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Go Green,Think Globally, Act Locally
The classic saying is that "everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Well, thanks to the recent release of the IPCC report, the stunning success of "An Inconvenient Truth", and high-profile groups like StopGlobalWarming.org, that adage is no longer true. Everybody is talking about the weather. But now ever-increasing numbers of them actually are doing something about it.
Al Gore, the rock star of the global-warming environmental movement, is definitely one of those people, of course, and he's doing something about it in a very big way. He's been working on these issues for decades, but with his Oscar-winning documentary and his tireless touring presentations he has now made doing something about the climate change crisis trendy in all the very best circles.
And when I say trendy, I do mean trendy. Greenhouse gases: they're not just for scientists and policy wonks any more. Now everybody is getting in on the act... literally:
LOS ANGELES - Al Gore, the former vice president and now hit documentary maker, on Thursday added rock promoter to his résumé, announcing plans for a 24-hour concert series on all seven continents to highlight, you guessed it, the dangers of global warming.
With a powerhouse lineup of acts from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi, what's being called "Live Earth" aims to gather more than 100 of the world's top musicians on July 7 — and attract 2 billion viewers, most of them via television, radio and the Web.
But while high-profile star-studded events can raise awareness as well as money for the cause -- and with an unprecedented event like this one, you can expect there to be a great deal of both coming out of it -- there's still no substitute for everyday folks like us putting our climate change activist boots on the ground in cities all across America.
Celebrity speeches and massive marches on the Mall may look great on TV, and they certainly do feel impressive at eye-level on the ground. But they often aren't all that effective outside the Beltway. People in Peoria don't really feel connected to events in Washington... and vice versa.
Politicians in Washington are looking through the other end of the same telescope. Yawn, yawn, yet another march on the Mall, yet another protest on the Hill, they're all the same after awhile, and those aren't our constituents marching out there anyway, so what do we care?
That's why we at the DCP have always placed a premium on real grass-roots actions, 50-state initiatives, and citizens taking matters into their own hands at home. Mom and Pop out in Minnesota may not really care what happens outside their own communities, but they do become connected to events when it's their friends and neighbors making the movement happen.
And that's exactly what well-known environmentalist Bill McKibben wants you to do when it comes to tackling the climate change crisis. As he writes about it here,
This is an invitation to help start a movement -- to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future.
[...]
The largest rally yet held in the U.S. about global warming drew a thousand people. If we're going to make the kind of change we need in the short time left us, we need something that looks like the civil rights movement, and we need it now. Changing light bulbs just isn't enough.
So pitch in. A few of us are trying to organize a nationwide day of hundreds and hundreds of rallies on April 14. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.
We need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps.
Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises -- the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.
[...]
You don't have to have ever done anything like this -- you're not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of scores or hundreds in your town or neighborhood.
We need creativity, good humor, commitment. If you are active in a campus group or a church or a local environmental group or a garden society or a bike club-or if you just saw Al Gore's movie and want to do something -- then we need you now.
Is Mr. McKibben's estimate of what "a few of us" can make happen by organizing small local rallies and linking them together via the Web overly optimistic? Apparently not -- as of this morning, there are already 740 events planned in 48 states across the country and more are being added every day.
I've already signed up to do my outside-the-Beltway part in Step It Up's National Day of Climate Action on April 14. I hope you'll all go to www.stepitup2007.org and do the same. Our planet needs our help, and by working together we can make a difference before it's too late.
Drinking Liberally is showing An Inconvenient Truth here, complete with a pretend Al Gore.
If you are feeling surreal, maybe there is a reason. I was just cleaning out my closet and putting the spring stuff in front, the winter in back. Found this in my email.
11 Dead At Pakistani Kite Festival
At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colorful kites, officials said Monday.
The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops on Sunday at the conclusion of the two-day Basant festival, said Ruqia Bano, spokeswoman for the emergency services in the city of Lahore.
...
Five of those who died on Sunday were hit by stray bullets, including a 6-year-school boy who was struck in the head near his home in the city's Mazang area, Bano said.
A 16-year-old girl and a school boy, 12, died after their throats were slashed by metal kite strings in separate incidents. Two people were electrocuted while they tried to recover kites tangled in overhead power cables, Bano said.
A 13-year-old boy fell to his death from the roof of his home as he tried to catch a stray kite, and a 35-year-old woman fell off the roof of her home trying to stop her son from running after a stray kite, Bano said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/26/world/main2514554.shtml
"Gore Oscar in Doubt," Says Supreme Court of the United States
In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court of the United States intervened to revoke the Academy Award won by 'An Inconvenient Truth' last night at the 79th Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, in Los Angeles, California. Responding to a case filed this morning in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Exxon v Guggenheim, David, Gore et al, and moving at lightning speed through the legal system all the way up to the highest court of the land, a spokesman issued this stunning statement:
After reviewing all the overseas ballots cast for this documentary, we have concluded that it is unclear if all of them were legitimate. Therefore, until such time this case is resolved in our legal system, we have decided that the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts, and Sciences acted in haste. Their judgments, based on the compelling arguments made in Exxon v Guggenheim, David, Gore et al were, to say the least, unconvincing. Oral Arguments will be heard early this afternoon.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/26/122657/181
THIS HAS TO BE A JOKE!!!
ANOTHER 5 TO 4 SUPREME COURT RULING AGAINST AN ELECTION WHICH INVOLVED GORE!?!?!??!
the poster at KOS is Jekyllhyde!!!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/26/122657/181
If it's true, maybe this is what it'll take to get people active. This diary claims Al Gore's Oscar is being taken back by the Supreme Court. Other cases wait months, even years. Can this be? Is it really the Onion?
Got to be a hoax, making a play on the fact that the Supreme Court is taking something away from Al Gore .. again
Here is all that is on their docket. If they can do things like this, we had better go into our bunkers.
No. 00-836 Status: DECIDED Title: George W. Bush, Petitioner v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, et al. Docketed: Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida November 22, 2000
[6/30/2003] (23k)
Docket for 00-949
No. 00-949 Status: DECIDED Title: George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al. Docketed: Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida December 9, 2000 (SC00-2431)
[6/30/2003] (16k)
crazy satire
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/26/122657/181
Posted by: madame defarge at February 26, 2007 02:51 PM
It's SATIRE....
However, either I lost my sense of humor entirely, or else there's no cure for the PTSD2000 attack I just had. Heart started beating faster, horror paralyzed my mind, I sat immobilized as my eyes just bugged out reading, re-living re-remembering November and December 2000... and then it dawned on me the whole thing is a joke! My PTSD feelings were horribly real, however.
Uff da! I think I need a tranquilizer!
I did have the Academy Awards on last night, partially listened to that whole long, drawn-out affair, but I did pay attention when Gore's film won in two categories. Ol' Al has quite a sense of humor and that did show through last night. It's a year much too early, but I did rather wish he would have announced he was running for "re"-election....
Hersh: Bush Funneling Money to al Qaeda-Related Groups
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607A.shtml
Seymour Hersh reports that the Bush administration is funding anti-Shiite Sunnis linked to al Qaeda without Congressional approval and without appropriate appropriation. Hersh speculates that the money is coming from the pallet-loads of cash floating around Iraq and has already reached "three Sunni jihadist groups." He says, flatly, that the president is "supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11."
{Video & transcript.}
[...banging head on keyboard... DimWit's fueling the war he started, making it worse, playing both ends against the middle with our military troops in the middle getting killed or wounded... Make the lambs stop screaming.]
Judge Dismisses CIA Leak Trial Juror
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607B.shtml
A federal judge avoided a potential mistrial in the CIA leak case Monday by dismissing a juror and sending the other 11 back to continue deliberating the fate of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
{The last paragraph has me shaking my head in disbelief....}
GIs Petition Congress to End Iraq War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607D.shtml
Correspondent Lara Logan heard dissension in the ranks from a large group of service members who are fed up and have decided to go public. They're not going AWOL, they're not disobeying orders or even refusing to fight in Iraq. But they are doing something unthinkable to many in uniform: bypassing the chain of command to denounce a war they're in the middle of fighting.
Michael T. Klare | Three Charges in the Case for War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607E.shtml
Michael T. Klare writes: "I am convinced that Bush has already decided an attack is his only option and the rest is a charade he must go through to satisfy his European allies. The proof of this, I believe, lies half-hidden in recent public statements of his, which, if pieced together, provide a casus belli, or formal list of justifications, for going to war."
What a satire!
I'm glad that An Inconvenient Truth won in the end. It deserved every bit of its win.
(I'm also glad about lesbian icon Melissa Etheridge's win for her song for the movie...)
Hersh: Bush Funneling Money to al Qaeda-Related Groups
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607A.shtml
Posted by: NonnyO at February 26, 2007 04:17 PM
Does this mean the W regime is even closer to al-Qaeda than Saddam ever was?
We went to war and captured/executed Saddam precisely because he was supposedly funding al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks.
I am at a loss as to what to make of this.
Somebody please remind me how come we belong in the middle of a milennium-old sectarian quagmire, I keep forgetting:
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070226/D8NHL6DG1.html
Ally
Of course, "supposedly" is a big word. Saddam, if anything, served the purposes of this administration and also the Gulf states very well, by keeping factions separate and by intimidating Iran from a very strategic position. However, he was sitting on oil, and Bush II had an old bone to pick so was easily manipulated by salivating neocons.
Now we're in an awkward position as we support both Shiite and Sunnis factions and we fight both Shiite and Sunni factions, and we arm and fund them both, either directly or indirectly. We cannot even be decent puppets of the Arabian Gulf states because we do not really have control over the Persians, even if we go in (with Israel, UK and whoever else can be bribed) by land, sea and air.
This stalemate has gone on for 14 centuries and if we get mired in even deeper in the middle east, that opens things up for Jihadists and nuclear aspirants in southeast Asia, North Korea, south Asia and North Africa. Meanwhile, it's on borrowed money (from China and our children) and borrowed time (global warming, shrinking dollar, expanding deficit & waistlines, plummeting scores).
Actually, Ally, the song was pretty weak from a film-soundtrack standpoint compared to what was on the 'Dreamgirls' tracks. But on the other paw, it was purpose-written for a film rather than being retreaded from a Broadway show. And it's always good to see the world of entertainment being honorific towards dykes-with-mic's. *ahem*
From previous thread:
Personally, I'd like to force Jeff Sessions to read through the torture reports from the Center for Constitutional Rights and take a test on them....standardized, of course.
Feeling quite grumpy today,
Karen
Posted by: karen at February 26, 2007 11:58 AM
Do we even know if Jeff Sessions can read? Do we truly know if most of our Congress Critters can read? They certainly passed enough bad legislation between 2000-2006 (without even reading some of it...!!! Patriot Act ring any bells?). Any person with an ounce of common sense and ordinary reading ability would have voted against that tripe, especially since so much of it took away so many of our rights (their own included, if they'd have thought long and hard on it).
I'm SO tired of Congress Critters flapping their gums about things they haven't even read...!
Posted by: DiAnne at February 26, 2007 05:14 PM
------------------
Yup. Basically, any possible way there is to look at it -- we are well and truly screwn there now.
Our best hope -- and our worst case -- is to delay the inevitable while more of our brave men and women get shot and blown up for no worthwhile reason.
Boink that. We need to get ourselves out of the of the ways to pressurize the Chimp-and-Cheney Show into doing the sane thing for a change is to proceeed with the investigate-indict-impeach process...
Well, I have reluctantly but finallly come to believe that doing so would be a critical step in taking back the powers of the over-arching imperial presidency that the neokonzertruppe have been working so hard to gift themselves for the ages with.
The law is the law. The facts are the facts. These people are not above the law, no matter what they keep trying to claim. And they are not in charge of the facts, no matter how much crap Tony Snow keeps trying to bloviate at us on television.
Do I think impeachment is legally justified? Absolutely. Do I think it's politically possible? Probably not, at least not yet. But it's time to get the party started.
Remember, it was indicting Agnew for clearly-criminal activity that got him out of the vice-presidency. Remember, we didn't actually have to impeach Nixon before we drove him out of office in disgrace and crippled his own imperial-presidency dreams for a quarter of a century.
Will these friggin neocon bastids come crawling back out from under their rocks again eventually? Of course they will. But if we pile enough rocks on top of them in the next year and a half, it'll take 'em a long time to be viable again.
Safeguarding functional democracy and asserting real accountability here at home is a royal pain in the small-d asterisk. It's a tough job... but somebody's got to do it.
And in my own purely-personal opinion, it's also our duty as citizens to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign *and* domestic, to the best of our ability.
That will be hard. But if so, then we will do what is hard. Because it's our job and our mission and our civic duty.
support our troops: bring them home now,
Otter
http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2007/02/022607_gitmo.html
And it's always good to see the world of entertainment being honorific towards dykes-with-mic's. *ahem*
Posted by: Otter at February 26, 2007 05:16 PM
Of course. :)
Well... an otter can dream too, can't he?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/26/politics/main2517329.shtml
Yesterday was Dr. Seuss' birthday anniversary &
today is the anniversary of Rodney King getting beat up by cops
Otter
You know what else I think will happen? Like Putin is no angel but he got a few words in about what he thinks of our behavior and then Russia cancelled a huge order with Boeing. I think there will be some unofficial economic sanctions such as that happening against our fair economy. I think the planet's culture vultures can easily search elsewhere than Hollywood for icons. There are all sorts of musical & fashion trends coming out of places like Sao Paolo that have much larger & growing youth demographics than we will, and politically, we may lose alot of influence as far as a culture to emulate.
We could be the new South Africa. Imagine when we have only a few reluctant allies & more countries are actually arming against us, defensively then later perhaps offensively. Having the largest conventional military on the planet (on credit yet) can not guarantee our security. We are descending on the popularity scale and we also have more not less people dependent on government programs than when Bush came into office.
Things are so mixed. WA state has an impeachment action brewing in the State Legislature but some of our national-level House & Senate officials won't back the effort.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/archives/2007/02
dc_dems_want_to_stop_legislative_impeachment_talk.html
Which is true? We, the former Land of Slavery have walked on the knife's edge so many times - Cuban Missile Crisis, Cold War, now this ..
"The Arab League said three Arab Gulf countries have denied Israel use of their air space to strike Iran.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa told reporters in Cairo the foreign ministers of Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates said there is no agreement allowing Israeli jets to use their air space to reach Iran.
His remarks came a day after Israel's Haaretz daily said Israel has received a green light from these three oil-rich states to pass through their air space to launch air strikes against Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility near the Arab Gulf region.
"These reports are either forged or fabricated," Mousa said, adding the foreign ministers of these countries have "officially authorized" him to relay this information.
"No Arab country could allow or give license to Israel to attack Iran," the head of the 22-member Arab League said."
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/Gulf_count...
Otter,
If Gore ever did decide to announce, he should stay far away from Donna Brazile.
Here you see Ahmedinejad, blustering around as Cheney might, and newspapers and politicians in Iran, horrified, disagree with him, just as some of them might here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2022029,00.html
We are news consumers and we are receiving constantly (purposely, in some cases?) mixed messages. (That's known as "disinformation.") We are supposed to be confused.
It benefits some if there is stalling and threats and it is a huge distraction, whether in US or Iran or anywhere else. We need great skill in critical thinking to cut through the propaganda, and we constantly have to search for leaks of information and then figure out if they are credible. We shouldn't have to do this. Or we can do like some, and be spoonfed spun crap or go on blissfully in denial.
It seems like there is a war buildup for an escalation but at the same time, we receive all these mixed messages. It seems like there is room for diplomacy and that has been favored by many generals, leaders, experts. Yet where is the indication that it is happening? Sanctions also kill, as they did with perhaps up to a million children in Iraq, before we even invaded (according to Physicians for Social Responsibility).
Ghouliani To Run For President Of 9/11
NEW YORK—At a well-attended rally in front of his new Ground Zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Ghouliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9/!!.
"My fellow citizens of 9/11, today I will make you a promise," said Ghouliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. "As president of 9/!! , I will usher in a bold new 9/!! for all."
(snip)
"With a campaign built on traditional 9/!! values, and with the help of every citizen who believes in the 9/!! dream, I want to make 9/!! great again."
(snip)
"Sure, he has no foreign or national policy experience, and both his personal life and political career are riddled with scandal," said Hammond. "But in the key area of having been on TV on 9/!! , the other candidates simply cannot match him. And as we saw in 2004, that's what matters most to voters in this post-9/!! world."
(snip)
"People talk about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but did either of them happen to be mayor of New York in September 2001?" Bedford, NH resident Helen Rolfe said. "Guiliani was. To me, that speaks volumes about this man."
(snip)
"Letting 9/!! fall into the hands of the Democrats in 2008 would be nothing short of a national tragedy," Ghouliani said. "Ever since 9/!! was founded that fateful day on 9/!! , 9/!! has stood for one thing: 9/!!."
http://www.theonion.com
This is circulating on the web about Al Gore:
For Further Information, Contact:
Nicole Williams, (615) 383-6431
editor@tennesseepolicy.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”
Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average
Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.
Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.
Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.
Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.
“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.
In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.
###
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions.
We could be the new South Africa.
Posted by: DiAnne at February 26, 2007 07:08 PM
Actually that is the very possibility that travel guru Rick Steves is seriously thinking about. He says that Americans abroad will be treated like dirt, like many good South Africans wrongly were in the 1980s.
This is especially true after W was re-elected in 2004. We can talk about W's cheating in Ohio all we want, but remember that he still had a 3 million vote advantage nationwide, Ohio or not. That's inexcusable to the rest of the world.
I already stopped identifying as an American when I travel abroad.
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions.
Posted by: Ralpheh at February 26, 2007 11:39 PM
"Free market?" Gotcha. It's another goddamn NEOLIBERAL (I refuse to say libertarian) think tank.
Free market is no more. It's been replaced by oligopoly and cartels at all levels of the economy.
GOP donor hit with terror charges
A New York man accused of trying to help terrorists in Afghanistan has donated some $15,000 to the House
Republicans' campaign committee over three years.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1130AP_Republican_Donor.html
today is the anniversary of Rodney King getting beat up by cops
Posted by: DiAnne at February 26, 2007 07:02 PM
Proof that here in Los Angeles, racial tensions were/are alive and well.
While everyone knows of Southern segregation, nobody knows that Southern California was a strictly, legally segregated society as well. The upper-class neighborhoods preferred by Asian Republican nouveaux-riches are that way because they were black-free historically (and still are, largely, even today).
Of course, those Asian nouveaux-riches (Koreans in particular) got the brunt of the rioters' anger when the Rodney King cops got acquitted.
Free market?" Gotcha. It's another goddamn NEOLIBERAL (I refuse to say libertarian) think tank.
Free market is no more. It's been replaced by oligopoly and cartels at all levels of the economy.
Posted by: Ally McRepuke at February 26, 2007 11:53 PM
@@@@@
I agree that it is a rightwing propaganda tank, but is any of this about Gore true?? I don't know how they would get access to Gore's electric bills etc... I hope it is not true...
US Generals "Will Quit" If Bush Orders Iran Attack
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607J.shtml
This is the same Times Online story posted on the previous thread, I believe. I wonder if there's any truth to the story? Do you suppose IF there is an attack on Iran, and IF the generals do quit, that it would finally get the kool-aiders to go cold turkey and come out of their haze long enough to deal with reality... and support impeachment, etc....?
Tina Richards | Demoralizing the Troops
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607T.shtml
Tina Richards writes: "Demoralizing the troops ... Those were the words that inspired me to challenge Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in a Senate hearing a few weeks ago. Those were the words that echoed so loudly in my mind I couldn't - no, I wouldn't stay silent."
Iraqi Cabinet Approves Draft of Oil Law
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607S.shtml
The Iraqi cabinet approved a draft of a law today that would set guidelines for countrywide distribution of oil revenues and foreign investment in the oil industry, in a move that marked a major agreement among the country's ethnic and sectarian political blocs on one of Iraq's most divisive issues.
{One step closer to Bu$hCo/PNAC control of Iraq's oil....}
Global Warming: Enough to Make You Sick
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607N.shtml
The spread of human disease has become one of the most worrisome subplots in the story of global warming. Incremental temperature changes have begun to redraw the distribution of bacteria, insects and plants, exposing new populations to diseases that they have never seen before.
Operation Falcon and the Looming Police State
By Mike Whitney
Operation Falcon is the clearest indication yet that the Bush administration is fine-tuning its shock-troops so it can roll up tens of thousands of people at a moment’s notice and toss them into the newly-built Halliburton detention centers.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17190.htm
How Democrats are Buying the Iraq War:
Last week, members of the Smedley Butler Brigade of Veterans for Peace organized an office occupation of Representative Ed Markey's office in Massachusetts.
http://www.counterpunch.org/leys02262007.html
'Mercenaries' to fill Iraq troop gap:
Ministers are negotiating multi-million-pound contracts with private security firms to cover some of the gaps created by British troop withdrawals.
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=299002007
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/02/26/special-comment-secretary-rice-get-your-facts-straight/
Special Comment: Secretary Rice, Get Your Facts Straight!
{{{MUST Watch Video!!! Gawd, but I love Keith Olbermann!!!}}}
Ralpheh, it's not hard to find out what the average gas and electric bills are for a given address, it's not protected information or anything. Whenever I look for a new apartment or rental house, I want to have some idea of how much it's going to cost me to light, heat, and/or cool the place. I always call the utility companies' customer service numbers and ask what the average billing for that location has been for the past year, and they always give me the information without batting an eye.
So yes, those numbers are probably true. But they're posted on the TCRP website with no other context to gauge them by, just the writer's anti-Gore spin -- which, of course, was immediately picked up, amplified, and reposted all over the internets by a group of right wing & freeper blogs.
So don't get your head in a vise over it. It's just more of your typical dishonest spinformation warping, courtesy of the usual suspects.
Cheney unhurt after ‘huge’ blast at Afghan base
Bomber kills or wounds two dozen; Taliban spokesman says VP was target
Updated: 39 minutes ago
AP
BAGRAM, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber on foot killed and wounded some two dozen people outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.
The blast happened near the first of several security gates outside the base at Bagram, north of the capital Kabul. Cheney’s spokeswoman said he was fine, and the U.S. Embassy said the vice president later met with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
There were conflicting reports on the death toll. Provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said 20 people were killed, but NATO said initial reports indicated only three were killed, including one U.S. soldier and 1 coalition soldier. NATO said 23 were wounded. It was unclear why there was such a large discrepancy in the reports.
Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to the vice president.
“He wasn’t near the site of the explosion,” Mitchell said. “He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion.”
However, a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack.
“We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base,” Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone. “The attacker was trying to reach Cheney.”
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17355517/
U.S. troops to forgo training in rush to Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's special training range in California.
They are now making preparations to leave their home bases.
Some in Congress and others outside the Army are beginning to question whether that decision means the Army is cutting corners in preparing soldiers for combat.
The desert training was designed specially to prepare soldiers for the challenges of Iraq.
Army officials say the two brigades will be as ready as any others that deploy to Iraq, even though they will not have the benefit of training in counterinsurgency tactics at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, which has been outfitted to simulate conditions in Iraq for units that are heading there on yearlong tours.
more on...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/26/rush.iraq.ap/index.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal agency that's been front and center in warning the public about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting just half the food safety inspections it did three years ago.
The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of high-profile food recalls.
"We have a food safety crisis on the horizon," said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. (Paging Dr. Gupta blog: Who's leading the food safety charge? )
Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to a database analysis of federal records by The Associated Press.
That's not all that's dropping at the FDA in terms of food safety. The analysis also shows:
• There are 12 percent fewer FDA employees in field offices who concentrate on food issues.
• Safety tests for U.S.-produced food have dropped nearly 75 percent, from 9,748 in 2003 to 2,455 last year, according to the agency's own statistics.
After the September 11 attacks, the FDA, at the urging of Congress, increased the number of food inspectors and inspections amid fears that the nation's food system was vulnerable to terrorists. Inspectors and inspections spiked in 2003, but now both have fallen enough to erase the gains.
"The only difference is now it's worse, because there are more inspections to do -- more facilities -- and more food coming into America, which requires more inspections," said Tommy Thompson, who as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services pushed to increase the numbers. He's now part of a coalition lobbying to turn around several years of stagnant spending.
Budget increases sought
The Bush administration's budget request for 2008 includes an additional $10.6 million for food safety at the FDA; the lobbying group said 10 times that increase is needed. Even though the FDA increased its overall spending on food between 2003 and 2006, those increases failed to keep pace with rising personnel costs.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/26/food.safety.ap/index.html
Feel safer?
Majority in poll favors deadline for Iraq pullout
53 percent support deadline; opposition to troop hike still strong
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
The Washington Post
With Congress preparing for renewed debate over President Bush's Iraq policies, a majority of Americans now support setting a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces from the war-torn nation and support putting new conditions on the military that could limit the number of personnel available for duty there, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Opposition to Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq remained strong. Two in three Americans registered their disapproval, with 56 percent saying they strongly object. The House recently passed a nonbinding resolution opposing the new deployments, but Republicans have blocked consideration of such a measure in the Senate.
-snip-
The poll also registered a new low on the question of whether the Iraq war was worth fighting. Thirty-four percent responded that it was, while 64 percent said it was not -- 51 percent strongly. On this question, 51 percent of military veterans and 53 percent of veteran households said they strongly believe that the war was not worth fighting.
Seventy percent placed primary blame for failing to control the violence in Iraq on the Iraqi government, while just 18 percent said the United States is more at fault.
Bush's overall approval rating stood at 36 percent, up slightly from 33 percent last month. Sixty-two percent disapproved of the way he is handling his job, with 49 percent of those indicating they strongly disapproved.
Approval of his handling of the Iraq war remained near its all-time low. Thirty-one percent said they approved and 67 percent said they disapproved, a slight improvement from December, when 28 percent approved.
Bush also received negative marks on the campaign against terrorism (52 percent disapproved) and on his handling of the economy (55 percent disapproved).
Congressional Democrats
By wide margins, Americans said they trust Democrats in Congress more than Bush to deal with Iraq, health care, the budget, the economy and terrorism. The Democrats' advantage on health care was 37 percentage points, on the budget 27 points, on Iraq and the economy 20 points and on terrorism 13 points.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17353097/
Ally,
A korean cartoon sparks outrage.
http://www.yahoo.com/s/517511
Talking about Gore's electric bill is like talking about John Kerry's houses. These people have staffs. Comparing their assets to the average person is like the flip side of asking the man on the street how many bills he has introduced to Congress.
By the way, not to worry.
No problem. Mission accomplished.
http://www.airamerica.com/node/3341
"That's why I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan: Get rid of al Qaeda; see, you're harboring al Qaeda. Remember this is a place where they trained -- al Qaeda trained thousands of people in Afghanistan. And the Taliban, I guess, just didn't believe me. And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence." --G.W. Bush, 9/27/04
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2904214&page=1
While the U.S. Department of Defense says that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff discovers — through an internal VA report — that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments, including more than 73,000 diagnoses for mental disorders.
Woodruff reports that even these numbers may not tell the whole story: According to unreleased data from the Department of Defense, at least 10 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may have sustained a brain injury during their service.
The ABC News anchor reports: "That could mean that of the 1.5 million who have served or are now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 150,000 people could have a brain injury that may be undiagnosed and unrecognized by the casualty numbers from the Department of Defense."
More at the link......
According to CNN Money, they're blaming today's stock market opening tumble on yesterday's selloff on the Chinese market (which I can understand & believe) & the bomb attack that targeted Uncle Dick (which I don't get)...
Posted by: madame defarge at February 27, 2007 10:18 AM
Well, maybe they think if Uncle Dick were dead, all those Halliburton and war profiteering companies would go with him. (Can you say, "Bye, bye profits...bye, bye!")
Congressional Republicans have challenged Democrats to cut off funding for the war if they're serious about ending it. But Levin told NBC that Democrats don't want to cut funding for troops in the field.
"Our differences are with the commander in chief and his policies, and we're going to fund the troops as long as they're there," he said. "Secondly, because that resolution would lose, the president would then use the defeat of a cut-the-funding resolution as a way of supporting his policy."
But Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, said Monday that curtailing the mission of U.S. troops would create other problems.
"What if those troops are fired upon? Can they not return fire because the United States Senate says they're not to have a combat role?" Thune asked. "Just when I thought this debate had reached the low point on the depth chart, the Senate Democrats have drained a little more out of the pool."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/27/us.iraq/index.html
Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, todays Cabana Boy.
Here's the other side of the coin on that fake-spin story in re Gore's utility bills:
STATEMENT ON TCPR RELEASE (FROM GORE SPOKESWOMAN KALEE KREIDER):
"Every family has a different carbon footprint. And what Vice President Gore has asked is for families to calculate that footprint and take steps to reduce and offset it. The Gores purchase all of their power through the local Green Powerswitch program - it is 100 percent renewable power. In addition, they are in the midst of a renovation which includes installing solar panels on their home, which will enable them to use less power. Of course, they also use compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy efficiency measures and then they purchase offsets for their carbon emissions to bring their carbon footprint down to zero."
Posted by: sparrow at February 27, 2007 08:54 AM
Suz, I am aware of that issue.
The not-so-funny thing is that even though the cartoon accuses the Jews of setting the warmongering US agenda, the real culprits are the Korean Christians, particularly Reverend Moon.
The average Korean is hardly aware of how damaging their brothers and sisters in the US have been to American democracy.
Posted by: Otter at February 27, 2007 10:48 AM
That's a far more satisfactory explanation. Thank you so much.
And again, anyone who still thinks there is such a thing as a free market ought to have his/her head examined.
New Sonics owners oppose gay marriage
Ward, McClendon donated more than $1.1 million to conservative group
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
Updated: 1 minute ago
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The millionaires who've turned to this state's left-leaning Legislature to authorize a $300 million tax subsidy for a new basketball arena have been playing right-wing politics. Two members of the new Sonics ownership group are heavyweight financiers of a national political group dedicated to banning gay marriage.
Together, co-owners Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon donated more than $1.1 million to Americans United to Preserve Marriage, a conservative Christian group that opposes gay marriage.
The group is led by Gary Bauer, an outspoken leader of conservative groups including the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
According to the group, gay couples "flout marriage by using it for their own political agenda (and) cheapen the institution."
As the team struggles to persuade the Legislature to support a new $500 million basketball arena in Renton, the latest revelations are adding static to the already-strained conversations with Democratic leaders who have consistently backed gay rights issues.
They also come as the National Basketball Association is attempting to define itself as a champion of diversity to counter the public relations fallout from anti-gay statements made by former NBA star Tim Hardaway.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17363448/
Well, maybe they think if Uncle Dick were dead, all those Halliburton and war profiteering companies would go with him. (Can you say, "Bye, bye profits...bye, bye!")
Posted by: sparrow at February 27, 2007 10:30 AM
That's more than plausible. And given that the financial industry, even in bleeding heart liberal San Francisco, is heavily Republican, I wouldn't be surprised if the finance gurus panicked at any hint of a threat for Cheney.
Ally
It's also any glimmer of suggestion that China might raise interest rates on loans. They could pull the plug on us and our war.
Monkey
I don't care if the Sonics leave Seattle. I actually hope that they do. They are demanding a new stadium because the one that was built just recently isn't big enough. It's like in the Roman Empire with the gladiators and all that. Sparta.
madame defarge
Re why a near-miss with Cheney would affect the market, our financial planner says that any turbulent event causes temporary jitters. The stock market reeled way out of control for the 6 weeks that the election result was undecided in 2000 and took a long time to recover. The market abhors any type of turbulence. Investors panic, but it's really stupid because they are thinking short-term.
Good diary on how central banks are diversifying their holdings away from US dollars and why.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/27/71742/3815
This administration is destroying this country.
monkey - DiAnne:
In MN both the Twins and the Vikings want the state's taxpayers to fund the cost of building new stadiums, and the state legislature over-rode Hennepin County attempts to impose a new sales tax for those county's residents to help pay for at least a Twins' stadium (they already have one with a dome, now they want one without a dome, and the last proposal was to have a retractable roof so they could play in any weather). If ever I visit the Cities or surrounding area again, I plan to refuse to purchase anything in Hennepin County so none of my tax pennies go to fund the stadium if it's ever built (they're run into snags and delays again over the land purchase, so negotiations are stalled and the stadium may be built elsewhere). The Twins' owner, Carl Pohlad, is a billionaire who makes the Fortune 500 list every year. He can afford to build his own stadium for his spoiled brats. Both teams have had players who have made at least in-state headlines and gotten top of the news hour mentions for everything from drunk driving to bar fights to sex trips on a boating cruise in the last couple of years.
In addition to the pro-sports teams new stadiums, the U of M was granted monies to build a stadium for the university's sports teams. I haven't heard when they're going to break ground for the U's stadium, but the cost of college tuition for residents in this state recently went up by double digits.
This whole sports thing has gone nuts!!! IMHO: If the players want a new sandbox, they should contribute some of their own money to pay for it, or the team owners should foot the bill for the total cost of any new playgrounds for the over-sized spoiled brats who insist on breaking laws and not being held accountable for their actions. (Gee, I wonder if that's why so many of them are neoCon 'Publicans...? Worse, some of the state Dems actually approve of our tax dollars going to the spoiled brats and say 'we need the sports teams in this state!' Grrrr....)
People are dying around the world in wars (some started by Georgie, and it seems he's also funding the criminals he calls 'enemies' who don't even represent any country, nor are they a standing army, which just keeps his wars going), people are being tortured, people are starving, the environment is suffering from global warming and pollution, and the only thing jocks have on their mind is how they can get John Q. and Jane Q. Public's tax money for 'new and improved' sandboxes to play in.
Something is radically wrong with that picture. Priorities are totally fupped and bass ackwards. I would personally favor banishing all kinds of sports teams on every level, from high school sports to pro sports. They are just not necessary, financially or culturally.
Now, if they want to start talking about things that would improve our culture, our civilization, like, oh, say programs for art, music, dance, writing programs for budding novelists and poets or playwrights, and things of that nature, ask me how fast I'd be willing to write out a check or show up at a museum or play or dance recital or musical performance or art exhibit....
Rove Received and Ignored Iranian Peace Offer
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022707J.shtml
Amy Goodman speaks with the National Iranian American Council's Trita Parsi, a former aide to Republican congressman Bob Ney, and examines how Karl Rove and the Bush administration ignored a secret offer to negotiate with Iran in 2003.
Ex-GOP Aide Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022707K.shtml
Convicted former representative Bob Ney's top aide William Heaton pleaded guilty Monday to federal conspiracy charges stemming from a congressional bribery scandal that downed Bob Ney. Heaton accepted a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Monsanto Merger Sows Fears Over Skewed Seed Market
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022707P.shtml
A pending merger in the cotton-seed industry is prompting sharp legal and environmental criticisms of biotechnology in US agriculture. The proposed merger would fuse the world's largest seed company, Monsanto, with one of the country's leading cotton-seed firms, Delta and Pine Land. Consumer watchdogs tracking biotechnology's impacts want the federal government to intervene, arguing that the merger would come at the expense of agricultural diversity and the environment.
Posted by: DiAnne at February 27, 2007 01:23 PM
Posted by: NonnyO at February 27, 2007 01:58 PM
It's just an extension of our teenage culture, where sports stars are over-glorified at the expense of academics, economy, and everything else.
Sports is great for entertainment, and for giving the students and the athletes something of a purpose. But it shouldn't be an end in itself. (And I do think the drug users and other miscreants among our athletes set a very bad example.)
http://www.amny.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-liread0223,0,5893949.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
Feds: Students' skills sink but grades rise
Twelth-graders' reading skills have hit a new low, but their grades continue to climb, according to federal officials who suspect the nation's schools are inflating grades.
{{{BTW, the first word in this article - 'twelfth' was misspelled as 'twelth.' That was pointed out by one of the people in the comments section!!! More on link. Gee, I'm SO surprised by this news! Aren't you surprised by this news, too? See Spot run. See Dick run. See Sally run. See Puff run....}}}
Read the rest at Center for American Progress site:
GLOBAL WARMING
Action Rewarded
On Sunday, Vice President Al Gore's global warming film An Inconvenient Truth won two Academy Awards, including Best Documentary Feature (watch a video montage of Gore at the Oscars). Just as conservative critics blasted the Grammy-winning Dixie Chicks, many are claiming that An Inconvenient Truth was honored simply because Hollywood agrees with Gore’s views. The truth is, two years ago, global warming was still considered a fringe issue to many. Today, the debate is over -- Americans overwhelmingly agree that the climate crisis exists and that we must act now to reverse it. An Inconvenient Truth had a profound impact on how Americans view the issue of global warming. Al Gore deserved this award. Now, he's set to launch "a series of worldwide concerts to focus on the threat of climate change, with a powerhouse lineup from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi.” The 24-hour event on 7/07/07 is part of a campaign called Save Our Selves (SOS) -- The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis. “In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to reach billions of people,” Gore said today. “The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement.” (For more, check out our blog dedicated to global warming, Climate Progress.)
ATTACKING GORE: The right wing is angry that Gore has won so much public attention and goodwill for his work on global warming. Determined to smear his efforts, influential Internet gossip Matt Drudge yesterday published details of Gore's electricity bills under the screaming headline: "Gore Mansion Uses 20x Average Household; Consumption Increase After 'Truth.'" (Drudge's attack comes two weeks after Fox News host Sean Hannity accused Gore of hypocrisy for taking a private jet to President Clinton's State of the Union in 2000, and a year after "a seemingly amateurish Youtube video mocking the 'An Inconvenient Truth' turned out to have been produced by slick...public relations firm called DCI, which just happens to have oil giant Exxon as a client.") Gore rebutted Drudge's recent attack, pointing out 1) that his family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology; and 2) Gore has consistently purchased carbon offsets to make up the family’s carbon footprint -- a concept the right-wing fails to understand. (Calculate your own carbon footprint.) These are the lengths that climate skeptics must go to suppress action on global warming. There is no meaningful debate within the scientific community, so the right-wing busies itself with talk about Gore’s electricity bill -- and even then it distorts the truth.
ACTION SPURS PROGRESS: While Gore continues to lead a shift in the public debate, the new leaders of the 110th Congress are leading a legislative shift on climate issues. Capitol Hill will see more than a dozen briefings on issues that impact global warming this week alone, and this kind of action is producing results. The Wall Street Journal reports today, "Seeking to shape legislation before Congress, three major energy trade associations [which include Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association] have shifted their stances and decided to back mandatory federal curbs on carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions that could accelerate climate change." This news -- yet another sign that corporate America is changing course on climate policy -- "underscores [the] belief that Congress is in a mood to pass some form of mandatory emissions controls, perhaps before the next election in 2008." Meanwhile, the states are taking action where the Bush administration has proved impotent. "Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest regional pact to bypass the Bush administration to cut emissions linked to global warming through market mechanisms," it was announced yesterday. "The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative requires Oregon, California, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona to develop a regional target in six months for reducing greenhouse emissions" through a market-based plan, such as a load-based cap-and-trade program. Several eastern U.S. states have signed a similar agreement called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
THREADING THE ANTI-SCIENCE NEEDLE: At this point, most global warming deniers have tipped into hysteria -- blaming climate change on dinosaur flatulence, a secret plot by socialists, or Satan. Others -- namely, Vice President Dick Cheney -- are taking a more subtle approach. The White House released an "open letter" this month stating that President Bush has "consistently" acknowledged "humans are contributing" to global warming. But as science writer Chris Mooney points out, it "depends on what the meaning of 'contributing' is." Last week, Cheney unveiled a new effort the thread the needle on climate change science, saying that while "we’re in a period of warming," there "does not appear to be a consensus, where it begins to break down, is the extent to which that’s part of a normal cycle versus the extent to which it’s caused by man, greenhouse gases, et cetera." In other words, humans may have some impact on warming, but that impact may be minor. Cheney added later in the interview, “I don’t know. I’m not a scientist." No kidding. Real scientists -- like those who produced the gold-standard Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report -- state that the climate crisis is caused primarily by human activities. [More at IPCCFacts.org.] Even the White House's Office on Science and Technology acknowledged in a statement this month, "human activities have very likely caused most of the warming of the last 50 years."
NonnyO
I really don't see a difference between the sports stadium and pro sports and emphasis on nothing else but sports in curriculum from day one and the Roman coliseums with gladiators, except we don't put Christians in with lions. Say Falwell, Dobson, Robertson - that might be something interesting to see.
Is this where we're headed?
Public spectacles (called munera, singular munus) took place in amphitheatres (like the Colosseum) and took the latter half of the day after the fights against animals (venationes) and public executions of criminals (noxii).
Initially rich private individuals organized these, often to gain political favor with the public. The person who organized the show was called the editor, munerator, or dominus and he was honored with the official signs of a magistrate.
Later the emperors would exert a near complete monopoly on staging public entertainment which included chariot racing in the circus (ludi circenses), hunts of wild animals, public executions, theatrical performances (ludi scaenici) and gladiator fights. There was usually musical accompaniment.Gladiators were typically picked from prisoners of war, slaves, and sentenced criminals. There were also occasional volunteers. They were trained in special gladiator schools (ludi).
http://www.crystalinks.com/romerecreation.html
Only we pay ours millions
Say Falwell, Dobson, Robertson - that might be something interesting to see.
Posted by: DiAnne at February 27, 2007 03:14 PM
Or Coulter. That also fulfills the right-wing requirement to exterminate the sodomites - gotta start with one of their own.
Punchline needed
Female gladiators also existed; The Emperor Domitian liked to stage torchlit fights between dwarfs and women, according to Suetonius in "The Twelve Caesars".
Keith Olbermann | Condi Goes Too Far
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022707A.shtml
Keith Olbermann writes: "Invoking the German dictator who subjugated Europe; who
tried to exterminate the Jews; who sought to overtake the world is not just in
the poorest of taste, but in its hyperbole, it insults not merely the victims of
the Third Reich, but those in this country who fought it and defeated it. Saddam
Hussein was not Adolf Hitler. And George W. Bush is not Franklin D. Roosevelt -
nor Dwight D. Eisenhower. He isn't even George H.W. Bush, who fought in that war."
Rushed by Bush, Troops Sent to War Without Training
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022707B.shtml
Rushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more US
troops, the Army is forgoing training designed specially to prepare the troops
for the challenges of Iraq.
Ally, the GOP knew they had to win the popular vote. Although we will never know the end result conclusively, the 3 million is an inflated figure, if you consider more vores than voters in red states, both the military and overseas vote suspicious, with more states given to enough funny margins to also doubt the count.
Hopefully, in a few days, I'll post how we should feel about the Holt Bill, and what we need to do.
We are trying to mobilize here in New York for a statewide system of paper ballots/optical scanners. Upstate commissioners are being told by Liberty its touchscreen isn't a computer, yet it was hacked in Holland and taught to play chess. That is the level of competence we need to bypass.
When the story of this is written, in addition to the overall good business plan of the GOP to privatize and control our country, the biggest obstructionist is the disability lobby leadership. Considering the proven disenfranchisement by language on the electronic touchscreen cuts to shreds their arguments, they have held sway.
People for the Americn Way, Common Cause, have both sent e-blasts, because they are in thrall, and a little bit of pocket to the vendors, in what I assume was well-meaning focus on access as a civil right. A worthy, long sought desire to vote privately and like everybody else. Although that shouldn't mean the same technology, PBOS works for everyone.
I don't know how much I will put in the DCP header of the unhealthy relationships, but suffice to say there are heroes and villains on all sides of the arguments, sides of the aisle.