The Democratic presidential candidates name their favorite vacation destinations:

Wesley Clark: Ski slopes
Howard Dean: Lake Champlain
Sen. John Edwards: The North Carolina beach
Rep. Dick Gephardt: Northern California
Sen. John Kerry: Cape Cod and the islands off of Massachusetts
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: A few days at home in Ohio
Sen. Joe Lieberman: South Florida
Al Sharpton: The Bahamas

Iddybud: Any place where it's not zero degrees (or lower). ;)

AP: State-By-State Breakdown of U.S. Deaths in the Iraqi Conflict

Breakdown of U.S. casualties in Iraq by state, according to Department of Defense records or family members:

Alabama - 13 Arizona - 13 Arkansas - 3 California - 55 Colorado - 8 Connecticut - 5 District of Columbia - 2 Delaware - 3 Florida - 16 Georgia - 15 Hawaii - 1 Idaho - 4 Illinois - 20 Indiana - 16 Iowa - 9 Kansas - 5 Kentucky - 4 Louisiana - 5 Maine - 2 Massachusetts - 9 Maryland - 5 Michigan - 20 Minnesota - 3 Mississippi - 10 Missouri - 10 Montana - 1 North Carolina - 13 North Dakota - 3 New Hampshire - 1 New Jersey - 10 New Mexico - 1 New York - 21 Nebraska - 6 Nevada - 3 Ohio - 15 Oklahoma - 7 Oregon - 8 Pennsylvania - 28 Rhode Island - 3 South Carolina - 12 South Dakota - 4 Tennessee - 12 Texas - 40 Utah - 4 Virginia - 13 Vermont - 5 West Virginia - 1 Washington - 7 Wisconsin - 9 Wyoming - 4 American Samoa - 2 Puerto Rico - 7

Baltimore City Paper/Brian Morton:
The Naked Emperor
"....The influential Washington, D.C.- based columnist and Weblogger Joshua Micah Marshall has a saying about national politics that goes, "Open secrets only get discussed by the press once a prominent person states them publicly...."
.....The sad thing about all this isn't how the American people have been misled and lied to by this president--all the signs were there for that. It's that the dominant media culture has bought into the idea that intangibles like "character" and "leadership" matter more than anything the president actually does. You can hear it in every official statement about Bush. When 60 Minutes asked White House spokesman Scott McClellan about the book, his response was a classic non sequitur that addressed nothing but put forth all the touchy-feely leadership memes that have become this administration's trademark: "The president is someone that leads and acts decisively on our biggest priorities, and that is exactly what he'll continue to do."
It's a shame that it has taken a fired Cabinet member to point out the obvious. It's a tragedy that it has taken this long for America to actually "hear" what we knew all along--that this emperor has no clothes."

Bohemian Mama Blog -
Political Predictions for 2004
This is a must-see.
Priceless!

Sample:
February 2004: Bitter weather across the nation brings down the voting numbers in the major February primaries. But enough people snowshoe to their voting booths in order to cast their votes for Dean, Edwards and Clark. Unfortunately, they might as well have stayed home, since the Diebold machines they voted on decided instead that Joe Lieberman (or was that Gephardt?) won in every state that held a primary. Meanwhile, broken, rotting 30-year old cans of chemicals are found buried in the desert in Iraq and Sean Hannity almost has a heart attack rejoicing over found WMDs. More soldiers die.

REPRINT: May, 2003
Truthout Interview With Howard Dean
An exclusive interview of Howard Dean by William Rivers Pitt

William Rivers Pitt/Truthout:
The Lies For War Unravel
"...Air Force Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski wore the uniform of the United States military for most of her adult life. In the last few years, until her retirement last April after 20 years of service, she has watched the infrastructure of American foreign policy creation rot from the inside out. Her view was not from the cheap seats, from some faraway vantage point, but from the hallways where the cancer walked and talked. Lt. Colonel Kwiatkowski worked in the same Defense Department offices where the cadre of hawkish neoconservatives that came in with George W. Bush trashed America's reputation, denigrated her fellow soldiers, and recreated the processes of government into a contra-constitutional laughingstock.."

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski/American Conservative:
Open Door Policy
A strange thing happened on the way to the war. *Part Three of a series*

Part One here

Part II (sorry, not online) shows how the intelligence-gathering process was subverted by the War Party.

Karen Kwiatkowski archive here

American Prospect/Robert Kuttner:
America as a One-Party State
Today's hard right seeks total dominion. It's packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself.
"...The United States could become a nation in which the dominant party rules for a prolonged period, marginalizes a token opposition and is extremely difficult to dislodge because democracy itself is rigged. This would be unprecedented in U.S. history.......the drift toward an engineered one-party Republican state has aroused little press scrutiny or widespread popular protest........
We are at risk of becoming an autocracy in three key respects.
-First, Republican parliamentary gimmickry has emasculated legislative opposition in the House of Representatives (the Senate has other problems)....
-Second, electoral rules have been rigged to make it increasingly difficult for the incumbent party to be ejected by the voters, absent a Depression-scale disaster, Watergate-class scandal or Teddy Roosevelt-style ruling party split...
-Third, the federal courts, which have slowed some executive-branch efforts to destroy liberties, will be a complete rubber stamp if the right wins one more presidential election.....
".....We've seen divided government before, with a Democratic president and a fiercely partisan Republican Congress. It is not pretty. But it is much more attractive than a one-party state."

OnLine Journal:
Edwards, Hootie and me
"..With Madonna for Clark, Whoopi for Dean and now Hootie for Edwards, what is an educated voter to do?"

What fills a person with hate?
I guarantee no one will walk away from this writing-collection feeling satisfied. Rosbalt News' German-based writer Barukh Namir offers five "highly personal views" of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, portraying the depth of feeling that separates the participants. This is not easy to read. Be prepared.

Almost One Year Ago:
A bitterly sarcastic view of the U.S. written just before the pre-emptive strike on Iraq

As the Bush administration lays out its case to crawl back to the U.N. and use her for a mixed purpose of politics and failure, we recognize that the U.N. is no more respected by the U.S. than a well-used trollop.

"....The 'unreality' of this pre-war period emphasizes the irrelevance of those international institutions whose legitimacy was based on the realities of fifty years ago and the pointlessness of some non-American politicians' attempts to observe the decencies and pretend to be 'independent', when it is quite clear that these same politicians have no independence whatsoever and will only be called upon to clear up the mess, like servants, after the first night of war has passed."

Revisionists are already arranging the elementary-school American history books and setting the stage for a monument to Dubya.

".......the USA will never be condemned for making war on Iraq, not in absurd international tribunals, nor by the world in general. Nobody will even consider the worthiness or unworthiness of the victor or whether the USA was right or wrong or think of America's actions from a political, legal or even moral standpoint. Nobody will ask whether war was really inevitable, they will simply accept it, as if war were as integral and inevitable a part of nature as a storm can be after a long, hot summer..."

If I knew this was where the bridge to the 21st Century was leading us, I may well have jumped over the side, swam back to the 20th, and warned the others who'd not yet begun the crossing. Hope is all we really have now that we've crossed the bridge, but there is little hope provided in this writer's strong words. What hurts is that there is a sting of truth in what he says. This next excerpt brings FOX News to mind:

"....Every stupefying technical detail of the upcoming war should help us to forget about who the war is against. This includes fear and hatred. You can't hate the enemies in a computer game and you mustn't think about who will die as a result of the amazing technological power of the US army. Whatever happens, it will be great to watch..."

Here we are, the most powerful nation on earth..using our power most irresponsibly and unwisely. We seem to have dropped our souls at the edge of the 21st Century bridge. Think back..where did we last see them? Are you certain you left home with them? My God, what have we done? Where will all this war lead a soulless people?
Is there a leader who can help us remember what hope meant? Without the ability to be inspired for a hopeful tomorrow, I'm afraid...not afraid of an orange alert or a terror attack...I'm afraid our American liberties will be the next in line to be reduced to nothing more than a well-used political tool by the leaders who are supposed to be protecting them. After too many lies, I do not feel I can trust our leaders to protect what is most precious to us as American citizens...what our fighting men and women are used for...die for.

Using the writer's words about the U.N. and replacing them with the Bill of Rights:

"...The 'unreality' of this post 9-11 period emphasizes the irrelevance of the Bill of Rights whose legitimacy was based on the realities of two-hundred twenty-one years ago and the pointlessness of some citizens' attempts to understand the rights and pretend to 'enjoy them', when it is quite clear that these same citizens will have no rights whatsoever and will only be free enough to obey the state, like servants, after the first night of the Patriot Act has passed."

Iraq War/Guardian:
Sergeant's widow calls on
Geoff Hoon to resign
"....[Hoon] was "extremely sorry" about the death of a tank commander who died in Iraq after being ordered to hand back body armour due to shortages..."

And he LIED to the widow on top of it all? Do these officials have no shame?

"....Yesterday Mrs Roberts said that Mr Hoon had not given her a confidential report on her husband's death, which he described doing to the Commons...."

Also see: Soldier's tapes pile pressure on Hoon to quit
Widow airs husband's recordings about fears of kit shortage and says defence chief misled Commons

Interestingly, the same widow praised Bush for meeting with her on his trip to Britain.

Article from Yorkshire Evening Post here.

Let Them Be--
a meditation for the world-weary

"LIFT up thine heart unto God with a meek stirring of love; and mean Himself, and none of His goods. And thereto, look the loath to think on aught but Himself. So that nought work in thy wit, nor in thy will, but only Himself. And do that in thee is to forget all the creatures that ever God made and the works of them; so that thy thought nor thy desire be not directed nor stretched to any of them, neither in general nor in special, but let them be, and take no heed to them. This is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God. All saints and angels have joy of this work, and hasten them to help it in all their might. All fiends be furious when thou thus dost, and try for to defeat it in all that they can. All men living in earth be wonderfully holpen of this work, thou wottest not how. Yea, the souls in purgatory be eased of their pain by virtue of this work. Thyself art cleansed and made virtuous by no work so much. And yet it is the lightest work of all, when a soul is helped with grace in sensible list, and soonest done. But else it is hard, and wonderful to thee for to do.
Let not, therefore, but travail therein till thou feel list. For at the first time when thou dost it, thou findest but a darkness; and as it were a cloud of unknowing, thou knowest not what, saving that thou feelest in thy will a naked intent unto God. This darkness and this cloud is, howsoever thou dost, betwixt thee and thy God, and letteth thee that thou mayest neither see Him clearly by light of understanding in thy reason, nor feel Him in sweetness of love in thine affection.
And therefore shape thee to bide in this darkness as long as thou mayest, evermore crying after Him that thou lovest. For if ever thou shalt feel Him or see Him, as it may be here, it behoveth always to be in this cloud in this darkness. And if thou wilt busily travail as I bid thee, I trust in His mercy that thou shalt come thereto."

-from the Cloud of Unknowing / circa anonymous 14th century Christian English mystic

Rekha Basu: How one Des Moines columnist decided on Howard Dean

"...Dean has been accused of being too angry. But if you're not angry, you haven't been paying attention to what's happening in America...
Dean tells you the tough truth. If people still want to listen - if he pulls this off - it's a true grassroots triumph..."

Ken Burns: On History

"I am constantly amazed at how our judgments of the present moment are inaccurate. A good look at the past can say a lot about where we are, where we might be going. The past is very much about who we are now. History is the question we in the present ask of the past. That sonar that bounces off the past tells us much about who we are now, and the questions we ask define us as much as our past."
-Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker

Food for thought:
It's difficult for one of the characters in a dream to be objective about the dream itself.

Mississippi: Literary Mojo

William Alexander Percy, Walker Percy, Shelby Foote, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Willie Morris, Tennessee Williams...all share a common thread...Mississippi.

"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi."
-William Faulkner

"I came across a photograph of him not long ago, his black face with the long snout sniffing at something in the air, his tail straight and pointing, his eyes flashing in some momentary excitement. Looking at a faded photograph taken more than forty years before, even as a grown man, I would admit I still missed him."

Iddybud photo

"I knew the place then better than I did my own heart--every bend in every road, every house and every field, the exact spot where the robin went for her first crocus. It was not in my soul then, only in my pores, as familiar to me as rain or grass or sunlight."
-Willie Morris / Excerpts from "My Dog Skip"

WETA Founder Elizabeth Campbell Dies at 101

We lost a treasure this month. Elizabeth saw television as a way to educate the general public in fine arts and music.
She founded the WETA public broadcasting outlet and helped guide it from humble beginnings to being one of the nation's most prominent public television stations. Since its start in 1958, WETA has grown from a single elementary school science program made in borrowed studios to the third-largest contributor of original shows to the Public Broadcasting System.
In her day, church doctrine prohibited female members of the clergy, so Elizabeth turned to teaching. A 1923 cum laude graduate of Salem College in North Carolina, she went on to receive a master's degree in education from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1924. Read the Washington Post article linked above to learn more about this amazing woman and her wonderful contribution to our nation.

This is what I hate about politics...

With his own money, John Kerry pays for guys like Michael Whouley to whip up the hype about a "convincing" (502-people-sampled) Zogby poll in the hopes it will be enough of a shot to the lame arm of Kerry's campaign to salvage him in Iowa.
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of us "little people" have supported other candidates with our hard-earned money while we watch the less-deserving campaigns rewarded by unreliable poll results which are touted all day long by mockingbird cable journalists.

Paul Krugman reminds us today that "General Clark and Howard Dean, whatever they may say in the heat of the nomination fight, are on the same side of the great Democratic divide." He also comments that what he dreads most, "in the event of an upset in Iowa, is the return of reporting about the political significance of John Kerry's hair."
He also says "The real division in the race for the Democratic nomination is between those who are willing to question not just the policies but also the honesty and the motives of the people running our country, and those who aren't. What makes Mr. Dean seem radical aren't his policy positions but his willingness — shared, we now know, by General Clark — to take a hard line against the Bush administration."
Mr. Krugman goes on to explain why he believes even Bill Clinton couldn't run a successful Clinton-style campaign this year. He ties it up with a statement that offers a glint of hope regarding my comments about why I hate politics...
He says, "A Democratic candidate will have a chance of winning only if he has an energized base, willing to contribute money in many small donations, willing to contribute their own time, willing to stand up for the candidate in the face of smear tactics and unfair coverage."

Dean and Clark supporters/campaigners will need to stay positive/hang strong/stay on the defensive/keep the faith.
I would implore any supporters of either Dean or Clark to support one another in their efforts for restoring AMERICAN HEART to the lately-barren Democratic party. We need one another. Any new attempts to smear one another will result in disaster for both candidates. Some may find my advice extremely "Pollyanna", but in these unique times it will take a unique form of politics to beat back the radical Bush machinery. Remember the bundle of sticks which, together, become unbreakable where once they were individually at great risk.

All's Fair? Clark Rivals Irked by an Aide's Tactics

So is this where a lot of the "Gotcha! Dean said (fill-in-the-blank) eons ago" is coming from?
Should we be thanking Chris Lehane? Is it better to get the old crap out in the open now(and soon forgotten by a forgetful public)..before Bush gets to Dean? Or is Chris Lehane systematically destroying the party for whom he's worked so hard by slicing and dicing his own? (Especially when there's doubt being raised by fellow candidates that Wesley Clark actually is one of their own). This vicious activity could backfire on the good General. Caution should be used.
You wouldn't see the GOP doing this. If it was going on within the GOP, the press would never get a hold of the gory details, I assure you. Are Democrats really this desperate and/or foolish???? Do they want to destroy their own party?
Who's giving out advice to Wes Clark? I hope they don't steer him down the vicious path.
I thought better of him...didn't think he'd sink low like this. It just doesn't seem "Wesley-an". ;)

At the same time, Dean should be careful about calling Clark "a Republican". As Juan Cole pointed out today at "Informed Comment":
"... Clark has to be judged on the program he puts forward in 2004, not how he voted in the 1970s. Ironically, Dean's attack on Clark isn't that damaging if Clark emerges as the Democratic candidate, and might even help him.."

While at Informed Comment, see Professor Cole's entry regarding the typical media "gotcha"-attempts. This one's about Wesley Clark's consistency on Iraq and al-Qaeda
"...And why is consistency only being demanded of Clark, anyway? I remember W. campaigning on a platform of "no nation-building." Now he has more state orphans to raise than the old woman in the shoe. As Don Rumsfeld, that
Buddhist sage, has said, "Things change."

This doesn't sound like a Republican to me: Clark is asking if Bush's war decisions were criminal. He thinks Congress should take responsibility on behalf of the American people to determine whether President Bush's march to war in Iraq amounted to a criminal offense.

It's clear that Wes Clark does not like what George Bush has done with Wes Clark's Army.
Richard Cohen (quite fairly, in my opinion) writes about Clark's strengths and weaknesses as a candidate.
General Clark will likely have a domestic-policy doughnut-hole in need of filling. The yin and yang of Clark/Dean..Dean/Clark..is becoming clearer every day as the near-perfect completion of the dream-team.

Document raises more DCAA questions about HALLIBURTON's $61.7 million Oil Overcharges
".....The Army Corps of Engineers document, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, raises new questions about Vice President Dick Cheney's former company two days after Pentagon auditors requested an investigation of possible criminal wrongdoing....
-The Defense Contract Audit Agency on Tuesday asked the Pentagon's inspector general to investigate a "suspected irregularity" involving the Halliburton contract to provide gasoline to civilians in Iraq....
-Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, said Thursday that another Pentagon agency and an Iraqi oil company pay less than half of Altanmia's price for fuel trucked into Iraq from Kuwait. Waxman and other Democrats have called for further investigations of the matter and criticized the Halliburton contract as evidence of the Bush administration's rewarding its corporate friends.
.."

PRIOR IDDYBUD MENTIONS OF THE STORY
HERE
....and HERE.

Go here...don't ask questions...just go here. ;)

Why is the Iowa Democratic Party asking for a media black-out/delay at polls on Caucus night?
What happened to freedom of the press?
".....We fear the premature release of your findings may jeopardize or handicap the outcome in the first-in-the-nation caucuses."
Jeapordize the outcome by reporting? Really??

"....Releasing your results just 30 minute later could make a huge difference in keeping our caucus night free from outside interference.."
As if these people haven't heard (and read) all the other TRIPE from the press already!!!!!

Latest Iowa Zogby poll termed "crack for the weak" by pundits-
Many say poll numbers do not accurately reflect local insider opinions



David Yepsen is relying on the Zogby numbers when he warns Dean and Gephardt to watch their backs while they are absent from Iowa at the end of this week. Mr. Yepsen believes "as Dean slips, Kerry benefits. As Gephardt slips, Edwards profits."
We shall see.
ABC NEWS (The Note): "(Caveat: The svengalis at ABC News and some major papers don't like Zogby's tracking. One ABC guru calls this poll "crack for the weak." Perhaps. But, since it's the only crack on the street right now, political junkies — like the people who have read this far — have come to at least enjoy a small toke. It does square with the gut feelings Iowa insiders and local politicians have about the contest.)"

As Martin Luther King Day approaches...

A new generation....a new hope..a new dream.
If it wasn't for the inspiration which Martin Luther King Jr. provided, we would not recognize the real weapons of mass destruction....the oldest weapons of mass destruction...hatred, fear, and division.

Because of Martin, we DO recognize the real enemy and we DO understand what we need to get our country back on the right path.

The new messenger is the courageous Howard Dean.

Thank God we've had these men of courage to lead us through the most confusing of times.
The 60s....and now the beginning of the new century when fear and hatred is prevalent and hope and inspiration is most needed.

I hope for Howard Dean..and for all of us American people!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where would Martin Luther King Jr. stand on the issues today? Some of us that lived through the '60s know he would be against the war in Iraq. He would be against poverty, and he would be against ignorance. He would remind us that one man with courage is a majority. We have one man like that from Vermont. That man is Howard Dean."
_________

"I want you to imagine where we would be today if Howard Dean had not had the courage to stand up, and if hundreds of thousands of Americans had not had the courage to stand up with him.
We'd be left with a personality contest between the same old Washington politicians—hedging their bets, following the polls, retreating from a single controversial word.
Instead we are filled with hope. We've awakened a movement. And we've made
this election meaningful—a real referendum on the direction of our country.
-both statements by Martin Sheen 1-14-04

~~~~~~~~~~

Nearly a Thousand Protest Bush Visit to MLK Tomb
"...Nicholas was among about 700 people who booed, chanted and beat drums near the typically placid grave site, angry that Bush was there on what would have been the slain civil rights leader's 75th birthday...
....Bush's visit to observe King's birthday upset some civil rights activists who said the president's policies on Iraq,
affirmative action and funding for social services conflict with King's legacy. They also complained that the scheduling conflicted with their own plans to honor King.
-"If Dr. King was here today, he'd be protesting too," said Petite Hammonds, a protester from Atlanta."

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

In 1968, Martin was not much more than a terrorist to the government.
A terrorist.
Think about that.
"..there was going to be a crackdown in America because of a terrorist threat. He was on that list to be immediately arrested and so the media had a certain kinship with the government... a position that Dr. King put them in a difficult bind. I should never forget our last staff meeting before going to Memphis, really. And he had been agonizing on the terrible attacks by the media and by the government..."
-Rev. Jesse Jackson 01-15-04 on Democracy Now

I looked up the word "easily-confused asswipe" in the dictionary.
Gawsh darn it--look at the picture I found!
*same photo found under:
'Hey, babe-remember those 20 minutes when you had that other talk show?'*

The guy on the right used to be the guy on the left. Forgive him..this is just another one of those uncomfy growing stages. He has yet to bloom into a man who can show he has an ounce of common sense.

Most blatant lie of the day:
The National Center for Public Policy Research is "non- partisan"
Yeah...
and I'm Britney Spears.
This National Center for Public Policy Research is nothing more than a tiny rightwing husband and wife outfit.
Look at the Bush-sucking think-tank's PRESIDENT Amy Ridenour's weblog..the latest "good one" is "Maybe Jefferson Was No Democrat".(BARF)
One look at her blog weblinks will show you where her head is at.

No one in Washington seemed ever to have heard of this so-called "think tank" outfit until this curious little op-ed appeared in the Washington Times in summer, 2001.
Do any of you remember the curious NCPPR fiasco? Amy Ridenour wrote a piece for the moonie-Washington Times warning the U.S. not to support Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia??-HELLO?! MALAYSIA??- This warning came from Amy with a bogus-then/bogus-now claim that the National Centre for Public Research is a "non-partisan American think-tank" when it is a reactionary, 'free market/conservative', Reagan/Bush campaign operation and the Washington Times (also a bastion of American conservatism and the Republican right). The piece dealt with Ridenour and/or NCPPR attempting to link the people's legitimate, constitutional opposition in Malaysia to Islamic militancy, violence and radicalism. (Ibrahim vs. Mahathir).
Although Amy Ridenour denies that she and her organization had been paid by the Malaysian Government or any other entity for her outrageous report, she never identified who were the Malaysian officials and individuals who had fed her with the materials for her questionable article.

Today, the contrived Drudge Report front-page links an article with NCPPR blasting Gore on global warming, tiltingly titling the link: "GROUP: Gore's Speech 'Demagoguery'... "
Even Drudge is too embarrassed to say WHAT group.
Lame, lame, lame.

Islam and the contemporary crisis of humanity
by Yusuf Al-Khabbaz
One major problem related to the lack of humanity in modern technological societies is selfishness. Many people, including Muslims, don’t seem to have time to help others, or they use various restrictions as excuses to keep them in their own worlds rather than being out helping others – they want to ignore the other people around them.

"...It is possible to look at prophecies, and all traditions have them, often conflicting with one another, but this endeavor may not be fruitful at this point in time, since like any tradition, prophecies can also be pressed into service to suit the particular ideological constructs of the age in which they are invoked....

.....if others want to see compassion and humanity, they will see them, and if they want to see cruelty and selfishness, they will see those too. It is like reading the poetry of Rumi and Hafez: readers can apprehend the poem wherever their nafs is, in, for example, understanding the frequent references to love and intoxication in different and conflicting ways. But this question has at root an important point. What matters is how people live, and this point can be expanded a bit more to include the idea of living as a member of humanity, in light of the points made above, and then reflecting on how that new-found sense of humanity translates within the Islamic tradition. To help reflection on this point, questions must be asked such as, how is it that Muslims feel they do not show their humanity? What does that mean? What is an example of some one who does or does not show their humanity? In other words, how is what it means to show compassion and humanity being judged?"

Rumi's Life to be Put on Film
"....Saban Calis started screenplay preparations one and a half years ago.....Calis summarized the goal of the film project this way: 'to contribute to world peace and induce tolerance between people by introducing Mevlana in the international arena at its best.' ..."


hear Haale here

Iranian-American singer serves Rumi rock with a twist --In New York, the crowds love Haale
-even if they don’t understand the Farsi lyrics

Today's League of Liberals Featured Blogs:

ACT (A-Changin'Times)
According to Veralynne at ACTblog, Al Gore exposed Bush on the environment and global warming in NYC today. She also mentions the 17 "what ifs" in an article titled "What If We Had A Progressive Vision That Offered Corporations Big Profits?" by Rob Kall that she believes are 'very doable'.

My favorite featured article on ACT is one by Stephen Dinan titled "two waves of change"
It provides much food for thought.

HuckUpChuck
Recent HuckUpChuck Blog features some intereting thoughts on the Bush-Hitler MoveOn.org comparison fiasco.

As Vermont governor, Dean didn't appoint minorities to his Cabinet. Minority leaders say it was not for lack of trying in the nearly all-white state.

It's way below zero here in in the Northeast.
My fingers feel frozen, even as I sit in a heated house. I've been wearing a hat all day..both indoors and outdoors.
I'm wearing two layers of clothing...three socks (on each foot;).
The furnace at the local SPCA broke down last night-see VIDEO at this site. People have donated hundreds of blankets to help keep the poor animals warm. My brother and sister-in-law own a thoroughbred horse and I'm sure they've been keeping him company out in his chilly stall. We'll all be happier when the next heat wave comes along..ushering in 10-degree temperatures!

Chris Suellentrop questions Wes Clark campaigning statements
I guess the press is making a lame attempt to be "fair"(?)...uh..let's see..hmm..maybe we can find some Wes Clark gaffes...
(*rolling eyes*).

" I'm Al Franken. I'm here to present the funniest ad award.
I'm a last-minute substitution, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was supposed to be the presenter, but unfortunately he was murdered."

-Al Franken at MoveOn.org Awards in NYC
~~~~~~~~
*A White House official, who asked not to be identified, was present in the same National Security Council meetings as O'Neill immediately after Bush's inauguration in January and February of 2001. He/she corroborates O’Neill’s account. Contrary to Bush's misleading (blame Clinton) lie in Mexico the other day, the official says Bush "went beyond the Clinton administration's halfhearted attempts to overthrow Hussein without force." Bush was hyperfocused on Saddam. *

The Soldiers At My Front Door
by John Dear

A lone voice from the desert of New Mexico tells us that God does not want us to kill anyone.
I was blessed to have been in the presence of Reverend John Dear shortly after 9-11. He spoke of his experiences. He was living in NYC at the time of the attack. He looked into the eyes of parents who'd lost their children in the terror attack; he provided comfort and counsel to the families of the lost, and was told they wished for no further violence as an answer to violence.
Violence was to come, anyway. We all knew it would be so.
When I read Rev. Dear's latest commentary, I thought about Dennis Kucinich and his political message. My hope is that whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee will not forget Dennis Kucinich and his great idea for a U.S. Department of Peace.* see comments below*

"....I looked out the front window of the house where I live, next door to the church, and there they were--all 75 of them, standing yards away from my front door, in the street right in front of my house and our church, shouting and screaming to the top of their lungs, ?Kill! Kill! Kill!? Their commanders had planted them there and were egging them on.
-I was astonished and appalled. I suddenly realized that I do not need to go to Iraq; the war had come to my front door. Later, I heard that they had deliberately decided to do their exercises in front of my house and our church because of my outspoken opposition to the war. They wanted to put me in my place...
...I decided I had to do something. I put on my winter coat and walked out the front door right into the middle of the street. They stopped shouting and looked at me, so I said loudly, publicly for all to hear, ?In the name of God, I order all of you to stop this nonsense, and not to go to Iraq. I want all of you to quit the military, disobey your orders to kill, and not to kill anyone. I do not want you to get killed. I want you to practice the love and nonviolence of Jesus. God does not bless war. God does not want you to kill so Bush and Cheney can get more oil. God does not support war. Stop all this and go home. God bless you.?
-Their jaws dropped, their eyeballs popped and they stood in shock and silence, looking steadily at me. Then they burst out laughing. Finally, the commander dismissed them and they left... "

"...If we are to change the direction of our country, and turn people against Bush?s occupation of Iraq, we are going to have to face the ire and persecution of our local communities. If peace people in every local community insisted that our troops be brought home immediately, that the U.N. be sent in to restore Iraq, that all U.S. military aid to the Middle East be cut, and that our arsenal of weapons of mass destruction be dismantled, then we might all find soldiers marching at our front doors, trying to intimidate us. If we can face our soldiers, call them to quit the military and urge them to disobey orders to kill, then perhaps some of them will refuse to fight, become conscientious objectors and take up the wisdom of nonviolence. If we can look them in the eye and engage them in personal Satyagraha as Gandhi demonstrated, then we know that the transformation has begun..."

**Rev. John Dear, S.J., and Rep. Dennis Kucinich both received the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award on April 21, 2002. LINK HERE-"Kucinich Discusses Proposed Department of Peace"
"Dear, a Jesuit priest, long-time peace activist and author who served as coordinator of the Ground Zero chaplains spoke movingly of counseling the bereaved as ?heartbreaking? but at times inspiring. He quoted the wisdom of a woman who had lost her 30-year-old son as ?the real response of a peacemaker?: ?John, I have no room for anger. Bombing the hijackers will never bring back my son, heal my grief or my suffering." **

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

Sean Penn is back from another Iraq trip.

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

This article by Paul Loeb at Working For Change comes close to my own heart.
It's title is:
Dean and Kucinich
On two candidates who are fighting for something more than the nomination
".....Like many progressives, I've felt torn between Howard Dean's and Dennis Kucinich's respective strengths...
-This leaves me with Dean or Kucinich. If Kucinich's role is to raise the best possible issues, even if he'll never get nominated, I can see arguments for helping him stay in the fray, particularly in states where delegates are allocated proportionately. If Howard Dean wins, there will still be plenty of work for ordinary citizens in building grassroots support for the best of his proposals and challenging him on those we don't support, and come up with creative alternatives. I don't agree with Dean's every stand, but I'm tremendously heartened that a Democratic candidate who stands for something is actually leading the pack. It's a vast improvement from a year ago, and to the degree the other major Democratic candidates are now speaking out against Bush, Dean deserves much of the credit. If he can keep building enough momentum to lock up the nomination early on and focus entirely on distinguishing his vision from that of George Bush, this gives him a greater chance of winning. And because he's willing to fight and involve new people, he has a decent shot. To me, that's a gamble worth risking. Whether its promise is fulfilled may depend on what the rest of us do from this point onward..."

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

VILLAGE VOICE-Stephen Elliott-"The Dennis Kucinich Polka
What's so funny about peace, love, and the Dems' Great Ignored Candidate?"

".....there's nothing worse than being ignored and if Dennis wants to take on The New York Times I'm right there with him. Those elitist bastards have never once given me so much as a mention....
..There is no other press traveling with Kucinich. ABC apparently pulled their full-time reporter after Kucinich made a mockery of Ted Koppel at the debate in Durham, New Hampshire.....
...Late at night before the house party, I experience a deep connection with Kucinich. I can't believe there is no other press covering him. They assign 10 press people to watch John Kerry implode. Why ride in the back of the death bus when the front seat is open and waiting in the happy van?....
.... Just before I go to sleep I ask myself, Why not love your fellow man, why not peace on earth? In the morning the sun has risen over the enormous Coral Ridge shopping mall, the biggest in Iowa. And the shoppers from Iowa City and Cedar Rapids are pulling in like ants returning to a hill. I ask myself the same question, Why not peace on earth? And the answer occurs to me immediately—because the other guy wants to rape your women and kill your children..."

Judy Dean Comes Out
for People Magazine

Reading this was so much nicer than having to endure another Maureen Dowd harpy-piece.

NY Times' Jodi Wilgoren throws in her two cents on Judy Dean.
"...Political experts say spouses often help humanize the candidates they are married to. A spouse, the person presumably closest to the candidate, also provides a window into a politician's character, they said, and acts as a kind of validator..."
I really don't see Howard Dean as lacking in the "humanization" department simply because his responsible wife is back in Vermont working in a career she sees as important to the people who depend upon her. When you take away the gossip-mongering journalism-diarreah, you are left with a perfectly good, intelligent woman with a husband who, quite simply and respectfully,respects her wishes.
An important component to marriage is allowing one another to blossom into what they need to become while fiercely maintaining the intimate connection that is inaccessible and impenetrable to any outsiders. I don't care if the partners are Presidents or paupers. This obssession with Judy Dean, while predictable, is tired...and tiring.

Moseley Braun to Drop Presidential Bid and
Endorse Howard Dean


"Bill Clinton was a master politician ... but that was a different time..I think this is a time to fight.." says Howard Dean.

Iraq: Tests showed mortar shells found buried in Iraq this month did not contain any chemical substances as originally suspected;
One in seven "non-hostile" American troop deaths in Iraq have been suicides.

Boston Globe:
Ted Kennedy Speech-
Iraq war a political product marketed by Bush to win elections

Transcript of Ted Kennedy speech "Senator Kennedy: America, Iraq, and Presidential Leadership"

Karl Rove Eats King Tut's Wet-Nurse Lion Mummy-Leaves Behind Only Skeleton!

***Well..actually...Political guru Karl Rove claims that the job of journalists is "not necessarily to report the news. It's to get a headline or get a story that will make people pay attention to their magazine, newspaper or television more."***

"mmmm--that was one helluva good-tastin' lion!"


"No President has ever done more for human rights than I have."
-G.W. Bush to Ken Auletta/New Yorker
psst--he means human right-wingers

David Brooks responds to criticism of his January 6th column
In fairness to Mr. Brooks, because I have written extensively about this particular column, I wanted to link you to his general response.
Excerpt:
"....I am still on the learning curve here, and I do realize that mixture of a crack with a serious accusation was incredibly stupid on my part. Please do pass along to readers that I'm aware of how foolish I was to write the column in the way I did." -- David Brooks"

MEET ZELL MILLER:
DUBYA'S NEW BUTTPUPPET

I'm Your Puppet
Written by: Linden Oldham/Dan Penn
Performed by: Marvin Gaye

Pull the string and I'll wink at you, I'm your puppet
I'll do funny things if you want me to, I'm your puppet

I'll be yours to have and to hold
Darling you've got full control of your puppet

Pull another string and I'll kiss your lips, I'm your puppet
Snap your finger and I'll turn you some flips, I'm your puppet

Your every wish is my command
All you gotta do is wiggle your little hand
I'm your puppet, I'm your puppet

I'm just a toy, just a funny boy
That makes you laugh when you're blue
I'll be wonderful, do just what I'm told
I'll do anything for you
I'm your puppet, I'm your puppet

Pull them little strings and I'll sing you a song, I'm your puppet
Make me do right or make me do wrong, I'm your puppet

Treat me good and I'll do anything
I'm just a puppet an you hold my string, I'm your puppet
Yeah, I'm your puppet

Reuters/UK: Blair and Howard clash over [Dr. David] Kelly "lies"

N.Y.Times:
Dividing America With Culture War, Bush may provide attack on gay Americans in State of the Union speech


He'll put a carrot in front of poor women to convince them that even a bad marriage is a better economic plan than finding opportunity through independence. This will please his hypocritical right-wing Christian base.
Article linked is titled: Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage

To read interview, click on photo


From DeanforAmericablog

Foreign Policy

Guardian: Libyan Success Exposes Problem for Bush
"...Pakistan presents a difficult diplomatic problem for Washington. Critics say the idea that a major ally is giving nuclear technology to three countries on Washington's list of terror exporters is an embarrassment to President Bush, who has argued his top priority is keeping weapons of mass destruction away from terrorists and rogue states. They want the Bush administration to lean harder on Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, to stop his country's clandestine nuclear activities...if Washington pushes Musharraf too far, Pakistan could scale back its anti-terrorism help. In a worst-case scenario, Musharraf could fall, and Islamic extremists hostile to the United States could get their hands on Pakistan's nuclear technology."
SEE IDDYBUD COMMENTARY OF JANUARY 4th, 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Derrick Jackson: Powell's shrinking credibility on Iraq
"...With report after report coming in showing that weapons of mass destruction did not exist or were destroyed over the past decade, it is clear that Powell can no longer be seen as the softer face of the White House. No matter how cautious he was, he still perpetuated the lie. He rolled in the fog for America's denial and deception..."

Democracy Now:Richard Perle v. Paul Krugman: A Debate On The War On Terror


Nicholas Kristof flirts with the idea of giving Cambodian kids sweatshop jobs (six days a week/15 hours a day/$2 pay) with no labor standards.
Meanwhile tax-evading American corporations doing business in Bermuda will get fat and more Americans will lose jobs. American jobs will be bled, as a matter of fact. Why? Because it's better than doing nothing or letting those pesky Mexicans get the work, according to Kristof.
Kristof says: "Now the [Democratic] party may be retreating toward protectionism under the guise of labor standards. That would hurt American consumers."
Someone please slap Kristof and wake him up! I can't imagine any better way for Americans to be hurt than to see them lose their employment opportunities. American consumers are (often unknowingly) betraying one another by consuming cheap products made by little third-world girls who toil six days a week for $2/day...while the American consumers of those cheap products are losing jobs for one another. If Americans saw the stark reality of all this instead of having it wrapped in a pretty political package of lies about compassion, they would be stunned.
Read Kristof's column..you decide. I think Kristof has lost the voice of the true American liberal. I don't think he has his head screwed on properly. He ought to start paying more attention to the kids on the American street whose parents have no work. While Kristof flirts with Utopia-world where little Cambodian girls get societal comeuppance, Bush is killing America's workers.

I'd encourage Kristof to read Harold Meyerson's article today in the Washington Post:
Good for Investors, Bad for the Rest
"....If you work for a living in George W. Bush's America, you're a sap..."

The Democratic race

What Dean Means
"..Howard has done it - he has in fact forged a kind of democratic uprising - in the best non-violent but vital sense of that word. The national libido has been given a focus - the national depression has been given an antidote - and - the national unspoken ambivalence about democracy has been given a target..."

Broder: Required Reading On Dean
"...The Dean who emerges from these pages is a more complex and interesting politician than the man on the stump this past year -- less strident and in many respects more impressive.
-The country has much it needs to learn about this man, and this book is a great place to start."

Dean Defeats Sharpton In D.C. Protest Primary

Jimmy Carter will make a joint appearance with Howard Dean in Georgia on the eve of the Iowa caucuses
*I would like to see President Carter endorse Howard Dean. It would counter the Democrats' filthy traitor Zell Miller's anti-Democratic activities in the South.*

"End Mad-Dean disease": Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr., in appearance with Wesley Clark, gives wise/cautionary advice to Dean rivals
"...The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Tuesday that some Democratic rivals of presidential hopeful Howard Dean have succumbed to "mad Dean disease" and warned that the party would self-destruct if the campaign remained "too hostile and too bloody."...

William Saletan: Hard-Headed Howard
Dean can win, with a little tough love
Okay. We'll give Saletan a break..for the time being. From all I've read from him at Slate these past six months, he's a fickle and rather catty sort. But then again, so is the American public. Perhaps the Dean campaign could glean something positive from this bit of advice.
*note: Slate could use a new photographer...unless they intended to make Dean's head look misshapen.

Paul Krugman: The Awful Truth
".....People are saying terrible things about George Bush. They say that his officials weren't sincere about pledges to balance the budget. They say that the planning for an invasion of Iraq began seven months before 9/11, that there was never any good evidence that Iraq was a threat and that the war actually undermined the fight against terrorism.
-But these irrational Bush haters are body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freaks who should go back where they came from: the executive offices of Alcoa, and the halls of the Army War College...having a few months of good news doesn't excuse a consistent pattern of dishonest, irresponsible leadership. And that pattern keeps getting harder to deny."

Washington Post: Release From Jail Sought for Cleared
Terrorism Suspect Benamar Benatta
By Michael Powell

credit: Washington Post
"...Benatta is one of the last lost men of 9/11. Jailed on the day of the 2001 attacks, the Algerian air force lieutenant has spent more than two years in federal prisons -- much of that time in solitary confinement -- even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001 that he had no connection to terrorism...."

Crisis Papers: A Quick Pat on the Back-
Now Into the '04 Trenches
By Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor
".... half the population already is considering voting for someone other than George Bush and his extremist policies, thanks in no small measure to the work liberals, progressives, moderates and others have done over the past year.
-We should feel good about all that. Take a deep breath, smile, take in the props....OK, that's enough. Now we need to stop patting ourselves on the back, and get back to work...fasten your seat belts; it's going to be one hell of a scary, bumpy ride.."

Dean Calls War "Strategic Error"; Cites Army War College Report, Secretary O'Neill Statements, Carnegie Endowment
"....Time To Stand Up for America, Stand Against Administration that Misled Nation Into War.."

An Astute Observation by Josh Marshall

Number of days between Novak column outing Valerie Plame and announcement of investigation: 74 days.

Number of days between O'Neill 60 Minutes interview and announcement of investigation: 1 day.

Having the administration reveal itself as a gaggle of hypocritical goons ... priceless.

-- Josh Marshall

Either the Washington Press Corps has amnesia, they're timid lily-livers, or they've got an anti-Dean agenda

I'm just not sure which of the above is true, but the many of the total bores in the Washington Press Corps seem to think they will be able to control the People with their tripe being passed off as "professional journalism". They helped to ruin Gore with their ego-bloated idiocy in 2000.
This time the People have their number. They are becoming nearly as despicable as Bush himself. They have no right calling Howard Dean a conspiracy theorist, crazy, or any other negative insinuations or accusations. Read this Village Voice article. Are our memories that short-term...really?? What Howard Dean said on Diane Rehm does not even require a stretch of the imagination.

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

Eric Boehlert has an article at Salon.com directly related to this topic. It's a definitive narrative of the history of the media's dysfunctonal relationship with Howard Dean:

Salon.com: The media vs. Howard Dean
Democrats haven't voted yet, but reporters have got the story: The former Vermont governor is angry, gaffe-prone and unelectable. How do they know? Republicans, and anonymous Democrats, told them so.
By Eric Boehlert

"........." For Dean's top backer there must be a sense of déjà vu in all of this. In 2000, Vice President Al Gore suffered from chronically caustic coverage that clung to all sorts of fictional, Republican-inspired spin about the vice president being an unlikable, untrustworthy exaggerator. Suddenly, as with Gore in 2000, it seems Dean is battling not only his Democratic opponents and Republican Party officials, he's also wrestling members of the media's chattering class who view him with growing unease and even contempt..."

"..It's the press, egged on by Republican spin and eager to play the role of hardheaded analyst, that has latched onto this notion that Dean is too passionate to be president....."

"...with all the focus on electability, most stories [re: questioning Dean's electability] seem short on data that proves their thesis....."

"....Sometimes the narrative starts with the mainstream media and gets picked up by the RNC, sometimes it's the other way around. What's beyond debate is that there's a media echo chamber -- and its focus has been on Dean's flaws. And if the trend continues, more voters may agree with Gore about the rightward bias of the media....."

The Guardian: Bush besieged
by war college
Suzanne Goldenberg 1/13/04

"....The Bush administration's doctrinaire view of the war on terror, which lumped together regimes like Saddam Hussein's and al-Qaida as a single undifferentiated threat, led the US on a dangerous "detour" into an unnecessary war, according to an unusually strong critique from the US army war college. "The global war on terrorism as presently defined and conducted is strategically unfocused, promises much more than it can deliver, and threatens to dissipate US military and other resources in an endless and hopeless search for absolute security," says the study by Jeffrey Record, a visiting scholar at the Strategic Studies Institute.
The report, endorsed by other scholars at the institute, appeared yesterday at a delicate moment for the White House, which was fending off damaging comments from a former cabinet member on its decision to go to war..."

"...Although he says that Washington may be able to defeat al-Qaida, he concludes that its war on terror has designated so many fronts and enemies that it is fundamentally unwinnable.
Meanwhile the war in Iraq has led it into an open-ended conflict that has drained resources from its efforts to secure American soil against another attack by al-Qaida..."

THE SSI REPORT CAN BE SEEN HERE

The 97-year-old woman who survived being buried in the rubble after the powerful earthquake in Bam, Iran had said that she'd recited poems of the great Persian poets Rumi and Saadi to keep herself from going mad.
I read there was a man found alive after being buried for thirteen days following the quake.
Thirteen days.
Sadly, I just read the news that he has died.

His name was Jalil. He was the father of eight children, two of whom died in the quake.

What do you think you would do if you were buried--fully conscious and waiting for help? Would you pray? Would you sing? Whose poetry would you recite? Whose song would you sing? Whose face would come to mind? What would pull you through?

Howard Dean supporters from all over the country are in Iowa in new/different campaign to get Iowans to the polls for their candidate:
Adam Nagourney Speaks About the Latest on the Democratic Race on PBS/Lehrer Hour


Tonight on the Jim Lehrer hour, NY Times' Adam Nagourney says there have been numerous polls in Iowa.. LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Zogby. He states that in any year, polls are not all that accurate or reliable in Iowa. Ex: weather in mid-January-Iowa can throw all poll results way off. He says this year is even more difficult than usual..so many new people are coming out for Howard Dean. He mentions that the use of cell phones are not included in random samples, so this also throws off the accuracy of predictability. He says several candidates are strong on the ground. He mentions Dean and Gephardt first, saying they are very strong..Gephardt being the more "old-fashioned" campaigner and Dean campaigning in a new/different way..with thousands of people who have arrived in Iowa from all over the country to get Iowans to the polls for Gov. Dean. Nagourney says the Kerry campaign is quite active. According to Nagourney, the best on ground activity is coming from the John Edwards camp. Nagourney says Dean is having a "difficult period", but he doesn't say why he thinks this is true. Interviewer Gwen Ifill does not ask him to expound on this point. It seems like one of those rather 'of-the-moment/will change tomorrow' comments (based on the nature of sheer fluidity and unstable flurry of political campaigning). (I see *Matt Drudge trying to make a "BFD" about it over on his site-Duh.) Tom Harkin endorsed Dean..and is also saying many good things about John Edwards. Nagourney figures the real fight is all about who's going to wind up coming in first on January 19th..and any votes for Edwards would take away from Gephardt.

*Druge Report says: "Dean's supporters expressed distress Monday at what many described as his faltering performance in a televised debate over the weekend, the latest in a series of difficulties he has encountered," Nagourney claims. "With the rest of the field working in Iowa, Gen. Wesley Clark has taken advantage in New Hampshire to move up in the polls behind Dean, drawing crowds that are beginning to rival Dean's and threatening his once dominant position in the state."*

If they are true Dean supporters, they shouldn't be distressed at all. They should be putting forth all that much more effort to help Dean win next week in Iowa...or they should travel to New Hampshire to campaign for him there.
I assume this "turbulence" of which Nagourney speaks is related to what we know will be coming in future primaries...Clark vs. Dean.
Dean supporters need to get tough and understand there will never be time for hand-wringing if they want their candidate to win.

If I didn't know better, I might suspect a stop-Dean tone to this type of reporting.
Let's hope I know better...
I'll be watching.
~~~~~~~~~
Update (1-12/11:30 pm): Well, here's the story.
"...General Clark's rise is threatening Dr. Dean's once-dominant position in the state and could dash his hopes of essentially ending the contest with an overwhelming victory there..."
"...He[Dean] seemed tired..."I am rejuvenated and ready to fight," he said. "When people attack me, that rejuvenates me".....Dr. Dean's advisers said Monday that they were neither surprised nor worried about the suddenly stormy climate.....some Dean supporters expressed distress at his halting performance at the debate, in which the Rev. Al Sharpton managed to do what none of Dr. Dean's more established competitors had managed this year: knock him off his game. ...."He looked like a deer caught in the headlights," Jeff Bovee, 33, a professor of exercise science at Central College and a Dean supporter, said..."
**Some "supporter" Jeff is.**

JTA/Global News Service of the Jewish People:
Howard Dean's Statement
"..Ultimately, only the Palestinians and the Israelis themselves can make and keep the peace and work out the specifics of a lasting agreement. It seems clear that this will not happen as long as Yasser Arafat is in control..."

...The United States and Israel are partners. Let me be clear: preserving Israel’s security is a bedrock principle that will guide my administration’s foreign policy.
On a tour of the Old City in Jerusalem during my 2002 trip to Israel, I experienced first-hand the miracle of the modern Jewish state.
I saw remains of a house next to a stone wall that King Hezekiah had ordered built to defend against invaders. In a neighboring house, I looked out the window down at the stone wall and the remains of that house and understood that 3,000 years ago people prayed the same prayers in the same Hebrew language.
That experience reinforced my commitment to the special relationship the United States has with Israel. Israel will always have the resources necessary to guarantee its long-term defense and security. And we do this not as a favor for Israel but because it is in America’s interests to do so.
I also believe that peace in the Middle East is a key U.S. interest and that the United States is the only intermediary that can bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the peace table. Playing the role of a fair and honest broker is consistent with the special relationship the United States has with Israel..."

"....we’re never going to get peace in the Middle East as long as we have terror. Israel has both the right and the responsibility to protect and defend its citizens against terrorists..."

Waiting for Hutton report on the Number 10/Dr. David Kelly case

The Law Lord's report will be ferociously spun by every side. That's why he is right to take time and great care crafting his verdict
by Andrew Rawnsley, Sunday January 11, 2004

"....Truth to tell, the only person who really knows what Lord Hutton will say is Lord Hutton. Maybe even he doesn't entirely know yet. As they wait for the inscrutable judge, journalists and politicians are left to stab in the dark, that place they most hate to be...."


Blair is being called to account on Hutton report

"... Michael Howard has stoked up the pressure on embattled Tony Blair, accusing the Prime Minister of having "something to hide" over the death of Dr David Kelly. The Conservative Leader has fired off a letter to Downing Street calling for clear cut answers to questions on the forthcoming, long-awaited, Hutton Report....."

Blair Will Resign If Found Lying....

.....Vows Not to Hide from Hutton Findings

Boston Globe: A bold, new messenger
By Eileen McNamara, 1/11/2004

"...Where his rivals hear anger, Dean's audiences hear hope for real change. What his rivals perceive as rashness, Dean's supporters see as boldness. When he tells them that he does not have the power to change the country, that they do, these voters believe him and, maybe for the first time, think the political process belongs to them, not the candidates hungry for their votes...."

BUSH KNEW TWO LOUD WORDS
by William Rivers Pitt
"...the 'preparedness-gap' becomes the whittled-down talking point du jour. This is a whiff of colossal proportions, the implications of which will echo down the halls of history unless someone develops enough spine to speak the truth into a large microphone. The talking point is not difficult to manage. It was splashed in gaudy multi-point font across the front page of the New York Post in May of 2002.
Two words: 'Bush Knew.'
It is, frankly, amazing that this has fallen down the memory hole...."

"....too many facts are now in hand, thanks in no small part to the work of 9/11 widows like Kristen Breitweiser, which fly in the face of the administration's demurrals..."

I took this 45-question test.
Look at which leader they tell me I'm most like:


~~~~~~~~~~

Have you seen the most-blogged-about books of 2003?

Know Thine Enemy:
Grover Norquist - "Washington Grotesque"

"...He leaves the impression that perhaps some of the 18 hours a day he devotes to establishing a permanent Republican majority has to do with punishing college tormenters..."

"...Some conservatives have attacked him for his outreach to Arab and Muslim Americans, charging that he has embraced radicals with ties to terrorism. Administration officials, including Rove, have said there is no truth to the allegations...Other conservatives offered reasons of their own for avoiding him. One called his meeting "a freak show" that is "intellectually insulting." Another said he "represents a rare level of vitriol and suspicion."

"...Norquist issued meeting guidelines, including: "No gossiping. No whining. No rambling discourses or philosophical discussions. We know we are hard core."

"....During a monthly conference call with the state meeting leaders, Norquist asked the Vermont representative for dirt on the former governor, Howard Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. "It would be extremely helpful for you to get the information out," Norquist said. "So people around the country have talking points on Dean."

"....Democrats used to anger him, Norquist said. He's past angry now. "Do you get mad at cancer? We'll defeat and crush their institutions, and the trial lawyers will go sell pizza. We're not going to hang them. Most of the people on the left will be happy in Grover's world. I feel about the left the way [Donald H.] Rumsfeld felt about the Iraqis."

"....And after Norquist purges the United States, there is the rest of the world. He says this with the confidence of a man who uses a black laundry marker as a pen. He has helped start Wednesday meetings in Canada, New Zealand, England and Japan. He has learned to be patient: "I now understand you can't just explain to the idiots how to do it and to see it your way, because they're too foolish to see it."

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

Labor Unions: Know Thine Enemy:

"..."The unions know that four more years of Bush will mean a huge number of union jobs lost to new free-trade agreements and the outsourcing of the federal work force." -Grover Norquist

Don't Miss Ken Burns' "Reconstruction" on PBS/American Experience


Richmond, Va. - photo by Iddybud

Airing Jan. 12th and 13th on PBS

Read about Ken Burns' new two-part documentary at USA Today.
It is also featured in the Boston Globe.

"....Southern blacks lost it all. That sweet thing they had tasted was gone. The promises of the 14th and 15th amendments, guaranteeing full citizenship and the vote, remained hollow for almost a century. If the North won the war, America's first modern horror, the South won its aftermath...."

Try this interesting feature at the PBS site: See what happened State-by-State after the war.

American Prospect:
In Hickory, N.C., they're trying desperately to save American jobs

Because of of lax -- and often unenforced -- trade laws, the Hickory-based hosiery industry still may lose out to cheap foreign labor


Hickory, N.C. - Circa 1912

I highly recommend reading this article. Journalist Ayelish McGarvey has done a good job of showing us how the WTO and lax enforcement of its rules are affecting real American lives.

Excerpts:

"....In 2001, China's entrance into the World Trade Organization took the American hosiery industry by storm; within one year, the value of that country's exports of non-cotton socks to the United States soared by 462 percent....

"....without political intervention, the leanest of American hosiery manufacturers are still no match for China, which boasts a huge labor force and an undervalued currency. These days, Dan St. Louis is turning his attention to the politics of free trade: At the end of next year, quotas on Chinese imports will be lifted, giving China unlimited access to U.S. markets. St. Louis is assisting manufacturers in drafting a safeguard petition to the Committee for Implementation of Textile Agreements to extend the quotas. "I realized that no matter what I do and no matter how efficient our people are, we are going to lose a majority of our industry if we don't do something about China," he says. "We feel like we've been sold out..."

"...China's violations of trade rules such as transshipment and patent protection put American manufacturers even further behind. Assistant Commerce Secretary William Lash said in November that he would give China a "gentleman's C to a D+" grade on its performance over the past year in enforcing World Trade Organization commitments...."

Composer John Adams
Interview on NPR

John Adams
Credit: Deborah O'Grady Copyright 2003
John Adams is one of the most oft-performed and influential living American composers.
He's featured today at NPR.

Paul O'Neill Exposes the Ugliness of Post-Reaganites

This WSJ opinion is only a beginning for the poison-pen articles and columns soon to be written about Paul O'Neill.
In reality, O'Neill's honest tattle-tales could fall out in unseen yet healing ways.
It's time to heal our nation. What will that entail?
It will entail exposing everything that was wrong about the Reagan era.
Ultra-Conservative Republicans want to perpetuate a myth about the greatness of it all.
They hope to hold on to the highest power over Americans by perpetuating the myth. We need an honest conversation.
We need to expose the Dick Cheneys, the Karl Roves and the Grover Norquistians (I certainly didn't say Christians) for what they are. They are greedy, ugly-souled, unAmerican devils with a vicious, blind and unjust ideology. They are pulling the strings of the 2000-carefully-placed Howdy-Doody Bush in our White House.
I'm glad Paul O'Neill had the ego sufficient to remain an honest Lone Ranger. It allowed him the opportunity to see what really went on in the secretive Bush administration and survive to tell the gory tales.

When Dick Cheney says: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter", he conveniently forgets that the visionary Bill Clinton came along for eight years to cover his ass. Deficits do matter to American parents who don't want to pass all their greedy debt onto the backs of their children.

Poll: Alternative News Gaining Influence

"....People are turning increasingly to alternatives such as the Internet for news about the presidential campaign, shifting away from traditional outlets such as the nightly network news and newspapers, a poll found..."

If this means a reliance upon cable news and SNL, I'm very afraid to tell you we're being dumbed down. Beware.
SNL has become nothing more than entertainment (without the intellect). Cable news is tabloid schlock.
If it means the Daily Show and the blogs are kicking in as a meaningful influence, it's encouraging news.
The fact that network shows like Nightline and any newspapers are being ignored/abandoned is very discouraging.
Like them or hate them, the newspapers are a wonderful source of learning about some of the most important issues.
Perhaps people are becoming discouraged in the lack of truly liberal treatment of issues in today's newspapers.
The Internet has taken up the flame that was once carried by bold newsprint journalists. In a way, that's sad. But I guess that's progress in (small d) democracy.

Notes on last night's Democratic debate

Maria Celeste Arraras, who co-facilitated last night's Democratic debate was unprofessional to throw in her personal statements after candidates had respectfully replied to her open-ended questions. I thought it was a poorly-led debate which produced nothing more than soundbites and barely-explored ideas. Adam Nagourney at the NY Times said "The debate revealed no major new differences among the candidates, and for the most part allowed them to use their last joint televised appearance to restate the themes most of them have been sounding in the state for more than a year."
I think that's a fair statement.

I'll give you an example of how Maria Celeste Arraras was unprofessional. Howard Dean was asked if those non-citizens who went to war for the U.S. should be granted citizenship. Howard Dean, while generally in support, said the issue needs to be carefully thought out to avoid Hispanics eager for citizenship disproportionately signing up to serve. Rather than asking him to explain, Maria Celeste Arraras said (not once, but after TWO of Dean's statements, that Puerto Ricans sign up for the military because "they want to".
"Because they want to"?! HELLO? What the hell does that mean? it could mean anything from -they need money; -they think it's their only route to citizenship; -it's their only hope of paying for an education; it's the only way to support their family...or maybe they really DO want the thrill of being in the middle of a war where people shoot at them daily.
"Because they want to" could mean anything.

If Maria Celeste Arraras had asked Dean the right questions rather than defensively assuming he was trying to keep "her kind" out of the white-man's United States, here is what I think she would have heard:
Dean, out of compassion and fairness to all people, doesn't want to use poor Hispanics as toy soldiers for the pleasure of chickenhawk-dreaming.

John Kerry pandered to Arraras, reassuring her (at any cost,apparently) that legal immigrants in the military have already met certain standards and should get automatic citizenship. This, in my opinion, only assures that it will be easier for our leaders to send needy young men to their fact-manufactured wars. We'll have more (poor/brown) bodies to play with.

Howard Dean is right in saying we need to have a bitterly frank conversation about race in this country.

I wish Dean would have stood up a bit more to Al Sharpton. Sharpton had every right to bring up the record of
having no people of color in his Vermont cabinet. I think Dean should have shamelessly explained that Vermont has
less than 1% black population as compared to nearly 13% in the entire country.

Sigh. Lester Holt brought up the Confederate flag issue again. (Sadly creating division rather than drawing out some new ideas from these 9 candidates). Both Dean and Edwards hopped on the bandwagon, calling the Confederate flag a dreaded ugly symbol. Edwards said that the flag was offensive "to all Americans." While I realize that's how many people see it, I also realize it's because many people are not properly educated about the Civil War. I hate seeing politicians perpetuating ignorance. Pardon my blatant honesty here, but I have no choice. I'm compelled to step aside politics and tell the truth.
Yes-the Confederate flag is a symbol of where we never want to be again as a nation. But the flag is a symbol of where we were..under which many American men died in a tragic and lengthy confrontation between fellow citizens..fellow immigrants..fellow brothers.
I think they both miss a fact that would ring true with many southern families (and perhaps citizens of other American states who have since relocated). A lot of American family ancestors died in the Civil War. The flag stands for a heritage that is not exclusively tied to slavery. The Civil War was about much more than slavery. The Emanicipation Proclamation turned out to be Lincoln's resort...not Lincoln's initial goal. While Lincoln believed slavery was "founded on the selfishness of man's nature---opposition to it on his love of justice", he also made it politically clear that, before becoming President, he'd had "no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races....". In a debate with Stephan Douglas on August 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois, Lincoln said: "I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position."
This is something not commonly known or taught in the public schools, but it is very true. Lincoln thought the black race was beneath the White. He said so himself...so please do not read this and consider me a race-beater. I am merely citing historical fact. In reality, I am a member of a racially-mixed family.
We cannot bury the truth, as hard as we try. We cannot bury the Confederate flag. And I don't think Democrats or Republicans should necessarily embrace it, but at the same time, they shouldn't totally toss it to the trash bucket of American history. I believe that, if we'd been taught HONESTLY in the public schools about the realities of the issues surrounding the Civil War, we wouldn't be living in this divisive twisted fantasy of Noth good/South bad today.

An honest discussion of America's perverted race-relations history is very necessary. Politicians must be honest about their stand on Reparations, too. Joe Lieberman was called on the issue last night and gave a vague-yet-fairly-appropriate reply (considering being put on the spot).

Governor Dean said a payroll tax cut would most likely come out of the general fund in the form of a tax credit. I hope he hurries. Thanks to smelly pigs like Grover Norquist, the general fund has been sucked nearly dry.