conclude that sea levels are rising twice as fast as they had estimated, said H. Jay Zwally, a senior research scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"We are seeing things taking place in the ice now that weren't expected, that five years ago we didn't even know about," said Zwally, who will spend his 14th summer on the Greenland ice cap this year. "I think eventually Greenland will reach a point that the change is irreversible in the current climate."

Bushes Missing Simple Wisdom

2007-06-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

From the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Peggy Noonan opines the decline of the GOP's conservative coalition. She presents a harsh analysis of the Bush reign. Both father and son receive a lashing.

...One of the things I have come to think the past few years is that the Bushes, father and son, though different in many ways, are great wasters of political inheritance. They throw it away as if they'd earned it and could do with it what they liked...

...The beginning of my own sense of separation from the Bush administration came in January 2005, when the president declared that it is now the policy of the United States to eradicate tyranny in the world, and that the survival of American liberty is dependent on the liberty of every other nation. This was at once so utopian and so aggressive that it shocked me. For others the beginning of distance might have been Katrina and the incompetence it revealed, or the depth of the mishandling and misjudgments of Iraq.

What I came in time to believe is that the great shortcoming of this White House, the great thing it is missing, is simple wisdom. Just wisdom--a sense that they did not invent history, that this moment is not all there is, that man has lived a long time and there are things that are true of him, that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and
actually at this point in history we don't need hacks...

Interesting that it should take her so long to reach this conclusion. I had W pegged with the first couple of sentences that I heard come from his mouth.

Griffin Resigns AR U.S. Attorney Post

2007-05-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

In today's report from McClatchy Washington Bureau, Tim Griffin will resign his post effective June 1.

Justice Department investigators broaden their inquiry
Margaret Talev and Greg Gordon

...In other development, the Justice Department said Wednesday that Tim Griffin, the interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., since last December, would resign his post effective June 1.

Griffin, a former Republican Party opposition researcher, has been a controversial figure in the firing controversy because of his close ties to White House political adviser Karl Rove and allegations that he was part of a GOP effort in 2004 to get minorities knocked off of voting rolls. Republican Party officials have denied any impropriety.

To make way for Griffin, the White House and Justice Department
last year sought U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins' resignation.

Griffin at one point might have stayed on through the remainder of
Bush's term. But when it was revealed that he was installed using a change to the USA Patriot Act that took away the Senate's power to reject him, Griffin said he would stay on only until a permanent replacement was nominated. As of Wednesday, it was unclear who that nominee would be. The Justice Department notified Congress that Griffin's first assistant, Jane W. Duke, would serve as acting U.S. attorney.

Griffin could not be reached for comment.

Said Michael Teague, spokesman for Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.: "This is a positive development, and Senator Pryor looks forward to restoring credible leadership in the U.S. Attorney's office."

Darfur: It's The Oil, Stupid

2007-05-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

I caught a minute of Bush on TV yesterday, and before I hit the mute button I heard him mention Darfur. That's odd, I thought. I hadn't really heard anything lately about Darfur from any elected officials, much less our appointed President.

This chilling analysis of the situation in Darfur is from the Asia Times:

Darfur: Forget genocide, there's oil
By F William Engdahl
May 25, 2007

...The case of Darfur, a forbidding piece of sun-parched real estate in the southern part of Sudan, illustrates the new Cold War over oil, where the dramatic rise in China's oil demand to fuel its booming growth has led Beijing to embark on an aggressive policy of - ironically - dollar diplomacy. With its more than US $1.2 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples' National Bank of China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad is a priority.

This is defining a major new front in what, since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing over control of major oil sources. So far Beijing has played its cards a bit more cleverly than Washington. Darfur is a major battleground in this high-stakes contest for oil control...

The US government repeatedly uses "genocide" to refer to Darfur. It is the only government to do so... only Washington and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) close to it use the charged term "genocide" to describe Darfur. If they are able to get popular acceptance of the charge of genocide, it opens the possibility of drastic "regime change" intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - read Washington - in Sudan's sovereign affairs...

The United States, acting through surrogate allies in Chad and neighboring states has trained and armed the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army, headed until his death in July 2005 by John Garang, trained at the US Special Forces school at Fort Benning, Georgia.

By pouring arms into first southeastern Sudan and since discovery of oil in Darfur into that region as well, Washington fueled the conflict that led to tens of thousands dying and several million driven to flee their homes. Eritrea hosts and supports the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the umbrella NDA opposition group, and the Eastern Front and Darfur rebels...

VW Created 282 MPG Car in 2002

2007-05-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

From Canadian Driver:

The most economical car in the world
By Greg Wilson
June 5, 2002

A few years ago, Volkswagen took on a task that many people thought was impossible: they decided to develop a fuel-efficient, road-going compact car that could achieve an average fuel consumption of just 3 litresper 100 km (94 mpg). Not only did Volkswagen achieve this milestone in 1999, but they had an even larger goal in mind: an ultra fuel-efficient car with a super stingy fuel consumption rating of just 1 litre per 100 kilometres (282
mpg).

After three years of development in secret, the 1-Litre-Car was unveiled in April in Hamburg, Germany at Volkswagen’s annual stockholder meeting. To prove that it is a viable, road-going automobile and not just a pie-in-the-sky concept, VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech himself drove the
1-Litre-Car from Wolfsburg to Hamburg to join the shareholders meeting averaging just 0.89 litres per 100 km (317 mpg) along the way..

HT Cryptogon

The Republican Plan For 2008

2007-05-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

Thom Hartmann muses on GOP strategies leading up to 2008 elections. What are the Democratic plans to build on the gains of 2006?

Published on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
The Republican Plan For 2008 Begins Today
by Thom Hartmann

It’s difficult to watch Democrats play checkers while Republicans
play chess with Iraq. It’s particularly difficult on Memorial Day as more
Americans and Iraqis die. But the Republican Party has been playing politics
with Iraq since the day after the Supreme Court installed George W. Bush in
office in 2001, and they have no intention of stopping now. They may have
borrowed some techniques from Richard Nixon, but they have no intention of
repeating his mistakes.

The political calculus being pursued by Karl Rove and the
Republican Party with regard to Iraq and the 2008 elections is a simple
four-step process:

1. Shift “ownership” of the downside of the “war” and occupation of
Iraq to the Democrats.

2. Begin to wind down American involvement in the occupation of
Iraq no later than mid-2008.

3. “Claim victory and get out” of direct combat in Iraq by the
early fall of 2008.

4. Win big in the 2008 elections by having “won” a
“war.”

Step one was accomplished last week...

Read Thom's complete remarks here.

Monica Goodling Points to Tim Griffin Caging Involvement

2007-05-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

In a special report for the Brad Blog, Greg Palast points out that Monica Goodling dropped the bomb when she spoke of her knowledge of Tim Griffin's involvement in vote "caging" intended to defraud the 2004 election.

Goodling testified that Gonzales' Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin's "involvement in 'caging' voters" in 2004.

Greg Palast knows about the caging because he has the caging lists via emails mistakenly sent to a website maintained by his friend John Wooden. Examples are posted with the story at Brad Blog. The caging story was covered by Greg Palast on the BBC, but was completely ignored by the U.S. press.

Therefore, when Ms. Goodling spilled her guts about caging, it went right over the heads of the committee, and no probing questions were asked to clarify the matter.

According to Palast:

Here's what you need to know --- and the Committee would have
discovered, if only they'd asked:

'Caging' voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.

Griffin wasn't "involved" in the caging, Ms. Goodling. Griffin,
Rove's right-hand man (right-hand claw), was directing the illegal purge and challenge campaign. How do I know? It's in the email I got. Thanks. And it's posted below.

On December 7, 2006, the ragin', cagin' Griffin was named, on Rove's personal demand, US Attorney for Arkansas. Perpetrator became
prosecutor.

Read the entire article here.

McCaskill Tours Missouri This Weekend

2007-05-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

From the Chicago Examiner:

McCaskill heading on 14-city tour to study veterans' health care

Sen. Claire McCaskill is getting back on the RV, only this time it's not for a campaign trip.

She plans to spend the Memorial Day recess on a four-day, 14-stop tour of Missouri to check on the state of health care for veterans.

Inspired by revelations of poor outpatient care conditions at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, McCaskill wants to learn more about the experiences veterans have had at military health facilities in Missouri.

"I thought the best way to do that was to try to go all over the state and make sure the veterans knew that this was an opportunity they had to come and tell me their story - the good, the bad and the ugly," McCaskill said.

At each stop on the tour, McCaskill is inviting veterans and their families to describe any problems or obstacles they have faced in the Department of Veterans Affairs system and other military hospitals and clinics.

Goodling Testimony: Graves Was Under Investigation

2007-05-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

TPM Muckraker has complete coverage of the Monica Goodling testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. She stated that Todd Graves " had been under investigation by the department's inspector general when he was asked to step down. She did not say what the investigation was about. She also said that she did not remember anything about voter fraud being a reason for his firing. "

The Columbia Tribune has a report from the AP that adds:

Goodling’s testimony focuses new attention on the revelation earlier this month that a former counsel to Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., called the White House in the spring of 2005 to urge that Graves be replaced because of the fee office controversy.

Around the time Graves was asked to resign in January 2006, U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock, Ark., was investigating whether there was any wrongdoing in the awarding of Missouri license office contracts.

The News-Leader also presents a AP report, but does not tie in the fee office implications. Chatter has comments on the Goodling testimony, as does The Turner Report.

Fired Up Missouri has three postings from Howard Beale.

The Kansas City Star comments "In testimony full of revelations, admissions and accusations, Monica Goodling — a key figure in the U.S. attorneys’ firing firestorm — dropped a smoldering ember into Missouri politics Wednesday." in a well-balanced report from Dave Helling.

Todd Graves is scheduled to testify in June.

A Little Bit Of Paranoia

2007-05-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

A small dose of paranoia for today. Trust me, it's better than drugs. This letter was printed in the Aspen Daily News. I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion that ground is being laid for a coup, but I would like to know more. It would be good if someone with a better grasp of the big picture could elaborate on his (conspiracy) theory.

Rove rewrites the Constitution

Letter to the Editor -
Tue 05/22/2007

About 40 years ago a group of wealthy right-wingers started to think that if they played their cards right, they could take over this country. They did.

Today the Bush administration has created the most powerful presidency and vice presidency ever. Led in part by today's Machiavelli, aka Karl Rove, counselor and strategist for "the prince," they have remade government in this country. The goal is a Republican Party dynasty for the foreseeable future. It could happen.

On May 9, an obscure presidential directive was released. Our president has declared himself the "go-to guy" in the event of just about any national emergency. After 200-plus years of presidents, why this, why now?

Consider the creation of Northcom, a brand-new Pentagon command that puts all of North America under the "command" of a four-star general. We have had a Southern Command, in the Middle East a Centcom, and in Africa a new Africacom. For the entire history of this country, the military has been denied any role on U.S. soil, except in extreme circumstances. This wise policy dates to the Roman Empire, where it came under tragic abuse.

Similarly, the president has created a new policy whereby he will be the primary commander of the National Guard of all of our states. These "militias" were created in the Constitution for a very different reason: to protect the states from an overly ambitious federal government.

And perhaps most tellingly, a subtle restructuring of all of the institutions of the federal government has been taking place. That is, new layers of bureaucracy have been created to supersede the traditional roles. For example, instead of the director of central intelligence, we now have the new director of national intelligence, a man who works directly for the president. Or, the Department of Homeland Security now controls dozens of formerly independent agencies as diverse as the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Agency.

Most recently, a new position was created called the war czar. The federal government has had no shortage of people with responsibility for the conduct of war from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Department of Defense, to the Congress of the United States. It is difficult to imagine how a position created out of thin air, with no precedent, no staff and no budget could possibly serve any useful purpose.

I see one possible explanation, and it has Karl Rove written all over it. I believe the real purpose of these pseudo leadership positions is not to streamline the management of the affairs of government, but to shield the president from the usual constraints imposed on the executive by the separation of powers in the Constitution. The president can now bypass the usual channels of government and accountability to take direct control of the key machinery.

Phony czars, directors of directors of intelligence, Homeland Security are all preparation for a coup. For those of you that have steadfastly supported George W. Bush these last few years, take heart; he could be around for many more.

Patrick Hunter
Carbondale

Monica Goodling Testifies With Immunity Today

2007-05-23T07:21:00.001-07:00

Monica Goodling testifies today before the House Judiciary Committee regarding her role in the irregularities alleged to have taken place in the firing of U. S. Attorneys. She is also alleged to have played a major role in selective hiring maneuvers to exclude those whose credentials seemed to suggest a liberal slant.

Monica Goodling was former counsel to Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department's liason to the White House. She is a 33 year old graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University with six months of prosecutorial experience.

From Think Progress, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said he believes that Goodling holds the “keys to the kingdom” in terms of uncovering the roots of the U.S. Attorney purge:

"I think Monica Goodling is holding the keys to the kingdom. I think if they get her to testify under oath with a transcript, and have her describe the process between the information flow between the White House counsel, White House and the Justice Department, I believe the picture becomes a lot clearer."

TPM Muckraker points to profiles of Goodling in The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post this morning. Paul Kiel at TPM has the " impression that Goodling was a true believer. From her high perch in the Justice Department, Goodling worked to make sure that the Justice Department was staffed with staunch conservatives. "

An observation from Think Progress. Hiring for such positions based on political affiliation is a violation of federal law.

Why should we care? The tangled web includes the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys in Missouri and Arkansas with a little voter fraud scam and attempted intimidation of John Ashcroft thrown in for good measure.

Senator McCaskill Opens Springfield Office

2007-05-21T19:32:00.001-07:00

From the 5/18/07 Springfield Business Journal:

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., will be in Springfield Saturday to open the doors of her local office, located in downtown’s former Busy Bee building off the square...

Services there will include community outreach and case work, as well as assistance with Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, veterans benefits, passports and other federal assistance-related topics, according to Adrianne Marsh, communications director for McCaskill.

The 800-square-foot office will be staffed full-time, five days per week by District Director David Rauch, interns and several volunteers, Marsh said.

McCaskill has offices in Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia – in addition to her Washington, D.C., office – and plans to open one in Cape Girardeau soon...

Missouri GOP Feuding

2007-05-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Via the Columbia Tribune:

Graves case another sign of rift between rival GOP camps
By SAM HANANEL Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Revelations that Sen. Kit Bond's office urged the White House to replace former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves in the Western District of Missouri came as little surprise to those familiar with the long-standing political feud between rival Republican camps in the state.

Graves' brother - Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo. - has clashed with Bond for years over how to wield Republican clout in the state...

Read the entire article here.

McClatchy Has More Voter Fraud Revelations Today

2007-05-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

Efforts to stop `voter fraud' may have curbed legitimate voting
By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - During four years as a Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky went so far in a crusade against voter fraud as to warn of its dangers under a pseudonym in a law journal article.

Writing as "Publius," von Spakovsky contended that every voter should be required to produce a photo-identification card and that there was "no evidence" that such restrictions burden minority voters disproportionately.

Now, amid a scandal over politicization of the Justice Department, Congress is beginning to examine allegations that von Spakovsky was a key player in a Republican campaign to hang onto power in Washington by suppressing the votes of minority voters.

"Mr. von Spakovsky was central to the administration's pursuit of strategies that had the effect of suppressing the minority vote," charged Joseph Rich, a former Justice Department voting rights chief who worked under him...

Read the entire piece here.

Plastic Ocean

2007-05-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

A few excerpts from an article in Best Life Magazine: Plastic Ocean: Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic - Are We? by Susan Casey

A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility...and worse...

This news is depressing enough to make a person reach for the bottle. Glass, at least, is easily recyclable. You can take one tequila bottle, melt it down, and make another tequila bottle. With plastic, recycling is more complicated. Unfortunately, that promising-looking triangle of arrows that appears on products doesn’t always signify endless reuse; it merely identifies which type of plastic the item is made from. And of the seven different plastics in common use, only two of them—PET (labeled with #1 inside the triangle and used in soda bottles) and HDPE (labeled with #2 inside the triangle and used in milk jugs)—have much of an aftermarket. So no matter how virtuously you toss your chip bags and shampoo bottles into your blue bin, few of them will escape the landfill—only 3 to 5 percent of plastics are recycled in any way.

Though marine dumping is part of the problem, escaped nurdles and other plastic litter migrate to the gyre largely from land. That polystyrene cup you saw floating in the creek, if it doesn’t get picked up and specifically taken to a landfill, will eventually be washed out to sea. Once there, it will have plenty of places to go: The North Pacific gyre is only one of five such high-pressure zones in the oceans. There are similar areas in the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. Each of these gyres has its own version of the Garbage Patch, as plastic gathers in the currents. Together, these areas cover 40 percent of the sea. “That corresponds to a quarter of the earth’s surface,” Moore says. “So 25 percent of our planet is a toilet that never flushes.”

... Each of us tosses about 185 pounds of plastic per year. We could certainly reduce that. And yet—do our products have to be quite so lethal? Must a discarded flip-flop remain with us until the end of time? Aren’t disposable razors and foam packing peanuts a poor consolation prize for the destruction of the world’s oceans, not to mention our own bodies and the health of future generations? “If ‘more is better’ and that’s the only mantra we have, we’re doomed,” Moore says, summing it up.

Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, Ph.D., an expert on marine debris, agrees. “If you could fast-forward 10,000 years and do an archaeological dig…you’d find a little line of plastic,” he told The Seattle Times last April. “What happened to those people? Well, they ate their own plastic and disrupted their genetic structure and weren’t able to reproduce. They didn’t last very long because they killed themselves."

Voter Fraud: BuzzFlash Interviews Greg Palast

2007-05-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought my monstrous paranoid appetite for voter fraud info had been satiated, I came across this interview on Buzzflash with investigative reporter Greg Palast, Author of Armed Madhouse, on "How Rove May Have Already Stolen the 2008 Election"

According to BuzzFlash, Palast's "specialty has really been how the Bush/Rove GOP political machine keeps persons who are likely to vote Democratic or Independent from voting. "

From the interview:

Greg Palast: ...The prosecutor firings were 100% about influencing elections -- not about loyalty to Bush, which is what The New York Times wrote. The administration team couldn’t tolerate appointees who wouldn’t go along with crime. In the book I present the evidence that Karl Rove directed a guy named Tim Griffin to target suppressing the votes of African American students, homeless men, and soldiers. Nice guy. They actually challenged the votes and successfully removed tens of thousands of legal voters from the voter rolls, same as they did in 2000. But instead of calling them felons, they said that they had suspect addresses.

BuzzFlash: In which election cycle?

Greg Palast: 2004. And in 2006 and 2004, they challenged tens of thousands of black soldiers. They stopped their votes from being counted when they were mailed in from Baghdad. Go to Baghdad and lose your vote -- mission accomplished.

BuzzFlash: How did they do that?

Greg Palast: By sending letters to the homes of soldiers, marked "do not forward." When they came back undelivered, they said: Aha! Illegal voter registered from a false address. And when their ballot came in from Fallujah, it was challenged. The soldier didn’t know it. Their vote was lost. Over half a million votes were challenged and lost by the Republicans -- absentee ballots. Three million voters who went to the polls found themselves challenged by the Republicans. This was not a small operation. It was a multi-million dollar, wholesale theft operation.

...the guy they put in charge of this criminal ring to knock out voters is a guy named Tim Griffin. Today, Tim Griffin is -- badda-bing -- U.S. Attorney for Arkansas. When they fired the honest guys, they put in the Rove-bots to fix the 2008 election. That’s what I’m saying -- it’s already being stolen, as we speak. Tim Griffin is the perpetrator who’s become the prosecutor, and that’s what’s going down right now.

BuzzFlash: This is not conjecture on your part. You're very methodical.

Greg Palast: We've got the documents. We ain’t guessing. When I say they had caging lists targeting innocent black soldiers, I have the lists. I have the soldiers’ names. We spoke to their families. In fact, interestingly, "60 Minutes" came into our office and said, “My God, to prove what these caging lists are, you’re going to have to make hundreds of calls and spend hundreds of hours going through this stuff.” And we said, “Yeah, it’s reporting. Try it. It won’t hurt you.”

If these tidbits have snagged your attention, read the entire interview at Buzzflash. I haven't yet read Armed Madhouse, but I'll move it to the top of my list.

Slate Article Highlights ACVR Voter Fraud Scam

2007-05-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

Fueling my paranoia, is an article at Slate.com penned by Loyola Election Law Professor Rick Hasen titled The Fraudulent Fraud Squad - The Incredible, Disappearing American Center For Voting Rights.

Brad Friedman comments: "After more than two years of the story being "chronicled indefatigably" here at The BRAD BLOG, as Hasen is kind enough to point out/link to, his article summarizing the rise and fall of one of this century's most insidious assaults on American values under the guise of the ACVR GOP front-group fraud comes not a moment too soon."

Considering the attempt of ACVR to influence the 2006 election in Missouri, Professor Hasen's analysis is food for thought. Here are a couple of small excerpts:

... ACVR—the only prominent nongovernmental organization claiming that voter fraud is a major problem, a problem warranting strict rules such as voter-ID laws—simply stopped appearing at government panels and conferences. Its Web domain name has suddenly expired, its reports are all gone (except where they have been preserved by its opponents), and its general counsel, Mark "Thor" Hearne, has cleansed his résumé of affiliation with the group. Hearne won't speak to the press about ACVR's demise. No other group has taken up the "voter fraud" mantra...
... But despite the collapse of ACVR, the idea that there is massive polling-place voter fraud has, perhaps irrevocably, entered the public consciousness. It has infected even the Supreme Court's thinking about voter-ID laws. And it has provided intellectual cover for the continued partisan pursuit of voter-ID laws that may suppress minority votes.

Rupert Murdoch Goes Green

2007-05-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

Global warming deniers must be a little confused today.

From News Hound:

Holy Conundrum, Batman! News Corp, Parent of FOX News Going Green!

Reported by Marie Therese - May 10, 2007 -

Buried in the FOX STOX segment of yesterday's Your World with Neil Cavuto was this stunning announcement.
Rupert Murdoch has declared that News Corporation will be "carbon neutral" by 2010. Since FOX News Channel is a part of News Corporation, one wonders how its hosts and guest will "alter" their anti-enviromentalist, anti-global warming reportage to fit this startling development. Does this mean that Sen. James Inhofe will no longer be allowed to spout his idiotic theories on global warming on FOX? Will Hannity finally stop bashing Al Gore? Presumably, there will be
much more "in depth" analysis today on Cavuto's "premiier" business show.

Also of interest:

A Fox News poll from 2/7/07 had these surprising results:

NEW YORK — Most Americans believe in global warming, according to
the latest FOX News poll, and a majority thinks it is caused at least in part by human behavior, though many believe normal climate patterns are a factor.The national poll, conducted before the release of the United Nations’ report on climate change last week, finds that fully 82 percent of Americans say they believe in global warming, up from 77 percent in October 2005, while 10 percent disagree and 8 percent are unsure.
Democrats (91 percent) and independents (84 percent) are much more likely to say global warming exists than Republicans (72 percent),
although sizable majorities of all demographic groups are in agreement.
When those who believe in global warming are asked what they think is the main cause of the situation, there is widespread belief that human behavior — such as driving and burning too much fossil fuel like coal and oil — is a contributor to the problem. Four in ten Americans say people are to blame outright (41 percent) and another 38 percent think it is a combination of human action and normal climate patterns. Few believe that global warming is an entirely natural occurrence (14 percent).

No Local Coverage of Missouri Involvement in DOJ Scandal

2007-05-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Where is the local coverage of Missouri Republicans' involvement in the DOJ scandal??

With front page mention in today's Washington Post (Number of Fired Prosecutors Grows) and a big article in the New York Times (Missouri Prosecutor Says He Was Pushed to Resign) the spotlight is on Todd Graves resignation and it's implication in the fee office scandal/voter fraud scam. The New York Times also has an editorial today U.S. Attorneys, Reloaded featuring the Missouri players Schlozman and Graves as relates to the GOP attempt to sway the Talent/McCaskill race.

The Kansas City Star has been criticized for lax coverage. From Fired Up Missouri, 5/8/07 (Star Bowing to Pressure From It's Attorney Lathrop & Gage to Soften Coverage of GOP Scandal?). The St. Louis Post-Dispatch seems to be ignoring the whole mess.

Yesterday's Columbia Tribune carried a bit from the AP report Bond Staffer Suggested Attorney Should Be Replaced, the McClatchy feature Bond's Staff Sought Graves' Firing and from the Politics Blog, Was Bond Intertwined in Graves Drama?

The John Combest political headlines site points to the NYT and WP, but he has no comment on his blog.

The Turner Report has two contributions today --Times editorial: Senate committee should question Graves and Graves Says He Was Fired.

The News-Leader has, well, nothing to say about any of this, the KY3 political blog is talking about Fred Thompson, and I suppose Chatter would chime in only if one of the players were to die suddenly.

I'm sure if this had to do with any impropriety on the part of Democrats it would be front page news all over the state. Forget "fair and balanced", the plan seems to be to just keep Missourians in the dark on anything that requires criticism of the Republicans.

McClatchy Puts Spotlight on Missouri '06 Voter Suppression

2007-05-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

Todays Brad Blog points to a great article from the McClatchy Washington Bureau written by Greg Gordon, highlighting the efforts of Karl Rove, Thor Hearne, U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman and the Missouri legislature to suppress the vote in Missouri in 2006.

Of course, Talent got the boot anyway. Wonder what treats they have in store for 2008...

Global Warming is on a Roll

2007-05-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our favorite weather guy at The Two Dollar Bill pointed out to us that the melting of Arctic sea ice is proceeding at a rapid clip. According to USA TODAY, it's about 30 years ahead of projections.

A new island has appeared off the coast of Greenland, aptly named Warming Island. It was previously thought to be a peninsula, before the glacier melted that connected it to the mainland. The Independent calls this "the most alarming sign of global warming." If the entire Greenland ice sheet melts, sea level will rise 23 feet.

If you are living in a coastal area, you might want to invest in a nice rubber raft.

The Brad Blog Highlights Blunt Connections to Cummins Firing

2007-04-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Don't miss investigative blogger Brad Friedman as he weighs in today at The Brad Blog with a long post on the Blunt/Fee Office/DOJ scandal. He draws from the ongoing coverage at Fired Up Missouri and other state and local sources, including the SBJ article from May 2006.

The role of Mark F. "Thor" Hearn of Lathrop & Gage lawfirm is highlighted. The Brad Blog has been keeping tabs on the activities of Thor Hearn for quite some time and his activities as founder of the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR). According to Brad, the ACVR "was, in turn, behind virtually every report, initiative, claim, piece of legislation, Congressional testimony, legal case, "official commission" or public statement concerning the cooked-up case for the mythical epidemic of Democratic "voter fraud" that has been at the heart of the GOP/White House/DoJ attempts at vote-shaving via politicization and suppression at the ballot box since at least 2004."

Several years of Brad's investigation into the ACVR are archived on his blog at http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=4418. Brad also assures us that as much of the material about Thor Hearne and his activities is scrubbed from internet sources, he has saved that info for future reference.

Thanks Brad, great reporting.

Governor For Sale

2007-04-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

That 30-some percent of Missourians who approve of Matt Blunt's performance as governor are willing to pony up some big bucks to support his upcoming political campaign.

The elimination of contribution limits has resulted in an early windfall for Blunt, including $200,000 in contributions from Texas homebuilder Bob Perry and his wife Doylene. Perry is the man behind the deceptive Swift Boat ads that adversely affected John Kerry's Presidential bid in 2004.

Also chipping in a total of $200,000 is David and Ethelmae Humphreys of Tamco Roofing Products, Joplin, MO. Jerry and Patricia Hall of Monett, MO weighed in with a combined total of $125,000.

Contributing $100,000 each were Stanley Herzog, Herzog Construction, St. Joseph, MO; Rex Sinquefield, Show-Me Institute, Westphalia, MO; Dennis Jones, Retired, St. Louis, MO; and a Georgia contributor, William Ulm, MLU Service, Inc., Bogart, GA. Jeffrey, Marilyn and Merle Fox, Harbour Group Investments, St. Louis also gave a total of $100,000.

Donations from those giving $100 or less totaled $12,596.50. So much for the little people.

Source for data Missouri Ethics Commission.

HT: The Turner Report, Fired Up Missouri

Abstinence Programs Are A Failure

2007-04-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

This comes as no surprise to those of us living in the real world. Teens and pre-teens are more savvy about sex than ever, and have more unsupervised time in which to indulge their explorations.

From MSNBC: Abstinence Students Still Having Sex

WASHINGTON - Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. Critics have repeatedly said they don’t believe the programs are working, and the study will give them reinforcement.

Global Warming Denial

2007-04-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of weeks a couple of Republican guys have lectured me (in very loud voices) about their disbelief that global warming is real.

They are essentially parroting guys like this. From News Hound:

"The science is out on global warming. There are a number of scientists who say the earth is cooling. There are others that say it's not. I know that the leadership in the House and the Senate right now are trying to suppress the scientific community from coming forward and saying anything in opposition to what they want." - Bob Murray, CEO, Murray Energy, Inc. a coal mining company.

In 2006, Murray's PAC donated $202,000 to 24 Republicans and 0 Democrats.

Your World with Neil Cavuto, April 5, 2007

Peak Oil and Future Shock

2007-04-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

Nino Cocchiarella has some astute observations about life after Peak Oil.

From the Evansville Courier & Press:

Peak oil crisis will require fundamental cultural change
By NINO G. COCCHIARELLA Special to the Courier & Press
Sunday, April 8, 2007

The recent congressional report "CRUDE OIL, Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production" firmly recommends that we "better prepare for a peak in oil."

The report clearly states that there is no U.S. policy to deal with global peak oil. Oil peaked in the United States in the 1970s. We were saved by OPEC, Alaska and the North Sea discoveries, and we never looked back.

Humans have for all practical purposes found, drilled, pumped and refined half of the crude oil on the planet — the easiest half: 900 billion barrels — so far this century. What's left are declining fields with hard-to-extract heavy (sour) crude, oil shale and tar sands. These will require ever more energy to extract and will approach a negative net energy result.
Plus, there are only a limited number of refineries that can make gasoline from heavy crude, let alone tar sands and oil shale. This will create exponential price increases and shortages as oil exploration and production and oil wars take precedence over poor consumers. Not to mention the side effects of burning two barrels of oil to get 2.5 barrels to market. Can you say "accelerated global warming"?

Like addicts, we have our drug of choice, "The American Way of Life," which, by Vice President Dick Cheney's recent statement, "Is not negotiable." However, in this case, there isn't a new dealer on the planet.

I wonder if there is oil on the moon?

Oil, for all its dirty, nasty attributes, is the best thing since man discovered fire. There is nothing to replace it. To put this greasy energy in perspective: One cubic mile of crude oil has the energy equivalent of 104 coal-fired power plants running for 50 years; 1 cubic mile of oil equals 22.7 billion barrels, or about the first nine months of what the world used last year. Yet, crude oil costs only 12 cents a cup.

Is there anything you can think of, besides sand, that can be bought for less than 12 cents a cup? That won't even buy a bottle of water.

The majority of the world's significant oil fields are in decline. That, I'm afraid to say, is fact.
New discoveries have only been a fractional part of current consumption and may be taking more energy to search for than they net in new finds.

Whether you believe the oil companies (40-plus years), the U.S. government (20-30 years), scientists and geologists (zero to 10 years), former oil industry insiders (zero to five years) or us "doomers" (it's happening now), the undeniable fact is we cannot continue the "American way of life" forever. Most likely not even for another 10 years.

Oil, the very thing that fuels 6.6 billion lives, is going to soon start to, or already is in, decline. World oil production has declined 3 percent a year for the last several years.
This is the biggest, most global event man will ever face. Yet no one is talking about it. Well, maybe a few of us are yelling about it.

Ethanol, bio-diesel, synthesized coal liquids, methane gas, hydrogen fuel cells, and other "alternatives" have been passed around like a lump of hot coal for years. All of these, in their best possible forms of production, still have a net energy loss. Some are closer than others, but, realistically, they're not going to save us.

More important, they all have one vision — to keep all the cars running by any means.
And speaking of coal: We can't power our cars with it, and the same geologic laws that pertain to oil also affect coal (and even uranium). They all are finite, and we are consuming them like a cancer consumes a body.

What do we do? Conserve. Change. Elect intelligent people.

Conservation is only a feeble start. For a society to survive intact, philosophies have to change. The car mentality has to go, and the sooner the better.

We have to stop urban sprawl and let the land around our cities be used, as it once was, for growing food for its region; use light rail for distance transportation and trolleys, bikes and pedestrian walkways for local transportation.

We must localize communities around centers of food production and local-needs manufacturing. We must learn to live with less.

All of these would use less energy and could allow a world closer to what we know today to continue for a significantly longer time than would doing nothing.

Technology will not fix this. No amount of high-tech know-how, drilling techniques or "Googling" will save us from ourselves.

In reality, we all will have to learn to live a different life under different conditions. It's not going to be easy or fun.

Peak oil will be the issue of our generation. There is not going to be a heroic Hollywood ending or Hail Mary pass to save us on this one. This is an issue that should not be seen as a liberal, tree-hugging, doomsdayer's obsession. This is a global geological fact that needs to be considered in every aspect of our lives.

Nino G. Cocchiarella is a resident of Evansville.

Ashcroft Undermined Civil Rights Division at DOJ

2007-04-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

From the salon.com article Bush's Long History of Politicizing Justice:

... Instead of attending to the Civil Rights Division's historic mission, addressing the legacy of slavery by enforcing anti-discrimination laws, the Bush administration has employed the division to advance the political agenda of a key GOP constituency, the Christian right and also, quite literally, to get Republicans elected.

Accomplishing these goals required a drastic change in personnel, which necessitated dismantling the hiring system, forcing out or silencing career (nonpolitical) staff, and replacing them with people without civil rights expertise but with demonstrated ideological and partisan loyalties. It was a project that took years to execute because several checks on such a scenario had long been in place, checks that earlier administrations of both parties had respected...

In an e-mail to his 125,000 employees on his first day on the job, Ashcroft promised to guarantee "rights for the advancement of all Americans." But actions were soon speaking louder than words. Regular meetings of the division's section chiefs and the political leadership were virtually discontinued. In a tradition dating to the 1950s, presidents have asked an American Bar Association committee to provide a confidential rating of the qualifications of judicial candidates before the nominations are sent to the Senate for confirmation. Ashcroft and then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales met with the ABA and then terminated the ABA's advisory role. Once Ashcroft began hiring his own choices, career attorneys noticed that many of the new hires were members of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Ashcroft himself was called an active supporter of the Federalist Society, and several of the top legal positions throughout the administration were all held by Federalist Society members.

Then, much the way some companies go green, DOJ under Ashcroft went Pentecostal. In correspondence, use of the word "pride" was forbidden because the Bible calls pride a sin; employees were also asked to never use the phrase "no higher calling than public service." Ashcroft instituted prayer meetings, leading a Bible study at 8 a.m. sharp each day, some days even in his office, on others in a conference room at Main Justice. All department employees, regardless of their religious affiliation, were invited to attend, but in reality few did...

Hat tip to FiredUpMissouri.

John Stone, A Short Reminiscence

2007-04-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

I knew John Stone when we were both in our late 20's. He referred to himself as Jack much of the time then, to differentiate himself from his father. His dad owned a magic shop and I often wondered what life would have been like growing up with a magician.

Jack frequented a bar where I worked for a couple of years, while finishing my degree at SMS-MSU. He usually began the conversation with a proposition, which I never took seriously. On a slow night we would smoke some menthol cigarettes and talk about every subject under the sun.

I lost touch with him after I left the bar job, but remember him with fondness.

After I discovered his blog, it often was the highlight of my day. RIP John Stone, you will be missed

Fabulous Photos

2007-03-31T08:20:00.000-07:00

Local photographer Julie Blackmon is chosen as one of 2007's 30 New and Emerging Artists to Watch in the March issue of Photo District News, from an article in today's News-Leader.

I've long admired her style. She is now represented by galleries in Chicago, Seattle and Santa Fe. Check out her portfolio at www.julieblackmon.com.

Blunt Fee Office Investigation Comes Under Scrutiny

2007-03-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

This Republican administration is like an octopus with a thousand putrid tentacles choking off the democratic process. Testimony will be forthcoming from H. E. Cummins who was fired by Attorney General Gonzales and replaced by J. Timothy Griffin, "a former political operative for White House political director Karl Rove."

Via The Turner Report:

Cummins to testify before House subcommittee

Former U. S. Attorney H. E. Cummins, one of eight who was fired by the Bush Administration in recent months, will testify before a House Judiciary subcommittee Tuesday, according to an article in today's New York Times.

Cummins was fired despite excellent job reviews. His firing came during a time in which he was investigating the methods used by Governor Matt Blunt's administration to award license fee office contracts in Missouri.

Fired Up Missouri commented on the Cummins firing earlier this year. "Who knows whether Cummins may have reached a different conclusion on whether to file for indictments against figures in Missouri government had he not received a loud, clear message from the highest levels that his fee office investigation was counter to the wishes of the Attorney General and President?"

Lunar Eclipse Begets Bitchiness?

2007-03-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

If you have anything to bitch about, tomorrow's lunar eclipse may give you the excuse you need to let it all out. An occasional bitchfest does clear the air and is so good for your mental health.

From Gawker.com:

Crazy Blood-Red Moon To Mark Culmination Of Worldwide Bitchiness

Don't say we didn't warn you:

The Moon will blush red as it passes through Earth's shadow in a total lunar eclipse on Saturday. From most locations on Earth, at least part of the 6-hour eclipse will be visible if skies are clear.We don't know if you've made plans yet, but we're suggesting a boy's night out. Might be safer for everybody.

Moon to blush red during total lunar eclipse [New Scientist]

Paper Ballot Initiative Proposed for Missouri Voters

2007-03-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

Activist Phil Lindsey, director of showmethevote.org, announced a 2008 ballot initiative yesterday at UMKC, that would return Missouri elections to the paper ballot.

From the article by Michael Collins, Show Me The Vote!

...This announcement marks the first major resistance to the e-voting trend. If the initiative gets on the ballot and passes, Missourians will be voting on and hand counting paper ballots. Canada, Ireland, Italy, and England all vote on hand count paper ballots. The United States did as well until the rush to electronic voting rendered the traditional paper ballot all but extinct...

Election Day 2007 in Missouri will offer citizens of the Show Me state the chance to be the first state in the country to just say no to electronic voting. The process will be an uphill battle by the citizen groups supporting the measure. Once on the ballot, the challenge will be even greater with tens of thousands of dollars in anticipated contributions by e-voting manufacturers to fight the proposal.

Ultimately, it is the choice of the people that matters. Public opinion polls show a runaway trend against e-voting. Missouri voters may lead the nation in making that trend official and returning to a centuries old American tradition...

Disabled Iraq Veterans Shafted

2007-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

Despite all the flag-waving, support our troups blah blah from this chickenhawk populated administration, disabled veterans returning from Iraq are routinely being given the shaft by the military regarding their disability pay and medical benefits upon discharge.

Meanwhile, the VA has a backlog of 400,000 new claims from fiscal year 2006.

This is a travesty.

John at AmericaBlog says "This is a national disgrace." He comments today on a piece from the Army Times, Wounded and Waiting and a two-part series in the Washington Post, Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration at Army's Top Medical Facility and The Hotel Aftermath.

Drinkin' The Kool-Aid

2007-02-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

After hearing the White House report on the new budget proposal...

Feb. 5, 2007: ...earlier today the President transmitted to the Congress the FY 2008 five-year budget. It contains good news for the American people. It includes a balanced budget over five years, while meeting the nation's priorities.

...I was thinking, this is positive. Maybe Bush is actually doing something right, getting things turned around and at least headed in the right direction. Then it dawned on me, I'm drinkin' the Kool-Aid. It's just smoke and mirrors, a BushCo snow job.

Richard Calderhead at Itsez has some comments worth consideration:

UNCLE SAM: ARE WE (REALLY) BROKE?

February 6: Average Americans will wake up today with the Good News: Bush is declaring a New Budget...that will Reduce the Deficit. And...(best news of all...No New Taxes!)...

According to Steven Rattner, NYTimes today, America is in really, really deep trouble. There is Red Ink stretching so far into the future it is nearly unimaginable to conceive of a way to get our national budget balanced!

How can this POSSIBLY be? WE are supposed to be America...the Land of Untold Riches and Prosperity (for...well, NEARLY all.)...

Bush has only been in office for 6 years...but he has radically worsened an already bad situation...which was CREATED by Ronald Reagan...on purpose...to Destroy America's Social Contract.

We will accept Rattner's numbers...so get this:

In 2006, we collected $185 billion more in Social Security than we paid out! Surprised? Well, there are a couple of problems with that fact.

1. First, you would ASSUME that SS payments would go into a SS Savings Account, to accrue interest to pay FUTURE payments? Wouldn't you? (Most Americans more or less believe this.)
Think again. That HUGE SS SURPLUS is swept up by Bush and used to make the current operating deficit appear smaller than it is.

2. Next...forget this current Surplus. We find out that Bush, Inc., is blithely LYING TO US (again)...and that we would need to put aside RIGHT NOW no less than $39 TRILLION...just to pay for Social Security, Medicare and OTHER payments already promised!

Quick now: Where will Uncle Sam EVER get a quick $39 TRILLION?

We have a few other pressing problems that need to be taken care of NOW. Put them all together and we see Ol' Sam in an entirely new light. Broke. Busted. And begging for cash to keep the country afloat.

Now...ask yourself: Is THIS what you read about every day in your local newspaper...or your favorite weekly? Not even Lou Dobbs is talking about it.

The word "Deficit" is made small ON PURPOSE...because it is swallowed up by all the other, more "pressing" problems we face.

Now do keep this in mind: If we fail to deal with this, in a systematic basis...and do it as a National Priority...we are headed for unimaginable troubles.

EXCEPT...that, once again, the Fat Cats will slip on by...and go their merry way, unaffected by the carnage they are creating. THEIR money, safely tucked away in Zurich or the Caymans...through various tax shelters you are not privvy to...will sustain them in the hour of need.

Only YOU, Suckers, will take it on the chin. As millions of American are hurting even as we speak.

And, saddest of all, your kids already BELIEVE that Social Security is doomed; they ACCEPT the failure (blaming it on Greedy Old Foggies and fumble-bumble DEMOCRATS!!!) and they ASSUME that...something "New" and "Smart" and "Modern"...will need to be put in its place.

In other words...they've Bought The Kool-Aid!

Itsez does not for a minute believe the Solution is easy. First, the Entrenched Interests will need to be rolled back. And THAT'S not going to be any walk in the park.

I knew this, just needed my daily wake-up call.

Eureka! The Language of Global Warming

2007-02-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

Following links from Chris Mooney's post Framing Global Warming, I read the Ellen Goodman column in today's Boston Globe. She points out -

The folks at the Pew Research Center clocking public attitudes show that global warming remains 20th on the annual list of 23 policy priorities. Below terrorism, of course, but also below tax cuts, crime, morality, and illegal immigration.

One reason is that while poles are melting and polar bears are swimming between ice floes, American politics has remained polarized. There are astonishing gaps between Republican science and Democratic science. Try these numbers: Only 23 percent of college-educated Republicans believe the warming is due to humans, while 75 percent of college-educated Democrats believe it.

Mooney points out that Goodmans's source of inspiration comes from the work of Matthew Nesbit, PhD and who writes on Framing Science, as a part of the Science Blog community.

Nesbit refers to the "ineffectiveness of fear" in motivating the majority of consumers to alter their behavior to contribute less to carbon emission. Many of us seem to have our heads stuck in the sand, or have succumbed to the Masque of the Red Death Syndrome. We depair that nothing we do can possibly matter, so have locked ourselves in and plan to party till the bitter end.

I, like Ellen Goodman, am slowly converting to the compact flourescent light bulb. This is one small thing I can do, but I know it's not nearly enough.

Scientists must find a way to make their case in a way that will inspire the majority of the voting public to put pressure on local, state and national politicians to change course and at least make some attempt to lessen our contribution to global warming.

The F* Word And The Future Of Liberal Politics

2007-02-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

Updated below--

Today's New York Times reports on criticism of the John Edward's campaign hiring of bloggers, Amanda Marcote (Pandagon) and Melissa McEwan (Shakespeare's Sister).

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement on Tuesday, “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots.”

Mr. Edwards’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I can use the F* word with the best of them, I assure you. But, I never cease to be amazed at the amount of profanity coming from the pens of liberal/progressive bloggers who, I presume, want to bring sanity back to Washington (and Jefferson City).

Of course, it's a "free" country, so they can say what they want. The other day I caught about ten seconds of Michael Savage screaming LIBERAL SCUM over and over and over. The button was red hot as I switched back to some droning classical music on KSMU.

The Radical Right has been winning elections by reeling in the "family values" voters. Why would we want to give them more fuel for the fire?

Liberal bloggers, get a clue! Stop shooting yourself in the foot. You're bright enough to get the point across without bringing your potty mouth into it. Save that for Friday night at the pub, or in pithy e-mails to each other.

WTFO,

Betty

Update:
Glenn Greenwald has a long post about the Edwards/blogger flap. From Glenn's post: As James Joyner points out: "Bloggers have a 'paper' trail. The longer someone has been blogging, the more of their sometimes-developed thoughts are out there for public consumption. Not only have they likely written things uncomplimentary to their now-boss, but they have almost certainly written things that could embarrass him."

A Newer World has this- "If Edwards can’t stand up to this kind of lame hack attack, he’s in for big trouble once the campaign really gets ugly.
And he’ll lose the netroots in a heartbeat."

John Edwards' Health Plan

2007-02-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

Since my health insurance premium has raised to $589 per month for a policy with $2,000 deductible with no prescription med coverage, I've been thinking about universal health coverage quite a bit lately.

When I was in the hospital doing chemo some years back, my roommate was having treatment for a rare form of cancer. Her husband was a farmer and she worked part-time, so they had no health insurance. She said she did not know how they were going to pay the medical bills, she guessed they'd have to sell a cow. I imagine they wound up declaring medical bankruptcy.

Two of my acquaintances have had burst appendix events in the last couple of years. Both were uninsured for different reasons, and both declared bankruptcy. Both of these guys are conservative Republican voters. Go figure.

So who paid for their medical expenses? I guess I did. I'm the one who scraped up the money to pay insurance premiums for the last thirty years. Or more probably, you, the taxpayer paid the bill. I know several people who go to the emergency room for all their medical needs--sore throat, poison ivy, whatever ails them and never pay the bill. Hospitals either charge more to those who pay, or get some kind of reimbursement from MedicAid programs.

My sister was fired from her job in the middle of treatment for breast cancer, and as a result she lost her insurance coverage. The hospital helped her apply for MedicAid which paid for her three surgeries and chemo.

My point is, none of this makes sense. Recently, someone wrote "what if we didn't have universal police service"? (Sorry I can't remember the source on this). Things would pretty much dissolve into chaos. I live in the city where we have univeral fire service, but I have lived in a rural area where you had to pay a fee to be assured of fire protection. Those who didn't pay were just SOL.

John Edwards has proposed a health insurance plan that will be financed by a tax hike:

From Reuters:

"We'll have to raise taxes. The only way you can pay for a healthcare plan that cost anywhere from $90 to $120 billion is there has to be a revenue source," Edwards said on NBC's Meet the Press news program.

Newshog has an interesting take on universal health care. He is critical of Edwards' plan (See John, See John Run)and supports the view of Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a study author and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard, who noted: "We pay the world's highest health care taxes. But much of the money is squandered. The wealthy get tax breaks. And HMOs and drug companies pocket billions in profits at the taxpayers' expense. But politicians claim we can't afford universal coverage. Every other developed nation has national health insurance. We already pay for it, but we don't get it."

Links to a couple of his posts on health care are below.

The Great Divide: Public Vs. Private Healthcare: Part I
The Great Divide: Part II

I think he does a good job of dispelling some of the myths and misconceptions we have about how universal health care works in the UK, and how we could craft a plan in the US that would avoid some of the mistakes made there.

Bad Ass Weather

2007-01-28T07:35:00.000-08:00

Returning to my humble abode on Friday, after a full two weeks without power, was a feeling akin to what it must be like to win the lottery. I was fortunate to have no structural damage or burst pipes. That was some bad ass weather.

Gratitude is expressed in no particular order:

Thank You to friends and co-workers who listened to my whining as it became clear that I would be the very last one to have power restored.

Thank You to Sara for doing my laundry.

Thank You to Rita for taking me to lunch and baking me chocolate chip cookies.

Thank You to my sister for taking in hordes of toddlers and various bored and rowdy kids and their parents and managing to maintain a sense of humor through it all.

Thank You to the workers at McDonalds, Shoney's and the Heritage for being so kind and feeding me for the last two weeks.

Thank You to the two nice (and good looking) young men who sawed up the big mess of limbs in my front yard for $40.

The Power Of Language

2007-01-09T21:54:00.000-08:00

I followed a link from Crooks & Liars to an thought provoking post at The Fear of All Sums. The blogger finds himself in "enemy territory" at a New Year's Eve party -

Anyway, I have nothing against these folks. They seemed damned decent to me and I liked them. They didn't strike me as partisan political junkies at all. They were ordinary folks who, like anyone else, were reacting to the news of the day. But the conversation was peppered with vintage BushCo talking points despite the fact that I didn't get the feeling these were rabid Bush supporters. Still, they were riding the "fight them there so we don't have to fight them here" horse like Willie Shoemaker...

My opening came when one of the guests mentioned that our involvement in the war was now longer than our involvement in World War II. That factoid seemed to surprise some of the others in the room and that gave me the opportunity send up my trial balloon.

"That's true," I said, "but when you really think about it, it's not really a war so much as it is an occupation," I offered helpfully."I mean, there's not really a line of troops with tanks, air support, attack chopper and gunships facing our guys over there," I added.

I finished it off with what I admit was a bit of superficial rhetorical camouflage, "So, if you look at it in terms of other occupations, it's not really that long at all."

Everyone reacted positively to that one, to my pleasant surprise, agreeing that it was more like an occupation than a hot war like WWII or even Vietnam...

But something happened in that room when I managed to get people to acknowledge the true nature of what's happening in Iraq. Once they accepted the idea of it being an occupation instead of a war all the talk of "victory" ended abruptly...

So here we see how language, the words we choose to use, effects the direction and tone of the debate -- a fact that I promise you is not lost on the Bush Administration. The power of language is why our media establishment is so squeamish about naming the obvious civil war that is taking place in Iraq. They insist on calling it all "sectarian violence" because "civil war" just seems too damning for their tastes and those of the White House. They would be even more squeamish about labeling our presense there an occupation if any significant pressure to do so even existed.

It's a long post, and I encourage you to read all of it and today's follow-up post.

All too often, when I find myself in social situations, I wind up pissing someone off, if not the whole room, so I have some serious lessons to learn from this guy.

Blue Girl, Red State commented today about the right-wing criticism of the profanity in the lefty blogs in her post Un.Fucking.Believable. Frank Luntz, making the rounds promoting his new book, chastizes left-wing bloggers for being angry. I'm right there with Blue Girl in my reaction to the events of the last six years. But my goal is to harness the power of language, to reach a few people in my sphere of influence.

Easier said than done.

Big Brother Scores Another Point

2007-01-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

President Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act into law December 20th.

Included in his signing statement is the following:

...The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the Act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection. ...

Read the complete signing statement here.

Apparently, we can construe this to mean the government may now open our mail without a warrant if the mood strikes them.

What's next? A little mini-camera in each room of the house?

Step Up To The Plate

2007-01-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

Keith Olbermann stepped up to the plate and hit another home run. Crooks & Liars has the transcript and link to video of Olbermann as he rips to shreds the newest Bush theme for rallying the public to his planned escalation of the Iraq conflict.

Olbermann: If in your presence an individual tried to sacrifice an American serviceman or woman, would you intervene? Would you at least protest? What if he had already sacrificed 3,003 of them? What if he had already sacrificed 3,003 of them — and was then to announce his intention to sacrifice hundreds, maybe thousands, more?...

and concluding -

Sacrifice, Mr. Bush?

No, sir, this is not "sacrifice." This has now become "human sacrifice."

And it must stop.

And you can stop it.

Next week, make us all look wrong.

Our meaningless sacrifice in Iraq must stop.

And you must stop it.

This gutsy, geeky sportscaster shoots from the hip. No wonder the radical right put him at the top of their list of bad guys.

Mr. Bush, Sir, you have been outgunned. Now, how can we get you to surrender to the will of the majority of voters and military leaders and move toward ending the fiasco you have created in Iraq?

All of us, every single one, must step up to the plate, if we are to stop this madness. Sacrifice a moment of your time. Write a letter to your senator and representative, comment on a blog, start a blog, or make a whopper of a sign and take to the streets.

The Fate of Thomas White

2006-12-30T10:58:00.000-08:00

Thomas White, a 13 year old seventh grader at Memorial Middle School in Joplin, came to school on Oct. 9th of this year with an semi-automatic rifle. He fired a shot into the ceiling and attempted to continue firing at Principal Stephen Gilbreth as Gilbreth escorted him out of the building. Due to the brave intervention of the Principal, and the jamming of the rifle, a tragedy was narrowly averted.

Gregory White, 44, father of Thomas is a convicted felon, and has pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition. From a report in the Joplin Globe:

"The boy is believed to have obtained the gun from a locked gun cabinet in his parents' bedroom and to have carried it to school, possibly concealed under a trench coat. Joplin police found four more rifles, two shotguns, a pistol and various ammunition in the home of Greg and Norma White after the shooting incident.

The boy was charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action and making a terrorist threat, and he remains in the custody of juvenile authorities. He also was charged with an escape attempt in the first week of his detention."

Reporter Michelle Pippin, www.joplindaily.com, interviewed Thomas White's mother in the 11/17/06 edition.

Norma White, mother of the seventh-grade boy accused of entering Memorial Middle School on Oct. 9 with a rifle, said she wishes now she had done more to help her son when he came home with complaints, and even injuries from other students. She said her son's complaints of bullying began when he entered the sixth grade, and continued - in fact, escalated - into his seventh-grade year."He came home once limping; he had been kicked by an older kid in the halls," she recalled. "He came home once with a huge welt on his head from someone slamming his locker door on his head when they passed him in the hall. His hand was injured once too."He did suffer from bullying. He would come home crying, begging us not to send him back to school."

White spoke to his teachers about the problem only a couple of times - during parent-teacher conferences - but never made a formal complaint to the administration. She said she advised her son to tell his teachers, but he often insisted nothing would be done about it.

Norma White offered the same advice to students and parents."If an adult was bullied this way when they went to work every day - with people throwing things at them, hitting them - how long would they deal with it before they quit or snapped?" she asked. "There are a lot of kids under this kind of pressure, and I wonder how many parents don't know it. We have to ask ourselves, 'Is my kid being bullied? Is my kid a bully?

"It could be your kid."

I've been following this story in The Turner Report, and spent a couple of hours during the middle of a sleepless night contemplating the fate of this boy following his certification to stand trial as an adult. He has pleaded not guilty, but if convicted he will serve a lengthy sentence in prison. He will grow up and come to maturity in the company of hardened criminals. The abuse he suffered at the hands of school yard bullies will seem insignificant in comparison to what he will be subjected to in prison. Young prisoners are usually subjected to repeated rape and sexual abuse; and if they snitch on their abusers they suffer violent retribution.

Thomas White will emerge from prison, if that is his fate, in a few years to reclaim his place in society. What kind of man will he become in the time period of his imprisonment? Will we have exacted the proper amount of retribution for his trangression?

If this seventh grader had been sentenced as a juvenile, he could be held until his eighteenth birthday, and hopefully would finish his high school education and receive counseling to turn his life around. The punishment of spending those teen years removed from society seems suitably harsh, and if he were transformed at the end of such a sentence, we would all be benefited.

As it stands, I fear for his future and ours, as they are intertwined and cannot be separated.

Four More Years of Aunt Norma

2006-12-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

In todays Turner Report, the incompetence of Norma Champion is once again highlighted in her failure to consider legislation submitted in 2006 by Democratic Senator Tim Green, that would have addressed problems with privately owned mental health facilities. Aunt Norma is head of the Senate's Committee on Aging, Families, Mental and Public Health.

Why does it take a tragedy, such as the one that just occurred in Anderson, MO to remind our state government that they have been remiss in protecting those citizens who cannot fend for themselves?

I would like to ask the Republicans who recently re-elected Aunt Norma how they feel about her today. Many of the voters at the polling place where I vote are elderly. Several were on walkers on the last voting day. Do they think Aunt Norma is going to be watching out for them if they or a beloved family member have to enter a managed care facility?

It seems to me that the kindly Aunt Norma is just another wolf in sheep's clothing who passes legislation only if it pleases and/or lines the pocket of a fat cat Republican campaign contributor.

Please write a letter to Aunt Norma, and tell her how you feel about her performance in the Senate. She is yours (and mine) for four more years, like it or not.

U.S. Consumers Finance China's Military Expansion

2006-11-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

If there were ever a good reason to rethink the U.S. free trade policy with China, which sends our middle class manufacturing jobs to workers in China who labor under inhumane conditions for 30 cents an hour, this should be our wake up call.

The trade imbalance has given China's treasury billions of surplus dollars to spend on building up their military might. Our closets and knick-knack shelves are overflowing with cheap goods from China. It's becoming difficult to find much of anything produced elsewhere. It's time to change our spending habits.

Even Condi is beginning to have her doubts.

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

Rice: US Concerned about Rising China

The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

Beijing has spent heavily in recent years on adding submarines, missiles, fighter planes and other high-tech weapons to its arsenal and extending the reach of the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army, the world's largest fighting force.

Its reported military budget rose more than 14 percent this year to $35.3 billion, but outside estimates of China's true spending are up to three times that level.

"There are concerns about China's military buildup," Rice told a television interviewer. "It's sometimes seemed outsized for China's regional role." ...

Read the entire article at BreitBart.com.

Unfair, Unbalanced and Slanted Hard Right

2006-11-16T10:21:00.000-08:00

FOX News has been under increased scrutiny since reports surfaced that a $2 million ransom was paid for the release of two kidnapped Fox news employees. Details are still sketchy about who paid the ransom, but it's probable there is now increased risk of abduction for all media personnel working abroad.

Huffington Post published an internal memo from the Fox Vice President in charge of news, who's looking to put just the right spin on the Democratic victory on November 7:

..."And let's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled Congress."...

If this is their idea of "fair and balanced," it leaves me a bit perplexed.

35 Million Americans Have Food Insecurity

2006-11-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

The USDA is removing the word hunger from official reports this year, substituting the phrase "food insecurity" for the 35 million among us who require assistance in putting food on the table at least part of the year.

Of those, 11 million report going hungry at times, so they will now be described as having "very low food insecurity."

"In 1999, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, then running for president, said he thought the annual USDA report -- which consistently finds his home state one of the hungriest in the nation -- was fabricated."

This year the annual USDA report did not appear in October, as usual, but instead was released after the election cycle. How convenient.

Source: Washington Post

Bush Plans to Increase Troop Level by 20,000

2006-11-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

From today's Guardian:

The Iraq study group is expected to issue it's recommendations centered around the fact that Bush has said no to withdrawal.

Four-point strategy
· Increase US troop levels by up to 20,000 to secure Baghdad and allow redeployments elsewhere in Iraq
· Focus on regional cooperation with international conference and/or direct diplomatic involvement of countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
· Revive reconciliation process between Sunni, Shia and others
· Increased resources from Congress to fund training and equipment of Iraqi security forces