I particularly like how the White House, oblivious as always, totally blows off people's concerns:
A New York Times/CBS poll published on Wednesday showed 28 percent of Americans feel less safe from terrorism, up from 15 percent in January. Over the same period, the number who said they feel more safe fell from 68 percent to 53 percent.
A Gallup/CNN/USAToday poll released on Friday said 55 percent of respondents believed the war in Iraq had made the United States less safe from terrorism.
And a June 17 Pew Research Center poll said 44 percent of Americans believe the Iraq war has hurt the broader war on terrorism. That was double the 22 percent who had similar feelings in May 2003, when Bush declared major combat operations over.
The Pew poll also said 25 percent of Americans were 'very worried' about an imminent terror attack in the United States, the highest level recorded by Pew since before the Iraq war began in March 2003.
Seems the GOP is afraid to put any radical right wackos on the podium during the Republican Convention in August. I say we join the far-right fundamentalists in urging the GOP to include lots and lots and lots of family-values bigots as speakers at the convention. I can think of nothing better than to have a repeat of 1992 when Pat Buchanan showed the nation what absolutely freaking nuts these people are.
Feel free to let the Republican National Committee know that you're a God-fearing American who wants Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and other fundamentalist Christian leaders speaking out at the convention against homosexuals, abortion and pornography: (202) 863-8500
This from the Family Research Council's email update today:
The Republican National Committee recently announced the line-up of speakers for its 2004 national convention, to be held in New York City. Given the location, it comes as no surprise that "moderate" Republicans Gov. George Pataki (NY) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are among those giving keynote addresses. However, a look at the full list of speakers shows that the convention is lacking in speeches by prominent Republicans who can adequately address the social issues our nation is facing - from protecting marriage to defending the sanctity of life.
In fact, many of the people who will have prominent roles at the convention have publicly contradicted the Bush Administration's policies on these very issues; not just Pataki and Giuliani, but also Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Understandably, the Bush campaign would like to portray the Republican Party as a "big tent" while the national spotlight is on, but surely there is some room in that tent for social conservatives. The Bush team admits it had trouble fully mobilizing Christian voters in 2000. Leaving real conservatives off the convention stage won't do much to correct that problem in 2004.
The latest chuckle from the radical right lobbying group "Family Research Council", via their email update list today:
In a tale of ironic tragedy a new study reveals that the Democratic Party is literally killing its political base. According to statistical analysis, Democrats account for 30 percent more abortions than Republicans, mostly because African American women - a huge constituency for the Democrats - have an abortion rate nearly four times that of white women.
And if it is assumed that these aborted children would have taken on the political leanings of their parents, and extrapolated over 31 years since Roe v. Wade, this is a net loss of over six million voters (a gross loss of almost 20 million). It is both ironic and sad that the very Party that has made abortion-on-demand a key issue of its platform is literally killing its political capital.
I won't even try to get into this. Suffice it to say that this is the kind of bullshit "math" these guys use all the time to prove their points. Of course, these are the same folks who think God created fossils to "look" 50 million years old, even though the earthy is "really" only 5,000 years old, so their use of the analytical method is hardly something I'd have a lot of faith in.
Ralph Reed's Gamble
by JACK NEWFIELD
The Nation
[from the July 12, 2004 issue]
When Ralph Reed was the boyish director of the Christian Coalition, he made opposition to gambling a major plank in his "family values" agenda, calling gambling "a cancer on the American body politic" that was "stealing food from the mouths of children." But now, a broad federal investigation into lobbying abuses connected to gambling on Indian reservations has unearthed evidence that Reed has been surreptitiously working for an Indian tribe with a large casino it sought to protect--and that Reed was paid with funds laundered through two firms to try to keep his lucrative involvement secret. Reed has always operated behind the scenes, and apparently he didn't want to risk becoming a humbled hypocrite like his right-wing cohorts William Bennett and Rush Limbaugh.
News accounts of the emerging scandal have focused on the two main figures under investigation: lawyer/lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Mike Scanlon, House GOP majority leader Tom DeLay's former spokesman and head of two campaign and public relations companies. But Reed has managed to slither below the media's radar--until now.
Neither he, Abramoff or Scanlon returned phone calls.
In early 2002 the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana was desperately trying to kill a planned competing casino that the rival Jena Band wanted to build in southwestern Louisiana. This new casino would have broken the Coushattas' geographical monopoly and cost the tribe--whose casino was grossing $300 million a year-- an estimated $1 billion in gambling revenue over five years. The Jena Band had hired former GOP national chairman Haley Barbour to make sure its casino compact was approved by the heavily politicized Bureau of Indian Affairs. So the Coushatta tribe, which already was in the process of paying Abramoff and Scanlon some $32 million over three years, also hired Reed, according to three witnesses and documents obtained by The Nation. This was not a crime, just furtive hypocrisy.
Two casino industry lobbyists--Philip Thompson and Bill Grimes--say they were in a meeting in Baton Rouge early in 2002 and heard William Worfel, vice chair of the Coushatta tribe, say he was hiring Reed to lobby for the tribe with the BIA to neutralize the influence Barbour had with the Bush Administration. According to Thompson, Worfel, who also did not return phone calls, "said he was putting Reed on his payroll. He said, 'If they have Barbour, we need Reed.'" A third casino lobbyist at the meeting, who requested anonymity, says Reed helped "mobilize Christian radio and ministers against the casino." But, he says, "He wanted to be able to deny it. Or if it came out, he wanted to be able to claim he was against the Jena casino, without anybody knowing he was getting paid by a bigger tribe with a bigger gambling operation."
The documents obtained by The Nation show that Reed sent bills to Abramoff and Scanlon and that one of his consulting companies, Century Strategies of Duluth, Georgia, received $250,000 from one of Scanlon's companies, Capitol Campaign Strategies. An invoice to Abramoff from another Reed company, Capitol Media, for $100,000, states only that the payment is for "Louisiana Project Mgmt. Fee." (The main thrust of the Justice Department investigation involves money laundering among Scanlon, Abramoff and Republican campaigns. Abramoff was fired by his firm for not disclosing $10 million in payments from Scanlon.)....
What a fine bunch folks they are at the pharmaceutical companies, aren't they? Pigs at the trough.
"...American Association of Retired Persons, said brand-name drug prices have climbed 3.4 percent -- or three times the rate of inflation -- since December.
The jump was one of the sharpest quarterly spikes since 2000, the report said.
The findings follow another AARP report this year that showed prices for drugs used most by the elderly grew 6.9 percent in 2003. But the increase since President Bush signed the Medicare bill into law was even sharper, the AARP said on Wednesday."
Attorney General (and 2008 presidential hopeful) John Ashcroft is coming under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for freeing a suspected terrorist and sending him back to Syria. Numerous states and other legal orgs were ready and willing to prosecute this suspect but couldn't file charges before he was spirited away. The claim that actually prosecuting the terrorist would have endangered national security doesn't hold water for anyone involved. So what gives? Conspiracy theorists -- on your mark, get set, go!
In the clearest sign yet that Attorney General John Ashcroft is completely out of touch, a New York Times story quotes Ashcroft supporters as claiming one reason he may not stay on as AG if Bush wins a second term is because he might want to "pursue his own run for the presidency in 2008"! If that doesn't put the fear of God in you, nothing will.
Yep. Focus on the Family is SELLING copies of their recent interview with Son of Sam killer David Berkowitz. Apparently, the mass murderer is now a born-again Christian. Somehow I'm not suprised he'd end up allies with a group like this.
I was OK with avoiding McDonalds because it is complete garbage. But now my coffee with cream and sugar is looking pretty bad. Where will it all end? If they next go on about cheese they're going to have to pry my chevre, cantal and brie from my cold, dead hands. Bastards.
"A McDonald's double cheeseburger has 490 calories and 12 grams of saturated fat; Starbucks' Grande Caramel Frappuccino is close behind, at 430 calories and 10 grams of saturated fat -- half the recommended daily intake.
"I'm a nutritionist, and I would never guess that the Strawberries & Creme frappuccino has 780 calories," said Jayne Hurley, a senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest."
Isn't it time to move on with Castro and Cuba? Apparently the answer is no for Bush. This is such a wasted effort of time, energy and government money and the results have never been there to support the effort. What confuses me about this new program, besides the fact that there actually is a new program, is that Bush is limiting the money that Cuban-Americans can give to their families there. American money sent by families to countries like Cuba, Central America, SE Asia, etc. is a critical part of the survival for their families abroad. Cutting that money won't remove Castro, it will only make their families hungry. People at the top are hardly bothered by sanctions like this but the people at the bottom - which is most of the population - are the ones impacted. These policies do not force governments to change. It only makes the poor go hungry and suffer.
OK, it's the Telegragh, but if this story is true it is scary. It gives us some clear insight into what the US and the world will be looking at if there is a second term for Bush. War, war, war.
"America's military commander in Iraq ordered British troops to prepare a full-scale ground offensive against Iranian forces that had crossed the border and grabbed disputed territory...
The incident was disclosed by a senior British officer at a conference in London last week and is reported in today's edition of Defence Analysis."
Are these the remarks from the same man that gave a pretty long leash to his daughters, known for their wild antics? Is this the same man who did not mind when Dick said "go fuck yourself" on the Senate floor? Is this the same guy who has yet to take responsibility for policies at Abu Ghraib? Is this the same guy who also turned a blind eye to the excess and corruption on Wall Street? How stupid does he think the people of the world really are? One thing is for sure, we're not as stupid and ignorant as he is. This man lives in such a vacuum, he hasn't a clue about what's going on in the world around him. These comments are right up there with the nonsense that he churned out on Irish TV last weekend when he claimed to have the support of most of Europe in Iraq.
"Bush also acknowledged Muslim concerns that American-style democracy could bring unwanted cultural changes in the region.
"Some people in Muslim cultures identify democracy with the worst of Western popular culture and want no part of it. And I assure them, when I speak about the blessings of liberty, coarse videos and crass commercialism are not what I have in mind," Bush said. "There is nothing incompatible between democratic values and high standards of decency."
Matt Drudge calls it an "outrage" that a new work of fiction has a character who considers killing President Bush. I'm sure the loony conservatives will all freak out, in chorus.
Give me a break. Why don't we just declare ourselves the Soviet States of America and get it over with already.
(I was thinking of retitling this: "Yankee fans tell Cheney 'go fuck yourself.'")
I just got a live phone-in from the Yankees vs. Boston game in NYC taking place right now. Dick Cheney just got booed by the crowd!
Even as my friend Michael called me from his seats at the game, God Bless America was still playing in the background. During the 7th inning stretch at Yankees Stadium, they play God Bless America and show on the big screen pictures of anyone famous who's in the audience that night. Dick Cheney is apparently in the audience, and as soon as his face went up, the entire crowd started booing! As my friend Michael tells it, this is the blue-collar Bronx we're talking about, and Cheney is still getting booed - not a good sign for the Bush-Cheney ticket. As soon as the camera guys realized Cheney was getting booed, they quickly switched the picture on the screen to someone else.
Michael's read of the situation, as a die-hard Yankees fan: The election is over.
Cheney, who visited both clubhouses after batting practice, watched part of the game from the box of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and part from a first-row seat next to the Yankees dugout, where he sat between New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Cheney was booed when he was shown on the right-field videoboard during the seventh-inning.
A very intersesting story in the NYT today. First, remember that young US soldier who disappeared months ago - you probably don't because the military and the media totally stopped talking about him. His name is (was) Keith Matthew Maupin. This is him:
According to Al-Jazeera, he just got murdered by the militants holding him captive. Why did we hear nothing about this man all these months? That's a damn good question.
Then, we also receive word today that the militants are threatening to behead US Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Hassoun is a Lebanese-born Muslim. Note how now the military - with no definitive proof - is implying in these stories that Hassoun is a deserter. They pretty much say it outright, and in other stories the US military won't even confirmt that the guy got kidnapped at all. The line they're clearly implying is that "once an Arab, always an Arab," and that he packed up to join his fellow dark people in the desert.
Now, apparently, there's no real proof of this, and certainly none that the military is releasing. But it is ok, apparently, for them to release their suspicions that the guy is a deserter and therefore a traitor. Reminds me of when those US sailors died way back in the early 1990s, on the USS Iowa I believe, rather than admit that it was an accident the military concoted some phony story (that was later proven to be untrue) that star-crossed gay lovers blew the ship up.
If this is the tact the radical right wants to take on gay marriage, it works for me. Let's demand that our congressmen and the president answer these questions about blood and semen.
"Why do so many diseases target gay men? The body is not built for sodomy. 'The anus opens into the rectum which is not as well suited for penile penetration as the female vagina is. Both the anus and rectum have rich blood supplies, and their walls, thinner than the walls of the vagina, are easily damaged. When penetration occurs, it's easier to tear blood vessels, which in turn increases the risk of acquiring or receiving an infection as penile skin and/or semen comes in contact with the partner's blood or semen.'"
The father of an American civilian beheaded in Iraq accused President Bush and the U.S. media Tuesday of ignoring the 'horrible face of war.'
'People like George Bush and (U.S. Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld don't see the pain that people have to bear -- they don't know what it feels like to have your guts ripped out,' Michael Berg told a news conference.
The decapitated body of Berg's son Nick was found by a roadside in Baghdad and a grisly video of his beheading was posted on an Islamist Web site in May.
'What I'm trying to do is show to the American people and the British people ... that war has a wretchedly horrible face,' said Berg's father.
