Yes, I have more orchids in bloom to share, but thought today I'd share a photo I took on the plane heading to Chicago for Christmas. I didn't need to touch the photo up one bit. The sunset was THIS glorious as we flew over the city.
In a nutshell, Republican leaders in the House are planning on GUTTING the ethics rules governing their own members, for the most part because one of their own, Rep. Tom Delay, got caught doing a lot of nasty stuff. So in retaliation, they're changing the rules to make it next to impossible to file an ethics complaint in the future. Any complaint will be dropped, period, unless a majority of members on the committee in favor of it. Like that will ever happen.
But oh, it gets better. They also plan to change the rules so family members of congressmen can more easily accept gifts from lobbyists trying to influence the congressman in question. AND, they even want to permit congressmen to BRING A PARENT ON A CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION. Yes, now we're giving them perks for mom and dad. Wouldn't it be nice if all of our companies let us bring the folks on business trips to Europe, at the taxpayers' expense, no less.
This is absolutely outrageously disgusting what they are planning on doing. All the more so because this is the "values" party, and they're now trying to railroad new rules that will permit them to be less ethical. What a way to cast your first vote of the new Congress, and in the case of new members of Congress their first vote ever.
There are a few clear action steps that are needed:
1. I hear from good sources that the Dems in the House are terrified of taking on this issue full-blast as they don't want Tom Delay to get mad at them. Well, I'm through with playing nice, hoping the Republicans will throw us a few scraps while they lead us to the slaughterhouse.
Call Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, both Democratic leaders who need to grow a set of balls (or vaginas) and finally throw down the gauntlet on this outrageous behavior by the Republicans. What more do the Democrats need handed to them than this proposed vote on Tuesday? If this were the Dems planning this kind of vote, what do you think Newt Gingrich would do? He certainly wouldn't be sitting back issuing press releases and having the occasional press conference. He'd be plotting all out war to embarrass the hell out of the Democrats. It's time the Dems did the same. Call Pelosi and Hoyer and tell them it's about time the democrats started fighting back - demand that they go nuclear over this proposed change to the ethics rules this coming Tuesday. And it is irrelevant if you're from their state or not - they are the leaders of the Democratic party, tell them you're one angry Democrat and demand that your voice be heard, or we should throw them all out.
2. Then contact your own House member, Democrat or Republican, and let them have it. I'm serious, the only thing these people understand is pissed off constituents - I worked there, trust me, it gets their attention.
Use this zip-code locator to find your member of Congress. Call and email them today through Tuesday - fill their voice mail with messages over the weekend. Blast them over this issue. http://www.house.gov/htbin/zipfind
3. Call and email your local newspapers IMMEDIATELY over this issue, especially if you have a new member of Congress elected from your district. Will your congressman's first vote of the new congress, and possibly their career, be in favor of lowering their ethical standards? Make sure your local papers cover this issue - call the paper and ask for a reporter or editor covering the US Congress and talk to them about this issue. Trust me, if they get 20 or so calls from people, they'll write about the issue. Find some friends and have them call too (just look your papers up online for email and phone contact info, letters to the editor, etc.)
Feel free to copy this post and put it on your site, or to email this message to your friends. It's high time the Democrats fought back and stopped this outright theft of our government.
This story from Reuters is amazing. The only living things that survived the tsunami were the wild animals. It's kinda eerie.
Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a "sixth sense" for disasters, experts said Thursday.
Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening," H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department, said Wednesday.
Bush is belatedly sending a high-level delegation to southeast Asia to deal with the impending post-tsunamai disaster. Who is leading the team? According to the Today Show, it's Colin Powell and...Jeb Bush. JEB BUSH??!! What the hell is the governor of Florida doing heading out to southeast Asia to deal with an international disaster? My God, they're actually laying the groundwork for 2008. Not only was Bush's initial response deeply unChristian, his later response is deeply cynical and political.
All is well. My computers are both back online (even networked them myself this time). Man, I hate technology. How do people with no technical clue (i.e., mom) deal with this stuff?
This disaster in South East Asia is on such a massive scale that it should be a wake up call for all of the world. We have all been bogged down psychologically in terrorism; it has taken over the world psyche. We're fighting wars in the name of terrorism. We see pictures on our television screens of bombs and bodies, children with limbs blown off, grieving mothers on both sides of conflict. Humanity ripping at itself. It has taken over how we see each other as people and created even further distance.
This crisis presents an opportunity for the world to stand up and say that this moment - this disaster of such immense proportions - it is time for us all to join and work together to show our humanity and help. Really help. It's an opportunity for leadership both from nations, but also for grassroots on an international level.
It's not all that hard to imagine actually. It's a question of what kind of view of the world we want to have.
What the UN can do -- and repair it's tarnished reputation at the same time -- is to take a true leadership role. It can get its administrative act together and ensure that all nations in the world contribute. To bring the nations of the world together to do good even in the face of all of our disagreements, would be a step in a positive direction for all of us.
The media can end the salacious coverage of bodies and corpses and start talking about what can be done. If ever there were a time for activist journalism, now is the time. The media can show us how good we can be as a people when we try. They can tell the story of the America that is kind and generous. They can show the story of the UN working effectively to solve problems, bringing warring and distant peoples together in what binds us all as humans.
What can America do? It can step up both on the federal level, with an appropriate level of financial aid, and it can step up on a grassroots level, as we've done in the past. We can send our rescue teams abroad, raise money of travel and send our police and fire units that train in rescue abroad.
The long-term benefit of this is massive. Our nation has faced our own internal disasters and the lesson is already there. In the aftermath of hurricane Andrew in 1992, it was the nation coming together that sowed this response, ten years later, in a town like Homestead Florida - a celebration of thank you:
City officials plan to observe the 10th anniversary of Andrew's rampage with a "Celebrate Our Second Wind Music and Arts Festival," with bands, a motorcycle show and the flying of 100 kites. ...
"It's not really a celebration of the hurricane, but a celebration of our progress," said city spokesman Charles LaPradd. "One of the main things is to say thank you to everybody who helped us: the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the little fire departments from the middle of nowhere that helped us rebuild."
Imagine what the peoples of South East Asia would think of the US if it brought to bear the riches of our nation in this time of such crisis? Sent our "little fire departments" from around the country to help these nations rebuild? Not just the federal government's response, but our grassroots response as well. Show this region of the world, a hotbed and breeding ground of terrorism, the America we all know is here.
What can you do? You can turn your New Year's Celebrations into fundraisers for relief and rebuilding efforts. There are over five million people who have been left homeless by this disaster. Take this time to do something on your own level other thn just sitting by the TV and watching it all unfold.
If President Bush wants to flaunt his Christianity, invoke it to defend his policies and use it to promote legislation like the anti-gay constitutional amendment, then it's fair game for us to consider just how good a Christian President Bush really is.
The devastating Tsunami this past weekend, and Bush's reaction to it, prove beyond a doubt that this man is hardly a good Christian.
Bush's first reaction on hearing of the devastation, as leader of the free world, should have been to immediately annonce that the US was taking the lead in coordinating disaster relief. When we've already spent over $200 billion on Iraq, we shouldn't have said we were committing $15m to the relief effort, we should have announced the creation of a billion dollar global fund and called on all the nations and private citizens of the earth to come together and help finance it. He should have called on all the liberal and conservative donors to both presidential campaigns, red state and blue state, to put aside their differences and donate to this worthy cause.
But he didn't.
Bush stayed on vacation and had a deputy press secretary, not even his real press secretary, answer questions on the disaster. Not until 5 days after the disaster struck, and after news reports indicated the death toll was approaching 100,000, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, not until after the Washington Post ran a story saying that Bush was being criticized for ignoring the humanitarian crisis did Bush finally speak publicly on this matter.
I return to the issue of Bush's Christianity. A good Christian would be mortified by the death and destruction in the East. Occuring just a day, ONE DAY, after Christmas, his heart would go out to the millions of lives affected by this tragedy. He'd demand his aides come up with an immediate Marshall Plan for helping Asia. He'd go on TV immediately to convey his condolences - not simply because it's the right thing to do, but also because we're dealing with a region of the world where such ceremony and attention to such public statements are given great weight. He'd do it not only because it's the right thing to do, but because the disaster has struck a region of the world with the largest Muslim population on the planet. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the WORLD. They have been the worst hit by this disaster.
Imagine the political and public relations impact of the United States coming to the rescue of the world's Muslims during our own high holiday.
Alas, it never happened.
It never happened because it's something a good Christian would do. It's something a good church, a good faith, would do. It's something that any decent human being, let alone a decent person of faith, would do. But it's not something that George Bush did, and it's not something that the religious right in America did. You didn't hear Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell organizing any telethons to help the dead and dying. You didn't hear the religious right demanding the White House get more involved to help the devastated. No. Hurricane Gay is a call to arms for the religious right and this president, but Tsunamis in Asia killing over 100,000 people? Not so much.
George Bush is a bad Christian and a bad president. And the religious right and their pseudo faith in God is right there along side him. One wonders if the reaction would have been different had the victims been European and Christian.
Feel free to chat away, while I whine about my latest computer migraine.
Oh the joy of being me. Both my computers self-destructed tonight (yes, including the new VAIO), and I've just spent the past 6 hours trying to get them up and running. In the meantime, I lost tons of files - woo woo - and bent the ear of Kyle who runs AmIPatriotic.com (Kyle is one of the smartest, and nicest, computer wizes I know). Now my VAOI is stable, still not clear what went wrong (it just went into reboot overdrive, over and over again). And my W2k laptop is back, but now the screen resolution which should be around 1048 x 800 or so, is stuck at 600 x 480 (and when I go into the properties and try to change the resolution, it only offers 800 x 600 as the highest res, and even then it won't stick to that res). Trying to figure why my once great resolution screen is stuck at nil. Then we move on to figuring out why my wireless card won't work.
The letters the founder of USA Today got when he suggested that it would be good to get our troops home sooner rather than later:
George Wyman: “Mr. Neuharth is simply UnAmerican.”
Jeffrey A. Norris: “Cowards and traitors like Al Neuharth want all the comforts they know and enjoy, without a sacrifice to buy it.”
Frank Butash, West Hartford, CT.: “Apparently it's easier to run with jackals than to stand up for your country when it needs support.”
Kenneth Genest: “They had two of these in World War 2. One was called Tokyo Rose and the other Axis Sally. Their job was to discourage the American soldiers. I see they have one now at USA Today.”
Walter Scott. Jr.: “You simply suck! Merry Christmas.”
Jerry Martin, San Francisco, CA.: “Yet another self-defeating fool with a large bank account shoots himself in the foot. Their dissent equals treason. The terrorists got him just like all the other rich liberals who side against our victory. They forget that wars end, and then the country takes stock of who was where. I encourage the fool to keep mouthing against our victory over the Muslim jihad, he'll pay the social price in the end.”
T. Conway: “Mr. Neuharth has made a serious business mistake. Watch the circulation drop over the next year. The Los Angeles Times experienced the same drop after they attacked Gov. Schwarzenegger...some never learn. P.S. What side did Mr. Neuharth fight for in WW II?”
Peter Kessler: “And as for the good war, WW II, the lefties were four-square for that one. Yes sir, they were saving the USSR, Stalin and Communism. It's sad we didn't join Hitler until he wiped out the USSR. Alger Hiss and the Uptown Daily Worker (The New York Times) be damned. I see you've joined the club. Well, you're probably a founding member.”
Joe McBride, Fort Dodge, Iowa: “Mr. Neuharth, thanks to you and your ignorance the terrorists are probably booking their flights to the U.S. now! If we pull out of Iraq with the job unfinished the terrorists will be bombing McDonalds, and blowing up malls and schools here, killing our innocent men, women and children.”
Craig Wood, Waianae, Hawaii: “Today's press undermines our troops and supports our enemies. They convince parents that supporting your President is dangerous. They concentrate their ire on any fight that involves the United States and ignore all others. Like the sex scandal in the Congo with United Nations forces…. But, let some Army private put panties on an Iraqi's head and all hell brakes loose….I hope that the people of the United States will ignore or, at least, recognize the agenda of those that choose our enemies over our fine military.”
Duggan Flanakin, Austin, Texas: “Neuharth should be tried for treason along with a lot of other blowhards who should be spending their energies condemning the barbarism of our enemies, the same people who destroyed the Twin Towers. Evidence is pouring in that Saddam financed Al Qaeda with Oil for Food money, and that puts Kofe Annan into the line of fire as well for blame for September 11th. “
Boots Harvey, Brentwood, CA: “One must recall that Churchill had to put up with the likes of Lord Haw-Haw, William Joyce, and his propaganda during WWII. In the end William Joyce was executed for giving aid and comfort to the enemy during war time. Would that the same fate befall Al Neuharth!”
Mel Gibbs: “The Patriot Act will put both of you (Al Neuharth and Greg Mitchell) on trial for treason and convict and execute both of you as traitors for running these stories in a time of war and it should be done on TV for other communist traitors like you two to know we mean business. This is war and you should be put in prison NOW for talking like this. Who the hell do you people think you are? You give aid and comfort to our enemies and aid them in murdering our proud soldiers. You people are a disgrace to America. Your families should be put in prison with you, then be made to leave and move to the Middle East ...You two guys are evil bastards…This is a great Christian nation and god wants us to lead the world out of darkness with great leaders like President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Communists like Al and Greg will soon be in prison and on death row for your ugly papers. We won the election and now you are mad. We own America and all the rights, you people are trash, go back to Russia and Africa and take your friends with before we put you on death row after a fair trial.”
Ah, red state voters. Somehow calling them fascists doesn't sound so extreme anymore. (Courtesy of Atrios)
That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge.
Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documentation, they had to have new passports issued.
But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said.
The couple had managed to hold on to their ATM card, so they paid for the photos and helped other Americans who did not have any money get their pictures taken and buy food, Helen Wachs said.
"She was really very surprised" that the government did so little to ease their ordeal, she said.
In an e-mailed response from the State Department, the chief of American Citizen Services said the embassy usually meets and greets every flight personally, but acknowledged there had been confusion the first night in setting up the operation.
This is really bizarre. The judge in SF deciding the marriage lawsuit has allowed the bad guys to put evidence in the record that gays have a "mental disorder" and that gays can be "cured." But he now won't allow the good guys to put evidence in the record challenging those outright lies. (The mental disorder thing was debunked over 30 years ago, and the "cure" thing, well, lot of evidence out there - not.) The danger, according to the article, is that the appellate court CAN USE this evidence in the record to decide the case against us. So it's rather important to challenge these lies.
And another thing, where the hell do the anti-gay bigots get off accusing us of being mentally disordered? Do they think blacks and Jews are mentally disordered as well? Oh no, there'd be a public outcry if they said that, but when they attack gays, it's ho hum time in media land. And apparently in judge-land as well.
DEATH TOLL RISES TO 80,000 Bush Administration Response? Equivalent of Five Hours Spending in Iraq
After pressure, George Bush both increased aid and went on national television to talk about the human crisis in South East Asia. It took him three days to even start talking about it.
At a time when our nation has an opportunity to take a leadership role in the world, George Bush continues to be dragged kicking and screaming into engaging on this issue. Three days to respond seems reasonable to you? Three days was how long it took the bodies of the dead to decay so badly officials are now burying thousands in anonymous mass graves.
To continue putting Bush's monetary response in perspective, $35 million is what George Bush spends in Iraq in FIVE HOURS. As they say, money talks, bullshit walks. The rest of the world is watching, and George Bush has told everyone in the world how little a priority he puts on this human disaster.
Now that's the true meaning of Christmas. Watch 50,000 people die and don't lift a finger to help because you're too busy enjoying Christmas at your ranch to get involved. My favorite line in the whole story is Bush's aides CRITICIZING CLINTON in an effort to defend Bush being AWOL throughout this monumental disaster. Yes, the world has suffered one of its biggest disasters EVER and Bush is more worried about Bill Clinton.
This disaster in South East Asia is on such a massive scale that it should be a wake up call for all of the world. We have all been bogged down psychologically in terrorism; it has taken over the world psyche. We're fighting wars in the name of terrorism. We see pictures on our television screens of bombs and bodies, children with limbs blown off, grieving mothers on both sides of conflict. Humanity ripping at itself. It has taken over how we see each other as people and created even further distance.
Imagine what the peoples of South East Asia would think of the US if it brought to bear the riches of our nation in this time of such crisis? Sent our "little fire departments" from around the country to help these nations rebuild? Not just the federal government's response, but our grassroots response as well. Show this region of the world, a hotbed and breeding ground of terrorism, the America we all know is here.