Kansas Versus Science

Part Man, Part Monkey
by Bruce Springsteen

They prosecuted some poor sucker in these United States
for teachin' that man descended from the apes
They coulda settled that case without a fuss or fight
If they'd seen me chasin' you sugar
Thru the jungle last night

They'd a called in that jury and a one two three said,
'Part man, part monkey... definitely'

Well the church bell rings from the corner steeple
Man in a monkey suit swears he'll do no evil
Offers his lover's prayer but his soul lies
Dark and driftin and unsatisfied
Well hey bartender tell me what'd ya see
Part man, part monkey looks like to me

Well the night is dark the moon is full
The flowers of romance exert their pull
We talk a while my fingers slip
I'm hard and cracking like a whip
Well did God make man in a breath of holy fire
Or did he crawl on up out of the muck and mire

Well the man on the street
Believes what the bible tells him so
But you can ask me mister because I know
Tell them soul-suckin' preachers to come on down and see
Part man part monkey, baby that's me

What Clinton said is sticking with me.
Ideology means fitting the facts to your belief.
Conservatives in power are ideological.

Leahy's statement on the Israel-Lebanon crisis.

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200608/080106.html

MORE U.S. SOLDIERS/MARINES INVOVLED IN MURDER OF CIVILIANS:

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/soldier-says-comrades-threatened-him/n20060802071909990004

Updated:2006-08-02 09:44:56
Soldier Says Comrades Threatened Him
By RYAN LENZ
AP
TIKRIT, Iraq (Aug. 2) - A U.S. soldier testified Wednesday that four of his colleagues accused of murdering three Iraqis during a raid threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the shooting deaths.

Pfc. Bradley Mason, speaking at a hearing to determine whether the four must stand trial, also said that their brigade commander, a veteran of the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" battle in Somalia, told troops hunting insurgents to "kill all of them." Mason is not one of the accused.

The alleged killings May 9 near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, have dealt another blow to the reputation of U.S. soldiers over their conduct in Iraq and fueled anger against their presence.

U.S. soldiers and Marines have been accused of a string of civilian deaths in Iraq , including the alleged massacre of dozens in Haditha. Another hearing is scheduled later this month over allegations that five U.S. soldiers raped and killed a 14-year-old girl.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Military Report Points to Marines in Massacre
24 Iraqi Civilians Killed in Haditha in November
By ROBERT BURNS, AP

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/military-report-points-to-marines-in/20060802100409990003?cid=842

WASHINGTON (Aug. 1) - Evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

Agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have completed their initial work on the incident last November, but may be asked to probe further as Marine Corps and Navy prosecutors review the evidence and determine whether to recommend criminal charges, according to two Pentagon officials who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.

The decision on whether to press criminal charges ultimately will be made by the commander of the accused Marines' parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. That currently is Lt. Gen. John Sattler, but he is scheduled to move to a Pentagon assignment soon; his successor will be Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

Evolution issue tips board’s balance
Election a moderate success

By Sophia Maines
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Darwin won.

Moderate Kansas State Board of Education candidates pulled off a victory Tuesday, gathering enough might to topple the board’s 6-4 conservative majority.

A victory by incumbent Janet Waugh, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Lawrence, and wins by Republican moderates in two districts previously represented by conservatives left the tables turned heading into the Nov. 7 general election.

“If we change the board around, we’ll be able to make decisions that we think are right for our students,” Lawrence school board member Craig Grant said.

Grant had worked to defeat the conservatives who attracted international attention and ridicule for the state after adopting science standards critical of evolution.

Waugh held onto her seat in District 1, rebuffing a challenge from conservative Jesse Hall who, according to the last campaign finance report, had raised about three times more money. But Waugh collected 63 percent of the vote.

“Obviously money can’t buy elections,” she said. “I think the people of Kansas are tired of being the laughingstock not only of the nation but the world.”

more...
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/aug/02/evolution_issue_tips_boards_balance/

NEW YORK TIMES ENDORSES LAMONT OVER LIEBERMAN:

(I will try to get the original Times endorsement

By Greg Sargent | bio
Lieberman adviser Dan Gerstein has slammed the New York Times for its editorial endorsing Ned Lamont.

“What’s most unfortunate about [the editorial] is, most of the criticism of Lieberman in it is premised on a myth,” Gerstein tells this morning's New York Observer. “They were willing to cast aside a national leader with 18 years of experience and all his qualifications, and endorsed a cipher who’s not qualified to be a U.S. Senator, on the assumption that Joe Lieberman has not stood up to the Bush administration on a number of key issues. And it’s just not the case.”

...on the assumption that Joe Lieberman has not stood up to the Bush administration on a number of key issues. And it’s just not the case.”

Posted by: ralpheh at August 2, 2006 12:12 PM

Really? Prove it.

Comments on the Times endorsement of Lamont:

Bill and Hillary Clinton and the rest of the political class should be shaking in their boots after the Times' Lamont endorsement.

In a primary like this, [Bill Clinton's] legacy is on the line. Because the group that is opposing me is not, does not really believe in the same kind of politics Bill Clinton believes in, that brought us two wins in two national elections." -- Joe Lieberman in Sunday's New York Times.

The New York Times' endorsement of Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman signals a lot of things. First and foremost, it means that the NYT believes that Ned Lamont is going to win the Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut. Editorial pages are cowardly by nature, and the NYT's is no exception. Second, this endorsement is certainly the preliminary massive shock to the entire DC political class, which has held very close around Lieberman and the issue he's out in front on, Iraq.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/themix/39682/

THE ORIGINAL TIMES ENDORSEMENT OF LAMONT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/opinion/30sun1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

RE: the NYT op-ed defending Lieberman

What's important to know is that Gerstein was, in the not-so-distant past, a paid senior communications strategy advisor to Lieberman. A point that was highlighted by kos in a diary about Gerstein's posting on another blog without disclosing his past connection to the Lieberman campaign...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/1/121113/7387

and is more completely documented in this diary...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/6/133416/3240

Ralph...
Did you get the AMA's pro-Schwartz material in the mail? They say, 'Don't our soldiers deserve a respectful funeral?" other side of the postcard says, "That's why Joe Schwarz voted to ban anti-war proesters. Anti-war protesters are shamlessly harasssing the families of soldiers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Cong. Schwarz believes our fallen heroes should not be slandered, and thier families must be protected from the abuse of anti-war protesters. Those who have given the ultimate sacrifice deserve our ultimate respect. Tell Cong. Schwarz thanks for standing up for our fallen heroes by calling 202-224-3121"

*****

Now my aside comments:

Should we thank Schwarz for not sending blood clotting bandages to those soldiers too? Respect their funerals but not thier lives? Respect his vote for endless war without a plan? Respect his slander of Cindy Sheehan who has givent he ultimate sacrifice as well?

The AMA put out this flyer. I suggest calling them and getting a statement on the bloodclotting bandages that have been AWOL from the warzone for the last 9 months. In fact, military personel come home and send more there! Or their families send it.

So let's call alright!

(Need the phone number for AMA address is 1101 Vermont Ave. NW, Washington DC, 20005 if anyone wants to write letters!)

Sparrow what does AMA stand for?

American Medical Association...

And as fate should have it...I was just finishing typing this in when I received a spam call from the Congressman's office and they so helpfully provided a phone number to call back. So I did.

I told him that I was not a supporter. I asked him why he hasn't taken a position on the torture and they spying. Why he hasn't taken a stand against his own party's slanderous rhetoric against Cindy Sheehan who gave the ultimate sacrifice. And I asked him why our soldiers are fighting in Iraq for 9 months without proper bloodclotting bandages that he as a former doctor should recognise the importance of the soldiers serving having that and not bleeding to death in the warzone.

AND in the middle of our call, there was a click and the sound of someone listening in. He tried to claim it was at our house, which it wasn't since I had both phones. So then I said, "Oh, it must be the NSA spying on people who don't support the President and the Republicans. AND...by the way...why hasn't Representative Scharz taken a stand against illegal warrentless spying."

The guy tried to say that he is fine with spying from outside the country but there's nothing about spying in our country. Well that's when I nailed him for that falsehood!

Then I asked them to take my number off their list (which I'm sure they won't do) and he said, "I'll let the Congressman know your concerns."

Another example of the incredible power of writing from the heart...

They Are Not Coming...A Katrina Diary by luckydog

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/2/104640/1838

I am simply upset about that flyer and the phone call. I am breathing fire right now.

I'm sorry. I don't know of anybody protesting at funerals. I don't know how often it happens and I suspect it's more rare than common. I think it's an emotional wedge issue that has little basis in reality. So he voted for barring protestors from funerals.

Whoopty-do AMA! Where's the blood-clotting bandages?

Why not send the troops proper supplies? Why not call on the President to prove that his private businesses are protecting the military?

As Scroff said on fox is fake new's blog.... there's lots more Iraq and Aphganistan soldiers who are democrats now!

Providing some real food for thought...

Carolyn O'Hara profiles an article at Foreign Policy magazine's new blog, Passport, about an Illinois reporter who decided to try to follow the trail of gasoline from when it went into someone's gas tank all the way back to where it was extracted out of the ground.

From Carolyn's post:

Paul Salopek deserves a medal. A few months ago, the Chicago Tribune reporter asked a simple but vitally important question: Where does the fuel from your local gas station actually come from? He was told by the oil industry that it would be impossible to trace the voyage - from ground crude oil to refinery to gas in your tank.

But then Marathon Petroleum allowed him access to its shipment data for a downstate Illinois refinery, and Salopek volunteered for several months as a clerk in a suburban Chicago gas station that gets its gas from that refinery. He also traveled to several continents to find the refinery's oil sources - and to speak with the men who suck the crude from the earth. The result?

$73.81 worth of unleaded pumped one Saturday afternoon by a Little League mom was traced not simply back to Africa, but to a particular set of offshore fields in Nigeria through which Ibibio villagers canoed home to children dying of curable diseases.

Salopek talks to everyone: the people who extract, who ship, who sell, who buy, who profit enormously, and who stay awake at night worrying about the taps running dry. On top of that, the piece is full of brilliant tidbits of information

~snip~
Read the whole thing. It will make you incredibly uneasy about the state of America's oil addiction and the dramatic lengths to which we'll go - and the friends we'll make - to keep the taps flowing.

link to the blog post is here...
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/1299

link to the original 4-part article is here...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-oil-1-story,0,2482956.htmlstory

link to a background story on the article is here...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-oil-about-story,0,2013022.htmlstory

The tide may be turning aka time to play ketchup...

Fries are French again on Capitol Hill
GOP had led 2003 push in House cafeteria to rename them ‘Freedom Fries’

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 1 hour, 30 minutes ago

Call it a fry rapprochement.

Three years after now-embattled Rep. Bob Ney, along with Rep. Walter Jones, led the effort to rename french fries "Freedom Fries" in an attempt to strike back at France for not contributing to the Iraq war effort, the basement cafeteria of the House of Representatives has quietly reverted to using the original name, the Washington Times reported in Wednesday editions.

Now, Republicans have distanced themselves from Jones after he made a lonely call for withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

For his part, Ney has been forced from the chairmanship of the committee in charge of running House operations after former aides tied to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff have pled guilty of bribery.

A spokesman for Ney's replacement, Rep. Vern Ehlers, told NBC News, "It's no big deal. ... It's not news."

August 7, 2006 issue, NEWSWEEK - It's probably the dream of every president: to banish the press corps from the West Wing. This week the Bush team will do it for real, kicking reporters out of the White House for a long-overdue rehab of the press briefing room and workspace. Immortalized on TV and in movies as the glamorous place to be, the briefing room is, in reality, a dump with broken chairs, torn carpeting, dangling wires and a musty smell that's especially pungent in the summertime. One of the area's two bathrooms died long ago, and the air conditioner barely works. Recent rains seeped into the basement press area, flooding the C-Span booth and prompting reporters to duct-tape massive cracks that formed along the walls. "There are stains you don't want to know the origin of," says the Houston Chronicle's Julie Mason.

The gripes are more than cosmetic. Engineers for the General Services Administration, which is overseeing the renovation, found asbestos in the press room and have called the area a "firetrap." When President George W. Bush returns to D.C. from his Texas vacation, Press Secretary Tony Snow will brief reporters at Jackson Place, across the street from the White House, where the press corps will work until the rehab is complete. But like many dealings between the administration and the press, the move has been eyed with suspicion by reporters, who worry the renovation is a ruse to get them out of the White House for good. Snow has pledged that reporters will be welcomed back, but an ever-expanding construction timeline has heightened worries. The rehab was first timed at just a month but now is slated for at least nine months, leaving reporters out of the White House until next May—an eternity to reporters already concerned about access to Bush and his aides. "Now taking bets," longtime CBS News reporter Mark Knoller wrote in an e-mail to members of the White House Correspondents Association. "We'll be back in the press room by a) the mid-term elections, b) mission accomplished in Iraq, c) the 2008 elections, d) the next millennium or e) never."

While no costs have been released, the renovation is set to make the briefing room as fancy as it seems in the movies: wider seats, microphones and Internet access at every seat and a plasma screen behind the press secretary's podium. "Give us a few weeks, and it will probably be trashed again," Mason says. "That is, if we ever come back."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14098155/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060802/ts_nm/iraq_usa_haditha_dc
US Marine accused in Haditha case to sue Murtha
{{{I smell a Turd Blossom Switftboating of Murtha in the air....}}}

Harold Meyerson | Minimum Wage, Maximum Gall
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206P.shtml
"The one thing that should engender more fear than the current Congress's doing nothing is the current Congress's doing something," writes Harold Meyerson. "Every time Congressional Republicans are compelled by public pressure to address a serious issue, they retreat to their laboratory and emerge with Frankenstein-monster legislation designed primarily to reward their campaign donors and stick it to the Democrats, and only secondarily to fix the problem."

Government Wins Access to Reporter Phone Records
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206L.shtml
A federal prosecutor may inspect the telephone records of two New York Times reporters in an effort to identify their confidential sources, a federal appeals court in New York ruled yesterday.

9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206Q.shtml
How did the US Air Force respond on 9/11? Could it have shot down United 93, as conspiracy theorists claim? Obtaining 30 hours of never-before-released tapes from the control room of NORAD's Northeast headquarters, Michael Bronner reconstructs the chaotic military history of that day - and the Pentagon's apparent attempt to cover it up.

Pentagon Suspected of Lying About 9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206J.shtml
Some staff members and commissioners of the September 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.

Army Guard Units Said Not Combat-Ready
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206M.shtml
More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat-ready, mostly because of equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday.

Evidence of Election Fraud Grows in Mexico
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206N.shtml
It appears that the US media has become so enamored with the construct of the "anti-democratic" left in Latin America that they are incapable of fulfilling their basic mandate to inform their readers when it comes to the political landscape south of the border. But back in the real world, a growing body of credible evidence from mainstream Mexican journalists, independent election observers, and respected scholars indicates that an attempt was made to deliver the presidency to Calder—n. It includes a pattern of irregularities at the polls, interference by the ruling party, and some very suspicious statistical patterns in the "official" results.

Nonny, this is worth repeating...

"The one thing that should engender more fear than the current Congress's doing nothing is the current Congress's doing something," writes Harold Meyerson. "Every time Congressional Republicans are compelled by public pressure to address a serious issue, they retreat to their laboratory and emerge with Frankenstein-monster legislation designed primarily to reward their campaign donors and stick it to the Democrats, and only secondarily to fix the problem."

Bullseye Pork at Damnedem Yards

"What on earth is so complicated about that?"

One problem is that proponents of creationism and ID claim a large number of "facts" which refute evolution (which, after all, they claim is just a theory, playing on the differences in how scientists versus the general public use the word "theory"). The facts they claim don't hold up, but that doesn't matter to them as they start with their desired conclusion and then work backwards to invent the facts.

(By the way, I've blogged on the ID controversy frequently at Democratic Daily. I've left the site and am posting at www.dembloggers.com for now until I get a new blog up and running. Refuting the conservative claims in their war on science is certain to remain a major topic of my blogging.)

Posted by: monkey at August 2, 2006 02:30 PM

Yup.... No matter how Dems vote, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't help pass the tax breaks for the super-rich....

I still don't see why the individual bills can't be easily separated and voted on separately... but this has all become Standard Operating Procedure for the Criminal Cabal sitting in *our* White House now. They only allow bills on the floor that contain perks for the super-rich or perks for the mega-wealthy corporations, corporations that often have off-shore addresses that already allow tax breaks if they're not illegal (or, in the case of Medicare and the pharmacy bills, written by the medical or insurance corporations to make sure they get their money - ugh!)... and, as an after-thought, oh-by-the-way kind of attitude, they'll throw the Dems a bone and tack on something as necessary as a minimum wage hike.

No matter how the Dems vote, they lose with their constituents back home.

Y'know what? I think the Dem senators should vote against the bill. Poor people have waited this long, the hikes wouldn't go into effect immediately anyway (and, it should be noted, some states already have higher minimum wage laws than the federal legislation), and if we can get a Dem majority in Congress this year, by next year there could be real progress made (heh, heh, heh... my imagination runs overtime with the veto choices DumDum might have to make in the next two years IF we have legal election results this fall and Dems win a majority in both houses).

But if the Dems vote against that idiotic legislation, I'll support them against any Turd Blossom Swiftboating in this fall's campaigns.

Good to hear from you again, Ron.

Update...

My mom spoke to my cousin Karrie today, the oldest of Alines children.

My cousin had just gotten off of the phone with the sheriff in Colorado, who told her point blank that the Red River Parish Sheriffs Department is now openly 'obstructing and stonewalling' their own investigation.

My mom has now called a lawyer and made an appointment. One that seems very eager to take on a high profile case.

This is about to get very, very ugly.

It's one thing to hold your private beliefs about God. It's quite another to insist that your beliefs are scientific fact, or even scientific theory.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

What on earth is so complicated about that?
Posted by Casey Morris at August 2, 2006 10:21 AM

There isn't anything complicated with separating faith from scientific facts. It's the ignorant rightwingnut kool-aid-drinking fundies that are mixing the two and failiing to see the trees for the fog-shrouded forest, just as they are attempting to rewrite history about why our white ancestors came to America and what the Declaration of Independence and Constitution say; historical knowledge just doesn't seem to be their specialty. If they did their genealogy research, the historical FACTS would stare them in the face (assuming they have colonial ancestors like I do). There were white ancestors who arrived on these shores for purely profitable reasons which had nothing to do with religion, and the other earliest white colonizers came here to ESCAPE state-imposed religions! It's as simple as that. (And, yes, my Separatist ancestors were among them, as were my Quaker ancestors a few years later. I do know what I'm talking about!)

Since 2000, Lamestream Media has concentrated on mixing religion and politics, which has spilled over to mixing education and religion in the school systems, to the satisfaction of the one-third of the people of this country who 'seem' to belong to wealthy mega-churches which leads to the false impression that this whole nation "should" believe a majority want to have a state-imposed religion (whose 'christian' religion no one is saying, of course, which engenders other debates). The few times I've tuned in to the first five minutes of Lamestream Media evening snooze, channel surfing between CBS and ABC, the first sixty second review of what's on ABC often includes something to do with mixing politics and religion (mostly) and/or mixing education and religion, and I find that more offensive than I can express in words. As a consequence, I rarely ever watch ABC snooze; I can't take broadcasting standards like that as serious "news" (their parent company is Disney). I suspect once that airhead Couric takes over the anchor desk at CBS I won't be watching the first five minutes of CBS either (I'm lenient; I give them until the first commercial break to tell me anything serious and newsworthy). Right now any TV news I might watch on purpose is BBC on PBS and sometimes The News Hour. Even PBS has abandoned most of their objective news. I deeply resent Lamestream Media shoving the combined religion-politics platform down my throat, just as I need a barf bucket any time the neocon talking heads start in on their shameless promotion of Hillary running for pres. in '08 - and even PBS does that with their McLaughlin Report; they just discussed Hillary running - again - this past weekend (give it up already; she does not have mainstream Democratic support!). The neocons want her and Lieberman and their ilk. Ordinary Dems want out of Iraq and will support anti-war candidates. NYT endorsing Lamont over Lieberman should give some people a CLUE, I'd think, but the few talking heads I've seen just don't seem to 'get' the difference. Ordinary Jane Doe and John Q. Public people are anti-war, and especially anti-war when the reasons for that war were a pack of LIES. It's really that simple.

I am still a staunch Jeffersonian in my opinion about strict separation of church and state. Politics is politics and religion is religion and the thinking processes needed for faith do not stand up to the logic and reasoning needed to govern a nation or a state. (Praying yields no results; if it did, The Cretin would not be pResident.)

As a bumper sticker says: "The last time religion controlled politics, people got burned at the stake." One might add that the last time religions dominated any educational system, they fostered the opinion it was okay to torture people and burn non-christians (specifically, non-Catholics, so it wasn't even okay to be a believing Protestant) at the stake, so they didn't foster any enlightenment, but fostered an atmosphere of xenophobia which condones such horrors as war, false imprisonment, torture....

Hmmm.... The big three western religions were started by men who talked to invisible gods. I wonder... if an invisible goddess talked to me, could I start a new religion?

Ohio State Senator Marc Dann, who is running for attorney general, held a press conference in Cleveland this morning to announce that he has filed an amicus brief on behalf of Democratic members of the Ohio legislature. It supports Project Voter's request for an injunction barring Secretary of State/Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell's suppressive interpretation of the voter registration regulations laid out in HB 3 passed earlier this year. This is the same legislation that imposed ID requirements on Ohio voters.

But a little something else was buried in that bill that may come back to bite Republicans. It gives the attorney general power to investigate and prosecute election fraud with a SIX YEAR statute of limitations. As in Democratic attorney general (Dann) elected in November = investigation of 2004 election in Ohio!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/2/163350/2986

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060802/ap_on_re_af/south_africa_cold_snap
S. Africans shiver through harsh winter

if an invisible goddess talked to me, could I start a new religion?

Posted by: NonnyO at August 2, 2006 04:46 PM

I've been talking to you for several months now..... ;-D

Posted by: Truth at August 2, 2006 04:56 PM

;-D I've been listening, but so far no one else has....

The goddess is adamant about NO wars - ever - anywhere in the world, for any reason. I don't think she can hear anyone over the sound of the bullets and bombs and planes and mortar explosions....

I just heard the clip of Bush joking about the new reporters quarters at the White House. So that apparently was his calling...a stand up comic...because the lapdog press had the gaul to laugh at the clown at the podium.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/02/national/main1858962.shtml
Believe me, I'm as upset about the regressive creationism /ID folks as anyone on this planet -- and I continue to be flabbergasted about the need to fight these people in the 21st century--and, yes, that one guy held onto his seat, but, for now, it looks like the voices of reason have gained the upper hand overall. .

Evolution Foes Defeated In Kansas
Anti-Evolution Conservatives Lose Control Of State Board Of Education

TOPEKA, Kan., Aug. 2, 2006

AP) Conservative Republicans who pushed anti-evolution standards back into Kansas schools last year have lost control of the state Board of Education once again. . . .

Posted by: sparrow at August 2, 2006 05:04 PM

Shirley, he's the Court Jester, at best.

Stand Up, he's not.

Well, he thinks hes a king, not the court jester, and the media reacted as if they were the court tasters.

Laugh or you taste this first....

I'm listening to Randi Rhodes talk about 9-11 and the WaPo article. I can't believe there's not more anger out there about this.

Posted by: sparrow at August 2, 2006 05:27 PM

I can't believe there's not more anger out there, period.

Home of the brave, my Aunt Mavis.

Listening to the interview on Randi Rhodes, I'm not feeling it's a conspiracy theory anymore. This is amazing!

HELL FREEZES OVER

JOE SCARBOROUGH ADMITS ON NATIONAL TELEVISION

FRANK RICH WAS RIGHT, MEL GIBSON WAS WRONG!

Lick My Silent Sports Car
How much has Big Auto lied? Take a drive in this four-wheel electric orgasm, and find out
By Mark Morford

Oh my God do they ever lie.

All of them: Big Auto, Big Oil, BushCo, Pennzoil and Havoline and Saudi Arabia and crusty Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and the oil lobbyists and lackey scientists working for the Department of Energy and all the rest, on down the line and right up to your garage door.

Lie lie lie lie lie like evil little ratdogs because they are, after all, corporate greedmonkeys and war profiteers and duplicitous oil-sucking cretins (is that too polite?) who would eat their own mother's heart for a notable uptick in share/barrel price. Nevertheless, it's always a bit of a jolt when you see it all up close and personal and they basically rub it in your face.

Just look. Look over here. It's a new sports car. It's a new sports car that looks deliciously like a Lotus Elise and reportedly drives like Michael Schumacher's wet dream and goes from zero to 60 in about four seconds with so much torque and freakishly instantaneous power it makes the gods swoon. ...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/08/02/notes080206.DTL&nl=fix

LOL Matt.

And hi Ron... you're always welcome to do some blogging here as well!

Randi Rhodes is playing the audio. "I never saw so much 'real world stuff' in and exersize." Nobody is telling them it's real. The air traffic controllers aren't getting help with this.

LOW=DOWN, DIRTY PRIMARY RACE BETWEEN SCHWARZ AND WAHLBERG IN MICHIGAN:

JOE SCHWARZ HAS BEEN CALLED EVERYTHING BUT A COMMIE PINKO F#$ ETC...

I have gotten at least five (probably more) negative campaign mailers criticism Joe Schwarz. I have received a letter every single day for the last five days against Schwarz (and I ain't even voting in the Republican primary!!!!). They are pulling out all of the stops to take Joe out. The Club for Growth and the Christian Right-wing must be footing the bill. There is also a constant barrage of negative radio commercials against Smokin' Joe.

Sen. John MCCain is coming to town this Friday to help prop-up his old pal Joe right before the primary.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Ralph...
Did you get the AMA's pro-Schwartz material in the mail? They say, 'Don't our soldiers deserve a respectful funeral?" other side of the postcard says, "That's why Joe Schwarz voted to ban anti-war proesters. Anti-war protesters are shamlessly harasssing the families of soldiers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Cong. Schwarz believes our fallen heroes should not be slandered, and thier families must be protected from the abuse of anti-war protesters. Those who have given the ultimate sacrifice deserve our ultimate respect. Tell Cong. Schwarz thanks for standing up for our fallen heroes by calling 202-224-3121"

Show is archived:

http://www.whiterosesociety.org/Rhodes.html

This is unbelievable the NORAD tapes she's playing! And what's with these videos that were taken and missing? Is that a 'conspiracy theory"? In 2001 through 2003 I was your basic CNN watcher when I watched the news (and all I remember was the buildup for war)...didn't know how much was being withheld.

"Yup.... No matter how Dems vote, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't help pass the tax breaks for the super-rich...."

That's how the Rove game works. They set up votes so that no matter how someone votes they can come back and have an angle to attack on.

"I still don't see why the individual bills can't be easily separated and voted on separately... "

That's the benefit of controlling Congress.

The most significant example of no-win votes set up by Rove and his cronies was the Iraq War Resolution. We saw how they attacked Kerry for voting yes. Either they said that Kerry supported Bush's policies to try to negate criticism, or they called Kerry a flip flopper when he criticized the war.

However, if they ran against someone who voted no, they would have argued that the person was so weak on defense that they wouldn't even vote to support war as a last resort if we were threatened by imminent attack by nuclear weapons. After all, Bush said the IWR was not a vote to go to war.

The tactic largely worked. I, and many other Kerry supporters, read Kerry's actual view and his reasons for his vote. Understanding his view, many of us opponents of the war voted for Kerry despite objecting to the IWR. However the majority of voters don't pay that close attention and they buy the mischaracterization of the votes from the right wing noise machine.

We see similar games played with the annual budget vote. Vote yes and they claim that the Congressman supports everything in the bill. Vote no and they claim that they have voted against every weapons system in the bill. Vote for the budget some years, and vote against a totally different budget and you're a flip flopper.

Similarly, Democrats who vote no will be criticized for voting against the increase in the minimum wage, especially should they criticize Republican opponents who really oppose the increase. Vote yes and they are flip floppers if they ever criticize limitations on the inheritance tax.

Posted by: ralpheh at August 2, 2006 06:43 PM

Hmmm...there's Walberg signs all over the place. Big freeway signs for Schwartz. They want a neocon against a 'liberal' in this district. I don't even know which 'liberal' would not be smeared to pieces by them.

I agree...they're gunning to win!

Posted by: Ron Chusid at August 2, 2006 07:00 PM

Worse... Lamestream Media slant to "news."

I walked into my bedroom to see BBC news a bit ago, TV came on to ABC news and they were talking about the minimum wage law... and I waited and waited to hear what bill it was attached to... and NO info about the FACT that it's attached to a tax cut for the super-rich.... I conclude that Lamestream Media will make much ado about minimum wage, it's a set-up, and spinmeisters will lambaste any Dem who votes against the bill and IGNORE the FACT that it's attached to a bill that once again cuts more taxes for the super rich!

No one can make an informed decision about voting this fall without ALL the facts about that bill!

"News" is nothing but spin, and it's always slanted to the neocon's favor!

And, PS... Welcome back to the blog, Ron!!! :-)

quick news check from work - interesting
- Democrat Bill Nelson is hot to get rid of Castro. Is Nebraska somehow threatened?

- Why is the Republican party in Pennsylvania supporting a Green candidate? That's easy.

- Why is France usurping the US's leadership role in the UN r/t the Israel/Lebanon situation?
(Hint: We've really messed up in Iraq)

- Why is Arlen Specter dissenting re Bush's proposed military tribunal system? He read through the proposal and it's scary?!

- Is the news covering the Philippines much? Looks like they're taking on Al Quaida bigtime.

Full Vanity Fair article & NORAD tapes r/t
undisclosed information r/t 9:11

http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/060801fege01

Ron:

Nice to see you here.

Thanks Fe, and everyone else with similar comments.

Wow France must be going further to the right too. Free Republic loves Sarkozy's new book in which he blasts Chirac, tells people to work more, & speak more English. The world is getting crazier by the day.

strange coincidence - next article I saw was about Muslim prayer rooms being shut down at Charles de Gaulle airport. Interesting things happen in run-ups to elections, it seems.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5990386,00.html

Hey Ron. Nice to see you. You're more than welcome to blog here.

Castro-hating Cuban exiles are the swing vote in a swing state that may have helped deliver the Presidency to Bush in 2000. Was Bush psychic? The day before it was announced that Castro was having medical problems, Bush was courting Cuban business leaders in Miami. The Cubans may end up with Raoul Castro, and we will probably end up with Jeb Bush.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5990391,00.html

1/3 of US believes 9/11 conspiracy theory:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/279827_conspiracy02ww.html

Norwegian journalist fabricated completely fake interview with Bill Gates
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Norway_Microsoft.html

Clinton's "Can Do" Agenda for Americans
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/279721_joel02.html

Dr. Ron
Nice to see you - have followed your postings for three years now!

Minimum wage bill could rob people such as my son, by clipping their tips. No reward for incentive - employers could pay as low as $2.13/hour and expect tips to make up the rest. Unfair! On top of it, staggering loss in tax revenue by rewarding the filthy rich & encouraging dynasties rather than philanthropy.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003170243_webminwage02.html

Where is everybody? (I am sort of captive)

Clinton now seems so much better than what we have.

Clinton forms alliance to end climate change
By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Former President Clinton and mayors of some of the world's largest cities announced an initiative Tuesday to combat climate change and increase energy efficiency in everything from street lights to building materials.

The partnership joins Clinton with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, an alliance of Rome, London, Mexico City, Los Angeles and other cities that have pledged to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. The aim is to pool technology and resources to slash the pollutants that contribute to global warming while promoting clean-burning fuels and energy conservation.

"This is a very, very serious problem, but also a phenomenal opportunity," Clinton said. The plan calls for Clinton to help the cities pool their purchasing power to lower the price of energy-saving products and accelerate the development of technology to reduce greenhouse gases.

"Our aim is simple: to change the world," said London Mayor Ken Livingstone

http://www.seattletimes.com

sparrow:

On the funeral protests, here's the only thing I've heard, and it sure isn't antiwar protesters. It's religious extremists:

States move to bar protests at soldiers’ funerals
Fundamentalists’ picketing may provoke clash of privacy, free speech rights

David Kohl / AP file

Updated: 8:48 p.m. CT Feb 6, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio - States are rushing to limit when and where people may protest at funerals — all because of a small fundamentalist Kansas church whose members picket soldiers’ burials, arguing that Americans are dying for a country that harbors homosexuals.

During the 1990s, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., went around picketing the funerals of AIDS victims with protest signs that read, “God Hates Fags.” But politicians began paying more attention recently when church members started showing up at the burials of soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11206458/

Carol
Those are those creepy Phelps people where most of the Congregation are related. They were at Boston at the DNC convention with similar signs but somehow they'd incorporated John Kerry into the design - so bizarre. There is alot of info on them, such as in Wikipedia - very dysfunctional origins of the family - scary.

and we will probably end up with Jeb Bush.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 2, 2006 08:13 PM

Bite your friggin tongue! That would prove this country's stupidity beyond the shadow of a dunce.

Oh, and look who was caught off guard.... AGAIN!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senator Wednesday said President Bush told him the administration was caught off guard by the announcement Monday of Castro's illness, and Republican senators began drafting legislation aimed at prodding the Communist nation toward democracy.

"The president's comment was that everybody was caught by surprise, and we'll have to wait and see" what U.S. action is necessary, said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, of his White House meeting with Bush on Tuesday. "I think all of us can say we had no idea this was coming."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee and other GOP senators were preparing legislation that "takes advantage of the incapacitation of Fidel Castro to advance civil society-building measures and the transition to a democratic Cuba," according to a summary obtained by The Associated Press.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/02/us.cuba.ap/index.html

Fidel Katrina

Constitutional Crisis. Cafferty says, "Someone finally says it!"

http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/08/02/cafferty-conyers-constitutional-crisis/

we will probably end up with Jeb Bush.
Posted by: DiAnne at August 2, 2006 08:13 PM

Eeeeeoowww....!!! For that profanity, you need to wash your hands off with disinfectant soap!!! ;-) (If it happened, I'm outta here.)

Posted by: sparrow at August 2, 2006 09:24 PM

Er... "finally?" Don't know about you, but I've read "Constitutional Crisis" in several stories.

You mean someone in Lamestream Media is finally catching on?

The Kiss"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1803579
Priceless

Monkey, NonnyO
If Bush was caught off guard by Castro's illness (& maybe he was), this is an awfully quick scrambling to interfere in Cuba's internal affairs. But as Daniel Shores (who first interviewed Castro in 1960) said, Fidel has outlived most of his enemies.

U.S. Prepares for Possible Showdown in Cuba, Congress Seeks to Encourage Cuban Dissidents

WASHINGTON Aug 2, 2006 (AP)˜ The White House and Congress, caught unaware by Fidel Castro's illness, prepared Wednesday for a possible showdown in Cuba as lawmakers drafted legislation that would give millions of dollars to dissidents who fight for democratic change. "The message will be, `The United States stands with you,'" Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., one of the bill's authors, said in an interview. "Be ready to assert your independence."

There was no sign of upheaval in Cuba on Wednesday, two days after Castro stunned U.S. officials and many of his own countrymen with the news that he had temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, in order to undergo surgery.
(snip) For now, Bush administration officials and members of Congress were focused on offering dissidents cash for fighting for democratic change.
(snip)

Legislation sponsored by Nelson, fellow Floridian Mel Martinez, Majority Leader Bill Frist and others would authorize as much as $80 million over two years and pay half of that almost immediately to dissidents and nongovernmental organizations on the island.
(snip/...)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2266711&CMP...

Wow - wish they'd give ME some cash to go liberate myself!!

"Oh, and look who was caught off guard.... AGAIN!"

Bush could be caught off guard by the sun rising in the morning--he hasn't caught on yet that this happens every day.

Blogger Reporter Jailed
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/us/02protest.html?ref=us

Republicans donate most of Green party candidate's funds, to try to splinter Bob Casey vote & keep Santorum
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/2/161322/6642

Good to see Dr. Ron here, dry humor and all!

I have not been blogging much lately, due to rehearsals. The heat in NYC is unbelievable. The subway platforms are hellish. But still we are getting sround and delivering postcards to bookstores and such. Tonight we fled to a movie theatre to sit in AC for a bit. We saw the new Woody Allen--cute, but not very deep. Nice and cool in there though!

Today I had a meeting with some folks from the Center for Constitutional Rights. They seem very intetested in Fear Up and will be sending someone to discuss Guantanamo for the opening night talk back. If anyone from DCP is planning on being there, let me know soon, OK?

Rehearsals are going quite well--the actors are so very good, and the piece is unfolding in a powerful way. (We are a little short on the fundraising front, but have managed to raise over $7000 thus far! We only need a little more to be assured of making it through.)

As I was driving up to NY yesterday I heard Amy Goodman interviewing Moazzam Begg, recently released from Guantanamo. I recommend reading the transcript, at least:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/01/1434254

And then, today at CCR, I was told that things are very bad in Guantanamo--mail is being witheld and morale is very very low. I had not been aware until Suz and I were researching GITMO lawyers that the three young men who committed suicide had had lawyers assigned to their cases, but they were never told this. I feel so sick to my stomach when I hear how badly we are botching this. One of the stories in Fear Up is about a nine-year old boy who was at Guantanamo, and who was kicked and beaten.

I don't know if our play helps at all, but I have heard from so many friends who offered help and support for the project that they were volunteering because "I have to do something and this is something I can do."

I guess that is why I am here, in the heat, working so hard to produce a piece of theatre that makes me feel ill at times, and breaks my heart, and gives me hope. It's what I can do.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 2, 2006 10:19 PM

I am no fan of Castro, but this is special interest politics at its worst.

Posted by: monkey at August 2, 2006 09:02 PM

I'll say it again and again. Special interest ethnic politics at its worst.

My fear is that the Koreatown here in Los Angeles will do the same. Wait, Sam Brownback is already its puppet...

I wonder... if an invisible goddess talked to me, could I start a new religion?

Posted by: NonnyO at August 2, 2006 04:46 PM

Yes, and I'll be happy to be your assistant priestess. :)

Posted by: NonnyO at August 2, 2006 06:31 PM

The problem is that the auto enthusiast community, like the sportsmen community, is a captive of the right wing, and is well convinced that no technology other than internal combustion will deliver, reliably, what they need. And that all the anti-pollution legislations will only serve to kill the horsepower ratings of their beloved rides.

The auto enthusiasts have a flawed viewpoint, however, in that in reality, electric power, done right, is far superior to internal combustion in reliability and performance. The only killer is the range.

Is the progressive community doing ANYTHING to win the auto enthusiast set back from the misinformation campaign of the right wing? Since I live in a city where "you are what you drive," this is a big deal to me.

BTW... welcome back Ron!

http://gawker.com/news/top/elisabeth-hasselbeck-loses-her-shit-191603.php

Watch this video clip where discussions get rather heated. I think Barbara was right to try to bring down the anger.

The point at the end about National Health Care interferring with privacy has a point IF under National Health Care the gov't would have access to your medical records. I don't think they do.

It's getting too late for to watch the video clip, but maybe this will provide some useful information on access to medical records.

It is impossible to say exactly how much access there would be under a future program without knowing the specifics.

If we use Medicare as an example of a government financed program, they have access but privacy isn't really an issue. In theory the government has a fair bit of information from health care claims which include all procedures and diagnoses. However these are used for paying claims and hopefully no futher data mining occurs.

Medicare can request full records on any patients. This is done to verify the legitimacy of claims--not to pry into the private matters of patients.

It is possible that a future national health care plan could wind up with more access to medical records than Medicare. One possiblity would be if the plans were more involved in disease management and reviewed records more than Medicare does for that purpose.

The real issue isn't whether the government has access to medical records but whether such access is limited to legitimate medical purposes. Obviously we'd have a problem if other branches of the government could also obtain such records but safeguards should be able to limit such abuse of records.

Posted by: Ron Chusid at August 3, 2006 01:20 AM

Or instead of a national plan, go with state-level plans, like the Canadian provincial plans. Records would be more decentralized that way.

Yes, and I'll be happy to be your assistant priestess. :)
Posted by: Ally McLesbian at August 3, 2006 12:21 AM

I'm afraid the Goddess doesn't do "assistants" - She insists on equality for all. 'Priestess' will do nicely if you insist on 'ranking' at all. She prefers first names, no titles that indicate any status above others.... She stresses education, informed decisions and choices, artistic expression in some form (knowing many have interests and talents in multiple areas), but she favors, even demands, intellectual development in the pursuit of individual happiness, and unrestricted access to centers of learning....

:-)

Posted by: sparrow at August 3, 2006 12:42 AM

Hmmm.... Clearly, Hasselbeck has NO idea how the morning-after pill works! When she first joined The View I used to watch it, and then even Babs stared getting too right-wing for me by having Bloomberg on the show and far too many rightwingnut types during the run-up to the '04 election, and I've no idea how many times O'Lielly has been on. I quit watching the show primarily because of Hasselbeck's idiocy and immature childishness (she used to dress like a 12-yr-old hooker). I see by the comments to that link that maybe after Rosie comes on the show this fall I just might try to tune in to see if sparks fly.... ;-)

Linda Basch | Tax Cut Makes Women Pay
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206WA.shtml
"House congressional candidates are ready to hit the campaign trail touting their vote in favor of the minimum wage. It's an appealing political strategy: 66 percent of minimum wage earners are women, the voting block that every candidate wants to sway. But this long overdue increase in the minimum wage comes at an unacceptably high price to women and families," writes Linda Basch.

Fox News Agrees to Settlement of Sex Discrimination Suit
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206WB.shtml
Fox News Network, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has agreed to pay $225,000 to settle a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sex discrimination suit. The resolution of the suit claiming harassment at Fox News headquarters in New York is before US District Judge William H. Pauley III for approval, the EEOC said yesterday in a statement.

Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman | Dr. Gottlieb Is Not Happy
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206HB.shtml
While discussing on NPR whether government science panels are fair and balanced, Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman described the exchange between Dr. Nissen, chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Dr. Gottlieb, deputy commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs at the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Nissen blasted Dr. Gottlieb on the "imbalance of power between the FDA and industry."

Unions Say EPA Bends to Political Pressure
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080206EA.shtml
Unions representing thousands of staff scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency say the agency is bending to political pressure and ignoring sound science by allowing a group of toxic chemicals to be used in agricultural pesticides.

Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0802-06.htm
{{{Plastics are made of petroleum (among other things), so petroleum is killing or harming more than just humans and the air we breathe, but the environment for wildlife. I've seen something on a Nature show that this article talks about. We must surely be the most destructive beings inhabiting this planet....}}}

Jean-Marie Guehenno: "An International Force Can Never Impose Peace."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206H.shtml
Today is the official date for the handover of responsibilities from the US coalition to NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban incursion and coalition failure to keep aid promises complicate NATO's task.

Bush Asks Federal Court to Stop Domestic Spying Lawsuit
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206D.shtml
The US government has asked a San Francisco court to quash a lawsuit charging that the Bush administration illegally spied on Americans' phone calls, legal filings showed.

Rules of Engagement: "Kill All Military-Age Males"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206R.shtml
After two internal inquiries evaluating a mission that had taken place in northern Iraq on May 9, Pfc. Corey Clagett and three other soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division expected to return to their duties without a stain on their characters. Three of the four have since been arrested, accused of premeditated murder, and placed in a US military jail in Kuwait. In their sworn affidavits, the three accused soldiers, along with others in the unit, say they received unusual but unequivocal rules of engagement for the task ahead. They say that they were given repeated and explicit orders to "kill all military-age males."

William Rivers Pitt: Banking on War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206Z.shtml
William Rivers Pitt writes: "It is, at bottom, all about profit. We sell the weapons, which create warfare, which justifies our incredibly expensive war-making capabilities when we have to go in and fight against the people who bought our weapons or procured them from a third party. This does not make the world safer, but only reinforces the permanent state of peril we find ourselves in."

Bill Quigley | Weapons of Mass Destruction in US
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206B.shtml
Bill Quigley quotes three jailed US protesters: "US leaders speak about the dangers of other nations acquiring nuclear weapons, but they fail to act in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which commits the US to take steps to disarm its weapons of mass destruction."
Excerpt:
North Dakota is home to more nuclear weapons than any other of the 50 states. The Bureau of Atomic Scientists estimated that the state contained more than 1,700 nuclear warheads, not counting the ones planted in concrete silos in the ground.

A friendly cab driver in Bismarck told me "If North Dakota seceded from the Union, we would be the world's third most-powerful nuclear state."

LOBBYING FOR ARMAGEDDON
Sarah Posner, AlterNet
Some influential evangelical leaders are lobbying for an attack on Iran. But it's not about geopolitics -- it's about bringing about the End Times.
http://www.alternet.org/story/39748/

And this numerical minority gets huge publicity in Lamestream Media.... they belong in a mental hospital!!!

THINGS GET UGLY WHEN BUSH 'TRUSTS HIS GUT'
Paul Waldman, TomPaine.com
More proof that under George W. Bush, U.S. policies are governed mainly by impulse and fantasy.
http://www.alternet.org/story/39530/

THE ESTATE TAX AND POLITICAL BLACKMAIL
The Progress Report
It's nothing short of political blackmail to claim that the only way for minimum wage workers to get a raise is if we enact a tax giveaway to the richest Americans.
http://www.alternet.org/story/39829/

FORMER STARBUCKS PREZ SAYS: DON'T GUT ESTATE TAX
Howard Behar, AlterNet
Passing on unlimited inheritances is not only bad for our children, it is also unhealthy for our democracy.
http://www.alternet.org/story/39817/

I'm just beginning to wonder when these really rich people will be truely satisfied. I think it's not about the money. It's about the power. They love to be able to bend people to their will.

But they're sitting on more chuncks of money, and unless they develope a huge drug addiction, they're settled financially for like the equivalent of 20 lives.

It's more than greed. I'm sure it's more the philosophy that they don't owe anyone anything.

---Thanks for the responses to the video clip. It was interesting I thought how she went from pro-life to not taking care of the life after it was born because of privacy. I think her argument was to equate privacy to the same thing, but I'd like to ask her, "What's your program to provide health care, jobs, food, utilities, shelters, etc...after-birth?"

Ron,

It's great to see your comments by the way.

A great idea for messaging and activism from our friends in Britain:

BRING CHILDREN'S SHOES TO THE DEMONSTRATION
Children are the main victims of the Bush and Blair wars. Almost half of those killed so far in Lebanon are children. They make up one third of the 3,225 injured, and about 45 per cent of the nearly one million Lebanese refugees are under the age of 18. (SEE http://tinyurl.com/r72kl)

Bring children's shoes to the national demonstration on Saturday 5 August. We will leave them at 10 Downing Street. We want a mountain of children's shoes outside Tony Blair's home to symbolise the horror at his complicity in war crimes.

And where will Tony Blair be on Saturday, when tens of thousands will march past his home calling for an immediate ceasefire, when the majority of people in Britain support that call, when many in Blair's party are calling for a recall of Parliament, when almost all of his ministers say Israel's onslaught must stop now? He'll be sunning himself on holiday in Barbados.

Please bring children's shoes on Saturday to leave on Tony Blair's doorstep. Bring them in memory of the hundreds killed in Lebanon. Bring
them in memory of the hundreds killed in Palestine. Bring them in memory of the tens of thousands killed in Bush and Blair's illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But bring them most of all in the knowledge that if we raise our voices loud enough and if we mobilise overwhelming support for the cause of peace, we can stop Tony Blair's serial warmongering and help prevent any more deaths of children caused by his slavish support for George Bush.

CEASEFIRE NOW DEMONSTRATION
SATURDAY 5 AUGUST: 12 NOON
ASSEMBLE SPEAKERS CORNER, HYDE PARK
(Nearest tube Marble Arch. Please note there are some tube restriction this weekend)
MARCH passed the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall (leave children's shoes outside Downing Street) to Parliament Square for the rally.
For more details go to: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

***********************************
2) THEY'RE COMING FROM EVERY CORNER OF BRITAIN
Nearly fifty cities and towns from every corner of Britain -- from Glasgow to Exeter, from Swansea to Norwich -- are sending hundreds of coaches to London for Saturday's demonstration. (details: http://tinyurl.com/fzq2g). People in towns throughout the land have arranged to meet in groups to come by train to London.

This nationwide mobilisation is unprecendented for an emergency demonstration called at such short notice. In London itself, hundreds of volunteers have been leafletting tube stations, shopping centres, mosques, churches etc (we still need more help: Call 020 7278 6694).

The nationwide outrage at the carnage in Lebanon and Gaza will be expressed by many tens of thousands in London on Saturday. Stop the War
has not experienced the level of response it is getting since February 2003, before the outbreak of the Iraq war. Over 1000 people every day are asking to be put on our mailing list to be kept informed of our activities.

There is still time to spread the details of the demonstration even wider. People who know about the demonstration will want to be on it. Tell everyone you know. Download the leaflet from our website and distribute it wherever you can. Tell everyone to bring children's shoes to leave on Tony Blair's doorstep. LEAFLET: http://tinyurl.com/enffa

Rumsfeld does about-face on testifying
Defense secretary will face Senate panel over Iraq policies

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld late Wednesday reversed a decision to skip a public hearing on Capitol Hill and said he will testify at a session on the Iraq war.

The move came after hours of criticism and pressure from Senate Democrats who urged him to come before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday to answer questions about the administration's Iraq policies.

Earlier Wednesday, Rumsfeld had said that his crowded calendar did not allow him to be present for the meeting Thursday morning, but he agreed to attend a private, classified briefing in the afternoon with the entire Senate.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/02/rumsfeld.ap/index.html

hidden, clandestine, confidential, discreet, exclusive, eyes only, hush-hush, independent, individual, inside, non-public, not open, privy, reserved, secret, separate, special, unofficial, concealed, isolated, quiet, removed, retired, secluded, sequestered, withdrawn...

Who can't handle the truth?