Blue Collar Politics

Let's Go Back To the Middle Ages? [BREAK] Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design Hey, if you're going to live in a world where Crusades Part Deux is on the menu, you might as well "unlearn" modern facts as much as possible. I can see the ad push for our drive to take science, and society, back into the 16-17th Century: 1) Tonight on the National Geographic channel "Monkey Business: How atheistic scientists tried to prove that man wasn't Godly, but just a large chimp with anger management problems!" 2) Tonight on the Discovery channel: At 8 PM, "Alchemy, or how to turn inquisitive students into robots lacking critical thought capabilities, while saving billion$ on education." At 9PM, "Witch Burning: A Cruel and Unusual Punishment, or an Effective Means of Halting Alimony Payments?" At 10 PM: "Prosecuting The War With Iran: How Allowing Driving Permits and a 25% Discount Coupon For Any Ebay Item (up to a value of $100) for 13 Year Olds Who Sign To Enlist In The Military at Sixteen Has Removed Any Need For A Draft!" On CNN, at 9 PM, Larry King Interviews the new Secretary of Defense, Paris Hilton, on her plan to make the Marines new dress uniform "Hot!" At 10PM, "Why Women Should Be Forced To Carry The Baby To Term, Even If We Must Enforce An Artificial Pregnancy On Every Women at Their 16th Birthday!" On MSNBC, at 8PM, "Why Using Government Funds To Conduct Stem Cell Research Is Now A Capital Crime!" On The E! Channel: How With Just a One-Time $250,000 Payment You Can Buy A Privately Funded Stem Cell Package To Cure Any Single Ailment You May Have. (For More Than A Single Ailment, We Have A Special $100,000 Sale For Each New Malady You Need Cured.) Cash Only, No Medicare Accepted! On FOX News, we have blond Big-Breasted, Jabba-The-Hutt Lipped blow-up dolls panting and heaving to a montage of photos of Bush administration officials interspersed with photos of unidentified, but bloody, brown people. (On Our FOX Pay-Per-View Channel, Live Torture Sessions Are Available For $4:95 per hour. (You must click on YES to certify you are over 18, or over 12 and have signed up for the prolonged military option at your school.) On all of the Network News channels we have Anderson Cooper, still standing in the unchanged destruction from Hurricane Katrina. Anderson tells us that the Bush administration has agreed to let Disney take over the whole of New Orleans. Disney will put together a tourist attraction, where visitors can poke dead bodies, walk through devastated homes and bitch slap those residents who are still homeless and in shock at how their government proved such a failure! Meanwhile, Pope Benedict contemplates excommunicating Louis Pasteur, Madame Curie and all scientists that have ever hinted they believed the earth revolved around the sun and/or evolution was a fact and/or that sending a glass of wine, a single fish and a loaf of bread to Darfur would not feed all the starving people. Tune in next week, when Vatican TV explains how pedophilia is just a way of showing God's love to the children. [Sorry, but having religions corrupted by government tax breaks, "Faith Based" funding and a sharing of power of both the church and government pulpits, all to get us moving backwards, just pisses me off!!] ===== Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design John Hooper in Rome Monday August 28, 2006 The Guardian Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope Benedict will gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive discussions that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican's view of evolution. There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of "intelligent design" taught in some US states. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Critics say it is a disguise for creationism. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Believe what you want, the Pope is not stupid. While he'll certainly give an apology; he knew exactly what reaction his taunt would engender. If a Muslim, Jew or Buddhist had said that all Christ brought to religion was "only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”, the Pope would lead the chorus of "Off with his/her head!" Yet, historically, a case could be made. Begin with the Inquisition and the Crusades and carry forward to GW Bush grabbing Jesus's coat tails every time he wants to kill and/or a few thousand more people. The fact that some whackos like Osama and Bush use religion as a force for evil should not be cause to condemn whole religions or their founders. ===== [/BREAK]

The Pope’s Words - New York Times Published: September 16, 2006 There is more than enough religious anger in the world. So it is particularly disturbing that Pope Benedict XVI has insulted Muslims, quoting a 14th-century description of Islam as “evil and inhuman.” In the most provocative part of a speech this week on “faith and reason,” the pontiff recounted a conversation between an “erudite” Byzantine Christian emperor and a “learned” Muslim Persian circa 1391. The pope quoted the emperor saying, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” - - - SNIP The Vatican issued a statement saying that Benedict meant no offense and in fact desired dialogue. But this is not the first time the pope has fomented discord between Christians and Muslims. In 2004 when he was still the Vatican’s top theologian, he spoke out against Turkey’s joining the European Union, because Turkey, as a Muslim country was “in permanent contrast to Europe.” - - - End of SNIPPET

More Here

[BREAK] I've liked to think that by keeping myself "aware," by keeping well informed, by reading voraciously, I and a large portion of the beings on this great nation with me have kept ourselves way above the fawning wackos who so eagerly fell for the Anti-Christ, Rapture and Second Coming crowd of fear mongers. We aware ones had no need to even acknowledge, let alone confront, those who so yearned for strict moral leadership that even sanctimonious evil (albeit evil that is poorly camouflaged by a covering cloak manufactured from a hodgepodge of misused religious phraseology and symbols) commanded their adoration and sacrifice. The fact that instead of debating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, these priests of evil debate how much torture the masses would allow and pretended to care about the Constitution and Geneva Convention protections for detainees. We aware ones just shook our heads while observing how pseudo-moralistic fascist's who spout anti-fascist and oxymoronic rhetoric (Islamo-Fascists!, the Bushies cry) were allowed to confidently order the waste the lives of their most ardent worshiper's sons and daughters by using them as cannon fodder for artificially conceived wars, as the modern day corporate-government sock puppets knew colorful yellow-ribbons, red meat speeches and material carrying a red,white and blue pattern would suffice as reason for the ill informed worshipers. Today's Washington Post story, Corruption That Shook Capitol Isn't Rattling Elections, shows that we forget/forgive so quickly, it's a wonder more politicians don't cross the line. And, yes. Corporatist's have infiltrated both sides of the political spectrum, but there's still some difference between the Repugnants and the Dems.) That miraculous anxiety-numbing salve, of arrogant super-ego mixed with a dollop of disinterested sophistication, that kept many of us sated has been steadily and progressively weakened in the past few years, as more and more people fell under the spell of the war criminals who currently lead much of the Earth's human population. The ability to see right through the smoke and mirrors that Karl Rove and his ilk used to stupefy the masses no longer brings any relief or comfort, as the US is losing two wars, suffering the deaths of thousands of young troops, causing the deaths of a multitude of innocents and making preparations to add a third country to George Bush's death march to a bankrupt Empire. Now that we have placed war, war anytime/anywhere/anyone, above all other priorities, we can not handle any domestic crisis. Ask a homeless Katrina victim, an uninsured sick child, a veteran from Afghanistan/Iraq needing treatment or a 9/11 Ground Zero rescue worker who can't get medical care for his/her scorched lungs or decrepit kidney. Domestic security is in shambles, from poor port security, through flawed flight security to failed programs to protect us from bio-terrorism. And, while America is certainly leading the civilized world in deconstructing back to a more primitive state, it ain't just us yanks going crazy. While some sociopaths use their own warped interpretation on the Koran to try and justify mass murder, we have a Pope who decided to pick at scabs covering centuries of wounds from Christian and Muslim battles, then offended many Jews with his belated apology to the Muslim faithful. In England, our partner in crime and an exhausted ally in Iraq/Afghanistan, the now centrist Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, is holding on by its fingertips, while the Conservatives are salivating over polls that show them taking over Britain. In Germany, neo-Nazism is on the rise, to the point that swastikas are near to becoming a common fashion accessory. In France, escalating discrimination has led to bloody riots. In Darfur, where tens of thousands have died and over 200,000 have fled their country, and in other Hell-On-Earth spots that dot the globe, killing on a scale that could make Hitler envious is proceeding on a daily basis. And the march of right-wing governments are increasing as if contagious. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Max Blumenthal has a great article on the battle going on at the Mega-Moonie, extremist loving, Washington Times. [/BREAK]

Hell of a 'Times' These are edgy times at the Washington Times. Still one of the most important right-wing organs in the nation, the paper has a circulation base of around 100,000. According to a source close to senior management, in the past two decades it has burned through far more than the $1.7 billion previously reported. During that time its editorial stance has consistently leaned to the hard right, as its favorite targets have ranged from liberal comsymps to President Bill Clinton to, most recently, "illegal aliens" and their allies in the "open borders lobby." Throughout, the Times has served as a major key on the conservative movement's Mighty Wurlitzer. A nasty succession battle is now heating up at the paper, punctuated by allegations of racism, sexism and unprofessional conduct, that has implications far beyond its fractious newsroom. According to several reliable inside sources, Preston Moon, the youngest son of Korean Unification Church leader and Times financier Sun Myung Moon, has initiated a search committee to find a replacement for editor in chief Wesley Pruden--a replacement who is not Pruden's handpicked successor, managing editor Francis Coombs. - - - SNIP Since its founding in 1982 by eccentric cult leader and self-proclaimed Messiah Sun Myung Moon, the Times has been a favorite outlet for the right. President Ronald Reagan granted Times reporters special access to the White House, and he publicly called it his favorite paper--pointedly not the Washington Post. During the Clinton era, the Times helped push media coverage of Ken Starr's ultimately fruitless Whitewater land-deal investigation. It has long served as a nest for fledgling conservative talent like its former editorial page editor Tony Snow, now White House press secretary and a key link between the paper and the Bush Administration. National Review's O'Sullivan told The Nation, "The Times is an extremely important paper for conservatives because it's in Washington and it has great influence with the Administration." In January 2005 Bush hosted Coombs, Pruden and a handful of Times principals for an exclusive interview and tour of the Oval Office. Two months later Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was queried about her presidential ambitions by Pruden, Coombs and several Times reporters at the paper's offices. (Among Rice's revelations was that "shopping is fun.") - - - End of SNIPPET More Here.

Looking for a news story that doesn't leave you wondering if humans are really a deadly planetary infestation rather than the globe's caretaker and dominant species.
Try this, from the NY Times:

A Rare Kind of Food Bank, and Just Maybe the Hippest, Flourishes

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
Published: September 26, 2006

FORESTVILLE, Calif. — For most gardeners, spending a gorgeous Saturday morning harvesting basil and organic heirloom tomatoes is a life-enhancing experience. But for green thumbs at one particular garden — an innovative addition to a food bank for people with H.I.V. and AIDS — the life-embracing quality of a bountiful harvest is quite literal.

“I’m not a California effete kind of person; it’s important to get the nutrition,” said Andrew Eckers, a 51-year-old volunteer gardener with a fondness for sorrel and pea shoots who, when the disease had him fully in its grip, spent eight years in a wheelchair. “But this is also pleasurable.”

Founded in 1999 to provide produce for people living with AIDS, the garden is part of what may well be the country’s hippest food bank, a place where the Alice Waters grow-your-own organic food ethic supplants gloomy institutional staples like American cheese and day-old bread.

- - - SNIP

The garden, run by Food for Thought, a nonprofit organization, is overseen by horticulturalists from the nearby Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and many of its volunteers are H.I.V. patients who benefit from it. It brims with green beans and scallions but also obscure varieties of amaranth, an ancient Andean grain with flowing Rapunzel-like purple stalks. The fresh produce harvested by the volunteers is the food bank’s mainstay, though it also dispenses other groceries as well as vitamins.

More Here

[BREAK] In one of his pieces on Salon (War Room - Salon.com), Glenn Greenwald elaborates on just one of the myriad of reasons that many Liberals, or to be au courant - and use verbal camouflage- Progressives will find it hard to pull a lever.press the screen under/adjacent to a Clinton, Warner or even Obama name in 2008, and may have thoughts of skipping the polling places just a few weeks from now. The beginning of Greenwald's War Room piece:

- - - SNIP The willingness of Senate Democrats to vote for the torture bill appears substantial, at least if one listens to their leader, Sen. Harry Reid. From the New York Times this morning: "Democrats, who have found themselves on the losing end of the national security debate the past two national elections, said the changes to the bill had not yet reached a level that would cause them to try to block it altogether. To underscore the point, Reid said this about the bill: "We want to do this. And we want to do it in compliance with the direction from the Supreme Court. We want to do it in compliance with the Constitution." - - - End of SNIPPET

I realize I'm entering dangerous territory here. Back in 2004, I got a straight out ass chewing by one of the then, and still now, stars in the blogosphere's celestial backdrop. I had the temerity to point out that, when you used super-blogger's own much written criteria for a suitable candidate, Howard Dean, whom he loudly supported, was a bit of a disappointment. Not, mind you, that Governor Dean wasn't a far superior choice to Bush, or even Kerry, General Clark or some others (Joementum???). By simply sing the blogger's own wish list, I showed that Denis Kucinich should have been his pick for the primary. I was eventually hit with the "We must pick the candidate who looks to have the best chance of being elected" bullet. When I wrote that, according to the then polls, he should support GW, he called me an idiot and we ceased our corresponding. So, I know that basing support on a list of criteria one believes essential to keeping America strong, healthy and somewhat recognizable (in ongoing principle) to those brave souls who risked all to give birth to this fragile democracy is NOT an all popular strategy. But (and you knew that "But" would appear right after my throwing of the Founding Father's into the mix), allowing electibility to trump principle places one on a path to electoral Hell. Choosing Republican Lite over true Republican, or over the group of traitorous bastards that hold America hostage in some dark cave where she is forced to condone torture while she witnesses the shredding of human and civil rights both at home and in countries where we hide prisoners around the globe, is NOT a strategy that helps get her back and standing tall. It only allows a creeping crud of fascism to gain ground and/or a dose political amnesia that makes our citizens forget what once was and lose hope for what could have been. The DLC will not go quietly into that dark night of failed domestic/corporate coups. If we, the voters who are sickened by how a Republican party capitulated to the worst of its members and became the Repugnant Party, don't retaliate by choosing a candidate who won't just slow the Ship Of State as she heads for the whirlpool of Corporatism so close by but one who will grab the wheel and arc us back 180 degrees to where Jefferson's dreams became FDR's agenda. They showed integrity! They held tight to certain principles, and helped our country advance! Where a power-hungry, corrupt southern bigot who, when the Presidency was abruptly handed him through a tragedy on the streets of Dallas, became a champion of civil rights, even though Johnson knew it would bring great harm on his party and his democratic peers in the south. He showed integrity! He held tight to certain principles, and helped our country advance! More from Greenwald's War Room piece:

- - - SNIP Sen. Lindsey Graham even claims that an amendment to provide habeas corpus rights to detainees -- a provision that could alleviate some of the bill's most tyrannical aspects -- "will be defeated, I think, in a bipartisan fashion, with a solid vote." Whether or not Graham is right about Democratic opposition even to habeas corpus rights, it appears certain that not only will Senate Democrats fail to impede enactment, but at least some (perhaps even the majority of) Democrats will vote for the bill and enthusiastically praise it. Their Senate leader is already doing so. - - - End of SNIPPET

Greenwald points out that to be a happy Democrat today, one has to smile at the end of habeas corpus, giggle at torture and care little about one's fellow human. While he only names one of the Democratics (Harry Reid) who will be helping turn the screws on innocent, as well as guilty, torture victims, you'll read that the Republicans have Democrats on board for this tragedy. More from Greenwald's War Room piece:

- - - SNIP Yale law professor Jack Balkin, whose rhetoric is typically restrained and mild, put it this way this morning: "The Democrats may think that if they let this pass, they are guaranteed to pick up more seats in the House and Senate. But they will actually win less seats this way. For they will have proved to the American people that they are spineless and opportunistic -- that, when faced with a genuine choice and a genuine challenge, they can keep neither our country nor our values safe." - - - End of SNIPPET

Well, those Dems who support/suborn torture won't get my vote. Not this year, and not in '08. And, if enough of us rally behind that sentiment, and NOT just look on the choice of America's stewardship as if it were only a matter of being a winner, like your vote were just a turn of a card or drop of a roulette ball that, if you wanted, you could choose to be a winner, the DLC and Republican Lite candidates WILL disappear, or change. (See the recent attempt at metamorphosis by Hillary, including chastising Rumsfeld and backing Bill's in-your-face with Chris Wallace.) But, if they see that after all your bitching and griping about Bush, you're still willing to back a candidate who cares little about torture and/or wants more troops in Iraq and/or thinks bankruptcy should only be a trump card for mega-corporations but not help families decimated by a health crisis, then you'll never find a Kucinich or Russ Feingold taken seriously by the party, the media OR certain conflicted super bloggers. [BREAK] More Here Democrats may come to regret not opposing Bush on torture While it is almost certain that Congress will fail to enact a warrantless eavesdropping bill prior to Friday's adjournment, it appears equally certain that both houses of Congress will enact the president's torture and detention bill. On that issue, there seem to be only two unresolved questions at this point: 1) Exactly how draconian will the president's powers be under this bill (more on that later)? 2) How much Democratic support will this bill attract?

[BREAK] If, like me, Seven Days In May caused you concern that someday we might have a devilish coup in America, you must be perplexed today. You might find yourself rooting for those particpating in a bloodless pseudo-coup. Instead of taking over the government, we have true patriots, with Generals in the ranks, using truth to cripple a harmful group that now sits in the power seats. In just the last couple of weeks we've had recently Retired Generals telling us that our democracy is endangered by war mongering civilians/Bushies and active duty Generals leaking memos that show Rumsfeld as a bumbler who deserves the blame for US troop deaths. The CIA and other agencies have begun steadily leaking classified memos and reports that show we were lied to, by the White House, since the first week the Bushies moved in, let alone the torrent of lies since 9/11 and the flood of them that got us into, and keeps us stuck in, Iraq. Now we find the long hidden Rep. Foley's sick email were NOT leaked by any Democrat. They couldn't have been; the Repugs kept the Dems out of the loop on the perveing of our House). They were leaked by Justice Dept. and FBI employees, who were sick of being told they had to assist in the cover up of the abuse of power by the Repugs. (Much of the right-wing punditocracy, while acting tough on Foley and, even, Hastert, is pummeling the Dems by, along with a sly conflating jab from the Washington Post, inferring this was just a homosexual scandal, which falls in line with the GOP "Gays Are Bad" theme. Edifying them as to the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia would be about as effective as an attempt to point out that Christ was not only a Liberal, but that, for his time, he would have seemed far to the left of today's Michael Moore.) As one who falls into the camp that says neither God nor any demon makes a man do anything, other than the Gods and demons he brings to the gray matter table himself, the term Evil fits too well in our current circumstances. (And now, with Foley pointing the finger of blame at a childhood priest, we have our package of Evil tied up with a fallen angel bow.) The quote I used as the title of this entry, "Evil draws men together" is from Aristotle, in the 3rd Century, BC. That it is still true today helps explain how, even in the face of contradictory facts, you have a group of powerful folk (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice etc.) who continue to spout the same novel of lies . . . no matter how foolish such a strategy makes them all look. "I was never briefed in July by Tenet or anyone on the al Qaeda threat prior to 9/11/01" is just the most glaring lie told by that crew this week. Lies (Osama + Saddam + WMD + 9/11 = Shock & Awe!) led to war on innocents, to the use of Depleted Uranium against generations of innocent Iraqis, to the use of so called "productive" torture (LEGALIZED TORTURE AS PART OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE???), to the domestic lies used to harm future generations of Americans (deficits caused by tax cuts ["improves the economy" BS], lies to hide war profiteering (Cheney/Halliburton etc.), Government aided Corporate fraud (Enron, etc.), covering up child molestation, etc., etc., forever! And the Repugnants who have brought us this, they claim a certain closeness with a higher power. Bush claims that God told him to do what does. Flip Wilson might have told him different. If all of this horror weren't done behind the camouflaging curtain of Red, White and Blue, the term Evil Empire might be making a comeback. As election day approaches, I hope the true Republicans, who have been benched by the Repugnants since even before Bush's Baghdad Blunder, remember the words of one of their heros:

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it." Ayn Rand

===== [/BREAK]

Wayne Madsen Report - Home October 3, 2006 -- WMR has learned from informed sources in the Justice Department that the salacious e-mails from Rep. Mark Foley were leaked to ABC News by career Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents who are incensed that Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales covered up the House page scandal for political reasons. The back story of Pagegate is that there was a criminal conspiracy by the top political leadership of the Justice Department to cover up the predatory activities of Foley and other GOP members of Congress since at least 2003 and, likely, as early as 2001. Other informed sources in the nation's capital report that Pagegate will soon implicate a number of GOP staffers in both the House and the Senate who intimidated and pressured male pages into inappropriate sexual relationships. One source confided that the staff members' contact with pages was "more egregious" than Foley's behavior.

More Here!

[BREAK] Crooks And Liars has a great post up today, Culture Warriors In Action and I salute Nicole Belle on her putting together of a hat trick of recent fundamentalist attempts to keep our kid's minds walking some straight and narrow path, with blinders and earplugs so they are never allowed to view/hear any aspects of life on our planet that does not conform with the exact faith-based dictates of that family's religion. (It is also nice to see reporting on something other than the child molesting Congressman Foley. If all you read are the headlines in our nation's newspapers, you might mistakenly think Iraq was peaceful (Attacks in Baghdad Kill 13 U.S. Soldiers in 3 Days) and that nothing of import was happening elsewhere on the globe (Al-Qaeda's Far-Reaching New Partner). Even George Will, with George F. Will - What Goeth Before the Fall, weighs in on Foley today, putting today's top story in its Republican/religious context:

To a Republican Party increasingly defined by the ascendancy of the religious right, the Foley episode is doubly deadly. His behavior was disgusting, and some Republican reactions seem more calculating than indignant.

But on Crooks and Liars, at least one story never mentions the Florida Republican . . . and I give thanks for that. As one who believes religions have, overall, done more good than harm in the course of human history, I find myself compelled to vainly attempt to keep the good/bad scales of religious contribution heavy on the good side by pointing out when man's flaws have him misusing faith in a manner that throws those scales out of whack. Like the attempts highlighted by Ms. Belle, in which parents seem to believe that their God is ashamed of the bodies He/She created, wanted children to be bereft of imagination and wonder and would like to attend bonfires, if the right books were being torched. I might agree with those who would say I've been crying "Wolf!" for way too long now on this issue of primarily math/reading education (aided by the unfunded No Child Left Behind . . . or No Child Left Sentient?), with no classroom introduction to anything requiring more than a rote playback of the teacher's/book's words/text . . . except THERE REALLY IS A WOLF (see Jennifer Booher-Jennings - Rationing Education for just one example), he's expanding his territory daily and he's been busy snacking on much of our future generations' critical thought portion of their gray matter. (And I'm not even going into the cultural bias aspect or the military recruitment aid of the NCLB act.) But this wolf doesn't come in sheep's clothing. He comes as governmental regulation that forces history, civic, geography, literature and the arts to be left out of curricula. He also comes as a "man of God", one who will quickly testify that she/he is surely not trying to remove knowledge from the reach of the children; he/she only wants to purify that knowledge through a moral filter in order to have it conform to the dictates of an ancient and important instrument of his belief system. Thus, evolution, carbon dating, archeology, geology, medicine -from stem cells through euthanasia - and other areas of knowledge must be removed, or worse, altered so it fits into the subject knowledge of a handful of men who authored portions of a book over two millennia ago. CAUTION: Suicidal blogger will attempt to more firmly grasp this live third rail here, and try to come away unharmed. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] We finally know where River has been. Now, the more important questions are "Where are you? What are you doing?" I run a dinky little mailing list/service that pushes out news stories, articles and links to blog posts daily, for a bunch of activists, reporters, friends and relatives. (Okay, my wife gets hit with the full 50 to 75+ news articles I forward a day, while my daughter, whose boss believes she should read at home, can only suffer through a minimal list of about a dozen or so of the most important pieces.) I'd venture that everyone on the list is a Liberal, although some might seek the camouflage of the "Progressive" labeling. They all view the Bush admin as an enemy of all that was once good about America, and see through the Bushie use of fear as a political power enhancer.
They were well read, including reports in the international media.
Therefore, they were all against our attacking, invading and occupying Iraq. They are all good people, who work hard to leave the planet/country in as good a shape, if not better, than when they began helping to steer the ship of state. So, being that they are good people, I will unfairly use them as a sample for all the good people who complain about Bush, who think the Iraq war is farce - bloody, death dealing farce, but farce all the same - and who worry that future generations - including their own kids - will be deprived of the experience of knowing one lives in one of the most wonderful countries on the planet. While I fear this may look as a way of saying "I'm better than you", I mean nothing of the sort. For I believe that until I find a way to be part of something that stops our collective fall into a well of self-defeating insanity, I'm as much, if not more, guilty as anyone. If you've fought in an illegal war, as I have, you have a greater duty to prevent future illegal wars by your country. If you have children, your duty geometrically increases. If you possess any informational tools, such as my single typing finger or you have access to the much more powerful bullhorn of the Town Crier, mainstream media, and you waste such power in other, less worthy pursuits, guilt has to be your burden. (Not meaning to single out NOW, but this arrived in my mailbox, just as I finished reading the new Baghdad Burning entry. If, when studying the rise of . . . here it comes! . . . Hitler, we discovered that a major organization of opposition to Hitler's policies was sending out drivel like this instead of spending EVERY moment battling for the rights it stands for, we would be shaking our heads and wondering where the sanity of that group had gone. Come on, admit it! "LOVE YOUR BODY DAY!" It sounds like something from a Foley email that Hastert thought was just cute and friendly.) Here are some conclusions, based on my small sampling of good, compassionate people: Many "good people" avoid demonstrations/protests. for what I'm sure they view as legitimate reasons. Some have shared their reasons with me. Kids; fear of being seen by someone from work and, the number 1 reason, the organizers support other causes with which I disagree. The most recent protest I attended, a couple of weeks ago, was called for by The World Can't Wait. I was the ONLY member from my mailing list to attend.

Seems that:

• 1) it was held during working hours (though it continued until well after business hours.)
• 2) The organizers had some connection to either socialist or communist organizations.

# 2 was, by far, the most common excuse for avoiding the protest. Ironically, many of these folk would cheer those who battled against McCarthy, and would likely idolize those who provided help to the unfortunate souls who were blacklisted during the 50's. But to march in protest with folks who might have been on that list, or whose parents were on it, well, that would be just too much. On April 29, 2006 of this year there was a larger demonstration. Again, I was alone of my sample. (I should mention that my wife, on my right and holding the Military Families banner) also marches. I somehow think of her as someone more than a member of my sample.) Again, I found none of my associates there.

By August 16, 2005, attendance at protests were at a low. But a few of my list members did attend the candlelight marches in their neighborhoods.
Earlier on, there was more of a showing at marches. At the Republican Convention in NYC, the crowd was huge. And more than few of my mailing list members were there on August 29, 2001.

Barb and I at the Repugnant National Convention demonstration.
Of course, what should have been the most important demonstration of American sentiment of all, the February 15, 2003 (photo below) pre-attack march, was attended by the largest number of my sample. And, of course, it was when many of us discovered that the media had gone from biased propagandists to full out sycophantic whores for the Bush administration. Suddenly, a demonstration that could paralyze NYC on a weekend day was only attended by "thousands" of protesters, according to the NY Times. We, who were there, knew that the Times must have only counted people on one of the alternate/overflow avenues . . . and they must have only counted the "thousands" of crowd control cops there. But, the Times either wouldn't report, or couldn't conceive, that even after all of its front page lies about Iraq, and the barge loads of BS Judy Miller was transcribing Karl Rove's take on Ahmad Chalabi's fantasies, people, MILES AND MILES OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE, still believed we had no business attacking Iraq.

February 15, 2003. A month prior to our illegal attack on Iraq. Why do I bore/chastise you with all of this? Quite simply, I'm looking for a way to do more to stop our country's decline into history's Hell. More Here [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Give me that Old Time Religion! Okay, I'm no biblical scholar here. However, if the nuns and brothers who were so forceful in their teachings of religion were not putting me on, Christ had 2 women who held a special place in his heart. Coincidentally, both were named Mary. His mom, Mary, an unmarried teenage mom of whom I've heard tell was a virgin, and would therefore qualify to be hired at the Pope's television studio, where she would be demeaned, underpaid and victimized. And there was Mary Magdalene, a woman loved by Christ and a Mary whom I've heard was not so much of the virginity persuasion. (Of course, according to the stories/Gospels/books written by a few of Christ's friends, long after he had departed, he didn't seem to spend much time dating. So, I guess he might not have realized that virginity is a pre-existing condition that, unless quickly cured, can make prostitution a very poor career choice for a woman looking to earn a living.) This Mary would not be welcome to suffer under the Pope's TV execs.

An unholy row has broken out at the Pope's television station, with accusations flying that it paid derisory salaries, imposed demeaning conditions, victimised women employees - and even tried to hold a staff meeting to find out if some were virgins.

In keeping with the "God knows all" theme, the powers-that-be seemed to take such care of their employees that they even heard their complaints when the employees might well have thought no one was listening:

The director of Telepace (Peace TV), Monsignor Guido Todeschini, is to appear before the council of the Italian journalists' professional body in the next few days to answer claims by employees and the journalists' union. Union representatives will be seeking to find out if he has fulfilled earlier undertakings, given in February, not to monitor employees' telephone calls and to end the practice of requiring journalists to stamp a card at the start and end of work.

Also, it seems that for a very old church, they've kept up with even Wal*Mart's latest business practices:

- - - SNIP The source said women journalists working full-time were kept on part-time contracts with take-home pay of less than £11,000 a year. No one at Telepace was available for comment. - - - End of SNIPPET

No matter where you look today, from the uber-Christians justifying war, torture and more . . . in the name of Christ, to some in the Catholic hierarchy who believe that Christ should have been more condemning than compassionate to the Mary not his mom, you find that at least some branches of the followers of Christ have allowed their understanding of his teachings to evolve . . . while, interestingly, insisting that "understanding" is the only way in which anything involved with their species has ever evolved! The stories report of how a group may "hold a staff" anything [meeting] in search of virgin divining sounds like hymen dousing and seems a bit weird to me . . . but having a group of men try to justify the mistreatment of women based on whether they had ever had sex [or rode a rough horse?] makes the word "weird" seem a gross understatement. Especially when we have so recently read that other men of power at the Vatican are accused of harboring/hiding perverts who traveled around America like itinerant miners . . . only the ore they sought was trusting, faithful young boys. If one were a skeptic, one might look on the whole as being proof of a real fear of women in the hearts of powerful old men in robes. I'm only sayin' . . . [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Media Matters has a good take on the current flap over our web footed friends. ( Media Matters - The War on Christmas Penguins) Seems that penguins are really getting on the Repugnant's nerves. This time, it is due to the pro environment background in the movie. Earlier this month, it was about two male penguins who "adopted" and raised an orphaned penguin chick. The penguins "mated" for a time, but, eventually, one moved on to a hot female bird! But tree-hugging, or same sex hugging, little guys in tuxes have the right-wing all aflutter. Now, whatever your religion, or lack of one, if there is an all wise God/Gods/Thing/Spirit, It/They/He/She/Whatever is laughing They/Its/His/Her/Whatevers head(s) off at the utter stupidity and downright arrogant ignorance of the species that claims to be the highest intelligence on one of the billions upon billions of rocks hurtling through the universe. A portrayal of Gay and/or environmentalist (cartoon???) penguins threaten our way of life? Of course, biologists tell us that, like the all-mighty human animal, our more wild fellow denizens of the planet have a 10% to 20% "gay" population also. Ironically, though, in this well publicized case, the demonic penguins who want to take our kids to a wicked place aren't even Gay, in the more literal sense. As Ellen S (a member of a daily news mailing list I put out) pointed out in a reply to the original news story on this that I had forwarded a while back:

So, to use accurate lingo, the penguins weren't gay or bi, they were MSM's - (Men who have sex with men) like guys in jail just because that's what's available...

On a related note, I recall in high school how a guy tried to berate me for having a gay friend [Buddy R. - who wore bright clothing and worshiped Judy Garland - yet it took over a year before I figured out he was gay?] The guy said to me "You just don't get it, Ballinger. Your friend is a perve. Can you think of anything as gross and disgusting as what 2 gay men do?" In my one brush with brilliant repartee, I replied: "Yeah, I remember being 10 and having an older guy tell me how a man and a woman made babies. My God, I had never heard anything so disgusting ! . . and it took years - about 2 1/2 if I remember right - before I completely changed my mind on that subject. Just think, maybe you'll do an about face on this subject in just a couple of years." [/BREAK]

[BREAK] The new Amerika! Where enabling illegal and unjustified war is a "good thing" and propagating peace is virulently controversial? Well, based on this month's election, we may be leaving that disgusting time behind . . . maybe! (Of course, having top administration officials still pushing for a stay the course strategy makes on a wee bit skeptical that the bozos running this country even heard of the election results?) Adding more to the worry about our leaders' sanity, we are now in a phase where blaming the Iraqi victims for being angry at our ruin of their country is becoming an acceptable political tactic, and belittling the power and competence of our most recent of the parade of puppets we've made ruler of the mess we've made of Iraq is somehow seen as a move toward aiding him in his tough task of binding together tribes whose hatred of each other predates much of Western civilization. Even if we somehow find ourselves on a path that leads to less than decades of religious war blanketing the planet, we face the internecine battles that are gnawing away at societies from the middle east through eastern Asia and down to Africa. Coming soon to a block near you: The neighbor vs neighbor cage matches in new Amerika! Our idiocy knows no bounds. In a place where consideration of the banning of Muslim religious gear [veil, burka], can be conducted by officials wearing yarmulkes or crucifixes, while civil servants and prisoners can sue if they are denied a religious menu in prison or their "right" to long facial hair [Hasid beards] that makes [fire dept., police dept., EMT, etc.] breathing gear ineffective. Showing our total disregard for being pounded about the head and shoulders by the God of irony, we get our panties in a wad over somebody daring to equate peace with the birth of its "Prince" and "fine" those who would attempt to do so. What fools these mortals be! Update: The Board rescinds order to remove wreath, resigns, sends apology to the couple who had the audacity to visibly wish for peace on Earth.. War in Iraq gets worse, as Muqtada al-Sadr has his followers leave the coalition government and the US mulls retreating from "dangerous Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province" and concentrating on trying to keep Baghdad proper secure. (Bush's need to meet with Iraq's Prime Minister in Jordan, and not in Baghdad, certainly shows that security, even in the much vaunted "Green Zone", is not able to satisfy Bush or the Secret Service. Score: Peace 1 War 1 The tie is a loss, to our troops! [/BREAK]

USATODAY.com - On Deadline | Archives | Local look: Neighborhood fights over peace wreath Local look: Neighborhood fights over peace wreath From the Colorado brief in today's "Across the USA" roundup: "Pagosa Springs -- A homeowners group says it will fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that has offended some other residents as an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. Lisa Jensen said she's not taking it down until after Christmas." More on this story here!