Like I Said, It's Nasty!

Because fathers who rape their children have rights, too!

..and the rape victims don't. At least not in Utah.

Incest is no exception to a father's right to know what's going on in his daughter's life.

That was the message from Utah lawmakers who refused Monday to make an exception for incest victims in a proposed law that would require parental consent and notification before a girl's abortion.

Gotta love them "family values."

Conservative senators said the legislation is a test of their morals.

They say this with straight faces, too.

Ding dong! Taliban calling!

South Dakota: Soon To Be Rape Capital of The Nation

This cartoon says what I thought when they passed their forced pregnancy legislation.



This state doesn't even have the population that my city does. Can you imagine the amount of inbreeding going on - especially since the forced pregnancy law doesn't have an exception for incest? Watch out folks! If this holds up, South Dakota will become the land of the two headed babies.

Nasty, perverted stuff!

Is Anyone Going To Apologize For Voting For This Man?

I know it is hard to admit you are wrong when you look so incredibly stupid but I need someone to apologize to me for subjecting me to another term of this nightmare of a man. I don't care if it is the folks in Iowa who thought Osama was going to come and blow up their silo. I don't care if it is some religious nut job who actually believes Bush's "born again" act. I don't care if it is some nouveau rich wannabee who actually thinks Bush's tax cuts were a true benefit to their barely six figured salary. Unless he is impeached, we are stuck with this clown who has done NOTHING right during his term(s) - not unlike the rest of his life - and who, clearly, does not have the best interests of the American public in mind. Finally, people just aren't buying it anymore.

The latest CBS News poll puts President Bush’s job approval at 34 percent — an all-time low. Vice President Cheney is doing even worse. Only 18 percent of the public approves of the way he is doing his job.

The American public has a dismal assessment of Bush’s policies across the board:

– 30 percent approve of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq — an all-time low.

– 27 percent approve of Bush’s energy policy.

– 32 percent approve of Bush’s handling of the economy.

– 5 percent of Americans are pleased with the way the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast is going.

Today, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, “Our focus is on the important priorities of the American people.” Looks like the American people disagree.

The public is getting a clue but how can that help us now?

Work It, Chuck!

Sen. Chuck Schumer says not so fast!

The showdown has not been averted. The review, under current law, would be meaningless. The report would be secret. Only President Bush and the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) would get to review it. Both Bush and CFIUS have already decided the deal does not present any national security concerns.

Today, a bipartisan group of 10 members of Congress will introduce legislation that will give the review some teeth. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) talked about the legislation this morning on Good Morning America:

SCHUMER: Well, I’m not sure we have a truce. Our legislation, which is bipartisan, five Democrats, five Republicans — we’ll introduce it today on the floor of the Senate — says do the 45-day review that’s necessary, but it also says give Congress, not just the president, the findings and let Congress have an opportunity — 30 days — to disapprove the deal. That’s what’s needed, because the president has already decided. He said he’s for it. So he has the verdict already, and now he’s having the trial.

Any member of Congress who supports a meaningful review of the transaction should support this legislation.

Kindred Author Dies

I read my first Octavia Butler book in 1989. It was called Kindred it was one of the best books I've ever read. While I haven't read all of her works, I also read two of her books from the 90s: Parable of The Sower and Parable of The Talents. I also was able to attend one of her readings at the San Francisco Book Festival in 1995 or so. I recently recommended Octavia Butler to some people who claim they don't like Science Fiction because I think they have the wrong idea about what the genre really encompasses. I know everyone has their time to go and I guess this was hers. But, I am still shocked and sad.

Her father was a shoeshine man who died when she was a child, her mother was a maid who brought her along on jobs, yet Octavia Butler rose from these humble beginnings to become one of the country's leading writers - a female African American pioneer in the white, male domain of science fiction.

Butler, 58, died after falling and striking her head Friday on a walkway outside her home in Lake Forest Park. The reclusive writer, who moved to Seattle in 1999 from her native Southern California, was a giant in stature (she was 6 feet tall by age 15) and in accomplishment.
Octavia Butler
Zoom Joshua Trujillo / P-I
Octavia Butler was one of the Northwest's most prominent science fiction writers.

She remains the only science fiction writer to receive one of the vaunted 'genius grants' from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a hard-earned $295,000 windfall in 1995 that followed years of poverty and personal struggles with shyness and self-doubt.

'People may call these 'genius grants,' ' Butler said in a 2004 interview with the Seattle P-I, 'but nobody made me take an IQ test before I got mine. I knew I'm no genius.'

Butler's most popular work is 'Kindred,' a time-travel novel in which a black woman from 1976 Southern California is transported back to the violent days of slavery before the Civil War. The 1979 novel became a popular staple of school and college courses and now has more than a quarter million copies in print, but its birth was agonizing, like so much in Butler's solitary life.

Of all of the articles/reviews I read about Octavia and from the bit she did tell about us about herself at the reading I went to, I never knew that her father was a shoeshine man. Why was that the opening paragraph of this obituary.

Lawd, They're All Leaving Me!

People from all of my favorite childhood television programs are dying off. I think I am going to need medication when Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore go.

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

None, Nada, Nil

What the heck have we been doing all of this time? The Bush administration has been saying that we are training Iraqis to take over military operations and, as of now, we HAVE NONE!

Let me say that again! We ain't got NARY AN IRAQI BATALLION that is ready to fight on its own.

The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.

The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military.

The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in when U.S. troops will be able to return home.

"As we see more of these Iraqi forces in the lead, we will be able to continue with our stated strategy that says as Iraqi forces stand up, we will stand down," President Bush said last month.

The battalion, according to the Pentagon, was downgraded from "level one" to "level two" after a recent quarterly assessment of its capabilities.

"Level one" means the battalion is able to fight on its own; "level two" means it requires support from U.S. troops; and "level three" means it must fight alongside U.S. troops.

Though officials would not cite a specific reason for downgrading the unit, its readiness level has dropped in the wake of a new commander and numerous changes in the combat and support units, officials said.

The battalion is still deployed, and its status as an independent fighting force could be restored any day, Pentagon officials said. It was not clear where the battalion is operating within Iraq.

According to the congressionally mandated Iraq security report released Friday, there are 53 Iraqi battalions at level two status, up from 36 in October. There are 45 battalions at level three, according to the report.

Overall, Pentagon officials said close to 100 Iraqi army battalions are operational, and more than 100 Iraq Security Force battalions are operational at levels two or three. The security force operations are under the direction of the Iraqi government.

The numbers are roughly the same as those given by the president last month when he said 125 Iraqi combat battalions were fighting the insurgency, 50 of them taking the lead.

"In January 2006, the mission is to continue to hand over more and more territory and more and more responsibility to Iraqi forces," Bush said. "That's progress."

Can anybody explain this to me? What have we been doing there? They claimed we had Iraqi troops ready to roll! We're going to be there forever, aren't we? Why can't Bushco STOP LYING?

Shrine Bombing: It's A Good Thing

Via Think Progress, these people could spin a brick wall!

This afternoon, Terry Jeffery — the editor of Human Events who is paid by CNN to provide political analysis — was asked about the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Iraq. Jeffery said the bombings — part of a wave of violence that have left 200 people dead in the last 24 hours — is evidence that the Bush strategy is working. Watch It:

WOLF BLITZER: Terry, is Iraq falling apart right now?

TERRY JEFFERY: Well, I certainly hope not, Wolf. But I think actually these attacks on Shia shrines can be attributed to the potential success of the Bush strategy.

Question for Mr. Jeffery: What, exactly, would be evidence that Bush’s strategy in Iraq isn’t working?

Transcript continues below:

JEFFREY: Right now the ambassador there is pushing hard as he can to get Shias to bring Sunnis into the government that’s forming. Try and get enough power handed over to the Sunnis so they feel comfortable with the political process. Zarqawi who is the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq has quite literally declared sectarian war against the Shias. He’s trying to keep these Sunnis in the insurgency mode. I think this is his biggest gambit yet to do it. If we can get past this crisis maybe we can form a government that does bring stability to Iraq.

I ... Take Thee Billy ...

This is too stupid for words. Blank stare ...

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his 'wife', after he was caught having sex with the animal.

The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

'We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together,' Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.

'When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up'.

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

'They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife,' Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

He Don't Know Nuthin' 'Bout Sellin' No Ports

This "whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis?" act is starting to get old. He didn't know the intelligence on Iraq was bad. He didn't know the New Orleans was under water. He didn't know Cheney shot some dude in the face ... Now he didn't know that a deal had been made to sell six of our U.S. port operations to the UAE. Who would have a job if they consistenly f'd up and the only excuse was I didn't know?

What didn't the president know and when didn't he know it?

Faced with a rebellion in his own Republican party over an Arab company's planned takeover of operations at six U.S. ports, the White House says President George W. Bush was in the dark about it until last week.

While Bush adamantly defended the deal again on Thursday, the I-did-not-know strategy has puzzled some political analysts and communications experts.

'It's a disaster for him, I think,' said Michael Hogan, professor of communication, arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State University. 'It's never a good thing for a president to say he doesn't know something.'

Another analyst thought the strategy was an attempt to shift blame away from Bush. It might also give the president some leeway to compromise, perhaps by accepting a slight delay in the deal while Congress is fully briefed.

From The Mouths Of Babes

A lot of my friends think I am a little "out there," particularly when I tell them that I believe in things like reincarnation and that, many times, kids remember their past lives, their roles and their gender. My niece once made a remark to my sister like "well last time, when I was the mommy I did ..." When I told a friend that story she almost looked relieved then she told me about a phase when her little daughter was always telling her some story about "well, when I was a boy ..."

I used to read a lot of books on reincarnation and some of the stories sounded pretty convincing. There was one book where someone was going through past life regression and mentioned a lifetime where they got there, decided they didn't like it and left (as an infant) and it made me even wonder if perhaps some cases of SIDS aren't just cases of souls who entered a new body, then changed their minds. A friend of mine, who is excitedly expecting late this summer, passed along this link to a mommy blog. The stories are all very sweet but this one almost required a hanky.

I'll never forget the special moment it clicked; when I realized what being a mom was all about. It had been a year since my uncle passed away and Hunter, at five, would always ask me “Do you think uncle is happy in heaven?” My reply was always yes. Then once, following this question she asked something else; something I would never forget. “Mommy if I were to die, can I choose you again?” The bewildered look on my face must have prompted her to ask the question again. I could tell this wasn't a joke but instead an innocent question that only a child could ask. I didn't really know how to answer so I replied, "What do you mean?" And my daughter said these words to me: “Mommy when I was in Heaven I saw you and I told the angels that I choose you to be my mom. So, if I were to die could I choose you again?”

I had to be very careful with my response because I am no longer married to her father. "Hunter,” I said, “I think you should plan on sticking around for as long as you can because you couldn’t choose daddy again."

“Okay mommy,” She said with a smile, “that's a deal.” And as she turned to walk away I heard her say, “I'm glad I chose you.”

And I'm glad she chose me to.

They say that your soul chooses who you spend each lifetime with (even if it is some of the same people over and over) until you resolve the issues your soul has with them. I guess I never thought of it in quite the literal sense this darling child expressed it in. Oh, I totally believe her. I've long since been socialized out of my memories of my pre-birth realm. But, how great it must have been for that mommy to hear that she'd been hand picked?

Can You Say Reach-ing?

Aw heck, this is just plain grasping! Is this a joke?

Lawyers for Vice President Cheney’s former top aide asked a federal judge Thursday to dismiss his indictment because the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case lacked authority to bring the charges.

In a court filing, lawyers for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby said his indictment violates the Constitution because Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was not appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate.

The defense attorneys also said Fitzgerald’s appointment violates federal law because his investigation was not supervised by the attorney general. They said only Congress can approve such an arrangement.

"Those constitutional and statutory provisions have been violated in this case," Libby’s lawyers wrote.

Fitzgerald was appointed in December 2003 after former Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the investigation because of his close relationships with White House officials. Then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey, acting in Ashcroft’s place in the matter, selected Fitzgerald.

Question! This Congress who can only "approve such an arrangement" ... Is this the same Congress who was required to declare war but never really did? Or the same Congress who Bush felt wouldn't approve unwarranted wiretapping so they weren't asked? All of the sudden they want lack of Congressional approval for Fitzgerald to be grounds to save Libby's guilty behind? I'm laughing!

Adults Make Choices

There really doesn't seem to be a whole lot of logic or compassion on the part of many who want to force women to carry unwanted fetuses to term no matter what the circumstances but, as this minister points out, everything isn't always black and white and sometimes adults make choices.

When I made my choice to end one life on behalf of other life, I was terribly troubled. I was in a double bind. I prayed and anguished. Then I made a choice. Adults make choices.

I have long thought that the drama of the abortion battle was not about unborn babies at all. Instead, it is about women and sex and about women and maturity. We are considered babies, sub-adults, in need of supervision over our sexuality. Otherwise we are dangerous. The virgin/whore debates come to mind.

When I made my choice to end life, I was behaving as an adult. I did not shrink from the responsibility of making a choice. I did not ask someone else to make it for me. And I certainly did not request my government's help in my bedroom. Instead, I behaved as an adult who is also a sexual being. Things happen sexually between people that are not always controllable. The unprotected sex I had with my husband while nursing our twins had a consequence that neither of us desired. It was a human life. That's why we named her, wept for her, wanted her but also knew we did not want her enough.

Because women are mature sexual beings who make choices, birth control and abortion are positive moral forces in history. They allow sex to be both procreational and recreational, for men and for women. That is good news, even though most of the world doesn't know it yet. In Africa, for example, too many men assume the freedom to have unprotected sex with women, giving them AIDS and heartbreak. What does our so-called pro-life government recommend? Abstinence! Such a recommendation is immoral to its core.

Obviously, protected sex is the most moral thing of all. Unprotected sex is adolescent, immature, sometimes life-threatening and always stupid. Women are mature enough to handle that. We are not babies. Sometimes, in the battle over killing our babies, I hear the echo of people wanting to kill women's maturity and sexuality. I don't like it. That's why I am breaking my silence about who I am.

I am a 58-year-old sexual, mature woman. That's who I am. I had an abortion. I am not bragging and I am not apologizing.

(hat tip to Shakespeare's Sister)

Lucky Seven

Seven more US soldiers lost their lives yesterday.

Seven U.S. soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq on Wednesday when roadside bombs struck the vehicles in which they were traveling, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed in the Iraqi town of Hawija while on patrol, the military said.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed near the Iraqi town of Balad when their vehicle struck another roadside bomb.

The deaths bring to 2,287 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Roadside bombs are some of the most effective killers of U.S. troops in Iraq."

Just So We're Clear About What Abortion Is

As the Supreme Court Begins weighing the case for/against "partial birth" abortions and as South Dakota passes an unconstitutional state ban on abortion, I thought I'd pass on this informative write up on what it is/isn't as the assault on women's rights heats up!

First, let’s get our terms straight. The so-called “partial birth abortion” is a misnomer, to say the least. The procedure is not abortion as defined within medical science. The term "abortion" means the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable. However, it does fall within the definition of "abortion" which is used by most of the public.

The medical terms: "D&X" procedures, an abbreviation of "dilate and extract," or "Intact D&E," or "Intrauterine Cranial Decompression" procedures.

The odious and dishonest term "Partial Birth Abortion" was recently created by pro-life groups when the procedure became actively discussed at a political and religious level.

By the way, the vast, VAST majority of D&Xs are performed on non-viable fetuses, generally having little brain tissue at all -- or a mass of liquefied brain tissue. Obviously, your claim that "...If you were not afraid it would come out kicking screaming and breathing like a real baby it would not be necessary to de-brain it..." does not apply in those cases. I wonder if that is made clear in pro-life propaganda?

What is the D&X Procedure?

The D&X procedure is usually performed during the fifth month of gestation or later. The woman's cervix is dilated, and the fetus is partially removed from the womb, feet first. The surgeon inserts a sharp object into the back of the fetus' head, removes it, and inserts a vacuum tube through which the brains are extracted. The head of the fetus contracts at this point and allows the fetus to be more easily removed from the womb.

Why D&X procedures Are Performed:

1st Trimester:
D&Xs are not performed during the first three months of pregnancy, because there are better ways to perform abortions. There is no need to follow a D&X procedure, because the fetus' head quite small at this stage of gestation and can be quite easily removed from the woman's uterus.

2nd Trimester:
D&Xs are very rarely performed in the late second trimester at a time in the pregnancy before the fetus is viable. These, like most abortions, are performed for a variety of reasons, including:

-- She is not ready to have a baby and has delayed her decision to have an abortion into the second trimester (or perhaps has been OBSTRUCTED from receiving the abortion earlier, as is OFTEN the case) .As mentioned above, 90% of abortions are done in the first trimester.

-- There are mental or physical health problems related to the pregnancy.

-- The fetus has been found to be dead, badly malformed, or suffering from a very serious genetic defect. This is often only detectable late in the second trimester. Obviously, "...If you were not afraid it would come out kicking screaming and breathing like a real baby it would not be necessary to de-brain it..." does not apply, since in most cases the fetus doesn't HAVE a brain -- not one that will ever FUNCTION, anyway.

3rd Trimester:
D&X procedures are also very rarely performed in late pregnancy. The most common justifications at that time are:

-- The fetus is dead.
I repeat: Obviously, "...If you were not afraid it would come out kicking screaming and breathing like a real baby it would not be necessary to de-brain it..." does not apply.

-- The fetus is alive, but continued pregnancy would place the woman's life in severe danger.

-- The fetus is alive, but continued pregnancy would grievously damage the woman's health and/or disable her.

-- The fetus is so malformed that it can never gain consciousness and will die shortly after birth. Many which fall into this category have developed a very severe form of hydrocephalus. Obviously, "...If you were not afraid it would come out kicking screaming and breathing like a real baby it would not be necessary to de-brain it..." does not apply.

-- In addition, some physicians violate their state medical association's regulations and perform elective D&X procedures - primarily on women who are suicidally depressed.

There appears to be no reliable data available on how many D&X procedures are performed for each of the above reasons.

The physician is faced with two main alternatives at this late point in pregnancy:

-- a ”hysterotomy,” which is similar to a Cesarean section, or

-- a D&X procedure.

Approximately 1 in 2000 fetuses develop hydrocephalus while in the womb. About 5000 fetuses develop hydrocephalus each year in the U.S. This is not usually discovered until late in the second trimester. Some cases are not severe. After birth, shunts can be installed to relieve the excess fluid on the newborn's brain. A pre-natal method of removing the excess fluid is being experimentally evaluated. However, some cases are much more serious. "It is not unusual for the fetal head to be as large as 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches) in diameter and may contain...close to two gallons of cerebrospinal fluid." In comparison, the average adult skull is about 7 to 8 inches in diameter. A fetus with severe hydrocephalus is alive, but as a newborn cannot live for long; it cannot achieve consciousness. The physician may elect to perform a D&X by draining off the fluid from the brain area, collapsing the fetal skull and withdrawing the dead fetus. Or, he might elect to perform a type of caesarian section. The former kills a fetus before birth; the latter allows the newborn to die after birth, on its own. A caesarian section is a major operation. It does expose the woman to a greatly increased chance of infection. It poses its own dangers to a woman and any future pregnancies. Allowing a woman to continue in labor with a severely hydrocephalic fetus is not an option; an attempted vaginal delivery would kill her and the fetus.

The exact number of D&Xs performed is impossible to estimate with accuracy. Many states do not have strict reporting regulations.

One often quoted figure was that over 1000 D&Xs had been performed annually in New Jersey. From this number, many inflated national totals were estimated. But the New Jersey figure appears to be an anomaly. A single physician in a single NJ hospital had been ignoring the regulations of the state medical association and performing D&Xs in cases not involving the potential death or serious disability of the woman.

Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, estimated (Nightline program, 1997-FEB-26) a total of 3,000 to 4,000 annually in the US -- about ten a day.

Pro-life groups discovered an internal memo by Planned Parenthood which estimated that up to 60 (0.24%) of the more than 25,000 abortions performed annually in Virginia were D&Xs. If this figure is accurate nationally, then there would be up to 2,880 D&X procedures per year in the U.S.

Referring to a Virginia state law, Bennet Greenberg, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia said: "I'm not aware of a need for this bill in the first place, since this procedure is very, very rare, and I'm not aware it's ever been used [in Virginia]."

And now, for some sources of some DISINFORMATION about D&X:

-- On 1995-JUL-19, on the radio program Focus on the Family Dr. (sic) James Dobson referred to “PBAs” (sic) as a type of "Nazi era experimentation" in which doctors "suck the brain matter out of a living, viable baby for use in medical experiments.”

The incorrect impression given was that this is a procedure requested by researchers eager to study brain structure. They arbitrarily select an about-to-be-born fetus at random from the nearest delivery room, and kill it in order to get more research material. The program generated a flood of telephone calls which paralyzed Federal government switchboards.

To our knowledge, Dr. Dobson has never apologized for his misleading statements or corrected his misrepresentation of the facts.

-- Senator Rick Santorum, one of the leaders in the Senate of a D&X ban, said that the procedure is a gruesome form of infanticide.

[The term infanticide refers to the killing of a newborn infant; it is not applicable to an unborn fetus during a D&X procedure.]

Senator Santorum also said that it is a lie to argue that a D&X is sometimes required to protect a woman from a serious health risk.

But if he truly believed that statement, then he would not have objected to President Clinton's request that an exemption be added to the bill in cases of serious health risks to the woman. After all, if there was no risk of a devastating health problem, then the exemption would never be exercised, and there would be no harm in including it in the bill.

D&X is, as you can see, not a common procedure, not by a long shot – it is performed in cases of ABSOLUTE necessity. The way the pro-life movement refers to it, you’d think it was as common as a first trimester abortion. That’s not a mistake. They WANT you to think that, because it is a horrifying procedure, one no woman undergoes unless she has to – but that fact, which should be obvious, is obscured in favour of the incendiary and mendacious lies perpetrated by people who would like nothing more that to outlaw all abortion.

Now that we've got it clear that thousands of women aren't lining up across the country to have full grown, kicking, screaming, ready-to-walk babies yanked out of them and slaughtered, can we please have an intelligent debate about the topic?

This Plot Is Getting Thick

... and we'll be buried knee deep in another one of the Bush family's self-serving deals. This, more than anything, makes me fume about this underhanded transaction that Bush is threatening to user his power of veto against if it isn't rushed through. What? Are they afraid that everyone is going to see that in addition to holding hands with the Saudi Royal family, he is rubbing noses with the UAE's?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm where President Bush's father once served as senior adviser and is a who's who of former high-level government officials. Just last year, Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.

Another family connection, the president's brother, Neil Bush, has reportedly received funding for his educational software company from the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned.

Then there is the cabinet connection. Treasury Secretary John Snow was chairman of railroad company CSX/. After he left the company for the White House, CSX sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports World for more than a billion dollars.

In Connecticut today, Snow told reporters he had no knowledge of that CSX sale. 'I learned of this transaction probably the same way members of the Senate did, by reading about it in the newspapers.'

Another administration connection, President Bush chose a Dubai Ports World executive to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. David Sanborn, the former director of Dubai Ports' European and Latin American operations, he was tapped just last month to lead the agency that oversees U.S. port operations.


ROMANS: Now, some members of Congress, some of whom have already confirmed Sanborn, say they'd like to take a closer look at this nomination. But it's not just administration connections that Dubai has in this deal, Lou. It's now aggressively lining up representation on the Hill, bipartisan representation.

DOBBS: Lobbyists as representation, including Bob Dole. It's a remarkable effort. It's a -- it can be a tremulous feeling to stand between $7 billion and those who want to exchange that money irrespective of the consequences.

(A video link to this is on Crooks and Liars)

Man, Oprah Sure Told Him!

Now that Frey's new book deal has been fried, I guess I'll post this old entry that I never got around to finishing.

When this story first broke, I tracked it on my book blog. Initially, and still to some extent, I didn't see what the big deal was (I tend to view the current state of our country is far more important that). But, since it seemed to be the story that wouldn't die and ended up becoming more and more an attack on Oprah, I decided to watch it play out on the cable networks. I had a lot of mixed feelings on this so I listed them out:

• James Frey's Intentions
  
  
  I don't think this man woke up one morning thinking, "I'm going to write a book about my substance abuse, exaggerate it greatly, market it as a memoir when I know it is partially fabricated, get Oprah to pick it as her book club selection and lie to the entire world ..."
  
  I think that he had a story to tell (truthfully or not), wrote a book and sold it whatever way would get it published. I actually think the publisher had more to do with his decision to pimp it as a memoir than he did. While he definitely isn't off the hook, in my eyes, I don't think his original intention was to lie and end up in a big publishing scandal. What's funny is that even fiction writers end up getting sued because people claim they are the characters in some books and don't like their "portrayal." So what's a writer to do? People write what they know. If you fictionalize real life, someone is still going to think it is about them and have a fit. If you turn partial fiction into a memoir, people feel cheated. After all of this, I think that memoirs are probably just like reality shows (may be a little coaxed by producers, definitely edited for the strongest, rating rendering impact but basically putting forth what people do in front of the camera).
  
  
  
• Oprah's Intentions
  
  
  I like Oprah but I'm not one of those people willing to sell my mother to be in the audience and doubt that I'd ever actual attempt to go to one of her shows. She's not my greatest inspiration and not one of my idols. But, I like her shows, her magazine and what she's chosen to do with her wealth and influence as far as charity.
  
  But, one thing has been bugging me about her for years (and since the inception of her book club). I thoroughly understand how horrible her childhood was and that she was molested and raped as a kid/teen. I understand how many scars that can leave. But she survived and is doing better than almost every woman in the world. What started to bother me about her book club selections was that too many of them seemed to be about downtrodden people/women who triumphed over tragedy. While that is an inspiring theme, it got really old to me. I realize that there is still a part of her that still clings to that part of her inner self. I totally get why those types of books and themes touch her so. But, just as James Frey, in some way brought all of this drama upon himself, I think that Oprah drew this experience into her life as well. I think there is still a part of her that is a victim and even though she is one of the richest woman in the world, she was able to turn this "nobody" of a guy (a virtual squirrel just looking for a nut) into some villain who took advantage of her and somebone who victimized her yet again.
  
  I glanced at the book in Costco many times and, once I realized what it was about, decided that I didn't need to read yet another pitiful story. We've all had our tribulations and my life hasn't always been perfect but I just cannot stand a constant stream of sob stories. If Oprah had really felt that now, with everything she's accomplished, she'd finally "overcome," she would stop being so attracted to these types of stories and hence, drawing in people who turn her into a victim (you can see I watch her show enough to come up with that theory).
  
  
• Readers' Investment In The Book
  
  
  Because Oprah was drawn in, her viewers were drawn in. But, for the life of me I cannot figure out why people are so hysterical behind a few (maybe more) fabricated episodes in the book. On one of my online discussion groups, some people were talking about taking the book back and wanting their money back.
  
  Why? If you liked the story/loved the book as much as Oprah did, what investment does anyone have in whether this guy really fought with cops, spent three months in jail or was as braggadocious as he claimed. Who the heck cares? AND, the people who are out there trying to sue are as guilty of being opportunistic predators as they claim he is. Get over it and get a life. It's almost as though his character in the book somehow made them feel as though they were somehow not as bad and now that they find he wasn't as bad as he said, they are on equal footing with them. I don't know. I just don't get it.
  
  
• Oprah's Showdown
  
  
  Honestly, I was a little embarrassed by that show. This is a guy who obviously had some problems with addiction and is probably battling the same or more demons now. Oprah lured him to the show and in addition to her dressing him down, she had a full panel of people who all stood there shooting at him like a firing squad. Regardless of what he did, this guy is an ant compared to her. Why use a combat boot to squash an ant, as though it is a rattle snake, when a single Kleenex would have done the same thing.
  
  Oprah redeemed herself as being someone who was fooled, initially defended her trickster and then did damage control when her reputation was in question. I thought the show was overkill and that, after her initial confrontation with him, she should have sent back to the green room. The mob of accusers as he sat there like a trapped rat, turned Oprah into the predator and I thought she might have been a little above that. I like a good fight but I like fair fights and that guy was ambushed.
  

Maybe Oprah will stick to fiction from now on or maybe, just maybe, she'll stop with the stories of woe and misery.

Finger-Lickin' Bad

Ewwww! I had no idea it was this bad.

A person driving through the South might notice the chicken houses dotting the hills and flatlands. He might marvel at the larger ones, as long as a football field. He might react to their gagging stench for a moment, and then forget as he travels on. But those who live near the structures -- stuffed with as many as 25,000 chickens each -- combat the odor and health hazards daily.

'There's a horrible odor, a stench, and I have flies and rodents digging in, trying to get into my house,' says Bernadine Edwards, whose 39-acre farm near Owensboro, Ky., is surrounded by 108 chicken houses within a two-mile radius. 'It is unbelievable.'

The 65-year-old school bus driver, who recently bought a purifier to help her breathe easier in her home, says the value of her property has plummeted since the chicken houses arrived in the early 1990s. 'I'm too old to start over,' she says. 'I can't afford to. My house is paid for.'

Edwards is not alone. Over the last 15 years, the country has seen a boom in chicken farming. Today, the industry is serving a cocktail of injustice and pollution to rural residents, and most of them aren't in a position to fight back.

I'll bet half of this upsurge in chicken consumption is due to chicken nuggets. Whenever I make my runs to Costo, I always gawk at the bags of "chicken dinosaurs" in the baskets of people who obviously have children. While I am childless, I still have an adverse reaction to the idea that we have a nation of children being raised on Chicken Mc Nuggets. I see toddlers sitting in carts, munching on them as parents make after-work grocery store runs and it drives me crazy! I've heard a lot of moms defend their children's steady diet of the little finger food (to the point where some claim their children won't eat anything else) and I guess that is why I don't have kids. Seriously though, married or not, if my days are promised to be so hectic that all I have time to feed my kids are animal shaped chicken pieces, I think I'd need to bypass child bearing.

The Forced Pregnancy And Birth People Gain Some Ground

Granted it's South Dakota but they've managed to pass a ban on abortions even when the woman's health may come into question. It just blows the mind that people have relegated women to baby making machines who will be forced to bear the children of rapists.

The South Dakota Senate today approved a bill that would outlaw nearly all abortions in the state, a measure that could become the most sweeping ban approved by a state in more than a decade.

If the bill is signed by Gov. Michael Rounds, a Republican who opposes abortion, advocates of abortion rights have pledged to challenge it in court immediately — and that is precisely what the bill's supporters have in mind.

The bill passed by a vote of 23 to 12 after opponents tried unsuccessfully to attach amendments that would have created exceptions for cases of rape and incest and that would have blocked spending of state money to defend against the court challenge that is sure to come.

Before it reaches the governor's desk, a slightly reworded version of the bill — one that does not change its overall meaning — has to be sent back to the House, where the bill was overwhelmingly approved earlier.

Optimistic about the recent changes on the United States Supreme Court, some abortion opponents say they have new hope that a court fight over a ban here could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal around the country.

Grab And Run?

People, we have a lot of work to do. As I write this, I am watching a program on Sex Slavery on The Big Idea with Danny Deutsch. It's a sick and vile business that displays a total lack of value for women as human beings and treats them as nothing more than disposable pieces of trash. Meanwhile, in Kyrgystan, men and their families are kidnapping women they wish to become their brides. Forced marriage is a different kind of slavery.

Meerim was a 21-year-old university student in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, when her admirer, an old classmate from the central province of Naryn, abducted her for marriage.

'My schoolmates suggested having a reunion and we met in a cafe in Bishkek. We were having a small party with drinks and snacks. Then Nurlan [her then classmate and now her husband] offered to continue the celebrations at his home with kebabs and music,' Meerim said in Bishkek, recalling the experience.

'I agreed, but when we entered his home, his relatives were there. His mother said that I would become her son's spouse. I was shocked and did not expect such an outcome. I cried, disagreed, tried to escape, but all in vain. All night long his sisters and female relatives tried to convince me. My female schoolmates were on their side too,' she added.

But despite having a boyfriend and future career plans, Meerim surrendered to an age old Kyrgyz tradition.

'I wanted to call my boyfriend to take me away but didn't know what to tell him. I knew he couldn't help. He was far away. I called my parents, but they did not want to get me out of the situation. My grandmother insisted that I should stay with a husband-to-be as otherwise our family would be shamed. I eventually gave in,' Meerim said, adding that following the wedding, she had to leave her education and mainly engage in domestic chores as expected in this traditional society.

Such abductions are not unusual in the former Soviet republic, particularly in rural areas, where the majority of Kyrgyzstan's some 5 million inhabitants live.

According to some estimates, upwards of 30 percent of the country's married women have been snatched from the street by their husbands in a custom known as "ala kachuu," which translates roughly as "grab and run." In its most benign form, it is a kind of elopement, in which a man whisks away a willing girlfriend. But often it is something more violent.

That women actually are complicit in this bride snatching is even more disturbing. I guess they think you ought to be grateful that you were chosen by their brothers.

So, So Not In The Last Throes

Look at these numbers and tell me what we are doing for the people of Iraq:

2004

• Total attacks: 26,496
  
• Improvised bombs: 5,607
  
• Car bombings: 420
  
• Suicide car bombings: 133
  
• Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests: 7
  

2005

• Total attacks: 34,131
  
• Improvised bombs: 10,593
  
• Car bombings: 873
  
• Suicide car bombings: 411
  
• Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests: 67
  

They'd Have To Peel Me Off Of Him!

Via Shakespeare's Sister, this almost made me burst a blood vessel.

Can I Ask A Question?

If you are so concerned about privacy, why are you taping your nasty behind doing the nasty?!

Kid Rock has won an initial victory in his attempt to stop a California company from releasing an explicit sex video featuring the rap-rocker, former Creed singer Scott Stapp and four women.

U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens signed a temporary order that stops David Joseph and his World Wide Red Light District company from distributing or promoting any portion of the tape, including a 40-second preview clip of the video that was previously displayed on Red Light District's Web sites.

On Tuesday, Kid Rock's lawyers sued Red Light, which made headlines in 2004 by distributing the Paris Hilton sex video, accusing the firm of violating Kid Rock's trademark and privacy rights. The lawsuit seeks a permanent court order halting sale or distribution of the video.

'We don't deny the authenticity of the tape,' Kid Rock's lawyer, William Horton, told the Detroit Free Press. 'But they're using this without his permission to drive the sales of their other products.'

'Even rock stars are entitled to privacy,' said co-counsel Michael Novak.

Narcissism does have a price.

Hit Dogs Holler!

You know what they say. If you throw a rock into a pack of puppies, the one who gets hit is gonna holler! Listen to this yelping!

Following sports broadcaster Bryant Gumbel's remarks on the February 7 edition of HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, in which he stated that the "paucity of blacks" at the Winter Olympics "makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention," Fox News host John Gibson accused Gumbel of "granting himself the right to be racist just to throw an elbow at Republicans." Gibson made his comments on the February 17 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson. The following week on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity falsely accused Gumbel of "insinuating" that Republicans are racist.

Sounds like a shoe is fitting to me!

Here's A Shocker!

Iran is going to give Hamas the hookup!

A senior Iranian official pledged Wednesday to provide financial support to a Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority, already in budgetary difficulties and facing further cuts in international aid.

'We will definitely help this government financially in order to resist America's cruelty,' said Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

He spoke in Tehran after meeting with Hamas's senior political leader, Khaled Meshal, but he provided no details or figures about what kind or level of support Iran would provide.

Israel has already blocked $50 million a month in customs and tax receipts due to the Palestinian Authority, leaving it with a monthly budget deficit of about $110 million. Tehran already helps to finance Hamas, according to officials in Washington and Tel Aviv, although the Iranians deny it.

Welcome To The Terrordome!

Look at this mess! You know it's out of control when they've started blowing up churches, mosques, synagogues and shrines - particularly historic ones. Someone just threw down a very large gauntlet and this does not bode well for peace and democracy in Iraq. Folks, I think this is the beginning of the very end of any sane policy we pretended to have in Iraq. John Murtha called it weeks ago. What we have here is a civil war.

An attack Wednesday that destroyed the soaring gold dome of one of ShiiteIslam's holiest shrines is being interpreted by most Shiites here as a direct attack on their faith - and has sharply raised sectarian tensions.

It's unclear if any people were killed in the massive explosion in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. But the destruction of the shrine may be the most emotionally charged of attacks on Shiite targets thus far in the war, and could set back already hamstrung efforts to form a government of Shiite and Sunni unity.

As citizens deserted the streets of Baghdad in the wake of the attack, many said they feared this could be a seminal moment in Iraq's low-intensity civil war.

"The war could really be on now,'' says Abu Hassan, a Shiite street peddler who declined to give his full name. "This is something greater and more symbolic than attacks on people. This is a strike at who we are."

The attack occurred shortly before 7 a.m. in the largely Sunni city of Samarra, which has remained an insurgent hotbed despite years of US operations there. It was carried out by a small group of men who somehow gained access to the usually heavily protected Askariya shrine, set demolition explosives, and then fled.

Though the shrine dates back 1,000 years, it has been rebuilt numerous times. Its current dome was built in 1905. There are no records of previous attacks on the building or its predecessors.

"This could be a tipping point,'' says Juan Cole, a historian of Shiite Islam at the University of Michigan. "At some point, the Shiite street is going to be so fed up that they're not going to listen any more to calls for restraint ...

This kind of thing can spread beyond the confines of Iraq. You cannot tell me that Iran isn't just looking for a reason to get a piece of this action. They may have to let Saddam out so he can get a grip on his people! Dictator or not, he had a vice grip on the factions of his country - a grip we blew to pieces when we called ourselves liberating that place. This is just downright frightening and dangerous for our troops. We had no clue what we were doing and now are faced with what is becoming one big ring of fire. This is a tipping point indeed.

Sounds Like A Plan ... Not!

Yesterday I kept seeing the headline about the "holocaust denier" getting jail time but didn't really pay attention to what it meant. You can go to jail for that? I went to college with and know a few nimrods who claim it didn't happen either or that it was greatly exaggerated. They were bigots but bet your bottom dollar there are a lot of "good Catholics" and "Evangelcals" who say the same type of stuff in closed quarters. Why anyone would waste a "charge" on that nutjob in Iran is beyond me. What are they going to do? Invade Iran and arrest him? There are far more valiant efforts that need to be pursued. This is just silly!

An Israeli lawyer, Ervin Shahar, says he has asked Germany to charge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with denying the Holocaust.

Mr Ahmadinejad was widely criticised when he said last year that the Holocaust was a 'myth' and that Israel should be 'wiped off the map'.

Germany passed a law in 1993 forbidding Holocaust denial. It is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II.

Mr Shahar said he wanted the German federal prosecutors' office to take the issue before the constitutional court in the hope that international arrest warrants would be issued against Mr Ahmadinejad.

How Stupid Is This?

Now he claims he didn't even know about the deal until after it was a done deal ... Yet, he's ready to clobber it with the first and only veto of his administration? What?!

President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday.

The administration continued to defend the deal but also said it should have briefed Congress sooner about the transaction, which has triggered a major political backlash among both Republicans and Democrats.

Mr. Bush on Tuesday brushed aside objections by leaders in the Senate and House that the $6.8 billion sale could raise risks of terrorism at American ports. In a forceful defense of his administration's earlier approval of the deal, he pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement.

Country For Sale!

Via The News Blog, this guy's sentiments are mine exactly.

The port issue has nothing to do with the UAE. It has nothing to do with their being Arabs. It has nothing to do with their alleged ties to terrorists or terrorism. It has to do with the fact that They Are Not Us. I would feel the same way if we were entrusting the security of our ports to the English or the Japanese or the French, or any private American company, for that matter.

Why? Because the safety of our country is just not as important to any of them as it is (or should be) to the United States Government.

I don't care what Cheney and Rumsfeld tell you, security is the government's job, period. It's why governments exist in the first place. No nation that depended on mercenaries for protection has ever survived for long, and with good reason. However well the hired guns are paid, eventually they will decide to take over themselves, melt away from a threat they would rather not face, or just take the money and do a half-assed job. They simply cannot care enough. When it's the government's job, it's either protect the nation or be obliterated. That's the kind of motivation you want in your protectors, and nothing less is acceptable.

After the 9/11 attacks, the government hired and trained airport security personnel for exactly this reason. Private companies were simply not reliable enough.

I'm aware that the security of the ports in question is currently in the hands of a British company, and I'm not ok with that either. This might be the one place where I could see myself on the same page as the Bush Administration: we're in a post-9/11 world, in which our security, especially at the points at which we make the most contact with the rest of the world, has become deadly serious. The time for handing off our responsibilities to a company with the words 'Steam Navigation' in its name has long since passed.

Entrusting the safety of our ports to a foreign entity might, I repeat, might, be acceptable if we were manifestly incapable of doing the job ourselves. But for a country that never tires of styling itself as the world's lone superpower, the very idea is a sick joke.

The fact that George W. Bush, after being president for over five years, is threatening to use his first veto on this issue is just icing on the cake. Everything he has touched has been a disaster. If he's stamping his feet and screeching about it, you know it's got to be a doozy.

It is positively senseless for Bush, who hasn't vetoed in his five years in office, to be willing to veto any measures from Congress to block this "good old boy" deal. I have had it with him doling out our country to his inner circle of criminally rich friends. We know he is thick as thieves with the Saudis and their oil. Apparently the same thing is true of the UAE. With our antics at Guantanamo (racially profiled people still being held without charge), Abu Ghraib and airport "security," it is just astonishing that he would play the "bias against Arabs" card when he's been using it for the past four years. I question his motives, not those who wonder how he's done an about face when in comes to our "enemy." It's all about money, power and blind greed - not about protecting America - and the sooner the people of America who voted for him realize that, the better.

And If You Don't Know ...

Now you know! I asked and somebody knew! This is making me so mad! Pockets will be lined!

Answer #1: Treasury Secretary John Snow.

The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.

One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.

Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.

Answer #2: David Sanborn.

The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and who was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Did I Call It?

When those folks perished in that mining accident at the beginning of the year, I said, "they aren't going to try to improve things, they are going to get them a bunch of Hispanics whom they don't have to pay well or protect." What does this article say?

At age 15, Ricky Mullins followed his father and his grandfather into the mines. For years, they scraped and shoveled coal to put food on the table. But Mullins, now 48, fears that the family tradition will end with his son.

Despite the inherent hazards of being a miner, Mullins and others in the area consider it the best job opportunity available to them — and are proud of the work they do.


'All we have is coal mining,' Mullins said. 'But the companies don't want to hire local — not when they can get the Hispanics to work cheaper.' The local mine company here, Sidney Coal Co., is seeking to change Kentucky mining legislation so it can hire non-English-speaking Latino workers.

Kentucky law requires that miners be fluent in English for safety reasons, but Sidney Coal, a subsidiary of Massey Energy Inc., has claimed that it cannot find enough local workers.

'It is common knowledge that the work ethic of the eastern Kentucky worker has declined from where it once was,' the president of Sidney Coal, Charlie Bearse, wrote to the Kentucky Mining Board. 'Attitudes have changed among the existing workforce, which affects attendance, drug use and, ultimately, productivity.'

Bearse's comments have unsettled many in this region of steep mountains and thin hollows, where the descendants of English, German and Scotch-Irish settlers have struggled as the coal industry has declined in recent years.

'It's insulting to the men and women who want to work here and stay here,' said Kentucky state Rep. Robin Webb, a former miner. 'Mining is their way of life.' Although migrant workers are already a presence in Kentucky's tobacco fields and thoroughbred horse farms, they scarcely penetrated the Appalachian coal fields.

Many eastern Kentucky miners worry that bringing non-English-speaking Latinos underground would force them to accept lower wages and lead to a decline in mine safety.

For the first time since reconstruction, will the white southerners wake up and see what the "southern strategy" is all about? You's been had folks! Now they are calling y'all lazy and trifling! I would laugh but I am concerned that the "new" workers will be led to slaughter in these mines due to thoroughly suspended safety regulations. I would also like to feel bad but this kind of karmic justice has been brewing for a couple of centuries.


(hat tip to Prometheus)

Mixed, Schmixed

I don't know. I've never been particularly fixated on tracing my roots. I find the American context for race so utterly ridiculous (that one drop mess) and what being defined as black really means that I just don't see any purpose in trying to dig up the rapists in my lineage who had their way with "black" women on the plantation. I don't care about the "Indian" in me and hardly care if, somehow, 400+ years ago any of my African ancestors were snatched from a royal family. Yet, the latest racket seems to be DNA testing to track lineage. Oprah is claiming she's Zulu (didn't know the slave ships made it to South Africa) and even if I were found to be a descendent of the Queen of Sheba, it's not going to change my bottom line now and - because I love and appreciate the part of my heritage I do know about - any new revelations would do little to change my sense of worth either way. I'm not really sure what people are seeking when they do this.

While other Americans could travel to towns in Ireland, Italy or Germany in search of genealogical sustenance, slavery deprived African-Americans of a clear and precise geographical bond with their own ancestry. As Gates puts it: 'There is no Ellis Island for the descendants of the slave trade.' Moreover, since slave-owners changed people's names, regularly split up families and banned reading and writing, the usual methods of keeping family histories have not been available to African-Americans until relatively recently.

This new science, then, seemed to offer a means of telling a story that had been denied and hidden. Even as DNA evidence was freeing many - mostly black - prisoners from death row it was also unlocking historical secrets. For example, historians had insisted for 150 years that America's third president, Thomas Jefferson, could not have fathered children by his slave mistress Sally Hemmings. Many African-Americans claimed otherwise, however, and in 1998 scientists followed the Y chromosome DNA in Jefferson's family line to establish a definitive link with the Hemmings family. Almost 200 years after Jefferson had cryptically parried accusations of the affair with the words 'the man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies', science had exposed the facts that a mixture of prejudice and politics had kept hidden.

[...]

"I've spoken with African Americans who have tried four or five different genetic genealogy companies because they weren't satisfied with the results," says Nelson. "They received different results each time and kept going until they got a result they were happy with."

"There are some people who are black who may have only 10% African ancestry," says Shriver. "It helps create an understanding that race is an illusion and that there isn't any real difference between races. They show that we're all mixes."

Yeah. We're all mixes but America twisted it into a thoroughly ridiculous caste system which sought to make sure that no person, who was the descendent of someone who was brought here to work for free, was going to be entitled to reap any of the benefits.

What pains me more is that as America grows more diverse with immigrants, the real history of this country is being buried. I had a bizarre conversation at work where an East Indian woman and a goofy young white boy were asking me where my family was from. I replied, "some slave ship." The woman continued with "are they West Indian?" and I'm like "No, I'm from whatever port the ship stopped and snatched folks up from and whomever raped my great, great grandmother." I was being semi-sarcastic but she looked totally perplexed because I don't think people, including many white Americans, have a clue how and why the average black person in America came to exist. I often joke about us being bred and hatched, like a science experiment, into a fake race. Well into the 1900s, white men were able to have their way with black women (hence the almost pathological resistance by many black women to even consider interracial dating), ala Strom Thurmond, without consequence. So, I'm really more concerned with spreading the reality of true American history - moreso than trying to figure out what tribe someone came from several hundred years ago.

Thank You Dr. Dean

Since it is Black History Month (a notion I semi-reject because this kind of stuff should be fully embedded into standard American history), I thought I'd share this story about an inventor - one whose contribution is enabling me to type on my laptop right now. I'd never heard of him before so this is a new tidbit for me too!

So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal computer without reading or hearing a single word about him? Given all of the pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals of African Americans on television and in print, you would think it would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.

Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel when it comes to telling the stories of African Americans. Dr. Dean isn't the first Black inventor to be overlooked. Consider John Stanard, inventor of the refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer, Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp. All of these inventors share two things:

One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society relegated them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Dean won't go away as quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn't. Dr. Dean helped start a Digital Revolution that created people like Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell Computer's Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in information technology can be traced back directly to Dr. Dean.

More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as inspiration for African-American children. Already victims of the 'Digital Divide' and failing school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more enthusiasm if they knew someone like Dr. Dean already was leading the way.

Although technically Dr. Dean can't be credited with creating the computer -- that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician, widely considered to be the father of modern computer science -- Dr. Dean rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today. The computer really wasn't practical for home or small business use until he came along, leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers.

Not In a Post-9/11 World

I knew I'd come back to this because it just makes no sense. First of all, I don't think that any foreign country - not even Canada - should own any company that controls our ports (particularly in a post-9/11 world). Someone needs to "follow the money" because this has crony written all over it. Only money, lots of it, would embolden the power brokers in this country enough to suggest that we turn control of our ports over to a country that spawned two of the 9/11 hijackers. All I want to know is whose friend is getting paid?

There is bipartisan concern about the Bush administration’s decision to outsource the operation of six of the nation’s largest ports to a company controlled by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because of that nation’s troubling ties to international terrorism. The sale of P&O to Dubai World Ports would give the state-owned company control of “the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.”

A major part of the story, however, has been mostly overlooked. The company, Dubai Ports World, would also control the movement of military equipment on behalf of the U.S. Army through two other ports. From today’s edition of the British paper Lloyd’s List:

[P&O] has just renewed a contract with the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command to provide stevedoring [loading and unloading] of military equipment at the Texan ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi through 2010.

According to the journal Army Logistician “Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through these two ports.”

Thus, the sale would give a country that has been “a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia” direct control over substantial quantities U.S. military equipment.

More Cluelessness

Someone passed along this quote from an article about the Grammys. The author said that the Kanye West/Jamie Foxx performance of Gold Digger was the most enjoyable. But, something about the article was dead wrong and rather disheartening. The performance was a full stage event with the FAMU Marching Band (a treat in itself), dancers representing "gold digging" women and guys (dressed in typical Hip Hop attire) in the mock fraternity "Broke Phi Broke" (Get it? gold diggers vs. men w/no money). However, in the review, the guy referred to the men as a gang.

Kanye West and actor Jamie Foxx were the night’s most enjoyable duo. In a performance of West’s "Gold Digger," they donned marching band uniforms, led their competing bands onstage, mixed with a drill team squad and a local "gang." Like a grade school production of "West Side Story" that traveled onstage and into the aisle, the concept was delightfully weird.

Now, I know I've stated before that I am not a big Kanye West fan. But, I did happen to catch this portion of the Grammys. I thought it was creative. But when I read the clip above, I couldn't - for the life of me - figure out which part of the performance contained a gang. Additionally, while I know that people who don't like/listen to Hip Hop are still stuck on some old, stereotypical image that it is only and totally about "gangsta rap," Kanye West likes to market himself as a "preppy" rapper (in addition to being a producer). He is the son of ultra educated parents and fancies himself as an intelligent, prolific, well-spoken artist. Gangs weren't a part of his upbringing and they weren't a part of his Grammy performance.

The routine was, in a way, a tribute to the black college experience - not a cheap imitation of West Side Story (Huh?). My take is that if you have absolutely no frame of reference for something and no knowledge of the subject matter, keep the commentary at a minimum. The sad thing is that this guy thought he was complimenting Kanye when, in effect, he basically insulted him and everything he stands for.

Cluelessness on Crack

People SLAY me! This is so ridiculous you have to laugh. Check out the entire article at The News Blog under "They Was Kissing!"

Dear Amy: My husband and I have lived in our quiet suburban Denver neighborhood for six years.

About two years ago two young gay men moved in across the street. They've taken the ugliest, most run-down property in the neighborhood and remodeled and transformed it into the pride of the street.

When it snows, they shovel out my car and are friendly, yet they mostly keep to themselves.

Last month I went out to retrieve my newspaper and watched them kiss each other goodbye and embrace as they each left for work.

I was appalled that they would do something like that in plain view of everyone.

I was so disturbed that I spoke to my pastor. He encouraged me to draft a letter telling them how much we appreciate their help but asking them to refrain from that behavior in our neighborhood.

I did so and asked a few of our neighbors to sign it.

Since I delivered it, I've not been able to get them to even engage me in conversation.

I offer greetings but they've chosen to ignore me.

They have made it so uncomfortable for the other neighbors and me by not even acknowledging our presence.

How would you suggest we open communications with them and explain to them that we value their contributions to the neighborhood but will not tolerate watching unnatural and disturbing behavior.

-- Wondering

The cluelessness reminds me of a question that was once sent in to Ebony Magazine several years ago. Apparently some white woman read somewhere that some black people (which she interpreted as all) had poor nutritional habits. So, in a professional work environment, she approached an educated, professional black man and handed him a cookbook for his wife because she'd heard that black people didn't no how to prepare proper meals. Needless to say, the man was insulted and livid. She wrote the advice column in Ebony because she didn't understand why he didn't want her gift.

Sadly, you only have to watch Trading Spouses or Wife Swap when a black family and a white family switch wives. I believe the most bubbleheaded line, after a well to do white woman visited a family in Harlem and came home to share the experience, was "We're gonna rent New Jack City!" (Like the family she had visited came anywhere close to living like that). It's astonishing!

Flavor, Flavor, Flavor!

I admit it. I faithfully watch what has got to be the STUPIDEST show on television. It's like watching a train wreck, an execution and hearing nails on a chalkboard all at the same time. I realize I must be one sick chick to be so horrifically entertained and left with a tummy ache from laughing at the Flavor of Love.

The episode opened up with Flava Flav telling the girls that they were going on 'exotic' vacations. The first girls were Pumkin and Hoopz who were sent to Palm Springs. Get ready, because it gets really ugly.

I know none of these chicks are really interested in Flav. But, the price of their 15 minutes of fame being pretending that they want him, is just too, too high. I'd rather commit a crime and get arrested on TV than swap spit with Flav to get exposure.

Yet, it's down to three crazy wannabees and I will be watching until the bitter end.

Don't Mess With Hugo

It actually kinda cracks me up that some of these world leaders think they can be so "familiar" with Condoleezza Rice. Some African dictator called her "girl" some time back. Now Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is calling her "girl" too.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday warned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to 'mess with' him days after Rice described Venezuela as a menace to regional democracy in the midst of tense diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"Don't mess with me Condoleezza. Don't mess with me, girl," Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast, sarcastically offering her a kiss and jokingly referring to her as "Condolence."

The warning comes days after Rice described Venezuela as one of the "biggest problems" for the Western Hemisphere and promised to develop regional alliances as part of an "inoculation" strategy to expose what the State Department calls anti-democratic behavior in Venezuela.

Looking Like A Punk!

I don't know. I was never impressed with either member of this couple. I thought Jessica was young and "wittingly" flighty and that Nick was really good at playing the martyred, salt of the earth husband with a childlike, spoiled wife. Sometimes I also saw him as a whinny little pissant who watched his wife grab the spotlight and fame right from under him. I am sure this is just a legal formality. I heard, someplace, that though California had a community property law, they would have had to have been married for seven years for him to seek spousal support.

Nick Lachey filed papers in L.A. Superior Court on Friday reserving the right to seek spousal support from soon-to-be ex-wife Jessica Simpson, PEOPLE has learned. In her Dec. 16 divorce filing, Simpson, 25, had petitioned that Lachey, 32, not receive alimony.

According to his divorce response, Lachey cited irreconcilable differences for the dissolution of the marriage. Also, he asked the court to confirm that 'miscellaneous jewelry and other personal effects' remain separate property, as well his earnings after the date of separation and additional property assets to be determined.

In his filing, Lachey reports the couple's separation date as Dec. 13 while Simpson cited it was Nov. 23 in her divorce papers. The discrepancy in the dates is particularly relevant because of the nearly $1 million Simpson earned during those weeks that she'd have to split with her former husband under California law.

These days, if you get married without a pre-nup in a "half" state, it's got to be split. I personally think that Jessica's dad did her a disservice by not allowing his post-teen daughter to sign the pre-nup that, the then more popular, Nick wanted. He wasn't exactly banking on his daughter's ultimate success and his miscalculation will ensure that a good hunk of her earnings will go to a fallen boy band member. If spousal support is granted, I think it should come from his salary as her manager. I don't think she had a clue what her father had negotiated for her regarding her marriage.

At the same time, I'm not feeling especially sorry for Nick. He's hardly innocent. There is a price for a grown man who pursues a teenager. He virtually deflowered his virgin "snatch" in the public eye. I guess he felt like a big man with his bride who was a naive, new adult when they got married. Perhaps if he'd married someone his own age, who didn't still have her daddy at the door with the shotgun, he'd have gotten his pre-nup and had someone who was truly ready for marriage. Instead, he married a child. She didn't need another father and she grew up right before his eyes (and America's). He needs to suck it up, get his jewelry and move on! Next stop for him: Dancing With The Stars and/or Surreal Life.

And Counting ...

I can't figure it out. People on the right get positively rabid when people criticize George W. Bush and they claim that the left has an irrational hate of him. Yet, no one can really point to a single thing that he's done right. They keep touting these "ideals" (such as democracy and freedom, never giving up, never backing down, etc ...) but there is never anything behind it to back it up. Well, here lies a list of his many mistakes.

Emergency Management: They completely failed to manage the first large-scale emergency since 9/11. Despite all their big talk and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on homeland security over the past four years, this administration proved itself stunningly incompetent when faced with an actual emergency. (Katrina Relief Funds Squandered)

Fiscal Management: America is broke. No wait, we're worse than broke. In less than five years these borrow and spend-thrifts have nearly doubled our national debt, to a stunning $8.2 trillion. These are not your father's Republicans who treated public dollars as though they were an endangered species. These Republicans waste money in ways and in quantities that make those old tax and spend liberals of yore look like tight-fisted Scots.

This administration is so incompetent that you can just throw a dart at the front page of your morning paper and whatever story of importance it hits will prove my point.

Katrina relief: Eleven thousand spanking new mobile homes sinking into the Arkansas mud. Seems no one in the administration knew there were federal and state laws prohibiting trailers in flood zones. Oops. That little mistake cost you $850 million -- and counting.

(cont ...)

I'm Not Ready

I'm still not sure that I've seen the entirety of the Coretta Scott King funeral but I did see Attallah Shabazz, the eldest daughter of the late Malcolm X, and she delivered the best, most eloquent and most touching tribute. Since the first time I saw it on C-Span, I've been scouring the net looking for a copy of the text and an audio or video.I finally found it.

As I continued to travel I sent cards again just so that she can hear from me. Every time I sent a card, I'd get a call from one of the children saying, well more specifically, (yeah, okay,) "Mother wants to hear your voice." And I'd get it on the -- you know, too far to call back immediately. And I'm trying not to put pressure. And then I'd get another call with a tap of the foot and the sound, "I don't know, did you get my message?" And I know its not just her pounding; its mother pounding. And my heart -- if you can talk about intuition -- was -- was almost too scared to touch. Because I wasn't ready.

(Excuse me. I'm sorry.)
Yet, no doubt one of the most beautiful things -- as her eldest daughter and I discussed -- when you witness love and being loved the way we have by each our respectable mothers, you almost feel like you don't have the right to ask them to stay a day longer, when they are now in the arms of He who loved her most. For it is not fair to rob someone of that. Because if she was here, we'd still be on the receiving end. But from a chair, and quietly silent, the reflection -- and I know He reached down caressing her, and saying, 'I'm here all the while.' Sometimes just the human being needs simply that.

I'd like to read a phrase form Khalil Gibran,that I lifted, on death. Now, I, myself, don't use the term 'death,' but 'transition.' And he says,

'What is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence, shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountaintop, only then shall you begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, only then shall you truly dance.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.'

So as we have all have grown up though this civil rights movement -- some before -- and we know that anthem hymn, 'We Shall Overcome,' I'd like to presume to add an update of affirmation, not the some-day, but to-day. Time's up.

We have lost many on that walk, on that journey, who stood steadfast -- steadfast, giving and doing, serving and being, sharing and extending. And I would rather say something like, 'We have come over to-day!' 'We have achieved today!' Even if you don't have an affirmation that says 'Now!' -- because somebody else will rest with your some-day; they'll put you on pause, with some-day -- we have to do it now, by any means necessary.

Along with Coretta, the parents of a couple of close friends have passed on. It made me realize that not only was I getting older, but my parents were too. Attallah seemed to still be mourning her own mom and seeing Coretta, a surrogate mom of sorts, pass on too seemed to be more than she could handle. Her grief actually made me pause and think about my own mom. I guess I am not ready either.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Somebody slap me! If for no other reason than "it just looks bad," this company should not have been chosen to have a hand in operating our ports.

The Bush administration dismissed the security concerns of local officials yesterday and restated its approval of a deal that will give a company based in Dubai a major role in operating ports in and around New York City.

Representatives of the White House and the Treasury Department said they had given their approval for Dubai Ports World to do business in the United States after a rigorous review. The decision, they said, was final.

Dubai Ports World is buying the British company that currently operates the cruise-ship terminal on the West Side of Manhattan, one of the biggest cargo terminals in New York Harbor, and terminals in Philadelphia, Baltimore and other big ports.

Several lawmakers, including Representative Peter T. King of Long Island, who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Senator Charles E. Schumer, have criticized the administration for its approval of the deal, saying it was done too quickly and without enough scrutiny of the ramifications for security at American ports.

'In the post-9/11 world, there should have been a presumption against this company,' said Mr. King, a Republican. He added that people in the intelligence community had told him they had concerns about how the company operated the port of Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates.

I swear! People who support Bush because they think he is tough on terrorism or serious about homeland security are dirt stupid. The UAE has some sketchy ties to al Qaeda and terrorism - stronger, certainly, than Saddam Hussein did. Does anyone see how ridiculous this looks? Corporate interests will sell America to the highest bidder - if anyone is harmed, maimed, ruined or killed in the process it is inconsequential.

I Think I Just Heard A Bell

It certainly took long enough for someone to speak out about Pat Robertson's crazy remarks. I don't know what kind of clanging his cohorts in religious fervor heard, but it looks like they finally decided to scoot away from Pat.

Fellow conservative religious leaders have expressed concern and even open criticism over Pat Robertson's habit of shooting from the hip on his daily religious news-and-talk television program, 'The 700 Club.'

The Christian Coalition founder and former GOP presidential candidate has said American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for pulling Israel out of the Gaza Strip.

Some observers say Robertson, who'll turn 76 next month, courts controversy as a strategy to stay recognizable and keep his followers mobilized. Others say he remains important to the evangelical movement that he helped create when he established the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network in 1960 _ but he needs to stop damaging it with his words.

He canceled a speech planned for this coming Tuesday at the closing banquet of the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Dallas after NRB leaders said they were concerned that his appearance could detract from the event.

'He is in a very visible leadership position and comments such as recent ones related to Mr. Sharon and so many others are misinformed and presumptuous and border on arrogance,' said David Dockery, president of Union University, a private college affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

Dockery suggested Robertson might want to consult other theologians 'before making these pronouncements so quickly.'

'It puts the evangelical movement in a bad light when that happens because people make broad generalizations, rightly or wrongly, all the time,' said Dockery, who also is chairman of the board for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

What A Backwards, Archaic Crock Of Shyt!

Apparently they haven't figured out that rape is not about sex!

Italy's highest court ruled Friday that a man who raped the 14-year-old daughter of his girlfriend can seek to have his sentenced reduced because the girl was sexually active, news reports said.

The ruling provoked an outcry across Italy, was condemned by UNICEF and prompted other justices on the court to issue a statement saying the ruling was wrong and in the future would be cited as a bad example of a high court decision, the ANSA news agency reported.

The case goes back to 2001, when a court in Sardinia convicted Marco T. of sexual violence and threats against the 14-year-old daughter of his live-in girlfriend and sentenced him to more than three years in prison, ANSA said.

He requested a reduced sentence, saying the crime was less serious because the girl had already had several sexual partners.

His request was rejected, but Italy's high court said the judges should re-evaluate the decision because the girl 'since the age of 13 had had many sexual relations with men of every age.'

'And it's right to assume,' the ruling went on, according to ANSA, 'that at the time of the encounter with the suspect her personality, from a sexual point of view, was much more developed than what one might normally expect from a girl of her age.'

The suspect's lawyer, Andrea Biccheddu, defended the ruling, saying the episode between his client and the girl 'didn't provoke any trauma,' because the girl had had so many sexual partners.

He said his client deserved to have his sentence reduced by two thirds, the agency said.

Color Around The World

As far as black Americans have come regarding colorism within the community (sad remnants of colonialism and slavery that caused resentment and division), it seems that every place that imperialism has touched has been just as impacted. This is from a travel blog I've been reading lately. Living in Silicon Valley, I'm around a lot of East Indians and noticed, early on, that colorism is just as big of a festering sore on their community as it had been much earlier in black American history (we still have it but it isn't as brazen). I often laugh that while I may be the only black person on my job, I'm not the brownest one and that some Indians are darker than most of the black people I know (yet another remnant of rape and degradation). After hearing some of the things that have come out of the mouths of some of my equally as hued co-workers, sadly, I am not surprised by this woman's Indian travel diary.

I want to point out that I have travelled to 25 countries as of Feb. 1, 2006 (at various times in my life). I've only felt that skin color was a serious issue in 1 (India) out of the 25 countries I've visited. The fact that I felt comfortable in my Black skin in the other 24 countries says a lot.

I've also learned that a traveler's nationality usually trumps the color of their skin. Some people abroad like or respect Americans and some people hate us. However, I'm usually treated very well based on the passport I carry. Please note that this has a nasty side because I've seen people who hold non-Western nations passports being treated very shabbily.

I have no intention of allowing how other people may perceive the color of my skin as factoring into how I live my life or where I go. I was saddened by some of my treatment in India. (Please note that I also meet some wonderful Indians too.) However, my biggest sadness came when I realized that some Indians regarded Europeans as being better than themselves. However, I see India's self-esteem issues as being their problem and not mine.

How pathetic, I often think, that a people who basically have little natural guard against God's first creation (light/the sun), have managed to wreak havoc in almost every corner of the world and convinced the majority of the globe's population that their god given characteristics are inferior. Colored people of the world, we've got a long way to go.

Let Hamas Sink Or Swim

The frenzied and vile US response to the democratically elected Hamas party in the occupied territory, in my view, is really counterproductive. I agree with Thomas Friedman on this one. It is up to them to pull this off - provided the US and Israel rethink their hostile response to the party's win. They need to back off, control the urge to undermine, and let them sink or swim on their own.

But would that be smart right now? If Israel truly wants to get rid of Hamas, or at least see it disarmed, the only people who can do that effectively are the Palestinians. They have voted Hamas in - in a fair election that President George W. Bush insisted should take place.

If Hamas is going to fail now in leading the Palestinian Authority, it is crucial that it be seen to fail on its own - because it can't transform itself from a terror group into a ruling body delivering peace, security and good government for Palestinians - not because Israel and the U.S. never gave it a chance.

'Any minute that it is evident to the Palestinian public that Hamas is being forced to fail will guarantee that any future elections will only produce another Hamas victory,' said the Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki.

And by the way, if Hamas is forced to fail, who is to say that the Palestinians will ever be able to hold another election? You could have prolonged turmoil.

For that reason, Shikaki argued, both Israel and the U.S. should remain open to the idea of Hamas's becoming part of a Palestinian national unity government under the current president, Mahmoud Abbas - a Fatah moderate who embraces peace with Israel.

'We want to provide Hamas a [Palestinian] context within which to begin to moderate its views - without being forced to do so by the West and Israel,' Shikaki said.

Did Judas Get A Bum Rap?

This is really bizarre. I saw a small portion of Larry King this evening with guest George Clooney. He was saying that he grew up Catholic but got into a little trouble sometimes by asking/suggesting things like "without Judas this whole thing wouldn't have worked ..." Now, I run across this artice on beliefnet about the ancient 'Gospel of Judas:'

The first translation of an ancient, self-proclaimed 'Gospel of Judas' will be published in late April, bringing to light what some scholars believe are the writings of an early Christian sect suppressed for supporting Jesus Christ's infamous betrayer.

If authentic, the manuscript could add to the understanding of Gnosticism, an unorthodox Christian theology denounced by the early church. The Roman Catholic Church is aware of the manuscript, which a Vatican historian calls 'religious fantasy.'

According to scholars who have seen photographs of the brittle manuscript, it argues that Judas Iscariot was carrying out God's will when he handed Christ over to his executioners. The manuscript could bring momentum to a broader academic movement that argues Judas has gotten a bum rap among both historians and theologians, as well as in popular culture ...

I know I'm starting trouble because I've already forwarded this to a couple of lists that I am on. I always get the thumpers going! But now that I think about it, perhaps the youthful George Clooney had a point. Had Judas not sold Jesus out, there would have been no crucifixion, death, burial or ressurection. The cornerstone of Christianity is that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for our sins. So was Judas a "Judas" or was he actually a pre-ordained catalyst for our salvation?

Smoke and Mirrors, Mirrors and Smoke

I have a flexible spending health account in addition to the insurance from my employer. My insurance premium goes up every year and co-pays and uncovered expenses go up as well. I have a flexible spending account because the amount of money I spend out of pocket for things my insurance doesn't cover keeps increasing. It is not a substitute for health insurance. It is not making my insurance cheaper. It is not helping my take home bottom line.

What the heck is the President trying to pull with this HSA plan? How will that help people who don't have insurance? I am pretty darned blessed a) to work at a company that allows me to save a few tax dollars with my FSA b) that I can afford to set aside a grand or two or three per year (though I'd rather that money go to my 401K). People who don't have an adequate salary or have a family may not be able to utilize this because, as I said, it affects your take home bottom line. These studies show that this is yet another ruse by this administration which will, ultimately, end up lining the pocket of some big corporation. After all, who gets to hold all of the money that you sock away in these HSAs?

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released a new study by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber showing that President Bush's proposal to expand Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) would actually increase the total number of uninsured people in the United States. While 3.8 million people would gain coverage, another 4.4 million would actually lose coverage as a number of employers responded to the new tax breaks by dropping their insurance plans. So on net, more people are uninsured. And this all comes at a cost of $156 billion over ten years. Absolutely brilliant.

Now from what I understand, it seems like Gruber's arguing that those 4.4 million would actually see little or no change in real compensation—what will happen is that many small businesses will just prefer to pay their workers in wages rather than health insurance once the tax advantages towards doing the latter disappear—and those 4.4 million would simply choose not to buy insurance. So it's not clear that the situation is entirely catastrophic. (Although those 4.4 million would all likely be relatively healthy people, and their exit from the insurance pool would raise premiums for everyone else.)

Still, we know that HSAs won't reduce total health care costs (how could they, when 80 percent of costs in this country are due to 20 percent of all patients, and that small minority simply can't and won't control their costs by taking out a high deductible?). They do virtually nothing to address the main health care problem in this country: that 60 million people go uninsured in any given year. Besides which, they transfer the costs of health care from the healthy and wealthy to the sick and the poor. In what universe is this a good use of money? We already have a perfectly good single-payer system in this country—Medicare—that, despite Republican efforts to screw it up, does a wonderful job of controlling costs and achieving universal among a vulnerable and expensive population group. A serious health care proposal might look at expanding that rather than tinkering around with frivolous tax breaks at the margins.

This is really disheartening. I am so sick of hearing the talking points from Bush's deceptive road shows. His plan will not help people who don't have insurance and will end up ensuring that more people aren't insured. He's trying to destroy America!

A Pastry By Any Other Name

This is just as backwards as the renaming of French Fries.

Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for 'Roses of the Prophet Muhammad.'

Bakeries across the capital were covering up their ads for Danish pastries Thursday after the confectioners' union ordered the name change in retaliation for caricatures of the Muslim prophet published in a Danish newspaper.

'Given the insults by Danish newspapers against the prophet, as of now the name of Danish pastries will give way to 'Rose of Muhammad' pastries,' the union said in its order.

Why can't all of the nut jobs of the world just unite, congregate only amongst themselves and leave the rest of us the hell out of their madness?

The Root Of All Evil

I see the press finally caught on to the absurdity of something I blogged about a few weeks ago. This is about the big, expensive shin dig that church members are throwing for their pastor's wife.

Mrs. Hilliard's gift list is well within the theology of the church, a segment of American protestantism known as 'health and wealth' churches. It is expressed concisely by Ian Hilliard in an appeal to his flock for donations to a program called Vision Builders Campaign.

'Before making your pledge consider the spiritual law of sowing and reaping,' Hilliard writes in the church newsletter. 'Jesus taught that 'he who sows sparingly will only reap sparingly, but he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.'

'What kind of harvest do you really want to experience? Dr. Bridget and I have always purposed in our hearts and stretched our faith when it comes to kingdom giving, knowing that our return will be far greater.'

It's a powerful message, and one that moves congregations to expect their pastors to display the material symbols of God's favor, the Louis Vuitton handbags and the Saks Fifth Avenue wardrobes.

For some reason, I really don't think that Jesus was talking about sowing fancy clothes and purses. I mean, that's just a humble guess on my behalf but I am sure I can get a witness from somebody out there.

Pass Me A Cold One

You know somebody in hell is passing out big, tall glasses of crunchy ice water because, as I've been doing lately with Pat Buchanan, I am agreeing with George Will.

The administration's argument about the legality of the NSA program also has been discordant with its argument about the urgency of extending the USA Patriot Act. Many provisions of that act are superfluous if a president's wartime powers are as far-reaching as today's president says they are.

And if, as some administration supporters say, amending the 1978 act to meet today's exigencies would have given America's enemies dangerous information about our capabilities and intentions, surely FISA and the Patriot Act were both informative. Intelligence professionals reportedly say that the behavior of suspected terrorists has changed since Dec. 15, when the New York Times revealed the NSA surveillance. But surely America's enemies have assumed that our technologically sophisticated nation has been trying, in ways known and unknown, to eavesdrop on them.

Besides, terrorism is not the only new danger of this era. Another is the administration's argument that because the president is commander in chief, he is the "sole organ for the nation in foreign affairs." That non sequitur is refuted by the Constitution's plain language, which empowers Congress to ratify treaties, declare war, fund and regulate military forces, and make laws "necessary and proper" for the execution of all presidential powers . Those powers do not include deciding that a law -- FISA, for example -- is somehow exempted from the presidential duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

The administration, in which mere obduracy^* sometimes serves as political philosophy, pushes the limits of assertion while disdaining collaboration. This faux toughness is folly, given that the Supreme Court, when rejecting President Harry S Truman's claim that his inherent powers as commander in chief allowed him to seize steel mills during the Korean War, held that presidential authority is weakest when it clashes with Congress.

I have many issues with the core ideology of classic conservativism, but in a battle of minds, I can almost respect their flawed opinions. You can see some semblance of intelligent reasoning (even though I think it is out of touch, ivory tower reasoning). The reason, however, that most Americans aren't in total outrage over Bush riding roughshod over the law and our civil liberties is because, sadly, most Americans haven't bothered to develop that ability. As Bill Maher once said, they are counting on the "intellectual sluggishness" of the average American. Sadly, the real conservatives of the GOP played along with Bush for much too long in a display of unity against the Democrats. Now it seems as though it is far too late to stop this train wreck and emerging dictator of a President - no matter what these guys say - or salvage the Goldwater/Reagan party they once knew.

^*Yes, I had to look that one up. LOL!

Hard Out Here For A Pimp

I still haven't watched my Netflix copy of Hustle and Flow, but ever since Terrence Howard got the nomination for Best Actor for his role in that movie, folks have been joking about who is going to sing the critical song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp."

Black folks will be spared the Oscar night discomfort of having to watch the lone African American best actor nominee sing about the challenges of being a pimp.

Speaking to reporters at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon in Beverly Hills Monday (Feb. 13), Howard said he will not perform best song nominee “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” which he sings in the film “Hustle & Flow.”

'We don't have time in the schedule to work all that stuff out,' says Howard, who received a nomination for his role as a pimp yearning for a rap career. 'It took me seven months to find DJay and find that voice. I don't think I could give it the full service that I gave it in the film.'

Instead, Howard believes the writers of the ditty – Three 6 Mafia’s Jordan 'Juicy J' Houston, Cedric 'Crunchy Black' Coleman and Paul 'DJ Paul' Beauregard – will perform the song at the March 5th event.

'They're the ones that wrote it and they're the ones that are nominated for that song,' says Howard. 'It would be different if it were just plain old me.'

Howard, 36, says he’s looking forward to seeing how the expletive-filled song is received in LA’s Kodak Theater.

'I'm ready to see the entire roomful of people in there singing 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,'' Howard says, adding, 'If they know the words, then we really got a problem.'

I like Terrence but here's to hoping he doesn't win that Oscar. I don't think I could take it.

Your Story Is Touching But It Sounds Like A Lie

If he says so ...

So, Dick Cheney has admitted to drinking one solitary beer with lunch, apparently hours before he went hunting. I'm inclined to believe him. (Being a heartbeat from the presidency is probably a strong incentive to stay fairly sober.) Still, this line reminds me of one of the oldest drunk-driver clichés in the book: "Just one glass of wine with dinner, officer!" The natural, instinctive reaction is to assume it means just the opposite....

They've Got Some Nerve!

They want $85 million to undermine the current Iranian government? Heck, they spent $1.6 BILLION on propaganda here and Bush's approval ratings are in the toilet. The sheer gall of these people slays me.

The Bush administration, frustrated by Iranian defiance over its nuclear program, proposed Wednesday to spend $85 million to promote political change inside Iran by subsidizing dissident groups, unions, student fellowships and television and radio broadcasts.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, announcing a request for the money at a Senate hearing, said the administration had worked out a way to circumvent American laws barring financial relations with Iran to allow some money to go directly to groups promoting change inside the country.

'We are going to begin a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people,' Ms. Rice said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 'We will use this money to develop support networks for Iranian reformers, political dissidents and human rights activists.'

Senior State Department officials said they did not intend to publicize recipients of the money in the future, for fear that they could be jailed or even killed.

'This is a very good idea, but all these efforts face the same problem,' said Michael McFaul, a political science professor at Stanford University. 'In working with their potential colleagues in Iran, will they get them into trouble? Once they participate in a training program, what happens to them back in their country?'

The scope of the administration's effort goes well beyond the numbers. Until now, the United States has been cautious about supporting dissident groups, fearful that Iranians, even those sympathetic to the West, may view these efforts as an echo of past American meddling in Iran's internal affairs. Though no one uses the words 'regime change' to describe the ultimate American goal, that term has been used by conservatives in Congress who have in the last few years pressed for aid to Iranian dissidents, in much the same way that Congress appropriated funds to Iraqi dissidents in the 1990's.

Ms. Rice said the State Department was requesting $75 million to promote democracy in Iran, which she said would be added to $10 million already appropriated for that purpose. The total is an increase from only $3.5 million the previous year. Until recently, the administration has been cautious about embracing the 'regime change' approach, but some conservatives at the Defense Department and Vice President Dick Cheney's office are known to be resigned to a nuclear-armed Iran and to argue that the best way to address that problem is by opening Iran to democracy and reform.

I think we have more than enough oars in the water in the Middle East and we've started more than enough strife, violence and turmoil. Do we really need to push the envelope by meddling in Iran?

With Friends Like This

So dude is going to live out the rest of his days with his face marred by pellets that cannot be removed

Blanchard said that in cases like Whittington's, where the number of pellets lodged in the skin were 'more than I can count on the fingers of my hand, but less than 100,' it was better to leave them there than to try to extract them.

'In all likelihood, he will continue the rest of his long life and his longevity with those pellets remaining in place,' Blanchard said.

He might be in "good spirits" now. Let him start looking in the mirror everday with all of those buckshots in his face! Yuck!

Bonnie Interviewing Clyde

Crooks and Liars has the video of this blurb. Hysterical!

BLITZER: First of all, Jack, what did you make of Dick Cheney's interview today?

CAFFERTY: Well, I obviously didn't see it 'cause it hasn't been released in its entirety yet, but I -- I would guess it didn't exactly represent a profile in courage for the vice president to wander over there to the F-word network for a sit down with Brit Hume. I mean, that's a little like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, ain't it? I mean, where was the news conference? Where was the -- where was the access to all of the members of the media? I don't know. You know? Whatever.

BLITZER: You still think he needs to do a full-scale news conference in front of all of the cameras, all of the reporters, and ask whatever they want?

CAFFERTY: That's never going to happen. But, I mean, running over there to the Fox network to -- I mean that's -- talk about seeking a safe haven. He's not going to get any high, hard ones from anybody at the F-word network. I think we know that.

Being Wrong and Staying Wrong

So he goes on state-run TV to admit that he pulled the trigger, even that he had a beer at lunch (chuckle). But, true to form, he didn't address the delay in reporting the incident or the total lack of response until today.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News' Brit Hume this afternoon, Vice President Dick Cheney took full responsibility for shooting his hunting companion, who has until now been pictured as the guilty party. The interview will not air in full until 6 p.m., but according to Hume, in summarizing the contents, the vice president remained 'totally unapologetic' about the long lag in reporting the shooting to the public -- and also said that he had consumed one beer at lunch that day.

Speaking on camera and disclosing some of the unaired footage, Hume said Cheney was 'utterly unapologetic' about the reporting lag but 'a shaken man' in his interview. In comments on the cable channel just minutes after ending a 25-minute interview with Cheney, Hume described the encounter as revealing, but with little contrition on Cheney's part.

'He didn’t blame anyone else, he blamed himself [for the shooting],' Hume told Fox's Shepard Smith during a brief conversation. 'But he didn't take blame for the way it was handled…the White House press corps be damned.'

Hume indicated that Cheney called last Saturday's accidental shooting 'one of the worst days of my life,' but that the vice president was certain that he handled it correctly by waiting nearly a day to make it public. He also revealed that Cheney disclosed having a beer with lunch that day, but stressed that it was several hours before the shooting occurred.

While I can fully appreciate taking a stand and being steadfast in that stand, it isn't always the exercise in strong character that this administration seems to think that it is. Saying "that's my story and I'm sticking to it," while comedic, isn't necessarily honorable. Most certainly, the "If I'm wrong, I'll stay wrong" posture that Cheney is taking, isn't a mark of virtue.

Tell Us Something We Don't Know

We kinda gathered that he shot his friend. Why are people so comforted by people who come out, days after the fact, and tell us what we already know

Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday accepted full responsibility for shooting a fellow hunter, speaking publicly for the first time since the accident Saturday.

'I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry,' Cheney told Fox News Channel in an interview.

'You can talk about all of the other conditions that exist at the time but that's the bottom line and — it was not Harry's fault,' he said. You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.'

And what are all the other conditions? Was he drunk? Was it too dark? Were they too old to be out there with guns? Yeah, I complained about Cheney not speaking out before. But now he is a day late and a dollar short.

They Get Hard For The Money

I don't know how much cops make in Spotsylvania County but I'd bet it isn't as much as I make to diagnose software problems ... and there ain't no way I'm screwing anybody for any parts of my job. This is some nasty isht!

Undercover sex is getting the OK from a Virginia sheriff.

Spotsylvania County Sheriff Howard Smith said he stands by the practice of allowing detectives to receive sexual services in the course of their investigations so they can catch suspects in the act.

Court documents show that four times last month, county detectives allowed women at a massage parlor to perform sex acts on them. In one case, a lawman left a $350 tip. Smith acknowledged the practice is not new.

Smith told The Washington Post that only unmarried detectives are allowed to do the under-the-covers work.

He said actual sex acts are needed to help win prostitution convictions.

'If I thought we could get the conviction without that, we wouldn't allow it,' Smith told the newspaper. 'If you want to make them, this has to be done.'

He said most prostitutes are careful not to say anything incriminating, which makes sexual contact necessary

Several police officials and legal observers say the practice has been tried by other agencies across the country, but they knew of none that still permit sexual contact with suspects as part of prostitution investigations. But many police agencies across the country have banned sexual contact between investigators and suspects.

When police used similar tactics in the past in Montgomery County, Md., the charges ended up being dropped.

Oh, and don't tell me that the single officers aren't hooking their married peers up on the side. These are just some nasty mofos!

What's Her Point?

We were in arrogant and open defiance of the world when we invaded Iraq. Our Iraqi policy is part of the reason why we have a nut job in Iran now. She's missing what clue?

By resuming uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel, Iran is in 'open defiance' of the international community, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.

Rice told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Bush administration has been examining the 'full range of sanctions on Iran' and is also considering additional sanctions the United States could impose on its own, although international action would be more effective.

'They have now crossed a point where they are in open defiance' of the international community, she said.

Appearing before lawmakers, Rice gave no details. The United States has had broad sanctions on Iran since that country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

U.N. inspectors saw Iranian scientists feeding uranium gas into a few centrifuge machines in a test run Tuesday, officials associated with the International Atomic Energy Agency said. The action defied Western efforts to have Iran give up enrichment work in exchange for trade and other incentives.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, recently voted to report Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.

This Was Not A Tea Party

I've been discussing this drama with friends and family since Sunday night. Let's get real here. You've got a bunch of hunting buddies shooting the shit (among other things). There is no way on earth those dudes weren't throwing back some shots of Jack Daniels, Old Fitz or Wild Turkey. There are some reports that MSNBC scrubbed an article that originally had a quote from the ranch owner where she acknowledged that there may have been a beer or two in with the lunches. But come on! Hunting just isn't a sport that goes along with tea toddling! You can't pay me Halliburton's money to believe that most of these guys weren't sucking up some serious whiskey. Somebody needs to be bold enough, like Lawrence O'Donnell is here, to call that spade a spade.

The L.A. Times is edging closer to the most likely reason for the 18 hour delay in reporting that the Vice President of the United States shot someone:

'This was a hunting accident,' said Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office. 'There was no alcohol or misconduct.'

How do we know there was no alcohol? Cheney refused to talk to local authorities until the next day. No point in giving him a breathalyzer then. Every lawyer I've talked to assumes Cheney was too drunk to talk to the cops after the shooting. The next question for the White House should be: Was Cheney drunk?

I have never gone hunting with ultra-rich Republicans on a Saturday afternoon, but I have seen them tailgating at Ivy League football games, so it's hard for me to believe that any of their Saturday lunches are alcohol free.

I believe that Cheney was HUI, stumbled around in the high grass like a fool and shot his friend.

I Just Lost My Voice!

(via ISOU)

I feel like a cat with a fur ball stuck in my throat. This absolutely cannot be true!

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, and other senior Democrats released a new Government Accountability Office report finding that the Bush Administration spent more than $1.6 billion in public relations and media contracts in a two and a half year span.

"The extent of the Bush Administration's propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing," said Rep. Miller. "The fact is that after all the spin, the American people are stuck with high prescription drug prices, high gas prices, and high college costs. This report raises serious questions about this Administration's priorities for the country and I would hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that changes need to be made to reign in the President's propaganda machine."

Maybe I'll say more later when I can figure out how anybody, anywhere could spend this much money to BS the American public. I'm out!

Update: $1.4 Billion of this money went to advertising agencies. Unbelieveable!

Rove's Buddy

Well, you know it was Bush's brain who had strategic ties to Abramhoff and not Bush himself. Bush isn't really in charge of anything. The American people have let so much of this administration's criminal activity slide that I am not going to hold my breath about this becoming a big scandal. But, this dung is getting deep!

Three former associates of Jack Abramoff say the now-convicted lobbyist frequently told them he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove.

The White House said Monday night that Rove remembers meeting Abramoff at a 1990s political meeting and considered the lobbyist a 'casual acquaintance' since President Bush took office in 2001.

New questions have arisen about Abramoff's ties to the White House since a photo emerged over the weekend showing Abramoff with Bush. The White House would not release the photo or any others that Bush had taken with Abramoff. Also surfacing were the contents of an e-mail from Abramoff to Washingtonian magazine claiming he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times and that Bush knew him well enough to make joking references to Abramoff's family.

Three former business associates of Abramoff, who worked with the lobbyist in various roles between 2001 and 2004, told The Associated Press that Abramoff routinely mentioned Rove when talking about his influence inside the White House.

One said he was present when Abramoff took a call from Rove's office to confirm a White House meeting had been approved between Malaysia's prime minister and Bush in May 2002. Abramoff was being paid by Malaysia for helping it in Washington, according to evidence the Senate has made public.

All three associates would describe the Abramoff comments only on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation of Abramoff's work and fears that speaking out could affect their current businesses. At least one said he had been interviewed by the FBI.

Abramoff was a $100,000 fundraiser for Bush and lobbying records obtained by the AP show his lobbying team logged nearly 200 meetings with the administration during its first 10 months in office on behalf of one of his clients, the Northern Mariana Islands.

Ari Fleischer Joins In

See! Everybody knows this isn't right!

Ari Fleischer, who served as President George W. Bush's first press secretary, added to the growing criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney's handling of the weekend shooting incident in Texas, telling E&P this afternoon that it 'crosses the threshold of news worthiness that ought to be announced and explained.'

Fleischer, who was Bush's first press secretary - from 2001 to 2003 - told E&P that Cheney's accidental shooting of Texas attorney Harry Whittington on Saturday during a hunting trip should not have taken nearly a day to be reported. 'It would have been better if the vice president and/or his staff had come out last Saturday night or first thing Sunday morning and announced it,' he said during a phone interview Tuesday. 'It could have and should have been handled differently.'

Experts Agree!

The way this is being handled makes no sense!

... Fitzwater, who also served as deputy presidential press secretary from 1982 to 1985 -- and press secretary to Vice President Bush from 1985 to 1986 -- stressed that the biggest error involved was not getting the information out right away.

'If [Cheney's] press secretary had any sense about it at all, she would have gotten the story together and put it out. Calling AP, UPI, and all of the press services. That would have gotten the story out and it would have been the right thing to do, recognizing his responsibility to the people as a nationally elected official, to tell the country what happened,' Fitzwater added.

'Secondly, it would have been confined to the vice president. By not telling anyone for 24 hours, it made it a White House story. Now it has become 'when was the president notified?', 'why didn't he put it out?' It becomes a story about the White House handling of it.'

Calls to the vice president's press secretary, Lea Anne McBride, were not immediately returned.

When asked about Press Secretary Scott McClellan's response to the story, which has included heated exchanges with reporters and limited information, Fitzwater offered some sympathy for the man in his old job, declaring he should not be put in that position. 'He is in a terrible spot,' Fitzwater said. 'He can't be critical of his vice president, but he doesn't have much of an option.'

Joe Lockhart, who was President Bill Clinton's press secretary, told the Los Angeles Times Monday, 'On the face of it, this looks like something the administration felt the public had no right to know. I don't think there's going to be a bunch of people sitting around saying: 'I wonder why they waited to tell us.' But what they will be saying is: 'I wonder what else they're not telling us.' '

Discussing the plans in place when he was in McClellan's job, Fitzwater cited an incident in the early 1990s when George H.W. Bush was at Camp David for the weekend and collapsed, sparking a need to transport him to the hospital. 'The statement was on the wires going out to the country before the helicopter had left to take him to the hospital,' Fitzwater recalled. 'I can't believe they didn't have a similar plan here. It is all Cheney, he is the key that has to start all this. I am appalled by the whole handling of this.'

Well, I am more than appalled. The only excuse for being so secretive about this is if there is something to hide. WHAT IS IT?

Sit Your Black Ass Down

Okay, white ass. But I am sick of all of these sound bytes from the Polly Purebred of all First Ladies, Laura Bush. She didn't have an opinion for four years and now that her husband's poll numbers are in the toilet, they want to bring her out on his behalf. I also find it semi-sexist that they keep asking her about Hillary - as though to inspire some kind of "cat fight." Hillary, in addition to being a former first lady and brilliant attorney, is a United States Senator. Laura made the choice to leave the library to raise two hellion daughters. Hillary was a working mother who raised a mature, independent daughter like herself. Plainly put, I don't give a crap what Miss Laura has to say ... about anything! She silenced herself when she married a fool!

Laura Bush said Saturday that Hillary Rodham Clinton's criticism of her husband's administration was 'out of bounds,' arguing that the former first lady should show some empathy for the current White House occupants.
...
Clinton, the New York senator and a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, has called the Bush administration 'one of the worst' in history. In the interview with ABC News, Mrs. Bush was asked if Clinton's comments were 'just politics, fair game or out of bounds.'

'Of course I think it's out of bounds,' the first lady said. 'But I think it's politics, it's certainly politics.'

Bush pointed out that former Presidents Bush and Clinton and her husband are part of a unique club that also includes the wives.

'We know what it's like to live in that house. We certainly know what it's like to have your husband criticized,' she said. 'So I think there's a certain empathy that we might have for each other that we wouldn't have maybe for somebody else who said something like that.'

Sane Chick Banging Her Head Against The Wall

I really don't get it! Honestly, I don't! I cannot fathom why the Vice President is handling this accident in this manner. First, there is nearly a 24 hour delay in reporting this story. Then he has his ranch owner friend call some obscure paper in Corpus Christie to leak the story. They claim the man was sprayed in the face with pellets. Now, it appears that his heart also took a few hits!

The 78-year-old lawyer wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident suffered a mild heart attack Tuesday after a shotgun pellet in his chest traveled to his heart, hospital officials said.

Harry Whittington was immediately moved back to an intensive care unit and will be watched for a week to make sure more pellets do not move to other vital organs. He was reported in stable condition.

Whittington suffered a 'silent heart attack' - an irregular heartbeat, but without the classic heart-attack symptoms of pain and pressure, according to doctors at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial.

The doctors said they decided to treat the situation conservatively and leave the pellet alone rather than operate to remove it. They said they are extremely optimistic Whittington will recover and live a healthy life with the pellet left in place.

Asked whether the pellet could move farther into his heart and become fatal, hospital officials said that was a hypothetical question they could not answer.

Hospital officials said they were not concerned about the six to 200 other pieces of birdshot that might still be lodged in Whittington's body. Cheney was using 7 1/2 shot from a 28-gauge shotgun. Shotgun pellets are typically made of steel or lead; the pellets in 7 1/2 shot are just under a tenth of an inch in diameter.

Still, the Vice President of the free world has not made a statement or uttered a single word to the public. I find that unconscionable! This entire drama has turned into something it never had to be. The press is now out for blood when one simple statement, in a timely fashion, could have made all the difference in the world. I don't understand the problem. Why can't Cheney just get off of his fat behind and man the hell up before the American people?

Are Syria and Iran To Blame For This Too?

Condi is blaming the stoking of violence in parts of the Middle East on Syria and Iran. Pakistan, or at least their dictator of a leader, is supposed to be one of our allies, yet they are burning down everything American in protest of those Dutch cartoons.

Thousands rampaged through two cities Tuesday in Pakistan's worst violence against Prophet Muhammad caricatures, burning buildings housing a hotel, banks and a KFC, vandalizing a Citibank and breaking windows at a Holiday Inn and a Pizza Hut.

At least two people were killed in Lahore, where intelligence officials suspected outlawed Islamic militant groups incited the violence to undermine President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's U.S.-allied government.

An Associated Press reporter in Lahore saw crowd members who appeared to be orchestrating the attacks, directing protesters -- some of whom were carrying containers of kerosene -- toward particular targets. The demonstrators also set the provincial government assembly building on fire.

In the capital, Islamabad, hundreds of students stormed through the main entrance of the tightly guarded enclave that houses most foreign embassies, brandishing sticks and throwing stones. They were dispersed with tear gas, and no foreigners were hurt.

The unruly protests and deaths marked an alarming spike in the unrest in Pakistan over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been reprinted by other Western newspapers. One cartoon depicts Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with an ignited detonator string.

Many in this conservative Islamic country, as across the Muslim world, regard any depiction of the prophet as blasphemous. They reject the newspapers' explanations that the cartoons have news value and represent free speech.

Now, I don't believe for a minute that all of these protests are about the cartoons. Like the drip, drip, dripping of Chinese water torture, this has been brewing and stewing for decades. This is a serious case of "give me the reason" to riot or to protest the West. Why the Dutch felt the need to throw gasoline on some freshly lit kindling is beyond me. It isn't about free speech. It is about global responsibility. Some of the cartoons were downright insulting - not just to the extremists, but the the vast majority of God fearing, law abiding people of the Muslim faith (and that is my real issue with the cartoons ... millions of innocent Muslims are having their prophet disparaged and they don't deserve it).

VP Cheney Running With Scissors

Well actually, he was running with a GUN and SHOT his hunting buddy!

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday.

'He is stable and doing well. It was almost like he was spending time with me in my living room,' said hospital administrator Peter Banko, who visited Whittington.

Banko said Whittington was in the intensive care unit because his condition warranted it, but he didn't elaborate.

The accident occurred Saturday at a ranch in south Texas where the vice president and several companions were hunting quail. It was not reported publicly by the vice president's office for nearly 24 hours, and then only after it was reported locally by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times on its Web site Sunday.

Can anybody tell me what sane people did to deserve this administration? There simply aren't enough hours in any day for me to filter through the endless stream of lies, excuses and accidents.

There's No Denying ...

... the big profits!!!!

In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush called for the nation to back the war in Iraq and to 'stand behind the American military in this vital mission.'

No matter how one feels about this particular conflict, war always has winners and losers — on both sides. There's the human toll, of course, which Mr. Bush acknowledged. Whether democracy and freedom will, over all, be winners, only history will divulge.

But some indisputable winners are clear now: military contractors. Suppose an investor were endowed with that golden instinct for spotting bargains and bought 100 shares of each of the top six military contractors at their lows of the last six years — lows reached by four of them in March 2000, before the election, before Sept. 11 and before any hint of war. That basket of shares would have cost $12,731.50. On Friday, it would have been worth three and a half times that: $44,417.

Little wonder. Just look at the money machines these contractors have become as the war drags on.

Beaters All Over The World

Via Feministe, this is just ridiculous! The entire globe needs a paradigm shift regarding how men are supposed to treat women. Wife beating is unacceptable no matter where it occurs.

In Europe right now the statistics of male violence against female partners are terrible. For European women aged 16-44 violence in the home is the primary cause of injury and death, more lethal than road accidents and cancer. Between 25% and 50% of women are victims of this violence. In Portugal 52.8% of women say that they have been violently treated by their husbands or partners. In Germany almost 300 women a year - or three women every four days - are killed by men with whom they used to live. In Britain one woman dies in similar circumstances every three days.

In Spain it is one every four days. In France six women die this way every month: 33% of them are knifed, 33% shot, 20% strangled and 10% beaten (1). In the 15 member states of the European Union (before enlargement to 25), more than 600 women die every year because of sexist brutality in the family (2).

The profile of the aggressor is not what you might imagine. There is a public perception that these types of killers tend to be from poor backgrounds and with little education. That is not the case. The death of the actress Marie Trintignant, who was killed on 6 August 2003 by her partner, a famous artist, is an example.

A report from the Council of Europe (3) says that 'it is even proved that the incidence of domestic violence seems to increase with income and level of education'. It stresses that in the Netherlands 'almost half of all those who commit violence against women hold university degrees'. In France attackers are usually men whose professional status gives them a degree of power. A sizeable percentage of the attackers are management personnel (67%), health professionals (25%) and officers in the police or army (4).

Another misconception is that violence of this kind is more common in the macho cultures of southern Europe than in northern countries. Here too the image needs adjustment. Romania is the European country with the worst record: every year almost 13 in every million women there are killed by their male partners.

However, next on the dismal honours list come countries where women’s rights are highly respected. In Finland more than eight in every million women are killed in the home every year: the list runs on down through Norway (6.58), Luxembourg (5.56), Denmark (5.42) and Sweden (4.59). Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland in fact come at the bottom of the list.

Baby Chow

I won't even try to go there!

A New Zealand dog food manufacturer, Christine Drummond, has offered to send dog food to help starving Kenyans. She apparently can’t distinguish the difference between an African child and a puppy—she offered 42 tons of the dog food. Drummond is still locked in the colonial-era arrogance that sees Africans as animals and can be treated in any way the "big bwana" sees fit.

Drummond, founder of Mighty Mix dog food, said she wanted to send the first shipment to Kenya in March. She said the relief food she intended to send, NZ's Raw Dry Nourish, used the same ingredients as Mighty Mix dog food biscuits. "The first plan was to send dog biscuits and change the vitamins," Drummond said, but she changed plans when she realized there were too many starving children in Kenya. Instead, she added, she produced a powder that she says just needs water added to form a sustainable meal.

Drummond said she came up with the aid idea to send dog food for hungry Kenyan children after she spoke with a New Zealand woman whose daughter had just returned from a village in Kenya. Her plan was to distribute the food through the Mercy Mission charity, based in Kenya, and promote it as a 'nutritional supplement' rather than dog food. New Zealand doctors supposedly said it was okay, accordingly to a published account.

Mighty Mix dog food agent Gaynor Siviter, told a New Zealand reporter: "The dogs thrive on it. They have energy, put on weight. It's bizarre but if it's edible and it works for these people then it's a brilliant idea. It beats eating rice."

Then Why Didn't He Just Kill Himself?

I am so sick of this patriarchal BS where stupid men justify murdering their families because they feel incapable of being sole provider and head of household. The woman had a college education and had been a teacher. She'd rather be dead along with her baby than go back to work? That makes no sense! I know he is innocent until proven guilty but if he didn't do it, he knows darn well who did!

Neil Entwistle, whose wife and daughter were found shot to death in their Hopkinton, Mass., home last month, has been arrested in England and charged with murder, officials said.

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said the slayings of Rachel Entwistle, 27, and her 9-month-old daughter, Lillian, might have originally been planned as a murder-suicide, perhaps motivated by Neil Entwistle's financial difficulties. He had run up a large amount of debt during a move from the United Kingdom to the United States and as a result of several failed Internet ventures, Coakley said at a news conference to announce the arrest.

'He owed money in London. He did not have a job. He did not have a visible means of support,' Coakley said. 'He was unable to provide income for himself or his family.'

Investigators in Middlesex, Mass., believe that at some time on the morning of Friday, Jan. 20, Neil Entwistle shot Rachel in the head with a .22 caliber gun he had previously obtained from his father-in-law, Coakley said. Neil Entwistle then allegedly turned the gun on Lillian, who was lying beside her mother. Entwistle returned the gun to his father-in-law's home and flew to England on a one-way ticket on Jan. 21, authorities believe.

The bodies of Rachel and Lillian were discovered in the couple's bed on Jan. 22.

Neil Entwistle was arrested by British authorities at approximately 7 a.m. ET today after the investigation connected the gun to both Rachel and Neil. Neil Entwistle is charged with two counts of murder, one count of illegal possession of a firearm, and one count of illegal possession of ammunition.

Neil and Rachel met in 1999 while Rachel was studying abroad at York University in England. They had been married for three years, and lived in the United States for four months to five months. In the days before the murder, eBay shut down Neil Entwistle's eBay business, in which he sold get-rich-quick schemes and how-to manuals for pornography, investigators have said.

As of Jan. 12, the couple had been renting the home where Rachel and Lillian were killed.

Coakley said she did not know when Entwistle would be returned to the United States and emphasized that he was innocent until proven guilty.

He is scheduled to appear for an extradition hearing in a London court on Friday.

The Good Ole GOP Base Again

I remember when Oprah first came to Chicago to host AM Chicago. It was still a pretty racially polarized city and once she had some white guests on from neighborhoods where a brick might get thrown through your winshield if you had any kind of tan. But, of course, these same people (whose neighbors would come knock on your door if they saw a black person enter your house and tell you that you'd better make them leave), were thoroughly in love with Oprah and, were happy to tell her "but we'd love to have you over, Oprah." A smelly faced "no thank you" clearly came across her face before she even opened her mouth to respond.

Now, I'd venture to guess that the moron who wrote this nice little assessment of Coretta's funeral would love to have Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell over for coffee. And, I'd bet they'd have the same "not in this lifetime" expression that Oprah had.

I don't throw around the racist word very often, because to me it is a very very serious charge. But there's no other way to say it; this right-wing blogger 'Blanton' at Redstate is racist, and all the commenter freaks nodding in frothing agreement to his screed seem mighty close as well. I've deconstructed his post on King's funeral, but you really don't need much analysis to see what this guy's getting at. The title is as follows:

With Regard To Today's Funeral Political Rally

Why is it that we have to accept the Pantheon of the Left and see their funerals televised -- from Wellstone to Mrs. King?

Our funerals? I thought King was a national hero? I thought the civil rights struggle was a national struggle? Both Bush's showed up for this national hero.

Why is it that those who participate in these funerals feel compelled to turn a solemn, religious event into a Def Comedy Jam spectacle of anti-Republican, anti-conservative boilerplate "known facts" and demands for handouts?

Def Comedy Jam? Demands for handouts? Wow, that's some coded language.

To borrow another contributor's phrase -- the media and the left treat the Jesse Jacksons of this country and the Jesse Jacksons of the Middle East with respect, compassion, and understanding. Those of us who work hard for a living to provide for our families, humbly go to church, and try to do unto others as we would have them do unto us see our values, our lifestyles, our beliefs, and our Lord ridiculed and bashed on television, the cover of Rolling Stone, and in the mainstream media.

Note the seething resentment, the hatred of those at the funeral celebrating the life of one of this country's greatest heros.

I also think I have a clearer understanding of why the culture of so many black Americans in this country is below what it should be and is capable of being.

Oh do you? That's so nice.

The prominent black spiritual leaders, like Joseph Lowery, are more interested in subsidization from The Man than salvation from the Lord.

And people wonder why we connect the hatred of the civil rights movement and the legacy of segregation to Reagan's lies about 'welfare queens.'

I think the country has moved past this. The right-wing though is clearly a hotbed of racism and anger.

This kind of stuff grew stale for me long ago. I will repeat it again. There is no way on this earth that I will ever become a member of the Republican party as long as people who say and think things like that in the red text are a major force in the party. We will NEVER have common interests.

I'll Show You Bad Manners

The funeral service of Coretta Scott King was a long and moving experience. I still don't think I caught all of it but I did see the people who made the "controversial" statements that the right wing pundits are screaming like banshees about. However, I think it was the child-faced, bow-tie wearing Tucker Carlson of MSNBC who really made me want to shove a rod up his behind. Reverend Joseph Lowery and President Jimmy Carter are two old men. As far as I am concerned whatever they say, whenever they say it, where ever they say, it is a God given right that they've earned through service, wisdom and experience as they approach their twilight years. I saw Tucker try to take this elder to task and if he wants to talk about bad manners (and disrespect) he needs to look in the mirror then BOW DOWN to both Joseph Lowery and Jimmy Carter. He isn't fit to shine their shoes, let alone question their behavior at the funeral of someone who lived, as they have, for people and causes other than themselves.

LOWERY: Well, I don’t think so. I certainly didn’t intend for it to be bad manners. I did intend for it to — to call attention to the fact that Mrs. King spoke truth to power. And here was an opportunity to demonstrate how she spoke truth to power about this war and about all wars.

And I think that, in the context of the faith, out of which the movement grows, we have always opposed war. We’ve always fought poverty. And we base our — our argument on — on the faith, on the fact that Jesus taught us. He identified with the poor. “I was hungry; you didn’t feed me. I was naked; you didn’t clothe me. I was in prison; you didn’t see about me.” He talked about war. He talked about he who lives by the sword.

So I’m comfortable with the fact that I was reflecting on Mrs. King’s tenacity against war, her determination to witness against war and to speak truth to power.

[...]

CARLSON: Were you comfortable with President Jimmy Carter`s remarks, which also seemed openly partisan and political? His reference to the domestic spying controversy now surrounding the president and to the federal government`s response to Katrina? Was that an appropriate series of remarks to give at a funeral, do you think?

LOWERY: Well, Mr. Carter is very capable of defending himself.

CARLSON: But what did you think, I`m wondering?

LOWERY: Well, I think that I`m responsible for my remarks and not Mr. Carter`s. I just think that, in speaking truth to power, if there were no fabrications and there were no deceptions, there were no misstatements or errors in fact, then I think that Mr. Carter had a right to say what he feels.

This funeral was in a black church that was predominately filled with black people. George W. Bush doesn't give the black community (nor most of the leaders that were assembled yesterday) the time of day or an ounce of thought. The uproar over these two men telling the absolute truth, mind you, is positively insulting. Was it an appropriate venue? Why not? Did they say things that Coretta might have said herself? Probably! The President had to squirm a litttle because a couple of folks brought up the reality of what he and his administration are and have been doing. He was at a King funeral but, at least for that day, he was not the King he is trying to morph his Presidency into.

Again, it was a black church - which has often been the only place of refuge for black people since the first slave ship docked. How dare these Bush-licking pundits purport to tell black people what to say and how to say it in their own church home? How dare they judge how we celebrate someone's home going? How dare they fancy themselves worthy of scolding either of these two fine men? The church is supposed to be a place of truth. Jimmy Carter and Joseph Lowery were truth tellers! If Bush cannot handle the truth, he needs to make sure he doesn't show his face again in the presence of those who speak it.

Blame It On Jean-Paul Sartre

Pat Robertson is definitely going senile. The stuff that comes out of his mouth just gets wackier and wackier (or scarier and scarier). There is really not another way to interpret this except that he is awfully worried that white Europeans aren't breeding enough.
Robertson: Europe committing 'racial suicide'

Summary: Pat Robertson said, 'Europe is right now in the midst of racial suicide because of the declining birth rate.'

During the February 6 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN) The 700 Club, host Pat Robertson said that 'Europe is right now in the midst of racial suicide because of the declining birth rate.' Robertson blamed the declining birth rate on the existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, which, according to Robertson, 'has permeated the intellectual thinking of Europe' and has left Europeans without 'a faith in the future.'

From the February 6 edition of CBN's The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: Studies that I have read indicate that having babies is a sign of a faith in the future. You know, unless you believe in the future, you're not going to take the trouble of raising a child, educating a child, doing something. If there is no future, why do it? Well, unless you believe in God, there's really no future. And when you go back to the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, the whole idea of this desperate nightmare we are in -- you know, that we are in this prison, and it has no hope, no exit. That kind of philosophy has permeated the intellectual thinking of Europe, and hopefully it doesn't come here. But nevertheless, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is right now in the midst of racial suicide because of the declining birth rate. And they just can't get it together. Why? There's no hope.

Yes, the birth rate in Europe is going down. That is why many countries are allowing streams of immigrants from their former colonies in. They breed. The Europeans don't. They would rather spend their time and money on something other than packs of little rug rats. Is that a problem? It is if you have a "fear of a black planet" as Robertson definitely seems to have. Sooner or later, he's going to say something so outrageous that they finally have to muzzle him.

Not I, Said The Cat

Sorry. This is why you will never see me running for public office. Too much pandering required. The regalia is nice but these guys look straight stupid!

What's that white male mayoral candidate doing dressed in a traditional Vietnamese robe and attempting a phrase or two in Vietnamese?

Why, politicking, of course, and demonstrating that San Jose's Vietnamese-American community has achieved an importance in local races that candidates for the city's highest office cannot ignore.

Vietnamese-Americans are "getting into the mainstream," said mayoral candidate Chuck Reed, and ``elected officials are paying attention." Reed certainly is, along with fellow Councilman Dave Cortese and Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, the candidates whose campaigns for the June mayoral primary are the most organized and best-funded to date.

At recent events celebrating Tet, the Vietnamese festival of the Lunar New Year, Reed, Cortese and Chavez participated in the same ways that candidates have at other ethnic festivals in America for decades.

Saturday, at the Tet Friendship Festival at the fairgrounds, the three joined other elected officials in a flag ceremony and then in the tradition of feeding dollars to a dragon for good luck.

All three appeared in the Tet parade in downtown San Jose on Jan. 29, as they have done for the past half-dozen years, where elected officials rode in convertibles. Reed and Cortese donned multi-colored traditional robes. They ventured a greeting in Vietnamese.

At both events, Reed, Cortese and Chavez each set up campaign booths in an exhibition hall and passed out fliers in Vietnamese and English.

Stand For Something or Fall For Anything

It's time for this train to stop because it has already wrecked and created havoc all over the world. I don't know who this fat f**k thinks he is but this is getting very old and, frankly, quite tiring. I would like for the real men in the GOP to please stand up and take a stand against Karl Rove and his bullying.

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Rove has been calling in virtually every Republican on the Senate committee as well as the leadership in Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove's message has been that a vote against Mr. Bush would destroy GOP prospects in congressional elections.

'He's [Rove] lining them up one by one,' another congressional source said.

Mr. Rove is leading the White House campaign to help the GOP in November’s congressional elections. The sources said the White House has offered to help loyalists with money and free publicity, such as appearances and photo-ops with the president.

Those deemed disloyal to Mr. Rove would appear on his blacklist. The sources said dozens of GOP members in the House and Senate are on that list.

So far, only a handful of GOP senators have questioned Mr. Rove's tactics.

Some have raised doubts about Mr. Rove's strategy of painting the Democrats, who have opposed unwarranted surveillance, as being dismissive of the threat posed by al Qaeda terrorists.

'Well, I didn't like what Mr. Rove said, because it frames terrorism and the issue of terrorism and everything that goes with it, whether it's the renewal of the Patriot Act or the NSA wiretapping, in a political context,' said Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican.

This administration is a nightmare - an absolute nightmare. When are the people in his own party who disagree going to get a backbone and stand up?!

Something New Is Something Old

First, everybody give me a hand. I think this is the second movie, in about a year, that I've seen before it went to DVD. It was a "girls night out" thing (not including the requisite henpecked husband whose wife dragged him along with the girls). I love Sanaa Lathan movies. She's part of the "black rat pack" of actors who star in movies about blacks who are professionals, have educations and come from well to do families. So, as a single black woman who, at varying times in my life, has been part of those on the hunt for an IBM (Ideal Black Man) or a BMW (Black Man Working) I could relate to a lot of the things in this movie - including the interracial question.

So let's pause and deal with some things you're probably assuming. You probably think 'Something New,' like the remake 'Guess Who,' approaches interracial romance as a sitcom opportunity. You probably think the cards are stacked in favor of these two people falling in love. But it isn't that simple. The movie is, astonishingly, told from a point of view hardly ever visible in movies: African-American professionals. Kenya's father (Earl Billings) is head of his department at Cedars-Sinai. Her mother (Alfre Woodard) is a pillar of black society, and of course her daughter made her debut at a black-tie Cotillion. Her brother is a lawyer for a movie studio. Her family and friends are not thrilled by the notion that she might date a white man.

Neither is Kenya. That is not a prejudice, she tells Brian, but a preference. The movie has frank dialogue about race -- not platitudes about how we're all really the same, but realistic observations about race in modern America. There's talk of the 'black tax' that requires someone like Kenya to work harder than her white colleagues, in order to overcome doubts about her competence. At work, she advises an important client to stay away from a merger; this is not news the client wants to hear, and he is unhappy hearing it from a black woman who seems better-informed than he is.

Kenya and Brian do eventually fall into the first stages of a romance. But they get sidetracked when he asks her to take out her weave and wear her 'own hair.' She's angry; she thinks this is none of his business (and indeed men of all races would be wise to avoid hair-care discussions with women of all races, because it's a touchier subject than a man can possibly realize). In social situations, Brian is aware of coolness from Kenya's brother and her friends, and at a comedy club the black comedienne makes comments about race that land around him like grenades.

They love each other, but are they ready to take on the responsibility of declaring their love and living with it? They have an argument in a grocery store that's real in a way love stories are rarely permitted to be. Kenya breaks up with him. An IBM comes into the picture, a wealthy black professional (Blair Underwood) who says and does all the right things ...

On the surface, you could call this an interracial romance movie. I was more cognizant of the class/social stratification differences. Though this guy was educated, he wasn't a professional and that, in many circles, is as big of an issue as the racial one. Now that I think about it, the Cosby episode where Vanessa brought Dabnus (the grounds keeper at her college) home subtly touched on that topic. I also recall a sorority sister whose parents had sent her to exclusive/private schools her whole life. She ended up falling in love with a Puerto Rican firefighter. Her educated, entrepreneurial, elitist grandmother remarked: "Your father spent all that money sending you to private schools and all you can come home with is a Puerto Rican fireman?" She then went on to look at the guy with disdain and quip: "All that pretty hair and no brains." We laughed at the time but, in a sense, maybe the grandmother felt that her family legacy was being tainted.

There is, among the so-called talented tenth, a certain amount of pressure to be very proud of the legacy of education and success in your family and stepping outside of that elite circle of people - who definitely blazed a lot of trails for you - is, in a sense, a slap in the face to the people who came before you. Add white to that and it could be like Cosby meets Bunker and I can't say I'd even attempt to deal with that myself.

Mainly, however, the movie was about stepping out of one's comfort zone or opening up to things beyond what you know or what you think you want. Even though I say I don't want to get married, I won't say never. Though I have certain traits in the back of my mind, I don't have a list (actually afraid I'd leave something major off and end up with a wacko). Even as a kid, I never went shopping with a set idea in my head for an outfit or a pair of shoes. I always said to myself, "I'll know it when I see it" and I'd see something from a mile away and know it was for me. That's probably why I'm not worried about getting married even at this relatively late date. I think I would have known him if I'd seen him even though I have no idea what he looks like.

So, I don't think Something New was all that taboo or new. It's the same old story of getting out of your own way, getting out of a box and trying to see the whole world and not just your narrow segment. That's a pretty universal message that everyone needs to get.

Itching For A Scratch

Ah! So this is why I couldn't get the theme song from that 70s cartoon, Hong Kong Phooey, out of my mind last week. Why such a throw back would pop up out of the blue is beyond me but, apparently, it is a normal occurrence:

Dear Yahoo!:

How do songs get stuck in your head?
Tyson -- Eugene, Oregon

Dear Tyson:

Once, not so long ago, we had 'Who Let the Dogs Out' stuck in our heads for an entire day. We'd hum it in meetings, even alter the lyrics to match the situation (e.g., 'Who left the milk out!'). It was probably the longest 24 hours of our lives.

But that's water under the bridge. You want to know why songs like 'The Macarena,' 'YMCA,' and that damned baby-back ribs commercial get stuck on repeat. Professor James Kellaris from the University of Cincinnati believes 'cognitive itches' are the reason. This isn't a real itch, but rather a fancy-sounding metaphor for falling victim to catchy but annoying tunes. Just like real itches, the only way to get rid of a cognitive itch is to scratch it. And by 'scratch it,' we mean sing it until you're teetering on the brink of insanity.

As for why certain tunes get stuck while others don't, there's no definitive answer. But the reason may have to do with repetition. The more you hear one chorus, beat, or whatever, the more likely it will burrow into your subconscious.

As this article from the BBC states, Kellaris found that 97-99% of people are susceptible. Additionally, women tend to be more vulnerable. Apparently this affliction is an epidemic. Maybe a telethon would help. So long as the Baha Men don't perform.

Somehow I don't think that me singing "Hong Kong Phooey ... quicker than the human eye" over and over at work would have gone over too well with my teammates. The song was obnoxious back in the day. I'd sound like a loon if I sang aloud until it went away. I seem to recall being threatened with getting kicked out of a moving car when I couldn't stop repeating the line of a Grandmaster Flash song. I've been a little hesitant to scratch those kind of itches after that.

The Well Baby Gets Married

Okay, I had my glass of cynic juice this morning. Why did this 19 year old girl marry a 32 year old man? Another article I saw on this said she was a former college student and would be getting a million dollar trust when she turned 25. Hmmmm ....

Jessica McClure, the toddler who captured the nation's heart and evoked its prayers 18 years ago from 22 feet below the surface of this oil patch town, is a married woman.

McClure – now 19 and a student at Midland College – was married Saturday to Daniel Morales, 32, at a Church of Christ in a small rural community outside of the town. The couple met at a day-care center where Morales’s sister worked with the bride.

Inside, the church sanctuary was decorated with loops of white tulle for the private afternoon ceremony. At the altar was a white archway, and suspended underneath were two open hearts, mirroring the interlocking hearts on the couple’s wedding invitation. Posted on the door was a request made to guests: 'No Cameras or Picture Phones! No Video Cameras' – a message in step with the extremely private McClure family.

I Didn't Clutch My Pearls

My technorati watch list revealed a link to my blog from this blog. Apparently some wingnut is upset that not too many black bloggers are in outrage because Julian Bond, at some event or another, made some derogatory remarks about members of the Republican Party.

When a black family gets up and walks out on your speech you know, or should know that you have a problem. Bond equated the Republican party to "Nazis", called President Bush's Supreme Court nominees the "Taliban", Secretary of State Rice and the former secretary Powell "tokens", president Bush a "liar" whose lies were more serious than Clinton's lies because Bush's lies "killed people", and called former Attorney General John Ashcroft "J. Edgar Ashcroft".

The talk so infuriated at least one black family in attendance among the 900 in the auditorium that they got up and walked out in protest.

"He went on and on name calling," said Lee Wilson. "I walked out in the middle of his speech with my wife and three kids"

Okay, gees! Never even heard about the remarks. He found the quotes in some wingnut publication that, cough, I don't frequent. Aside from the fact that Julian Bond is not really a key figure these days, I hardly think outrage is merited by anything he said. Nazi analogies are getting old no matter who makes them - and both sides do. The other remarks were passe too and not worth getting worked up about. However, even if I had been taken aback by them, this guy quoted that "Forrest Gump slow," tie tongued, lackey for the far right, Jesse Lee Peterson so I knew to read no further.

Oh, and dude, one black family walking out of a speech means what? Had the entire crowd booed, there would have been a possible issue. But, one Bush lover who was "appalled" by Bond's cliche' remarks does hardly a problem make.

Is This Legal?

Since when does the attorney general write editorials? I'm sorry but this just seems a desperate move to prove you are right when you know you are dead wrong! The hearings start today and he will be under fire. I find this editorial completely inappropriate. But then again, this is classic Bush adminisration: inappropriate and illegal.

In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush charted a course of action to respond to the worst attack on our homeland in history. He promised to use every tool available to defeat al Qaeda and pledged to take the fight to the enemy abroad as he worked to prevent another attack. As he said in the State of the Union address, 'Our country must remain on the offensive against terrorism here at home.' The president has the constitutional responsibility--and authority--to lead this response.

After Sept. 11, Congress immediately confirmed the president's constitutional authority to 'use all necessary and appropriate force' against those 'those nations, organizations, or persons he determines' responsible for the attacks. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) gave the president the latitude to use a full complement of tools and tactics against our enemy. A majority of Supreme Court justices have concluded that the AUMF authorizes the president to use 'fundamental and accepted' incidents of military force in our armed conflict with al Qaeda. The use of signals intelligence--intercepting enemy communications--is a fundamental incident of waging war.

The commentary is much longer. I really didn't even read it. Finish it if you must.

The Witch or The Devil ?

The selection of John Boehner as the new House Majority Leader was an alleged upset over Tom DeLay's buddy, Roy Blunt. However, is this guy really any different than DeLay?

Putting aside the obvious irony of selecting someone from Ohio to clean up the Republican Party's ethical problems, it seems like a good idea to take a look at who John Boehner, the new House Majority Leader, is. Boehner emerged, of course, in a role most had considered destined for Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri. Blunt, however, turned out to be too close to outgoing Majority Leader Tom DeLay for comfort, and Republican House members went with a safer choice.

How much safer? Boehner has taken more than $157,000 worth of free trips, placing him 7th among 638 current and former members of Congress in the last five years in acceptance of privately funded travel. Two dozen of his former staff members have gone from working for him to getting jobs as lobbyists or corporate public affairs specialists. Boehner preceded DeLay as the head of the K Street Operation, and, of course, he is famous for handing out tobacco company PAC checks on the floor of Congress.

Boehner is extremely conservative. Here are his ratings on major issues:

NARAL--0% (reproductive rights)
ACLU--7% (civil liberties)
CURE--30% (crime rehabilitation)
NEA--17% (public education)
LCV--5% (environment)
SANE--22% (military action)
FAIR--0% (immigration advocacy)
US COC--100% (business)
AFL-CIO--7% (labor)
ARA--0% (senior advocacy)
APHA--0% (public health)

His more moderate scores:

CATO--50% (free trade)
NTU--63% (tax reform)

And finally:

Christian Coalition--91%

It doesn't sound like he is any less part of the Republican "culture of corruption" than DeLay is. They just come from different camps.

A Pre-1776 Mentality

As I've state before, at this point I'm not looking for a middle ground candidate. The country has moved too far right to compromise right of center. If Hillary is planning a 2008 run, she needs to step up and address the concerns of some folks who are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Russ Feingold is shaping up to be a lot more along the lines of what I want. If nothing else, he's saying more of the things I want to hear.

I've seen some strange things in my life, but I cannot describe the feeling I had, sitting on the House floor during Tuesday's State of the Union speech, listening to the President assert that his executive power is, basically, absolute, and watching several members of Congress stand up and cheer him on. It was surreal and disrespectful to our system of government and to the oath that as elected officials we have all sworn to uphold. Cheering? Clapping? Applause? All for violating the law?

The President and his administration continue their spin and media blitz in attempts to defend the fact that they broke, and continue to break, the law. Their weak and shifting justifications for doing so continue. The latest from the President seems to be that basically the FISA law, passed in 1978, is out of date. His decision that he can apparently disregard 'old law' fits the pattern with the President and his administration. He's decided to disregard a statute (FISA) and the Constitution (the 4th Amendment) by continuing to wiretap Americans' phone calls and emails without the required warrant, while at the same time claiming powers of the presidency that do not exist. (Perhaps he feels the Constitution is too 'old,' as well.) This administration reacts to any questions about spying on American citizens by saying that those of us who stand up for our rights and freedoms are somehow living in a 'pre-September 11th, 2001 world.'

In fact, the President is living in a pre-1776 world.

[...]

Unfortunately, he is President George. He look and act more like Curious George but he is certainly NOT King George!

A True Bully

This is the mark of a true bully. They can't find a good reason to pick a fight with you so they scheme and lie to get you to pick one with them so they have a reason to go full throttle against you.

George Bush considered provoking a war with Saddam Hussein's regime by flying a United States spyplane over Iraq bearing UN colours, enticing the Iraqis to take a shot at it, according to a leaked memo of a meeting between the US President and Tony Blair.

The two leaders were worried by the lack of hard evidence that Saddam Hussein had broken UN resolutions, though privately they were convinced that he had. According to the memorandum, Mr Bush said: 'The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach.'

He added: 'It was also possible that a defector could be brought out who would give a public presentation about Saddam's WMD, and there was also a small possibility that Saddam would be assassinated.' The memo damningly suggests the decision to invade Iraq had already been made when Mr Blair and the US President met in Washington on 31 January 2003 � when the British Government was still working on obtaining a second UN resolution to legitimise the conflict.

The leaders discussed the prospects for a second resolution, but Mr Bush said: 'The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would 'twist arms' and 'even threaten'. But he had to say that if ultimately we failed, military action would follow anyway.' He added that he had a date, 10 March, pencilled in for the start of military action. The war actually began on 20 March.

Mr Blair replied that he was 'solidly with the President and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam.' But he also insisted that ' a second Security Council resolution would provide an insurance policy against the unexpected, and international cover, including with the Arabs' .

The memo appears to refute claims made in memoirs published by the former UK ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, who has accused Mr Blair of missing an opportunity to win the US over to a strategy based on a second UN resolution. It now appears Mr Bush's mind was already made up.

We already know he will lie with impunity but mocking up a plane, in the colors of the United Nations, to provoke an attack? That is not only sinister, it is evil - through and through.

In Loving Memory

These nutty-O's intend to protest Coretta Scott King's funeral. In memory of she and her husband, I think the Atlanta police department should be there waiting for them with fire hoses (and maybe a couple of dogs).

Do They Get It Yet?

Though lots of Bush supporters may be in ruin (or watching the ruin of their parents or children) before they realize they've been had, here is just another example of how ALL of Bush's policies magically end up screwing the public and providing record profits to his corporate croanies.

The new Medicare drug benefit will give drug companies up to $2 billion in extra profits this year because they're no longer required to pay rebates on drugs bought by the government for the elderly poor.

The hefty windfall raises new concerns that the Bush administration won't fully realize its promises of lower drug prices in the troubled new program.

The boost in profits comes from a shift in the drug coverage of 6.4 million poor and elderly people from Medicaid to the new Medicare drug benefit. Unlike Medicaid, which requires drug companies to charge their lowest or 'best price' for medications, the Medicare program relies on competition among private drug plans to keep prices low. By eliminating the need to discount drugs for the government, the industry can now pocket the savings.

'The net effect over 10 years is probably closer to $40 billion in extra profit,' said Stephen Schondelmeyer, a pharmaceutical economics professor at the University of Minnesota.

A little-known study by the Prudential Equity Group from June 2005 estimated that the makers of three anti-psychotic medications stand to benefit most from the change, taking in roughly $1.1 billion in new profits on products used by the 6.4 million who are Medicare's most poor and frail patients.

Experts say drug prices in the Medicare program will be higher this year than prices under Medicaid because the private Medicare drug plans won't likely match the price discounts achieved by Medicaid, the joint state and federal health program for the poor.

But the new profit estimates and the higher drug price projections have rekindled accusations that the Medicare drug benefit enriches drug companies at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

What Is It?

Clawd! Since I purposely stayed at work to avoid watching the SOTU, I've just been reading about sound-bytes and seeing video clips. I glossed over the human-animal hybrids remark because I really didn't want to try to figure it out. But, it's Friday. The weekend is upon us. So, I'll ask. What on earth was he talking about?

If you want to help stop human-animal hybrids, as President Bush noted in his State of the Union speech, please visit humananimalhybrid.net: Raising Awareness about Human-Animal Hybrids.

They have nice t-shirts and mugs, and what not. Check out the Manrooster beast, and the Beast Family! Well, you might not be able to stop this human-animal research by buying the shirts or stickers... if you go by internet pictures of Bush as chimp, this "Manimal" has been around for quite a bit. Human-Animal hybrids, another weapon of mass distraction you think? Good example of how political communication is oftentimes much more about fomenting confusion and uncertainty than about clarifying ideas (for those folks who think putting forth clear rationales for proposed courses of action is the goal of political talk). I can already hear Pat Robertson on this one.

Neither My Wife Nor My Woman Will Run

Okay, that was a cheap shot but why is he speaking for grown women. Laura has never shown any interest in public office (or anything outside being George's wife) and Condoleezza has said no twenty-zillion times. I guess people only believe it if Bush tells them it's true.

President Bush believes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she says she does not want to be president, and he says he does not know what role he will play in picking the GOP presidential nominee in 2008.



'I think you need to take her at her word that she's not running,' Bush said in a conversation on Air Force One on Wednesday as he flew to Tennessee for a speech."

Too Bad Bitches!

Did he just give Americans, who are struggling to pay exorbitant winter heating bills and gas prices, the finger?

President Bush defended the huge profits of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Wednesday, saying they are simply the result of the marketplace and that consumers socked with soaring energy costs should not expect price breaks.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Bush also addressed oil's future, offering a more ambitious hope than in his State of the Union speech for cutting imports from the volatile Mideast.

...

Bush, a former Texas oilman, said of oil costs, 'I think that basically the price is determined by the marketplace and that's the way it should be.'

My PG&E bill was 50% higher last month. For people who have larger homes and a family, I can only imagine how crazy theirs were. Yet, this clown, the day after he lied about the economy being rosy and people being addicted to oil, basically tells people to "suck it up" when it comes to their energy bills because that is how business works! If you voted for him or support him and are having a hard time, good for you! Maybe an unwanted baby, a gay dude and a black welfare queen will feel sorry for you and help you out.

About Yay Big!

Fill in your own blanks

Liar! Liar! Liar!

Liar! Liar! Liar! This boggles the mind! Your President lied again!

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

The president's State of the Union reference to Mideast oil made headlines nationwide Wednesday because of his assertion that 'America is addicted to oil' and his call to 'break this addiction.'

Bush vowed to fund research into better batteries for hybrid vehicles and more production of the alternative fuel ethanol, setting a lofty goal of replacing 'more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.'

He pledged to 'move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.'

Not exactly, though, it turns out.

'This was purely an example,' Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth. Asked why the president used the words 'the Middle East' when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that 'every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands.' The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble.

Presidential adviser Dan Bartlett made a similar point in a briefing before the speech. 'I think one of the biggest concerns the American people have is oil coming from the Middle East. It is a very volatile region,' he said.

I thought it was absurd for this man - an oil man, a big truck driving man - to get up before the nation and say that "America is addicted to oil" when his pockets are being lined by the industry and he is sucking it up like crack his damn self. But to now backtrack on statements he knew were false is downright sinful. He flat out LIED in the State of The Union address!

When are people going to call this man on the carpet for the pathological lying, deception and dishonest behavior? Honestly! This is like an adulterer flaunting his women in the faces of his wife and children. He's so used to getting away with it, that he has become brazen about it. Unless they are rich (because you know their motivation is greed), I want everyone who voted for this man to suffer the extreme consequences of everything he has done for and to this country. Oh, and that day is coming. Mark my words! Sheer stupidity has a price.

A Blood-Drenched Warmonger!

Daaaang! Bush is in for three years of some wild rhetoric. I'm sure one of Bush's speech writers will have to come up with some snappy comebacks for all the names he's going to be called.

Iran's leader accused President George W Bush yesterday of being a blood-drenched warmonger who deserved to stand trial.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was replying to a veiled call by Mr Bush in his State of the Union address for Iranians to rise up against their clerical rulers.

Mr Ahmadinejad, addressing a crowd in the town of Bushehr, where Russia is building a nuclear power station, said: 'These are people whose arms are submerged up to the elbows in the blood of other nations. Wherever there is war and oppression in the world, they are involved.

'These people channel their factories to the production of weapons. These people generate wars in Asia and Africa, killing millions of people, in order to help their production, employment and economy.'

Amid chants of 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel', Mr Ahmadinejad said: 'Today they are accusing our people of violating human rights and of violating freedom.

'In the near future, Allah willing, we will put you to trial in courts established by the peoples.'

He vowed that Iran would press ahead with its nuclear programme, and would not bow before 'imaginary superpowers made of straw'.

Let's see ... Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Hamas, Osama ... all of these enemies! But Bush wants our confidence?

And We Were Upset About Clinton's BJ?

This is far more scandalous than Clinton's antics.

The woman who began life as Francois Mitterrand's secret daughter is considering a political career of her own, having adopted her father's name for the first time.

Several former allies of the late socialist president are said to be pressing behind the scenes for Mazarine, 31, to make her first step towards entering the French parliament.

Their idea is that she would stand with a former minister, Laurent Cathala, as his 'supplante', or understudy, in next year's parliamentary elections, with a view to taking over from him as MP, according to the daily newspaper Le Parisien.

The newspaper said Mr Cathala, 60, a Mitterrand loyalist who served him as secretary of state for the family and the elderly, would be favourable to the arrangement while Mazarine, who now calls herself Pingeot-Mitterrand, was 'reflecting'.

Understudies take over the role of an MP who becomes a minister, accepts a long-term government function or dies.

Last year Miss Pingeot-Mitterrand published a best-selling book, titled Lips Sealed, about her upbringing as part of Mr Mitterrand's 'second family'.

She was the product of his relationship with Anne Pingeot, an art historian, which began when he was a married MP with children but before he came to power.

The affair was an open secret among the Parisian elite but was kept from the public, with the aid of pressure, some of it illegal, from the Elyse, until Nov 1994, 14 months before Mr Mitterrand died.

Miss Pingeot-Mitterrand, a philosophy lecturer, literary critic and novelist, told in the book of her 'hidden childhood'.

She was never allowed to call her father Papa in public and felt that she was the 'shame of the republic' when her father's secret was revealed by the magazine Paris Match.

She says she loathed the attention her origins brought her, but has fought hard to turn to her own advantage her 'unwanted loss of anonymity'.

During the commemorations last month of the 10th anniversary of her father's death, she spoke glowingly about her father and his legacy and accused his detractors of 'trying to kill him all over again' with personal attacks and 'disgusting rumours'.

'One thing that's certain is that France misses him,' she said. 'It's clear that we need a great man to lead France in the world and give us a strong and attractive image.'

Miss Pingeot-Mitterrand, who has a baby son with her boyfriend, Mohamed Ulad-Mohand, a Moroccan film-maker, said she had combined the names of her mother and father so that her child could make his own decision later in life."

... plus she has a "baby daddy" too? People, we really need to get with the times!

Small Question

What kind of jail is Saddam in? How is it that a prisoner is allowed to dictate whether he comes to court or not? How is he a no-show?

The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed without him Wednesday, after he and four other main defendants refused to attend and the judge decided to continue anyway.

In the last session, on Sunday, Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman ejected four defendants after they shouted curses and interrupted the trial. He began Wedthe session Wednesday by saying Saddam and four others had refused to take part. It was unclear how long the five would remain absent. Seven court-appointed lawyers represented them in their absence.

Last I knew, prisoners were hancuffed (possibly shackled) and were led (or dragged) to court appearances. Being such a horrible ex-Dictator and all, how does he rate being able to refuse to attend his own trial?

They Hate You

This is a humorous read about the warped thinking of religious wackos and their irrational fixation on a woman's sex organs.

Why do godbags hate a vaccine that will save the lives of half a million women a year?

Because, duh, they hate women.

To recap: HPV is sexually transmitted. The aforementioned vaccine, in order to be most effective, should be administered to girls before they become sexually active. Which is seen by godbags as an endorsement of female teenage boning. Godbags, although they rarely take a position on male teenage boning, are 100% dead set against female teenage boning. They believe it will, as reader Liz suggested in a recent email, melt the fabric of society (I can understand why they might fear this melting, since they buy all the cheap polyester fabric of their society at Wal-Mart).

Because HPV is sexually-transmitted, and because women are the sex class, the virus is automatically a girl-problem. And behold! Where girls and sex collide, there you will find a clump of patriarchy-loving assholes making up rules. Godbags naturally default to slut-punishing mode when encountering scary science that might help to confer human status on women. The myth of female virtue is the cornerstone of patriarchy. A pussy unpoliced will lead to hard drugs, communism, homosexuality, rampant stuffing of newborns into trash cans, and what have you.

But come ON. Does fear of cervical cancer even register on a teenage girl's radar as a fornicational deterrent? The contingency is remote. Even so, Focus on the Fetus et al would prefer that those dirty sluts grow up to die of hideous cancer.

That'’s how much they hate you.

Just Plain No!

I guess that State of The Union message didn't have the affect he wanted it to. So, he's out stumping again. Let's pick up some critical clues here. If you have to roam the country saying "trust me," you probably don't deserve any trust (or confidence).

President Bush said Wednesday he understands why the nation he has led for five years has become more anxious, and he urged people to have confidence in him.

Bush maintained his optimistic message in a lengthy speech at the Grand Ole Opry House that was designed to build momentum from the previous night's State of the Union address. But in a rare acknowledgment of the troubled times on his watch, he tried to show empathy with the public's worries.

'People are uncertain, in spite of our strong union, because of war, and I understand that,' Bush said.

[...]

Outside, more than 100 protesters held up their own signs that said 'No Confidence' and 'No warrant, no wiretap, no W.' That was a reference to Bush's much-debated secret program of eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails in an attempt to sniff out terrorist plots, which he vigorously defended in his State of the Union address and inside the concert hall.

'Let me put it to you in Texan: If al-Qaida is calling into the United States, we want to know,' Bush said.

What a clown! I still don't think he gets it. He makes it seem like al-Qaida has some corporate headquarters with a phone bank. Because of him, al-Qaida has morphed from a small nework to an ideological movement (or as Bill Maher says, a lifestyle).

Saying One Thing, Doing Another

I refrained from watching the SOTU address because I knew I couldn't stand the doublespeak, exaggerations, smoke and mirrors and just plain lies. Rev. Jim Wallis from Sojo.net did a quick recap:

The president's State of the Union address sounded like it was cut and pasted from so many old speeches. There was nothing new last night. Easily agreed-to rhetoric about freedom, growth, opportunity, and civility hides the facts:

1. George Bush's foreign policy, and the way he fights his war on terrorism, is making our families less safe and secure, not more. His war in Iraq was based on false pretenses and has utterly failed. Yet, the president doesn't seem to have the capacity for self-examination, or the moral sense to change the nation's course.

2. George Bush's former rhetoric of compassionate conservatism has all but disappeared, and his domestic policies have clearly increased poverty in the United States. Overseas, shining promises to reduce global poverty have fallen tragically short. Last night he promised to continue down the path of moral hypocrisy with tax and spending cuts that further enrich the wealthy and impoverish the poor.

The facts of George Bush's policies undercut the moral values that many Americans, especially many of us in the religious community, hold dear. When rhetoric hides the facts, moral integrity suffers. Speeches come and go, but policies continue. And the facts of the Bush administration's policies will continue to turn true moral values voters away from this president [...]

Dress Code Strictly Enforced

I'll admit it. I can be kinda snooty sometimes. If I'd received an invitation to the SOTU address, I wouldn't be caught dead in a t-shirt - no matter what my cause. But, apparently even a Republican Congressman's wife was also removed (Cindy Sheehan was kicked out and arrested) from the chamber for "protesting" because she had on a "support the troops" t-shirt. I wouldn't have allowed her to enter in the first place. She wasn't properly dressed!

Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores] said she was sitting in the gallery's front row, about six seats from first lady Laura Bush, when she was approached by someone from the Capitol Police or sergeant-at-arms office who told her she needed to leave the gallery.

She reluctantly agreed but argued with several officers in the hallway outside the House chamber.

'They said I was protesting,' she said in a telephone interview late Tuesday. 'I said, 'Read my shirt, it is not a protest.' They said, 'We consider that a protest.' I said, 'Then you are an idiot.''

She said she was so angry that 'I got real colorful with them.'

…Young, 50, said her shirt was not a protest but a message of support for U.S. soldiers and Marines fighting for their country. She often wears the T-shirts when visiting her husband at the Capitol and during her visits to see the wounded at military hospitals.

…Young's husband, a Republican who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee on defense, was unaware she was removed until after the speech. He said he was furious about the incident.

'I just called for the chief of police and asked him to get his little tail over here,' Rep. Young said late Tuesday. 'This is not acceptable.'

Beverly Young said, 'Wait until the president finds out.'

Progress Around The World

I'd like to think that if Hillary Clinton were elected America's first female president she'd do something similar. But for some reason, I doubt it. I doubt Condoleeza Rice would either.

Chilean president-elect Michelle Bachelet announced late Monday the members of her cabinet, half of whom are to be women.

The cabinet of 10 men and 10 women represents a historic step for equality in conservative, patriarchal Chile, the Socialist politician and Chile's first woman president said.

As Chile's top diplomat, Bachelet selected Alejandro Foxley. His fellow Christian Democrat Andres Zaldivar will head the Interior Ministry.

Ingrid Antonijevic of the left-leaning Party for Democracy (PPD) is to become the new finance minister, and Bachelet gave one of her former portfolios to another PPD member, engineer Vivianne Blanlot, the second woman to hold the post in Chile.

The paediatrician-turned-politician who herself served as defence and health minister before being elected president last month intends to fill two other cabinet posts. She will ask Congress to create two new ministries: environment and public security.

Analysts pointed out that the most important ministries were also equally divided between men and women.

Foxley, a civil engineer and economist, served as Chile's first finance minister after democracy returned to the country following its 1973-1990 military dictatorship.

Zaldivar, a former senator, served in the cabinet before the 1973 coup that ushered in Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship. He was a leading Pinochet opponent in exile.

Antonijevic is a commercial lawyer, business executive and one of the founders of the PPD.

Bachelet will follow Ricardo Lagos as president when she is sworn in March 11 to a four-year term.

Oscar Noms

Once again, the Oscar nominations are out and I haven't seen any of the movies. But, since Crash (which I had refused to watch because I've had more than enough crash moments for one lifetime) and Terrence Howard for Hustle and Flow (yeah, the academy seems to be fixated on his portrayal of a pimp) were both nominated, I decided to add them to the top of my Netflix queue. Since I just returned Bewitched (hated it! ... it's not Bewitched if it's not Elizabeth Montgomery) and Chicago (slept through part of it), the new movies will be here today.