Saturday, September 29, 2007
War Made Easy, looks like a movie to see
What is it about?
"Variety called War Made Easy a "damning" and "unobtrusively well-crafted film." The Nation magazine described it as "chilling and persuasive." And the San Francisco Chronicle praised it as "a genuine eye-opener and a treat for history buffs," an "expertly edited and researched" documentary that offers "a searing critique of how administrations over the past 40 years have manipulated the media to build support for war."
As Cornyn voted against SCHIP...
He knew about this story.....
It was while he was at school one Thursday in February that Deamonte complained of toothache. On the Saturday he had emergency surgery. An abscess had spread to his brain.
A few weeks later he died.
"Everyone here was shocked," says Ms James.
"They couldn't understand how he could have toothache and then die. We sometimes give the little kids candy as a reward; well, for a while they stopped taking it because they would say 'if I get a cavity, will I die?'"
Deamonte's mother, Alyce, could not afford private health insurance and in the US there is no state health service.
Mr Bush believes the bill extends the programme too far
For the poorest there is some free treatment, called Medicaid. But not all dentists or doctors accept Medicaid patients, and Alyce Driver could not afford to pay to have Deamonte's tooth extracted.
This story is not a one-off. Some 45 million Americans are without health insurance, nine million of them children.
Many say it is America's national scandal.
In Washington political opponents have come together on this issue, in part driven by the outcry over Deamonte.
This week, lawmakers - both Democrat and Republican - supported a bill that would help fund insurance for four million more children.
In the Senate, the bill passed 67-29. It also passed in the House of Representatives but with less than the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.
The proposed bill extends the State Children's Health Insurance Programme (Schip) that subsidises insurance for families who may not be the poorest, but who cannot afford private insurance.
Mr Bush says expanding public funding goes against the principles of private health care, and that subsidising it creates a disincentive for people to buy private care themselves. source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7018057.stm
I say Sen. Cornyn should have to face all the parents on SCHIP in a auditorium and tell them to their faces why their children don't deserve medical care. Then, I would like to see him get rid of his own government subsidized health insurance, paid for on my dime, and see how 48 million Americans face even a minor illness.
It was while he was at school one Thursday in February that Deamonte complained of toothache. On the Saturday he had emergency surgery. An abscess had spread to his brain.
A few weeks later he died.
"Everyone here was shocked," says Ms James.
"They couldn't understand how he could have toothache and then die. We sometimes give the little kids candy as a reward; well, for a while they stopped taking it because they would say 'if I get a cavity, will I die?'"
Deamonte's mother, Alyce, could not afford private health insurance and in the US there is no state health service.
Mr Bush believes the bill extends the programme too far
For the poorest there is some free treatment, called Medicaid. But not all dentists or doctors accept Medicaid patients, and Alyce Driver could not afford to pay to have Deamonte's tooth extracted.
This story is not a one-off. Some 45 million Americans are without health insurance, nine million of them children.
Many say it is America's national scandal.
In Washington political opponents have come together on this issue, in part driven by the outcry over Deamonte.
This week, lawmakers - both Democrat and Republican - supported a bill that would help fund insurance for four million more children.
In the Senate, the bill passed 67-29. It also passed in the House of Representatives but with less than the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.
The proposed bill extends the State Children's Health Insurance Programme (Schip) that subsidises insurance for families who may not be the poorest, but who cannot afford private insurance.
Mr Bush says expanding public funding goes against the principles of private health care, and that subsidising it creates a disincentive for people to buy private care themselves. source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7018057.stm
I say Sen. Cornyn should have to face all the parents on SCHIP in a auditorium and tell them to their faces why their children don't deserve medical care. Then, I would like to see him get rid of his own government subsidized health insurance, paid for on my dime, and see how 48 million Americans face even a minor illness.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Bush's speech at the UN today
The Moron in chief gets phonetic spelling in his speeches!
Accidentally leaked today: The United States salutes the nations that have recently taken strides toward liberty – including Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan [KEYRgeez-stan], Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a], Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Morocco.
However, the most egregious thing was the content of the speech. Bush talks about human liberty, inherent dignity, equal and inalienable rights, freedom, justice and peace, as quoted below. How dare he stand in front of this body of world leaders and LIE? He cannot actually believe a word he is saying! It is amazing that he had the chutzpah to stand there and say any of this, while he stokes a war, takes away our rights, tortures people, and eliminated the right of habeas corpus. WTF!
A portion of his speech:
Sixty years ago, representatives from 16 nations gathered to begin deliberations on a new international bill of rights. The document they produced is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and It stands as a landmark achievement In the history of human liberty. It opens by recognizing "the inherent dignity" and the "equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" as "the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world." And as we gather for this 62nd General Assembly, the standards of the Declaration must guide our work in the world.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Right's Garden of False Narratives
In this guest essay, poet Phil Rockstroh explores the personal and societal implications of foisting false reality on a nation:
One would think that from the cries of (feigned) indignation and calls for repentance arising from conservatives regarding Move-On.org's ad in the N.Y. Times that the liberal-leaning group had not simply questioned the insights and intentions of a public servant, promoting, in a public forum, the policy of an illegal and immoral occupation of a sovereign nation; rather, the folks of Move-On.org had committed blasphemy against the holy name of some revered saint -- General Mary Petraeus, Mother of God.
The false outrage of perpetually offended conservatives serves as cover for the true outrages of our era, including: truncated civil liberties, rising levels of social and economic inequality and injustice, and foreign wars of aggression waged by an insular and secretive executive branch and fought by a permanent underclass...
The outrages keep arriving, because the collective imagination of the citizen/consumers of the US, arbitrated by a careerist media elite, has been, for decades, in the thrall of false narratives that serve the interests of the elite of the corporate/militarist classes.
Concurrently, a sense of unease and despair, due to a sense of personal and collective powerlessness before exploitive power, has created the tone and tenor of the times, and begot the phenomenon of supine liberalism and Viagra conservatism. (In this way, liberals stand fecklessly by, as the public is, time and time again, screwed by the decrepit schemes of the right.)...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/092007a.html#When:09:15AM (link)
One would think that from the cries of (feigned) indignation and calls for repentance arising from conservatives regarding Move-On.org's ad in the N.Y. Times that the liberal-leaning group had not simply questioned the insights and intentions of a public servant, promoting, in a public forum, the policy of an illegal and immoral occupation of a sovereign nation; rather, the folks of Move-On.org had committed blasphemy against the holy name of some revered saint -- General Mary Petraeus, Mother of God.
The false outrage of perpetually offended conservatives serves as cover for the true outrages of our era, including: truncated civil liberties, rising levels of social and economic inequality and injustice, and foreign wars of aggression waged by an insular and secretive executive branch and fought by a permanent underclass...
The outrages keep arriving, because the collective imagination of the citizen/consumers of the US, arbitrated by a careerist media elite, has been, for decades, in the thrall of false narratives that serve the interests of the elite of the corporate/militarist classes.
Concurrently, a sense of unease and despair, due to a sense of personal and collective powerlessness before exploitive power, has created the tone and tenor of the times, and begot the phenomenon of supine liberalism and Viagra conservatism. (In this way, liberals stand fecklessly by, as the public is, time and time again, screwed by the decrepit schemes of the right.)...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/092007a.html#When:09:15AM (link)
Friday, September 21, 2007
Our nation is being destroyed by the right, as Dem leadership wimps out
The Right's Garden of False Narratives
By Phil Rockstroh
September 20, 2007
The question in my mind: How do we counter this, or will we sit idly by watching our country go to the dogs?
By Phil Rockstroh
September 20, 2007
Editor’s Note: At the core of the rot that is destroying the American Republic are the many false narratives that have replaced the nation's real history. The Right has proved adept at creating these alluring story lines and selling them through a vast and sophisticated media apparatus, while the mainstream press goes silent or plays along.full article, well worth reading
In this guest essay, poet Phil Rockstroh explores the personal and societal implications of foisting false reality on a nation:
One would think that from the cries of (feigned) indignation and calls for repentance arising from conservatives regarding Move-On.org's ad in the N.Y. Times that the liberal-leaning group had not simply questioned the insights and intentions of a public servant, promoting, in a public forum, the policy of an illegal and immoral occupation of a sovereign nation; rather, the folks of Move-On.org had committed blasphemy against the holy name of some revered saint -- General Mary Petraeus, Mother of God.
The false outrage of perpetually offended conservatives serves as cover for the true outrages of our era, including: truncated civil liberties, rising levels of social and economic inequality and injustice, and foreign wars of aggression waged by an insular and secretive executive branch and fought by a permanent underclass.
The outrages keep arriving, because the collective imagination of the citizen/consumers of the US, arbitrated by a careerist media elite, has been, for decades, in the thrall of false narratives that serve the interests of the elite of the corporate/militarist classes.
Concurrently, a sense of unease and despair, due to a sense of personal and collective powerlessness before exploitive power, has created the tone and tenor of the times, and begot the phenomenon of supine liberalism and Viagra conservatism. (In this way, liberals stand fecklessly by, as the public is, time and time again, screwed by the decrepit schemes of the right.)
The question in my mind: How do we counter this, or will we sit idly by watching our country go to the dogs?
George W. Bush's Thug Nation
Article by Robert Parry
Remember also, that Bush can designate US citizens as "enemy combatants." Where will it end? I shudder to think.
full articleIt’s said that over time Presidents – especially two-termers – imbue the nation with their personalities and priorities, for good or ill. If that’s true, it could help explain the small-minded mean-spiritedness that seems to be pervading the behavior of the United States these days, both at home and abroad.
On a global level, the world reads about trigger-happy Blackwater “security contractors” mowing down civilians in Baghdad, the U.S. military killing unarmed people under loose “rules of engagement” in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and the CIA “rendering” suspected Islamists to secret prisons or to third-country dungeons where torture is practiced.
Inside the United States, too, a police-state mentality is taking hold. After more than six years of having dissent against President George W. Bush equated with disloyalty, police from Capitol Hill to college campuses are treating vocal disagreement as grounds for violently “taking down” citizens, while bouncers at campaign rallies hustle away prospective hecklers and police preemptively detain protesters or stick them in faraway “free-speech zones.”
On Sept. 17 at a University of Florida public forum with Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, journalism student Andrew Meyer asked an animated question about Kerry’s hasty concession after Election 2004...Overseas, it now appears that Bush has authorized “rules of engagement” that have transformed U.S. Special Forces into “death squads,” much like those that roamed Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s identifying “subversives” and murdering them.
Remember also, that Bush can designate US citizens as "enemy combatants." Where will it end? I shudder to think.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
William Rivers Pitt, did he lose his mind?
I May Have Gone Insane
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist
Wednesday 19 September 2007
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
- Robert Frost, "The Secret Sits"
It is a legitimately demented phenomenon, all the more so because it all started with a joke. Not even a funny joke, either, but a sad and threadbare thing I told only to myself, and no one else. When the clustered elements of our collective national burden erupted in masterfully synchronized bedlam, as they so often seem to, I had that joke to tell myself, and it may not have helped much, but it was there.
Every time another cacophony of freshly minted lunacy was unleashed - lunacy regarding Iraq, the NSA domestic surveillance program, White House defiance of subpoenas, timorously flaccid performances by the Congressional majority, or merely when enduring the repeated "nukyalur"-ized butchery of public political rhetoric was required by my employers, all of which emphatically pegged the needle on my Pandemoni-O-Meter - I had that joke to tell myself.
The joke is spherically terrible, i.e. bad in every possible direction in three dimensions and across 360 rounded degrees. It isn't even a joke, really, which may be why it went so abruptly and bewilderingly sideways on me months ago. The joke, to be embarrassingly honest, is more like some half-bright mantra than anything else. As I came to discover, however, it managed to settle my mind when the needle was in the red. Perhaps the thing is best described as my self-generated Zen koan; though it did not actually stop my mind in proper koan fashion, it kept me from putting my head through the wall, and that made it valuable indeed.
The joke: people say Bush and his people want to raze the core nature of the country itself by wrecking the Constitution, and they're correct. People say Bush and his people are enriching their friends beyond dreams of avarice at our actual expense, by way of war-inflated oil prices; war-captured Iraqi oil infrastructure; the orgiastic plunder of Treasury money through calamitously unsound tax cuts for Bush's pals; and through an Iraq war profiteering scam so unutterably corrupt that it bends the very light. That, and more besides, is what people say, and they're correct.
for the rest of the article (Which is excellent) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091907R.shtml
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist
Wednesday 19 September 2007
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
- Robert Frost, "The Secret Sits"
It is a legitimately demented phenomenon, all the more so because it all started with a joke. Not even a funny joke, either, but a sad and threadbare thing I told only to myself, and no one else. When the clustered elements of our collective national burden erupted in masterfully synchronized bedlam, as they so often seem to, I had that joke to tell myself, and it may not have helped much, but it was there.
Every time another cacophony of freshly minted lunacy was unleashed - lunacy regarding Iraq, the NSA domestic surveillance program, White House defiance of subpoenas, timorously flaccid performances by the Congressional majority, or merely when enduring the repeated "nukyalur"-ized butchery of public political rhetoric was required by my employers, all of which emphatically pegged the needle on my Pandemoni-O-Meter - I had that joke to tell myself.
The joke is spherically terrible, i.e. bad in every possible direction in three dimensions and across 360 rounded degrees. It isn't even a joke, really, which may be why it went so abruptly and bewilderingly sideways on me months ago. The joke, to be embarrassingly honest, is more like some half-bright mantra than anything else. As I came to discover, however, it managed to settle my mind when the needle was in the red. Perhaps the thing is best described as my self-generated Zen koan; though it did not actually stop my mind in proper koan fashion, it kept me from putting my head through the wall, and that made it valuable indeed.
The joke: people say Bush and his people want to raze the core nature of the country itself by wrecking the Constitution, and they're correct. People say Bush and his people are enriching their friends beyond dreams of avarice at our actual expense, by way of war-inflated oil prices; war-captured Iraqi oil infrastructure; the orgiastic plunder of Treasury money through calamitously unsound tax cuts for Bush's pals; and through an Iraq war profiteering scam so unutterably corrupt that it bends the very light. That, and more besides, is what people say, and they're correct.
for the rest of the article (Which is excellent) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091907R.shtml
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Kerry obviously not for free speech
In his "Winter Soldier" speech, Kerry asked the following: We are here to ask, and we are here to ask vehemently, where are the leaders of our country? Where is the leadership?
So, where was Kerry's leadership when the student who was merely asking questions, and exercising his free speech rights, was tasered? He was there, he saw it and yet, he did nothing to stop it. He could have. Shame on you Senator Kerry. You saw, you continued to talk, and ignored that fact that someone's right to free speech was taken away from him. Then, you later issued a statement that you did not know what was going on. Are you blind? You saw, and yet you did nothing. I guess it's more fun to be a fat cat Senator, than it is to remember how to be a leader, and to uphold the constitutional right to free speech.
This is disgusting to watch, but it needs to be seen. We are entering a world were fascist tactics are apparently ok, even when witnessed by a US Senator who once asked where the leadership was. Well, Sen. Kerry you are part of that leadership, and you decided to ignore rather than lead.
So, where was Kerry's leadership when the student who was merely asking questions, and exercising his free speech rights, was tasered? He was there, he saw it and yet, he did nothing to stop it. He could have. Shame on you Senator Kerry. You saw, you continued to talk, and ignored that fact that someone's right to free speech was taken away from him. Then, you later issued a statement that you did not know what was going on. Are you blind? You saw, and yet you did nothing. I guess it's more fun to be a fat cat Senator, than it is to remember how to be a leader, and to uphold the constitutional right to free speech.
This is disgusting to watch, but it needs to be seen. We are entering a world were fascist tactics are apparently ok, even when witnessed by a US Senator who once asked where the leadership was. Well, Sen. Kerry you are part of that leadership, and you decided to ignore rather than lead.
Monday, September 17, 2007
and in other news, not cooking related
Sorry folks, I was under the spell of rhubarb!
This news almost made me toss my rhubarb:
Gingrich plots revenge on Clintons--Firebrand Republican threatens last-minute White House run to end primary 'chaos' - and stop Hillary.
Looking for peace march news? Here you go....
Coverage of the peace march in DC on Sept. 15 was non existent, locally.
Here is what I found:
China News:
Tens of thousands of protesters stage the first anti-war protest in the U.S. capital of Washington since January on Saturday, demanding an end to the Iraq war.
Sydney Morning Herald:
A MARCH by thousands of protesters demanding an end to the Iraq war turned chaotic near the US Capitol, where hundreds sprawled on the ground in a symbolic "die-in", and police arrested almost 200 people, including war veterans.
Police used a chemical spray against some protesters and pushed back others who tried to jump a barrier in a self-described effort to be arrested. The "die-in", on a walkway in front of the Capitol building on Saturday, was generally peaceful until scores of protesters were arrested when they tried to climb over metal fences and a low stone wall.
Russia Today:
Houston Chronicle:
Anti-war Texans join Capitol protest
Smaller group of counterprotesters lined the sidewalks
WASHINGTON — Charlie Jackson, a 48-year-old anti-war activist from Austin, waved the Texas state flag in front of the White House on Saturday to rally opposition to the Iraq policy of the Texan who lives inside.
"What we're trying to do still is to end this war. We've got to keep the pressure up in Washington, in El Paso, in McAllen. We've got to do it until we get this thing stopped," said Jackson, a technology firm executive and the founder of Texans for Peace.
This news almost made me toss my rhubarb:
Gingrich plots revenge on Clintons--Firebrand Republican threatens last-minute White House run to end primary 'chaos' - and stop Hillary.
Looking for peace march news? Here you go....
Coverage of the peace march in DC on Sept. 15 was non existent, locally.
Here is what I found:
China News:
Tens of thousands of protesters stage the first anti-war protest in the U.S. capital of Washington since January on Saturday, demanding an end to the Iraq war.
Sydney Morning Herald:
A MARCH by thousands of protesters demanding an end to the Iraq war turned chaotic near the US Capitol, where hundreds sprawled on the ground in a symbolic "die-in", and police arrested almost 200 people, including war veterans.
Police used a chemical spray against some protesters and pushed back others who tried to jump a barrier in a self-described effort to be arrested. The "die-in", on a walkway in front of the Capitol building on Saturday, was generally peaceful until scores of protesters were arrested when they tried to climb over metal fences and a low stone wall.
Russia Today:
Houston Chronicle:
Anti-war Texans join Capitol protest
Smaller group of counterprotesters lined the sidewalks
WASHINGTON — Charlie Jackson, a 48-year-old anti-war activist from Austin, waved the Texas state flag in front of the White House on Saturday to rally opposition to the Iraq policy of the Texan who lives inside.
"What we're trying to do still is to end this war. We've got to keep the pressure up in Washington, in El Paso, in McAllen. We've got to do it until we get this thing stopped," said Jackson, a technology firm executive and the founder of Texans for Peace.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Rhubarb in Texas?
Yes, they had rhubarb at the HEB! Hurrah! So today's project was pie. The heck with all the problems in the world, I was bringing a slice of my roots (Newfane, NY) to my grandchildren today. We made PIE !
Amana Ox Yoke Inn's Rhubarb Custard pie, to be exact.
http://www.grouprecipes.com/17543/amana-ox-yoke-inn-rhubarb-custard-pie.html
Amana Ox Yoke Inn's Rhubarb Custard pie, to be exact.
- 5 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
- 2 1/2 cups Sugar
- 4 each eggs; lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup half and half
- 3/4 tablespoon flour
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- double crust pastry for 9 inch pie
- Make crust for a 2 crust pie.
- Put bottom crust in pie pan; sprinkle with 3/4 tsp flour. (I used 3/4 tbsp in error, but it turned out beautifully).
- Mix the rhubarb, sugar, beaten eggs, half and half and salt.
- Bake at 375 for 1 1/2 hours.
- Contributor: Ox Yoke Inn, Amana, Iowa
- Yield: 8 servings
http://www.grouprecipes.com/17543/amana-ox-yoke-inn-rhubarb-custard-pie.html
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
9/11 Musings
I still wonder, where was all the luggage and debris in Shanksville and at the Pentagon? A recent crash somewhere (I forget where exactly) with a plane plunging into the side of a mountain left debris, engines, tail parts, wing parts, etc. The pictures gruesomely pulled me to examine them closely. It was as I expected, and not what we saw after 9/11. I have questions, that are unanswered, just like a lot of other people. Today, I read Lionel's post on Air America, and it struck home.
Here is an excerpt. If you have time, please go to the link and read it through.
Link to article
Here is an excerpt. If you have time, please go to the link and read it through.
9/11 SIX YEARS LATER & THE OBFUSCATION OF FACTS THANKS TO THE SO-CALLED CONSPIRACY THEORISTS
by Lionel on September 11, 2007 - 8:04am.
Six years ago today the 9/11 conspiracy theorist was born. Translation: the tin foil hat-wearin’, full-fledged, Elvis is alive, Area 51, Loch Ness Monster, crop circle nut case. The idiot, the crazed loon who would dare think that either (a) the government or a contingent thereof was somehow involved in 9/11 either by letting it happen or making it happen (the LIHOP and MIHOP theories that I don’t care to explain) or (b) the full account of what happened that beautiful Tuesday morning is at best incomplete. I’m in the latter group.
And while our country’s history is replete with references to lies that enabled us to enter into war, viz. the sinking of The Maine, Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, not to mention miscellaneous acts of varying terrorism from the JFK and RFK assassinations, Watergate and the impeachment of the greatest President in my lifetime for giving in to the advances of a zaftig fellatrix, I realize that anything is possible but there just simply isn’t any credible evidence that this administration was involved in any acts attendant to 9/11 including the favorite theory of a controlled demolition.
Link to article
Monday, September 10, 2007
Ray McGovern on Petreaus today
With the microphone finally fixed, it quickly became clear. Petraeus tried to square a circle in his very first two paragraphs.
In the first, he thanks the committees for the opportunity to “discuss the recommendations I recently provided to my chain of command for the way forward.” Then he stretches credulity well beyond the breaking point—at least for me:
“At the outset, I would like to note that this is my testimony. Although I have briefed my assessment and recommendations to my chain of command, I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by, nor shared with, anyone in the Pentagon, the White House, or Congress.”
Is not the Commander-in-Chief in Petraeus’s chain of command?
As Harry Truman, D-Missouri, would have said, “Does he think we were born yesterday?”
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/091007a.html#When:06:45PM
In the first, he thanks the committees for the opportunity to “discuss the recommendations I recently provided to my chain of command for the way forward.” Then he stretches credulity well beyond the breaking point—at least for me:
“At the outset, I would like to note that this is my testimony. Although I have briefed my assessment and recommendations to my chain of command, I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by, nor shared with, anyone in the Pentagon, the White House, or Congress.”
Is not the Commander-in-Chief in Petraeus’s chain of command?
As Harry Truman, D-Missouri, would have said, “Does he think we were born yesterday?”
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/091007a.html#When:06:45PM
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