N.Y.Times:
Jack Pritchard* asks:
"How many nuclear weapons does North Korea have to make before this administration gets serious about its policy in East Asia?"
*Pritchard is a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution

"American intelligence believed that most if not all the rods remained in storage, giving policymakers a false sense that time was on their side

..the Bush administration has relied on intelligence that dismissed North Korean claims that it restarted its nuclear
program..

Now there are about 8,000 spent fuel rods missing — evidence that work on such a deterrent may have begun. It is just the most recent failure in a string of serious North Korea-related intelligence failures.

American policy in North Korea is hardly better than American intelligence. At best it can be described only as amateurish. At worst, it is a failed attempt to lure American allies down a path that is not designed to resolve the crisis diplomatically but to lead to the failure and ultimate isolation of North Korea in hopes that its government will collapse.

Note: Mr. Pritchard resigned as special envoy for negotiations with North Korea last August.

Buzzflash: Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky on Bush's State of the Union Address

"The Emperor has no clothes. President Bush is describing a very different world and a very different America than the one I see and that most people live in."

"American families have experienced job losses, rising health care costs, increased poverty and homelessness. Huge surpluses have become record deficits. And because of his policies, America's standing in the world has greatly diminished, and, as a nation, we are less safe today than we could and should be."

"The President is enthusiastic about a 'strong' economy, and so are his rich friends."

"Iraq is a mess. Who can't see that?"

Bush Came Not to Praise King but ...
"King's philosophies could not be more different from Bush's."

"....it was on King's birthday last year that this same president, on national television, launched his attack against affirmative action by directing his administration to join the legal case against the University of Michigan's admissions policy. To follow that action by laying a wreath on King's tomb this year represented the height of hypocrisy for many of us in the civil rights community. It was obviously nothing more than a photo opportunity designed to woo black voters to the Republican Party. Coming in an election year, it was a blatant attempt to use King's image for political gain.
And here's the most offensive part: After a brief "official business" visit to the grave site — read: taxpayers foot the bill — Bush rushed off to a $2,000-a-plate fundraiser that same evening, picking up a cool $1.3 million in Atlanta for his reelection campaign..."

Perle and Frum Op-Ed In New York Times

Richard Perle and David Frum are beating their war drums on behalf of their favorite candidate Bush--and the New York Times is more than happy to give them space to do so. In a nutshell, they spread a hopeless message, telling us Saudi Arabia has us literally over a barrel (no pun intended) and there's nothing we can do about it except send our beloved sons and daughters to fight their bloody battles for them. Frum and Perle are telling you, my fine American friends, that you are slaves to the Saudis. I think we should send Dick and Dave over to Iraq, suit them up for war, and let them walk the real streets of Fallujah and Bagdhad. Their hopeless message tells us that Howard Dean's ideas about alternative energy are useless without an accompanying war; that John Edwards' talk of international good will is cowardly; that John Kerry will not drive more Middle Eastern leaders into spiderholes; that Wes Clark is a sucker for the Saudis. My opinion? Get the hook!! Get these two filthy cowards off the stage! Let's elect a leader who is both SANE and INDEPENDENT-THINKING.
While I agree we must prevail on the Saudis to stop financing the extremism that breeds terror, Perle and Frum prove they are clueless as to HOW to do that..besides sending our own men and women to die and alienating the international community by calling the UN an adversary. That's a recipe for an endless war on a gray entity named terrorism.
This is campaigning for Bush at its best, people. The NeoCons prove they still have Bush in their pocket. I can't wait to vote for any one of these fine Democratic candidates and send these warpigs back into their corner. They've killed enough of our men and women with their fantasy.
At least they mentioned the name Bin Laden in the article. Bush never uttered the name once in the SOTU speech last night....nor did he honor the soldiers who died for him. We need to unload this character and his
go-to-war-traveling show this November.

SOTU Speech Shame:

NOT A MENTION NOR ONE MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR
THE 502 TROOPS

NOT A WORD OF THANKS TO
THE WOUNDED

NOT A MENTION OF THE NAME
BIN-LADEN


"Hey you sports dudes- Stop takin' 'em steeroids!!"

Let Judy be Judith
I would never want to see Judith as a Judy-doll Stepford wife.
What the hell's wrong with America,anyhow?

Send idiots like Maureen Dowd back to 1950-- when men were men and women were barefoot and pregnant (yet somehow always kept the beehive coif perfect).
Leave her there.

Israel Planes Attack Hezbollah in Lebanon
While I understand Israel's right to defend herself, what implications will this have for her ally..the U.S.? Did Sharon think before acting...really? We'd best not get bogged down with Syria. We cannot afford it, nor is it an appropriate fight for us to enter. I hope this does not wind up smelling of NeoCon.

Israel rapped in UN probe

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said yesterday that a UN investigation had found that an Israeli military bulldozer hit by a Hizbollah rocket attack was in Lebanese territory at the time of the strike.
"The investigation carried out by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) command has shown that the Israeli bulldozer was inside Lebanese territory," Lahoud said in a statement.
"And this constitutes a clear violation of the Blue Line," said Lahoud, referring to the demarcation line marked out by Unifil when Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000.

Republicans convert for Kerry?
Hmmmmmmm......

"...East Middle School precinct chairwoman Jan Olson said a few Republicans had converted just to participate for the day. "We are really glad you want to be a Democrat," Olson said, "as long as that day is in November," drawing a big laugh. Sturgeon said one site had eight typical Republicans taking part..."

I wonder if they were sincere converts. You see, in Iowa, even registered Republicans can switch parties - if only for the day - to participate in the caucus.

The Union Leader, New Hampshire's only statewide daily newspaper, has endorsed Joe Lieberman in the Democratic presidential primary.

HERE'S THE ACTUAL ENDORSEMENT.

One word- UGH.
~~~~~~~

Clinton agrees to be Middle East Envoy?
Did you know this?

"In a question-and-answer period, he [John Kerry] reminded a voter that he had already asked Clinton to be his Middle East envoy—and that Clinton had accepted."

~~~~~~~

Paul O'Neill: A Republican Rip Van Winkle

Think of O'Neill as some centrist Republican Rip Van Winkle, who came back to a GOP White House after 25 years only to find that his pragmatic approach to public problem-solving made him an alien to be ignored or a prop to be used for "cover" by zealots.."

Bruce Reed of the DLC is trying hard to crush Howard Dean by "going negative" on him

Last night on Charlie Rose, I saw Bruce Reed of the DLC ripping away at Howard Dean..attacking his viability, his electability, his style, his campaign...practically everything about the man. At the same time, Reed went on and on about the glory of being positive. What a hypocrite! Kerry attacked Dean in the debates at nearly every turn.
The DLC is lining up a disaster for November if they are falling for the old "must stay positive".
The GOP is going to use that against them...and yet they submit. We are going to need a tiger to stand up against Bush.This playing nicey-nice is not going to make the big cut.
Here's an example (from the bitterly partisan Washington Dispatch) of how the GOP will turn it around to bite a DLC candidate in the nice little a*s:

"The reason is that the DLC could wind up the real loser in Clark’s latest attempt to go ultra-negative in his attacks against the president and desert any positive tone in his campaign. The DLC bailed on its original candidate, John Edwards once his campaign seemed to stall early on. But Edwards stayed positive in Iowa despite early poll numbers that were in the single digits and is now polling well. Edwards now has an outside shot at winning in Iowa and can spin any close finish in Iowa into a victory as he came from way back to become competitive by staying above the fray. He will then use that in an attempt to bolster his positive campaign as the way to compete against the president. John Edwards has stayed positive while Wesley Clark has come unhinged with his accusations and negativity.
And that leaves the DLC with a dilemma.
Back an ex-General who was so uncontrollable in his last gig as the Supreme Commander of NATO that the Pentagon had to fire him over the phone, or throw everything behind the only positive campaigner in the entire Democratic field, John Edwards."

Wesley Clark unhinged? Do you see what's going on here? Any candidate coming out against Bush in an assertive and aggressive manner will be categorized as "unhinged...angry" by the Bushies. Will the DLC abandon Wes Clark for a "gentler, kinder" candidate? If there's one thing the Democrats don't need , it's more wimps.


In today's N.Y. Times column, Paul Krugman writes:

"...some Americans will respond to upbeat messages, no matter how unrealistic. And that may be enough for Mr. Bush, because while he poses as someone above the fray, he is continuing to solidify his base...the lying has already begun, with the Republican National Committee's willful misrepresentation of Wesley Clark's prewar statements. (Why are news organizations letting them get away with this?)"

Trading Votes: This is how it happens in the Iowa Caucus

"...Five minutes later, after a plea from Lyle Canceco, a 27-year-old political operative from Seattle who came to Iowa to be a precinct captain for Mr. Edwards, Mr. Kucinich's supporters joined the Edwards group.
Meanwhile, most of the Gephardt supporters joined Mr. Kerry's supporters...."

I'll be looking forward to see what New Hampshire, a non-caucus state, has to say. I want to see what happens when you have people going into the booth and deciding as individuals...without changing candidates because their preferred (weaker) candidate told them to go to a particular alternate candidate.

HERE'S A GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT THE IOWA CAUCUS


Springfield News-Sun:
OHIO: One thing's sure, nothing's certain

"..If Democrats and Republicans agree on anything, it's this: The winner of Monday's Democratic caucus in Iowa will not have a free ride to the party's presidential nomination."

..and I believe that Howard Dean will stand a good chance of winning Ohio.

Zogby: How Arab Americans will vote in Presidential race

"In the 2000 presidential election, Bush won 44.5 per cent of the community's vote. In a poll conducted in July 2003, Bush's support had dropped to 34 per cent, while in this January 2004 poll, his totals have further declined to 28 per cent. ...On the Democratic side, thirty-six per cent of Arab Americans indicated their preference for Dean in the Democratic primary. No other Democrat received a double-digit response. Retired General Wesley Clark received the support of nine per cent of Arab Americans, followed by Senator John Kerry with six per cent.

New Hampshire Primary Trivia:

Two tiny villages in northern New Hampshire -- Dixville Notch and Hart's Location (Population-37) -- will be the first to vote in next Tuesday's primary, as they do in presidential elections. Both have a tradition in which all citizens vote at midnight after which the votes are counted. In Dixville Notch, there are 23 voters: 12 Republicans, 11 independents and no Democrats. The 11 independents are eligible to vote in the Democratic primary.
Wow--Have you seen the Wentworth?


Now I've Heard Everything
Too many cannabinoids-
A guy ODs on Pot?!

"A man of 36 is believed to have become the first person in Britain to die directly from cannabis poisoning."

Well, there's one rare instance of which the drug czars will grab hold while they push the
"REPEAT AD NAUSEUM" button.

Lawrence Journal-World:
Young Republicans Crash Dean concert--Young Republicans get violent

"...Weinberg saw dozens of college-age supporters of President George W. Bush crash Saturday night's Dean bash at Drake University, which featured rock singer Joan Jett and comedian Janeane Garafalo.
Weinberg was close to the stage with a video camera and taped some of the Republicans who came in with signs, banners and chanted Bush's name. They grabbed signs from Dean supporters and one of them bumped Jett, Weinberg said. "She said, ‘You can hit me, but don't mess with my guitar,'" Weinberg said. "It was absolutely incredible."
Dean supporters started singing the national anthem to drown out the Bush people, who were finally ushered out by security, Weinberg said..."

COMPANION STORY HERE

Something tells me this is only the beginning. These Republican kids are a pretty angry lot.

Right now it looks like Kerry, Edwards, then Dean....Gephardt a surprising loser
As you might suspect, I'm surprised and disappointed in Dean's poor showing in Iowa thus far.
I will be curious to see why Iowans decided upon Kerry. I think they swallowed the "electability" Koolaid and lost their guts..their initial intuition about Dean. My intuition tells me that Kerry isn't all that intuitive of a leader. He wound up emulating Dean like a chameleon. That gives me the creeps. Eeewwww.
This bugs me about Kerry, too. Not only his wife's money vs. a lot of individual American donations to candidates such as Dean, but this:
Kerry Carries Water for Top Donor
"Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., whose largest campaign contributor lobbies on behalf of telecommunication interests, pushed the legislative priorities of its clients in the wireless industry on several occasions, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of campaign, lobbying and congressional records has found."
Double eewwww.

Rep. Dick Gephardt dropping out
Rep. Dick Gephardt intends to drop out of the Democratic presidential race after a poor, fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, a party official said Monday night.

Here comes New Hampshire, folks!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Debt Relief--
Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Asks, "Why Only Iraq?"

U.S. Imposes Flatly Wrong Tax on Iraq
The Bigshots in Iraq, without democracy, have imposed a new tax system on that country. Halliburton and other campaign contributors to the Bush administration have been declared exempt from the taxes. Senior editor Fred Foldvary analyzes the new scheme and finds it a poor choice in every way.

"....Imagine a tenant farmer in Iraq who has to struggle with contaminated water, insects, and theft of his equipment. On the way to market he has to pass through U.S. checkpoints, where he is delayed, quizzed and groped for guns. After paying for rent and supplies, he manages to make a profit just enough to feed his family and buy seeds and gasoline, but now, down comes the U.S. tax collector to take way some of his gains. The tax is 15 percent of his income, but what is the profit?
-..The Iraqi tax collector working for the military occupation has to guess at what the right income is and whether the farmer is telling the truth...maybe this farmer is unpopular, and tax evasion would be a good excuse to lock him up in prison......
-..Can you see the implications? Do we really want to sow more corruption and oppression? Just because a flat tax works OK in Estonia does not imply it will go smoothly in Iraq. This tax will be a nightmare and another excuse for U.S.-hating terrorists to do violence. This is just one more example of the incredibly inept and incomprehensively foolish U.S. policy in Iraq..."

N.Y.C. Benefit Concert for Bam Earthquake Victims to be held January 23

art by one of featured artists, Arita Shahrzad

To my friends and readers in NYC, there will be a gathering to celebrate and remember the lives of those lost in the earthquake, and to provide help and support to the survivors of Bam to recuperate and rebuild their city.
It will take place at St. John the Divine Cathedral this Friday, January 23, at 7:00PM.
Artwork on auction by artists including:
Shirin Neshat, Abbas Seyed Alavi,
Kamrooz Aram, Amir Fallah, (Amir Fallah also here) Y.Z. Kami, Sheila Karbassian, Pali Kashi, Laleh Khorramian, Nicky Nodjoumi, Behrooz Nournia, Kasra Paydavousi, (Paydavousi also here) Arita Shahrzad
and Sadegh Tirafkan

Performers will be:
Sussan Deyhim (Composer, Vocalist)
(She will perform excerpts from poetry by Rumi & Hafez)
Richard Horowitz & Alan Kushan
Composer Richard Horowitz and Iranian master musician
Alan Kushan will perform solos and duos on Ney and Santur
Haale (Singer/Song Writer)
Darya Dadvar (Vocalist)
Shahrokh Meshkin Ghalam (Choreographer and Dancer)

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS
--Sussan Lari (Architect, Urban Designer, Ex-President of American Institute of Architects - Long Island Chapter) will be speaking on the ancient city of Bam.
--Dr. Asghar Rastegar (Yale University Associate Chair for Academic Affairs, Philanthropist) will be presenting the humanitarian aspects of the disaster.
--Layla Diba (Persian Art Expert, Former curator at Brooklyn Museum of Art, Professor in Bard Graduate Center, New York) will present the donated works by Iranian Artists for auction.

SEE THE "BAM DIARY"

On This Iowa Caucus Day, Remember Howard Dean, "THE ORIGINAL"
As Charley Reese put it last October:

"....An honest man with sincere convictions will get angry when he hears lies. Some of our greatest presidents had ferocious tempers. George Washington, Andy Jackson and Harry Truman are three examples.
You don't see other candidates getting angry because they are all phonies..."
"...Whether you agree with him or not, Howard Dean actually believes in his convictions. He is a genuine man.
An honest, genuine man will not suffer fools lightly, nor will he stand around like a dummy with a phony smile on his face while he hears himself lied about..."

Remember who led the charge...and remember how every other candidate turned left and followed Dean's intuitive lead. Dean is "the original"..the intuitive..the consensus-bulider...the leader. Accept no substitutes.
Follow the leader...but first ELECT the leader.

Informed Comment:
"US and UN: Caught between Shiites and Sunnis"
This is a great summary of status of Iraqi politics and current US/UN efforts.

The LA Times has an informative article from 1-18. LINK (reg. required)
Excerpt:
".."If the United States brings in the United Nations, that would be a strong signal from Washington, and if there could be some certification that elections were not possible in such a short time, then Sistani might accept that," said Joost Hiltermann, head of the International Crisis Group's Jordan office, which tracks developments in Iraq. ICG is a Washington- and Brussels-based research organization that closely follows democracy development in troubled countries.
-"He only has to give one nod and he can turn off this stuff," Hiltermann said.
-With the U.N. certifying the difficulty of organizing free and fair elections, perhaps a compromise that called for caucuses with a broader membership, including some locally elected figures, might be palatable, he suggested.
-Others are less sanguine. They see Sistani as an unstoppable force who will refuse to back down from his demands.
-"They have to find an accommodation, and if they don't, when the transitional government is put in place, it will be broadly viewed as lacking legitimacy [by the Shiite majority], and that is a big problem," said Juan Cole, a professor of modern Arab history at the University of Michigan.
-Harder still is that whatever government is put in place will inherit the Sunni insurgency that has racked the center of the country, as well as the terrorist assaults — a long way from the stable democracy the United States has envisioned.

Guardian:"100,000 demand Iraqi elections"

Novak is wearing his twisted little heart on his scuzzy little sleeve
-Bob Novak outed Valerie Plame in his column last summer- knowing the criminally-secretive Bush White House would never allow his source to be "outed" themselves. Novak's safe from prosecution because of what he does for a living...but he knew what he was doing. He knew he could be risking the woman's life and safety. He knew it was a felonious and treasonous crime for someone within the White House to release that information. Ask yourself why a decent journalist would do something like that. Personally, I think he's a bit of a scum for doing what he KNEW he was doing to the Wilson family.
-Now--ask yourself why he wishes so badly for Howard Dean not to snare the Democratic nomination.
He's hawking Kerry here in this latest column..and doing all within his power as a journalist to pound and ground Dean.
We all know where Novak stands on the ideological scale. The very fact that he is fighting the idea of Dean tooth-and-nail leads me to believe Dean is a much bigger threat to these Bush-leaners than the confused mainstream press would have you believe.
-Novak is pining away about the fact that Dean told a disruptive Freeper heckler to sit down and shut up and give him a chance to speak in front of those who came to hear him.
I love it! Howard Dean shows the American people to take the power back and tell these Freeper-types to sit down and shut the hell up...someone should have proposed that idea long ago. Power to the People!
Novak..sit down and shut up, you're killin' me here. Bwahaha!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day-
Why we celebrate
"...[The Civil Rights movement]: King was never its only leader, but without his belief in nonviolence – "we must learn to meet hate with love," he told an angry black mob bent on revenge outside his bombed house – it might have failed.
King steered the mob's seething energies into passive resistance, which, as Gandhi had shown in India, is a formidable tool for the underdog.
King was not a popular figure for most Americans when he died – seen as an enemy of the established order, even a revolutionary. It took a quarter century for the nation to create a holiday for him.."

Out of the mouths of babes:
Celebrating the gift of Martin Luther King Jr.-


"I want everybody to be friends. I want the world to be better than the one I'm in now."
-- Jonathan, grade 2

"I had a dream about people being nice to people."
-- Tianna, grade 2

"To me, Martin Luther King Jr. means truth. He wanted little white boys and white girls to be friends with little black boys and black girls. The truth was that all people should be kind to other people. I can be like Martin Luther King Jr. I can tell people to be kind."
-- Marisol, grade 2


See I HAVE A DREAM speech here.