skip to main |
skip to sidebar
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.
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
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 SexWASHINGTON - 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.
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
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 & PressSunday, 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.
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.
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
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.
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?"
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]
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...
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.
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.
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.
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,
BettyUpdate: 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."
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 IThe Great Divide: Part III 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
