while they steal from Americans I wonder when the president will get to work...

here comes a shocker so brace yourselves...the administration is letting oil and gas companies off the hook to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars owed the people of America. of course this time they made a rather pathetic attempt at showing the American people whom they were robbing weren't getting the shaft (which seems to be the basis for every policy they support these days...one wonders if they sit around the oval office and their congressional suites - wonderboy pages in tow - and ask themselves "will this fuck over Americans enough in favor of our elite rich friends? because if not, we need to rework this...especially if there is a way we can undermine the Constitution while we are at it...that would be peachy").

the interior department made a token showing that it was attempting to collect the royalties oil and gas companies owed...of course they only asked chevron for few million...well below what they owed under their contract. (and bear in mind that this is for drilling rights on public land...which means the oil and gas they are pulling up is your oil and gas...and basically they are getting paid, by you, to take your oil and gas and then sell it back to you for record profits without ever so much as giving a penny back to you). interesting how the contracts that this administration doesn't see to are the ones that require oil and gas companies to pay a little for taking public minerals before selling them back to the public and those that involve military-intelligence companies with traditional ties to the occupants of the white house and its underground bunker.

see how much this administration cares about you...they are giving your shit away to their friends so their friends can charge you for it in return. where I come from this is extortion, blackmail, theft, immoral, etc. but again, I must have read a different U.S. Code and Bible then they did.

speaking of stealing from Americans which this administration likes so much to do (like when they take the common wealth taken from you and give it back to their rich elite friends who then squirrel it away overseas)...I was under the impression that George Bush's job was to be President of the United States...is that not what we pay his salary for? granted his salary is peanuts compared to the backroom "contributions" he gets from those oil and gas companies that don't have to pay royalties to take your property before selling it back to you anymore and from the military-intelligence-industrial complex that make off like bandits with all the contracts in Iraq which they don't actually have to complete anywhere near effectively...still, one would assume he might have the courtesy of at least doing his fucking job whilst destroying our nation and the world. I mean, is that seriously too much to ask?

apparently it is. this child is running around the country as if his sole responsibility is to run other's campaigns for them rather than run this fucking country. all of this while 100 plus families saw their loved one's come home in a flag-drapped coffin (if they were lucky enough to be at the airport, because Bush won't let there be pictures or video taken of those soldiers returning...but keep ignoring his refusal to dignify the sacrifice these folks made, many without so much as the proper tools and support to protect themselves, let alone the people in Iraq because he says he feels your pain...so much so that he ignores it), while a few million American children fall below the poverty line and health insurance is now just a dream for the American worker, while old folks board buses to head across the border because his drug plan actually was another excuse to steal money from old Americans and give it to his rich drug company friends, while lady liberty cries and wonders how the words on her plague came to be so denigrated that America would build its own Berlin Wall (conveniently only on the southern border where the brown folks cross more than the northern one)...I think you get the point. the country is going to shit...the man's war as experiment is a debacle...and what is his answer...hit the campaign trail for his shitbag friends and try and tell the country that you have nothing to fear except everything, especially if democrats win.

the most enraging aspect...he is campaigning against democrats because they don't have a strategy for Iraq. um...georgy boy, just out of curiosity, what the fuck has your plan been for the past 3 years while almost 3,000 Americans died and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis perished? roll in, be greeted with rose pedals and be out in a few months...then just stay the course. is it just me, or is it more forgivable that the people that did not get us into this mess don't have a clear way to get us out than it is for the people who dragged us into this horror to have absolutely no fucking clue what they are doing?

incomptenence kills. this asswipe posing as a leader needs to go...and waiting until January, 2009 is no longer an option.

with all the changes to the script the plot is getting thin...

the dead keep piling up amidst more incompetence...

with a day to go the death toll for the United States' Armed Services hit 101 for this month...the first month since January, 2005, that 100 American families will welcome their loved one home in a flag drapped coffin without so much as a simple acknowledgment of their loved one's returning home, albeit in a pine box, from the men who sent them to Iraq to die in their not-so-grand expirement to reshape the middle east by forcefully placing an allied government on top of the world's second largest oil reserves. the official American dead from this misbegotten war now number 2,814...suddenly 3,000 is just around the corner. and lest we forget...the wounded now number almost 45,000...well, the wounded that wear the American flag on their uniform anyhow...well, the wounded that wear the American flag on their uniform and the administration releases their information. estimates on Iraqi dead in this immoral crusade run as high as 650,000 thousand...which really is not so far fetched when you recognize that throughout the 90's almost 90 percent of all casualties were civilian (and yes, only counting American military dead, that means approximately 300,000 dead civilians).

all of this in the midst of our learning of yet another heart wrenching failure of this administration when it comes to Iraq...seriously, if you are going to destroy all that America once stood for, drag lady liberty through the muck whilst ravaging and urinating on her, devestate an already devestated nation, see to a couple hundred thousand innocents being killed or horribly maimed, and dismantle all that humanity has done to limit the scourge of war unless absolutely necessary you might as well have the courtesy of being competent in overseeing the disgusting immoral war which you unleashed upon the world.

remember how the administration and its parrots kept telling us to "stay the course" (which apparently they never said...must have been the liberal media touching up videos) and that we would stank down as the Iraqis stood up. well, they didn't actually plan on giving the Iraqis the tools to stand up. your tax dollars were sent out by the truckload to pay for weapons for the new Iraqi army and security forces ("new" because these boneheads had the brilliant idea of sending the existing one home...without pay...and with their weapons...thereby setting loose a few hundred thousand trained, armed, and pissed off young men...oops...and "your" because you aren't a member of the truly wealthy elite...they got their tax dollars back, so not only do they not have to worry about fighting this war, they don't even have to worry about financing it...instead they just profit from it...and ain't it always nice to find those taking up residence in the White House in bed with war profiteers?). well...those weapons did not make it there too often..and when they did, they didn't come with things like replacement parts or anything else necessary for their maintenance...like say, trained persons.

while to normal folks like you and I that appears crack-smokingly stupid (which is right in line with the rest of the decisions these bafoons consistently make) it makes perfect sense when you understand that every idiotic decision they have made ended up making a few already fantastically wealthy folks just a little more fantastically wealthy without having to do much for it. afterall...the longer it takes Iraqis to stand up, the more expensive the reconstruction will be...and the more money the military-industrial complex will gather...which means the likes of haliburton (cheney), kbr (the walker family, as in george herbert walker bush), and the carlysle group (daddy bush again) will make an obscene amount of money, or continue to make an obscene amount of money anyways...and never even have to do what little they are asked anywhere near effectively, or even adequately, to "earn" it.

welcome to bush's America...where thousands of American families mourn their dead who never returned from a war financed in every way by Americans not lucky enough to be wealthy enough not to have to know family or friends in Iraq or to be war profiteers while hoarding their tax cuts.

if you aren't outraged, to put that in perspective, below are two groups of X's...the first with an X to signify each American service member killed so far this month...the next with an X to signify the other 2,713 American service members already killed.

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alex p. keaton, porking in the front yard, and fuck bush...

michael j. fox has been lending himself to campaigns of candidates who are intent on supporting scientific advancement (remember that thing we used to lead the world in...before we "found" jesus...well, selectively found jesus, because nobody wants to discuss what jesus said about helping the least among us, or about abhoring violence and war while blessing the peacemakers, or about loving your neighbor, or about not coveting, or about not being afraid, or that hording material wealth will never buy your way into heaven, but it might very well buy your way out). the republicans have responded with attacks on michael j. fox (ah...the poetic irony of it...the man most famous for playing the roll of an arrogant young asshole republican now campaigning against them and they attacking him for having parkinsons) and complaining that he was "acting" his parkinsons and exagerating the effects it has on him...and to make their point they are using folks like rush who is claiming fox purposely did not take his meds (but you must excuse rush, because he believes that when a doctor says one every 4 hours he really means 4 every one hour) and major league baseball players, because they obviously know what it is like to suffer from parkinsons. my question...what the fuck difference does it make? as if any of that would somehow lesson the desperation of being a prisoner in your own body and the horror of watching yourself deteriorate, unable to control your most basic movements. once again the conservative movement is showing just how wrong it is...there is an all new level of hell for these folks...they sit there with their eyes and ears taped open and al franken giving lectures for eternity...

the new jersey surpreme court got tired of its state being known for crime and an odd smell...so it did something Republican leaders would declare un-American. it ruled that you don't stop being human just because you are in love with someone who happens to have the same plumbing as you. yes, that is right, the jersey supremes had the audacity to declare that when we say "all" in documents like constitutions and declarations of independence, we actually mean all...they even went so haneously far as to declare that people in love with people of the same sex are entitled to...brace yourself...the same rights and benefits as those that are in love with people of the opposite sex...where did these folks get such a far-fetched idea?

the best part of the opinion...the three dissenters did so because they did not think the court went far enough. they demanded marriage for gays, not just equal benefits and rights under a different name. never thought I would say this...but I think I would like to live in jersey...

important information for "christians" and conservatives that honestly believe gays wanting recognition of their life-long, loving and committed relationships is what is causing their family to fall apart...perhaps you missed the true reasons your family is crumbling...like that your paycheck doesn't go quite so far anymore and you being forced to work two jobs means you spend no time with your family, or that the stress from an ever increasing tax burden is causing marital problems since you aren't lucky enough to be in one of the about 200 families that actually got a tax break, or that you argue all the time because you are so damn hungry since you have to skip meals to pay for your kids health care, or that your pension is gone while the CEO made off with a hundred million, or that your spouse is in a warzone half a world away because of bush's failed experiment in the middle east, or that your spouse has returned but cannot deal with the horrors they witnessed.

as a friend said this weekend...pay attention to what makes a difference in your life, it isn't like they are porking on your front lawn.

bush said something that was meant to be a jab at kim jong il..."the leader of north korea likes to threaten...in my judgment, what he's doing is testing the will of the five countries that are working together to convince him there's a better way forward..." putting aside the fact that bush's judgment has not exactly been on, or even moral, throughout his entire life...anyone else notice how very fitting that statement would have been a few years ago if "north korea" was replaced with "united states" and "five countries" with "the rest of the world save tony blair"...but that's ok mr. president, just keep staying the course without staying the course.

bush also actually noted that there have been problems with his little iraq experiment that has cost a few hundred thousand folks their lives...even went so far as to say he shares the "disappointment" of many in this nation. um, mr. bush, it isn't so much "disappointment" that we feel as utter horror at the atrocity you have unleashed and profound shame that it is being done in our name. just thought you should know...for future reference...

he went on to say we couldn't let that "disappointment" (or horror and shame) become disillusionment over the "purpose in this war." hmmm...and what might that purpose be? the wmd's that either were not there or that you let escape to the black market because they weren't located in oil fields? or maybe it was the threat that saddam was to his neighbors...like iran...good thing they don't have to worry about him anymore. or maybe "liberating" the iraqi people - you know, that showed up after every other reason proved to be not true - of course I can't find any definition of "liberate" that includes torture, bomb, maim, and rule over...but maybe your dictionary comes from the same publisher as your bible.

but fear not...mr. bush has given us a new purpose not to be disillusioned over...winning...like a football game. that's right...bush compared an illegal and devestating war to any given sunday. just out of curiosity mr. bush...when the fuck did "not losing" enter the lexicon of noble causes to die for?

fuck you.

bringing it back to the basics...

Obama has shifted his tune and it is looking more and more like he will make his bid for president over the next two years...afterall, it is a tailor-made opportunity for the man who's second memior is entitled "the audacity of hope" given the disdain the American people now seem to hold every other politician, especially those in power. Obama may very well be the first politician on the national stage that I would feel comfortable giving my vote to in a presidential race. I think Clarence Page said it best when he wrote to Obama...

"I hope you run. Americans deserve to be offered that choice."

not that the racism won't rear its ugly head once he announces and the republicans will do all they can to confront his message of hope and progress with a harder push towards fear and bigotry...but we all hope you run Mr. Obama...in the immortal words of Ernie McCracken "more than ever, I need you."

down here in the desert lands of the American southwest voters are awakening to the discovery that neither the republican nor the democratic parties offer anything but the same tired elitist politics. it begins with a wave of independents sweeping over the nation...it ends with the first New Whig president in American history in 2016...think about that date.

and in case you still believe the democratic party (other than Obama) offers any hope of a return to America's progressive soul in the near future...take note that in close races, rather than appealing to the 50 percent of voters, the majority of which who are progressive and who don't vote because nobody speaks for them anyways, democrats are spouting off their conservativeness...hoo-fucking-ray for phantom choices...

ford is losing money hand over fist...good thing we have allowed them to make such horrifically inefficient vehicles that no other nation will allow them to be sold within their borders. just look how good a hands-off approach is for the American worker...try telling joe and jane factory employee that the economy is booming when they lose their jobs and their pensions as the man responsible walks away with a few hundred million in compensation for destroying a company.

bush stopped using "stay the course" because it "mischaracterized" what his administration was doing. I assume that is because it implied that they had a course upon which to stay rather than the royal clusterfuck they embarced upon without bothering to consider that a people subject to a century of occupation by westerners might not welcome another few decades of it...even after a tyrant was removed. so your see...he didn't mean they had a course at all...only that they would keep keep sending hundreds of thousands of American service men and women into life-threatening situations and keep up with slaughtering innocent iraqis...oops, I mean "collateral damage."

urgent message from your republican national committee - gas prices are dropping (ignore that they are still too high for your to afford to get to work or pay the energy bills) and the stock market is soaring (ignore that your paycheck is either stagnant or simply stopped coming...your boss's boss is making a shitload more, so suck it up...unless you are a traiter and terrorist apologist...you aren't a traiter or terrorist apologist are you?)! see how wonderful we are at making your life better (please ignore that your life is going to hell in a handbasket...but if you must focus on it, it is the fault of those pesky gays wanting their life-long, solid and loving partnerships recognized...they really just want to touch your children...oh, fuck, but forget about that last part, because that might conjure up visions of Foley, and bill o'fuckly's attempts to paint him as a democrat failed miserably...oh we're fucked)! more to follow...

skilling got a bunch of time in federal pound-you-in-the-ass prison...most likely the rest of his natural life. of course he gets to wait his transport at home rather than the shit confines of the local prison renting out a wing to the feds. good thing all he did was destroy a few thousand lives...I mean, if he had bought some crack we would have to make sure he was immediately off the streets...

the cost of tuition did not raise quite as fast as it had in the past...but it is still ahead of inflation...which is ahead of your raise...which didn't happen this year...and they cut your benefits...so yea, privatization is the solution...

got a message into my bookie...wondering what the odds are on how long it takes republicans to call pat tillman's brother and fellow soldier a terrorist apologizer and unpatriotic...if anyone has any inside information it would be greatly appreciated (afterall, conservatives seem to love to play the markets with inside info)...

last night, while watching a recording provided by a friend, I realized what it is about me that drives me to truly hope and believe that America will get back on track and climb closer towards its highest ideals...I grew up a Cub's fan...and thus always irrationally believe that the worst has passed and the best is just one season away...of course it probably also means that Obama will be 5 electoral votes from securing the presidency in 2008 and then some liberal will destroy New Mexico before it can finalize its votes, most likely taking Obama with it, and some fascist asshole will go on to rack up the rest of the electoral college votes before midnight...

taxation without representation...

as kids in class we learned early on that denouncing such a practice became the rallying cry of our budding nation. well, those of us fortunate enough to have a textbook of our own, and a classroom with lights and without puddles and exposed wiring, and a teacher being paid according to the importance of their position...we learned it early on. those that did not have those things, those that went to school wondering which of their classmates they would learn was the latest victim of senseless violence, those that missed that day because they had to help in the fields when the family farm no longer provided enough for help, those that missed that day because they had to wait all day at the emergency room when it was the only place for their sick grandmother to go, those that were forced into crumbling schools with decades old textbooks not plentiful enough for more than every third student to have one, those forced away from their families to bording schools to teach them the white man's ways, those that were left behind...they did not learn such things. but they did learn a valuable lesson tied to that rallying cry...they learned that a nation founded on such a simple idea as not making anyone do anything without giving them a say in it has now embraced that which its founders fought against centuries ago. for them, everything in this country is done without representation...for them, there is no end to taxation without representation. and for them this country must do better.

barack obama was elected to the United States senate in a landslide a few years ago. he was the second black american to serve in that office in the last 134 years. 134 years...two black senators. are we to believe there have not been more than two black people since 1870 willing and able to serve in the United States senate? not that things are much better for hispanics with a whopping two senators and 24 representatives in congress. and they both are heavily representatives in comparison to the hundreds of indian peoples...who have none. how do we allow this to continue?

perhaps it is because anyone who points out that our representative democracy does not represent democracy when it comes to non-whites in this country a whole bunch of white folk stand up and point fingers and yell "race card!" then they go on to wax poetic about how this nation should be "color blind" as they try to use the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in their linguistic arsenal. unfortunately, the vast majority of the time it is because of a new racism, a less overt racism, and a divisive politics played mostly by the Republican Party in an attempt to find an imposing "they" for the growing number of whites who are losing ground to blame to justify voting against their own interests. they forget that MLK dreamed of a color blind society, but that he repeatedly pointed the need to address the effects of societal racism on people of color which had worked over centuries to slow the stream of opportunity for them to nothing but an occasional trickle.

when minorities are consistently locked out of the political process, but for the nominal representative that our leaders like to point to as "proof" that they aren't building upon and expanding systemic racism (the political equivalent of "one of my best friends is black/latino/indian"), they are repeatedly subject to taxation without representation...largely because the few areas that minorities are represented, over-represented, in this nation are in poverty and prison.

which is why it is so important for political leadership and their cronies to continue to play "the race card" by decrying anyone who wants to honestly talk about race as someone "playing the race card" and use their talk of "color blindness" to give losing whites a "they" to fear and blame rather than examining just how much they too are being subjected to taxation without representation.

taxation in the form of a growing tax burden on the middle and lower class while the wealthiest pay less and less of their fair share whilst enjoying almost exclusive access to political leadership and policy making...

taxation in the form of being forced to work harder for longer hours for the same pay while prices rise...

taxation in the form of suffering when energy costs soar and skipping meals becomes a necessity to stay warm...

taxation in the form of having to live without adequate health care and spend hours in line at the emergency room because it is the only place they will not be turned away...

taxation in the form of miserable, crumbling, failing schools with inadequate resources and burned out teachers once full of idealism, but now only full of bitterness and sorrow...

taxation in the form of criminal sanctions increasingly designed to put them out of sight and out of mind while responding to the destruction of lives by the elite with wealth and access with a slap on the wrist...

taxation in the form

taxation in the form of sending their loved ones to war to fight for a system that excludes them from its benefits while the elite pull strings to keep their loved ones at home (or awal in the national guard)...

taxation in the form of going to war and risking their lives for a system that excludes them from its benefits while noticing that the men and women fighting shoulder to shoulder with them never seem to come from the gated community on the hill...

taxation without representation is alive and well. the nation is shutting the door of opportunity on the poor while asking them to sacrifice more and more to keep the system rolling along for the limited elite who receive the windfall.

of course the same people that claim examining race in this country is "playing the race card" while it threatens their hold on the nation through a politics of fear and bigotry will claim that examining poverty in this country is "class warfare" - another catchy tune to whistle for the elite while they line their pockets and the poor support the policies that are destroying them. well, it very well may be class warfare...declared by the elite and their leadership in the White House and Congress against the working people of America.

so this november, when someone tries to write you off for "playing the race card" or boldly denounces you as declaring "class warfare"...remind them we did not declare this war, but rest assured we will see it done...remind them with your vote by refusing to throw it away on politicians that support the elite over the rest and that refuse to deal with the lasting effects of racist policies. vote New Whig.

so you want to stop abortion...

in discussions over the years I have long held that Democrats will always be fighting a losing battle if they make abortion an all-or-nothing issue. it boggles my mind that they, and many liberals, continue to do this time and time again after seeing the disasterous results - conservative Republicans are stealing millions of votes and elections with their anti-abortion stance (nevermind that their insistence on the sanctity of human life apparently ends at birth when it becomes not only acceptable, but laudable, to kill others to show that killing is wrong and to talk of innocent children as mere "collateral damage"...but the inherent hypocrisy of the modern Republican party, hijacked by right-wing zeolot extremists is a whole nother blog). winning elections by declaring anti-abortion views is mind-boggling in itself given that Republicans have never actually done anything to lower the abortion rate in this country, which is the highest in the world. but then, incompetence rarely seems to hurt them with their base...even when it kills. having the highest abortion rate in the world is not something to be proud of...and, contrary to popular conservative rhetoric, liberals aren't.

if Republicans were serious about stopping abortion they would not focus on criminalizing an already agonizing decision for many women. but that is the thing, they aren't serious about stopping abortion, because they would lose the single most effective issue they have for holding onto power. afterall, the American people are willing to pay higher taxes if it means better service, access to health care, improved educational opportunities...the American people do not like to be aggressors...the American people believe that big business is more of a danger than big government...basically, the American people by and large don't agree with a damn thing the Republicans stand for...and because of it, abortion may be the single most important issue for right-wing nutjobs to retain power as they are exposed as frauds on every other promise they have made (not that they aren't frauds on this issue...remember, we do have the highest abortion rates in the world...under conservative leadership).

you want to stop abortion? criminalizing it won't do a damn thing except turn good woman who are backed into a corner with nowhere else to turn into felons. afterall...has drug use declined in this country with stiff criminal penalties? did alcohol consumption stop during prohibition? has violent crime decreased with tougher sentences? no...no...and no. criminalizing abortion will only mean that women with no other choice, often abandoned by the man after he got his, will not only be told they must either ruin their lives and the future life of their fetus or find an unsafe, unsanitary corner and a coat hanger. it will push the gains women have made back in a major way.

i for one, refuse to tell a woman that no matter the circumstances she absolutely must accept the burden of childrearing because she "must accept personal responsibility"...nevermind that men often get away without having to accept personal responsibility in the same circumstances. i refuse to tell a woman she must choose between having a child and going through the trauma of a rape prosecution. i refuse to tell a woman she must find a way to support another human being when, even after working hard and doing all that we ask, society does not provide her with enough to support herself. i refuse to add "criminal" to the stigma of an already devastating decision.

in the end, if conservative Republicans were serious about their anti-abortion stance and the sanctity of human life, they would support a plethora of programs that would help in shrinking the rate of abortion in this country. first and foremost, we need to get serious about kids having kids in this country rather than just giving it lip-service everytime Maury brings out a scantily clad 13 year old. teenage pregnancy needs serious attention...and the easiest and cheapest (since conservatives always complain about society spending the vast accumulated fortunes of the American aristocracy earned through the hard work of sitting on their ass and watching stock prices) way is through education about, and access to, contraception. one would think this would be obvious as teenage pregnancy rates have not kept pace with teenage sex rates...except when contraception is absent or not properly used. kids know this...they know that not fucking is the best way not to get an std or pregnant...but they are still fucking (especially those that claim to have made a promise to god not to) and need to be seriously told how to go about it without getting pregnant and given access to methods. no, giving a kid a condom won't make them immediately want to go out and have sex, they already want to immediately go out and have sex...it will make them want to use a condom when they have sex.

and education and access to contraception shouldn't stop with teens. women of all ages need access. and while (if I had insurance) I could most likely get it to cover a pill to make my erection last for days...how many women have health care coverage that covers contraception? universal access to adequate health care will mean more women using contraception, less unwanted pregnancies, and fewer abortions. and it doesn't have to cost you a cent...it may cost those 2 percent at the very top that sit on their money and don't spend it a few cents, but they can do without the twentieth vacation home bought with money society helped them accumulate.

for too many women an unwanted pregnancy presents two options...have an abortion or lose your job or career. if a women is pregnant and decides to have a baby she must be free to do so without fear of losing her job, derailing her career or going without appropriate prenatal care (again lack of health care rears its ugly head) or even without electricity or food. give women options and the abortion rate will fall. take away their options, and we will continue to surpass every other nation in abortions.

so next time a conservative Republican tells you they are pro-life...tell them to put their money where their mouth is and support policies that will actually help abortion rates to decline...and remind them that "the sanctity of human life" means all human life...especially that after birth.

having a direct line to god means never having to say you're sorry...

so that horrible tyrant that rules north korea with an iron fist, forcing millions of his people into abject poverty without allowing them any basic rights while wasting the nations dwindling resources on military expenditures that actually make them less safe and pissing off the world community did something unthinkable...he apologized...for testing a nuclear device. suddenly all that talk from the right-wing nutjobs that claim to be our "representatives" about how crazy kim jong il is and how he is a ticking time bomb seem a little more like needless belligerent posturing (conveniently while their poll numbers are dipping to all-time lows).

so that horrible tyrant that rules the united states with an iron fist, forcing millions of his people into abject povety without allowing them basic rights while wasting the nations dwindling resources on military expenditures that are actually making them less safe and pissing off the world community...well, he hasn't apologized for shit. not for the hundreds of thousands of iraqis who are dust thanks to his war, not for the thousands of american families who will not see their loved ones again, not for refusing to dignify their sacrifice with so much as the simple acknowledgment of their flag-drapped coffins (perhaps he is ashamed of our soldiers), not for the tens of thousands american service men and women who are now maimed, not for the war itself - launched as a test case for remaking the middle east in his grand vision (not in any way a noble cause), not for stealing from the poor of this country and handing the money to his obscenely rich friends, not for working to undercut the child tax credit and take it away only from those in the lowest tax brackets, not for attempting to rewrite discrimination into the constitution, not for leaving millions of american children behind - perhaps because so many of them happen to be minorities, not for breaking every international promise this country ever made - except those involving the needless slaughter of innocents, not for working to increase the number of nuclear weapons at his disposal while decrying any attempt by anyone else to garner those weapons (until they already have them...then, regardless of how tyrannical you may be and how much you hate freedom and individual rights and liberties, you can be our friend - especially if you are conveniently located near the global gas station)...and the list goes on and on. so tell me mr. bush...what exactly is your criteria for membership in the axis of evil?

kim jong il apologized for testing a nuclear device. for testing one. perhaps that does not seem incredible to you...until you note that you cannot think of one other instance in history where a nation, especially an "evil" nation has apologized for testing weaponry. so the axis of evil apologizes for testing nuclear devices underground...i wonder when the japanese people will get their apology for our "testing" a couple nuclear devices over the heads of their women and children.

no, our nation has never apologized for the world's only nuclear attacks...and yes, this should deeply shame you.

is this really happening?

now that I am likely to be designated an enemy combatant I figured I may as well share some more words of wisdom from my quote book before being dragged away...

"paying attention to the world leads to conclusions that some would prefer to ignore. far better to strike heroic poses about 'islamo-fascism' and denounce the 'excuse makers' who seek to understand the roots of terror and to act to reduce the threat, people who are - in the words of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman - 'just one notch less despicable than the terrorists and also deserve to be exposed.' the category of such despicable characters is rather large, including the most respected specialists on the topic and US and other intelligence agencies." - n. chomsky

"americans do not like to think of themselves as aggressors, but raw aggression is what took place in iraq." - john prados

"it's a versatile line of argument: the more egregious the failures of the Republican administration, the stronger the conservative case for reducing government." - geoffrey nunberg

"capitalism is most successful when people have faith in the justice of the system and when they trust government to be a fair broker between the interests of business and the people whose lives it affects." g. nunberg

"budgets are moral documents, revealing our true priorities, and must be judged morally, not just economically." - jim wallis

"the root of war is fear." - thomas merton (trappist monk)

"it's the first time that I've seen such a long-term, orchestrated plan of deception by which one branch of our government deliberately misled the other on a matter of war and peace." - r. mcgovern (former cia analyst)

"what is and has always been lovely about our country is our right and our duty to criticize those in power, to dissent from their policies if we think them to be wrong, and to hold our alternative vision to be as fully valid as theirs." - rev. peter gomes

"who will bear no sacrifices [of those that the president is calling for in this 'war on terror'] is also clear; the beneficiaries of the bush tax cuts and the recipients of the lucrative contracts for iraqi reconstruction, which are going to carefully selected American corporations like Halliburton, where Dick Cheney was the former chairman of the board. those who will not sacrifice, in other words, are the wealthy and powerful allies of the Bush Administration and its core constituency. it is not hyberbole to say that those beneficiearies of the wartime tax cuts and contract deals should be called war profiteers." - j. wallis

"as long as you believe you're a victim, you are not accountable." - jeff halper

"the American occupation of Iraq now costs about $1 billion per week. yet American religious leaders cannot succeed in getting our government to approve $5 billion for child care over five years." - j. wallis

"introduction of nuclear power will both provide for the growing needs of iran's economy and free remaining oil reserves for export or conversion to petrochemicals." - henry kissinger (you would think they would at least listen to their own)

and now...a few particularly poignant thoughts in this time of crumbling democracy...

"WE CAN'T CHOOSE OUR NEIGHBORS ANYMORE. WE CAN'T CHOOSE THE BENEFITS OF GLOBALIZATION WITHOUT SOME OF THE RESPONSIBILITIES, AND WE SHOUDL REMIND OURSELVES THAT 'LOVE THY NEIGHBOR' IS NOT ADVICE: IT IS A COMMAND." - bono (yes, even a rock star gets it)

"IF CERTAIN ACTS OF VIOLATION OF TREATIES ARE CRIMES, THEY ARE CRIMES WHETHER THE UNITED STATES DOES THEM OR WHETHER GERMANY DOES THEM, AND WE ARE NOT PREPARED TO LAY DOWN A RULE OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT AGAINST OTHERS WHICH WE WOULD NOT BE WILLING TO HAVE INVOKED ON US." - chief justice robert jackson as prosecutor at Nuremberg (on behalf of America, my deepest and sincerest apologies to justice jackson and humanity for failing)

"A NATION THAT CONTINUES YEAR AFTER YEAR TO SPEND MORE MONEY ON MILITARY DEFENSE THAN ON PROGRAMS OF SOCIAL UPLIFT IS A NATION APPROACHING SPIRITUAL DEATH." - rev. martin luther king, jr. (on behalf of a spiritually dead America, my deepest and sincerest apologies to rev. king for failing)

"IF YOU WANT PEACE, WORK FOR JUSTICE." - pope paul vi (if the rock star doesn't convince you, maybe the pontiff can)

and finally...special for our president (although that title no longer seems appropriate given the collapse of our democracy under his leadership), here are some words he may recognize and wonder just how well he has managed to heed them...

"IF WE ARE AN ARROGANT NATION, THEY WILL RESENT US. IF WE'RE A HUMBLE NATION, BUT STRONG, THEY'LL WELCOME US." - g.w. bush (october, 2000)

"LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, PRAY FOR THOSE WHO PERSECUTE YOU." - jesus of nazareth

"BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD." - jesus of nazareth

for the sake of humankind mr. bush, if you insist on trashing our constitution please, please, please at least reread the bible...and pay attention this time.

a little less serious...

Being that the newest season of America's Next Top Model is well under way I am certain that many of you are wondering what my pick for the winner is (seeing as how I have now been correct by week 2 the last 4 seasons). Unfortunately, I am not watching the show this season. I saw all of about 5 minutes of one episode during a Bear's game one Sunday night and noticed one picture I was certain would be of the winning girl...but I have no idea who that girl was. So call your bookies and let them know you won't be placing that bet afterall.

There are some conservative blowhards that like to get on this and claim that Abraham Lincoln said the following in support for their assault on democracy..."Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged." Only there is a little problem with their claims...Lincoln never said it. It was written by J. Michael Waller, a conservative attacking Democratic congressman in an article for Insight Magazine in December of 2003. He claims it was a "mistake" by a copy editor that took the title of an article and put quotation marks around it. So rest assured...Lincoln was no fascist asshole.

Speaking of Lincoln, one of my all-time favorite quotes of his that conservatives never bring up is this..."What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?" Yup...Lincoln was a liberal kook. Put that in your pipe and smoke Republican assholes.

In case you did not notice...it's official...the United States of America officially ceased to be when the President signed torture and the loss of habeas and just about every other important right into law. Seriously Bush, you need to go back and read your oath of office again...or at least have someone read it to you.

My Cubs (yes, they are mine...and any other true Chicagoan understands) hired Lou...which means I will inevitably picture Keanu slumped against the hospital door with his wrists slit as Lucifer decends to personally take his soul to hell whenever he is shown on television. Regardless, the century mark is fast approaching...and if I can't take pride in the utterly inept actions of my President and his cabinet, at least I can take pride in the ineptitude of my sports teams.

Except for the Bears that is. Makes me wish I was a kid again...in '86 when they won it all (yes, I know, the '85 season...the '86 Superbowl) I was in grade school. We got the day off of school and had a pep assembly. Sad, most likely, but in the midwest you don't have much else to do.

Heard something frightening yesterday...one would have to work approximately 150 hours a week at minimum wage to find affordable housing in Denver. So as long as we have 4 parent households, the conservatives are right...the minimum wage is fine. But then that would really fuck up their "family values" thing since I don't think they are into moresomes...at least not publically...unless it is a handful of teenage boys.

Over the last few years injuries to workers overall have dropped significantly...except for Hispanics...for them it is up 75 percent. And this is the results of racist, xenophobic policies presented under the guise of "national security." We are allowing employers to fail to protect workers, or at least help them out after failing to protect them adequately...as long as those workers speak Spanish and have brown skin. Not sure about you...but that ain't the America I signed up for.

A friend of mine is a registered Republican...mostly for the laughs. Heather Wilson has been inundating registered Republicans with all sorts of hilarious mailings concerning Patsy Madrid (and rightfully so...Madrid is a moron. I often picture Heather Wilson sitting there like that old SNL skit of Dukakis saying "I can't believe I'm losing to this lady!"). Seems to me Republicans are getting worried...and rightfully so now that their christian base sees them exposed for the incredibly blasphemous fucks that they are. That, however, does not mean we should vote Democrat...because they tend to be fucks as well (except for Obama...and really, he is more of a New Whig anyhow). So kick them all out...vote New Whig.

Ski season is approaching...and with the hell that has become my country, it is about damn time.

with a soul just so brave, your freedom we will save, with some rifles and grenades and some help from god...

Open Letter to Mein Fuhrer, excuse me, My President...

Dear Mr. Bush:

Six years ago I was approaching the first presidential election in which I would be allowed to exercise the precious right to vote. I am certain you know of that most fundamental of American rights because one of the "boys" of which you were so fond, Mr. DeLay, labored so hard to diminish it in minorities in your "home" state of Texas. (Please excuse the somewhat sarcastic reference to Texas as your "home" state, but given that you are a member of the East Coast Elite, silver spoon and all, transplanted into Connecticut Southwest - i.e. Midland, Texas - it seems a little ridiculous to believe that your having donned a ten gallon hat somehow removes your privileged upbringing and repeatedly being bailed out by your family connections...but I digress).

At the time I held the sitting president with a measure of disdain for his actions in very likely perjuring himself, even after his most solemn oath to uphold the laws and Constitution of the United States of America. Somehow, as a child in America's suburban public schools I had come to expect the man holding the office of the presidency to actually conduct himself with a manner of dignity beholding to the office while sincerely trying to uphold the laws and Constitution. As I was coming of age I longed for a return of my innocent belief that the man or woman occupying the White House would hold themselves to the highest standards of human decency and the very best of the ideals of this nation as I wished them to be held.

In hindsight, perjury by the man sworn to uphold the very laws he mocked was taking a penny from the tip jar compared to the carnage you would make of the very laws and Constitution you were sworn to uphold. I have tried in vein to find any way to interpret domestic law concerning such deplorable actions as terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity without them condemning the actions of which you seem most proud. I look at the Constitution and note that it declares treaties will become the law of the land, that same law you swore to uphold, and wonder how it is you could possibly justify the contempt you have shown for our international obligations, at the same time being so very two-faced about the international obligations of other nations. I look at ten of the most important declarations in support of freedom in history, the American Bill of Rights, and find it deplorable to recognize that you have managed to mangle just about every single one of them in favor of less freedom. I read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and note that over time it seems Americans were struggling to move further and further along the road to true freedom and an expansion of the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but then I see you asking that a retraction of freedom be written back into the Constitution, apparently forgetting the last time it took an incredibly bloody civil war and another hundred years of struggle to finally get discrimination written out of our laws so that we could finally get around to true equality.

I see all of this and I wonder if you just may be as illiterate as some seem to believe. You like to try to contort your most solemn duty into merely protecting the American people. Funny, I seem to remember the Constitution spelling out quite clearly what your duty is, and you may even remember reciting these words once or twice on a cold January day.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Notice, Mr. Bush, that preservation of the Constitution is listed prominently, in fact before protect ever rears its head. Perhaps you do things differently in Texas, especially if you are actually from the East Coast and just pretending to be Texan, but I cannot think of how it is at all possible to preserve something by destroying it. I do give you credit for noticing that protection is part of your duties, but I think you missed that it is the Constitution you are to be protecting. Again, I fail to see how you protect the Constitution by disobeying the vast majority of its most solemn demands. (Although I suppose it may make sense for someone who follows the commands of the Bible by ignoring just about the entire book, namely the most basic and important teachings of Jesus...you remember Jesus, the most influential philosopher in your life). Lastly, you are to protect and the Constitution. If I am to accept your manner of protecting and defending the Constitution, I imagine "protecting and defending my children" would mean decapitating them.

You claim to be a christian man, Mr. Bush. When I was a child I dreamed of being a preacher (and I did not even have to become a cocaine user with a nasty habit of driving intoxicated...a felony where I come from. But again, I digress). Only as I began to grow and learn and look around the Church (with a capital "C" because I was raised a Catholic) I began to realize just how off track the Church had gotten. Just as you took Mr. Clinton's shortcomings to a whole nother level, you have managed to make the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in my youth seem quaint.

You see, when I read the Bible I seem to remember Jesus and friends spending page upon page waxing about unfair distribution of wealth and showing incredible concern for the poor and their plight. Perhaps you just skipped over those few hundred pages and missed the part about why it was Jesus was against the tax collectors...because the tax system was slanted in favor of the rich and the poor were far too burdened while the rich got away without paying anything remotely like a fair share. You Mr. Bush, are creating exactly the type of society Jesus preached against.

You often speak of bringing people to justice for their actions, but not once have I heard you speak of bringing justice to people. I wonder what that most influential philosopher of your's would have to say about that.

I know the above may seem harsh, but you seem to be oblivious to critique anyhow. However, I ask that you please accept my most sincere wish for you and your memory...

May your God damn you for your blasphemous perversion of his Bible in support of your campaign for domination through death and destruction.

May true Americans, past, present and future, condemn you for the carnage you have done in their name, both to their nation and their world.

May history remember you as the architect of a horrendous attack on the best of humanity from it's most base element, the most disasterous and apocolyptic of results only narrowly averted by the better angels of our nature.

Sincerely,

Paul Linnenburger

The conservative movement lied to you. They betrayed you...

Liberty requires the protection of law against the evils which menace the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the people. West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379, 391 (1937).

The conservative movement betrayed their promises to the American people. The big business elite which lead the way lied to you in order to garner more for themselves while leaving the American people holding a bag full of nothing but empty promises while their neighborhoods deteriorate, their homes crumble, their schools fail their children, their families go without medicine, their wages are frozen, and their tax burden far beyond their fair share. It is time for the American people to reclaim that which is rightfully their's. It is time for this country to once again return to the American tradition of progress towards greater protection of individual liberty and freedom through protections against the actions of the conservative elite and their big business cronies which menace the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the people.

The conservative elite told you tax breaks for their big business cohorts would help your family. They told you giving more money back to big business would mean it would be reinvested in you. They told you it would mean more jobs for your neighborhood, they told you it would mean more money for the big whigs running the company to provide health care for you and your coworkers. But now you look around and you wonder when that investment, your investment, in the elite will make it's way down to you. You look at your paycheck and notice the numbers have not increased in years while your cost of living has shot up well beyond the measly 300 bucks the government gave you in an attempt to buy your acquiscence into the conservative elite handing back much bigger checks to their big business friends. You see your paycheck going less and less far every month while they vote themselves raise after raise to coincide with the money given back to their big business friends. You look at your children and realize they still go without proper medical care while they are now on a free lunch program at school. All the while, that huge check that the conservative elite gave to their big business friends went directly in someone else's bank account or sent overseas. And you are left holding the tab.

They told you they would get you off the welfare rolls and onto the employment rolls. Only now you find there is nowhere to go when your children are hungry and the electricity is turned off because the only training they gave you was for a job at Walmart, and then they told Walmart it does not have to pay you the full value of your work. You find your children are sick and there is nothing you can do but get in line for hours at the emergency room because the big business you are stuck working for after all the small businesses in the neighborhood were forced to shut their doors will not spend a miniature portion of it's record profits to provide you with basic health benefits.

They told you they were looking out for the American worker when they got tough on undocumented workers crossing the border in search of a better life. They told you they were looking out for you and trying to make sure that American jobs went to Americans. But then you wonder why the factory in your town is shutting down after some elite big whig decided to send those jobs overseas, even after his big tax break.

They told you the economy is going great, they told you to just look at the record high stock market. You wonder, if the economy is going so great, why is my pay not even keeping up with inflation? You see the stock prices increase and record profits for the giant corporations run by big business elite who fund the conservative policies and yet you have to take on a second job to maintain anything like the lifestyle of your parents. The stock prices rise and they tell you it will mean more money for more jobs for your community and for raises in your pay and for health care to you and your family. Only it disappears into the pockets of their big business friends, just as the tax break did. And again, you are left holding the tab.

They tell you they are solving the problems with your failing schools. They tell you they will leave no child behind. But you look around and see that every child in your neighborhood school is being left behind, and the answer of the conservative elite was to take even more of the already incredibly limited resources out of the school. They tell you the solution is to privatize education. But you look around and see tuition at private colleges sky-rocketing and well beyond the reach of your family and you wonder how it is possible that the same situation in your neighborhood schools would benefit your community.

They told you bankrupty laws needed to be altered because too many were taking advantage of the system. But after the accident at the job that left you hospitalized, and your employer not providing medical insurance even after the big tax breaks it received as a friend of the conservative elite, you find yourself completely unable to pay the bills and support your family. And the bankrupty judge tells you you still must pay the giant corporation that now owns you because it provided the credit (at 30 percent) to pay for the hospital stay which your employer and the conservative elite running the show refused to help with, every single penny. And then, just when you thought everything would be alright because your pension would be there to support your family even if workman's comp was off the table, you find out that the bankruptcy judge did not tell the big business that refused to pay for your health care the same he told you. No, the big business elite declared bankruptcy and took your pension away before combining with even bigger business, and the conservative elite that was running the show made off with his golden parachute.

They told you they would give you a prescription drug plan. Only you look at the three-inch thick "choice" you have and realize you have no ability to take advantage of any of it. You look at the prices of your medicine and realize that you are paying much more now than you ever were before, and that after spending your life paying into the system you are not getting your money's worth. The plan they offered gave drug companies huge profits, and you are left catching a bus to Mexico or Canada so you can afford your pills.

They tell you they are giving you clean air. But you hear your children coughing through the night, you hear their wheezing as they try and play through the smog that the conservative elite told their big business friends not to worry about cleaning up. You see the bills for your children's asthma medicine pile up, and you wonder how you will pay for it after the corporation you work for cut your medical benefits, even after it's ownership received a fat check from the conservative elite's tax breaks.

They tell you if you just work hard and persevere you will get ahead. And so you went out and got the only job left in the neighborhood after their big business friend took the factory overseas. You work hard every day to put food on the table and a roof over your family's head because you believe that in America, if you work hard, you will be taken care of. But then they refuse to demand big business give you fair pay for a fair day's work.

They told you they were going to bring personal responsibility and morals back to Washington and the White House. But now you look around and see child molesters heading their efforts to protect children, you see conservative elite walking around K Street pocketing millions while paying off congressman with million dollar golf trips overseas, you see the truth being covered up while the nation is sent to war, you see the rights of voters trampled as the conservative elite applaud the efforts. All the while every one of them plays pass the buch, refusing to own up to any mistakes, refusing to take personal responsibility for anything, refusing to own up to their own moral shortcomings.

They told you they supported the troops. But you wonder why your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your mother, or your father had to go into combat without proper protection, even as billions are ciphoned into the hands of the big business friends of the elite in the White House. You wonder why, after all that has gone wrong, the only option they have to offer is to stick it out to avoid losing face. You wonder if they will build another wall on the national mall and put your loved one's name next to thousands more and try to call it even.

They said they were making a "Contract with America." Only they did not fill you in on a little secret of contract law, that contractual obligations can be avoided if it is good for business. And at every turn, when it has been good for the big business friends of the conservative elite, they have avoided their obligations to the American people. It is time to take back your government from big business and an elite that does not have your interest at heart. Join the New Whig Movement...be a part of history.

false security, real threats, felons are people too, and more failings in iraq...

the cons like to tell you there is nothing to worry about with their most recent assault on your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by repealing rights enshrined in the constitution and centuries before if you aren't an alien terrorist. i officially declare shenanigans. in fact, it no longer matters if you are a citizen, a foreigner, a terrorist or anything else. those in the know recognize that the beauty (horrific beauty mind you...as in the beauty of a mushroom cloud) of the newest laws is that without the writ of habeas corpus (many of us know it simply as "THE WRIT") none of the rest of the laws matter. you could be just like me, a middle class, professional white kid raised catholic in the chicago suburbs by conservative parents and be thrown in jail for all time without any way to question it.

you may be saying "but paul, you are obviously an american citizen and not a terrorist seeking the end to 'our' way of life the law says it doesn't apply to you." and that is where the horrific "beauty" of the law comes in. without the writ of habeas corpus there is no way to ask a court to make the government show that the law actually applies to me, or you, or anyone else for that matter. there is a reason freedom as we know it in the anglo tradition never arose until after the writ of habeas corpus came about...take that away, and the rest is meaningless. welcome to the weimar people.

bush is having some trouble explaining his bonehead foreign policy these days. see, he went to war in iraq because we could not allow "the world's most dangerous regimes to acquire the world's most dangerous weapons" and so military might had to be the solution. only now we find that iraq didn't have shit (which anyone in the know knew then...including your president and his team) and north korea has been busy making nukes. suddenly bush isn't such a brazen gung ho go-getter anymore and he wants multilateral diplomacy to step in. it is like the 6'5, 250 pound bully on the playground picking on the 4'7", 90 pound weakling because the little kid didn't kiss his hand and talking about how tough he is...then the 5'8", 175 pound kid with big hair pulls out a big knife and says "let's dance asshole" and the bully starts saying "wait, can't we talk about this" and then turns to gather up all his friends to talk it out with the kid with the knife...only to find out nobody wants to stand by him now. thanks george, for turning my country into that cowardly asshole bully.

states are beginning to recognize that a felony conviction does not take away your humanity (perhaps because they are making everything a felony these days). i will make a prediction right here and now...in the states that allow felons the vote the crime rate will drastically decrease over the years. perhaps now politicians and the people will have to recognize that the american penal system is designed to keep it out of sight and out of mind while doing absolutely nothing to give those within it a shot at becoming productive and intergrated members of society. maybe now we will get serious about rehabilitation instead of draconian vengence when it comes to criminal sanctions. maybe now society's response to drug addiction can be help in overcoming that addiction rather than shackles.

your tax dollars sent about $75 million over to iraq to build a new police college, you know, to help with reconstruction and get serious about security over there. well, a few weeks ago even the government admitted that the college was a piece of shit and built in an incredibly unworkmanlike manner. well, big surprise here now, the Mosul police station, a million dollar project, is also a piece of shit. turns out your government didn't take the time to make sure that million of your tax dollars was spent decently and it took the police in Mosul to come up to US inspectors and complain before the government realized it was shoddy workmanship (like building it around a tree) without the facilities that were paid for. good thing this administration doesn't like government oversight...look how well the "free" market works with your money.

Liberals are True Americans...

The following was published under the headline "What it means to be a liberal" by Geoffrey R. Stone, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago in the Chicago Tribune, October 10, 2006. It is reason to be proud to be liberal.

For most of the past four decades, liberals have been in retreat. Since the election of Richard Nixon in 1968, Republicans have controlled the White House 70 percent of the time and Republican presidents have made 86 percent of the U.S. Supreme Court appointments. In many quarters, the word "liberal" has become a pejorative. Part of the problem is that liberals have failed to define themselves and to state clearly what they believe. As a liberal, I find that appalling.

In that light, I thought it might be interesting to try to articulate 10 propositions that seem to me to define "liberal" today. Undoubtedly, not all liberals embrace all of these propositions, and many conservatives embrace at least some of them.

Moreover, because 10 is a small number, the list is not exhaustive. And because these propositions will in some instances conflict, the "liberal" position on a specific issue may not always be predictable. My goal, however, is not to end discussion, but to invite debate.

1. Liberals believe individuals should doubt their own truths and consider fairly and open-mindedly the truths of others. This is at the very heart of liberalism. Liberals understand, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed, that "time has upset many fighting faiths." Liberals are skeptical of censorship and celebrate free and open debate.

2. Liberals believe individuals should be tolerant and respectful of difference. It is liberals who have supported and continue to support the civil rights movement, affirmative action, the Equal Rights Amendment and the rights of gays and lesbians. (Note that a conflict between propositions 1 and 2 leads to divisions among liberals on issues like pornography and hate speech.)

3. Liberals believe individuals have a right and a responsibility to participate in public debate. It is liberals who have championed and continue to champion expansion of the franchise; the elimination of obstacles to voting; "one person, one vote;" limits on partisan gerrymandering; campaign-finance reform; and a more vibrant freedom of speech. They believe, with Justice Louis Brandeis, that "the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people."

4. Liberals believe "we the people" are the governors and not the subjects of government, and that government must treat each person with that in mind. It is liberals who have defended and continue to defend the freedom of the press to investigate and challenge the government, the protection of individual privacy from overbearing government monitoring, and the right of individuals to reproductive freedom. (Note that libertarians, often thought of as "conservatives," share this value with liberals.)

5. Liberals believe government must respect and affirmatively safeguard the liberty, equality and dignity of each individual. It is liberals who have championed and continue to champion the rights of racial, religious and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, persons accused of crime and the outcasts of society. It is liberals who have insisted on the right to counsel, a broad application of the right to due process of law and the principle of equal protection for all people.

6. Liberals believe government has a fundamental responsibility to help those who are less fortunate. It is liberals who have supported and continue to support government programs to improve health care, education, social security, job training and welfare for the neediest members of society. It is liberals who maintain that a national community is like a family and that government exists in part to "promote the general welfare."

7. Liberals believe government should never act on the basis of sectarian faith. It is liberals who have opposed and continue to oppose school prayer and the teaching of creationism in public schools and who support government funding for stem-cell research, the rights of gays and lesbians and the freedom of choice for women.

8. Liberals believe courts have a special responsibility to protect individual liberties. It is principally liberal judges and justices who have preserved and continue to preserve freedom of expression, individual privacy, freedom of religion and due process of law. (Conservative judges and justices more often wield judicial authority to protect property rights and the interests of corporations, commercial advertisers and the wealthy.)

9. Liberals believe government must protect the safety and security of the people, for without such protection liberalism is impossible. This, of course, is less a tenet of liberalism than a reply to those who attack liberalism. The accusation that liberals are unwilling to protect the nation from internal and external dangers is false. Because liberals respect competing values, such as procedural fairness and individual dignity, they weigh more carefully particular exercises of government power (such as the use of secret evidence, hearsay and torture), but they are no less willing to use government authority in other forms (such as expanded police forces and international diplomacy) to protect the nation and its citizens.

10. Liberals believe government must protect the safety and security of the people, without unnecessarily sacrificing constitutional values. It is liberals who have demanded and continue to demand legal protections to avoid the conviction of innocent people in the criminal justice system, reasonable restraints on government surveillance of American citizens, and fair procedures to ensure that alleged enemy combatants are in fact enemy combatants. Liberals adhere to the view expressed by Brandeis some 80 years ago: "Those who won our independence ... did not exalt order at the cost of liberty."

do thanksgiving right this year...

n honor of the recently passed Columbus Day celebrations and the upcoming Thanksgiving Day celebrations (or genocide day 1 and genocide day 2, depending on your awareness)...i am reposting a bit from last year in hopes that this time it may start a trend.

so here it is again...back by popular demand...how to be a pilgrim...

i am sure there are many out there wondering how they will celebrate the upcoming day of giving thanks quickly approaching...and i have a suggestion...

forget about the usual getting together with family and acting like your typical american glutton and instead celebrate just like the pilgrims of old. if you are going to do it right you may need to start early (for reasons discussed below) so i suggest getting a jumpstart this weekend...the first step will be difficult if too many people decide to participate...which is one reason you may need to start early...although i suppose you can always share.

first thing to do...find yourself a friendly indian (as in descendant of those peoples that originally populated this continent tens of thousands of years ago) and move into their home. if you want to get really real with this part, try taking over their bedroom and most comfortable furniture while you are at it. over the next few weeks, as you make yourself at home in the house of your new friend make sure you fail at anything that is normally necessary for survival (i.e. cooking, groceries, money, etc.) so that come that special thursday you are very, very hungry and dirty and not at all prepared to live for the next few months.

on thanksgiving day your indian friend will hopefully take pity on you and share their wealth of food and other necessary survival tools. at this point you should graciously eat everything they offer before sitting down in the most comfortable chair for the cowboys game (afterall...we couldn't possibly give up all our gluttonous traditions for this day).

once you awaken from your food coma approach your host, punch them in the face and tell them they obviously aren't fit to own such a home. then proceed to take the deed to your friend's home before handing them a pigeon you had shipped in from asia (which, if you play your cards right will hopefully be infected with the avian flu).

congratulations...you're a pilgrim.

shame on us...

in case you needed any further recognition of the inevitable horrific end that blind American exceptionalism and militarism will lead to...North Korea tested a nuke...and why did they do it...because they were taking notes when Bush and his cronies were obsessed with the non-threat of Iraq and decided not to let the same fate fall upon their leadership. but the jokes on them...because my money says Bush doesn't give a shit if he exposes our troops to nuclear attack, or any of the cities on the western coast...so the nuke in their hands will be a virtual non-deterrent while this bozo remains in office.

the military can no longer afford to trim those unfit for service from its ranks. thanks to the brilliant leadership of this administration they are in a position where known crack addicts are sent back to war because they need the body. they are in a position where the services have to farm the other services to get proper medical and psychiatric personnel. apparently supporting the troops still means sending them in unprepared, undermanned, and without supporting infrastructure...with crack addicts. shame on us.

watched the Baraka Boys last Friday night. i highly recommend it to anyone actually concerned about the future of this country and its children (so if you believe No Child Left Behind was a good idea...this may not be the movie for you...and if you falsely claim you hold christian values yet consistently support legislation that is hell-bent on destroying any attempt to provide basics like education, health care, food and shelter to this nation's poor this probably is not a film you will get anything out of).

the film is about kids from inner-city Baltimore who are given an opportunity to attend a school in Kenya for 2 years in the hopes to get them to graduate high school and maybe even attend college (since 3/4 of their peers will never get a diploma...high school or otherwise...all those children, left behind at schools who will have their funding pulled by these fundamentalists dicks). only after a year they had to shut down the school because it was in the midst of a war zone...and the parents were horrified, acknowledging that the kids were safer in an actual war zone than in the neighborhoods they grew up in...the same neighborhoods you like to pass by and avoid the exits off the interstate...the same neighborhoods you so like to pretend don't exist, pretend like you don't know that there are deplorable conditions in your backyard while you consume away.

one of these kids was 13 and was finally told he was worth a damn. for the first time in his life someone told him he was smart...and with a little encouragement he scored the highest in the state on a standardized math test. thirteen years old before anyone tells you you are smart...for folks like you and i, that is impossible to imagine. but it goes to show you, kids will perform to your expectations...unfortunately for these kids and their peers, we expect them to wind up in jail or dead more often than we expect them to wind up educated. shame on us.

the next day i awoke to see the senate agreed to spend $6 billion on a fence to keep Mexicans out of this country...or at least make them walk a little farther when they are trying to find a better life (maybe we just didn't feel like they were quite earning it without a little longer trek through the desert). $6 billion to keep hard-working folks out of the country...$6 billion to further cripple small farmers...$6 billion to feed xenophobic racism. and we can't find the money to give these kids a decent shot at life. shame on us.

lack of adequate health care, substandard living conditions, subpar education and a complete lack of serious educational opportunities, inability to earn a living...these are moral issues. unfortunately, we are leading the industrialized world in immorality at the moment. shame on us.

while all of this goes on we get on our high horse over military spending in North Korea...hipocritically proclaiming how immoral it is to spend so much on armaments when a substantial portion of the population is not being properly supported. as if we don't have a higher and higher portion of our own citizens living below the poverty line. as if we don't have a frightening number of folks without access to proper medical care of the means to afford even the most basic medical care. as if we are educating our children rather than ignoring them and pretending we aren't failing them. as if we did not kick a few hundred thousand off food stamps while the poverty rate increased. as if we haven't condemned millions of our children to the following options: drugs; gangs; crime; death; and jail. all the while as we spend $400 billion on armaments and the military.

shame on us.

pondering again...

the quote book is filling up...here is an update...

Why is it not possible to get some of the people in these downtrodden countries to like us instead of hating us? - Pres. D. Eisenhower upon being presented with a plan for a coup in Iran (just a thought...but maybe not supporting brutal tyrants and killing their families would be a good place to start...i mean, just an idea)

I will go to my grave not knowing that, I can't answer that. I can't explain the strategic obsession with Iraq, why it rose to the top of people's priority list. I just can't explain why so many people thought this was so important to do. - Richard Hess (head of the State Department policy planning in the lead up to the Iraq War when asked why the US started that war) (nor can any of us Mr. Hess...nor can any of us)

Manliness consists not in bluff, bravado, or lordliness. It consists in daring to do the right and facing consequences whether it is in matters social, political or other. It consists in deeds, not in words. - M. Gandhi (in other words...Bush is no man)

Outside powers, most notably the United States, proved remarkably stingy when it came to aiding Afghanistan. They sent less aid and fewer peacekeepers per capita than they had sent to Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, or Rwanda. - S. Kinzer (and Bush and Co. wonder why the Arab community doesn't trust them for shit)

An historical irony may be that after all the search and straddle to find common purpose between the two grand initiatives [finding terrorists and stopping them] and the overthrow of Hussein - there was, finally, a connection between Iraq and the broader "war on terror." It was a catalytic relationship, like gasoline on a fire. - R. Suskind (yup, stay the course...burn baby burn)

What does it say about US policies that bin Laden would want Bush reelected? - R. Suskind (referring to the intelligence communities assessment that bin Laden's message just before the 2004 election was brilliantly planned to ensure Kerry lost)

"Energy security is national security." The consequences are not hard to imagine. American forces will spread overseas to protect oil fields, pipelines, refineries, and tanker routes more and more frequently, and they will often encounter enraged local populations. The American military can help deter attacks on vital oil facilities and ensure the continuing flow of petroleum, but it can never guarantee that our rising demand for imported oil will be satisfied. All that is certain is that we will pay for it with an increasing sacrifice of blood. - M. Klare

Realistically speaking, such a scenario is implausible, since every one of those countries, Iran included, relies on the sale of oil to keep its economy afloat; a move of this nature would be the equivalent of committing economic suicide. - M. Klare (referring to the ridiculous notion that if the US were to withdraw from the region one of the Gulf states would take advantage of the situation by impeding the flow of oil)

The sole way to become less dependent on imported petroleum is to practice energy self-restraint...the only sure way to reduce our oil imports is to reduce our consuption of oil. - M. Klare (amazing that this needs to be said)

If by 2010 we were to reduce our oil imports to the 1990 level we would save approximately $90 billion per year. - M. Klare (and that is assuming oil was at $35...and doesn't include the other $100 billion thrown away in trying to make sure cheap oil keeps flowing)

Current nuclear policy is immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous. - Robert McNamara

stop making sense...

my brain is full...and it hasn't dumped in awhile...so here it is, the latest tidbits floating through my head...

representative foley (who...contrary to what o'reilly tried to show fox news watchers...is not a democrat, but a republican - you know, the "moral majority") wanted to fantasize about young boys masturbating. they tried to cover it up and hope it wouldn't get out because they figured he had his seat nailed (oops). but here is the problem i have with this whole mess...the first question i keep hearing to other folks on the hill is "did you know he was gay?" WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?!?!? here we go again...implying that homosexuals are after your children (as if male child six offenders don't go after little girls) as if homosexuality is automatically connected to serious mental problems. the issue is that he liked youngins...not that he was gay. apparently it is american to hate someone for who their biological make-up tells them to want to fuck.

anyone read the second amendment recently? anyone else notice that nowhere does it say "gun"? it actually says "arms"...hmmmmm. slight dilemna. if we say "arms" = "guns" then shouldn't we also be able to say "arms" = "nuclear weapons" thereby meaning that i am entitled as an american to have a nuclear weapon since a well-armed militia is so important? i say carry your pocket knife and shut the fuck up about your issues with public health measures like gun control...you are armed.

speaking of...anyone else notice that it is the people who claim we must only go by what was originally meant in the bill of rights who claim that the second amendment means they get whatever gun they want? no...fuck that. if you want to go with the original text you must accept "arms" as what it meant in the day. so have fun hunting with muzzle loading musket asshole.

the election is coming up...vote for a major party...really, go ahead...throw that shit away.

the election is coming up and people are complaining because they can't believe that their "choices" are between Useless Asshole (R) and Useless Arsehole (D). so they say they want to write in "none of the above"...sounds great at first...except that is exactly what they want you to do. they need you to accept that it is either one of those or nobody else. that is bullshit. demand your representative democracy actually represent democracy...demand access to the ballot is extended. find someone that represents what you believe in and give them your vote, even if it means a write-in (shameless plug for my district...its spelled l-i-n-n-e-n-b-u-r-g-e-r)...if nothing else, write your own name in.

i noticed something yesterday morning...for every one person that hit the streets...there were scores more who supported the cause. you aren't alone people...and it is no longer "cool" to be apathetic...it is simply pathetic. so get off your ass and do something about it...there is nothing more american than that.

heard some folks down here in new mexico are having their orders put on hold (national guard folks) because of funding issues. didn't we just approve something like $400 billion for national defense? obviously the conservative folks are good with money.

president and his cronies are still warning iran...question mr. president...what exactly do you plan to do to iran? it isn't like you have the bodies to send in there. must be planning nuclear action....so let me be the first to say thank you for destroying the human race. you get a star...asshole.

they claim unemployment rates dropped...except for all those people in prison who we don't count...and all those people who just gave up looking...and all those people being paid less than what they contribute to the economy...and all those people being paid less than is necessary to live with dignity. yea...full employment at walmart. hooray.

the stock market hit new highs...don't worry, you aren't the only one wondering when in the hell the economic recovery will mean a better position for you...if you aren't already so filthy rich it doesn't fucking matter...then they think you don't matter.

we've basically had conservative control for a couple decades now. after 25 years of conservative control (and yes republicans...bill was conservative, he was even better at it than you) we have crumbling schools, jobs running overseas, higher violent crime rates, higher teen pregnancy, a resurgence of std's, stagnant wages...but its ok. the stock market is up. see...things are great.

we are worried about people coming into this country to find work. but the jokes on them...because our people that have worked here their entire lives have to cross the border in the other direction to be able to afford the medicine they need.

set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell...

Why We Are Here...

The fundamentalist and fundamentally un-American leadership in the White House is attacking everything positive that America once stood for. They are doing so without regard for the loud and gathering voices of opposition among the population, your voices. But now those voices are gathering in over 200 cities nationwide, and they are marching in solidarity as True Americans that believe in the rule of law rather than the rule of the sword, that believe in true liberty, equality and freedom, and that abhor Bush turning the Beacon on the Hill into the flashpoint of a muzzle.

We are here to tell Mr. Bush to stop hindering the scientific community in its attempts to cure disease.

We are here because we are concerned for our children. Children who, if Mr. Bush has his way, will continue to fall farther behind the global community because they will not be taught science that conflicts with his fundamentalist beliefs. Children who are being poisoned by the polluted air they breathe and water they drink. Children who will be left to suffer the wrath of mother nature because Mr. Bush refuses to accept that global warming, a preventable catastrophe, is looming just over the horizon.

We are here because women enjoy the strides this nation has made towards gender equality and we refuse to accept that a woman must be forced into child-rearing and left unable to choose the path of her life the same as a man.

We are here because we recognize that when two adults are in love they should be entitled to publically declare that love and maintain equal status with other couples in the same position.

We are here to denounce attempts to rewrite discrimination into the Constitution.

We are here to stand against xenophobia which defines hard-working, law-abiding peoples seeking a better life as a threat to security simply because English is not their first language.

We are here to condemn a President who stood by and did nothing as thousands in New Orleans were left for dead by their government.

We are here to declare that anyone who works for a living should earn a living.

We are here because the right of habeas corpus granted in the Magna Carta was an advancement of freedom that should never have been reversed.

We are here because the founders of this nation meant what they wrote in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, and when the protections they guaranteed are brushed aside it is the innocent that have the most to fear.

We are here because we dread nuclear war and the suicidal path Mr. Bush has laid out for the human race, ensuring continued proliferation of nuclear weapons and a return of escalating arms races and being one itchy trigger finger away from nuclear holocaust.

We are here because democracy within nations cannot be had whilst the President denigrates democracy among nations.

We are here because, as this country laid out at Nuremberg, the launching of aggressive, preventive war is one of the greatest crimes a nation’s leaders can commit.

We are here because torture is always wrong, incredibly inhuman and inherently evil.

We are here because tens of thousands of innocent humans are not “collateral damage.”

We are here because thousands of American families will never see their loved ones again because of the lies of Mr. Bush.

We are here to send a message to President Bush. We are here to say “You do not represent us. We are not torturers. We are not fascists. We are not war-mongers. Step down Mr. Bush! America was a great country. We want it back!”

You Can't Afford To Wait If...

The fundamentalist and fundamentally un-American leadership in the White House and Washington is attacking everything good that America once stood for. They are doing so without regard for the loud and gathering voices of opposition among the population they somehow represent through ignoring. This Thursday, October 5th peoples in over 150 cities across the country will gather to demand the representative democracy actually represent democracy. You may feel you are too busy to take the time to add your presence to the movement, that your time is too important to spend speaking out against the policies of your un-American leaders because life seems fine for you at the moment and you can wait to see if things really get bad.

Well you are wrong, you cannot wait. Our democracy has already degraded to a point beyond recognition. If any of the following applies to you, you cannot afford to wait...

You or anyone you know is now suffering from, or may in the future suffer from any number of horrible diseases the worldwide scientific community is seeking to combat through the marvels of modern technology and use of frozen, otherwise wasted embryos. This administration is doing everything it can to sink this burgeoning field of study which offers so much hope to alleviate the suffering and untimely deaths of millions of people worldwide because it does not fit with their fundamentalist religious outlook, which, ironically is fundamentally un-Christian at its core.

You want your children to receive a well-rounded education. This administration and its allies are seeking to destroy the foundation of science education in your schools because they do not agree with their fundamentalist religious views. They are doing so at a time when the world is passing American children by in math and science and setting this country up for serious problems retaining an edge in technological fields.

You are a woman who enjoys the advances towards gender equality over the last few decades. This administration and its supporters hold a fundamentalist view that seeks to relegate women back solely to a sphere they fought long and hard to gain access out of.

You believe women should have the opportunity to determine the path of their life the same that men do. This administration is attacking birth control in an alarming way in an effort to return to a day when women were punished for their inability to control their sexual urges by being forced into childrearing while the father managed to avoid any such penalty.

You believe that consenting adults in love should be entitled to publically declare that love and maintain equal status with other consenting adults in love. This administration is trying to tell you who you can and cannot marry.

You, your friends, or your family are Latino. This administration and its followers have declared that the presence of hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying individuals who are seeking a better life for themselves and their family are a threat to national security, but only if they have darker skin and speak Spanish. This xenophobic response denigrates your culture while trampling on the declaration the Statue of Liberty makes to the peoples of the world.

You believe anyone working for a living should earn a living. This administration and its followers outright refuse to demand your employer pay you even the minimum necessary to maintain your basic dignity and be allowed to even attempt to pursue your own happiness.

You dread nuclear war. This administration proudly touts its record in advancing the cause of all-out nuclear war by pumping everything it can into efforts to develop nuclear weapons for use in all aspects of war and continued first strike capabilities. In the process, everything they have done has ensured the continued proliferation of nuclear weapons, escalating arms races, and a return to living on the edge of nuclear holocaust.

Your children's health and welfare is important to you. This administration has outright refused to accept complete agreement in the scientific community on the dangers of environmental degredation, instead promoting further such degredation in an attempt to squeeze a few more dollars into the pockets of their friends while your children will be left to deal with the wrath of mother nature and the entirely preventable diseases associated with polluted air, land and water.

You believe that democracy within nations cannot be accomplished by denigration of democracy among nations. This administration has done more in the last 6 years to dismantle mankind's efforts to rid humanity of the scourge of war than any terrorist organization could have hoped to accomplish. They are doing so with a frightening fundamentalist exceptionalism that has led to the downfall of every global hegemon in the past.

You believe rogue states must be stopped. This administration has blatantly ignored aspects of domestic and international law, generations in the making, designed to contain the use of force unless absolutely necessary and even then within basic standards of human decency. In doing so, it is acting in exactly the manner of those governments it claims are "rogue states" and severely undermining global and national security.

You believe, as the American-established Nuremberg Tribunal believed, that launching aggressive, preventive war is one of the greatest crimes against humanity a nation's leaders can commit. The Bush Doctrine accepts that which this country and the world disavowed but for the most horrific regimes the world has seen, preventive and aggressive war, a tactic utilized by Nazi Germany to begin the horror that became World War II and the Holocaust.

You are a minority seeking equal representation in American democracy. This administration and its minions, both Republican and Democrat, have systematically attempted to undermine the ability of minority groups to obtain equal access to government. They have done so as a supreme power grab in an attempt to shut you out of the electoral process and move the government farther and farther from that which America was meant to be, a nation progressing towards more freedom, more equality, more justice, and more liberty.

You believe that when the founders of this nation wrote the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment they meant what they said. This administration has consistently denigrated the most basic and fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and its Amendments. Contrary to centuries of tradition they seek to spy on American citizens without probable cause, and to hold and detain anyone on the whim of their desires without due process and the rule of law.

You understand the significance of the 800 year old right to petition under the writ of habeas corpus in order to make the Government justify its continued detention of you. This administration and its minions have now written into the United States Code that the very right that birthed our legal system is no longer applicable if Mr. Bush so declares.

You believe that when the human race got together and declared torture a despicable act that could never be condoned the human race was in the right. This administration has done everything possible to rationalize a tactic that is always wrong, incredibly inhuman, and inherently evil.

You refuse to accept that hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings is acceptable "collateral damage" and that close to 3,000 American service men and women have died and tens of thousands more been maimed based on lies these people told you.

America was a great country. We want it back. October 5th. WorldCantWait.org