Mama's Stilettos

My Answer to Benny Boy

2005-09-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

This was being forwarded in an email and it really stuck in my craw. I decided to answer Ben, and I wasn't exactly nice about it - then again, I don't feel like being nice to their kind anymore.

Published 9/2/2005 11:59:59 PM by American Spectator Online - By Ben Stein

A few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and care to know the truth:

Hey Ben, looks like you're as good at the smoke and mirrors, defect and reflect as the president you so blindly support.

1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.

No duh - how long did it take you to figure out that one?

2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.

Again, another another stroke of genius.

3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born.

Gee Ben, this is really getting good. How in the world did you acquire this vast amount of knowledge?

4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery.

Ahem. Here's where you start to stray, Benny Boy. Better get yourself some abracadabra. First and foremost, there is a vast and overwhelming amount of evidence that global warming has much to do with the burning of fossil fuels, specifically coal burning power plants and automobiles. The scientific community has reached a consensus on this. True to form, Bush and his boys are slow on the uptake. Despite having it explained to them over and over, they just don't get it. Either that, or they are more interested in the profits of energy companies than the future of people. You chose.

Though Americans make up just 4 percent of the world's population, we produce 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning -- by far the largest share of any country. In fact, the United States emits more carbon dioxide than China, India and Japan, combined.

The scientific position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and endorsed by the National Science Academies is that the average global temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2°of the G8C since the late 19th century, and that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities"

But they are wrong and the neocon Bushites are right.

Now who believes in sorcery?

5.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.

Nice try. Georgie Boy's sins have to do with FEMA and especially, Corps of Engineer protections for the city of New Orleans.

A massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people prompted Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA to address the flood control problems in and around New Orleans. After 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane and flood-control dollars.

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain . Flood control budgets were cut by over 40% between 2001 and 2005.

In 2004, for the first time in 37 years, the Corps halted all work on the New Orleans levee system.

The Pontchartrain breech was responsible for flooding 80% of the city of New Orleans the day after Katrina struck. So in a nutshell, not only did he cut the funds to protect New Orleans, he did so in the name of an invasion he couldn't manage either. Our snake-oil commander in chief gave contracts to his buddies, made our brave troops in Iraq wait in long lines for food and supplies and shamefully, didn't even make sure they were properly armored - while simultaneously guaranteeing the destruction of New Orleans.

6.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.

Have you been into Rush Limbaugh's stash? Smoking with the twins? Let's stick to the real issues, Benny. There are bad people in every city, town and countryside in America. Disasters bring out the best and the worst in all of us.

7.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.

Minority appointments aren't proof of total inclusiveness and racial empathy. They do not make him understanding of the plight of urban poor any more than he has an understanding of the hardworking middle class or farmers struggling to make a living off the land. They are simply not a part of his world and never will be.

8.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.

Yeah, right. How dare those people in Louisiana and Mississippi have any expectations at all - especially when the federal government knew for YEARS that this was coming. Studies involving the pump and levy system predicted the turn of events almost down to a "T."

Clearly, effective crisis management at the federal level was more than lacking. Like it or not, he is the president and as much as he tries to dodge it, that office requires he accept responsibility. Bush appointed a person to head FEMA who had absolutely no credentials to head a Federal Emergency Management Agency. Secondly, he moved FEMA deeper into the bureaucratic quagmire by putting it under "Homeland Security" - an agency dedicated to fighting terrorism, not natural disasters. Even neocon darling and Mississippi Senator Trent Lott added his voice to a growing number of lawmakers who feel FEMA should be taken out of the Homeland Security Department.

9.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander.

You really got me laughing now! How about over 3000 Louisiana and over 4000 Mississippi National Guard troops sent to Iraq who could be working to help the people of their home towns? Are you going to try and tell me that having over 7000 trained professionals there as 'johnny on the spot', performing their intended stateside mission, wouldn't have made a difference? And that pesky levy on Lake Ponchatrain, the one Bush cut funding for - all in the name of Iraq? All I can say is the twins must have some really good bud.

10.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off.

And let me guess - your idea of helping the morale of the nation is for everyone to swallow what is spoon fed to them from the Whitehouse; to allow our government to advance lies and slide unhindered toward totalitarianism and fascism ?

11.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day.

No, but if we are to hold this man accountable for his lies, high crimes, and neglect and abuse of the American people, Voodoo city is just as good as a place to start as any.

12.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.

You are too funny. And the price of eggs in China? Benny, you and your neocon cronies need to find some new tactics. Sooner or later, more and more of the American public will figure out your techniques of using distractions and riling emotions to detract from the real issues and facts at hand. You like to use the flag and false claims of patriotism to beguile. You're in the business of befuddling because you can't truthfully answer the honest questions before you. Slowly, but surely, more and more Americans are getting damn tired of your kind trying to hide behind their flag - and they will flush you out and expose you for the charlatan dogs you are.

________________________________________________________

Black Heart

2005-06-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Three cheers for a true patriot who is standing up to the Bush propaganda machine - Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan was recently a part of the "Freedom and Faith" tour and said of Bush "Beating a political stake in your black heart will be the fulfillment of my life ... ," as the audience of 200 people cheered. You go girl!

Sheehan lost her first born to Bush's war of lies.

Sheehan ridiculed Bush for saying that it's "hard work" comforting the widow of a soldier who's been killed in Iraq.

"Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again. Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby. Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big (brother) into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both," she said.

The Downing Street Memo

2005-05-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what it will take for the long time supporters of the Bush administration to admit that GWB has committed treason and that they were lied into war - perhaps they never will. For the rest of us, the Downing Street Memo only serves to bolster what many of us have suspected for a long time.

I wish I could say this is something new and startling, but there have been more than several patriots (yes, true patriots - not the trumped up, manufactured kind) come forth to warn us the intelligence wasn't a mere "failure" but being manipulated by the administration.

"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

There's an Odor On the Wind

2005-04-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Who Forged the Niger Documents?
By Ian Masters, AlterNet
Posted on April 7, 2005, Printed on April 8, 2005

A former counterterrorism chief claims that the now discredited documents that showed Iraq trying to purchase uranium were fabricated right here in the United States.

Note: This is an edited transcript of an interview conducted by Ian Masters with Vincent Cannistaro, the former CIA head of counterterrorism operations and intelligence director at the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan, which aired on the Los Angeles public radio KPFK on April 3, 2005.

More...

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21704

Has W Actually Read the Bible?

2005-03-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!" (Matthew 23:23-24)

A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN

2005-03-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

by Ina Hughes

We pray for children,
who put chocolate fingers everywhere
who like to be tickled,
who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
who sneak Popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks.
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who've never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes,"
who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,
who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,
who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,
who slurp their soup.
And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for children
who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the car pool,
who squirm in church and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children
who want to be carried,
and for those who must;
for those we never give up on,
and for those who don't get a chance;
for those we smother,
and for those who will grab the hand of anybody
kind enough to offer

by Ina Hughes (FROM: A Prayer for Children, 1995, William Morrow Company, New York

Buying In

2005-02-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

There's an e-mail circulating the Internet regarding a 9/11 widow and her visit to Iraq. While reading it my only thought was - If this doesn't demonstrate deliberate deceit; how the propaganda was continually and repeatedly peddled by this administration, I don't know what will. It reads, in part -

"To me, those troops were there to avenge the murder of my husband and three
thousand others. When I got to the microphone I told them we had not
made this journey for condolences but to thank them and to tell them that
the families of 9/11 think of them every day. They lifts our hearts." - Christy Ferer

Ferer addressed US troops as a part of an Armed Forces Entertainment Office and USO-sponsored trip to Iraq. She is not only a 9/11 widow, but also New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's liaison to the families of the victims of Sept. 11.
She traveled to Iraq on Fathers Day, 2003.

The Bush administration had no qualms about using her to peddle their lies and she, believing the the propaganda machine who sponsored her, became a willing accomplice.

The result was cheering troops, a teary-eyed general and a prevailing delusion fueled by the strong emotions of patriotism and duty - all carefully staged by the Bush web of lies.

Faulty intelligence - yeah right.

Swearing

2005-01-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

It comes as no surprise, but he's at it again. Under orders, the National Park Service is illegally blocking the general public from access to vast portions of Pennsylvania Avenue reserved solely for guests screened by Bush's inaugural committee. In his typical dictator-esque style, he's made sure you're not welcome in your own capital at a party that you're paying for.

This action is reminiscent of his escapades prior to the election. Retirees, housewives and school teachers were either barred or removed from his speeches if they didn't agree with him 100%.

Next thing ya know, they'll be goose stepping down Pennsylvania Avenue. Maybe that's what it will take for America to wake up and realize what kind of administration has taken over our government.

Go Barbara!

2005-01-19T05:09:00.000-08:00

A senator with the ovaries to call it like it really is while giving them hell all the way. Call 'em on the carpet girlfriend - you go!

"WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara Boxer and secretary of state nominee Condoleezza Rice clashed at Rice’s confirmation hearing Tuesday, with Boxer accusing Rice of lying and Rice hotly denying it.

"This is my personal view, that your loyalty to the mission you were given to sell this war overwhelmed your respect for the truth," the fiery California Democrat told Rice. ...

"It was the total picture, senator, not just weapons of mass destruction, that caused us to decide that post-Sept. 11 it was finally time to deal with Saddam Hussein," Rice disagreed.

"Well you should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war," Boxer interrupted, noting that she was among the minority of senators who voted no. "It was WMD period."

http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/national/20050119000309.shtml

Spun Out

2005-01-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

It was announced earlier this week that the search for weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq has officially ended. Some of us found that headline particularly significant. Sadly, another segment of our populous did not. Both the ignorant and the willing have fallen prey to the Bush spin and suddenly the truth of what brought a nation to a full scale, murderous invasion matters not.

I explained it to my eight year old by using this analogy - Imagine that my house burned to the ground the day after I announced that one of my children had cancer. Being the devoted bunch they were, my community quickly rallied around to help and the response was phenomenal. Businesses contributed thousands of dollars and three corporations gave use of their private jets for treatment. Particularly moving was the fact I lived in a community suffering from hardships such as unemployment yet people contributed way more than they could afford. Carpenters, electricians and plumbers came to help; school children offered their piggy banks, while meal after meal was brought to my door. The community was willing to make tremendous sacrifices. And then ....

It was discovered that it was all a well orchestrated ruse. I had set my own house on fire and my child did not have cancer. I am immediately charged with arson and fraud. In court, my lawyer attempts to defend me by declaring that my house was old and my child did have an injured leg.

Do you think I'd get off?

Do you think the jury would find fraud perfectly justified because my child had a broken leg and my house was in poor condition anyway?

Of course not. I misrepresented my situation to get what I wanted. I defrauded my community. The best I could hope for was to win an appeal of my conviction based on inadequate council, as only an idiot would attempt to cover up such a vast web of lies by such a twisted justification.

The Bush administration and their supporters are expecting us to buy the same thing; hook, line and sinker. We're expected to totally forgive their lies, high crimes and that there were no weapons of mass destruction because, ::spudder, spudder, hmm, stammer, stammer ah, hmmm, ok, I've got it!:: Saddam was a bad guy anyway! What a novel idea. Deflect, twist and spin. This entire approach conjures up memories of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Stegner, shaking her head, admonishing a classmate for constructing a whopper of an excuse for bad behavior. Mrs. Stegner would have said, "Nice try" and held the child fully accountable.

But ya know what? This is no lame analogy, no schoolyard prank. This is war. This is thousands upon thousands of lives. And no one is holding Bush accountable.

No Talking Head Left Behind

2005-01-11T11:23:00.000-08:00

It was recently revealed that the U.S. Department of Education paid television and newspaper commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 (yes, your tax dollars) to promote Bush's education law. So much for unbiased journalism. Hmm. Makes you wonder who else is on the neocon payroll in the land of the free and the home of the sleeping.

Inhuman Wretch

2004-12-26T11:57:00.000-08:00

Our charlatan Commander in Chief gave the following holiday message - "In Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, these skilled and courageous Americans are fighting the enemies of freedom and protecting our country from danger"

Puleese, Puleese, Puleese. We know your brown shirts buy it, bunko - but thinking people don't. Once again, you're waving the flag, using American troops (which by the way - really pisses me off) and using emotional propaganda in an attempt to convince the public you're waging a just war. No one, and I repeat, no one is fighting for our freedom. In fact, you've introduced more than several measures that actually restrict our liberty. And how dare you claim you are protecting our country from danger. Osama bin who? Remember him?

Only the lowest life form with the highest form of cowardice would abuse and misuse America's sons and daughters as you have.

Ho Ho Ho

2004-12-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first to admit - I was a total Scrooge this year. While I used to be a cookie baking, tree trimming, carol singing, "totally-get-into-it-fool," - I have changed. Some of that change is a little sad because I miss feeling good about the season, but some of that change is a very positive thing. Or at least the humble beginnings and growing pains of a very positive thing.

I was becoming tired of the gimme, gimme commercialization of the holiday season. I was weary of feeling all the pressures of meeting the expectations of others, despite whatever hardship it imposed on me or my family. And I could see the little Christmas monsters looming (i.e. "you don't really love me unless you spend at least three Franklins ...") in the wings. I did not want C & C becoming the greedy little materialistic elves, expecting a full winter wardrobe plus every new video game that came down the pike.

We started with some changes next year and are hoping to take a bigger plunge next year. In the meantime, I thought I'd share my collected links for putting meaning back into the holidays.

"I guess the most important thing would be to think about whether or not the things that you're doing are actually making the season joyful for you or not. Keep real careful track and try to figure out if that's what you really want from the Holidays.You can't change your life or your celebrating patterns overnight. But given that the people in this chat will be around for many more Christmases, there's plenty of time to observe yourself and find what makes you feel happy and joyful."
Transcript of chat with Bill McKibben, author of Hundred Dollar Holidays published on the New Dream.
http://www.newdream.org/holiday/mckibbenchat.php

Prince of Peace Episcopal Church in Woodland Hills, California, has a comprehensive catalog of offerings at the Alternative Christmas Faire on its website (http://www.popwh.org/1VM/AltChristmas/AltChristmasFaire.htm).

The "alternative Christmas" trend has actually been around at least since the early 1970s, when a Washington, D.C. man named Bob Kochtitzky created Alternatives for Simple Living (http://www.simpleliving.org) out of what he described as "anger toward corporations and individuals who were prostituting society's soul by exploiting all our celebrations for profit and privilege." With funds from friends back home in Jackson, Mississippi, Kochtitzky says, he published The Alternative Christmas Catalogue, and the movement was off and running. In 1980, churches began responding to a Christmas Campaign for Congregations packet entitled "Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?" The campaign counted nine denominational participants by 1988 and is now a familiar feature in many congregations.

In 1980, Harriet Prichard, then director of children's ministries at a Pasadena, California Presbyterian church, organized a market in which children and many adults sold relief and self-development goods and animals for persons in need in the Third World as alternative gifts. By 2000 there were 312 such markets, held in 43 U.S. states and England, Holland, Japan and Korea. Prichard's organization is now called Alternative Gifts International (AGI). All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena and All Saints in Beverly Hills, California, were among the first to host "official" Alternative Gift Markets in conjunction with AGI.

Organizations like Center for a New American Dream (http://www.newdream.org) and Alternative Gifts International (http://www.altgifts.org/bin/site/templates/splash.asp) offer organizing guides, templates, and downloadable materials for congregations and organizations that want to offer an alternative Christmas—or other celebration—of their own.

If you could imagine giving your loved ones anything this holiday season, a water buffalo may not come to mind. But what if you knew that this water buffalo, or dozens of other livestock would change lives and bring hope and possibility to the people who need it most?
http://www.heifer.org/holiday/

Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America.
http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/

Man of The Year

2004-12-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

Bush was named Time's Man of the Year in part for "reframing reality to match his design."

Did you read that, Helen? R-E-F-R-A-M-I-N-G R-E-A-L-I-T-Y. It's a nice way of saying his propaganda machine sold the American people a sad bill of goods.

In other words, millions of people supported having a confidence man in the White House; they agreed to a swindler, trickster, deceiver, miscreant, defrauder, dodger, double-crosser, double-dealer, con man in the Oval Office.

Yes, I am still pissed. Can you tell? I will be pissed for at least the next four years. Yes, I am still outraged. Can you tell? I am outraged at the deluded who voted for him, thus making the rest of America and the world suffer their idiocy.

Are You Paying Attention?

2004-12-19T06:18:00.000-08:00

If you're not, you should be.

" First, Social Security is a pyramid scheme, not a pension program. The people at the top of the pyramid — yesterday’s and today’s seniors — are collecting more than is warranted based on their contributions, their employers’ contributions and interest on those contributions. Even if Social Security makes good on its promises, people lower down the pyramid — the workers of today and tomorrow — will collect much less than is warranted based on their contributions and interest.

So Step One in any real reform program is to tell retirees the truth. Many seniors are collecting money they don’t deserve and don’t need. Every dollar received after the return of all contributions plus interest is welfare. From here on out, welfare will only be paid to seniors in need.

Eliminating unearned benefits for non-needy retirees is a big step toward giving younger workers the benefits they deserve.

The second problem is Social Security as currently constituted is incapable of paying its promised benefits. Under today’s rules, most but not all of the Social Security taxes paid by workers goes toward the benefits of today’s retirees. The excess of taxes minus benefits — the so-called Social Security surplus — goes into what is laughingly called the Social Security Trust Fund. In fact, the trust fund is nothing but a pile of IOUs. The money that is supposed to be held in trust is actually used to fund government operations."

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/December/19/biz/stories/02biz.htm

More Evidence On the IQ of Those Who Voted for Bush

2004-12-18T11:57:00.000-08:00

Muslim Americans are a threat

ITHACA, NY, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A Cornell University poll finds that 44 percent of the U.S. population believe that Muslim Americans are a threat and their civil liberties should be curtailed. ... The survey found that Republicans are more likely to favor security over civil rights for Muslims than Democrats. Those who described themselves as religious Christians were more likely to perceive Islam as encouraging violence and Islamic countries as violent and dangerous than those who said they were not religious.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041217-111247-1110r.htm

I Can't Believe I Did One of These Things ...

2004-12-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

From Hetty, who got it from Lili

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Tam
2. Tammy
3. Mom

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
Movie, TV or Monitor?

THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. champion for the underdog
2. resourceful
3. observant

THREE THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. low motivation
2. disorganized
3.

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Italian
2. Caribbean Creole Heinz 57
3. Irish

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. like Hetty's, any threat (real or perceived) to the kids will make me mental
2. tornados
3. dying while my children still really need me

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. computer
2. reading
3. kids

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. LL Bean polartec pullover
2. black pants
3. gold earrings

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS (or artists(at the moment)):
1. Nat King Cole

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS AT PRESENT:
1. Anything that makes my baby girl stand on a chair and sing her little heart out.

THREE NEW THINGS YOU WANT TO TRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS:
1. losing weight
2. visiting new places
3. going to the theater or a concert more often

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP (love is a given):
1. Relationships? As in romantic? Are they really necessary? Bah

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE
1. I am trying to wear make up more often
2. Most of the time I can barely walk
3. I'm roasting a turkey next weekend

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX (or same) THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. manly physique
2. pretty teeth
3. nice eyes

THREE THINGS YOU JUST CAN'T DO:
1. ultra conservative Republicans
2. keep an immaculate house
3. send C&C to public school

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. reading
2. gardening
3. history

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. nothing comes to mind

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:
1. again - nothing comes to mind

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Europe
2. Africa
3. Asia

THREE KID'S NAMES:
1. Olivia
2. Thacher
3. Pia

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. travel extensively
2. write a great book
3. spend time being a wise, sought after, old lady

Deception Without End

2004-12-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

Of Course there are WMD in Iraq - Just like Jacking Off Will Make You Blind.

Some of Bush's federally funded abstinence courses tell youngsters that 50% of all American teenage gay men are HIV positive, touching someone's genitals can make you pregnant and abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, says the Washington Post. This is according to a congressional staff analysis.

The courses stated that ‘condoms fail in 31% of cases of heterosexual sex'. Some of the courses went on to say that a fetus is a thinking person when it is just 43 days old. Many of the courses claimed that you can catch HIV from a person's tears.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6633542/

Matthew 15:8-9

2004-11-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

Hey Helen (my new label for all those who happily voted for Bush)

Four days after those of you with your so-called "moral values" re-elected your godly president, American bombs did this to a child in Fallujah. Wouldn't Jesus be proud?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/041107/481/bag10211070833&e=5&ncid=1756

In God's Country

2004-11-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

"...[T]he Patriots are not Nazis, nor even neo-Nazis. Rather, they are at least the seedbed, if not the realization, of a uniquely American kind of fascism. This is an overused term, its potency diluted by overuse and overstatement. However, there can be little mistaking the nature of the Patriot movement as essentially fascist in the purest sense of the word. The beliefs it embodies fit, with startling clarity, the definition of fascism as it has come to be understood by historians and sociologists: a political movement based in populist ultranationalism and focused on an a core mythic ideal of phoenix-like societal rebirth, attained through a return to "traditional values."
As with previous forms of fascism, its affective power is based on irrational drives and mythical assumptions; its followers find in it an outlet for idealism and self-sacrifice; yet on close inspection, much of its support actually derives from an array of personal material and psychological motivations. It is not merely an accident, either, that the movement and its belief systems are directly descended from earlier manifestations of overt fascism in the Northwest -- notably the Ku Klux Klan, Silver Shirts, the Posse Comitatus and the Aryan Nations. Like all these uniquely American fascist groups, the Patriots share a commingling of fundamentalist Christianity with their ethnic and political agenda, driven by a desire to shape America into a "Christian nation." In God's Country by David Neiwert

See - http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php

Moral Issues?

2004-11-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

Amy Sullivan had this to say in the Washington Monthly - "I gotta say, it doesn't help much when exit polls and sloppy reporting use terms like "moral values" and "moral issues" as shorthand for very narrow, divisive issues like abortion and gay marriage, feeding into twenty years of Republican rhetoric. Opposition to the war in Iraq is a moral issue. The alleviation of poverty is a moral issue. Concern about abortion is a moral value, yes, but you can stay at the level of empty rhetoric about a "culture of life" or you can talk about how to actually reduce abortion rates, which is what most people care about more. (Did you hear once during this election season that abortion rates have risen under W. after they fell dramatically during Clinton's eight years in office?)

"Religious" does not mean Republican. And "moral" does not mean conservative. There's going to be a lot of discussion about all of this over the coming weeks and months, and it's incredibly important to make sure we're neither sloppy about our terms nor overly broad in how we characterize "the faithful.""

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_11/005085.php

Still A Liar

2004-11-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

I sit, trying to nurse myself back to health after this wicked pneumonia and note that recovery may be much easier than trying to make sense of the direction my country is headed in the aftermath of the election. I've read nearly 30 of the op-eds and while some bring up some legitimate points (worthy of other posts) I still can't shake the feeling that we're ignoring the giant in the living room. You know, the one who appears to be wearing the elephant suit - but may turn out to be something else entirely.

One of my acquaintances called me today, sure I'd been in hiding. She's a Bushite and wanted to gloat a bit. Oh how I do wish she would understand that I've been much more interested in impeachment than I've ever been in an election. Regardless, she felt compelled to let me know that she really thought it was a "family values" thing. WTF?

Did you know that only conservative Republicans have family values? This was news to me. I wanted to tell Helen (not her real name) - "Knock, knock, it's me. You know, the one you've told some secrets to in the past? The one who knows that although you drive your perfect family in your perfect SUV to church every Sunday, you pray for forgiveness for staring at the crotch of the personal trainer on Saturdays? Yes, I'm the one that knows you don't mention to your husband that you know he's whacking his weenie to internet porn because, as you say, "at least he's at home." Don't try the holier and higher than thou, moral value shit with me, Helen. I know too much.

Family values or who won or lost the 2004 presidential election doesn't change the an essential, important fact.

W is a liar.

If you had the bad judgment to chose to vote for such a man, you chose to vote for a liar. It is not a matter of opinion, but a matter of fact. Back pedal, gloss and spin - it makes no difference. Spare me the long litanies about any qualities he may have, because quite frankly, I don't give a damn. Any human being that could sacrifice those sworn to protect to defend for his own convoluted ideologies doesn't possess enough qualities for redemption. If you believe an honorable and moral leader could do the things he has done, you are indeed mistaken. Gravely mistaken.

Much of the time, politics and party alliances boil down to a lot of differing opinions and philosophies. We cajole, debate, things might get heated and we eventually shake hands. And that's the way it should be the normal turning of events in a two party system. However, what is happening in my country is anything but normal turning of events. So for the sake of honesty I'll let you know upfront that I won't find you as bright as I perhaps once did. Voting for George Bush is a lemming-like behavior, not a demonstration of intelligent, independent thought.

Because of people like you Helen, he may have won the election - but he is still a liar. A liar willing to led our nation into war under false pretenses. My one consolation is that there were over 55 million Americans whom I consider to be the true patriots of this nation. They stood up to the warmongering, hateful and divisive "family values" Bush promotes.

Better Ways to Spend Money

2004-09-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

With what we have spent on the war in Iraq -

We could have FULLY FUNDED global anti hunger efforts for FIVE years.
Or we could have provided over 330,000 4 year college scholarships to our nation's young people
Or provided a year's medical coverage to over 56 million children
Or paid a year's salary for an additional 2.5 million teachers for our public schools
Or fully funded the world wide AIDS program for 13 years.

Not So Pretty

2004-09-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

"Saudi Arabia's giant oil fields might already have peaked and could start into rapid decline in as few as three years, somebody better have a “Plan B” ready or there's no way, — absolutely no way — to avoid a world energy cataclysm. (Pete Simmons of Simmons & Company International, Houston, one of the worlds largest energy investment banking groups. Simmons was also a Bush energy advisor)
http://www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/238338932.shtml

"Cutting U.S. foreign oil dependence is a "silly notion for politicians," said Herman Franssen, president of the International Energy Associates, Inc. "It's like saying when you're obese that you should stop importing foreign food," he told a Hudson Institute oil panel earlier this week. "You need to reduce your dependence on (all) oil," Franssen said. "Not foreign oil. Oil." " (Reuters 09/10/04)

The cost of providing health care to employees has risen 11.2 percent this year, according to the results of an authoritative national survey reported yesterday.(NYT 09/10/04)

Census Bureau figures show that the number of uninsured Americans rose to 45 million in 2003, up 1.4 million from 2002 when 43.6 million Americans were uninsured. In 2000, the year Bush was elected, 39.8 million were uninsured.
"The year 2003 marked the third straight year that living standards have deteriorated, with poverty increasing, the number of uninsured climbing, and the income of the typical household stagnating," says Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (Atlanta Daily World 09/10/04)

"After almost three years of recovery, our job market is still too weak to broadly distribute the benefits of the growing economy. Unemployment is essentially unchanged, job growth has stalled, and real wages have started to fall behind inflation. Today's picture is a stark contrast to the full employment period before the recession, when the tight labor market ensured that the benefits of growth were broadly shared. Prolonged weakness in the labor market has left the nation with over a million fewer jobs than when the recession began. This is a worse position, in terms of recouping lost jobs, than any business cycle since the 1930s." (Economic Policy Institute, reported in the San Jose Mercury News 09/10/04.

EDS to Cut 20,000 Jobs (LA Times 09/10/04)
Goodyear to Cut 340 Jobs (Forbes 09/10/04)
Alaska Airlines to Cut Nearly 900 Jobs (USA Today 09/10/04)
Mellon To Cut 110 Jobs (Newsday 09/10/04)

Not Too Swift

2004-08-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

Arrrggggh. I shouldn't read the news sites, it's bad for my blood pressure.

" "I understand how Senator Kerry feels - I've been attacked by 527's too," Mr. Bush told the New York Times in an interview conducted while the president was campaigning in New Mexico on Thursday. " "

There is only one word for this - unfuckingbelievable. What an audacious slimy weasel Bush is. The evidence is clear for any American who has a brain and bothers to look - SBVFT was created by Bush to attack Kerry. They attempted to veil it under the 527 designation but the money trail clearly and inarguably leads directly back to the Bush campaign.

I just had a look at MoveOn.org's contributors in light of Bush's warped comparsion. (Moveon.org was the grass roots organization that produced commercials that got Bush fuming). Yep, there is no doubt that Moveon had some big money contributions but also in the top ten contributors for Moveon.org are retirees, homemakers, authors and psychologists.

Puhleese

2004-08-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Bush is now trying to claim that "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" is no different from MoveOn.org. They're both 527s with a political message, right? Once again, Bush is counting on the stupidity of the American public.

Whether you agree with their political philosophy is immaterial but Moveon.org was started in the nineties - well before this campaign and well before Bush was president. It grew to prominence shortly after 9/11 with its peace campaign - well before most of the nation even knew who John Kerry was.

Conversely, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth went public On May 4, 2004 at a news conference organized by by Merrie Spaeth at the National Press Club. Records show the Swift Boat group received some of its funding from long-time Bush supporters. Bob Perry, one of Karl Rowe's best friends, was described by the Houston Chronicle last year as the single largest Texas donor to the Republican Party. Perry contributed over two thirds of the start up money to Swift Boat. John O’Neill, with strong ties to the Bush Administration and to Enron and Harlan Crow, the owner of Crow Realty Investors, both contributed. Perry, O'Neill and Crow thus accounted for over 94% of the income reported to the IRS.

The very same communications group that helped organized the Swift Boat group, Spaeth Communications (ran by Merrie Spaeth the widow of Tex Lezar), spearheaded a smear campaign against decorated vet John McCain in the 2000 primary. Spaeth was also the communications coach for Independent Counsel Ken Starr.

Swift Boat's new commercial also features one veteran, Ken Cordier, who was on a Bush campaign committee until last week, when he was forced to quit. Bush/Cheney lawyer, Benjamin Ginsberg resigned their campaign today after it was disclosed he helped the Swift Boat group.

What an ugly, interwoven tapestry is - and the irony is not lost on me. Bush and his minions do not hesitate to send our sons and daughters to war for their own personal gain - but they also won't hesitate to attack combat veterans if that also works for them. I'd ask "do you have no shame?" but I already know the answer.

Unthinkable

2004-08-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

I've been reading the transcripts of the Scott Peterson trial and am rather disgusted about the way the media is handling coverage. I know very little about criminal trials, but its more than obvious to me in reading the actual testimony that the prosecution is systematically laying out the foundation of the case and building it in a logical sequence. It's not the wham, bang, boom of Law and Order - but it shouldn't be. Yet to keep us glued, and emotions jumping, the press continually throws out a scathing critique or claims that the prosecution is losing - despite the fact that we've only heard just a portion of the witnesses in a trial that expected to last a total of six months. The experts, who will reveal any value of the evidence gathered, have barely begun to make their way to the witness box.

I don't know what the end verdict will be, but there is presently no doubt in my mind that Scott Peterson did this to his wife and unborn child. It is a sad and unthinkable thing indeed.

Tell Me It Isn't True

2004-07-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

~ that the war in Iraq will cost my family over $3400 and has driven our country into unthinkable debt and disgrace.

~ that Michael Jackson is having quads

~ that the transmission is going out on my van

~ that the 9/11 Commission carefully sidestepped controversy in the interest of an election year

~ that all my ripening tomatoes, which I should be harvesting now, were destroyed by rats with hooves

~ that Missouri's anal fixated, fundamentalists continue their blind march to pass unconstitutional measures and amendments, drawing resources and much needed money away from our schools and health care.

~ that the heat index was 103F yesterday and we still have August looming.

~ that the Sudanese government and government-backed Janjawid militia are ingaged in genocide; killing, raping, torturing and destroying black Africans. One million refugees.... and the US is in Iraq

~ that our yearly homeowner's insurance is due next month, along with dds college tuition and enormous electricity bills

~ that Scott Peterson might walk, even though it is more than probable he murdered his pregnant wife

~ that it's been 24 years this week that I married Rick, and 23 years since he died

~ That I was once that young - - and survived.

Is Our Children Learning?

2004-07-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Bush's command of English language has long been a source of humor for many of us. Today I wondered if perhaps it wasn't so funny anymore. Time and Newsweek have released reports on the 9/11 Commission's discovery of Dec 2001 files buried at the National Security Agency. These files demonstrate that if any country aided Al-Quada in the attacks on America, it was Iran and not Iraq. Do you suppose it was the "q" or the "r" that tripped up our illiterate commander in chief?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,664967,00.html

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" —George W. Bush

Back from Iraq

2004-07-14T00:57:00.000-07:00

Dd's boyfriend arrived tonight, fresh from Baghdad. One of the first things he told her was that it is absolute chaos there - much worse than 15 months ago. He said that the Iraqi people in general are now longing for the days of Saddam and many told him so. He and dd later had dinner with his parents, big time Bush supporters. The irony was not lost on me as she described the fervor in which his father, a military veteran, exalted Bush and slammed Kerry. My guess is that he doesn't have a clue about how his son will vote. Sadder still is that even knowing the truth of his son's experience wouldn't change his mind.

I'm taking the the younger ones swimming today with an old friend, her daughter and grandkids. I was committed this week to not scheduling anything and catching up on phonics work with Caroline but I think the fun will be worth it.

Who's On First? Mama's Political Musings - Part II

2004-07-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Make no mistake about it - I am not a political expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do a lot of reading and try to keep up with current events. As I previously posted, I was never sold on the idea of war to begin with. Call me a doubting Thomas, but my internal warning bells went off in early 2003 when it was clear the Bush administration did not have the support of our long term allies or the United Nations. No matter what some would like us to believe, the rest of the world's leaders and diplomats aren't all stupid. I presumed that there was probably more to the story.

The repeated polls left me awestruck. The Washington Post ran a poll in September of 2003 and found that 69% of Americans said they believed Saddam was personally involved in the 9/11 attacks. It was difficult for me to acquiesce that a full 69% of American were that dim-witted. Where would they get that idea??!! What happened to the focus on Osama bin Laden? How did the issue at hand get so muddled? I set out to find out.

I suspect I was initially baffled because I don't watch a lot of television. I prefer to read, so I rely on newspapers, news magazines and news sites on the net. I make an effort to read news and commentary from multiple perspectives, because I hope it bolsters objectivity. So with that in mind, I began to discover how the American public was abetted into confusion.

Consider the following timeline -

In the fall of 2001 and throughout most of 2002 - The Bush administration repeatedly opposed attempts and amendments which would allow Congress to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate intelligence failures in the 9/11 attacks. (note: after intense pressure from 9/11 families and new information released to the public on intelligence failures, Bush signed the Intelligence Authorization Act on November 27, 2002, giving the Commission 18 months to organize and investigate)

September 11, 2002 - "We know [Iraq] had a great deal to do with terrorism in general and with Al Qaeda in particular and we know a great many of bin Laden's key lieutenants are now trying to organize in cooperation with old loyalists from the Saddam regime " Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (ABC News)

September 26, 2002 - "You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." George W. Bush (CNN)

October 7, 2002 -"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States." George W. Bush, speech, Cincinnati, Ohio

January 9, 2003 - "We know for a fact that there are [WMD] weapons there." Bush's press secretary, Ari Fleischer (televised press briefing)

January 28, 2003 - "Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." George W. Bush, State of the Union Address

January 30, 2003 - "He is a danger not only to countries in the region but, as I explained last night, because of his al Qaeda connections, because of his history, he is a danger to Americans," George W. Bush, referring to Tuesday's State of the Union address. Michigan (CNN) -- "President Bush spent Wednesday trying to draw a link between a possible war in Iraq and the war against terrorism. He repeated accusations that Iraq is linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network."

February 5, 2003 "What I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al Qaeda terrorist network." and Saddam "has the wherewithal to develop smallpox." Sec. of State Colin Powell to the United Nations Security Council.

February 8, 2003 - "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established." George W. Bush in a national radio address

March 6, 2003 - "September the 11th should say to the American people that we are now a battlefield, that weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist organization could be deployed here at home." and "The attacks of September the 11th, 2001 showed what the enemies of America did with four airplanes. ... I will not leave the American people at the mercy of the Iraqi dictator and his weapons."

March 16, 2003 - "And we believe he [Saddam Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." Dick Cheney (Meet the Press)

March 17, 2003 - "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." George W. Bush, televised address to the nation.

March 19, 2003 - Bush announces invasion of Iraq.

March 31, 2003 - "We know where they [biological weapons] are, they are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north of that ..." Donald Rumsfeld, televised press conference, reported in the Guardian.

May 1, 2003 - "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al-Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding." George W. Bush (speech given on the USS Lincoln, declaring an end to the Iraq War).

June 8, 2003 "No one ever said that we knew precisely where all of these agents were, where they were stored," Condoleezza Rice (interview on Meet the Press)

June 14, 2003 - "Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech that the Iraqi dictator "had long established ties with Al Qaeda."" (Fox News - Associated Press)

September 14, 2003 - "Yeah, I did misspeak, we never had any evidence that [Hussein] had acquired a nuclear weapon." Dick Cheney, (when confronted by Tim Russert on Meet The Press about Cheney's pre-invasion statement that Iraq had nuclear weapons).

September 14, 2003 - By invading Iraq, the United States "will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11," Dick Cheney (interview on Meet the Press)

September 17, 2003 - "There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties." George W. Bush, Remarks by the President After Meeting with Members of the Congressional Conference Committee on Energy Legislation. The Cabinet Room

June 16, 2004 - The Sept. 11 commission reported that it has found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda.

June 16, 2004 - ''At various times Al Qaeda people came through Baghdad and in some cases resided there," said David Kay, former head of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group, which searched for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism. ''But we simply did not find any evidence of extensive links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all." (Boston Globe).

According to legal experts, "manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose." (Find Law)

It became clear to me that the Bush/Cheney administration purposefully and willfully misled the American people. They shamefully used the tragedy of 9/11 as their springboard to further their preconceived agenda.

Politics Sitting in Armchair Psych

2004-07-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

Beliefs are funny things ... some we merely acknowledge, some we cradle gently and unrestrained. And then there are those that we seize with all our might - the ones attached to something of great importance to us or have at least been a long held belief.

I am no stranger to cognitive dissonance, though I believe that some experience it more than others. It is a strange and exasperating thing to both witness and experience, being the root of many difficult choices, debates and estrangement. Interestingly enough, during my years on the net, I've seen it occur most frequently in the arena of parenting practices and politics. The more closely held the belief, the greater the dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation. At its most basic it is what you feel inside when someone tells you something you don't want to hear. If you are very committed to certain ideas, it's human nature to resist anything that would contradict them. You're appalled, outraged and will even go so far to attack the messenger. Our attachment to our own preconceptions both binds and blinds us - we resist because we don't like to feel that we've been "had." We simply have an overwhelmingly human desire to be right.

Social Psychologist and Princeton professor Joel Cooper recently wrote an article* for Newsday in which he expounds on cognitive dissonance and how it explains why Bush/Cheney continue to insist their is a link that that the 9/11 commission can't find. I agree with Cooper. The evidence is clear that Bush et al wanted war with Iraq prior to 9/11. It was a long held and strongly held belief. Yet I am also willing to take it further than Cooper - I fear that a good deal of Americans are fully in the midst of cognitive dissonance.

In an earlier entry, I mentioned my male friend, a Republican. He has a good intellect, inquiring mind and stays abreast of current events. However, I must admit he has left me more than befuddled. He admitted he did not like what was going on, but thought he still might vote for Bush. I found that jaw dropping. It was hard for me to fathom how any intelligent, rational and thoughtful American could even consider it in their wildest dreams - write in Mickey Mouse for Maude's sakes - but actually vote for someone who has committed treason and fraud??!!

And then it hit me - cognitive dissonance. Like many Americans, he's intelligent enough to know that something is gravely amiss, but he hasn't gotten to the point of assimilating this new information with his previously held beliefs. Believing so strongly in Bush, supporting the invasion and then finding out were taken by a bamboozlement of epic and grave proportions? It's a lot to handle.

As Cooper wrote -

"As time goes by, some Republicans may part company with the administration. They may take an alternate path to reduce dissonance by psychologically redefining their group and deciding that Bush and Cheney do not represent what it means to be a mainstream Republican. But for those voters who continue to identify with the administration, the result of the inconsistency between the president and vice president and the 9/11 Commission will lead to more polarization and hardening of attitudes."

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpcoo203859311jun20,0,4497789.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

Fahrenheit - In A Word

2004-07-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

Lynn Woolery wrote in a recent commentary on Fahrenheit 9/11 -

"Meanwhile, those who despise George W. Bush are attending Fahrenheit 9/11 in droves and are cheering wildly. This is difficult to understand and seems to be in spite of the fact that, since President Clinton left office, the Left has suddenly stopped liking liars."

Some would say a lie is a lie is a lie, but from this mama's perspective, I disagree. If my teenager came home and insisted to me she didn't have sex with her boyfriend, and I later found out she did, I'd be disappointed. I'd even be hurt and perhaps angry that she violated our trust and lied to me. However, if my teenager went out, spread propaganda to millions and sent nearly 1000 brave men and women to their deaths, wounded thousands of others and killed countless numbers of innocent men, women and children?? It's a whole new ball game, Lynn. Not even close by the wildest stretch of the imagination.

I was never an overly enthusiastic Clinton cheerleader, but from where I sit a stain on a dress is looking pretty good right now.

Mr. Woolery's critique (you can read his commentary at Newsmax.com) of the Michael Moore film isn't much different than those of other Bush supporters. Most either lambaste the Moore film by attacking Moore himself or resort to an appeal to the emotions with the "flaming liberal, lefty, terrorist loving, tree hugging, pinko-commie, un-American" rally cry. Notoriously free of real evidence, these sort of attacks are fallacious at their core; designed to incite, deflect and keep the critic from having to addressing the real issues.

In a mere Mama's view, the facts are more than clear. Mr. Bush et al lied to the American people, lied to Congress, and took our nation to war based on those lies. While Moore's film speculates on why Bush did it (an appeal to the emotions of a different sort) the most important issues at hand are - do we let Bush get away with it? Is a man that is capable of such unthinkable acts deserving of the presidency?

In a word - no.

CIA? Yeah, right ...

2004-07-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

"I think they wanted to believe that there was a connection, but the CIA was sitting there, the FBI was sitting there, I was sitting there saying we've looked at this issue for years. For years we've looked and there's just no connection."

Richard Clarke describing the immediate aftermath of 9/11 at the White House in a March 2004 interview.

Notice the date of the interview. It was months before the Senate Intelligence Committee released their report that begs the question - Did the intelligence drive the decision for war or did the decision for war drive the intelligence?

More Research To Affirm Why Safe Sleep Environment Is Important

2004-07-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

" In the July 8, 2004, issue of the journal Neuron, the researchers describe the specific group of neurons that are responsible for gasping and what happens to these cells when they are deprived of oxygen. Since gasping resets the normal breathing pattern for babies, the scientists suspect that a malfunction in these respiratory pacemakers is the cellular mechanism that leads to SIDS."

"This means there may be nothing wrong with a baby's breathing under normal conditions, but if the baby goes into hypoxia from a blocked airway or because the baby sleeps on the tummy and does not receive sufficient oxygen, the baby needs the sodium-driven pacemakers in order to gasp, which wakes the baby and initiates movement or crying."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/07/040708014957.htm

Mama's Political Musings - Part I

2004-07-03T22:03:00.001-07:00

Some months ago, my aging father came to visit. He had hardly sat down on my couch before asking, "Have you been watching the news this morning?" I told him no, that we rarely had the television on during the day and he proceeded to tell me how they had found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He had a smile and a gleam in his eye when he added, "Yeah, 'ol Bush is going make some of them damn liberals eat crow." I shrugged my shoulders, unsure about how I felt about the weapons being found. On one hand, I had a strange sense of relief because that meant the premise under which we went to war was somewhat more legitimate. Yet I also had doubts, and when I questioned my father further, he could give me no details.

To offer some background: To say I grew up in a partisan household would be somewhat of an understatement. As a young child, I actually thought those people called "Democrats" were some sort of evil dictators. In my family, any Republican leader was automatically trustworthy simply by being a Republican. If they did something baffling, my parents were sure there would always be a good reason behind it. In their eyes, a Republican President was a paternal, magnanimous leader; one allowed whatever ambiguity necessary because he was, after all, most certainly acting in the best interests of the country.

After my father left that day, I went to Google News and surfed other news sites. I turned on CNN. I flipped to Fox. I soon realized that my father's news was not at all factual. Apparently, a small portion of a news broadcast collided with the wishful thinking of an old Republican; one able to find refuge in long held convictions and the bit of dementia he has in his old age.

I was opposed to the invasion of Iraq from the beginning and I admit, have never been a George W. fan. Yet I felt some relief, a small hope that my father's fantasy was true. Maybe I longed for the security of the mindset - trusting in the all knowing, paternalistic leader. Finding WMDs could have made Americans feel a bit more justified in their actions and certainly helped us save face internationally. I wanted to believe more in the so called "patriotic" Americans and less in the so called conspiracy theorists. After all, if we knew that we had been tricked and lied into a war, American's would be rioting in the streets - wouldn't they? A leader, so awful as to lead our sons and daughters to death for a lie wouldn't be tolerated - would he? To misrepresent intelligence and lie to Congress is high treason - isn't it?

Not only did I not want to believe that the Bush administration would actually do it - I simply didn't want to face the prospect that a good portion of our voting population is either ignorant, callow or in denial. Most of all, I was beleaguered with frustration - a sadness that a great deal of the American voting public would choose blind allegiance to independent analysis - that they would allow ambiguity when the lives of many people were at stake.

When I first spoke out in opposition to the war, I lost a friend. She labeled us "clueless" and left an e-mail list in a blaze. As it turned out, we weren't the ones lacking clues. Another friend sadly told me that while he didn't like what Bush was doing, he just didn't trust anyone else. I understood his reluctance to abandon his party, but the underlying implication hung in the air. He simply did not want to look at the gravity of the actions of this administration.

I also know that the Bush administration was counting on us all - counting that we'd be so busy with our daily lives, we wouldn't pay close attention; that they'd be able to rally the party faithful by waving the flag and playing a common political game. When you incite and encourage division based on emotional reactions, you discourage critical thought. Bush et al have made it clear; you're either with them or against them. And if you are against them you must be a flaming liberal, lefty, terrorist loving, tree hugging, pinko commie, un-American. And if that doesn't fit, and you still dare challenge their authority, Dick Cheney will gladly resort to telling you to "go fuck yourself." (Washington Post 6/26/2004)

Call me a flaming liberal, lefty, terrorist loving, tree hugging, pinko-commie, un-America if you will (I am none of the above, though I do like trees) yet I couldn't help but shudder when the following quote came through on a listserve. It was deplorably too applicable to what I saw happening in my country.

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

-- Herman Goering, Hitler's Nazi SS Reichsmarshall, at the Nuremberg trials