Less censorship! Not more!

Less censorship! Not more!

"One of the most important lessons everyone can take from 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' whether they support the war in Iraq, oppose the war or are undecided, is that we need less censorship in this country, not more!"

-- Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Releasing, which is distributing the film
[LINK-MoveAmericaForward is moving America backward]

See my story from June 11.

Blogger Tsuredzuregusa has some good ideas about how to fight the right-wing's campaign for censorship.

There's a great thread at Daily Kos..

*Discussion:

It was suggested to me by one of my good readers that this is more of a boycott than censorship since censorship is generally considered a government's action and not a function associated with the private sector. I explained that I begged to differ and that there is more to censorship than meets the popular desciption. I've heard many a Rush Limbaugh fan say "Censorship cannot be done by corporations...that's not censorship." I am here to remind them that they couldn't be more wrong.

The inescapable fact that the U.S. has an oligarchical concentration of power through corporations (especially with so many mergers over the past 30 years) cannot be discounted when those same markets decide what will be marketed and what will be relegated to silence. The markets are directly responsible for many discriminatory acts...whether or not they could be deemed legally unconstitutional. Bush and Company need not do the censoring..they can sit back and enjoy their corporate partners doing the dirty work for them. What Disney did to Moore was censorship. Disney didn't boycott Moore. They refused to distribute his film. Disney feared governmental rebuke...not a loss of profits. It was censorship, sure as you're born.

Like our Founding Fathers, we need to understand that a concentration of power in the hands of a few is a dangerous game. I urge you to look at the big picture when it comes to the people who are deciding what you'll see and what you won't be able to see.

Linked HERE is a further discussion of the issue.

Eric Alterman Congratulates Iraq Hawks

Eric Alterman Congratulates Iraq Hawks

In a sarcastic way, mind you. I liked it enough to share it with you in case you missed it.

Take a look at this:

It’s hard to say which is the best representation of what this war is doing to and has done to this country. Is it the lies that were told to get us into it? Is the fact that we are picking up innocent people off the street and torturing them? Is it that we have suspended the most basic civil liberties in our own country? Is it that the work of professional intelligence agencies has been corrupted? Is it that we have drawn resources away from the fight against Al Qaida which has completely regrouped? Is it that we are creating more terrorists? Is it that more than seven hundred Americans have been killed and thousands have been seriously injured? Is it that thousands of Iraqis have been killed but nobody is keeping an account of the numbers of their deaths? Is it that we are now more hated around the world than we have ever been? Is it that we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars while actually decreasing our security? Is it that we are doing all this while starving the most crucial homeland security programs? Is it that everyone who told the truth about what was being planned has been dismissed and seen their characters attacked? The usually soft-spoken and moderate intelligence analyst and author Thomas Powers does not exaggerate when he notes that Bush and the neocons have "caused the greatest foreign policy catastrophe in modern U.S. history."

Congrats to everybody involved…
[LINK-Altercation]

U-Turn for Colin

U-Turn for Colin


"Terror attacks were way down!"


"Uh..Terror attacks were way up..."



"Sheeit, Colin, how come the fibs didn't work?"

*Seriously, people, do you believe anything this administration tells you anymore???

Halliburton/Cheney the focus of new MoveOn PAC Ad

Halliburton/Cheney the focus of MoveOn PAC Ad

MoveOn PAC has a new ad reminding Americans voters that Vice President Cheney's office helped ensure that Cheney's old company Halliburton would receive a $7 billion no-bid contract for rebuilding Iraq. Faced with a choice between serving our troops and helping out his corporate buddies, Cheney chose the latter.

Starting tomorrow, Congress will be holding hearings on whether Halliburton used its close ties to administration officials to get sweetheart deals, shortchanging both our troops and U.S. taxpayers. This is probably an opportune time to coordinate a political ad of this nature.

Halliburton has overcharged taxpayers millions for gas and charged hundreds of millions of dollars for meals for our troops that were never delivered. Last week, Time Magazine exposed this: newly disclosed internal Pentagon emails suggest that the office of Vice President Dick Cheney was instrumental in sealing an $18 billion no-bid contract for the Vice President's former company. In a Pentagon audit, Halliburton was warned that its food service facilities (which serve our troops in Iraq) were dangerously unsanitary, with "blood all over the floor" of its kitchens, "dirty pans," and "rotting meats..and vegetables." As Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) put it, Halliburton is ultimately "a company that arrogantly is overcharging when they can get away with it and not providing the quality of service that they agreed to do." Vice President Dick Cheney still holds hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of stock options in the company. It's hardly surprising that the Administration's response has been anemic, even when faced with clear evidence that the company is bilking taxpayers.

See the MOVEONPAC ad here

Put This Photo on the Sawbuck

Put This Photo on the Sawbuck


Reagan's Envoy Rummy circa 1983

....to remind us of one of the top 10 American Presidents of all time who embraced a murderer..who created a monster...who looked the other way when Saddam murdered his own people..who supplied Saddam with the evil weapons we could no longer find when Dubya wanted to use them as an excuse to attack.

The Long Journey

The Long Journey

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

God's given us years of happiness here
Now we must part
And as the angels come and call for you
The pains of grief tug at my heart

Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey...

From a song by Doc Watson & Rosa Lee Watson

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



Valerie Reitman of the L.A. Times speaks to us about the language we use to prepare for the longest Goodbye. Whether the crossing is real or metaphoric, it's an inevitable mystic event.

Families and health care-workers hear words about the journey so often from the dying, conveying a sense of moving from one place to another, of being in transition...that a reasonable conclusion is that it must be a special language the dying have to communicate what they're experiencing.


[LINK]

Max has an idea

Max has an idea




Max Blumenthal has a counterproposal to Grover Norquist's HR 452. It's called the Ray Charles Memorial Act and it would save the ten dollar bill from Reagan's mug.

That would free the sawbuck problem and make room for my notion: to chuck the silly 'National ID card' idea and use the image of Reagan's head for National ID tattoos on each of our American foreheads instead.



Again, there's Anonymoses' idea: Change the name of the U.S. to "Reagan".

Krishnamurti-"Inquire"

IT IS NOT FOR THE TRULY FREE MIND
TO SIMPLY ACCEPT OR TO SIMPLY DENY

"One has to find out for oneself."


"This does not mean that you reject what others say...

___*______*_____*___

....but that you inquire without acceptance or denial."



^~^~^~^~^~^"An aggressive mind, a mind tethered to a belief, is not free.......


^~^~^~^~^~^

~^~^~^~^~^~and therefore it is incapable of inquiry."



"All this demands intensive inquiry, not acceptance."
____________________________________


KRISHNAMURTI

Turkey taking harder line on Ariel Sharon at OIC Talks

Turkey taking harder line on Ariel Sharon at OIC Talks

The foreign Ministers of a 57-member bloc of Islamic nations began talks in Turkey's commercial capital, Istanbul, over the future of Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict today. Turkey is the only Muslim member of NATO.

The foreign ministers will also elect a new secretary general for the Saudi-based grouping, known as the Organization of the Islamic Conference, or O.I.C.

In the Washington Post, it says the conference will likely emphasize the unity of Iraq amid Arab and Turkish fears the country could fragment along ethnic lines.

At BakuToday.com, it says that foreign ministers are expected to call for a speedy transfer of full sovereignty to the Iraqi people and emphasize the need to preserve the territorial unity of Iraq. Iran, Syria and Turkey, which share borders with Iraq, have expressed deep concern over a feared break-up of Iraq into separate, Kurdish, Shia and Sunni entities should the Iraqis' experiment with democratic self-rule fail. All three are especially worried that the emergence of a Kurdish state in Iraq could fan separatist sentiment among their own Kurdish minorities.


Last week, the leaders at the G8 summit adopted a compromise version of President Bush's plan for Middle Eastern reforms and tied it to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (one of the few Muslim leaders invited to the G8) has said: "Change should not be imposed from the outside. The character and traditions of each country must be taken into consideration." Before leaving for the U.S., Erdogan had told reporters that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bringing stability to Iraq were crucial issues for the current OIC.

It is believed that it would be a major coup for the Turks to get a Turkish head of the OIC, and although the Washington Post doesn't mention it, I read this in Baku Today (a less-western-flavoured news source):

Host nation Turkey has long been criticized by Arab nations for its strong military and economic ties with Israel. In recent weeks, however, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken out against the policies of his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, accusing the Jewish state of engaging in terrorism against the Palestinians.

To gain political ground with the OIC, Turkey is apparently being forced to take a harder line on Israel because of the Iraq war.

I wonder if this Sharon-dissing by one of the only democracies in the region was foreseen by the NeoCons who wanted this war so badly?

Quote:

"And I just, you know every so often I hear some people suggesting, well the right reaction for Turkey to this bump in our relationship is, well we should make more friends with Iran and more friends with Syria. Excuse me, that's absolutely the wrong way to go. The right way to go, as I say, is to think about where the real democrats, where does democracy need to be supported."

-Paul Wolfowitz to CNN Turk May, 2003

We've Killed More Innocent Iraqis Than We've Been Told

We've Killed More Innocent Iraqis Than We've Been Told

It would shame us as good people to ignore the fact that the United States launched many more failed airstrikes on a far broader array of senior Iraqi leaders during the early days of the war last year than has ever been previously acknowledged. Knowing that some caused significant civilian casualties should give us pause to mourn the innocent victims of our war intended to "liberate" them. Only a few of the 50 airstrikes have been described in public. All were unsuccessful. These failures were an early warning sign about the thinness of American intelligence on Iraq. The unspoken numbers of civilian casualties has not been acknowledged by the Bush administration.



The fervored Texas-style manhunt for the faces on that infamous deck of Iraq's "most-wanted" playing cards turned into an entire tome filled with innocent faces who were unlucky enough to be in the way when the shock and awe began.

I am ashamed of the government that would have led us in this iresponsible manner. If you aren't, I wonder if you possess a soul of basic human compassion. This is not to preach, but to ask you how there can be any form of national pride-in-responsibility when our leaders play "Deputy Dawg" and stomp on others' homelands with faulty intelligence and devastating bombs?


MOST WANTED


MOST GOTTEN

The reality of the awareness that every breath is shared with all life and that all people are brethren may never become a political asset...but it will always be true.

The war was unnecessary. Untold numbers of perfectly innocent souls are dead at our hands. The President may not wish to talk about it, but it will always be true.

[LINK]

About Wallace Turnage

About Wallace Turnage



WALLACE TURNAGE
Photo credit: NY Times

His story, written on blue-lined paper in a leather-bound notebook, probably sometime in the late 19th century, ended up with a neighbor, Gladys Watt, who discovered only by reading it that Mrs. Connolly was a former slave's daughter. Mrs. Connolly often described herself as "Portugee" to explain her dark complexion...Mrs. Watt kept the notebook in a closet for years, in a clamshell archival box, unsure what to do with it. And then last summer she took it to the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich....After the Turnage narrative was donated to the Greenwich historical society, the group hired two researchers to make sure it was authentic. "This is such a vivid and amazing story, the first thing we wanted to do was make sure it was not a fake," said Debra Mecky, the society's executive director. The researchers found that much of Mr. Turnage's account could be verified in census, Army and bank records...

Mr. Turnage's story tells..of the brutality of slavery, because most of his years of bondage were spent as a field hand in Alabama. He writes of near-crippling lashings of female slaves and describes four unsuccessful attempts to escape, some of them followed by severe beatings, before he finally succeeded in 1864 after hiding in a swamp for a week.

While hiding, he often slept in an unused Confederate lookout perch. One morning, he writes, as if he were witnessing a miracle, he saw the tide bring something in.

"Now when I got down there I seen a little boat very small indeed though the tide was going out," he says. "It stood like it was held by an invisible hand; so I got in the little boat and it held me."

A few hours later, as a storm threatened to drown him, he was pulled over the side of a Union gunboat by eight soldiers — and finally "had obtained that freedom which I desired so long."

He ends his story with a stern command to his readers not to regard his account as a "novel, nor a fable, but a reality of facts."

"My reader," he adds, "I will now leave my book to your judgement. The end."


[LINK: N.Y. Times- Journals of 2 Former Slaves Draw Vivid Portraits by Randy Kennedy]

Frank Rich- Bush is clearly no Reagan

Frank Rich-
Bush is clearly no Reagan

Not even close

Last weekend in Normandy, the president sat for an interview in which Tom Brokaw challenged his efforts to pull off a bigger flimflam than impersonating Ronald Reagan — the conflation of the Iraq war with World War II. "You referred to the `ruthless and treacherous surprise attack on America' that we went through during our time," Mr. Brokaw said. "But that wasn't Iraq who did that, that was al Qaeda." With the gravesites of the World War II dead behind him, the president retreated to his familiar script ("Iraq is a part of the war on terror"). Even if you think the lines make sense, the irritated man delivering them did not sound like someone who had ever experienced pain of the life-and-death intensity that comes with war. The problem is not merely that Mr. Bush lacks Reagan's lilting vocal delivery. As any professional actor can tell you, no performance, however sonorous, can be credible if it doesn't contain at least a kernel of emotional truth.

[LINK]

Sanchez Approved Torture; White House May Be Linked to Decision

Sanchez Approved Torture; White House May Be Linked to Decision

Daily Kos diarist DHinMI provides us with an analysis which leads us to expect we'll soon be easily able to connect the Abu-Ghraib dots from Gen. Ricardo Sanchez directly to the Pentagon and to the White House. An article in the Telegraph (UK) tells us:

New evidence that the physical abuse of detainees in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay was authorised at the top of the Bush administration will emerge in Washington this week, adding further to pressure on the White House.

[Telegraph- Interrogation abuses were 'approved at highest levels']

We should face the fact that most Americans have highly suspected the torture at Abu Ghraib was not the work of just a few "bad apples." It would seem terribly naive to think otherwise.

[LINK-DHinMI at Daily Kos]

Also--new in today's N.Y. Times--the Red Cross has said it alerted American military commanders in Iraq to abuses at Abu Ghraib in November. But the disclosures that the military's own interrogators had alerted superiors to abuse back then in internal documents has not been previously reported. LINK/NYT- Unit Says It Gave Earlier Warning of Abuse in Iraq


Michael Moore saw prisoner abuses long before 60 Minutes' revelation

Filmmaker Michael Moore allegedly kept silent about prison-abuses of Iraqi detainees for fear he'd only be blamed for publicity-seeking.

From SFGate.com-

Filmmaker Michael Moore said Friday he wasn't sure he did the right thing by saving footage of U.S. American soldiers' cruelty toward Iraqis for his controversial documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11,'' instead of releasing the evidence earlier when it might have helped halt such abuse.

"I had it months before the story broke on '60 Minutes,' and I really struggled with what to do with it,'' Moore said in a telephone interview with The Chronicle. "I wanted to come out with it sooner, but I thought I'd be accused of just putting this out for publicity for my movie. That prevented me from making maybe the right decision.''

The footage, eerily similar to film of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison, shows GIs laughing as they snap photos of each other putting hoods over Iraqi detainees.

In the same scene from "Fahrenheit 9/11,'' which opens Friday at Bay Area theaters, an American soldier fondles a prisoner's genitals through a blanket.

"The stuff with the detainees in my movie is even more shocking than what we saw in that prison because it happens outdoors and is more commonplace,'' Moore said.

[LINK-Documentarian kept quiet after filming U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqis]

Other articles:

WP- General Granted Latitude At Prison; Abu Ghraib Used Aggressive Tactics

Detroit Free Press- U.S. forces lose track of Iraqi prisoners; Men and boys vanish; families search in vain

U.S.News.com- Hiding a bad guy named triple X; How the military treated some inmates at Abu Ghraib like 'ghosts'

Editor and Publisher- Exclusive: Shocking Details on Abuse of Reuters Staffers in Iraq

Need for Change in U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy

Need for Change in U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy

Heavy-hitters in Diplomacy and Military (many from Reagan era) aim to see Bush defeated in 2004

Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, a group of retired ambassadors and senior military officers, will hold a Morning Newsmaker news conference Wednesday, June 16, at 8 a.m. EDT at the National Press Club (Zenger Room), 13th floor, 529 14th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

The topic will be "The Need for Change in U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy."

The group includes former ambassadors Jeffrey Davidow, William DePree, Charles Freeman Jr., William Harrop, Arthur Hartman, H. Allen Holmes, Samuel Lewis, Princeton Lyman, Jack Matlock Jr., Donald McHenry, Richard Murphy, David Newsom, Phyllis Oakley, John Reinhardt, Ronald Spiers, Nicholas Veliotes and Alexander Watson; and Adm. William Crowe (former chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Reagan), Gen. Joseph Hoar and Adm. Stansfield Turner.

[LINK]

See: NYT- Former Officials to Criticize Bush Foreign Policy

Bush succumbs to Kerry pressure; Contradicts his own Iraq policy

Bush succumbs to Kerry pressure; Contradicts his own Iraq policy

In a political atmosphere which has produced some of the lowest poll approval numbers Bush has seen, we've seen him cave in to pressure to internationalize his dreadful Iraq problem. Jim Hoagland demonstrates how Bush's current efforts to internationalize have only exposed a naked contradiction to his reasons for being in Iraq to begin with. Concessions on Iraq's sovereignty have no rational relation to the moral and national security reasons Bush put first forward for invading Iraq.

I'm afraid this, like so many other purely political moves Bush has made, will only serve to backfire in its effects upon the facts-on-the-ground.

We need much less pitiful political damage-control and far more decisions made by wise and morally consistent leadership.

[LINK-Washington Post]

Frum/Perle Beliefs Threaten the World

Frum/Perle Beliefs Threaten the World

~~~~~~~ - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The Communists, by their own declaration, did not invade Hungary in 1956, or Czechoslovakia in 1968; they "liberated" these countries from evil. Frum and Perle have learned their lessons well."
~~~~~~ - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


David Gordon systematically deconstructs the logic of Perle and Frum.

Frum and Perle have identified with great clarity a system of belief that threatens the world. This system requires all governments to conform to the policies of a single power. Those that refuse face violent overthrow. The ensuing military occupation by the dominant power is styled democracy; and, once people grasp its benefits, it is claimed that democracy of this sort will conquer the world.

[LINK-Ludwig von Mises Institute]

UK Elections: Blair's party takes a beating

UK Elections: Blair's party takes a beating

Clare Short, the former international development secretary, has called on Tony Blair to stand aside after the Labour party suffered its worst 24 hours at the polling booths since the mid-70s.

Short has said:

"I think that the electorate is sending a message to Tony Blair because the Labour party is incapable of correcting him. What he did in Iraq has brought disgrace and dishonour on Britain around the world. As Tony Blair won't change the policy, the only way to make a correction is for him to step aside from the leadership."

[LINK-Guardian]

In Iraq Today

In Iraq Today

Bassam Salih Kubba gunned down
Was Iraq Ministry's most senior diplomat

The 60-year-old Kubba was a longtime diplomat, having served as acting chief the Iraqi mission to the United Nations and Iraq's ambassador to China. Kubba was the second senior Iraqi official to die in weeks. On May 17, Iraqi Governing Council head Izzadine Saleem was killed in a suicide car bombing near the U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad.

Three hostages were butchered by insurgents..one Lebanese hostage and two locals working for a foreign company in Iraq.

[LINK]

Shia Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gives Iraqi government conditional support
An aide told the Arab television station Al-Arabiya that al-Sadr would cooperate with the new government if it worked to end the U.S. military presence in the country.

[LINK]


In Sadr City

On Friday in Sadr City, one Mahdi Army militiaman was killed and several others were wounded in clashes with American forces in Sadr City, Baghdad. A Sadrist clergyman, Shaikh Nasir al-Sa'idi, preaching at the al-Hikmah mosque, warned nations considering joining the multinational force in Iraq that they will be treated the same way the present occupiers are treated.

[LINK]

In Kufa

At the Friday prayers at the Kufa Mosque, Shaikh Jabir al-Khafaji preached in the stead of Muqtada al-Sadr, reading the latter's prepared sermon for the third week in a row. During the sermon, he mentioned that Muqtada al-Sadr would support the caretaker government if it demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of Occupation forces from Iraq. He emphasized his "refusal to kowtow to the Occupiers."

In Najaf

On Thursday and early Friday, Mahdi Army militiamen looted and burned a Najaf police station after the police attempted to arrest an aide to Muqtada al-Sadr. Although US-installed Najaf governor Adnan Zurufi accused the Mahdi Army of breaking the truce, it is hard to see how the attempted arrest was consistent with a truce. Zurufi is probably egged on in these matters by Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority, but note that the US offered him no help on Friday. I think it is a legitimate demand that militias not appear in the streets armed. I'm not sure trying to arrest Muqtada's aides is so legitimate.

--Juan Cole

[LINK]

Food for Thought

A 6/19/2003 report by Juan Cole on the cancellation of planned municipal elections in Najaf was particularly painful for Professor Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago to reread from today's perspective. He wrote recently:

"You [meaning Prof. Cole] reported then that local US officials believed "Najaf was ready for elections and that the theocrats would have done poorly." But even if the Sadrists had won the election, their movement may have developed very differently over the past year if they could have built their political power by spending public funds for local reconstruction, rather than by recruiting soldiers for armed resistance."

Larry Sabato on parallels between 1980 and 2004

Larry Sabato on parallels between 1980 and 2004

Joe Gandelman brought this new article by the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato to my attention (Thanks,Joe).

[LINK HERE-A LESSON PLAN FROM THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR]

Mr. Sabato's asking if this week's look back upon the Reagan years provided us with any insight about the 2004 Presidential campaign. He focuses on 1980, the year when Ronald Reagan achieved what observers at the time thought unlikely.

As the road to the 1980 election narrowed, Mr. Sabato points to these historical
mile-markers:

Foreign policy seemed a mess.

Americans were unhappy about the economy.

Our primary international enemy (the the USSR) appeared to be on the march and achieving major goals.

A sizeable majority of voters said the country was seriously off on the wrong track and
questioned whether the incumbent President and his team were competent enough to handle the myriad challenges before them.

An independent candidate for President added to the confusion of the election.

The country as a whole was uncertain what to do.

In 1980, it was pretty much a dead heat between Carter and Reagan up until October, yet at campaign's end, everything came together for Reagan.

It goes to show us all that you never know what might happen..and this whole 2004 race just might come down to the fates. I think Mr. Sabato is dead-on-target when he comments:

Had Carter managed to free the hostages just forty-eight hours before the election, it is conceivable that he could have managed to win a narrow reelection. Surely, both George Bush and John Kerry are waiting with bated breath to see if certain events in late October (the capture of Osama bin Laden, a terrorist act on American soil, a fresh disaster in Iraq) will swing the election one way or the other.

Though some people may think a happy resolution of the hostage situation wouldn't have quickly erased the public's memory of the long gas-lines and the inflation of Carter's unfortunate political time, I think they would be off-the mark. The public is easily swayed by such events poured out over their TV screens like high drama with heart-wrenching music and happy tears of relieved family members. Levers would have been pulled for Carter had fate smiled upon him.

Fate never smiled on Carter that year. Reagan eventually (boldly and illegally) defied fate and decided to cast his sails with the political winds at his back by selling arms to Iran for the release of those hostages.

If Osama bin Laden is caught in October, CNN and FOX will surely create the 24/7 drumbeat..the sappy movie-quality dramatics, music and all...and the dynamics of Election 2004 could greatly change... leaning toward an easy Bush victory. As long as bin Laden remains at large, however, America is reminded how pointless and unnecessary the violent Iraq war really has been.

Mr. Sabato wonders if John Kerry might not win by a landslide if this set of seven points still holds true on November 2nd.

I happen to think there's going to be a hell of a lot of violence and death in Iraq this summer. I hope I'm wrong, but i don't expect I will be. Bush will lay the blame and responsibility on the Iraqis, since they're now "in charge" (cough-cough). I don't think the public will buy it, but who knows? The public's been fooled many times by the misleading Bushites. They seem to accept many of the lies without question. Will they willingly accept many more troops killed as a civil war rages in Iraq? (A recent LA Times poll indicates that a majority of Americans now thinks it was not worthwhile going to war in Iraq).

Outsourcing was not a major issue in 1980. Have any Americans been watching Lou Dobbs? Will they be patient while their jobs continue to leave their small towns as their state taxes rise? Does Kerry promise them any relief?

There was no fear of E-vote theft in 1980...and there hadn't been a stolen (ahem--Supreme Court-assigned) election in 1976. A lot of 2000-Gore voters are just waiting to prepare their ballots very carefully and correctly this time. Will Diebold be capable of giving us an honest vote-tally? Why should we trust them knowing their CEO promised to "deliver" Ohio to Bush?

What about the Saudi promise to lower those gas prices for Bush just before the election?

I think this country, as a whole today, is more certain of what to do than in 1980. The problem is, there is a Grand Canyon-sized gap between those people.

The irresponsible party-before-country (pig-headed) leadership in Washington is perfectly reflective of the gap. Last summer we saw Rep Bill Thomas call the police on his fellow statesmen. That gave the phrases "beyond the pale" and "over the top" entirely new meanings.

I don't think we're going to see any landslides unless Bush totally screws up.

(I can't believe I'm saying that--because I personlly do think that President Bush has already screwed up--far past my own political tolerance-point....yet I understand he has loyal and fierce supporters who practically live to see skeptics such as myself shut up and/or shut away.)

Note- See Joe's latest--Will the Bush Campaign's Use of Reagan Imagery Prove A Double-Edged Sword?

You can also see Joe over at Dean's World this week.

It's A Shame About Ray

It's A Shame About Ray

I'm not talking about Evan Dando's Lemonheads.

I'm talking about Ray Charles.



I think "You Don't Know Me" was my favorite song by Ray.

I'll never forget the warm night in June when I heard him sing 'Georgia' live from the stage at Jazz Fest in Clinton Square.

Man, I'm sorry to see him go...