The Polis

Stop the Lies

2010-12-02T19:42:00.000-05:00

Blood in my cell phone

2010-03-30T16:17:00.001-05:00

Blood in my cell phone

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How people get recruited into coercive groups: A view from an ex-Quiverfull survivor

2010-03-17T22:56:00.001-05:00

How people get recruited into coercive groups: A view from an ex-Quiverfull survivor

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Schizophrenia: A Painfully Personal Story and Healthcare Reform Discussion

2010-03-08T23:27:00.001-05:00

Schizophrenia: A Painfully Personal Story and Healthcare Reform Discussion

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All You MoFos are Going to Pay

2009-11-29T12:12:00.001-05:00

All You MoFos are Going to Pay

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When all is made hostile; a story of sexual assault

2009-10-16T23:17:00.000-05:00

When all is made hostile; a story of sexual assault

Well I know what I'm doing Nov. 19, 2009 -

2009-09-22T12:26:00.001-05:00

getting 50 pages of toilet paper and a nice book too!

Remember when?

2009-06-30T08:00:00.004-05:00

Remember when President Bush said the "enhanced interrogations" would result in so lasting physical or mental harm to detainees.

We've had several journalists who have been waterboarded and afterword report nightmares for many months there after. Even though they were only waterboarded once, not 80+ times. That's long term mental harm.

When we went into Iraq one embedded reporter David Bloom died of a a pulmonary embolism. It was caused by deep vein thrombosis from the many hours sitting in a humvee not moving around. And the problem became something most people became aware of.

Advisories went out that on long car, plane, bus or train trips one should get up every hour or so (or stop at a gas station) and walk around a bit.

The more we learn about deep vein thrombosis and the problems caused by immobility the more claims of larger death toll than previously thought, of Africans being crammed into ships and brought to the new world as slaves takes hold.

But beyond that is that 18 hours of immobility was proscribed for detainees (most of them innocent) under "enhanced interrogation." The hours of being, hung, tied, shackled, put into a confinement box, etc. in immobile positions/poses was later revised down to 8. But that's still too long.

In nursing homes immobile bedridden patients are supposed to be turned every hour to keep the skin from breaking down (due to lack of oxygen on pressure points) and infection setting in. That's what a bedsore is, and it takes a lot of time, patients and work to heal. But the subject matter here is pulmonary embolism caused by immobilization.

Other risk factors [for Deep Vein Thrombosis] include advanced age, obesity, infection, immobilization, use of combined (estrogen-containing) forms of hormonal contraception, tobacco usage and air travel ("economy class syndrome", a combination of immobility and relative dehydration) are some of the better-known causes.

Today there are many discussions about torture. Creating a situation where someone is placed in long term immobility (when not medically necessary such a cast for a broken bone) IS torture.

It creates the conditions for a pulimary embolism and since we know this it violates the Geneva Conventions and President Bush and Gonzles' often statement of causing "no permanent physical or mental harm."

At the June 22, 2004, news conference, Gonzales said the White House defined torture as a "a specific intent to inflict severe physical or mental harm or suffering. That's the definition that Congress has given us and that's the definition that we use."

Since we know what long hours of immobility can do, those that died in our custody from a pulmonary embolism were murdered. And that what those who authorized the policies should be charged with. There may not have been the intent to cause death but there was the knowledge that it very well likely would.

Rules of conduct and laws are there to guide us through the toughest times, when it's easy to stumble and fall into behavior that removes our humanity and causes us to act immorally and drives us out of the "city on the hill."

We have known for a long time that torture doesn't work, it makes people give false information or hardens their resolve not to talk. It wastes time and reinforces the idea that we are a cruel people, despite our words.

Information was gained faster when interrogators showed that we as a people are what we claim to be, that we have lines that we will not cross, that we are not the cruel dictators they have come to know.

You are always in a better position when you have and hold the high ground, not when you sink into the abyss.

must read . . .
Torture Autopsy Reveals Death by Enhanced Interrogation

Shots rang out in the dark

2009-06-16T15:49:00.002-05:00

As I recall it was cold that night in Denver. It’s fair to say that no weapon fire here-to-fore in Denver had caused the ground to shake so. It shook so hard that it was felt all the way in Washington.

I was in 11h grade at the time, and I was already politically active and politically aware. My bedroom door was adorned with notices of upcoming demonstrations, slogans for the causes I believed in and newspaper clippings diligently cut out of the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, Westword (when I could find it) and some underground newspapers (benefit of living near a college campus).

Several of the clippings were of pictures of students protesting and being beaten in Iran. Having been up on my bedroom door for two years they had already yellowed. But I had believed in them then, their fight against the Shah.

It wasn’t a popular position to take, even though Denver had become more left, very few people understood why I supported a revolution against a friend of this country. Many of the things I told them about how the Shah came to power, Savak, the abuses and our part in all of this, they refused to hear. Maybe it was just overload after Vietnam, Watergate, I’m not sure, but they wanted to cling to that shiny brass knob instead of recognizing how tarnished it really was.

What the hell did I know anyway, an idealistic, naive 9th grader?

The Iranian Revolution moved swiftly by January 1979 the Shah had left Iran, and Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile. February 11th saw the Palavi dynasty come to an end when the Iranian people took back their government over the one the US had installed and pretty much the puppet of.

Most people at that time had only vaguely heard of Mossadegh. We didn’t have the internet back then, no CNN and international phone calls were expensive, very long (while you waited for the person on the other end to hear what you had said and then you waited to hear their response), you frequently got disconnected and the sound quality was poor.

The news you got came from the newspapers, radio and 5 television stations (PBS, Ind, CBS, ABC, NBC). Back then Denver was still known as an “Oversized Cow Town,” and often those values clashed with the young people, the former hippies streaming in, the immigrants and refugees who settled in Denver, and those who feared the change.

I tell you this to give you a sense of the climate, how different is was from what you saw and may have experience at the 2008 Democratic Convention.

News exploded from everywhere November 4, 1979. Our embassy in Tehran had fallen and hostages taken.

The intensely political girl with known sympathies to the Iranian students now became a target. Strange things began to be shoved through the slots of my locker door. Sometimes taped to the front were signs saying “Iranian Lover.”

Denver, like most of the country, anger swelled at Iran and at Iranians here at home.

Rumors of a campus demonstration began to surface. I caught sight of a homemade Iranian flag and overheard a group talking about burning it at the demonstration. My high school's administration (like many I suppose) worked to quell the anger, protect the Iranian immigrant students on campus, and squash the demonstration. The flag was confiscated.

Then the shots rang out.

November 11, 1979

Thirteen boys from a neighboring high school went out looking for trouble that night. They went looking for an Iranian to "hassle." They went to a near by college campus reasoning that there would be Iranians there, and on an apartment mailbox they found a name that "looked" Iranian.

Reports back then said that they threw rocks through the plate glass window. One now says they were wielding baseball bats. Then they took off as shots were fired.

Two boys were hit in the legs and arm, a third boy was killed.

The anger boiled over not at the boys for looking for trouble, but at the Iranian. He had a gun, how could he have a gun? This was an extreme response to mischief, etc. etc. etc.

In my own house the almost constant political battles I had with my Dad reached a new high as I sided with the Iranian. I argued with my Dad that given the climate and the fear Iranians in this country must be experiencing it was only natural for him to seek to protect himself. What the boys did was wrong, and my Dad would have done the same thing.

That position would cost me more at school too. The district of the high school where the boys attended buttressed the district of my high school. Many of the kids in my school knew the boys who had been shot.

President Carter immediately placed the Iranian in protective custody.

That Christmas I sent the Iranian, Afshin Shariati, a card. I figured he was receiving horrible mail and I wanted to let him know someone, like this stupid 17 year old, supported him. He never got it though, I had addressed it wrong and it came back in the mail.

Afshin was acquitted of murder in December of 1980. His lawyer, Walter Gerash, pretty much arguing the same idea in front of the jury that I had argued with my Dad

Gerash brought tears to jurors' eyes with his insistence that a frightened Iranian had as much right to defend his "castle" from attack as any red-blooded American.
– Westword

I was happy about the verdict, but then all thoughts were replaced by getting through the last semester of high school and going on to college.

August 1981 came and I was sitting in the gigantic lecture hall at the University of Colorado at Denver, waiting for Chemistry class to begin. This was before the Auraria campus was finished and many classes were held in the converted old rapid transit trolley building.

In this classroom the seats for the students were not tiered, we were all on one level, And if you had the unfortunate business of coming in late and sitting at the back, you needed opera glasses to see the board.

On this first day the professor called roll. This was a long and arduous process the class had over 100 students for the lecture, we were broken down into smaller groups for lab and TA class time.

It was all pretty standard stuff with the name and either “here” or silence following. Then with those who had already been called not listening any more and getting restless, the professor called out “Afshin Shariati.”

The room caught a collective breath and grew silent.

“Here” came a voice from the back of the room.

Slowly all eyes turned and came to rest upon this man. He was lean and bearded and was painfully aware of the eyes.

The next name was called, but no one turned back around. The silence only broken by the professor and those that responded.

“I have to meet him,” I determined. “I need to let him know we aren’t all against him.”

I figured that with the trial, and all, he hadn’t been able to finish his education.

As luck or providence would have it, he was in the TA and lab class I was in. So I introduced myself. We spent many hours talking, he became one of my two lab partners and the three of us would often have lunch together. I told him about the card I sent him. He replied that he had never gotten it. I said I knew, and eventually handed it to him. I had kept it, I don’t know why.

He told me about his experiences. Without his knowledge I took the past 2 years of my life and our meeting and wrote a paper for my English class. I said much the same as I have written here, though probably far more eloquently.

The paper received an “A” and I showed it to him. He was pleased and touched and asked for a copy.

We were never more than friends, and that was all that we seemed to want and enjoy from one another. His friendship and the perspective it gave me is something I will always treasure.

Years went by and we both did different things. But we would often see each other at the grocery store by what used to be Cinderella City. We’d catch up, he met my daughter, still a toddler at the time. And then life took me away from even that contact, we moved to Massachusetts and I lost touch.

Through the years I have thought of him often. Probably none more than I do now, and along with that the seeming desperate need inside of me to contact him. I want to make sure he’s okay, let him know that our friendship still survives, to reconnect.

Today another three letters will go out to addresses that may still be his. Maybe one will reach him. I keep looking, keep hoping.

The events of the past few days feel so familiar to me.

I’m hoping they haven’t triggered too much in him.

Crossposted at DailyKos

Progressive Talk Radio Back in Boston! YOUR TURN 2 Support

2009-05-12T12:42:00.001-05:00

Last week we got Progressive Talk back in Boston!

Now we need your help to make sure EVERY liberal progressive who is able to get the signal, wants to stream on-line, or just show support, knows about this.

If you have liberal and/or progressive family and/or friends who live and/or work in Eastern Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire or Northern Rhode Island (today I discovered the signal carries down that far) please email them the note below.

It's up to us to support and promote liberal progressive talk radio.

Please copy and paste everything in the blockquote

SUBJECT: Guess What? It's Back!

Guess what?

Liberal/Progressive TALK radio is back in Boston and Eastern Massachusetts! At WWZN-Boston AM 1510 http://revolutionboston.com/

You may have wondered where the “counter” to Rush Limbaugh, Jay Serverin, Sean Hannity and the like were on Boston radio. Isn’t a healthy debate where at least two sides of an issue are represented? Like many liberal talk radio formats across the country progressive talk radio in Boston disappeared.

It wasn’t and isn’t because left wing radio isn’t marketable. That’s a fairy tale. It is because it hasn’t been supported by the companies that owned the radio stations. After all, if you can’t make liberal progressive talk radio work in the bluest city in the bluest state in the union, you have no business in radio.

WWZN-Boston AM 1510 is the new home of liberal progressive talk radio in Boston. With a 50,000 watt signal to reach the greater Boston area, west to Worcester, south to Brockton and north to Concord, NH. The signal has been found strong enough to reach as far south as Attleboro, MA and Pawtucket, RI some 40 miles away!

Here is the Monday - Friday line up

* The Jeff Santos Show 6am - 10am

* Stephanie Miller 10am - 12pm

* Ed Schultz 12pm - 3pm

* Thom Hartmann 3pm - 6pm

You can find out more about the hosts below.

You can listen to AM 1510 in your car or on the train to and from work, and you can LIVE STREAM on your computer at http://revolutionboston.com/

Forward this email to all your liberal and progressive friends and family who live and work in Eastern Massachusetts! Let them know that “Progressive Talk Radio is BACK in Boston!”

Thanks!

Hosts:

Jeff Santos
http://revolutionboston.com/santos/
on twitter http://twitter.com/JeffSantosShow

Stephanie Miller
http://revolutionboston.com/miller/
http://www.stephaniemiller.com
on twitter http://twitter.com/radioguychris

Ed Schultz
http://revolutionboston.com/schultz/
http://www.wegoted.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30017670

Thom Hartmann
http://revolutionboston.com/hartmann/
http://www.thomhartmann.com/
on twitter http://twitter.com/thomhartmann

Support progressive talk radio!
http://www.bostonprogressivetalk.net/

(After 7pm M-F and on the weekends WWZN-Boston AM 1510 is almost totally sports)

Please check the links before you send out the email (to as many people as you can) because some email programs do not like the way I've formatted the links.

Thank you again for your help!

So you want a family/friend game night, but "Sorry," "Life," & "Monopoly" will make your head esplode

2009-04-18T08:30:00.001-05:00

When I was growing up my family held a family game night on Saturday night. It was one of the few nights of the week we were all together and Dad didn't have any night classes to teach.

We had about 15 to 20 board and card games to choose from. That was a decent selection, but ours was nothing compared to my aunt and uncle. They were a very conservative religious family and had banned tv from their home. Instead they had a music room and a converted pantry off the kitchen devoted to holding their games. Top to bottom on all three walls, on every shelf there were board and card games.

Call me a "geek" (I'm proud of the label, btw) but I thought it was heaven.

You may have thought about beginning a "game night" for your family and friends, but are either non-plussed by the games available at Toys-R-Us, Walmart, Kmart or Target. Or you want to expand from the games you already have. Follow me over the fold for suggestions of games you've probably never heard of and a brief introduction into a subculture you may know little to nothing about.

There is something about face to face gaming that you can't get playing on a computer, either with the computer as your opponent or on-line with humans as you opponents (even if you have headphones and a mic and interact with others). It's the many levels of socializing that occur when your sitting across the table with someone. One learns to tell what is nuance, sarcasm(snark), humor and body language and balancing that with what one actually says.

Gaming is also a non threatening way to engage your tween and teenagers.

Besides they are cheaper than tickets to the movies. )There are reasons poor college students form gaming groups.) A $30.00 game can be brought out many times. Plus sometimes there is no better way to spend a winter's day, time in an airport during a long layover, or stuck in a camper while it's raining cats and dogs outside.

You may have once liked games and may still feel like playing a game with friends and family, but the thought of playing the board games from your youth leave you a little cold.

Three day monopoly games and constant cries of "let's play Sorry" from you little sister (for the 1,255,357 time) can do that to you.

I can actually see it in people's eyes when I mention that I'm a gamer. They reach back in their memories to Clue, Life, etc. that they overdose on, were forced to play, or simply didn't like the selection, and you can see their edges start to turn a sickly shade of green.

They even express surprise that board and card games are even being made any more.

But wait! There are more games than what you find at Toys-R-Us, Walmart, Kmart and Target. And more board and card game companies than just Hasbro (who bought up Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers).

A Short, Brief, Minuscule, Intro into the Gaming Subculture

These board and card games and there companies offer a greater variety of the type of game and the strategy needed to win. These are companies with names like Face 2 Face Games, Z-Man Games, Cheapass Games, Rio Grande Games, Game Wright, and Days of Wonder, to name a few.

These games can be found a niche game stores all over the US. Here are examples from three states Danger Planet, The Compleat Strategist, Rivendell Books and Games, Game Keeper (which is the company store for Face 2 Face Games), The Wizard's Chest, and Bonnie Brae Hobbby. I don't know where or if there is a list of these niche game stores across the US, but asking about it on the Game Groups Forum at BoardGameGeek should help point you in the right direction)

What's neat about these niche game stores is that they are a focal spot for the gaming community. Not only to many teach games, but they provide space to pay games. You can also find flyers for active gamin groups in your area (you are generally happy to teach games), and flyers for local, national and international gaming conventions (that's a whole nother diary), they teach games there too. And if you can't find the game you want on-line or on ebay, you can purchase games on-line from many game stores and have them shipped.

I guess at this point I should tell you that I have taught games in after school clubs and summer camps for a few years now.

It also may not hurt to tell you that my little girl wish came true. We are a gaming family (all 6 of us) and have about 100 games (that's nothing a friend of mine has 300).

The following, without further ado, are 10 games that I can recommend. They are fairly easy, and I will explain them and give a sense of the minimum age that enjoys them. I am hoping I will be able to write a few more diaries on this, the why of games, games that teach, games that allow people to understand politics, how games help us at all stages in our lives and yes, recommend more games.

But for now, here's my first 10 recommendations:

***********

1. Blokus

The pieces of this game look just like they belong in Tetris. Each person has their own colored peices (four colors) and must place as many of them as they can on the board. One piece per turn. If a player cannot place a piece during their turn they are out.

Each of a players pieces must touch at least another of their pieces, but ONLY at the corner. Two (or more pieces of the same color) cannot touch anywhere but a corner, straight edge touch is disallowed.

However two pieces of different colors may touch along the straight edge.

up to four players, can be found at Toys-R-Us and niche game stores
helps with spatial relationships
minimum = 1st grade (though I know kindergartners who like this game)

***********

2. Ice Cream
This is essentially a matching game and girls really, really love it. I didn't believe that claim at first but saw it time and time again.

The game begins by everyone getting a "pint" of ice cream card. There are different "flavors" of ice cream and the object is to collect as many scoops of ice cream as you can to fill your pint of the same kind of ice cream.

You score points by how much ice cream you get in the pints during four rounds.

After players have received their first pint, players then take turns making ice cream cones. No cone can have more than four scoops, but scoops can be any flavor. The only limit to the amount of ice cream cones that can be made is limited by the number of ice cream cone cards.

After all the scoops are on the cones, players are dealt another pint card.

Then taking turns each player can either "take a cone" or take another pint card.

If they take a cone they must be able to put the majority of scoops into the matching pint(s) they hold in their hand. What scoops they cannot use from the cone is put into the discard pile.

Points are award by how many pints have scoops "in" them.

At the end of the round gather up the scoop cards, shuffle and do it again.

That's the major gist of game play. Face to Face games has a pdf of the rules on it's website.

minimum = 1st grade
matching
game stores

***********

3. Guillotine
This is a game set in the French Revolution (in fact my middle son brought it to school so they could play it while they were on the section about the French Revolution)

On one end of the table the stand up cardboard picture of a Guillotine is placed. Then the cards of 12 nobles are placed in a straight line leading to the guillotine.

Players earn point for the nobles that reach the guillotine (earn more points for those in a certain group), lose points for every innocent to reach the guillotine and play cards that rearrange the line order, give one a point advantage, etc.

There are three rounds (days). The end of the day is reached when there are no more cards in line to the guillotine. However if Robespierre reaches the guillotine the day is over no matter how many cards are left in the line.

minimum = elementary
game stores

***********

4. Tsuro

In every aspect Tsuro is a beautiful game, from the artwork to the simplicity of play.

Each player picks their pawn (looks kind of like a worry stone) and places it somewhere on the board edge at the various "start" ticks (yellow lines).

Then three tiles are dealt to each player. The first player (and then each player afterward) places his tile in front of his pawn and then move the pawn along the "road" to the edge of the tile.

Once a tile is placed a new tile is drawn, until the dragon tile is reached. The next person to go out once the dragon tile is out hands remaining tile to the holder of the dragon tile.

That player chooses the tile he/she wants and places the remaining tiles into the new draw pile, with the dragon tile on the bottom.

Ways to go "out"
The path created for the pawn leads them off the board = out
The path leads to two pawns on the same path (that's a "crash" as I've told the kids) = out

A player can only place a tile in front of their pawn. However if that tile creates an extension of the path in front of another players pawn, that pawn has to move along the new path too. (you can cause someone else to go out)
Pawns may not make right angle turns. They can only move straight along the path before them (or along it's curve).

minimum= kindergarten
game store
more info

***********

5. Zeus on the Loose

As long as someone you can add and subtract up to 100 anyone can play this game.

Play number cards to add up to 100. Play the lesser god wamy card that can reverse the number reached (73 becomes 37), skip someones turn, steal the Zeus figurine.

Players get Zeus by making the numbers in play add up to a multiple of 10,playing a card that is the same number as the one before it, or using a lesser god card that allows the steal.

The person who has Zeus once the cards/numbers in play add up to 100(+) wins. (It may not be the same person who brought the cards/numbers in play to 100)

minimum = must be able to add and subtract 2 digit numbers
game store
rules on line

***********

6. Mag·Blast Third Edition

Pick your alien space faring race, and ships that will guard the mother ship/planet. These ships can also "fire" on your opponents guarding ships and mothership/planet.

However attacks can be repelled completely if the attacker fails to make the necessary space weapon, explosion sound OR if the sound made is not determined good enough by the other players. (oh yes it does happen)

Fire from one ship can only hit the same side of the other ship (left to left) unless an all encompassing weapon card is used also not all weapons can be used on all ships (an orange weapon will not work on a green ship).

minimum= 8 years old
game store
more info

***********

7. Can't Stop

You may have played this game as a kid, well it's back!
from boardgamegeek:

In this Sid Sackson classic, there is a board with all the possible results of two six-sided dice: two through twelve. The object of the game is to move a little marker to the top of three columns by rolling that result, but you need many more sevens than you need twelves, based on the likelihood of each result. During your turn, you roll the dice and place temporary markers onto the board. You can continue moving these markers until either none of your dice match (your turn is over and all progress you've made is gone), or cut your losses and end your turn (placing a permanent marker in your rows). Nice light filler for opening or closing a session.

You can totally find out how risk adversed you are.

minimum= 6 years old
game store
more info

***********

8. Liar's Dice
from wikipedia:

Five six-sided dice with traditional dot faces are generally used per player, with dice cups used for concealment. Poker dice can also be used, but some systems for bidding become difficult or impossible to use.

Each round, the players roll their dice while keeping them concealed from the other players. One player begins bidding, picking a quantity of a face 2 through 6. The quantity states the player's opinion on how many of the chosen face have been rolled in total on the table. A 1 ("ace") is often wild and counts as the stated face of the current bid, however the game can also be played without wilds (see variants). In a five-dice, three-player game with wilds, the lowest bid is "one 2" and the highest bid "fifteen 6s In turn, each player has two choices; believe the previous bid is true and make a higher bid, or challenge the previous bid as being wrong. Raising the bid means either increasing the quantity, or the face value, or both, according to the specific bidding rules used. Different bidding rule sets are described below.

If the current player thinks the previous player's bid is wrong, he challenges it, and then all dice are revealed to determine whether the bid was valid. Revealing the same number or more of the relevant face than was bid is a successful bid, in which case the bidder wins. Otherwise the challenger wins. A challenge is generally indicated by simply revealing one's dice, though it is customary to verbally make the challenge, by saying "I call you up", "I call", "You're a liar", or simply "Liar".

* Example: if a bid of "seven fours" is challenged, the bid is successful (and the player who made it wins) if there are seven or more fours, or less than seven fours but enough wild aces (1s) to total seven or more fours and aces (four fours and three aces, or five fours and two aces). The bid fails (the bidder is a Liar and the challenger wins) if there are fewer than seven total fours and aces combined (or if aces are not wild; see variants).

You can make this game yourself. Just do to a game store and buy 5 - six dice for each player (for 4 players you need 20 six sided dice) and tumblers like you can find from tupperware or cheesex dice cups (you can buy six sided dice there too).

(this was also "Pirate Dice" from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" )

minimum age = 8 years old
boardgamegeek listing
ehow to play
Wikipedia - Liar's Dice

***********

9.Carcassonne

This is a tile game set in medieval Europe. (There is actually a town/village of Carcassonne in France)

First players pick their pawn color. By the game playing public these pawns.playing pieces are called "Meeples" (they look like little wooden people).

Players randomly draw tiles (usually from a bag - I've bought many Crown Royal bags from Crown Royal drinkers for this purpose) and place them next to each other. Then the player who places the tile can claim something on the tile by using their meeple. Those "somethings" can be a road, a city, a monastery or a field.

Tile placement must make sense. for example: a road cannot end in a field )

You gain points by completing roads, cities, monastery grounds and how many cities/villages your farm supports. The person with the highest points wins.

mimum age = 8 years old
game stores
rules and more info

***********

10. Fluxx

Oh there are many different versions of Fluxx but they all have one thing in common, there are no set rules.

The rules change with every play of the hand as set for by the cards players lay down. One moment you think your about the win because you have laid down all but one of the "keepers" required for the goal. Then someone changes the goal.

I can't explain the game better than that. Here's what boardgamegeek said:

A card game where the cards themselves determine the current rules of the game. By playing cards, you change numerous aspects of the game: how to draw cards, how to play cards, and even how to win.

If your still confused (or you think this might be really fun) look at the picture below.

Though I do recommend playing Family Fluxx as regular Fluxx game deck is quite a bit bigger. (there is also "Stoner Fluxx," "Eco Fluxx," "Monty Python Fluxx," religious Fluxx and blank cards so you can make your own rules and keepers and such.

Minimum - 8 years old
game store
more info

***********

All pictures from BoardGameGeek

More games next week.

Republicans PUNKED by Liberal Talk Show Host

2009-03-06T17:24:00.002-05:00

Crossposted on DailyKos

March 3, 2009 on Larry King liberal talk show host, Stephanie Miller said:

MILLER: Nancy, you are right about one thing. We love this episode of Republicans eating their own. It's delightful and it's not solving any of the serious problems that the country is facing. You know who is it good for? Rush Limbaugh. He loves this attention. If I could say something tonight that gets me that kind of attention, like maybe: Rush Limbaugh should be executed for treason. How about that?

it's at about 1:15

Thursday afternoon Noel Sheppard picked up on it, Lib Talker: 'Maybe Limbaugh Should Be Executed For Treason'

Predictably Miller's email box began to fill with right wing hate mail. (Friday morning she read many on air throughout the show.)

Then around 1am EST March 6, 2009, World Net Daily picked up on it. Execute Rush Limbaugh for treason? That's what Obama-loving talker suggests on CNN

Hot Air also picked it up. It may be hitting right wing websites like a metal ball in a pinball machine.

This is exactly what Stephanie Miller stated she wanted on yesterday's program. They are making her day!

What is funny is that the transcripts on both Newsbusters, Hot Air are WRONG and incomplete in regards to what Stephanie Miller actually said. (the quote above IS correct) Funny, but not surprising.

Miller was clearly joking, but many conservatives haven't picked up on that fact.

I wonder if Rush will comment on it today or "wait" for a caller to his show to bring it up today.

Still waiting and watching Drudge.

***

UPDATE: Freepers got it too! Interestingly enough their transcript has the same omissions and mistakes. Hmmm you think they are copying and pasting the purported "transcript" without looking at the video? /snark

I've been out and have so idea if Rush answered this.

You can't win if you don't play

2009-02-12T14:20:00.003-05:00

For the past two decades this country has been treated to the rantings, ravings and, what passes for deep, thoughts of Rush Limbaugh. Despite what you might think of him, he has been an absolute genius of cornering, marketing and imaging making of talk radio. I first heard of him as the subject of a newsgroup title on usenet.

It was kind of strange seeing a newsgroup devoted to discussing and disseminating his teachings as if he were a prophet from God, his or herself. He had a following even then and quite a few detractors. But that newsgroup and others about him that followed, were the bellwether to not only his talk radio dominance but of the successful use of mass media to promulgate the neo-con message, dog whistles and furtherance of it’s oft hidden agenda.

We laughed and underestimated and we lost the ability to play.

Liberal and progressives have had to play catch up. Even as Clear Channel and other mass media companies grew in size and power and little local stations were gobbled up and cast aside, we woke slowly. We either did not understand the threat of being defined by those that oppose us, or what the cost of the loss of the microphone, any microphone, would do to us. In that failure we did not move to protect assets, like small radio stations, or pick up a network on the nascent cable (network explosion) when it was much cheaper to do so.

So we sit here now. After years upon years of hard work to gain some of our democracy back we have:

1. We are only now showing a benefit to programming progressive television talk and opinion shows. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow have the only two shows of this type that are exceeding their market projections and helping MSNBC to finally, steadily, march up the ratings in the key demographic (sorry BillO you need to look at the whole book not just the demographic of 70 to dead)

With those positives why has it been so hard to get MSNBC to program more progressive political talk shows? There is a market, and it is growing. Now I know there are rumors that MSNBC is looking for another progressive talker to host a show and names have been flying, Aaron Brown, Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartman, etc.

To those who want to get the gig I say look at what Rachel Maddow did prior to her show. Her “Campaign Asylum” vids on youtube are essentially audition tapes. She showed that she has camera presence. She spoke directly to the camera, no interviewer, no interviewee, no audience, just her. Currently Cenk Uygur is doing much the the same thing.

2. We still haven't been able to get MSNBC on to basic cable packages to compete with Fox News. What's good about that is that even with an artificially engineered decrease in viewership opportunities, Keith and Rachel's shows are growing.

What's bad, well that's obvious, there is no counter message to Fox News. In a democracy, more than one side of the political spectrum must be represented. The right will yell that the left has PBS. They know it's comparing apples to oranges, commercial and public TV are not the same thing.

It's also pretzel logic because they want it both ways. They say liberal thought can't exist but on public tv/radio no one will pay for it, but then say we can't demand a commercial station because we have public radio/tv.

When I was in Pakistan I also learned that MSNBC had been made unavailable on satellite packages. As in it WAS available, but now it's not. Fox News, however, was still available. So overseas only one side of our political discourse is being heard. With that kind of news it is no wonder their view of us has tanked even lower.

3. We have Democratic Senators and Congresspeople who still don't understand or care that part of the 2006/2008 success is due to the free exchange of the internet. It has been one of the only avenues available to project progressive/liberal thought, to connect liberals and lead them out of the right wing imposed cone of silence, is the internet.

Without the internet, the web, liberal blogs, on-line magazines, live streaming of radio, we would not be as far as we are in coming back. Net neutrality is a big part of that.

If big Republican owned companies can tier the speed of which web sites get loaded onto a browser the fastest, based (they say) on payment from the site to get into the fastest tier (like the difference between 1st class and coach on an airplane) who do you think will go to the end of the slow tier line?

Like it or not, the internet has made us rather impatient. If a site takes too long to load (in a person's mind) people will move on to another site. Opposing ideas to conservative/Republican/neo-con speak will be lost, and we will go back to being isolated.

Net neutrality is very important to us, and it is one of the reasons they push so hard to end it.

Make sure our senators and congresspeople know and understand it.

4 Liberal Talk Radio.

Liberal talk radio has been credited with greatly assisting our wins in 2006 and probably 2008.

For years Rush Limbaugh et. al. have pushed the idea into the American collective thought that liberal talk radio isn't on because it is not commercially viable. This thought persists and is championed by the right even though it goes against every idea of capitalism; find an unmet need, fill it, be successful. The right wing used to say that there weren't enough pockets of liberals to make it economically feasible, except:

A. there have always been states and large cities that have always voted for the Democratic candidate.
B. people of like minds like to meet with and talk to each other
C. there were no liberal talk stations in these place to give them the opportunity.

Now I don't think it's to hard to understand why the Republican leadership would not want there to be liberal talk radio even though it goes against their vaunted laissez-faire capitalism (hell, these people will tank/crater/dismember an entire national economy and risk the international economy, thousand and millions of lives just rid the US government of the ability to offer safety nets, provide for education and infrastructure and to make themselves even more obscenely wealthy)

But the disconnect of average people have from saying they believe in capitalism , to looking but not seeing the evidence before them, to spouting the right wing bull shit is amazing. Now, despite more states turning purple and blue, the right still says uses these talking points, though their reasons are more transparent.

They point to Air America going bankrupt, saying that it totally failed. Even though they started saying that the day AAR started (they were a failed concept even before words were spoken into the microphone of the first AAR show). They totally ignore that AAR was on an advertisers blacklist. It's now out of bankruptcy.

They try and say that all progressive/liberal talk show hosts are from Air America (there fore they by extension must be failures). Only a fraction of liberal talk show host are with AAR now, but we also propagate that lie by thinking hosts like Ed Schultz, Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, etc. are with AAR.

Progressive Liberal Liberal talk radio is now more diverse in talent and in management.

While some progressive talk radio stations were created by companies like Clear Channel, they have also changed more progressive talk radio station formats away from it. Sort of like giving someone a lollypop just to shut them up and then taking away because it was too successful.

Even progressive talk radio stations that were once thought of as "safe" have been turned to music or sports formats.

Often times the changing of formats defied reason. Take Boston for example. The radio signal Clear Channel had given it's progressive talk station was a crappy daytime signal. It wasn't very powerful and if you were lucky to get it, you lost it at sundown unless you lived IN Boston itself.

The station was also run on autopilot. There was no local talent on weekly, just national shows which switched between offerings automatically (Rachel Maddow (then Young Turks), to Stephanie Miller, to Al Franken, to Ed Schultz to Randi Rhodes, etc.) and there wasn't a sales department. Really, a commercial radio station with no sales staff, in short, a lollipop.

When Clear Channel switched the format to salsa music (the 5th such station in the market) they also upgraded the signal (which we had long pleaded for) and got local on air talent and a sales staff..... ooh looky there!, and actual radio station with desires to actually succeed.

Despite that their ratings for many quarters did not come close to or much less meet the ratings they had with the crappy signal autopilot progressive talk station, they never turned back. The argument that this is a money making decision is laughable.

(update from trojanrabbit: the Boston salsa station that WAS Boston Progressive Talk Radio has "disappeared off the chart for the latest Fall ratings book." )

Many progressive talk radio hosts have said this is all about ownership, and they are right. As John Mayer sang "when they own the information they can bend it all they want." But for the Drobneys attempts to organize to start buying stations I've not seen much in that area, it seems that many progressives want to abandon terrestrial radio all together.

There are several problems with this idea.

We cannot keep, maintain, or turn red to blue if we cede the terrestrial airwaves to right wing radio. In doing so we will fail to reach with our message those who cannot afford satellite radio. We will in effect give our message only to the first class passengers and give the finger to the majority in coach.

The right wing will again get to define what and who we are. And we could begin to see our gains slip away.

We will confine ourselves to a smaller number of media options, with less flexibility to meet challenges, changes and risks. What happens if space debris takes out the satellite? It's not as far fetched as you might think.

We must maintain if not expand ourselves on terrestrial radio. We have the means to start buying stations, we have wealthy progressives/liberals who could invest and thousands upon thousands of liberals who could give $5.00 to an actblue type effort. Starting with the newly blue and purple states/cities we should be buying troubled stations (don't think the Republicans are waiting to gobble up more land, assets, media, etc. whose owners are in trouble, they are it's part of Disaster Capitalism.)

Then move either to red states/cities to start chipping away at it. Or go to blue cities and states to maintain and reward, I'm not sure what order is best for 2 and 3 or even a sort of alternating approach 2,3,2,3,etc.

In short, of this long winded diary, we must do, it is imperative that we compete in all forms of media, just as we have competed in all states. To cede any media is to let the right wing have a chance, and an opening to define what we are. We've seen the disastrous results.

When we compete in every state, in all media, we win, on our ideas alone.

Without gadgets James Bond is Jason Bourne

2008-12-18T12:20:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I finally saw "Quantum of Solace" the new James Bond film.

I have never really seen Daniel Craig as James Bond. He is a good action hero but he lacks a lot in the suave mystique area. And that area is very much a part of James Bond. If they are going to insist on Daniel Craig as James Bond, with that loss, then they need to bring back Q. Q is the branch and person where James Bond gets all his nifty and sometimes imaginary gadgets. Spies always have gadgets, but for some reason they have decided to do without them in the last to Bond films staring Daniel Craig.

Oh yes he has had gadgets but they are really nothing more than what anyone else can get. A portable defibrillator? Airplanes, sporting events, entertainment venues, even private citizens have them. A cell phone with maps and navigation? Seen the latest Verizon commercial?

Even the homing tag/chip under his skin isn't that far out. We already chip pets with all their information. With the fact that that technology is already part of cell phones, I don't find it that fantastic.

Guns as part of canes and umbrella poles, watches that can do this that or the other thing, cars with secret weapons, THAT'S James Bond! The absence of such, and the beloved Q character makes this feel like Dr. Who with Peter Davison (5th Doctor).

(He came in as the Dr. minus all gadgetry after very popular (and gadget heavy) Tom Baker's "Doctor." Davison's version of the Doctor and his popularity suffered. One of the reasons was the loss of the gadgets. )

Unless they are saying that there is nothing that Q can invent, or 007 can have that won't seem part of the "fantastic" now - James Bond is missing a vital piece of his "world."

I didn't realize how big a piece of his world was missing until with watching "Quantum of Solace" I was struck by deja vu. In the movie 007 is chasing the bad guy over parts of an old European city. He is running on roof tops and jumping from balconies to open windows, etc. and it hit me. I've seen this before in The Bourne Ultimatum. (except the setting was an old section of a Middle East city)

I didn't say anything about my revelation. As we walked out of the movie my husband said "I felt like I was watching Jason Bourne."

"OMG! You too!" came my response.

And we both agreed, in 007 current form he's little more than Jason Bourne with an English accent. And the original Jason Bourne is better.

(And btw while I do appreciate the touch screen conference/display table was really cool. I find it hard to believe that M would not have an actual office. What I guess was supposed to be her office was a high tech large room with either halo, smart technology or jumbotron, display while speaking with Bond. But I've ready seen this before.)

We are even behind Pakistan!

2008-11-30T02:41:00.002-05:00

I was watching the tv this weekend, when a commercial from Shell came on.

The commercial spoke of Shell’s commitment to finding alternative energy, and it spoke about CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). It was the standard, “look at what we are doing, we have a commitment to the environment and to getting America off foreign imports” yadaa yadaa yadda

It touched a little on the fact that we have loads natural gas right here, in the US.

No kidding! I used to see the natural gas burn off from refineries as we drove from Denver to my grandparents in KS along Kansas Highway 96. And even as a child I wondered “WTF? Why aren’t they using this for power instead of burning it away?”

Okay I didn’t say WTF back then, as a child in the 60’s I think my strongest word was “doggone it.” But “WTF” now, more accurately represents how I felt back then.

And then came our gas crisis in the 1970s and still, driving back to both sets of grandparents there was the natural gas burn off at the oil refinery we passed. You could see it for miles on a clear Kansas night and again my response “WTF?” and it was even stronger.

So now I’m watching this commercial and they said something that set me over the edge... something so sleezily dishonest but so soothing for those who’ve never been outside the country that they can try to look like good guys now.

The commercial said that Shell was “developing” CNG.

Developing . . . as in still working on it,

Developing . . . as in still perfecting it,

Developing . . . as in it’s just right around the corner,

Developing . . . as in one or two more passes on the merry go round we’ll get to touch the brass ring...

Developing . . . !!!!!

Except:

This is a Shell station in Islamabad, Pakistan. If you can’t see the back two pumps (5 and 6) let me move in a bit.

I took this picture and what follows, when I was in Pakistan in August 2008.

Shell already HAS CNG developed.
Shell already HAS pumps for dispensing CNG.
Shell already HAS CNG stations.

And these stations serve both CNG cars and petrol run cars. There are also stations in Pakistan that are solely CNG or soley petrol. In fact in Pakistan there are more CNG stations than there are petrol stations.

More cars and more buses are run on CNG. Hell, they can even convert them!

But thanks to Oily Bush and buddies we are further behind PAKSITAN in developing, using and converting cars over to CNG.

In this instance, a country in the developing world is MORE developed that the Lone Super Power. More developed than US.

Still Shell puts out an ad saying “we working on it, be patient.”

Be patient ....
be f*cking patient while we grab all that we can- hoping that you never know that we already sell and service CNG . . .and even if you do, what are you going ot do about it?

How long would it take Shell to begin selling CNG?
It's the end of November right?
I've been back home for 3 months
. . . not even that long.

Shell could have put some people back to work building the plant, converting/upgrading stations, etc. etc.

But never fear, Shell is "working on it."

Because they know most Americans don’t know that the technology is already here. Because they know most Americans don’t know that the world already uses it, including troubled Pakistan. It's still promoted as a novelty here!

Meanwhile, while the only work that needs to be done for CNG is this country is building the plant (they don't have to start from scratch - it's already up and running somewhere else), bring in and set up the equipment, upgrading filling stations, and offering conversions.

And also meanwhile Bush is trying to ram through regulations to weaken environmental and endangered species protections so his buddies can drill for more oil. And they will still have to build the derricks and the platforms and put in the pumps ... for oil that won’t be enough, and won’t be ready for use for 5 to 10 years.

We feel all warm and fuzzy when a state vehicle passes us and it said "powered by natural gas."

"Oh look," we say "We're going GREEN!". . . and we pat ourselves on the back. Good for US! [end snark]

Meanwhile we have an "s" load of natural gas beneath our feet. Gas that oil companies have been burning off for years as a waste product while they developed it in other countries.

Would the “drill baby drill,” “American exceptionalism” crowd really feel proud knowing how far behind we’ve fallen?

We’ve fallen so far behind in this area that even troubled, developing/3rd world Pakistan is beating US! (Don't get me wrong I love Pakistan, really I do, BUT come the f@ck on!)

And still there is Shell, who has everything already developed and at it’s disposal, LYING in advertising to the American people and NO ONE calls them on it!!!!!

UPDATE 1/11/09
A friend of mine emailed me that a fleet of trucks for Denver state government was converted to CNG.

Many state and local government vehicles have been coverted to CNG, BUT unlike Pakistan there aren't CNG stations or a push to covert cars to CNG for the average private citizen.

Pakistan does have government vehicles which have been converted to CNG too just like many of our state and local governments.

Until CNG is widely available for everyone in this country CNG will always be considered a novelty, Shell will continue to say it is "developing" gas to liquid technology like it's not already available.

And Pakistan will still be a head.

We now return you to your regular life

2008-11-07T10:00:00.002-05:00

Some time last year I made a decision, to take the donation I make every month and give it too Obama's campaign.

My thought process was:

I have only so much I can give every month. There are a lot of worthy causes that need this money, people are hurting. BUT if Obama is elected less people will hurt in the long run.

So I made the decision to temporarily cease giving to my favorite charities in favor of getting Obama elected.

Now with that accomplished, it's time to get back to "regular life."

While I've been "away" from my charities several things have happened: The economy has gotten worse, more people are hurting, there is more need, fewer jobs and less money. And with less economic security, difficulty getting credit and student loans more young people are considering going into the military for some security. It always happens this way.

While people are cutting out spending, and cutting back, charities are feeling the pinch. While they can make do with less, they can't make do with nothing. Once I was told by a preacher than when you give what little you have to help someone else, it is returned to you 10 fold. His word for it was “blessings” another word for it is “karma.”

It’s time to turn our attention back to the causes and charities that need us.

Unfortunately our money pinch is effecting our soldiers. Mail and "care packages" to the troops are at their lowest level since we started in Afghanistan. They are feeling forgotten.

I don't know if you have ever been away from home in your late teens or early twenties, feeling a little alone, a little lost and a lot of homesick. Waiting for a letter, an email, a phone call from home. If you have you can relate, as I did, to our soldiers.

I was away in another state going ot college, it was my first time away from home. I loved getting Mom’s care packages. Unlike our soldiers though I could go home for Christmas, spring break and for the summer. They can't, and they are in Afghanistan and Iraq for a year or more.

They are feeling forgotten.

I heard a veteran say this morning that there is very little that is a greater feeling than to hear your name called at mail call, when you are far away from home. And very little that is a more desolate feeling when your name is not called.

I heard the same thing from my ex-husband, a Vietnam vet.

It has always done my heart good that one of the things liberals and progressives learned from Vietnam and have not, by enlarge done this time around, is to blame our soldiers for our governments policies. We have stood up for our soldiers and their needs during and after their tours of duty, and their new life outside the military. We have shown that “support the troops” can be more than empty words and symbolism.

With the war(s) not finished, the fear that Bush's last parting gift is a war in Iran, and more kids going into the military we need to be there for them even more.

So today I ask you, to set aside a little bit of money, maybe the money that here-to-fore would have gone to the Obama campaign, and let a soldier know that we still care.

Treats for Troops
Let them hear their name during mail call .

Thanks

Governor Palin do you oppose Alaska secession now?

2008-10-07T12:56:00.001-05:00

When and what changed your mind?

Did anyone notice, we've already had a run on a bank?

2008-09-26T11:20:00.001-05:00

From Marketwatch: Withdrawals by customers ultimately sank WaMu:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Washington Mutual (WM:
Washington Mutual Inc M 0.16, 1.53, 90.3%) customers withdrew $16.7 billion in cash from the thrift in the past nine days, a huge outflow that led to the largest bank failure in U.S. history, the institution's regulator said Friday.

Hello? !!! McCain fiddles, derails and changes the topic while we burn.

Fun with McCain Signs

2008-09-19T01:59:00.001-05:00

I was watching Countdown and Rachel Maddow tonight when many things started to click in my head. To relieve all the energy the outrageous news provided, I decided to have a little bit of fun with McCain campaign signs.

There is a McCain sign generator already and I found a gem of a sign created by the generator at Post Punk Kitchen

There is also one by an obvious Stephanie Miller fan.

So I got to work. I didn't use the generator much. I'm one of those who contributes to "Photoshop Fun" on the Stephanie Miller website.

Given the story that the McCain campaign may well quash troopergate. People in Palin's administration have been told not to honor their subpoenas, I thought they needed a sign.

No. I'm NOT doing Bill Engvall.

I just thought that since I've seen so many "such and such for McCain signs" a truly justified sign was needed:

Free Dictionary defines the word this way:

scoff·law (n)
One who habitually violates the law or fails to answer court summonses.

Ding, ding, ding - a definition meant for the Bush/Cheney/McCain/Palin/Republican legacy if there ever was one.

Then there was news today ofPalin putting herself on the top of the ticket. So I thought I'd help the McCain campaign by correcting their signs:

(yeah I know, how "concern troll" of me)

But then something said on either Keith's or Rachel's show got me to thinking. Where have I read about Palin's type before?

Then "wham" I was bitten by a pitbull soccer mom wearing lipstick. I think I've figured out why McCain is so enamored with Palin (well other than him checking out her ass 15 times while fiddling with his wedding ring) . . . she reminds McCain of an old girlfriend:

or as he knew her by her maiden name:

But then we come to the biggest gaffe today.. which lead to this sign

Okay, yes, I'm a nerd, who likes to play on my computer. Sometimes it helps get over all the outrage of the day.

*****
Livia

Livia was the 3rd wife of Julius Caesar and a real piece of work. She is rumored to have helped do away with Caesar's older children so that her son, Tiberius, not even Caesar's natural child could assume the throne.

Generally considered power hungery and the real power behind the throne.

If Roman laws would have allowed her to rule, she would have in a heart beat.

cross posted at DailyKos

A Pakistani gift: Freedom from FEAR

2008-09-16T22:09:00.006-05:00

I didn’t get to travel as much in country as I wanted (that will be saved and accomplished on future trips). But I was in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Wah Cantonment, Abbottabad, Manshera, Muree, Jhelum, Mangla Dam and Rhotas Fort.

I was passing the Ordnance Factory in Wah about 12 – 14 hours before the bomb that killed 70 people. I spent the Friday, after the Thursday blast, in deep reflection. A change of plan either by the bombers or by us could have put us in immediate proximity of one another.

I tried to find something I could relate my feelings to, beyond mourning for the dead. I found it remembering that many years ago a hug branch fell off a tree landing on a car behind us as I was taken my husband to the commuter rail one morning. There had been a drought in Massachusetts leaving many trees very weak. The branch gave way after we had passed underneath it.

Things happen like that.

I had a choice, let fear change my vacation plans or continue to live understanding, buy not cowed by the risks and fear. I chose to continue on, and in that choice felt a freedom and empowerment that I haven’t felt for years here in the states.

I was not scared.

Oh the Pakistani government helps in this regard. Hours and days after the blast, while other bombs were going off, while others were being maimed and dying, the government did not preach fear.

They could have, while they haven’t had one event broadcast over the airwaves and totaling 3,000 dead, they have had many more attacks. In many more places throughout the country, and many dead.

Sure there are unmistakable signs every where that this place is dangerous. Suicide bombers have hit hotels and resturants frequented by journalists and political figures. So many places have guards at the enterances. McDonalds in Rawapindi is behind a fence.

But there still was no message of fear coming from the government or the people living in the country. They were not force fed this unhealthy diet. They still go about their daily lives, working, shopping (and my gawd can these people shop - it ought to be an Olympic event), entertaining and enjoying life - a life that for many is very hard.

The atmosphere is different. What's lacking in the air is the government endorsed carcinogen, fear.

Yesterday Keith Olbermann reported on yet another Republican group using 9-11 and fear to stay in power. Spoon feeding the American public by words and images, fear. (video below)

I didn’t realize how sick this diet had made me until I lived without it for a few weeks. It's a pity that I had to go to another coutry to get the Rx for it but after 7 years of this snake oil, it's not surprising.

Before I returned to the states I was already aware of the cleansing that had taken place. I knew that fear had lost it’s hold on me, even as I am a progressive and know that the message is designed to keep Republicans in power, I didn’t realize how pervasive it was in my thinking and in my being. But what do you expect after 7 years of an unhealthy diet?

So when yesterday my mother asked me if I was ever afraid in Pakistan, I answered honestly, “No.”I truly wasn't, and it felt wonderful! And for that Pakistan, I thank you!

*****

The market pictured is a place called "China Market" which is where you can get a lot of stuff from China

crossposted at Dailykos

It's her birthday today

2008-09-11T15:22:00.002-05:00

She is loathed to tell people now. They all give her this sad look and she has to remind them that the terrorists could have picked their birthday, but they picked hers.

It's not the first birthday she's had that turned into something horrible. She was 15 and waiting at home with our mother for my father and me to arrive. He was coming home from work and I was driving home from a tutor I employed to help me pass my math class. It was then we’d have our celebration.

As I was driving in my parent's little white VW Rabbit I noticed the cars on the right hand lane stopping. Then I saw a guy from the right hand lane backing into my lane.

WTF? I was upon him, sliding into his blind spot with my little car. I swerved to miss him, taking my car into the median. Then I swerved back into my lane, just in time for my lights to hit a bundle lying in the road.

I knew what it was. It looked like every scare film ever shown to us in Driver’s Ed. The bundle was a human body and I couldn’t avoid it. I can still recall every sickening bump as first one, then another, then the third, then the last tire went up upon the body then down.

I was 18, this was 28 years ago. I still remember.

I remember trying to pull my car out of the way of riding over this person. It didn’t work and my efforts actually caused the car to drive over him diagonally.

I remember screaming as I went over the body and then gathering my wits enough to brake the car just before it crossed out of the median and into on coming traffic. I even remembered to put on the hazard lights.

I remember stepping out of the car seeing the body and seeing another car drive over him. A suburban caught him and dragged him for a few feet as if he were a sack of potatoes. I screamed.

Then the cars stopped, there had been three others besides me who drove over him, I was the first. And people ran to his aid trying to pick him up. My first aid training kicked in just enough to yell to them “don’t move him.” And surprisingly they listened.

I went to the only pay phone on the street, a topless bar, to call my parents.

The rest of the night was spent with the police, and with my family to comfort me.

Before the accident the man I drove over had been kicked out of the topless bar. He had been too high and too drunk for them to serve. He then walked across 3 lanes of traffic and into the door of a car in the far right lane traveling east, and had fallen into my lane.

The car that he had walked into was the one backing into my lane. Trying to keep cars from driving over him. But I, in my little white Rabbit, slipped past all that.

The victim died.

No charges were filed against anyone.

I went through a lot of counseling.

I was allowed to heal.

But I can still remember every painful detail. I can still put myself back to that day. It doesn’t take much and I long ago surrendered to the fact that it would always be so.

The wound is not raw. It was not raw seven years after the event. It had healed.

Twenty one years later, on the exact same day, two planes would hit the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane would hit the Pentagon and the last plane would go down in a field in Pennsylvania.

I know where I was when the phone rang and I was told to turn on the tv. I know what I said to my husband who was the person on the other end of the phone. I know how I felt when I saw the towers come down.

Many in Massachusetts knew someone on one of the planes and/or people working at the WTC complex. So did we.

The planner of this horrible day that left 3,000 dead and hundreds of thousands scared for life has roamed free. Even when he was cornered, we let him go – leading many in the world to wonder if his freedom and likeness weren’t been used for political gain.

The day itself has been taken from a time of solemn reflection it should have been. A day to look at, remember, and congratulate ourselves for living past and through – It is now a political display, a horrific orgy of death and destruction to scare us into submission. They say “to remind us of what happened,” as if we’d ever forget.

Instead of allowing us to heal and move on, the wound is picked open every year, and every day during elections. Today feels like a million pounds of ick on a stick, a day you curse the sun for even daring to shine. To continue down this path is sickness and madness.

We have not been allowed to heal.

We have not been allowed to move on.

We have not been allowed to be healthy.

And if we allow the same political party to continue to use 9-11 as a political tool and to win with, we never will.

28 years ago today there was a car accident

7 years ago today there was a terrorist attack

Just as I can never forget the events of that day 28 years ago, we will never forget the events 7 years ago. We don’t need the constant fear, the constant the opening of wounds that should be healed or close to healing by now.

We will always honor this day and hold it sacred.

But some day, this day, will once again hold celebrations of life. A time when those born on this day will not hide their birthday. There will be a time when the sun will not be cursed for shining.

For any other event, any other death isn’t seven years of mourning, or being stuck “in” the event, of being forced to stay in the event, considered enough and even unhealthy?

Wouldn’t those who died that day want us to move on and live?

crossposted at Dailykos

Walls of a defacto prison, not soliders keep the Baghdad "peace"

2008-08-05T11:49:00.007-05:00

What you are not going to see from the corporate owned media that thinks truth, actual journalism and the 4th estate is subservient to entertainment and the almighty dollar.

part 1

part 2

part 3

Our lack of planning, our lack of understanding, our arrogance has created more who hate us. What will the future bring?

Did you hear, there's a RABIES VACCINE SHORTAGE?!

2008-07-08T19:58:00.004-05:00

Oh you didn't know? Well neither did I, until early today when I took my sons to our local travel clinic.

I thought my lack of knowledge may have been due to being on vacation visiting my parents in Denver at the end of June. When does one really stay as attuned to all the news that affects them when they are visitng family?

So I came home from the tavel clinic today and checked on Dailykos. The result, searching with the keyword either "rabies" or "Rabies" was zero. Nothing, nada, goose egg.

So I went to google news and searched using the words "Rabies Vaccine Shortage." There are, as of this writing, 38 stories written on this subect for the past month.

Newspapers like the Sioux Falls Argus Leader (Sioux Fall, SD), the Daily Camera (Boulder, CO), the Bloomington Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), and the Dallas Morning News.

According to the google news search, one or two local tv stations have added the story to their web sites and but for a few specialized news sources like American Academy of Pediatrics (subscription required) and Small Animals Channel the only national coverage has been a 5 paragraph article from United Press International (UPI)

For most of us in the USA our "contact" with rabies has been through the movies like "Old Yeller" and Cujo or have pets who need to be vaccinated, and it actual effects, are relatively small.

from Wikipedia

Rabies (Latin: rabies, "madness, rage, fury" also "hydrophobia") is a viral zoonotic neuroinvasive disease that causes acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in mammals. In non-vaccinated humans, rabies is almost invariably fatal after neurological symptoms have developed, but prompt post-exposure vaccination may prevent the virus from progressing. There are only six known cases of a person surviving symptomatic rabies, and only one known case of survival in which the patient received no rabies-specific treatment either before or after illness onset

snip

Any mammal may become infected with the rabies virus and develop symptoms, including humans. Most animals can be infected by the virus and can transmit the disease to humans. Infected bats, monkeys, raccoons, foxes, skunks, cattle, wolves, dogs or cats provide the greatest risk to humans. Rabies may also spread through exposure to infected domestic farm animals, groundhogs, weasels and other wild carnivores. Rodents (mice, squirrels etc) are seldom infected.

The virus is usually present in the nerves and saliva of a symptomatic rabid animal.[4][5] The route of infection is usually, but not necessarily, by a bite. In many cases the infected animal is exceptionally aggressive, may attack without provocation, and exhibits otherwise uncharacteristic behaviour[5]. Transmission may also occur via an aerosol through mucous membranes; transmission in this form may have happened in people exploring caves populated by rabid bats.

Transmission between humans is extremely rare, although it can happen through transplant surgery (see below for recent cases), or, even more rarely, through bites, kisses or sexual relations.

After a typical human infection by bite, the virus enters the peripheral nervous system. It then travels along the nerves towards the central nervous system. During this phase, the virus cannot be easily detected within the host, and vaccination may still confer cell-mediated immunity to prevent symptomatic rabies. Once the virus reaches the brain, it rapidly causes encephalitis. This is called the "prodromal" phase. At this time, treatment is useless. Then symptoms appear. Rabies may also inflame the spinal cord producing myelitis.

The period between infection and the first flu-like symptoms is normally two to twelve weeks, but can be as long as two years. Soon after, the symptoms expand to slight or partial paralysis, cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, terror, hallucinations, progressing to delirium.[citation needed] The production of large quantities of saliva and tears coupled with an inability to speak or swallow are typical during the later stages of the disease; this can result in "hydrophobia", where the victim has difficulty swallowing because the throat and jaw become slowly paralyzed, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst. The disease itself was also once commonly known as hydrophobia, from this characteristic symptom. The patient "foams at the mouth" because they cannot swallow their own saliva for days and it gathers in the mouth until it overflows.

Death almost invariably results two to ten days after the first symptoms; the few humans who are known to have survived the disease were all left with severe brain damage, with the recent exception of Jeanna Giese

(embolden mine)

The whole article on wikipedia is an interesting read. It covers transmission of rabies through the typical animal bite to 3 organ recipients in the US in 2004, transmission through various corneal transplants all over the world and 3 cases of transmission in Germany in 2005, due to transplants.

You say tahmahtoe and I say tomato

We do not have a rabies vaccine shortage. But we are in a supply limitation situation where rabies vaccine supplies are less than ideal." - CDC rabies chief Charles E. Rupprecht, VMD, PhD (June 26, 2008, WebMD)

The shortfall or "supply limitation situation" happened when two events and maybe even four events coalesced.

The first was when French vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur (IMOVAX) decided to renovate it’s rabies vaccine plant in 2007. Prior to taking the plant off-line Sanofi Pasteur stockpiled enough vaccine to meet the expected demand to the year 2009.

Sanofi Pasteur produces 50% of the USA’s rabies vaccine. The other 50% comes from Novartis who makes RabAvert(pdf) vaccine.

Everything was thought to be fine and everyone thought the world was set until the FDA discovered “manufactoring problems” with RabAvert. This sent the US market to depend on it's full 100% of it’s rabies vaccine need from Sanofi Pasteur.

Then the straw fell on the camels back.

There has been a steady and drastic increase in rabies exposure among humans world wide. Interestingly enough that increase could be one consequence of global warming. Rabies exposures typically increase in animals as well as humans during warm or "summer" months.

The good news is that the rabbies vaccine short fall/supply limitation situation/shortage does not effect animals. You can still get your animals vaccinated - and you should. Vaccinated animals is one of the ways the CDC is hoping the blunt the shortage.

The bad news is for cave explorers, veterinarians, vet staff, animal control workers, and world travelers, as they are being denied preventative Rabies vaccine. This is so that there is enough vaccine for those who have been exposed or possibily exposed to Rabies (as in cases where there has been a bite but the animal cannot be found).

It is also bad news for countries who vaccinate humans for rabies (because their uncontrolled animal population is too large). These are typically developing nations and they are holding the vaccine to post exposure cases only.

A stitch in time, saves nine.

For those countries, like India, this could prove devastating in the long run. India is one of the countries with an extremely high proportion of rabies in animals. With a human rabies vaccine shortage they may well have an increase in incidences of rabies infection in humans.

World wide 50,000 people die from rabies each year.*

For me, as a mother, who depended on at least my yongest son being vaccinated for rabies before we left on our trip to the developing world, I now have another worry.

This child is my "animal whisperer." He has always had an affinity with animals (he wants to be a vet). When a chick who may have fallen out of it's nest, and some how appeared in our garage, the baby bird would only let my son pick it up and then care for it. I fear that his need to be around animals and his desire to help those he sees as suffering will override all common sense. Getting this vaccination was to add to my piece of mind.

The CDC says the shortage will ease just a little as the FDA releases some of Novartis' vaccine in the coming days. More will be available at the end of July and August. But until supplies are back to normal (which hopefully means in ever increasing amounts to deal with the ever increasing exposures) everyone is encouraged to take the following steps

*Vaccinate all pet dogs, cats, ferrets, and other animals that have frequent contact with humans. Consider vaccinating horses and other livestock.

*Do not let pets roam free.

*Spay or neuter pets to reduce dog and cat overpopulation.

*Don't feed or water pets outside -- even empty bowls attract wild animals.

*Keep garbage securely covered.

*Do not keep wild animals as pets.

*Never handle unfamiliar or wild animals, even if they appear friendly.

*If you see a wild animal acting strangely, report it to animal control officials.

*Bat proof your home in the fall and winter.

(But remember bats are also a line of defense against another consequense of global warming; an increasing mosquito population due to the smaller and less severe killing cold snaps of winter)

I have struggled to decide whether to embed a video I found on the internet while reserching rabies, in this diary. It is of a 2 year old boy who has untreated rabies, his family in the Philippines could not afford the vaccination/cure. It is disturbing, so I will not embed it but I will link to it on both Metacafe and youtube

For more information:
CDC - Rabies
CDC Rabies Just 4 Kids
Rabies.com (sanofi pasteur)
WHO

*****

cross posted at DailyKos

Without Comment

2008-04-10T12:32:00.000-05:00

Two Videos

2008-03-24T10:38:00.004-05:00

One for Hillary is fun

One for McCain which is just plain baaaaaaaad

Some time with wild man, "racist," Rev. Wright

2008-03-22T00:39:00.008-05:00

Christmas day 2007 sermon

Now that you've seen the whole thing in context - might it be possible that the sound clips were purposely cut to be inflammatory? Of course.

Might it be possible the other clips were also cut as to be inflammatory? Of course.

I cried from my bed, "Tuskegee!"

2008-03-20T01:59:00.003-05:00

crossposted on DailyKos
*******

For the past week and a half I have been on bed rest as I recuperate from surgery. I have snuck down occasionally to read DailyKos and other blogs, and print out various posts to read while in bed. (Someone ought to do a study of what happens when a political junkie gets sick. It isn’t pretty.)

Since the Rev. Wright controversy began in earnest I have been watching and reading and wondering why “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” clinical studies from 1932 to 1972 are not mentioned more.

Strike that. I have wondered why the experiments aren’t brought out immediately, whenever someone mentions Rev. Wright’s beliefs about HIV/AIDS.

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" was a clinical study conducted between 1932 – 1972. It’s subjects were 399 poor and mostly illiterate African American sharecroppers in Tuskegee, Alabama, who had Syphilis.

They were systemically, and for 40 years, denied and even blocked treatment for Syphilis, even when safe and effective treatment was available. Told only they had “bad blood,” they unknowingly infected their wives and their children.

The study itself was unethical. Even if has stayed with in it’s initial purpose, a 6 month study to see if non treatment for Syphilis was better than the toxic treatments (available in 1932), it's participates did not have or give informed consent.

To suffer and to die from Syphilis is horrific.

To read the CDC produced time line, makes the mind swim.

Our own government did this to it’s citizenry. That fact and that fact alone may be keeping many whites from believing or even remembering this dark chapter in this country’s history. It is hard to come to terms with.

But that fact and that fact alone is why many African American’s believe that our government created the AIDS virus to kill the African American community in micro and the African community in macro. Even the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) report found that among the 1056 African American member churches 1/3 of cogregants felt that that AIDS was an artificially engeered virus, and 1/3 believed that is was a form of genocide.

Research Ethics: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study remains one of the most outrageous examples of disregard of basic ethical principles of conduct (not to mention violation of standards for ethical research). In 1976, historian James Jones (1981) interviewed John Heller, director of the Venereal Diseases unit of the PHS from 1943 to 1948. Among Heller's remarks were the following: "The men's status did not warrant ethical debate. They were subjects, not patients; clinical material, not sick people" (p. 179).

The suspicion and fear generated by the Tuskegee Syphilis Study are evident today. Community workers report mistrust of public health institutions within the African American community. Alpha Thomas of the Dallas Urban League testified before the National Commission on AIDS: "So many African American people I work with do not trust hospitals or any of the other community health care service providers because of that Tuskegee Experiment" (National Commission on AIDS, 1990).

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), one of the country's major civil rights organizations, has been providing AIDS awareness education through a program called RACE (Reducing AIDS through Community Education). In 1990, the SCLC conducted a survey among 1056 African American Church members in five cities. They found that 34% of the respondents believed that AIDS was an artificial virus, 35% believed that AIDS is a form of genocide, and 44% believed that the government is not telling the truth about AIDS.

That’s only 1056 of the African American Christian churches and mosques of the many thousand in this country, in 1990. That does not take into account other religions that are predominately African American in this country like Santeria and Rastafarianism.

The 2000 census gives the African American population in this country at 36.4 million, or 12.9% of the total US population (281.4 million). This includes people who "reported Black as well as one or more other races." Could 1/3 of this population, or 4.3% believe, to this day, that the government is behind HIV/AIDS?

That's not a small number; one third of an entire minority population.

So why among all the shows I watched yesterday was Tuskegee only brought up as an answer to Rev. Wrights beliefs about HIV/AIDS on Chris Matthew's "Hard Ball?" Why was Tucker Carlson allowed to keep bringing it up, without any response, on Dan Abram's “Verdict” last night?

It is what I, as a 45 year old white American woman, screamed, cried, bellowed, impotently at my TV last night. “It’s Tuskegee!”

It’s not ancient history. The study only ended after whistle blower, Peter Buxtun, went to the Washington Star in 1972. The story was published by that paper on July 25, 1972. The next day it was the front page of the New York Times .

Rev. Wright was 30 years old.

On May 16, 1997 President Bill Clinton apologized for the Tuskegee experiments.

This is not ancient history.

To think that it would be easily wiped away from the minds of a community so used and abused is naïve.

For a right wing conservative pundit to harangue that community for not trusting their government, is absurd. To have that same conservative pundit go on and paint those who believe that the government has something to due with HIV/AIDs, as crazy at best, or fostering a lie, at worse, is to draw out, in the starkest detail the disconnect within the white community.

It’s easier to sweep it under the rug and try to forget. I think the white community has by and large, forgotten or tried minimize the lasting effects of the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.”

But we need to remember.

“It’s Tuskegee!,” should be the central and continual answer when any and all pundits bring up Rev. Wright’s beliefs about HIV/AIDS. It's an answer that should be given forcefully and loudly, even if one has to interrupt.

Otherwise it is tacit approval to minimize the lasting effects of an unethical experiment that was only haulted because of a whistleblower. Without Peter Buxtun, the CDC would have allowed it to continue until the last infected African American male in the study died.

Without answering that charge it tacitly minimizes the African American experience.

Americans and their government are like twelve steppers. Every once in a while they need to do, they must, take an inventory.

*****
Bib.

Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male

U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee

Remembering Tuskegee

The Presidential Apology

2000 census

Research Ethics: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Updated: I forgot to add that an addtional 201 poor and mostly illiterate un-infected African American sharecroppers in Tuskegee, Alabama, were in cluded in the study as controls.

Hillary Clinton Endorses McCain

2008-03-04T14:13:00.003-05:00

Rachel Maddow can barely disguise her disgust:

Hillary is using scorched earth policy and thereby disqualifies herself as deserving the Democratic nomination.

I'm really at a loss. If she does ge the nomination, which I can't see how she can, but if. . . is my fear of a conservative SCOTUS enough to get me out to vote for her? Or has she made it physically impossible for me to vote for her (as in I get ill, knots in the stomach, etc. just thinking about it – so I can’t even make it into the polling place)?

Here is the whole segment:

John Aravosis (Americablog) says that there is dirt on her that he will launch to save the party if she doesn't pull out tomorrow. Seeing how she can be, John be careful.

I laughed and laughed and laughed

2008-03-03T11:32:00.002-05:00

My favorite line:

"You look them in the eye and say, 'the world is a tough dangerous place, it always has been. It's no reason to reupholster the inside of your trousers and vote like a moron every time they say boo.'"

This is why we must defeat McCain

2008-02-27T15:24:00.002-05:00

(So sit down Nader and shut up! People are beginning to think that since you do nothing to create a third party in the intervening years of a presidential race, you are a Republican stooge sent to take votes away from Democrats.)

So how long did Exxon sit on this waiting for a Supreme Court stacked in their favor? How do you think they will rule in favor of the oil company or the little people?

Supreme Court hears Exxon Valdez case

If McCain wins, he will put more justices on the SCOTUS that are further to the right than Roberts. He has said so and promise this to the Republican far right Christian base.

How do you think a women's right to choose will fair if that happens?

A vote for Nader is a vote to end pro-choice and force pregnancy and birth on all women. (These folks have said they will go after birth control too)

And this is supposed to gin up excitement?

2008-02-15T11:20:00.004-05:00

If this is supposed to be Hillary's answer to Obama's video, well I'll let you be the judge.

Now compare it to Will.i.am's Obama's video

Okay beyond the fact that Will.i.am's is totally grassroots and a volunteer effort by all involved and HIllary's has paid preformers, this isn't even up to the standards of an "Up With People" song.

Her support video is really, really, really awful. I don't think the music for her vid would make it to elevator music. And I wonder what would Simon Cowll think of the song? Can you hear him?

Here's some "Up With People" to make some comparison (and hopefully clear out that horrendous sludge of Hillary's video from your brain.)

Actually, sadly no, it's going to take this to blast it out. Crank it up!

Or even this

Oh hell, let's just make this musical Friday with 2 more. It may take all to clear the awful Hillary vid and music from your brain.

I concur. Mitt, F-YOU!

2008-02-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

Voted - Obama

2008-02-05T18:26:00.000-05:00

One Voice

I'm for Obama

2008-02-04T09:50:00.000-05:00

When the primary season began I had four candidates I liked:
~~Richardson~~
~~Kucinich~~
~~Edwards~~
Obama

Lyrics:
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.

*****

Video by Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSuMdkff0_o&feature=related

Well at least SOMEONE is paying attention

2008-02-04T05:38:00.000-05:00

I've been saying this on several of the blogs I comment on, and now, thankfully, someone has taken a closer look:

BOSTON - It's part of Mitt Romney's core narrative: Massachusetts, in the throes of a fiscal freefall, fell back on his CEO skills and turnaround wizardry to spark — in his words — "a dramatic reversal of state fortunes and a period of sustained economic expansion."

It's a rosy opinion of Massachusetts' economy that few in the state share. Instead, observers say, the state's recovery from a disastrous 2001 recession has been tepid at best, and Romney gives himself more credit than deserved on job creation and balancing the state budget.

Romney says that by the time he left office, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts was lower and the state had recovered nearly 80,000 jobs from the low point of the recession.

A fuller look reveals a state still struggling to recoup the jobs washed away in the recession, while much of the rest of the country has already sailed past pre-recession highs. . .

. . . Massachusetts is one of just six states that hasn't added back all the jobs lost during the recession.

"Our losses were steeper, and our gains have been slower and as an end result we are still nearly 100,000 jobs down," said Dana Ansel, research director for the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a nonpartisan think tank.

The state's unemployment numbers also showed little movement during Romney's tenure.

Romney and the Republican's don't want this widely reported but Romney's predecessor was a Republican as was the governor before her. And even the governor before that one was a Republican. While it is easy to assume Romney inherited an office mismanaged under the Democrats to support his claims. especially since this is Massachusetts, and Romney doesn't want to correct that assumption, it is simply not the truth.

Observers say Romney can claim some legitimate fiscal successes — vetoing spending increases, fighting against tax increases, and helping lure some businesses to Massachusetts, including a new facility being built by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Yes he vetoed spending increases for one of the Commonwealth's most important industries, education. This veto meant that teachere in the states Universities and Colleges went without pay increases to keep up with the cost of living AND those institutions went without needed improvements. This caused Massachusetts to fail from 3rd in education to 5th and while that might not seem like a huge drop, where would you rather go to school?

The fact is the slow recovery can be partially laid at the cutting of the educational budget. When many businesses in towns/cities in MA rely on the "industry" of higher education, not funding it ripples through their economies and the state's as a whole.

Romney's economic claims challenged

"If a man doesn't have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty or the possibility of the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists" - MLK

2008-01-21T12:09:00.000-05:00

From the "War On Greed" website:

Dear presidential candidates,

Buyout industry executives with multi-million dollar incomes have been exploiting a tax loophole that allows them to pay a lesser tax percentage rate than most of the workers in the companies they manage. This is a disgrace!

Make a pledge, if elected, that you will work to close the buyout industry's tax loopholes.

Sign the petition

Something else you might want to look into:
Stop revisionist Christian nation House Resolution 888

Ceding the Narrative

2008-01-21T11:59:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday, I believe it was on Keith Olbermann, the guest interviewee made a statement that just threw me, and underscored how the Democrats have allowed the likes of Limbaugh, et. al to “over write” history. The guest, while discussing John Edwards said that the only people who think that Ronald Reagan was a bad president is the far left. He pointed to the absolute orgasm of the cult of personality displayed for the week long funeral of the former president of the United States as proof. No one challenged him on that notion.

Why?

Have we allowed history to become so fragmented in our minds that we forget all that happened, in it’s totality, under Ronald Reagan? Have we allowed the right to re-write history leaving out all the negatives and consequences that that presidency gave us? If we accept “Gospel of Ron,” by trying to ignore those pushing it, we are guilty of tacit approval of it and it’s eking into mainstream thought and reporting. There are many consequences of Reagan’s policies that we are dealing with today and dealt with on 911.

Reagan was not the greatest or maybe even a great president. And the left shouldn’t have allowed that meme to take hold. Now, brick by brick, they need to dismantle the falsehoods and the fragmentation of problems of Reagan, because his entire legacy, especially the horrendously bad policies he made are lost to popular history.

Here are some examples:

The Reagan Administration cut veterans benefits, especially those of disabled veterans. My ex-husband, a disabled Nam vet, had his benefits under Reagan cut from over 50% to 15%. It was the work of Senator Gary Hart’s office that got them raised back to at least 30%.

Ronald Reagan reversed the “green” direction of R&D and adoption of a lifestyle and technology that would have reduced our dependence on foreign oil, and therefore the possibility we would be held economic hostages to oil companies and OPEC. He removed tax incentives and credits given to businesses and homeowners for adopting solar energy and putting in solar panels. He ended SERI, the Solar Energy Research Institute. He also removed the solar panels from the White House. Conservation and going green was all “bunk” and an anathema to the American lifestyle as far as he was concerned.
Thank him every time you pay your energy bills this winter, or put gas in your car.

Reagan also ended the Air Marshall program. In so doing subjected airline staff and passengers to over a decade long “air rage” problem. With no law enforcement on board, passengers and staff were subjected to hours inside closed quarters to the belligerent and the violent. One man went so far as to defecate on a food cart, which the passengers and staff had to smell and even look at for the rest of their entire trip. If there had been Air Marshals still in the air, 9-11 may not have happened.

Speaking of the airlines, Ronald Regan broke the first air controllers union and there for set the model for breaking unions although out the country. Think that’s good? Big business has a ton of lawyers and money on their side, if you get hurt on the job, or you are subject to unfair labor practices, without unions, who stands up for you?

There, (viola!) four examples of the problems with the Reagan presidency and legacy right off the top of my head, and there are many more.

Ronald Reagan was not our worst president. The man currently in the White House has shown us that. But his policies disqualify him for “sainthood.”

Why are we allowing the right to write into history his deification?

This is the revised posting of my hurried and porring written attempt on Saturday. Thank you Sassmo

To Willingly Burn an Organ in Your Body

2007-12-21T09:01:00.000-05:00

Background:

Way back on May 24, 2007, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon posted "The source of our collective delusions may be summed up in one sentence"

The “controversy” over the FDA approving the pill Lybrel, which is just a non-stop birth control pill that stops your period, speaks volumes about Americans’ general back-assedness. Women in other countries have been using pills to stop the inconvenience of having periods for something like decades now, but Americans, we have to freak the fuck out over this. A nation of techno-lovers can turn into a nation of Luddites at the very hint of women benefitting from technology in any way. At Feministing, Ann found that ABC News is already running with the “bitches are out of control” angle. This is the titular sentence that diagnoses our collective insanity: . . .

She included this clip from "Your World with Neil Cavuto"

Here is my first response to the clip:

WARNING – DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH

Hey Unruh STFU!

I’m 44, past my “baby making” prime. . . my period has been a problem for 11 years and I am actually enslaved by it.

No lie.

My period is so heavy that I run through a Super Plus Tampax tampon in a 1/2 hour .. and I do this for 3 f-ing days straight. And have done this for 11 years.

I have been to doctors and specialists and they won’t give me a hysterectomy because it’s a “healthy” organ. My own reason is that I feel orgasms in my entire uterus, not just the cervix, so I kind of don’t want to become the “female eunuch.”

I have been hospitalized for hydration issues and anemia issues because of my period. I cannot hold a full time job at this point in my life because I would spend all of my vacation time, all of my sick time and then some on the f-ing toilet.

I may not be able to handle this pill because I couldn’t handle the progesterone I was given to help shut down my period, but leave me with a uterus. But I’d at least like to be given the opportunity to try this drug.

So take your blonde from the bottle empty head (that I am ashamed to know that you and I hail from the same ethnic location) and stop interrupting when Mary Ellis (? correction needed) is telling THE TRUTH.

I LIVE WITH THIS! IT EFFECTS EVERY FUCKING THING I DO and DON’T GET TO DO!
(like going out for a picnic with my family, etc.)
STFU!!!!!
P.S. until you propose to pharmacologically castrate 13 year old boys so they can’t run a run and screw everything that moves - don’t you dare make girls bare the sole responsibility for hormones you misogynistic twits!

The next day, on the 25th, I added this:

I deleted a bunch of stuff from my post about my period that I now think I should have left in. Because it not only effects me it effects those who live with me.

Like my husband who shares the bed I sleep in - one that looks like someone was murdered in it. After this last menses I had to wash our sheets three times before I got any headway on the stains.

He also deals with “3 night a week pogo” as I am up and down throughout the night trying (in vain) to stay ahead of things. I get no sleep which makes me real pleasant to deal with. (think PMS on roids)

Everyone in this house get’s to deal with the mine field of chux placed anywhere and every where I sit during my period so “I” don’t ruin the furniture (that one is really good for the ego).

They get to deal with an out of commission bathroom while I clean it up because while I just averaged filling a super plus tampon every half an hour truth is that is the best case senario. Generally I have an accident which lets me know it’s time. I must then clean the bathroom floor, the toilet (seat and outer bowl and pesdestal) and the shower after each use.

I generally run through my entire waredrobe of stay at home clothes in one day. Sometimes, before I have a chance of getting clean clothes I have to resort to a set of non stay at home, generally stain free bit of clothing. Those then become a new set of stay at home clothes.

Wearing black in the summer time is oh so pleasant.

On the up side, and Ms. Unruh should be very pleased that the lack of finding a way to meadically reduce my flow, sans surgery, has convinced all four of my children that it is due to the somewhat larger than normal family we have. I don’t believe any of them, if they decide to have children will have more than 2.

My rant produced some good results Wayward suggested this:

Clytemnestra - I believe there is a new procedure where the doctor cauterizes the uterine lining. No periods (or extremely light periods) and no hysterectomy.

You may want to talk to your gyno about that.

After hearing this I resolved to find a new gyno along with a new primary care doctor. My gyno had retired years ago and my primary doctor was retiring at the end of May 2007. I decided, however, to wait a few months until after my sons' summer vacation.

In October I began the rounds of doctors and tests. And again my pap smear came back normal. I also had a biopsy done and that came back normal. Ultrasound came back normal, yada, yada, yada. I laughed when I was told this, as it was the same thing we had/have always heard.

My new gyno also began to go through my options for treatment. She talked briefly about birth control to stop my periods including Lybrel. Huh, wow, using birth control to stop a problem that doesn't, according to Leslee Unruh and her ilk, even exist.

My new gyno, this time a woman, I don't know why I went with a man the last time, and I discussed more options when she came to ablation. I jump on this immediately. We discussed this some what. They use an ablation therapy called Novasure. We talked about the possibility that since I have had a tubal ligation sometimes that area is burned more and becomes a source of chronic pain.

Okay.

We also talked about the possibility of loss of sensitivity, which is small. But ablation can make it harder to detect cervical cancer.

So I made an appointment for another round of testing. This one is a more in depth ultra sound where they fill the uterus with fluid looking for fibroids. After that I will have another meeting with my doctor to decide if this is something I really want to do.

I have begun reading the pamphlet given me:

Stop living with heavy bleeding.
A heavy period isn't normal.
More than 7 million women in the United States suffer with a very heavy menstrual period each month. This can have a major impact on their lives. Consequences of a very heavy period can include severe pain, fatigue, embarrassment, and iron-deficiency anemia. A heavy period may be caused by such conditions as fibroids, polyps, and hormonal changes. . .

(snip)

About Heavy Periods
Do you suffer from heavy bleeding?
Does your menstrual cycle seem abnormally long or heavy? Are you afraid of leaking through a pad or tampon? Have you been diagnosed with anemia from blood loss? If so, you may have menorrhagia (pronounced: men-o-rahj-ah).

Menorrhagia is defined as unusually heavy or long-lasting menstrual periods. It occurs in 1 out of every 5 women.

1 in 5????? If this is so prevalent why didn't anyone publicly call out Leslee Unruh on her absurd statement? How many woman are too embarrassed and never brining it up to their doctor? It took me years before I even told my doctor, thinking it was the price of having 6 pregnancies.

I can't hold a job because of my periods. What do women do who have a job but have no health insurance? Wear diapers during their menstruation cycle? I know that every time we had to change insurance companies I would get nervous what we would get denied due to a preexisting condition. Thankful that at least we live in Massachusetts so I would always have insurance some how.

So now while I read everything it is hitting me, I will be "burning" an organ. All the good and bad implications clear. Tto help myself, to get my life back, I may have to "harm" myself.

from Novasure

and "thank you" wayward!

Sherri Shepard, really ignorant or playing a part?

2007-12-05T13:08:00.001-05:00

I had been struggling for a title for this post. First because I can't believe anyone so ignorant could be on television. Second because I can't believe Whoopi doesn't walk over and pop her little head off, she's not using it anyway. Third because where ever this dim wattage went to school needs to be closed. Fourth, I CAN'T BELIEVE ANYONE IS SO DOG DAMN IGNORANT OF EVEN THEIR OWN FAITH!

If she's playing a part. . . Sherri, please, please, stop!

First we had Sherri Shepherd tell us that she doesn't know if the world is round or not. (I aint even going say anything about the evolution talk)
(BTW nice try to change the subject with what is really a non sequitur (go look it up in the library, Sherri)

Now the woman reports that there was nothing before Jesus. What? (I'm having a Scobby Doo moment)

Sherri go open your Bible to Luke and re-read the Christmas story. (Tis the season afterall)

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:1-7 KJV

Okay you know that guy, Caesar Augustus, he was a Roman and he pre-dated Christians because Jesus hadn't even been born yet.

Now I know this may shock you but there is a book of the Bible that pre-dated the story of Jesus, it's called, the OLD Testament. Go read it sometime. It talks about Moses, who was the adopted son of a Pharaoh (that's the King in Egypt) - he was raised in a home that didn't believe in the God you believe in, they believed in many Gods. And when he heard the word of the God of the Hebrews (thems the people you know of as Jews - which PREDATED Jesus) he librated his people, the Hebrews, from his adopted family.

Oh if you look in your Bible, the first Chapter in Matthew there's all them names that you've probably ignored:

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; 3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; 4 And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; 5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; 6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; 7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; 8 And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; 9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; 10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; 11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon: 12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; 13 And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; 14 And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; 15 And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; 16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Matthew 1:1-16 KJV

.Thems all Jews/Hebrews, a faith and people that PRE-DATE Jesus Christ.

Really you can't be that f-ing stupid. Especially when you frame so much on your faith and the Bible. I haven't even gone into ancient history which includes the Greeks, the Sumerians, the Harappans, the Aryans, etc. etc.

Maybe, before you embarrass yourself again, you or The View should register you in a university or community college Ancient History course (among others I'd suggest). Either that or follow Mark Twains advice:

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Do something great this holiday season, become an organ donor

2007-12-02T01:14:00.000-05:00

I have been an organ donor since I was 18. At that time designating yourself an organ donor on your driver's license was only a few years old. I believed it in strongly then and I still do. It is even in my living will.

Now, some 27 years later, it is a friend of mine who has liver disease and needs a liver transplant. He is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. We don't always agree on everything he's far more to the right that I am politically, but we can have civil, respectful conversations and even listen to each others points of view.

There are no insults thrown, and no talking down to each other, it's political civil discourse, that would be nice to see. BTW he called Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity etc. "flame throwers" and he doesn’t like them. He also calls Michael Moore one too. Well, no one is perfect ;-)

I never got to hear him play in his band, But here he is at the Little Bear (a renowned Colorado night spot) in 1987. He's the one in the stripes.

Here is one of his visits to the hospital. He told me that he created the video the day after he got out of the hospital

He also has a compelling story about his friend Ardis, who had end stage liver disease. He took care of her and she passed away before he was diagnosed with the same illness. He may not last 5 years.

If you aren't an organ donor already, do something great this holiday season and become one!

For more information:
http://www.organdon or.gov/
http://www.unos. org/
http://www.organdon or.org/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organ-donation/FL00077

Does your faith approve?
http://www.transplantforlife.org/miracles/religion.html

Here is his blog Billy Bob's Wildride (Billy Bob is his liver, his is Bob)

Should we hold a candlelight vigil for the children of Texas? And for the children in the entire US.

2007-12-01T18:26:00.001-05:00

AUSTIN (AP) — The state's director of science curriculum said she resigned this month under pressure from officials who felt she gave the appearance of criticizing the instruction of intelligent design.
The Texas Education Agency put Chris Comer on 30 days paid administrative leave in late October, resulting in what she described as a forced resignation.

The move came shortly after Comer forwarded an e-mail announcing a presentation being given by the author of Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse. In the book, author Barbara Forrest says creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught in public schools. Comer sent the e-mail to several individuals and a few online communities.

Comer, who held her position for nine years, said she believes evolution politics were behind her ousting.

"None of the other reasons they gave are, in and of themselves, firing offenses," she said.

TEA officials declined to comment Wednesday on the personnel matter, but they explained their recommendation to fire Comer in documents obtained by the Austin American-Statesman through the Texas Public Information Act.

"Ms. Comer's e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral," the officials said.

Next year, the State Board of Education begins a review of the state science curriculum, which will set standards for classroom instruction and textbook selection.

read more

Let's forget for the moment that the state (not religous) education agency (Texas Education Agency) just said that it must remain neutral on an issue that is not science but being interjected into the sciece curriculum.

Let's also forget for a moment that is has already been ruled by a court in PA that ID is creationism, and religion, and by putting it into a public school science classroom there is a violation of the establishment clause.

Let's also ignore that for those who want to teach creationism to their children can do it in a homeschool setting, a religious day school setting, a relgious after school program, in church on Sunday morning and in their homes 24/7.

Putting it in a public school setting where there are children who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddist, Pagan, Atheist, etc. violates their parental rights (something right wing Christian's like to argue for, a lot). In teaching a religous concept as science, which is not, concepts that may conflict with the parents relgious choice and desire for their children, we in effect create a state sanctioned religion. This is why only science should be taught in a public or public charter school science classroom.

We can also ignore the fact that by teaching creationsim as science the state of Texas is doing a huge disservice to it's children who will not do well outside the state in their adult life but also in attracting actual science teachers to the state.

Maybe we should organize a candlelight vigil for the plight of the children in Texas.

But wait, maybe we should organize a candlelight vigil for the plight of Americas children, because this is why you should care:

Texas is one of the largest, if not the largest, purchaser of textbooks. Because of this; what they demand be included in textbooks often finds it's way into textbooks for other states, and the standard issue textbook. It's cheaper and less work for an editor and publisher not to change too much.

With Comer's force resignation it seems clear that Texas is moving to calling into question evolution and including creationsim in the science classroom. What will that do to America's textbooks?

The war on science continues. You need to take a stand.

Read more:
National Center for Science Education
A DEFEAT FOR "INTELLIGENT DESIGN"
Judgement Day, Intelligent Design on Trail - - - Watch the program

It's offical; Dominionists for Huckabee

2007-11-23T11:31:00.000-05:00

Not that this is a surprise, he is one himself.

Mike Huckabee, the Republican presidential candidate and former Southern Baptist minister, is getting help from Tim LaHaye, the Christian conservative organizer and co-author of the apocalyptic “Left Behind” novels.

“America and our Judeo-Christian heritage are under attack by a force that is more destructive than any America has faced” since Hitler, Dr. LaHaye and his wife, Beverly, wrote in letters sent to lists of conservative Christians in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “Defeating the radical jihadists will require renewed resolve and spiritual rearmament by the evangelical pastors in America.”[..]
C&L

He said this a week or two ago (crusade picture photoshop mine):

Since he bascially, and stupidly, arrogantly, recklessly (and I could add many more disparaging adverbs) declared our "war on terrorism" to be a crusade I went all the way in the photoshopping because you know this is the way Mikey sees it.

I don't support the way we've dealt with terrorism, vis a vis "our ever expanding war" that took our eye off Afghanistan. We are making the world, especially the middle east a fully chaotic and disabled quagmire.

People don't like chaos, they, especially families, like stability, timeliness and no surprise futures. That's why a great deal of energy and time is spent in these areas maintaining the status quo, even in families. We threatened more destabilization through war and they will naturally flock to those who promise to uphold stability and their family and very conservative values, Al-Qeada, et. al. Which means we are xreatring and will continue to create more terrorist and be Bin Laden's largest recruitment tool.

It's human nature, we do it here. We see the world become more chaotic, less predictable, less secure and church attendance, especially conservative church attendance climbs. We flock to leaders who spout tough messures, "law and order," and cowboy diplomacy.

If being a Dominionist isn't enough for you to disqualify Mike Huckbee as president, maybe he reckless nature should be.

Quote on photoshop graphic: C&L

See also:

Dominionism: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Five Things Mike Huckabee Doesn't Want You to Know About Him

Dr. Bruce Prescott (Mainstream Baptist) - or as I like to say "voice from the inside" - A Reconstructionist Takeover Video, All "Recontructionist" Posts (including those on Huckabee)

Religious Tolerance; Dominionism

Theocracy Watch - Dominionism and Dominion Theology

DailyKos - Dominionist, Dominionism

From me: Representative Republic or Dominion, My Dream, My Nightmare

Wikipeadia - Christian Right, Dominionism, Mike Huckabee

1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year

2007-11-13T17:49:00.000-05:00

ATLANTA - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the
United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted
disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.

"A new U.S. record,"
said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More bad news: Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record
low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version
resistant to common antibiotics, federal officials said Tuesday.

Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis — which can
deform or kill babies — rose for the first time in 15 years - By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

Yah think maybe it's time to end the "Abstinence Only Education" farce and the war on science and health and actually teach people about safe sex and condoms?

Clytemnestra's Variety Show

2007-10-19T11:09:00.000-05:00

I really miss the variety shows of yore. They were not only a chance to see quality entertainment, but they exposed us to the talents of our neighbors and the world. No competitions, no call in votes, these shows sent out scouts to find the talent to be on the show. Sometimes they missed, but in general there was always something you could enjoy. And with all the "processed" entertainment we have today, there was a good natured spontaneity, devoid of plots, deviousness and triangulation, that you can't find today.

Variety shows stretched beyond ideologies, feelings of war, social problems and for a moment, just for a moment, it would provide commonality, peace and good will. With all the hardness, contention, bitter discord between red and blue state America, maybe we should bring back the entertainment form.

If I could host a variety show, it would be all live. We'd bring the talent to Boston (or wherever), in front of live audience

But since I can't here is my first "variety show" using YouTube with living talent and talent that has passed away.

What do we loose when we remove the tops of mountains for the coal underneath?

2007-10-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

Is this a price we are willing to pay. Or are you happy about the decision that has been made for you?

On this Blog Action Day I am reposting a blog entry I made on September, 15, 2007.

I had orginally heard about this on Bill Moyers Journal; Mountian Top Mining Update the other day. It is an eye opening report and I encourage you to click the link above and watch.

As proposed new rules may allow coal companies to expand mountain top removal mining, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL reports on local evangelical Christians who are turning to their faith to help save the earth.

I was curious and went to Google Maps to see of you can see some of the scars from mountain top removal from the satellitete photos. You can.

The 5 part documentary, "Toxic West Virignia," from VBS is a must see:

Parts 1 thru 3 can also be viewed on YouTube
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
3 more videos on this topic can be found at VBS.TV:
a) Cookie Mountain
b) Marky Bias
c) Erik Reece
See also Christians for the Mountains and order their DVD; Mountain Mourning

Congratulations Mr. Gore! The right, in full bash mode, shows how scared of you they are.

2007-10-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

And rightly so. I'm not going to post links to the right wing sites, you can google them. There are giddy that the Nobel prize is yet another "consolation prize" for never getting to be president. They are shameless.

This 2006 speech just gives me chills.
(the applause may cause some audio problems)

It makes me hope he runs.

Hands OFF! Only Republicans can make money in Iran!

2007-10-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

I'm in a fugue state of mind

2007-09-29T10:54:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry that my directions calling for salad dressing caused you to use the one with arsenic

2007-09-21T22:42:00.000-05:00

Now we really know who "wears the pants"

Mattel Apologizes to China for Toy Recalls

All Things Considered, September 21, 2007 · Toy company Mattel apologizes to China, taking full responsibility for recent toy recalls. The U.S.-based company said its own design flaws were primarily at fault. The recalls cast aspersions on Chinese-made products. NPR

What f-ed up times we live in!

2007-09-20T23:06:00.000-05:00

Tonight may husband and I were at my high school son's "back to school night." While we were sitting in his biology class (along with other parents) listening to the teacher as she explained what they would cover during the year she took a big gulp and said "I believe in evolution and I will be teaching evolution!"

She visibly relaxed when every parent said "Good!" and let her know that we have her back.

But what f-ed up times do we live in where this has to not only be an issue, but that a science teacher has to summon the courage to tell the parents of her students that she will be teaching SCIENCE!

and this is in Massachusetts no less

Black Adder, Rove, Bush and Cheney

2007-09-18T19:42:00.000-05:00

Listen to the election commentary, and the responses. :-)

France is now saying to prepare for war with Iran

2007-09-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner says the world should prepare for war over Iran's nuclear programme.

"We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war," Mr Kouchner said in an interview on French TV and radio. . .
. . . He said France wanted the European Union to prepare sanctions against Iran.

"We have decided that while negotiations are continuing to prepare eventual sanctions outside the ambit of UN sanctions. Our good friends, the Germans, suggested that," he said.

Until now the Security Council of the United Nations has imposed economic sanctions on Iran, but did not allow for military action.

The United States has not ruled out a military attack against Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

BBC

Bush was beating the drum last week. France (France?) is beating the drum this week. And all of us who have been seeing this coming for 2-3 years now are, with Bush's stupidity om Ira1q, Washington's moves emboldening Iran and making it a power broker in the region, are very frightened that we were right all along.

Despite what you hear, Iraqis want a timetable for our withdrawl

2007-09-16T13:15:00.001-05:00

Let's see, there are 275 in the Iraqi parliament. Before al-Sadr's group left al-Maliki's UIA (United Iraqi Alliance) with just 85 seats, down from the 140 it once had and giving it a very thin majority.

The al- Sadr camp already had yanked its six ministers from the Cabinet in April over al- Maliki's failure to endorse a fixed timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. On Saturday, Sadrists trumpeted their resistance to the Americans in justifying the departure from a coalition that had guaranteed Shiite political dominance for nearly three years.

In leaving, they sought to present themselves as Iraq's true patriots -- unlike their fellow Shiite politicians, who remained America's ally.

"The main problem in Iraq now is the occupation, and the solution is to have a timetable for the withdrawal of occupiers, and anyone who agrees with us on this demand will find our hearts opened to him," lawmaker Nasar Rubaie said.

The ruling alliance had been engineered in late 2004 by senior clerics with the goal of securing Shiites' right to power. Until now, Shiite leaders managed to keep unity among the community's fractious political parties, but that had changed Saturday night.

"The UIA has started breaking down. They were the biggest bloc at the parliament, but not anymore," said Salim Abdullah, the spokesman for the largest Sunni political bloc, which withdrew from al- Maliki's Cabinet in August. "Maybe the government will be changed within four months."

So basically to support and protect the embattled al-Maliki government we need to present them wit ha time table for withdrawl of our troops.

For their part, people around al- Maliki were relieved. "To be frank, for a long time the Sadrists were outside of the UIA. Their decisions were always not in line with the UIA," Askari said. "Some UIA members are happy. This makes things clear."

Al- Maliki's camp also was confident that the Kurds would not abandon the ruling alliance. Askari said the Kurds see their interest in sticking with the Shiite bloc, rather than switching to a side that might not back their claims to an autonomous region in the north.

Kurdish parliament member Mahmoud Othman confirmed that the Kurds had no interest in ditching the UIA and al- Maliki, although their relationship had been rocky previously. "There is no better alternative than Maliki," he said. "There is no change."

You know, instead of playing these games for a country that was artifically created by the British, and getting our soldiers killed we sould partition the country and then stand with the Kurds so the Turks, who will have their backs up anyway, won't attack the Kurds.

Iraq is a country that was cobbled together by the British, It does not hold the same feeling of national unity as say Kuwait, Iran, the UAE, Jordan, etc. It's time to realized that because of it's artifical creation, it may NEVER. And we could get our people out much sooner and work for stablisation better if we partitioned it and withdrew.

Sore L.A. Times

"Go For Broke," George Bush's policies are killing Americans in West Virginia

2007-09-15T00:05:00.000-05:00

I heard about this on Bill Moyers Journal; Mountian Top Mining Update the other day. It is an eye opening report and I encourage you to click the link above and watch.

As proposed new rules may allow coal companies to expand mountain top removal mining, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL reports on local evangelical Christians who are turning to their faith to help save the earth.

9-11, 9-11, scare, scare ,scare, fear, fear, fear

2007-09-11T10:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday sis! One good thing happened today, you were born!

I really can't add anything that hasn't been said on Dailykos here and here, Americablog, Pandagon, etc.

Ryan Adams music video "New York, New York", shot September 7, 2001 (embedding has been disabled for this video)

Lest I forget . . .

2007-09-11T00:29:00.000-05:00

" . . .life in music is a life beautifully spent. . ." - thoughts on Pavarotti

2007-09-07T09:09:00.000-05:00

“I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent and this is what I have
devoted my life to”.
Luciano Pavarotti
“Feeling joy doing what you love in the midst of a mortal struggle… It makes me tearfully smile”. Luciano Pavarotti.

Well, everyone who ever heard Luciano Pavarotti and loved his voice have been writing their memories. I'm among them. Saddened by yesterday morning's news it wasn't until I got to Crooks and Liars posting of "Nessun Dorma" that my sadness turn to tears.

I contributed my first memory of seeing Pavarotti both on Crooks and Liars and on Yahoo! Answers. It was on The Tonight Show (with Johnny Carson) Friday, September 14, 1979.

If my memory is correct he came with Richard Thomas (John Boy Walton) .

Richard was a scheduled guest on the Tonight Show that night, but he really wanted to introduce this man, this voice, to the American public. This was so unplanned that I don't think Johnny was even aware of what was going to happen.

Moments after Richard was introduced he introduced Pavarotti, the curtain opened and he [Pavarotti] was standing by a piano. Then he sang, and I became a fan.

This is how I remember. I may be wrong, but I hope not.

Maybe Richard Thomas, or anyone else who saw the show that night can confirm this memory.

Anyway, on Crooks and Liars (as well as other places) others shared their memories:

Timelag said:

This is the man who got me listening to opera, along with many others. As I got more into it, I just assumed I would graduate to other singers and find that he was too “pop” or something. But it never happened, he remained, and remains, my favorite by a long stretch.

RichardinSF said:

It wasn’t until Pavarotti came along that I could understand how people can be brought to tears by opera.

William reported

This news saddened me greatly. I was fortunate enough to have been in the orchestra accompanying Pavarotti during his 2000 tour. At the rehearsal he was happy, funny and more than willing to stand for a photo with me. I feel so privileged to say I performed with him. This icon of a man was just a warm, friendly regular guy… but a man who sang like a god. His performances and humanitarian work exemplify the best of the human spirit.

beckyboo shared:

When our second daughter was a toddler, barely able to speak, she would get a foot stool out and stand in front of the TV. She’d stand on top of it and say, in her toddler voice…” Thes ees Jow–nee Caar sone…and tonigh we have wif us Lutzee-awno Pottee-rrrrottee singy Nesssssi Door No. ” Now she listens to Sublime and Slipknot,(but also B.B. King and Clarence Carter), but she will still get a big smile and say, under her breath, “Lutzee-awno Potte-rrrrottee.” and then hang around and listen.

More shared their memories and thoughts in C&Ls Late Night Music Club with Luciano Pavarotti

99 had an amusing story:

Back when I lived in “civilization”, I had a nextdoor neighbor who would play heavy metal so loudly 24/7 that it shook my house. Finally, I threw my windows open, with my speakers aimed at his house, and turned Luciano loose on him… all the way up to eleven. His house went silent.

Yellowbird actually got to enjoy the company of Pavarotti upclose and personal:

I was one of the lucky people on the planet that actually got to meet him and spend a little time in his company.
It was at an afternoon gathering at a private home in Beverly Hills, California where a group of talented musicians from the local area gathered for a little friendly chamber music. The food on the table and the wine was PAR EXCELLENCE!!!

Luciano did not entertain that afternoon, but rather sat in the audience alongside me and my friends in a group that totaled about 50 people counting the musicians. I believe the lovely woman he was with later became his wife. My sincerest condolence to her for her loss should she read this.

Luciano showed me how to wrap a piece of Brie cheese within a date to cover the sharp taste and after a couple of chews, wash it down with wine. It was delicious and so was his company. He was real. He was warm. He was friendly and big as a mountain. I honestly could feel the power coming from this man. I never forgot that afternoon and I have always cherished Luciano. He was a gift from heaven, whether you believe in the place or not. He was gregarious and generous; a man’s man to the end. There wasn’t a woman who could come near him that wouldn’t take a second, third, fourth, (and more) look. He had that personal magnetism, that charisma that Bill Clinton has. I have seen him in person too. I know.

What can I say about his voice. It sends chills down my spine like few artists can. Not once in a while; but ALWAYS. His sound is so familiar I can pick it out any time any where. Whenever I have heard him sing; I stop whatever I am doing and take in the music. I can’t do anything but stop and listen. I can’t read, write, drive; I can’t do ANYTHING until he stops. It is that stunning to me. I am in love with his voice; his art. He was a master. And that is no exaggeration.

I love him and will miss him always. This piece of music shows the playful, non stuffy aspect of his nature. Luciano was brilliant. He will stand in the annals of human history forever… a great artist… a great man.

Thanks for letting me share. I am very sad at his loss and have been crying since I heard last night. Maybe if I can talk about it I will call in Malloy and share my story.

And Strawberry shared this most powerful memory:

When my first son was born, he was colicky. And I don’t mean, oh the poor thing, he’s just colicky. I mean, oh my God, why does he sound like someone put him in a blender, colicky. I even had a pediatrician specializing in colic, turn to me after observing him for a few minutes and ask “Is he always like this?” Yes, he was always like that. When he wasn’t attached to my boob, he would screech until he collapsed from exhaustion. And one morning about 1AM we were driving him around the neighborhood, trying to get him to sleep, when Pavarotti came on the radio…silence, blissful silence. I love Pavarotti, he saved my young son’s life.

So why am I posting the comments on C&L? Because I want to preserve them and I am not sure how long C&L now holds onto the comment portions. It used to be only a week or two, but then again, that's when they used Haloscan. But it is also as a segway to something I learned today that adds another line or two in the music chapter of my life.

Yesterday I wondered what my life would have been like if I had pursued opera/vocal music. My first vocal teacher, Robert (Bob) Bartalot, wanted me to very much, and was probably more than a little miffed when I left it all together. (Though he hid it well). When, as a teen, I had reached a vocal level beyond what he could teach me, he encouraged me to contact “THE” vocal teacher in Denver at that time, Winne Mague* (or Magoo, I don’t remember) . I know I started on that path, but am not sure what happened then, because I didn’t study with her. I never met with her, it may have been a scheduling thing or a teen thing, I just don’t remember.

When I left Denver to attend college outside the state I made vocal music my minor. But there was a criticism I didn’t expect, I could never “warm” my voice. The clear, bell tone with little or controlled vibrato, a great ear, and almost perfect phonetics of languages I didn’t understand with near ease, things that I was complimented on in Denver, didn’t get me as far here. The “warmth” that I could never bring, along with a mystery decline in my health, was a hard blow and I returned to Denver.

I continued on with a vocal music minor when attending Denver University. When I got totally stumped in music history/theory I called my old vocal teacher, Bob. He spent long nights on the phone helping me out. He more than once, comforted my confusion and feelings of inadequacy by saying that it’s a short coming of vocal music education that we don’t get the same grounding in theory early on that those in instrumental music do.

Anyway, I survived the class with a "C", even though that morning, hours before my finals my (now ex) husband beat me. I was so upset I couldn’t even sing for my vocal final. Consequently, I never “finished” that class. With one, then two children, a failing marriage and incredible stress, I left music.

It wasn’t until into my 30’s, and a little more “life” had happened, that I found the “warmth” to my voice. I heard it! I knew when it arrived! My 2nd (and current husband) heard it too. He very much wanted to go back into vocal music, but he had to settle for hearing me do warm ups and sing arias or pieces of arias.

My father, a church soloist, and frequent karaoke singer, loves to hear my voice, even now, through all these years of non use and little practice. He and my mother (also part of the choir and choral groups) encourage me every chance they get. And since my 45th birthday (September 1) and Luciano Pavarotti’s death, I’ve begun to wonder, “What if I had taken that path?”

Then this morning I read something that sort of gave me pause.

From 5th grade to 8th grade I not only sang but also played the cornet. For lack of a better explanation it’s a trumpet’s younger sibling. I know the exact day I would not continue with the cornet. It was the day my band teacher would not play a line of music for me so I could hear it, but wanted me to do it cold. What neither he or anyone else knew is that although I could read music, I had been doing it since 2nd grade accordion classes (DON'T go there), then on to taking piano starting in 3rd grade, but the musical notes all appeared as a jumble to me.

It only dawned on me later in life that this was due to my dyslexia. I had developed coping mechanisms on my own to become a voracious reader (using my index finger to keep my place, using a straight edge to help me keep my place when reading something that was right and left justified, etc.). What hadn’t followed through in my conscience thought was that I also had done this in music. I used listening to a line, staff, what have you of music as the mechanism by which I sorted out the notes. For example if I’m seeing an “E” coming after a “D,” but the music I’ve heard has the “E” before the “D,” I relied on what I was hearing to straighten out what I was seeing.

This, like the other coping mechanisms I created for myself was not part of my conscious thought. It was something I just did, something taught myself to do to get along in the world, I wasn’t aware that I was doing it.

Ashamed that the conclusion for my need to hear the series of notes might be construed as that I was playing everything by ear and that I really couldn’t read music. I knew I could read music, I just didn’t know how to explain why I needed him to play it first. But that was the day I knew I wouldn’t continue with the cornet.

Vocal music was easier in this regard. I never met a teacher who refused to play the notes first when asked. But this fear may have been the reason I didn’t meet with Winnie, it was hard enough when Bob would say "look at the notes, you can tell from note to note if you are going up or down." How do you say "no I can't" why you really can't explain why?

For the past few hours I have been reading a lot about a man whose voice I loved. On Wikipedia I came across this passage;

“Pavarotti rejected the allegation that he could not read music, although acknowledging he sometimes had difficulty following orchestral parts.”

Since early this morning I have read several versions of the same story of Pavarotti singing Zucchero ‘s, "Miserere." The basic story is:

. . . in attempt to persuade Luciano Pavarotti to record the song [Miserere]. Zucchero recalled: "Andrea was just unbelievable! He had something not one of the other tenors possessed. He had soul." When Pavarotti received the demo, he was extremely impressed with Andrea's voice, "Zucchero!, Who is this guy?" Pavarotti demanded. "Thank You for writing such a wonderful song. Yet you do not need me to sing it - Let Andrea sing Miserere with you, for there is no one finer."

One version I read said that Luciano wanted to hear the song first. That combined with the rumor that he could not read music and my own experience has lead me to wonder whether Luciano Pavarotti had dyslexia. Because it certainly seems like he was using, whether conscious or not, the same coping mechanisms I used.

It would be amazing to think that this was true, and it may be able to prove it at least by 90% using anecdotal evidence. We did this bit of detective work to determine whether my paternal grandfather had dyslexia. We believe he did, which has helped in many ways, none less that to establish how strong it is in our genetic line, my grandfather, my father, me, and two of my sons. My cousin believes that this knowledge would have been useful to her older brother during his lifetime. Now it allows her to put together pieces of why he did what he did and always had troubles in certain areas. She understands him better.

But wow. just wow. It blows my mind to think that he and I may have been doing the same thing in coping with something that in years past got one labeled as "stupid." Years before I was even here he walked away from music, but came back and left us with such beauty. I walked away, never came back to music and am hoping I can leave the world with a quarter as much as he left.

I guess all of us have questions about what would have happened if we had taken another path. I think I’ll start practicing again, if for nothing else than to add some more beauty to my little corner of the world.

see also:
Nessun Dorma, Paris 1998
Pavarotti, "Caruso"
Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti Medley
David Zucchero & Luciano Pavarotti - Miserere
+++ Andrea Bocelli & David Zucchero - Miserere
Darren Hayes & Luciano Pavarotti - O Sole Mio
Darren Hayes & Luciano Pavarotti - Se bastasse una ["If a song would suffice"]
Torino 2006 (what would be his last performance)
Luciano Pavarotti's Offical website

The Met is running a tribute broadcast “L’Elsir d’Amore" on WNET
this Sunday at noon, hopefully PBS stations across the country will pick it up.

And on Sirius radio at 9pm
The Met

Thanks to CappuccettoRosso for the quotes.

*= Winnie married a long time family friend of my parents.

Getting "The Gay" (according to right wing nuts)

2007-08-29T12:56:00.000-05:00

( click on image to read)

Fund US Infrastructure Not the Iraq War

2007-08-02T07:32:00.000-05:00

Isn't it interesting that the same amount of money we are spending on Bush's misadventure in Iraq could be spent here in America to fix our highways, electrical system, water/steam/sewer pipes, and bridges.

When are the American people going to to say that our tax money should be spent here and not in a mis managed war we were lied into, that the president never wanted to win in the first place?

How many more dead on our own soil are we going to suffer? The republican's blew a budget surplus, sunk into trillions of dollars in debt (all held by China) and made us into a debtor nation. Which would you rather have your tax money go for?

Finished Harry Potter! No spoilers here

2007-07-22T13:07:00.000-05:00

The book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was delivered to me at about 3pm EDT yesterday. I finshed it at 1pm EDT today. . . . I have never read a 750+ page book so fast in my life!

I lived it, and I now just wanting for the discussions to start.

And oh, by the way Keith (Olbermann) - who is a HP fan - I'm waiting for your show on Monday! (It's kind of fun knowing the world over people were not only reading the same book, but that those people were not only nameless faceless but the famous as well)

Gone Reading

2007-07-20T13:31:00.001-05:00

I have been pretty good so far avoiding spoilers! But to keep it that way I am not going on line from now until I finish Deathly Hollows (which includes not reading my email) and only watching "KNOWN" safe tv shows tonight like, "Dr. Who." (I loved how they refered to HP and book 7 last week).

Anyway... see you when I'm done. I'll also be positng comments on the Pandagon HP, book 7, book club discussion.

See you when I'm done!

Listen to those who've served, for a change!

2007-07-15T09:14:00.000-05:00

Democrats.org has a post called "Veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Urges President Bush and Senate Republicans to Change Mission in Iraq".

The audio stream of the address and the text can be found at the link above. The address (Democratic Response) was given by Brandon Friedman, a former infantry officer in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the Democratic radio address this week, and is a must read or must listen to .

You can also listen to the response here:

What is so sad is that it he and other veterans, who oppose this war, will be dismissed or told that they hate America. Just as these veterans at VoteVets.org have and the veterans at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Any vet who opposes this war, whether they be WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War I. or our current two wars hears this A charge made by persons who have never served no less.

This exchange between Cindy Sheehan, Chris Vucovich and Vietnam Veterans is very painful to watch. Mr. Vucovich, a man who has never seen the horrors of war with his own eyes, smelled it, or cleaned the remnants of his buddies off of him, launches and lashes out at those who have.

More:
Confrontation in Alabama with a 'True Chickenhawk' - DailyKOS and
here.
Y'all is Yella - OYE
Now It's President Bush's Turn: Urge Chris Vucovich to Be A Man! Enlist! - OYE
Cost of Iraq Occupation: $442B and counting; Cost of Shaming Clueless Chickenhawk: Priceless - C&L
Don’t Count Your Chickenhawks Before They Hatch" - Scrutiny Holligans
Updated 'Confrontation w/Chickhawk' - Never in Our Names

Feel Good Inc, CEO: ? (either Dick, Karl or George)

2007-07-14T12:46:00.000-05:00

Just Reading Makes You Better Prepared

2007-07-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

The White House meme this week has been that they are more prepared for an attack this summer (2007) from Al-Qeada than we were the summer of 2001.

Since they (the president and his administration/staff) did not read the report/intelligence given to them in the months before September 11, 2001, just reading an intelligence report about Al-Qeada would make them better prepared this summer than they were that summer 6 years ago.

It's Been a "Billy Joel Week"

2007-07-06T09:14:00.001-05:00

It's Friday and I've needed three Billy Joel songs to get me through this week. Enjoy

It's Time for Guerilla Media

2007-07-05T12:49:00.000-05:00

In a time when 40% of the population still believes that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9-11 and Valerie Plame was not covert, and the MSM will not disabuse our citizenry of that falsehood, it's time for the type of alternative media practiced in the 1960 and 1970s.

We tend to rely on the web, talk radio, mainstream newspapers and tv. Bust we forget that there are more ways to get the news across.

In many states advertisers stick flyers under windshield wipers of cars where their owners are inside a mall. Why not use that to inform people about the truth? Take a flyer to Kinkos, Office Max, Staples, etc. and $20.00, run however many that will buy and then go to a parking lot and paper the cars, or while people are at work stick a flyer at their front door (do not put it in mailboxes, that's a crime).

Those who know will understand what and why about the flyer. Those who don't, may actually learn something. And those who don't know who might get violent when presented with the truth, well you won't be around.

Always put on your flyer a place on the web can look up the truth. Make sure that at least one of your citations is from a place that even a hard core rightie can't dismiss, like say, from the White House, itself. Make sure that citation is the first one.

Here's an example:
Iraq and Saddam Hussein had NOTHING to do with 9-11

Q Mr. President, Dr. Rice and Secretary Rumsfeld both said yesterday that they have seen no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with September 11th. Yet, on Meet the Press, Sunday, the Vice President said Iraq was a geographic base for the terrorists and he also said, I don't know, or we don't know, when asked if there was any involvement. Your critics say that this is some effort -- deliberate effort to blur the line and confuse people. How would you answer that?

THE PRESIDENT: We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th. What the Vice President said was, is that he has been involved with al Qaeda. And al Zarqawi, al Qaeda operative, was in Baghdad. He's the guy that ordered the killing of a U.S. diplomat. He's a man who is still running loose, involved with the poisons network, involved with Ansar al-Islam. There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties.

White House Archives
Setember 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030917-7.html

Then include (you might want to put a box around each one).

BUSH: The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.

QUESTION: What did Iraq have to do with it?

BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

QUESTION: The attack on the World Trade Center.

BUSH: Nothing. Except it’s part of — and nobody has suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September 11th is take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.

August 2006
Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/21/bush-on-911/

This many be all you want to cover in this flyer. It maybe enough to cause some righties to start thinking. And it may cause some heads may explode.

But if the fourth estate refuses to tell the truth. Then we have to.

(In all cases check what's legal in your state, city/town.)

ENOUGH!

2007-07-03T10:02:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks this morning, all morning including the "after show" show. I rarely do that, I normally switch to Stephanie Miller at 9am ET. But today, and due to the fact that Stephanie Miller and the mooks are on vacation and I needed someone to voice my anger and frustration.

I like Elaine Bossler, but Cenk was/is my voice today.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentence was commuted to no jail time yesterday. We know that in the last few days of his presidency, Bush will pardon him. The robber barons, and their privileged aristocracy rules. The two tiered justice system, laid open for Paris Hilton, is now not only open but laid bare.

During this morning while listening I have perused DailyKOS, Crooks and Liars, Americablog and Pandagon. And I have been writing letters, lots of letters, in frustration and anger.

The Republicans may dance over this but they only expose how hypocritical they are.

During the Clinton impeachment they trumpeted how the rule of law was important. They said, along with their mouthpieces, Rush Limbaugh, et al. that Clinton lied under oath and that that in itself is important. They poo-ed poo-ed and brought in lawyers to rebut Democratic operatives who said that it was no big thing.

So now that it’s a Republican in trouble, who lied under oath, they have switch to “it’s no big deal.”

At the very least even with all that is going on, stop being hypocritical over this ONE thing.

HE LIED UNDER OATH. He should bare the consequences of that. And don’t whine about the sentence being excessive, it’s was within the sentencing guidelines. Guidelines Republicans used to trumpet as being the equalizer between rich and poor, powerful and downtrodden. Guidelines meant that all would be sentenced equally and removed discretion from judges. And on appeal Republican judges up held Libby's sentence.

Ordinary Americans, Republicans and Democrats, who lie under oath are sentenced under the same guidelines.

Don’t point to me that Clinton did pardon and commuted sentences. I didn’t support Clinton during that time. It's not an equal anology or comparision because people had already served time before the pardon, including Susan McDougal.

Those who make that argument are making a child’s argument and showing intellectual dishonesty and contempt for the American public.

It’s time to impeach. If Pelosi doesn’t see that then she needs to be removed. Beyond making flowery speeches telling the public how much this displeases the members of the House and the Senate, we need to implore them to do something tangible and meaningful. It doesn’t matter if Democrats think they can or can’t get it through, the fact of the matter is that they did something, and they tried.

On Sunday at 12 noon PDT Cenk is going to the Federal Building in L.A. and hold up a sign saying “ENOUGH!” He suggested we all do it, around the country at the city halls or federal buildings where we live. So on Sunday I will make an effort to get to the Federal Building in Boston with my sign “ENOUGH!” – and if I can’t get there, maybe the city hall here will be sufficient.

Update 2:05pm:
White House: Bush won't rule out pardoning Libby entirely
Libby Pardon Possible?

Bringing Back the "Momma Chair"

2007-07-02T09:23:00.000-05:00

Twenty plus years ago I worked at the library (Penrose) on the University of Denver campus. Now Penrose is not a particularly beautiful building, there are many modern structures that are prettier. In fact Penrose is downright ugly, especially when you look at all the older and new buildings around it.

It was built in the 70's and unless the interior has been redone, it really shows (ed) it. The main floor was done in bright orange, from orange carpet, to orange wall paper to orange furniture. The second floor was done in yellow and the basement was done in red. And yes, there was "egg" furniture.

There was/is even a sculpture in front that no one knows what it is. We called it "the Paperclip."

I like to be "wowed!" and enchanted by libraries. I love to be inspired by the outside as well as the inside main floor of a library. the utilitarian feel of many public libraries in Denver during the 1960s - 1980's really turned me off. Except I have a growing fondness for the airy, 1950's brutalism of the "old" main library (1955-1995).

Massachusetts, by contrast, seems to understand the emotional connection to the building called the "library." Even when a community needs to expand it's library or make it wheelchair accessible, the imperative seems to be to save the original structure in all it’s beauty.

But I digress, back to Penrose.

In the employee lounge there were these huge black foam chairs. They were probably once all over the library, but in the 1980s they resided just in the employee lounge. They weren’t pretty, but these chairs were some of the most comfortable around, and if you weren’t careful you could overstay your lunch hour and fall deeply asleep.

One of my co-workers came up with a reason these chairs were so comfortable is that they were based on a mother’s lap, with the mother sitting cross legged. The breast forms at the top where one could rest their head, literally in the cleavage. The “mother’s” thighs made up the arms of the chair, and a little tummy pounch, which just happened to support your back.

Once we all looked at the chair as a whole, we knew he was right.

If they bring back these chairs, buy one. If you ever have a chance to sit in one, take it!

see also:
Modern Machanix
1970: Foam Furniture Rises Like Bread

RIP Hank Medress

2007-06-25T12:05:00.000-05:00

'Lion Sleeps Tonight' singer dead

The shame of our unneccesaary illegal war. You need to know why.

2007-06-22T17:16:00.000-05:00

No matter if you beleive, believed, or never believed in the Iraq War, this is a movie EVERY American needs to see. You can be damn sure the rest of the world will.

If any American ever asks why teh middle east is the way it is and why do *they* hate us (why does the world hate us), point them to this movie.

BillO and delusions of grandeur.

2007-06-22T14:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Bill O'Reilly used the royal "we" when interviewing Medea Benjamin and Robin Swanson about Hillary Clinton

Here's BillOs quote:

"We expect Hillary to get the nomination".

This reveling in many ways. Now it's will be no surprise that he is probably an active part of the network of neo-cons trying to make sure Hillary is the Democratic nominee (they will probably encourage cross over voting considering their lack luster choices thus far -- and helping to ensure who their sorry candidate will face) because they feel that Hillary is so polarizing she'll be easy to beat.

It also illustrates just how inflated his own ego (we already knew that), but how far in delusion he his falling.

Oyay, Oyay, Oyay, all bow to King Bil_____

Thanks Seamus!

Of Pigs, Condoms and O'Reilly

2007-06-21T16:43:00.000-05:00

Bill O'Reilly (or as I've seen him referred to on some blogs, "Bildo") is upset over a condom ad featuring pigs.

Oh the irony

Click here to watch

Get out the drapes John, there are nude people available for FREE viewing!

2007-06-19T08:21:00.000-05:00

During the past two weeks my family has celebrated two graduations. My oldest son graduated from high school and my youngest son graduated from 4th grade. We used to called graduation from one school to another "continuation," i.e. elementary school to junior high or as it's known now, middle school.

My parents and my sister flew out from Colorado for my eldest son's graduation and we did some "touristy" things. My parents have traveled through Europe and parts of the old Soviet Union extensively (before and after the fall of the Soviet Union). They cried over the destruction of the beautiful city of Sarajevo and have not been back since reconstruction. So it was hard for me to understand the desire and request to visit the mansions of Newport, RI. But we went and were able to only visit "The Breakers," due to our dawdling and drives through this beautiful and luch green area. (the scale of which is not seen in Denver and most of Colorado).

My mother is retired, and was once director of a public library. Among all the places we visited as when I was a child and their trips outside the country one of the places on the itinerary has always been libraries. But some how though in the decade plus that my family (husband and kids) has lived here we always missed taking my Mom to the first public library in the U.S. The library is in Franklin, MA, so this time we visited.

Franklin, MA was named after Benjamin Franklin, March 2, 1778. The library building itself was built in 1904, but the collection and it's establishment as a free public lending institution began in 1790.

As we were heading up the steps to visit this very beautiful library I overheard my father say, with great distain, that Republicans would like to privatize public libraries and charge for the "privilege" of accessing knowledge. Once we entered the library and walked into the reading gallery we gazed at the walls that were covered with murals with women, mostly only clothed from the waste down. And I couldn't help myself but to remark that this would shock Senator James Inhofe. He was a constant punch line throughout their visit, especially when we discussed energy, global warming and the want of a wind farm off of Nantucket.

From the pamphlet from the Franklin Library Preservation Committee:

The pamphlet also states:

According to local folklore, flowing robes were added by Juglaris to some of the subjects on the murals. The nudity offended some of Franklin's residents.

I don't believe I saw any completely nude paintings. I wonder if there were any before, but there are plenty of nudes from the waist up. I guess we will never see John Ashcroft in this library, even to visit the first public lending library in the U.S.A.

Oh, I forgot, it's free, operated by the government (albeit it local, but taxes still go toward it) and for the public good, so you wouldn't see any republikkkans there anyway.

Paris Hilton Fallout = Boycott

2007-06-07T13:39:00.000-05:00

There is an active movement spurred by Paris Hilton being released from jail after 3 days of her 44, I mean, 23 day sentence, to boycott all Hilton Hotels and all Hilton holdings.

The Hilton Hotels are:
Doubletree
Homewood Suites
Conrad Hotels
Embassy Suites
Hilton Garden Inn
Hampton Inn
Hitlon Hotels

Remember when Bush addressed the top 5% as his constituents. Well, these are them. Maybe, just maybe, Paris Hilton and her early release for imminent mental breakdown (and how many middle class and lower class people got "house arrest" for it (she can't go out for parties, but they can come to her, and her bed will still be made and room will still be picked up by her made. etc. real tough sentence, huh!) Maybe. just maybe this will finally spur the American majority to action in calling for and forcing fairness, and an end to policies/tax breaks etc. that benefit the upper 1-5%.

These policies that force the window wider and wider between rich and poor. Policies that are making more and more Americans poor. These polices of the Bush administration and the 6 years of total Republican rule have moved us back into the Robber Barron economies and social structure of yester year. And isn't it interesting of a party that "triumphs" small business are more than happy to destroy small businesses with big box stores, multinationals, big businesses.

I'm not a fan of Bill Clinton, but at least we had more people entering the upper class and more people leaving the lower class under his watch than we have had with Bushco.

So, if Paris' troubles and basically a release from her already light sentence help spur a sort of "proletariat" revolt from the Robber Barron Republicans, Administration and Party to a fair and just system ...

. . . Then I say "YES! Boycott!"

For more information read the comments on ANY TMZ.com posting about Miss Hilton's release.

Bush wants war with EVERYONE

2007-06-07T10:33:00.000-05:00

Afghanistan (justified, but we are failing at due to Bush’s Iraq quagmire), Iraq (illegal and unjustified), Iran, North Korea, Russia, etc. etc. etc. etc. Along with our loss of respect and standing in the world, earns Bush the title of “God of War.”

This is NOT a compliment. This is NOT a game.

Santa Barbara Iraq War Memorial

2007-06-01T09:23:00.000-05:00

Since we are not allowed to see flag drapped caskets, have overt memorials or even honor those who asnwered thier country's call to serve. This is sobering, and very moving.

From the Stephanie Miller Show

I coulda had a V-8, except now it's an FDA regulated drug.

2007-05-30T08:33:00.000-05:00

"At the end and beginning of a war, that we have to watch out for ourselves. In between, it's like a country club. But you got to know how to keep your balance. Keep the balance and make the right friends because this war is defiantly winding down."
- John Malkovich, Empire of the Sun

Does it seem to you that the Bush administration, and corporate America are ramping up their attack on middle and poor America? It's been bad but now it seems that they are trying to inflict as much damage as they can in the 1 1/2 years left of this administration.

It's so bad that this administration with it's corporate friendly policies, and acting as their personal police force, is trying to reclassify vitamins, herbs, supplements, vegetable juices, even massage oils and rocks.

This move will be a end the 1994 DSHEA law that made supplements legal and OTC. Have you noticed that you now find things like vitamin E, St. John's Wort, even Cranberry capsules, on the super market shelf. This will end and it will be a big victory for Big Pharma.

It is true that the bill does not directly state that it intends to regulate or restrict access to dietary supplements. However, language within the section establishing the Regan-Udall Foundation grants the FDA new regulatory power to brand food ingredients (and thus dietary supplements) as unsafe utilizing the Critical Path Initiative drug-related risk assessment technology.
- Byron Richards

And we all know the devil is in the details.

What will be affected by this act:

All vitamins, nutritional supplements and functional foods will be stripped of their structure & function claims, reducing them to empty labels where virtually nothing at all is allowed to be stated.
Vegetable juice will be regulated as a drug. Raw juice retreats will be raided or shut down.
Growing and selling common garden herbs will get you arrested as a drug dealer.
Massage oils and handheld massagers will be regulated as "medical devices."
Yoga props, pilates machines and weight machines will be regulated as "medical devices" and require FDA approval before being sold or used.
Raw sprouts and other anti-cancer foods will be regulated as drugs.
Bottled water that "treats" dehydration will be regulated as a drug.
Massage therapists who use hot rocks as part of their therapy will have the ROCKS regulated as medical devices! (It's true. The FDA will actually look at a pile of rocks and declare, "Those are medical devices!")
Functional foods, supplements, vitamins and homeopathic remedies will disappear from store shelves, pending FDA "review." (The only things remaining will be processed junk foods and pharmaceuticals, which is exactly what Big Business wants.)
Therapeutic tea products, such as green tea, will be outlawed and confiscated.
Vitamin store owners will be arrested and prosecuted for "practicing medicine without a license."
Citizens owning personal inventories of "unapproved drugs" (vitamins and herbs) may have their homes raided at gunpoint and their inventories confiscated by armed law enforcement agents.
The importation of herbs and functional foods from all countries may be banned.

While drug safety is important, and the governement needs to protect the citizenry from the harmful effects of pharmaceutical companies out of control; herbs, vitamins, vegetable juice, etc. should be left alone. These are time honored remedies and a personal health choice. I mean if you are going to really regulate something, shouldn't you do more to make cigarettes a behind the pharmacy counter, controlled substance?

People like Leslee Unruh can scream all they wants about "Big Pharma," but she and all her Republican friends who support this administration and who have voted to keep them in office and every Republican senator and congressman in Washington are their enablers.

The board of directors is composed of the Commissioner of the FDA, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 4 representatives from Big Pharma and Big Biotech, 3 representatives from academia (which is funded by Big Pharma), 2 more from the FDA and NIH, 2 from consumers groups, and 1 from health care providers. This means that the FDA/Big Pharma/Big Biotech voting block always has 13 votes -- to at the most 3. Who are you kidding? This front group foundation is run by the FDA in combination with the industry it is supposed to be regulating. This makes the FDA part of the drug business as a drug company
- Byron Richards

As this corporate/big business friendly, average American hostile, administration winds down expect more and more of this. Keep watch or the social and economic buggering we've been getting from this administration will only get worse.

Send a letter to your senator and congressperson (scroll down to "Health Freedom is on the Line").

More Information:
Understanding the Threat to Dietary Supplements
FDA acquiring new powers to suppress alternative health
U.S. Senate attempts damage control as House braces for onslaught
More Byron Richard's articles

When Fantasy and Reality Collide: Dolores Umbridge and Leslee Unruh

2007-05-26T18:42:00.001-05:00

This past week Pandagonians (those that comment on Amanda Marcotte's blog, Pandagon) spent much time and considerable humor posting comments about Leslee Unruh's insane rant on Lybrel. It is a birth control pill the FDA approved recently that the Christian right hates. It simply stops a woman from having her period, and there by (according to Unruh and her ilk) de-feminizes them (us) as is a form of self hate because it would liberate us from what is, after all, a mere "inconvenience."

For me, menses and the possible use of Lybrel, is more than simply ridding myself of an "inconvenience" but freedom from enslavement. (I posted why as a comment on Pandagon The source of our collective delusions may be summed up in one sentence, if you want to read why, you'll have to go there). To hear Unruh call Mary Alice Carr a liar when she tried to talk about women like me, was really more than I could take.

Around 11:02am fellow Pandagonian, Djinna, commented on how someone on Pandagon (she thought) referred to Dolores Umbridge [Harry Potter charter, Order of the Phoenix], helped get a mental picture of Leslee Unruh . I was delighted because I believed, as still believe, it was me, as e I had made the comment weeks before that while reading the transcripts of some wingnut commenting about something or other on Pandagon, I couldn't help but read it in Dolores Umbridge's voice. I didn't know then, how many would get my reference.

Well soon the comments were rife with Leslee Unruh being referred to as [Dolores] Umbridge. I laugh whenever I think about it, because the comparision is not without good reason.

In J.K. Rowling's fifth Harry Potter book, Dolores Umbridge is described as:

[Chapter 8] "He thought she looked just like a large pale toad. She was rather squat with a broad flabby face, as little neck as Unlce Vernon, and a very wide slack mouth. Her eyes were large, round, and slightly buldging. . ."

". . . The witch spoke in a fluttery, girlish, high pitched voice that took Harry aback; he had been expecting a croak."

She is also descirbed as having a false sweetness and sincerity of concern in her voice.

While noticing the physical and vocal similarities maybe (and is) a lot of fun, it certainly isn't nice. But it is more than physical and vocal appearance for which the comparison can be made, it is the overall goal of each.

Dolores Umbridge seeks total control of the students and teachers at Hogwarts.

Lesless Unruh seeks total control over a woman's body and her reproductive health and rights.

Both of them subvert and suppress the truth to gain and maintain that control. And it is that sad truth for which the comparison is aptly made.

A dose of guilt with your "free" Marine Windbreaker

2007-05-23T07:10:00.000-05:00

This is a deck of 12 cards my son received from the Marines last week. As you read through them, partaking of all the emotional manipulation going on in them, please think of Andrew Madison Rove (son of Karl Rove), the 5 sons of Mitt Romney, Paris Hilton, Jenna and Barbara Bush (they could serve state side), any and all Young Republicans (especially those in college and there a lot of them) who have not and are not serving.

Doesn't the priviledged, upper class think that our way of life is worth protecting, that they need to do their part, or want to make a difference? They that benefit the most from this way of life.

The cards are presented in order (there is a number on the bottom right of the back of each card. To see the larger version, click on it. The band that held the cards has the directions.

Inside Paperboard Cover

Band

Card 1

Card 2

Card 3

Card 4

Card 5

Card 6

Card 7

Card 8

Card 9

Card 10

Cards 11 and 12 do not have a number on them so it is impossible to tell which order they belong in. Attached to each card is a perforated Business Reply card asking for name, address, phone number, cell number, date of birth, email address (you can check a box for them not to send you anything via email), name of school, last grade completed, and the size for your free windbreaker (offer expiring 7/31/2007).

Interestingly enough on this post card (which anyone can read as it is being handled) is a "Privacy Act Statement." All the information provided will be used for recruiting purposes only.

Card 11

Card 12

Look for more as we go into Bush's second surge to get us to 200,000 troops in Iraq and a plan for us to be there 5 to 10 more years. It is beginning to look enough like Viet Nam yet to you? Or do we need to get to 200 dead American service persons a day? We are now at 5 a day.

Update:Cheap skate Marine corps chose to let our Marines die from IEDs rather than give them the equipment they needed

Even the Queen get's it

2007-05-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

Following the Queen's return to the UK her carbon footprint will be calculated and offset for the first time for a state visit.

Buckingham Palace will make a donation to an environmental charity to offset the plane journeys made by the Royal couple and their entourage. - - BBC

Even the Queen get's global warming, and buying carbon offsets. Will somone explain it again to Bush, Inhofe and Craig, maybe using crayons and a felt board this time.

President Bush, Fight Like You Mean It!

2007-05-04T07:21:00.000-05:00

That's the message I would take back to the president after his veto of war funds.

Those of us who have been paying attention, know that at no time during the Iraq war have we had the number of troops in theater needed to win the war.

Those of us who have been paying attention, know that recruitment is down and that the military revised downward the yearly goal numbers for new recruits.

We also know that not only has the military resorted to "stop lossing," extended tours and many deployments of the same soldiers (decreasing the time at home between deployments that the military says a soldier needs to be able to fight), we are also recruiting those into the military who before we would have turned away (neo-nazis, militia, KKK, etc.) and keeping those on active duty that should be released (due to issues such as mental problems caused by this war).

Those of us who have been paying attention, know that at we sent troops to both Afghanistan and Iraq without the proper equipment and armor.

Those of us who have been paying attention, know that at we are sending new troops into Iraq without their full and necessary training.

Those of us who have been paying attention, know that we as a country, have never been placed on a war footing and as a result all the ordinance and equipment being used and used up in Iraq is not being replaced. We are weaker today than we were 9-11-2001.

The President and the White House are using the talking point that if Democrats really don’t like this war and thinks we shouldn’t be fighting it then we/they should just defund the war.

Democrats are smarter than to bite. They know that those who only watch Fox News, listen to only Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. or who don’t really pay attention but lean to the right will believe that the Democrats are for leaving troops stranded and without bullets in Iraq. While those who are left of center, left leaning, progressive, liberal, etc. know that nothing is further from the truth, we know that Republicans are not above those despicable, untruthful and divisive tactics and talking points to stay in power.

So what should the answer be?

I believe the 30 second sound bite from Demcrats should be “If you believe the Iraq war is necessary then, President Bush, Fight Like You Mean It!”

But what does that mean?

Give the troops the full rest they deserve before deploying them again.
Give the new recruits the FULL training they need and deserve.
End stop loss.
Reinstate the draft.

Yes the draft.

How could I, who have never supported the war in Iraq, want the draft? Actually I don’t, but I do know 3 things.

Our troops are exhausted and our volunteer army doesn’t have enough recruits to replace those who need a rest.
By in large Americans have not been asked to be part of this war. As a result the war, it’s reasons and casualties happen to “someone else.” A draft will finally bring the realties home, once the majority of America has a loved one who will be put in harms way, they will pay attention.
Given number 2, the more attention paid the more chance it will bring an end to the war that much faster.

It’s sad, but it’s true. and the Bush administration knows it. That’s why this administration would rather abuse our service men and women and run them to pure exhaustion (and then refuse to deal with the life time physical and mental health issues that have and will happen because of this policy), then to fully fight this war. Instead of all Americans "in" this war and putting us on a war footing we've been told to “go shopping.”

It could be argued that I can be in favor of the draft because I know my 22 year old daughter, and 20 year old son will be somewhere around 4F in the call-up: My daughter due to a birth defect and my son due to an accident when he was 17 (but already an Army recruiter was ready to overlook the lifelong injury and get him into the uniform, so I'm not so sure about that). But you know what, I have two more sons (teen and pre-teen), and if this war lasts as long as Viet Nam (which I am afraid it will) they will be drafted.

The challenge issued in “President Bush, fight like you mean it!,” illustrates that Bush (Mr. Codpiece and Flight Suit) and his administration has NEVER fought this war to win.

They’ve gotten away with it because the majority of the American people aren’t really paying attention.

Americans need to, we must, and if the draft is the way to get it done, well it's what needs to be done. But more than that, if the Republicans REALLY support the troops than they must stop abusing them and reinstate the draft so that those who are fighting can rest, and those that are going to fight, have the time to be fully trained. The Bush administration and the Republicans will finally cease treating these Americans like facial tissue; something to be used (abused) and then thrown away - they will actually support the troops, by getting more men and women (maybe even finally their own children) serving.

My dream, my nightmare

2007-04-15T16:13:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a dream. Oh, it wasn’t the type of dream Martin Luther King had. My dream wasn’t uplifting, it was anything but.

In my dream, no nightmare, the Dominionists (Christian Reconstructionists) had taken over this country. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights meant nothing any more.

Everyone in the US was Christian, either sincerely or by public adoption (thereby keeping their own lives) but lacking in a sincere conversion. There was no joy in the world, except for those who truly believed, those with questions or rejections either pasted a smile on their face and lived with the oppression, or doomed themselves by speaking out.

Homosexuality, non evangelical Christian sects, Catholics, all non-Christians (including Jews), dissent, idolatry and blasphemous behavior had been driven under ground. Those caught were executed.

In the dream I was banished once more to the home, property of my husband. Disallowed public discourse or to even to voice my own views because I was to speak only what my husband wished. I spoke for him and he was preeminent. I couldn’t even vote, women having lost the franchise.

My kids went to “public schools” but they were Christian Reconstructionist in scope and they learned only approved “science” and a revisionist history of the world. The only universities they could attend were Regents, Patrick Henry College, Liberty University, Pensacola Christian College (publishers of A-Beka school and homeschool material), Bob Jones University and any state university that the Dominion would approve as having the appropriate text and teachers of like mind.

Even the fields that they would go into had to have the hand of “Christian Reconstructionism” for approval. There was no escaping it for the Dominion had taken over every secular institution and non-complaint church and either changed it or closed it.

And in my dream a small group of us who could take it no more met in the middle of the snowy woods, speaking in a low voice we wondered when we lost “our” country. Someone said, just before we heard the snowmobiles coming toward us and the order to “RUN!” , that it was when Bush shredded the constitution and 150 Regent graduates had begun to remake the government as the Dominionists paln for control said they would, but no one listened. No one listened and no one looked to see how many more graduates of these universities were “in” government offices.

I woke up just as one snowmobile closed in on me as I ran to escape what would be my execution.

****

Now in my waking it is raining and I cannot loose the feeling of absolute oppression, in MY country no less. And I wonder why no one has really made the connection between the 150 Regent graduate DOJ employees and the Dominionists aims, plans, practices and goals.

****

Its most common form, Dominionism, represents one of the most extreme forms of Fundamentalist Christianity thought. Its followers, called Dominionists, are attempting to peacefully convert the laws of United States so that they match those of the Hebrew Scriptures. They intend to achieve this by using the freedom of religion in the US to train a generation of children in private Christian religious schools. Later, their graduates will be charged with the responsibility of creating a new Bible-based political, religious and social order. from Relious Tolerance . org

From Mainstream Baptist, a blog by Dr. Bruce Prescott

Monday, March 19, 2007
A Reconstructionist Takeover Video

In February 1990 I received an unsolicited video in the mail. The video came from a Dr. Stephen Hotze and was entitled "Restoring America: How You Can Impact Civil Government." Filmed at a church in my neighborhood, I recognized the actors as the pastor and congregants of an Independent Fundamental Baptist church (the Jerry Falwell kind). The video was a guide on how to 1) take over a Republican Party precinct meeting, 2) elect "Christian" delegates to the GOP District meeting, and 3) put planks supporting the theocratic agenda of Christian Reconstructionism into the party platform. . . .

. . . Along with his video tape, Hotze sent a written agenda and instructions for how to conduct a precinct meeting. He also suggested resolutions for the party's platform. Today, nearly all the planks that Hotze suggested can be found in the current platform of the Texas Republican Party.

Meanwhile, most of the country club Republicans who provide the funds for this theocratic juggernaut still seem to be sipping their cocktails in ignorant bliss.

Dominionists are patient revolutionaries. They work through the system to gain control. Then they work from within the system to change the system. The changes they are making are incremental. They have little respect for democracy and none for pluralism. They mean business and they already hold many of the mechanisms of power around the country.

It is long past time for Americans who love democracy to acknowledge what is at stake and start facing the challenge that these patient theocratic revolutionaries represent. . .

Right Now - I'm Getting Ready for the Weekend and Putting Bumper Stickers on My Car

2007-04-13T14:30:00.000-05:00

With thanks to Randi Rhodes for playing this as a bump a few minutes ago.

A little observation about Imus and Conservatives

2007-04-13T07:53:00.000-05:00

I think it is really interesting how conservatives get all exercised by a little nipple shown by a possible "wardrobe malfunction" (which you really had to Tivo it and run it back and forth many times to see) but have no problem with hate speech.

What you never knew Mr. Vonnegut

2007-04-12T07:22:00.000-05:00

This morning when I found out Kurt Vonnegut had died I was not only deeply saddened, but I knew how this news would effect one of his biggest fans, my 20 year old son.

I confess I enjoyed listening to Vonnegut's interviews but I never read his books. In fact up until 2 years ago I don't think we had any book of his but "Slaughter House Five." That was until a summer reading course my son took.

My eldest son hadn't been doing well in school. A kid with enormous potential, who preferred to watch the History Channel, the Discovery Channel and anything to do with building, fixing and restoring cars, he just couldn't seem to put it together for school. Due to his dyslexia he was a very slow reader but refused to have an IEP done because he didn't want to be labeled a "Sped."

He was a wiz in auto shop, loved history, but got bad grades because he'd "forget" to hand in his homework. Ditto for psychology. As the years went on he went from wanting to go to college and become a history teacher, to wanting to go to trade school and become a mechanic (we were fine with this) to not having a clue or seemingly even caring how he ended up.

That was until the summer before his senior year and a reading class he took that was sponsered by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. All of a sudden he was reading faster, comprehending and enjoying what he was reading. Among the samples that they read in class and for class was Vonnegut. He was hooked. He read more and more, and most of the books he read were Vonnegut.

He returned for his last year in high school and his preformance in his classes stunned everyone. Here was the student everyone knew was in there, but no one seemed to have the ability to draw out. Here was someone passionate about learning, forming and sharing well thought out ideas. Teachers who had had him before in their class were both over joyed at this new engaged person entering their classroom, and lamenting that he hadn't been this way for his entire high school career.

He's now in community college working to cancel his bad high school record so that he can go on to a four year university. His plans/his dreams, include not one but two PhDs in History and Sociology. His step-Dad, his grandparents and I could only be happier if he accomplishes all his dreams, but he is off to a good start.

And all it took was one summer reading class and an author named Kurt Vonnegut.

For that Mr. Vonnegut, I thank you.

Side note: My son had hoped to one day met Kurt Vonnegut, he was and is deeplyu saddened by this news. In one of his recent college papers, that he finished this week, he was quoting Slaughter House Five. His dog eared, slightly rumpled copy is sitting here at my computer.

Update: I just found out that it is my middle son (14 years old) who is reading Slaughter House Five.

Do you really want to fly when there's only one person in the tower?

2007-04-11T22:35:00.000-05:00

Planes wait while controller takes potty break
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two airliners had to circle for 18 minutes and a plane ferrying human lungs for transplant was briefly delayed Friday while an airport's lone air traffic controller took a bathroom break, the controller's union said.

The union on Tuesday cited the Friday incident at the Manchester, New Hampshire, airport as evidence that air traffic control facilities are understaffed.

"There should never be one person in the tower, because it's not safe," said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "It's just added proof that the system is stretched to its limits, and these are the type of things that are happening."

Federal Aviation Administration officials responded that staffing is sufficient, that the bathroom break was handled in accordance with policy, and that travelers were not endangered or unduly inconvenienced.

While drawing vastly different conclusions about the significance of the event, the FAA and the union gave details that generally matched.

. . .

"It's the FAA's position that the staffing that was present at Manchester was sufficient to safely handle arrivals and departures at that time of the evening," Peters said. "He was only gone for 12 minutes, so while there may have been a slight delay in the aircraft landing, certainly the controller did what he had to do."

. . .

The FAA and the controllers' union have skirmished repeatedly in recent months about staffing levels at airports.

The union says controllers are often forced to work overtime, contributing to fatigue, which results in safety lapses. But the FAA says most overtime is voluntary and said instances of involuntary overtime are rare.
CNN

First off I know an air traffic controller who just retired, he wanted to "get out" before it got any worse. His wife says that they are stressed to their limit, understaffed and suffer from tremedous fatique (they also get to fly down to Florida every year for a hell of a family vacation, but that's neither here nor there).

I have been to the Manchester airport. In fact my two oldest children flew out of there for what would be their last visit with their father before he died. While it is not as busy as Logan, it certainly isn't as slow as the Wichita airport.

Additionally, having Logan's air controllers double up and take on Manchester's flights for 18 minutes is not comforting at all. These people, we've entrusted with our safety, don't need any more flights dropped in their lap. Logan is a very busy airport.

So what happens when more flights are allowed onto the schedule and the skys become more crowded? Bush administration wants to do that, at the expense of our safety. We've already seen more mining disasters in the past 6 years than we had for the 12 -15 years before that. Due in large part to weaken unions, embolden companies, lax safety and absent enforcement (have you heard that OSHA is pretty much a joke now).

And really with the policticizing of all government agencies, including the CDC, do you really believe anything that comes from the FAA?

Republicans = Dark Ages

2007-04-11T16:55:00.000-05:00

We can put a man on the moon but we can't have a universal remote, with recharagable battery, AND location pager

2007-04-10T08:08:00.000-05:00

Honestly! This would seem like the easiest thing in the world, and much needed too! I am so tired of hearing my sons demand to know where the remote is or where new batteries are.

We had television remotes before we had cordless phones. Someone saw the wisdom of putting a locator pager for cordless phones but how many times have you lost the television remote. You need to have a locating pager especially if you have kids.

But NOOOOOOOOOO - television remote makers must think it's funny to have to tear up the whole house looking for the darned remote so that you can use the DVR, watch pay perview, program parental controls, etc.

Representative Republic or a Dominion - (Blog Against Theocracy)

2007-04-07T23:21:00.000-05:00

Back in the 1960’s my mother took an interesting stand, she said that she did not want prayer in the public school. She reasoned that the person leading the prayer might not have the same interpretation of the church she was raising her daughters in. The maverick she was/is (she’s listed in the 1963 volume of “Who’s Who of American Women”) did not want her daughters exposed to any doctrine that made them servants to men.

She was not Madalyn Murray O'Hair, heck she is a United Methodist, and this is probably the only instance that the two would ever agree. But in that instance my sister and I learned about respecting differences in religious belief. “What prayer and whose prayer?” she would ask, some what rhetorically, about prayer in schools.

While some of my cousins learned that women should not lead, the church I was raised in had female ministers. While some of my cousins learned that evolution was a lie, science was suspect and that the Bible was paramount, we learn not to take the Bible literally and that the way to understand God’s creation was through science.

I learned a very “social gospel.” take care of your brother, take care of the planet, practice random acts of kindness, never bear false witness, always do the right thing, always be a stand up person, write your own personal code, have morals, never wish harm on anyone, and to never carry your faith on your sleeve. I have always sought to do these things, be this person.

It wasn’t until I left Christianity itself (after trying on my mother’s church, my father’s church, Assemblies of God, Episcopalians etc.) that I realized that these aren’t just the directives of a Christian but those of humanity as well. Jesus was just one of many who knew these truths and not only taught them, but lived them as well. But these truths are not what I am seeing of Christianity today and it pains me to admit that I now have a knee jerk, gut level revulsion whenever I hear about the Christian faith.

The Jerry Falwell’s, Pat Robertson’s, James Dobson’s and Franklin Graham’s, etc. are not the Christianity I grew up in and respect. The effects of their onerous diatribes and open contempt for immigrants, non-Christians (and as we learned this month James Dobson doesn’t consider the church I was raise in to be Christian), gays, evolution, science, women, respect for others and their beliefs, the principals that have made this nation a great nation, etc., have created a negative association within many people, including me. I don’t even see the values I grew up with, all I see is an ugly public face that divides rather than unites, seeks war over being the peacemakers, seeks wealth over service, etc. This public Christianity seeks to undermine and eviscerate that which made this nation great, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

A few years ago I sat with my son in a synagogue while he watched his friend's Bat-mitzvah. Many of their class was there; they were Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Drus and even atheists, all invited and all witnessing and sharing their friends event. All I could think was what a wonderful country, that what divides others could unite, coexist and be celebrated here.

That is the face I want my children to see of their country. That is what I want them to know of the greatness we are capable of. But that's not what the Dobsons, Falwells, et. al. want. Sadly the shining example displayed in that synagoge is not what my children see from powerful Christians. These powerful Christians who have the microphone, the air time, who have been made all the more powerful by faith based initiatives that blur the line between separation of church and state, display a theology diametrically opposed to their grandmother's. This theology, has been made powerful by receiving the lions share of faith based initiative moneys which has so embolden them that you can ne’er escape their message.

But instead of being a message of hope, reconciliation, respect, inclusion, unity and peace, or light, it is one that uses anything, including our government to further it’s own ends. And the question that needs to be asked is; “Will our Representative Republic survive, or will it become a Dominion."

See also:
Religious Tolerance - Dominionism
Theocracy Watch - Dominionism and Dominion Theology
Wikipeadia - Christian Right , Dominionism

READ MORE in the Blogswarm - Blog Against Theocracy

Blog Against Theocracy

2007-04-07T12:52:00.000-05:00

I'll be participating and I'm hoping Dr. Dentene will send me a post - since he and I do talk about this on various occassions. In fact it any of my friends who read this blog, but do not have one of their own wants to add a post, please email it to me (along with the alias you want used, if you want to use one) and I'll post it.

More information can be found here.

First Freedom First

Some more subtext of Bush's speech today

2007-04-03T18:07:00.000-05:00

"I believe that the American people want to eat cake."

FLASH! President Bush just confirmed he can't do math

2007-04-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

In President Bush's press conference today he spoke of carbon/environmental offsets and that China will put so much greenhouse gas into the air as to nullify gains we do in limiting our own output of greenhouse gases.

But wait a minute if we put 1 pound of greenhouse gases into the air and China puts 1 pound of greenhouse gases into the air that's 2 pounds. 1+1=2

But if we put no greenhouse gas into the air and China still puts 1 pound into the air that is only 1 pound of gas into the air. 0+1=1

So, uh, wait, that's only 1 pound greenhouse of gas if we limit of do not produce greenhouse gas vs. 2 pounds of greenhouse gases if we do nothing. And yet some how China's production of greenhouse gases will nullify all our gains. So in Bush's world 1 = 2

So if we 30 pounds in the air last year and only put 15 pound of greenhouse gases in the air, and China still puts 30 pounds into the air . . . that's still a loss of 15 pounds into the air, that's not nullifying. 30+30=60 vs 15+30=45

Maybe Dubbya needs to go back to school . . . we have that nifty "No Child Left Behind Now."

Conservatives hate the FREE market of ideas

2007-03-29T12:15:00.000-05:00

Conservatives love to say that they are in the market place of ideas. But how can it be a market or a free market, if there is no choice? They say progressive radio is doesn't sell, but even streaming on the web (DC station because we lost our station in Boston) I've noticed a whole bunch of commercials; a whole range of local commercials we never heard in Boston . "Beecause we know progressives in Boston and our "metro area," don't eat, don't go grocery or car shopping, don't go to shows( like monster truck rallies), don't shop for prom wear or any clothes for that matter, don't take our family to fun places. . . etc.

In reality conservatives don't like a real open/free market, because if they did they would be meeting the talk radio needs of half the nation. They don't want to have a real competition - and they need to be challenged every time they spout the marketplace of ideas and that progressive radio doesn't sell. They are saying, by default, that they can only win in that marketplace when the cards are all stacked in their favor. (NPR isn't a commerical radio network and cannot be used to compare commerical to commerical radio)

I'm fired up, I am tired of watching progressive radio stations fall. If it is truly an ownership issue and radio stations are expensive to buy we need to have progressives donating to the cause of buying station and progressives with deep pockets helping to buy stations.

Progressive talk was a large part of the reason for the 2006 Democratic talk over of the house and senate. And conservative power brokers know it. The loss of more and more progressive stations also confirms this - without progressive talk we may loose the gains we have gotten and 2008.

In Boston we can't hear Kennedy's wonderful speeches on the Senate floor, Ohio can't hear Sherrod Brown. If the average joe can't hear our message, if the Republican's get to define who and what we are on their unchallenged talk radio stations, how do we truly compete? How do we get our message out? How do we keep our gains and get more?

This liberal media bias is a specious argument. Back in the day when it was only newspapers many large communities had two newspapers, one newspaper was known to be conservative and one was liberal. Everyone accepted that. If you wanted both sides, you read both newspapers. Now many places have lost one of their newspapers, once liberal newspapers like the LA Times are owned and controlled by conservatives and their bias is there.

We don't have radio balance. Some how we've allowed the conservatives to make a liberal bias in the media a bad thing instead of what it was when we had choice in media (two newspapers, etc.) a normal accepted thing BECAUSE both the conservative and liberal bias were represented in the choice of newspaper/media.

And if progressive radio can't sell, why are three (3) progressive talkers (Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, and Randi Rhodes) listed in the top 15 in Talkers magazine. That's even more impressive when you realize that they are on less radio stations than the other 12 are.

Examples of what was two newspaper ideology representation:
Denver Post (used to be considered Liberal) and the Rocky Mountain News (conservative)
Boston Globe (liberal) and the Boston Herald (conservative)
NY Times (liberal) and the NY Post (conservative)
etc.

(Donate to Non-Stop Radio where ever you are to keep us on in every city in the nation)

Bad, Bad, Evil George Soros, it's all YOUR Fault, again

2007-03-20T12:53:00.000-05:00

I just visited Paul Shanklin's site. He's a neo-conservative political satrist. Rush Limbaugh (who regularly plays his stuff) calls Shanklin the "man of many voices." Okay so we have the awesome Jim Ward, among others, as a voice diety.

I was looking for something they had done on Hillary 6 to 10 years ago. While there looking for this bit that was done on Rush about Hillary (it's not there or under a title I don't remember, EIB may have done the parody themselves) I happened to listen to a clip from Shanklin's latest "American Spastic", entitled Big Oil. And I guess I shouldn't have been shocked but despite what we KNOW about Dick Cheney having secret meetings with big oil and allowing them to write enviromental and oil policy, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, George Soros, Democrats, etc. are to blame for gas being as high priced as it is.

And the poor whittle oil companies are only earning $0.09 a gallon.

Yeah right.

No wonder dittoheader blame the Iraqi war failures on "Democrats," and their supposed "lack of support and not letting the generals run the war the way they want (ie bomb everything, always) and not where the blame lies; Rumsfled's policies, lack of troops, lack of armor, lack of knowledge of the enemy (Sun Tzu is shaking his head right now), etc. etc. etc.

Would you be for a federal tax increase?

2007-03-19T13:59:00.000-05:00

Would you be for a federal tax increase if it was for real and verifiable increased boarder patrol, increased board security, enough staffing so that all cargo containers coming into the United States can be physically searched and inspected, upgarded air traffic control equipment and fully 24/7 staffed control towers?

Or is this kind of tax increease, for your safety, your children's safety and the safety of the nation still too much for you to pay?

Is public safety and security a function of the local, state and federal government or not?

An estimated 5,000 web sites are devoted to the spread of Islamic extremism.

2007-03-12T11:52:00.000-05:00

But how many were there BEFORE we invaded Iraq? Jihad On-line

We alrady know that the war in Iraq and Bush's policies have increase terrorist attacks and increased recruitment. So it's not hard to to come to the conculsion (absent numbers) that they weren't even half. Infact Bush's War and Rehetoric might have been and continue to be the best thing that ever happened to and for Al Qaeda.

Read more. . .

iRack and iRan

2007-03-11T09:56:00.000-05:00

My sons told me about this last night. My 14 year old even said, "It'll be on Youtube soon." How about less than 12 hours. . .

Sung 30 years ago, still true today

2007-03-10T01:14:00.000-05:00

Edwin Starr-War (30 years ago)

Recently

Lyrics:
War! huh-yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh

War! huh-yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y'all

War! huh good God
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

Ohhh? War! I despise
Because it means destruction?
Of innocent lives

War means tears
to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
and lose their lives

I said - War! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War! Whoa, Lord ...
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

War! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War! Friend only to the undertaker
War! It's an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind

War has caused unrest in the younger generation
Induction then destruction-
Who wants to die?

Ohhh? War Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it, Say it, Say it

War! Uh-huh Yeah - Huh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

War! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War! It's got one friend, that's the undertaker
War has shattered many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled bitter and mean
Life is much to precious to spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life, it can only take it away

War! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War! Whoa, Lord ...
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

War! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War! Friend only to the undertaker
Peace Love and Understanding;
tell me, is there no place for them today?
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way

War! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
You tell me
Say it, Say it, Say it

War! Huh Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it.
Nothing!

We've done soooo much to help women internationally.

2007-03-07T10:51:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, March 8 2007, is International Women's Day ( also here, and here.)

Here's a small snippet

1918 - 1999
Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For decades, IWD has grown from strength to strength annually. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as 'International Women’s Year' by the United Nations. Women's organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women's advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

2000 - 2007
IWD is now an official holiday in Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother's Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers. . .

. . . Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more. . .

. . . So make a difference, think globally and act locally !! Make everyday International Women's Day. Do your bit to ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding.

So what have we, as a nation, done to advance women's lives throughout the world?

1. Despite the initial elation of the Taliban being overthrown in Afghanistan and women and girls being able to return to public life, go to school, get health care, etc. Due to our stupidity in not securing the country and giving it a year of two stable start, before starting anything with Iraq, the Taliban is once again gaining ground, retaking areas and resubjugating women.

2. We removed Saddam Hussein. No matter how much of a bastard he was, and he was, no matter how much he needed to be removed, and he did, he at least
allowed women to go to school, kept them in public life and left the burkha and the veil up to them.

Now with the emergence of hard line religionist women are being forced to adopt the burkha, chaddor and/or veil and to become less visible in public life, and even schooling is iffy.

3. We keep information on birth control/condoms out of the hands of the poor women in Africa and they are now suffering an up tick in deaths due to AIDS leaving many orphaned children.

Yes we as a nation have done so much to help the women of the world.

Here's how you can help turn it around:
Feminist Majority Foundation
CARE
Women for Women International
Aschiana
Malalai Hospital project of RAWA

In Savage's litmus test would Mary Cheney and Heather Poe be guilty of child abuse?

2007-03-07T00:34:00.000-05:00

-
"married gay couples' raising of children amounts to "child abuse." - Michael Savage

One would have to reason that if a couple gay or lesbian were not married but raising children together, in Michael's world that would not be child abuse. Because according to what he said "married" is an important factor. So all the gay and lesiban couples raising children but not living in a state where gay marriage is legal, you can breath a sigh of relief, Michael Savage does not feel that you've committed child abuse.

But let's, for the sake of argument, define Savage's use of "married" to mean "committed couple" well then doesn't Mary Cheney and Heather Poe fall into Savage's disgust, contempt and (soon to be) definition of child abusers? Does Mary have anything to say, especially in defense of Melissa Etheridge, about whom those vile comments were made?

Or does Mary Cheney stay quiet, claiming the political spotlight when is suits her and telling others to go f themselves when they then discuss her because she opened the door. She stays quiet of course, being the hushed "inconvenient truth" for her party.

Pam's House Blend talks about it but there has been little else.

Why doesn't Michael Savage go after Mary like he goes after liberals/progressive? He does fancy himself a tin plated dictator who is thinking about running for office. . . will she have anything to say then?

The Polis

Stop the Lies

Blood in my cell phone

How people get recruited into coercive groups: A view from an ex-Quiverfull survivor

Schizophrenia: A Painfully Personal Story and Healthcare Reform Discussion

All You MoFos are Going to Pay

When all is made hostile; a story of sexual assault

Well I know what I'm doing Nov. 19, 2009 -

Remember when?

Shots rang out in the dark

Progressive Talk Radio Back in Boston! YOUR TURN 2 Support

So you want a family/friend game night, but "Sorry," "Life," & "Monopoly" will make your head esplode

Republicans PUNKED by Liberal Talk Show Host

You can't win if you don't play

Without gadgets James Bond is Jason Bourne

We are even behind Pakistan!

We now return you to your regular life

Governor Palin do you oppose Alaska secession now?

Did anyone notice, we've already had a run on a bank?

Fun with McCain Signs

A Pakistani gift: Freedom from FEAR

It's her birthday today

Walls of a defacto prison, not soliders keep the Baghdad "peace"

Did you hear, there's a RABIES VACCINE SHORTAGE?!

Without Comment

Two Videos

Some time with wild man, "racist," Rev. Wright

I cried from my bed, "Tuskegee!"

Hillary Clinton Endorses McCain

I laughed and laughed and laughed

This is why we must defeat McCain

And this is supposed to gin up excitement?

I concur. Mitt, F-YOU!

Voted - Obama

I'm for Obama

Well at least SOMEONE is paying attention

"If a man doesn't have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty or the possibility of the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists" - MLK

Ceding the Narrative

To Willingly Burn an Organ in Your Body

Sherri Shepard, really ignorant or playing a part?

Do something great this holiday season, become an organ donor

Should we hold a candlelight vigil for the children of Texas? And for the children in the entire US.

It's offical; Dominionists for Huckabee

1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year

Clytemnestra's Variety Show

What do we loose when we remove the tops of mountains for the coal underneath?

Congratulations Mr. Gore! The right, in full bash mode, shows how scared of you they are.

Hands OFF! Only Republicans can make money in Iran!

I'm in a fugue state of mind

I'm sorry that my directions calling for salad dressing caused you to use the one with arsenic

What f-ed up times we live in!

Black Adder, Rove, Bush and Cheney

France is now saying to prepare for war with Iran

Despite what you hear, Iraqis want a timetable for our withdrawl

"Go For Broke," George Bush's policies are killing Americans in West Virginia

9-11, 9-11, scare, scare ,scare, fear, fear, fear

Lest I forget . . .

" . . .life in music is a life beautifully spent. . ." - thoughts on Pavarotti

Getting "The Gay" (according to right wing nuts)

Fund US Infrastructure Not the Iraq War

Finished Harry Potter! ** No spoilers here**

Gone Reading

Listen to those who've served, for a change!

Feel Good Inc, CEO: ? (either Dick, Karl or George)

Just Reading Makes You Better Prepared

It's Been a "Billy Joel Week"

It's Time for Guerilla Media

ENOUGH!

Bringing Back the "Momma Chair"

RIP Hank Medress

The shame of our unneccesaary illegal war. You need to know why.

BillO and delusions of grandeur.

Of Pigs, Condoms and O'Reilly

Get out the drapes John, there are nude people available for FREE viewing!

Paris Hilton Fallout = Boycott

Bush wants war with EVERYONE

Santa Barbara Iraq War Memorial

I coulda had a V-8, except now it's an FDA regulated drug.

When Fantasy and Reality Collide: Dolores Umbridge and Leslee Unruh

A dose of guilt with your "free" Marine Windbreaker

Finished Harry Potter! No spoilers here