Quote of the Day

"Public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines." -Jesse Jackson

Immigration Proposal

George Bush's latest proposal on immigration would surely be as effective as his environmental policy. Remember what a "good steward of our environment" he claims to be ? Under his proposal illegals would be given the chance to remain in the U.S. for two periods of three years each, and then go home. Why would anyone think that an illegal would honor this idea after six years in our country ? What kind of bureaucracy would it take to actually enforce this non plan ?

This is just like Bush's environmental rulings. He has the Feds remove, ignore, or cut regulation on polluters and then hope against hope that they will self regulate though it may adversely affect their bottom lines. This is a joke at the expense of all of us.

Attack on Al-Jazeera

Just when you think that Bush and his crew can no longer surprise you, no longer horrify you with their inept, impossibly bad choices, they always seem to push the boundaries a little further beyond the edge of civilized conduct. Now, leaked to UK paper the Scotsman is a report of Bush's suggestion to bomb Al-Jazeera - in Qatar (who are supposed to be on our side, you know, Coalition of the Willing and all). Apparently, during that last visit by Blair to the U.S.,Tony Blair felt he had to dissuade our President from bombing the Al-Jazeera TV station because it happened to be located in our allies' country.

Quote of the Day

"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it." - Clarence Darrow

Torture Proponents

Here's a convincing article about CIA professionals against torture. ( link )
They seem to be saying that you can't convince someone so invested in torture like Dick Cheney on moral grounds, more effectively, you must base arguments against inhuman treatment on practicality.

Their First Good Move

With me, George Bush's approval rating has always been zero percent or less, ever since he and James Baker managed to have the Supreme Court place him in power. You would think that a program like No Child Left Behind or the Medicare Drug Bill would have some definitely positive aspects. No, not really. They're both twisted.

All this is to say how surprising it was to see, five years into the regime, Condi Rice actually broker a workable, beneficial agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I didn't think this administration did diplomacy.

From Old American Century

Useless Facts

John Cage
Andy Warhol attended Mass everyday.

By running a stop sign, Laura Bush killed a former date in a car crash.

Anton Bruckner suffered from numeromania, for which he was institutionalized.

The last American oil refinery was built in 1976, almost 30 years ago.

Avant garde composer John Cage was an expert on mushrooms and won $6000 from an Italian Quiz show by answering questions about them.

The first $84 billion spent on the war in Iraq would have been enough to pay for every American's health care for that year.

Pinocchio

Keeping Cheney Honest, If That's Possible

Henry Waxman has posted a pdf recounting 237 times that the Bush administration lied or misled the public on the build up to their preemptive war in Iraq. This is not "rewriting history"; this is what they actually said. Of course, Bush and Cheney would prefer that we don't say anything about their lies,but we haven't forgotten.(Link)

They Also Serve

Here, from an Amazon review of Michelle Malkin's new book, Unhinged by "Elwin":

"I will confine my remarks to the chapter in which Malkin attempts to argue that the Democrats don't support our troops, but the Republicans do.

My approach is simply to look at who the troops are. As you'll see, the democrats Malkin attacks *are* the troops, and the republican politicians and pundits are *not*. By the way, Michelle Malkin did not serve in the U.S. military in any capacity. Check out this list:

Democrats:

* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Don L Overstreet: 1st Lt Served in the Air Force 1954 -58
* Al Gore: Enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam as an army journalist ! in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam, lost 3 limbs.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311. Number not called.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and Air Medal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Republicans -- and these are the guys sending people to war:

* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom DeLay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: Served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies.
* Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem," although continued in NFL for yrs.

* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Pundits & Preachers
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a 'pilonidal cyst.')
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.
* Charlie Daniels: did not serve.
* Ted Nugent: did not serve. (He! only shoots at things that don't shoot back.)"

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Not a Debate

How can we even be having a "debate" on whether torture is OK or not? Doesn't this make us into exactly what we as Americans hate ?

USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll

-Fewer than 1 in 10 adults say they would prefer a congressional candidate who agrees with Bush on most major issues.

-7 of 10 Republicans would back a candidate who has some disagreement with Bush.

-53% say they trust Bush less than they trusted previous presidents.

-In a comparison with Clinton, he gets 48% trust with Bush getting 36%.

-49%, a plurality, disapprove of the way Bush handles the issue of terrorism.

-60% say going to war in Iraq was not worth it.

As reported on Eschaton.

Naked Cynicism

I simply had to reproduce the following letter from a reader of The Salt Lake Tribune because I think it says so much about what I don't understand about Republican politics today:

After hearing the GOP's proposed budget that plans to cut spending for foster care and nutritional programs while simultaneously proposing in excess of $50 billion in tax cuts, I had to respond to this naked cynicism.

For a party that espouses evangelical Christian values, this is like removing Matthew 25:31-46 from the Bible and giving the Pharisees any savings. Excellent foster care allows women an option to abortion. Isn't this a Christian solution rather than legislating morality?

Isn't feeding the poor a Christian ideal? Imagine Christ telling the multitude of 5,000 that this is an "ownership society" and to go feed themselves. Imagine Christ teaching that children are important inside the womb, but that after birth they are on their own, depending on their circumstances.

If you want a Christian government, put your money where your mouth is rather than empty words.

Edwin Maynard
Holladay

Joshua Holland posted this in Gadflyer. Thank you, Mr. Maynard.

Quote of the Day

From an e-mail to Bartcop:

"Sixty four percent of Americans think Der Monkey is doing a bad job,
The other 36 percent think Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to Church."

Biblical Prophecy

A quote from the Bible (Daniel 5: 25-31) appropriate for President Bush and Tuesday's election gains for the Democrats. In the lion's den, Daniel received the word of God inscribed on the wall - MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. I see these words directed to George W. Bush:

MENE means "God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end"

TEKEL means "You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting"

PARSIN means "Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians"

Daniel was delivered from the lion's den and dressed in finery. And President Bush is stuck with those darn Persians.

Subsidizing Exorbitant Profits

The editors of Sierra magazine point out that our federal legislature sent its latest energy bill for the President's signature on July 29, the same day that these companies reported these quarterly profits to their shareholders :

Exxon Mobil made $ 7,640,000,000 in profits.

BP made $ 5,590,000,000 in profits.

Royal Dutch Shell made $ 5,240,000,000 in profits.

Chevron made $ 3,700,000,000 in profits.

Conoco-Phillips made $ 3,140,000,000 in profits.

Yes, those are Billions made in just three months, a total of more than 24 Billion. There certainly were no losses or operating costs in these gains; you and I, and the rest of the public paid for this greed. Most of these profits are up 40% over last year. But not to worry, our policymakers remembered to help out with their energy bill, which contains another $2,000,000,000 in tax breaks and direct spending given to those suffering oil companies. Does this make any sense to anyone who isn't directly lining their pockets with this gouging ?

Pretty Stupid, I Guess

The President insists "we don't torture." However, Dick Cheney is fighting a continuing battle to squelch any legislation that would limit the President's ability to approve "cruel and inhuman treatment." They obviously want to keep that torture option open. Our goals might require some inhuman treatment according to Cheney. How stupid do they think we are ? Asked and answered. It is hard to believe that Americans were voting for this policy in the last election. These people should not represent our country; they are immoral, unChristian, and dishonorable.

Throw Them All Out

In order to consider a new $ 70 Billion tax cut for the wealthy, our Senate has just approved $ 35 Billion in cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, student loans, and agricultural subsidies.

Great Lines, Part 5

"Last night I shot an elephant in my Pajamas and how he got in my pajamas I'll never know." This line is spoken by Groucho Marx as Captain Geoffrey T. Spaulding in Animal Crackers, the second Marx Brothers movie. Spaulding is the famous African explorer who woos Margaret Dumont and generally cracks a joke a minute. Groucho continues," Then we tried to remove the tusks, but they were imbedded so firmly that we couldn't budge them. Of course, in Alabama, the Tuscaloosa but that's entirely irr-elephant to what I was talking about." He also sings and dances to "Hello, I Must Be Going" in this one, certainly one of their best.

Trick or Treat

Three kids came to my house on Halloween dressed as Bush, Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. I gave them some candy and they just kept standing there. I said, "Okay, you can go," and they said "Oh, we can't, we don't have an exit strategy," so they're still there at the house. — Jay Leno

Night Life

Judging by their grimaces, these two have got to be on drugs...

Great Lines, Part 4

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This line refers to Keyzer Soze, the surprising, manipulative villain in The Usual Suspects. If you haven't seen this film, do yourself a favor and rent it.