Creepy

That is a powerful diary.

I can only pray that the draft doesn't get reinstated and my wonderful kids are forced to fight for some rich bastards twisted ideas of "freedom". I would take my family and leave this country before I would let that happen.

Thank you for posting this, Casey. Minutes before coming here, I had sent the Kos diary to Keith Olberman and ask him - begged him - to get off the Karr story. We finally have a few shows which are speaking truth to power, and it broke my heart to see one of them devoting the first chunk of the show to this tawdry ratings grab.

That diary is indeed powerful and the media's current obsession is beyond disheartening. We should send the diary to every media person we can, if only to make ourselves feel better.

From the previous thread:

Ally
You have a bigger government and higher tax burden but you also get more for your money. You get what you pay for. If the state is small enough to be drowned in a bathtub then all you get is roads and military (Grover Norquist model).

Posted by: DiAnne at August 22, 2006 12:57 AM

Of course, we all know that :)

Honestly, under the Grover Norquist model, I don't know if decent roads will even be provided. The BMW owners will whine about all the potholes - and the speed limits going back down to 55 as a result.

Unfortunately, since the Republicans own the auto enthusiast set like they own the gun owners, they'll blame the Dems for one more "useless piece of regulation" - lower speed limits.

Posted by: oncall at August 22, 2006 10:26 AM

Oncall,

I am headed up to Vancouver BC for Labor Day weekend. And if the draft is even a remote possibility here in the US, I will definitely look at options for long-term stays in Vancouver or somewhere nearby.

I have an uncle who runs a motel in rural British Columbia, so I may have to look into that.

Back to the JonBenet Ramsey story, the media is already raising speculations about John Karr's supposed desire for a sex change. This will definitely be a lot of flak for the legitimate transgender community.

Ally
Have fun in BC. I suppose the media is saturating the airwaves with this. When I stayed at my mom's for a week last summer I watched her tv and it was all about the missing girl in Aruba - same speculation over & over.
Best to just avoid it. I listened to BBC & NPR on the way to work & not a word about it. I just read the Comcast headlines & not a word about it. TV is just causing an obesity epidemic, I think. Glad someone is chastising any worthy programs (such as Olberman) for joining the fray.

Hey You
by Pink Floyd

Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?
Hey you, standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you, dont help them to bury the light
Dont give in without a fight.

Hey you, out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you, with you ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out
Would you touch me?
Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I'm coming home.

But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high,
As you can see.
No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.

Hey you, standing in the road
Always doing what youre told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, dont tell me theres no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.

I haven't written my emails yet, but honestly, every time the Jon Benet story comes on, I turn off the tv. I'm not sure why the networks and Olbermann think this warrants so much time, but frankly - creepy is right, and who cares? is even more accurate. Not that I'm not glad they got the guy, if it IS the guy, but come on.

Like you said, Casey - why not cover the beautiful girls who are dying for the BushCo. farce? That would be much more relevant. Good job, Casey!

Posted by: DiAnne at August 22, 2006 11:50 AM

Good advice on avoiding the MSM. The MSM *will* drive me insane if left unchecked.

I just added Sirius Satellite Radio to my car, and I am completely ignoring CNN and Fox News in favor of its better news offerings, such as BBC, CBC, PRI, and various international channels. And I know that I'll be spending a lot of time with CBC in the weeks and months ahead.

Of course, listening to Stephanie Miller on Sirius Left doesn't hurt either! (Though the competition, XM, does one better and carries Air America...)

Granted, Sirius has its share of garbage too (Southern Baptist Convention, Fox News Talk, Radio Korea), but they need all the subscribers they can find - including morons and reactionary immigrants - so I won't blame them.

Connecticut Groups Push to Remove Lieberman From Ballot. Prior Opponent Calls Lieberman's party a Fake Party.

Associated Press-Washington Post
Tuesday, August 22, 2006; Page A06

"HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 21 -- Critics of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's independent run to keep his job attacked on two fronts Monday, with one group asking an elections official to throw him out of the Democratic Party and a former rival calling on state officials to keep his name off the November ballot.

Staffers for the senator from Connecticut, who lost the Aug. 8 Democratic primary to Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, called both efforts dirty politics. The senator filed as an independent candidate a day after the loss, running under the new Connecticut for Lieberman Party.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman is seeking reelection under his own new party.
A group whose members describe themselves as peace activists asked Sharon Ferrucci, Democratic registrar of voters in New Haven, to remove Lieberman from the party, arguing that he cannot be a Democrat while running under another party's banner.

The request could lead to a hearing in which Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2000, would have to argue that he still adheres to the party's principles.

"The law is pretty clear he is no longer a member of the Democratic Party in good standing," said group leader Henry Lowendorf. "There was an open vote, and he was voted out. He joined a different party."

Ferrucci said she would research the request, the first of its kind in her two decades on the job.

Lieberman campaign manager Sherry Brown branded the effort "dirty political tricks at its worst."

"This kind of ridiculous, partisan game-playing is not going to provide anyone in Connecticut with better jobs, better health care or better schools," she said.

Since losing the primary, Lieberman has referred to himself as an "independent Democrat" and said he plans to remain part of the Democratic caucus in Washington, even though several leading Democrats have called for him to give up his independent run.

"Lieberman, popular among Republicans and unaffiliated voters, led Lamont by 12 percentage points in a recent statewide poll, with Republican Alan Schlesinger far behind."

John Orman, a Democrat who gave up a challenge to Lieberman last year, argued in complaints filed with the state Monday that the senator should be kept off the Nov. 7 ballot.

"Orman, a Fairfield University professor of political science, accused Lieberman of creating "a fake political party" and added: "He's doing anything he can to get his name on the ballot."

Welcome Back Indy.

that lead has become a tie in CT.
August 22, 2006
Lieberman and Lamont Tied in Connecticut

Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont are in a statistical tie in the race for United States Senate in Connecticut according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among likely voters in November, 44% say they would vote for Lieberman, 42% say they would vote for Lamont, 3% say they would vote for Alan Schlesinger, and 11% are undecided.

That’s from The American Research Group.

Casey,

That diary was really moving and as oncall said, "Powerful."

The focus on the Ramsey case does seem to be rather lewd and perverted. Same with the missing blond from Aruba. Maybe it's more intense than simple media excess exposure on drama. Maybe people would rather look at JBR and the other missing white girls and say, "thank god it's not me or my kid..." than really look at what all of us are doing to society and to humanity.

All of this is a perversion of humanity, so why wallow in it?

Casey:

Thank you for the link and the heart-wrenching diary.

There's really not more that can be said except that its hard for the media to objectify women soldiers. Not enough ratings in their deaths except as statistics.

In order to make them news, we need to fear for their lives, need to show them as helpless, vulnerable or victimized, to make them newsworthy. We need parents to fear for their daughters.

Such an environment to create great role models for future generations of women.

By the way, thank you for the word "saprophytes". They are bottom-feeders feeding not only on death but also on weakness, victimization and exploitation.

Side by side headlines on CNN.com...

• Bush: Democrats wrong on Iraq
• Poll: Opposition to Iraq war at all-time high

Suz
There have been small girls and teens missing many times who were minorities and there was virtually no coverage. I see "Missing girl" signs on posts all the time. Has to be someone with prominent parents or blond, it seems. There is something skewed about the values - deja vu to Eurocentrism in the last century, colonialism, lasp gasp of aristocracy.

Monkey
Someone sent me a 3rd poll which reported Bush's popularity was at the highest in 6 months - what gives?! That wouldn't have to be that high, but I smell hype in any such poll. Of course, any time he comes on the tube (W), his ratings temporarily rise. That's one reason they keep other people off (such as Kerry during 2003-4).

Ally
You really can do fine without tv news because it isn't really news. I swear I have gone since 1991 and never looked back. & when I do see it, it is edited like MTV or the SuperBowl with yelling people and flash. Totally unprofessional. I can name the shows I have watched in 15 years: Simpsons, King of the Hill, Ren & Stimpy, FrontLine, 60 Minutes, a few documentaries & I do watch foreign tv if I get a chance, out of curiosity. In hotels & when visiting my mom, I surfed through cable & it seemed a wasteland. I saw the first reality show and the first singing idol show, to know what they were. When I was a kid, we got 1-2 channels, watched no more than an hour a day (if that, had no tv til I was 6, it was B&W, and the news was at dinnertime and it was still news (such as Chet Huntley & David Brinkley). There were actually reporters.

Read Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander. Read Marshall McLuhan - it's a passive medium. My neighbor has a bumper sticker that says Kill Your Television.

I read this article when I was a student and eventually acted upon it. I have found the experience to be liberating.

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Jerry Mander

Most Americans, whether on the political left, center or right, will argue that technology is neutral, that any technology is merely a benign instrument, a tool, and depending upon the hands into which it falls, it may be used one way or another. (snip)

The argument goes that television is merely a window or a conduit through which any perception, any argument or reality may pass. It therefore has the potential to be enlightening to people who watch it and is potentially useful to democratic processes. (snip)

If you once accept the principle of an army - a collection of military technologies and people to run them - all gathered together for the purpose of fighting, overpowering, killing and winning, then it is obvious that the supervisors of armies will be the sort of people who desire to fight, overpower, kill and win, and who are also good at these assignments: generals. (snip)

If you accept the existence of automobiles, you also accept the existence of roads laid upon the landscape, oil to run the cars, and huge institutions to find the oil, pump it and distribute it. In addition you accept a sped-up style of life and the movement of humans through the terrain at speeds that make it impossible to pay attention to whatever is growing there. Humans who use cars sit in fixed positions for long hours following a narrow strip of gray pavement, with eyes fixed forward, engaged in the task of driving. As long as they are driving, they are living within what we might call "roadform". Slowly they evolve into car-people. McLuhan told us that cars "extended the human feet, but he put it the wrong way. Cars replaced human feet.

If you accept nuclear power plants, you also accept a techno-scientific-industrial-military elite. Without these people in charge, you could not have nuclear power. You and I getting together with a few friends could not make use of nuclear power. We could not build such a plant, nor could we make personal use of its output, nor handle or store the radioactive waste products which remain dangerous to life for thousands of years. (snip)

If you accept mass production, you accept that a small number of people will supervise the daily existence of a much larger number of people. You accept that human beings will spend long hours, every day, engaged in repetitive work, while supressing any desires for experience or activity beyond this work. The workers' behaviour becomes subject to the machine. (snip)

If you accept the existence of advertising, you accept a system designed to persuade and to dominate minds by interfering in people's thinking patterns. You also accept that the system will be used by the sorts of people who like to influence people and are good at it.(snip)

In all of these instances, the basic form of the institution and the technology determines its interaction with the world, the way it will be used, the kind of people who use it, and to what ends. And so it is with television. Far from being "neutral," television itself predetermines who shall use it, how they will use it, what effects it will have on individual lives, and, if it continues to be widely used, what sorts of political forms will inevitably emerge. (snip)

The first argument is theoretical and environmental. (snip) It is about a process, already long underway, which has successfully redirected and confined human experience and therefore knowledge and perceived reality. We have all been moved into such a narrow and deprived channel of experience that a dangerous instrument like television can come along and seem useful, interesting, sane, and worthwhile at the same time it further boxes people into a physical and mental condition appropriate for the emergence of autocratic control.

The second argument concerns the emergence of the controllers. That television would be used and expanded by the present powers-that-be was inevitable, and should have been predictable at the outset. The technology permits of no other controllers.

The third argument concerns the effects of television upon individual human bodies and minds, effects which fit the purposes of the people who control the medium.

The fourth argument demonstrates that television has no democratic potential. The technology itself places absolute limits on what may pass through it. The medium, in effect, chooses its own content from a very narrow field of possibilities. The effect is to drastically confine all human understanding within a rigid channel. What binds the four arguments together is that they deal with aspects of television that are not reformable.

What is revealed in the end is that there is ideology in the technology itself. To speak of television as "neutral" and therefore subject to change is as absurd as speaking of the reform of a technology such as guns.

From the book "Questioning Technology", edited by John Zerzan and Alice Carnes.
New Society Publishers, Philadelphia PA. ISBN: 0-86571-205-0.
---

Thankfully, television is gradually being rendered obsolete by other more active and flexible technologies.

As a medical professional concerned with development of attention, perception, language and cognition, I emphasize the following to parents. There is additional recent research which suggests habitual television exposure can increase a predisposition to attention deficit disorder, as real life is not fast-paced, edited nor does it have fast forward or rewind buttons.

American Academy of Pediatrics DISCOURAGES TELEVISION FOR VERY YOUNG CHILDREN

CHICAGO - A new policy from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urges parents to avoid television for children under 2 years old.

"While certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills," the policy says.

The new AAP statement on media education also suggests parents create an "electronic media-free" environment in children's rooms, and avoid using media as an electronic babysitter. In addition, it recommends pediatricians incorporate questions about media into routine child health visits, as education can reduce harmful media effects.

"With an educated understanding of media images and messages, users can recognize media's potential effects and make good choices about their and their children's media exposure," states the new policy.

According to the AAP, a media educated person understands that:

all media messages are constructed;
media messages shape our understanding of the world;
individuals interpret media messages uniquely; and
mass media has powerful economic implications.
Research strongly suggests that media education may result in young people becoming less vulnerable to negative aspects of media exposure, the AAP says. In some studies, heavy viewers of violent programming were less accepting of violence or showed decreased aggressive behavior after a media education intervention. Another study found a change in attitudes about wanting to drink alcohol after a media education program.

Canada, Great Britain, Australia and some Latin American countries have successfully incorporated media education into school curricula, the statement says. "Common sense would suggest that increased media education in the United States could represent a simple, potentially effective approach to combating the myriad of harmful media messages seen or heard by children and adolescents."

In addition, the AAP emphasized that media education should not be used as a substitute for careful scrutiny of the media industry's responsibility for its programming.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In 1997 the AAP created the media education campaign Media Matters as a way to educate pediatricians to teach families the importance of media literacy.

Iran's 'Supreme Leader' lashes out at Bush

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday August 22, 2006

An Iranian news agency is reporting that the nation's "Supreme Leader" has lashed out at US President George W. Bush, threatening to "smash the arrogant powers," if "huge powers" become involved in the current nuclear standoff.

Fars News Agency, closely affiliated with the Iranian Judiciary, has quoted Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has called on Muslim leaders to join together to "paralyze" the United States. An excerpt from the English translation report follows:

"This Person (Bush) speaks as if he were the master and owner of Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Iran and other Muslim states, but if the huge power of nations comes to the scene -- as it happened in Lebanon, it will smash the arrogant powers so badly that the enemies of Islam will no longer be able to continue with their rude and arrogant behavior," Ayatollah Khamenei said, while addressing a public meeting here on Tuesday also attended by the heads of the three branches of the government, the Expediency Council Chairman, the state and military officials, and Ambassadors of Muslim states on the feast of Mab'ath (i.e. anniversary of Prophet Mohammad's (PBUH) divine assignment to prophethood).

He said that the world hegemonic powers had pinned much hope in the former dictator of Iran, i.e. the Pahlavi dynasty, and reminded, "But Imam Khomeini provided a huge service for this nation and brought Iranians to the scene."

"If the same pattern of vigilance takes place in all the Islamic states and Muslim nations come to the scene, the United States and other arrogant powers of the world will be paralyzed in the face of the huge power of the nations," he continued.

more on...
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Irans_Supreme_Leader_lashes_out_at_0822.html

(... and all the righties will say, "let's take it to 'em", or "nuke 'em!"... never understanding why this is happening in the first place!)

Posted by: monkey at August 22, 2006 02:11 PM

Great screenshot.
Accurate screenshot.

Sometimes CNN does say the truth.
It's just too bad they have to hide it that way so that you might miss the nuances. (From the same people who hate nuances.)

Posted by: DiAnne at August 22, 2006 02:59 PM

I agree with this.

P.E. shrinks; waistlines bulge

School-age children are growing fatter, but most states are failing to provide them with enough physical education, according to a report by the American Heart Association and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Critics contend the legislation meant to bolster academic standards -- President Bush's No Child Left Behind program -- may be a culprit.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/20/PE.NCLB/index.html

Thousands of Marines face involuntary recalls

Tuesday, August 22, 2006; Posted: 2:50 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Marine Corps said Tuesday it has been authorized to recall thousands of Marines to active duty, primarily because of a shortage of volunteers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Up to 2,500 Marines will be brought back at any one time, but there is no cap on the total number of Marines who may be forced back into service in the coming years. The call-ups will begin in the next several months.

This is the first time the Marines have had to use the involuntary recall since the early days of the Iraq combat. The Army has ordered back about 14,000 soldiers since the start of the war.

Marine Col. Guy A. Stratton, head of the manpower mobilization section, estimated that there is a shortfall of about 1,200 Marines needed to fill positions in upcoming unit deployments.

The call-up affects Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve, a segment of the reserves that consists mainly of those who left active duty but still have time remaining on their eight-year military obligation.

Generally, Marines enlist for four years, then serve the other four years either in the regular Reserves, where they are paid and train periodically, or they may elect to go into the IRR. Marines in the IRR are only obligated to report one day a year but can be involuntarily recalled to active duty.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/22/marines.ap/index.html

Posted by: monkey at August 22, 2006 03:36 PM

Hmmmm. I thought they were meeting their recruiting goals......

Stop the madness, sadness, badness.

Posted by: Carol at August 22, 2006 03:51 PM

Indeed, only in BushWorld can you meet recruiting goals, and not have enough people.

Fuzzy Massacre

Up to two years on duty...

The deployments can last up to two years, but on average would be 12 to 18 months, Stratton said. And each Marine who is being recalled will get five months to prepare before having to report for duty.

President Bush authorized the recall on July 26. It is the first such recall since early 2003, when about 2,000 Marines were involuntarily activated for the initial ground war in Iraq.

“Since this is going to be a long war,” said Stratton, “we thought it was judicious and prudent at this time to be able to use a relatively small portion of those Marines to help us augment our units.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14468245/

Monkey
Someone sent me a 3rd poll which reported Bush's popularity was at the highest in 6 months - what gives?! That wouldn't have to be that high, but I smell hype in any such poll.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 22, 2006 02:44 PM

Yep, this in todays msnbc.com (see last line)...

Bush, now at 42%, heads to swing-state Minnesota

President Bush heads to Minnetonka, MN for a panel on health transparency at 3:35 pm ET. "The President believes Americans should have reliable information about the prices and quality of most common medical procedures, and he will sign an Executive Order today to help increase access to this information," per the White House. After that event, he headlines a fundraiser for the Minnesota GOP and House candidate Michele Bachmann in Wayzata, MN at 5:45 pm ET.

The fundraiser will take place at a private residence and is closed-press, which is par for the course for a private home. Then-President Clinton attended his share of closed-press fundraisers at private homes. But the fact that Bush is having a lot of closed-press events lately (he's got another one tomorrow in Virginia) happens to coincide with the storyline of Republican candidates seeking to distance themselves from him. With Bush standing firm on US troops not "leaving before the job is done" in Iraq, as he said several times yesterday, and the war remaining Americans' top concern, that storyline is likely to persist. On a brighter note for Bush and the GOP, though, two national polls now show his job approval rating at 42%.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14414434/#Bush

Posted by: monkey at August 22, 2006 04:10 PM

They're going to have a field day trying to track down all the IRR folks and trying to get them to meet weight & physical fitness standards.

And now the true meaning of that eight-year contract sinks in.

At least the gov't is passing the bill that pays the difference between what you earned at your normal job and what you earn as a deployed reservist...so Joe Businessman gets an extra $3000/month, and Jane FryCook gets, oh, an extra 2 cents a month. Nice to know we're evening the playing field.

Veritas -- did you happen to catch Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke" last night?

Security politics

The latest Gallup/USA Today poll shows Bush's job approval rating at its highest in six months (42%) and an unnamed Democratic congressional candidate beating an unnamed Republican by the lowest margin in a year (2 points). The paper attributes this to the London terror arrests: "The boost may prove to be temporary, but it was evidence of the continuing political power of terrorism." That said: "Terrorism is the only area in which Bush has a positive standing and the only one that significantly changed. His rating is below 40% on six other issues." CNN's new poll also has Bush at 42%.

The Washington Post says Bush's passionate "defense of his Iraq policy" yesterday "was striking in light of the plummeting support for the war among the public and -- more worrisome for the White House -- among Republicans... Iraq has become the central issue in the" fall campaign, "prompting some GOP candidates to avoid public appearances with the president."

Bush "put the issue squarely at the top of this year's congressional elections, saying it will be a defining difference between Republicans and Democrats... Democrats said they welcome the election-year debate and charged Mr. Bush isn't offering anything concrete for voters to back." – Washington Times

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14414434/#Bush

Video: Daily Show sees Iraq violence as misplaced appreciation for the US

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday August 22, 2006

After a New York Times report that President Bush has expressed frustration that Iraqis have not expressed appreciation for the sacrifices that the United States has made in Iraq, The Daily Show has launched its own investigation.

The Daily Show's Baghdad Bureau Chief, Aasif Mandvi, joined host Jon Stewart to examine the gap between the president's expectations and the behavior of the Iraqi people. Mandvi explains that the violence in Iraq is simply misplaced appreciation for their liberation and continued security. Mandvi says that "as three years have gone by it has become harder and harder to find the right way to say 'thank you.'"

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Video_Daily_Show_sees_Iraq_violence_0822.html

McCain faults administration on Iraq

By JOHN McCARTHY, Associated Press Writer
37 minutes ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican Sen. John McCain, a staunch defender of the Iraq war, on Tuesday faulted the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing the conflict would be "some kind of day at the beach."

The potential 2008 presidential candidate, who a day earlier had rejected calls for withdrawing U.S. forces, said the administration had failed to make clear the challenges facing the military.

"I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifices that would be required," McCain said. "Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes, a few dead-enders. I'm just more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be."

Those phrases are closely associated with top members of the Bush administration, including the president.

Bush stood below a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" on May 1, 2003 after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. The war has continued since then, with the death of more than 2,600 members of the U.S. military. Vice President Dick Cheney said last year that the Iraqi insurgency was "in its final throes."

The Arizona senator said that talk "has contributed enormously to the frustration that Americans feel today because they were led to believe this could be some kind of day at the beach, which many of us fully understood from the beginning would be a very, very difficult undertaking."

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060822/ap_on_go_co/mccain_iraq

VIDEO: O'Reilly asks if judge who ruled against NSA wiretaps wants Americans to die

David Edwards
Published: Tuesday August 22, 2006

Last night, Bill O'Reilly and Tom McArdle of Investor's Business Daily took turns slamming the federal judge who recently ruled against the NSA's domestic eavesdropping program as a "liberal activist" who may want "Americans to die" or "wish ill will on our forces."

"You see, I don't understand Judge Taylor," O'Reilly began the conversation, "maybe you can help me."

"Does she want Americans to die?" O'Reilly asked.

McArdle sidestepped O'Reilly's question (which was pronounced twice by the FOX News host), but said that the judge has a "long history as a left-leaning political operative."

But O'Reilly persisted with his line of inquiry.

"But say she is a - and I do believe this...I know her background - she is a activist, far left jurist," said O'Reilly. "Okay. Say that's true. Does she want dead people in the street here in America?"

Finally, McArdle agreed.

"That's right," said McArdle. "I don't have a crystal ball and none of us do as far as looking into this woman's mind and seeing what her motivation is."

"Does she really wish ill will on our forces or is it some kind of pacificistic naivete?" asked McArdle.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/OReilly_swiftboats_judge_who_ruled_against_0822.html

Watch Paul Hackett on Hardball, debating (R) Van Taylor on Iraq.

Chris Matthews plays Hardball with Taylor.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Posted by: Carol at August 22, 2006 09:30 PM

Holy crap, what a smackdown!

Either Matthews is totally fed up with the Iraq situation, or he REALLY doesn't like that guy. Or maybe both.

Monkey
That is sick. I protested the guy on healthcare specifically in Mnnesota and I don't even live there! I rode to the rally in a public school bus. A cheese bus.

By the way, sounds like the Katrina tv show is worthy. Too bad there isn't more like that. My tv boycott is kind of like a vegetarian's meat boycott. Just want more control what goes into my system.

Thanks for posting the article about involuntary Marine call-ups. I just got it from a Quaker here who worked for years with homeless vets & put it on Vets for Peace.

When I came home from work my husband had Air America blaring (I don't listen to it much either - has commercials tho I realize it has to stay on air - preaching to converted). However Randi Rhodes is funny - she was talking about all the armpit hair she had to put up with at Hempfest! (She was MC).

Thankfully, television is gradually being rendered obsolete by other more active and flexible technologies.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 22, 2006 02:54 PM

And that will be a good thing for all of America and the world.

Randi Rhodes complaining about the armpit hair? Next time, she REALLY needs to drop by at the Wildrose and mingle with the unshaven lesbians :)

Harris loses another staffer

The Orlando Sentinel
Posted August 22, 2006

U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris has lost another key staffer in the wake of a disastrous political rally last week.

Rhyan Metzler, who had been Harris' political director, is no longer with the campaign, according to Harris spokeswoman Jennifer Marks. Metzler is being blamed for embarrassing comments Harris made after a rally at Orlando Executive Airport.

Only 40 people showed up for the event, and Harris blamed the paltry turnout in part on a last-minute location change. She said a tree fell on the hangar that the rally was scheduled to be in, forcing her campaign to switch to another hangar.

Airport officials, however, said no trees had fallen and that Harris was in the hangar her campaign had originally booked.

Marks would not discuss Metzler's departure. "We're not going into the details of a personnel issue," she said.

Harris' campaign has been plagued by massive staff turnover. The Longboat Key Republican is now on her fourth campaign manager and third communications director.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-stbriefs22_306aug22,0,1329344.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

Cruella DeVil meets Leona Helmsley

Inhofe optimistic on Iraq

By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
8/22/2006

It's well on the way toward handling its own security, he says U.S. involvement in Iraq has been incredibly successful and developments there have been "nothing short of a miracle," Sen. James Inhofe said Monday.

During his half-hour speech before the Tulsa Metro Chamber at the Doubletree Hotel at Warren Place, Inhofe called the United Nations an "absolute disaster" whose peacekeepers in Africa have been "going around teaching girls to be prostitutes."

Contrary to most reports, Inhofe said, many Iraqis are pleased about the U.S. intervention.

"Iraqi security forces now number 275,000 trained and equipped," he said. "The commanders in the field and the Iraqis say when this reaches 325,000, that would equal 10 divisions, and that's what we need to take care of our own security."

Inhofe has visited Iraq 11 times.

"What's happened there is nothing short of a miracle," he said.

Nevertheless, Inhofe said the current international situation makes him "wistful for the Cold War."

"Then we had one powerful opponent, in the Soviet Union," he said. "They were predictable; we knew what they had. This is not predictable."

Inhofe's brief but pointed attack on the U.N. included a renewed call for Washington to withhold financial support of the organization and his assertion that the U.N. is trying to impose a "global tax" to support itself.

-snip-

Inhofe again took on man-made global warming.

He didn't dispute that the Earth is warming but said the reasons for it and the likely outcome are not as certain as many others believe.

He reiterated his belief that global warming is largely a front for international economic movements.

"I see this, I see this, and I know it's true," he said.

http://tinyurl.com/zs93p

Coo-coo

neither McCain nor Dewine pass the Authenticity test or should be viewed as a profile in courage, complaining today about Bush's handling of the war, when both have been outspoken cheerleaders. 65 days before an election, when Dewine is 10 points down to Sherrod Brown, is a bit late to have that sudden revelation.

We discussed at Camp Wellstone, Congressman Walter freedom fries Jones' as being an example of an authentic opponent of the war, having converted to be an opponent 1 1/2 years ago and in support of the Kerry bill. Autheticity is a sign of character for a politician that Sen. McCain no longer wears.

Posted by: Carol at August 22, 2006 09:30 PM

That was hardly a debate. It was the saddest excuse for a politician using tired talking points to make a hollow case that has absolutely no defense. Hackett tore him apart. Chris Matthews obviously wasn't buying it. About time somebody from MSNBC, besides Keith Obermann, openly questions the lies that we are being forced to listen to.

Hackett showed a lot of class by strongly endorsing Brown.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Most in US see no tie between Iraq, terror war: poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans no longer see a link between the war in Iraq and Washington's broader anti-terrorism efforts despite President George W. Bush's insistence the two are intertwined, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released on Tuesday.

Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said the war in Iraq was separate from the U.S. government's war on terrorism. The findings were a considerable shift from polls taken in 2002 and early 2003, when a majority considered the two to be linked, The New York Times said.

As recently as June, opinion was evenly split, with 41 percent on both sides of the divide. Now only 32 percent considered Iraq to be a major part of the fight against terrorism, the newspaper said.

According to the poll, 46 percent said the Bush administration had concentrated too heavily on Iraq and not enough on terrorists elsewhere. Fifty-three percent said going to war in the first place was a mistake, up from 48 percent in July, The New York Times said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-08-23T022906Z_01_N22323880_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-BUSH-POLL.xml&archived=False

Posted by: Ira at August 22, 2006 10:51 PM

I agree Ira, and that is why I posted my concerns, the other day, about McCain's polling numbers. He is getting a free ride from the Bushco Propaganda machine.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 22, 2006 11:36 PM

DiAnne,

That is why I think we may be hearing more about the "freedom agenda", Bushco reads the polls too.

KATRINA ANNIVERSARY UPDATE:

One Year Later and Spike Lee is the only one paying attention...(Parts III and IV of "When the Levees Broke" on HBO tonight at 8 PM Central Time...check your local listings)

We are going through the excruciating planning process with the city...just as the national government is dysfunctional, so are our cast of corrupt and bigoted political characters here.

Yesterday we met with the Mayor's Director of Economic Development but Elvis himself...our Rockstar Mayor, C. Ray Nagin never showed up though he was scheduled to appear. C Ray has become a joke because the question has been often asked..."Hey...you see Ray lately?" Which no one has of course.

Today we go for our Planning Commission rezoning. From LI- Light Industrial to a C-2 Commercial District with a Residential Planned Commmunity Overlay. Simply put, it will allow us to have a mixed-use multi-family while still allowing the City Council, Planning Commission, and community groups the ability to set restrictions or provisos on our development.

Wednedsday Lord ONLY knows...anything can and is likely to happen.

Thursday, we go for our final Historic District Landmarks Commission Architectural Review Committee approval. The first three blocks reside in a historic district and though it has been historically light industrial and there are no historic buildings on the sites, we are subject to their review none the less. In a preliminiary review, however, John Klingman, Tulane Architecture Professor and Architectural Critic for New Orleans Magazine hailed it as "A great example of urban design and architectural sensativity."

Whatever.

As long as he votes "yes" on Thursday...we are so frustrated with the lack of leadership and indescision we just need to get shovels in the ground and let the world know we are rebuilding.

All of this and then we meet before the City Council on September 21, 2006 to either get shot down and rejected or accepted and we can finally move forward.

There is the rundown, and believe me, I wish things were different here, but what we really need is the FBI and the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana to come here with a task force and stop the price gouging of the contractors and the greedy, sweaty palms of the politicians and their cronies from being extended. Every time I turn around my phone rings with yet another friend of such and such wanting us to secure their services...and this is a privately funded project!!! Can you only imagine what the publically funded projects are like here? Of course you can...think Chicago 1920's and 1930's.

I have been battling with a contractor here who has been doing pricing for us...if you can call it that. The closest I can relate his "pricing" to anything is this:

Imagine you have a water baloon in one hand. Now gently close your fist until it is completely closed. Have you reduced the volume of the balloon? Of course not. You have only moved the water from one place into another as parts of the balloon expands. This is what we have been up against.

If anyone wants to help they can write the Attorney General of Louisiana and the FBI and stop ignorant little scumbags like the contractor of whom I speak from charging 40-50% higher prices than Pre-Katrina to set the example that this will be a fair and open free market for the rebuilding of New Orleans, not the same old song and dance.

Okay, there it is in a nutshell...or a mixed bag of post traumatically stressed nuts.

A Description of our project is as follows:

The goal of the project is to provide a unified master plan development upon a 13.1 acre site bounded by Brooklyn Street and the Mississippi River, from Eliza Street to Socrates Street with a signature riverfront image. The project shall consist of mixed-use, multi-family housing including structured parking for residents and retail spaces, as well as public parks and other amenities for the surrounding neighborhoods.

Residential buildings rise toward the Mississippi River Bridges to negotiate with the low-scale historic neighborhoods of Algiers Point and Riverview. Commercial space is provided along Brooklyn Street beneath wide balconies creating a more pedestrian scale. At Newton Street, a gently sloping public park rises to the height of the levee to enhance the nodal point as defined by the Riverfront Vision 2005 Plan. In addition, view corridors are maintained at all existing streets to insure the ties of the Algiers Point and Riverview neighborhoods to their East Bank views.

Within the larger commercial development between De Armas Street and Socrates Street, a new Mardi Gras World will grace the first floor leading to a Grand Ballroom and hotel with views across the river and down Canal Street.

In attempting to create a responsible development, twenty-two feet of frontage will be allotted on the river side of Brooklyn Street in order to widen Brooklyn Street from Mardi Gras Boulevard to Opelousas Avenue. It has been envisioned that one traffic lane northbound would be divided from two southbound lanes by a neutral ground and parallel parking provided on both sides of the new avenue. Doing so would expedite traffic out of the neighborhood and, possibly, create a transit lane for future light rail connecting Gretna and Federal City to the Algiers/Canal Street Ferry and Brooklyn Avenue.

The development will encompass seven city blocks and negotiations are ongoing with a local hospital and pharmacy to provide a neighborhood clinic and “corner drug store”, as well as restaurants and small scale retail. Local grocers are being approached about leasing space within the development for a large scale grocery store for not only the development but the surrounding neighborhoods.

In moving forward with this project, we will be providing a tax base for improving the redesigned educational system and creating jobs and infrastructure. This will be the first of many mixed-use, multi-family planned communities that we hope will be a model for not only the rest of New Orleans, but the Nation.

I'll keep you posted, and who knows...if this actually goes through, it may even make national news. At this point, it would be HISTORIC if ANYTHING gets done around here.

Oh...and Monkey...you know the tune...

RE-volve...as in...

You say you want a revolution...or was that happiness is a warm gun *bang bang shoot shoot*

No banana popping...you'll go blind!

But seriously...

Those who are here fighting to save this great World city are some of the finest people I have ever met and worked with.

Rebuild, Restore, Renew...New Orleans.

Kayakbiker protested Bush today - says

I'll have pics this weekend. We went out on boats --- swam, drank beer, and announced ourselves as "Minnesota swiftboaters for peace." The coast guard was amused -- we couldn;t get within 1000 ft of the mansion where Bush was collecting loot.

Here's a preview:

http://photos.imageevent.com/kayakbiker/bushminnetonka/large/Roger%20boat%2010.jpg

Posted by: DiAnne at August 23, 2006 12:32 AM

I like that picture.

Is it my imagination ... or are there a whole lot less Bush and W-04 bumper stickers out there? I live in Texas, and I swear, I've only seen 2 or 3 of those this week - a huge drop from just a few months ago.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 23, 2006 12:32 AM

LOVE IT!!! Swiftboaters for Peace.

Posted by: HawkEye at August 23, 2006 08:29 AM

HawkEye,

Here there are few Bush stickers. And even in Indiana (where I travelled last weekend) there were few. However, I still see many Kerry or Kerry/Edwards stickers.

Nice to see you posting again. Hope all is well.

I saw two cars this morning in the school parking lot with big W stickers... upon further inspection, they said "W-orst Ever".

I smiled, than felt the ramifications of it cut right through me... and my smirk was gone in an instant.

W,TF

did I mention oncall that Congressman Walter Jones is a Republican from a very conservative district around Camp LeJeune in N. Carolina, who has actually seen the horrors of war reach his constituents. He initially mocked those who critized the war as supporters of week kneed french fry lovers. I was very skeptical and labeled his turnaround as an example of cynical opportunism but the more I learn about him the more Authentic he looks. McCain and Lieberman are opportunists who now see their fortunes plumetting when it comes to the issue of character. As progressives we need to encourage the likes of Jones and Hagel to join our side in offering a new direction in Iraq, b/c it will require Republican support to finally put pressure on Rummy and Bush to effect change in our Iraq policy. Perhaps after November when they learn that voters have finally rejected their stay the course approach will this Administration finally get the message. That is why it is so very important for all of us here to focus and engage in the political process over the next 65 days and for each of us here to ask themselves what will I do to make a difference in November.