Nancy Stands Pat

It's not as though the Democrats don't have a full buffet of things they can bash the Republicans with but I am so glad that I can always count on California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to speak her mind and take a strong stand.

"Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to express my deep disdain and disgust for comments made yesterday by former Reagan Secretary of Education William Bennett on his radio call-in show. He said: 'You could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.'

"These are shameful words. I am appalled to have to say them on the floor of the House of Representatives. Secretary Bennett's comments reflect a narrow-minded spirit that has no place within American discourse. These words do not give credence to the tremendously difficult past that African Americans have endured. These words do not reflect the values of hope and opportunity for the future.

"Secretary Bennett does not reflect mainstream American values, he did not when he was Secretary of Education and he does not now. He did not when he referred to our public education system as a bloated 'blob.' He did not when he suggested beheading as a 'morally plausible' punishment for drug dealers.

"Leaders are called to higher standards than Secretary Bennett has demonstrated. As Americans still feel the pain of two hurricanes, as Americans still reel from questions about the role that race and poverty played in the government response to these devastating hurricanes.

"While the entire Republican Party does not adhere to this statement, some of their policies can certainly be attributed to this line of thinking. Policies that gut Medicaid, underfund public education, and ignore the challenges of working families. Policies that are indicative of a culture of cronyism and a lack of accountability. Americans will not tolerate this divisiveness.

"We must stand sentry against any hint of racism, any indication of injustice, and any moment of intolerance. Now is not the time for divisive comments. Now is the time for coming together. Now is the time for healing.

"What could possibly have possessed Secretary Bennett to say those words, especially at this time? What could he possibly have been thinking? This is what is so alarming about his words.

"I urge President Bush to renounce this statement, and I call on Secretary Bennett to apologize. I encourage my Republican colleagues to join me on the floor to reject these words and to speak for a future of tolerance and equality. I invite Secretary Bennett and other Republicans to join Democrats in creating solutions to national problems and meeting national needs.

"These words are a direct hit at our children. Secretary Bennett is a writer. He knows that words have power. He knows how powerful these particular words are. An apology is definitely in order and a rejection of these remarks is also in order from the President of the United States."

That he had to know or at least understand the impact of his word is what puzzles and troubles me too. He knew better!

These People, Those People

I am really, really trying not to get too terribly mad about this but, dammit this man is just going to dig himself into an Al Campanis hole! Now massa and his missus done saved mo' nigras than the entire Black Caucus!

Yes, where would the black community be without heroes like Bill Bennett:

BENNETT: Let me just tell you, when it comes to abortion, my wife's program, Best Friends, has kept more young women from having abortions because they don't get pregnant because they take her good counsel...

HANNITY: Let me...

BENNETT: Than the entire black caucus. She has done more for inner city black girls than the entire black caucus. So I will not bow my head to any of these people.

More on this controversy here.

People! This is what needs to be understood about racism. It isn't about knowing some black people or liking some black people or having let some black people into your house through the front door. It is the air of superiority and condescension, even over matters that one couldn't possibly understand, that makes one racist. It is the failure to acknowledge that, quite possibly, you don't know everything (or even anything) about what it means to be black in America. It is the arrogance with which one defends oneself while implying that ones deeds trump the deeds of black people. It is claiming that you aren't racist in one breath then calling people "these people" in the next.

With all that has happened with the hurricanes and the thrusting of poverty and race into the global spotlight, along with the GOP's tepid attempts to court more black votes, it would seem that some of these people would learn to at least temper their thoughts, words and actions. Following the lazy logic that the Bill Bennett's of the world have to use to be understood by their listeners and viewers, I can almost rationalize letting his original remarks roll off my back. However, the more he talks, the more I find him to be a pompous, and yes racist, ass whose remarks are getting more insulting everytime he opens his mouth. The gall of this ilk of folks just blows my mind! But, on the positive side, we needed Katrina to expose things that people would like to forget. We need the Bill Bennetts to keep on talking so that everyone has a clear idea of exactly who the most influential people in the GOP are. It's always important to know, in no uncertain terms, where you stand. Clearly in America if you are black, poor, old, very young or any combination therein, you can and will be marginalized and seen are as expendable. Bill Bennett can hypothesize about erasing an entire race of people to rid the country of petty crime (while rich white men can dishonestly bilk the country out of millions and kill millions through environmental irresponsibility) and we can bear witness to dozens of old, sickly people drowning -- needlessly -- in their hospital beds during a flood. It's sad that in 2005 this is where we are as a civilized country but it is true.

Can They All Just Get Along?

Guess not! Then again, it seems highly unlikely given this scenario. Rodney King is living with his girlfriend, his daughter and his daughter's mother (baby mama). I'd imagine there would be quite a bit of conflict in that house!

Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police led to the deadly Los Angeles riots of 1992, was arrested for allegedly making threats following a fight between his daughter, his girlfriend and an ex-girlfriend, police said.

King, 40, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of making criminal threats. He was held on $25,000 bail.

Police were called to the King home shortly after 4:15 p.m. Authorities said King's live-in girlfriend, Dawn Jean, 29, got into a fight with daughter Candace King, 23, who also lives in the home.

The daughter allegedly assaulted Jean, leading Carmen Simpson, Candace King's mother, who also lives at the home, to get involved in the fight, police said.

King allegedly threatened to kill his daughter and Simpson. Authorities said the daughter, who called police, said King was armed with a handgun, but it turned out to be a toy.

The toy gun bit is giving me a chuckle too. I supposed he had the foresight not to get caught with a real firearm.

Why Is It So Hard To Say Sorry?

Look! I know what this man meant! Blacks are disproportionately represented in the penal system for certain types of crimes and, theoretically, if we ceased to exist, there would be fewer crimes. Right? I get the point even though it isn't skin color that causes crime but conditions like racism, like y'alls president said, that cause poverty and the associated ills. Bennett's comment was simplistic and insensitive and it feeds completely into the misnomer that blacks are the sole purveyors of crime in America. Why can't the man just say that his remarks were out of line? Why can't anyone in the Bush adminstration admit to any kind of fallibility?

After pondering on his radio program how aborting every black infant in America would affect crime rates, best-selling author and self-styled 'Values Czar' Bill Bennett is vehemently denying he is a racist and defending his willingness to speak publicly about race and crime.

On the Wednesday edition of his radio show, 'Bill Bennett's Morning in America,' syndicated by Salem Radio Network, a caller raised the theory that Social Security is in danger of becoming insolvent because legalized abortion has reduced the number of tax-paying citizens. Bennett said economic arguments should never be employed in discussions of moral issues.

If it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, Bennett said, 'You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.

'That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down,' he added.

I still have to ask which crime rate? Would it reduce the number of serial killers? Would it reduce the number of pedophiles? Would it reduce the number of missing pretty white girls? Would it reduce the number of people who've lost their livelihoods, pensions and savings due to the Enron and Worldcom types? Aren't the people who commit those kinds of crimes generally white males? This constant linking of blacks to poverty and crime is misleading and inaccurate and you can get rid of every negro in the country and still have poor people and a full jailhouse (the privatization of prisons will ensure that).

My God! If we want to get hypothetical about things, lets get hypothetical about aborting the children of racists! That would, most certainly, end crime as well!

Limbaugh-esque

Had Bill Bennett not written the Book of Virtues (which of course solidifies that he is a man of morals), I'd say that this statement (and thought pattern) is just a tad bit Limbaugh-esque.

BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

Which crime rate is he talking about? I guess not the Tom DeLay/Bill Frist/Ken Lay variety.

Bush Folks Can't Catch A Break

They also can't catch a clue. I never understood why Bush selected the big, lumbering, manish looking Karen Hughes to be the undersecretary to improve our image in the Middle East anyway. But, the lies they are telling us here aren't working over there.

'This war is really, really bringing your positive efforts to the level of zero,' said Hidayet Sefkatli Tuksal, an activist with the Capital City Women's Forum. She said it was difficult to talk about cooperation between women in the United States and Turkey as long as Iraq was under occupation.

Hughes, a longtime confidant of President Bush tasked with burnishing the U.S. image overseas, has generally met with polite audiences -- many of whom received U.S. funding or consisted of former exchange students -- during a tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey this week.

In this case the U.S. Embassy asked Kader, an umbrella group that supports woman candidates, to assemble the guest list. None of the activists currently receive U.S. funds and the guests apparently had little desire to mince words. Six of the eight women who spoke at the session, held in Ankara, the capital, focused on the Iraq war.

'War makes the rights of women completely erased and poverty comes after war -- and women pay the price,' said Fatma Nevin Vargun, a Kurdish women's rights activist. Vargun denounced the arrest of Cindy Sheehan, the activist mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, in front of the White House Monday at an antiwar protest.

Hughes, looking increasingly pained, defended the decision to invade Iraq as a difficult and wrenching moment for President Bush, but necessary to protect America.

'You're concerned about war, and no one likes war,' she said. But, she said, 'to preserve the peace sometimes my country believes war is necessary.' She also asserted that women are faring much better in Iraq than under the rule of deposed president Saddam Hussein.

If I hear this lie from conservative lips one more time I am going to scream in blood curdling fashion. Women are afraid to leave the house since the war began and are increasingly becoming the victims of rape and other brutal acts inspired by religious extremism (that wasn't allowed by Saddam).

'War is not necessary for peace,' shot back Feray Salman, a human rights advocate. She said countries should not try to impose democracy through war, adding that 'we can never, ever export democracy and freedom from one country to another.'

Tuksal said she was 'feeling myself wounded, feeling myself insulted here' by Hughes' response. 'In every photograph that comes from Iraq there is that look of fear in the eyes of women and children. . . . This needs to be resolved as soon as possible.'

The Nerve!

So his mistake was not realizing that it was everyone else's fault sooner?

Brown appeared before a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe.

'My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional,' two days before the storm hit, Brown said.

Brown, who for many became a symbol of government failures in the natural disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, rejected criticism that he was inexperienced.

'I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it,' he said.

Brown resigned earlier this month after being removed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff from on-site responsibility. He will remain on the FEMA payroll for two more weeks, advising the agency, said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

What an arrogant SOB!

Mexed Missages

WTF?! Now, our Mr. Cowboy/big truck/SUV president wants people to conserve gas.

President Bush has asked Americans to cut back on fuel usage as oil companies and refineries in the hurricane-affected Gulf Coast region work to resume production at facilities.

Although damage from Hurricane Rita was lighter than feared, more than 25 percent of the nation's refining capacity was shut down in anticipation of the storm. Some oil refineries could remain closed for up to one month.

Well, he can kiss my butt! I chose to buy a Honda Civic - years ago - to conserve gas and because of his previous promotion of greed and guzzling, now have to spend more than $30 to fill a 10 gallon tank! Once again, too late and too short on viable solutions.

Southern Hospitality

When Brian Nichols first turned himself in, his hostage spoke of how she impressed him by fixing him pancakes with real butter. Now it seems she also shared a bit of crystal meth with him too.

Ashley Smith, the woman held hostage for hours after the March 11 Fulton County Courthouse shootings, reveals in a book released today that she gave alleged gunman Brian Nichols drugs on the night he held her captive.

Smith, 27, was thrust into a national media spotlight after talking her way out of Nichols' captivity and then calling police. In 'Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero,' Smith shares details of her seven-hour ordeal as a hostage in her Duluth apartment, and for the first time tells of giving Nichols drugs.

Nichols asked her for marijuana, she writes, but she had only a small amount of crystal methamphetamine. She thought offering him the drug might curry favor, but she says she refused to take the drug with him.

'I was not going to die tonight and stand before God, having done a bunch of ice up my nose,' she writes.

Very interesting. I guess you really can depend on the kindness of strangers.

Slur Swap

I guess I couldn't really call myself a reality show junkie if I didn't admit to being equally as hooked to the Super Nanny/Nanny 911 and Trading Spouses/Wife Swap series. Quite frequently the spouse swapping shows feature a black couple and a white couple, and quite often you have a "bougie" black family trading spots with a less educated, working class white family.
Last week's episode was prefaced by the black wife reading the "household manual" left by the other wife and learning that the family frequently uses foul language and racial slurs - including the word nigger (I hate that "n-word" business) so you know there were going to be a few issues. In the end I think the white husband may have learned a few things and the white wife ... well, let's just say the black husband had to keep his wife from snatching the other wife baldheaded. It made for entertaining TV but, in seriousness, the unapologetic stance on having the right to call blacks, niggers in the confines of their own home has led to the white family suffering some consequences from fellow citizens in their hometown.

The Felix family of Syracuse, New York has received a steady stream of threatening phone calls and a number of cars driving by with blaring horns after their episode of "Wife Swap" aired, exposing husband Jeremy’s admission that he used the N-word on a regular basis.

'It's a nightmare. There's been nothing positive about this,' Wilma Felix told The Associated Press, adding her son Jeremy and daughter-in-law Vicki now deeply regret their decision to appear on the ABC show, which netted the family $5,000 for their appearance.

In the episode, Vicki, 27, who is white, traded places for two weeks with Neicey Wiggins, a 40-year-old black woman from North Carolina. During the show, Jeremy Felix, 29, admitted that he used racial slurs, specifically the 'N-word,' at home. On the show, Wiggins challenged Jeremy about his racist language. Eventually, Felix promised to drop the N-word from his vocabulary.

Immediately after the episode aired, Wilma Felix said the family began receiving threatening phone calls and horn-blaring drive-bys.

Although ABC has reportedly provided private security for the family, the couple tells the Syracuse Post-Standard that they have considered moving out of the area.

Related Articles:


Syracuse Post Standard
TV Rules

I Ain't Mad At 'Cha Girlfriend

... at all!

Actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were married Saturday, capping their celebrated two-year-long older woman, younger man relationship, two celebrity magazines reported Sunday.

Representatives for Kutcher, 27, and Moore, 42, could not be immediately reached for comment, but both Us Weekly and People magazine reported on their Web sites that the couple were married in Los Angeles area on Saturday.

Us Weekly reported that the wedding was attended by about 100 of the couple's friends, including Moore's second husband Bruce Willis. Also at the wedding were actress Lucy Liu and Moore's three daughters from her marriage to Willis.

I think Demi and Ashton are one of the best suited couples out there!

It's Nice

With all that has been going on, I cannot say that I've been in the most optimistic of moods. Reality shows are normally my escape and even they work my nerves so much I have no idea why I still watch them. But "Everybody Hates Chris" was just a gem of a show! It was funny and, above all, as this reviewer said it was nice.

"I was completely blindsided by the pilot of Everybody Hates Chris, the new sitcom based on Chris Rock's childhood that premieres tonight at 8 p.m. ET on UPN. After an aggressive marketing campaign that suggested this show will single-handedly send Viacom's ghetto network (whose initials have been jokingly translated as 'You People's Network') to a de-luxe apartment in the sky, I was expecting an edgy, fast-paced satire, something in the vein of Fox anti-family-values shows like The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, or Arrested Development.

Much as I love those shows' dark, twisted takes on domestic dysfunction (and continue to maintain that Jane Kaczmarek's ongoing failure to win an Emmy for Malcolm is one of the perennial disappointments of the awards season), Everybody Hates Chris won my heart by trying something even more daring: It's nice. Chris Rock's standup and his hosting gigs at awards shows can have a wild, almost dangerous edge, but the show he executive-produced and narrates in voice-over is unexpectedly sweet-spirited. It's The Cosby Show without the class privilege, or The Wonder Years with a hip-hop soundtrack. It's a kind of throwback to an earlier television era, a comedy about a functional family whose members treat each other with affection and respect (laced with the occasional creative threat: 'I will put my foot so far up your behind you'll have toes for teeth')."

I think UPN definitely has a winner this season!

Shame On Me! Shame On Me!

SHAME on ME! I am linking to the bloody National Enquirer! But, in my defense, so is everybody else! It is reporting that Dubya is off the wagon ... not that I don't blame him because Mr. President's destructive policies are finally starting to catch up with him. And the only reason why it is shameful for me to gloat is that thousands of people are dying here and in Iraq because of his poor decisions. So, yeah! I hope his ass is back on the bottle. Any real cowboy would be. As a matter of fact, he needs to take the same route we thought JR did in the series finale of Dallas! That or he needs to resign and go to the nut house where he belongs.

Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.

His worried wife yelled at him: 'Stop, George.'

Following the shocking incident, disclosed here for the first time, Laura privately warned her husband against 'falling off the wagon' and vowed to travel with him more often so that she can keep an eye on Dubya, the sources add.

'When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot,' said one insider. 'He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: 'Stop George!'

...

Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink.

A Washington source said: 'The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him — but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He's been in a pressure cooker for months.

'The war in Iraq, the loss of American lives, has deeply affected him. He takes every soldier's life personally. It has left him emotionally drained.

The result is he's taking drinks here and there, likely in private, to cope. 'And now with the worst domestic crisis in his administration over Katrina, you pray his drinking doesn't go out of control.'

Another source said: 'I'm only surprised to hear that he hadn't taken a shot sooner.
...

Another source said: 'A family member told me they fear George is 'falling apart.' The First Lady has been assigned the job of gatekeeper.'

I agree with Laura. We need to STOP George!

You Are NOT The Father!

Okay, everybody was being all Christian-like when Amber Frey surfaced as Scott Peterson's mistress and ignored the rather skankorific habits of Miss "if you really wanna perm get a Toni" once they scrubbed her up for court and the spotlight. Even if I reserve judgment for the child out of wedlock ('cause that ain't my business), at LEAST have a clue who the father is.

The former mistress of convicted murderer Scott Peterson is back in the spotlight after a DNA test showed that her first child was not fathered by the man who was paying child support.

Anthony Flores, 29, has been paying Frey $175 a month for nearly four years, his attorney, Glenn Wilson, said Wednesday. The father of the 4-year-old girl is actually Fresno restaurant owner Christopher Funch, Wilson said.

No one answered the telephone at Porky's Rib House on Wednesday, and Funch did not have a listed home number.

Wilson said Flores was preparing to file a court motion seeking visitation rights, which he has been denied, when the man received word last week that he was not the child's father.

Frey's attorney, Gloria Allred, said Wednesday that her client never intended to deceive Flores.

'Amber, in good faith, always believed that Mr. Flores was her child's father,' Allred said.

See, this is what I don't understand about these women who "believe" a particular man is their baby daddy: if you've had unprotected sex with more than one man during the specific window when you became pregnant, belief and faith are not the tools one uses to determine parentage. Taking into account that being hoodwinked by a sociopath (who managed to fool everyone else too) shouldn't be added to the list of stupid moves, (though I would question bedding down with him within hours of meeting and allowing him access to her child within days), it seems that Miss Frey may not be playing with a full deck. She has a baby gets support from someone who isn't the daddy, she hooks up with a murderer and before the trial has another baby by yet another man. Even though the media managed to turn her into a tragic, innocent victim, she doesn't seem to be any better at catching clues and making better choices. That reporter knows good and well he did not need to add the part about Porky's Rib House. But you can note the vision it conjures up in your mind about Amber and her choice in men.

For Those With A Breasted Interest ...

Apparently a lot of inquiring minds wanted to know! I had no idea there was such a furor of debate over whether Tyra Banks had breast implants.

To satisfy the jealous women and boob fixated men, she proved they were real on her new talk show.

"This just in: Tyra Banks' boobs are real. It was proved beyond a sonogram of doubt Tuesday on live television, where nothing is ever fake.

Banks underwent her courageous breast test on her own 'Tyra Banks Show.' After telling men in the audience to leave (which kind of strikes us as ordering everyone with a tattoo out of a Green Day concert), Banks had Dr. Garth Fisher from ABC's 'Extreme Makeover' perform a touch test and then the sonogram. He concluded: 'Tyra Banks has natural breasts; there are no implants.'

So now that Banks' reputation is secure, one could ask, why would she do this?

Well ...

Reason 1: Banks, a Victoria's Secret model, says she has had it up to her garters with mean-spirited tongue-waggers around the globe speculating that her breasts are, like, way fake. 'I'm tired of this rumor,' she hissed on her show Tuesday. 'It's something that's followed me forever.

Reason 2: The ratings on Banks' show are said to be, um, sagging. So making her hour-long show Tuesday 'all about breasts!' could offer the Nielsen equivalent of a push-up bra.

Either way, as we said, it has now been officially sanctified that Banks' breasts are 100 percent organic.

'By no means am I saying a breast implant is a bad thing, but it's not a choice that I made,' the 31-year-old Banks said. 'But it's something that a lot of the public ... think that I have, and that's so frustrating for me.'

How funny! I always thought that they were hers. From her Victoria's Secret days, I thought I heard that she was a 34C and since my, otherwise petite frame, had somehow blossomed to a 34D, I assumed hers were as real as mine. But, now that I think about it, I've had more than a couple curious and bold folks ask me if I had implants ... none of them bold enough to take me up on my offer to let them feel them for themselves! Thank God I'm no super model!

The Fighting Irish

Phil (Donahue) vs. Bill (O'Reilly): mano a mano.

Damn my girl Oprah! She's the one who ran Phil out of the talk show business. But Phil gave the "loud thing" a true challenge here.

He's correct, "Billy!" Loud doesn't mean right ...

Agreed!

Not that their opinions matter much now but we can gloat right along with them.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and former Sen. John Edwards spoke separately Monday on the government's handling of the catastrophe and on the broader issue of poverty in the United States.

In a blistering critique, Kerry said former FEMA Director Michael Brown was to Hurricane Katrina 'what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq; what George Tenet is to slam dunk intelligence ... what George Bush is to 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Wanted Dead or Alive.' ... The bottom line is simple: The 'we'll do whatever it takes' administration doesn't have what it takes to get the job done.'

...

Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential candidate, said the hurricane was a sober reminder that widespread poverty exists throughout the nation. He said it will persist if the poor are concentrated in specific neighborhoods far from jobs.

'If the Great Depression brought forth Hoovervilles, these trailer towns may someday be known as Bushvilles,' Edwards told an audience at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington.

The former North Carolina senator criticized Bush for suspending the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act that sets wages for workers on federal contracts. Democrats contend the waiver will allow lower pay.

'When the only shot many people have is a good job rebuilding New Orleans, the president intervened to suspend prevailing wage laws so his contractor friends can cut wages for a hard day's work,' Edwards said.

Kerry also criticized Bush for suspending the wage laws.

In his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, Edwards frequently talked of 'Two Americas,' one for rich, the other for the poor. In his speech, Edwards said Bush is wrong to think Americans aspire to create a 'Wealth Society,' but rather they wish for a 'Working Society.'

'To be true to our values, our country must build a working society -- an America where everyone who works hard finally has the rewards to show for it,' Edwards said.

The Big Black Elephant In The Room

This is positively psychotic and either this family was in total denial or totally stupid (except for the cunning woman who invented the lie). I had a co-worker who had a sister who "claimed" to have been raped by a black man and became pregnant. She kept the son and raised him in some rural Ohio town as well. The child wasn't told he had a skin disease, though but I cannot say that growing up believing you were a product of rape would do much for your self-worth either. I just find this story, however, down right disgusting.

"So despite his dark skin, Myers grew up in white, middle-class neighborhoods in Ohio and New York believing he was white.

'For many years I thought I was white. I thought like a white kid. There was a feeling in me that I didn't want to be associated with blacks. I wanted the story to be true,' says Myers, a 45-year-old Orlando tennis teacher.

The secret shrouded in a lie lasted 26 years. Keeping it hidden all those years would turn Judy Myers into a hard, angry, unhappy woman, her family says. It made Dave Myers a defiant, rebellious, hostile child who would grow estranged from his parents, sisters and brother.

Learning the truth would send Myers on a search for identity. And it would convince him that his story is the story of America -- a white America that has been lied to, a black America oppressed and discriminated against, and a society unable or unwilling to discuss race.

When Judy Hartmann told Bill Myers that she was pregnant, he believed it was his.

These days, Maury Povich would be all over this with a DNA test.

And when the baby was born on Feb. 28, 1960 -- five months after their marriage -- he thought his son's skin color was jaundice. And then he thought there might have been a mix-up at the hospital.

And when his wife told him the doctors said it was a skin disease that had turned their boy's skin dark, he thought she was telling the truth. No questions asked.

Scratch to deadpan glare! WHAT ABOUT HIS HAIR STUPID!?

Because that is the kind of man Bill Myers is. He is soft and gentle and pliable, his children say. He accepts life as it comes, assumes the responsibilities of a man, a husband, a father.

As far as he was concerned, Dave Myers was as much his child as the three daughters and son who followed.

If Judy said it was a skin disease, that was the end of the discussion.

'He never said a word,' says Judy Myers, 67, who now lives with Bill in the Villages.

That attitude -- ignoring the obvious, believing the improbable -- filtered down to David and the other children. And in a family where everyone pretended that David was a darker shade of white, race was a taboo subject.

[...]

When a young Dave Myers asked his mother why police in Alabama were spraying black civil-rights protesters with fire hoses, she told him it was because they were hot.

Rolling my eyes! Heffa, I got your "hot!"

Everything Myers saw growing up in Ohio and then the small town of Olean in western New York, convinced him it was better to be a white boy with a skin disease than a black kid."

I feel for the guy. The mother sounds positively treacherous and the father is a pathetic mope!

What She Said ...

Nice Quote

“I really think the range of emotions and perceptions I have had access to as a black person and as a female person are greater than those of people who are neither.”

~Toni Morrison

Trust Networks

For the life of me I cannot remember where I heard Saddam Hussein spewing rhetoric about what would happen if the United States invaded Iraq. I distinctly remember him saying something to the effect that they would fight us in the streets and door to door. Most certainly, that is what has happened as this insurgency only seems to get bigger and better by the day. The ideologues sat in their ivory tower and plotted out something they had no knowledge of. This article in Time is scary. Take time to read it. If you find you cannot access it, email me and I will forward it to you.

Five men met in an automobile in a Baghdad park a few weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime in April 2003, according to U.S. intelligence sources. One of the five was Saddam. The other four were among his closest advisers. The agenda: how to fight back against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. A representative of Saddam's former No. 2, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, was there. But the most intriguing man in the car may have been a retired general named Muhammad Yunis al-Ahmed, who had been a senior member of the Military Bureau, a secret Baath Party spy service. The bureau's job had been to keep an eye on the Iraqi military--and to organize Baathist resistance in the event of a coup. Now a U.S. coup had taken place, and Saddam turned to al-Ahmed and the others and told them to start 'rebuilding your networks.'

The 45-minute meeting was pieced together months later by U.S. military intelligence. It represents a rare moment of clarity in the dust storm of violence that swirls through central Iraq. The insurgency has grown well beyond its initial Baathist core to include religious extremist and Iraqi nationalist organizations, and plain old civilians who are angry at the American occupation. But Saddam's message of 'rebuilding your networks' remains the central organizing principle.

More than two years into the war, U.S. intelligence sources concede that they still don't know enough about the nearly impenetrable web of what Iraqis call ahl al-thiqa (trust networks), which are at the heart of the insurgency. It's an inchoate movement without a single inspirational leader like Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh--a movement whose primary goal is perhaps even more improbable than the U.S. dream of creating an Iraqi democracy: restoring Sunni control in a country where Sunnis represent just 20% of the population. Intelligence experts can't credibly estimate the rebels' numbers but say most are Iraqis. Foreigners account for perhaps 2% of the suspected guerrillas who have been captured or killed, although they represent the vast majority of suicide bombers. ('They are ordnance,' a U.S. intelligence official says.) The level of violence has been growing steadily. There have been roughly 80 attacks a day in recent weeks. Suicide bombs killed more than 200 people, mostly in Baghdad, during four days of carnage last week, among the deadliest since Saddam's fall.
[...]

Drunks And Crackheads!

This family is starting to sound inbred. From the clueless attitudes of Bush and his mommy to the obvious addictive nature of the Bush offspring, these little apples aren't even bothering to fall off the tree.

John Ellis Bush, the youngest son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was arrested early Friday and charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest, law enforcement officials in Texas said.

The 21-year-old nephew of President Bush was arrested by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission at 2:30 a.m. Friday on a corner of Austin's Sixth Street bar district, said spokesman Roger Wade.

John Ellis Bush was released on $2,500 bond for resisting arrest, and on a personal recognizance bond for the public intoxication charge, officials said.
'My son's doing fine. It's a private matter. We will support him. We're sad for him. But I'm not going to discuss it on the public square with 30 cameras,' the governor said at the downtown Miami event.

[...]

Noelle Bush, the governor's daughter, was arrested in January 2002 and was accused of trying to pass a fraudulent prescription at a Tallahassee pharmacy to obtain the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. She completed a drug rehabilitation program in August 2003 and a judge dismissed the drug charges against her.

Noelle Bush was sent to jail twice for violating rules during her rehab stint. She was jailed for three days in July 2002 after being caught with prescription pills and served 10 days a month later after being accused of having a small rock of crack cocaine in her shoe.

Perhaps they need to go into family therapy to see what is eating them!

How I Sleep

What Your Sleeping Position Says

You are calm and rational. You are also giving and kind - a great friend. You are easy going and trusting. However, you are too sensible to fall for mind games.

What Does Your Sleeping Position Say About You?

Why?

I'm trying to understand the logic in this? How is sex with a prostitute a government perk worthy of reimbursement? Does this "benefit" only apply to men? What kind of prostitutes specialize in disabled persons? Is there an assumption that disabled persons do not have relationships?

The Danish government is under attack for paying for its disabled citizens to have sex with prostitutes.

The official 'Sex, irrespective of disability' campaign pays sex workers to provide sex once a month for disabled people.

The legal guidelines advise: 'It could be of great importance that the carer speaks to the prostitute together with the person in their care, to help them express their wishes.'

But opposition parties have attacked the regulations, claiming it is an immoral way of spending tax-payers' money.

Social-Democrat spokesperson Kristen Brosboel said: 'We spend a large proportion of our taxes rescuing women from prostitution. But at the same time we officially encourage carers to help contact with prostitutes.'

But Stig Langvad of the country's Disabled Association said the politicians critical of the plan are showing 'double standards'.

He said: 'The disabled must have the same possibilities as other people. Politicians can debate whether prostitution should be allowed in general, instead of preventing only the disabled from having access to it.'

And here we are with states who ban sex toys.

Who Was That Masked Man?

Again, I avoid watching and listening to Dubya like the plague. I have new hours at work so I am home much earlier and, try as I did, I ended up watching bits and pieces of Dubya's bizarre speech. What the hell was that dribble?

Reaching for inspiration as he addressed America Thursday night, George W. Bush didn't declare that 'the era of small government is over,' but then again, he didn't have to. If the promises in his speech were insufficiently loud and clear, they were amplified by the anguished screams from his fellow Republicans.

For years now, Bush has run his government like those free-spending liberals once demonized by the right, only less responsibly. This president doesn't merely tax and spend; he cuts taxes and spends more. The difference in his New Orleans speech -- and what most irked his friends among the right-wing faithful -- was that in his palpable desperation, he no longer even pretends to uphold limited government and fiscal prudence.

In ways both obvious and subtle, this most conservative of chief executives disregarded and even discarded the orthodoxies of his party. It was remarkable indeed to listen as he finally confessed his administration's failures -- and then to hear him proudly list the services that federal agencies are now providing to the hurricane's victims. No expense is too great and no need shall be overlooked, he seemed to imply. Name the amount that will restore his leadership and approval ratings, not to mention his legacy, and he will write the check.

He proudly cited the $60 billion down payment on the relief and reconstruction effort requested by him and voted for by Congress, which 'demonstrates the compassion and resolve of our nation.' According to the conservative lexicon, it is forbidden to refer to federal spending as proof of compassion. On the right, and especially among 'compassionate conservatives,' the true proof of caring is to cut spending and deny services that might engender dependency.

...

'That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.'

To Republicans who believe that poor people are responsible for their own plight, his blunt admission of racism as poverty's underlying cause was ideological heresy. To them, his demand for 'bold action' to lift people up from destitution -- as a public duty, no less -- must have sounded like a disturbing echo of FDR, JFK or LBJ. To others, including me, it was refreshing to hear him describe the reality that conservatives like him have so studiously ignored or distorted for so long -- and acknowledge forthrightly that government must act to alleviate suffering and encourage change. Perhaps one of his pusillanimous assistants dared to mention that poverty has increased every year since he took office. (Or maybe that little fact turned up in the soundtrack of his Katrina broadcast DVD.)

The satisfactions of Bush's desperate address are likely to be fleeting, however. It is clear that the Republicans in Congress are determined to impose their own narrow agenda on the Katrina crisis, seizing the moment to eviscerate tort laws, undermine environmental protections, enact school vouchers and gut labor protections, all as 'temporary emergency' measures. They are scheming to bestow still more subsidies and concessions on the price-gouging oil industry, evidently believing that the 'incentives' stuffed into the energy bill last month were insufficiently lavish.

Most absurd, they will seek to cut the estate tax, which affects only a tiny and wealthy elite, in the name of assisting the poor and destitute. (And then they will complain that the government lacks sufficient funding for the president's reconstruction plans.)

Bush's ambitions seem destined to foster the same corruption and waste that have accompanied his other big project -- in Iraq. The same crony capitalism that is draining the American effort on the shores of the Persian Gulf has swiftly arrived on the Gulf Coast. Halliburton and Bechtel have been joined by Kenyon, the subsidiary of scandal-ridden funeral giant SCI, which has been hired to gather and tally the dead. As Paul Krugman notes in his Friday column, Bush should aspire to the remarkable efficiency and integrity of the New Deal -- and, it might be added, to the enlightened rationality and generosity of the Marshall Plan.

Expectations must be kept low, of course. Bush is no FDR or Harry Truman -- and Karl Rove, who will reportedly oversee the reconstruction project, is no George C. Marshall.

I don't know who crafted that BS but not only am I not sure I believe a word of it, I don't think he can make good on his lofty promises and plans. The most laughable (and scary to his conservative base)was the part about racism causing poverty. Who planted that gem in the speech? Granted I didn't expect much, but I expected something that would stir his base a little more and I think he made his "situation" with his supporters worse.

I'll Just Laugh This One Off

... because sometimes it is the subtleties that make the biggest impact.

A truckload of evacuees arrives at the Metairie evacuation center outside New Orleans

Over 150 dogs and other animals were evacuated from an animal hospital after their owners had left town without them

Condi Is Strange

I try to stay out of the Condoleezza bashing that basically brands her an Aunt Jemima or an Uncle Tom. Those labels are overrated and overused. I simply disagree with the woman's politics and try to argue my points based on that. But, her fierce loyalty to George W. Bush does get my goat a more than a wee bit. The way she skirts around the obvious in order to avoid criticizing her commander in chief is rather disheartening as I had assumed that she was an independent thinker who would speak against him if needed. So, either she really and blindly believes in him or she is too committed to say otherwise. I find both options disappointing.

Rice said she found it very 'strange' that people have an impression that Bush would decide who gets disaster relief on the basis of race. She added that she herself had been a victim of discrimination and understood the problem.

No, she doesn't. Mostly, she has led a charmed life, which she has legitimately earned by the intellect and diligence she is lucky to possess but that is not universally shared.

She recalled being told by a high school teacher that 'maybe I was junior college material.'

Undervalued, poor thing. Professional bias against women, who were admitted to higher education in respectable numbers only because of federal civil rights laws, was as likely to be the culprit there as bias against the color of her skin.

Every ambitious woman I know of a certain age has run into some variation of that. Me too."

Well I've been called an Uncle Tom and an oreo too but that doesn't mean that I cannot call a spade a spade. She may not agree that Bush "doesn't care about black people" but I find it highly unlikely that she finds it "strange" that people (including many white people) believe this to be the case.

You've got to come up with something better than that, girlfriend.

The Real Hurricane Looters Have Only Just Begun

First off, yeah, much to my chagrin, I'm quoting Jesse Jackson. But he (as he often is) is right!

But while the victims are simply trying to get their bearings, the barracudas are circling. Naomi Klein, who witnessed this in Iraq, calls it 'disaster capitalism.' Congress has appropriated $62 billion already. Hundreds of billions more will be spent on reclaiming the Gulf Coast, rebuilding and relocation. The feeding frenzy has begun.

Already Halliburton is on hand with a no-bid contract for reconstruction. Fluor, Bechtel, the Shaw Group - Republican-linked firms - are lining up for contracts. Lobbyists like Joe Allbaugh, close friend of George Bush, and James Lee Witt, close friend of Bill Clinton - both former heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency - are advising their corporate clients to get teams on the scene. Normal rules of contracting and competition are being waived in the emergency. Big bucks are on the table. It is a time to be wired politically.

The ideologues are in the hunt, too. Newt Gingrich is circulating memos calling for turning the region into a massive enterprise zone, slashing corporate taxes, reducing regulations. The oil lobby is pushing for drilling in Alaska and off the shores of the United States. Right wing activist Grover Norquist calls for cutting taxes on the wealthy even more to stimulate the economy. Arizona Republican Rep. Jeff Flak suggests conservatives use the crisis to try out their favorite ideas - vouchers for education and health care.

President Bush characteristically issued an exec