Procrastination

My mother said, "You won't amount to anything because you procrastinate."
I said, "Just wait."
--Judy Tenuta

Leaders

"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them."
--Robert Jarvik, Artificial Heart Developer

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Constitution

Article 1, Section 8, of the US Constitution provides, in relevant part:

Section 8. The Congress shall have power...
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

_____________________________
White House Press Briefing, October 30, 2007. Questions by Helen Thomas; Ms. Perino = Fourth Reich Press Secretary Dana Perino:

Q Would the President seek an explicit green light from Congress if he intended to bomb or attack Iran, or does he think he has that right?

MS. PERINO: Well, Helen, there is no intention of bombing Iran. We are on a diplomatic track. We are working with our partners, the U.N. Security Council. We have provided them, the Iranians, a road map to get to a civil nuclear program. They have walked away from that. We are hoping that they'll come back. We are both working with our U.N. Security Council partners as well as pursuing sanctions on our own, and there is not an intention to bomb Iran, as you said.
Q Does the President think he has the right to do it without going through Congress?

MS. PERINO: That is -- it's a hypothetical situation, Helen. I'm not going to answer it.

Q It's not hypothetical. It's concrete.


(Thanks to Tim at Rolling Stone for the head's up)


TLC

Expediency

"No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency."
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th US President

Knowledge III

"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."
--Frederick Douglass

Food

"God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest."
--J. G. Holland

Mother Arrested After Children Miss School

The mother of four children, two of them school-age, was arrested on a warrant issued because her children missed school or were late more than half of the current school year, officials said Thursday.

The Humboldt County District Attorney's Office said Meghan Rachel Fleming, 27, of Eureka, was arrested Wednesday by district attorney investigators and Eureka police officers at her California Street home.

The four children were placed in protective custody with county Child Welfare workers.

”This school year isn't the start of the problem for this family,” said District Attorney Investigator Wayne Cox. “Last year's records were very similar to this years.”

The children who were in school are 11 and 5 years old.

Cox said the 11-year-old missed 13 whole days out of the 42 days of school this year, and was more than a half-hour late on another 14 days.

The 5-year-old missed 16 days and was more than a half-hour late on another 12 days.

When authorities served the warrant they discovered living conditions that may produce more charges from the DA's office.

So far this year, according to Cox, the DA's office has files charges against 10 parents related to their school attendance.

”But this is an extreme case,” Cox said.

Usually when charges are filed, the parents address the problem before the need for a warrant.

”Fleming had failed to respond to letters seeking her cooperation and court attendance and so a warrant for her arrest was sought,” a District Attorney's Office press release said.

If convicted of the charges the warrant was written on, she's facing up to a year in the county jail.

Source: Chris Durant, Eureka [California] Times-Standard, October 26, 2007



A story in the other local paper, the Eureka Reporter, adds the demonizing effect of a mugshot photo of the mother. Not exactly the time when one is looking their best...

_____________________________________

New crime: Don't respond to a letter, go to jail and face criminal charges.

Have the school check with the kids when they *are* there about what's going on? Too much work. Send a school counselor out to the home? Fugettaboutit. Besides, the CPS Storm Troopers have to get their jollies by asserting their unchecked power to destroy families on a whim.

Now the kids will be put in several strangers' homes, homes provided all-too-often by people who do foster care so they have enough money to make ends meet--or for luxuries. Quality foster care homes, while commendable, are rare, especially in HerrGoobernator's Kalifornia where things are done on the cheap and children are nothing more than human garbage.

Not to mention the fact that the kids are likely to fare worse in foster care. A recent study by Dr. Joseph J. Doyle, Jr., found that biological parents who were deemed abusive by the state did a better job of raising children than the state did through foster care.

Then there's the problem of children being dumbed-down by No Standardized Test Left Behind, and turned into pharmaceutical zombies if they misbehave.

And this is the same DA's office that won't lift a finger when it comes to rampant police brutality resulting in numerous deaths.

Blow away a 16-year-old kid with 3 bullets at close range and nothing happens--no charges whatsoever are brought--but if your kid skips school it's off to the slammer!

More screwed-up foster kids = more target practice for the local "law enforcement"?

TLC

No Sense Of Irony

“The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag."
--George W. Bush speaking about Cuba, an island where he detains and tortures people indefinitely without charge.

Thanks to cartoonist Matt Bors for catching/noting this.

Full speech by DerBu$hler, October 24, 2007

Lot

"If begging should unfortunately be thy lot, knock at the large gates only."
--Proverb, (Arabian)

Lunch

"What sickens us so much about the cruelty shown to poor animals? I suppose this: first, that they have done us no harm; next, that they have no power whatever of resistance; it is the cowardice and tyranny of which they are the victims which make their sufferings so especially touching… there is something so very dreadful, so satanic, in tormenting those who have never harmed us and who cannot defend themselves; who are utterly in our power." --John Henry Newman

Why blame me? It was all my brain’s fault

Imagine this futuristic courtroom scene. The defence barrister stands up, and pointing to his client in the dock, makes this plea: “The case against Mr X must be dismissed. He cannot be held responsible for smashing Mr Y’s face into a pulp. He is not guilty, it was his brain that did it. Blame not Mr X, but his overactive amygdala.”
In the courts, as in the trial of serial rapist and murderer Bobby Joe Long, brain-scan evidence is being invoked in support of pleas of diminished responsibility. The idea is abroad that developments in neuroscience – in particular the observation of activity in the living brain, using techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging – have shown us that we are not as free, or as accountable for our actions, as we traditionally thought.

Though they failed to cut much ice in Long’s case, arguments that blame lies not with the defendant but with his overactive amygdala (supposedly responsible for aggressive emotions) or his underactive frontal lobes (supposedly responsible for inhibiting the expression of such emotions) are being deployed with increasing frequency. If our brains are in charge, and bad behaviour is due to them, our attitude to criminal responsibility, to punishment (the balance between rehabilitation and retribution) and to preventive detention of individuals thought to have criminal tendencies may all have to change.

Source, and full article: London Times, October 24, 2007

DN & Barbara Boxer Rewrite Reality (Again)

Lt. Gov., Sen. Boxer: Iraq War Hindering Relief Effort

A top California official has criticized President Bush’s visit and called on him to order California National Guard out of Iraq to help out in their home state. Speaking on MSNBC, California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi said Bush’s visit would distract from the relief effort. He said: ‘What we really need are those firefighters, we need the equipment. We need frankly -- we need our troops back from Iraq.” His comments come as California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer said the California National Guard is operating with just the half the equipment it needs because of the war in Iraq.

Source: Democarcy Now, October 24, 2007

__________________________________________

Gee, maybe if Fifth Columnist Boxer hadn't repeatedly voted for funding the war ON Iraq we'd have enough National Guardspeople to help fight the fires.

But that is an inconvenient truth that bedmates DN and Boxer once again ignore.

TLC

Justice II

"Do not expect justice where might is right."
--Plato (429-347 BC)
Source: Phaedrus, 360 B.C

But Not A Dime To Fight The Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel

And not a word about the Federal Drug Advocates (FDA) allowing the pharmaceutical drug cartel to unleash its' toxins upon America, or the giveaway of taxpayer dollars to promote drug addiction.

And what about the royal screwjob by the AARP, turning golden years into addiction years while profiting handsomely?

TLC
_____________________________

Bush Seeks $1.4 Billion To Fight "Drug War"
In Mexico President Bush also asked Congress to approve a $1.4 billion aid package over the next three years to fight the so-called drug war in Mexico. The requested aid marks a tenfold increase in the annual drug assistance now provided to Mexico.

Source: Democracy Now, October 23, 2007

The Pro-Death Party

"I hope all these Republicans who support all this stuff in Iraq and object so violently to expanding children’s health care don’t call themselves pro-life." --The Salina [Kansas] Journal's anonymous Extension 333 call-in line, published October 21, 2007

Breakfast

"People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times."
--Issac Bashevis Singer

Philadelphia...Police State

Philadelphia will be getting 250 additional surveillance cameras in various locations throughout the city, Mayor Street announced Monday.
"People will get the message that the cameras are out there and if you intend to get involved in some kind of activity you better look around first and maybe rethink it," John Gaittens, Deputy Police Commissioner said.

The city has partnered with a private company to install and maintain the system.


Source, and full article: CBS 3, Philadelphia PA, October 22, 2007

Say What You Like, Just Don’t Say It Here

The American commitment to free speech is the most robust in the world. But these days that tolerance stops at the border.

Two cases pending in federal court in Manhattan will soon test how far the government can go in keeping Americans safe from what a State Department manual calls the “irresponsible expressions of opinion by prominent aliens.”

One case concerns a decision by the Bush administration to bar a Muslim scholar from visiting the United States. The other is a criminal prosecution of two Brooklyn businessmen for transmitting Hezbollah’s television station on their satellite service.

Judge Paul A. Crotty — a federal district judge in Manhattan who was New York City’s chief lawyer under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani — will hold a hearing in the case on Thursday. In an earlier decision, he said the principles at stake were crucial ones.

“The First Amendment includes not only a right to speak, but also a right to receive information and ideas,” Judge Crotty wrote last year. That includes a right, he continued, quoting a Supreme Court decision, “to have an alien enter and to hear him explain and seek to defend his views.”


Source, and full article: New York Times, October 22, 2007

Mystery

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
--Harry Emerson Fosdick

Two Million

Look at the picture, and point out where the bad people live whose Conversion or death is critical to the fulfillment of God's mission for the universe.

TLC

__________________________________________

Explanation: Our universe is filled with galaxies. Galaxies -- huge conglomerations of stars, gas, dust -- and mysterious dark matter are the basic building blocks of the large-scale universe. Although distant galaxies move away from each other as the universe expands, gravity attracts neighboring galaxies to each other, forming galaxy groups, clusters of galaxies, and even larger expansive filaments. Some of these structures are visible on one of the most comprehensive maps of the sky ever made in galaxies: the APM galaxy survey map completed in the early 1990s. Over 2 million galaxies are depicted above in a region 100 degrees across centered toward our Milky Way Galaxy's south pole. Bright regions indicate more galaxies, while bluer colors denote larger average galaxies. Dark ellipses have been cut away where bright local stars dominate the sky. Many scientific discoveries resulted from analyses of the map data, including that the universe was surprisingly complex on large scales.

Source: Astronomy Picture Of The Day

Studs Terkel: The world's greatest interviewer

He met everyone from Martin Luther King to Dorothy Parker, Tennessee Williams to Bob Dylan. He survived the McCarthy era to record a unique oral history of his country. Now in his nineties, the great US chronicler is still raging against George Bush, Hillary Clinton and the death of radical America
"...I once wrote a book called Hope Dies Last. I believe that. I might feel hopelessness, except for one thing: the young. I don't mean the young as they're portrayed in TV commercials: whores, bimbos and dummies. There are many who do not fall into those categories. The big problem is that there's no memory of the past. Our hero is the free market. People forget how the free market fell on its face way back in the Depression. And how the nation pleaded with its government and got help. Today, all these fat CEOs say we don't need government. And these fat boys get away with it, because of our collective Alzheimer's, and the power of Rupert Murdoch and CNN. There is despair in this country, sure. At the same time, we are waiting."

"For what?"

"For new voices."


Full interview, Independent UK, October 21, 2007

Boldness

Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again, and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."
--Francis Bacon, Essays--Of Boldness

First The Blight Must Be Removed

[W]hat terrifies is the further realization of just how much it takes to trigger the public giant's synapses. Nothing has come to pass that wasn't predictable in the most elementary ways since 2001, from the plutocratic looting of America to the most blundering and imbecilic of foreign policies. Had Americans been paying attention, had they applied any real thought to the miserable paths being taken by the Bushies, the polling number of wrong trackers -- now at 66 percent -- would have been achieved six years ago. Yet it had to come to this.
The second and rather needless confirmation coming from the poll is that of the hard right's unshakable loyalty and solidarity.

One in every four, after all this. I could understand and accept one in every one hundred, or one thousand, or whatever statistic matches the frequency of severe mental illness among the general population. But one quarter? It chills the democratic bones, and indicates just how blindly allegiant is the right -- a steadfast allegiance whose recipient demonstrates his dementia on a daily basis...

[T]here is no confidence in any organized opposition to criminal dementia in the Oval Office, for the simple reason that there is no organized opposition to criminal dementia in the Oval Office.


Full article, by P.M. Carpenter, October 18, 2007

VIDEO: Rep. Pete Stark Stands Up To The Fourth Reich

California's Rep. Pete Stark took on the Fourth Reich on the Schip veto plus Iraq yesterday. You can watch his remarks HERE.

Rep. Pete Stark Stands Up To The Fourth Reich

UPDATE: You can watch a video of Rep. Stark's remarks HERE.


"You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."
--Rep. Pete Stark, California, 13th District


My email to Rep. Stark, Subject "Stand Your Ground":

Human beings are being slaughtered in Iraq on a Hitlerian scale due to Bu$h's efforts to enrich the multinational oil cartel. The least we can do, while others bleed, suffer, and die, is to speak out.

Impossibility

"Never tell a young person that something can't be done. God may have been waiting for centuries for somebody ignorant enough of the impossible to do that thing."
--J. Holmes

Mouthful

“But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.”
—Plutarch (in Moralia) (46-120)

Cannon

"Being a patriot no longer requires a cannon. But it still takes balls".
--Glen Greenwald

Groundhog Day: Kucinich-Paul

A response to my earlier Post, Groundhog Day, asked:

Why is Cindy not supporting - or even mentioning - Dennis or Ron?


My reply:

I can only speculate, but my impression is that Sheehan needs someone to run her campaign who thinks like Che Guevara (but without the violence). Someone who subscribes to my philosophy that, "When you don't like the way the game's going, change the rules". A risk taker, a rule breaker, someone extremely sharp and mentally quick on their toes. Cindy's heart is in the right place, she has the right idea--a pox on both political parties--but she can't do it all by herself.

Why should Cindy support politicians who support the one-party system we have today?

For the Dennis Kucinich (I still support him, but I'm a realist) and Ron Paul supporters: How about Dennis & Ron declare, forget about the Primaries, to Hell with the one-party system we have today, and create a new party ala Ross Perot and run as a team--Dennis for President, Ron as Dennis' Veep?

TLC

Groundhog Day

UPDATED/EXPANDED: Groundhog Day: Kucinich-Paul



The Senate voted to authorize the War on Iraq, votes to continue full funding for that war, and has voted to authorize a War On Iran.

But the emails and petition drives continue. Tell Congress to pass Schip. Tell Congress to protect privacy. Send money to the Democrats. Send us money so we can run ads telling Congress to do such-and-such.

Then CONgress gives the Fourth Reich everything it wanted.

We've had this cycle for over six years now. Bu$h wants _________. Let's tell CONgress to stop Bu$h from _________. Send money. Oh darn, CONgress gave Bu$h what he wanted.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

Isn't it time to admit that the US Senate is worthless, and the US House almost worthless? Yes we have Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, but are they any more than window dressing, distractions to keep the opposition from doing anything meaningful?

Support Dennis or Ron all you want, but are either one challenging the fundamental fact that almost all of the rest of CONgress is worthless?

Are Dennis or Ron campaigning for Cindy Sheehan? Or for anyone else running against an inCONbent?

Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, it looks like Frank Zappa was right. It's brick wall time:

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

Albert Einstein reportedly defined Insanity as, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results "

So the latest episode of Groundhog Day is that CONgress failed to pass Schip over Bu$h's Veto, and the telecoms have retroactive immunity.

When do we stop repeating this cycle and rewrite the script?

TLC

Supporting God & The War

"Saying that you support the troops but not the war makes about as much sense as saying you believe in God, not Jesus. Just stupid."

--The Salina [Kansas] Journal's anonymous Extension 333 call-in line, published October 18, 2007

____________________________________

Makes sense. Support the troops by killing 'em. Support God by killing Jesus.

TLC

Books II

"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
--Mark Twain

Step

"Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it."
--John Henry Newman (1801-1890, British religious leader, prelate, writer)

Decide II

"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage -- pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically -- to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside."
--Stephen Covey

Feedback & Reply: "The 'Good Germans' Among Us"

A response I received to Frank Rich's article "The 'Good Germans' Among Us", followed by my reply:


I realize there is much wrong-doing during this administration, but will Hillary do anything differently?
--------Nope, just Bu$h in a pantsuit or dress, a gentler face on the fascism

In fact, I don't see any of the candidates doing anything differently.
--------Wrong:
http://www.dennis4president.com/home

http://www.dennis4president.com/go/resources/animal-rights/

Enough of this choosing between Hitler & Stalin stuff.


That's why it's depressing to read articles like this..........
--------Wrong again. It's empowering, it's enlightening. And not just for you but for those you can forward it to that might have their blinders removed.

America has become like an alcoholic, in Denial, hiding its head in the sand. It's time to put America "On The Wagon". Of course, there's no "one-size-fits-all" to accomplish that.

And if we don't? Then we will continue to create "terrorists" by alienating the rest of the world until Bu$h creates the War Without End that the elites want and profit so obscenely from. China will increasingly dictate the fate of America through its massive purchases of T-Bills. And when the price of oil is no longer pegged to the dollar because the dollar is such a devalued currency...

So forget about you and me, what about your grandchildren? If we hide our heads in the sand, sit on our hands, hope for a dictator, er, "knight in shining armor", what sort of world will we leave them? What do we tell the children, the grandchildren? "Oh it was too depressing to do anything about it, and the corporate media told us we were powerless."

To paraphrase Marx, "Civilized people of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains".

TLC

Ties

"If men can run the world, why can't they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around your neck?"
--Linda Ellerbee

The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us

UPDATED: Feedback & Reply: "The 'Good Germans' Among Us"


“BUSH lies” doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves.

By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques have a grotesque provenance: “Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.”

Still, the drill remains the same. The administration gives its alibi (Abu Ghraib was just a few bad apples). A few members of Congress squawk. The debate is labeled “politics.” We turn the page.

Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those “good Germans” who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name.

Full article, by Frank Rich of the New York Times, October 14, 2007

"Winning"

"At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right."
--Miguel de Unamuno, "in a confrontation with fascist General Milan-Astray", at the University of Salamanca

2,002 suspects died in police custody over 3 years

More than 2,000 criminal suspects died in police custody over a three-year period, half of them killed by officers as they scuffled or attempted to flee, the government said Thursday. The highest number of deaths — 310 — occurred in California, the nation's most populous state.

The review found 55 percent of the 2,002 arrest-related deaths from 2003 through 2005 were due to homicide by state and local law enforcement officers. Alcohol and drug intoxication caused 13 percent of the deaths, followed by suicides at 12 percent, accidental injury at 7 percent and illness or natural causes, 6 percent. The causes for the deaths of the remaining 7 percent were unknown.

In California, the 310 deaths included 162 homicides, 62 deaths by intoxication, 17 by suicide and 20 by illness. There were 25 accidental deaths and 24 were caused by other or unknown causes.

_Blacks were disproportionately represented in arrest-related deaths due to alcohol or drug intoxication (41 percent vs. 33 percent for whites); accidental injury (42 percent vs. 37 percent for whites); and unknown causes (46 percent vs. 39 percent for whites).

Source, and full AP wire service article, October 11, 2007: SF Chronicle

The Next Genetically Mutated FrankenFood: Sugar

Stop Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SUGAR TO HIT STORES IN 2008 Background Information: American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company, who ironically have launched an "organic" line of their sugar,and several other leading U.S. sugar providers have announced they will be sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets beginning this year and arriving in stores in 2008. Like GE corn and GE soy, products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such.

Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, a move towards biotech beets marks a dramatic alteration of the U.S. food supply. These sugars, along with GE corn and soy, are found in many conventional food products, so consumers will be exposed to genetically engineered ingredients in just about every non-organic multiple-ingredient product they purchase.

The GE sugar beet is designed to withstand strong doses of Monsanto's controversial broad spectrum Roundup herbicide. Studies indicate farmers planting "Roundup Ready" corn and soy spray large amounts of the herbicide, contaminating both soil and water. Farmers planting GE sugar beets are told they may be able to apply the herbicide up to five times per year. Sugar beets are grown on 1.4 million acres by 12,000 farmers in the U.S. from Oregon to Minnesota.

Meanwhile candy companies like Hershey's are urging farmers not to plant GE sugar beets, noting that consumer surveys suggest resistance to the product. In addition the European Union has not approved GE sugar beets for human consumption.

Source, with Petition to American Crystal: Organic Consumers Association

What A Concept: "Don't Kill"

"When Jesus said, "Love your enemies," he probably meant, ‘Don’t kill them.’"
--The Salina [Kansas] Journal's anonymous Extension 333 call-in line, published October 10, 2007

Measure II

"I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom."
--General George S. Patton

Mission II

"Make your life a mission - not an intermission."
--Arnold H. Glasgow

Television II

"A television is a device you can sit in front of and watch people do things that you could be doing, if you weren't sitting there watching them do it."
--Anon

The Immigrants Aren't Just Coming, They're Here & Voting!

Rep. Hunter: Undocumented Illegal Immigrants "Being Rounded Up and Forced to Illegally Vote"

In other campaign news, Republican presidential candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter has claimed undocumented workers are being rounded up and forced to illegally vote in the United States. He said "We have right now a real danger of people that are illegally in the country being rounded up, herded into the polls, we've seen that in California, voting illegally. That disenfranchises everybody in that community."

Source: Democracy Now, October 9, 2007

_________________________________

Once again, DN repeats a variation of long-discredited claim from the Goebbels wing of the Fourth Reich without pointing out that there's no evidence whatsoever to back it up. But when it comes to reporting of actual voter fraud, most excellently covered by Greg Palast in his book "Armed Madhouse" and elsewhere: Silence and Denial.

TLC

Another Of Fred Thompson's Personalities Returns

Fred Thompson Names Cheney's Daughter to Chair Campaign

In campaign news, the former actor and U.S. Senator Fred Thompson will be participating in his first Republican presidential debate tonight in Dearborn Michigan. On Monday Thompson announced Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Liz would co-chair his presidential campaign. Former Virginia Senator George Allen is another co-chair. Last year Allen lost his re-election bid after he referred to a young man as a macaca at a campaign event.

Source: Democracy Now, October 9, 2007

__________________________

We've seen this Fred Thompson before. As an aide to then-Senator Howard Baker during the Watergate investigation, he served as a mole for the Nixon White House. Nixon recognized Thompson to be ""dumb as hell". MSNBC did a great article on Thompson in that era, July 9, 2007.

But then he has had his pro-abortion moments, which he now conveniently "forgets". And his First Amendment moments (or was this a pro-business vote?) in which he voted against a ban on violent video games to minors.

If Karl Rove starts helping Thompson, covertly or overtly, then you know he's the backup plan should Hillary fail.

TLC

Worthy II

"The liberties of our country, are worth defending at all hazards. Wehave received them from our worthy ancestors: They purchased them forus with toil, treasure and blood. It will bring an everlasting infamy onthe present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer themto be wrested from us...or be cheated out of them by the artifices offalse and designing men "
--Samuel Adams 1771

Grieve

"For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave nothing that claims a tear."
--Lord Byron

Too Dumb To Be Speaker

The United States appears to be illegally torturing terror suspects contrary to denials by President George Bush, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday.

Full article, Sydney Morning Herald, October 8, 2007

And thanks to Citizens For Legitimate Government for the tip.

_________________________

It took Pelosi 6 years to figure this one out?

Another talking point for Cindy Sheehan: Pelosi's too dumb to be Speaker Of The House. Or in CONgress.

And where's the SF Chronicle on this? Their only story on Pelosi today: Her statements on a Federal "Shield Law". Seems like the Chronicle, once again, is only concerned about the bottom line. (Sigh) we really do need a "no sacred cows" national newspaper.

TLC

Petition: Stop Blackwater From Coming To California

The turning of America into a Police State continues...you don't *really* think it's just a "training camp" do you?

My email to Senator Boxer and Senator Fräulein Feinstein:

Senator,

I fail to understand why you have not come out in oppostion to Blackwater's attempt to establish a death camp in San Diego County.

Unless you are determined to see America turned into a Police State. Or turned into another "Disaster Capitalism" opportunity for the corporations that have CONgress bought off and/or intimidated.

The choice is simple: Are you the Senator from California? Or the Senator from Blackwater?

Terry L. Clark

___________________________________________

Full petition--sign Here.

Blackwater USA, the private right-wing mercenary army that has spiraled out of control in Iraq, is trying to set up a para-military base right here in California, populated by 360 staff and "students." They want to acquire 824 acres of land in a sleepy rural corner of San Diego County to build a mercenary training facility, consisting of 15 firing ranges, a helipad, and a heavy vehicle operator's course covering the equivalent of 10 football fields.

The security of California and our citizens is at stake. We hoped Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer got the message when the Courage Campaign delivered 8,543 of your petition signatures to their offices. We hoped they got the message when the California Democratic Party passed a resolution -- putting the party on record -- opposing Blackwater's dangerous base on the border. We hoped they would take a stand with their party and with us. But we haven't heard a word.

It's time for our Senators to stand with us and the California Democratic Party against Blackwater.

Full petition--sign Here.

Go

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it.
If you don't ask, the answer is always no.
If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."
--Nora Roberts

Nonsense

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."
--Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Measure

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands inmoments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands attimes of challenge and controversy."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Clinton Won't Commit To Renew Constitution

Illinois Senator Barack Obama ¤ has finally signed the American Freedom Pledge, joining his fellow Democratic presidential candidates in encouraging the restoration of basic Constitutional principles after the battering they have taken during the Bush-Cheney era. All the Democrats, that is, except New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

The pledge is anything but radical. It simply asks candidates to affirm a statement that reads: "We are Americans, and in our America we do not torture, we do not imprison people without charge or legal remedy, we do not tap people's phones and emails without a court order, and above all we do not give any President unchecked power. I pledge to fight to protect and defend the Constitution from attack by any President."

The freedom campaign is promising to turn the heat up on Clinton and Republicans presidential contenders -- aside from Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who signed on to a similar American Freedom Agenda statement promoted by conservative defenders of the Constitution.

Source, and full article, by John Nichols of The Nation, October 3, 2007

Oh

"Oh that a man puts an enemy to his lips that steals his brains away."
--Anonymous

PETA Aids & Abets Michael Vick's "Rehabilitation"

PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk has sent out an email on October 2, 2007, below.

Maybe for an encore they could do a seance for Hitler, and then invite Bu$h, Cheney, and Charles Manson, to come in for a group hug?

How convenient that Michael Vick, less than 3 months prior to sentencing, has come to PETA for enlightenment and to document his remorse for the sentencing Judge. While the Federal Prosecutor may have rolled over on this one, perhaps the sentencing Judge's moral compass is intact, with no consideration of the costs to the NFL should Vick be incarcerated.

One has to wonder how the Vick case would have been handled under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was fond of bringing his Newfoundland Brumus with him to work.

Perhaps someone with PETA as deeply disgusted as I will reveal what "interesting" donations have flowed into PETA's coffers around the time of Michael Vick's search for a good P.R. stunt, er, "empathy".

The stench from the PETA-Vick tango is further exacerbated by PETA President Newkirk's advocacy of pit bull genocide.

For those who protest that Michael Vick was merely "facilitating": Would that soft peddling likewise apply were Vick "facilitating" child pornography? Snuff" films? The manufacture of Zyklon B in the 1940's? Perhaps a reading of the actual Statement Of Facts that Vick signed will take the gloss off the spin.

Yes, there will come a time when Michael Vick may truly seek redemption. But first, let him do a few years in prison, let him pick up several dozen bars of soap, encounter some shanks--Let him have a taste of the complete and utter barbarity he intentionally and maliciously, for years, unleashed on so many.

TLC

___________________________________

Following news of his guilty plea, I contacted Michael Vick suggesting that he hear—for the first time in his life, he confirmed—about animal protection issues, learn how animals feel joy and pain and deserve respect, and receive specific instruction on what to say to young people whom he has influenced in the worst possible ways.

In mid-September, Michael Vick visited PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, to meet with me privately. I told him that PETA advocates an end to all exploitation and needless violence based on prejudice, including the prejudice against other species, and that we believe that he should equip himself with information and materials in order to be able to live up to his responsibility to counsel children not to engage in cruelty to animals. He expressed his willingness to learn and his belief that everything in life happens for a reason, and he offered an apology to PETA and to "everyone" for "what I have done to dogs." I also explained that even if he took our basic empathy course, our position that he should serve jail time and have a lifetime ban on contact with animals would nevertheless remain unchanged, and he accepted that.

Two weeks ago, Michael Vick returned to PETA to take the "Developing Empathy for Animals" course, an all-day seminar on "who animals are," alternatives to cruelty, animal protection philosophy, and humane education, which PETA has now excerpted online. We believe that this course should be adopted by the NFL for all players to take in order to give them a chance to learn empathy, compassion, and nonviolence. Two days after the seminar, Vick came back to PETA's office to take the course exam.

PETA's course teaches the Golden Rule—treat others as you wish to be treated. Only time will tell whether Michael Vick has benefited from what he has learned, but he has pledged to use this knowledge to urge kids not to follow in his footsteps and to be kind to animals. Meanwhile, we are urging the NFL to take the important step of requiring that every player do what Michael Vick has done and take the course in order to help prevent future acts of violence against animals and to equip players with information about respecting animals that they can share with their young fans.

Although the Vick story served as the first glimpse for many people into the gory details of dogfighting, the abuses detailed in Vick's indictment are as widespread as they are horrific. In the last year alone, PETA has responded to more than 14,000 calls and e-mail messages regarding other dogfighting and individual cruelty-to-animals cases. The crucial step now is to urge policymakers and law enforcement officers to treat all cases of dogfighting and cruelty to animals the same way that they handled Vick's high-profile case. To that end, please join PETA and ask the NFL to require that all its players, some of whom have been involved in a series of cruelty-to-animals cases, attend PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" course.

Thank you for helping us do all that we can to make the world a better place for animals.

Yours truly,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

Rescue II

I am involved in dog rescue: my wallet and gas tank are always running on empty, my house is never quiet and free of dog hair, nor is my car, my inbox is full of ongoing despair and misery, but my heart and soul are replenished with unconditional love, loyalty, joy and gratitude that can only come from a rescued dog! ** Some say: "How can you do it?" ; I say: "How can you not?" **
--Unknown

Our Common Bond With Iran

"I feel sorrow for the people of Iran. They also have a crazy president."
--The Salina [Kansas] Journal's anonymous Extension 333 call-in line, published September 29, 2007

Resolutions

"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remainsof a different opinion." --William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English author, Anglican prelate

Standing Up For Voting Integrity: Furor still boils over secretary of state's touch-screen edict

Her Aug. 3 premidnight announcement decertifying electronic voting machines used by 9 million out of 15.7 million California voters makes her an instant heroine to activists convinced America's elections are at risk of being stolen through high-tech subterfuge.
On Aug. 3, as she decertified voting machines by Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic, Bowen called for better safeguards for the "fundamental tools of our democracy."

She said the touch-screen machines should be taken out of commission -- with limited use for disabled voters -- after her teams of University of California, Berkeley, and UC Davis computer scientists hacked into electronic voting machines and changed results on models used by 43 of California's 58 counties.

Full article, Sacramento Bee, September 29, 2007