A healing balm

There may be a balm in Gilead to heal a sick, sick soul, but I know from experience that there is also an easily accessible balm at Comedy Central known as the Daily Show.

You may be aware that Iraq did NOT prepare it's constitution by August 15th as President Bush expected. To journalists this is a trifle that should be buried on page 15 between somebody's grandmother's tuna casserole recipe and an appeal for a lost cat.

To one that works in comedy, though, it is a chance to heal with laughter:

Thanks Jon

Enjoy!

Desecration

A Bush supporter drove a truck through a line of grave markers with the names of dead American soldiers inscribed on them.

I don't know if I have to say any more than that.

Details Here...

Click Picture for examples

Heaven Help Us !!!

To President Bush global warming is a myth, intelligent design is a science, and the Patriot Act is vital in the defense of freedom.

To President Bush Iraq attacked us on 911, Osama bin Laden is unimportant, and you respond to hard work with long vacations.

To President Bush "Victory is exit strategy" and we have no exit strategy for Iraq.

To President Bush our Mission is Accomplished and Donald Rumsfeld is a success.

To President Bush Iraq is evil and Saudi Arabia is an ally that needs to be coddled.

I'm getting really sick of President Bush.


Rant Inspiration

Republicans MIA

One of the most perplexing things to me about the last five years of uncontested Republican control of the US government is this: why are Republicans MIA on environmental issues?

Republicans have traditionally defended our national park systems, protected hunting and fishing lands, and put partisanship aside to pass clean air and water laws.

What the hell has happened during the Bush reign?

Mercury laws have been weakened.

Energy bills have been passed encouraging coal use (the heat-source of cavemen).

Clean air laws have been weakened.

Our national parks are under assault with budget cuts, drilling plans, and privatization schemes.

Why aren't Republicans up-in-arms about fish too contaminated to eat?

Why aren't Republicans up-in-arms about oil drilling plans in Alaska?

Why aren't Republicans up-in-arms about global warming?

Why aren't Republicans up-in-arms about asthma levels among children in our cities?

Why aren't Republicans working with Democrats to defend the clean air and water acts?

Why aren't Republicans encouraging renewable energy generation?

Why, in other words, are environmentally concerned Republicans rolling over for Bush on environmental issues?

The only Republican I see consistently upholding their principles on the environment is John McCain.

I don't understand what has happened.

Protecting our parks for future generations is a virtue is it not?

Aren't Republican Christians concerned about proper stewardship of God's creation?

What is it that I am missing?

E.L. Doctorow on G.W. Bush

My writings about the mess Republicans have made for us in Iraq amount to a rather crude body of work, especially when compared to this statement by author E.L. Doctorow:

The Unfeeling President

Good writing can be stunning.

I am stunned.

Shameful

What does the schedule of a man too busy to spend any time talking with Cindy Sheehan, (the mom who lost a son in Iraq and wants to ask President Bush "Why?), look like?

In addition to the two-hour bike ride, Bush's Saturday schedule included an evening Little League Baseball playoff game, a lunch meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a nap, some fishing and some reading.

Source

Halliburton and Iran

Halliburton sold nuclear technology to Iran.

I don't think I need to say any more than that.

Story here

Many more dead than reported?

This website contends that:

U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have very rarely been counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005. The ongoing, underreporting of the dead in Iraq, is not accurate. The DoD is deliberately reducing the figures. A review of many foreign news sites show that actual deaths are far higher than the newly reduced ones. Iraqi civilian casualties are never reported but International Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN figures indicate that as of 1 January 2005, the numbers are just under 100,000.

They have started a simple process to figure out the truth. They published the list of official Iraq casualties (here) and have asked family members to check the list for their fallen loved ones. If your family member died in the Iraq war and is not on the list you should contact the author of the study.

As of July 26th the author verified 52 more names of dead GIs which never made the official Pentagon list.

Even a skeptic like myself has a hard time believing the Whitehouse would be so monstrous to those that deserve honor and dignity for their service.

Hopefully it isn't true.

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What rhymes with hypocrite?

I feel that Art's highest achievement is to make Truth captivating. Who could look away, for instance, from Nick Ut's famous "Napalm Girl" photograph without being changed forever? In that tradition perhaps, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones have used their musical talents to take a roundhouse swipe at US neo-cons and I cannot wait to hear their new songs.

All too often these days censors are willing to remove songs of protest from the airwaves and from store shelves, but it will be hard for radio stations to ignore anything that the Stones do without incurring lots of listener blowback. That, I think, is what makes this album most significant.

A Bigger Bang

Texas oil cheats

The Economist has a story about Benon Sevan, the UN oil-for-food diplomat caught accepting bribes. It is a disheartening story, but quite unfair to cast him as the only culprit.

Corruption at the heart of the United Nations


You see, the company offering Mr. Sevan bribes to get at Saddam Hussein's oil was an American company, AMEP Oil, and it is run by a gaggle of Texas oil men. Take a look at their board of directors here:

Texas turds

At a time when Saddam Hussein was under an embargo an American company was bribing officials to get at Iraq's oil. And this, after we fought a war with Iraq!

Benon Sevan is a disgrace and a fraud and he should be ejected by the UN at once. However, people should save some indignation for the Texas oilmen of AMEP Oil for placing their interests ahead of America's security. Well, that and the fact that bribing officials is illegal in it's own right.

What are the chances that Texas oilmen weren't "negotiating" with the UN without a little "support" from the Bush administration?

Grieving mom frightens Bush

Mr. tough-talk, Mr. compassion, Mr. brush-clearing macho man continues to hide like a frightened child from Cindy Sheehan (a mother who lost a son to the Iraq war).

I say that if a parent of one of our fallen soldiers wants to meet the President (particularly while he is loafing on a 5-week vacation) then the President ought to meet them. You show respect to such people no matter how much brush requires clearing.

Is the President afraid to face the truth of his ideology and the cost of his lies?

Mr. President, There's Someone Waiting, and Waiting, to See You

Support our troops at 13 mpg

As I was leaving the grocery store I saw a curious sight. There was one of those gargantuan SUVs with one of those ubiquitous "Support Our Troops" flag/ribbon magnets on it. I thought to myself, that right there is a failure of Republican leadership to communicate with the American people that it is time to curb our appetite for fossil fuel.

People don't realize that the more gas we use the more money we put in Saudi Arabia's pockets, and that 17 of the 19 911 hijackers were Saudi!

People don't realize that the Islamo-fascists that attacked us adhere to a fundamentalist version of Islam (Wahabi) that is bred, fed, and spread from Saudi Arabia!

For God sakes if you want to support the troops pedal a damn bicycle!

Then I got all riled up considering that Bush is gung-ho to go to Mars to see if there is life, when he should be more interested in seeing if he can save life on earth by combating global warming. Just imagine if we took that Mars-project money and used it to propagate wind-mills.

It all goes together in one vision. Put up windmills, solar, tidal power, and any other technologically advanced non-polluting, local power sources and you fight terrorism AND global warming.

Ride the bus to work and you fight terrorism.
Ride the subway and you fight terrorism.
Drive a Prius and you fight terrorism.

Drive a huge, gas-guzzling SUV in the city and you put money in our enemies hands.

It seems obvious, but perhaps more obvious is that Condi Rice had an oil tanker named after her and President Bush was in the Texas oil business himself.

Clicking my heels

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

- Harold Arlen -

Has Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald handed out Grand Jury indictments to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former AG John Ashcroft, reporter Judith Miller, and Senior Cheney advisor Mary Matalin?

Has Karl Rove become the icing on the cake with an indictment for Perjury?

Is it time for bluebirds to sing?

The Watchmaker's Ancestors

Since when does the President of the United States dictate to schools how and what to teach?

If you ask me it is a rather Castro-esque thing to do.

If you ask me America's children have fallen far enough behind the Chinese in math and science without letting a man that can't pronounce "nuclear" set educational policy for tens of millions of children.

Furthermore, the "intelligent design" or "watchmaker" theory is plagiarized straight from the Bible (see Wisdom of Solomon) and masquerades as science among only the hopelessly uncritical. This religious teaching does not belong in a fact-based discipline like a science course, except to demonstrate the shortcomings of an ideologically driven approach to learning.

If people want religion taught in the schools why should it be at the expense of science?

If people want their children to be that dumb, why don't they just stick to inbreeding and/or home-schooling?

Bibleology?

Pining for Bill

I find myself missing former President Bill Clinton under whose leadership:

We had a 30 year low on unemployment
We had a 32 year low in welfare roles
We had a 27 year low in the crime rate
We had three years of surpluses in the budget for the first time in 70 years
We had the biggest increase in aid to university students in 50 years.
We had 22 million jobs created
We had 7 million families move out of poverty.
We had a drop in the number of abortions.

That's what happens when you shed ideas that don't work and embrace those that do.

The religious left

Reading this article about the religious left fighting back this morning made me think about how easily Americans are divided.


Are you left or right?

Are you red or blue?

Are you gay or straight?

Are you religious or secular?

Do you support or oppose the Iraq war wholeheartedly?

Are you an environmentalist or a defender of ecocide?

Are you for or against guns?

Are you for or against abortion?

Are you for or against unions?

Are you for or against corporations?

Are you with or against France?

And so on...

The trouble with this politics of divide-and-conquer is that people start looking at every issue in black and white terms, and that is moronic.

For instance you can be an environmentalist, as I consider myself, without being against logging. I am for logging because I would rather people use bio-degradable, renewable, all-natural building products and an outdoor career strikes me as enjoyable (at least on some levels). I am, however, against indiscriminate harvesting techniques which plunder the landscape murderously. I am against spraying thousands of acres of forest land with herbicides which poisons the landscape and the wildlife. I am for wind-power wherever it can be installed, and the quicker the better.

I am both for and against guns, which some people call wishy-washy, but I consider practical. I am a gun owner and I hunt, however I see the folly of allowing guns in the hands of children, the insane, violent criminals, or urban settings (here I am speaking only of use, not ownership).

I am secular, but like most secular people (I think) I haven't convincingly disproved the notion of God to myself (i.e. "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"). I have only rejected the more popular religious views of God's benevolence. I guess you could say I look at organized religion like a community of the superstitious, but I feel no need to persecute them any more than people that are afraid of black cats crossing their paths. However, I do live an ethical life and try to treat others as I myself wish to be treated, not because I expect a Heaven exists, but because I believe that to love and to be loved is the only way to be happy.

When it comes to abortion I prefer to keep such a deeply personal decision out of the hands of government. In instances of rape, or when the well-being of the mother is in question I believe it is morally correct to allow for abortions. I view nothing so sadly as an unloved child (since I argue they turn out like neo-cons). Also, when a child will be born with a debilitating deformity (i.e. a hole in the brain or incurable painful conditions) then I also believe it is morally correct to allow for abortions. I believe the morning-after pill ought to be readily available, particularly to the young as they learn to cope with the most powerful of emotions. I argue that this does not "cheapen life" as many anti-abortionists charge, but rather allows prospective parents to choose to raise a family when they are prepared to act selflessly on behalf of their children, or in other words to cherish them. I also believe that most people are good people and do not treat the procedure of having an abortion lightly and that assertions to the contrary are propaganda.

When it comes to France, perhaps I am a clear-cut supporter. They are a free and open society that loves good food and good fun, they're cantankerous and argumentative and fantastic bakers. They sent us the statue of liberty. Their citizens resisted the Nazi's with more success than their army. They have a love/hate relationship with the British. And finally, when it comes to Iraq they did what a true-blue friend should, they told us we were wrong.

When it comes to unions I am mostly for them. My grandfather was an early union-man in the textile industry. When I asked him about it he said the mill wanted him to work seven days a week, with no overtime pay, when he was already working six days a week. Sunday, it should be pointed out, was an important day of worship to him and also the only day my grandfather had to spend with his family (8 children!). So, in response to corporate abuse (in my opinion) people joined and formed unions as a matter of self-defense (there is strength in numbers). My dad was also in a union, but he was a member as America's steel-industry went into decline (eventually he had to find a new career). In his case unions had already established the 40-hour workweek and a living wage, but had then started to fight for things uncompetitive like complicated seniority systems, over-zealous job protection (i.e. there was to be no picking-up-of-slack or cross-training). I also believe that in Poland unions turned a nation into a democracy, and that if we encouraged Iraqis organize into unions we'd be promoting deep democratic roots there.

I haven't touched on everything, but you see what I mean don't you? When presented with an either-or yes-no with-or-against choice you must reject the question.

14 US Marines killed in Western Iraq

14 US marines and a civilian interpreter were killed in Iraq today, bringing the death toll past 1800.

We will be welcomed as liberators.
Mission Accomplished!
We will be spoon fed by celebrators.
Democracy Accomplished!


Ooops.

Bush end-runs democracy

When I first heard that President Bush appointed John Bolton during a Congressional recess, then had the audacity to insinuate Mr. Bolton's nomination was being held up by partisanship I screamed "George W. Bush isn't fit to reside in a democracy, let alone lead one, since he is afraid to face the people when they call him on his hair-brained ideas!"

Then I paused for reflection.

What I realized when I did so was that the President has a whole lot more opposition from within the Republican party than I realized. Truthfully, partisanship can't hold up anything if he can manage to at least get the support of his own party. Republicans control the House, Senate, Judiciary, and the Presidency and there are no effective brakes on Republican power except in circumstances when there isn't partisainship.

The truth is John Bolton is as bad an appointment for UN ambassador imaginable and lots of Republicans know it and refuse to truck this kind of foolishness. John Bolton is an angry shoe-pounder-type that by most accounts is abusive as a manager and a devottee of self-promotion. Not only that, but he is a seasoned UN hater and seems to have lied about WMDs to please his boss (affectionately known as *ss-kissing, brown-nosing, or ring-kissing). His immoral conduct seems to have been greatly appreciated by said boss.

After reflection then, I became happy and hopeful for my country again. Sure, for a while we'll have an ogre at the UN that is brash, brown-nosed, and likely widely disrespected at a time we could use a few allies, but nothing underscores the President's pigheaded and marginal status like this appointment. It also illustrates his lying abilities quite clearly to the rest of the world. Remember that trip he made to Europe recently when he told everyone he was ready to work with the world community? One can now classify such sentiments as another pack of lies.

So, my anger turned to cheerfulness. The President, it seems, is a lame duck clinging to stubborness and stupidity like a life-raft. Let us hope the current carries him swiftly into the history books where he is likely to be remembered as an abject failure as a leader on international and domestic issues, kinda like Harding.


Bolton details