It's Been a "Billy Joel Week"

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

It's Time for Guerilla Media

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!

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"

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

'Lion Sleeps Tonight' singer dead

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

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.

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

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

See also:
Once more with feeling
and
On pigs, basketball, frames, and music

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

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

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

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

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.

"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

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

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

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!

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.

1. Our troops are exhausted and our volunteer army doesn’t have enough recruits to replace those who need a rest.
   
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
   
3. 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

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

With thanks to Randi Rhodes for playing this as a bump a few minutes ago.

A little observation about Imus and Conservatives

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.