2006 and the Liberal New Year Is Upon Us--Hoo-ah!!!!!

It's gonna be a great New Year. Republicans are shedding their skins (willingly or not) everywhere we look. It's like a new Harry Potter movie. Winger's true nature's as werewolves and souless blood-suckers are popping out all over. They're a scary (but very entertaining) lot and before the year is out they'll all just be shriveled little heads hanging from strings...

Let's have some fun summing up the crazies while we sip our champagne, shall we?

First, Steve Martin channels Bill O'Reilley:

"'This year's leap second is an assault on the American public,' says commentator Bill O'Reilly. 'The reason the leap second is even being proposed is because of America Haters, because of Iraqi hate mongers, and let's be honest, Shiites. Why would you add a second to the year unless you're an anti-American hate monger?"

Next there's the Creation Museum (no, that is NOT a parody) whose objective is to "Uphold the authority of the bible starting from the very first verse". Seems they've solved the nasty problem of dinosaurs and humans coexisting at the same time:

"The Creation Museum is an outreach of Answers in Genesis, a non-profit ministry located near the Cincinnati International Airport, in northern Kentucky, USA. This 50,000 square foot facility will proclaim to the world that the Bible is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice and in every area it touches on. Scheduled to open in 2007, this “walk through history” museum will be a wonderful alternative to the evolutionary natural history museums that are turning countless minds against the gospel of Christ and the authority of the Scripture."

Then there's what will prove to be the ongoing White House shuffle to not only grab power and spy but do it under American's noses with those old favorites "Remember 9/11", "The sky-is-falling" and "Liberals Hate America":

Vice President Dick Cheney cast the administration's eavesdropping program yesterday as part of a broader effort to reassert presidential powers that he said had been dangerously eroded in the years after Vietnam and Watergate.

And in the new Disneyland--Iraq--the guy who lost 400 million bucks and gave Bush the fake intel he needed to invade gets his pay-off--keeper of Iraqi oil:

As a fuel crisis deepened in Iraq, the government replaced its oil minister with controversial Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, whose poor performance in the Dec. 15 elections was a setback in his recent attempt at political rehabilitation.

I could go on but you get the drift.

So raise your glasses and let's make a toast:

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.

~ Abraham Lincoln

(Drumroll Please) And The Number One Reason Democrats Must Retake Congress in 2006...

"There are many reasons why it is crucial that the Democrats regain control of Congress in '06, but consider this one: If they do, there may be articles of impeachment introduced and the estimable John Conyers, who has led the fight to defend our constitution, would become Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Wouldn't that be a truly just response to the real high crimes and misdemeanors that this lawbreaking president has so clearly committed?"

Dems Winning Elections Already...Hoo-ah!

While wingers blow their time bashing liberals on my blog, Democrats are beginning to win back America. Well, if we keep the Fighting 101 Keyboardists busy shooting blanks while the big battles get won, who am I to complain?

Come on little wingers--over here--look, look! A big bad Liberal--ooooooo....

Two elections continue DFL gains: "After a pair of lopsided triumphs for the DFL in legislative special elections Tuesday in the St. Cloud area, the political pendulum seems to many to be swinging back to the left. The victories by DFLers Tarryl Clark and Larry Haws followed a DFL special-election upset in the Twin Cities suburbs in November and the party's gain of 13 House seats in the 2004 elections.

'They're on a roll,' Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, acknowledged Wednesday. 'We got our butt beat, and we've got to regroup.'

DFLers were more than happy to agree.

'These decisive election victories show the wisdom of what Democrats have been doing,' House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, said at a State Capitol news conference with Rep.-elect Haws at his side. 'Democrats are going to talk about education, health care and transportation, and that's why we're winning. Republicans talk about divisive social issues, and that's why they're losing.'"

STEVEN EMERSON: "He's Poison"

Steven Emerson, clearly read by the wing-nut crowd deserves his own blog post. Start here.

Just Another Cranky Little Link

Every now and then I find something that I know will just drive the wingers bonkers...here it is for this week...

2006--End Times for Radical Republican Domination

Liberty Counsel is very proud of its self-proclaimed mission to reverse the Constitutional separation of church and state, require taxes be collected and used for religious activities and generally undermine the founders intention that reason, not the dogma of one type or branch of religion, underpins legislation that affects all citizens regardless of their beliefs.

Here is just a brief burst of the damage they pride themselves for in 2005:

• Argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of the Ten Commandments.
• Won two major Ten Commandments cases in two different courts of appeal, both of which rejected the ACLU's "separate of church and state" arguments.
• Filed briefs in several landmark cases before the High Court - regarding religious freedom, parental notification regarding abortion, and physician-assisted suicide.
• Won a case against the San Diego School District, the second largest district in California, which resulted in a new school policy that allows Good News Clubs to meet on elementary school campuses free of charge.
• Received a unanimous 3-0 victory from a New York appeals court that stopped Mayor Jason West from solemnizing same-sex marriages, and won a 4-1 decision from another New York appeals court that upheld the state's marriage laws.
• Blocked the Montgomery County, Maryland, school district from implementing a radical homosexual sex education curriculum - this was the first successful lawsuit in the country against a homosexual curriculum.
• Won a major appeals court ruling on behalf of a kindergarten student who was humiliated when his drawing was censored because it had a picture of Jesus.
• Successfully defended multiple challenges against "Choose Life" license plates.
• Resolved hundreds of threats to religious liberty without having to file suit.

And they expect 2006 to be a banner year...

The next time you hear wingers invite (with open arms it would seem) homosexuals into their little fox's den keep in mind that it is their sole intention to remove any and all protection for homosexuals for inclusion into society. Further, it is their additional intent to quietly yet pervasively strip the rights of consenting adults (regardless of sexual orientation) to enjoy whatever sexual practice and birth control they chose if it conflicts with their homophobic, anti-erotic and anti-feminist religious doctrines.

Keep in mind that the direct mission of two of their base's loudest religious cheering squads --Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition --is to repeal sexual liberty innovations including birth control. If they have their way the only sexual behavior you will be practicing will result in procreation: you WILL be a vessel for the State and the State WILL be a vessel for God. This is a far cry from their claim that they wish only to level the secular playing field or balance conservative and liberal political agendas.

Think I'm kidding? Think again...

When Karl Rove assisted Tom DeLay with his dirty tricks to win a majority in the Texas legislature DeLay's first act was to gerrymander the state to ensure it remained that way FOREVER. He had no problem illegally using Federal--not state-- agents to locate and extract Democrats who had the right to refuse the illegal activity from neighboring Oklahoma where they had been driven to hide (!) to get his dirty job done! How is that "balancing"? When DeLay took his illegal form of campaign reform to the federal government it became arm-twisting and pocket-lining with Republican-only appropriations bills and legislation written and then rewritten in the dead-of-night or with only hours notice to Democrats (if at all)...how is this balancing? Do you think the rest of the government is being run any differently when its agencies looks the other way and worse, intends to pack the courts with political judges who support this fanatical anti-democratic agenda as well?

At what point do you wake up and understand a fascist America is developing before your eyes?! Where is this protected or even envisioned in the Constitution?

There is NO intention of BALANCE in the politically motivated, Republican led government America is currently drowning under and the religious base is not only cut of the same cloth, it has been the support mechanism. Their intentions are no better than to lie, cheat, steal, distort and arm-twist whoever and whatever it takes to get their pathologically delusional version of the End-Times into real political play and worse, they are masquerading as average Christians who just want a fair shake in the public debate--BLASPHEMERS! Were the historical Jesus alive today he'd be in Congress overturning their tables and throwing them out of America's house.

It's 2006 and time we did the same...a democratic America depends on it.

OPEN THREAD--Monday 12-26-2005

Happy Boxing Day!

Corporate Welfare Increases--Thanx to Your Asinine Government Reps!!!

Believe it or not according to winger thinking this is okay. Why? Coz if a company is smart enough to figure out how to get more money for its stockholders by keeping costs to a minimum (in this case zero) they have a right to all they can get their hands on!

Woo-hoo everyone--welcome to the New Gilded Age!!!

Companies will get federal windfalls to keep drug plans for retirees: "Once the new Medicare prescription drug program goes live Jan. 1, some Triangle employers will receive a federal, tax-free windfall - in most cases worth millions - for doing absolutely nothing.

The largest local payment will go to the State Health Plan, which has applied for an estimated $63 million. The payment is a subsidy the federal government will pay in exchange for an organization maintaining its own drug program and not relying on Medicare."

Afghan Journalist to Be Freed--Yippee!!!!!

Oh yeah, freedom is on the march in Afghanistan...

Afghan Journalist to Be Freed: "An Afghan journalist who was recently sentenced to two years in prison for publishing controversial magazine articles about Islam, women's rights and the Afghan justice system will be released from jail later this week, officials said.

Before gaining his freedom, however, Ali Mohaqeq Nasab had to confront an agonizing choice: formally apologize for what he had published or risk being sent to the gallows."

Peaceful Holidays--December 25, 2005

Display the Peace Torch on your site or blog!

A Week For Peace--Day 7--December 24, 2005

Be the change you want to see:

Seeds of Peace

No...I Said "HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!"

I know the nature of the item I will be posting at the end of this post. It is intended to sarcastically suggest that individuals such as tolerant PC practicing liberals and the groups they support (like the ACLU) are the culprits in creating the so-called on War On Christmas (WOC). It suggests that it is and has been our willingness to adjust to and acknowledge the diversity among Americans that has over-complicated the seeming simplicity of religious folks just wishing each other a Merry Christmas. It is an attempt to accuse the victims of the WOC--average people and liberals--who have no problem understanding what Happy Holidays mean and who now feel beleaguered by glaring radical wingers who verbally puke "Merry Christmas" at them as a new code phrase that requires immediate like response to show allegiance to the Good American club.

On the WOC, let me say this: Fuck Them. When some red-faced (nearly always white male) retorts to my Holiday wish with Merry Christmas, I retort back with as full a force, 'NO, I said Happy Holidays. Take it or leave it,' so far, those puffed-shirts deflate and just back off. Do it. It's fun. And it will prove to you what we already know; schoolyard bullies are the first to run home sniveling.

On the use of laws to defend diversity: it is our laws and the respect of law-making, however inconvenient and cumbersome the process and its outcomes may feel to those who have never run afoul of, or depended upon them for the support of the full weight of the courts, that separates our democracy from all others.

Mock the law--mock use of the law however annoying--and you mock America. I say this: if you don't like living in a country where individuality is not subordinate to the whims of a ruling elite or monarchy, get the hell out (and take the 'acting king' you supposedly 'elected' with you).

So now, the last best example of the Winger Whiners' mockery of thoughtful, respectful Americans:

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all...and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, ! choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

"(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)"

A Week For Peace--Day 6--Friday 12/23/2005

The Universal Peace Covenant

This is how it began -- an idea, an ideal, a vision, and a practice that had the power to uplift the consciousness of every individual on Earth who chose to participate. And the ideal was that every sentient being on Earth would participate by dedicating one hour a year to peace. This would be the same hour all around the world and there would be an incredible unity of consciousness.

The vision of the Universal Hour of Peace to unite all people of the Earth toward a common pursuit of peace of mind was motivating and inspiring. Immediately individuals began to imagine how this simple act of an hour of peaceful thought and action could change their world and how that would increase in power with thousands of others of like mind participating as well. The potential was immense.

A Week For Peace--Day 5--Thursday 12/22/2005

The 1,000 Years of Peace Project:

"This Web site was created in 2000 to gain “time pledges” of everyday peacemaking activities adding up to 1,000 years of peace—about 8.5 million hours. Our belief is that peace is built hour-by-hour, day-by-day."

A Week For Peace--Day Four--Wednesday 12/21/2005

What would world peace look like?

This...

OPEN THREAD--12/20/2005

You were saying...?

A Week For Peace--Day Three--Tuesday 12/20/2005

From The World Peace Prayer Society:

May Peace Prevail On Earth: "People all over the world are joining together to bring peace to our hearts and our planet through the prayer May Peace Prevail on Earth. This prayer for world peace carries a message of great hope and healing. It transcends barriers of nationality, race and religion to unite humanity in a call for the common good of all life on Earth."

Nazis Are Christians Too...

And to think, some folks believe being a white supremacist is incompatible with Chirstianity:

In fact, there is an international organization of white supremacist women who devote their energies to holiday activities such as sending Christmas cards to their incarcerated "brothers," and raising money for needy Aryans. This year Women for Aryan Unity (WAU) is holding its 15th annual Yulefund, which has purportedly raised $2,000 over the last three years to buy gifts for children of incarcerated white supremacists. Women for Aryan Unity also publishes a cookbook, sends welcome packages to new mothers, and runs an Aryan Clothing Drive.

The idea of a nurturing neo-Nazi or a charitable skinhead is incompatible with most people's conception of racist activists. After all, a hate group is all about hate, right? Well, yes and no. For many women in the white supremacist movement, their public actions involve the nurturing of their own group. These facilitators of fundraisers, contributors to clothes drives, and community builders represent the "softer side" of hate. They are the "housewives who hate" as one person sarcastically noted on a white nationalist message board. While their actions may be more benign than that of their male counterparts, they are not necessarily less harmful.

WAU's charitable activities are "a way to try to keep the racist movement alive and try to paint [racist inmates] as heroes," said sociologist Kathleen Blee, a leading researcher of hate groups. With the supportive admirers and mother figures WAU provides, prisoners are encouraged to stay active in their racist groups and continue their attacks on blacks and Jews from inside the walls of prison. Perhaps worse, the children of the incarcerated men are ensured a continuing Aryan influence. Women for Aryan Unity, and other female activists, are nurturing new generations of white supremacists in the spirit of a favorite Nazi Party maxim, "In the hand and in the nature of woman lies the preservation of our race."

Liars, Tigers and Barons, Oh My...

Remarking on the well-known addage "It's crowded at the top" a famous friend of mine once quipped "They have it wrong. It's the bottom that's crowded. There is lots of room up here." Apparently right, those at the top have so much room in which to play that we poor suckers competing for crumbs at the bottom (regardless of party) never had a chance...

Patron saints of right wing think tanks acquire Georgia Pacific Corp: "The Koch family 'is amongst the most powerful and influential movers and shakers promoting privatization in America,' Silver added. Over the past several decades, 'their money created an extensive infrastructure of Libertarian and Free-Market think tanks from which President Bush has drawn to staff the highest rungs of the land management agencies.'

The acquisition of Georgia-Pacific, which 'does extensive logging on public lands' and 'is a heavily subsidized form of corporate welfare,' could accelerate the trend toward the privatization of our national forests Silver argued. 'Logging companies such as Georgia-Pacific strip lands bare, destroy vast acreages and pay only a small fee to the federal government in proportion to what they take from the public. They do not operate in the Free-Market when they log public forests.'

Over the years, Koch has been 'a major polluter,' SourceWatch reported. 'During the 1990s, its faulty pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil spills in five states, prompting a landmark penalty of $35 million from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Minnesota, it was fined an additional $8 million for discharging oil into streams. During the months leading up to the 2000 presidential elections, the company faced even more liability, in the form of a 97-count federal indictment charging it with concealing illegal releases of 91 metric tons of benzene, a known carcinogen, from its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.'

After Bush took office in 2000, the 97-count indictment was reduced by 88. The balance was then settled when, 'two days before the trial' then- Attorney General John Ashcroft 'settled for a plea bargain in which Koch pled guilty to falsifying documents. All major charges were dropped, and Koch and Ashcroft settled the lawsuit for a fraction' of the possible $350 million in fines. (According to SourceWatch, Koch had contributed $800,000 to the Bush election campaign and other Republican candidates.)"

The Pro-Life Continuum

Okay. I give up. Politics goes on regardless of religion and holidays and I don't want to wait on posting articles of interest. So, here's the new Christmas Week approach--you'll still get the same old liberal opining from me AND the continuation of the PEACE Posts. Read what suits you. In liberal language such a change in policy is known as 'adjustment' (winger readers, add that to your lexicons).

Moving on, someone who has taken the time to point out the obvious:

The Pro-Life Continuum: "Those who would invoke the name of the Lord to justify protecting the zygote run up against a challenging reality. Over 50 percent of all fertilized eggs are spontaneously aborted, washed out before they attach to the womb. Some 15 percent of the attached eggs themselves are aborted spontaneously. It is hard to figure out God's will in all of this. I firmly believe that mainstream America is neither pro-sperm nor pro-zygote. It is pro-fetus. Within this category, the debate revolves around when in the fetus' development it gains the right of personhood."

A "LANDMARK" in So Many Ways...

(this just couldn't wait until after Christmas...sorry.)

Around the end of October I got a call from a longtime friend, exasperation in the voice I knew well. We'd not spoken in many months (par for our course) and all I knew was that my friend had moved into an excellent mid-century highrise building overlooking the downtown of a fair city in the west, Phoenix.

In the last several years as the stock market has remained stagnant and investors scoured the land for underpriced real estate to bolster their sagging portfolios, Phoenix has become the best-known undervalued find in the country. Hence all of Phoenix's real-estate--undervalued or not--has been descended upon by the ravenous investor class turning, flipping and renovating property after property, essentially terraforming the otherwise dusty laid-back town into a California boomtown rival just as thick with smog and money as Silicone Valley or LA. Nice if you are already rich, sucky if you were just hoping to live out your days in relative warmth and anonymity, but I digress...

The seventeen-story LANDMARK (eighteen if you count the sub-floor parking level), has sat on the corner of Central and Camelback for a very long time and needing--like all of Phoenix for decades--a bodylift. In 2004 after receiving only a facelift it was reintroduced to the public as "a luxury high rise living experience." It was on that basis that my friend, in mid-2005, became a resident.

That friend, whose name shall remain "Anon", had a story to tell. Tuning in to the anxiety of this voice on the phone I settled down to listen--and listen --for several hours--about the metamorphosis of a charming 17-story (eighteen if you count the sub-floor parking level) highrise apartment into a Sci-Fi horror condo conversion replete with (or without--as the qualifier suits the issue) running water, fire-alarms, jammed elevators (including one from which my friend had to crawl out mid-floor), lead and asbestos-filled clouds, twenty-four hour construction, air-conditioning that failed on 113-degree days, management replaced with overtly menacing construction foremen and crews, personal bodily threats (including slashed tires and keyed vehicles), run-arounds from city inspectors whose reports seemed to vanish (and that was just the one about urine and feces in the hallways), and daily visits from police responding to resident complaints of all of the above...and did I mention that this seems to be a Carlyle holding?

Let me repeat--Carlyle, or Carlisle--as in the Bush-owned Carlyle Group--holding. The documents are on file as "Carlisle/Landmark on Central LP," at the city Real Estate commission's office. Carlisle's address is listed as Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC.

Huh...imagine that.

What we want to know, dear reader, is how does a corporation as vast and supposedly professional as this allow such shoddy, dangerous and incredibly poor practice go about in an INHABITED 17-STORY (eighteen if you count...oh, never mind) METROPOLITAN CITY BUILDING?

Anyone think of fire? What do you think the lawsuit for a high-rise 5-alarm fire in Phoenix's Central Corridor would have cost? In lives? In losses? In PUBLICITY?

Anybody? Anybody?

We'll keep you posted...

(UPDATE 12-19-05) The city has officially declared that new buyers -- paying up to $300K per unit -- can't move in because the LANDMARK presents "...serious life safety issues..." (quote). Those buyers were promised November 1 move-ins. LANDMARK is still marketing like mad and not telling potential buyers the truth...

(UPDATE 12-21-05) From my source, Anon--

"Re: the comment posted about the "finished floor", that is the one (name deleted) lives on. There's been no heat or A/C for weeks. The heat in the hallway on that floor is set on 90 degrees. There are periodic floods on the floor, still.

In the last days, Landmark has been ordered to do ALL wiring in the building over. Not just the new stuff, NONE of it is up to standard. Everything they have done to "improve" to date -- new air compressors, blowers in each apt., must be REDONE. This means ripping out walls again, etc. Plus, the county is all over them for not following asbestos procedures now.

Buyer beware. But, the buyers are just in it for greed; 90% of them plan NOT to live in the mess themselves, but to sublet to unsuspecting renters. So some of these "buyer beware" idiots just might find themselves on the other end of the situation some day.

People tend not to "get" this story unless they know me (and therefore know I'm credible), or think it is just an exaggeration. They'd never believe how bad it really was."

A Week Of Peace--Day Two--Monday 12/19/2005

What will we do when the war is over?:

"Winning the peace is a far greater challenge than winning the war. 'Hanukkah,' which means 'dedication' is about securing the peace."

"We, too, live in an age where how we respond to the challenges of peace will determine our survival as a species, the wellbeing of the planet, and the possibility of true justice around the world.

As Jews in the United States, we are free to practice our faith, free to study our holy writings, free to live by the mitzvot, to cultivate an intimacy with the Holy One, free to be a light to the nations. The only impediment standing in our way is our own unwillingness to break through indifference, ambivalence, and self-centeredness.

Being a Maccabee means summoning the dedication necessary to win after the fighting stops. Now, in a time of relative peace and prosperity, is the time to turn our attention to the perennial issues plaguing our progress: illiteracy, poverty, bigotry, greed and objectification.

Now is the time for us to cleanse the Temple of our society. It is time to let our lights shine."

A Week for Peace--Day One--Sunday 12/18/2005

I think that until Christmas (oh my God, did I use the "C" word?) it would be fitting to invest this blog's posts on a favorite (and Holiday appropriate) topic: PEACE. So let's start with a look at the evolution of the Peace Symbol.

(Note: While doing this research I came across something I just can't NOT post, a Christian site claiming the Peace symbol is a Satanic sign and those who use it--yea, you guessed it; and they call US divisive and nit-picking--sheesh, but don't let that get your spirits down right now. You'll have plenty of time for that next year...)

Whatever You Do, Don't Transfer a Library Book...

How much does it cost taxpayers for federal agents to "watch" the readership of books by that oh-sooooo-notorious Muslim Communist Osama bin Mao who's oh-so-popular-in-the MIDDLE FREAKIN' EAST?!

"A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called 'The Little Red Book.'

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.

The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a 'watch list,' and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further. "

Jeez-us, and worse, I know there's a winger who's right now thinking 'Who cares, it's worth it'!

AARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Hat-tip to PEEK.

INCOMING: Herbicide Treatments on Public Lands in 17 Western States

As one who fought aggressively and succesfully to stop aerial spraying for West Nile Virus in my western state I can tell you, the year in which early, targeted local spraying occurred WNV cases dropped nearly 100% from the previous year in which generalized, massive aggressive spraying occurred. When you make them work to solve the problem (instead of allowing them to throw chemicals on everything) governemnt does a better job! DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO GO FORWARD IN YOUR STATE. It is your health at risk, and as a surivivor of a toxic chemical exposure I'm not kidding you on this!

The proposed program opens the door for use of "...persistent and mobile chemicals, including known developmental and reproductive toxins," and ..."new chemicals that may be developed in the future." I am NOT a human guinea pig!!!

Further, there are many, MANY homes and communities abutting government and park land that dots most of the West:

"The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed to apply massive amounts of herbicides to public lands in 17 Western states. The BLM claims these pesticides need to be applied to forests, rangelands and aquatic areas in order to reduce the risk of fire and slow the spread of invasive weeds. Under the proposal 932,000 acres would undergo chemical application in 17 western states, including National Monuments and National Conservation areas.

An integral part of this proposal involves aerial spraying of toxic herbicides, which increases negative impacts on non-targeted vegetation, wildlife, and people, including recreationists, tourists, and native peoples (herbicide application areas include Alaska, where native fishing and plant gathering is widespread).

The herbicides that would be used include persistent and mobile chemicals, including known developmental and reproductive toxins. The list of herbicides includes 4 new chemicals and 14 other pesticides, including 2,4-D, bromacil, chlorsulfuron, diquat, diuron, fluridone, hexazinone, teburthiruon, triclopyr, and picloram. The proposal would also allow the use of 'new chemicals that may be developed in the future.'

Fortunately, the proposal also includes an analysis of possible outcomes of using nonchemical means of managing these areas and offers an option (Option C) wherein traditional methods of vegetation management are used on public lands, not the use widespread application of toxic chemicals."

SIGN THE PETITION TO ELECT "OPTION C" NOW

Public comment period ends Jan.9,2006

Novak Joins Fox

Just remember he said this "...I was never censored by CNN and I said some fairly outrageous things and some very conservative things. I don't want to give the impression that they were muzzling me and I had to go to a place that wouldn't muzzle me," BEFORE the rumors start:

Novak leaves CNN after 25 years to join Fox: "While his CNN shows included 'The Capital Gang,' 'Inside Politics' and 'Evans and Novak,' he was best known for the political trench warfare of 'Crossfire,' where his fiery conservative views led some opponents to give him the nickname the Prince of Darkness.

Why Does This Surprise You?

Is the Pentagon spying on Americans?:

"A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military."

A Liberal State Puts Humanity First

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:

"Amid growing national concern over flaws with capital punishment, the New Jersey Senate Thursday approved a one-year ban on executions in the state and said it would study how the death penalty is administered."

Anti-War = American Threat?

National Lawyers Guild:

"The Partnership for Civil Justice, a civil rights litigation firm, today filed a Freedom of Information Request on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild and the anti-war group the ANSWER Coalition after learning that the Department of Defense (DOD) is maintaining a database of identified “threats” that includes information on protests and political activists who oppose the war. Defense officials responded to reports of the database on Tuesday by saying that the Pentagon has a right to maintain information to help protect military installations. One of the database listings was a major anti-war protest on March 19, 2005 identified in the Pentagon’s records as taking place at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles.

A confidential DOD document, according to NBC News, indicates in-depth domestic surveillance such as the specific monitoring of vehicles and specific individuals from one protest to another. The database lists 1,500 “suspicious incidents” around the country over a 10-month period, including four dozen anti-war meetings or protests."

The Most Unpopular Prez Should Pay Attention...

And sadly someone will inevitably comment that Bush doesn't have to run again so who cares? Well, duh, the legislators who can't rely on his "political capital" and support for re-election, that's who...

"President George W. Bush ranks as the least popular and most bellicose of the last ten U.S. presidents, according to a new survey.

Only nine percent of the 662 people polled picked Bush as their favorite among the last 10 presidents. John F. Kennedy topped that part of the survey, with 26 percent, closely followed by Bill Clinton (25 percent) and Ronald Reagan (23 percent).

Bush was also viewed as the most warlike president (43 percent), the worst for the economy (42 percent) and the least effective (33 percent). But he was rated most highly in response to a question on who would do the right thing even if it were unpopular."

PROPOGANDA ALERT: Liberty Counsel Delivers

So now I hear the WOC (War On Christmas) has been going on for a long time. Hmmmm (I think to myself). Why didn't I notice that? Well, now I know. It is because the history (that should be histrionics) is being manufactured from bits and pieces of propoganda based on policies of countries from the 1980's (?) .

In the history and propoganda division of those creating the WOC (War On Christmas) Liberty Counsel deserves note.

Ahem..."Witness":

Christmas According to Marx and Lenin, by Ronald Reagan

Between his campaign against President Gerald Ford in 1975-76 and his race against Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan delivered more than 1,000 radio broadcasts, running about three minutes apiece, writing nearly all of them himself. In one broadcast during the Christmas season, Mr. Reagan told a story about Christmas in the Ukraine before and after Communism.

In an effort to resist Christians, Communist leaders secularized a favorite Ukrainian Christmas carol, "Nova Radist Stala" (Joyous News Has Come to Us). The original song began with these words: "The joyous news has come which never was before. Over a cave above a manger a bright star has lit the world, where Jesus was born from a virgin maiden, ..." At first the Communists feared an outright ban on Christmas, so they began to secularize the holiday. The first rewrite of the song began as follows: "The joyous news has come which never was before, a red star with five tails has brightly lit the world." The second rewrite went further: "The joyous news has come which never was before. Long-awaited star of freedom lit the skies in October [the month of the Revolution]. Where formerly lived the kings and had the roots their nobles, there today with simple folks, Lenin's glory hovers."

The former Soviet Union eventually began banning Christmas commemorations. St. Nicholas was replaced with "Did Moroz," or Grandfather Frost. This Stalinist creation wears a red cap and long white beard of Santa Claus, but he delivers gifts to children on New Year's Eve. Christmas trees were also banned, but people continued to trim their New Year's trees. Communism folded all Christmas celebrations into a New Year celebration.

Christians in the former Soviet Union exhibited bravery and courage in confronting Communism's anti-Christmas campaign. One person recalled how the young people would go out in the streets and sing Christmas carols, knowing that if police heard them, they would be arrested. In Communist Romania, Rev. Geza Palffy, a Roman Catholic priest, delivered a sermon in 1983 protesting against the fact that December 25th had been declared a work day instead of a holiday. The next day he was arrested by secret police, beaten, imprisoned and died.

Inside and outside the Iron Curtain, Ukrainians never stopped singing: "We beg you our Lord, we pray to you today. Grant us freedom, return glory to our Mother Ukraine." Mr. Reagan ended his broadcast: "I guess we all hope their prayer is answered." And indeed it was.

The secularization of Christmas is nothing new. Christianity Today in 2002 reported that in the Vietnamese province of Dak Lak, children's choirs were forbidden to sing "Silent Night." From 1969 to 1997, Christmas was banned in Cuba. Such examples are endless.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, commented: "The war against Christmas is nothing new. Repressive forces have always had the same goal - to first secularize and then to eliminate Christmas."

Emotional isn't it? Those brave Christians dying in the Lion's Den of Communism.

As if Jews didn't die for their religion at the hands of other regimes (including those run by Christians) through any variety of pograms and fascists (and yes, Hitler was a Christian, like it or not). We don't see Jews kvetching about a war on Hanukkah, do we? Why is that?

And I particularly like the faulty logic that links the secularization of religion with communism. We know of course that the Radical Religious Right is extremely invested in linking liberalism with secularism..so I guess the next "logical" conclusion from such linkage runs:

• A: Liberals are secularist
• B: Secularists are communist (and secularize religion to eliminate it)
• Therefore
• C: Liberals are communist (and secularize religion to eliminate it)

Yep, no rocket science needed there--but Sheeple--you do need plenty of Sheeple...

OPEN THREAD--December 16, 2005

So...?

Give Me That Old Time Religion

This is the "old-time religion" even I can support:

Jim Wallis, founder of the Christian ministry group Sojourners who was arrested at the protest, noted, "The media seems to think only abortion and gay marriage are religious issues." Wallis pointed out, "Poverty is a moral issue, it's a faith issue, it's a religious issue." Wallis is not alone. Christian religious bodies that have weighed in against budget cuts to programs that serve the poor -- including the Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ -- represent more than 86 million Americans. It's a small contingent aligned with the radical right that takes a different approach. For example, "groups such as Focus on the Family say it is a matter of priorities," and its priorities are opposing abortion, opposing same-sex marriage, and seating judges who will back its position against those practices. Wallis describes this approach as "trading the lives of poor people for their agenda. They're being, and this is the worst insult, unbiblical."

Thanks to the American Progress Action Fund's 12/15/05 Progress Report.

NPR Slants Right

National Public Radio, the minority voice no more...

"...even accepting the classification Dvorkin uses, he has found that 63 percent of the think tank experts quoted in the past year came from conservative institutions, while only 37 percent came from liberal institutions -- a pronounced conservative tilt."

INCOMING: Dirty Tricks on Arctic Refuge Planned Today!

It's all about Supporting the Troops until it's all about Drilling for Oil (in your state):

"Unable to pass his Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling plan in any other way, Senator Stevens has announced that he will hold the Defense spending bill hostage in order to force his controversial drilling legislation through Congress.

This is clearly a desperate, last-ditch attempt to salvage an ill-advised Arctic Refuge drilling plan, which is all but dead in the Budget Reconciliation bill."

CALL YOUR SENATOR NOW!

The U.S. Capitol Switchboard is
(202) 224-3121.

An operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request.

Told You So...

Watch, even in the face of this revelation staunch Bush supporters will take the administration's side. It's like we've said all along, in this Good Old Boys Club the only Golden Rule that applies is "You Lie, And I'll Swear To It":

Congress doesn't see same intelligence as president, report finds: "President Bush and top administration officials have access to a much broader ranger of intelligence reports than members of Congress do, a nonpartisan congressional research agency said in a report Thursday, raising questions about recent assertions by the president."

(UPDATE 12-18-05) The Congressional Research Service report here.

Moderates vs Extremists

...anyway, that's the way I see this:

After months of opposition, the White House agreed Thursday to Republican Sen. John McCain's call to ban torture by U.S. personnel.

"Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Virginia, and McCain, R-Arizona, met with President Bush to discuss the deal, which Warner said he expects to be finalized by the end of the day.

After the meeting with President Bush, McCain said 'this is a done deal.'

But Warner's Republican counterpart in the House, Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter of California, said he will not sign onto the deal and may try to block it."

WTO: Private Water

People talk about "Evil" being rampant in the world. If this is what they mean, I agree:

On Tap at the WTO: Private Water: "Activists gathered here say that no issue highlights the tension between the human values they advocate and the economic logic of the legion of corporate globalizers that have descended on this city more clearly than water.

Water is viewed as one of the last 'profit centers' by the international financial institutions and trade can impact whether it becomes a commodity or stays in public hands -- 90 percent of the world's water supplies remain in the public trust. Most notably water's on the table with the privatization of municipal water systems being aggressively pushed under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), a wide-ranging treaty that covers a host of services, both public and private."

Here Comes Fitzgerald...for Rove?

"There have been rumors flying around Washington in the last few days that Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, might soon be indicted in the CIA leak investigation. At least for now, the rumors appear to be based on someone hearing that someone else had heard something, or that someone had gotten a sense that something was about to happen and told someone else. Are there any facts to back up such gossip and guessing? No one seems to know.

But it is true that there is growing nervousness among people who support Rove's side in the case. They know that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in addition to presenting some new evidence to a new federal grand jury, has also re-presented previously-gathered evidence to that grand jury. To most observers, that suggests Fitzgerald could be planning to indict someone.

Rove's supporters also know that the time is about right for something to happen. Back in late October, when Fitzgerald indicted Vice President Dick Cheney's then-chief-of-staff Lewis Libby, he refrained from taking action in Rove's case because of a new argument made by Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin. That new argument, everyone agreed, would take a while to check out and assess. Now, it seems likely that enough time has passed; Fitzgerald has either found Rove's and Luskin's case persuasive or he hasn't."

House Passes Spending Cuts (Religious Protestors Pray They Won't)

How many examples do we need that prayer won't work? At least this time they were liberals...

"Meanwhile, religious groups on Wednesday targeted another Republican-backed money bill for defeat. U.S. Capitol Police arrested 115 religious activists after they staged a peaceful sit-in at a government building near the U.S. Capitol.

The protesters' target was a controversial Republican budget bill being negotiated that would achieve around $42 billion in net savings over five years from a range of federal programs, including health care for the poor and elderly and possibly child care, student loans and food stamps.

'Someone's praying Lord, stop the cuts,' chanted the protesters before U.S. Capitol Police officers moved in to arrest them. They were camped out at the Cannon building that houses the offices of some lawmakers.

Call to Renewal, a network of churches and other religious organizations, was planning 'local prayer vigils' in 32 states on Wednesday to protest the budget cuts."

Novak Confident Bush Knows CIA Leak Source (?)

Huh?!

"Columnist Bob Novak, who first published the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, says he is confident that President Bush knows who leaked Plame's name.

Novak said that 'I'd be amazed' if the president didn't know the source's identity and that the public should 'bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.'"

From the Jackass's Mouth

And all this time you thought they cared...

"From CHARLIE REINA, former Fox News Channel producer: As with many conflicts, particularly the manufactured kind, dishonesty, greed and ignorance are the culprits behind Fox News Channel's so-called “War on Christmas.” "

--snip--

But what really separates Fox from the competition is its unabashed use of religion as a divisive weapon. Common sense -- and common courtesy -- have long dictated that personal religious beliefs be kept out of news reporting unless the story at hand involves religion. But on Fox, it’s not uncommon for an anchor to raise the issue of a guest’s religion, or lack thereof, a’ propos of nothing. The most glaring example I can recall is a 2002 interview with a guest who had been cited for his charitable acts. At the end of the discussion the anchor said (paraphrasing here), “So I understand you’re an atheist.” The guest acknowledged that this was so. “Well,” said he anchor, “we’re out of time now, but I’d be glad to debate you anytime on the existence of God,” and, with that, ended the segment.

--snip--

So, again, it’s no wonder this “War on Christmas” (now in its second successful year) is a production of Fox News Channel -- the very network that has made accusation, recrimination and confrontation the gold standards of cable “news,” and whose personalities have fashioned a self-serving “war” out of whole cloth, thanks to a scattered handful of p/c dupes and a shameless management willing to use even Christmas for its own political ends.

I told ya it was politics...

ENVIRONMENT: Go Ahead...Smoke...The Air Will Kill You Anyway

"The rapid growth in coal use in China and India, where pollution controls are minimal, is adding to local and long-distance pollution. More than 80 percent of Chinese cities in a recent World Bank survey had sulfur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide emissions above the World Health Organization's threshold.

Scientists have concluded that growing up in a city with polluted air is about as harmful to a person's health as growing up with a parent who smokes. Although air pollution is concentrated in cities, it can move well beyond them: for example, acidic lakes in Scandinavia have been linked to pollution from factories in the United States. The World Bank projected that on average 1.8 million people would die prematurely each year between 2001 and 2020 because of air pollution."

Dude, Where's My Party?

AlterNet:

"When Murtha stepped forward, alone, and fired off that rock, Republicans did what Republicans do best, they attacked. Poor John turned to rally his troops, but they were long gone. Many were clustered for cover around CNN microphones, declaring as loudly as they could, 'Murtha? He's not with me,' and 'Hardly know the guy,' and 'Sure, John's a brave American. No one questions that. But he doesn't speak for me or most other Democrats on this one.'

Hillary Clinton said she respects Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., the Vietnam veteran and hawkish ex-Marine who last week called for an immediate troop pullout. But she added: 'I think that would cause more problems for us in America.'

Oh you pack of quisling cowards. Run away! Run Away! Retreat and defeat.

This is why Dems never win anymore. And why Americans lose and lose and lose again. We lose jobs, we lose medical care, we lose sons and daughters. Because the when the other side starts shooting Democrats hoist the white flag of surrender and political cowardice. Instead of rallying around defensible positions and yelling 'Bring em on! Pass the ammunition,' they whimper, 'Waffles, damn it! We need more waffles up here. They're killing us with our own words. Pass the friggin waffles!'"

NO COMMENT

"Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

-- Hermann Goering

Death Before Justice

As the standards of the United States seem to slip from the enlightenment of humanism into the ever-darker depths of moralist mindlessness, Amnesty International makes a point that regardless of emotion should have been picked up by the governor of California:

Death Penalty: Williams denied clemency, execution scheduled for tomorrow: "By refusing to stay Williams’ execution, Gov. Schwarzenegger has failed to demonstrate genuine leadership on this issue. In his prepared statement, he said that he was placing his trust in California’s criminal justice system, which the Senate Commission is currently investigating. Last year, the legislative body recognized the pervasive flaws plaguing the system and tasked the Commission with discovering and exposing the potentially lethal errors and bias that have metastasized throughout the state’s administration of the death penalty."

INCOMING: The End of Democracy in Ohio?

From the party that advertises being for individual rights, voter supremacy and personal responsibility comes the first Bridge to the world they actually sold you and absolutely intend to deliver; Federalist (i.e. Super-Class) Hegemony:

The End of Democracy in Ohio?: "House Bill 3 has already passed the Ohio House of Representatives and is about to be approved by the Republican-dominated Senate, probably before the holiday recess. Republicans dominate the Ohio legislature thanks to a heavily gerrymandered crazy quilt of rigged districts, and to a moribund Ohio Democratic party. The GOP-drafted HB3 is designed to all but obliterate any possible future Democratic revival. Opposition from the Ohio Democratic Party, where it exists at all, is diffuse and ineffectual.

HB3's most publicized provision will require positive identification before casting a vote. But it also opens voter registration activists to partisan prosecution, exempts electronic voting machines from public scrutiny, quintuples the cost of citizen-requested statewide recounts and makes it illegal to challenge a presidential vote count or, indeed, any federal election result in Ohio. When added to the recently passed HB1, which allows campaign financing to be dominated by the wealthy and by corporations, and along with a Rovian wish list of GOP attacks on the ballot box, democracy in Ohio could be all but over.

The GOP is ramming similar bills through state legislatures around the U.S., starting with Georgia and Indiana. The ID requirements in particular have provoked widespread opposition from newspapers such as the New York Times. The Times, among others, argues that the ID requirements and the costs associated with them, constitute an unconstitutional discriminatory poll tax."

You think I'm joking?

Think about it. Had the states been so carved up as Ohio (and Texas) currently stand, civil rights may still be a black minister's Dream. The Trojan Horse used to deliver this strategic process/weapon was the Republican/conservative party drive for a return to state's rights. Using the values-based wedge issues (the emotional ones that turn off your brain and turn on your reactionism) like abortion, gays and guns they took hold office-by-office.

On the surface being able to "vote" your values and state's rights sound patriotic enough (and hard to argue against) until you realize that by loading the courts with Republican pro-business forces until the local levels are also saturated that the end result is not more consumer or individual protection but less; not more individual rights but fewer, because when a right is denied by the state it will be challenged in higher courts (which will turn it back to the state)that is now legislatively jerry-rigged against individual or group action or protest. End result? Not only do you not win, in some cases it may be ILLEGAL for you to seek your day in court!!!

So, if left unchecked, the pro-corporate, anti-rights forces of the Republican party will continue to target, pull-down and then destroy the laws of each state required to first, guarantee electoral majorities until it is practically impossible to unseat and defeat them and second, criminalize the act of challenging them or their corporate masters!

After that, political opposition parties will become increasingly targeted. It is likely they will be infiltrated by operatives who will commit crimes opening the groups to charges of terrorism until one by one, political opposition represented through pro-rights or other dissenting voices (i.e. environmental activists, consumer protection groups, et al) will be deligitimized and/ or criminalized out of existence.

End result? The Federalist corporate-interest run country --wet-dream of the Super Class. Go ahead, laugh, but buy land in Canada in case I'm right...

(UPDATE 12-14-05)
And AFTER the above legislation is passed, what happens?

In Ohio, a case alleging conspiracy to commit voter fraud was brought by another prominent Republican law firm. Again, the case was dismissed when no evidence could be produced. In Cleveland and Akron, FBI investigators reviewed registration applications submitted by ACORN and found no evidence of any organizational misconduct.

Alleged incidents of "voter fraud" are frequently cited as the main reason for implementing laws that restrict access to voting and disproportionately impact low income and minority, such as photo identification requirements. A year after the contentious 2004 election, however, these claims have been revealed to be false. "It's very political," said Pierce. "They make false claims against our successful voter registration programs, which encourage people to take part in democracy, in order to justify legislation which would throw up barriers to minority and low income voters."

OPEN THREAD--December 10, 2005

Boxers, take your corners...

MERRY XWAS!!

Many years ago a lover and I were coasts apart over The HOLIDAYS. As a kind of sentimental grieving we dubbed the time "XWAS"--the Christmas That Couldn't Be. It was very 'inside' as far as jokes go but I, having a post-it note on my fridge that reads "Different is Good but Weird is Better", always felt XWAS never got deserved recognition for being a damn cool term.

So this year, in recognition of how Radical Christians have turned the Jewish Prince of Peace's Holy Day (ah-hem, HOLIDAY) into a month of political kvetching, I give all of you XWAS-- the Christmas Nobody Can Enjoy (without thinking of Fox News and Wingers and The Republican Party). I mean you do know the embroglio is a political marketing ploy to gain access and imprintation on one of the few unpoliticized segments left on that RAM brain sector in your head? Oh well, garbage in, garbage out...

Of course, many other liberals sanely see the pandering for what it is (pandering) and are also devoting sections of their coverage to the 2005 HOLIDAY Travesties:

From WONKETTE:

"Even the people who appear to sincerely fighting the so-called War on Christmas are doing so with a healthy dose of jackassery. Take Reverend Rob Schenck. He's assembled a nativity scene in the front yard of his office, which is across the street from our crumbling Supreme Court. He's done so not out of reasons of faith, but out of cynical political chicanery: if the city makes him take it down, he can scream bloody murder over the War on Christmas. If the city doesn't make him take it down, he can scream bloody murder over courthouses disallowing displays of the Ten Commandments.

Not exactly the sincerest pumpkin patch, in other words.

Face it, the War on Christmas is just like all our other wars -- the people who want to see them waged would do everything in their power to avoid fighting in one. Fight in a war? Isn't that what poor people are for?

If people really want to have an actual War on Christmas, let's dispense with the nativity stunts -- let's get an arena filled with actual lions up and running and get down to it. But be careful what you wish for: if the President was to learn of a mysterious trio of swarthy gentlemen smuggling goods to a newly born child who's destined to grow up to be the leader of a Middle East insurgency, he'd have Colin Powell up at the United Nations portentiously waving around a vial of frankincense. They bomb mangers, don't they?— DCEIVER"

MERRY XWAS!!

PapersPlease.org

PapersPlease.org is an interesting site with links to three main cases coming up for judicial review involving a citizen Questioning Authority and refusing, under appropriate circumstances, to refuse compliance with a government official's request to profer "Papers Please".

I might add...before the Berlin Wall came down I experienced crossing the border from West to East Germany (and back again, thankfully). I sat on a bus dotted with silent nervous passengers who like myself tried to act casual. When a steely-eyed East German guard, automatic weapon drawn asked in German "Papers," it was very, VERY disconcerting. I remember then feeling greatful I was a citizen of a country where that would never happen...

...was I wrong?

INCOMING: Oppose EPA Pesticide Tests on Humans

Okay, supposedly we are such a moral people that parents have to be notified of a potential abortion, but not of children (theirs or others) to neurotoxin (pesticide) experimentation? Neurotoxins, BTW, are one of several benefits America gleaned from Nazi scientists (or didn't you know that little fact) and the core of such military weapons as Agent Orange.

Scientists union opposes EPA's pesticide-test plan: "The union representing scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency added its voice yesterday to critics who are protesting the agency's proposed rule for human experimentation in testing pesticides."

--snip--

"The pesticide companies want to use this data and be able to sell their pesticides for a whole slew of uses that they're restricted from now, but their track records of ethical violations in what they submit is alarming," said Christenson.

Christenson and other critics say that the portions of the proposed rules that concern them include:

• The inability of EPA scientists to ensure that industry followed ethical guidelines, such as informing test subjects of the potential hazard from the poisons to which they're being exposed.
• The lack of a firm ban on the use of prisoners as test subjects.
• Provisions that would let rules forbidding testing of infants, children and pregnant women to be set aside on the decision of the EPA administrator.

"Also of concern is that the rule would allow testing on children who 'cannot be reasonably consulted,' such as those that are mentally handicapped, does not require parental consent for testing on children who have been neglected or abused, and accepts studies done on children outside of the United States, which may not comply with EPA standards," said Charles Orzehoskie, president of the union's national council of EPA locals.

I just keep wondering when upright moral Americans will start getting their panties bunched from real issues in America, such as the daily sacrifice of ordinary Americans to the behemouth appetite of the agro-chemical and related military industries. You best believe Paris Hilton won't be one of their uninformed test subjects...

The period during which the public can comment on the planned rule ends next week. The deadline for issuing the final rule is the end of January 2006.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Ex-Conn. Governor May Challenge Lieberman - There's Happiness in Who-ville!

Nobody strikes me more as the Democratic party mascott for Grinch, than jack-ass "I'm your water-boy Mister-Bush-Sir" Joe Lieberman. I wish to hell he'd just sign onto the other side and leave us alone.

Ex-Conn. Governor May Challenge Lieberman - Yahoo! News: "Former Connecticut governor and senator Lowell Weicker said Tuesday said he will consider challenging Sen.
Joe Lieberman in his re-election bid next year, but only if no credible anti-war candidate steps forward.

'In the absence of any Democrat giving him a challenge, or somebody of another party of substance, I'd have to consider it, but that's the extent of my commitment at this stage,' Weicker, 74, said in a phone interview Tuesday. He said he would run as an independent, but has no timetable for making a decision.

Speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon on Monday, Weicker sharply criticized Lieberman and
President Bush over the Iraq war.

'I have seen this country propagandized into war,' said Weicker, a Republican-turned-independent. 'It's now a second wave of propagandizing, with the president taking the stump, joined by persons like Senator Joe Lieberman.'"

Torture Ban Staying in Bill

If this happens it will be the ONLY moral thing that party has done in a decade. Remarkable that they can do so little good with so much power, isn't it?

Hunter Sees Torture Ban Staying in Bill: "A ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects is likely to be included mostly, if not entirely, in a final defense bill, a key House Republican said Tuesday.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record) of California, who is leading negotiations to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the measure, said if the ban or another provision limiting interrogation techniques U.S. troops can use are changed, they won't be drastically watered down.

'Nobody wants to do that,' Hunter, the House Armed Services Committee chairman, said in an interview. 'I expect a good outcome for all parties.'

The White House opposes the provisions and has threatened to veto any bill containing them. But President Bush's national security adviser,Stephen Hadley, has been negotiating with the chief sponsor, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., to find a compromise that would satisfy Bush administration concerns."

Who Are They Hiding And Why?

I think it's time liberals introduced legislation requiring Presidential nominees to undergo psychiatric testing. I've had it with Paranoid Stupid Lame Old Fucks. Let's not allow gamed voting machines to elect another one.

Public Citizen: "The federal government is unlawfully withholding information it normally provides the public about approximately 900,000 of its civilian employees, including employees working for such agencies as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to a suit filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

The lawsuit, brought by the co-directors of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), charges that the agency violated the Freedom of Information Act by failing to provide requested information. Further, the agency didn’t even explain the grounds under which it is withholding information about employees working in more than 250 federal agencies.

The government first began providing the American people detailed information about all its employees in a register published almost 200 years ago. The first name in the first register, authorized by Congress in 1816, was President James Madison.

The current massive and unexplained withholding of personnel information came after a routine request made by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in October 2004 for the names and work stations of most civilian employees working for the government in the second quarter of 2004. This information, which had been regularly provided to TRAC for many years, is an essential component of a university-based project that since 1989 has been providing the American people, reporters, public interest groups and others with comprehensive information about the operations of the federal government. In this case, however, after a lengthy delay, the government withheld information about 40 percent of its civilian employees."

OPEN THREAD--Weekend 12-03-05

Who knows about the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

The Ohio Restoration Project Should Scare You Silly

In my travels across the Internets I came across yet another fanatical right-wing group, The Ohio Restoration Project (Christians--AGAIN) whom our eyes should be upon, big-time.

Of particular note given recent comments to this blog's post Tony Perkins Hates America, regarding religion as Big Business, is the group's founder Reverend Rod Parsley who "...lives a lavish lifestyle that he presents as a success story to the viewers of his television show Breakthrough, broadcast to a worldwide audience". According to one parson interveiwed for the story some Christians view oppulent lifestyle displays like the agnostics among us--as red flags.

Further, this group IS solidly advocating and fundraising for political influence, and who is one of their favorite sons? Why Kenneth Blackwell--the man most likely to have destroyed democratic elections in Ohio in 2004--who'da thunk it?

Is Ohio the next Texas?

Anyway, ePluribus Media has the skinny on this one: “This Isn’t America’s Mission”: An Ohio Pastor’s Objection to the Marriage of Politics and Religion in the Ohio Restoration Project"

Democrats Sell Out Constitution to Christian Pressure

How is this possible? In the year 2005, when 60's-era thinkers imagined Mars-based cities, combustion-free engines, world peace and social justice we have instead an 18th century battle between resurgent social luddites (Evangelicals and Federalists) and progressive free-thinkers.

An era of social regression doesn't just happen, not this one, and not this time. This one was engineered by Big Business Money and Big Political Powerbrokers who understood that a world free of poverty and war was bad for those huge investments and careers in the military-industrial complex. They understood that poverty breeds unrest and unrestful politics leads to the need for military repression. I can understand that a strategy was manufactured, financed and now is running--even if unevenly--in the present Republican government to do as much damage as possible to the political peace and economic and social advances liberalism promises.

What I DON'T understand is how Democrats can fall into the trance-hum Republican machinery produces. Is Mike Smith a conservative in blue clothing, or is he juicing at the trough of one of the many streams of DeLayan influence?:

"The Louisiana Legislature has approved a resolution urging Congress to pass the Constitution Restoration Act, a bill that would prohibit federal courts from ruling in cases involving government officials who acknowledge God 'as the sovereign source of law, liberty or government.'

During a special session this month to address Katrina recovery issues, Sen. Mike Smith, a Democrat, introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 30, which passed the body by a 34-0 vote. The measure passed the state House by acclamation."

--snip--

Touted by some supporters as one of the most important pieces of legislation in U.S. history, the bill states:

The Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official personal capacity), by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.

Hat-tip to Stop the ACLU.

Doubts About Death Penalty

No, it is not okay to murder a few innocent people so the rest can feel 'safe' or 'vindicated' or whatever. In fact, knowing some innocents die should ring a bell that (DUH) the ACTUAL criminals are still around:

More in U.S. Expressing Doubts About Death Penalty: "Ruben Cantu is long gone, executed by Texas authorities in 1993 after he was convicted of murdering a man during a San Antonio robbery when he was 17 years old. To the end, Cantu insisted he had been framed, and now his co-defendant and the sole surviving witness both say he was telling the truth.

A state legislator called for an investigation this week as prosecutors moved to study the 20-year-old case. Opponents of the death penalty suspect that Cantu may be what they have long expected to find: an innocent person put to death. Houston law professor David Dow said the case shows that 'we make mistakes in death penalty cases, too.'"

Wouldn't it be nice if instead of dumping millions of dollars and thousands of hours of political time into the insipid war against women that the pro-lifer's wage, they put a fraction of that time into saving actual lives-- from accidental deaths of all types like medical malpractice, auto accidents, corporate malfeasance-- and yes, death penalty murders?

Vietnam War Intelligence 'Deliberately Skewed'. No, Really.

Maybe we couldn't win that war for the same reasons we can't win in Itaq. The invasions were based on lies:

Vietnam War Intelligence 'Deliberately Skewed,' Secret Study Says: "The National Security Agency has released hundreds of pages of long-secret documents on the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which played a critical role in significantly expanding the American commitment to the Vietnam War.

The material, posted on the Internet overnight Wednesday, included one of the largest collections of secret intercepted communications ever made available. The most provocative document is a 2001 article in which an agency historian argued that the agency's intelligence officers 'deliberately skewed' the evidence passed on to policy makers and the public to falsely suggest that North Vietnamese ships had attacked American destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964."

Texas Districting Illegal?

Before this decade is over, we are going to discover the evidence to back the reality we already know: the Republican party bought, stole and sold American rights to fair elections, transparency and freedom, so that what it could NEVER get by votes (power), it could get by cheating and stealing:

Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal: "Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections."

Diahreac Germ Spreading Outside Hospitals

You can thank the mass introduction of antibiotics into animal feed for this. Buy organic, dammit, and put an end to the madness of the farm-factory system:

Deadly Hospital Germ Is Spreading in U.S.: "A new, more dangerous strain of a germ that has long caused diarrhea in hospital patients is now widespread in the United States, causing severe, sometimes deadly outbreaks around the country, researchers reported yesterday.

Strains of the germ have been detected among people who have not been in a hospital, raising alarm that the infection may be emerging more widely and posing a broader public health threat, the researchers said."

Back-Street Abortions Coming to a Life Near You

This is a long but wonderful article as reading it I felt like I was revisiting every winger argument with every winger I have ever had regarding abortion but unlike me the writer makes all the arguments that have failed to come to my mind.

The comments are also worth reading as they come from run-of-the-mill wingers (who are to me beginning to sound like parrots); pro-lifers against all forms of killing including the death penalty and war; labor-room nurses squarely of the opinion that pregnancy is not a passive or safe decision that should be forced upon women and many others. The following caught my breath as it exemplifies the stories that most motivate my pro-choice stand:

"I am a 56 year old grandmother and could never imagine a circumstance under which I would have an abortion (moot point now). The subject of a 'theraputic abortion' actually came up when I became pregnant with my third child after two difficult pregnancies, but I refused. All that said, the idea of the roll back of Roe scares me silly.

My maternal grandmother died of peritonitis caused by a botched abortion when my mother was 9 months old. The reasons for her choice have been lost over time; she was married and had one child. This left my mother to be raised by a succession of aunts, and then finally, by the Poor Clares in a convent. She never had a family per se, and the nun's ideas about discipline were draconian at best, and would be more than just a little illegal today.

She had no idea about how to be a mother. I was alternately neglected, pampered and beaten. I remember kneeling with a pencil under each knee for hours. When I played with fire, she lit the stove and held my tiny hands over the flames until they blistered.

I cannot know for sure, but I think my life would have been profoundly different had she been raised by a loving mother. Let's not go back there, to the days when a woman's body was not her own.

They are making it more difficult to obtain or learn about effective contraception, which cannot help but lead to even more unwanted pregnancies. It defies reason. "

Pre-Invasion Bush Mislead, Lied, Now it's "Not Candid"?

Scenes from a cohabitating union:

Partner "A": "You told me you were saving a life, there was a seizure and you had to "go in"! You lied!"

Partner "B": "Honey, I didn't lie, but I was less than candid because the situation surrounding my desire to enter Candace was complicated and convoluted. It would have been difficult not only to sell to you, but to your relatives and our friends and every other person where public approval would have been sought, because it really would have been pre-emptive sex, and that would have been hard to sell."

Yeah, no shit.

Appearing on the November 28 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Newsweek chief political correspondent Howard Fineman declared that the Bush administration was not "fully candid" about the war in Iraq because the "honest" argument for going to war seemed too "complicated and convoluted" for the American people and the world. "[W]hat they did was underestimate the intelligence of the American people," Fineman said, adding that the proper case for war "was that we can't let this madman ... Saddam Hussein, sit on top of the largest or second-largest pool of oil in the world and siphon off billions of dollars to pay protection money, essentially, to the Osama bin Ladens of the world."

From the November 28 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning:

FINEMAN: Looking back on it, I think there was a case to be made for the war in Iraq that would have allowed them [the Bush administration] to be fully --

DON IMUS (host): Honest.

FINEMAN: -- candid and on point with the American people. The problem is it was too convoluted for their purposes, and I think what they did was underestimate the intelligence of the American people, and as [Newsweek managing editor] Jon [Meacham] said, that way lies catastrophe for any president. And the case was that we can't let this madman who you saw on TV a little earlier, Saddam Hussein, sit on top of the largest or second-largest pool of oil in the world and siphon off billions of dollars to pay protection money, essentially, to the Osama bin Ladens of the world. That's a complicated and convoluted case that would have been difficult not only to sell to the American people, but to the United Nations and the Vatican and every other place where public approval would have been sought, because it really would have been pre-emptive war, it really would have been like the Department of Pre-Crime, if you happen to remember the movie Minority Report, and that would have been hard to sell. But had we gone in on that basis, which I think is the honest basis to have gone in, then there would have been more public support. But we didn't, and instead they reduced it to a cartoon of a mushroom cloud and a handshake between Saddam and Osama that never happened, and that's why, having created that cartoon, they're in such political trouble now.