Who's your Daddy?

Your Daddy Is Patrick Stewart

What You Call Him: Dada Why You Love Him: He takes you to Disneyland

Who's Your Daddy?

Yes!

No, wait... I wanna date Mr. Stewart, not get him a Father's Day card!

Damn!

And he would not take me to Disney, but rather here.

You Are a Pegasus

You are a perfectionist, with an eye for beauty. You know how to live a good life - and you rarely deviate from your good taste. While you aren't outgoing, you have excellent social skills. People both admire you - and feel very comfortable around you.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Cool! I love the Pegasus! I wanted one when I was a kid. All my friends wanted Unicorns, but seriously? what the hell good are they? Can they get you any place fast? Don't think so.

You Are 76% Lady

Overall, you are a refined lady with excellent manners. But you also know when to relax and not get too serious about etiquette

Are You A Lady?

76%? Must be my potty-mouth.

Mom would not be impressed.

You Belong in Amsterdam

A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam. Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city).

What European City Do You Belong In?

Hm. Okay. Didn't expect that. Paris, Madrid or London, yes, but not Amsterdam.

Good fences make good neighbors.

Der Fueher obviously believes heartily in that old axiom as he is signing into law, today, a bill which authorizes the construction of a 700 mile long fence along the border between the United States and Mexico.

Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money also can be used for access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.

Mexican officials have criticized the fence. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., calls the fence "shameful" and compares it to the Berlin Wall.

27 countries back Mexico's border fence protest

Mexico urges Canada to help oppose border fence

In 1883, celebrating America as the "Mother of Exiles" from whose beacon-hand glows worldwide welcome, Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus" to aid the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund. That sonnet, now inscribed on the pedestal of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, has America proclaiming:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The entire poem by Emma Lazarus is:

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Just as Lazarus' poem gave new meaning to the statue, the statue emitted a new ideal for the United States. Liberty did not only mean freedom from the aristocracy of Britain that led the American colonists to the Revolutionary War. Liberty also meant freedom to come to the United States and create a new life without religious and ethnic persecution. Through Larazus' poem, the Statue of Liberty gained a new name: She would now become the Mother of Exiles, torch in hand to lead her new children to American success and happiness.

Israel has it's own fence project. The Israeli High Court approves continuation of security fence today.

Life in Gaza steadily worsens

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!

~ ~ ~

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.

It's Friday

It's raining.

I seem to be in a permanent funk these days.

U.N. envoy: Gaza situation 'explosive'

Months of contacts to bring the current Hamas-led government and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party into a national unity government have broken down over Hamas' refusal to accept international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and endorse past peace accords.

Why would they want to do anything anyone asks of them?

"The combination of near total closure of the Gaza Strip, non-payment of public sector salaries, absence of basic law and order, declining service delivery, continued military strikes by air and land, and the lack of any apparent political horizon is a truly explosive one _ as potentially dangerous for Israel as it is currently dangerous for Palestinians," de Soto said.

I wouldn't cooperate. What does it get the Gazan's, the Palestinians, to recognized Israel's right to exsist when it's all too clear that they do exsist and want you, citizens of the Gaza Ghetto, to no longer exsist? Renouce violence while being bombed? Hm. Endorse past peace accords which have done so very much to help you have a better, more peaceful, quality of life?

Seriously, what's the point? Where's the incentive for the people of Gaza to capitulate?

~ ~ ~

Apparently North Korea is gonna play nice and not set off any more bombs.

I can't help but wonder at what China said to North Korea to make them promise this.

North Korea 'promises not to conduct further tests':

While Beijing has historically been reluctant to pressurise Pyongyang, in sending a special envoy to meet with Mr Kim, the Chinese sent an unusually blunt warning.

~ ~ ~

Shia Fighters seize Iraqi city which the Brits returned to Iraq in August.

It's October 20 and the US has lost 74 troops (possibly more) in just 20 days.

Really wanna be depressed? Read Professor Cole's blog in which, amoungst other devastating data, he reports:

31 Percent Increase in Iraq Poverty

60 Percent Unemployment

30 Bodies Found in Baghdad



* 5.6 million Iraqis living below the poverty line. (At a population of 27 million, this is about 21% or 1/5 of the inhabitants!)

*40 percent of this number "is living in absolute and desperate deteriorated conditions." This is 2.2 million persons in the direst poverty, and 8.4 percent of the country's population-- nearly 1 in 10!

*"this level of poverty is a 35 percent increase over the level before 2003. . ."

*"Local officials and NGOs put the unemployment rate countrywide to be more than 60 percent." (The Brookings Institution recently put it at 30 percent and said that the rate has been declining. What world do they live in.)

*"the price of basic necessities in Iraq has skyrocketed over the past year."

* "A report by NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI) suggests a 70 percent rate of inflation from July 2005 to July 2006."

*"When prices are increasing and people do not get more money, poverty is also increasing," said Cedric Turlan, information officer for the NCCI.


The End of Maliki?: Will a Coup Unravel Iraq?, by Robert Dreyfuss:

A coup d'état in Iraq would put a period - or rather an exclamation point - at the end of the Bush administration's bungled experiment with democracy there. And it would open an entirely new phase in that country's post-2003 national nightmare. Would it result in the creation of a Saddam-like strongman to rule Iraq with a heavy hand? Or would it force the warring parties (Sunni insurgents, Iranian-backed Shiite militias, and Kurdish warlords) to intensify the bloody civil war that is tearing Iraq apart? No one knows.

Heck of a job Bushie.

NATO's, in Afghanistan, doing well too.

~ ~ ~

Time to Go! Inside the Worst Congress Ever, by Matt Taibbi:

Step Two: Work as Little as Possible - And Screw Up Whatever You Do

It's Thursday evening, September 28th, and the Senate is putting the finishing touches on the Military Commissions Act of 2006, colloquially known as the "torture bill." It's a law even Stalin would admire, one that throws habeas corpus in the trash, legalizes a vast array of savage interrogation techniques and generally turns the president of the United States into a kind of turbocharged Yoruba witch doctor, with nearly unlimited snatching powers. The bill is a fall-from-Eden moment in American history, a potentially disastrous step toward authoritarianism - but what is most disturbing about it, beyond the fact that it's happening, is that the senators are hurrying to get it done.

and

In the Sixties and Seventies, Congress met an average of 162 days a year. In the Eighties and Nineties, the average went down to 139 days. This year, the second session of the 109th Congress will set the all-time record for fewest days worked by a US Congress: ninety-three. That means that House members will collect their $165,000 paychecks for only three months of actual work.

What this means is that the current Congress will not only beat but shatter the record for laziness set by the notorious "Do-Nothing" Congress of 1948, which met for a combined 252 days between the House and the Senate. This Congress - the Do-Even-Less Congress - met for 218 days, just over half a year, between the House and the Senate combined.

The whole article is just fantastic and worth reading. When you're finished, follow the link there, or here for Rolling Stone's list of the 10 worst Congressmen.

It gave me a lift to an otherwise dreary day.

Did you know Habeas Corpus died yesterday? Did you notice?

Probably not.

Do you care?

I'm curious what the difference is between Bush and his signing statements, the new act he's signed into law and the old lettres de cachet?

By the way... if it matters... this new law? It's unconstitutional.

Not that it will be challenged in the Courts. Oh, the ACLU will put up some token battle, but it won't last.

Because no one cares.

This country wasn't destroyed by some brilliant enemy who invaded, overwhelmed us and took over. It was destroyed by apathy and George W. Bush.

Congrats, folks, and all hail His Imperial Majesty, King George.

It's all in the numbers

No Art Appreciation Friday. I'm not interested this week. Maybe next week.

A number has been going through my head all week. One I can't wrap my mind around.

655,000

More or less.

The Idiot in DC, only because someone told him to, says the numbers are inaccurate, the methodology is flawed or some such shit.

Really? MIT and Johns Hopkins have copies of the actual death certificates for over 90 percent of those reported dead.

90% of 655,000 is 589,500 documents.

589,500 death certificates.

Inaccurate. Flawed methodology.

Bullshit.

If you can't wrap your mind around 655,000, try 4.


~ ~ ~


Olbermann. I don't need to say anything, do I?

Documents Reveal Scope of US Database on Antiwar Protests.


~ ~ ~


October Anniversaries:

Battle of Karbala, October 10, 680, in Iraq. Battle of Tours, October 10, 732, in Tours, France.

The Bugs Bunny Show aired for the first time on ABC on October 11. I've found myself wishing for Bugs to rule the US - hell, I'd settle for Marvin the Martian.

Man, I so want my own Uranium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Guess you know who I'd aim it at.

October 12 is the birthday of Jonathan Trumbull, for whom my hometown was named.

On October 13, 1775 the Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy.

While Congress deliberated, it received word that two unarmed British supply ships from England were heading towards Quebec without escort. Plans were made to intercept the ships, but the armed vessels to be used were owned by individual colonies. Of greater significance, then, was an additional plan to equip two ships under the direct authority of Congress to capture British supply transports. The plan was not carried out until October 13, 1775, when George Washington announced that he had taken command of three armed schooners under Continental authority to intercept any British supply ships near Massachusetts. With the revelation that vessels were already sailing under Continental control, the decision to add two more was made easier. The resolution was adopted and October 13 would later become known as the United States Navy's official birthday.

The Miracle of the Sun took place today, 89 years ago.

It's also Sacha Baron Cohen's birthday.

And it's Friday the 13th.

Tomorrow is 940th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

October 15 is the 66th anniversary of the premiere of The Great Dictator, directed and starring Charlie Chaplin.

Hm. I guess it's turned into Art Appreciation Friday afterall.

Secrets. Shhh... don't tell anyone.

God and I have a love-hate relationship. Well, more to the point, I have a love-hate relationship with god. Ever just want to smack someone in the head and scream, what the fuck is your problem?... kinda sucks when that someone is... god. What makes it worse is when you actually have more faith in the Easter Bunny being real than god.

Yeah, I have issues. You must be new here if you've just figured that one out.

In any event, it's October 4. The Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. This is the only Saint I have any affinity with - why that is, I don't know.

I suppose part of the reason is the prayer attributed to him which was actually written several centuries after his death:

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.


With the exception of the Pater Noster and Ave Maria, it's the only prayer I ever bothered to memorize.

As for the rest of the reason, it would be that I have an odd fondness for the truly bat-shit crazy, yet harmless, people of this world. And, really, do you get any crazier than hermits who give up everything they have to wander about their known world barefoot, begging for their food, preaching peace and redemption?

The stigmata he "received" has always fascinated me. First of all, he tended to lepers early in his religious life, so I think he might have picked up the disease from them, leading to his "stigmata". However, I also think the human mind is capable of causing something like that to happen in the human body; a faith so deep, an empathic ability so strong, could cause someone to bleed.

Faith of this sort, that which it is said can move mountains, I have a great deal of respect for. I don't understand it, but I undertand the reality of it for the person who has it.

That makes no sense, does it? Ah well. I know what I mean. Which probably means I'm also bat-shit crazy.

Dogmatists and/or religious people just piss me off. There is no room in those people for the faith of others. "My way or the highway" attitudes piss me off in general, but when wrapped in religion it really steams me. Belief in god, a creator, whatever, is a deeply personal, intimate, thing. Codifying and structuring those beliefs just makes no sense to me. As far as I'm concerned everyone's path to god is right - as long as they don't try to make others conform to what they deem to be "right". Afterall, how could we be right about what god or the creator wants? How could human beings even begin to guess at the thought process of a being so far beyond us we cannot even conceptualize it?


See also The Canticle of the Creatures

Don't you hate it when there are no answers?

Foley Scandal Could Cost GOP Control of Congress

# Truthdig says: As badly as this country needs a change in the control of Congress, it would be awful for this to be the impetus. Democrats deserve the opportunity to win in November based on the strength of their ideas and policies—not via the fallout of a tawdry GOP sex scandal. But that’s the hand we’ve all been dealt.

That's what I've been thinking. Not that the Democrats have done much to form a platform this year - seriously, what are they for? What are they against? Where is The Issue(s)? There isn't a great deal of noise from the Democrats - not nearly as much as one might expect.

So the Democrats may take the House and Senate because some perv couldn't keep his sick thoughts (and please, please, let's all hope that's all he did) to himself.

Sex trumps policy. Again.

I hope the Democrats step up to the plate and make good on the opportunity they've gained.


~ ~ ~


There are five little girls from Lancaster county, PA, who dead are dead today. Last week a man sexually assaulted some girls and murdered one in Colorado. Is this a pattern or is it too soon to tell? I've never been much of a feminist... but I'm wondering and I'm seeing the same questions sort of questions on many blogs. The deep-seated lack of respect for women in the far right of the radical Christian community is very disturbing. Are those messages starting to seep up through the collective psyche? I know many people look at pornography and x-rated games and say the same thing: disrespectful, down-right dangerous, to woman. Is it part of a pattern?

I don't know. I'm just wondering.

~ ~ ~

Go read Professor Cole today:

Informed Comment:

Lies and Cover-Ups are not "Being in Denial" Foleygate, Ricegate and Insurgencygate

The right wing of the Republican Party has a problem with the truth. The American press corps has an addiction to euphemisms.

I don't understand why US reporters and editors won't call a spade a spade.

I don't understand either, Professor.

Woodward has no cred with me after his previous asskissing books on Bush and Company.

Maybe she just forgot about the Clinton plans, the way she "forgot" about the Director of the CIA informing her that his hair was on fire and he was sure that the United States was about to be attacked by al-Qaeda.

The Professor is referring to Miz "I don't recall" Rice.

Didn't that signal the downfall of the Reagan administration?

When everyone lies or covers up the lies, what do you do? What is truth? Where is it? How do you discern fact from fiction?

~ ~ ~

Wandering around the web I've noticed bloggers, at Kos as well as other sites, talking about Rove's October Surprise being the invasion of Iran - nothing new there. But they've now got a date: October 21. Supposedly there are nuclear subs headed for the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. True? Not True?

I don't know.

~ ~ ~

NATO is taking over in Afghanistan. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Hopefully it means my sister's friend Rob will be home soon.

Impeachment. The Final Solution.

Just since September 23 an estimated 461 Iraqi's have died and 15 US service personnel. In one week.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq has released it's Human Right's Report for the period of July 1 through August 31, 2006.

Compare that report with Brit Hume's lie as reported on Faux News.

17,079 civilians have died in Iraq since March 2006.

Our military deaths have surpassed the number of people killed on September 11, 2001. Not that you would know that because it's never announced.

Read that entire UN report. We are responsible for that. It's our fault Bush and Cheney are in Iraq. It's our fault there is a civil war there now.

How many more people have to die because Bush and Cheney lied? Because we did nothing to stop them?

Impeachment. It's the only solution.

Impeach Bush

Impeach Bush

Impeach Bush

Senate Approves Detainee Bill Backed by Bush

Requiescat in Pace

I'm sick and tired of being Cassandra.

I saw a sign for gas at $2.45 this morning. Regular, self-serve.

Coincidence the election is six weeks away and that, even during Labor Day weekend, when gas prices are at their highest, the prices were coming down? From $3.05 in mid-August to $2.45 five weeks later.

Gas Is Down - Go Back to Sleep, by Kelpie Wilson.

"You know, if you were a real cynic, you could also wonder if the oil companies might not be pulling the price of gas down to help the Republicans get re-elected in the midterm elections a couple of months away."

Consumers Skeptical of Dropping Gas Prices, by Brad Foss.

Almost half of all Americans believe the November elections have more influence than market forces. For them, the plunge at the pump is about politics, not economics.

Retired farmer Jim Mohr of Lexington, Ill., rattled off a tankful of reasons why pump prices may be falling, including the end of the summer travel season and the fact that no major hurricanes have disrupted Gulf of Mexico output.

"But I think the big important reason is Republicans want to get elected," Mohr, 66, said while filling up for $2.17 a gallon. "They think getting the prices down is going to help get some more incumbents re-elected."

Why Retired Military Brass Don't Want Torture, by Charles Kaiser.

"[Vice President Dick] Cheney made mention in the days after 9/11 that he wanted to operate sort of on the dark side," Cullen said. "Here was a guy who never served, and now something terrible had happened, and he wanted to show that he was a tough guy.... So he's going to operate outside the rules of law. Bad message."

Rules of law. Interesting concept - alien to the United States of America since the election of 2000.

Never forget, the Constitution is just a goddamn piece of paper.

Robert Scheer: A War on Intelligence.

The mainstream media has pissed me off more than ever before with their discussion of the information released on from the NIE report.

Media people, that terrorism would surge was a goddamn GIVEN in January 2002 when Bush proclaimed Iraq to be one of the Axis of Evil nations. Where the fuck have you morons been since then? Anyone with an ounce of common sense KNEW in March of 2003 what would happen. Just how stupid are you people?

In the name of defending our security, the Bush administration has suppressed any intelligence information it could, ignoring the public’s right to know, as much as is feasible, what is being done in its name. We must never forget that our system of government is based on the utility of freedom that truth will expose error—and just such an accounting is long overdue.

And isn't it the job of journalists to seek out such information and report it to the public? Or do I not understand what journalism is for? You are right, sir, an accounting is due. The media must also be held up for scrutiny - they've failed, miserably, and continue to do so, when it comes to doing their job. They've done nothing, with the exception of a few, but parrot the Republican talking points for six years.

So you say you want a revolution?

How Bush Wrecked the Army

The generals' revolt has spread inside the Pentagon, and the point of the spear is one of Donald Rumsfeld's most favored officers, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff.

The trumpet sounded last month, when Schoomaker refused to give Rumsfeld a detailed Army budget proposal for fiscal year 2008. The Air Force and Navy met the Aug. 15 deadline for submitting their program requests. But Schoomaker—in an unprecedented move—said he preferred not to.

Rumsfeld had limited the Army's budget for 2008 to $114 billion. Schoomaker told him that the sum wasn't enough to maintain the Army's present commitments. Simply to repair the tanks, radios, and other equipment damaged in Afghanistan and Iraq, he would need at least another $17 billion. If he didn't get it, he said, there was no point drawing up a budget at all.

Bush and Torture

The pressure George Bush has exerted the last several weeks to obtain a law from Congress validating the decisions he has taken in the name of his "war against terror" is about to bear fruit. The Republican senators who resisted the White House assert that they have imposed a compromise on it that respects human rights. The truth is that this apparent victory hides a capitulation on an essential point: the president of the United States sees recognized the right to authorize the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) to employ methods of interrogation that respect neither American legislation nor international law as codified by the Geneva Conventions. Clearly stated, the agency will be able to resort to torture, as it very probably has already for four or five years in the secret detention sites situated outside the United States.

Even the French know McCain's assurances are connerie.

Newsweek is news-worthy next week for a couple of reasons:

Losing Afghanistan: The Rise of Jihadistan:

Editor's Note: Newsweek has scrubbed the cover of the United States edition for October 2, 2006. The cover of international editions, aimed at Europe, and other world regions has maintained the original title of the story, "LOSING AFGHANISTAN." The new cover for the United States edition features photographer Annie Leibovitz and is titled "My Life in Pictures." We offer the European edition cover and story here. -vh/TO

Seriously? Does no one in the Journalistic community have any balls? Well, other than Mr. Olbermann? Read on:

In a parched clearing a few hundred yards on, more than 100 Taliban fighters ranging in age from teenagers to a grandfatherly 55-year-old have assembled to meet their provincial commander, Muhammad Sabir. An imposing man with a long, bushy beard, wearing a brown and green turban and a beige shawl over his shoulders, Sabir inspects his troops, all of them armed with AKs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. He claims to have some 900 fighters, and says the military and psychological tide is turning in their favor. "One year ago we couldn't have had such a meeting at midnight," says Sabir, who is in his mid-40s and looks forward to living out his life as an anti-American jihadist. "Now we gather in broad daylight. The people know we are returning to power."

Not long after NEWSWEEK's visit, US and Afghan National Army forces launched a major attack to dislodge the Taliban from Ghazni and four neighboring provinces. But when NEWSWEEK returned in mid-September, Sabir's fighters were back, performing their afternoon prayers. It is an all too familiar story. Ridge by ridge and valley by valley, the religious zealots who harbored Osama bin Laden before 9/11 - and who suffered devastating losses in the US invasion that began five years ago next week - are surging back into the country's center. In the countryside over the past year Taliban guerrillas have filled a power vacuum that had been created by the relatively light NATO and US military footprint of some 40,000 soldiers, and by the weakness of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration.

Mission Accomplished!

The United States worsened an already horrifying situation by invading and then abandoning Afghanistan. We are unable to fix the damage we caused and Afghanistan is headed towards being a "lost cause" because of us.

Not long ago, the Bush administration was fond of pointing to Afghanistan as a model of transformation. That mountainous landlocked country, we were told, was being converted from a "failed state" - Al Qaeda's base for the worst ever attacks on US continental soil - into a functioning, responsible member of the international community. In speech after speech, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior US officials ticked off the happy stats: the Taliban and Al Qaeda had been routed, democratic presidential and parliamentary elections had been held, more than 3 million refugees had returned and 1.75 million girls were attending school.

Heck of a job Rummie.

The Taliban doesn't always share Al Qaeda's goals or tactics, although some units have taken up suicide bombing. But a guerrilla calling himself Commander Hemat, a former anti-Soviet mujahedin fighter who now works closely with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, says foreign Arabs are being welcomed again. "Now the money is flowing again because the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan are producing results," he told NEWSWEEK. Zabibullah, a Taliban operative who has proved reliable in the past, says the Qaeda operatives "feel more secure and can concentrate on their own business other than just surviving."

Why might that be? Because of our other disastrous foreign policy choices in the rest of the Middle East?

Does no one in the US government recognize that, as distasteful, as heinous as the Taliban and Al Qaeda and others are, they are fighting on their own soil, for their own version of governance? Did they learn nothing from Vietnam? From the Soviet's attempt to deal with Afghanistan? This will not end any time soon. They are fighting for their own survival, whatever that survival entails for them. We should never have entered Afghanistan in the first place. I said that in October of 2002 and I'm saying it now: A multinational police force should have been sent to find bin Laden - not the US or it's alllies' Armies. Carpet bombing these people back to the stone age isn't the answer. They will retreat to the hills and wait everyone out:

And while Ahmad's unit is now regrouping to the east, at least 35 Taliban have stashed their weapons and stayed in the village posing as farmers. They will lay ambushes and plant IEDs to harass Afghan and US troops, Ahmad says, and the larger Taliban force will return when it's safe. He shrugs off the setback, saying it's only temporary. "We never expected the success we've had," says Ahmad. Nor, five years ago, did anyone else.

This jihad against themselves and the West is their Revolutionary War. It began in Iran in 1979 with the overthrow of the Shah. It won't end until they exhaust themselves or win their objectives. The battle field isn't confined to just their own counties, towns and villages, but the whole world. It's no solution, but maybe we should just leave them alone and allow them to destroy each other or figure out which way to go. By illegally invading Iraq, by using brute force to find a terrorist in Afghanistan, we have made bad situations so much worse. We need to back away and allow these people to find their own way. And sort out our own "houses" before telling others how to fix theirs.

It's not a good solution. I'm not sure there is one. But I do know that what we're doing isn't working, so isn't it time to change tactics? We've gone overboard on the militaristic answers - perhaps it's time to retreat. We haven't the fiscal or human resources to deal with the problems we have exasperbated. Perhaps it's time to call in the United Nations and ask them to work with the Arab League to fix this nightmare.

Before it's too late.

Reasons to impeach

But if his own fitness to serve is of no true concern to him, perhaps we should simply sigh and keep our fingers crossed, until a grown-up takes the job three Januarys from now.

Read the entirety of Mr. Olbermann's comments yesterday evening, "Are YOURS the actions of a true American?", at Crooks and Liars.

And now you exploit your failure, to rationalize brazen torture — which doesn’t work anyway; which only condemns our soldiers to water-boarding; which only humiliates our country further in the world; and which no true American would ever condone, let alone advocate.And there it is, sir:

Are yours the actions of a true American?

What dreams may come

I don't remember my dreams. Bits and pieces float to the top sometimes, but I don't really remember anything.

Nancy at Starlight News just freaked me out this morning.

"We are standing at the Rubicon with this torture issue."

Saturday morning I woke remembering a piece of a dream. I was standing on the river bank alone. The land around the river was beige and dried out. For a long time I just stood there in silence. Eventually I became aware I was not alone and turned around to face Ceasar. Behind him was the entire Roman army.

Cross or not. It's your choice.

When I woke I thought "That was weird" and just dismissed it - until I read Nancy's essay this morning "Standing at the Rubicon".

She said to feel free to pass it on ~ so I am.

I am posting this essay from an email list I am on. I encourage everyone to read it and pass it on, especially to all Democratic Congressmen and Senators. We are standing at the Rubicon with this torture issue.

The Daily Brew
September 25, 2006
Chance of a Lifetime

I realize that the entire leftwing blogosphere is apoplectic because Democrats failed to even participate in the deal cut last Thursday allowing Bush to torture people. I don’t see why. I am probably too optimistic, but I think Rove has finally outsmarted himself.

For years Democrats (including myself) have bitched and moaned that GOP talking points fit neatly onto bumper stickers, while it takes a thirty page white paper with 200 footnotes to explain the Democratic alternative. For once, the shoe is on the other foot. The GOP has given us the opportunity to make the Republicans the Torture Party. We ought to run with it.

Every time Bush has squarely addressed the issue, he has denied that “we” torture people. That tells me two things. First, it tells me that Bush is lying. I saw the pictures from Abu Gharib. Bush is definitely in the torture business. Second, and almost as important, it tells me that the word “torture” doesn’t poll well for Rove. So if you keep calling Bush a torturer, he will have to keep denying it. So lets do it.

For Anne Coulter and Michelle Malkin, the fact that Bush is morphing into Josef Mengele is a plus, but we are not getting the pro-torture votes anyway. For all the normal folks whose sense of morality forces Bush to deny he tortures people, this debate is a gift from God.

Is there a better sound bite than “I oppose torture”? Is there an easier thing to say than “I am not going to vote for this bill. Torture is immoral. Torturing people who haven’t even been charged with a crime endangers both our troops and the American public. If we make it US policy to torture people who have done nothing wrong, based on the mere suspicion that they might know something useful, is there any doubt that foreign governments will likewise subject our troops and US citizens traveling abroad to the same treatment”?

Sure, we all know that once we start, the right wing noise machine will spring into action. But for once, we’ve got them where we want them. Out talking points are simple. Theirs are not. Just by having the debate, we win it.

The actual bill is a complicated mess. Unless you are an endowed chair at the Yale law school, good luck figuring out what it means. So when we say “Torture is wrong,” they have to say “The bill does not authorize torture. Under paragraph 3(g)(4) subsection iii, the proposed legislation clearly provides that….” Yada, yada, yada. Get the idea?

Little Suzy Swingvoter and her husband Joe the Undecided Working Guy aren’t going to listen to the whole debate, and they damn sure aren’t going to read the bill. Their impressions are going to be formed on the basis of sound bites, and in this debate, we have the better sound bites. We can make the GOP the Torture Party. All we have to do is make sure we don’t give them any bi-partisan cover, and repeatedly
force them to deny that they are torturing people. We will come out miles ahead.

If the Rove tries to debate this bill by saying that Democrats are soft on terrorism, then the GOP implicitly concedes that the bill authorizes torture, and we win; the GOP is the Torture Party. The tougher they act, the more they cement the idea that they are torturing people. On the other hand, if they try to make convoluted arguments about how much you have to harm people before it is actually considered torture, then they are dancing on the head of a pin with the devil, and the GOP is the Party of Torture with Law Degrees. The more they deny the bill authorizes torture, the more they undercut their own message that Democrats are soft on terrorism. We win both ways.

All Democrats have to do is keep making simple statements over and over. “Torture is wrong.” “Torture is Un-American.” What is the GOP going to do? Say torture is a family value? All Democrats need to do is trust that the American people will reject torture.

Maybe Digby is right. Maybe the Democrats have been “punked.” Maybe a mere six weeks from the fall election, Democrats will again take the seemingly safe route, meekly sit back, say nothing, and allow the compromise to become law. McCain will get to play the Republican rebel maverick, who did the moral thing and looked out for the troops. Bush will get to play the Republican statesman and leader, who showed that he is committed to protecting Americans but that he is willing to listen and compromise, and Democrats will look like ciphers who don’t have the stones to even say a word when the most important moral issue confronting the government is being debated.

On the other hand, maybe pigs will fly, and the Democrats will finally get smart. Maybe Harry Ried and Nancy Pelosi will realize that when it comes to torture, good policy, good morals, and good politics all converge. Maybe Democrats will stand up for the idea that torture is wrong, and hang this atrocity around the necks of the entire Republican party like a burning tire.

Of course, if they don’t, then I don’t really care what happens. For me, we reach the Rubicon this week. Any political party that won’t stand up and be counted against torture is not a party that I want to be associated with, regardless of how evil the alternative. I think opposing torture is a political winner. But even if I am wrong, and standing up against torture will cost the Democrats the majority, then
SO BE IT, they should do it anyway.

Anyone in Congress who isn’t willing to risk their seat to oppose torture I don’t want in power regardless of what party they are in. If a Democrat doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing on an issue this basic and fundamental, then they are a coward who is unworthy of their seat. We should make any Democrat who gives the GOP bipartisan cover for this abomination the “Joe Lieberman” of every future election they enter. If they aren’t smart enough to see that doing the right thing here is a long term political winner for the party, even if they are worried it might cost them their job in the short run, then they are more committed to their own power than our principles, and to hell with them.
______________________________________________________________
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Art Appreciation Friday

When I'm an old lady, I think I'll take up quilting. I do some sewing now, crafting, cross-stitching, embroidery, etc., but quilting takes time I really don't have right now. So, when I'm an old lady, I'll quilt.

My maternal Grandmother spent her retirement quilting. I have one which I took out of the press this morning, which is what got me thinking about quilting and making quilts the topic of Art Appreciation day. Head on over to the Museum of the American Quilter's Society and take a good look at the amazing art they have on display there. Also take a look at the Society's website where I found the picture of the quilt above by Jan Hutchison of Sedgwick, Kansas.





The quilt above is called "Camelot", by Judy Garden of Ontario, Canada. Amazing. It won Best in Show and I'm not surprised.


Now wander over to the New England Quilt Museum and check out Happy Birthday America, also known as "Centennial Quilt, 1876", which was made by Mary Haddy of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.





My favorite of their collection is the one above ~ "Album Summer Coverlet" made around 1850 in New York by an unknown quilter.





The town of Shelton, Connecticut, and the Friends of the Library, have a Bicentennial Quilt, above, which will be on display at the New England Quilt Museum until October 22. I'm trying to gather friends to head up to Lowell with me on October 14. Cross your fingers!

I either have to stop paying attention to the outside world

or start taking massive doses of prozac.

Bush went to the UN yesterday and lied. Huge surprise, no?

Wanna be depressed just like me? Read the UN News Centre. I imagine Mr. Annan is glad his job is over at year end, regardless of what he said at the end of his speech.

No, I will not share my drugs with you.

Gaza: The Children Killed in a War the World Doesn't Want to Know About, by Donald Macintyre.

Okay... less depressing fare ~

Thai Coup Leader Promises to Hold Elections by October 2007.

That's good. Except... there were supposed be elections in October 2006.

Tuesday night's coup was the first in 15 years and the 18th successful or attempted military takeover since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

"It's part of who we are," says Rosenbaum. "It's not enough [to feed the poor]. We have to say, 'What needs to change so they're able to feed themselves?' "

Fascinating article from the Christian Science Monitor from February entitled "The power of nun: taking a lead role in shareholder activism" by G. Jeffrey MacDonald.

Check out their list of articles on Ethical investing.

Church May Fight IRS Summons Over Anti-War Sermon:

The probe surprised Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a watchdog group that has filed 58 complaints of improper church politicking over the last decade and a half. The grievances were roughly evenly divided between liberal and conservative religious groups.

"What perplexes me about All Saints," said Barry Lynn, a group spokesman, "is that I have never heard of a church being asked to undergo such a sweeping, broad and deep investigation on the basis of a complaint about a single sermon by a guest speaker."

I'm confused. Don't politicians routinely speak in churchs and synagogues?

In any event, good luck All Saints. Fighting the IRS is apt to bankrupt your congreation. Truthdig has Reverend Bacon's sermon available for reading.

While at Truthdig, see Molly. Even when she doesn't make me laugh.

pondering

"If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler." Alfonso the Wise, 13th century King of Castile, commenting on the Almagest, by Ptolemy.

~ ~ ~

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression: for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach unto himself." Thomas Paine

~ ~ ~

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." C. S. Lewis

~ ~ ~

"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." John Hay

~ ~ ~

I watched Studio 60 Monday night. I wasn't wow'd - but it was okay. I guess I just expected more from Aaron Sorkin. I still remember how amazed, awed, I was by The West Wing the first time I saw it and I guess I was expecting the same reaction.

death by dogma

Daniel Ellsberg: Time to Drive Out the Bush Regime

We are in a crisis right now. It’s known to us, more than it was known to almost anyone outside the White House in 1969. A genuine crisis. We are looking at a very high likelihood, I believe, as I read the Seymour Hersh articles about a new war, a new attack on Iran which could involve nuclear weapons— it has been explicitly described as having the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons. The president, Rice, Rumsfeld—they have all been asked specifically: Do we rule out nuclear weapons? They answer, “All options are on the table, nothing is ruled out.” And Hersh reveals that plans have been made for the use of nuclear weapons. This would be a new war in addition then to Iraq, quite possibly much, much worse than Iraq in all of its consequences. This is too crazy to imagine with any other administration. If Hersh were giving those stories about some other administration, whether it’s George Bush
Sr. or Gore or whoever it might be, I would say “impossible.” The costs of this are too obvious, too horrific, they couldn’t really mean that. You can’t say that about this administration, [though] many people do. The ones who say that it’s too crazy even for these guys I think they are on the wrong foot. It’s not too crazy for these guys. The people who did get us into Iraq are—according to Hersh—on the same kind of “reasoning,” prepared to do that to Iran.

US Holds AP photographer in Iraq for 5 months

"We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable," said Tom Curley, AP's president and chief executive officer. "We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure." Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide — 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

Hm. Surprised he hasn't been shipped off to Guantanamo. It's an interesting story and gives insight into how media organizations work.


The Longer the War, the Larger the Lies by Frank Rich:

You'd think that after having been caught concocting the scenario that took the nation to war in Iraq, the White House would mind the facts now. But this administration understands our culture all too well. This is a country where a cable news network (MSNBC) offers in-depth journalism about one of its anchors (Tucker Carlson) losing a prime-time dance contest and where conspiracy nuts have created a cottage industry of books and DVD's by arguing that hijacked jets did not cause 9/11 and that the 9/11 commission was a cover-up.

(The fictionalized "Path to 9/11," supposedly based on the commission's report, only advanced the nuts' case.) If you're a White House stuck in a quagmire in an election year, what's the percentage in starting to tell the truth now? It's better to game the system.

The untruths are flying so fast that untangling them can be a full-time job. Maybe that's why I am beginning to find Dick Cheney almost refreshing. As we saw on "Meet the Press" last Sunday, these days he helpfully signals when he's about to lie. One dead giveaway is the word context, as in "the context in which I made that statement last year." The vice president invoked "context" to try to explain away both his bogus predictions: that Americans would be greeted as liberators in Iraq and that the insurgency (some 15 months ago) was in its "last throes."

Spy Agencies Outsourcing to fill key jobs

Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry, at the sheer stupidity of humanity. Who the fuck thought the above was a good idea?

Largely because of the demands of the war on terrorism and the drawn-out conflict in Iraq, U.S. spy agencies have turned to unprecedented numbers of outside contractors to perform jobs once the domain of government-employed analysts and secret agents.

In one well-known case, David A. Passaro was hired as a contractor with the CIA's paramilitary service even though he had a record of abusive behavior and had been fired by a Connecticut police department. Passaro was convicted of felony assault earlier this year in federal court in North Carolina for his role in the beating of a detainee who died in Afghanistan in 2003. U.S. intelligence officials said that Passaro's case was an aberration and that security problems had not been more frequent among contractors than among career officers.

Uh huh. Right.

A review of the practice has been ordered.

~ ~ ~


Pope remarks worry Christians in Mideast

"We are afraid," said Sonia Kobatazi, a Christian Lebanese, after Sunday morning Mass at the Maronite Christian St. George Cathedral in Beirut, Lebanon, where about a dozen policemen carrying automatic weapons stood guard outside.

They should be worried. When I read the text of the speech last week I couldn't help but roll my eyes and shake my head. What the Pope said isn't that bad - but after the controversy which exploded over a cartoon earlier this year, you'd think someone would say... "um, maybe this speech isn't such a great idea right now...". The Islamic world is an angry, pain-filled, place; any criticism is going to come across as a huge slap in the face.

You'd think church leaders would be a little more cognizant of that than I am. Hopefully the Vatican will cancel the Holy Father's visit to Turkey. If some nut kills him, the radical right wing of the Catholic faith will launch a crusade of their own. They might even be joined by the radical right wing of the rest of Christianity.

Suggestion: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa maybe called for right now.

See also: ‘God’s Rottweiler’ Barks by Sam Harris.


Have you seen ads for Jesus Camp online? Sadly (because I'm still boycotting ABC/Disney) ABC News has one of the better reviews of the movie, via Raw Story: Film Shows Youths Training to Fight for Jesus, by Dan Harris.

Speaking in tongues, weeping for salvation, praying for an end to abortion and worshipping a picture of President Bush -- these are some of the activities at Pastor Becky Fischer's Bible camp in North Dakota, "Kids on Fire," subject of the provocative new documentary, "Jesus Camp."

I think I see a problem here. I mean Hellooooo...

(2) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; (3) you shall have no other gods before me. (4) You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, (6) but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

From the Bible according to Wiki.

"We're kinda being trained to be warriors," said another, "only in a funner way."

And didn't Jesus say:

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." (Matthew 5:38-42, NIV)"

Also

A parallel version is offered in the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke:

"But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,"

"Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." (Luke 6:28-31. King James Version)

Also from Wiki.

Another reivew is available via Rotton Tomatoes, Jesus Camp 9/10:

Anyhow, this is a must see for anyone brought up in a religious environment or anybody that is a thinking voter in the US. Perhaps you'll want to align yourself with these people...I don't. When it comes to faith, for me, I consider it a very personal thing and however I choose to connect with God is probably just fine with him. The evangelicals can continue speaking in fake tongues and indoctrinating generations to vote Republican because Jesus was Republican...yeah right. My review, along with any others that think this group a bit crazy, will be disimissed by evangelicals because...well, consider the source. There's no way that a movie reviewer that openly admits being a Christian but disagrees with them could be a Christian of any substance. I'm not terribly concerned about what they're doing at their camps or in their church services...they can worship the best way they see fit. But they don't agree with the way I conduct my day to day business, and are willing to change government to make changes to the way you and I worship, think, and what we're allowed to see/hear...and they're succeeding. Like I said... disturbing.

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!

Refrain:

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.

At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

(Refrain)

Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.

(Refrain)

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.

(Refrain)

Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,
blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ the King,
this through countless ages men and angels sing.

(Refrain)


~ ~ ~


Remembering Ann Richards by Molly Ivins.


White Buffalo

"The birth of a white male buffalo means men need to take responsibility for their families and the future of the tribe," Hand said.


I hope Studio 60 lives up to it's hype. I'll be watching at 10 tonight.

Art Appreciation Friday

My favorite opera is Carmen. My apologies for the Japanese subtitles. Unless, of course, you are Japanese... in which case, you're welcome.

Here's another version:

The object formerly known as 2003 UB313

is now known as Eris, who was the Greek Goddess of strife.

Fitting, that. Better than Xena too.

Eris has a Moon, named Dysnomia, which is a daughter of Eris in Greek mythology. It means lawlessness.

Also fitting, given the current conditions in the world.

Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet.

In other news... I'm using the new beta and I'm going to start using tags.

Provided I remember to use them.