William Buckley the hopeless, the jaded

Buckley rips away at Howard Dean in his own unique fashion:

"...To share time in national forums with the thaumaturgist from Vermont, who with a bright and engaging smile waves his hand eastward and proclaims an end to the problem there by simply shipping our boys home, does two things to the other contenders. They want to say: Stop! stop! stop! The world doesn’t work that way! There are terrible, ridiculous complications! etc. etc...."

Frankly, we could use a bit of a thaumaturgist. A majority of this country believes they've been used and manipulated by the Bush administration. Knowing you've been used and manipulated does not generate a trustful, secure, or hopeful feeling. A hell of a lot of people are not satisfied with the level of participation offered by Bush and/or the Washington business-as-usual. Our voices are not being heard..our wishes are not being adequately translated through our representatives. A lot of people realize that it is, in part, due to an oppressive GOP majority. I am not talking about this mythical far-left Bush-hating 20% of the electorate the mainstream media is tossing around ad nauseum...I wonder where this myth began? Who's tossing out these talking points? Our journalists, it seems, have become either incredibly reliant/lazy...or have lost proper perspective. Pehaps it's a combination of both.

William Buckley's been around a long time. I suspect he's a jaded old conservative. At least he doesn't hammer the tired "angry Dean" schtick. To the contrary, Buckley accuses Dean supporters of being fantasy-struck starry-eyed optimists. Hell, Bill Buckley. I'll take hope over all the other dreadfully minority-ignoring (stick-it-in-your-face/screw you) politics that have been thrown at us by the Bush administration any day.
Why on earth do you think Dean is on TOP?

Notice William Buckley portrays Howard Dean as smiling/bright....Dean surely doesn't sound like an angry fellow to me...how about you?

I think Buckley, like many other pundits, journalists, and even our Washington representatives need to start thinking with the mind of the upcoming generation rather than mocking them for entering the political process.
It seems that, once the younger citizens get on a roll with democratic spirit, they became a bit of an enemy. The jaded old politicos become fearful that things might change. Change is overdue. I, for one, am damn proud of the younger generation interested and empowered by Howard Dean. Even if Dean never secures the nomination (which I believe he will), look at the good he's done for our democratic future.

Calling Howard Dean's ideas "baby-talk political solutions" in light of the comparisons that could be made to any of the Presidential candidates' ideas (including Bush) is nothing more than a blatant attack on one for the benefit of the others.

"...Howard Dean’s exhilarating nostrums have got the headier members of the young Democratic population absolutely carried away with enthusiasm. Is there any sound on earth more pleasing than END WAR? Or, ELIMINATE POVERTY? And the First Amendment guarantees free speech even if it is hypnotic..."

Dear heavens...had our founding fathers felt as bored and hopeless as Bill Buckley, we'd still be Limeys.
We see through you, oh jaded, fearful and tired old Bill.
We even feel a bit sorry for you.

The ABCs of the Iowa Debate




A- Add new people to the voting ranks......Howard Dean

B- Better trade policy needed.......John Kerry

C- Commercial airplanes being escorted by fighter jets..are we safer; really?......Howard Dean

D- Dems-I told you NAFTA was a bad idea all along!......Dennis Kucinich

E- Engagement: Sustained engagement in leadership is an element missing with Bush. Inconsistent prescence
is a Bush hallmark......John Edwards

F- Fear is power......Carol Mosely Braun

G- Get out of Iraq......Dennis Kucinich

H- Hope-not anger......Howard Dean

I- I'll never privatize Social Security......John Kerry

J- Just CAN'T cut and run (from Iraq). We have responsibility......Carol Mosely Braun

K- Kerry on Bush administration and 'No Child Left Behind': "They're faking it."......John Kerry

L- Labor: Rights of workers around the world need to be proptected for NAFTA/WTO to work in the American farmer's
......best interests.......Howard Dean

M- Misadventure in Iraq......Carol Mosely Braun

N- Negative ads: You must defend yourself. Stand up to attackers like
Tom DeLay.......John Kerry

O- Overthrow/Capture of Saddam Hussein makes the world safer...... Joe Lieberman

P- Power Belongs to the People.......Howard Dean

Q- Question from Edwards to Kerry: Are you saying you're the only one who has a health plan?
.......Kerry replies: Time magazine called my plan a 'big new idea'. I'll have 97% of Americans covered in 3 years.

R- Roadmaps-Show the Arab world and terrorists we mean business......Joe Lieberman

S- Supplanting Iraq for the War on Terror......John Kerry

T- Taking action in Iraq was the best decision to keep the American people safe......Dick Gephardt

U- Unbelievably intrusive mandate: Bush's Leave No Child Behind ......Howard Dean

V- Very important: Asking middle class-did your kids' tuition go up with Bush? Health care costs go up?
We need to shift tax priorities. Most of middle class worse off with Bush. ......Howard Dean

W- Waste/Military Spending......Dennis Kucinich

X- Xtra Xtra/Hear all about this: I've balanced a budget, provided health insurance for citizens in my state, delivered healthcare. ......Howard Dean

Y- Yes to trade--no to protectionist positions ......Joe Lieberman

Z- Zo zayeth Braun: Bush 41 said "No new taxes!"; Bush 43 said "No new jobs!" ......Carol Mosely Braun

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BONUS TOP SEVEN:



#1- Most desperate show of hyperbole:
Joe Lieberman's dramatics on the Howard Dean sealed-records. It was as if to say: Please unseal the records so I can find fodder to attack you some more...please oh please..whine..why won't you do it?

#2- Saddest/most worthless attack between 2 people:
Dick Gephardt's attack on John Edwards over trade. Gephardt made a mistake on Edwards' record (Edwards was not in the Senate when NAFTA was decided -- and he pointed out he had campaigned against it). Edwards nearly asked for an outright apology...which he never came close to getting from Gep.
Edwards was a complete gentleman throughout the debate. I was impressed by his performance today.

#3- Most TIRED (and tried) attack:
Dick Gephardt's attack on Dean for 90s-era medicare.
"If I hear Dick Gephardt attack Howard Dean on Medicare one more useless time, I think I'll puke."
-Iddybud October 10, 2003

#4- Best soundbites:
Carol Mosely Braun's got it goin' on in that department..hands down.

#5- Worst Comparison by any stretch of the imagination:
Joe Lieberman comparing TinPot Saddam Hussein to BadBoy Joseph Stalin.
Stalin killed 20 million of his own people, historians have concluded.

#6- Best Self-Defense
This must go to Howard Dean, who had to defend himself all day long.
I especially appreciated his composure and reply that he was standing for the rule of law when Kerry attacked him for
the Osama Bin Laden comments last week. I'm not sure how I would have reacted hearing Kerry twist my words (such as the horrific and perverted version of Dean's statements to Diane Rehm/NPR on December 1st about the Saudi Arabian-9-11 mystery.)
Governor Dean showed he was not an angry defender..he quietly and firmly stood up for himself. Kerry looked like the attacking oaf again. I wonder when he'll learn?

#7- HOWARD DEAN TALKING ABOUT THE 7TH YEAR OF HIS ADMINISTRATION! :)

~~
Adam Nagourney's NY Times article is here

Pakistan is a Powderkeg

I have a prediction for 2004/2005 based upon reasonable speculation. I think we're going to see an Islamic-fundamentalist political uprising in Pakistan. Given the fact that President Musharraf has narrowly escaped assasination twice in the past month, I think we should be very concerned about the future of keeping/counting on Pakistan as a trusted ally in the war on terror. When you consider the fact that Pakistan already has nuclear-weapons capability and has shown a willing propensity for selling secrets and materials to places such as Libya and North Korea, we can't continue to look away.

Kashmir may prove to be a more dangerous and volatile proving-ground for hate-based religious fundamentalism than the Gaza strip. Muslim and Hindu peoples of Kashmir had lived in relative harmony and friendliness since the 13th century when Islam first became the majority religion in Kashmir. The Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus), leading to a syncretic culture where Hindus and Muslims revered the same local saints and prayed at the same shrines. Kashmiri Pandits were driven from their homeland after a campaign of intimidation and harassment was launched against them by the military-wing of the Islamic terror-employing secessionists.

It may serve concerned people of the world well to read the history of the Kashmir region.

Ignominous defeat suffered by Pakistan in the war of 1971 and loss of East Pakistan without gaining Kashmir has been rankling in the minds of people and rulers of Pakistan ever since. Cadets of Pakistan's military academy at Kakul are known to swear an oath that they will avenge the defeat of 1971. That explains why the military budget has been continously rising even though Pakistan has been cut to half in size and population. It has also been pursuing its nuclear program in a determined way and is reported to be in possession of a few atom bombs and nuclear war-heads.

While it was secretly hoped that Pakistan would implode and partition (a destiny for which it seemed to be headed before the U.S. took them on as allies in the war on terror), India can no longer hope for such an easy solution to the Kashmir question. The war on terror has warped the "settled" facts of history and reliance upon old predictions. (We know there are no settled facts of history).
It helps to remember that Pakistan is not a nation-state. It is an unnatural and unhistorical country with its borders drawn in the name of religion.
Pakistan (through Musharraf) has gained political clout and financial support for supporting the U.S. after 9-11.
Yet, look at how the 9-11/U.S. support has affected the people of Pakistan.
Let's face it, Musharraf's cooperation has made him extremely unpopular in Pakistan with those who harbor anti-American foreign policy resentment. (And there's a lot of it, whether or not we choose to overlook it in favor of support for the war on terror).
There has been tremendous pressure and threat (from U.S.) to anti-Islamic fundamentalists in neighboring countries Iran and Afghanistan. You can safely bet Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan are feeling the threat...and
are empowered to politically survive because of it.
The Kashmir situation increases the threat to Islamic fundamentalists...Hindu reactionaries use sloganeering and war mania against Pakistan to seek popularity. As a reaction to Hindu fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism gains popularity in Pakistan.

In the near future, you will see an upsurge in Islamic fundamentalists struggling for post 9-11 power. Will the fundamentalists take the power in Pakistan? Recent elections have indicated that they well could do so. Before 9-11, I think we could have safely said no because of the balance of forces in the Pakistani state. However, after 9-11, we see assasination attempts on the President and a constant growing of popularity (with the people) of fundamentalist political rule. Musharraf has recently agreed to cease control of the military (effective December, 2004) to ward off a coup by a fundamentalist section of the army, which was surely on its way to happening.

If Musharraf doesn't take of the militray outfit soon, all hell may break loose.

In most recent news, [Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples party] Benazir Bhutto said that the mathematics of the recent vote of confidence in Pakistan proved once and for all that General Musharraf did not have legal votes for a Presidential confidence vote and that he was illegally and unconstitutionally holding the office of the Presidency. (Sounds like America 2000 albeit the differences in process ;)

One example of prior news of Pakistan on Iddybud blog

Unlike the White House Coward, Tony Blair Moves Freely About Iraq
..in Az Zubayr

... in the light of day, no less. No turkeys. No big stories about going in like a cool brave secret agent under cover of darkness.



Az Zubayr was a place of sorrows

Az Zubayr is a place of need

Wow--Britney Spears Got Married!!!


..and I voted for TTLB New Blog Showcase! Juggernaut of Love: The Red Apprentice (An Altruist Ideal)

Barney's First Dog Blog: My Great White Powder Adventure! (by Barney)

Iddybud named a "blogger's blog" by Ecosystem-gazer--
See Chris Lydon's The Blogging of the President
"....there is a hidden pattern in the numbers that says interesting things about the blogs and their connections...
....The list of the "bloggers blogs" is also interesting, I've labelled these "inward facing" blogs, because they have high cachet inside the blogsphere...."

~~~~~~~~~~

While at Chris Lydon's site, see Matt Stoller's piece on David Brooks.
After reading it, proceed to the Mahablog, where you'll find an interesting critique of a recent Brooks column.

Pop Quiz: Who remembers the name
Imad Hage?
*Hint: the Bush administration doesn't want you to know the name Imad Hage...unless, of course, you can associate it with the name of a criminal or a terr'ist.*
"....Hage said by telephone Thursday from Beirut that he intends to return to the United States in a few weeks to fight the charges, which he suggested were only brought after news surfaced of his involvement in the Iraqi peace deal. "I think I am caught between various people with different agendas," Hage said. "I think they are blowing it out of proportion because somebody wanted to discredit me early on and unfortunately this thing became public."

My blog entry from November will refresh your memory.

Who's Hijacking Jesus?
No, not Howard Dean...
it's Dick and Lynne Cheney!

Christ was hijacked long ago, with countless imperial and other brutalities carried out in His name.



It was religious and civil authorities who put their heads together and ended up torturing and executing Him.
Why?
They considered Him to be a danger.
His message directly challenged empire.

"And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

Nice Christmas card message, NeoCon Crusaders!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pat Robertson: God tells me it's Bush in a blowout
so sayeth Maru
Please read Maru's hilarious take on Pat's divinely expired prediction.

Bush is Beatable....Pass It On

Bush is Beatable....Pass It On.

Why Bush May Well Lose in 2004

From Jan 4, 2004 NY Times magazine article:

"...the Bush administration stands very, very far from the foreign-policy mainstream: "....liberal Democrats, conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans have more in common with one another than any of them have with the Bush administration.
.... the administration's claim that 9/11 represents such a decisive break with the past that many of the old principles no longer apply is right -- but the new principles need not be the ones the administration has advanced. A different administration could have adapted to 9/11 in a very different way. And this is why national security should be, at least potentially, such a rich target of opportunity for a Democratic candidate...

So, it seems the Democrats have many reasonable talking points to use to their advantage...

"...Why is so much of the world against us? -- is, in fact, the starting point for the Democratic critique of the Bush administration. The sheer velocity of the change from worldwide sympathy to worldwide antipathy is almost incredible, and while much of the new anger comes from the very nature of our superpower status, the conduct of the Bush administration has plainly had a lot to do with it as well....

Just think about where we might be today if we hadn't alienated most of the civilized world...and if we had paid closer attention to limiting weapons-proliferation as a truly multi-lateral-force (I don't mean the Togos and Latvias--I mean a force with the moral strength of this world.)

".....All the major candidates continue to press the loose-nukes issue as an opportunity to demonstrate that the old distinction between hawk and dove is an artifact of another era. In a major foreign-policy address delivered last month, [Howard] Dean accused the administration of being ''penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to addressing the weapons-proliferation threat'' and proposed a tripling of spending in the area -- an idea lifted from the hawkish ''American Security Policy'' document -- with an equal amount to come from America's allies....."

"....''The line of attack is not Iraq, though there'll be some of that. The line of attack will be more, 'What have you done to make us feel safer?' I'm going to outflank him to the right on homeland security, on weapons of mass destruction and on the Saudis,'' whom [Howard] Dean promises to publicly flay as a major source of terrorism. ''Our model is to get around the president's right, as John Kennedy did to Nixon.''...

No doubt-the world changed on 9-11. Was the Bush administration "up to" facing and tackling the multi-faceted and sophisticated task of responding? After experiencing the lead-up to the Iraq war, the thumbing of the nose at the UN, and the aftermath of the initial combat phase, I would have to say they blew it (in a post 9-11 sense).


"...The underlying critique offered by Democratic policy experts is that the Bush administration, for all its bluster about how 9/11 ''changed everything,'' has in fact not adapted to the transformed world into which it has been catapulted and is still chasing after the bad guys of an earlier era. The administration understands war, but not the new kind of multifaceted, globalized war that must be fought against a stateless entity. As Ashton B. Carter, a Defense Department official in the Clinton administration, puts it, ''We've done one thing in one place'' -- or two, counting Afghanistan. What about the other things in the other places? What about diplomacy, for example? Do we have some means beyond threats of military action to induce Iran and Syria to stop sponsoring terrorists? Do we have some means of persuading the European allies to toughen judicial processes so that terrorism suspects can't walk away -- a United Nations treaty, for example?.."

...but...even with all these facts laid out...even with the knowlege we have the worst President in U.S. history, how could we fathom that the Democrat base could lose the Democrats the 2004 election? How could they blow it? How will they get their act together?

".....Clark understands the lessons of the post-cold-war world as no other candidate does. But the post-cold-war world has already been superseded, at least from the American point of view, by something quite different -- the post-9/11 world...

....The difference between the idea that international law, multilateral institutions and formal alliances enhance our power -- the Wilson-F.D.R.-Truman-Kennedy idea -- and the view that they needlessly constrain our power, is a very important difference indeed.....

..... With the very important exception of Iraq, the major candidates hold essentially the same views. Hawkishness or dovishness on Iraq thus does not correlate with some larger difference in worldview, as, for example, the left and right views on Vietnam once did...... O.K., then, it doesn't. And yet it sure feels as if it does. Iraq has, in fact, become the Democratic manhood test.


...The Democrats seem trapped between two irreconcilable impulses, or litmus tests. This is especially obvious, and painful, with figures like John Kerry, who has tried to have it both ways....You can imagine two very different solutions to the irreconcilable-litmus-test problem. If the capture of Saddam Hussein leads to a rapid improvement of conditions in Iraq, the Democratic litmus test could change, and the party could nominate a candidate who couldn't be stereotyped as soft. And if, alternatively, conditions in Iraq fully disintegrate, the general election litmus test could change, and Howard Dean could prove to have been prescient.....Strong and wrong beats weak and right -- that's the bugbear the Democrats have to contend with..."

Let's remember the quote from the beginning of this article:
"....liberal Democrats, conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans have more in common with one another than any of them have with the Bush administration.
Democrats: Capitalize on this fact!

Ralph Hall:
GOP-lite goes full-tilt GOP
An Obvious Move By the "Stop-Dean" Activists in the GOP
(Why are the GOP and DLC trying so hard to stop Dean?)

Tom DeLay hates Howard Dean with a passion...and we know it.
The GOP is attempting to do permanent damage to Howard Dean in the South.

"....House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said Democrats are "reaping what they've sown."
"Their leaders have lined up behind Howard Dean's brand of angry, intolerant politics. They've made their message clear: 'moderates need not apply' and that's a sad trend for a once-great party," DeLay said...."

Perhaps it's high time for politics to fall out into natural lines of ideology.
For example, what on earth is Zell Miller doing calling himself a Democrat...Southern or otherwise? He's a party traitor and belongs with the Republicans... and we know it.

At the same time, Olympia Snow and Lincoln Chafee (just two examples) are
Democrats at heart..and we all know it.

I think we'll be seeing more activity like Ralph Hall's and Jim Jeffords' over the next few years.

How can prejudice affect a Christian’s witness?

*Alternate Title #1: "William J Murray is a hypocrite, so sayeth Christ"
*Alternate Title #2: "Iddybud thinks William J Murray is a crazy ol' poopyhead"

I've asked you this question before.
Here's a new example. This person calls himself William J Murray. Beyond that, I know nothing about him..except he's a political Conservative leader cloaking himself with Christ to slander his fellow man. I see clearly that he's passing prejudgement on a soul he does not either know or possess. He sets the poorest example for true Christian witness.
*In my humble opinion, William J Murray might not know G-d if he stumbled over Him in his rush to prejudge his fellow man..all because of the prideful William J Murray's political agenda.*

Just listen to the words of Christ according to His nutty disciple William J Murray.

William J Murray says:

".."It says something about our nation that a great political party consisting of millions of Americans could possibly pick someone as mentally unstable as Howard Dean to lead their party and carry their banner into a national election..
Dissecting Dean's religious background, Murray notes that although his mother was Catholic, his father was Episcopalian and raised him in that faith.
However, when Dean met his wife, Judith Steinberg, she was Jewish. He did not want to convert to Judaism and she did not want to become a Christian. Murray said Dean and his wife contemplated becoming Unitarians as a "compromise."
"Compromise?" Murray questioned. "Unitarians do not believe in a living God."
He added, "Most Unitarians are either agnostics or atheists and they surely do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ."
As for Dean's children, Murray said, "it gets worse."
"The Deans told their children to pick a religion, any religion, and that they would not get involved in their decision one way or the other," Murray lamented.
The two children subsequently chose to become Jewish.
Dean himself parted ways with the Episcopal Church in the 1980's "over a dispute about the route of a public bike path through the church property," Murray wrote.
"Excuse me? Now, I would leave a church if they ordained female deacons or recruited a homosexual music minister...but a bike path?," exclaimed Murray.
Murray said Dean then joined the Congregationalist Church, but now "rarely, if ever, attends."
Citing the recent Boston Globe interview, Murray said Dean was careful not to mention Jesus Christ as being "the Son of God, as a part of the Trinity, or being in any way divine."
"Indeed, he talks of Christ in the past tense, as if He had died in the human sense," Murray contends. "Perhaps Howard Dean would have been better off in a Unitarian Church, but then he would have had trouble winning any elections as a member of a near atheistic institution."
Murray says this indecision about his faith is what makes Dean change his mind so often about what he believes on a daily basis. "One day [Dean] said he did not know if Usama bin Laden was guilty of 9-11 and that the man should get a fair trial," Murray wrote. "The next day he said Usama deserves the death penalty."
He continued, "[Dean] has stated that the United States should receive 'permission' from the United Nations before waging war and then said that the Iraqi people must determine their own fate."
Murray says this indecision about what Dean believes is evidence of someone who is "not of a single mind," alluding to possible schizophrenia, and that his run for president is both "pathetic and dangerous....[Murray said] "Further, I am sure that President George W. Bush would prefer to run on his merits and his faith against a more worthy opponent than Howard Dean."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Matthew 7:5

~~~~~~~~~~

To my fellow devout Christians (I beg the pardon and indulgence of secularists reading here):

Who is William Murray to judge your spirit and mine..or Howard Dean's?
How does this stranger to my soul [William Murray] purport to know about what lies in the very depths of it?
This is as shameful a display of prejudice as I have seen.
Who is William Murray to judge who is mentally healthy?
He sounds like he's off his rocker himself!

William Murray...I command thee to take thy false piety and thy holier-than-thou barrage and shove it all up your pompous assumptions!
False judgement borne of prideful worldly grandiloquence is against all you have been taught if you are a true follower of the Christ. Your personal relationship with Christ cannot abode piously or truthfully in the same temple with a reliance upon false witness.

While people like William Murray seem to believe they own Christ and consider all other theology (liberal or other) as
something less than Christian, I tell them that Christ's heart bleeds every time they prejudge in His loving name and steal Christ for their own political game-playing.

I'm wagering William J Murray would have been ashamed to look Howard Dean square in the eye and say these things to him. After reading his words I see that William J Murray, in worldly weakness, has allowed politics and so-called patriotism to allow him to compromise his Christian goodness and love for his fellow men.

This may sound sinful, but I can clearly see that William J Murray is a hateful weasel with a political agenda.

If William J Murray is Christian, he should know this judgement is rightfully coming his way.
G-d is watching us.
Judge not lest ye be judged, William J Murray, you crazy ol' poopyhead.

Your fellow Christians are watching you.
You aren't getting away with this, you know.
We see your ugliness for what it is.
Your actions have nothing to do with the spirit of love or freedom.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Election 2004: It's still wide open

Election 2004 Poll: It's still wide open

"..For the next year, presidential candidates will be working to win over roughly a fifth of the nation's voters who haven't made up their minds about which side to support...
In the most recent poll, the swing voters were more likely to be younger adults ages 18 and 39, those without college educations and political independents.....
Other closely divided groups that will be courted heavily during the campaign season are voters in the Midwest, suburban residents and Catholics, according to a Pew analysis done this fall.
Hispanics have tended to lean Democratic in past elections, but increasingly are considered swing voters."

"As long as the president has a stature gap on fighting terrorism," [pollster Andrew] Kohut said, "he has a trump card."

2003 Top Ten Lists

The Greatest Compilation of 2003 Top Ten Lists

Best/Worst Corporateering Of 2003

Counter-Corporateering Blog:
The Worst Corporateers and Best Counter-Corporateering Of 2003

The notion that the free market is more important than the free society was pushed to new heights during 2003...

Navy Times Sailor of 2003

Army Times: Navy Times Sailor of 2003

More False Witnesses

How can prejudice affect a Christian’s witness?

*Alternate Title #1: "Lewis Golberg is a hypocrite, so sayeth Christ"
*Alternate Title #2: "Iddybud thinks Lewis Goldberg is a big ol' poopyhead"

I've asked you this question before.
Here's a new example. This person calls himself Lewis Goldberg. Beyond that, I know nothing about him..except that I think he's passing prejudgement on a soul he does not either know or possess. He sets the poorest example for true Christian witness.
*In my humble opinion, Lewis Goldberg might not know G-d if he stumbled over Him in his rush to prejudge his fellow man*

Just listen to the words of Christ according to His disciple Lewis Goldberg.

Lewis Golberg says:
"Mr. Dean, what kind of believer in Christ picks a wife that has no hope of salvation? Since you believe so strongly in your religion, what compelled you to share your life with someone who has not the new birth within her?
...what kind of Christian consigns his offspring to life on this earth outside the fellowship of believers, and an afterlife in the pits of Hell?..Mr. Dean, if you pretend to be a Christian, people will forget that you legalized abomination..Mr. Dean, Christ came to us to save sinners from damnation, which is pretty inspiring, but we doubt you ever thought about it....

*WHAT THE HELL IS GOLDBERG TALKING ABOUT IN THIS NEXT SENTENCE?*

"...Keeping more with (????)the Northeast tradition of not believing in G-d(????),
Dean is instead using religion as bait, hoping to snare voters desperately seeking a candidate that shares their values... we need no further proof than what is offered in the article, written by Globe Staff columnist Sarah Schweitzer, that Dean is no Christian. He is but a pretender to Christ's tender mercies, for a faith that is not manifest in the way one lives and works is no faith at all, but just another armband donned to show everyone how great someone is....
~~~~~~~~~~

"Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Matthew 7:5

~~~~~~~~~~

To my fellow devout Christians (I beg the pardon and indulgence of secularists reading here):

Who is Lewis Goldberg to judge your spirit and mine..or Howard Dean's?
How does this stranger to my soul [Lewis Goldberg] purport to know about what lies in the very depths of it?
This is as shameful a display of prejudice as I have seen.

Lewis Goldberg...I command thee to take thy false piety and thy holier-than-thou barrage and shove it all up your pompous assumptions!
False judgement borne of prideful worldly grandiloquence is against all you have been taught if you are a true follower of the Christ. Your personal relationship with Christ cannot abode piously or truthfully in the same temple with a reliance upon false witness.

While people like Lewis Goldberg seem to believe they own Christ and consider all other theology (liberal or other) as
something less than Christian, I tell them that Christ's heart bleeds every time they prejudge in His loving name and steal Christ for their own political game-playing.

I'm wagering Lewis Goldberg would have been ashamed to look Howard Dean square in the eye and say these things to him. After reading his words I see that Lewis Goldberg, in worldly weakness, has allowed politics and so-called patriotism to allow him to compromise his Christian goodness and love for his fellow man.

This may sound sinful, but I think Lewis Goldberg is a hateful weasel with a political agenda.

If Lewis Goldberg is Christian, he should know this judgement is rightfully coming his way.
G-d is watching us.
Judge not lest ye be judged, Lewis Goldberg, you big ol' poopyhead.
~~~~~~~~~~~

"Our lord loves the country, he's with you at the polls
He knows the lever that you pull
He's keeping track of souls

The way it used to be
The way it ought to be
The way it's going to be again
And when we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry then.."

-Jill Sobule

What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth

Willie Nelson writes song titled "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth" on Christmas Day..
...plans to perform song at Kucinich rally....
..rightwing journalist at World Net Daily indirectly connects Willie Nelson with terror groups to punish him for the heartfelt song.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't care if people say, 'Who the hell does he think he is?' I know who I am."

-Willie Nelson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LYRICS:

What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth

There's so many things going on in the world
Babies dying
Mothers crying
How much oil is one human life worth
And what ever happened to peace on earth


We believe everything that they tell us
They're gonna' kill us
So we gotta' kill them first
But I remember a commandment
Thou shall not kill
How much is that soldier's life worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth


(Bridge)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we've been told from our birth
Hell they won't lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth


So I guess it's just
Do unto others before they do it to you
Let's just kill em' all and let God sort em' out
Is this what God wants us to do


(Repeat Bridge)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we've been told from our birth
Hell they won't lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth


Now you probably won't hear this on your radio
Probably not on your local TV
But if there's a time, and if you're ever so inclined
You can always hear it from me
How much is one picker's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth


But don't confuse caring for weakness
You can't put that label on me
The truth is my weapon of mass protection
And I believe truth sets you free


(Bridge)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we've been told from our birth
Hell they won't lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Time We Thought We Knew
January 1, 2004 / N.Y. Times
By Brian Greene
"...my presence in Times Square that rainy morning - losing sleep to mark an arbitrary moment in the passage of what I
truly believe to be a derivative concept - attests to the power of convention and experience. Regardless of our
scientific insights, we will still mourn the evanescence of life and be able to thrill to the arrival of each newly
delivered moment. The choice, however, of whether to be fully seduced by the face nature reveals directly to our
senses, or to also recognize the reality that exists beyond perception, is ours."

~~~

USA Today: Freewheeling Bloggers Are Rewriting Rules of Journalism

"....There are liberals, conservatives, libertarians and near-anarchists. The one thing they all agree on: blogging. Bloggers discuss the new medium with proselytizing fervor. They know each others' Web handles (AngryLiberal, Atrios, Instapundit). They use links, which enable Internet users to jump from one Web page to another, to publicize each other's work. Bloggers feel so strongly about blogging, they even promote bloggers they don't agree with..."

**Which reminds me, I am linking Sgt Stryker's 'Team Stryker' blog this week. ;)**

Unresolved New Year Resolutions

Unresolved New Year resolutions
Abhishek Singhvi/Hindustan Times/December 31, 2003
Excerpts:

"---On New Year’s Day, my personal resolutions remain the same and as unachieved as a decade ago...By any yardstick, I am a dismal failure, since I have achieved none of these...Let me see if I can do better by itemising some New Year resolutions for others....At the most important level of the nation, let us collectively adapt Gandhiji’s simple test before evaluating any act or omission: does it improve the lot of this nation or does it diminish it?.....Every year in the last week of December, I try to dedicate myself to the laudable activity of ‘doing nothing’.....
.....Robert Louis Stevenson..wrote a forceful apology for idlers:
“Idleness... has as good a right to state its position as industry itself... Many make a large fortune who remain underbred and pathetically stupid to the last... Extreme busyness, anywhere, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity... As if a man’s soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play...”

Iraq Quake

Good News Can Come From Bad-
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting: Global sense of solidarity with quake victims has 'injected spirituality' into the world
Note: The translation here is certainly not perfect, but the universal message is clear.

"--The touching situation of the quake victims and the tears shed over the loss of the beloved ones by the grief-stricken survivors deeply impresses anyone, whether present in the scene or anywhere else watching footage on the disaster.
--The catastrophe almost left the entire world in deep grief, touched the hearts of human beings around the world and materialized the most touching poem of the renowned Iranian poet Saadi quite applicable to the current situation as if versed particularly to this same occasion.
According to the poem composed by Sheikh Mosleh al-Din Saadi Shirazi, the 13th century Iranian poet,
`The sons of Adam are the limbs of one another, having been created of one essence.'
When the calamity of time afflicts one limb, the other limbs cannot remain at rest.'

"Of one Essence is the human race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base;
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace."

Saadi poem

Top News 2003

Scripps News Service: Top News Stories of 2003

TOP 10 NATIONAL STORIES


1. The United States attacks Iraq with shock and awe weapons, easily overpowering Saddam Hussein's troops.

2. The space shuttle Columbia crashes as it returns to Earth, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

3. A huge blackout spreads across the Northeast and some Midwest states, leaving 50 million people in the dark.

4. California recalls its Democratic governor and elects Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

5. Hurricane Isabel knocks out power to 6.5 million households and causes damage in excess of $2 billion. The hurricane is blamed for more than 30 deaths.

6. Gay rights come front and center: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down laws in 16 states that criminalized sodomy. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court gives gays and lesbians the right to marry and the Episcopal Church ordains its first openly gay bishop.

7. A jury recommends the death penalty for convicted sniper John Muhammad while his teenage companion Lee Malvo stands trial with an insanity defense.

8. Wildfires in California set a record, burning 989,000 acres and surpassing the last record set in 1987 when 780,000 acres burned.

9. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in college admissions.

10. The U.S. Catholic Church agrees to pay millions of dollars to victims of sexual abuse and ousts a number of high-ranking individuals.

TOP 10 INTERNATIONAL STORIES


1. Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein is quickly knocked out of power and captured eight months later. Hundreds of soldiers are killed by guerrilla attacks following the major battles.

2. Al Qaeda-linked terrorist bombings strike in Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

3. The White House's "road map to peace" in the Middle East collapses as violence escalates.

4. An outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spreads from China to more than 30 countries, infecting 8,000 people and killing more than 800.

5. A heat wave in Europe kills an estimated 35,000 people.

6. North Korea and Iran are found to be far ahead on making nuclear weapons.

7. China launches a manned spacecraft into Earth orbit in October, becoming the third country to put humans in space.

8. Strongman Charles Taylor is forced out of Liberia after 25 years of bloodshed.

9. Canada confirms a case of Mad Cow disease in a slaughtered animal, triggering a quarantine of Canadian beef and soaring beef prices at U.S. supermarkets.

10. Russian President Vladimir Putin jails a top oil executive and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze is driven from office by popular demand.

Conservative News 2003

From the Conservative Corner:

Townhall.com readers pick their top stories of 2003

Media Research Center: Best Notable Quotables of 2003

;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moving out of the righthand corner of the room.....

Their Media War and Ours in 2004
A Call to Educate, Organize and Mobilize

2003 -- The Year We Almost Lost Honest News
A Look Back and Ahead at the Year in Media

Howard Dean in South Carolina

Howard Dean to Georgetown, S.C.:
"We want jobs in America. If you want jobs in America, you don’t run a $500 billion deficit. You can’t trust the Republicans any more.”
Here's a shame: National [USWA] union leaders told the local chapter it could not let Dean come to its hall since the union has endorsed Democratic presidential rival Dick Gephardt.
Although the national Steelworkers Union has endorsed Dick Gephardt for the Democratic nomination, local union leaders endorsed Dean.

And this is an example of how false media punditry effects real-time electoral processes:

“[Dean's] already been labeled as too liberal,” said Solomon, former director of the state’s Department of Social Services [Gerogetown, S.C.]. “He’s not going to be able to shake that.”

We need to start fighting falsehoods in the media before they have chance to snowball into these iceheaps of ugly fantasy-turned-real.

Richard Perle Wants More War

Richard Perle is longing to see more endangered troops, more insecure foreign places, fewer American allies, and far more broken American-family hearts....
His poorly-planned security-disaster in Iraq just isn't enough to sate his gnarly appetite for more of the same. I can't help but think Perle is somehow relieved there will be 50,000 fewer citizens in the city of Bam
to have to worry about when we move in on Iran.

"You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch Perle.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch Perle.

Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots..."

James Zogby Trashed by World Net Daily

World Net Daily Trashes Pollster James Zogby for Giving Straight Facts to Foreigners
They claim the Saudi population never gets the truth from their own media....so, based upon this curiously odd reasoning, why would they deserve the truth from James Zogby?

Jimmy Breslin-Our Fallen Troops

Our Fallen Troops-
Jimmy Breslin: Their Photos Tell the Story

Excerpts:

"....The Army Times, a civilian newspaper that is sold mainly on military bases and thus reaches the prime wartime audience, uses eight pages of its year-end review, out now, to run photos of all those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, except 35.....There were 506 killed by the time the newspaper closed last Friday. Since then, another seven have died. The newspaper has said this is the deadliest year for the U.S. military since 1972, when 640 were killed in Vietnam....The chilling photos run at a time when the government tries to describe the war as a civic venture, and nearly all of the news industry doesn't know how to object. This probably is the worst failure to inform the public that we have seen. The Pekingese of the Press run clip-clop along the hall to the next government press conference...."

~~~~~~~

ATRIOS blog has more information about the Cher phonecall mentioned in the article.

~~~~~~~

Please see my own Honor Roll website.
Although incomplete at present, I am working so you may see the faces and stories of each man and woman who have given their lives in Iraq.

Howard Zinn: Logic of Withdrawl

Howard Zinn: The Logic Of Withdrawl
This is in the January 2004 issue of The Progressive. Howard Zinn has written his own speech intended for the hoped-for use of whichever candidate emerges as Democratic Party nominee for President.

David Brooks-On Oakeshott

David Brooks has been "communing with big thinkers".
Brooks has written a rather engaging piece about English philosopher Michael Oakeshott, who was the subject of Andrew Sullivan's dissertation. I especially enjoyed Brooks' reference to the Chuang-tzu tale. It's a wonderful lesson to learn. Oakeshott thought Hobbes' 'Leviathan' was "the greatest, perhaps the sole masterpiece of political philosophy written in the English language". After writing several books and spending five years in the British Army, Oakeshott got wide public recognition upon his return to Cambridge to edit the Cambridge Journal. A former student of Oakeshott commented upon the unforgettable experience of his lectures on the majesty of St. Augustine's "City of God".

What I find enchanting about Oakeshott is that he would have embraced bold, highly creative individualists such as the writer Francois Rabelais.
In Rabelais, I often see much of myself. I see it in the knowlege (or should I say the hope) that language possesses us just as we attempt to harness the same language and use it to turn the tables on the follies of being human. We strive to make our personal sanity known to all others swirling in the same chaotic carnival of the kaleidoscope of time in which we are destined to live together. Through the language that permeated the unique novels of "Gargantua and Pantagruel", Rabelais magically exposed the circus of the life around him in the 16th century. If anything could overthrow orthodoxy, it is surely the arresting language of the satirically colorful individualist.

Oakeshott was bohemian, intuitive and boldly individual himself. His philsophical legacy could not be pinned down like a butterfly on display. He presented and represented a wonderful view of freedom. He understood that politics is about reflective judgement. Personally, I think he would have been raking Tony Blair over the hottest coals with sharpest wit for chiming in with G.W. Bush and making this pre-emptive strike on Iraq. Where was Tony Blair's bold individual courage or color when needed most? It slipped inside Bush's pocket, where it remains shielded from the light to this day.
I believe Oakeshott would have a joyous time playfully attacking the Bush administration's NeoCons for all their social planning to force and cram the Middle East into their Utopian mold of capitalistic democracy. Paul Wolfowitz and Bill Kristol would have been the whipping boys of Oakeshott's knowing admonitions about the dangers of abstract rationalism.

The fullness of one's writings are surely revealed over time.
What I enjoy about blogging is that we can all converse about great men such as Oakeshott without him being here in our presence...and speculate on what he might have said or believed..and none of us can say we've won or lost the debate on the very speculation. Yet we find a common topic..common ground between people who often do not see today's carnival eye-to-eye.

As Oakeshott himself had said:

"In conversation ... thoughts of different species take wing and play round one another, responding to each other's movements and provoking one another to fresh exertions. Nobody asks where they have come from or on what authority they are present; nobody cares what will become of them when they have played their part. There is no symposiarch or arbiter, not even a doorkeeper to examine credentials. Every entrant is taken at its face-value and everything is permitted which can get itself accepted into the flow of speculation. And voices which speak in conversation do not compose a hierarchy..."

VP Clinton?

President Dean

Vice President Clinton?


Secretary of Defense Wesley Clark?


Hey! What about Al?



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terry McAuliffe Virtually Says 'Sorry, Howard...
Can't help--Won't Help. Politics is Dog-Eat-Dog.'
Is it 'Tough Love'? --or 'Making a Wreck of the Democratic base'?
You decide.
This decision will make or break DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

Here's my opinion. (You knew you couldn't escape it! ;)
Let's face it...a huge chunk of the old Democratic base began to break away when lily-livered Democrats refused to effectively stand up to Bush and caved in easily to the October, 2002 Iraq Resolution.
And now, we see the lily-livers making brutal attacks upon a strong front-runner who exposed them for what they were every step of the way.
This front-runner has succeeded in motivating the base once again.
What the hell is McAuliffe thinking? I really would like to know.
Terry McAuliffe should think about how this inner-party brutality is sabotaging the already-weakened base.
It may look cute and politically-acceptable in the polifantastic (that's my own word;) world of Washington, D.C., but out here it looks like losers' misery.
Terry McAuliffe needs to act swiftly in the best interests of the party..or risk removal for his negligence.

Hey-look at me..I'm the real angry guy! Howie's a melter!
-->

Lord of the Rings

This Is Not That Day- - Lord of the Rings Trilogy

I thought this was an interesting analysis of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy in light of some saying that Peter Jackson and Hollywood were making a pro-Bushite film.

False Witness

How can prejudice affect a Christian’s witness?
Here's a fine example. This person calls himself 'pastor', yet sets a poor example for true Christian witness.

~~~~~~~~~~



"...a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
John 4:23-24



"Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Matthew 7:1-5
~~~~~~~~~~

Is Howard Dean's Sudden Religiousity Sincere or Politically Motivated?
by J. Grant Swank, Jr., Pastor
"Howard Dean may garner the votes of the Unitarian-Universalists and the Jesse Jacksons of the world, but he will never get the votes of sincere Catholics, Evanglicals, and other Christian denominations that actually adhere to the Bible."

To my fellow devout Christians (I beg the pardon and indulgence of secularists reading here):

Who is this man to judge your spirit and mine..or Howard Dean's?
How does this stranger to my soul purport to know about what lies in the very depths of it?
This is as shameful a display of prejudice as I have seen.

Take your false piety and allegiance to Fox News and shove it up your pompous assumptions!
False judgement borne of prideful worldly grandiloquence is against all you have been taught if you are a true follower of the Christ. Your personal relationship with Christ cannot abode piously or truthfully in the same temple with a reliance upon false witness.

While people like this pastor seem to believe they own Christ and consider all other theology (liberal or other) as
something less than Christian, I tell them that Christ's heart bleeds every time they create factions in His loving name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A recent Bible passage from the Right Christians blog

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While we're on the subject of theology, I saw an interesting piece in the on-line version of the most recent issue of IN THESE TIMES
It deals with Marxism, Christianity, and a new book by Slovenian philosopher [and 'godless theologian'] Slajov Zizek.

"...Zizek’s post-secular theology. Zizek’s Christianity is a Cross without a Resurrection, and I would maintain, as a Christian and a socialist, that this neglect both obscures his theological vision and undermines his political hope. (Here, I ask readers—a mostly secular audience, I’m sure—for their indulgence.) Because he still sees the atonement as a cosmic yet incomplete debt cancellation, Zizek doesn’t fully appreciate [St.] Paul’s point: that we rise as well as die with Christ—that is, all debts are erased in what Zizek calls this “New Beginning.” Moreover, for Christians, the “infinite joy” at which Zizek marvels rests on a belief from which he recoils. Christians’ collective experience of joy in the world is inaugurated by faith in a triumph over death, a victory won by God’s power—a power we share but which we are not. Zizek’s Pauline theology collapses because, to put it squarely, it does not assert the exterior reality of God, on which Christian joy and political commitment must inevitably rest. However empowering Zizek’s formulation seems, it rests on an interiorized—and, Christians must maintain, ultimately empty—space through which we end up pursuing our own shadows."

Home

Kitty Corabelle under my Christmas tree
photo by Iddybud

Bob Kerry

Monday Ramblings Which Begin with Bob Kerry

Ex-Senator Bob Kerry on Howard Dean:
"He’s got a big neck; he looks like a wrestler."

Ex-Senator Bob Kerry on Terry McAuliffe:

"I think they [DNC] need a new chairman. I like Terry McAuliffe; he’s a friend.… [but} I think they need a new face at the Democratic Party."

Ex-Senator Bob Kerry on Bush:

"[Bush has] got great political and personal skills; people like him; women like him.."

LINK

Ex-Senator Bob Kerry on Bill Clinton:

"Clinton is an unusually good liar. Unusually good. Do you realize that?"
Esquire/January 1996

"It was not an angry comment. It was actually intended as an off-handed compliment."
Omaha World-Herald (2/5/96) [Senator Kerry commenting on the previous quote]


A Book Review on Bob Woodward's Accounting of A Conversation between Bill Cinton and Bob Kerry:

"What is also amazing about this book, is that Woodward gives you a fly-on-the-wall view of the battle to pass this
budget through both the House and the Senate. It also gives you the word for word account of a bitter phone conversation between Clinton and Nebraska Democratic Senator Bob Kerry, in which Clinton tells Kerry to go f--- himself, when Kerry refuses to vote for his budget, which turned out to be the crucial vote.
As it would turn out, Kerry would vote for it, making it a tie. Gore then gave the over the top vote and the budget was
passed..."

An opinion about Bob Kerry and the 2000 Dem VP slot vs. Sen. Joe Lieberman:

"Senator Lieberman will likely help Gore with moderates (the political middle), but may hurt him with the left. The Gore Campaign probably believes that its support within that constituency is solid, but if Green Party candidate Ralph Nader runs a strong campaign, then the selection of Lieberman could backfire.
Nevertheless, a more socially progressive Vice-Presidential candidate, such as Senator Bob Kerry of Massachusetts, could have weakened Gore's chances with swing voters. Thus, Lieberman remained the safest choice - regardless of the fact that he is an Orthodox Jew."

From the same article, thoughts on why Gore chose Lieberman as running mate in 2000:

"Perhaps it is the inevitable consequence of the Bill Clinton's tumultuous time in office that Al Gore felt compelled to select a candidate based largely upon his moral character. Senator Lieberman may lack personal dynamism, but he is unlikely to offend the sensibilities of the American public."

So...do we want a President who looks like a wrestler?
Do we want a President with no personal dynamism, but is unlikely to offend the sensibilities of the American public?
Do we want a President who'll be an unusually good liar?
Or do we want a President who has got great political and personal skills; people like him; women like him..?

People of America, I submit to you that Bob Kerry would rather see George Bush re-elected than to see
Howard Dean elected. The airing of his public doubts will help Bush in 2004.

WOW!
You GO, Bob!

DLC/Howard Dean Squabble

New Democrats: It's time to be optimistic about 2004...time to stop begrudging and lamenting


At the New Republic, writer Jacob T. Levy is disappointed that Joe Lieberman isn't translating well as a viable Presidential candidate these days. He claims that Howard Dean is "distancing himself" from Bill Clinton. In my opinion, the distance has already naturally occurred in the past 3 years
of daily, systematic Clinton-dismantling activities by the Bush Administration. Howard Dean is not Bill Clinton. He is Howard Dean. He respects much of what Clinton did, as we all do. Yet we must remember we are no longer standing on the precipice of a new millenium with the hope that Clinton was afforded. In the late 90s, we could imagine taking flight from that precipice.



We cannot forget Clinton's fall.
It hurt us all so very much.
It was a immense help in the bringing forth of George W. Bush.


Mr. Levy writes:

"....New Democratic moment was a fragile one, and its highlights more than a bit accidental. Welfare reform, NAFTA, and the WTO were all essentially products of the interaction between Clinton, a small minority of moderate Democrats, and a majority (but not an overwhelming majority) of congressional Republicans. The budget surplus was the result of a bitter standoff between Clinton and Newt Gingrich's GOP over fiscal policy; for a brief moment, both sides decided they would rather let accumulating revenues just sit there than let the other side use them.

But the good news is that, accidental or not, some of the most important New Democratic policy triumphs of the '90s are more or less locked into place. And that may contribute to changing the political climate a few years down the road..."

While this may be true, you just cannot change the fact that too much water has run under the bridge.

Clinton was able to snuggle the center during his terms as President. In 1998, the lies about Lewinsky and the ensuing GOP witch-hunt blew the swing-voters, who had been caressed in the GOP-lite center so long by Clinton, back to the old-values right. Gore was damaged goods to swing-voters by 2000, thanks to a tarnished White House and the abandonment of Gore even by the fickle mainstream press (Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich were two of the worst). While many would love to have blamed Gore, we people outside Washington aren't that stupid. We see things for exactly what they have been.
Low, petty journalism and a kick to the stomach of the body of swing-voters by Clinton's ethical fall caused the election to come down to the Supreme Court being able to step in and overtake Florida's right to govern their own electoral process. It will always be one of the lowest points (if not THE lowest point) in the history of true freedom and democracy in America.

The Gingriches and Norquists make it crystal-clear that they want to crush and kill our education system, our unions, our social programs. They do not wish to diminish them....they wish to crush the life out of them.

No, this coming election in 2004 is NOT a time for a DLC/New Democrat centrist.
Not after three years of Bush's destruction and tearing down all the good Clinton tried to do.

It is time to be optimistic about Howard Dean.
The nay-sayers are only sabotaging their own party, which consists of far more than just the "New Democrats".

"....Tendencies are not destiny, to be sure. But, thanks to decisions made in the '90s, the tendencies are good ones. The New Democratic agenda may currently be crushed between union-backed, left-wing Democrats like Gephardt and Dean, and a pro-business but anti-market Republican administration. But perhaps this election will be something of a last gasp for those interest groups on both sides. The foul season may pass..."

I think Levy is being pie-in-the-sky to think the "foul season", as he sees it, will pass anytime soon.
This is war, my fine sir. The GOP started it when Bill Clinton got into office, regardless of how he tried to please
the center. And now we stand looking at a government gone far right and twisting every policy Clinton ever held as dear.

It's time for the toughest, most honest optimism we can summon.
The press will never be on our side while old-school DNC continues to begrudge and lament.

Stand tall...we need to see where it is our party must go to survive.
Let's join together and show one another what it means to be American. Let's use our power to take America back from those who wish to crush every good Clinton ever did for the People.

To "New Democrats":
No tears.
No hoping for something that no longer exists, save in your fond memories of a time that was and is no more.
The People are on the move.
Move with them...or die as the GOP would like you to do.
We can still be a party who can win with a war of ideas.
But the 2004 election will be.. must be war....and certainly not a war with one another.
We have so much to lose.
We can progress only if we progress together.

Dean's Right..Nominate Him or we stay home.

Dean's right....

"Howard Dean said Sunday that the hundreds of thousands of people drawn to politics by his campaign may stay home if he doesn't win the Democratic presidential nomination, dooming the Democratic Party in the fall campaign against President Bush..."

And the Democratic party would deserve it.
This bitterness has gone too far now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And honestly, if THIS happens [Some see Graham as aiming to be Dean's running mate], Dean isn't going to win the 2004 Election.



It's going to have to be Wesley Clark, the most-tasty doughnut-hole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David Brooks: A party unable to deal with rebellion deserves what it gets

Howard Dean Makes Fools of Press

HOWARD DEAN BECOMING EXPERT AT PROVING JOURNALISTS CANNOT PROPERLY INTERPRET
PUBLIC STATEMENTS--MEDIA OFTEN FORGETTING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AMERICAN

***IDDY'S RECOGNITION OF BREACH OF GOOD CHARACTER CODE--
TRAIT: Honesty***

QUESTION FROM NEWSPAPER:
"..wouldn't most Americans feel strongly that bin Laden should be tried in America – and put to death?"

DEAN'S REPLY:
"...I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found," Dean said. "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials. So I'm sure that is the correct sentiment of most Americans, but I do think if you're running for president, or if you are president, it's best to say that the full range of penalties should be available. But it's not so great to prejudge the judicial system."

WORLD NET DAILY HEADLINE:
" Dean not sure Osama's guilty
Says he has 'old-fashioned' notion about 'jury trials' "

Anyone with half a brain and a professional and fair sense of journalism would fully understand that it is very American to
believe in American justice, even with its flaws. Our Founding Fathers did not intend American justice to mean going out and hacking to pieces or summarily executing someone we suspect of even the worst of crimes.
It is only the bravest American who would maintain that the American justice presumption of "innocent until proven guilty" would apply even to the very worst of defendants. I can understand how an Americans' trust in the American justice system would be destroyed after the O.J. Simpson trial and especially after (S)election 2000.
Hearing a completely civil and American justice-reliant Howard Dean speak of his confidence in American justice is a bold step indeed. We Americans have become quite divided in our feelings and our doubts about the American justice system. The Patriot Act has raised visions of secret trials on American soil and has sent a non-American message to America and the rest of the world. That's a damned pity. The judicial system in the United States has its flaws, but it is by far the most fair and balanced system of justice in the world. The very fact that a defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty and is judged by a jury of peers has made the U.S. justice system of the U.S. more advanced than most of the rest of this world. The Bush administration has direspected and disregarded the system of U.S. justice at nearly every opportunity...and it is the very instrument by which he came to power! There can be no justice unless everyone is treated the same by the system of justice.

Dean's reminder that American justice...a system which has long recognized the fundamental rights of all humanity a la the Founding Fathers... puts him in the picture frame of an American uniter. He creates in us a rekindled hope for a healing of all the damage done to American justice. The People decide upon justice...not the Executive.

Has the ignorant media forgotten that "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal"?
It didn't say all Americans..it said "all men".

WE--The People-- own America.

If WE choose to put Osama Bin Laden to death, it shall be done.

Let's catch the bastard first, shall we?

The media has lost its collective mind.

World Net Daily gets a big fat zero on intellectual honesty this time.
I wrote them a letter to tell them so.

Mona Charen is Ugly

Mona Charen Shows Her Ugly Soul--
Complains that the American soldier was not deserving of Time Magazine honor...
Shows total lack of human empathy for the Dean family loss of a beloved son

***IDDY' S RECOGNITION OF BREACH OF GOOD CHARACTER CODE--
TRAIT: Thankfulness, Respect, Empathy***

Charen says:

"....Time magazine has chosen the American soldier as its Person of the Year. Ha! .."

**This is a most ungrateful wretch of a woman**

"...Last August, the Quad-City Times of Davenport, Iowa, circulated a questionnaire to the Democratic candidates for president. The newspaper asked the candidates to complete the following sentence: "My closest living relative in the armed services is - ." Dean wrote: "My brother is a POW/MIA in Laos, but is almost certainly dead." In point of fact, Dean's brother Charles, whose remains have recently been returned from Laos, was not in the armed services. He was a tourist, visiting Laos as part of a one-year world tour. The Quad-City Times editorially expressed dismay at Dean's mendacity. Instead of apologizing for misleading readers, Dean dashed off an indignant letter to the editor....
Dean is more than a liberal, he is a liar and a narcissist."

**This is an antipathetic wretch of a human being**

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I love revealing ugliness for exactly what it is..and there it is, people.

The same type who have classified any reasoned criticism of Dubya Bush as "hate-speech".
The bloody hypocrites.

Charen will drop any sense of decency to rally around a leader that half of America itself does not trust.
She'd rather see honor given to the proven war-evader from the Viet Nam era who sent so many of our brave loyal men and women into battle in a smotheringly hot and dangerous desert for shady and dubious reasons.
Time Magazine would lose at least 50% of their subscriptions if they gave false honor to this untrustworthy leader whose bravery took him as far as sneaking into the Iraqi desert in the dead of night, donning an Army workout jacket, and holding a decorative turkey for a quick in/out photo op.

Mona Charen should listen to ANDREW GREELEY

"....The administration legitimized the invasion of Iraq as part of the ''war on terrorism'' and deceived the American people into believing that Saddam was involved in the Sept. 11 attack and that he had ''weapons of mass destruction.'' No one, except possibly Vice President Dick Cheney and the Wall Street Journal, believed that Saddam was involved in the attack on the World Trade Center. The weapons of mass destruction have disappeared. The president asks a TV interviewer what difference the mass destruction question makes, now that we have eliminated Saddam from power.
Note how slippery the administration line has been. The purpose of the war now is to get rid of an evil man who had done horrible things to his own people, even if he wasn't a real threat to us. Would those Americans who are willing to settle for that rationale have bought it at the beginning of the war? Such is the slipperiness of the administration's dishonesty that it can get away with a change in motives for the war...."

"....brave and good American men and women continue to die in Iraq, as do good Iraqi men and women. The military tells us that the Army will have to remain for two more years. The war was not only unnecessary, it was unjust by any and all of the traditional canons of an unjust war."

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See my comments about the Quad-Cities Times Editorial

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Here is another piece of hateful, partisan, pessimistic, foul-smelling spew which found it's way to this internet site which gives itself a deceiving name. This is surely no news site.
It's more like Pessimism Central.

Love Sees No Color

"Love Sees no Color"--
About Fred Nassiri



".....The theme of the video and what Nassiri claims is the whole motivation behind the music in general, is a message of a humane charity and peace-on-Earth. The music is what Nassiri refers to as "New Generational," a genre he coined. "It's a new type of music and I want to introduce it to the world," says Nassiri.
Abdullah asserts that "every dime" of the proceeds from the CD and DVD sales will go toward Children and Armed Conflict, the United Nations organization that rescues third world children forced to join military forces..."

Nassiri Video site here

Lyrics to the Song:

Love Sees No Color

Love sees no color, no race, no religion
We are the same as the rays from the sun
Love sees no color, no race, no religion
Only through love can we live as one.

When I look into your eyes I see hope, and future
Realizing what we have inside.
Hearts of love, hearts of light, hearts of new beginnings
Eager to find the answers we are seeking

Why does it take one man to end it all?
Oh, why can't we see!
Why does it take much more to stop the fall?
When it only takes love to be free.

Love sees no color, no race, no religion
We are the same as the rays from the sun
Love sees no color, no race, no religion
Only through love can we live as one.



Let’s light a candle for the joining of our union
One for the fate of all mankind
One for love, one for thanks, all that we are given
Celebrating life and love we are finding.

Why does it take one man to end it all?
Oh, why can't we see!
Why does it take much more to stop the fall?
When on only takes love to be free.

Love sees no color, no race, no religion
We are the same as the rays from the sun
Love sees no color, no race, no religion
Only through love can we live as one.

Love sees no color, no race, no religion
We are the same as the rays from the sun
Love sees no color, no race, no religion
Only through love can we live as one.

Iran Quake

Dear God: At least 10,000 Souls Lost..
Iranian Quake Deaths Could Reach 40,000


This was all that was left of the remains of the old city. Located on a 6 sq. km site and built in the 11th century, the Citadel of Bam’s unique mud-brick structure was the largest clay structure in the world. It seems it was destroyed in the quake.

See Guardian articles:

Bam: Jewel of Iranian heritage

and

In minutes, Bam's 2,000 years of history and its hopes for the future were left in ruins

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Jihad in Tappahannock!?

Tappahannock, VA is a lovely town with one of the best river-views and one of the best little-known used book-stores around.
But...Tappahannock?!? Rappahanock? Who'd know?!?


Rappahannock River -photo by Iddybud

"....According to this morning's news, the little town of Tappahannock, with a population somewhere under 2000 souls, may have been identified through intelligence intercepts as a possible terrorist target. Tappahannock is some 90 minutes down Route 17 from me, and it reportedly has a single policeman on duty at any given time. So my question is a simple one: Tappahannock? .."

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A 14-year-old boy reveals more tongue-in-cheek wisdom than the pundits who cover up the truth for Misleader Bush on a daily basis.

The twisting Bush can't fool children, who see life in the simplest, least hypocritical ways.

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Mad Kane's Latest Parody: Bushtown Races :)

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YOU MUST SEE THIS CHRISTMAS CARTOON!

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MORE FUN: Take the King William's College quiz

Pupils at King William's College on the Isle of Man have suffered this fiendish general knowledge quiz for 99 years. The average score is just two. Answers will be forthcoming in the new year .

_ _ _ _ _ _

Guardian: 2003: End of year news quiz

It was the year of the Iraq war, royal embarrassments and rugby. What can you remember from 2003?

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Robert D. Blackwill is the new "grand pooh-bah" of U.S. foreign policy.

..The job was designed to provide cohesion and long-range planning for a White House foreign policy team under stress from breaking wars and ongoing crises. Blackwill has quickly become the alter ego to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
...Although a colorful and highly public figure in the past, Blackwill is now among the least accessible officials. In his heart, he tells colleagues, he's a 19th-century man who believes in the necessity of secrecy.

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Remember Joseph Wilson? Leak of CIA agent Probe Gathering Momentum

..the CIA believes that people in the administration continue to release classified information to damage the figures at the center of the controversy, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his wife, Valerie Plame, who was exposed as a CIA officer by unidentified senior administration officials for a July 14 column by Robert D. Novak.

..a grand jury may be called to take testimony from administration officials

.."The only fear I've heard expressed is that the investigation will be too slow or too fast and will kick into a visible mode in a way that is poorly timed for the election," the Republican said. "If they prosecuted someone tomorrow, I don't think the White House would care. And they can do it in December 2004. They just don't want it to become an issue in the election."

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Paul Krugman takes on the media and tells them to GET REAL:

"Don't fall for political histrionics. I couldn't believe how much ink was spilled after the Gore-Dean event over Joe Lieberman's hurt feelings. Folks, we're talking about war, peace and the future of U.S. democracy — not about who takes whom to the prom.
Political operatives have become experts at manufacturing the appearance of outrage. In the last few weeks the usual suspects have been trying to paint Howard Dean's obviously heartfelt comments about his brother's death in Laos as some sort of insult to the military. We owe it to our readers not to fall for these tricks.

It's not about you. We learn from The Washington Post that reporters covering Mr. Dean are surprised — and, it's implied, miffed — that "he never asks a single question about them." The mind reels..."


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Washington Times on Grover Norquist

"The soul of the new machine," is how Mother Jones describes Grover Norquist in an in-depth profile.
"As national ward boss for the right," writes Michael Scherer, "Norquist has gone a long way toward demolishing the old Democratic agenda. And he isn't done yet."
For readers who don't know the 47-year-old president of Americans for Tax Reform, his invitation-only Wednesday meetings, for which he is the blunt master of ceremonies, "have become a hot ticket for Washington's conservative In Crowd, the place for GOP players to brain-storm, swap intelligence and see and be seen."
Even Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, is known to drop by. As do senators and congressmen, from 259 of whom Mr. Norquist has secured written promises not to raise taxes. But his agenda doesn't stop there. He's launched Republican recruitment efforts to attract minorities, especially Muslims, aiming to turn them into ideal Americans.
"My ideal citizen is the self-employed, home-schooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit," he says. "Because that person doesn't need the [expletive] government for anything."
"And rather than negotiate with the teachers unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them," says Mr. Norquist, who at age 12 volunteered for Richard Nixon's campaign.

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Seeking a new emphasis, Dean touts his Christianity

I'd hardly call answering an interview question "touting".
I'd call it "answering".
See how the media can be?

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Carter's kin is riled up with enthusiasm for Howard Dean!
Jimmy Carter's son Chip stumps for Dean

"...as you travel around the world, people are looking for a new leader. The world is so scared of George Bush. They don't know what he is going to do next."
Carter thinks it would only take "20 minutes" for Howard Dean to make an impact on this worldview and rebuild confidence in the United States again from other nations.
Carter feels that Dean's has a good chance to stand against President Bush in the upcoming presidential election because he is willing to reach out to groups who previously have not voted.

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Who cares what these damn pundits wail on about? We've chosen our side....and the pundits will wind up victims of
losing the mainstream...scratching their head..see NATION article

"...Today, the nation remains no less divided than four years ago, with about 20 percent of the vote up for grabs. The punditocracy has chosen its side. Perhaps it's time the rest of us choose ours..."

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Sharks, Bigfoot Lead National Geographic Top News Stories of 2003

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It couldn't happen to a more deserving terrorist
Al-Qaida assassins after Gadhafi

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