The Divine Nexus

And a 15 Year Old Female Blogger Shall Lead Them...

2006-06-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

A week ago, Ava the 15 year old blogger had her video premier at the Netroots Conference in Las Vegas. It was a powerful, sincere full-throated anti-Bush roar! Ava lives in Alabama and is getting all kinds of media attention. She was interviewed by Joie Chen on CNN today and Ava handled her masterfully.

Anyway, I highly recommend that you visit her site called "Peace Takes Courage" and check out her animation. She has over 50 videos and they concentrate on telling the truth about the country America has become.

Not pretty, but necessary.

Murtha Tears Karl Rove a New ONE!

2006-06-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Democratic Hawk John Murtha appeared on Tim Russert's "Meet the Press" today and he was BRILLIANT!! He was an authentic and passionate Hawk with Commonsense and a Heart! I LOVED IT!

He showed the tongue-tied and intimidated Democratic politicians in the Washington Beltway how it is DONE! He man-handled the Republican talking points, crushing them and then creating his own concoction with them.

Murtha's a leader. I would follow him even though I know less than nothing about Defense issues but I do know this: Congressman Murtha speaks authentically from the heart and with HONESTY about the realities on the ground that the American public has seen on television and from the mouths of our troops. That much I know.

He is the ONLY one I've heard - Republican or Democrat - that has come forward with an authentic message and plan on Iraq. Now, John Kerry just gave a speech on Iraq that was startling in its forthrightness - but this only made me more angry with him because it was the damn speech he should've given 2 years ago!

Anyway, let me make with the goods! Here's a transcript of video excerpt from today's "Meet the Press" when Murtha responds to Karl Rove's regurgitated "cut and run" accusation against Murtha and John Kerry in New Hampshire speech Rove gave a few days ago:

ROVE (video): Like too many Democrats, it strikes me they are ready to give the green light to go to war, but when it gets tough and when it gets difficult, they fall back on that party's old pattern of cutting and running. They may be with you at the first shots, but they are not going to be there for the last, tough battles. They are wrong and profoundly wrong in their approach.

Russert: Cutting and Running

MURTHA: He's in New Hampshire. He's making a political speech. He’s sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside-saying stay the course. That’s not a plan! I don't know what his military experience is, but that's a political statement. This is a policy difference between me and the White House. I disagree completely with what he's saying. We've got to change direction. You can't sit there in the air-conditioned office and tell troops carrying seventy pounds on their backs, inside these armored vessels-hit with IED's every day-seeing their friends blown up-their buddies blown up-and he says stay the course? Easy to say that from Washington, DC.

More from Blogger Rachel Sklar on how Murtha masterfully showed the Democrats how to beat the stuff out of Karl Rove, fake-swaggering Bush and the rest of ‘em.

2500 American Soldiers Dead

2006-06-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

It's official: The number of dead American soldiers is now 2500. Wonder will the corporate media give these courageous soldiers the coverage they deserve despite all of the distractions? We know that the actual coffins of the soldiers will never be shown on American television, but a framed picture of a dead Abu al-Zarqawi can be shown 24 hours a day on the cable news channels - for all of the children to see. How ironic is this?

And on this, the same day that we are told that the 2500th American soldier has given his or her life to defend American democracy, our Supreme Court hands in a 5-4 decision saying "police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock". Who was the deciding fifth justice? Why, Justice Samuel Alito who took moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat - of course. The Bush Administration rejoices today. Our Constitution sustains yet another body blow in its previously tattered condition.

Yes, we are making our American soldiers proud.

Today the Republicans continue to play political games with the lives of our troops and the innocent Iraqi men, women and children as they engage in a farce of a debate on Iraq in the U.S. House and Senate. I hope that the anti-war Democrats and Republicans will stand their ground and demand an end to our Iraq invasion. The American people are behind the anti-war platform.

We need to get out of Iraq and bring our troops home. I fully support Congressman John Murtha's plan to re-deploy our troops. Here it is. It is a reasonable and wise plan (dictated in the ears of conservative Democrat Representative John Murtha by the frustrated military brass in the Pentagon) that will get us out of the greatest foreign policy disaster in the history of the United States of America.

Corporate Media Desparately Wants to Give Bush a Bounce

2006-06-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

Let there be no mistake: There is something terribly wrong with the mainstream American media. They are so intimidated that they bend over backwards to give Bush the benefit of the doubt and shill for him whenever they get the chance.

CNN and MSNBC are panting headlines like, "Bounce for Bush?" because of a "good week".

Let's see:

In a White House that had virtually forgotten what good news looks like, the past few weeks have been refreshing. A Republican won a much-watched special congressional election. President Bush recruited a Wall Street heavy hitter as Treasury secretary. U.S. forces killed the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. And now the architect of the Bush presidency has avoided criminal charges.

Now, let us examine the "successes" that are worthy of crowing about. A Republican won a California congressional race in a very tight race in a very RED district - foreboding how weak the GOP actually is going into the November elections. Bush found a new Treasury Secretary scapegoat for his continued horrible economic policies. U.S. forces killed Abu al-Zarqawi only to have another man promoted to his spot within hours. And now Karl Rove has escaped an indictment in the CIA Leak case which in and of itself is a thorough disgrace - anytime your top political aide and "indictment" are in the same sentence, you've lost the court of public opinion right off the bat.

But the corporate media myopically fails to see it this way in their eternal right tilt.

To me, Bush's secret trip to Iraq last night, Zarqawi's death (and the inhumane framing of his death picture) and all the rest of it is just more public relations spin packaged with a bit of truth to make the American citizen forget to remember what they already know.

I'm sorry. Zarqawi didn't do 9-11. Osama did. Where's Osama?

I don't care how many secret trips Bush makes to Iraq. Nothing's changing in Iraq until the country's leadership changes.

Everytime you look around, Bush and the GOP leadership is sticking it to the American people to the benefit of corporate America and the right wing social extremists.

People are fed up. I think people have become immune to Bush's PR moves and are tuning him out.

Zarqawi's death is not going to change anything in Iraq except perhaps it will get worse. Why? Because Iraq is going down the tubes because of American foreign policy, not because of one or two men. When individual men are killed, more will only take their place.

Karl Rove is free but the stink of corruption still follows him and the Republican Majority.

What has changed? Americans are suffering everyday financially, spiritually and physically. Soldiers are still dying and the IEDs in Iraq are still going off.
Nothing's changed.

Yesterday, a CBS poll came out to support my take saying al-Zarqawi's death and other recent "successes" are making little difference.

Why Unions? Labor 101

2006-06-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Detroit, Michigan and I guess you could say that I grew up breathing union much as I inhaled air. I took the Unions for granted and assumed they'd always be there. I did not always appreciate the true contributions of unions to the lives of unionized and non-unionized middle and working class Americans.

I assumed that pensions would always be honored, good health benefits, vacations, weekends and the 40 hour work week were just the American way if you went to school and learned a skilled trade or earned your higher degrees in college.

I didn't pay attention much when Ronald Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controller union in 1981 but was still able to get white working class Americans to vote for him. I didn't pay much attention to how the owners of the Detroit Free Press and News busted their own union during the mid-1990s and nothing's been the same since in the newspaper industry. By the way, that was a NASTY strike and some Detroit union members still refuse to subscribe to that newspaper again.

But today the 35 year attack on the Labor Movement is naked for all to see. Unions across the country are on their knees and whether you are unionized or not, I suspect that you as a blue or white collar American worker can feel the demise of pay and benefits.

There's an old saying: A rising tide lifts all boats.

The rising tide was provided by the unions and it pains me to hear people who have everything to gain from a strong union attack it by parroting right wing talking points on Fox News and the cable news pundits. As well, I think that unions have not been good at public relations and getting out there and letting the American worker know about the history of the labor movement and how unions have helped them as workers.

Another blogger Nathan Newman wrote a powerful entry on unions on DailyKos.com and I felt moved to share it here.

Please read it and pass it on. The truth needs to get out now because America is perishing for the lack of it.

America's Disgrace: 3 Suicides at Guantanomo Bay

2006-06-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

If you recall, a few months ago there were media reports of 75 of Guantanamo Bay prisoners engaging in a mass hunger strike to protest the inhumane conditions and their lack of access to a fair trial. We were told that these prisoners were force fed in the interest of humanity.

Now we are told that 3 of the prisoners has committed suicide by hanging themselves with their bed sheets.

And worst yet, one of the Bush administrations officials are trying to spin these suicides. One official says, "I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." Crap! They think we are stupid!

If this were an act of warfare against us then these prisoners would've killed themselves years ago when they were first imprisoned.

Now let me say right off that I do not know if these prisoners were terrorists or not. But what I do know is that the United States has a mighty document called The United States Constitution that used to be held in pretty high esteem by our elected officials until George W. Bush stole his way into the White House. It guarantees these imprisoned men their day in a fair court where our government can make their case and prove that these men were indeed terroristic threats to America. The fact that our Supreme Court has refused to force Bush to abide by our laws is an absolute dereliction of duty!

As well, the fact that Bush has avoided giving these men their day in court makes me believe that the government is unable to prove that these men have done anything wrong. So why are they being held? It is a national disgrace. Our reputation as champions of human rights is in the toilet. America has sullied herself on Bush's watch.

I can understand why these men, who have been heinously imprisoned and tortured with no access to a fair trial, would finally opt to kill themselves.

And for a Bush administration official to come out and try to spin these suicides as "an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us" is a cynicical attempt to appeal to Americans' fears and desire for self-protection. It is a very cynicial ploy that caters to our baser instincts.

But, my past knowledge of the Bush administration's lies and my sense of peace and social justice will not allow me to be manipulated in this manner. The truth is, I am more afraid of my government than I am of the existing terrorists. Yes, I am an American citizen and I am more afraid of my own government who continues to demonstrate such disdain for the American rule of law.

And I am appalled and outraged by every inhumane and corrupt act that is done in America's name within this country and around the world.

More than that, it is clear to me that the Bush Administration is hell-bent on protecting itself - and has declared war on the American people, our U.S. Constitution and the rest of the World.

Sermon from YearlyKos

2006-06-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'm an unabashed member of the "Netroots". Yes, I'm a daily visitor of DailyKos.com, the most popular political blog in America. It is a wonderful progressive outlet of information and rant-outlet for me.

As you may or may not be aware, this weekend the Daily Kos blog community held its first national conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference is called "YearlyKos"

Since I was unable to make the trek to Las Vegas, I watched the conference on video at home. It was wonderful. There were so many delicious panels on diverse topics such as the CIA Leak, illegal wiretapping, getting out of Iraq, how progressives can start winning elections again and election reform. Many elected officials attended such as Gov. Howard Dean, Gov. Mark Warner, Senator Harry Reid, and Senator Barbara Boxer - and plenty of 2006 progressive candidates.

Here is some video of several of the speeches.

Anyway one of the spiritually progressives bloggers called Pastor Dan held a session on Religion and Politics and he gave this fascinating speech His blog is called Street Prophets.

I hope you will take a few minutes and read his speech. Here are some powerful highlights:

We need a way to seek the healing of the world.

I mean to suggest, then, that for progressives in 2006, there are a number of questions about religion that we should not be overly concerned with.

We don't need to worry about what we are doing to attract conservative evangelicals.

We don't need to argue for more "God-talk" in political campaigns.

We don't need to fuss and fight about whether or not the Democratic party is "friendly to people of faith."

We don't need to reconcile faith and science: they are separate, but not necessarily antagonistic, realms.

We don't need to seek the conversion of American voters. They're fine the way they are, regardless of what they believe or don't believe.

We sure as shooting don't need to aim for using "Biblical principles" in Democratic political strategy or governance.

What we do need to do is ask some basic questions: what are we after, in the end? And how do we intend to go about getting it, together?

I found his speech particularly useful since it cuts through the media spin and gets at the spiritual and political truths we all need to grapple with.

I am clear on one thing: Reclaiming America requires a long-term committed progressive movement.

And I, like millions of others, have been called to serve.

The Truth About Haditha

2006-06-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

Haditha. Now, I'm just going to tell the truth about the atrocious killing of innocent Iraqi women and children in Haditha. I don't need to wait to hear more of the United States politicians lying to my face about how it was an alleged deed done by only a handful of American soldiers.

The truth is, they did it and they've been killing, raping and pillaging the Iraqi women, men and children for some time now. This is what happens when you send brave young American soldiers ill-prepared and ill-trained on an ill-conceived mission for which the rationale keeps changing. No wonder the suicide rate is at an all-time high. They are trapped.

Our troops are over there being blown up and shot at by an unseen enemy. These are the conditions they must survive under for days, weeks, months and years on end with the date to go home being held elusively over their heads repeatedly. They feel forgotten and are stressed out and tired, tired, tired - and full of fear.

And nobody cares in Washington. Nobody cares about anything in Washington except getting re-elected and saying the right thing and doing the right thing to guarantee this almighty re-election. Democrat and Republican. (Well, maybe a few care but most of them don't.)

Don't insult my intelligence (and that of other Americans) by sending one general over to Iraq to lecture the troops on "military ethics and honor". It is laughable. How can any of the military brass or the political leadership lecture these soldiers on a subject that is totally lacking within them??? What does Rumsfeld, Gen. Peter Pace, Bush, Cheney, or Condolezza Rice know of ethics and honor??

And, for the thousandth time, the media is yammering about how this is it, Rumsfeld will be forced to resign! Crap! Rumsfeld's not going anywhere until there's a change in Congressional leadership ranks in Washington, DC. Until then, Bush's same poisonous, callous, myopic Iraq policy will continue.

Even the Iraqi Prime Minister is speaking out about the troops careless disregard for the lives of Iraqis.

The raping, killing and pillaging will continue because this is what you see when you continue to send the same exhausted military men and women back for two, three, four and five tours of duty.

What do you expect? What can we expect?

More of the same: American sin and disgrace.

America is a country in want of real leadership and it is killing the collective American soul.

Bringing Back Gay Marriage: So who is surprised?

2006-06-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

We knew it was about that time, didn't we? Bush will prontificate about protecting the sanctity of marriage in a speech on Monday in order to try to rally the right wing Christian base.

Trouble is, 2006 is not 2004 and it is questionable how many people can get worked up over this issue again - atleast, enough to save the GOP from losing big in the November elections.

One of Bush's friends makes the comment in the above link that he doubts if Bush cares about the issue at all since he never even talks about it.

This is pure political pandering - and it is naked for all to see. Wonder if the media will have the guts to take Bush and the GOP to task for it?

Doubtful. Although this Newsweek article is a pretty good start.

The REAL Hot 100

2006-05-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

Who are the REAL hot 100?

http://therealhot100.org/

The REAL hot 100 is a list featuring young women from around the country
who are breaking barriers, fighting stereotypes, and making a difference
in their communities or the nation.

This project will not only combat the popular notion that all young
women have to offer is their ability to appeal to men, but it will also
highlight the important -- but often overlooked -- work young women are
doing.

http://girlsingovernment.org/mambo/

What does it take for a woman to succeed in politics? Despite the
progress made in the last century, there are still few women leaders.
Together we can change that. To become the leaders of tomorrow, we must
learn from the leaders of today.

The Divine Feminine Reasserts Herself

2006-05-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

I've been reading quite a lot about Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and its cultural ramifications including the conservative church protests. Most are concentrating on the notion of Jesus Christ marrying Mary Magdalene and little else. Very few in the media are using terms like "divine feminine","sacred feminine" or "goddess worship". Why? What's this all about?

For too long these terms have been wrapped in mystery and fear - much like the notion of feminine sexual power has. Yet the divine feminine continues to swim in the air we breathe and it affects our cultural identity assumptions, as well. Whether we are conscious of it or not. It matters not whether it is apparent to us in our thoughts or is on the outside of our consciousness influencing as the abstract "other".

Just think of how the Religious Right and Corporate America has formed a powerful coalition that now resides in the White House. They garnered much of their power by putting their collective feet on the faces of women and gays. The GOP's Southern Strategy traffics in seeking to control the bodies of women, gays and people of color. How much more "other" can you get?

What I find fascinating is that "The Da Vinci Code" has been published during a time of spiritual warfare between modernity (progressivism/liberalism) and a kind of traditionalism (conservatism) that is based in puritanical prejudices. For the past 6 years it seemed like these puritanical beliefs had won out. But not so fast. The battle is not yet done.

The Divine Feminine reaaserts herself daily in word, deed, thought and in Mother Earth. America and Latin America are leaning left now. The progressive tilt will continue to grow in America because things are definitely going to continue to get worse. There's no way around it. America is reaping the rotten public policy that it sowed for the last 6 years and thought it could wallpaper over with the constant lies and bullying of the right wing media machine.

But the truth continues to come out....

Howard Zinn: How to Fix What's Wrong

2006-05-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

I love to hear legendary progressive hell-raising historian Howard Zinn weigh in on our current debacle in America. He has some insightful things to say in his latest interview Howard Zinn on Fixing What's Wrong.

For those of you not familiar with Zinn, here is a video clip of his 2005 appearance on The Daily Show. Enjoy!

Prosperity Gospel vs. Peace & Justice Gospel

2006-05-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to see progressive black preachers with integrity beginning to speak out against these mega-church preachers like Bishop Eddie Long, T.D. Jakes and Creflo Dollar who are on Bush's Faith-based Initiative payroll.

Righteous preachers like Cornel West have said they are bothered by Prosperity Gospel Mega-churches in which you encounter two ATMs before you see a cross when you enter. Columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee weighs in as well.

I was truly bothered back in January when Coretta Scott King died, there emerged a number of articles on the future of the black church in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that claimed that mega-church preachers like Eddie Long were the future of the black church. Long, himself, came out and proclaimed himself the torch-bearer for the future of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s teachings. He said it in several publications several times.

My skin crawled when I heard it. I first began to question the integrity of Bishop Long when he led a march along with Bernice King in downtown Atlanta - only days after Bush stole another election and the Republican party took over Georgia. To this day, many Georgians have little confidence in our current electronic voting machines with no paper trail.

But, Georgians, rest easy - Bishop Long leads a march against gay marriage - not the Iraq War, not the lack of universal health care, not the poor public schools, not the systematic fazing out of women's reproductive choices and affirmative action.

Long, T.D. Jakes (who covered for Bush during Katrina), Creflo Dollar and the like will NEVER take a stand against the corrupt power structure. You can depend upon it.

All of these bought out preachers on Bush's payroll are a disgrace.

Turns out he's eavesdropping on ALL of US!

2006-05-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not surprised. But I am HOPPING MAD! Bush is recording tens of millions of Americans' phone records who are not suspected of terrorist activity. Tens of millions! And BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T willingly turned over their phone records in capitulation to the government.

I already wrote my phone company and read them the riot act. Now to find a new phone company...

I initially watched CNN, ABC & CBS Evening Newscasts to see how they'd spin this debacle and, predictably, they claimed the program was legal, praised Bush for coming out this morning to explain without taking reporters' questions and generally downplayed this matter.

Later, I watched Keith Olbermann's MSNBC "Countdown" show and he had Constitutional Law professor Johnathan Turley on who was appalled by this program and proclaimed that we're in the midst of a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS! You won't hear that on ABC or CBS. To CNN's credit, they had Jack Cafferty weigh in and he was a breadth of fresh air. He told the unvarnished truth:

Cafferty: We all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cause he might be all that stands between us and a full blown dictatorship in this country. He's vowed to question these phone company executives about volunteering to provide the government with my telephone records, and yours, and tens of millions of other Americans.

Shortly after 9/11, AT7T, Verizon, and BellSouth began providing the super-secret NSA with information on phone calls of millions of our citizens, all part of the War on Terror, President Bush says. Why don't you go find Osama bin Laden, and seal the country's borders, and start inspecting the containers that come into our ports?

The President rushed out this morning in the wake of this front page story in USA Today and declared the government is doing nothing wrong, and all this is just fine. Is it? Is it legal? Then why did the Justice Department suddenly drop its investigation of the warrantless spying on citizens because the NSA said Justice Department lawyers didn't have the necessary security clearance to do the investigation. Read that sentence again. A secret government agency has told our Justice Department that it's not allowed to investigate it. And the Justice Department just says ok and drops the whole thing. We're in some serious trouble, boys and girls"

To see actual Jack Cafferty video, see crooksandliars.com

Russ Feingold gets it!

2006-05-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

It is truly pathetic when one of your own has to continuously go public to shame you into acquiring a set of balls. Yet, this is what Democratic Senator Russ Feingold is forced to do. And I admire him for it. He is miles ahead of the rest of the "leading Democrats".

I do not understand why Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Biden and the rest of those nimrods continue to let Bush and Rove intimidate them. And, yes, I understand that our guys have to face a huge GOP political machine and a bought out corporate media, but Bush's approval ratings prove that the public is way ahead of Beltway Conventional Wisdom regarding Bush and the GOP.

What the heck are the Dems so afraid of? Fire the losing, quivering consultants and lead from the heart. Before it's too late.

America is hungry for a leader with real solutions and the more I see Russ Feingold the more attractive he becomes. He's willing to stand alone - on principle and brings IT everytime.

I think I'm in love.

Warrior for Peace & Environmental Justice Damu Smith, 1952-2006

2006-05-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

We honor the powerful life and contributions of yet another elder who has joined the Ancestors - Damu Smith. There is no question that the progressive movement has taken a mighty blow with this warrior's early demise:

Activist, Radio Show Host Damu Smith Dies

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 7, 2006; C07

Damu Smith, an internationally known D.C. peace activist who advocated for a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the 1980s, fought chemical pollution on the Louisiana Gulf Coast in the 1990s and campaigned against the war in Iraq in the new century, died May 5 at George Washington University Hospital after a year-long battle with colon cancer. He was 54.

Mr. Smith was one of the city's preeminent civil rights activists, the voice of a thriving local movement. He co-hosted the show "Spirit in Action" on WPFW (89.3 FM), where his advocacy continued "right up to the bitter end," said his partner on the show, Milagros A. Phillips.

"He was a freedom fighter. I mean tireless," said another friend, Dera Tompkins. "You could not know Damu and not be politically active. He demanded it."
Mr. Smith had many other friends, including Jesse L. Jackson Sr., with whom he traveled, poet Sonia Sanchez and actor Harry Belafonte, who presented him with a plaque last month for his community service.

LeRoy Wesley Smith was a native of St. Louis who came to the District in 1973 to study at Antioch College. His older sister, Sylnice Williams, said he was a curious child, drawn to science, and a natural organizer who became active in school politics.

When Mr. Smith was 17, he took a field trip to Cairo, Ill., and attended a black solidarity rally that showed him the power of community service. Jackson, writer Amiri Baraka, singer Nina Simone and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, King's top lieutenant, spoke that day.

Shortly after arriving in Washington, Mr. Smith was drawn into two causes: the fight for a national King holiday and the battle against South African apartheid. He took the name Damu, which means "blood, leadership and strength" in the Swahili language of Kenya.

In the 1990s, Mr. Smith joined Greenpeace USA, monitoring corporate pollution on the Gulf Coast. He coordinated the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, in 1991, helping to link the civil rights movement to the environmental movement for the first time, colleagues said.

As founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, Mr. Smith arranged so-called "toxic tours" of an area in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley. In 2001, he took author Alice Walker, poet Haki Madhubuti and actor Mike Farrell on a tour of the region, where black people experience a high level of cancer deaths.

Greenpeace released a statement saying that Mr. Smith's work led to a confrontation with Shell Oil over its "chemical dumping practices and forced the Shintech PVC Plant out of Norco, Louisiana." John Passacantando, Greenpeace's executive director, said Mr. Smith's death "is a monumental loss" for many groups and movements.

Mr. Smith was sometimes controversial. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Mr. Smith cautioned Americans and the U.S. government against targeting Arabs. At a forum, he reminded the audience that the former South African president Nelson Mandela was once considered a terrorist and that federal officials stood by as southern politicians and the Ku Klux Klan terrorized black people during segregation.

"As I recall, there were no Arabs riding horses terrorizing black folks," he said.
Love him or not, said a friend, Kwesi Ron Harris, Mr. Smith "spoke with maximum clarity. Whether you agreed with him or not, you had to take notice. When he walked into a room, you knew something was coming behind him, a rush of energy."

Said Phillips, the radio co-host: "He just had this passion for fairness and justice and wanted all people to live in a world that was compassionate." On the air, he would criticize Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "for something they had done, and he would end by saying, 'But you know I love you,' " Phillips said.

Activist Ayo Handi Kendi said Mr. Smith was such a tireless activist for others that he ignored his health.

Last year in March, after complaining of stomach problems off and on for years, he fell ill while leading a delegation for Palestinian rights in the Middle East. After his return to Washington, doctors told him that he was in the end stage of colon cancer. He was given three months to live.

In interviews before his death, Mr. Smith said he wanted to see his daughter, Asha Moore Smith, 13, grow to adulthood and that he wished to broaden his relationship with Adeleke Foster, who became his companion after his cancer diagnosis and assisted him until he died.

"He did fight," said Williams, his sister. "With God's help, he fought. He lasted longer than they thought he would."

In addition to his daughter, from an earlier relationship, and sister, of St. Louis, survivors include two brothers.

Stephen Colbert is doing the job that our media WON'T

2006-05-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

As the corporate media and the right wing castigate Stephen Colbert for the balls he displayed during the White House Press Dinner last week, Editor & Publisher columnist Greg Mitchell weighs in and calls it as he and I (and I suspect many others on the left see it).

Mitchell decries the hypocrisy and blindness on the part of the corporate media to criticism directed at Bush's sinking credibility and the media's refusal to directly mount a consistent challenge of it.

YAYY Greg!

A Presidency Out of Control

2006-05-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

This article written by Charlie Savage for the Boston Globe appeared a few days ago. It is about how Bush is using signing statements to argue that he can ignore long-standing American laws that he does not like.

It has gotten very little attention in the media. I saw a discussion of it on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show, but not much more.

I've said it before, but it is shocking how thoroughly intimidated our corporate media is. Bush's use of signing statements should have triggered a "Firestorm" .

We're in trouble.

Thank you Stephen Colbert!

2006-05-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

CNN and MSNBC yammered on about how hilarious Bush's speech was at the White House Correspondence dinner which included a Bush double. But the lesser-covered and REAL story was the bit Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" gave. Colbert is a brilliant satirist! He scorchingly criticized the Bush Administration and the corporate media at the same time. He spoke truth to power and Bush wasn't too happy about it.

Yet, CNN, the New York Times and other outlets wrote up the White House Correspondence dinner and mysteriously "overlooked" ANY mention of Stephen Colbert's bit. How can it be???
Not surprisingly, bloggers are on fire about it.

Here is one particularly powerful blogger response that correctly analyzes the problem: The media has chosen to ignore Colbert and continue to decide what is and is not news.

See Colbert's courageous bit on this site called Thankyoustephencolbert.org

Colbert is brilliant.

Huge Anti-War Rally in NYC

2006-04-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

The people continue to awaken and RISE UP! According to CNN, the military announced that April was the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq this year. Tens of thousands of patriotic Americans (and no doubt, people from around the world) showed up to roar against the war.

Trying to silence the press

2006-04-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Right in front of the public's eyes, Bush is arrogantly trying to intimidate the press into silence. The government is trying to start prosecuting not only the courageous Whistleblowers who alert the public when our government is breaking laws - but journalists, too.

Not since Richard Nixon have we seen such blatantly arrogant and hypocritical activity. But it's okay when the leaker the President himself.

I can't believe this is America. Seems like America is turning in to China or Russia really quickly - and right before the American public's eyes. American democracy is circling the drain while all kinds of illegal acts are being committed by our government in the name of the American public and this is why Bush is trying to jail the Whistleblowers and the Press.

The Truth is Coming Out if we are only willing to see and hear it.

More pressure on Bush to stop the killing in Darfur

2006-04-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to see that public outcry for Bush to stop the genocide in Darfur is ramping up. Some U.S. representatives were arrested today in protest outside of the Sudan embassy in DC. Wish I could attend the rally tomorrow in Washington, but I will be there in spirit.

Bush: The Manichurean President

2006-04-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

What doesn't Bush and the Congress get? Americans believe that Americans should be in control of their own national security. Incredible! But par for the course...

Bush approves Dubai defense purchase By Caren Bohan
Fri Apr 28, 9:58 AM ET

President George W. Bush approved Dubai's $1.24 billion takeover of Doncasters, a British engineering company with U.S. plants that supply the Pentagon, the White House said on Friday.

The decision, announced by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, followed a congressional uproar over security fears that scuttled another Dubai state-owned company's plan to acquire operations at major U.S. ports.

The interagency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States sent its confidential recommendation on the Dubai takeover of Doncasters to Bush on April 13.

"The president this morning accepted the committee's recommendation," McClellan said. "The committee recommended approval of the transaction after closely scrutinizing it and concluding that it would not compromise our national security."

Pat Buchanan: Impeach if Bush attacks Iran

2006-04-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm about to say something that I rarely say. I agree with right wing crazy Pat Buchanan! He writes adroitly about how outrageous and immoral it is to even discuss attacking Iran - a country that has no nuclear weapons yet and will not have one for another 8-10 years.

The Neo-conservatives and Bush are crazed, bloodthirsty, corrupt and incompetent traitors to America. How many more of our children will they use as cannon-fodder. But the main question is, how many more of our children will WE allow them to kill?

We need to rise and light white hot flames under the GOP-led Congress and Democrats to make it plain under no uncertain terms that the madness stops today: WE WILL NOT ATTACK IRAN - A COUNTRY THAT HAS NOT ATTACKED US.

Andrew Young is a traitor to himself and the Civil Rights Movement

2006-04-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

Andrew Young has sold his soul for a few coins. Whatever Walmart is paying him it is not enough. He has been a morally compromised, bought out fool for quite a few years now. It is only now that he has broken the mold and declared his moral treachery to all the world! How dare he become a Walmart spokesman "for Working Families" and declare he is doing so on behalf of Reverend Martin Luther King!

No wonder Bush asked Young to join his administration just after he'd stolen the White House in 2000.

No wonder it was Young who claimed that changing Georgia's flag was not an important issue back in 2001.

No wonder it was Young who criticized Joseph Lowery for taking Bush to task for Katrina and Iraq at Mrs. King's funeral in January in the national media.

No wonder it was Young who stood beside Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist to endorse Condolezza Rice for Secretary of State in 2005.

Anytime a bought off, weak-kneed, triple-talking shell of a black "Civil Rights Leader" is needed to provide cover for Bush and the Republican agenda - there stands Andrew Young.

How does he look at himself in the mirror?

How low can Bush's approval rating go?

2006-04-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

Bush's approval ratings fall to a new low - 32%!!!

I think we should have a rip-roaring party when it drops to the early 20s like Nixon's just before he resigned amid Watergate allegations.

Welcome Home, Georgia Troops!

2006-04-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Fort Stewart - After a year of living nervously, the families and friends of several hundred 48th Brigade Combat Team soldiers welcomed their loved ones home from Iraq in an emotional, late-night ceremony here Wednesday.

Welcome Home! Welcome Home!

Enough!

2006-04-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe how irresponsibly the corporate media is playing along with Bush and the Neo-cons desire to invade another country that hasn't attacked us - Iraq! Yes, Iraq's extremist leader is talking junk but so what? He doesn't have the ability to attack us and won't for another 8-10 years!

This is starting to feel exactly like the run-up to the Iraq Invasion. Condolezza Rice, the right wing pundits like Monica Crowley and the rest of Bush's cronies are talking like Iraq can attact us today!

Who will stand up and put an end to this bloodthirst for money and power? I doubt it will be the useless, sycophantic corporate media, and I won't hold my breath for the GOP-led Congress to stand and refuse! All that is left is the people.

Will they trust the judgement of a President and GOP-led Congress who has been WRONG about everything since they stole their way in office in 2000? Will they allow this failure of a president to hoodwink them into attacking ANOTHER oil-rich country that poses no direct threat to us again?

I hope not.

Representative Murtha's Exit Strategy for Iraq

2006-04-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

I know nothing about national security and military combat. I make my decisions about Iraq based on common sense and my sense of trust. These days, I no longer listen to any more of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice or Scott McClellen's speeches. They are all liars! Whenever I hear them utter anything, I automatically assume the opposite to be the truth.

So, when Pennsylvania Congressman and 30 year military veteran came out in November of last year against the Iraq war after voting for it in 2003, he had my attention. He spoke plainly and with integrity. He spoke with sympathy for the troops and all of the Iraqis who've been killed. He immediately had my attention. And then when Bush tried to smear him and his military record because he came out against the war, I really knew that Murtha was the REAL DEAL.

Here's a recent speech he gave which discusses in some detail his exit strategy for Iraq. He wants to re-ploy our troops and give the Iraqis incentive to create their own government.

Makes sense to me. Who says Democrats don't have any ideas? What's more, Murtha's getting his ideas straight from Military Brass who are very displeased with the way the Bush Administration has conducted this war.

John Kerry finally provides an Iraq exit strategy

2006-04-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well, what do you know? I almost missed this fact, but on Sunday Senator Kerry appeared on NBC's Meet The Press and outlined his Iraq Exit Strategy. The reason I almost missed it is because its gotten very little media attention. The White House has yet to respond to it - get this - Kerry's fellow Democratic senators have ignored it as well.

I worked hard to elect Kerry in 2004, but I must admit that I've still got a bad taste in my mouth over the kind of gutless campaign he ran and the way he fold so quickly Election night.

Still, he gets mad props from me for finally taking a stand. Better late than never. Now what will the rest of the Democrats do - with the exception of Russ Feingold and John Murtha who've already courageously stepped out there with plans of their own?

FYI - Katrina Survivors

2006-04-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Do you know New Orleans evacuees who would like to travel to Louisiana
to vote during the Early Voting on Saturday, April 15? Buses are being
organized in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio and
Jackson. Please have them contact call the NAACP at 225-214-7804 or
1-866-our-vote to arrange transportation by bus to New Orleans.

Immigration: The Truth About the Protests

2006-04-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

Source: Center for American Progress

Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, and other cities turned out for the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. The "scope and size of the marches have astonished politicians on Capitol Hill as well as the churches and immigrant advocacy groups organizing the demonstrations." The rallies were "largely festive rather than angry," but that has not stopped the right wing from turning its sights onto the protesters. As people took to the streets, right-wing chatter about the marches has been "burning up the airwaves on talk radio and cable news networks and has appeared in Internet blogs and conservative publications." Their myths have already begun to spread. The Progress Report does a fact-check:

MYTH #1 - RALLIES MEANT TO 'BLOCK ANY EFFORTS TO SECURE OUR BORDERS': In the face of yesterday's massive protests, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs continued to use a straw man argument to defend his radical positions on immigration and attack the peaceful protesters. "The marchers and demonstrators [are] also trying to block any effort to secure our borders," he declared. "They want to defeat efforts in Congress to secure our borders." The truth is that many of the demonstrators support comprehensive reform with strong border enforcement. The catalyst that "sparked protests nationwide" was HR 4437, the House bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and passed last December by the House. That dranconian "enforcement-only" bill contains "sweeping language" that "would make giving even humanitarian assistance" to undocumented workers a "crime punishable by up to five years in prison." The bill does not contain other components of real, comprehensive immigration reform, including stricter penalties for businesses who hire undocumented workers and a path for undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status. "We want to stop HR4437," said one protest organizer, "and we are demanding the Senate go back to the drawing board and develop an immigration reform bill and really fix the problem." Even in the face of the protests, the right wing is not backing down. "I don't think we ought to be talking about a more comprehensive approach," House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said Sunday.

MYTH #2 - ALL THE PROTESTERS ARE MEXICAN: To fuel anti-immigrant sentiment, some commentators are labeling all those attending the rallies as "Mexican." Last week, Fox News's John Gibson said cities would be hosting "major demonstrations by Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants...carrying the Mexican flag." Gibson would be surprised by the thousands of immigrants from around the world who came out to protest. While the crowds were "mostly Latino," "people representing other ethnic groups also participated." In New York, "the thousands who converged at City Hall Park were greeted in Spanish, Chinese, French and Korean, and heard invocations by a rabbi and the leader of a Buddhist temple." "Yes, we were strangers in this strange land," said Boston City Councilor and Korean-American Sam Yoon, "but now we are part of this land and we are proud to be here." Alan Coleman, a teacher in Washington, DC, held a sign "decorated with green shamrocks" that read, "We Were All Immigrants Once."

MYTH #3 - THERE'S A 'TRUE DIFFERENCE' BETWEEN PROTESTERS AND 'THOSE THAT BUILT THIS COUNTRY': Rep. Mac Collins (R-GA) summed up the view from the radical right when he wrote on the RedState blog that "there is a true difference between those protestors filling the streets today and those that built this country." Collins argued that, unlike the protesters, "immigrants like our forefathers embraced the American dream." But the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson points out that "many fully enfranchised Latino citizens" took part in the protests, many of whom turned out to represent family members, friends, and their cause. Latino military vets were also present at the rallies to show their support. "We just want what's fair for us and good for this country," one Hunter College student said. "We've been Americans all our lives. We know the Star Spangled Banner and we don't know the Argentine national anthem. We pay our taxes and we want to contribute to this country, which is the only place we know."

MYTH #4 - PROTESTERS CAME OUT TO 'INTIMIDATE': "I'm going to have probably several thousand people outside my office today in New York," Rep. Pete King (R-NY). "I mean, you can't allow that to intimidate you." Meanwhile, the "marches were peaceful, and many of them had a picnic-like atmosphere." The Associated Press described them as "peaceful protests that some compared to the movements led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and farm-labor organizer Caesar Chavez." In fact, many on the right have been trying to intimidate the protesters. Fox News asked if rallies were the "perfect chance to arrest illegal immigrants." Rush Limbaugh wondered if his listeners were asking, "'Where's the INS? ... Some of you might say, 'Surround them with INS agents.'" Radio host Brian James of KFYI in Arizona even recently threatened to "randomly pick one night - every week - where we will kill whoever crosses the border."

The Rep. Cynthia McKinney Mess

2006-04-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

I think that this is a blown out of proportion mess. It has been made into a tool of distraction to keep from focussing on the fact that corrupt Tom DeLay stepped down yesterday. It is being used to keep from talking about the deficit, immigration, jobs, government incompetence, election reform, women's reproductive choices and the separation between church and state, privacy and I could go on...

This should have been handled during a quiet meeting between the 2 parties in one of the US Capitol building rooms. The idea that this be a criminal matter is beyond the pale.

I can see where mistakes were made by McKinney, the officer and the security system which needs to be tweaked. And McKinney is being crucified in the Atlanta news media. Still, we are not really sure what exactly happened, but she's being tried in the court of public opinion anyway.

This needs to end. Yes, race and gender matter in America. And there is no way that Rep. McKinney can be equated with Tom DeLay which the right is trying to do.

This needs to end. It is not helping McKinney, the US Capitol Police, or this country.

The Religious Right's Paranoia and Victim Complex

2006-03-29T17:17:00.000-08:00

Answer me this: How can Christians, who are the primary religious group in America and are in charge of the White House, Congress and Supreme Court, be victims? The Religious Right held a Conference in DC yesterday peddling this fabricated nonsense.

Yet another non-existent, faux "War on Christmas" - only this time its being called "The War on Christians".

I would imagine mainstream America is quite sick of these people by now. I know I am.

Woman ticketed in Dekalb County, Georgia for obscene bumper sticker

2006-03-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

This happened right in the county where I live. The bumper sticker said, "I had enough bushit!" Now, I've seen this bumper sticker many times and thought nothing of it after snickering a few times. I've also seen far worse t-shirts, signs and bumper stickers that said the same about Bush.

As I recall, the first time I saw this bumper sticker was about 2 years ago. Can't remember if I was in Georgia or Michigan. Basically, the cop that wrote this woman a ticket is full of bushit. His intention is to silence this woman's voice of political dissent. Sound familiar? That's basically the intention of the entire right wing media machine which operates as an attack dog for the GOP.

I applaud this woman's willingness to stand firm and defend her right to free speech. Our return to the McCarthy era will only be complete if we allow it.

Georgia bill that allows Bible to be taught in public schools goes to Governor

2006-03-28T14:29:00.000-08:00

Ok. I was raised up in the Congregational church in Detroit, but I find this bill distasteful. If a parent wants their child to learn the bible then the kid needs to learn it at home or in church. End of story. Biblical instruction has no place in public schools. This is yet another attempt to bust up our the separation between church and state provision in our US Constitution.

Election time can't come too soon this year.

Latino Sleeping Giant Awakens!

2006-03-28T13:38:00.000-08:00

A new Civil Rights Movement seems to be brewing...There are protests rippling all over the country. Latinos are upset over the draconian House bill put forth by Republican Congressman George Sensenbrenner.

Immigration is a tough issue. My main concern is the attack on the working and middle class Americans going on in this country. The American Dream is being obliterated for everyone except the richest 12% percent of Americans. Therefore, I believe whatever immigration policy is adopted needs to be thoughtful, take into account why Latinos are entering this country illegally and break down the ability of business owners to economically exploit the illegal immigrants and native working and middle class Americans. I tend to favor the Kennedy-McCain immigration bill.

Russ Feingold for PRESIDENT!!!

2006-03-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

Yesss! And the Goddess God has shown us who to support for president in 2008!!! I thank the heavens for makin' it plain. I am so disgusted by the DC Beltway Dems I could spit fire. Cowards! All of them!:
Feingold Assails Dems on Bush Censure

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold accused fellow Democrats on Tuesday of cowering rather than joining him on trying to censure President Bush over domestic spying.

"Democrats run and hide" when the administration invokes the war on terrorism, Feingold told reporters.

Feingold introduced censure legislation Monday in the Senate but not a single Democrat has embraced it. Several have said they want to see the results of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation before supporting any punitive legislation.

Republicans dismissed the proposal Tuesday as being more about Feingold's 2008 presidential aspirations than Bush's actions. On and off the Senate floor, they have dared Democrats to vote for the resolution.

"I'm amazed at Democrats ... cowering with this president's numbers so low," Feingold said.

The latest AP-Ipsos poll on Bush, conducted last week, found just 37 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed approving his overall performance, the lowest of his presidency.

Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., tried to hold a vote Monday on Feingold's resolution but was blocked by Democrats. He said Tuesday that Feingold should withdraw the resolution because it has no support.

"If the Democrats continue to say no to voting on their own censure resolution, then they ought to drop it and focus on our foreign policy in a positive way," Frist said in a statement.

Feingold's resolution condemns Bush's "unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans within the United States without obtaining the court orders required" by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The only president ever censured by the Senate was Andrew Jackson, in 1834, for removing the nation's money from a private bank in defiance of the Whig-controlled Senate.

Ex-Supreme Court Justice warns of "beginnings of dictatorship"

2006-03-14T18:58:00.000-08:00

NPR's Nina Totenberg aired an amazing story this morning about a talk that just-resigned Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave at Georgetown University. The first woman to serve on the High Court wouldn't allow her actual words to be broadcast, and that's a shame, because -- based on Totenberg's report -- every American needs to hear what she said. The Reagan appointee who became a moderate and an American icon -- Bush v. Gore notwithstanding -- all but named names in thinly veiled attacks on former House majority leader Tom DeLay and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and ended with a stunning warning.

O'Connor told her Georgetown audience that judges can make presidents, Congress and governors "really really mad," and that if judges don't make people angry, they aren't doing their job. But she said judicial effectiveness is "premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts." While hailing the American system of rights and privileges, she noted that these don't protect the judiciary, that "people do":

Listen:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5255712

When the same Republican Supreme Court Justice who awarded the presidency to Bush in 2000 rises up and sounds the alarm to tell us that American Democracy is in trouble, I think that is a powerful message that needs to be heeded.

Censure President Bush!

2006-03-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

From Moveon.org:

Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold introduced a resolution to censure President Bush for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping American citizens.

When the president misleads the public and the Congress and willfully and repeatedly breaks the law, there need to be some consequences --that's how the law works for everybody else.

Censuring the president is a reasonable first step in condemning the president's actions. Now it's up to us to show broad public support for Senator Feingold's resolution. Can you sign this petition asking Congress to join the call for censure?

http://political.moveon.org/censure/
Thanks!

Senator Russ Feingold calls for censure of Bush

2006-03-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

It's about time. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold formally initiated a call for censure of Bush for illegally wiretapping Americans and betraying the US Constitution as well as national security.

I am disgusted by the other Democratic senators if they don't get behind Russ Feingold who is a rare bird in the Senate -- a Democrat with a Backbone!

As much as the republicans would like Dems to nominate Hillary Clinton for president, I am repelled by Clinton, Joseph Biden, John Kerry and all the rest of the Establishment Dems who spend most of their time worrying, and disassociating themselves from a solid progressive platform that will heal the country. These Dems want to do everything BUT the right thing. They allow the right wing to define them and seem to despise themselves.

I am totally impressed by Russ Feingold. He alone voted against the rights-robbing Patriot Act, didn't vote for the War in Iraq and has taken a clear stand regarding exiting Iraq.

He is one of the few Democrats I respect. In my book, he is the front-runner for the Dem Presidential nomination of 2008.

More of Bush's base is abandoning him

2006-03-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Well, some genuine red staters are waking up to the fact that the man who resides in the White House has no business being there. Country stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw express rage over the horrible way that Katrina survivors have been treated. Unfortunately, they've made their realizations too late to save this country from the unnecessary damage that's being done to it:

Faith Hill, Tim McGraw Blast 'Humiliating' Katrina Cleanup

Country Stars Lash Out in Anger Over Conditions in Storm-Ravaged States
March 8, 2006 — - Faith Hill and Tim McGraw -- two stars who usually stay out of politics -- blasted the Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort, with Hill calling the slow progress in Louisiana and Mississippi "embarrassing" and "humiliating."

The country music artists -- who are natives of the storm-ravaged states -- were at times close to tears, and clearly angry when the subject of Katrina came up during a news conference today. They had met with reporters in Nashville to promote their upcoming Soul2Soul II Tour, but when asked about the hurricane cleanup, the stars pulled no punches.

"To me, there's a lot of politics being played and a lot of people trying to put people in bad positions in order to further their agendas," McGraw, a 38-year-old native of Delhi, La., said after ABC News Radio's Dan Gordon asked about Katrina.

"When you have people dying because they're poor and black or poor and white, or because of whatever they are -- if that's a number on a political scale -- then that is the most wrong thing. That erases everything that's great about our country."

McGraw specifically criticized President Bush. "There's no reason why someone can't go down there who's supposed to be the leader of the free world … and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable, and you're held accountable, and you're held accountable.

"'This is what I've given you to do, and if it's not done by the time I get back on my plane, then you're fired and someone else will be in your place. '"

Hill: 'I Fear for Our Country'
The president had actually spent the day in New Orleans, getting a close-up look at boarded-up buildings and mountains of debris, noting that the city still suffers "pain and agony."

Along the president's route, some frustrated residents held up signs in protest, one asking "Where's my government?" and another telling the president to "cut the red tape and help us."

Hill, who grew up in Jackson, Miss., echoed those sentiments. So overwhelmed, she uncharacteristically unleashed an epithet, calling the situation, "Bull- - - -"

"It is a huge, huge problem and it's embarrassing," she said.

"I fear for our country if we can't handle our people [during] a natural disaster. And I can't stand to see it. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out point A to point B. . . . And they can't even skip from point A to point B.

"It's just screwed up."

Earlier in the day, McGraw and Hill had reason to celebrate. Their duet, "WLike We Never Loved At All," was nominated by the Country Music Association as the Vocal Event of the Year.

The couple rarely voice political opinions, though they've been active in raising money for Katrina victims.

McGraw is a member of the American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet, and in the days after the hurricane, he and Hill joined a mission to take supplies to Gulfport, Miss. At the Sept. 2 "Concert for Hurricane Relief," he appealed to fans to reach out with donations.

But under most circumstances, McGraw relies on easy charm when dealing with the media. In 2004, he actually told Time magazine, however lightheartedly, that he was thinking of going into politics. "I want to run for the Senate from Tennessee … Not now, but when I'm 50, when the music dies down."

"Wouldn't Faith make a great senator's wife?" he joked.

Then again, maybe he wasn't joking.

Reported by ABC News Radio's Dan Gordon in Nashville, and written by ABCNEWS.com's Buck Wolf in New York.

GOP Senate Refuses to Defend the US Constitution

2006-03-09T08:17:00.000-08:00

The New York Times picks their battles and I still hold it against them that they did Bush's bidding on the run-up to the Iraq War.

But I have to say that during these past few months, the New York Times Editorial Page has been getting after it regarding all of Bush's appalling failures of duty.

They rightly continue to sound the alarm regarding the GOP-led Congress that refuses to check a President on illegal warrantless wiretapping:

March 9, 2006
Editorial
The Death of the Intelligence Panel

The wrenching debate in the 1970's over the abuse of presidential power produced two groundbreaking reforms aimed at preventing a president from using war or broader claims of national security to trample Americans' rights.

One was the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which struck the proper balance between national security and bedrock civil liberties, and the other was the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, a symbol of bipartisan leadership. They endured for a quarter of a century — until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney left FISA in tatters and the Senate Select Committee on its deathbed in just five years.

The Senate panel has become so paralyzingly partisan that it could not even manage to do its basic job this week and look into President Bush's warrantless spying on Americans' international e-mail and phone calls. Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman, said Tuesday that there would be no investigation. Instead, the committee's Republicans voted to create a subcommittee that is supposed to get reports from the White House on any future warrantless surveillance.

It's breathtakingly cynical. Faced with a president who is almost certainly breaking the law, the Senate sets up a panel to watch him do it and calls that control. This new Senate plan is being presented as a way to increase the supervision of intelligence gathering while giving the spies needed flexibility. But it does no such thing.

The Republicans' idea of supervision involves saying the White House should get a warrant for spying whenever possible. Currently a warrant is needed, period. And that's the right law. The White House has not offered a scrap of evidence that it interferes with antiterrorist operations. Mr. Bush simply decided the law did not apply to him.

It was no surprise that Mr. Roberts led this retreat. He's been blocking an investigation into the domestic spying operation for weeks, just as he has been stonewalling a promised investigation into how the White House hyped the intelligence on Iraq. But it was disappointing to see a principled Republican like Senator Olympia Snowe go along. The Democrats are not blameless, either. Too often, their positions seem like campaign tactics, and Senator John Rockefeller IV fumbled by not consulting Ms. Snowe, who is up for re-election and under intense White House pressure.

But the Republicans deserve the lion's share of the blame. It was Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney who hyped the intelligence on Iraq — and the Senate Republicans who helped them evade accountability. And it was Mr. Bush who approved the warrantless wiretapping, which is part of Mr. Cheney's crusade to expand presidential powers. (Unlike the rest of us, Mr. Cheney thought the lesson of Watergate was that the president was not strong enough.)

Ms. Snowe said she would still support an investigation if the new panel uncovered more wrongdoing. But that's hardly likely to happen because the Republicans on the panel are Mr. Roberts, Orrin Hatch, Mike DeWine and Christopher Bond, who march in lock step with the White House.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is still looking into the wiretapping. That committee should have plenty of incentive to go forward — its chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, was righteously angry when he received a letter in which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales implied that there was more warrantless spying we don't know about. Mr. Gonzales won't even say that Mr. Bush understands it is blatantly illegal to spy on communications within the United States without a warrant. Nevertheless, there's not much cause for hope: Mr. Specter has a sad habit of bowing to the right wing when the chips are down.

There are moments when leaders simply have to take a stand. It seems to us that one of them is when Americans are in danger of the kind of unchecked surveillance that they thought had died with J. Edgar Hoover, Watergate and spying on Vietnam protesters and civil rights leaders.

I hope America is watching. We need a new Congress in November. A Congress that is willing to do their job and correct an out-of-control president while defending the U.S. Constitition and our national security.

We Will Not Be Silenced, Dubya!

2006-03-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a powerful video that's going viral. You gotta check it out!

Katrina Survivors establish new church home in Georgia

2006-03-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well, it had to start happening. Katrina folks are slowly beginning to establish roots in their new homes across the country.

God bless them. They know help ain't coming on Bush's watch.

Watch Katrina Video Here: Bush saw it coming and did nothing

2006-03-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

I'm numb. I’ve watched so many appalling failures on Bush’s watch that my anger has settled into a slow burn.

See video

A few days ago, this videotape was released. It visually solidified the fact that Bush was warned about how massively deadly Hurricane Katrina would be. Yet, Bush and Brownie peacefully slept through the night as the Gulf drowned.

As I write this, Katrina survivors – our young children, mothers, fathers, and elderly – scattered throughout the country are being evicted and their unemployment checks cancelled. Meanwhile, the GOP-led Congress is holding fake hearings and thousands of brand new government trailers sink in Arkansas mud unused.

Although Bush has yet to be held accountable in a significant way, you can change this. Now more than ever, we need real congressional oversight in our government in order to guarantee effective national security by hiring qualified professionals who can keep us safe, not Bush’s incompetent political cronies.

JOIN THE CALL TO CENSURE BUSH! CONTACT YOUR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE HERE

Been out of town

2006-03-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of posts for the last week, but I've been out of town at this AMAZING progressive political training program called the New Organizing Institute in Washington, D.C.

I got a chance to fellowship with all kinds of progressive and liberal activists from all across the spectrum - Greens, independents, Democrats and everything in between.

We talked politics and organizing all day every day and no one got tired of it! How rare is that?

Folks, it may not seem like it but there's new, rebellious, courageous and energetic blood placing serious pressure on the spineless Democratic leadership - and this is a HUGE thing!

There's hope for tomorrow!

Support Katrina Victims in Washington March 14th!

2006-03-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

Our folks are being kicked out of hotels/housing, kicked off of unemployment - Demand Justice:

Media Alert - For Immediate Release

KATRINA SURVIVORS, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, CLERGY, COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS, STUDENTS AND NATIONAL ORGANIZERS TO MARCH FROM CONGRESS TO WHITE HOUSE TO DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FROM GEORGE BUSH AND RALLY FOR JUSTICE FOR THE DISPLACED

WHEN: March 14, 2006 1:00 p.m.
WHERE:
- Press Conference: Rayburn House Office Bldg, Rm. 2237 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
- Mardi Gras Style March for Justice:Capitol South Metro Stop to the White House, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
- Rally & Vigil at the White House: Lafayette Park, 3:00 -11:59 p.m.

For More Information, please contact: Diane Shamis 845-661-3754 or 202-545-0113

Could this be the port deal that wakes the rest of America up?

2006-02-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I, myself have sat by and watched Bush commit one morally unspeakable atrocity after another and consider myself beyond shock. And so it was last week when Bush's decision to sell our ports to the United Arab Emirates first came to public notice.

But it seems that now many Bush supporters are hopping mad over the deal and Bush's stubborn insistence on defending it. He claims he will veto any bill Congress passes to stop the deal. I watched CNN's Cafferty Files yesterday and many Bush voters were calling for impeachment!

First off, Bush is going to lose this one and he needs his head examined for even suggesting that he'd veto any steps to cancel the port deal. No one takes his threat seriously. Everyone knows that a president who has NEVER used his power to veto in 6 years in office is NOT going to use it now to preserve a port deal that benefits the United Arab Emirates.

Then there are those who claim that questioning this deal is racist. I do not agree. After all, several of the 9-11 hijackers were from the United Arab Emirates and this country has a history of laundering terrorist money. Although I do not deny that most Americans stereotype Arabs as terrorists, in this case the fact surrounding this deal give great credence to those questioning the deal. And it appears that liberals, independents and conservatives are all questioning the deal.

Jimmy Carter made a colollosal error in judgement by backing Bush on this deal. Carter is making people question his national security judgement. I think he's probably trying to show people he's not biased against the Bush administration, but Carter should've had the good sense to keep his mouth shut. Let Bush ride this one to the bitter end.

Finally, the rest of the country sees the poor judgement of the administration currently occupying the White House.

U.S. Churches Speak Out Against Bush's War, Poverty & Anti-Environmentalism

2006-02-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

Yeah! I've been waiting for an organization of U.S. Christian churches to speak out against Bush's madness, inhumanity and greed. What took them so long??? And it is a powerful statement indeed. Here's an AP article on their stand which was made yesterday:

U.S. Church Alliance Denounces Iraq War

By BRIAN MURPHY, AP Religion WriterSat Feb 18, 1:05 PM ET

A coalition of American churches sharply denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq on Saturday, accusing Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown."

The statement, issued at the largest gathering of Christian churches in nearly a decade, also warned the United States was pushing the world toward environmental catastrophe with a "culture of consumption" and its refusal to back international accords seeking to battle global warming.

"We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights," said the statement from representatives of the 34 U.S. members of World Council of Churches. "We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war. We acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name."

The World Council of Churches includes more than 350 mainstream Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches; the Roman Catholic Church is not a member. The U.S. groups in the WCC include the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox churches and Baptist denominations, among others.

The statement is part of widening religious pressure on the Bush administration, which still counts on the support of evangelical churches and other conservative denominations but is widely unpopular with liberal-minded Protestant congregations.

The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, the moderator for the U.S. group of WCC members, said the letter was backed by the leaders of the churches but was not cleared by lower-level bodies. He predicted friction within congregations about the tone of the message.

"There is much internal anguish and there is division," said Kishkovsky, ecumenical officer of the Orthodox Church of America. "I believe church leaders and communities are wrestling with the moral questions that this letter is addressing."

On Friday, the U.S. National Council of Churches — which includes many WCC members — released a letter appealing to Washington to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and saying reports of alleged torture violated "the fundamental Christian belief in the dignity of the human person."

The two-page statement from the WCC group came at the midpoint of a 10-day meeting of more than 4,000 religious leaders, scholars and activists discussing trends and goals for major Christian denominations for the coming decades. The WCC's last global assembly was in 1998 in Zimbabwe — just four months after al-Qaida staged twin bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

"Our country responded (to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks) by seeking to reclaim a privileged and secure place in the world, raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors ... entering into imperial projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of national interests," said the statement. "Nations have been demonized and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous."

The Rev. Sharon Watkins, president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), worried that some may interpret the statement as undermining U.S. troops in Iraq.
"We honor their courage and sense of duty, but ... we, as people of faith, have to say to our brothers and sisters, `We are so profoundly sorry,'" Watkins said.

The message also accused U.S. officials of ignoring warnings about climate change and treating the world's "finite resources as if they are private possessions." It went on to criticize U.S. domestic policies for refusing to confront racism and poverty.

"Hurricane Katrina revealed to the world those left behind in our own nation by the rupture of our social contract," said the statement.

The churches said they had "grown heavy with guilt" for not doing enough to speak out against the Iraq war and other issues. The statement asked forgiveness for a world that's "grown weary from the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown."

Here's why the Cheney Shooting IS a story

2006-02-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

I've heard some people wonder why the media is making such a big deal about the Vice President accidentally shooting a man and refusing to address the American people about it for four days.

The New York Times and Washington Post each ran incisive yet properly sarcastic editorials which explore why this is, indeed, a story:

The New York Times
Editorial
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

White House Shoots Foot
Let's see. The vice president of the United States accidentally shot someone while bird-hunting on a Texas ranch. It took the White House nearly 24 hours to share that information with the rest of the nation because Dick Cheney thought it would be better for the ranch's owner to give the story to the local newspaper first. And by the way, it was all the victim's fault.

That's their story, and they're sticking with it.

Mr. Cheney was a weekend guest at a ranch owned by Katharine Armstrong, a lobbyist whose family has longstanding ties with the Texas Republican Party and the Bush White House. Mr. Cheney, who is proud of his reputation as an outdoorsman, was gunning for quail when, according to Ms. Armstrong, a 78-year-old lawyer named Henry Whittington got between the vice president and the bird. Mr. Cheney pulled the trigger, forgetting one of the National Rifle Association's top rules for gun safety: "Be absolutely sure you have identified your target beyond any doubt. Equally important, be aware of the area beyond your target." Mr. Whittington was sprayed with birdshot.

Fortunately, Mr. Cheney travels with his own medical team. (The vice president suffers from heart problems, although the full details of his physical condition are secret.) Nevertheless, according to the White House, Mr. Cheney was so busy attending to Mr. Whittington that he was unable to inform even President Bush about what had happened for a very long time. His retinue - usually bristling with cellphones, pagers, BlackBerries and satellite phones - was also oddly incommunicado.

The rest of the world might have been in the dark forever if Ms. Armstrong had not chosen to share the news with a reporter from the paper in Corpus Christi.

The White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, tried to spin this as a communications strategy. The vice president of the United States, he explained, designated a private citizen (who is a lobbyist for a Texas engineering company) "to go out there and provide that information to the public." As a result, what might have been a one-day gag on late-night TV is now a running story, and an excellent reminder that this administration never met a fact that it didn't want to suppress. (The last time Mr. Cheney made news while hunting was when he secretly invited Justice Antonin Scalia to go shooting right after the Supreme Court had agreed to decide whether Mr. Cheney could keep the membership of his energy task force secret.)

The vice president appears to have behaved like a teenager who thinks that if he keeps quiet about the wreck, no one will notice that the family car is missing its right door. The administration's communications department has proved that its skills at actually communicating are so rusty it can't get a minor police-blotter story straight. And the White House, in trying to cover up the cover-up, has once again demonstrated that it would rather look inept than open.

When the Veep Shoots Someone
The Washington Post
Editorial
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; A14

HOW IS IT THAT the vice president of the United States can shoot and wound someone and the American public doesn't learn of it until 18 hours later -- and then only because the owner of the location where the event occurred decided the next day to tell a local reporter? The White House has no satisfactory answer; neither does the vice president's office. But this much is known, following press inquiries: While quail hunting on a privately owned Texas ranch Saturday, Vice President Cheney accidentally sprayed a hunting companion, Harry Whittington, with birdshot from a shotgun about 5:30 p.m. The shooting wasn't disclosed until Sunday morning, when Katharine Armstrong, a member of the family that owns the ranch, called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and the paper posted the story on its Web site in the afternoon after confirming the account with Mr. Cheney's office. Until then, the White House and the vice president's office were mum. By every standard and by all accounts, the failure to promptly disclose the accident was wrong.

Of course, the first priority when a person is shot and wounded is to make sure the victim receives the necessary medical care. That apparently was done at the scene by medical attendants accompanying Mr. Cheney. And the Secret Service reportedly notified the local sheriff's office of the incident on Saturday, according to the New York Times. The vice president's staff also regarded the matter as serious enough to alert President Bush on Saturday and to give the White House updates on the condition of Mr. Whittington, who was released from intensive care yesterday afternoon but remains at a Corpus Christi hospital with wounds to his upper body.

What makes little sense, however, was the White House's decision, according to press secretary Scott McClellan, to defer disclosure of the shooting incident to the vice president's office, and that office's decision to further defer to the owners of the ranch.

Mr. Cheney did not check his official title at the Armstrongs' front gate. That was no private citizen who pulled the trigger, sending someone to the hospital. That act, though accidental -- and doubtless both agonizing and embarrassing -- was committed by the country's second-highest public official. Neither Mr. Cheney nor the White House gets to pick and choose when to disclose a shooting. Saturday's incident required immediate public disclosure -- a fact so elementary that the failure to act properly is truly disturbing in its implications.

Full Congressional Probe of Warrantless Wiretapping Appears to Be Dead

2006-02-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, it seemed like a few republican senators who were appalled by Bush's warrantless wiretapping would force the Republican leadership in the Senate to conduct full hearings into the unconstitutional program, but today it appears these same senators have caved. Instead, it seems like they're going to pass a law to make this illegal program legal.

I'm not surprised. I'd just like to know where are the real conservatives that once stood for privacy rights, fiscal responsibility, states rights, separation between church and state as well as environmental protections? Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan wouldn't recognize the current Republican Party. They are shredding the US Constitution and are traitors to America.

Bush's Trust Gap

2006-02-12T04:54:00.000-08:00

Bush is constantly asking Americans to trust him despite the fact that he is constantly lying to us - in front of our very eyes, in many cases! I often shake my head in wonder at the people who still support the Bush Regime. I wonder, how can it be so? Then I remember that the right wing has developed a very powerful media machine with Fox News as the centerpiece. This machine has created a seperate information/reality for liberals and conservatives. Still, one would imagine that even stalwart conservatives must be waking up to the fact that Bush and his administration cannot be trusted.

Anyway, the New York Times Editorial Board courageously (they pick their battles) weighs in on Bush's inability to be trusted. I commend them because this is a subject that most of the corporate media has shied away from addressing. In fact, the corporate media STILL insists on looking to the Bush administration officials as "reliable sources" to quote on stories and rarely challenge their lies. Even though the administration has been caught in lie after lie after lie....

I said goodbye to Mrs. King

2006-02-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

I viewed her body yesterday morning. She looked lovely and I was honored to be able to do so. I wasn't able to attend her noon funeral because the church was full and I was turned away. So, I went home and watched the service. It was a wonderfully powerful and appropriate celebration of life for a woman who was civil rights royalty.

You know what though? I wasn't dissatisfied that I didn't get into the church for the funeral because I had gotten the opportunity to view her body. Something I will never forget.

My biggest regret is that I've been living in the metro Atlanta area for about 12 years now and never attended the King Services so I could see her when she was still living. I took her presence for granted. And, now that she is gone, I see how much time I wasted.

Mrs. King was a class act. I feel such sadness because we are rapidly losing our elders. Ossie Davis. Constance Baker Motley. John H. Johnson. Rosa Parks. Hosea Williams. The good news is that we, the younger generation, are now being pressed to accept the torch that Mrs. King carried and take the struggle to another level.

I was blessed. There were SOOOO many black folks as far as my eye could see - of all ages - standing in line patiently and with so much gratitude for Mrs. King's contribution to changing the world. And everyone had wonderful stories to tell.

I was blessed.

A Conservative Christian Against GOP Religious Extremism

2006-02-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

Retired Republican Senator and Episcopal priest John Danforth came out against the Republican party becoming the political arm of the Christian right back in March during the Terri Schiavo debacle. I really appreciated reading his column during the Schiavo madness, although I don't agree with most of Danforth's politics.

Today, he came back out on his perch to crow against the religious right's grip on the GOP and how they are tearing America apart.

I wish more moderate Republicans would stand up and take back their political party. Now would be good.

GOP shafts the Elderly, College Students, Working Moms and the Poor Yesterday!

2006-02-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

Well, when Bush ran for the presidency he told us he was a "compassionate conservative" who is a born again Christian.

So, what kind of compassion and Christianity is "party of God" practicing? Yesterday they rammed a cold-hearted bill that they call "budget reconciliation" that cuts college students' financial aid, medicare and other social programs. They say they're doing it to get control over our deficit.

Thing is, today the GOP is trying to ram through making the tax cuts for the rich PERMANENT! So, whatever you would've saved by cutting the social programs yesterday is lost by making the tax cuts for the rich permanent.

But the GOP thinks they'll get away with these cuts on election day this year by convincing us that they are better than the Democrats on national security, guns, god and gays. Yep, the old formula.

Bottom line, cutting the elderly, the students, women and the poor is bad politics and immoral. It's a sin, a shame and a disgrace.

America is fast becoming a very mean-spirited society.

We need to wake up.

And So Another Great Elder Joins Our Ancestors: Coretta Scott King 1927-2006

2006-01-31T05:36:00.000-08:00

We continue to lose our warriors for peace and justice. Today the Goddess God has taken home another powerful elder Coretta Scott King. She transitioned early this morning in her sleep in California at age 78.

I am quite prayerful today. I am grateful for her personal legacy of social justice rooted in the Civil Rights Movement. Mrs. King made her final public appearance at a King rememberance ceremony about 2 weeks ago in Atlanta and I assumed that she was recovering and would be with us for atleast several more years.

Isn't it interesting that Mrs. King made her transition on the day that radical right wing ideologue Samuel Alito will be confirmed for the Supreme Court? He is one who is being specifically placed on the court to rollback the social justice gains of the last 50 years in legal decisions that privelege rights of the individual as it pertains to civil liberties, workers rights, environmental protections, women's reproductive rights, separation of church and state, affirmative action and gay rights. Perfect, isn't it? What better way to send a message summoning the next generation to stand up and accept the torch working toward peace and social justice?

I accept this torch. I feel grateful for the immense legacy that has been left to me and the younger generations of all people. For I am summoned for this high calling and I pledge to continue the fight for peace and equal justice for all.

I also call upon the Goddess God to assist the King children to come together in peace and wisdom and decide upon the best future for the King Center for Social Change for the Beloved Community.

I thank you Mother King!

Going Forward: We Still Have the Power. Period.

2006-01-30T17:17:00.000-08:00

Ok. It sucks. Alito will be on the Supreme Court because the filibuster failed. The number of Democrats who voted against the filibuster included a number of red state senators. This is somewhat understandable since the Democratic senators and interest groups did a HORRIBLE job of educating the public on just how much Alito is out of the mainstream.

So, we lost this battle but not the war. Here's a great post from the blog DailyKos written a longtime progressive activist on going forward. I think it merits a quick read, for it is quite wise.

My prayer is that more of the apathetic public will wake up and realize how much the truth matters then rally with us to take our country back.

Update: Time for a Million Man Phone March Against Alito TODAY!

2006-01-30T05:37:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend you generated a tsunami of phone calls supporting a
filibuster of Alito. Today at 4:30 PM EST is the cloture vote on the
Alito filibuster, and with your dedication we will generate two tsunamis.

We will win because we will hit them where they are weakest, their fear
of not getting reelected. In your calls today we will arm you below
with specifics about candidate registration deadlines for primary
challenges so THEY know WE know where their election hopes live.

The bottom line is ANY senator who betrays the will of the people must
be removed from the general election before they have a chance to lose
yet another seat because of their cowardice, and be replaced with a
stronger candidate who WILL fight for the people and win. Regardless of how this turns out, we will immediately and aggressively move in that direction.

Very simply, in your calls today ask for a commitment that they will
either vote against cloture OR abstain (either is acceptable). If not
tell them you will encourage a challenger to run in their own state and
support them any way you can. Use the details below (like cutoff date
for primary candidate filing) to let them know how very serious you are.

Tell them what state you are actually calling from if they ask. Please
concentrate on your own senators and the ones listed below as the key
ones to sway. All the toll free numbers to the Washington offices we
have are 888-355-3588, 888-818-6641, 800-426-8073, 877-851-6427,
866-340-9279 and 866-340-9281. The master list of all direct dial phone and
fax numbers for all senators state by state including all district
offices is here:

http://www.nocrony.com/master_senate_phones.txt

UP FOR ELECTION IN 2006

Daniel Akaka [HI], already has two primary challengers, one of whom, Ed
Case, is a former elected state representative and is polling well.

Joe Lieberman [CT], already has a primary challenge looming from Ned
Lamont who has set up an exploratory site, and until 5/16 to make the
decision to jump in. They last thing Joe needs is lots of more
encouragement for Lamont.

Bill Nelson [FL], currently has NO primary challenger, with until 5/12
to find one.

Ben Nelson [NE], currently has NO primary challenger, but if there is a
concerned citizen in Nebraska who wants to run they have until 3/1 to
register as a candidate.

Jeff Bingaman [NM], currently has NO primary challenger but still two
weeks remain until the deadline for filing of 2/14.

Carper [DE], currently has NO primary challenger and all the way until
7/28 to enter the primary against him.

Kohl [WI], currently has NO primary challenger. We have heard he plans
on skipping the vote, which is the same thing as an abstain. The
filing deadline in Wisconsin is 7/11.

Cantwell [WA], is being already challenged by a strong progressive
candidate, Mark Wilson.

Byrd [WV], has no serious primary challenger we can confirm and the
1/28 deadline has just expired. Perhaps you can appeal to his professed
love of the Constitution which Alito would gut.

Robert Menendez [NJ], was just appointed but has to run himself this
year. If he drops the ball there are challengers waiting in the wings
and until 4/10 to decide.

Lincoln Chafee [RI] is a Republican who professes to be pro-choice and
not feeling very secure right now about her 2006 prospects. Perhaps he
is a possibility for abstention on cloture.

Olympia Snowe [ME] is a another Republican who professes to be
pro-choice who must face the electorate in 2006. She should also be encouraged
to abstain on cloture.

OTHER POSSIBLE SWING SENATORS

Blanche Lambert Lincoln [AR], up for reelection in 2010
Mark Pryor [AR], up for reelection in 2008
Tom Harkin [IA], up for reelection in 2008
Evan Bayh [IN], up for reelection in 2010
Mary Landrieu [LA], up for reelection in 2008
Susan Collins [ME], up for reelection in 2008
Carl Levin [MI], up for reelection in 2008
Max Baucus [MT], up for reelection in 2008
Frank Lautenberg [NJ], up for reelection in 2008
Tim Johnson [SD], up for reelection in 2008
Patty Murray [WA], up for reelection in 2010

Just tell them that failure to support this filibuster will be a deal
breaker as Alito starts to cast the votes that his reactionary
supporters absolutely know he will.

If you can't get through any other way, or even if you can, also submit
these two action pages too:

http://www.millionphonemarch.com/nuke_option.php

http://www.millionphonemarch.com/reid.php

Let us be able to look back and say we did everything we could have
done to win this victory in spite of the corrupt media pundits who are
working overtime to tell us what we cannot do. We are proving them wrong
day by day. At the very worst we will establish once and for all who
we can never trust with the public office ever again.

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

Here's how to push the Senate to Oppose Alito!

2006-01-23T05:49:00.000-08:00

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the unfolding Senate confirmation proceedings of radical right winger Samuel Alito, here's why Alito needs opposing - in the words of spineless Republican Senate Majority leader Bill Frist.

Furthermore, today the New York Times editorial page ran a gutsy take on why the Dems and moderate Republicans MUST do EVERYTHING possible to keep Alito from poisoning the courts against "the little guy".

Here's an email I received from a friend of mine named Marymine. She sums up the situation best and lets you know what we can do TODAY to push the Democrat and moderate Republican senators to do everything they can to keep this nutcase OFF of the Supreme Court:

I'm in the process of emailing out to as many people as possible what
I'm discovering as I am calling Senate offices, which are now open.

1. They are really listening!

2. They take seriously hearing that Gore's speech fully expressed
Democrats' rage and fear we all have for what is happening in this
country, as well as our immense frustration and hopelessness about our
own representatives because of their repeated passivity.

3. They are particularly sensitive to repeating back to them their own
promise - that they were "holding their powder (bullets?)" on Roberts
(who should have been resisted), because THIS nomination for O'Connor's
seat was the critical one and they would even filibuster to stop from
putting anyone but a moderate in that spot.

4. And they hear when I say that people across the country are
DISGUSTED with their own party for not standing up for them again and
again, including women now truly detesting Diane Feinstein for blowing
off even the idea of filibuster, betraying not only her own promise
about abortion, but the central issue of how frighteningly to the right
this guy is and how READY he is to declare constitutional all that Bush
is doing (since Alito helped devise most of it!).

What is at stake?

We are:

**being falsely taken into wars,
**being spied on without warrants,
**holding 1000s of people on no charges,
**facing legal changes that increasingly deny access to courts,
**overwhelmed by the growth of corporate power,
**left with environmental laws parsed into impotence,
**receiving presidential signing statements which contradict the very
bills,
**caught in the Federalist Society move toward a unitary
presidency capable of eliminating federal agencies under him such as
the EPA, FDA, Voting Rights Commission, SEC ...)

And that is leaving off the huge importance of women's issues or gay
issues - but only listing the full court press of a presidency moving
us further and further toward his total control.

I started my calls with the Judiciary Committee Democrats (Kennedy,
Kohl, Feingold, Schumer, Leahy, Feinstein, Durbin and ?) but I'm also
calling Harry Reid's office (all of them, repeatedly) since he's the
minority leader and is also walking away from a fight. Call him a
coward, call them all that, get mad, let them know how you feel.

I believe they are now sensitized by the endless emotional standing
ovations that Gore got and by the truly profound picture he painted -
and this nomination is SMACK DAB in the middle of everyone of those
issues. (How can you say you care about spying and not care who will
decide whether it's constitutional? Same about corruption or any other
crime this administration has committed.)

Gore's speech stirred up a hornet's nest and the Democratic Senators
are now caught between the full horror Gore aptly described and their
flabby consciences and in that spot between the two, OUR ANGER at them for
past betrayals, OUR CERTAINTY that this guy is dangerous, OUR DEMAND FOR A
FILIBUSTER, is getting heard.

So, I hope you will also print out the list of Senators below, too, and
take them with you today and call in every spare minute.

Call and call and get mad for what we have all been put through and
then call again, and again.

We HAVE to do something RIGHT NOW!!! The Judiciary Committee is
scheduled to vote Tuesday and the full Senate may vote this week.

Best wishes to all of us on fulfilling our responsibility to save this
country from what it is becoming. Gore didn't use the F word but
fascism is real and already happening here.

Would you pass the list to friends, ask them to call and contact
everyone you possibly can on the internet through groups and
organizations and blogs and emails? Would you let them know that they
need to do something RIGHT NOW - today! today! - about Alito? Would
you encourage all the people you can reach to do as much networking and
phone banking and internet-savvy moves as they can possibly jump on to
stir up millions (I mean that literally) of calls to the Senate
Democrats and the handful of moderate Republicans?

Moblization used to be in the streets at a moment's notice. We have to
do it this way now, by phone and email and internet groups, but,
isolated as it is, we HAVE TO DO IT!

If you don't feel like calling, then drop an email to these senators. Here's the senate website

Akaka, Daniel- (D - HI) (202) 224-6361
Baucus, Max- (D - MT) (202) 224-2651
Bayh, Evan- (D - IN) (202) 224-5623
Biden, Joseph- (D - DE) (202) 224-5042
Bingaman, Jeff- (D - NM) (202) 224-5521
Boxer, Barbara- (D - CA) (202) 224-3553
Bunning, Jim- (R - KY) (202) 224-4343
Byrd, Robert- (D - WV) (202) 224-3954
Cantwell, Maria- (D - WA) (202) 224-3441
Carper, Thomas- (D - DE) (202) 224-2441
Chafee, Lincoln- (R - RI) (202) 224-2921
Clinton, Hillary- (D - NY) (202) 224-4451
Susan Collins - (R - ME) (202) 224-2523
Conrad, Kent- (D - ND) (202) 224-2043
Corzine, Jon- (D - NJ) (202) 224-4744
Dayton, Mark- (D - MN) (202) 224-3244
Mike Dewine - (D - OH) (202) 224-2315
Dodd, Christopher- (D - CT) (202) 224-2823
Dorgan, Byron- (D - ND) (202) 224-2551
Durbin, Richard- (D - IL) (202) 224-2152
Feingold, Russell- (D - WI) (202) 224-5323
Feinstein, Dianne- (D - CA) (202) 224-3841
Harkin, Tom- (D - IA) (202) 224-3254
Inouye, Daniel- (D - HI) (202) 224-3934
Jeffords, James- (I - VT) (202) 224-5141
Johnson, Tim- (D - SD) (202) 224-5842
Kennedy, Edward- (D - MA) (202) 224-4543
Kerry, John- (D - MA) (202) 224-2742
Kohl, Herb- (D - WI) (202) 224-5653
Landrieu, Mary- (D - LA) (202) 224-5824
Lautenberg, Frank- (D - NJ) (202) 224-3224
Leahy, Patrick- (D - VT) (202) 224-4242
Levin, Carl- (D - MI) (202) 224-6221
Lieberman, Joseph- (D - CT) (202) 224-4041
Lincoln, Blanche- (D - AR) (202) 224-4843
Mikulski, Barbara- (D - MD) (202) 224-4654
Murray, Patty- (D - WA) (202) 224-2621
Nelson, Bill- (D - FL) (202) 224-5274
Nelson, Ben- (D - NE) (202) 224-6551
Obama, Barack- (D - IL) (202) 224-2854
Pryor, Mark- (D - AR) (202) 224-2353
Reed, Jack- (D - RI) (202) 224-4642
Reid, Harry- (D - NV) (202) 224-3542
Rockefeller, John- (D - WV) (202) 224-6472
Salazar, Ken- (D - CO) (202) 224-5852
Sarbanes, Paul- (D - MD) (202) 224-4524
Olympia Snowe - (D - ME) (202) 224-5344
Schumer, Charles- (D - NY) (202) 224-6542
Stabenow, Debbie- (D - MI)- (202) 224-4822
Wyden, Ron- (D - OR) (202) 224-5244

Why hasn't Bush caught Osama Bin Laden yet?

2006-01-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

Regarding the Bin Laden tape that appeared today, I can honestly say that it is unacceptable that he is still running free after 5 years and all of the money and lives that have been wasted in Iraq. I no longer trust President Bush and his entire administration.

I find it suspicious that whenever Bush is in a tight-spot regarding his power grab activities, a tape of Bin Laden appears. His administration is now conveniently pouncing on the tape to support his illegal wiretapping and the rights-robbing Patriot Act. And isn't it interesting that there hasn't been a terrorism alert since the 2004 Elections?

The sight of Bin Laden no longer moves me to rally behind Bush. In fact, it makes me see how incompetent, weak and corrupt America's current political leadership really is. The only reason we've not been attacked again is because the terrorists have chosen not to do so. Bush's response to Katrina demonstrated his inability to even defend us from standing water!

It is clear to me that the preservation of our civil liberties and adopting a wise, not reckless foreign policy and national defense is American democracy's only hope of survival. We can never allow our U.S. Consititution to be trashed by Bush while so many of our soldiers have died to preserve it.

I wonder will the mainstream media have the guts to ask the real question Americans want to know: Why is Osama STILL FREE? I doubt it. I expect that the media will continue to work on Bush's behalf and try to increase Americans' fear of terrorism to make an argument for Bush's illegal wiretapping and other power grab activities.

Al Gore lets out a roar for the preservation of our U.S. Constitution!

2006-01-16T19:34:00.000-08:00

Al just gave an AMAZING speech regarding Bush's attempt to crush our Constitution and become KING George W. Bush.

Here's the transcript. It is also being shown several times on C-SPAN where I originally watched it.

Shrewdly, Gore is working with other concerned Republicans such as ex-Congressman Bob Barr from Georgia on the preservation of our system of checks and balances.

It's like Bob Barr says, "Bush has drawn the line in the sand and is daring the American people to call him on it."

Personally, I find Bob Barr's politics repellent, but I'm with him on this one. I also respect the fact that he's working with the ACLU and other civil liberties and legal organizations to return us to our normal way of conducting business as a country for over 200 years. From what I've heard, the legal and judicial organizations are livid over Bush's claim that he is above the law.

If you're not angry or concerned yet, you've not been paying attention.

The Co-opting of Martin Luther King Holiday

2006-01-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

I hope you will all go out today and engage in acts that enrich our community today. I write with some skepticism and anger today. I write on a day in which the mainstream media and pundits tell us that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is a shoo-in for confirmation. Not sure why this is a bad thing?

I'm not surprised since our mainstream media and the Democratic legislators have done a poor job of helping the American public understand the high stakes of this confirmation. Our system of checks and balances is crumbling at our feet and the very concept of democracy in America is being rolled back before our very eyes.

Yet, many Americans are sleeping. They sleep because our media shockingly chooses to focus on the fact that Alito's wife broke out in tears in a fit of calculated political theatre when her husband was being fairly questioned about his extremist record of civil rights hostility. What about the tears of the worker, women who can't get their pharmacist to fill their birth control pill prescriptions, and those who are being held at Guanatanomo Bay prison for years without access to a fair trial in America?

Alito has been hand-picked by Bush to rule for unchecked presidential power, corporate power, abolishing privacy rights, civil liberties, government regulation and the separation between church and state. If you watched the Supreme Court Confirmation hearings last week then you know that I'm speaking the truth. Alito could barely be bothered to cover these truths up, since he believes himself to be a shoo-in and expects Dems will not have the backbone to challenge his confirmation with a filibuster. By the looks of things, he may be right.

I tire of folks who oppose everything that King stood for and are actively working to rollback peace and justice in America, nevertheless step in and claim to be a defender of King's dream? Right now, I'm watching the King Holiday Celebration Ceremony at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on television. Prominent Republicans such as Governor Sonny Perdue, Senator Johnny Isakson and the like are hurrying up to the church pulpit to sing King's praises - while continuing to work to ram through the rights-robbing Voter ID Bill which is designed to discourage Democrats, particularly the elderly and poor, from voting.

Luckily, folks such as the Ebenezer Baptist Church pastor are giving speeches that are calling Governor Perdue out! Yesterday, Representative John Lewis who marched with Dr. King, refused to attend the MLK Holiday Ceremony at the Georgia State Capitol because he felt it would be hypocritical were he to stand next to Gov. Perdue and behave as if everything is okay when legislation like the Voter ID Bill is being entertained. YES!

I've written all this in a desperate call to get people to realize that the call of the Civil Rights Movement has never been more current and necessary than today! We need to be about the business of building a new social movement and pattern ourselves, to a helpful degree, after what our ancestors did to change this nation for the better.

King was more than "the dream". He took stands against the Vietnam War and for the Poor People's Campaign - just before he was assasinated.

We must take a stand now and organize, organize, organize! We must get involved in our communities and work to strengthen and rebuild it. We must ask questions and raise our voices before a mainstream media and folks who seek to co-opt Dr. King's message while diluting its meaning.

We must demand accountability.

Dems coming at Alito with some real fire power?

2006-01-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

Let me just say right up front that I've not been very happy with the way the right wing leaning media spin has been treating the Scalio nomination like its inevitable. And when I hear weak-kneed Dems begin to talk the same way, it drives me nuts.

What will the progressive legislators fight for, many wonder? I can't stand the idea of Scalito getting on the courts. His record indicates that he is a dependable agent of the Christian right wing extremists and the corporate agenda. Which means workers, people of color, women, gays, seniors, the environment, separation of church and state, our system of checks and balances and civil liberties can hang it all up. All of our gains are rapidly being eroded right before our eyes. Don't know how many people can still be in denial about this, but it is true.

Samuel Alito has a pattern in word and legal rulings of working to roll back legally accepted precedents like Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, separation between church and state and other major civil liberties Americans now take for granted.

I've kept tabs on the hearings since Monday and have been displeased with the Dems. When will they make their move? It is during the hearings that Dems need to get the attention of the public and let them know what Scalito really means to do to our lives and the Consitution.

Today, there's been some rumbling on the Dems' side. Senator Edward Kennedy calls Senator Arlen Spector's bluff regarding Scalito's membership in the racist and sexist Concerned Alumni of Princeton.

Here's hoping this is the turn of the tide.

Poll: Most Americans believe U.S. Government should have a court warrant to eavesdrop on Americans

2006-01-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

Funny what happens when you ask the right polling question. Really, this is a no-brainer. The American Constitution contains a strong system of checks and balances and it is in disarray right now because the GOP leadership refuses to follow our rules. If it is worth the effort of wiretapping then it is worth the effort to go before a court and make your case for it! Otherwise, law-abiding peace activists, gays, Democrats, Independents, wayward Republicans, and anyone else who disagrees and actively opposes the Bush administration can and are winding up on Bush terrorist list for wiretapping. This is already happening.

Is Christianity a Casualty of War?

2006-01-08T15:48:00.000-08:00

Amen. Christian Evangelist Tony Campolo writes a wonderful column on how many leading Christian Evangelists have been derelict in their duty to challenge the Bush Administration's corrupt regime. Any thing is acceptable to them as long as gay marriage and abortion are stamped out. Thing is, both issues are only being used to rally the GOP troops.

Increasingly, the Christian right wing has alienated most of America and I hope they are as visible as possible around Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito when hearings start tomorrow.

America = Torture

2005-12-31T15:24:00.000-08:00

Bush,

Tell me again how America does not torture?

The BBC is running a story today about the Guantanamo Bay prisoners who are accused of being terrorists, yet have been held, in some cases, for 4 years WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF A FAIR TRIAL. These suffering prisoners are conducting a hunger strike, and the participants are growing in number. America is now force-feeding them through the nostrils:

The number of detainees taking part in a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has more than doubled in the past week, US authorities say.

Some 84 prisoners are now refusing food, with 46 of them reported to have joined the protest on 25 December.

The US military defines a hunger strike as missing nine consecutive meals.

Human rights groups have challenged the US in the past over the number of detainees it says are refusing food and whether they have been force fed.

About 500 prisoners remain at Guantanamo, many of them captured in Afghanistan. Some have been held for nearly four years without charge.

America does not have a moral or legal leg to stand on. If these accused are truly terrorists then the United States should be FORCED to make their case against each and every one of these accused in a fair American court of law. End of story.

The Biggest Political Lies of 2005

2005-12-29T19:37:00.000-08:00

Well, yeah, I know -- you're thinking, "So? What else is new??"

But I saw this article by Eleanor Clift in Newsweek and couldn't resist publishing it since Newsweek is one of those gutless wonders of the right wing corporate media, for the most part.

Today Clift is on target.

I must admit that I am mostly numb regarding the mega-travesties, injustices and crimes Bush has inflicted against our American democracy and the World Entire. But even I wonder what act will finally break the proverbial camel's back? When will Americans say enough is enough? Alas, I suspect there is still more suffering to be done before we see it.

Truth's finally coming out: Bush's eavesdropping on us all!

2005-12-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

Well, Bush and the Pentagon are spying on peace activists and other ordinary Americans without the oversight of Congress or the courts. What's more, he says he is King and intends to keep doing it! Now!

On Wednesday, the news came out about the spying on peace activists because, according to the Bush administration, the government is concerned about the peace activists attacking the soldiers and military recruitment offices. Crap! I, myself, am a fervent peace activist and most of us are law-abiding and, yes, we'll picket the recruitment offices and demonstrate outside the military bases, but we aren't known for physically attacking anyone! Yet another page from the Nixon playbook.

On Friday, the so-called "liberal" New York Times finally ran an article on how Bush has been spying on law-abiding citizens since 2001. Apparently they withheld the story for one year in order to appease the lying Bush administration since the Bushies claimed the publishing of the story 1 year ago (election year) would've hampered terrorist-hunting efforts.

Now, one has to wonder after all being lied to by the Bushes so many times (WMDs and tons of other Bush lies to the nation), why would the New York Times believe them and withhold this huge story from the American public? The New York Times is supposed to be the paper of record and, first and foremost, they are to advocate for the public's right to know. Whatever happened to this? All of these national papers (Washington Post and CIA Leak enabler Bob Woodward) publicly show themselves to be shills for the Bush Administration.

I can only say ONE good thing about the NYT holding the story until Friday: The story provided the tipping point that the Democratic and Republican senators needed yesterday to filibuster the renewal of the Patriot Act. So, atleast, the NYT dropped the story at a well-placed and politic time. Finally.

Howard Dean's telling the truth AGAIN!

2005-12-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

On Monday, DNC chairman Howard Dean appeared on a radio show and said that the Iraq war is another Vietnam and its unwinnable. I heard the tape on the Ed Schultz show and said to myself, "Yeah? So what else is new? He's telling the truth."

Of course, Fox News and the "liberal" mainstream news outlets have been focusing on his statement as if he said something that was beyond the pale and simply outrageous. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A few red state Dems attack Dean for his familiar statement. And the mainstream media likes nothing better than to run 'dems in disarray stories'.

Could Dean have been a bit more artful in the way he expressed himself? Yes.

But, here's the thing:

Bush himself said that the war was unwinnable last year! Republican Senator Chuck Hagel took it one step further and said Iraq was another Vietnam and he, too, doubted that it could be won back in August.
An increasing number of military and foreign policy analysts are saying the same thing! The latest polls of the American people believe the war is unwinnable, its Vietnam and time to bring the troops home - they only disagree on the timetable for the exit.

There was nothing irresponsible about what Dean said. He spoke the truth. Iraq cannot be won militarily. Jack Murtha is widely believed to be speaking FOR the military since he has the Pentagon's ear.

Many of the troops know this war is unwinnable, too. The military is broken and it is time to bring them home. This can only be solved diplomatically/politically.

We are used to hearing so much lying, parsing and dancing around the truth from our politicians that we don't even know the truth when it bites us in the rear. Yes, Bush pundits will try to spin the subject and act like the Dems want to bring troops home immediately which is not true, but the majority of Americans back Jack Murtha to the hilt. I LOVE to hear Murtha speak about the war. He is a gift from heaven because the American people are way ahead of the politicians on this one, like Murtha and Dean say.

Latest Right Wing Straw Man Argument: The Alleged War Against Christmas

2005-12-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

Amazing. Now Bush has been serving his right wing Christian base all year and what thanks does he get for it? More bitching and moaning!

Fox News and many of the intimidated allegedly "liberal" mainstream media outlets like The Atlanta Journal Constitution and New York Times have done stories recently on how there's supposed to be a liberal conspiracy to get rid of Christmas. The right wingers are badgering the stores into dropping 'Happy Holidays' and substitute it with 'Merry Christmas'.

First of all, I would've thought that the Christian right wing would be appalled at the crass commercialization of the sacred religious Christmas holiday. Apparently not. Last week, Bill O'Reilly could be heard railing against liberal scapegoats like the ACLU and George Soros for allegedly undermining Christmas at every given opportunity. Ridiculous!

But it gets better. Imagine the surprise when President Bush sends out his annual White House Christmas cards and it says "Happy Holidays"!

Honestly, you couldn't write better stuff than this!

So, either the Christian right wing's patron saint George W. Bush is part of the liberal conspiracy to get rid of Christmas OR this whole thing is a bunch of crap to take everyone's attention off of a failing presidency.

I opt for the latter.

More of the Same: Bushco thinks we're STUPID!

2005-12-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

Well, so another Bush speech, more Bush lies. What's new? Wednesday was the day trumpeted by the White House as the day to end all days, for America was to finally receive a copy of the much desired plan for victory, or the exit strategy - depending on which White House official you ask.

It is pathetic that Bush thinks that he can use mere tepid speechifying, repetition, and embedded images of the crucifix in the elaborate set piece behind him to pick up his poll numbers and make Americans forget the political horrors of 2005 (and, let's be real - the other 4 years of his presidency). Perhaps if he would finally level with us and tell the truth and apologize and demand accountability of himself and his underlings and fire some folks, his presidency could be saved. Alas, not gonna happen. The question only remains: How far down the rabbit hole is America going??

Anyway, surprisingly it looks like the news media is going to hold Bush accountable for the lack of details, and blatant lies inherent in Wednesday's speech. The New York Times paints Bush as a space cadet while the Atlanta Journal Constitution throws in the towel on Bush and says if the Congress is not willing to step in and do its job of oversight then it is time for a new Congress.

Across the country the national and regional newspaper editorial reviews of Wednesday's speech have been harsh, and rightly so. Time Magazine is running a piece about why Bush is wrong to reject a timetable for withdrawal. A couple of weeks ago, you would never have seen such an article in the national media. There has been such a shift in the national dialogue on Iraq since Representative Murtha spoke out that it is amazing! Murtha, on this matter atleast, has been a gift from the Goddess God!

And yesterday Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi backed Murtha's exit strategy. This is good news and should give added encouragement to other House Dems who are jittery about appearing "soft on national defense". This is nothing but a republican talking point. Nothing could be further from the truth. All that remains is for the Dems to stop listening to the right wing talking points, stand up, speak for themselves, take a stand and not apologize or be divided about it! Jeez!

Most Americans (liberals, conservatives, independents) are hungry for real, substantive, responsible and honest leadership and which ever party takes the stage and points the way to a higher road out of this mess will become the anointed party during the 2006 elections. These days, fortune is smiling broadly upon the Dems but they need to believe it, see it, be it and claim it.

It's Time to Have A Serious Debate about Adopting a National Healthcare Policy

2005-11-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

Last Monday, General Motors Corp. said it would cut 30,000 North American manufacturing jobs and close a dozen plants as it struggles to compete with fast-growing rivals led by Toyota Motor Corp.

Yet another instance of callous bloodletting in a hemorrhaging of American jobs that has become commonplace since 2000. What's the answer? Well, it's right in front of everyone's face but no one wants to seriously discuss it. American companies are being brought to their knees by healthcare costs.

It is time to create a national healthcare policy. Other countries such as Canada have it. Right now many of the American companies are pulling up stakes and going to places like Canada because of it.

New York Times Columnist and Economist Paul Krugman has been discussing it for some time and so have many other liberals and progressives. Check it out

Calif. Rep. resigns after bribery plea

2005-11-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

Yet another Republican lawmaker has had the sheets snatched away and revealed as the crook he is. U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican, resigned on Monday after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for help in securing Defense Department contracts.

One thing about it, at least he's admitting his wrongdoing. Not like the brazen corrupt products currently on display like Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt in the moral cesspool called the US House. There will soon be a special election. There's a buzz about Democrat Francine Busby as a strong candidate for the seat going on right now.

Murtha is the Chosen One

2005-11-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

Representative Murtha appeared on Meet the Press with Tim Russert today and gave an amazing blunt and truthful assessment of the Iraq War, how to get out of it and the shortcomings of the Bush Administration.

Murtha spoke the words of the people this morning. I felt as if he were freeing the unbridled rage and powerlessness from my throat that I've carried since 2001 when Bush first began beating the drums of war to invade Iraq.

Here is the transcript of the interview. Yes, it's a bit long but well worth the read.

There is no doubt in my mind that Congressman Murtha has been divinely chosen to act as an agent to bring this war to a close. This conservative Democratic hawk has led a distinguished 35 year career in the Marines and Congress. He voted for the war and has been supportive of Bush's Iraq policy until recently. When he speaks, all of Washington must listen because he cannot be dismissed. He has the ear of the Pentagon generals and the foot soldiers. It is widely felt that he is, in fact, speaking for the military since they are unable to do so. That's why his coming to the fore is so powerful.

Most importantly, Murtha's comments have now forced a debate upon Washington about the development of an exit strategy. The tide is turning. The American people have hungered for this conversation for some time. I have been waiting for years.

After hearing Murtha's comments on Meet the Press this morning, I sent him the following letter:

I am a resident of a "red state" called Georgia and Representative Murtha, I HONOR and SALUTE you, dear sir!

You are correct! The American people are way ahead of Washington politicians regarding Iraq and the growing horrible destruction of America due to poor leadership in Washington!

As I watched you on Meet the Press today, I fell to my knees in tears and thanked God in prayer for giving you the strength, courage, backbone and wisdom to SPEAK OUT and tell the TRUTH!!!

Bush and his minions seem content to engage in eternal campaign mode and a war of words as people DIE and are disfigured horribly!

Although I am not a defense or foreign policy specialist, I already knew how bad things were. It's been quite naked for some time now through media coverage and what has not been said.

I am 38 and have never seen America in such a horrible condition fiscally, morally, ethically, socially, spiritually and politically!

I know that Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are now coming after you with everything they've got - lies, smears and more bullying. Of course, this is their stock in trade. But I also know that you are an old soldier with much heart, courage, strength and political acumen. Please know that you have A HUGE amount of public support and, I suspect, you are going to have a GROWING amount of Democratic and moderate Republican support, too.

When Tim Russert played John Kerry, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's comments about your reasonable Iraq plan, I grew angry. As a Democratic activist, I was not surprised. This is the damn problem with the Democratic party leadership --- no damn backbone: I've been waiting for a Democratic legislator to clear his/her throat and speak the blunt, commonsense words that you spoke today since 2002 when Bush first began beating the irrational drums for war for an Iraq invasion. Sir, I've been waiting a lonnngggg time for you to come to the fore. I worked to elect John Kerry last year but I had no passion for the task given that he never really spoke the unbridled truth about the Bush administration and Dems' own capitulation on the war.

So, I HONOR you and I continue to PRAY for you and all the other Democrat and Republican and military officials who agree with you and soon will support you if they are not already doing so.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! For you are saving America and many lives around the world with your mighty stand for TRUTH, JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE and A WISE YET ROBUST AMERICAN NATIONAL DEFENSE PLAN!

Another Hawk Speaks Out Against the War

2005-11-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

U.S. Representative John Murtha, top Democratic hawk in the House, says it is time to bring the troops home within six months. He voted for the war back in 2002 and has been visiting the troops at Walter Reed Hospital on a weekly basis ever since. Here's the video.

It will be verrrry difficult for Bush, Cheney and Rove to discredit Murtha, an old Vietnam Vet and retired Marine Colonel who has been in Congress for over 30 years.

Today, Murtha gave a long somber critique of where we stand in Iraq. And it ain't pretty. He calls Iraq "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion."

I applaud this noble patriot. Glad he decided to join us in the pool. Water's nice and warm, eh, Murtha? This is good news for the country and the Dems since Murtha's tough stand will embolden more Dem and Republican legislators to come out against the war and force Bush to change course in Iraq.

Here's a transcript of his speech.

Senate Republicans Block Iraq Timetable

2005-11-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

Picture of a Last Vigil

On the eve of her husband’s the funeral, Katherine Cathey insisted on sleeping next to Jim's body, so the Marines arranged a bed and offered to stand guard through the night. She fell asleep to music she and Jim had planned to play at their formal wedding celebration when he returned.

The fighting must end. Most Americans know it, but the GOP still doesn't get it:

The Republican-controlled Senate easily defeated a Democratic effort Tuesday to pressure President Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker statement calling on the administration to explain its Iraq policy.

Senators also voted to endorse the Bush administration's military tribunals for prosecuting foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but to allow the detainees to appeal their detention status and punishments to a federal court.

On the question of a timetable for troop withdrawal, senators rejected the Democrats' proposal by 58-40. Democratic leaders had advanced the measure in the wake of declining public support for a conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 U.S. lives and cost more than $200 billion.

So the GOP guts the meat from the Dems proposal that will make Bush accountable and place crazy pressure on him to bring the troops home. Still, I am glad to see the GOP Senators atleast attempting to begin to do their jobs and demand SOME KIND of answers from Bush.

And the whole discussion among American legislators about whether "enemy combatants" should be elgible for due process is surreal. By the way, I have serious concerns about the integrity of the military tribunals that are being used as a pale substitute for a traditional internationally respected trial.

I'm running the above pic because it moves me. Whenever I see pics of military personnel and their families I always think of Bush and wonder "Why??? What are they really dying for? What are they suffering for? What's the nobel cause?" Kudos to Cindy Sheehan for asking the questions most Americans want to know.

I'm running this pic because America needs to feel uncomfortable and guilty when they view it. We are guilty. Guilty of not asking the questions, trusting too much and swimming in fear.

It must end.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Is The Second Coming of George W. Bush

2005-11-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Perhaps you noticed that I've not done any entries for a few days. I apologize but have been unable to due to being emotionally devastated by the outcome of the mayoral race in my hometown - Detroit, Michigan. Kwame Kilpatrick won in the wee hours of the morning on November 9th. The incompetent, arrogant and corrupt thug Kwame Kilpatrick stole his way back in.

Yes, I know that to say someone stole an election is a serious charge. And I make it with good reason. For most of the night Kilpatrick trailed Freman Hendrix who had a healthy lead. Then around 2:00am things shifted in a torrent of votes for Kilpatrick.

Did I mention that the Detroit Elections Clerk Jackie Currie is being investigated for incompetence/corruption? She's like in her third elected term and still can't manage to competently and fairly conduct an election. But charges of vote rigging were being made against Currie before the election even took place.

Right now, there are at least 3000 votes that are unaccounted for in the election. Now you know if they are only acknowledging 3000 votes then it is not beyond the realm of possibility that mass vote tampering has taken place.

After Kilpatrick ran one of the most hatefully racially and economically divisive campaigns in recent Detroit history, I am sick in mind, angry and disgusted for my hometown, Detroit.

When will we in America begin to hold our elected officials accountable? I had a bad argument on the phone with my longtime hometown friends after she told me during the night of the election that she'd voted for Kwame Kilpatrick because she decided it was better to stick with the devil she knows. With the outcome of this election, I am reminded of the re-election of Washington, DC mayor Marion Berry who was caught smoking crack on camera AND the re-election of George W. Bush last year.

Kilpatrick, a black Democrat, owes a lot to George W. Bush. He conducts himself in the same way that Bush does and is a thuggish bully. He ran a hateful race in which the only concern was to win at any cost and pulled on all the well-known historical racial paranoia and hatred inherent in the Metro Detroiter's way of relating to each other.

In the end, the contest came down to who is black enough and who can be trusted not to sell out the black community - mind you, all the while, Kilpatrick is steady selling out the city by stealing funds and cronyism.

Detroit is in need of good, honest and strong leadership, but Detroiters and I would argue Americans, continue to rationalize and take what they can get. Look at how Bush stole his way back into office under the troubling haze of election irregularities, yet Americans accepted this in 2000 and 2004. It's beginning to look like Detroiters are feeling resigned and will accept Kilpatrick's "mysterious" re-election, too, despite the investigation's outcome.

I am outraged and afraid for the future of Detroit, the state of Michigan, the entire country and the world. What is this rocky road here to teach you, my higher self is asking. I can only answer "All Are One." After all, Kwame Kilpatrick was elected on September 11, 2001.

There is a higher spiritual order at work in all of this, I know. But it is hard to watch it unfold since I am a control addict. Where there is no suffering, there can be no moral reckoning or redemption.

This morning, I got up and perused both Detroit Newspapers - the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. The News is historically conservative and the Free Press is liberal. I was afraid of what I would encounter, but went to the sites anyway.

Here is a column by Detroit News' Nolan Finley which panders to the racial anger and paranoia of the metro Detroit region. After reading it, I wrote him and told him he was part of the problem, and therefore, incapable of pulling people to higher ground.

Then I read the Detroit Free Press two columnists who hit the ball out of the park, in my estimation. Rochelle Riley and Mitch Albom both wrote of painful uncomfortable truths and the honesty and courage that will heal metro Detroit and the nation.

It all comes down to taking personal responsibility (accountability) for what is occuring in our communities, organizing and demanding changes for the better. We must get involved. There is no way around it. The time for rationalizing, making excuses for mediocrity is at an end. It has to be. If we want better lives, better communities and better political and moral leadership then we must be the change we want to see. Period.

Will the Dems fight to protect the Supreme Court or not?

2005-11-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

Spine-challenged Democratic Senator Joe Biden made a chilling statement today:

A key Democrat said on Sunday that he expects the full Republican-led Senate to vote on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

But Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said a decision would not be made about such a possible procedural roadblock until more lawmakers meet with President George W. Bush's conservative nominee to the nation's highest court.

"My instinct is we should commit" to an up-or-down vote by the full Senate, said Biden, a member of the Judiciary Committee. "I think the probability is that will happen.

"I think that judgment won't be made ... until the bulk of us have had a chance to actually see him and speak to him," Biden told ABC's "This Week."

After 5 years of unbridled, sheer, lily-livered, mass Democratic capitulation to Bush and his right wing agenda including striking a deal on the nuclear option in the Senate, what, I ask you, what and when WILL the Democratic Senators actually fight to protect the Supreme Court?????

Don't get me wrong, but I was DELIGHTED when the Dems shut down the Senate last week in order to force the GOP to investigate how the White House's falsified intelligence to trick us into invading Iraq! I'd hoped this was a sign that the Dems had newly committed to walking the path of courage, and integrity.

In any case, it looks like its time for the grassroots to raise some hell by picking up the phone and calling your Senators and writing letters to the Editors of your local newspapers. Let's let the Dem senators know we're watching and we EXPECT a FIGHT to protect the courts!

Harry Reid Shuts Down the Senate & America Wins Today!

2005-11-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

Democratic Leader Harry Reid shut down the Senate today in order to demand that the Republican led Senate do its job and conduct oversight hearings on the faulty pre-war intelligence and how we were erroneously taken to war in Iraq!

I see the Democratic party has finally decided to take its fighting shoes out of the dusty box under the bed and try them on for size! It seems like America, might, juuuust might, have a REAL opposition party.

Regardless of what your political leanings are, most Americans MUST be disgusted with the TOTAL lack of accountability in the Bush White House and Congress. Finally, the Dems stood up and demonstrated, in the process, they are not afraid to filibuster Scalito.

America and our system of checks and balances won today.

Click here to see video of Senator Harry Reid in action!

From Reagan's Speechwriter: The Wheels Are Coming Off

2005-11-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

I ran across this interesting Op-Ed piece in The Opinion Journal by Ronald Reagan's speechwriter Peggy Noonan. I honor her for being willing to commit to words the anxiety that is being felt regarding the future of America and the World with the Bush regime in charge. She also gives insight into the rationalizing going on in Bush supporter's minds regarding Bush's incompetence. In many places, she is emotionally and factually honest:

I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I think it's a subtext to our society. I think that a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even in some cases unnoticed, a sense that the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon. That our pollsters are preoccupied with "right track" and "wrong track" but missing the number of people who think the answer to "How are things going in America?" is "Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination."

Bottom line: Bush is incompetent, corrupt, arrogant and dangerous. This is what happens when you place a bunch of thugs in the White House.

To read the entire article,click this link.

Ku Klux Klan to rally in support of Texas anti-gay marriage amendment

2005-11-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

It figures! This Klan rally is actually a good thing since it makes people realize how bigoted the gay marriage amendment actually is:

Klan to rally in support of Texas anti-gay marriage amendment
Austin event is planned for weekend before Nov. 8 vote

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) | Oct 25, 10:30 PM

The Ku Klux Klan plans to rally in Austin to support the gay marriage amendment set for the Nov. 8 ballot.

The rally planned on the steps of city hall the Saturday before the election will urge voters to favor Proposition 2.

However, some who support Proposition 2 don't welcome the KKK's assistance.
One such person is Pastor Ryan Rush of Bannockburn Baptist Church.

Rush said that a group that would come in that is characterized as hateful and bigoted is not welcome in this city. He said he doesn't want the Klan as a partner on any cause.

In a letter the Klan sent to the city, the group acknowledged that security will be an issue, noting the violence that erupted at a KKK rally and march to the capitol in Austin in 1983.

Bush desecrates Rosa Parks' Funeral

2005-10-31T18:50:00.000-08:00

The sheer cynicism and arrogance of the Bush Administration is amazing. Here we are laying to rest a cherished national elder and Bush uses it as a photo opportunity and even dares to bring newly nominated right wing extremist Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, or "Scalito" as he is called.

Alito is against everything the Civil Rights Movement stood for. Rosa Parks, no doubt, opposed everything Bush and Scalito stand for. As Bush and his allies work to take our rights away, they smile in our faces and proclaim themselves as friends.

But we are not fools and most of us know our history quite well. Bush's poll numbers will continue to belly-flop.

Bush's Halloween Trick: Scalito

2005-10-31T18:43:00.000-08:00

From Thinkprogress.org:

Samuel Alito’s America

CNN reports that “President Bush will nominate 3rd Circuit Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court.” Who is Samuel Alito? ThinkProgress has the facts:

ALITO WOULD OVERTURN ROE V. WADE: In his dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Alito concurred with the majority in supporting the restrictive abortion-related measures passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in the late 1980’s. Alito went further, however, saying the majority was wrong to strike down a requirement that women notify their spouses before having an abortion. The Supreme Court later rejected Alito’s view, voting to reaffirm Roe v. Wade. [Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1991]

ALITO WOULD ALLOW RACE-BASED DISCRIMINATION: Alito dissented from a decision in favor of a Marriott Hotel manager who said she had been discriminated against on the basis of race. The majority explained that Alito would have protected racist employers by “immuniz[ing] an employer from the reach of Title VII if the employer’s belief that it had selected the ‘best’ candidate was the result of conscious racial bias.” [Bray v. Marriott Hotels, 1997]

ALITO WOULD ALLOW DISABILITY-BASED DISCRIMINATION: In Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania, the majority said the standard for proving disability-based discrimination articulated in Alito’s dissent was so restrictive that “few if any…cases would survive summary judgment.” [Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1991]

ALITO WOULD STRIKE DOWN THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) “guarantees most workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a loved one.” The 2003 Supreme Court ruling upholding FMLA [Nevada v. Hibbs, 2003] essentially reversed a 2000 decision by Alito which found that Congress exceeded its power in passing the law. [Chittister v. Department of Community and Economic Development, 2000]

ALITO SUPPORTS UNAUTHORIZED STRIP SEARCHES: In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home. [Doe v. Groody, 2004]

ALITO HOSTILE TOWARD IMMIGRANTS: In two cases involving the deportation of immigrants, the majority twice noted Alito’s disregard of settled law. In Dia v. Ashcroft, the majority opinion states that Alito’s dissent “guts the statutory standard” and “ignores our precedent.” In Ki Se Lee v. Ashcroft, the majority stated Alito’s opinion contradicted “well-recognized rules of statutory construction.” [Dia v. Ashcroft, 2003; Ki Se Lee v. Ashcroft, 2004]

George Clooney's New Film "Good Night and Good Luck": Deja Vu

2005-10-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

I just came back from seeing George Clooney's film "Good Night and Good Luck" and it's absolutely brilliant! I honor Clooney's courage for doing such a thoughtful, gutsy film to wake up many Americans who are still sleeping.

I only regret that it is being shown only at art house movie theaters because it is a film that needs to be marketed more generously at all of the megaplex theatres.

Legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow had the courage to stand up and challenge the red-baiting, fear-mongering, democracy-stealing, smearing techniques of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early to mid-1950s. This climate of fear and blind patriotism of the the 1950s directly mirrors the climate in this country today: Our media are thoroughly intimidated and afraid, the Republican party is bent on eviserating the two party political system at the cost of American democracy and rationalism has been suspended in 2005.

The CIA leak scandal (particularly yesterday's indictment of White House aide Scooter Libby) is a vivid illustration of the lack of integrity and the sheer incompetence of the people running our government today. The supposedly "liberal" mainstream media like The New York Times' Judith Miller and Time Magazine's Matt Cooper willingly become political pawns as a trade for access while in the process helping take this country into an unnecessary and heinous war in Iraq.

Our thoroughly intimidated media continuously allows politicians and pundits to spin unchecked until citizens' sense of the true and false is blurred in the misconstrued name of "balance".

Oscar-worthy "Good Night and Good Luck" is a refreshing journey back into our past when amid incredible political and economic pressure, journalists took a stand and displayed integrity, making sure the public was informed of the truth.

In fairness, it was quite refreshing to see American journalists stand up during Hurricane Katrina and ask the hard questions then followup with more. Here's hoping the sleeping giant of the Fourth Estate will remain awake and re-commit to acting accordingly in the interest of the public.

U.S. Court Suspends Voter ID Law in Georgia

2005-10-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

The state of Georgia was trying to get the Voter ID law back in place for the November 8th municipal elections, but the U.S. Federal Courts turned them down.

I've watched this law come into place in Georgia, but I actually don't agree that it is designed to keep black people from voting. I think it is designed to keep Democrats from voting regardless of race, age, and economic class.

There's never been any documentation that proves that voter identification fraud is even a problem in Georgia. However, there is significant documentation that shows that the new electronic voting machines with no paper trail are highly vulnerable to tampering. The Georgia Republican majority has been totally silent on this though. And, to be honest, the Democratic legislators have not been out front on the voting machines either.

American democracy continues to be on the ropes.

Miers Is Out! Heaven HELP US!

2005-10-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

So, the radical right wing extremist groups have asserted their pressure on Bush and he has capitulated by yanking Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination.

This definitely weakens Bush further and it is my hope he will nominate a reasonable, mainstream candidate who will mirror Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. It is fortunate that Bush is reeling under horrible poll numbers, Iraq, scandals involving Hurricane Katrina, the CIA Leak, Bill Frist and Tom DeLay. Perhaps he will realistically see that it is not wise to nuke the Senate with a right wing wacko nomination like Janice Rogers Brown.

Bush can not continue to ignore the rest of the country in order to throw red meat to his right wing base which is in the minority. His poll numbers demonstrate this and will continue to reflect the anger of the majority if he fails to head our displeasure.

Let's see who Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicts tomorrow and see if that's enough to move him to err on the side of moderation with the new nomination.

Bush reinstates wage rules in hurricane areas

2005-10-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Finally, a victory for the workers:

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Reversing a decision made in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration will reinstate rules requiring that companies receiving federal contracts for hurricane reconstruction and relief efforts pay local prevailing wages.

The administration said that suspending the rules would reduce rebuilding costs and help open opportunities for minority-owned companies, but critics said it would result in lower pay for workers.

Members of Congress were first informed of the decision at a White House meeting with Chief of Staff Andrew Card on Wednesday morning.

The decision, which means that workers will get wages closer to what they were making before the hurricane, was met with approval by Republicans and Democrats, many of whom felt that out-of-state workers were descending on hurricane-ravaged areas and working for a fraction of a living wage.

The Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees the wage levels, was suspended Sept. 8. It will be reinstated Nov. 8.

Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, who attended the White House meeting, told CNN that the situation was unacceptable.

"The danger we have in the Gulf Coast in general is profiteering. When you have these large contracts and again, when you suspend some protections ... it appears you can pay people whatever you want to pay and the rest of the money goes into the profit column of the corporation," he said.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who has led his party's charge against the Davis-Bacon suspension, said in an interview with CNN, "At least those wages will be protected where federal money is involved, and that's very important to the economy of that region. This is why we couldn't understand how the president could take such a callous position immediately after the hurricane to just decimate the protections for the wages of people who are trying to rebuild their families, their communities, their lives."

All of our phone calls and emails to Capitol Hill paid off. Let's hear one for the power of organized campaigns! It's important to take a moment to celebrate and then hunker down and pressure Bush to reinstate affirmative action in the hurricane areas as well.

2000

2005-10-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

It's official: 2000 American soldiers are dead

Actually, when you tally up the number of dead soldiers in the coalition forces - along with the Iraqi civilians, my outrage becomes new again.

I watched Tim Russert's "Meet The Press" this past Sunday and heard New York Senator Chuck Schumer tell Russert if he knew then what he knows now, he'd still vote to give Bush permission to invade Iraq. I've heard Hillary and Bill Clinton basically adhere to these same right wing talking points, too. The Democratic Party leaders just don't get it.

This is NOT what the netroots want to hear.

Heck, polls now show that that triangulating crap isn't what the majority of America wants to hear. Cindy Sheehan gets it. Russ Feingold gets it.

In order to be a leader, you need to reflect the will of the people. Otherwise, the people will push you out of the way and find a leader who will do our bidding.

I worked to get John Kerry elected even though time and time again he was wishy-washy, spineless and voted for the War. I was that desperate to get Bush, a man who clearly has no business being Governor - let alone President - out of office.

But I will not swallow my principles and back another Pro-War Democrat.

The Iraq War MUST END. The Iraqis are able to conduct their own civil affairs without us. They've been doing so for thousands of years.

Meanwhile, Bush's toxic policies are leading this country to rot from the outside in.

So, the Washington establishment Dems like Chuck Schumer, Hillary and Joe Biden need to realize that we netroots are going to FORCE them to change their spineless position on this war. Either that or our leadership will come from someplace else.

End of story.

Rosa Parks: 1913-2005

2005-10-25T05:59:00.000-07:00

Rosa Parks Dies at 92

And so, another wise Elder has left the circle of Spiritual Warriors to join the Ancestors. As a 38 year old African American from Detroit, Rosa Parks resides in my memory as the brave woman whose "refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., helped touch off the civil rights movement." But, of course, Parks and her husband had been longtime civil rights leaders in Montgomery before that. Actually, although it is little known, black women began the Civil Rights Movement and continued to play a prominent role in its growth. Here is a great links page on the Civil Rights Movement.

I am saddened because we are in the midst of yet another great social movement period. We need guidance from the "old heads" like Rosa Parks, and they are dying out. Luckily, Rosa Parks' life and words have been chronicalized reasonably well and she received a lot of honors before she crossed over to the other side last night.

ALL is in divine order. Although we grieve for the lost of yet another revered social justice warrior, we know that she has left us plenty of recorded rich wisdom that has saturated our bones to an extent that cannot be adequately perceived and appreciated right now.

Go, in peace, our great spiritual leader Rosa Parks. You have walked your divine path in life on your own terms and we are all the richer for it.

And so I bow and salute you, my Great Sister.....

They Think We're Stupid

2005-10-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

This week as we await Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's announcement of who, if anyone, will be indicted in the CIA leak case, we are subjected to the GOP's attempt to spin their way pre-emptively out of the anticipated indictment of White House Senior Aides Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. John Tierney has a particularly insulting column in today's New York Times "And Your Point Is?"(subscription needed):

If you, like me, have been trying to figure out the point of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation, Howard Dean has a couple of answers.

The CIA Leak case is not hard to understand. In fact, I am shocked that the corporate media has done such a poor job of providing the context of the Iraq War and the nonexistent WMDs, the Downing Street Memo and the massive damage the Bush Administration has wrought upon the almost 2000 dead American soldiers, thousands wounded and over 100,000 dead Iraqis.

U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson heard Bush's lie about Saddam trying to purchase WMDs in Nigeria, went to Nigeria to investigate the claim and discovered that it was untrue. He told America the WMD rationale was a lie and the Bush Administration did what they always do to people that cross them. They tried to destroy Joseph Wilson by mounting a smear campaign of lies and personal attacks, even going so far as to leak the name of Wilson's wife who was a covert CIA agent to the press. And our Fourth Estate who are supposed to act as advocates for the public, otherwise known as the corporate media (in the form of New York Times' Judith Miller and Time Magazine's Matt Cooper) willingly allowed themselves to be pawns in the scheme to thoroughly discredit hero Joseph Wilson.

Basically, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby betrayed America in a time of war. There's no telling how many lives were changed or how many deaths occurred due to the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. No wonder the CIA is hemorraghing career agents badly and morale is so low. Their own Commander-in-Chief has demonstrated that he will betray them again and again in order to help the GOP hold onto power. After all, the Elephant continues to fly higher than the Stars and Stripes.

Predictably, Tierney tries to use Howard Dean, Hillary and Bill Clinton as scapegoats to blunt the effects of the criminal activity taking place in the White House:

Neither involves the original reason for the special prosecutor's investigation - the accusation that White House aides deliberately outed a covert C.I.A. agent. Much of Washington now figures that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby didn't violate that law. But Dean, the Democratic Party's chairman, says we need to look at the larger lessons from this scandal.

"The problem, what got Rove and Libby in trouble was because they were attacking, which the Republicans always do, attacking somebody who criticized them and disagreed with them," Dean said on "This Week" on ABC. "A fundamental flaw in the Bush administration is the personal attacks on people for meritorious arguments."

Personal attacks! Can you imagine President Bush's critics ever sinking to that level? Dean himself may have occasionally faulted Republicans - using words like "liar," "brain-dead," "corrupt" and "evil" - but he must have meant them, like Dame Edna, in a caring and nurturing way.

The other supposed reason to care about the investigation of the C.I.A. leak is that it's really not about the C.I.A. leak, anyway. As Dean explained, "This is not so much about Scooter Libby and Karl Rove. This is about the fact that the president didn't tell us the truth when we went to Iraq, and all these guys are involved in it."

I have a hard time with this argument, and not because I'm a fan of the Iraq war. If I'd been in the Senate, I would have voted against it. The Bush administration's plan to quickly transform a Middle Eastern country struck me as terribly naïve. When I consulted experts in democratization, they predicted that American troops would be stuck in Iraq for at least five years, if not forever.

But I can't understand Democrats now gleefully suggesting that Libby and Rove are getting their just desserts for the "crime" of claiming that there were W.M.D. in Iraq. Yes, they were eager to embrace any bit of evidence for weapons there, but they had plenty of company in their suspicions, including Democrats like Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The wingnuts kill me when they come with the fact that many Democrats and officials at the UN thought Saddam Hussein had WMDs. But Bill Clinton didn't think the evidence was credible enough to take us to war. Only Bush did that and he must be held accountable - although I'm not sure if I'll live to see it.

Then Tierney goes in for the kill and still tries to call Joseph Wilson a liar when we ALL know there were no WMDs in Iraq:

The White House struck back by leaking its side of the story and disparaging Wilson - some of whose claims were indeed found to be false by a subsequent Senate investigation. It now looks as if the White House leakers were accurate in their warnings to reporters to be leery of Wilson's story.

But, what really gets me is that Tierney dares to argue "no harm, no foul" regarding Bush's astronomical blunder in taking this nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq:

You can argue that the leakers should be fired for carelessness in revealing that Wilson's wife worked for the C.I.A., but there's been no evidence yet that they realized it was illegal because of her status as a covert agent. You can argue that Libby should be fired for stupidity because of the letter he wrote to Judith Miller, the Times reporter, that sounded like a vaguely clunky - and unsuccessful - attempt to coach her testimony.

But no one deserves to go to jail for leaking information to reporters without criminal intent. The special prosecutor was assigned to look for serious crimes, not to uncover evidence that bureaucrats blame other bureaucrats when things go wrong.
No one deserves to be indicted on conspiracy charges for belonging to a group that believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Foreign policy mistakes are not against the law.

Tierney believes that the Bush Administration is ABOVE THE LAW and there should be no accountability for mere "foreign policy mistakes". Never mind the millions of lives these people have changed and all of the unnecessary human suffering. For Tierney, this doesn't meet the sniff test of a "serious crime" because it is between mere bureaucrats. Yes, bureaucrats who are servants of the people who are directly accountable to us, regardless of the fact that our system of checks and balances is blown to hell in America right now.

We must not let the massive GOP spin machine undermine or blur the simple specifics of the CIA Leak case and how it directly relates to how we were taken to a war in Iraq which is the new Vietnam. We must speak out and keep speaking out by writing letters to the Editor in our local and national newspapers, calling our Congressional representatives and discussing this with our family and friends.

In the meantime, America continues to reside in the Twilight Zone.

Pimpin' Ain't Easy: The New Face of the Black Church

2005-10-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

There it is, folks. The "Money Shot". That's Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s daughter REVEREND Bernice King, Mega-Church preacher Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA and Laura Bush sitting side by side. This pic is reminiscient of that infamous march Eddie Long and Bernice King led back in November in support of the Constitutional Ban Against Gay Marriage only days after Bush stole another President Election. I remember the bitter anger I felt at King and Long. They wouldn't lead a march for election reform, but they'll lead one against their fellow American citizens. My People! My People!

I'm particularly disappointed in Bernice King. As perhaps one of the consummate spiritual progressive, her father led an inclusive, loving civil rights movement. A movement so powerful that many clergy in the metro Atlanta area and around the world STILL pattern themselves after Dr. King. Bernice disgraced her daddy's memory. Whatever she got from Bush, it certainly wasn't enough.

Blogger Jasmyne Clynnick writes an astute article called "Pimpin' Ain't Easy: The New Face of the Black Church" on the way African Americans are being manipulated by some of the hate merchant mega church preachers who've been bought and paid for with George Bush's Faith Based Initiative money. Actually the Faith Based Initiative money belongs to all of us - the taxpayers - but it is being misused to finance the GOP machine.

The spineless Democratic legislators are too intimidated to speak up with a message of gay-inclusiveness and a big vision of hope for the future. But the spiritual progressive clergy could and should begin to step forward on this issue in a bold way.

I see that the Black LGBT Democrats have formed a Caucus and plan on taking the homophobic clergy head on. I applaud them and plan to help in any way I can. Everything that SpiritualAtlanta.com is about is the divine truth that ALL ARE ONE! Furthermore, I know that as America rots further on Bush's watch (example: Katrina), the truth about gay marriage and abortion being used as a distraction will become even more obvious. It can't come soon enough.

"Only Two Percent!" For Bush?

2005-10-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

Media pundit Earl Ofari Hutchinson has an interesting take on an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that Bush's popularity rating had plunged to an eye-popping, head shaking low of 2 percent. Hutchinson is on point with his assessment of African Americans' seething anger and hatred of President George W. Bush. Yes, he made some minor gains into the black community in last year's election based primarily on gay marriage, but Katrina and William Bennett ended those gains quick, fast and in a hurry.

Now, it is up to the Democratic party to step up to the plate with a powerful, compelling and healing message of outreach, respect and inclusion in time for the 2006 election because this is what blacks and the rest of the frustrated American electorate's thirsting for.

Harriet Miers Supreme Court Nomination Is In Trouble

2005-10-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

Well, a few days ago I said that I didn't think it would get much better than Harriet Miers from Bush. She seemed to have the potential for being a political moderate, but apparently that is not the case. The truth has come out about what actually was discussed during James Dobson's conference call with Karl Rove that led him to claim two days after Miers' nomination:

When you know some of the things that I know--that I probably shouldn't know--you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."
John Fund has written an Op-Ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal that provides strong evidence that James Dobson received blunt assurances from the White House that Miers would definitely vote against abortion should the opportunity arise. I don't see how Miers nomination can survive. Democratic interest groups will pressure the Dem Senators to filibuster and social conservatives weren't crazy about her in the first place and are unlikely to trigger the nuclear option.
I shudder to think about Bush's second nomination.

Black gay activist blocked from speaking at Millions More March

2005-10-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

I watched the Millions More Movement Rally on C-Span yesterday. I was inspired even more to help organize, build coalitions and help strengthen the progressive movement. However, I did wonder about the fact that no speakers spoke on the issue of homphobia in the black community - an issue that seeks to divide the black religious community and our progressive coalition-building.

Another blogger, Pamindurham, has the story. The issue of homphobia must be squashed in the black community or Bush and the social conservatives will continue to divide us based on it. I've lost patience with the so-called black political leadership like Minister Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and others can not see what needs to be done and truly go ahead, demonstrate real leadership, and do it. If you want the story right from the mouth of the excluded black gay rights activist Keith Boykin - along with the speech that he planned to give yesterday - check it out.

It Won't Get Much Better Than Harriet Miers

2005-10-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

So, Bush finally just comes right out with it and admits that he nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court because she's his friend and subscribes to his religious beliefs:

"People ask me why I picked Harriet Miers," Bush said in response to a reporter's question at an Oval Office appearance with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. "They want to know Harriet Miers's background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers's life is her religion."
We're told the Republican party is in disarray over the nomination:
We are now witnessing, in activist Ed Morrissey's words, "a conservative civil war" over the Miers nomination, with many leaders on the right declaringthat they no longer can take President Bush at his word. They're demanding that Miers answer the kinds of questions that they considered out of bounds just a few weeks ago. They're even circulating these questions among themselves.
They want to know (among other things) whether Miers, as an evangelical Christian, had moral qualms about running the Texas Lottery Commission. They want to know why she sympathized with people with AIDS while serving on the Dallas City Council. They want to know why she helped create a lecture series that brought famous liberal feminists to Southern Methodist University in 1998.
First off, I am appalled that a sitting President of the United States would admit to submitting a nomination based on such religious and personal criteria. But I have long felt that America has dwelled in The Twilight Zone since November, 2000 - so nothing surprises me about this incompetent and corrupt regime that resides in the White House. These days, I am unflappable.
Some say they believe that the Republicans are merely faking their disarray in order to manipulate the Democrats and American citizens into supporting Harriet Miers confirmation as well as distract us from all the Bush administration scandals of late. But I tend to believe the disarray is genuine since it seems to me the GOP leadership and grassroots are too arrogant and drunk with power to go to the trouble of play-acting.
As an spiritually progressive ordained minister , high priestess and feminist, anyone Bush would choose would normally meet with my opposition. For he has continuously demonstrated to the nation that he has poor judgement. I'm not particular about her, but I am enjoying watching the conservatives foaming at the mouth and eating their own.
I also believe that sexism is playing a role in how scathing the criticism has been against her. I am not convinced that this leading corporate litigator from Texas has somehow become an intellectual lightweight overnight.
Looking at her record, she gives signs that she could prove to be a moderate Republican like O'Connor as opposed to Antonin Scalia. For this reason alone, I am willing to suspend judgement and hopefully she'll do okay during the hearings and get approved. She'll probably "grow to the left" once she gets on the Supreme Court. The statistical odds bear this out.
I definitely do not want Meirs nomination to fail because if Bush submits a second one the new nominee is guaranteed to be a right wing wackjob! And so I must be pragmatic and hold my fire.

Every Worker In America Needs to Be Paying Attention to the Delphi Bankruptcy

2005-10-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

Worker's rights in America, whether you are a member of a union or not, are being severely rolled back by Corporate Greed right before our eyes. It is chilling what's going on in Detroit, Michigan with the Delphi bankruptcy:

Delphi Must Reduce to Survive: CEO

DETROIT (Reuters) - Disgruntled workers at Delphi Corp. (DPHIQ.PK) are understandably angry about its proposals to cut wages and benefits, but the auto parts maker has no choice if U.S. plants and pensions are to survive its bankruptcy restructuring, Chief Executive Steve Miller said on Wednesday.
Delphi, which filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. automotive history on Saturday, wants only to put wages and benefits for hourly workers in line with rates unions often have agreed to at its U.S. competitors in the supplier industry, Miller said.
He acknowledged that would mean steep cuts in pay, in the range of about 63 percent, for members of the United Auto Workers union employed in Delphi's factories across the country.
But he said he was confident Delphi could reach a new labor agreement with the UAW, while avoiding a potentially devastating strike, because the UAW can no longer command high wages and benefits for manual laborers in an increasingly competitive global marketplace."
Miller the blood-sucker wants to reduce people's wages by 63%!!! These are highly skilled and loyal workers with bills, families and other responsibilities. They want to slash benefits, too. These are people who are making $27-$35 an hour and they want to reduce their pay to about $10-$12 an hour. They won't be able to afford the GM cars they help build every day or their mortgages.
But, wait - the "charitable" CEO Steve Miller says:
``I do think there is a lesson for America in this,'' Miller told a news conference at Delphi's headquarters in Troy, Michigan.
``The world pays knowledge workers far more than it pays manual, industrial workers. And that's what's sweeping over here,'' Miller said.
``I do not blame these people (union workers). They are being hurt, their expectations are being dashed,'' Miller told reporters. "Globalization has swept over them and they are extremely angry and they need to lash out at someone and they lash out at me. I understand it. I forgive them.''
Who in the heck is he to offer forgiveness to these loyal workers he's raping economically?
What is the union's strategy for dealing with this crap? We don't know because the union isn't given a voice in this article. We're told they couldn't be reached for comment. But Miller goes ahead and speaks for the union, too:
Miller said he does not believe the UAW would react as the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association did in calling for a strike in August against Northwest Airlines.
``They fundamentally understand that absolutely nothing could be gained by a strike at any Delphi facility other than to hasten and expand the number of plants that might have to close and further jeopardize any chance for salvaging plants and pensions,'' Miller said.
This is union-busting plain and simple! Miller has cocked a 57 Magnum and is holding it to each line worker's head and is going to pull the trigger one way or another! But as brutal as the effects of "globalization" are on Delphi and the rest of the auto industry, Miller can still find funds to give the Delphi executives RAISES:
Miller bristled at criticism of Delphi's plan to offer executives incentives to stay through the restructuring while pursuing the wage and benefit cuts.
``There is a market for manufacturing labor, and we are paying triple for that labor and there is a market for executives and we are underpaying for it and we are at risk of losing our management,'' Miller said.
Delphi's success at cutting labor costs will determine how many U.S. plants are salvaged and the likelihood of preserving pensions, which are underfunded by about $5 billion, he said.
Preservation of the pensions under any plan may require the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to agree to extending payment schedules over a
number of years and the consent of other creditors, Miller said.
This cold-blooded, subhuman CEO Miller is so arrogant and assured of victory. He and the other auto industry giants know that they can follow United Airlines to the U.S. Federal Courts and dump their pensions on the government (causing workers to lose over 70% of their pensions) and cancel the union contracts. The Republican party has stacked the courts with Corporate-friendly, worker-hostile judges who lean over backwards for corporations and leave the working and middle class Americans with practically nothing.
The unions must find a new way to do business and this is why I think the recent split in the AFL-CIO could be a good thing. The upstart 9 unions who seceded from the AFL-CIO now comprise the Change to Win Coalition. This coalition has recently begun meeting with unions around the world to fight the exploitative effects of globalization.
There can be no doubt that America is in the midst of another great Social
Movement that we've not seen since the likes of the Civil Rights/Vietnam Movement. I believe that if workers keep getting shafted like this and the Bush Administration continues to encourage it in attitude and deed, there will soon be mass civil disobedience and violence in the streets. And, don't forget that that new bankruptcy bill goes into effect on October 16th. So, we are being enslaved in America while the rich Republican donors grow fatter.

Bush plans to continue immoral fiscal policies at the expense of Katrina survivors

2005-10-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'd hoped that after Hurricane Katrina that Bush would see the light and embrace some progressive fiscal policy, but it's not looking that way. See this New York Times article:

Liberal Hopes Ebb in Post-Storm Poverty Debate

By JASON DePARLE

As Hurricane Katrina put the issue of poverty onto the national agenda, many liberal advocates wondered whether the floods offered a glimmer of opportunity. The issues they most cared about - health care,housing, jobs, race - were suddenly staples of the news, with President Bush pledged to "bold action."

But what looked like a chance to talk up new programs is fast becoming a scramble to save the old ones.

Conservatives have already used the storm for causes of their own, like suspending requirements that federal contractors have affirmative action plans and pay locally prevailing wages. And with federal costs for rebuilding the Gulf Coast estimated at up to $200 billion, Congressional Republican leaders are pushing for spending cuts, with programs like Medicaid and food stamps especially vulnerable."
Later we're told...
"This is not the time to expand the programs that were failing anyway," said Stuart M. Butler, a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research and advocacy group influential on Capitol Hill."
But, Butler fails to mention that programs such as Medicare and social security were never adequately funded on Bush's watch in the first place. Instead, they prefer to increase tax cuts for the rich and slash the social safety net - in effect, forcing the poor to pay for Katrina. But here is a crucial point that the New York Times journalist Jason DeParle makes that is rarely brought up:
"Economic growth is crucial to reducing poverty, but the effect of tax rates is less clear. In 1993, President Bill Clinton raised taxes on upper-income families, the economy boomed and poverty fell for the next seven years. In 2001, President Bush cut taxes deeply, but even with economic growth, the poverty rate has risen every year since."
There are so many holes in the logic of the tax-cuts-for-the-rich-obsessed far right that it's ridiculous. They care not one jot for the poor and middle classes - we can all rot. It is only going to get worse for us all during the next 3 years - our only hope is to make significant gains in 2006 despite the security-compromised computerized electoral machines. If the media does its job then it's possible that the moderate and fiscally conservative Republicans in the Senate will stand up and stop this madness. Bush and the GOP's poll numbers continue to plummet, after all. The actual article's a bit long, but well worth the read.