Monday, November 12, 2007

Agreeing with Norquist...Ugh!!!!

It pains me to do this since I disagree with his employees and Grover Norquist himself, but an amendment to ban dynastys..I'm all for it http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Constitutional_amendment_would_aim_to_prevent_1111.html

Sunday, November 11, 2007

This post is dedicated to the students at Morton West High, Karen Kennedy @ Democracy Interactive, and all of us who stand up!

The recent news of Chicago area H.S. students who protested the Iraq War in their cafeteria was upsetting to say the least. I, as an American who agrees with the students, applaud them, and their parents who stood up for them. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-mortonprotest_09nov09,0,3003640.story
Karen at www.democracyinteractive.com discussed this at length with friends in the chatroom. I have been ticketed, I have been threatened, I have been in jail for related reasons. She expressed reservations of protests, and though her heart and brain are properly being used, I say we need to stand up. These students did, Benazir Bhutto did in Pakistan, Dennis Kucinich has. With Bush's signing statements, the Patriot Act etc. we have our rights eroding as I type this. The neo-con agenda has long been, silence dissent, promote Democ"k"racy elsewhere! The longevity of protesting for decades has angered some and defined some,certainly defined a couple of generations of the last forty years. Because we are able to fear arrest, or being pepper sprayed, we hold the compassion to stand up. The odd thing now is that if you compare the icons that inspired us, Martin Luther King,Bobby Kennedy,Pete Seeger,Edwin Starr,Neil Young,John Lennon,David Crosby,Marvin Gaye or Rosa Parks to name a handful. Nowadays, we are threatened, but we have Mike Malloy, we have Thom Hartmann,we need look no further than Cindy Sheehan or Code Pink these days, or how about the Morton West students in Ill.? Karen, I offer this video to you and everyone else who has stood up, and we must continue the effort to make sure this @#%$%#^^ never happens again, not in my country!

Thom Hartmann...brilliant in exposing the truth of neo-con foolishness

As I have stated before, many people have told me to stay away, not bother, and don't engage conservatives in political dialogue. Mike Malloy and Peter Werbe have both told me "don't bother". While I have the utmost respect for the aforementioned, I do believe we will not change their minds, they have been brainwashed for too long. However, I also believe that we must be aware that we look to our surroundings, who is listening and/or watching, if we offer hope to them we make progress in a Progressive country....ours! Take less than 10 minutes of your day, listen to this clip of Thom Hartmann interview Lisa D'Pasquele of the American Conservative Union and hear how, if we are to engage in converasation in hot topics such as the war,politics, and Bush Admin. blunders this is how it should be done. Knowledge is power, arm yourself. And as Thom says, "we're going to take back this country!"

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Bill O' Really's pro-bono work for Mike Malloy

In Billo fashion, hoping that truthseekers and liberals be picked up and jailed, he latest on 11/9/07 was 6 minutes worth of promoting the Mike Malloy Show. Malomo Blue in Sweden was kind enough to get this up on youtube. Those of us in the www.democracyinteractive.com chatroom during friday's Malloy show laughed from Sweden,to Detroit, to Az, to Chicago, to San Diego whiles Mike played this audio...

Friday, November 9, 2007

Bill and Hillary...cat killers!?

Over at Fox News, or News for Dumb Fux to be realistic. They offered time to Kathleen Willey, former White House employee in Bill Clinton's White House. She is another Clinton sexual assault accuser, and in her new book, she now claims Hillary ordered the killing of her cats on Hannity and Colmes. Thank Jesus for Alan debunking every allegation she has, but the cat killings is just absurd, even for the staunchest Hillary hater. The funniest part is Fox Noise continuing to give this news time. The story was not only debunked by Colmes, but alledged feline hitman Jack Paladino, the books publisher World Ahead Media, and FBI documents have shown her to be a habitual liar since the suicide death of her husband in 1993. The worst part about this is Fox News took this as a serious piece, and continued the following morning, where it was discussed at length, and ended with Brian Kilmeade asked "does the name Fluffy mean anything to you?", of course he was referring to the cats actual name, ironically named Bullseye...cute huh? Fox continues it's rabid obsession with the Clintons, Rosie, Liberals, and Keith Olbermann to the point that they discredit themselves to the point that self-professed "Fair and Balanced" is truly uncredible. I hope the News for Dumb Fux police team doesn't come for me ....scary!

If Clear Channel won't play it, I will

Clear Channel has ordered it's music stations to not play anything from Bruce Springsteen's latest release "Magic". Hmmm, because it opposes the war in Iraq?

The Pap attack

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Requiem For the Last Soldier to Die in Iraq Read by Mike Malloy

A big cheer for Ed Schultz!!

Moderate Liberal Ed Schultz, who with one of the highest rated Progressive, tends to lack staunch liberals to his audience now and again. For myself, give me Thom Hartmann, and Mike Malloy. Ed's rhetoric sometimes sounds like a talking points memo from the DNC offices. However, I enjoy his show, usaually tend to agree with him some of the time. Ed certainly should have every leftie in the country buying him a cold one. He and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl) discussed Dennis Kucinich's HR 333 to impeach vice president Dick Cheney. Many Democrats blocked this from coming to a debate. The heated conversation between Ed and the Congresswoman was splendid. Wasserman-Schultz took her stand as many other Democrats did...weak. Ed took her to task for not supporting the resolution, and you could easily hear she was irritated. She fired back with everything Congress is working on from the War, healthcare, etc. She made a comment Ed shredded as soon as she stated "Ed this is not on the front page of papers". I will leave his follow up to your imagination. Ed then continued to persistently nail her on how and why this is an issue to the American People. Dick Shooter Cheney has been hovering around 10-11% approval for a few years now, and is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. We need to send a message that we will not allow another Presidency this disastorous. Dennis Kucinich listened to many troubled Americans who have voiced their opinion, who have wandered around in protests wondering where the defense of our Constitution is. Thank you Dennis, you have given us a voice on the floor. Debbie, you have failed us, you have failed the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Apparently, due to the efforts of Reps. Kucinich, and Wexler, John Conyers will hold hearings on this. Thank God! If weak kneed Dems choose to only look to headlines, polls, and 08, they will alienate their base. If this were not on the minds of many Americans , why did Speaker Pelosi make a non-issue the first thing off the table? Ed, and the Reps, and American citizens...Thank you and Cheers! Impeach Now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Fred Phelps, Its First Friday.Com, and Max Blumenthal

While purusing news sites and blogs, we all know there is a tremendous amount of news and opinion out there. You may have found this. Late last week I dug into the story of the Westboro Baptist Church recieving a judgement against them in the sum of $10.9 Million for punitive damages, and compensatory damages. If you have not read the story, here. Fred Phelps and his flock of half-wits preach pure bigotry and hatred of gay and lesbian citiziens of our country, and in doing so protest the funerals of soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yeah, that makes sense doen't it? Their rational for this, is "God is punishing our country for tolerance of sodomites" I applaud the of family Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder for seeking damages, the courts and jury for awarding it, and even Congress for their efforts to bar protests at Federal Cemetaries...I hope they are not done yet. WBC's actions are however protected under free speech laws. Well, I am a card carrying member of the ACLU, so you know where I stand, I however take issue with the decency of this. If the soldier died defending the a country that tolerates gays, then I would guess he's not going to care if he's dead, right? So al they are doing is tormenting the already mourning members of his/her families. As for the the judgement, it is known that Phelps and his pack of braindead thugs will seek an appeal. I certainly hope the courts in Maryland and around the country stand behind this order and proceed with decency. As for free speech, we all know right from wrong. I may say the Republican Party is full of gay-hating-gay Republicans, or George W. Bush is a lying son of bitch, pc...probably not, but I never refer to Muslims and Arabs as C**** Jockeys, or African Americans as the "N" word, would not hang a noose on my neighbors door etc. Which brings me to the guys at First Friday. I asked them to team up with me on this issue of Free Speech and decency, through a mutual friend they declined. My thought on the issue was that I am against the war, they are self-proclaimed conservatives who support the war. I thought it was a good chance for the up and coming all-stars of the Conservacrit Party and Anti-war liberal to take a stand on support for our military and their families. Put the partisan bickering aside about who supports the troops more, take on what pretends it's a church. But nope, not even a nibble. I was, to say the least surprised. Knowing one of the FF guys for 20+ years, I know he is socially liberal by most accounts, yet rubs elbows with Republican Christian Elite and then plays host to the world famous atheist Christopher Hitchens, and won't speak out against a group of indecent thugs like Phelps and Co. Hmmm, I smell hypocrisy like a fart in a car here.

Ahhhh, now that I got that rant out, I bring you to Max Blumenthal. I have long read his articles for the Nation and Huff Post, but his video blogs are what have me cheering him on lately. From his award winning performance at this years CPAC. To his recent visit to the Value Voters Summit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvhn43BmdWM et al. Max's commitment to equal rights and the values the Bill of Rights and the American way are admirable. I admire Max's passive wit to expose the likes Ann Coulter, Mitt Romney, Rotten Rudy, extremist christian Republican groups, Larry Craig for their hypocrisy. Oh, yeah, at the VVS, one that stuck out for me was Star Parker's proclaimation the they "want the sodomites quaranined", or James Dobson "quarantined restrooms". I consider myself a follower of Jesus, not any religion, I am proud of that, and can withstand criticism of that statement. I am not afraid, I do not look a Max Blumenthal or remember Paul Wellstone, and think that looks great I think I will be Jewish, or see a gay male couple and fear it could jepordize any relations I have with women, or yes, even you Star Parker, whom I found to be a very attractive black woman, and thought if I were only black....hmmm, and a bigoted Republican hatemonger, who hangs with those looking for the Second Coming tomorrow. Max keep up your efforts, and we need to press the likes of Fred Phelps, the guys at FF who rub elbows with the likes of the Heritage Foundations misguided ideals, Tom Delay, with all of their fears of diversity and ask them what exactly is it you are afraid of?

**Note, I am not aware of any actual Oscars Mr. Blumenthal has recieved, but if he will accept it? He will be awarded the Ghost Of Wellstone award which is simply a thank you and a couple drinks.

Friday, November 2, 2007

A must read for every soldier, family member, oh hell...every american

This is from the New York Times, read by Mike Malloy on tonight's show. Very moving, and is enough to show what the majority of the Anti-War movement and Vets against the war have learned.

Requiem for the Last American Soldier to Die in Iraq
By Brian Turner
At some point in the future, soldiers will pack up their rucks, equipment will be loaded into huge shipping containers, C-130s will rise wheels-up off the tarmac, and Navy transport ships will cross the high seas to return home once again. At some point — the timing of which I don’t have the slightest guess at — the war in Iraq will end. And I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately — I’ve been thinking about the last American soldier to die in Iraq.
Tonight, at 3 a.m., a hunter’s moon shines down into the misty ravines of Vermont’s Green Mountains. I’m standing out on the back deck of a friend’s house, listening to the quiet of the woods. At the Fairbanks Museum in nearby St. Johnsbury, the lights have been turned off for hours and all is dark inside the glass display cases, filled with Civil War memorabilia. The checkerboard of Jefferson Davis. Smoothbore rifles. Canteens. Reading glasses. Letters written home.Four or five miles outside of town, past a long stretch of water where the moon is crossing over, a blue and white house sits in a small clearing not far from where I stand now. Chimney smoke rises from a fire burned down to embers. A couple spoon each other in sleep, exhausted from lovemaking. One of them is beginning to snore. I want them to wake up and make love again, even if they need the sleep and tomorrow’s workday holds more work than they might imagine.
Who can say where that last soldier is now, at this very moment? Kettlemen City. Turlock. Wichita. Fredricksburg. Omaha. Duluth. She may be in the truck idling beside us in traffic as we wait for the light to turn green. He may be ordering a slice of key lime pie at Denny’s, sitting at a booth with his friends after bowling all night. What name waits to be etched on a stone not yet erected in America? Somewhere out in the vast stretches of our country, somewhere out in Whitman’s America, out among the wide expanse of grasses, somewhere here among us the last soldier may lie dreaming in bed before the dawn as the sun sets over Iraq.
***
At the Spar in Tacoma, Wash., the bartender — Jolene — is about to flip the lights for last call. Let her wait a moment longer. If she can wait a few minutes more, the young woman at the end of the bar will finally do what she’s been wanting to do for hours. And it will surprise the young man she’s been talking with — she’ll kiss him. It will never be seen on a movie screen or written down in a book for people to enjoy centuries later. No one at the bar will even notice it taking place. But they should, because it’s one of the all-time best kisses ever. As cheesy and hyper-romantic as it sounds, this is a kiss for the ages, and it’s as good as they get.
***
Let the quiet moments of a life be recognized and not glossed over with thoughts of the past or thoughts of the future. For a rare, brief moment — let this moment be savored and fully lived. Maybe that soldier will drive a thresher in the Kansas sun today. Maybe she’ll cheer at a Red Sox game as her husband laments the fate of his Yankees. Maybe he’s in Hollister, Calif., thinking of the 100 things he’d written as a child — the list he titled “Things To Do Before I Die”:
1. write a book2. travel down the amazon3. travel down the nile4. visit each continent5. live in a foreign country6. learn to speak foreign languages7. be a major-league baseball player8. publish in Playboy magazine9. ride a motorcycle across America10. cross an ocean by boat11. scuba dive12. climb a mountain13. go to every major league baseball park, especially Yankee Stadium14. be a tourist on a moon mission with NASA or another space agency15. ride on an elephant and a camel16. visit Angor Wat, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, the Hermitage, the Louvre, Stonehenge17. invent something useful and helpful for people18. …and on and on…
How many items will he have crossed off that list before he must put it away again?
***
Could that last soldier be in front of a video camera in Hollister right now, recording a final message in case she doesn’t make it back, making a videotape for a child who will never know its own mother?
If you’re watching this then it means I’m not around anymore. I imagine you’re probably in your late teens now. Maybe Mt. Kilimanjaro no longer has snow on its peak. Maybe the ice shelves on the northern coasts of Alaska have melted back and polar bears are dwindling in number. I always wanted to get up there and see Alaska. Maybe you’ll make it up there one day yourself. I wonder if it’s somehow possible for you to buy a plane ticket to Baghdad, to visit Iraq as a tourist. Will you visit the places where I’ve been? Will you talk to the people there? Will you tell them my name?
***
What will the name be? Anthony. Lynette. Fernando. Paula. Joshua. Letitia. Roger… Who will carve it in stone and who will leave flowers there as the years pass by? Who will remember this soldier and what will those memories be? Does he have brothers and sisters? Will his father sink into the grass in the backyard when he is told the news? Will his mother stare into the street with eyes gone hollow and vacant, the cars passing each day with their polished enamel reflecting the sunlight? What will the officer say when he knocks on that door?
***
The next time I’m waiting for a transfer flight in Dallas, or in Denver, or in Chicago, I’m going to make a point to watch for soldiers in uniform. If one of them is eating alone and watching football on a wall-mounted television, I’ll anonymously pick up the check for them, like someone did for me once when I was in my desert fatigues and preparing to deploy overseas.
***
Maybe, just maybe, as I stand here in the quiet moonlight of Vermont, the American who will one day be the very last American soldier to die in Iraq — maybe that soldier is doing a night jump in Ft. Bragg, N.C. Each parachute opens its canopy over the darkness below — the wind an exhilaration, a cold rush of adrenaline, the jump an exercise in being fully alive and in the moment, a way of learning how it feels to fall within the rain, the way rain itself falls, to be a part of it all, the earth’s gravity pulling with its inexorable embrace.

Thursday, November 1, 2007


His Name Was Wellstone By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t Columnist
Thursday 01 November 2007
If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them.
- Paul Wellstone
Five years ago, Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota) died when his plane went down in the woods of northern Minnesota. The crash also took the lives of his wife Sheila, his daughter Marcia, campaign staffers Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic and Mary McEvoy, along with pilots Michael Guess and Richard Conry.
This grim remembrance is a marker for the Democratic majority in Congress, a moment for unblinking self-assessment, a chance to compare and contrast the vast gulf between who Wellstone was in life and what his party has become since his death.
Wellstone's political life was dominated by his efforts to improve economic and social conditions for millions of Americans. He began as a community organizer during the 1970's, advocating on behalf of working families and the poor for better health care, affordable housing, better public education, day care and other essential programs and policies. Through these activities, he created a powerful network of activists, union members, farmers and other newly involved citizens.
The effectiveness of this network made the difference in his long-shot 1990 campaign for US Senate against Rudy Boschwitz, an entrenched incumbent with far greater financial resources. Over the next twelve years, Senator Wellstone served as a tireless advocate for environmental protections, labor rights, victims of domestic violence, veterans, campaign finance reform and sensible US foreign policy.
Wellstone's Senate career began, and tragically ended, in remarkably similar fashion. His first months in office were defined by his opposition to President George H. W. Bush's 1991 "Gulf War" against Iraq, and some twelve years later, his last weeks in office were defined by his vote against another Bush administration, and against another push for war in Iraq. On October 11, 2002, Wellstone was one of only twenty-three senators to cast a vote against the fateful Iraq War Resolution.
The week before, on October 3, Wellstone addressed the proposed attack upon and occupation of Iraq in a speech given from the floor of the Senate. "The United States could send tens of thousands of US troops to fight in Iraq," he said, "and in so doing, we could risk countless lives of US soldiers and innocent Iraqis."
"The United States could face soaring oil prices," he said, "and could spend billions, both on a war and on a years-long effort to stabilize Iraq after an invasion."
"Authorizing the pre-emptive, go-it-alone use of force now," he said, "right in the midst of continuing efforts to enlist the world community to back a tough new disarmament resolution on Iraq, could be a costly mistake for our country."
A week and a day later, the IWR passed in the Senate. Five days after that vote, it was signed into law by George W. Bush. Nine days after that signature, five years ago, Paul Wellstone was gone. His words from October 3, 2002, however, still remain. No other floor statement given by any senator before the IWR vote echoes with such prescience. Wellstone was right, and voted accordingly. He was a beacon in the darkness that has spread and spread until, five years later, this nation and the world entire have become almost completely cloaked in shadow.
After Wellstone's death, his staff released a transcript of his last 2002 midterm election campaign commercial, which had been slated for airing just before the November vote. "I don't represent the big oil companies," said Wellstone in the ad; "I don't represent the big pharmaceutical companies, I don't represent the Enrons of this world. But you know what, they already have great representation in Washington. It's the rest of the people that need it. I represent the people of Minnesota." Little else needs to be said; his own words are more than enough.
What can be said, on the other hand, about the Senate he served so well? What about the Democrats who now enjoy majority control but flee the very thought of representing the will of the American people? They called Wellstone "The conscience of the Senate," and that honorable title seems more true today than ever. Since that conscience died, the Democrats - time after time after time again - have performed unconscionable acts of cowardice, ambivalence and betrayal.
"Every now and then, we are tempted to double-check that the Democrats actually won control of Congress last year," read a recent editorial from The New York Times. "It was bad enough having a one-party government when Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. But the Democrats took over, and still the one-party system continues."
Indeed.
As reported by The New York Times on October 14, 2007: "The phone company Qwest Communications refused a proposal from the National Security Agency that the company's lawyers considered illegal in February 2001, nearly seven months before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 ... documents unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Denver, first reported in The Rocky Mountain News on Thursday, claim for the first time that pressure on the company to participate in activities it saw as improper came as early as February (2001), nearly seven months before the terrorist attacks."
So.
The Bush administration was trying to spy on Americans back when 9-1-1 was only the telephone number for the police. Since the September 11 attacks, the administration has folded, spindled and mutilated the Constitution and Bill of Rights in a rampage of unchecked anti-American activities, ranging from illegal domestic surveillance, to legislative "signing statements" that gut the meaning from duly passed laws, to brazen defiance of legally served subpoenas, to wild-eyed arguments against gossamer FISA-court oversight of their cloak-and-dagger actions.
The tempo of this behavior appears poised to increase. A Washington Post article titled "To Implement Policy, Bush to Turn to Administrative Orders," appropriately published on Halloween, reported that "White House aides say the only way Bush seems to be able to influence the process is by vetoing legislation or by issuing administrative orders, as he has in recent weeks on veterans' health care, air-traffic congestion, protecting endangered fish and immigration. They say they expect Bush to issue more of such orders in the next several months, even as he speaks out on the need to limit spending and resist any tax increases."
And yet this Democratic Senate majority, with a slim few notable exceptions, fully intends to immunize the telecom companies who aided in the illegal and warrantless surveillance of Americans by Bush's big ears at NSA, thus derailing the last and best way to determine, via lawsuits and investigations, exactly how dirty the Bush administration is regarding this illegal spying program. The Democratic senators pushing hardest for telecom immunity also enjoy the financial largess of that very same industry.
And the Democrats may not stop there.
And that was just last week, the very week Paul Wellstone died five years before.
Some days after Wellstone's death, his friend Tom Schraw penned an essay for The Oregonian titled "When Your Conscience Dies." In it, he wrote, "When Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota died in a plane crash last week, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle described him as "the soul of the Senate." United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan described him as "a profoundly decent man, a man of principle, a man of conscience." Which leads to the question: What do you do when your soul dies, and your conscience goes away?"
What do you do?
According to the Democratic majority in Congress, what you do is nothing. You talk a good game and then wither away. You fold. You retreat. You whistle past the graveyard and cross your fingers. You betray the Constitution you swore to uphold. You betray the American people. You do not, under any circumstances, defy The President.
The conscience of the Senate died five years ago. His name was Paul Wellstone. His colleagues cannot have forgotten him so soon. Let them remember.
Let them act.
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