Just re-reading Orwell's 1984

I have just begun re-reading 1984 by George Orwell. By the time I got to page 4, and read the mantra of big brother, "war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength" I felt a chill go through my body. Further on, "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past" ran the party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

What made me pick up 1984 again? Bill Moyer's closing address at the National Conference on Media Reform in St. Louis on May 15, 2005. Several things that he said made me think of George Orwell, again and again. I was driven to go to my bookcase to pick up my copy of 1984 and dust it off. Moyers noted that right-wingers had been after him for years, and "they" were the people "obsessed with control, using the government to threaten and intimidate... the people who are hollowing out middle class security even as they enlist the sons and daughters of the working class in a war to make sure Ahmed Chalabi winds up controlling Iraq's oil...the people who turned faith based initiatives into a slush fund and who encourage the pious to look heavenward and pray so as not to see the long arm of privilege and power picking their pockets...the people who squelch free speech in an effort to obliterate dissent and consolidate their orthodoxy into the official view of reality from which any deviation becomes unpatriotic heresy."

He noted that the conventional rules of beltway journalism, which “divide the world into Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, allow journalists to pretend they have done their job if, instead of reporting the truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin the news.” Moyers quoted Jonathan Mermin, “if the government is not talking about it, we don’t report it.” In other words, we are only fed what our government wants us to hear, something that in years past was called propaganda, but is now the “news.”

Most chillingly, Moyers quoted the following from 1984: Syme (a writer of the totalitarian society’s dictionary) explained to the protagonist Winston, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?” “Has it every occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no though, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

Aren’t we a nation slipping into that unconsciousness? People blindly following right wing religious leaders who promote hate of those not of their particular religious stripe, promote stripping the rights of women and gays, and whose literal interpretation of the Bible is used to their own ends in order to promote their own world view. We are unconscious as a whole, to the lies of the Bush administration, blindly believing all that we hear from news sources owned by just a few corporations. Corporations that sift out the truths they want the American public to hear, and discarding the rest. We are bombarded with fear mongering, homophobia, and the evening news that consists of blood, guts, gore and crime. Be very afraid America, you are not safe in your own homes or in your own country, be very afraid, it all seems to say. We are told that those who disagree with the administration are unpatriotic, and all liberals and Democrats are atheists.

Chilling passages from 1984 by George Orwell:
• The only recognized purpose of marriage was to beget children for the Party.
• …the inner meaning of the Party’s sexual Puritanism. It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party’s control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war fever and leader worship.
• “Who care?” she said impatiently. “It’s always one bloody war after another, and one knows the news is all lies anyway.”
• In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening.
• The primary aim of modern warfare [in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party] is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living.
• But it was also clear that an all-around increase in wealth threatened the destruction – indeed, in some sense was the destruction – of a hierarchical society. In a world in which everyone worked short hours, had enough to eat, lived in a house with a bathroom and a refrigerator, and possessed a motorcar or even an airplane, the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared. if it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction. it was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For is leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once the had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance.
• On Party member discipline, the simplest stage called crimestop: Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity. But stupidity is not enough. [my words…leading to the need for blackwhite]
• Blackwhite: …this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. …no change of doctrine or in political alignment can ever be admitted. For to change one’s mind, or even one’s policy, is a confession of weakness.

How many of these points sound like our current administration? Scary parallels exist. As our educational system declines, as the religious right tries to change our views of science (“Intelligent design” instead of the science of evolution), as they use Orwellian language, “Clean Skies” and “Healthy Forests” and as our population becomes glued to ‘reality’ TV and is fed sanitized news, our nation cruises into the fictional 1984 environment. A remark by a foreign student from Romania, keeps repeating itself in my mind, “the education is your country is so poor, it seems like your government wants to keep people too stupid to figure out what is going on.” That, from a young woman who grew up in a former communist state.

Where are we going America? It doesn’t look good from here.

Bush and stem cells and more

Ok I have had enough already from the President and his religious fervor over "unborn babies" scientifically known as blastocytes, or in the religious right parlance, "snowflake babies." First of all, I am tired of the religious right thinking it should have dominion over women's bodies and women's choices. Second, their apparent hidden agenda of returning women to the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant and under the thumbs of men.

Therefore, I propose that women rise up and begin singing:

Every Sperm Is Sacred
Artist: Monty Python
Album: The Meaning Of Life


DAD:
There are Jews in the world.
There are Buddhists.
There are Hindus and Mormons, and then
There are those that follow Mohammed, but
I've never been one of them.

I'm a Roman Catholic,
And have been since before I was born,
And the one thing they say about Catholics is:
They'll take you as soon as you're warm.

You don't have to be a six-footer.
You don't have to have a great brain.
You don't have to have any clothes on. You're
A Catholic the moment Dad came,

Because

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

CHILDREN:
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.



GIRL:
Let the heathen spill theirs
On the dusty ground.
God shall make them pay for
Each sperm that can't be found.

CHILDREN:
Every sperm is wanted.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood.

MUM:
Hindu, Taoist, Mormon,
Spill theirs just anywhere,
But God loves those who treat their
Semen with more care.

MEN:
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
WOMEN:
If a sperm is wasted,...
CHILDREN:
...God get quite irate.

PRIEST:
Every sperm is sacred.
BRIDE and GROOM:
Every sperm is good.
NANNIES:
Every sperm is needed...
CARDINALS:
...In your neighbourhood!

CHILDREN:
Every sperm is useful.
Every sperm is fine.
FUNERAL CORTEGE:
God needs everybody's.
MOURNER #1:
Mine!
MOURNER #2:
And mine!
CORPSE:
And mine!

NUN:
Let the Pagan spill theirs
O'er mountain, hill, and plain.
HOLY STATUES:
God shall strike them down for
Each sperm that's spilt in vain.

EVERYONE:
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite iraaaaaate!

Operation Truth: what our soldiers need and more

Here are some of the key issues facing our soldiers. Operation Truth will continuously adapt to changing circumstances and focus on the Troops' most pressing needs.

Honoring the Fallen
Soldiers who have given their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom deserve a public memorial. Unfortunately, their sacrifices have often been hidden from public view.

National Guard and Reservists
For decades, Reservists and National Guardsmen have been treated as second-class citizens within the military. Reservists and National Guardsmen should be equipped and trained on par with their active duty counterparts.

link

Guess what it takes to qualify for Medicaid in Texas

If you are a single mother, and earn $400 per month, and are over the age of 21 you do not qualify for Medicaid, even if your children do. BUT you can qualify for Carelink through University Hospital, for a monthly charge.
Pardon me, but if you only make $400 per month, how in the heck do you afford to pay a monthly fee for healthcare?

What a state and country we live in. Bush is a big supporter of life...but what life is that, a potential fetus only? What garbage is that?

Source: my daughter, single mother of 2.

How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb?

Charismatic: Only 1 - Hands are already in the air.

Pentecostal: 10 - One to change the bulb, and nine to pray against the
spirit of darkness.

Presbyterians: None - Lights will go on and off at predestined times.

Roman Catholic: None - Candles only. (of guaranteed origin of course.)

Baptists: At least 15 - One to change the light bulb, and three committees
to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad and fried
chicken.

Episcopalians: 3 - One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks, and
one to talk about how much better the old one was.

Mormons: 5 - One man to change the bulb, and four wives to tell him how
to do it.

Unitarians: We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or
against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you
have found that light bulbs work for you, you are invited to write a poem or
compose a modern dance about your light bulb for the next Sunday service, in
which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including
incandescent, fluorescent, 3-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are
equally valid paths to luminescence.

Methodists: Undetermined - Whether your light is bright, dull, or completely
out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb, or tulip bulb.
Bring a bulb of your choice to the Sunday lighting service and a covered
dish to pass.

Nazarene: 6 - One woman to replace the bulb while five men review church
lighting policy.

Lutherans: None - Lutherans don't believe in change.

Amish: What's a light bulb?

Bill Moyers fights back against Tomlinson

I watched Bill Moyers tonight on C-span, and his speech was marvelous as usual. His eloquence and personal ethics are awe inspiring. He totally disagrees with the misuse of the purpose of public TV and radio as instruments of the Bush agenda, and spoke out eloquently on the subject.

"I should put my detractors on notice," declared the veteran journalist who stepped down in January as the host of PBS's NOW With Bill Moyers, who recently turned 70. "They might compel me out of the rocking chair and into the anchor chair."
Moyers closed the National Conference on Media Reform in St. Louis on Sunday with his first public response to the revelation that White House allies on the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have secretly been holding PBS in general -- and his show in particular -- to a partisan litmus test.

"I simply never imagined that any CPB chairman, Democrat or Republican, would cross the line from resisting White House pressure to carrying it out for the White House. And that's what (CPB chair) Kenneth Tomlinson has been doing."
read more

Join the virtual march on Washington to stop global warming

follow this link
Global warming is reality, not a joke like "intelligent design."

OB/GYN FDA advisor and wife rapist blocks Plan B availability

After reading this it just added to my outrage. Again right wing religious zealots, (who are obviously saddled with sexual problems due to the repressive views of their religous beliefs) reveal the ugliness that lies beneath their hypocritcal Christian exteriors:

"In a special investigation published by The Nation, reporter Ayelish McGarvey profiles FDA adviser Dr. W. David Hager, who played an instrumental role in blocking the availability of the "Plan B" morning-after pill for moral reasons, and who is accused of sexually abusing his former wife link

Hager is a prominent, socially conservative Ob-Gyn and a Bush Administration appointee to the FDA's Advisory Committee on Reproductive Health Drugs. The article reveals that Hager wielded crucial influence behind the scenes of the FDA's highly controversial 2004 decision to prohibit the sale of Plan B over the counter. According to Hager, he authored a "minority opinion" that was read by the FDA commissioner and used in the ruling against Plan B."

From the Feminist Majority Foundation: "Shocking news! We have just learned that Dr. W. David Hager, an evangelical doctor who prescribes prayer for PMS, may have had undue influence over the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision on over-the-counter status for the emergency contraceptive Plan B."

Take Action Today!

The FDA has been playing politics with women’s lives and health for too long.

Click here to tell the FDA to immediately approve over-the-counter status for emergency contraception.

Just one other comment: Ladies would you go to an OB/GYN who did not know one hole from another? In interviews, he has professed ignorance as to which hole was which. Isn't that a bit scary?

Overseas Base closures and CONUS closures

After some research, I found it interesting to find that the Pentagon has not decided which bases to close overseas, but with BRAC they have decided who is on the CONUS list. Obviously people a lot smarter than me think a mistake has been made.
"Two key House Representatives, Joel Hefley, R-Colorado, and Gene Taylor, D-Mississippi, want, at minimum, to postpone BRAC-05 until at least 2007. Hefley commented: “The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, combined with US moves to pull troops from bases in Europe, justify the delay. . . . The fact is it would be irresponsible to make irreversible base closure decisions with so many significant issues remaining unresolved."

Here are some excerpts of interest. Or you can follow the link for the full article.

Overseas Military Base Closures

Col Stephen R. Schwalbe, USAF

We are living in a revolution, and hardly anyone has noticed. In just three months since the end of the Iraq war, the Pentagon has announced the essential evacuation of the US military from its air bases in Saudi Arabia, from the Demilitarized Zone in Korea, and from the vast Incirlik air base in Turkey – in addition to a radical drawdown of US military personnel in Germany, the mainstay of the Great American Wall since 1945.[Charles Krauthammer, 2003]

The US military commanders during Operation Desert Shield were very frustrated that it took as long as six months to move equipment for US armored divisions out of Germany and deliver them to the Persian Gulf.13 As such, the DOD’s global posture review will be an important factor during its development of the BRAC list that the congressional commission will vet. Hence, the disposition of overseas military bases has a direct effect on the disposition of domestic bases.

There are three significant issues today regarding the BRAC-05 process. Presented in no particular order, the first has to do with the timing of BRAC-05 with regard to the disposition of the military bases overseas. Raymond DuBois, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, was Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s point man for BRAC-05. Dubois told the media that: “Rumsfeld promised Congress that he would rearrange and reduce the number of US bases overseas before cutting domestic bases through BRAC.”

Yet, despite the logic of it and the promises made, determining the overseas base posture prior to determining the stateside base posture is actually not what is going to happen.

In fact, Col George Latham, the 104th Area Support Group Commander, took the counter-intuitive position stating: “it makes little sense to close overseas bases before Congress announces its round of stateside base closures…. What politician in his right mind would want to close something before then?”22 Undersecretary Feith told his German counterparts, according to the Wall Street Journal, that America will start pulling out its armored units after BRAC-05 is finalized (in late 2005), eventually withdrawing up to 40,000 troops from Germany by 2006.23

Although DOD has not published a national military strategy (NMS) this millennium, the current version revolves around the numbers “1-4-2-1.” The military is expected to defend the homeland (1); deter aggression in four world regions (4); swiftly defeat adversaries in two other conflicts (2); and, conduct a limited number of small operations (1). This strategy was not really specific enough to design a force structure around for the near future. So, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld created another number catch phrase (patterned after long-distance telephone commercials) to complement the current strategy to give the military services more concrete guidelines for what is needed to fight in the 21st century: “10-30-30.” The services must each be able to deploy to a distant theater within 10 days, defeat an enemy within 30 days, and be ready for an additional fight within another 30 days. This is the new benchmark by which the US Armed Forces will be evaluated against for the near future. Unfortunately, it is not achievable with today’s transport capabilities, and the Army is still too heavy.

Finally, Bradley Graham of the Washington Post interpreted the Pentagon’s approach by writing:

The administration still intends to retain a ring of permanent military hubs in closely allied countries…. But, many other bases the US has relied on would be supplanted by a number of spare ‘forward operating sites’ such as those planned for Eastern Europe. They would be supported by small support staffs. Other countries would be designated as ‘cooperative security locations,’ providing staging areas that US forces could occupy quickly in a conflict. These locations would have no permanent US military presence but could be used periodically for training exercises.38

Given this past experience, General Martin recommended that: “[F]or every base needed, the United States probably should cultivate relationships with about three nations. Further, the United States will need two to three bases in the region to support contingencies. . . . To conduct a major campaign, airpower will need between 15 and 20 air bases within a major region. . . . We should cultivate the number of relationships to allow only three or four bases in each [nation].”54 Doing the math using Martin’s numbers, one soon realizes that the Air Force will need to have some sort of air base arrangement with just about every country in the world with suitable airfields.

Finally, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has been giving the impression that none of these new military bases is permanent. Chicago Tribune correspondent Michael Kilian reported that Rumsfeld rejected the notion that the United States is interested in a permanent large-scale presence in the Middle East and Central Asia. Rumsfeld reportedly stated that once the Taliban and al-Qaeda have been defeated, the United States will have “no bases” in Afghanistan. Currently, the United States has military bases in just about every country in both regions. While visiting Uzbekistan in February 2004, he said: “We have no plans to put permanent bases in this part of the world.” But, as Kilian commented: “Some big, permanent bases in the region are likely.”60

Secretary of State Colin Powell also commented on the new overseas military base disposition stating: “What we are interested in are, perhaps, forward operating locations that we could train at temporarily, or we can have agreements at particular airfields that make it easier for us to deploy to particular areas of potential crisis.”61 Instead of deploying overseas for years sometimes with families, troops would deploy for three to six months without their families to military installations lacking the creature comforts of today’s large bases in Europe. Brian Whitmore, Boston Globe correspondent, quoted one US military official as saying that using the facilities: “will be sort of like opening and closing your beach house.”62

Two key House Representatives, Joel Hefley, R-Colorado, and Gene Taylor, D-Mississippi, want, at minimum, to postpone BRAC-05 until at least 2007. Hefley commented: “The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, combined with US moves to pull troops from bases in Europe, justify the delay. . . . The fact is it would be irresponsible to make irreversible base closure decisions with so many significant issues remaining unresolved

Base closures

Where are the brains behind this current base closure list? Removing a trauma center from San Antonio? Dumb. Is it really cheaper to add new facilities at BAMC, than to use a perfectly good hospital at Lackland?
Why are they closing so many Reserve Centers? The military has a retention problem and a recruitment problem, so why make it harder for reservists to serve? If a reservist has to drive 100+ miles to monthly drills, on their own unreimbursed dime, how many will sign up or re-up if they have to drive farther to drill? The only time a reservist is reimbursed for travel is for active duty, like 2 week training annually or a required class, otherwise reservists do it all on their own money. For enlisted personnel particularly, serving in the Reserves is a definitely out of patriotism, it is certainly not for the money. Now the nincompoops inside the beltway will make it harder for these folks in particular.
If we are closing all these bases, where do we put the personnel the Pentagon wants to bring back from overseas? (Another brillant idea of the idiots in DC). Some have already admitted we don't have the military instrastructure to support bringing thousands of troops home from overseas. More on that in another post.
How many military personnel make up the actual list? How many have actual brains?

Bolton, there is no UN

See the video of his speech when he said there is no UN.
Again, why is this man qualified for this post?

Song about Bush

Great little song about Bush.

White House evacuation

Ok, I didn't sleep through all my Army training because I seem to remember that tactically it is not expedient to have large groups of people gather in one place. So what in the heck was the point of evacuating the White House and the Capitol...and having everyone stand around outside in large groups?
Think about it. Plane #1 goes over, the buildings are evacuated to the great outdoors, then plane #2 comes over and can hit the folks standing outside. The number of scenarios possible isn't difficult to figure out, all you have to do is to have watched some movies or read a novel or two.
Why not use the basements, tunnels and subway system as places to evacuate? Duh! And we trained these people on tax dollars?

Our "liberal" press forgot this little item 

Spiritual Progressives: A Dialogue on Values and Building a Movement

From George Lakoff's Rockridge Institute....

May 9th-May 20th, 2005 sign up here

"Religion and Politics
Religious fundamentalists have become a dominant voice in American politics—so much so that the word “religion” has become synonymous with the conservative political perspective. Because of this perception the progressive movement has been reluctant to embrace religion of any stripe, seeing it as counter to values such as compassion, freedom and trust.

Progressivism, in general, has not recognized the millions of Americans who possess a strong and vibrant faith that complements their progressive political views. The voices of these Americans have yet to be heard in significant numbers. The Spiritual Progressives conference is a step towards a remedy.

An Online Dialogue

On May 9th through the 20th, the Rockridge Institute, together with the People for the American Way Foundation, Tikkun, Christian Alliance for Progress, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Muslim Peace Fellowship and a coalition of religious organizations, will be hosting an online dialogue on religious values and progressive political debate. Also joining us in the conversation will be scholars and noted leaders in the religious and spiritual community. Progressives from all faiths and perspectives are invited to participate."

Social Security = investment in the future

From Glenn Smith, DriveDemocracy.org:

"The Roosevelt letter also offers convincing proof that once upon a time the faith community was looked to by those in government for ways to improve “the spiritual and material conditions for the American people.” The difference could not be more striking. Bush uses the Christian Right to divide and threaten Americans. Roosevelt looked to America’s spiritual leaders for advice on how government could help the people – all the people."


Excerpt from the letter from Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

"September 24, 1935

Reverend and dear Sir,

Your high calling brings you into intimate daily contact not only with your own parishioners, but with people generally in your community. I am sure you see the problems of your people with wise and sympathetic understanding.

Because of the grave responsibilities of my office, I am turning to representative Clergymen for counsel and advice,-feeling confident that no group can give more accurate or unbiased views.

I am particularly anxious that the new Social Security Legislation just enacted, for which we have worked so long, providing for old age pensions, aid for crippled children and unemployment insurance, shall be carried out in keeping with the high purposes with which this law was enacted. It is also vitally important that the Works Program shall be administered to provide employment at useful work, and that our unemployed as well as the nation as a whole may derive the greatest possible benefits...We can solve our many problems, but no one man or single group can do it,-we shall have to work together for the common end of better spiritual and material conditions for the American people.

May I have your counsel and your help? I am leaving on a short vacations but will be back in Washington in a few weeks, and I will deeply appreciate your writing me.

Very sincerely yours,

Franklin D. Roosevelt"

Full text of article

Vigilante Man

As a descendant of Irish immigrants (and of a Revolutionary War Veteran) and as a person who worked long and hard for civil rights in the 60's, this article spoke volumes to me. Our society seems to be excellent at singling out groups to discriminate against. Now immigrants (legal and illegal) and gays are in society's sights, and bear the brunt of persecution. At what point will we wake up and see our own faults? We, as a nation, seem to be able to point out the splinters in other country's eyes, but not the log in our own.

Vigilante Man
By Mike Davis

"The local people whipped themselves into a mold of cruelty. Then they formed units, squads, and armed them -- armed them with clubs, with gas, with guns. We own the country. We can't let these Okies get out of hand." -- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

The vigilantes are back. In the 1850s, they lynched Irishmen; in the 1870s, they terrorized the Chinese; in the first decade of the twentieth century, they murdered striking Wobblies; in the 1920s, they organized "Bash a Jap" campaigns; and in the 1930s, they welcomed the Joads and other Dust Bowl refugees with tear gas and buckshot.

Vigilantes have always been to the American West what the Ku Klux Klan was to the South: vicious and cowardly bigotry organized into a self-righteous mob. Almost every decade, some sinister group of self-proclaimed patriots mobilizes to repel a new invasion from some subversive threat or other.

To read more

A is for Auschwitz, a teen's documentary

This is well worth watching. The documentarian, Zach Smilovitz, has now turned all of 18 and is headed for the University of Michigan.

The documentary is called "A is for Auschwitz," and has been endorsed by Amnesty International and selected for several film festivals for the way it tells the story of what happened in the Holocaust.

watch the film

Facts were fixed regarding military action in Iraq

Greg Palast of BuzzFlash noted:
"Here it is. The smoking gun. The memo that has "IMPEACH HIM" written all over it.

The top-level government memo marked "SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL," dated eight months before Bush sent us into Iraq, following a closed meeting with the President, reads, "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Read that again: "The intelligence and facts were being fixed...."

Link here

DeLay ducking cameras

DeLay speaks out in anger, calling people like us "leftists." How dare he! Since when is ethical behavior a leftist value? I thought it was a Christian value, hmmm.

"There, away from the cameras, DeLay gave vent to his anger. Told that Democrats are seeking bipartisan support for new ethics rules, he laughed and said: "I bet they are. I'm not interested in the water that they're carrying for some of these leftist groups."

Asked about criticism of his ethics from an outside organization, he replied: "You really think a leftist group like that will have an impact on people that support me and support what I'm trying to accomplish here? Heh, heh, heh. I don't think so."

For the full story

Petition to save Public Broadcasting

I got this petition today. Please consider following this link to the petition, and sign it. Then send to friends.
My comments on the petition included the following: The reason I listen to public radio is because it is the only place that I can get in depth news and stories, not just sound bites....and that I am a member of my local radio station, thus putting my money where my mouth is.