TIME Thinks Its Readers Are Stupid

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/27/michael-ware-i-dont-know-what-part-of-neverland-senator-mccain-is-talking-about/

Michael Ware: "I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about…"

During an interview on "The Situation Room" this afternoon, John McCain told Wolf that he needs to "get up to speed" and stop reporting three-week-old news from Iraq. According to McCain, the surge is working! and the streets of Baghdad are safe for Americans to go strolling down. The only problem? Michael Ware, who is, ya know, in Baghdad, says McCain hasn't a clue…

(Great video footage of Ware's smackdown at above link)

be ware the chides of march,
Otter

Casey, this is appalling. I remember, way back in the dim, dark past having an all-out major conflict with the school principal in my second year of teaching. I lived in the Australian outback and although we had an Anglican church - and a catholic one with priest - we didn't have an Anglican minister. My boss, the primary school principal, installed himself in the church every Sunday as the lay preacher.

He also "highly recommended" that the teaching staff come along, which we never did. Five days around him was more than enough. I was teaching the beginners class and on the Monday morning of the second week I was summoned to the office, via the loud speaker broadcasting across the entire town, for an urgent meeting with the principal. I was so alarmed thinking someone in my family was either dead or sick, that I fled from the classroom, leaving the children alone in the room.

The urgent problem? He had my work program open on his desk and glared across his enormous black-rimmed glasses, whilst prodding my work program. "Where is the daily scripture lesson?" I was stunned. It had been drummed into me throughout three years of training that I must never teach or discuss either politics or religion in my classroom.

He stood, bending across his desk and shouted, "EVERY DAY! You WILL teach scripture every day for a minimum of 30 minutes. AND I want a week's work program completed and on my desk by 3 o'clock!" I gave it to him within an hour. It was easy. Children's bible stories have always been favourites of mine and they had good lessons in them so I wrote down the name of five stories I could remember. "Read Story. Discuss. Draw/paint/cut and paste." It took up a single line of the week's work program. I didn't write that I would make no reference to a God or Jesus during the story and discussion. If the kids did that wasn't a problem. Sometimes I slipped an Aesop's Fable into the 30 minute time slot. If I had my time over I would also read Aboriginal Dreamtime creation stories since we had a high population of Aboriginal children in the town.

He got his way - bullied me into submission. And I was happy because he got no religious teaching out of me. We each have our own relationship with the spiritual world, or we have none. Extremism in any aspect of life can be dangerous.

How would the American cover go down in Northern Ireland after the power-sharing began yesterday - an agreement but no handshake between the opponents? Whose bible teaching would be the favoured one - the protestant or catholic? Religion belongs to the families or private schools. It should be excluded from public school curricula. (imo)

Posted by: Otter at March 27, 2007 08:12 PM

That was great, Otter. And nice to hear an Aussie accent. Mike Ware was on an Andrew Denton "Enough Rope" interview, a few years ago. I thought he was pretty amazing back then. The transcript of the interview is here if anyone would like to read it. It was good to get his current view of things - and I loved the "Neverland" comment.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1162781.htm

Oh..now this is MUST SEE tv!

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002889.php

Gonzales running from questions.

Posted by: sparrow at March 27, 2007 06:50 PM

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

What a sad, sad, day for the Bushies. The Bush Propaganda Department spent a lot of time and money on this diversionary, fluff press conference!!! AND THE PRESS RUINED IT!!! BY ASKING TOUGH, TOPICAL, IMPORTANT, CURRENT QUESTIONS... And did you see that fancy backdrop made for the Gonzales press conference... PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD...PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD... and the obligatory flags?

Now I ask you, during the week in which our members of Congress are voting on essential funding for the war in Afghanistan, which cover story do you think is more important for Americans to read? The case FOR teaching the Bible in school, or the real story about the Taliban in Afghanistan?

(And as a side note, what business does TIME magazine have pimping the teaching of the Bible in public schools? If we teach the Bible in public schools, are we going to be teaching the Qu'ran, too? The Torah? And who decides how these are taught?)

@@@@@@@@@@

Let's just admit it... most Americans are clueless; only about half of Americans vote regularly; they don't know what is going on in the community let alone their state, nation or the rest of the world; they don't read "books" or "newspapers". I would even say that ignorance is fashionable...

TIME is just trying to make a buck - and religion and Christianity are real money-makers these days.

BTW - I was really shocked when I walked into by local Barnes and Noble last week and saw that they had completely rearranged the shelving and the interest areas. Guess what subject got front row , center place - "Christianity and Spirituality"

and what was not shoved back, and hidden but reduced in space? CURRENT EVENTS and POLITICS...

Woz
Interesting story!

My dad taught Art & Music on an American Indian reservation and he couldn't get kids motivated to come to school. He noticed that they would stay up til 2 AM preparing for a Powwow, learning dance steps and doing beadwork for their costumes. So he incorporated some Native American content into his Art and Music curricula and he got fired.

I worked as a speech pathologist in a Children's Center that was hospital-based and secular. A fundamentalist Christian parent questioned my boss about the Yin/Yang ring I was wearing. I was required to spend 1/2 hour talking with that parent about my "religious beliefs" and I ended up quitting the job.

Where I work now, I must listen to prayer in the morning and I had to attend one church service I thought was going to be a meeting, but at least I know it's a faith-based place, and I've been able to keep almost all of my work professional and secular, based on what I was taught at University.

I have a friend in France who teaches high school literature. She truly does teach the Bible, Koran, Talmud etc. but as literature. She has taken some flak from some of the students but she tells them that she personally has no religion. In France, it's prohibited to wear religious wear to school because the state and church are quite separate. This has been a big issue. I have been reading some about the UK too, prohibiting the veil in certain circumstances.

My husband does driver testing and sometimes he tests Muslim women who do not want to remove the veil at least in the front so their face can be identifiable in the photograph on their license. He tells them that it is the requirement if they want to drive.

These issues are more to the fore all the time - every December we hear squabbling about the use of Holiday vs Christmas, whether decorated trees should be in public places, or nativity scenes belong, or whether Hannukah should be observed as well. There is always someone worried about "taking Christ out of Christmas."

Even now that it's Easter, I know of parents who object to Easter egg hunts and the Easter bunny, and forbit it for their children. it's way too pagan. I know others who do not celebrate Halloween and I have even been asked before not to tell the children about dinosaurs because they might wonder how old the earth is and get ideas about science and evolution.

It seems to me that the situation has gotten more extreme than when I was in school decades ago.

Woz
Beware of the giant toads, the size of dogs!

(My dad was stationed in Darwin in WW2)

hahaha NMP - I saw that photo - hideous creatures. At my sister's place in Queensland they do a nightly "toad-patrol" which involves picking them up with long tongs and putting them into a plastic bag and euthanasing them with dettol! That's so they don't kill the dogs - BIG dogs.

Yes, schools have become a bit anti everything that's fun. The parents have - not the kids or the teachers usually.

This is a bioethicist and author Dr Steven Miles being interviewed by Tony Jones of the ABC's Lateline program on Monday 26th March.

He talks about the many thousands of declassified pages of interrogation logs from interrogations of prisoners at Guantanamo. He talks of the medical professionals who attended the interrogations. And he talks of data which shows the most useful and the most unreliable forms of interrogation.

On this page you can either read the transcript or watch the video. I must write and congratulate Tony Jones for this one. I usually give him grief over his political bias.

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1882123.htm

Today's Age Editorial

A travesty of justice
March 28, 2007

David Hicks' guilty plea is neither cause for joy nor a validation of the processes by which it was derived.

THE bough has broken. Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks yesterday pleaded guilty before a military commission of having provided material support to al-Qaeda and of being associated with an armed conflict. His sentence is due to be given this week. Before Hicks' court appearance, critics had labelled Guantanamo Bay and the form of justice it represented as a mockery of the rule of law. Yesterday mockery became travesty.

Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/a-travesty-of-justice/2007/03/27/1174761465495.html

And as a side note, what business does TIME magazine have pimping the teaching of the Bible in public schools?

Posted by Casey Morris at March 27, 2007 06:37 PM

Casey, great word - pimping - and certainly appropriate in its context.

There really was a cult called Children of God. I knew a woman who is sister to Rose McGowan, the actress, and they were raised in it. The women engaged in "flirty fishing" and literally whored men in and then they were preached to and hopefully converted to the Lord.

Posted by: not my president at March 28, 2007 09:25 AM

Wow.

p.s. The punch lines are currently long for passengers flying Cranial Airlines.

Bush renews vow to veto Iraq troop withdrawal
President accuses Democratics of meddling in military strategy

Updated: 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush said Wednesday that efforts by U.S. congressional Democrats to issue a rebuke of his Iraq policies are nothing more than meddling in military strategy that would have disastrous consequences for Iraq's democracy and America's security.

-snip-

"Members of Congress need to stop making political statements, start providing vital funds for our troops and get a bill to my desk that I can sign into law," Bush was expected to say in a speech at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association meeting in Washington. Excerpts were released in advance by the White House. "If Congress fails to pass a bill to fund our troops on the front lines, the American people will know who to hold responsible."

But Reid and other Democrats say they won't back down.

"Rather than making all the threats that he has, let's work with him and see if he can give us some ideas how we can satisfy the wishes of a majority of the Senate, the majority of the House and move forward," Reid said.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17828474/

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2007/03/28/notes032807.DTL&nl=fix
When Liberals Rule The World
Stats say the GOP is dying. But red-staters are breeding like drunken ferrets. Who wins?

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/newswar/
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/newswar/video1.html

Did anyone else watch PBS's Frontline World last night? You should be able to see it online on one of the above links.

I watched the show and a re-run in the middle of the night. I was simply aghast that a CENTCOM [propaganda] employee has an office in Dubai (he loves his job). He and this other fellow being interviewed were running around to Al Jazeera being interviewed trying to get the [undefined] American message out... yet no one here will see it because the English speaking Al Jazeera is banned in this country. The fellow who actually did this story admitted he has no idea what anyone was saying. (There must be a don't ask, don't tell policy about some American translators, because I think at least one of those fellows was gay.) There's one familiar face (Maresh, I think his name is), and he alluded to the fact that America has to get used to the fact that it's not as important as it thinks it is (words to that effect - it was the only worthwhile few seconds of the show).

I was very disappointed in the program. It was only worthy of Faux Snooze propaganda with a script from the White House.

My letter:

Dear Editor,

In 2000, George W. Bush promised to be a "Compassionate-Conservative" and he began his term by bringing in "Faith Based Initiatives" as a means of dimming the line between faith and government. Bush and his 'brain' Rove further decided to politicize the line between faith and politics when they used churches and their mailing lists to send out Republican propaganda, even though it went against the nonprofit status churches enjoy.

However, it's now 2007 and those memes are just not going to work any longer!

We now are facing tremendous moral and ethical issues as a result of getting suckered by Bush, Cheney, and Rove. Consequently, people have taken a stance on real life Biblical values. Actions speak louder than words--even Biblical words demand ethical actions now. Morally, Biblical, and ethically speaking, it is not acceptable to maim, torture, or promote war.

Now Americans are forced to look at their acceptance of someone who behaved in such an "Un-Christian" way, and they're forced to live with the results of being hoodwinked by propaganda.

The American people made that leap of faith and took the necessary stand when they overwhelmingly voted Democratic in the November 2006 elections.

So in these serious times, why is your magazine still promoting propaganda in the US while ignoring the bigger ethical and moral issue facing our country? Shame on your magazine for promoting propaganda in America.

Americans need to hear about Afghanistan and the Taliban especially as we come out of the dark and enter the new age of enlightenment. Citizens in a democracy deserve the truth.

It's time for your magazine to stop the propaganda and give the truth from now on!

OLBERMANN DOES ATTORNEYGATE [VIDEO X 2]
By Richard Blair
The last 12 hours have been full of new twists & turns...
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/49804/

{{{Two videos. Anyone besides me think Gonzo's gay? The way he speaks... hmmmmm.....}}}

Transcript of session follows -----
popdeliver: mailbox is full
554 5.0.0 Service unavailable

An old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital. He motioned for his nurse to come near.

"Yes, Father?" said the nurse.

"I would really like to see George W. Bush and Dick Cheney before I die."

"I'll see what I can do, Father" replied the nurse.

The nurse sent the request to the White House and waited for a response. Soon the word arrived. Bush and Cheney would be delighted to visit the priest.

As they went to the hospital, Bush commented to Cheney "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images." Cheney couldn't help but agree.

When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Cheney's hand in his right hand and Bush's hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest's face.

Finally Vice President Cheney spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?"

The old priest slowly replied "I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

"Amen" said Cheney.

"Amen" said Bush.

The old priest continued..."He died between two lying thieves. I would like to do the same."

FWIW, the Bu$hCo White House coveniently withdrew its bogus ambassador-wannabe Sam "I Never Met a Swift Boater I Didn't Give $50K-To" Fox's nomination to serve as incompetentlomat to Beligum this morning, just minutes before a Senate confirmation vote that would surely have exposed him and them to a great deal of righteous indignation, not to mention near-certain defeat.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070328/ap_on_go_pr_wh/kerry_swift_boat_9

BOK bok bok bok bok bok,
Otter

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070328/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
Bush: Iraq timeline could be disastrous
Excerpt:
"Why doesn't he get real with what's going on with the world?" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., said after Bush's speech. "We're not holding up funding in Iraq and he knows that. Why doesn't he deal with the real issues facing the American people?"

{{{BTW, DimWit never does explain precisely how and why it would be "disastrous" for our troops to withdraw. Just that same vaguely worded crap about "enemies" (of course, he doesn't mention he's the one who made enemies of people who were not enemies before he was appointed resident - duh). McCain and Lindsey Graham have been imbibing too much kool-aid; they're both as delusional as DimWit. Hagel, however, has gone cold-turkey and is talking with more common sense than even most Dems. Amazing. If Obama or Hillary or any of the other declared Dem candidates talked like Hagel, they could garner much support from We The People who are Dems - since people like me can't support the two Lamestream Media candidates, Hillary or Obama. I haven't heard enough from the other people who haven't gotten any attention from Sunday morning bobble heads. Last I heard anything from Biden, he was appealing, but I don't know if that old opinion would still hold water if he's changed any. It's still much too early to be talking about '08.}}}

I personally think all religions ought to be taught in schools; as many as exist.

I also think all forms of art, music, theatre, and dance should be taught.

And all forms of government.

I think it's a big world out there, but we connect through human endeavors and shared understandings, and we need as many of these to match the width of the world as we can get. The world is both larger and closer than we think.

Posted by Casey Morris at March 27, 2007 06:37 PM

Good thread header, and I'm not ignoring it. However, I've ranted about my absolute belief in the total and complete separation of church and state before (per Jefferson), and I don't think anyone wants to read a repetition of what I've said before.

Hearing about religious stuff on infotainment snooze was one of the deciding factors for me to cease listening to most of both in-state and national snooze, besides sports figures making the top of the nooze hour for committing crimes. Between religion and sports, most of any evening snooze is a major turn-off. There are no less than seven or eight churches within six blocks of where I live. I know where to find organized religion if I want to (but I'm still the only person I know who's actually read the Bible cover-to-cover; twice, in fact, and the first time was because the minister lied to me, and I later went on to read history and stuff having to do with archaeology and anthropology for the Biblical time-period). If I want sports, I can turn on the TV any Sat. or Sun. afternoon (I still remember the days when weekend TV was good; they used to play old movies on weekend afternoons).

Needless to say, both religion and sports are raking in big bucks and getting corporate welfare from state and/or federal and local governments. Neither one deserves (or will get) my attention or my money.

The GOP, GeorgeWBush.com and the line that jumped the Congressional Firewall

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/27/182647/444

Posted by: karen at March 28, 2007 02:12 PM

Agreed, especially about religions. The religions outside the familiar Judeo-Christo-Islamic framework can teach us so much, like learning a foreign language makes you appreciate linguistics and your native tongue better.

In college, I was required to take a literature class that included the Bible, due to the Judeo-Christian influence on Western civilizations. The Koran was added at the last minute, to belatedly add the Muslim influence on the Western world as well, but I was left in the dark when it came to religions outside this framework.

I'm especially grateful to NonnyO and DiAnne for giving me valuable knowledge of non-Judeo-Christo-Islamic religions.

Posted by: NonnyO at March 28, 2007 02:13 PM

7-8 churches within six blocks? Yikes!

Actually, not much different in my neck of woods either. I have a dozen churches within walking distance, and all but one (a bilingual Church of Christ) are of the right-leaning kind.

In fact, my backyard borders a PUBLIC elementary school, that turns itself into a fundamentalist Korean church every Sunday. Blatant disregard for church-state separation.

What do Iranians think of the Gulf Crisis?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6504235.stm

Saudi King Calls US Presence in Iraq "Illegitimate"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/28/news/arabs.php

What possible clout does Bush think he has against these influences outside Iraq?

Also, on topic of TIME magazine covers, I just saw last week's and it had Cheney .. under a storm cloud.

I have four churches within walking distance. One is fundie rightwing with a big marquee, one is left-leaning peace church which works closely with neighborhood peace groups, one is a run-of-the-mill Catholic place with school adjacent, and the other I'm not sure about. There is also a mosque not far away, and a suburban guy once got drunk and tried to firebomb it but ran his truck into a telephone pole. After that, various other churches provided round-the-clock security detail.

Let me tell you - it's glorious to be able to sleep in on Sunday mornings and have to answer to no one, human or supernatural!

On the spirituality issue, I suggest a whirl through the book I'm reading - "I Have This Country Surrounded - a biography of Timothy Leary.

It sheds new light on things I remembered but as a teen or twenty-somethinmostly from what I heard in the media - leftist groups, domestic terrorist groups, the prison system, drug hysteria, cultism, the "generation gap", the "Summer of Love," and especially, Richard Nixon, the most paranoid person to walk the planet.

Some LTE about the Rove coverage in the Oakland Press.

I hope to see some Detroit News LTE's or Free Press since I felt their coverage was much more ridiculous than the Oakland Press's was.

http://de.theoaklandpress.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=T0xQLzIwMDcvMDMvMjgjQXIwMDYwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Worries grow over mental health of soldiers
Up to 20 percent of Iraq vets may have post-traumatic stress disorder

WASHINGTON - Retired U.S. Navy medic Charlie Anderson twice thought about committing suicide: once when he feared he would be sent back to Iraq in 2004 and again last year when a friend and fellow veteran killed himself.

“I can’t say that I can’t go because we don’t do that, I also can’t go because I’m putting people in danger if I do,” he said of his first brush with suicidal thoughts, which came while he was awaiting his second deployment.

In the end, Anderson was not deployed but it sparked a two-year effort to get help for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one of thousands of soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan facing a battle to re-enter everyday life.

While much of the attention has been on physical wounds like traumatic brain injuries, as well as squalid living conditions for recovering soldiers, doctors, families and lawmakers are expressing growing concerns that veterans are not be getting the right mental health help.

Those worries come as President George W. Bush has ordered almost 30,000 more troops to Iraq. Already 1.5 million soldiers have been deployed in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, with one-third serving at least two combat tours, which increases the chances of PTSD.

Despite finally receiving treatment, Anderson finds himself in the middle of a divorce and still constantly on edge — jumpy at loud noises and always eyeing the exits of rooms.

“I have triggers every day, but I’m learning how to deal with them,” he said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 12 percent to 20 percent of those who served in Iraq suffer from PTSD. A 2004 Army study found 16.6 percent of those returning from combat tested positive for the disorder.

Individuals suffer from PTSD if they relive the trauma, experience emotional numbness, isolation, depression, substance abuse, and memory problems. These often lead to job instability and marital troubles.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17835861/

Ahem, marital troubles, ya hear that fundies? Where's yer defense of "marriage" on that one, eh?

Not to put too fine a point on it but I mentioned the Time cover thing to my husband who spent up to 75-80% of his time overseas a few years back and he looked at me like I was a little off.

He said they very often had different covers for the US edition versus the European edition versus the Asian edition, etc.

So as for this one being an exceptional move designed to forestall criticism, maybe not so much.

IRAN AMENDMENT IN THE SENATE:

TELL THE SENATE TO RALLY BEHIND THE WEBB AMENDMENT TO PRECLUDE
ATTACKING IRAN

Call your members of Congress now toll free at 800-828-0498,
800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/webb_iran_amendment.php

Don't let anyone ever tell us again our voices are not heard. Today
the Senate REJECTED an attempt to strip the Iraq withdrawal time line
from the current supplemental, just as you called for them to do. And in
the remaining days of the week, before Congress takes a spring recess,
there is one more urgent call we must make, to tell the Senate to pass
an amendment being offered by new Senator James Webb to head off a NEW
war with Iran without express congressional approval.

This amendment would not have been proposed if there were not a real,
present and palpable danger that Bush will try to use the recess of
Congress to open up a whole new barrel of war horrors. We are hearing more
and more stories of preparations consistent with plans for an imminent
major assault. Russian intelligence is reporting a continuation of the
buildup of our forces on Iran's borders. And even as we speak the Navy
is flexing their testosterone in a yet another show of "force" in the
Persian gulf.

And to what end? To provoke some Gulf of Tonkin incident to be Bush's
latest unjustified causa belli? The sheer clumsiness of the British
wandering into DISPUTED waters and getting 15 of their people seized
demonstrates how close we are to the situation blowing completely out of
control. And we hear Blair warning about a "different phase", which can
only mean descent into an even deeper circle of hell. One of their own
former ambassadors has pointed out that the border between Iraq and
Iran has NEVER been fixed on land, let alone at sea. And those are the
waters our would be cowboy president is fishing for more trouble in.

The one thing we know for sure is that bombing Iran is the certain
route to only one result, an even larger military confrontation we cannot
win, with the added enormous peril of inflaming the situation in Iraq
even more than it is now. The lunatic concept being pushed through the
Pentagon by still unrepentant neocon hotshot theorists is that all we
have to do is launch a bunch of cruise missiles and the Iranians will
just fold up their tents. And our current president is just stupid,
arrogant and desperate enough to buy it again, especially as the rest of his
mid-East debacle comes crashing down around his ears and ours, and six
years of despicable, deliberate lies finally start floating to the
surface like a bumper crop of flotsam.

We are talking about people who are so utterly divorced from reality on
the ground that they see good news in every new truck bombing. This
very day on the Senate floor McCain argued that things really are getting
better in Iraq, that the surge is working, and that there are
neighborhoods in Baghdad outside of concrete fortifications where an American
can just go for a leisurely stroll and window shop. But actual on the
scene CNN British correspondent Michael Ware, who lives in mortal peril
there every day to report what's really going on, says our own military
commanders there find such statements laughably ludicrous.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/webb_iran_amendment.php

Only by sending a very strong message to the Senate right now, and
pressuring them to make a public showing of opposition to Bush's insane,
and not so secret, plans can we possibly constrain him from pulling an
even bigger trigger, with consequences he has not bothered to consider.
We're talking about the Plan A with no Plan B crowd. When asked what
they would do if their surge did not work, like all previous identical
surges in past, their only response was that is had to work.

Take heart that your many phone calls ARE working. They are the only
reason we are finally getting some action out of our Congress, the first
awakening of real backbone from our representatives. And it's all your
doing. We have to not only keep it up, but magnify our efforts to get
everyone who opposes Bush's wrong headed war policies to be their own
personal citizen advocate, to lobby Congress with a phone AND a follow
up email message right now. Please forward this message to everyone you
know. And let it be so.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.millionphonemarch.com/in.htm

Or if you want to cease receiving our messages, just use the function
at http://www.millionphonemarch.com/out.htm

Powered by The People's Email Network
Copyright 2007, Patent pending, All rights reserved

Some LTE about the Rove coverage in the Oakland Press.

I hope to see some Detroit News LTE's or Free Press since I felt their coverage was much more ridiculous than the Oakland Press's was.

http://de.theoaklandpress.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=T0xQLzIwMDcvMDMvMjgjQXIwMDYwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Posted by: sparrow at March 28, 2007 05:20 PM

@@@@@@@

I thought that the Oakland Press story on Rove's visit was awful. It sounded like a press release from Rove's office with no critical counterpoints. I thought the Free Press article was much better. It least, however, the Oakland press ran that picture of the papier mache Rove puppet....(is a picture worth a thousand words??)

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at March 28, 2007 03:43 PM

Actually, I found much to appreciate in the Bible from several perspectives. I read the stories and philosophies and poetry from beginning to end, however, so everything was in context....

The part that drives me batty about the fundies is their penchant for taking only selected verses and building whole religions around them... and read in context with what is written before and after those few selected verses, it doesn't read the same as the selected verses "interpreted" from a single point of view (and the "interpretation" is generally out of context with the whole). The "selective interpretation" is the part with which I disagree.

The book stands on its own without "selective interpretation" of only a few verses. It needs to be read in context with the whole....

However, I also appreciate things like The Epic of Gilgamesh, the poetry of Innana... etc., and they were written before the Bible.

Context is everything....

NonnyO

The fundies base their idea that the earth only goes back 5000 years on just adding up the ages of all those like Methusaleh on who "begat" children. It's funny how life expectancy was as much as 140 years back then but it's maybe 40 years in some societies extant now.

It might not be possible for science to disprove the existence of a higher creative intelligence in the universe with a "plan" but it is possible to prove that there is a very low probability. There is mystery to the laws of physics but, as an aetheist from Oxford just said on "Fresh Air" during my drive home - saying the earth is 5000 years old is mathematically about the same as saying the distance from Los Angeles to New York City is seven yards.

By the way, how can we help the truth come out about what happened to Tillman in Afghanistan? Why was his diary burned? Why was he killed by "friendly fire" about the time his family had arranged for him to meet with Noam Chomsky & that he wanted to meet with John Kerry? Was it because he knew too much about illegal things that were going on? Did they try to make him look like a patriotic hero and then lie to his family, just to get rid of him?

I need to read some articles and get some sources but the above comes from my husband's hearing of Air America on the way home from work.

He's Air America, I'm NPR. He's the New Yorker & the Atlantic Monthly, I'm the blogger. We do compare notes though.

There is a meeting not far from here tonight on the subject of impeachment but I'm home too late to attend. Hope to hear more about it.

I also received an invitation to stay with the Republican sister of a friend during the 2008 Democratic convention, but I think I will probably stay with my brother instead. Interesting though! She sent us information on how to volunteer, which I thought was pretty open-minded!

TILLMAN'S DEATH:

THREE BOTCHED MILITARY INVESTIGATIONS

GENERAL IMPLICATED IN COVER-UP

www.c-span.org

Posted by: karen at March 28, 2007 02:12 PM

Karen, I couldn't agree more. IF we had 72 hours in every 6 hour school day. Sport and phys ed have almost been swallowed up by literacy and numeracy; the arts have pretty much gone. And still we have a problem with kids being left behind. Perhaps the better way would be to combine the literacy and numeracy with those curricula options you listed. Make learning, not regurgitating the state-imposed curricula, fun, interesting and thought provoking again.

Ralpheh
Thanks! What would I do without this blog, when working!

I listened to the press conference regarding Tillman's death. There was intentional misleading - i.e. lying by officers and there maybe charges on this score. The silver star was awarded to Tillman and that is now in question because he did not die at the hands of enemy fire.

The explanation given for the friendly fire incident was that the unit had split up but that radio contact was very poor because of the mountainous terrain. It could be that Tillman's death was a bad and stupid mistake but unintentional. The rest was covering-up and lying. Apparently the military knew almost from the beginning that the incident was friendly fire - they knew at the funeral - but did not tell the family...

The commanding general is in big trouble, sounds like his career is finished...

Posted by: not my president at March 28, 2007 10:18 PM

The scary thing is, there are PLENTY of those Jesus fishes swallowing the Darwin fishes here in Los Angeles - far outnumbering the Darwin fishes themselves.

As far as Los Angeles is concerned, the Earth is really just 5,000 years old.

*new thread*

Ally
Los Angeles is about 5000 years old but it was inhabited by Indians, right? Then Spanish imperialists, then American ones?

Come to think of it, I think that we should teach the Bible in the public schools: The Jefferson Bible.