Blessed Art Thou

The above painting is by Kate Kretz of North Carolina.

"My intention was to ask a question and get people to think," Kretz said in a telephone interview Friday from Miami. "I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking."

On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."

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God Denies Talking to Pat

So This is Christmas

Senator Tim Johnson Is in Critical Condition

A Republican appointee would create a 50-50 tie, and allow the GOP to retain Senate control.

This is what the media is talking about. I'm thinking about his family. Dad's not much past that age and after two ocular strokes this year, well... let's just say I feel worse for that family than I do for the US.

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Judge Upholds Detainee Rights Terror Law

"This is the first time in the history of this country that a court has held that a man may be held by our government in a place where no law applies," said Barbara Olshansky, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has handled many detainee cases.

Bush got what he wanted for Christmas.

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Sudan dismisses Darfur 'threats'

However, the BBC's correspondent says that, while Mr Natsios said the talks had been productive, there is still no sign that Sudan's government will agree to a UN force.

There is a growing sense of frustration and urgency in Washington over the situation in Darfur, he says.

I'm not quite clear on what a No-Fly Zone or naval blockade would do to ease the horrendous situation in Darfur. George Clooney is in Eqypt appealing for help after trying to talk the Chinese into backing the UN plan to send in more troops - which Sudan would consider a threat to it's sovereignty and therefore is unwilling to accept. I wish him and everyone else trying to end this disaster well and hope they succeed soon. You can read more about Sudan, Darfur and the nightmare there on the BBC site: Sudan: A Nation Divided.

AmeriCares
Disasters Emergency Committee
Heifer International
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Oxfam

The Silly Season is finally over

Lieberman defeats Lamont to hold Senate seat.

Not a huge surprise. CNN kept stressing last night that Lieberman has promised Connecticut that he will work with the Democrats. Wolf sending a message? Perhaps.

Connecticut knows Joe only works for himself. He'll take the ripest plums the Republicans offer him and do what ever the hell they want him to do.

Six more years of this crap.

Independents and Republicans voted for him in droves. Thanks folks - you are responsible for this. Hope you're happy.

If Schlesinger had not been in this race I'm not sure Lamont would have received his votes. Lamont lost it after winning the primary. Schlesinger's numbers are mostly attributed to his good showing in the debates - goodness knows the Republican machine abandoned him . For Lieberman. That's gotta leave a bad taste in his mouth.

It's depressing that voters in seven states have decided to amend their Constitutions to define marriage as a union between one male and one female.

The conservative Concerned Women for American said it "rejoices with the American people on these important victories."

Depressing. It looks like only Arizona will not pass one of these marriage amendment issues.

Good news? Six states voted to raise their minimum wages; Santorum lost to Bobby Casey (whose Dad once dated my Mother back in the dark ages :) ); South Dakota’s law banning abortion was rejected 55 - 45; Webb might win Virginia - it's really close; the removal of Republicans wasn't just Federal - it was on the state and local level as well.

Not sure how I feel about Madam Speaker, the individual, but Madam Speaker... sweet.

Get the message Mr. Bush?

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In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega won his presidential bid after Eduardo Montealegre conceded yesterday.

On the campaign trail, Ortega traded his olive-green military garb for white and pink shirts and ran on a center-left platform. Once an atheist, he has made peace with an old enemy, the Catholic Church. His running mate, Jaime Morales, is a former Contra commander whose Managua home Ortega confiscated as president and still lives in.

Tiger changing its spots? Perhaps. I wonder how long it will be before Bush declares Nicaragua one of the "Axis of Evil" nations.

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Britney Spears is divorcing her husband. This is news, apparently. Comes under the header "who gives a shit" for me... but then, that's me.

However... it's just fine for some foolish person, ala Miz Spears, to "marry" some equally foolish person during a drunken... well orgy might be too strong of a word… for 55 hours and get it... was it annulled or were they divorced? In any case, this child makes a complete mockery of marriage and that's just fine and dandy. Then she goes off with some other equally foolish person, whose girlfriend had given birth to their second child just a few months prior, and marries this clown. This is just peachy-keen. They have two more children who will now not have a full-time Father in their lives, just like his other two children don't. No problem, apparently.

But two people who love each other, have been committed to each other for some long period time in most cases, who wish the world to know and accept them as loving spouses/partners, and congratulate them as such, welcome them as such, just like the Spears-Fed "marriage" - that can't happen. Two people who just run rough shod over others lives, doing whatever the hell they feel like doing and making a joke out of what marriage is supposed to be about, can get away with this behavior - but two loving, committed adults cannot get married if they are of the same sex.

This makes sense? How? How can this possibly make sense to anyone? It's a sick joke. The State has no right to say who can and cannot marry beyond very basic guidelines such as age and mental health - this simple fact seems to allude most people. Amending the state Constitutions to give the State that power is the worst kind of insanity - if they can tell you that you must marry someone of a different sex, next they will tell you what color, what religion, what nationality your spouse must be.

You don't think so?

Think about it some more.

Today is a good day for civil liberties - the Democrats have taken back the government from Republican control. But only one of eight states rejected the notion of a state Constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one male and one female. In 2004 11 states voted the same way - that's 18 states looking to amend their Constitutions to declare that marriage is between one male and one female. It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination that this could get much, much worse. Did you see this coming six years ago?

Four years ago?

I know I didn’t.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Madonna does Oprah and bitches about how evil the media is.

I have a problem with these extremely wealthy people (yeah, I'm looking at you Jolie) going into impoverished countries and tossing about money and "adopting" children. They bring the media down upon people who are not helped by their invasion and all of whom, celebrity looking for one more ounce of fame and the media more than willing to be their pimps, disappear into the mists once they've all gotten what they wanted. It's sick.

I don't doubt that Ms. Madonna feels for the child, all the children of Malawi she encountered. How about setting up schools and hospitals instead of removing the child from his home land? A few million dollars goes a long way in those countries. And, if the media is such a problem for you, then shut the fuck up while building your schools and hospitals.

And what of the poor, impoverished children of England, your adopted homeland, Ms. Madonna? How about the United States? Are they all well fed, educated, inoculated? Alls well and peachy keen in both nations, right? You and the others might want to consider working at home first.

Why any of these people, celebrities and others famous for being (in)famous, merit attention is beyond me. That one second of news time is given over to what they do seems to me a huge waste of time. There are more important things going on in the world. For example, California closing on Wisconsin cheese crown. Man, if I were from Wisconsin, I'd be seriously pissed and distressed over this. What's the first thing you think of when someone says "cheese"? Wisconsin, of course! This is going to have dire repercussions on the entire state. In a few years the entirity of the United States might have to bail out Wisconsin just like the US had to bail out New York City in the early 70's. People, for the economy's sake, for the sake of all Wisconsonians, eat more Wisconsin cheese!

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Mr. Olbermann was brilliant the other night. If you missed it, Advertising Terrorism is available through Truthout.org.

While signing a Military Commissions Act so monstrous that it has been criticized by even the John Birch Society, you told us, Mr. Bush, "there is nothing we can do to bring back the men and women lost on September 11th, 2001. Yet we'll always honor their memory, and we will never forget the way they were taken from us."

Except, of course, for the ones who've been lying under a manhole cover for five years.

Journalism at it's best.