We mustered more catch up!
Welcome to part 1 of our post for November 2009;
sit back and enjoy our stroll down memory lane.
But Dot, you say. It's February. The election is over. The inauguration is over. We're a different country now--somewhat kinder, somewhat gentler, and a whole lot more intelligent and articulate. Why the hell are you even bothering to post your November material? That is so, like, three or four months ago. It's past history. Prehistory.
I'll tell ya.
On what used to be the Comedy Central cable channel, there once was a clip remix show called "Short Attention Span Theater." It made me start calling America "Short Attention Span Nation."
Intellectual and activist Gore Vidal calls us the United States of Amnesia.
So we here at Dot Calm's Page of Truth & Sedition figure it can't hurt to keep reminding ourselves of where we have come from and how we've gotten here. In the fight to restore our country, we still have a long way to go.
Let's put the spurs to it together.
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Obama is looking to us for support.
If we can keep up a barrage of messages and petitions telling him what we want, he will tell the evil fux, "I hear you, but I'm going to do what the PEOPLE want -- which they tell me right here."
We can do it!
If we can keep up a barrage of messages and petitions telling him what we want, he will tell the evil fux, "I hear you, but I'm going to do what the PEOPLE want -- which they tell me right here."
We can do it!
--The Scallion
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Are YOU rude?
Well, ARE YOU?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/11/11/o.are.you.rude.test/index.html*************************************************************
REMEMBER KATRINA!!!
George W. Bush has blood on his hands from "thinning the herd."
George W. Bush has blood on his hands from "thinning the herd."
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Open Letter to the Lamest Duck on Vets Day from Cindy Sheehan
November 11, 2008
George Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC
Dear George,
I am writing this to you on the fifth Veteran's Day I have mourned the death of my son, Casey Sheehan. Casey was a soldier in the Army. You killed my oldest son with your lies and greed for Empire. Casey never became a Veteran because he came home in one of those pesky flag draped coffins that your mother doesn't want to bother her "pretty mind" with.
During that other illegal and immoral war that you and your VP, Dick, had the good sense to dodge, your mother never had to go through one second of worry for your safety, did she? You were too busy doing your drugs and going AWOL to bother her "pretty mind" about that. What galls me the most when I think about my brave and honorable son's needless and untimely death, is that you were so cowardly and worthless when you were his age and you had the nerve to condemn thousands of our children to death or disability with your lies.
George, I have written you letters before. I have demanded your resignation and also promised you that I would work for your impeachment. If you remember, I even started a peace camp of thousands of protesters outside your Crawford ranch and I even tried to get into Congress so I could impeach your criminal hide. You never answer my letters and you have never had the integrity to tell me what "Noble Cause" killed my son. This is the last letter you will receive from me while you are infecting our Oval Office, but it won't be the last time you hear from me.
George, I guess I could "rest on my laurels" and allow you to slink off into the quiet desperation of leaving the White House as the most detested President in American history, but that is not enough for me: Millions are dead, wounded, displaced and suffering life-long pain because of your actions. You are the number one terrorist in the world today and this country catches, tortures and prosecutes "terrorists" doesn't it? Haven't you said so yourself? You have turned the USA into a nation of imperial mobsters and we have the ignominy of being torturers and you do not deserve to retire with any kind of peace or honor.
George, if Nancy Pelosi and the other complicit Congressional leaders won't hold you accountable, I will. This nation has a very short memory and we have been assaulted on a daily basis by your arrogance and stupidity and most of America is buying the hype of pre-packaged and aggressively marketed, Hope, but I don't have the option of burying your deadly legacy like it never happened and moving on. The hole in my heart that used to contain the living and breathing presence of my son will never heal and you are the one who put it there. If you think you are going to live a comfortable life in Dallas, or Paraguay, or wherever, a la Johnson, Nixon, McNamara or Kissinger, you are wrong.
George, this country too hastily moved on from the abomination of Vietnam and we never healed from that horror because we never did the hard work of holding American leaders accountable for crimes against humanity. If history repeats itself, as it tends to do, you won't be held accountable for your crimes, but I won't let you forget the faces of my son, Casey and his comrades or the legion of faces of the Afghan and Iraqi dead. Are your dreams haunted by the souls of the people massacred by your hubris?
If I have to buy or erect a billboard near your home and plaster it with the faces of the people you murdered, I will. I will also work with my contacts in the international community to have you indicted for crimes against humanity. I will do whatever it takes to be the thorn in your side as you have been my sorrow. There are many people around the world who thirst for justice and healing who will join me in this noble cause.
This Nation forgot the faces of the 58,000 plus Americans and millions of Vietnamese who were slaughtered for imperial greed, but they won't forget the faces of the ones you have sacrificed on your altar of deception or the ones who will be sacrificed for the President Elect's continued War OF Terror. If Obama does not declare a speedy and complete end to the USA's war of terror on the world, someone should set up camp at his vacation home (which I bet will be nicer than Crawford, TX in August).
On this Veterans Day, I make this pledge to you. Unless we stop the bloody tide of war for profit and US hegemony by seeking justice for your war crimes and crimes against our Constitution, more Casey's will die and more countries that unfortunately lie in the path of imperial conquest will be decimated.
On this Veteran's Day, I also send my love and support to the Vets from all wars who live on our streets and are substance abusers because they can't get help from this hypocritical government. My heart goes out to all Gold Star Mothers who have nothing but a box of medals, a triangular folded flag and memories of a dead child and regrets for a life not lived with him/her. The war machine in collaboration with our government chews people up and rolls on oiled with pain.
George you broke your oath to "faithfully" execute your office and you betrayed the troops that you command due to nothing but election fraud, but I will not break my promise to you.
Cindy Sheehan
Mother of Casey Austin Sheehan
KIA in Sadr City, Baghdad
April 04, 2004
*****
A Word from The Plain Dealer
Peace group drops protest against
virtual war game
Saturday, August 30, 2008
The local chapter of Veterans for Peace has agreed to suspend its public protest against the Virtual Army Experience game at the Cleveland National Air Show now that the U.S. Army is limiting the game to people 17 and older.
The Army recruiting video game originally targeted teens as young as 13 to use simulated machine guns to kill virtual enemies in a projected Middle East war setting. Show-goers sit in a replica of a Humvee, virtually speed through desert terrain and shoot fake machine guns at life-size pictures of people projected on a wraparound screen.
The game will be on exhibit during the Labor Day weekend show at Burke Lakefront Airport today through Monday. It travels to festivals and air shows across the country. The Army removed it from Summerfest in Milwaukee last month after festival officials complained.
Earlier this month, Veterans for Peace urged supporters to call organizers of the air show, its commercial sponsors and public officials to ask the Army not to bring the simulators.
(Editor's note: come on people! Have we lost all sense of what is proper? If I had a son or daughter of cannon-fodder age, I’d be pissed off knowing they were being brain washed from very young and impressionable ages! Where are we getting these ideas, from the Nazi playbook? And another thing! I would bet my sawed-off shot gun these are the very same people screaming the loudest about the poor little blobs that are one day going to be cute and cuddly babies being aborted!)
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God gave men a penis and a brain but only enough blood to run one at a time.
--Robin Williams
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It's God's fault
The cruel success of Prop. 8? Not Newsom, not gays. Blame You Know Who
(A note from the Scallion: as a left-hander who didn't choose to live the right-handed lifestyle and as a woman who didn't choose to live the male lifestyle, I really identify with this issue. Denying some people the inalienable right to love and to marry is basically telling them they're not full-fledged people but something less. But, hey, we still do that to niggers and spics and cunts, so why not fags? It's sad, frustrating, and downright mystifying how so many Americans can delude themselves so willfully, but it shows that society still has a long way to go ... guess we needed the reminder. Obama is our opportunity for change, but we haven't yet begun. If one of us is chained, none of us is free -- and education is the bolt cutter.)
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Michigan just legalized medical pot. Liddy Dole is gone. John Sununu is gone. The Dems picked up at least six Senate seats. North Carolina went blue for the first time in more than three decades. A teen girl in California, for the third time now, won't be forced to notify her parents if she wants an abortion.
South Dakota easily beat back, for the second time, the most repellent anti-choice legislation in the nation. Colorado was close behind, trouncing an insidious proposition that would've deemed a zygote a whole little person. California will get high-speed rail. The smart black dude actually won.
It's almost a grand sweep. It's almost the most forward-thinking, thoroughly stunning election in American history, so much dead wood and so many old evangelical poisons swept from the national dialogue, it's as though we just swallowed a grand emetic of possibility, and purged like never before.
Almost.
Amid the glory and the disbelief and the Obamapalooza, the thorn. The nail in the pudding. The kidney punch during the massage.
Some say the inglorious success of Prop. 8, the brutally regressive measure that removes the rights of very specific people who love very specific other people from ever marrying them, can be blamed on multiple factors.
Some say it was Gavin Newsom's smugness and political recklessness. Some blame Feinstein for daring to support Prop. 8's defeat. Some blame the black and Latino communities for their shocking and rather heartbreaking support of what essentially amounts to a civil rights abuse of the very kind they themselves fought so hard to overcome.
Or maybe it's all those sad, white, central portions of the state, the huge chunks of voters who live in places without much culture or perspective or major universities, who only hear certain strains of spiteful rhetoric and thin fearmongering, whose general lack of education means they apparently still believe certain flavors of love will poison everyone's soup and ruin the sanctity of the time-honored 50-percent heterosexual missionary position Christian divorce rate.
And I must say (and you might not want to hear this), a big chunk of blame for 8's passage has to go to the No on 8 campaign's initial arrogance, followed by their utterly limp reaction when the Yes campaign started attacking and gaining real steam. As one of my politically savvy Chronicle colleagues put it, "No on 8 was a bad campaign. Bad bad bad. Inept, amateurish, incompetent and, above all, guilty of committing the first and worst sin of politics: taking the voters for granted."
But I don't think it stops there. Because when you peel back all those surface factors, when you trace the line of quasi-reasoning back to its source, to the "real" reason many people voted for Prop. 8, I think the real blame lies with, well, the Almighty himself.
That's right, I blame God.
Wait, check that. Let me say it with the proper intonation and slant: imagine my voice trembling, the very earth beneath my feet rumbling, the very letters you are about to read appearing in enormous gothic capitals, dripping with fire and smoke and Budweiser logos, all surrounded by scowling cherubim armed with poorly printed pamphlets and a severe dislike of throbbing techno: GOD.
What, too much? I don't think so.
Who stabbed marriage equality to death, again? The Mormon Church. Catholic groups. Evangelicals. Militant fundamentalists. Reclusive, sickly, notoriously right-wing billionaires like Howard Ahmanson, a guy who also funded a radical Christian theologian madman who himself endorses stoning gay people to death. The mother of Eric Prince, CEO of the notorious Blackwater thugs-for-hire company.
Behind it all, it's God. No, not the god you and I understand as a universal, non-gendered, asexual, love-drunk energy coursing through all things at all times everywhere without the slightest wisp of prejudice or geographical preference, but that famously small, myopic version, the one that encourages a literalist interpretation of very carefully selected Bible verse (to the complete disregard of myriad others) -- a version that, in short, has been drilled into the consciousness of far too many voters for far too long.
Is it not true? Once again this election, in pulpits across America, the call rang out: We must stop the gays. We cannot allow them entry into the sanctuary of Eternal Hetero Love. After all, marriage is (these people believe) the last upstanding Christian stronghold, the final barrier preventing America from becoming some sort of Sodom-iffic nipple-pierced polyamorous rave party where anyone can marry anything and pets are running scared and people stick parts of their bodies into other people's parts for sexual pleasure.
The horror.
And yes, it must be said: Sad indeed to imagine many of those black pastors up there, cheering Obama's win and deeming this a new dawn for blacks after so many years of struggle for basic civil rights, while in the next breath talking up the wrath of God that will strike parishioners should they allow homosexuals to register for stemware at Crate & Barrel. Talk about disingenuous.
Let me suggest it outright: the vast majority of Yes on 8 voters seem to have been motivated, at least in part, by this sad misunderstanding of God, this harsh spiritual slant that supports a discriminatory, micromanager Almighty who fully endorses marital bliss, but only for some.
(Interestingly, I believe this is the same God who, until recently, didn't allow whites to marry blacks. Or women to vote. Or slaves to be free. Or people to get divorced. Or women to become priests. Or humans to wear condoms. Hmm.)
Then again, when you put it that way, the ugly fight for Prop. 8 makes perfect sense. After all, hetero marriage is all organized religion really has left, their last vestige of power and control. Everything else they fought so hard to inject into the national agenda -- intelligent design, God's war against Muslims, the end of reproductive choice, more prayer in schools, abstinence education, et al -- not only failed, but failed spectacularly. No wonder they're clinging to this old, failed idea of marriage so violently.
So let me correct myself. I don't blame God. I certainly don't blame the kind of fluid, open-throated spiritual awareness that promotes, rather than denigrates, all forms of consensual love, that understands the human soul is ever in flux and must, like the society that forms around it, be allowed to grow and evolve lest it stumble and atrophy and vote Republican.
I do not blame God. I blame a very gloomy, revisionist version of the divine, a sour and demeaning mindset that believes in restriction, constriction, dread.
The good news is, I think Prop. 8's desperate, last-gasp victory merely reveals that this hollow, homophobic version of God is waning, sliding, fighting for its last taste of relevance, soon to be replaced by something just a bit more dynamic and open-hearted and, well, truly divine.
The bad news is, it's just going to take a bit longer than we'd hoped.
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Mormons can have 10 wives--I can't have ONE?!
--Lesbian protesting California's Prop 8
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The Mormon church spent $22 million to pass Prop 8.
This makes them a political action committee.
It is illegal for political action committees not to pay taxes.
Sign the petition to strip them of their tax-free status:
http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com/#petition
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A Word from People for the American Way
Did you read Paul Krugman's column in Monday's New York Times? On the day before the Blue Wave washed over national and state elections across the country, he asked the important question, "What will defeat do to the Republicans?" and provides several reasons why we can expect the Grand Old Party to take a hard turn to the extreme Right. We agree. With the Right in its new role as "the opposition," get ready to see an invigorated right-wing grassroots, media and organizational infrastructure.
- The Heritage Foundation is already digging in its heels saying they will not let President-Elect Obama bring about the change he's promised.
- Right-wing blogs, talk radio and television outlets like Fox News will experience a boom, and new personalities will emerge (remember that the Rush Limbaughs of the world became popular during the Clinton years and the power of the progressive netroots is in many ways attributable to backlash against the Bush administration and right-wing government).
- With the failure of a Republican presidential candidate who tried to distance himself from the current administration, and the popularity of Sarah Palin, who appealed to the far-right base, many will make the case that the best political strategy is a hard-line and unabashed commitment to right-wing ideology.
- One of the only victory trends enjoyed by the Right on Tuesday was in anti-gay ballot initiatives in Arkansas, Arizona, Florida and, sadly, even California, emboldening the Religious Right to repeat these tactics in state after state.
- And finally, with President-Elect Obama and the Democratic Senate in a position to undo many of the Right's most cherished gains in its favorite area of focus: the federal courts -- this, perhaps more than anything else, will energize the Religious Right's grassroots.
The Right is already planning the revitalization of the conservative movement. They will have the energy. They will have the funding. And with the will to obstruct at every turn the change that we've worked so hard to achieve, the Right is making our case that People For the American Way is more necessary than ever.
And we can't see a repeat of the early 90's. What happened was that the organized Left went dormant, became complacent and didn't keep the pressure on the administration and Congress to deliver on their promises to America. The Clinton administration was subject to unrelenting attacks from the Right -- as Obama's surely will be -- but too many progressives thought they could stop fighting once the election was over.
Without a strong progressive movement keeping the wind at the Obama administration's back, our constitutional values will not be realized as policy and our electoral gains will be short-lived. And of course, the mandate that Barack Obama has received from voters to appoint judges who adhere to the Constitution's promise of equality and justice for all will need our strongest support.
YOU are the progressive grassroots. And you are needed. People For the American Way's ability to get the job done in Washington will depend on our ability to mobilize activists and volunteers across the country for critical fights, like when there is a Supreme Court vacancy, in pushing Congress to pass much-needed election reform legislation or to mobilize opposition to the Right's efforts to destroy the Obama administration and their attacks on equality.
We're developing ways for activists like you to stay engaged, spread the progressive message and put your energy behind a progressive agenda for the crucial first year of Obama's presidency. Stay tuned for more on these programs in the days and weeks to come.
Together, we will fulfill Tuesday's promise. Together, we will turn hope into a better America for all.
Sincerely,
Norman Lear & Kathryn Kolbert
People For the American Way depends on the support of its members. Help make sure America lives up to the promise of freedom and equality for all by funding the work of People For with a gift today.
*****
Guess Who's IRISH?
There's No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EADUQWKoVek
It's true: Barack O'Bama is Irish.
It is true that Barack also has English blood and Scottish blood and that he also inherits Cherokee and other nationalities, but his Irish lineage is pure: his great-great-great grandfather Falmouth Kearney was born about 1830 in Ireland and died 21 March 1878. He immigrated to the U.S. on the ship Marmion on 20 March 1850, along with his sister Margaret Cleary and her husband, William (http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/obama_four.htm).
Kearney is one of the oldest names in Ireland and was first found in county Meath, in the province of Leinster, in Eastern Ireland (http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/kearny-family-crest.htm).
Barack O'Bama's people come from Moneygall (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201551.html), which is in central Ireland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneygall). According to the Washington Post article, the Moneygall villagers were well pleased to hear that their local boy had made good and well was on his way to becoming President of the United States.
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A Brief Musing from Dot Calm
i have this image of cheney still sitting on
a chair in the situation room, not realizing
that a new group of players has taken
over...condolezza rice still running
around...hey condi! give it up!
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So-called "global warming" is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, to clean our air and water, to improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, to kick-start 21st-century industries, and to make our cities safer and more livable.
Don't let them get away with it!
Don't let them get away with it!
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Bail Out the Automotive Industry?
Dot Calm asks: Is This Somebody’s Idea of a Joke?
For the past 60 years, the automotive industry clung to its blinders, firmly in place, and its earplugs to shut out what the consumer wanted, what the consumer needed.
Today, they are drowning in red ink. Why? Well, I for one drive a Toyota Prius Hybrid, and I'm lovin’ it. It gets 50 mi/gal. All the "Big 3" had to do was buy one and take it apart to figure out how those clever Japanese did it.
Why should they? The public will bail them out.
*****
Scarboro UNfair
When Randi Rhodes drops the F-bomb, she gets booted off Air America and thrown into court. She is still dealing with a million dollars of legal debts.
When Scarboro drops the F-bomb ... nothing happens. Nobody bats an eyelash. The sky doesn't fall; Mr. Scarboro is not reprimanded; and everything remains as it was.
Whatever it is, it's only OK when Republicans do it, whether it's adultery, teenage pregnancy, or dropping the F-bomb. All others will be persecuted to the full extent of the law, the media, and anything else vindictive we can get our hands on.
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A Word from "Democracy Now!"
* White House Denies Attempt to Link Auto Industry Bailout to Colombia Pact *
The Bush administration is denying reports it wants to link aid to the auto industry to Democratic support for a free trade pact with Colombia. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, are preparing to push for emergency legislation to help the automakers during the lame-duck session of Congress next week. We speak to Mark Brenner of Labor Notes and Hofstra University professor and journalist Mario Murillo here in New York.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/12/white_house_denies_attempt_to_link
* Filibuster-Proof Democratic Majority Hinges on 3 Undecided Senate Races *
Three Senate races still hang in the balance—Georgia, Alaska and Minnesota—with a filibuster-proof, sixty-seat Democratic supermajority at stake. We get reports from Anchorage and Minneapolis.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/12/filibuster_proof_democratic
* Gaza Again Plunged into Darkness, Hunger as Israel Blocks Fuel, Food to Suffering Population *
Gaza's humanitarian crisis has worsened in the aftermath of Israel's latest blockade of fuel and food. We speak to Diana Buttu, a former lawyer for the Palestinian Authority, and Reverend Edwin "Eddie" Makue of the South African Council of Churches, a veteran of South Africa's apartheid struggle. They are on an "anti-apartheid" speaking tour across the US for the next two weeks.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/12/gaza_again_plunged_into_darkness
* Headlines for November 12, 2008 *
Dems to Push Auto Industry Bailout Measure
Report: Top Intel Officials Expecting Dismissal Under Obama
Transition Team Limits Lobbyist Role
UN: 100,000 Congolese Cut Off from Aid
UN: Food Aid to Gaza Dwindles Amidst Israeli Blockade
Russia Renews Missile Defense Warning to US
Antiwar Vets March on Veterans Day
AIG Execs Hold Another Luxury Retreat
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/12/headlines
* Pulitzer-Winning Author Alice Walker on Obama's First White House Visit as President-Elect *
One day after Barack Obama's first visit to the White House as President-elect, we speak to the Pulitzer-winning novelist Alice Walker. In a recent open letter to Obama, Walker writes, "Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about."
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/11/pulitzer_winning_author_alice
* On Veterans Day, 15 Vets of Iraq and Afghanistan Face Trial for Antiwar Protest *
Today, on Veterans Day, we turn to the voices of veterans who are speaking out about the crimes they committed and the impact of the war on their lives. Fifteen antiwar veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of disorderly conduct at a protest last month outside the final presidential debate. We speak to IVAW member Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, who refused an Iraq deployment after fighting in Afghanistan; and Aaron Glantz, an independent journalist who reported extensively from Iraq and has been covering the stories of American military veterans since his return.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/11/on_veterans_day_15_vets_of
* Headlines for November 11, 2008 *
Bush, Obama Hold White House Meeting
Bush Links Auto Industry Bailout to Colombia Trade Bill
Obama's Afghan Plan Includes Iran, Taliban Talks
Admin Boosts AIG Bailout by $40B
Fed Refuses to List Banks Drawing $2T in Federal Loans
Pentagon Advisory Group: Military Budget "Not Sustainable"
Israel Blocks Gaza Fuel Deliveries
Haniyeh: Hamas Would Accept 1967 Borders
Aid Groups Fear Cholera Epidemic Amongst Congo Refugees
Judge OKs Lawsuit for White House Emails
Byrd to Give Up Appropriations Committee Chair
Group: NYPD Abandons Video Surveillance of Peaceful Protesters
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/11/headlines
*****
Here's Why Republicans Are So Greedy, Selfish, and Destructive
Ayn Rand is their Jesus Christ, and her writings are their bible.
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_aynrand_biography
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Hey, Dems: dump Traitor Joe!
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A Word from AlterNet
College Loan Slavery: Student Debt Is Getting Way Out of Hand
The quest for a college degree is dumping millions of young people deep into a pit of debt from which many will never recover.
Forget Red vs. Blue -- It's the Educated vs. People Easily Fooled by Propaganda
Millions of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system informed by childish clichés - they can barely differentiate between lies and truth.
Bush's Parting Shots at the Environment Are Major
Last ditch efforts by Bush to undermine environmental policy will effect water, climate change, endangered species and public lands.
The Case for U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
The U.S. occupation is doing more harm than good.
Raped in the Military? You'll Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit
This outrage gives "supporting the troops" a whole new meaning.
Hey Barack, Don't Forget: 'You Gotta Dance With Them What Brung Ya'
Blacks, Latinos, single women, young voters, union members and gay people elected Obama. How will he represent them in his staff and his policies?
Tax Cuts: The B.S. and the Facts
That tax cuts stimulate the economy is taken as a matter of faith, but the brute facts suggest otherwise.
This Veterans Day, U.S. Soldiers Say 'Stop the War'
An open letter from war resisters calls for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sarah Palin Blamed by the US Secret Service Over Death Threats Against Barack Obama
Palin's attacks on Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against him Secret Service agents say.
Support Mr. Obama with Family Activism
Obama's calls for individual responsibility mean involving ourselves in a commitment that engages all of us in helping and supporting each other.
Pregnancy Resource Centers Try to Scare Students into Keeping the Baby
On a mission to eliminate reproductive choice, so-called crisis pregnancy centers are giving false information about abortion.
Why Won't the Federal Reserve Say Who They Gave $2 Trillion To?
The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans.
The CIA Is Worried: Will Obama Actually Hold Them Accountable?
The Torture Memo of 2002 was written at the CIA's request that Bush "get their backs." Now they're asking if Obama will.
Wall Street Fat Cats Are Trying to Pocket Billions in Bailout Cash
They got us into this mess, and now they want to cash out -- will President Obama stop them?
Can Obama Be FDR?
A new book shows how Obama needs to address the economic emergency, starting with practical help for families and individuals.
It Is Time to Change from Fighting Against Something to Fighting for Something
To do that we need a broad effort of wise, compassionate forces in society and the enlightened self-interest of the green business community.
Frightening New Information About Sarah Palin Emerges
With the campaign over, terrifying new information has started to emerge about Sarah Palin.
Depraved Right-Wing Attack Efforts Go Down in Flames
Voters rejected right-wing attacks on reproductive and labor rights in California, Colorado and South Dakota.
Why Iraqis, Afghans, Palestinians, and Others Might Be Nervous About President Obama
John Pilger, Mahmood Mamdani, Raed Jarrar, Tariq Ali, Laura Carlsen, and more on Obama's troubling foreign policy ideas.
A Dream Realized: Obama and America Look Forward
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech comes to fruition.
The Winners (and Losers) of Election '08
Who came out on top, and who did not.
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OBAMA WON!!!
YES WE DID!
YES WE DID!
YES WE DID!
YES WE DID!
YES WE DID!
YES WE DID!
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Another Free Verse from Dot Calm
OH MY DEAR...OH NO! RIOTS IN LA?
but why?? seems some rights were TAKEN
away from some folks who want to be married...
hey, if they're determined to be married, they
can have mine...take it! itz yours!
i'm too tired now...either that or someone is
sticking needles in my eyeballs...it will feel
so much better when it stops!
these people are shouting at each other what
gawd says...frankly, it seems to me they're
giving gawd a mega headache! gawd says this...
gawd says that...
hmmm...here is my question...do you think gawd
said we should flatten as many humans as we
can...why? we have the big guns...
nah...i really don't think gawd said that either...
g'nite...
:\
*****
"I’m so proud to be an American!"
Yes, Michelle, we are too.
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The new administration is currently trying to get Helen Thomas’s front row seat back during news conferences. Yay! Then everything will be right again with the world. Well, almost.
--Dot Calm
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Sarah Palin, bless her heart, is dumber than a rock. Not to scare you or anything, but did you realize she doesn’t have a clue what countries make up NAFTA? Like Canada, the U.S. and Mexico is just too much for her to deal with. Besides, she can’t see a one of them from her kitchen window. Africa a continent? Nooo. Really? But, she felt quite entitled to ask if she could call Senator Biden, Joe (as in Joe, the plumber). Senator Biden, ever the gentleman, said “sure.”
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The difference between genius and insanity is that genius
has its limits.
has its limits.
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Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, first intended to secure the rights of former slaves. It was proposed on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868.
The amendment provides a broad definition of citizenship, overruling Dred Scott v. Sandford which had excluded slaves and their descendants from possessing Constitutional rights. The amendment requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all persons within their jurisdictions and was used in the mid-20th century to dismantle racial segregation in the United States, as in Brown v. Board of Education. Its Due Process Clause has been the basis of much important and controversial case law regarding privacy rights, abortion (see Roe v. Wade), and other issues.
The other two Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth Amendment (banning slavery) and the Fifteenth Amendment (banning race-based voting qualifications). In The Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1872), dissenting Supreme Court Justice Swayne wrote, "Fairly construed, these amendments may be said to rise to the dignity of a new Magna Carta."
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No one shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.
–-Groucho Marx
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Studs Terkel
(Editor's note: if you Google this article, you will find links to wonderful audio clips.)
Studs Terkel, prize-winning author and radio broadcast personality was born Louis Terkel in New York on May 16, 1912. His father, Samuel, was a tailor and his mother, Anna (Finkel) was a seamstress. He had three brothers. The family moved to Chicago in 1922 and opened a rooming house at Ashland and Flournoy on the near West side. From 1926 to 1936 they ran another rooming house, the Wells-Grand Hotel at Wells Street and Grand Avenue. Terkel credits his knowledge of the world to the tenants who gathered in the lobby of the hotel and the people who congregated in nearby Bughouse Square, a meeting place for workers, labor organizers, dissidents, the unemployed, and religious fanatics of many persuasions. In 1939, he married Ida Goldberg and had one son.
Terkel attended University of Chicago and received a law degree in 1934. He chose not to pursue a career in law. After a brief stint with the civil service in Washington D.C., he returned to Chicago and worked with the WPA Writers Project in the radio division. One day he was asked to read a script and soon found himself in radio soap operas, in other stage performances, and on a WAIT news show. After a year in the Air Force, he returned to writing radio shows and ads. He was on a sports show on WBBM and then, in 1944, he landed his own show on WENR. This was called the Wax Museum show that allowed him to express his own personality and play recordings he liked from folk music, opera, jazz, or blues. A year later he had his own television show called Stud's Place and started asking people the kind of questions that marked his later work as an interviewer.
In 1952 Terkel began working for WFMT, first with the "Studs Terkel Almanac" and the "Studs Terkel Show," primarily to play music. The interviewing came along by accident. This later became the award-winning, "The Studs Terkel Program." His first book, Giants of Jazz, was published in 1956. Ten years later his first book of oral history interviews, Division Street: America, came out. It was followed by a succession of oral history books on the 1930s Depression, World War Two, race relations, working, the American dream, and aging. His latest book, Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith, was published in 2001. Terkel continues to interview people, work on his books, and make public appearances. He is Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Chicago Historical Society.
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If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
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Robert Goulet, the Suave Baritone, Dead at 73
(Editor's note: my younger daughter loved the way Goulet spoofed himself in the recent peanut commercial. Watch it here for a giggle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPtpo1OuYcs)
By Douglas Martin
Robert Goulet, who marshaled his dark good looks and thundering baritone voice to play a dashing Lancelot in the original “Camelot” in 1960, then went on to a wide-ranging career as a singer and actor, winning a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy, died yesterday in Los Angeles.
Robert Gerard Goulet was born on Nov. 26, 1933, in Lawrence, Mass. He died awaiting a lung transplant, said his spokesman, Norm Johnson.
Goulet did not become a hit-record machine, a perennial on Broadway, a major movie star or, by his own evaluation, a finely accomplished actor. But his more than 60 albums, travels with touring theatrical revivals and many Las Vegas gigs were enough to ensure nearly a half-century of popularity.
In 1982, he was named Las Vegas entertainer of the year. In an article this year, The Las Vegas Review-Journal said he had prized a picture showing the day his name appeared on the marquees of two showplaces: the Desert Inn, where he had just played, and the Frontier, where he was starting.
His Las Vegas success led to roles parodying himself as the consummate lounge singer, a part he played in the movie “Atlantic City” (1980). He was the voice for a character much like himself in a “Simpsons” episode, and he portrayed Robert Goulet in ESPN commercial spots that won a sports Emmy for best promotional shorts in 1996.
Goulet’s rise after “Camelot” was swift. In 1962, he won a Grammy Award as best new artist for his first two albums, “Always You” and “Two of Us,” and his hit single “What Kind of Fool Am I.” Two years later, his album “My Love Forgive Me” went gold; 17 of his albums from 1962 to 1970 made the charts.
He reached the peak of his popularity in the ’60s. In 1966, he starred in a television adaptation of “Brigadoon,” which won an Emmy as outstanding musical program. He won a Tony for his performance in the 1968 Broadway musical “The Happy Time.” And he appeared frequently on popular television programs like “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
His first marriage, to Louise Longmore, ended in divorce in March 1963. That November, he married the singer and actress Carol Lawrence. The couple were called a real-life Ken and Barbie, but they divorced in 1981 and an acrimonious tell-all book by Ms. Lawrence followed.
Besides his wife, the former Vera Novak, Mr. Goulet is survived by a daughter, Nicolette, from his first marriage; his sons Christopher and Michael from his second; and two grandchildren.
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You Made a Mistake? A Mistake?
"I made a mistake," Greenspan said, "in presuming that the self-interest of organizations, specifically banks and (other financial institutions) were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms." Really? Even I lock my doors at night, Mr. Greenspan!
This will go down as the biggest effin’ understatement of 2008!
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If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
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Early e-voting results in vote flipping in three states
so far...and what you can do.
Posted by Xeno on October 27, 2008
Martinsburg man says machine switched Democratic vote to Republican 5 times … Roger Belozier, a veteran and retired postal worker from Berkeley County, experienced problems with electronic voting machines when he went to vote early in the Martinsburg courthouse.
“I reviewed my vote to make sure it was a straight Democratic ticket. But it switched my vote to Republican candidates five different times. I was able to cancel out the Republican votes.
“But I am scratching my head. Why did the machine switch my votes five different times? I asked someone to come over and explain it to me,” Belozier said on Wednesday. “I am concerned about a lot of people who might not notice or people who might be intimidated. They have to raise their hands and ask for some help.”
Tracy Lopez had the same problem when she went to vote in Martinsburg with her husband last week, according to a message she posted on a political Web site supporting Obama.
“When I pressed ‘Barack Obama,’ it checked off ‘John McCain,’ ” Lopez wrote. “I de-selected, and instead of taking any chances, I chose straight Democratic ticket rather than go through the whole thing and have any mistakes.”
Lopez, who declined to be interviewed personally, thought, “Maybe I had just been clumsy. But my husband confirmed that he had the same exact thing happen to him. He was on a different voting machine, voting at the same time I was.”
…Secretary of State Betty Ireland held a press conference on Wednesday to “discuss recent reports of purported problems regarding touch- screen voting machines.” Ireland vigorously defended iVotronic voting machines made by Election Systems & Software from Omaha, Neb. After some individuals reported voting problems, Ireland contacted county clerks and “advised them to examine their machines” and to re-calibrate them if necessary.
How about this: fire Secretary of State Betty Ireland and throw these machines in the garbage heap where they belong. Recalibrate my butt. What she means by “recalibrate” is make the vote flip fraud not show up to the voting individual, which is easily done with proprietary software. An electronic vote is a vote thrown away.
I noted in passing last week that West Virginia has had the distinct honor of being the first state in the union to report problems (surprise! surprise!) with its electronic voting systems. There are now also reports that similar problems have been happening in Tennessee and Texas as well. No doubt these won’t be the last.
So what exactly has happened? Largely, the problem has been what’s been dubbed “vote flipping” or “vote switching” — which is exactly what it sounds like. According to a report by my buddy Scott Finn over at West Virginia Public Broadcasting from late last week:
Voters in at least two West Virginia counties — Jackson and Putnam — say electronic voting machines are switching their votes from Democrat to Republican.
The two county clerks, both Republicans, say they don’t think there’s a problem. But these voting problems have gotten the attention of everyone from CNN to liberal website The Huffington Post.
So far, eight voters from Jackson and Putnam counties have come forward to say their electronic voting machines kept changing their votes from Democrats to Republicans — usually, from Obama to McCain.
Wired News also reports that Ohio and Berkeley counties have been having similar problems.
It appears that some of the problems have to do with the fact that the software is simply faulty, and requires “re-calibration” by voting officials.
According to an account in the Decatur County Chronicle:
“The way the machine is set up, when you are standing in front of it and seeing it at a certain angle, it looks like you are touching the middle (of the button) when you are actually touching the line above it,” Box said.
[Election Commissioner Rick Box] and fellow Election Commissioner Grafton Dodd tested the machines on Monday. Dodd could not be reached for comment but Box said he found the area of the screen where the buttons for President are located are extremely close together. He blames the problem in part on poor design by software programmers, and adds that there may be sensitivity issues with the screen itself.
In other words, it’s the voter’s fault!
This should piss you off, but there are things you can still do to protect the vote. Get involved in your area (or go document the results in a place you suspect will have vote fraud). Doesn’t sound like much, but it may help.
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To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you too may one day be president of the United States.
--George W. Bush
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The Republican War on Democracy
By pushing photo ID laws, Republicans aren't curbing voter fraud. They're denying Americans their legal rights
The 2008 presidential election in the US may well leave us all waxing nostalgic for the good old disaster days of 2000 and 2004.
Given the asterisks in the record books next to both of those elections, you might think that Democrats, the victims of the anti-democratic (small "d") attacks in both elections, would have spent the intervening years putting virtually all resources into making sure there wouldn't be another such electoral disaster in 2008. You would have been horribly mistaken.
In addition to proving miserable failures (although, admittedly, they didn't try very hard) at rolling back the tsunami of wholly unverifiable electronic voting systems now set for use, misuse and utter breakdown across the country this November, the Democrats have also made little headway in ending what will be one of the most troubling problems this year: voter disenfranchisement via phony Republican claims of "voter fraud."
The Republicans, on the other hand, have been at work for years developing their anti-democratic (small "d" again, but it may as well be a capital "D") schemes.
For a glimpse at what may well be the Rosetta Stone of Republican disenfranchisement efforts, one need look no further than at what Paul Weyrich, one of the founding fathers of modern American conservatism, told a gathering of some 15,000 preachers at a training conference in Dallas, Texas in 1980 (at which both Ronald Reagan and the right-wing Rev. Jerry Falwell shared the podium).
"Many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome -- good government. They want everybody to vote," Weyrich instructed the flock in comments captured on video.
"I don't want everybody to vote," he continued unapologetically. "Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now."
And here comes the key to what will be the most crucial driving force for the entire Republican party effort this November: "As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
Thus spoke Weyrich in 1980, and the party leaders have followed in good faith ever since. Their disciples continue today to regularly advise the most powerful Republican insiders in the country.
And thus have they gone forth to find every measure -- no matter how adverse to the key American value of democracy, or how expensive the cost may be -- to keep legitimate, legal voters from being able to cast their vote and have that vote counted accurately.
Not every voter, of course. Just the ones who tend to vote Democratic. The easiest ones to target among those who don't tend to vote. Republican: African-Americans, Hispanics, the elderly, the urban poor and even students. All in the hopes, as Weyrich urged, of keeping Republican "leverage in ... elections ... up" by keeping "the voting populace ... down.”
According to the non-partisan League of Women voters, some 21 million Americans do not have the type of photo identification required by the most draconian types of polling-place photo ID restrictions that are now being pushed -- by hook and by crook -- in states across the country. Among that group, some 25% of African-Americans, 18% of Americans over 65, 10% of the 40 million Americans with disabilities, 15% of low-income voters and untold numbers of voting-aged college students who reside in states other than where they may have valid drivers' licenses would have difficulty voting under such laws. (You may add to the Republican enemies list: married women, hurricane victims and those suffering from palsy, if you like.)
With that in mind, the Republicans have stopped at nothing, in order to see such laws passed wherever possible, and otherwise enforced nonetheless even where such poll restrictions have been found by the courts to be illegal and/or unconstitutional.
An unprecedented decision by the now rightward-slanted US supreme court earlier this year, allowed such a law to stand in Indiana. The result: the disenfranchised in the state's May primary election included college students and nuns in their 80s and 90s from St Mary's Convent (one of the "nonagenarian hooligans" kept from her right to vote, was 98 years old) and vets of multiple foreign wars, not to mention those who simply didn't bother to show up, since they knew they'd not be allowed to vote. All of that following the state of Indiana's own admission in the court case that they were unable to document a single case of voter fraud in the state's history that would have been prevented by their new voter-suppression law.
The supporters of such laws, however, argue that it's easy to get one of the free IDs that Indiana offers. Fact is, it's not easy at all, and those supposedly free IDs can get rather expensive. And the same effort is underway in other states as well.
In Missouri, for instance, a state regarded by the McClatchy News Service as "Ground Zero", in 2006, for the GOP's voter disenfranchisement effort, a man was arrested while legally voting two weeks ago during a state primary election. He was sent to jail because he offered two different pieces of perfectly legal ID, but none that the poll workers at his polling place wanted to accept. That, even after the state's supreme court found draconian photo ID restrictions to be unconstitutional there.
In the same state in 2006, not long after the state court's decision, the secretary of state herself (a Democrat), responsible for enforcing the election laws there, was told three times as she was trying to vote that she needed to present a photo ID. Of course she didn't, and has some familiarities with the law. But that didn't stop them from trying anyway, even as Missouri has some 200,000 voters who could, according to the secretary of state's own numbers, be kept from exercising their legal franchise under such laws.
Make no mistake. This is an effort that reaches to the highest federal levels. For example, despite a very clear federal law that requires it -- the Bush administration's department of veterans affairs has disallowed voter registration activities in VA hospitals and other facilities, describing such activities as "partisan" (telling, that). Thus, it's assured that many of those who put their very lives on the line under the premise of spreading democracy throughout the world will have no voice in that same democracy back in their own country this year.
The beat goes on and will continue to grow louder through Election Day in November. Count on it.
The Prospect's Art Levine elegantly and accurately referred to all of this as The Republican war on voting. But make no mistake about it, this is an all out Republican war on democracy in which we will be witnessing an unprecedented "troop surge" between here and November.
Paul Weyrich is surely smiling.
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The Monster Years
Watching our president-elect the other night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance or a mandate for progressive change: it was the end of the monster years. For eight long years, America’s political life has been dominated by monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people. Four years ago, it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness. And that’s good.
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What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think, vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that's my position.
–-George W. Bush
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posted by Dot Calm @ 5:55 AM
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