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A Tourist's Guide to America
The latest installment from our resident political healer, Polly Sigh... Step into the light, oh lumpen ones.
Dear Polly Sigh:
Recently my husband and I were visiting Washington, D.C., and took the Capitol Tour. It was very exciting and informative. Also, I was surprised to see how polite and considerate Congressional members were to each other in their discourse on the chamber floor. You hear constantly about the bitter partisanship raging in Washington, but I have to say that our tour revealed exactly the opposite. We saw members holding doors for each other, offering meetings to hear the other side’s opinions, giving compliments, and generally accomplishing the people’s business in an efficient and civilized fashion. The surroundings are comfortable and luxurious, and the catered meals are culturally varied and of excellent quality. In fact, we overheard one Senator remarking that the atmosphere was almost as soothing and beautiful as the prisoner housing at Guantanamo Bay. It was a wonderful surprise. All the fuss over how negative and bitter it all is seems to be a fabrication of the media and the vast left wing conspiracy to create problems where none exist. I thought you should share this with your readers.
Positively Impacted Surprised Southerner
Dear PISS:
Well, I can see by the insightful nature of your missive that you are a keenly attuned individual, sensitive to the nuances that color current events. You have that uncanny ability to see through the dog-and-pony-show-publicity efforts that can clutter the minds of lesser intellects.
But seriously.
It is comforting to know that the back and forth Nazi comparisons, the denial of floor time for minority members and other recent Congressional meltdowns have been merely an illusion created by the media. They have been guilty of this before, such as in their extensive coverage of the Watergate hearings, the Iran-Contra affair, and other national irrelevancies that have been elevated to the level of ‘information.’
Even now, members of Congress are taking fact-finding junkets to Guantanamo Bay, in order to understand what has made that facility so successful in promoting the American ideal around the globe. They hope to create the same kind of global success story for the U.S. Congress, while recognizing that they still have a long way to go. Like many national initiatives, these things do not represent a failure of leadership, but instead illustrate the renegade misbehavior of a few members of Congress. Unfortunately, these isolated incidents have damaged the reputation of this illustrious institution. Naturally, all appropriate steps are being taken to improve the situation, including a major publicity effort.
But alas, PISS, the longest journey begins with a single step, does it not?
I am deeply happy that you had such a wonderful experience in your tour of the Capitol. It makes one proud to see the reality of Democracy in action.
In closing, I would like to suggest another tour that I have found to be truly inspiring. The Brooklyn Bridge Tour is fabulous, inexpensive, and ends with an opportunity to buy into a potentially valuable ‘vehicular time-share’ program that has recently been introduced.
I share this with you because as I said above, readers with your keen insight and intuitive understanding are rare. So please. Take the Brooklyn Bridge Tour, and stay for the coffee and cookies.
Best of luck in your discovery of the real America. The real America that only a real American such as yourself can truly appreciate.
Sincerely,
Polly
Hiroshima Remembers Those Killed 60 Years Ago
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080605Y.shtml
I resent your use of a "Southern" persona as being so blind and ignorant.
In no given geographical area has any part of the world produced the character, statesmanship, political genius, nor the talents in the arts, literature, music, or athletic prowess that the South has produced. Patrick Henry cried out for liberty or death. George Washington led the forces of the American Revolution, struggling for freedom and independence, to victory. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. James Madison was the father of the Constitution and George Mason was the author of the Bill of Rights. John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, construed that covenant for posterity. All were Southerners.
Not only was our form of government, established to guide the union of American republics, primarily created by sons of the South, dedicated to the independence of the republic and the sovereignty of its several states, but the American Experiment itself expanded under Southern statesmanship.
The English colonies were first liberated, to become the thirteen sovereign nation-states of the American union, known as the United States of America, under the leadership of Washington. Under the administration of Thomas Jefferson, the geographic area of the republic was doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase – out of which fifteen independent states were carved in whole or in part. Florida was purchased from Spain under the administration of James Monroe.
The independence of Texas was achieved through the leadership of Sam Houston and Stephen Austin, both sons of the South, and the spirit of Texas was born in the Alamo under the heroism of Southern patriots.
Immediately following the War for Southern Independence, President Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, was a key player in the purchase of Alaska.
Primarily, history is people. So this collection of biographies of a unique breed of stalwarts is in the hopes it will enrich the lives of all who pause to review the records of these people. These individuals, regardless of their life pursuits, have had an impact on not just the American continent, but on the world, and they are one and all Southerners.
Just a few of "us poor misguided Southerners" who you so carelessly and prejudiciously portray.
I PISS on your bigotry.
(Parts of the above commentary borrowed from Clayton Rand’s “Sons of the South”)
.com.
Hank Aaron
Rosa Parks
Henry Watkins
George S. Patton
Andy Griffith
'Black' Jack Pershing
Louis Armstrong
D.W. Griffith
Bill Pickett
Stephen F. Austin
John Grisham
Gene Autry
Woody Guthrie
Pocahontas
Edgar Allan Poe
James K. Polk
William Wyatt
Henry Harrison
Elvis Presley
Daniel Boone
Patrick Henry
Jim Bowie
John Henry "Doc" Holliday
Sam Houston
Will Rogers
Paul "Bear" Bryant
Howard Hughes
Wilma Rudolph
Andrew Jackson
Jimmy Carter
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
Babe Ruth
George Washington
(Stonewall) Jackson
Jesse Chisholm
Jesse James
Raphael Semmes
Thomas Jefferson
Sequoyah
William Clark
Andrew Johnson
Henry Clay
Lyndon B. Johnson
Patrick R. Cleburne
Albert Sidney Johnston
John Slidell
Bill Clinton
Barbara Jordan
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Helen Keller
Richard Taylor
Francis Scott Key
Zachary Taylor
Gordo Cooper
Martin Luther King, Jr
Jim Thorpe
William Harrison
Davy Crocket
Robert E. Lee
William B. Travis
Harry S. Truman
Merewether Lewis
Harriet Tubman
Jefferson Davis
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons)
James Madison
Loreta Velazquez
Frederick Douglass
James Buchanan
William Faulkner
Booker T. Washington
George Washington
Nathan Bedford
Ava Gardner
James Monroe
Joseph Wheeler
Hank Williams
Dizzy Gillespie
Audie Murphy
Woodrow Wilson
Charles Goodnight
Chester Nimitz
William E. Woodruff
Josiah Gorgas
James Oglethorpe
William Lowndes Yancey
William Crawford
Gorgas Walter
Hines Page
Chuck Yeager
Quanah Parker
Alvin York
Henry Woodfin Grady
PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU OPEN MOUTH, INSERT BOTH FEET, AND CHEW RAPIDLY!!!
Also on the DCP from the ignorant South...
Marc
Indy
Christy
Native Texan
Ira
Chuck in Houston
Forgive me if I have missed any other peeps...this thread just destroys acceptence and tolerance that so many here try to practice and preach...
It is this stereotypical bigotry that ruins credibility and reasserts elitism.
Have a problem with my statements?
Email me.
Indy_for_america@hotmail.com
Stereotypes do harm, but I've lived in the midwest and northwest and I only have regional pride for people that I agree with. I guess I'm small-minded! I spend a certain amount of time dissing the rest and make few apologies. The same goes for when I travel. I was born here but I didn't choose it. I prefer to be a planetary citizen. As my French houseguest who is only 20 says, "There are good people and bad people everywhere."
Indy, can't believe you take such personal offense at equal-opportunity spoofer, Polly. So brilliant, in fact, I was suggesting beyond syndication here, to a printed compilation at Barnes & Noble, competing with all those diet books. Better food for thought.
However, I do appreciate your spirited defense of the south and Texas, their merits taken a real beating from GW. I'm from Boston, so along with JK, I'm aloof, elitist and humorless.
Unless you're spoofing.
Posted by: Indy at August 6, 2005 12:52 PM
Nice response! And great list of southerners, too! Only... what's Jefferson Davis doing on there? He was a traitor to the Union... nothing to be proud of... lol.
...that goes for Stonewall Jackson, too-- another traitor.
Looking again at the Brooklyn Bridge reference, a symbol often referred to as something that couldn't have been built or accomplished. Remember Meg Ryan in Kate and Leopold. I know, truly forgettable film. Believing or buying a piece of it indicates gullibility.
Well, I live at one end of this magnificent feat. Although I'm not aware of any tour, there are places to have coffee and cookies by my apt. In fact, you're all invited to my house for soy latte. Sorry, the cappucino and pasta makers are gathering dust.
Something about New Yorkers not having patience. Come again, DiAnne.
Posted by: Marjorie G at August 6, 2005 01:14 PM
I am not spoofing.
I am a native New Orleanian. I have lived in Austin, Texas (aka the cradle of sanity in the center of Texas)for the past 10 years.
It is this "harmless" and accepted bigotry that causes a divide between Americans of all pursuasions and walks of life.
GET OVER YOURSELVES DAMN YANKEES!!!
See how it works...
You offend blindly...Southerners reciprocate.
It is not sarcasm...it is bigotry that has been around since the Civil War...and before you go spouting off about slavery...
Which port was the largest in the nation at the time...come on....you brilliant elitists can figure it out...
NEW YORK.
Yankee central. Northerners owned slaves too.
I never did. None of you ever have. We all despise the thought of it...but before you label or stereotype Southerners you had better understand YOUR past as well. Somewhere in your families...someone did.
On my mother's side of the family I am directly descended from John Hart from New Jersey who signed the Declaration of Independence. My Father's family emigrated to New Orleans in 1853 from Ireland.
I know my roots...and they are firmly grounded in America and from Ireland in America for over 150 years...and I am a proud Southerner born and raised.
The ignorance of some Americans is not in genetic memory, but taught and promoted and encouraged by stereotypes such as written in this thread.
I suggest prudence before offending more Americans.
I'm an environmental wacko with webbed feet who was transplanted to farm country where I picked up hick traits and now my son calls me a yuppie, French Marc calls me a hippie. At least I'm not a politico-religious extremist.
Things I'm proud of about the Northwest:
Congressman Jim McDermott
increase in the use of wind farms for power
popularity of independent films and music
proximity of the city to mountains and water
access to the Pacific and Asia
independent nature of the people
drawbacks:
it can be hard to make friends, as people are
very independent and don't affiliate much
there is a holier-than-thou liberalism sometimes
like when someone tries to force you to recycle
something when you accidentally forgot
I like Seattle and Portland. I couldn't live in any of the rest.
things I like about the upper midwest:
it produces people like George McGovern despite
the rest
people are quite self-sufficient (canning, bread
baking, knitting etc.)
good tomatoes, corn and watermelons
reasons I can't live there:
cold winters and hot summers
mosquitoes and flies
social conservatism
a certain version of the same mentality as the
people here who force you to recycle - there
they make you cut your grass a certain length
or hassle you if you leave a refridgerator or
old car on your lawn too long
I like Minneapolis. I couldn't live in any of the rest.
Posted by: NativeTexan4Kerry at August 6, 2005 01:26 PM
LOL!
Just adds to the flavor Native...
And unlike the thread header, proves that Southerners, though not proud of some of our prodical sons and daughters, accept responsibility for them all the same.
Everyone on that list has, for good or bad, effected the course of our Nation and the world.
Wasn't Benedict Arnold a traitor from the North?
Indy
Too many of my ideas about the south come from movies like Deliverance and Walking Tall. That's from when I was a kid. & in New Orleans, I notice that I am told not to cross a certain street even in daylight or I risk being killed. & Bush did well in much of the south. It's alot more complicated than we think and probably does go back to the Civil War .. or before.
Here is something I found that made sense:
LBJ and The Coming of Civil Rights:
one Tennesseean's thoughts:
In 1954 two very significant events occurred: Strom Thurmond was elected to the Senate from South Carolina, and the Supreme Court made its decision in Brown v. Board of Education. But these events did not happen in isolation, and in 1953 an equally important event took place: Lyndon Baines Johnson became the Senate Minority leader, and two years later, when control of the Senate returned to the Democrats, the Majority Leader.
It's my firm belief that as a country we're too quick to assume that all the racial ills we suffer stem directly from the south. Granted, many do, maybe most. But it should never be forgotten that many civil rights activists were from the south, and that much oppression took place in the north.
For every Strom Thurmond, that is, the south produces a Lyndon Johnson. And for all the screaming, kicking, and fighting that took place, it was Johnson, a born-and-bred Southerner, who brought civil rights to the courtrooms and schoolrooms and voting halls of America.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision reversed the pernicious 1896 "separate but equal" ruling, holding that the very notion was a denial of equal rights. The court directed that desegregated educational facilities be furnished "with all deliberate speed."
However, desegration was resisted, mainly in the south, but all over the country. Most American blacks lived then in northern cities, where segregated schooling, though not the law, was de facto the law due to segregated neighborhoods and school districts. The invocation of "deliberate speed" meant that, in practice, esegregation would take years to accomplish, whether fought county by county in federal courts strangely unwilling to challenge things on a larger scale, or stalled out in bussing disputes and "neighborhood preservation" circles.
Into that struggle stepped an unlikely combatant: a Texan named Lyndon Baines Johnson.
In 1954 Strom Thurmond masterminded the so-called "Sounthern Manifesto", more formally entitled "Declaration of Constitutional Principles". The Manifesto argued, essentially, that the Civil Rights actions ordered by the Supreme Court were unconstitutional and part of a communist-inspired subversion of America. Only three southern senators refused to sign the Manifesto: Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, long regarded as a maverick by Deep South senators; Albert Gore, Sr. also of Tennessee, who said the Manifesto was "a dangerous, deceptive propaganda move which encouraged Southerners to defy the government and disobey its laws"; and Lyndon Johnson.
Some see Johnson's refusal to sign as a political move to ensure his continued good standing in the Party; they cite his explanations to Texas and other media that, as Minority Leader, he had to be aloof from sectional squabbles and that he believed in upholding the law of the land, as proof that he was not a true civil rights advocate. But others, myself included, believe that LBJ burned to set right the wrongs his eyes were becoming opened to, and that this refusal to sign the Manifesto was the first step in a long and glorious journey.
His doubters point to the watering down of the Eisenhower administration's 1957 civil rights bill as more proof that LBJ was at best lukewarm on the subject. But it should be noted that, even in its weakened state, that bill was the first federal civil rights law since the Reconstruction period. It didn't do much, only called for the establishment of a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and authorized the U.S. attorney general to enforce voting rights. But even that little was too much for many, and Strom Thurmond set what was then the record filibuster (24 hours, 18 minutes) in speaking against it. Had it been much stronger, it might not have passed at all. And it only passed because Johnson forced the Senate into round-the-clock session to defeat the filibuster threat.
Many adages come to mind: The journey of a thousand miles which egins with a single step; walking before running; foundations before walls .... In short, rather than castigating LBJ for helping to weaken the 1957 bill, we should thank him for getting us started.In 1960 this legislation was strengthened, and in 1964 a more sweeping civil rights bill outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations and by employers, unions, and voting registrars. It was LBJ that pushed that bill through the Congress, and it was perhaps true, as he later said, that only a southerner could have done it. When he signed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill into law, there was genuine emotion in his voice as he explained its meaning:
"We believe that all men are created equal, yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights, yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty, yet millions are being deprived of those blessings, not because of their own failures, but because of the color of the skin."
In Johnson's own presidency, civil rights legislation was an integral part of the Great Society, including Voting Rights, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the creation of HUD, urban redevelopment, and an open-housing civil rights bill.
And in 1967 came one of LBJ's most outstanding legacies: 'the right man at the right time in the right place, the right thing to do' to paraphrase only slightly LBJ's statement to the press upon his nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Thurgood Marshall was an enduring force for civil rights on the Supreme Court, outlasting James Kilpatrick's gloomy prediction of " the next ten years at least" by fourteen years. Justice Marshall rated Johnson as "the greatest civil rights president we ever had."
In 1965 Lyndon Johnson gave a commencement address at Howard University. He said there what he had long believed:
"You do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race, then say, you're free to compete with all the others.... Much of the Negro community is buried under a blanket of history and circumstance. It is not a lasting solution to lift just one corner of the blanket."
Posted by: Marjorie G at August 6, 2005 01:14 PM
You're so lucky to be from MA! Let's see, you've got...
John Kerry, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Adams, Daniel Webster, Harriet Beacher Stowe... and I'm sure many others!
As a Texan, I must say I am proud of Barbara Jordan, Ralph Yarborough, and PART of Lyndon Johnson.
We are all Americans, though!
Indy -
Methinks you have taken the whole matter in a somewhat more serious vein than intended.
Everyone has to be from somewhere, don't they? If the individual had been from some other region would that have been more acceptable to you? It may have been, but it also may have been less acceptable to someone else.
It is not intended as a generalization, although I will confess that I find political correctness as a rule makes my ass extremely tired. On a weekly basis, I offer quite loose interpretations of regional qualities in a not so serious manner. Nobody escapes the pen. If you read back over my columns, you will note that all regions of the country are quite liberally treated with the sword of satire.
So, in the spirit of healing that I try to convey at all times...
Please enjoy a cocktail and some Rock Hudson and Doris Day, and call me in the morning.
Deep Monkey...
How come I've often heard it said, when it's not going well, "well (deep sigh), things are heading South..."... and yet while issues are going favorably, I have never heard the reference uttered, "WOW! Things are really looking North!"
bad northwesterners:
gay bigot closet case Mayor Jim West of Spokane
Courtney Love
suburban cops who over-react
pretentious leftists
survivalists
Tim Eyman who circulates tax-evader petitions
the Bothell church that "reforms" gays
Starbucks (for destroying indie coffee)
Weyerhause (polluting)
Boeing (military sellout)
Microsoft (hiring a Walmart executive, hanging
with people like Rove)
too many garage bands
inept weathermen
people who want the state to split into 2 parts
Let me say, Indy, we lived in Florida, Nebraska, and Denver, Colorado, and travelled all over the midwest and west. While I have heard and suffered through many stereotypical slights, the most of which is being a stereotype, at all.
However, being stopped by an In the Heat of the Night sheriff at midnight in Summerton, SC, in our U-Haul as they were looking for a black man, was true-to-type and horrifying.
I might add that coming from Boston and New Yorker probably have presented more assumptions totally not me.
However, one real trait for many New Yorkers is their presumed superiority from being in the center of the universe, which I know not be true. So on that, we agree.
NT4K
Now, all those Johns from Boston. If we take this business about words and names too seriously, that's not very prudish Bostonian.
I offered once before, NT4K, to come visit while in NY. I'll ask again, on your through east, come visit the Brooklyn Bridge.
Not political Correctness...
You are being an elitist snob and your condescending retort does nothing to dispell that fact.
Pull the thread please...
Any generalization based upon a preconceived idea of people of a certain race, creed, culture or geographic area behaving in a certain way is just blazing ignorance of a true world view and worthy of much distain.
It is offensive and if you don't see it, I suggest you purge your system of all poisons and take a retreat to the top of a Tibetan mountain and ask the Universe to forgive you your ignorance in feigning enlightenment and attempt to lift the veil of elitist thinking from your mind.
Free your mind and the rest will follow.
Stand
REM
Stand in the place where you live
Now face North
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven't before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't before
If you are confused check with the sun
Carry a compass to help you along
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
[repeat 1st verse]
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
If wishes were trees the trees would be falling
Listen to reason
Season is calling
[repeat 1st verse]
If wishes were trees the trees would be falling
Listen to reason
Reason is calling
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
So Stand (stand)
Now face North
Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before
Now stand (stand)
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't
[repeat 1st verse]
Stand in the place where you are (Now face North)
Stand in the place where you are (Now face West)
Your feet are going to be on the ground (Stand in the place where you are)
Your head is there to move you around, so stand.
Posted by: PollySigh at August 6, 2005 01:37 PM
Oh and one last thing before I waste any more of my precious time trying to reason with you...
Your pompass ass should hurt...
And definately would if I were close enough to repeatedly stick my boot up it!
Have a nice dellusional day!
Indy, please. I understand sensitivities, assumptions, but I don't think denying expression and sensorship are at all your thing.
In the open, and this discussion, bring awareness.
Sheesh...people are a little testy today...As War sings it...
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Speaking of War...(slick/sick seque)...here's some news from Crawford -- compliments of the Lone Star Iconoclast who has a reporter there -- about Cindy Sheehan's trip to ask the president to bring the troops home.
http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/News/2005/31-40/31news02.htm
Indy --
Mine is not to pull threads... if the moderators deem that it is a slight to all things southern, they will no doubt remove the thread.
While I appreciate your willingness to explore one of my orifaces with your delicious booty, I have to say that I am currently spoken for, and not entertaining suggestions of that nature.
Rest assured however, that were the circumstances different, I would most certainly return the offer.
Also DCP from the south
aimzzz
Had my gall bladder out yesterday & feel great-- no pain pills even & I'm no stoic!
;)
I mean not even a Tylenol-- pardon me for being so off topic, but I'm astounded
Be well, aimzz
Amazing, get the staples? That astounded me for my surgey. I think there is more aping in a wear and tear area, like lower abdominal.
Good news.
I don't know what aping is, but I meant -pain.
Hi Marjorie,
I think they put a staple where the GB used to attach to the common duct (which comes from the liver), but the incisions have sutures that will absorb as healing occurs. They just have a sort of film over them.
Indy, I understand the soft side of bigotry and expectations. Easy to perpetuate. You said, Irish, and many girlhood friends in Boston were Irish. Comfort in numbers for them, but there was a lot of prejudice.
I needn't tell you what being Jewish must be about. We had a Holocaust for us, and now the blame for all of the Neo-con rage and bad foreign policy in our name. Talk about Jewish guilt.
One stupid assumption is the Jewish people are smarter, intellectual, and I can tell you, absolutely, from my example, not true. Also that families care more about education, also not singularly true.
But I think all sides of the discussion, with the end result of more awareness, is a good thing to show-and keep.
Really.
Indy - I think Marjorie was saying she didn't know how she got 'aping' when she meant to write 'pain'
aimzz, all this stuff that just holds us together, aborbs. Amazing science. We must tell GW.
aimzz, I think Indy knew. He just appreciates music and likes to riff off anything.
A good creative soul, Indy.
Ummm... Sorry to intrude but NOW we have a SERIOUS problem
Venezuela signs arms deal with China
Holy shit.
It means PUTIN ..omfg OMFG
http://www.sbpost.ie/breakingnews/breaking_story.asp?j=3224835&p=3zz485x&n=3224927&x=
Christy, they've been talking all along. Their oil, size, better economic stability, the US diminished standing in the world, and the neo-con job on the public and press don't get it.
Marjorie
Shrub has delcared much research unscientific (esp environmental). I have no doubt that he got the phrase from some think tank.
During the debates, I wished someone would ask him to outline the scientific method (as taught in high school)-- It would have been alot like his definition of Tribal Sovereignty
Polly Sigh seems to be an equal opportunity humorist.
http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2005/03/ask_polly_sigh.html#comments
Posted by: Christy at August 6, 2005 02:45 PM
Christy,
That sounds pretty scary. I've never heard of that site. Where is it from? Is it reliable? And has it got other sources that say the same thing?
OH...Does anybody know what is happening to Cindy in Texas? Has the news reported it?
Robin Cook, RIP
Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 years, and which we helped to create? Why is it necessary to resort to war this week, while Saddam's ambition to complete his weapons programme is blocked by the presence of UN inspectors? Only a couple of weeks ago, Hans Blix told the Security Council that the key remaining disarmament tasks could be completed within months.
I have heard it said that Iraq has had not months but 12 years in which to complete disarmament, and that our patience is exhausted. Yet it is more than 30 years since resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. We do not express the same impatience with the persistent refusal of Israel to comply.
I welcome the strong personal commitment that the prime minister has given to middle east peace, but Britain's positive role in the Middle East does not redress the strong sense of injustice throughout the Muslim world at what it sees as one rule for the allies of the US and another rule for the rest. Nor is our credibility helped by the appearance that our partners in Washington are less interested in disarmament than they are in regime change in Iraq. That explains why any evidence that inspections may be showing progress is greeted in Washington not with satisfaction but with consternation: it reduces the case for war.
What has come to trouble me most over past weeks is the suspicion that if the hanging chads in Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commit British troops...
Sorry, I should have pointed out that the above writing was from Robin Cook's resignation speech from the House of Commons over the pending War In Iraq.
BOT~
Back on topic...
Any generalization based upon a preconceived idea of people of a certain race, creed, culture or geographic area behaving in a certain way is just blazing ignorance of a true world view and worthy of much distain.
It is offensive and if you don't see it, I suggest you purge your system of all poisons and take a retreat to the top of a Tibetan mountain and ask the Universe to forgive you your ignorance in feigning enlightenment and attempt to lift the veil of elitist thinking from your mind.
Free your mind and the rest will follow.
OMG...Rove leaked information in Texas BEFORE yet Bush still hired him and he still has access to documents in the White House.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/06/politics/06novak.html?
Is anyone else wondering why this guy is still Bush's brain?
I saw this on D.U. I'm especially impressed by all the people taking time to write letters and involve the media to pay attention to Cindy. I wrote some letters this morning.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4271129&mesg_id=4271129
Deja Vu?
Remember what happened last time someone kept pulling posts...
How quickly they forget...
Instructions:
1. Shoot self in foot.
2. Reload.
3. Shoot self in other foot.
4. Repeat.
Fascinating...
So...I'm sitting here in my newly RE-designed t'shirt. It's from last year.
It said, "Beat Bush...The Pinochio President...Register and vote." And it has a Pinochio on a string with Pinochio's long-long nose as its picture. It always got notice before the election.
So, I don't like the t'shirts I've seen out there, so I'm adding a few tidbits to this one.
I've added, "Downing Street Minutes" with Blue Permanent marker with red strands (to look like blood) hanging down.
I'm trying to decide what else to add to it next.
Maybe "No liberal media bias if you don't know this!"
Testing...testing...
WE LOST AN ALLY
Robin Cook dies after collapse
18:30pm 6th August 2005
Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has died in hospital after collapsing while hillwalking in Scotland.
Mr Cook, 59, was with his second wife Gaynor on Ben Stack in Sutherland when he took ill at 2.23pm, Northern Constabulary said.
The Livingston MP, who lived in Edinburgh, was near the summit of the 2,365ft mountain.
He was airlifted by a Coastguard helicopter to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, where he died.
Mr Cook was a keen hill-walker, and regularly spends his summer holidays with close family and friends enjoying the dramatic mountain scenery of
Highland Scotland, rather than going abroad.
A leading figure in the Labour Party for decades, Mr Cook was put in the key job of Foreign Secretary when the party won power in 1997. He was demoted to the post of Leader of the Commons following Labour's second election victory in 2001 and resigned from the Cabinet in protest at the Iraq War in 2003.
Mr Cook had apparently collapsed with a suspected heart attack on the mountainside while out walking during his summer holidays.
He was also reported to have seriously injured himself in a fall after his collapse. The father-of-two grown up sons was on the mountain for nearly half an hour before rescue services reached him.
Then, guided by medical experts via telephone, they battled to revive him using cardio pulmonary resuscitation equipment, before he was airlifted by helicopter to hospital in Inverness.
Mr Cook arrived at hospital at 4pm - some 90 minutes after his collapse and was declared dead five minutes later, said a spokesman for NHS Highland. But it was more than three hours later before police confirmed his death.
Report about Delay and Reid and Hatch accepting lobbyist money. Much as we don't want to see Reid's name here, we have to ask the media to report ALL questionable acts. Problem is...they're still not reporting Cindy in Texas..I've looked.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/08/05/lobbyist.defensefund.ap/index.html
Dianne, Bert, and Kit:
Who is that person please? I don't know.
You know how Bush is pushing the teaching of "intelligent design?"
Marc from Paris & I were just in a renovated school which is now a commercial center - in it we saw photos from when it was a school in the 1940s and 1950s.
Guess what the children were learning about?!
Evolution!
Dinosaurs.
Are we not men? We are DEVO.
De-evolution means to go back in time.
Polly -
I thought it was funny:)
and Indy, for one who causes a stir around here ALL THE TIME, I'm astounded that you have taken such offense to Polly's riff.
Lighten up friend. No matter where we live, we all get abused for where we live at some point. If you can't take a poke every once in a while, you should re-think dishing them out so much!
Also from the South...
Cyclist and cancer survivor and world hero...
Lance Armstrong.
Suz,
I'll let you know what the local news reports...and I assume it will read something like this:
"Liberal Protesters Arrested"
"Liberals attempt to harrass President Bush on his Crawford ranch while ejoying a well deserved vacation."
"MSM News has learned some of the protesters may have been Al Qaida operatives attempting to penetrate security on the Bush Family ranch."
...one can only imagine.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050806/ap_on_re_us/bush_peace_mom
News if Cindy in Crawford. I wanted to vote but it wouldn't let me.b
Posted by: Carol at August 6, 2005 04:17 PM
All the time...hmmm...
Well maybe some people should think before they post such obviously prejudicial and repulsive stereotypes.
You live where Carol? The North-east?
Ahhh...that explains it.
Walk a mile in the moccasins...or open your mind...either will do.
If one did understand, perhaps one would realize that in spewing such rhetoric, one will only help to defeat Dems in the coming elections by insulting a group of people from an imaginary geographic place and confirm to those of us living in the South that yankees are nothing but a bunch of whiny elitist snobs.
Maybe I would not have to be such a force of nature if those who complain about losing their country would actually reach out to all Americans instead of running down people with the same rights and priviledges we all share as Americans.
I only poke at individuals...not geographic areas and this thread is a gross and bigotted generalization.
Northerners, Southerners, Easterners, and Westerners,
UNITE! Let's bust Bob instead. here is a letter to the Chicago Sun Times to sign asking that Novak come clean about his role in treasonous acts against the US. I hope you will join me in sending his employers a message. By the way, thank goodness, nobody on the internets made fun of ignorant Southern Ohio hillbillies during the recent unpleasantness known as the OHIO 02 special election.
http://www.bustbob.com/petition/
Dear Folks,
I'm on a different computer and I have decided whoever invented these buttons and mouse probably also designed Bush's war plan, Bush's social security plan, Bush's environemtal plan, etc...u can see that this computer is messing me up.
Indy,
Yes, thanks for updatihg me about Cindy. I don't know if you remember I met her in person. Cindy may very well get jailed, as well as many other people. I heard on D.u. of a long-term protest maybe being planned. It was Peace train or something? Anyway, I would gladly join Cindy and Lila and all the GSF if I could.
I hope they make Bush's vacation miserable. Bush has a black heart.
bb
Kay,
Thanks for the link. I am hearing more and more that people, including Republicans, are suspicious of that "sudden' power outage just as there was less than 900 votes separating the two.
I hope some evidence starts coming out and a real honest to goodness whistleblower...even if Hackett lost fair and square, this type of question will never create the fair elections we want.
Any news about the protest in Atlanta today? It was suppose to include Jackson, Randi, and labor and who-knows-who else!
Posted by: Carol at August 6, 2005 04:17 PM
..."for one who causes a stir around here ALL THE TIME, I'm astounded that you have taken such offense to Polly's riff."
I am nothing but consistant.
In my principles, my values, my love of my Country, my faith in humanity and my distain for hypocrisy and small mindedness.
No pot calling a kettle black and blue...
...merely pointing out an OLD double standard.
Just an American speaking the truth to power...and the hardest part indeed...
Speaking the truth to friends...for the truth is not really the truth until it is set free...and speaking the truth to friends comes at a high price indeed.
For the restoration of and American democratic republic?
I am willing to go out on a limb here...
A VERY long limb indeed.
Pictures of Cindy in Crawford!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4275288
Speaking of southern insults...if that's what it was...
Can anyone explain the Blue Collar Comedy Tour to me?
Is it funny? Is it just the thugs that think so? Maybe I'm just a stodgy northeasterner.
Indy? Anyone?
suz,
Thanks for the link to the great photos! Go Cindy!
dkos is heavily following cindy. this thread should take you where you might want to go. notice that Texas paper we fell in love with, the Iconclast covering with live updates....
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/6/95956/25883
Posted by: Carol at August 6, 2005 04:51 PM
Sorry...Never heard of it...
Researched:
The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, starring renowned comedians Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy, has packed theaters from Vancouver to Tampa and back again since January 2000, entertaining thousands of loyal supporters and creating legions of enthusiastic new fans at every stop.
Go figure...
Never seen it...never will...don't like Jeff Foxworthy...never have.
I think your idea Indy from earlier this week is the best! If we vehemently disagree with someone's post, Indy suggested earlier this week that we email them directly and talk it over.
I am aware that that does not pertain to discussions and disagreements on the various issues we are exploring here at the DCP.
But for feelings and comments that get derogatory and personal, maybe an email would suffice.
My feeling is honestly that we have been having a run on this kind of thing this week, and I am personally tiring of it. We MUST discuss issues we disagree on, but I really think it is more constructive to center the discussion around the issues, and not get into personal attacks, if we can. We all learn and grow when we are debating issues. When we attack each other it drags us down and leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
In my opinion.
Indy -
You are glad you've missed it. I think you'd hate it. I do, although my thug relatives think it is hilarious.
Anyone out there get the joke? Am I missing something?
GO TO OHIO, MR. PRESIDENT
August 5, 2005 -- President Bush provided some much-needed clarity Wednesday in reaffirming that America is indeed engaged in a "war on terror."
Now he needs to follow up that speech with a high-profile gesture of leadership during what seems to be an especially bloody phase in Iraq.
In recent days, the Bush team seemed to be abandoning the phrase "War on Terror." Most prominently, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the effort not a "War on Terror," but "a global struggle against violent extremism."
True, the war isn't just a military undertaking: Diplomacy, intelligence, politics — each plays a role. But it is a war, nonetheless.
The term "struggle" simply doesn't do justice to the kind of response required when al Qaeda and its minions struck on 9/11, killing 3,000 Americans.
And when terror thugs like al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, continue to threaten more terror attacks, as he did in a tape broadcast yesterday.
Indeed, the 2004 election was waged partly over definitions. John Kerry, recall, downplayed the military aspect, preferring a law-enforcement approach.
Bush disagreed — and won.
So it was a relief when the president said Wednesday: "Make no mistake about it, this is a war — against people who profess an ideology. And they use terror as a means to achieve their objectives."
He used the word "war" another 13 times during the speech.
Still, the conflicting messages about what is supposed to be the overriding policy issue of this administration were disappointing. In a two-week period in which nearly 50 American servicemembers died in combat in Iraq, this was no time to be mealy-mouthed.
It's reason enough why Bush shouldn't let the matter rest with his disclaimer.
What else should he do?
Show some leadership — starting with a visit to Brook Park, Ohio.
That's the hometown of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, which lost 20 Marines this week in separate incidents near the Syrian border.
The town needs to see and hear the president there. As does the nation.
Bush's reluctance to attend individual funerals is understandable. He can't attend all of them, but he can't easily pick and choose, either: One soldier's death is no more worthy of a presidential visit than another's.
But the geographical concentration of this week's losses creates a unique situation — and cries out for special treatment.
Meanwhile, Bush officially has begun his "vacation" in Texas. Of course, a president is never truly on vacation, even when Congress is out of session, as it is now.
But Bush's official off-duty status carries symbolism. And, thus, it shouldn't start until after an Ohio trip.
Such a visit will allow the president to acknowledge publicly the sacrifices being made in this war. And to reiterate the need for those sacrifices: This isn't a war America started, and running from Iraq won't end it.
Beyond that, when a community loses 20 sons, husbands and fathers, the sacrifice is broader than the sum of the individual deaths. The entire nation should pay its collective respects.
Bush made some of those points yesterday: "The people of Brook Park and the family members of those who lost their life, I hope they can take comfort in the fact that millions of their fellow citizens pray for them. I hope they also take comfort in the understanding that the sacrifice was made in a noble cause."
Bush should make those points directly to the people of Brook Park.
Go to Ohio, Mr. President, and thank the proud families of Brook Park.
....from the NY post of all places.......
Posted by: Carol at August 6, 2005 04:51 PM
To each his own...
And for the record I would never call you a stodgy northeasterner...
My beef is with a moderator on a site promoting American Principles and Constitutional ideals claiming to be "progressive" (though I personally detest that term) posting such degrading generalizations and stereotypes.
What's next from Polly?
A slam of Floridians saying all from Florida are backwards ignorant Bush lovers?
There are no red and blue states...it is all Neocon color coding...why do some insist on promoting that which is so pathelogically self-defeating to America?
If we insist on continuing to label ourselves we are doing ourselves and our Nation a severe injustice.
News updates on Cindy:
http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn&q=Cindy%20Sheehan%2C%20Crawford%20Texas
Sherman Denison Herald Democrat Mom of Slain Soldier Stages Bush Protest
Washington Post, United States - 1 hour ago
CRAWFORD, Texas -- The angry mother of a fallen US soldier staged a protest ... Supported by more than 50 shouting demonstrators, Cindy Sheehan, 48, told reporters ...
Mom of Slain Soldier Stages Bush Protest Salon
all 59 related »
Anti-war protesters march toward Bush ranch
Reuters AlertNet, UK - 50 minutes ago
CRAWFORD, Texas, Aug 6 (Reuters) - About 70 anti-war protesters marched toward President ... The march was led by Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, California, who ...
Anti-war protesters march toward Bush ranch
Leading The Charge, Australia - 11 minutes ago
CRAWFORD, Texas - About 70 anti-war protestersmarched toward President Bush`s ranch on ... The march was led by Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville,California, who ...
Truth Gathers In Dallas
The Baltimore Chronicle, MD - Aug 5, 2005
... words, the public will get reports from fantasy-land in Crawford, Texas, while the ... George, let me introduce you to my good friend Cindy Sheehan...she is so ...
Dallas Morning News (subscription) Vets speak against war at peace group convention
Dallas Morning News (subscription), TX - Aug 4, 2005
... Speaker Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Army Spc ... Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq last year ... from the convention to President Bush's Crawford, Texas, home on ...
*******
A Yahoo search has the UK and others picking up the Story, this will be Updated I'm sure from All sources!!!!!
by jimstaro on Sat Aug 6th, 2005 at 13:45:52 PDT
http://www.dailykos.com (tutt's link)
I can't get audio but here's a link about the protest in Atlanta today.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/
http://www.democrats.com/node/5574#comment
Keep the vote alive is the name of the march in Atlanta. I saw Jessie Jackson and others discuss how the "spin" that the neoCONS come out with, "We should make this permanent" is actually what would make the supreme court decide it's unconstitutional.
I think people need to realize that there are protections built into the vra that will dissappear once this act goes...and that is why we need to keep our issues on voting protection.
Save the voting rights act--I think today, would be a great day to write LTE about it.
Carol,
I never saw it.
Indy, sparrow, etc...
The Blue Collar Comedy Tour is (I think) a response to political correctness by 4 repulsive insulting guys who seem to be from the south. They have a huge following - you may have heard people say "git 'er done" in a deep southern drawl...that's from them.
Anyway - I can't stand it, but sociologically, an interesting look into the kind of folks who like it. I'd bet they are largely republicans, although that might be my bias. Jeff Foxworthy, of "you might be a redneck..." fame, is the least offensive of the group. Larry the cable guy is another very offensive one of them.
If anyone here does get it, please explain why it's funny, cuz I think I might be missing the joke.
http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf?/base/living/112314795736070.xml&coll=2
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/06/politics/politicsspecial1/06confirm.html?pagewanted=print
Is the president hiding info about Roberts?
Posted by: Carol at August 6, 2005 05:28 PM
Carol,
Have you seen any discussion of Cindy on the ap?
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1205
Bush's prewar contemptible plans to get us involved in the new Vietnam.
From a signature line I've seen in the D.U. "What's the difference between Vietnam and Iraq? The difference is: Bush had a plan to get out of Vietnam!"
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/British_U.S._justification_for_increased_prewar_bombing_foun_0804.html
The Reporters: Court must order release of Ghraib photos
RAW STORY
A coalition of 14 media organizations and public interest groups organized by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in U.S. District Court in New York urging the release of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos late Thursday in a release to RAW STORY.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Reporters_Court_must_order_release_of_Ghr_0804.html
In my opinion, we do need to grow to realize we are all Americans. ALL.
I jab Dubya, and probably shouldn't do it, but I do out of frustration, anger, and yes....fear sometimes.
Being compassionate and caring means we want to see ALL of America succeed, all Americans prospering in mind, body, and spirit. To reach their full potential.
We still have a chance to see that happen, but I fear it will slip away in '06 if we don't start campaigning now.
Nobody deserves to be the butt of a joke. Ignorant people, rural people, religious people, non religious people, gay, straight, black, white, or in between. Nobody deserves it (forgive me if I make the exception this administration....they are our real enemies to freedom and opportunity for all.)
Live Appletini Blogging at The Democratic Daily:
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=167
There's also a bit of chocolate blogging included.
More after I get back from the fireworks.
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at August 6, 2005 05:49 PM
Truth,
Are they showing Cindy where you are?
To GWB:
George, where were you today?
With the last of 16 Ohio families notified that their Marines were dead in Iraq, other military families rallied to help, and hundreds gathered for a prayer vigil in Cleveland. [...] The losses came in quick succession for the suburban Cleveland-based 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. Two soldiers died July 28 in a gun battle, followed by five on Monday while on sniper patrol. Then nine members of the battalion were killed Wednesday along with five other Marines and an interpreter in the deadliest roadside bombing of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Were you just too busy on the ranch, to give some support to the families whose sons and daughters died in your needless war?
More ammo:
As Bush War gets personal, nation must find its outrage
ONE OF the great mysteries of the Bush War in Iraq has been the incredible acquiescence of the American people to the unfolding tragedy. There is a seemingly passive acceptance of the conflict-without-end. Some have called the unquestioning silent assent obscene.
It is surely that and more. Where, in God's name, is the outrage? Where are the protests in the streets against a government that has lied to its citizens and taken them for everything they hold dear?
Some say a massive public revolt is missing in action because the country as a whole doesn't feel the pain of war yet. While many may be unsettled about the regular litany of deaths and bombings coming from Iraq, it's simply not personal yet. Certainly it's tragic when a U.S. soldier dies over there but chances are it's nobody you knew.
So the mournful event passes with flags and tears until another and another and another brings the pain home somewhere else in America. Given time the pain of young men and women lost forever will reach into even more homes. Maybe, heaven forbid, it will eventually reach out and tap someone you know.
Then the loss will be personal - or personal enough. An uneasiness is already creeping into our collective comfort zone about the Bush War no matter how firmly one supports the troops with a zillion car magnets or flowing yellow ribbons. This isn't about supporting the troops.
It's about bringing them home alive in one piece. But when military funerals in your state or hometown begin to occur more frequently, either weekly, or bi-weekly, or tragically all at once, the cumulative effect of the senseless dying in Iraq may hit those in denial hard.
When five Marines from the same suburban Cleveland unit died Monday in two separate attacks, northeast Ohio lurched in disbelief. When many more died from the same Ohio-based battalion Wednesday, the area was numb. Any detachment to the war among those following the devastating news was gone.
Now it's personal. Now the pain of war has hit a community that never saw it coming. Trembling widows and heartsick families will clutch pictures of their lost soldiers and re-read yesterday's e-mail from Iraq. It can't be true. Can't be.
No one grieving over the fresh graves would dare suggest that the young souls died for nothing. But gradually the unspoken why of it all is sure to wrap itself around the wrenching agony and rising anger of those who weep. And when it does, the outrage kept in national check until now may stir.
The reason over 1,800 young Americans have died in Iraq and 12,000 plus have been grievously wounded is hard to pin down. The Bush Administration has changed it several times.
First it was about saving the world from deadly weapons of mass destruction.
Then it was about liberating people. Then it was about spreading democracy. Then it was about fighting terrorists over there so we wouldn't have to fight them over here.
Then it was about keeping the peace in a land of violent convulsions where friend and foe are indistinguishable, while we wait for a constitution to be written, approved, and rooted. But it's a horrible pipe dream floated by the administration that keeps springing leaks and taking American lives.
Maybe you've heard of the "Lucky Lima" Marine unit that drew reservists from across Ohio into the Iraqi conflict. It lived down to its nickname, losing 11 soldiers since the beginning of the war.
Lance Cpl. Christopher Lyons, with a wife and 3-month-old baby waiting for his return in Ashland, died a week ago when his Columbus-based company was attacked in western Iraq. He saw his newborn daughter through Web cameras on the Internet and choked up but never got to hold her before he was killed.
Why? What did he die for in some unpronounceable village thousands of miles from home? So the resilient, sophisticated insurgency can regroup to kill another day? So another Marine unit can mop up another sprung leak?
Is there any succinct strategy to end America's nightmare in a country torn asunder by power vacuums exacerbated by cultural and religious divides? Christopher Lyons, who was due home in late September, was only 24.
Feel enough pain yet to demand the truth about Iraq from the Bush White House? Give it time.
Marilou Johanek is a Blade commentary writer.
» Read more Marilou Johanek columns at www.toledoblade.com/johanek
Posted by: Carol at August 6, 2005 05:28 PM
In attempts to understand what makes humans tick...or tock...in our vast and infinate individuality the list must start with environment, parental care and responsibility, parental example of how to behave as a newly born homo sapian.
Examples of community and friendship or lack their of...individual talents and abilities (which must be strongly linked to parental nurturing or lack there of) and personality traits. Maturity, prinicples and ethics, values (monitary versus human values versus religious).
We are all, by our birthright, Americans...and in order to reach all Americans and enlighten them as to the perils of a democracy gone astray, we must speak in concise terms about specific truths that affect us all as Americans.
(BTW Carol...I really personally deplore the term "thugs" because those blindly following the Neocon government are just Americans who do not yet realize they are being deceived and lied to)
As I wrote on the last thread...and the one before...(please look back to read "Breaching the Divide...about Multiculturalism)
Stem cell research, abortion and the civil rights of homosexual Americans have been the needles used to drain the life-blood of our people…the very blades driven into the heart of America.
The culmination of these issues, which are distorted and perverted by the current administration and the media, comes down to this one simple human truth:
All good people of conscience respect and value life…in nearly every school of philosophy...within every holy book is written the wisdom of individual free will.
"Judge not lest ye be judged."
If a citizen breaks the laws of our Nation, they are granted the right to a trial by a jury of their peers and are held to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. However, if an individual breaks the laws or traditions of a religion, the conflict is between that person and their Creator and no one else, and as such, according to faith, shall face judgment before their Creator…not before humanity.
Thomas Jefferson's 'Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom' was drafted in 1777. Although it was not enacted into law until 1786 as the 'Statute of Religious Freedom' , it not only firmly established the principles of religious freedom and the separation of church and state, but provided the basis for the First Amendment’s clause on religion.
Individual free will is one of the most profound and fundamental foundations of our natural rights which define our personal freedoms as human beings, as Americans and as a civilization.
This is one of the key elements in finding common ground…in reaching out to all Americans…regardless of race, creed or ideology…in showing respect for each others' individual beliefs, and in promoting the truth evident within our responsibility as citizens to accept that every American has a right to formulate and enact their own choices as free and sentient beings.
Be the Truth.
Posted by: Carol at August 6, 2005 04:51 PM
I must say I have seen Blue Collar Comedy Tour and hate it!
Thanks for posting the info on Cindy, guys! I wish I was there with her!
Where can I find anything about Atlanta. The atlantaindymedia dodn't have a link I could see.
Where can I find anything about Atlanta. The atlantaindymedia dodn't have a link I could see.
Posted by: Marjorie G at August 6, 2005 07:04 PM
Here are some stories Margorie...the national news covered the story with video.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-06-votingrights_x.htm
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=67362
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/08/06/voting.rights.ap/
Thanks, Indy!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050806/pl_nm/bush_dc_11
White House officials meet anti-war protesters
{{{ BTW, below is the caption for the photo on this story - click on photo for larger view - the Shrub looks pi$$ed!!! Good.... I felt that way when I saw the words "crowed about the strength of the U.S. economy..." CROWED?!? Lest anyone forget, service jobs in summer make the employment stats go up. It's only summer employment in tourist areas, etc., not permanent jobs with high salaries, bennies, etc. The summer jobs for students end when they go back to college and high school....}}}
As Americans question his Iraq policy, President George W. Bush crowed about the strength of the U.S. economy on August 6, 2005 and credited his hotly debated tax cuts for the growth. File photo shows Bush (R) listening to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe during a joint news conference at Bush's Central Texas ranch in Crawford, Texas, August 4, 2005. Larry Downing/Reuters Photo by Larry Downing/Reuters
Christopher Lyons, who was killed last week in Iraq before he saw his new born baby, was a 1999 graduate of Shelby Senior High School. He worked at the Mansfield News Journal, a paper which still has pictures of Bush's visit a year ago to Mansfield displayed on the website. Christopher will be buried in Ashland.
Last Wed. my husband's golf partner was very sad. HIs son and son-in-law are being deployed to Iraq. His daughter isin the service too, but she isn't going now' The name of his son's best friend? Christopher Lyons. God help us all.
Oh, and don't forget: Mercenaries are being hired from Columbia to work in Iraq, and their salaries are considerably less than that of American mercenaries hired by Halliburton and subsidiaries...
***************new thread*****************
Kay,
A friend of mine has a coworker whose husband is going on his 3rd tour of Iraq. Somebody needs to tell Bush these same 1000 people are tired of risking their lives on the cycle of doom
More pictures from D.U.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1990607
Posted by: sparrow at August 6, 2005 03:51 PM
Actually, I changed my mind. Instead of blue, I used green to indicate the money hungry bloodsuckers!