AN ELECTION, A DECISION, A CONCESSION, A DEFECTION, PENDING LEGISLATION, AND A QUESTION

Nine months since the election, almost 3 million votes cast, after weeks of recounts and months of court appeals involving 10 judges, 142 witnesses, over $13 million in legal fees, and 56,217 comments, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided in favor of Al Franken and declared him winner of the election. Within moments after the decision, Norm Coleman offered a concession.

Minnesota finally gets a full complement of Congressional representatives; and the Democrats, with Arlen Specter’s recent defection, have a filibuster-proof Senate majority.

One would think the way is clear for a run of progressive legislation without Republican obstruction. But the Democrats are a fractious bunch, and Octopus is a pessimist.

Will the Democrats mess up a golden opportunity? Or will we finally get a decent alternative energy bill, universal healthcare reform, and more?

Your thoughts.

The Torturer of Tehran

Saaed Mortazavi is sometimes called the “Torturer of Tehran” but probably not to his face. The man also known as “Butcher of the press” has been given authority by the Iranian government to "interrogate" people involved, or said to be involved, in the demonstrations in Tehran. Mortazavi earned his nicknames for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her detention in 2003 says the Times Online. The TOT was behind the detention of more than 20 bloggers and journalists in 2004, held for long periods of solitary confinement in secret prisons, where they were allegedly coerced into signing false confessions.

I expect to be hearing a great deal about how Iranian concern over the strange results of the recent election are the products of American propaganda and the protest sponsored, choreographed and financed from Washington, DC.

Of course such things are more effective in terrorizing the locals than in convincing them that these confessions don'e have more to do with cattle prods and genitals than with American interference, but isn't it too bad that the US has lost any ability to deplore enhanced interrogation? Isn't it too bad that the US must remain silent about starting wars and killing people based information extracted by torture?

Thank you George W. Bush and all the other cowards who dragged our proud country down to the level of these savages!

Farah Fawcett: A Personal Recollection

I met Farah Fawcett on several occasions during the late 1970s after she achieved fame for her role in the popular TV show, Charlie’s Angels. She and the other co-stars … Kate Jackson, Cheryl Ladd, and Jaclyn Smith … were retained by the Wella Corporation to act as testimonial spokespersons for a line of consumer and professional hair care products. I started my film production company at about this time, and Wella was one of my very first clients. Yes, those TV and print ads were my handiwork. I wish I had better photos of her to share, but all outtakes became the property of Wella subject to strictly limited usage rights per contract terms. Nevertheless, I used to bring home Farah posters, hot off the press, for my young daughters to hang in their bedroom. Today, those Farah posters are selling on Ebay for a sum.

She was as lovely in person as she appeared in film and was an icon of an era. Born February 2, 1947, she was exactly one day younger than me. Life is fragile and fleeting; my generation is aging. Rest in peace.

Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.

Warte nur, balde

Ruhest du auch.

(Goethe, Wandrers Nachtlied)

Zero tolerance for zero tolerance

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fear of terrorists, fear of drugs -- fear itself shall be the law.

Does the hullabaloo about legal "loopholes" allowing gun sales to people secretly on an FBI terrorist list but not charged with anything, have anything to do with allowing school officials to strip a young girl half naked and rummage around in her underwear? Should people working for a local high school have police powers yet not be restrained by the responsibility a policeman has to explain the accused's rights? I think both cases illustrate the struggle between expediency and respect for civil rights and in neither case do I feel that the foundation of our legal system was to make it very, very easy for any authority to treat suspects as convicts.

Clarence Thomas was the only Supreme Court member to think such things as a summary strip search of an 8th grade girl are legal, although he may or may not think it's wrong. True to his Republican principles, he differentiates between law and justice as though one was not to serve the other. Of course I might often agree with that, but not this time. Thomas clearly stated that the "scourge of drugs" trumps the right to due process and elevates a school principal above the powers and responsibilities a police officer has. In his dissenting opinion, he claimed the court was making a “deep intrusion” into the administration of public schools and their efforts, constitutional or otherwise, to fight the scourge of drug abuse. Fear trumps the law, fear trumps justice, fear trumps freedom, due process and in some cases, common decency. Fear is turning some of our schools into little versions of Stalinist Russia where any accusation is as good as guilt.

I haven't read the transcripts and I have never walked through the door of a law school, but the sense of outrage can't be exclusive to me or any other parent and the legitimacy of allowing school personnel, who would otherwise go to prison for doing what they did, to have such authority simply because of the grave danger that Savana Redding might have had an Advil hidden on her person. I can say with near certainty, that had it been my 13 year old daughter, there would be some folks at Safford Middle School in need of their own pain pills.

While most of us would disagree with Thomas and would side with the majority decision that the danger was so minimal that such a false accusation could not justify personal violation of that sort by people who are, after all, not policemen, some appear to be quite happy with using innuendo, suspicion and prejudice to deprive anyone of his civil rights. After all, we passed a Patriot Act designed to do just that and suggested that those who opposed it weren't true Americans.

In other countries; in countries that value freedom more than we do, there would be demonstrations in the streets against the things we ignore while giggling about the sex lives of Senators. It's sad.

Iran Elections: Quit Turning Your Twitter Avatars Green And Do Something

Iran Elections: Quit Turning Your Twitter Avatars Green And Do Something - Air America Media - Kase Wickman

(The whole article is damned good and well worth reading, but I'm only reposting the "here's what you can do" paragraphs (the meat) below. I'm also leaving my twitter avatar green because, while it's usefulness pales in comparison to the suggestions in the post, I do think that little green tag makes a psychological difference. YMMV...)

So instead of empty gestures and hashtags, why don't we actually engage in some activism and help, instead of whispering about this like some kind of neighborhood scandal that will never catch up to us because it's an ocean away?

There's always the option of an online donation to a relief agency like Red Crescent, for something immediate and helpful. The world runs on money and blood (as the events in Iran over the last week and a half have so morosely reminded us), and America is too far away to donate the blood that the wounded in Iran so desperately need.

You can also make donations to those covering the ongoing protests and violence, like Tehran Bureau, which is run by an Iranian-emigre out of a house in Newton, Massachusetts and is in need of financial support to keep the site live and bandwidth plentiful. Reliable information is harder and harder to come by, already 24 journalists have been arrested in Iran, and the majority of the rest have been forced out of the country by expired visas and government intimidation.

Don't have cash? There are ways you can help for free without ever leaving your computer. You can create a proxy or Twitter relay to help keep those ever-important Iranian Twitterers connected and informing the world about the situation in Iran. Or change your location and time zone to match Iran, in hopes of tripping up government censors looking for active sources.

If you're more diplomatically-inclined, and looking toward the long term, write a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council and urge them to take action on international election standards and protection for citizens.

Above all, the thing you must do before any difference can be made is to inform yourself. The term "knowledge is power" wouldn't be repeated so much if it wasn't true. So spend some time reading the news, know what the hell you're talking about, and go out and tell someone else about it, and how they can help.

If anyone has any further suggestions or links to sites & or other things worth doing, please add them in the comments. I'd prefer that this post stay as non-partisan as possible. We all know that "that" side sucks, but wingnuts, moonbats, partisans of all other stripes... ...this isn't about us here in the US.

h/t Twitter / @DivadNhoj1981

CLOWNFISH OF THE WEEK: GOVERNOR MARK SANFORD

Photoshop credit: AZrainman

He disappeared from plain sight. When asked of his whereabouts, his cohorts refused to answer. Security, they said. His wife knew nothing. Reporters spotted his car at the airport. Rumors swirled. Something about taking a hike in the Appalachians. Finally, an admission, a clandestine trip … Yeee Haah … to Argentina!

Can’t you hear me, baby, rappin’ on your door?

Can’t you hear me, baby, rappin’ on your door?

Now you hear me tappin’, tappin’ across your floor.

For seven days and seven nights days, Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina was missing. This is the same Governor Mark Sanford who refused to accept federal economic stimulus funds ... for the State of South Carolina that has among the worst unemployment stats in the nation … and failing grades in education.

Feel like a broke-down engine, ain’t got no drive at all,

Feel like a broke-down engine, ain’t got no drive at all.

This is the same Governor Sanford whose own legislature voted to accept the stimulus money and override his veto, whose own State Supreme Court upheld the state legislature that demanded the governor take the stimulus money; the same Governor Sanford from the same great state of South Carolina, rumors say, who wants to run for president of these even greater United States of Aye!

Lordy, Lord, Lordy, Lord, Lordy, Lord.

After seven days and seven nights, we discover Governor Mark Sanford had secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he had been having … an affair! "I've let down a lot of people," said the governor at a news conference where he choked up as he ruminated on God's law, moral absolutes and following one's heart. His family did not attend.

Feel like a broke-down engine,

ain’t got no whistle or bell,

If you’re a real hot momma,

drive away Daddy’s weeping spell.

At The Swash Zone today, the temperature is 87 degrees and sunny. Visibility is 10 miles, and the surf is calm. All resident clownfish have left our shores … bound for South Carolina.

Maybe Something About Foreign Policy, Too...

"Whether you golf or not, go to a driving range and hit a bucket of golf balls. Begin by hitting everything as hard as you can; gradually decrease your power until near the end, you're barely swinging. Notice that as you decrease the power of your swing, your accuracy improves. There's a lesson about life, here." - The Check Book - Nicholaus & Lowrie

(X-post @ Wingnuts & Moonbats)

Off with the habit, sister!

Some Republicans have been speaking up and saying they wish Barak Obama would be more like French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Considering the Republican obsession with French cowardice and perfidy, it's remarkable in itself, but Sarko made a rather more blustery statement about Iran and tyranny than did Obama and bluster is what Republican foreign policy has come to be.

I have no doubt that some Republicans, including those who fill my mail box with serial hoaxes about foreign leaders railing and howling about throwing out the Muslims, would be quite happy with such a president and his support of a ban on religious attire in France - at least as it pertains to Islamic attire.

France has launched a parliamentary inquiry into whether women should be allowed to wear the burqa in public. Sarkozy is on record as saying it's "not welcome" in France. Consistency requires, at least in a land of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, banning other forms of sartorial identification, such as Sikh turbans, large Christian crucifixes and Jewish yarmulkes as well and so it is proposed. I'm unable to discern their attitude toward the Roman Catholic burqa as worn by nuns, but I'm sure some accommodation could be reached.

Because we are a secular government, not a Christian one, our US constitution protects the freedom to practice our various religions as we choose and it's hard to see any such legislation being proposed here, but it must be of comfort to our resident bigots to know their favorite "surrender monkeys" are considering the surrender of another increment of freedom in service of bigotry and xenophobia.

If Joe McCarthy were a Democrat

"this new report is proof positive that known and suspected terrorists are exploiting a major loophole in our law, threatening our families and our communities. This 'terror gap' has been open too long, and our national security demands that we shut it down."

says Sen. Frank Lautenberg, (D-NJ.) No one my age can fail to be reminded of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy and his fake list of names. Frank, of course, is also a damn liar.

As might be expected, we're really not talking about "known" terrorists, but about people who have been put on a watch list, but against whom there is no evidence. The Justice Department tells us says CNN, that the FBI had thousands of names on its watch list based on outdated information and should have removed them. The GAO notes properly that being on a terrorist watch list does not mean that someone is involved in any terrorist activity, so as I said, we're not talking about "known terrorists" at all. Neither are we talking about a "loophole" here; we're talking about punishment without due process.

We should all be concerned when there's a proposal to make an accusation, an opinion, a conjecture or a suspicion reason to take away someones constitutional rights, but of course there are those so frightened of coming to harm that they just don't care, which makes them unfit to be participants in a democracy such as ours: a government of laws, not of fear. Sad to say, they're not all Republicans.

Lautenberg refers to a GAO report released yesterday, which reveals that about 90% of people who have sought to buy firearms and who had their names on a "watch list" were allowed to buy them because there was no evidence that they actually were involved in illegal acts. Perhaps they had opinions that were scary, beliefs that troubled the list makers and somehow knew other scary people: perhaps they were falsely accused or, as is often the case, had a name similar to that of a convicted felon. But of course our thoughts are supposed to be free and our associations as well. Should we start putting people who oppose abortion on a terrorism watch list because others with similar beliefs have committed crimes? What about people who have attended "Tea bag" parties? People with an 'unauthorized' religion? Why isn't thought crime abhorrent to us any more?

From his perch in the grandstand, Lautenberg claims to be introducing legislation that would give the U.S. attorney general "authority to stop the sale of guns or explosives to terrorists." That's something the law already addresses and of course it's deceptive since one is not a terrorist without some evidence of illegal activity and indeed without due process to determine guilt or innocence. So what Frank is saying here is that suspicion is guilt and suspicion trumps a fair trial and if you're different or someone doesn't like you, you have no rights. How long have we been fighting monsters that we're starting not to notice what we've become?

We're so vain, we probably think Iran is about us

Back in the day -- the 60's that is -- conservatives fostered and circulated the idea that the people who were opposed to continued armed interference in Vietnam were all but on the payroll of Chairman Mao. Mumblings about "front" organizations and accusations of treason were commonplace even without anything resembling the internet to make it easy. One of the planned results of the strategy was to make it easier to continue the war indefinitely, violate the civil rights of objectors and easier to get conservatives to support the violation. Suggestions that Ho Chi Min preferred the Democratic candidate was heavy ammunition against him.

Now of course the Mullahs of Iran are far smarter than the average American -- who isn't? -- and if Barak Obama were to take on the traditional Republican role of moral bloviator and condemn the crackdown in Iran, they would be delighted to have the excuse that the thousands in the streets are foreign agents, motivated and backed and perhaps even paid by the United States. Any kind of violence could then be justified against these "enemy combatants" on religious and political grounds. Our open support of the protests in Tehran would effectively taint the movement which could be discussed as a Western incursion and not an Iranian movement by Iranians to take back control of Iran from a corrupt government.

Our Average American however, never can seem to resist a chance proudly to display anger and even more so when he can pretend it's moral outrage. CNN's current poll shows 76% in favor of having the President "condemn" the government of Iran as though he were himself an Ayatollah pronouncing a fatwah. Of course he has expressed sympathy for those seeking democracy and there is no one in the world who would think that we would support Khamenei anyway, but the contest between statecraft and soul satisfying, but counterproductive, rage has a predictable outcome.

I have severe misgivings and doubts about the way in which our economic predicament is being addressed, but when it comes to handling touchy and dangerous world affairs, Obama seems almost a genius compared to the man the Republicans would have had as president, strutting about a stage like an overweight, underpowered Mick Jagger, singing "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran."

HAPPY FATHERS' DAY

Dear Dad,
$chool i$ really great. I am making lot$ of friend$ and $tudying very hard. With all my $tuff, I $imply can't think of anything I need, $o if you would like, you can ju$t $end me a card, a$ I would love to hear from you.
Your loving $on

Dear Son,
I kNOw that astroNOmy, ecoNOmics, and oceaNOgraphy are eNOugh to keep an hoNOr student very busy.  Do NOt forget that the pursuit of kNOwledge is a NOble task, and you can never study eNOugh.
Love, Dad

On Studying a Language

This is just a muse about my return to the intensive study of several languages, for whatever the thoughts be worth.

The desire to study languages not one's own may come from any number of directions – from practical ones like wanting to become a professional translator to ones the source of which is lost in the "dark backward and abysm" of childhood and, as with so much we value most, not available to our waking selves. So put it down to whimsy if you will, but the currents of our interests – indeed of whimsy itself – surely run deep.

The study of languages might be thought a sign of shallowness, since a person may know ten languages and yet be a villain or a fool. Still, it seems better to say that the pursuit of language competence is the mother of studies. And in spite of all the memorization and grammar-conning involved, it's also a fine proof of Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon's assertion that learning itself is not a matter of aggregation, of permanent acquisition, but rather a series of insights that seem to come from nowhere and that are gone as soon as they have come, leaving us again in darkness, under the sway of various necessities. It induces humility as well since whatever of wisdom and knowledge is gained, whatever unlooked-for advances in comprehension come as if from the workings of a power akin to Coleridge's silent, secret "ministry of frost," will most likely be lost along with all else when we die. In the shadow of the Preacher's injunction, the study of a language, too, is vanity.

But in favor of language studies is the prospect that there's something in them of pure love of words – a capacity much derided in this age of virtual bronze, where to lose what Hamlet calls "the name of action" is considered shameful. Even the poorest of paragraphs can sell a product or teach us how to use a software program. But such a paragraph remains a pitiful thing in its own right, and shows little regard for the deep humanity that precision of speech or writing may reveal.

A language is something we have made collectively and over time – something mostly beyond our individual efforts at manipulation, though we may have some small success there, some power of innovation and precision. And to this power we must respond, and within it, to a large degree, work out our felicity or infelicity. To speak a "foreign" language is to speak with the voice of another that beckons us outside ourselves even as it takes us back to our earliest and most intimate experiences, moments when an illusory but nonetheless powerful bond was forged between words, ourselves, and the world around us. In a sense, to return to language is to return to our mother and father, to an experience not unlike what we may surmise to have been our earliest conscious days, months, and years – the ones that made us what we are. The child is father of the man, just as Wordsworth said.

AT NANO SCALE, MAGIC HAPPENS

Thus says Justin Hall-Tipping, senior managing partner of NanoHoldings, LLC. His company is “a mixture of venture fund and operating company.” I was sent an article about this company and it’s partnership with Dr Carroll, a professor of physics at Wake Forest University and the nanotech research center at the university.

I also had the great fortune to see the light board mentioned in the article and pictured at right.

Nanotechnology is the understanding and manipulation of matter at dimensions between 1 and 100 nanometers in size. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Just for a comparison, a sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick. We are talking MINISCULE! With this technology, science will be able to provide us with “super materials” capable of changing the global environment in a clean, organic way.

The lighted material generates no heat and is at least twice as efficient as fluorescent light. It is a thin-film device that can be custom-tailored to produce light of different color and flexible so that it can be shaped into all sorts of creative lighting applications. (The image in the picture is of the school mascot, The Demon Deacon).

The solar fiber cell is another new innovation mentioned in the same article. The film acts as an absorber and concentrator and can be applied to a variety of surfaces such as the whole roof of a house.

From the FiberCell website: “Each FiberCell subunit within the module can produce the operational voltage, so there is no need to connect the individual devices in series. Loss of a single cell does not dramatically affect the module performance.”

When we talk of a future without oil and other polluting substances, we aren’t talking about a distant future. In fact the future is here, now and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Imagine the possibilities that are just around the corner…

Pete Hoekstra - hero of the revolution

Believe it or not, very few Americans voted for Barak Obama. The 9 million or so difference between the count for McPalin and Obama was the result of election tampering by ACORN. This notion seems to be part of the ever-changing catechism of the Republican faithful because I've been hearing it over and over again and so it's not all that surprising that congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) would feel encouraged to tell us that the internet activity and the massive street protests since the Iranian election was

" similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House."

He said, referring to last August when the Speaker adjourned the House before an energy vote. Jon Stewart joked last night about the parallels being eerie: "Not parallels, the perpendiculars” but to a party that has tried to compare the governments we've cobbled together in Iraq and Afghanistan to the formation of our own government, the humor will be written off as liberal meanness or deflected by some tale of an unfair joke about the Palins or Joe the Plumber. No, once again they're posing as victims of a corrupt system and a stolen election.

I can imagine the groans of his staff, who quickly told us what Hoekstra would have said if Hoekstra had been as smart as they are:

"The two situations do share the similarity of government leadership attempting to limit debate and deliberation, and the ability of new technologies to bypass their efforts and allow for direct communication. That’s the only point that he was trying to make."

No it wasn't and of course his party had been doing just that for 8 years. The reaction was swift, according to CNN, and one counter-twitter responded with:

"Except the Democrats didn't come after you with clubs and guns, did they?"

No, they did it with the ballot box and will all allowances made for poetic license, the perpendiculars are striking.

Man was made for the law.

At least while the remnants of Republican barbarism still control the court, the law is the law is the law; right or wrong .

Is anyone still so idealistic as to think that our justice system is about justice and not about upholding the authority of. . .well, authority? Well, maybe the latest ruling from the Old Bastard's Club we sometimes call the Supreme Court and the Republicans sometimes accuse of giving a damn, will change your mind. In a ruling today one might have expected from a Texas court or perhaps the Spanish Inquisition, it ruled that once you're convicted, you have no right to obtain evidence that might exonerate you at least in Alaska, one of the six states in which innocence is no defense once the infallible courts have ruled.

"Science alone cannot prove a prisoner innocent,"

read the decision and of course not, but it can prove him not guilty and it often has done just that. But I guess this is a good way to keep from the inevitable embarrassment of killing a few innocent people now and then.

So isn't it nice that at least one branch of Government retains it's contempt for the value of human life once it's had the chance to be baptized?

The Right Reaction on Iran

The proper reaction regarding the recent turmoil in Iran is clear, or at least it should be. It's also exactly the reaction President Obama has had so far. The president has been very reluctant to use aggressive language when discussing Iran's election, the subsequent protests, or the seeming illegitimacy of Ahmadinejad's rule (or Khamenei's). He's actually been quite reluctant to say anything at all.

His reasons are many. His doesn't want to anger an Ahmadinejad/Khamenei-run government should the current regime maintain its power - he will, after all, have to work with whatever government emerges from this struggle. He doesn't want to use overly forceful rhetoric only to find that he has to ratchet it up further should the violence become drastically worse. He also doesn't want to risk emboldening Ahmadinejad by giving the Iranian president someone to point the finger at.

But most importantly, President Obama recognizes that this decision needs and ought to be made by the Iranian people. It is a fool's errand trying to sway the politics of a nation in the midst of upheaval. We could only make matters worse. And if we really want genuine change to come to Iran - change that will stick - we need to recognize that that change must come from within; as Sen. John Kerry wrote in a NYT op-ed, "Iran’s election must be about Iran — not America."

Obama has expressed all of this without any of the bombast characteristic of his predecessor (see Evil, Axis of). On Monday, President Obama spoke briefly to reporters about Iran, closing by saying,

We will continue to pursue a tough, direct dialogue between our two countries, and we'll see where it takes us. But even as we do so, I think it would be wrong for me to be silent about what we've seen on the television over the last few days. And what I would say to those people who put so much hope and energy and optimism into the political process, I would say to them that the world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was. And they should know that the world is watching.

And particularly to the youth of Iran, I want them to know that we in the United States do not want to make any decisions for the Iranians, but we do believe that the Iranian people and their voices should be heard and respected.

Careful to express that this is Iran's election, Iran's battle, but subtlely showing support for the protesters. Nuanced. Sophisticated. To the point, but full of between-the-lines insight.

Contrast that with this comment from Sen. John McCain on the "Today" show:

He should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election and that the Iranian people have been deprived of their rights.

In speaking with David Gregory, he advised that the United States should

[...] do what we have done throughout the Cold War and afterwards, we speak up for the people of Tehran and Iran and all the cities all over that country who have been deprived of one of their fundamental rights.

To which The Huffington Post bitingly noted,

Ah, yes, because U.S.-Iran relations "throughout the Cold War and afterwards" are such a model of success.

McCain is aggressive. Overly-confident. Ignorant of history and of our potential to influence an election that isn't any of our business. We should not be surprised that the man who jokingly, and irresponsibly, mock-sang "bomb, bomb Iran" would desire such decidedly strict language. McCain's sometimes belligerent nature played no small role in costing him the presidency. We should be thankful that America is awake enough to have recognized that the prudence Obama brings to the table is a far more powerful diplomatic tool than the incitable speech of 43 or the failed-44.

And most important of all, we should recognize that by treating Iran and the rest of the Middle East with respect, Obama has already done more to help spur the change we're seeing than either of these men (or the countless other neoconservative war-mongers) can imagine. No more Axis of Evil, no more distrust of Muslims and Muslim culture, no more overt (very overt in the case of Iraq) aggression in the Middle East. Just an invitation for some honest dialogue with a region of the world we have managed only to alienate in recent years. That is progress, that is how you make a difference.

Update:

Shaw has two posts at her blog that complement this very well.

Who's the victim here?

Yes Sir, it's terrible how tasteless old far-left liberal David Letterman got away with some comment about the Palin family because the media is like you know all Liberal and hardly mentioned the grievous offense. Why if some God-fearing Christian conservative were to make some comment about Obama or his family? All hell would break loose, right?

You say you need evidence? Why how liberal of you, but look at how they're handling that really, really funny and tasteful picture of the 45th president of the United States that Sherri Goforth, an aide to state Sen. Diane Black (R-TN) sent out by e-mail? Why it's made international headlines, hasn't it? Well OK, at least it made some blog called Raw Story, but that's more exposure than the Palin story got from being headline material on all the media for days, isn't it?

Besides, you know, showing Obama as a pair of googly eyes on a black background is the funniest thing since the minstrel shows went away because of Liberal Fascist censorship and it just proves that far left Liberals have no sense of humor anyway. I mean none of us America loving patriots ever went beyond the bounds of truth or good taste by trashing Obama the Magic Negro and that only proves that it's them behind all the hatred and racism they throw at us Republicans who are the real victims here.

Training the Nazis

“I hate Arabs more than anybody, for the simple fact I’ve served over there and seen how they live, They’re just a backward people. Them and the Jews are just disgusting people as far as I’m concerned. Their customs, everything to do with the Middle East, is just repugnant to me.”

says Forrest Fogarty. He's an Iraq War veteran and a lifelong Nazi. Despite being covered in Racist and Nazi tattoos and despite having been expelled from High School for overt and unrepentant racism; despite his public support for ridding the US and Europe of non-white races, despite the fact that regulations forbid it, the US military has trained him in weapons and tactics he hopes one day to use in a race war.

Writing in Salon.com, Matt Kennard tells us in Neo-Nazis are in the Army Now that Fogarty left the US Army in 2005 with an honorable discharge and was asked to re-enlist. He is apparently not a unique case and a DHS report outlines how as the military has had to scrape the bottom of the recruitment barrel, issuing waivers for criminal behavior, militant extremist groups have benefitted from the increased hate and frustration - and the government's willingness to train current and potential hate-group members.

It's become very difficult for Americans to criticize the military and the image of our "warrior" heroes fighting for freedom is a sacred icon, as it often becomes when our government has to hide and distract from the lies and distortions and cover-ups behind an unneccesary and probably illegal war, but it seems to me that another of the victims of George Bush's War, along with the Iraqi people, is our military and its reputation. It's bad enough that we've abused their patriotism and dedication, left too many wounded by the side of the road without adequate care and benefits, but have we trained and disciplined another generation of domestic terrorists to carry out a racist, hate-based mission?

PIRATES OF THE PERSIAN GULF

Photoshop credit: AZrainman

Latest developments: Iran's Supreme Pirate, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who upheld last Friday’s election, has reversed himself in the face of nationwide protests.  It seems the Supreme Pirate will allow the defeated candidate, Mirhossein Mousavi, to appeal the election before the Guardian Council, which will rule within 10 days on two official complaints received from Mousavi and the another losing candidate, Mohsen Rezaie.  The Guardian Council is chaired by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who endorsed Ahmadinejad before the vote.

How exceptionally kind of the Guardian Council to consider this appeal while Iran's favorite rap group, Syncopated Security, gets ready to release their next smash hits, I’m in the Mahmoud for Love and Bad, Bad Ahmadinejad.

UPDATE (3:39 pm): Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets today. This protest march in central Tehran is reportedly 5 miles long:

Minuteman -- what's in a name?

The right wing trolls have been parading their mock outrage recently about suggestions that the last 8 years have marked a new high ( or low, if you prefer) in Republican hate mongery -- unless, of course they're allowed to blame it either equally or entirely on "far-left Liberals," which group is comprised of anyone who criticized George W. Bush's presidency before the economy hit the fan.

Were the Doctor murderer and the museum shooter secret FLL's? is the question they're pretending to ask themselves in order to avoid the appearance of complicity, says Majikthise. Of course yesterday's arrests for home invasion and murder by leaders of one of the "minuteman" groups who pose as well-regulated militias doing what "the government refuses to do" will have to be integrated into the program of denial and blame passing. It's going to get more and more difficult, I predict, to discuss any question of responsibility.

Shawna Forde, leader of Minutemen America Defense, aptly called MAD, is a graduate of San Diego terrorist Camp Vigilante. She's been arrested along with two other terrorist border patrol volunteer group members for having shot up a Hispanic family in their own home, leaving a father and his nine year old daughter dead. One of the other vigilantes is also a product of a Minuteman training camp, but of course the argument is being steered away from culpability and toward which of several groups get to use the Minuteman name, as the dance of denial and evasion begins.

Of course by suggesting that the rabid barking about Mexicans from Lou Dobbs on down to the self-appointed defenders of America's borders and undiluted bodily fluids has had any effect on the overall climate of murderous rage amongst the "conservatives," exposes me to accusations of playing the "Blame Game" and being ranked as another Far Left Liberal hate shouter in the false equivalence World Series and probably an America Blaming, crypto-terrorist, Fascist-Marxist follower of the false and foreign-born Messiah Obama as well.

Really, I should just go back to writing about Boats before my sense of guilt becomes overwhelming.

The annotated Pritchitt

People still laugh at the headlines proclaiming Dewey's victory over Truman but somehow it's rare that the breathless predictions of doomsayers, fear merchants and political liars are reexamined, hilarious though they may have become. I have a feeling that some of the hyperbolic, hypergolic, hyper-dishonest anti-Obama slander will be far funnier than any smiling picture of President-elect Truman holding up the announcement of his defeat -- that's if it doesn't just fade away, forgotten. Surprisingly, much of it is still making the e-mail circuit.

The letter that follows is circulating on the disinformation highway. Unlike many or even most, it's not a hoax. It's just another example of the endless assault on truth, the continuous appeal to fear and confusion and anger through lies, distortions, fabrications and slight of hand. Even though we now know much more about Barak Obama and he seems far less like the straw man his opposition put together during the campaign, this letter still circulates to the giggling approbation of the Ridiculous Right.

Lou Pritchett is one of those "motivational speakers" who keep vaudeville alive by soaking hopeless losers for "motivating" them. He was a former VP of sales for P&G, whose products I will think twice about purchasing. Have you seen it? It was turned down by the print media and so was launched on the last refuge of idiots and paranoids, the Internet. It's designed to allow idiots to confirm their vague fears without much analysis and that's why I've enjoyed picking it apart, lie, by lie. Perhaps you will too.

___________________________

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

Not even a doubt about Dick Nixon? I'm surprised Roosevelt doesn't still give you nightmares.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

The argument from ignorance: I don't know A, therefore B. Nothing like starting our with a classic! The well known is described as unknown so that you can share the author's ignorance and false conclusions based on it.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

Argument from ignorance, only it's now ignorance about long since answered questions.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

The evidence is strongly otherwise and of course the "formative years" can be described in any way that bolsters the absurdly irresponsible accusation.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

Neither did Eisenhower, Jefferson or Washington or Lincoln. Bush did, by the way.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

No evidence that not being in the army leads to not understanding anything as vague and meaningless as "its core." Better watch what you say anyway since St Ronald never served either.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

Baseless statement obviously at direct odds with his demonstrated humility and smooth demeanor - his most famous attribute. He's yet to blame Bush, yet this bozo is brazenly blaming Obama for things he hasn't done or had the chance to do!

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

No he didn't and no he hasn't and the most vocal calls for America to fail have come from the Republican party and its blowhards, like Limbaugh and Gingrich. Strange rhetoric from someone hoping that Democracy will fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

Only if "blame America" is described as taking responsibility for our actions and promising to support justice.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

No evidence of that whatsoever and he's been a disappointment to Liberals who are of that intent. That's a bit of a tactical oversimplification about Europe, by the way. I wonder if he has ever been there.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

We don't have a system except for the government health care available to veterans, soldiers and government officials - and they tend to love it. Of course since he hasn't really told us what he does support, it's obvious that you're making it up as you go along.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

Shows total and probably pretended ignorance of the costs of oil shale development, the lack of adequate oil reserves and the definition of the word "responsibility" there being no real reason not to utilize wind power. I suggest he owns a lot of AMOCO stock. "Responsibly capitalizing" does of course not mean accelerating the use of something we're running out of and of course you know that, which makes you a liar, doesn't it?

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

We no longer have the highest standard - it having passed away during the Bush years and of course there is no evidence other than fantastic lies to support the assertion. In fact those Eurosocialist bogeymen are living better, healthier and longer than we are. In fact Capitalism suffered a great crash after years of Reaganomics and the bailout process was begun by Republicans, so you've disproved your own fake point.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

Yes, Extortion is lending money and demanding accountability, transparency and responsibility in return. That would make any kind of banking and investment - capitalism itself - a form of extortion. Paulson in turn demanded trillions and demanded that we not ask where it was to go, what it was for or when or if we'd get it back. That's extortion, Pritchett, old chap. You must have been a great soap salesman indeed with a line of bullshit like that.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

Vide supra and too bad your policy didn't shrink from the larger, murkier and legally questionable spending policies that made the bailout necessary.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

Actually he is famous for doing exactly that, in emulation of Lincoln. you really ought to make some reference to the truth occasionally because your lies are getting increasingly cheap. Do you think you're being tolerant of other viewpoints or misrepresenting, demonizing and lying about them?

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

No evidence whatever - not even a hint of that. You'd like to insist that he claims to be messianic so you can accuse him of failure before he's had a chance to start and make every imperfection seem monstrous. Bush on the other hand told us he actions were directed by an omniscient and omnipotent God - or did you forget? Pictures were painted of Bush with a halo holding Jesus' hand and he claimed divine inspiration for lying to start a war and bankrupting the economy.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

Sure, we haven't heard any criticism at all, have we - especially from the most popular news channel, Fox.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You've just contradicted yourself and of course, Obama never having suggested any such thing, we can see that you're lying. Please reference any occasion of Obama having called for censorship and particularly pre-emptive censorship. Please, comply because your credibility is on the line here Pritchy boy.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

A nice, but meaningless and inapposite point. Again, the guy's famous as a deal broker, but perhaps in Gopspeak there is some different interpretation of what it means to be President.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Try getting psychiatric help, because if you can't remember who it was that demanded we give up our freedoms for fear of terrorism, who tried to make the postman into a spy, you're either suffering from dementia or a damned liar. Frankly you're a scary guy yourself and for many reasons other than for being a liar, fabricator of disinformation, spreader of malicious and unfounded rumors, libel and just plain old hatred for freedom, justice and anything remaining of the American way after 8 years of Bush.

Lou Pritchett

You should be ashamed. I'd change the name, if I were you.

REVELATIONS: WHO ARE THE HATE GROUPS AND WHY WE SHOULD BE VERY AFRAID

To more fully grasp the potential for domestic terrorism, I am posting this list of known hate groups, most operating as far rightwing Christian ministries. If you missed Captain Fogg’s article, HOLOCAUST (immediately below), or my post, WHEN “PRO-LIFE” MEANS PRO DEATH, you might want to read these first.

Here is a very partial list of radical hate groups that support anti-abortion violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, racism, sexism, white supremacy, and the overthrow of our constitutional form of government:

American Center for Law and Justice. Headed by Marion "Pat" Robertson, this group advocates the assassination of foreign leaders, the subjugation of women, and the oppression of gays.

America's Promise Ministries. An anti-Semitic group that claims white people as the "chosen ones."

Army of God. An underground network of terrorists who believe violence is an acceptable way to end abortion. In 1984, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun received death threats by mail from this group. Several members, Eric Rudolph, James Kopp, and Clayton Waagner, are serving prison sentences for bombing, murder, and anthrax threats, respectively.

Aryan Nations. A group that advocates anti-Semitism and the murder of homosexuals.

Bill Bright, Campus Crusade for Christ. A hate group that seeks to replace the Constitution and establish their own theocracy.

Christian Association of PrimeTimers. This group scams senior citizens out of their retirement money to finance the abolition of the U.S. Constitution and the installation of a theocracy.

Chalcedon Foundation. Seeks to abolish the Constitution and install themselves as leaders of a theocracy.

Christian Coalition. Headed by Ralph Reed, this anti-abortion, pro school prayer, pro creationism group seeks the replacement of public schools with fundamentalist Christian schools paid with tax dollars.

Christian Reconstructionism. This hate group seeks the overthrow the U.S. Constitution and the establishment of a theocracy. Advocates the execution of racial minorities and homosexuals.

Citizens for Excellence in Education. Another pro school prayer, pro creationism group that seeks the replacement of public schools with fundamentalist Christian schools paid with tax dollars.

Collegiate Network. An anti sex education group that seeks the replacement of public schools with fundamentalist Christian schools paid with tax dollars.

Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Ft. Lauderdale FL). Led by D. James Kennedy, this hate group advocates violence towards gays and women and seeks to establish their own brand of theocracy.

Council for Conservative Citizens. Foments racism with a special focus on anti-Semitism.

Council for National Policy. Seeks to abolish the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and impose their own theocracy.

Focus on the Family. One of the most vocal, best-known homophobic groups in America.

Jack Chick Publications. Publishes bizarre comic books that allege a world-wide conspiracy of "Satanists" and "witches" who kidnap, torture, murder, and eat babies.

Jim Wickstrom. The leader of a cult with strong ties to “Posse Comitatus”, a group that blames abortions on "Jewish Doctors" who then blast aborted fetuses into outer space [not a joke!].

Ku Klux Klan. This infamous hate group has participated in anti-abortion demonstrations in Melbourne and Pensacola Florida. Perhaps an obvious point: Many terror and intimidation tactics used against abortion clinics have been borrowed from the Klan.

Landmark Legal Foundation. Advocates the replacement of public schools with fundamentalist Christian schools paid with tax dollars.

Lifeline Long Distance. Finances domestic terrorist organizations like Operation Rescue and the so-called Army of God.

Operation Rescue. A domestic terrorist organization linked to the murder of abortion providers. Currently headed by Troy Newman, a front man for Randal Terry, this group preaches hatred and the submission of women to male masters. The cult's leadership advocates the overthrow of the Constitution and the removal of women from the work force.

Parental Freedom in Education. Their goal is to replace public schools with fundamentalist Christian schools financed with tax dollars.

Pete Peters. Claims Jews are conspiring to control the world with the United Nations taking over the United States.

Policy Research Institute. Demands the creation of tax-subsidized religious schools and the replacement of all public schools with fundamentalist Christian schools.

Phineas Priesthood. Advocates the murder of mixed race couples. The "Phineas" title is used by numerous Christian hate groups in the United States.

Promise Keepers. Advocates the violent "taking back" of male dominion over women.

Rodney O. Skurdal. Advocates the removal of women from the workplace.

Stormfront White Nationalists. Yesterday, this online hate group praised James von Bunn, the gunman who killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum. The scariest part: This website has a huge following … estimated to be in the millions. [In the comment thread below this post, Captain Fogg supplies this information: “Don Black is the "proprietor" of Stormfront. His son Derek was elected as a member of Palm Beach County's Republican Executive Committee [my bold] last year although the party Chairman refused last December to seat him, but it was only because of the Jews, says close friend David Duke.”]

The Army of God. Like Operation Rescue, this is a domestic terrorist group that has claimed responsibility for several abortion clinic bombings, including the infamous double-bombing intended to murder rescue workers aiding victims of the first blast.

The Bradly Foundation. Advocates the replacement of public schools with fundamentalist Christian schools paid with tax dollars.

The Church of Jesus Christ Christian. Similar to Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan, this anti-Semitic group that advocates violence.

The Heritage Foundation. Finances racist research.

The Institute for Historic Review. An anti-Semitic hate group that denies the Holocaust.

The Order. A hate group that focuses on racism and abortion.

The Sword and the Cross. An anti-Semitic hate group that operates worldwide.

Traditional Values Coalition. An anti-homosexual hate group that denies the separation between church and State.

U. S. Tax Payers Party. Supports the domestic terrorist group, Operation Rescue.

Westboro Baptist Church. Headed by Fred Phelps, this group pickets churches, schools, businesses, and military funerals to rail against homosexuality. Unbelievers are labeled as “faggots."

White Aryan Resistance. A hate group led by Tom Metzger, who advocates abortion for non-white mothers and forced birth at gun point for white mothers.

Virginia Trinitarian Pro-nomian Alliance (VTPA). A hate group seeking to overthrow the Constitution and remove the Bill of Rights to install their own theocracy.

Source: The Skeptic Tank

Holocaust.

When James von Brunn was sentenced to jail for the armed kidnap attempt of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors it was only because the Judge was a Jew and the jury was black. No doubt about it. He's been raging about Jews and Black people since most of you were children and he sees something called the Aryan race as victims of such inferior groups.

It's tempting, as a person who despises the growing culture of hate and defamation in the US, to tie this man and his hundreds of thousands of supporters to the hate shouters we're all too familiar with, but in good conscience, I cannot. Even so their endless derision of fabricated scapegoats has inured us to the danger of the terrorists out there among us. Their hate talk legitimizes and breeds more hate talk and we become habituated to it. Those standard scapegoats tend to include Jews, Blacks and the Federal Reserve Bank, all of which are also targets of people like James von Brunn.

Von Brunn has written that the "Holocaust Religion" is destroying Western (by which he means White) culture. It's common amongst people who would like to re-invent themselves as victims of relentless persecution to resent those who have actually been victims and so it's not surprising that the elderly hatemonger chose the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC for what was surely intended to be a suicide attack.

I'm probably less surprised about this than my Christian countrymen, since I've been listening to all the old calumnies and fantasies about baby-eating, blood-drinking, Christ-killing, warmongering, bank-controlling Jews all my life while many of them are just now beginning to accept that the vilification of Jews has been, if not the very backbone, at least a major buttress of Christianity. Certainly not all however and certainly they are not the only ones. Muslim vilification of the Jews in all their fantastic stereotypes is second to none and many of them consider the Jews to be in control of the United States, if not Europe, Canada and Australia as well.

There is a lesson here and it is that we have not only tolerated such people, but made heroes of some of them to a degree: men who will stand up to a government we blame for all our own excesses and deficiencies. They are not and their acts of terrorism are warnings that we should examine our own angers and stop blaming a host of straw men for having messed up our country.

WHEN “PRO-LIFE” MEANS PRO DEATH

The title of this post is borrowed from an article originally written in 1998 by Mary Lou Greenberg , who reports on assaults by pro-life extremists. She describes this bomb attack on the All Women Health Care clinic in Birmingham Alabama that killed a security guard and severely injured a nurse:

“As I held in my hand the sharp slivers of glass that were now the only remains of the shattered windows, my eye was drawn to a metal object in the debris. It was a nail, a small, sharp spike two inches long (…) Just as this anti-personnel bomb at the clinic was intended to rip apart bodies, so too was it meant to penetrate people's minds and emotions with a chilling message: If you provide abortions, if you work at clinics or go to them as clients, you will be a target!”

This court case, Fargo Women's Health Organization v. Lambs of Christ, tells another aspect of the story. Established in 1981, the clinic offered routine gynecological services including first trimester abortions. For years, anti-abortion protestors held peaceful demonstrations in the vicinity of the clinic but conditions changed in 1991 when protestors stormed the clinic and occupied the building.

In the ensuing months, demonstrators jostled patients at the front door, struck and pushed escorts, confronted patients in the parking lot, vandalized cars, and blocked public roadway access. As a result, the clinic was effectively blockaded, preventing patients and staff from entering or leaving the building. Protestors called these blockades "rescues" and vowed to close the clinic outright.

Away from the clinic, the situation turned nastier when protestors followed staffers to their homes, to stores, even to the airport. For five months, protesters stalked a doctor at her home. Before dawn, “as many as 30 protesters” gathered on the front lawn, shouted, honked car horns, and blocked the driveway to prevent the doctor and her family from leaving. Protestors vandalized the doctor’s property and picketed the school where her daughter attended. Other staffers were similarly harassed; a car full of protestors stalked the daughter of a clinic volunteer.

Similar incidents spawned more litigation. In another noteworthy case, Bray V. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, several abortion clinics sued in District Court. In hindering women as a class from seeking an abortion, they argued, anti-abortion protesters had violated their equal protection rights. Although a District Court ruled in favor of the clinics, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling in a 5 to 4 decision that defied logic:

“Opposition to abortion cannot reasonably be presumed to reflect gender-based intent, Justice Scalia wrote [my bold], because there are common and respectable reasons for opposing abortion other than a derogatory view of women.”

In other words, a protestor’s right to free speech trumps a woman’s right to free and unfettered access to reproductive health services.  In Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo v. Williams, Joshua Wilson describes the "ideological dilemma" when two legal concepts come into conflict forcing both sides of the argument to decide which rights deserve priority over others. For pro-choice liberals, the strategy is to protect abortion rights by limiting disruptive demonstrations near reproductive health facilities. For pro-life conservatives, their strategy is the reverse: To obstruct access to abortions by expanding their traditionally narrow views regarding freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Depending upon on the issue, it seems, civil liberties are in the eyes of the beholder.

On January 13, 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Bray V. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic.  Two months later, on March 10, 1993 to be exact, Dr. David Gunn was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist in Pensacola Florida :

David Gunn, 47, was shot three times in the back after he got out of his car at the Pensacola Women's Medical Services clinic, according to Pensacola police (…)

Last summer in Montgomery, Ala., an old-fashioned "wanted" poster of Gunn was distributed at a rally for Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry, AP said. The poster included a picture of Gunn, his home phone number and other identifying information.

Eight months later, on August 19, 1993, a pro-life extremist shot Dr. George Tiller in both arms. It was the first attempt on his life and the first of many threats throughout his career. Not only did Dr. Tiller survive the attack, he returned to the clinic the next day to administer to his patients.

In response to a pattern of arson, bombings, murder, and intimidation at abortion clinics, the U.S. Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) on May 26, 1994. More than a dozen states followed suit by imposing buffer zones around clinics and homes, prohibiting threats to personnel, banning telephone harassment, and imposing noise regulations. On March 17, 1997, the case of Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo v. Williams reached the U.S. Supreme Court. This time, the Justices voted 6-3 to uphold the buffer zones.

Despite legislative initiatives to date to stop the violence, there have been:

8 assassinations and over a dozen shootings,

180 arson and 37 bomb attacks,

100 butyric acid attacks including multiple attacks on the same clinic on the same day,

654 letters threatening anthrax attacks.

These are not the actions of a mere handful of lone extremists within the pro-life movement. These statistics imply the existence of a pervasive and organized network of accomplices working underground and nationwide. Scott Roeder, the man charged with the murder of Dr. George Tiller, agrees. From his jail cell last week, Roeder said: "I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal ..."

Meanwhile, what about our vaunted rights of free speech and free assembly. Have these set us free when thousands of reproductive health professionals and their clients are forced to endure threats, intimidation, and humiliation every day? Which is worse: The threat of international terrorism from abroad, or the threat of terrorism at home that can strike at any moment.

What we have here is a failure

Sarah Palin says Obama is driving the country toward Socialism, although she's not exactly sure what that is or how he's doing it.

"We’re borrowing more to spend more ... it defies any sensible economic policy that any of us ever learned through college."

said she to Insanity Hannity although that's been the main thrust of GOP economic policy since Reagan. Never mind that she didn't actually study economics in her long, picaresque romp through a series of fourth rate community colleges and hasn't any real idea of who owns what part of American industry. If she did, perhaps the failed beauty queen, failed VP candidate and desultory student would have to blush about Alaska's state ownership of oil and gas resources and her failure to bring capitalism to her state.

But that's OK. Former Speaker of the House and thoroughly dispicable human being Newt Gingrich says that whatever Obama may be driving us toward, President Barack Obama’s plan to fix the economy has “already failed” and “bowing to the Saudi King is not an energy policy.” Of course not, and Obama would agree. Playing basketball after hours isn't either, but neither is it supposed to be, any more than being a serial adulterer like Newt is a guarantee he means what he says. Of course none of us will get the chance to ask him whether Cheney's collusion with oil magnates about raising the price of oil is an energy policy either, but it helps that whatever Obama has been falsely accused of doing, he's failed to do it.

Rush Limbaugh isn't ready to call Sonia Sotomayor a failure yet, but he hopes she will be. Racist and hack yes, he's ready to say that, but as he does with our president and our nation, he hopes for a good, solid failure. And besides, of course, as with Michael J. Fox's Parkenson's disease, Ms. Sotomayor's recent broken ankle is certainly evidence of lack of character.

“Now, the question is, would a white, male judge have fractured his ankle in the same circumstances?”

No, actually the question is whether Rush can say anything at all without his racism and misogyny creeping through, but we won't embarrass him by asking it, not while he's back on the Vikes and babbling.

Drug addicted, draft dodging Limbaugh however, hardly compares with Gordon Liddy, the convicted felon/conservative radio host who thought it important to speculate as to whether the judge's menstrual cycle will interfere with her judgment.

"Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate,"

Liddy said in a conservative fashion.

"That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then."

Yes, Mr. Liddy, and the Lord knows that would be bad regardless of which Lord you mean, just like conspiring to overthrow democracy in the US and bragging about it -- which seems to be your main "conservative" credential.

Yes, 4 months is soon enough to talk about failure and face it -- who is more qualified to talk about failure than the Republicans?

Ecce porta inferni

For many years now, you and I have been shushed like children and told there are no simple answers to the complex problems that are beyond our comprehension. Well, the truth is that there are simple answers. They are just not easy ones.

-Ronald Reagan, Far-Left Liberal-

I haven't posted for a while, here or elsewhere. What was my way of dealing with the madness of Bushworld has become a bit of Sisyphean madness of my own, as the comment made to my last post does illustrate. The question of whether the US is too stupid to realize that it's insane or too insane to realize that it's stupid doesn't seem worthy of much attention any more. I just don't care.

Every Sunday, there is at least one letter in the paper about how the Constitution guarantees rights only for Christians, that criticizing a bad president makes one unworthy to defend a better one, that Republicans are a majority and ACORN rigged the election and Nancy is going to take our guns away, that Diebold rigged the election for Al Franken and all the other creative fantasies about Obama you've heard time and time again. Everywhere, the incessant American background noise of liberaliberaliberaliberaliberal, like the sound of some infant sucking on an imaginary pacifier, permeates life and makes it foul and hateful. Far-left Liberal! From George Washington to Ronald Reagan. Don't understand someone? He's a farleftliberal!

The offense of their verbal assault is less than the offense of their idea that they're making a trenchant point that I can't refute, that they're making sense. Insane? Stupid, Stupidly insane? Does it matter? The barbarians have been preaching that this is a mean, nasty and ugly world for so long that they've made it so, and the only freedom they recognize is the freedom to do just that.

I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. I've been watching a TV series about how natural processes will erase all signs of humanity from the planet in a rather short time after we are gone and I find myself impatient for it all to happen, if only the insipidities and smug platitudes would be washed away along with all the beauty and majesty of all that we have done in our brief era and despite the dogs of God and the hate filled hordes.

For every complex answer there is a simple answer . . . and it is wrong.

-H.L. Menken, Far-left Liberal-

THE HEALING POWER OF MUSIC

For the past four weeks, I've been in Southern California while a member of my family deals with a serious health problem. While this person is receiving treatment, I've been the proverbial chief cook and bottle washer for the family.

I can't say this situation is easy, but I can say that I'm where I need to be. Anyone who has faced an ordeal like this understands the stress that the situation presents: the uncertainty of the outcome; the need to keep the family routine as normal as possible; and most important, the need for the caregiver to be as emotionally strong and grounded as possible, given the difficult circumstances. That's why when the local classical music radio station announced that it would be broadcasting Beethoven's 9th Symphony on Tuesday afternoon, I made sure to set aside the 70 minutes to listen to it in its entirety.

William Congreve once wrote "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. To soften rocks, or bend the knotted oak." And lately I have definitely been feeling like a knotted, twisted, gnarly, not-so-mighty oak. So I looked forward to hearing what I consider one of the wonders of the musical world, where "uncertain questions about life, the universe, and everything are asked and answered" as Jeffrey Kacmarczyk wrote in November 2008 in his review of a performance of the 9th by the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. It was the perfect piece of music for me to listen to at this time. I am always thrilled to hear it, and this time the thrill was from its ability to transport me from a place of many uncertain questions to a place where those questions were incidental to what the composer was telling me. He was telling me "Yes." Well not just me, he said it to "Alle Menschen! Alle Menschen! Alle Menschen!"

After the performance, I was calmer, more hopeful, and I began to think about the different genres of music that have this power over me--the ability to change my mood, to help me cope with whatever difficulties I'm facing--to heal me.

I never learned to play a musical instrument and regret that, but I am a devoted listener to all kinds of music--classical is my go-to choice when I need comfort or a deeply felt musical experience. I go with 70s and 80s rock when I'm working out or doing a fast walk, I absolutely adore Mississippi Delta Blues, and am a fan of Hound Dog Taylor--love his "Gimme Back My Wig and Let Your Head Go Bald." I also am a fan of Zydeco, American Folk, Jazz, Country-Western [Patsy Cline era] Broadway Musicals, 60s Rock and Roll, all sorts of ethnic music; and because my parents were from Italy, I even learned to love opera, and have been to The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan. On a trip to Italy years ago, I made a Verdi pilgrimage. I started the day in Roncoli Verdi, outside of Parma, where Verdi was born, went on to Bussetto, where he studied music and met his first wife, Margarita, then on to Sant'Agata, his estate where he lived with his lover, Giuseppina Strepponi, who became his second wife (Verdi's first wife and son and daughter died tragically of illness early on in their marriage), then finished up in Milan with a visit to La Scala and the hotel where he died. I did a Puccini pilgrimage as well, and finished that tour by eating the famous Tuscan dish "pappardelle con lepre" [a sauce of wild hare over wide noodles] in the town, Torre del Lago, where Puccini lived and had his scandalous affair.

Wouldn't it be great if the Clear Channel radio stations that carry the likes of Limbaugh, et.al., and their destructive messages to the American people carried, instead, three hours of gorgeous, uplifting symphonic music. Perhaps this would contribute more to our national decorum and effect a reduction in hate speech and rancor, so prevalent in our daily lives. It could also help the GOP deal with their minority status in a more calm and hopeful way. Could we hope for a "Trade in Your Rush for Rackmaninoff Day?"

Imagine.


While Beethoven's 9th is among my top ten favorite classical compositions, there are many, many more. I'd like to share some of them (only certain movements and parts of the concerti are linked) with you and encourage everyone to enjoy and treasure them as I do and perhaps turn to these sublime masterpieces, as I have, when the world is too much with me.


Beethoven's 9th Symphony


Mahler's Symphony #2, "Resurrection"

Schubert's String Quintet in C Major


Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro

Mozart's concerto for harp and flute


Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5

Beethoven's 7th Symphony


Brahm's Violin Concerto in D Major

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major


Mozart's Requiem, Lacrimosoa

LET’S HAVE A REVOLUTION – HEALTHCARE REDUX!

A while back I posted a series of items being addressed by our new administration and across the blogosphere. While a lot of interesting comments and ideas were put forth, mostly we were all just killing time until the government made its move. And now, it seems we will soon have some answers.

There are many on the right who claim to be scared to death about the government “controlling” healthcare. I think what should be much scarier is the results of this recent study conducted jointly by Harvard and Ohio University.

“Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies. More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts.”

And for those who questioned what President Obama had in mind for healthcare reform, some details have been forthcoming. But, to be accurate, it must be pointed out that the president isn’t actually in “control” of healthcare reform; Congress is. There are committees in the Senate and the House trying to hammer out bills and our president has been letting them work.

But he did send a letter to Congress outlining what he would like to see included. Unsurprisingly, most all Republicans dismissed his letter out of hand. And some on the far left aren’t too happy, either. But I think this could be a sensible approach to ensuring affordable insurance for all. The article is HERE, but the thrust is a basic public plan to co-exist with private plans. People would still have a choice but those who cannot currently afford health insurance or are out of work will still have access to health care. Seems to me a sick population is far more costly than a healthy one.

TIANANMEN SQUARE – 20 YEARS LATER

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the Chinese Tiananmen Square protests, when, on June 3-4, 1989, students followed by peasants and factory workers filled the square demanding a more democratic government.

Tanks and soldiers came and the brutal repression of the people was re-established amid gun fire and tear gas.

The world watched and did – nothing.

Not much has changed since then; the Chinese government continues its brutal inhumane acts against its own people and, on this anniversary of what the Chinese government claims was a nonevent, Tiananmen Square was closed to any who wished to mark the date by holding vigil where they lost loved ones.

"We've been under 24-hour surveillance for a week and aren't able to leave home to mourn. It's totally inhuman," said Xu Jue, whose son was 22 when he was shot in the chest by soldiers and bled to death on June 4, 1989.

While China tries to black out any images that point to dissent amongst the people, tens of thousands of people showed up for a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park.

Other world governments have asked China to acknowledge the events and examine their role in human rights abuses, but an unapologetic Chinese government continues to insist the world should mind its own business.

And so I hope everyone will pause for a moment to consider the plight of the Chinese people as well as other people all over the world suffering and dying for their desire to have peace and dignity and freedom.

In the words of Jacob Marley's ghost, "Mankind is our business!"