The potus takes his favorite corporate criminals out to lunch 

Fighting Corporate Crime

Two journalists review the (useless) work the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is doing on the crisis in corporate crime and settle instead on the suggestion of Neal Shover that white collar criminals, who are deliberate and premeditative, would respond most excellently to a real fear of prosecution and incarceration.

They invite you to involve yourself in this crisis by pressuring the Galveston County DA to investigate Texas City BP, where 15 workers were killed last week and another 70 injured, in the third fatal accident at this facility in 4 years. BP
nationally holds the record for industrial accidents, per the reporters.

Their website includes a link to email the Galveston County DA:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0330-23.htm

Viva la Causa! Tribute to Cesar Chavez

Dick Dorworth's tribute to the great labor leader:

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=03-30-2005&ID=2005102361

Profiles in Ethics: Tom Delay 

DNC publishes list of DeLay scandals

http://www.democrats.org/specialreports/delaycasefile/index.html

Sen. Byrd Campaign nets 800K+ in 2 Days

Good news from MoveOn that the old guy's coffers are almost a million richer. Maybe we'll see a filibuster or two after this, just for form's sake.

North Korea's New WMD

Not really funny, but the ironies are overwhelming. On the verge of its first major export of poultry, an industry encouraged by the government to try to help the economy, North Korea confronts a bird flu epidemic (one of these viri is really going to do some damage, thanks to the wonderful advent of a global economy):

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chickens31mar31.story

Sin City Hits the Big Screen

"Of course, not every film noir piece shows the heads of five prostitutes mounted on a wall, or a dog eating the legs of a still-live boy, or a man ripping out the genitals of another man. . ."

---NY Times

Ok, folks, Sin City can be a little rough, but as comics go, Frank Miller does not begin to challenge Garth Ennis. I never liked Sin City the comic enough to go see the movie---I will wait for the dvd---but I did buy the action figure a few years ago with the electric chair that lights up and vibrates.

"Try this for range: cannibalism, castration, decapitation, dismemberment, electrocution, hanging, massacres, pedophilia, slashings and lots and lots of torture. . ."

---NY Times

Almost sounds like a sequel to Mel's Passion. Ok, folks, enough from the Times. But what about the cast? Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis in an adult role, and Clive Owen (one of the great tragic cop-players), just for openers. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/movies/31sin.html?th&emc=th

Quote of the Day

"When the fervor of political passions moves the executive and legislative branches to act in ways inimical to basic constitutional principles, it is the duty of the judiciary to intervene. . . If sacrifices to the independence of the judiciary are permitted today, precedent is established for the constitutional transgressions of tomorrow."

---Judge Stanley F. Birch, 11th. Circuit Court, bush I appointee, in a concurring opinion refusing to hear the Schiavo case

Sierra Club, your Roots are Showing

The Sierra Cub has long tried to campaign for environmental protection while wrapping itself in a cloak of bourgeois benignity. In an increasingly polarized nation, however, the political complexities of the Club's stance threaten to trip her up. The anti-immigration forces, sometimes represented as external, have been pressing their agenda for the past year or two; now MoveOn has jumped onboard in an effort to help save the Club from the threatening hijack. We are watching a microcosm of the larger American political drama in which good people still think it is possible for them to select among good works:

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/31/94949/7464

Pitt: Bush is Motivated by Fear

Dear F&F, Will Pitt has penned a number of interesting essays lately in his extreme distaste for the little potus (try mine: putrescence of timorous unjustified sanctimony). Today he proposes that the little brainstem is best profiled as a person in a chronic state of fear, to the great harm of his country and people. Also of interest in this piece is the inclusion of parts of an interview with Daniel Ellsberg, who projects the authoritarian trespasses of Nixon onto the permissible authoritarianism of the incumbent administration. Fearsome stuff indeed.

Actually, that the little potus exists in a framework of fear and illusory self-fortification seems a natural predicate of his lifestory. If we are to believe he is a born-again christian (lower caps, again, deliberate), we only need consider how this population seems generally comprised of damaged psyches cloaked in delusional self-righteousness and innoculated against the threatening experience of life's fundamental beauty. Considering his predispositions, the incalculably self-evident privileges of his birthright, squandered in a long series of personal failures attributable to his challenged intelligence and weakness of character, and the suspected pattern of paternal disapproval attributed to generations of Bush males, then the emergent crisis at midlife was an unavoidable choice of capitulations---the extreme instance of which, self-destruction, requiring the courage of conscious commitment and implementation. Little wonder that he submitted instead to the easier capitulation, surrender to the dynastic machinery of the political puppetmakers. He is the psychopolitical equivalent of Michael Jackson's surgical persona.

The little potus' positions (=values=beliefs=thought-constructs) likely derive from the same two sources that, in dramatically more evolved form, we enjoy, internal, whereby he probably perceives irregular series of simplistic emotional responses as original epiphanies, some of which, vaguely formed and always presenting as frightening, he is able to affix to some established, labeled standard in his memory, and external, whereby his handlers adroitly toss carefully wrapped pieces of mindcandy at his sensory field, hoping some of them will stick to some of the aforesaid standards. He is altogether incapable of distinguishing between the two areas of origin and lacks any calculus for either assessing a hierarchy of values or discriminating among ambiguity, due both to his compensating ego and the strategic manipulation of his handlers, and so tends to project his values as an accretion of reinforced "truths."

Accordingly, he appears simple minded because he is simple minded, unsure because he is unsure, and fearful because he is fearful. By whatever means his handlers succeed in maintaining him at a minimal level of public acceptance, their work is one of the wonders of the world. Not that there have not been moments of disclosure or suspected periods of his incapacity. One remembers the utter vacuity with which he reacted to the news of the 9/11 attack while sitting immobilized in the classroom; one wonders why he was absent for so long immediately thereafter while Cheney held down the fort (I was a recipient of the glossy fundraising photograph that displayed him aboard Air Force One, phone in hand, ostensibly issuing commands to the nation---a compensatory image, manufactured after the fact); his tardiness in responding to the Tsunami, greatest natural disaster in our century; his frequent and lengthy vacations. I suspect that he was initially and to some extent still is subject to spells of substantial incapacity, when there just aren't enough pharmaceuticals, miniature radio receivers, and cue cards in his handlers' toolbox to power him up. The wonder, again, is that they do as well as they do, notwithstanding the costumed tableaux in which he is least uncomfortable. But not very far underneath, there is always the persistent ghost of the deer in the headlights, the fearful, paralyzed small thing that may bolt unexpectedly:

"It is not terrorism that motivates George, or patriotism, or even profiteering. It is fear, pure and simple: Fear of the truth, fear of the world, fear of any data that collides with his faith-based bubble-encapsuled worldview, and fear most of all of the people he would represent.You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Now we know, and the knowledge is deeply and profoundly disturbing."

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/31/94949/7464

The Devil is in the Retails: Dump Walmart

While you are dumping your Ameriquest stock, you might want to dump Walmart as well. This speculation follows the examples of other public traders wracked by rumors and inklings of widespread iniquity just before their value nosedived. I guess you could just watch the examples of their CEO's. In any event, Johnathan Tasini brings you this update on the retail behemoth's legal and cultural woes:

"Less than two weeks ago, the Beast paid $11 million to settle charges that it used hundreds of illegal immigrants to clean its stores. In February, those nice family-values people from Bentonville agreed to pay a pathetic $135,000 and change to settle charges of child labor violations. Think about it: a corporate culture that tolerates endangering children. As an aside, when the child labor deal was announced, I wrote that the level of the fine was scandalous; the whole sweetheart deal is now under investigation by the Department of Labor’s inspector general.
"Wal-Mart is facing the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in history—involving 1.5 million women. I hear the company is deeply engaged in talks to settle the case for obvious reasons: it’s guilty as hell. The depositions in the lawsuit, detailed in Liza Featherstone’s new book, Selling Women Short, make it crystal clear that the company, as a matter of policy, consistently broke the most basic laws of workplace equality."

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/walmarts_culture_of_crime_and_greed.php?dateid=20050331

Forced to dump his water cup as well, Jesse Jackson joins the rest of the flock attending Terri Schiavo's deathwatch. 

And What has Happened to Judge Greer's Life?

"Greer is a conservative, a Baptist, a Republican, and no grandstander. One friend calls him a “plodder.” The judge has such bad vision he has to memorize proclamations and can't read anything further than a foot or two away. Yet he is very much in the sights of a sometimes violent movement, whose most ardent followers have advocated—and on occasion carried out—the murder of their opponents, including abortion providers."

http://villagevoice.com/news/0513,mondo3,62472,6.html

Hentoff's Take on Schiavo: the Collapse of Judicial Justice

Nat Hentoff is another liberal who sided with the right-to-lifers on this. He seems to agree with them that the courts failed in their role to protect Terri's interests, and he sets his sights mainly on the original and final figure in the spotlight, Judge Greer. Basically, Hentoff's position seems to be that given the physical independence of the woman's overall body functions and the appearance of some degree of sentience, we should have regarded her as handicapped or disabled, not braindead. And I think he is right up to that point. And he is right that this means of death is a protracted, ghoulish spectacle. But what he sidesteps, it seems to me, is the question of her degree or quality of sentience; the autopsy is almost certain to confirm that she has been incapable of higher function. And he does not confront what I consider the essential vulnerability of our present system of decision-making in right-to-die matters: why should the family, in most cases, call the shot? Distraught, invested on a lot of levels, the relative-arbiter/s (and medical crises are about the only situations I can think of where this is the case) is as far removed from being a dispassionate, objective party--- supposedly the preferred state for deliberation---as you can get. The fact that the social basis for this state of affairs is understandable (the family relieves the doctors and the courts of the onus) is hardly justification. And forget the nonsense about living wills. They are based on an unsound psychological principle, namely, that a person who does not know what state he is in can care about what state he is in. They could be meaningful only in cases where the subject is conscious of his state, and in those cases we do not cause death anyway (or do we?). These documents can neither reflect the wishes of the subject projected into time and crisis nor the points of medical intelligence that may later bear. They serve only as general guidelines to inoculate the family, doctors, and larger society from the onus of decision-making. And that may not be a little thing. It is a gift from the subject to his tribe, like that of the useless elder who leaves the village to expose himself to the elements.

So the fundamental question is not asked: why would we terminate a life that is not in pain (and that is the predominant fact supported by the doctors and courts here)? There are two apparent answers, to free resources (the cost of the bed and care) and to free the people involved with her of their involvement. So the stark bottom line becomes one where we facilitate death for the sakes of economy and convenience, and should not hesitate to replace the obscene spectacle of starvation and dehydration with a lethal injection. But that may be an unpleasant place to be unless as a society we have deliberated the matter and made some consensus---which we seem not to have done.

The missing guideline is not difficult; you can state it simply: the life which is not conscious of itself and which has no medical possibility of regaining consciousness of itself is not worth living. If you accept that premise, then the collateral concerns become more clear: why did Terri's parents want to care for her? What emotional dependency did they feel? How do we help them get on with the business of living meaningful lives?

And if you reject the premise and accept its opposite, the collateral concerns are equally clear: her parents wanted to care for her, likely to keep their love alive, to feel joy in caring for her. And how do we value that? Is it any more or less valid than caring for a houseplant, a cat, a painting on the wall? And if they lack the means, to what extent if any are we obligated to help them? We are not obligated to pay for the cost of veterinary care for her parents' cat. So now the focus shifts to how we help her husband get on with his life. This is the inevitable symmetry of opposite attitudes and opposite outcomes. But I was introducing Mr. Hentoff's essay:

"For all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history.
"She is not brain-dead or comatose, and breathes naturally on her own. Although brain-damaged, she is not in a persistent vegetative state, according to an increasing number of radiologists and neurologists."

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0513,hentoff,62489,6.html

Go on, Send him a few Bucks. 

Link to Contribute to Sen.Byrd Campaign

Whether you like MoveOn or not, here's a quick and easy way to send a few bucks to help with Sen. Byrd's campaign costs:

https://www.moveonpac.org/give/byrd.html?id=5282-3194229-98Sp69YKzBgyNk_pQUjEqA

Link to Sign NARAL's Petition to Pharmacy Chains: Support womens Right to Birth Control

OK, here's the link to a 15-second hookup to add your voice to those telling the big pharmacy chains where you stand:

http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/pharmacists_wa?source=workingassets

MSM Acknowledges US Role in Financing Kyrgyzstan "Revolution"

---and that includes an active little role for Freedom House, among others:

"ISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, March 29 - Shortly before Kyrgyzstan's recent parliamentary elections, an opposition newspaper ran photographs of a palatial home under construction for the country's deeply unpopular president, Askar Akayev, helping set off widespread outrage and a popular revolt in this poor Central Asian country.

"The newspaper was the recipient of United States government grants and was printed on an American government-financed printing press operated by Freedom House, an American organization that describes itself as "a clear voice for democracy and freedom around the world."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/international/asia/30kyrgyzstan.html?

Homosexual penguins debating whether they are better off without souls or with condemned souls 

John Danforth calls the Republicans on Conservative Christianity

Writing in the NY Times, the ex-senator and by many accounts near-vp faults his party for embracing the irreligious recht (my term, not his). Although he starts to disparage their extremism in matters such as stem cell research, he stops way short of calling them the hate-filled little slavering cretinous subhuman braindamaged reptiles they are. Of course, Mr. Danforth is well-known as an Episcopalian, viewed by the theocrats as an elitist high-church foe, a left-footed Catholic, a person needing conversion or extinction. In any event, it is good to see any traditional Republican renounce the scumhole his political brethren have climbed into; we hope his example persuades a hell of a lot more to climb out:

"The historic principles of the Republican Party offer America its best hope for a prosperous and secure future. Our current fixation on a religious agenda has turned us in the wrong direction. It is time for Republicans to rediscover our roots."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/opinion/30danforth.html?th&emc=th

Schiavo and the Money Trail

If you wondered about where all the money has been coming from to pay the lawyers, organizers, and other collected human refuse gathered on this sorry spectacle, check out Bill Berkowitz' article (and why did it take Jesse so long to smell the green?):

"Eisenberg uncoverred the fact that "Schindler lawyer Pat Anderson 'was paid directly' by the anti-abortion Life Legal Defense Foundation, which 'has already spent over $300,000 on this case.'" The Alliance Defense Fund, which is involved with the Life Legal Defense Foundation, "collected more than $15 million in private donations in 2002 and admits to having spent money on the Schiavo case 'in the six figures,' according to a recent article in the Palm Beach Post," Eisenberg writes."

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18796

A Window into Dirty Dealing: House & AFL-CIO on Soc. Sec.

Marie Coco reports on a conversation she overheard on a train involving Derrick A. Max, Director of Compass and leader of the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security (another one of those cretinous euphemisms, since he represent the interests of potus and big business). Here's the scenario: the little potus toadies encourage some Wall Street firms to put up money to help promote the cause of social security privatization; the AFL-CIO than persuades some of these firms who happen to handle union pension funds to drop out if they want to keep the accounts; Max and co. report this to the potus toadies; more potus toadies in congress apply counter pressure to the unions by calling for (guess what congressmen call for) an investigation. Anyway, this is an interesting little report of how one reporter got a leg up on it all:

"During a recent train ride to Washington, I overheard him (Max) discussing with companions a plan to find sympathetic union members who might file complaints charging that the unions had breached their "fiduciary duty" to choose fund managers solely for financial reasons. Now members of Congress have done the deed instead. In a phone interview several days later in which I asked him about his conversations on the train, Max told me he had contacted Bush administration officials, whom he declined to name, to press his theory that union lobbying of Wall Street firms that hold their pension assets is a breach of pension trustees' duty. "I've been arguing to anyone who would listen," Max says. Nonetheless, he says he did not contact anyone on the Education and Workforce Committee. A committee spokesman said Boehner had acted on the basis of media reports about the union activity."

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opcoc294194610mar29,0,1361244.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

Fight Creeping Fascism: Support the Interfaith Alliance

Dear F&F, today I received a nice cover letter from Walter Cronkite warning of the dangers posed by Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the Chrisitian Coalition (yes, he names the enemy). The Alliance is confronting Tom Delay, Walter Jones, and the 165 congressmen who have cosponsored H.R. 235, the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act (you got to love the cretinous euphemisms these whores use). It is bad enough that little potus has already given Robertson a half million of your tax dollars; the further provisions of 235 tie the neos and irreligious recht even tighter. So to whatever extent you can, support the Alliance. There are not many religious leaders standing up to these hatefilled subhumans who seem to have sprung full formed, like Milton's Sin from Satan's head, directly from the primeval slime with virtually no benefit from the evolutionary process:

http://www.interfaithalliance.org/site/pp.asp?c=8dJIIWMCE&b=447561

NARAL to fight Pharmacies on Right to Refuse Birth Control Rx's

NARAL is confronting a number of initiatives including introduction of bills in state legislatures permitting pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions:

"WASHINGTON -- March 28 -- As highlighted in today’s Washington Post, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the nation’s leading advocate for personal privacy and a woman’s right to choose, launched a campaign to protect women’s access to birth control by combating the efforts of extreme anti-choice activists urging pharmacies not to fill birth control prescriptions.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President, Nancy Keenan, said: "In 2005 it is appalling that women do not know whether their prescriptions will be filled. Pharmacies have an ethical and legal obligation not to endanger women’s health by withholding basic health care. Pharmacies have no right to override a decision made by a woman and her doctor."

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0328-03.htm

Creeping Stupidity: Colorado Sentence Overturned When Jurors Rely on Biblical Authority

Dear F&F, Where in the name of sweet jeepers are we, 12th. Century Baghdad? I don't deny the scumbag deserved the death penalty, but these nitwit jurors sought the bible to defend/justify/ generate their sentence? The church knew for centuries that the average idiot couldn't be trusted to interpret scripture, but supposedly our average idiot got educated enough later on to be trusted with a printed copy. Right.

"In this instance, lawyers said, there was simply a clearer trail of evidence, with admissions by the jurors during Mr. Harlan's appeal that Bibles had been used in their discussion. One juror testified she studied Romans and Leviticus, including Leviticus 24, which includes the famous articulation of Old Testament justice: "eye for eye, tooth for tooth."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/national/29bible.html?th&emc=th

Creeping Fascism: the Religious Recht

In a brief but ranging essay, Paul Krugman reviews the rising influence of the nutjobs in the religious recht who are seeking to turn the republic into their version of a christian (lower case deliberate) state. He touches on the Schiavo camp, Delay, and a number of other public and not-so-public figures and reports a couple highly disturbing facts:

"One thing that's going on is a climate of fear for those who try to enforce laws that religious extremists oppose. Randall Terry, a spokesman for Terri Schiavo's parents, hasn't killed anyone, but one of his former close associates in the anti-abortion movement is serving time for murdering a doctor. George Greer, the judge in the Schiavo case, needs armed bodyguards. . .

"The religious right is already having a big impact on education: 31 percent of teachers surveyed by the National Science Teachers Association feel pressured to present creationism-related material in the classroom.


"But medical care is the cutting edge of extremism.
Yesterday The Washington Post reported on the growing number of pharmacists who, on religious grounds, refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control or morning-after pills. These pharmacists talk of personal belief; but the effect is to undermine laws that make these drugs available. And let me make a prediction: soon, wherever the religious right is strong, many pharmacists will be pressured into denying women legal drugs."

You are warned. The danger is not imaginary. From closeted nutjobs just a decade or two ago, these cretin fanatics have emerged from the primeval slime and skipped all the prerequisite steps for normal evolution. Like Milton's Sin from Satan's head, they are in effect full-sprung from the imagination of a handful of medieval idiots. Their cultivation by the whore politicians in the white house and congress---however much these fools will regret it when they are forced to the mold themselves---together with the normal inclination of brownbacks and rednecks toward fascism and other forms of inbred mob submentality has placed them in wholly unwarranted but politically and socially influential roles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/opinion/29krugman.html?th&emc=th

Fundamentalist Deity puts Soft Tissue in Dinosaur Bone

The NY Times has probably written about the dumbest paragraph I have ever seen in its editorial section. Of course, I can imagine the editor wondering, "Well, just what is the meaning of finding soft tissue? It reminds us of Jurassic Park (and he wrote that), and maybe it brings to mind all the evolution stuff and the fundamentalists who think that is just heresy, but how does the soft tissue stuff fit in there (so he did not write about that)? But I guess I really don't know what it means because I'm not really a scientist." So s/he wrote this really dumb concluding paragraph to a non-editorial that should not have been written by this person in the first place:

"Somehow it seems appropriate that this discovery came from the bone of a Tyrannosaurus, the most familiar, and fearsome, of those ancient species, a creature that perfectly embodies the pleasure of science. We wake up thinking we know what we know, only to find that we have to think all over again."

I mean, this is the NY Times editorial page, for pete's sake, where I have seen some of the finest English language in present usage. What happened here? Did somebody drink the water on his Florida vacation? It really is a shame, when you consider how richly suggestive the term "soft tissue" is. . .

Another Ambassador gets Leaked: Kurtzer in Turmoil

The US ambassador to Israel seems to have spoken a bit too loose and too open about how we view Israeli settlements. (Anybody listening to Condi fussing about the proposals for the new West Bank settlements?) Aren't ambassadors just sort of messenger-boy political whores getting paid off for services rendered? Are these guys actually supposed to be working for a living? I thought it was our covert bribes and hunter/killer units that did the real overseas work. PS--Doesn't a lot in these leaks concern foreign leaders we "expect" to fall? In any case, here is the Times' take:

"The ambiguities surrounding American policy were underlined Friday when a diplomatic furor erupted over remarks reportedly made by the American ambassador to Israel, Daniel C. Kurtzer, in an off-the-record session nearly a month ago with new Israeli Foreign Ministry employees.
According to the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, which was leaked a copy of notes taken at the meeting, Mr. Kurtzer said Washington had never reached an understanding with Israel that would let it keep its large settlement blocks in the West Bank. The newspaper also quoted him as saying he expected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government to fall before completing its term in November 2006."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26military.html?th&emc=th

F-16's to Pakistan, and then maybe to India: How does this make Sense?

So the little nitwit in the white house has decided to sell new planes to Pakistan, planes that can deliver nuclear warheads. Then he will help India out. OK, these two are enemies, they have been fighting. And Pakistan is ruled by another little dictator and his cronies who agreed to help us with our invasion in order to preserve his regime even though he slept with the enemy and spread nuclear technology like it was peanut butter. Can anyone explain how this deal will help anybody except Lockheed Martin and all the whore politicians whose pockets it stuffs? What am I missing here?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26military.html?th&emc=th

Snohomish vs. ENRON: a David and Goliath Tale

The full extent of ENRON's criminality, glued to the complicit refusal of corrupt federal regulators to exercise their mandates, is still coming to light. Here is one little story of how a local utility has been fighting back:

"It was in a spartan office in Santa Cruz that Kenny Swain met Grandma Millie — and where a little Washington utility drew first blood in its feud with Enron Corp.Swain was on a squad of unlikely detectives that included a retired teacher, a high-tech entrepreneur, an anthropologist and a recent political science grad. Swain himself was a former employee of an organic farming group.Their task: to search more than 2,000 hours of recorded conversations between Enron energy traders.Their mission: to uncover scheming and ill intent that had gone unnoticed by federal investigators."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-snohomish27mar27.story

California takes on the Pharmaceuticals

Now that the Congress and executive have abrogated any concern or responsibility whatsoever for the financial welfare of the American people who still seem to believe that there might be someone in the universe of partisan politics who gives a sheet about them, it is increasingly falling upon the states to try to maintain a little bloodflow, at least enough for the pathetic handful of voters who can still walk, to make it to the polls and reelect them. So California joins the handful that are challenging the pharmaceuticals at the local level. And guess what? Armed with the obscene abundance of dollars raked from the profits of inflated drug costs, the industry is fighting back. Well, the lobbyists haven't quite bought off all the state pols yet, and the congress hasn't quite ennacted enough legislation to kill all hope of court relief, so we may, in this twilight of federalism, see a few scattered fireworks:

"SACRAMENTO — Facing pressure from many states to provide cheaper prescription drugs, the pharmaceutical industry has launched its most aggressive counterattack in California, where the issue is threatening to explode on the ballot as early as this fall. The industry already has raised an unprecedented $8.6 million to defeat a ballot initiative being readied by Health Access California, an Oakland-based nonprofit, even before the authors have gathered enough signatures to qualify it for the next election."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drugs28mar28.story

House receives makeover thanks to Ameriquest mortgage proceeds. In a neat promotional grab, the sub-prime lender enlists Janet Jackson in yet another costume malfunction.  

Dump your Stock, REALLY; Now it's Florida looking at Ameriquest

Everybody's favorite---and America's biggest---sub-prime mortgager is under scrutiny in Florida. That's Florida, where the average homeowner is 109 years old and on life-support, and still manages to work 3 jobs on the Ameriquest loan application. These guys were the perfect candidate for your friendly whore sponsor of America's favorite 30-minute annual whore-fest. Just imagine if your friendly elected public officials were to devote a little of the time wasted on Janet's nipple and Terri's brainstem. . .maybe to something like whore profiteers. Remember Ross' prediction of the sound of the vacuum as America's jobs flew south? Well, what is the sound of foreclosures flying into the whore black hole of the benignly-titled mortgager? Jeez, in Florida they ought to require Jeb's counter-signature on sub-prime mortgages just as they do on living wills. . .

"Romy Hodge, a disabled house cleaner, said she was scraping by on $561 a month in disability income when Ameriquest refinanced her house with a $75,000 loan."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ameriquest28mar28.story

Dump your Stock; Pennsylvania looks at Ameriquest

Remember the sponsor of whore McCartney's half-time whore extravaganza? Now it's Pennsylvania that's looking into complaints against the whore subprime lender. I guess the reigning neogreed of the entrenched is unquenchable; there are still a few households with health insurance and some home equity. . .

"A legal aid group is calling on Pennsylvania regulators to investigate Ameriquest Mortgage Co., citing an alleged "pattern of unfair, deceptive and unethical conduct" that could be grounds for revoking its lending license in the state."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-subprime26mar26.story

Raimondo and Kyrgyzstan: the Purloined Memo

Justin Raimondo takes on the case for authenticating the purloined memo attributed to ambassador Young. Detailing and outlining much of what was supposedly the U.S.'s plans and objectives in overthrowing Kyrgyzstan's government, the memo has been denied. An extract:


"Taking into account the interests, of our presence in the region and development of democratic society in Kyrgyzstan, our primary goal — according to the earlier approved plans – is to increase pressure upon Akayev to make him resign ahead of schedule after the parliamentary elections."

http://antiwar.com/justin/

Another Core Issue for Mobilizing: the CREDIT INDUSTRY

Dear F&F, Linda S. referred us to Christopher Hayes' somewhat lengthy essay on strategies to combat the neos' supposed advantages in mass mobilization. He gets going when he targets the credit industry about half way through:

http://www.alternet.org/story/21584/

Deadline to Signup for Write-in is Noon: Peace not Poverty:

http://www.peacenotpoverty.org/

Rx Drug Costs

Dear F&F, An email forward making the rounds does a lot of comparison of costs of prescription drugs. After a little checking it looks to me as if there is in fact a HUGE markup at the retail level (it isn't just the pharmaceautical companies that should be taking the rap). And the worst offenders are the chain drug stores; often the mom-and-pops do you a bit better. But it looks like the ONLY place for a consistently good deal is COSTCO, and although Sam's is supposed to be a runner-up, I couldn't access their price list so easily as COSTCO's, with online service. I am not talking slight savings here; I am talking about COSTCO pricing for a lot of these drugs at like 1/4 or less of the cost of other retailers, like 10$ instead of 40$.

For those of you who do not have drug insurance coverage, please check this out. And even if you do have it, do yourself and your insurer a favor. Snopes' take, if you are interested, is rather balanced:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/generic.asp

Darwin's Nightmare and the Nile Perch

Thanks to Mary for directing attention to the Times review of Darwin's Nightmare. I don't think the reviewer has a highly evolved command of the dynamics of aesthetic experience, but any publicity for films like these and their subjects is certainly welcome.

Maybe too we should watch and see how the perch and the lake fare, apart from the economics of the region, as an exercise of ecology and prediction.

"Darwin's Nightmare' is untroubled by good feelings. One of the virtues of Mr. Sauper's film is its rigorous commitment to bringing a full measure of bad news, of using images of horror to cast a shadow over the 'positive side' of the story. He spends some time with the managers of a processing plant, who are quite bullish on the Nile perch, and witnesses a presentation by visitors from the European Commission, who proclaim the Lake Victoria fisheries a model of economic development. The point of the film is not just that their optimism is belied by the conditions of suffering around them, but that their notion of progress, in practice and in theory, is a prime cause of that misery."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/movies/27Scot.html?ex=1112677200&en=fc5f4e99836499d6&ei=5070

Maryland Senate Votes Down Emergency Contraception; 11 Dems join 13 Reps in Vote

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64653-2005Mar24.html

Israeli Trade in Slave Prostitutes Cited

"Thousands of foreign women have been smuggled into Israel and sold into prostitution, earning the criminal underworld millions of dollars a year, a parliamentary investigation has found.
"For the last four years, between 3,000 and 5,000 women have been sold as sex slaves for 8,000 to 10,000 dollars and forced to work up to 18 hours a day, said the head of the inquiry, Zehava Gal-On, of the left-wing opposition Yahad party."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/032505WA.shtml

First Day at Work for new Head of Fish and Wildlife Matthew Hogan, Trophy Hunter 

No End to the Obscenities

Why wouldn't you appoint a trophy hunter to head the Fish and Wildlife Services? Why would you expect anything else from the nutjobs in charge of our country? Why would you not expect them to take every opportunity to offend basic human decency? Their arrogance is beyond belief and their purpose is evil.

"The HSUS expressed its strong disappointment that Interior Secretary Gale Norton has named Matthew J. Hogan to be acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Norton announced the appointment yesterday, following last week's resignation of Director Steve Williams. Hogan was formerly the chief lobbyist for Safari Club International (SCI), an extreme trophy hunting organization that advocates the killing of rare species around the world."Having a Safari Club lobbyist in charge, even temporarily, of the federal agency that is supposed to protect endangered species is precisely the wrong course to pursue for any Administration," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "Someone with a true wildlife conservation ethic, not an allegiance to the trophy hunting industry, should be nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the permanent director position as soon as possible."

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_19334.shtml

Good for these guys: Georgetown U. Students win Wage Hikes for Custodial Workers

"More than 20 students ended their nine-day hunger strike for higher wages and better benefits for university contract workers yesterday, dancing in a ring, singing along with a guitar, cheering and eating strawberries, one slow bite at a time. They had duct-taped a blue banner over their huge "Living Wage" sign: The new one announced "We all won!"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62829-2005Mar24.html

Photo by J. Sorm 

A Prayer at Eastertime

And this, courtesy G.M.:

Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want. He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests. He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness. He restoreth my fears. He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office. Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion. Thou anointest my head with foreign oil. My health insurance runneth out. Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term, and my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.

Antidote for the MSM version of the K-stan Revolution

Justin Raimondo offers his take on the "revolution," including some profiles of the new faces; how about a former soviet, a current commie? Just about any tired old whore your dollar can buy:

http://antiwar.com/justin/

ONLY IN ARABIA could a 6 1/2-foot tall guy with a full beard and a dialysis machine on his back dress like a woman and get away with it.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0325/p07s01-wosc.html

Creeping Totalitarianism

"The Federal Election Commission has begun considering whether to issue new rules on how political campaigns are waged on the Internet, a regulatory process that is expected to take months to complete but that is already generating considerable angst online.
"The agency is weighing whether -- and how -- to impose restrictions on a host of online activities, including campaign advertising and politically oriented blogs."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51986-2005Mar20.html

No, No, No, we were NOT all wrong, Alan

"When Fed chief Alan Greenspan acknowledged last week that he'd been wrong to expect tax cuts to produce budget surpluses, he cast his mistake as part of a collective, unavoidable error. "It turns out that we were all wrong, " he told the Senate Special Committee on Aging. It was not just the belief of the Fed and the tax-hating Republicans, but "an almost universal expectation amongst experts" that cutting taxes for the wealthy would generate more government revenue."

So the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the poor will get poorer yet making up the revenue shortfalls because the rich got the tax breaks. Isn't there a time-honored response to this sort of thing called "correction. . ."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/24/EDG07BTSJB1.DTL

Some of our more photogenic superrich. (Where are the hungry dogs when we need them?) 

WARNING SIGNS: Billionaires and Urchins

The wealth of the world's billionaires rose by 57% in the last 2 years, with, I might add, a lot of help from the whore politicians who feed at their trough.

U.S. children in poverty rose 6.6% in 2003. (Our data for impoverished children are not quite so current as those for billionaires.)

http://www.alternet.org/story/21544/

Creeping Totalitarianism: Florida goes after Academic Freedom

Dear F&F, I already got mine off against Florida yesterday, but I wish I had this piece in my pocket at the time. If the issue of government imposing the superstitions of the religious recht on us weren't so serious---maybe the most serious threat in the republic today, if you consider that it goes arm-in-arm with erosion of basic protections---this would be ludicrous. Analysts worry that our current policies are discouraging the import of science- and tech-oriented human resources, but it looks like our homegrown nutjobs are doing just fine tearing down what's left of a scientific culture. At the rate we are going, Baghdad will soon look like the center of rational enlightenment. And to those of you who deny that half the population is brainchallenged, I have to ask, Who is electing these cretins to office? Get this: we have a majority committee in a state legislature in the 21st century which thinks that teachers who espouse the theory of evolution over creationism are violating student rights. Why should a teacher even have to concern himself with a nutpie piece of medieval idiocy in the first place, let alone give it some semblance of academic status? Would they have to teach the theory that the world is flat as well?

"TALLAHASSEE — Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities."

http://www.alligator.org/pt2/050323freedom.php

Quote for the Day

"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy."

---Christopher Shays, R, Conn.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61694-2005Mar23.html

More Stupid People you may not have Heard about

"Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said jurors who acquitted actor Robert Blake of the murder of his wife are "incredibly stupid" and insisted his office put on a good case."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cooley24mar24.story

WARNING SIGNS: Half of California minorities drop out of high school

This is a chilling statistic with a social context at which the article only hints. As our totally corrupted political system drives the country into an obscene concentration of wealth, wasting resources, it is building the numbers of an underclass of citizens whose needs eventually will have to be met one way or another. This is just one group within that underclass, but it is young and the costs are proportionately greater. If the whores in government were capable of just one moment of genuine reflection, they would force themselves to answer a simple test question for every piece of legislation and policy they promote: Is this good for the republic?

"Nearly half of the Latino and African American students who should have graduated from California high schools in 2002 failed to complete their education, according to a Harvard University report released Wednesday.In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the situation was even worse, with just 39% of Latinos and 47% of African Americans graduating, compared with 67% of whites and 77% of Asians."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-graduate24mar24.story

In a dream, the nasty little monster nominated to head the World Bank sat enthroned in the vast edifice atop a sphere containing the collected lifeblood of the entire third world. 

When the Vegetative becomes Hot Potato

Dear F&F, The contrast between the extrordinary actions of POTUS and his toadies over Terri Schiavo, and those delivered when he was governor of Texas against similarly vulnerable patients reared its head this week but seems quickly to have slipped under the waters of irrelevance---because no one really expects anything out of this colossal bobo anymore, not consistency, not compassion, not anything. He is an excuse and an opportunity to advance extremist agendas but has no standing as a real person or source of leadership, and so is neither held accountable nor saddled with expectations of intelligent or moral performance. On the other hand, the exercise of historically inappropriate legislative and executive authority regarding the pathetic case of Terri Schiavo has in fact served to raise expectations that something should---if not might---actually happen. In other words, the fools not only rushed into the spotlight in an effort to aggrandize themselves in the appreciation of certain voter blocs, including the profoundly braindamaged in their own recht, but they managed to set in motion a certain momentum which the Supreme Court, predictably following the example of the lower courts, deflected in effect back to Florida and the simpery brother of the POTUS.

Neat. Greatly amplified, the vegetable has become a hot potato which Jeb can only hope to toss back and forth with the courts and state agencies in a succession of inept moves while praying for her speedy death or deliverance by miracle. This is the state wracked with scandals over its system or nonsystem of caring or not caring for society's vulnerable. The only reason they don't have endlife provisions as callous as Texas' is that too many of their endlife subjects come from the lucrative retirement population that together with orange juice, amusement parks, alligators, balloting hassles, and hurricanes, characterizes the culture.

There is a sense of justice in this, in the return of the boomerang, the closing of the circle, as the caterwauling idiots and the shameless little hatemongers who lead them come to realize that there is no, and never was, prospect of victory. I do not know why they launched a campaign without a clear designation of the enemy. It may have begun with a sense that Terri's husband and the perceived liberal establishment standing behind him in their vampyric desire to drain life wherever they find it, were the target, but the forces of government have necessarily shifted the focus to, first, one of hope, in the form of the congress and the POTUS, then to frustration as Washington's actions turned into mere passes to the same judiciary processes that had obstructed the evangelicals in the first place. Yes, Jeb will have to tapdance through this one. He may even be wishing that instead of the smirking little pseudodespot he is, his big brother were a real tyrant, who could have smacked down the courts and sent Terri home to her parents for a few more years of gastrically-ducted gruel and UTI's, amidst a transcendant and vote-grabbing chorus of halleluiahs.

So as the deathwatch continues in this ghoulish little drama, we can only hope that, barring a miracle, Terri succombs with celerity and some illusion of dignity, while drawing attention to the need for enlightened understanding and management of similar cases. And it would not be a bad thing in my mind if the fools and whores holding high elected office in the state and in Washington were to come away wearing some (necessarily imposed) sense of shame and impotence.

Anybody remember Sgrena and her Toyota?

"ROME — The U.S. military command in Iraq has blocked two Italian policemen from examining the car in which an Italian intelligence agent was shot to death in Baghdad, a newspaper said Wednesday."

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-740304.php

Archeological Woes

"Babylon's destruction, according to The Guardian, "must rank as one of the most reckless acts of cultural vandalism in recent memory." When Camp Babylon was established by US-led international forces in April 2003, leading archeologists and international experts on ancient civilizations warned of potential peril and damage. It was "tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," according to a damning report issued in January by the British Museum."

http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=2282

States of Brain Damage Revisited

Thanks to a suggestion by G.P. this am, I was led to an item which led to an item and so on until I found myself reading the affidavit filed yesterday by one Dr. William Cheshire, a neurologist who raised the possibility that Terry Schiavo may not be vegetative, but minimally conscious, an important distinction, if true, for the physicians, the bioethicists, and the nutbags in the religious recht. But equally interesting is his observation that although Terri has been given a CT scan, she has not received any test to image brain functioning (CRI or PET). Of course, that is an item of fact which could actually bear on the issue of her care or lack thereof, so don't expect it to get much attention in the 3-Ring Circus starring your ever-dutiful legislative, your tender and offended judiciary, and the oblivious little despot in the white house who wouldn't know a brain stem if it bit him.

In light of the above, I revised my 3.22 post, States of Brain Damage.

A Happy Note: Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances

Talk about a confederacy of differences: check out these persons and orgs united in opposition to the anti-American provisions of the so-called Patriot Act:

Bob Barr, Chairman,
Former Member of Congress (R-GA)
Brad Jansen, Adjunct Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
American Civil Liberties Union
American Conservative Union
Americans for Tax Reform
American Policy Center
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Eagle Forum
Free Congress Foundation
Second Amendment Foundation


http://www.checksbalances.org/partners.php

The Devil his Due

MoveOn has a petition going round urging Congress to get out of the Schiavo case. Link below to sign it and add a few words of your own if you like:

http://www.moveonpac.org/grandstanding/

Chuck at play when he isn't wrangling for money out of our pockets to prop up the evil nexus of Corporate-pseudopartisanpolitics. 

My Letter to Hypocrite Schumer

Dear Sen. Schumer: I just received your email solicitation for Senate campaign donations, citing the unfortunate ANWR vote and the diminished number of Democratic seats in the Senate to sustain a favorable vote. What a shameful ploy this is! Will my contribution help you persuade the three DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED AGAINST ANWR? Will my donation offset whatever fat campaign donations they are getting from the vested interests that bought their votes? Will my donation persuade you to work with the Teamsters to change their lobbying in favor of drilling? After all, you are the party of labor. Will sending you money to get more Democrats elected in any way assure they vote for issues of democratic values? No. Not one red cent on this.

Why did you do it to him? Off a bridge? what bridge? 

OUTSTANDING: Mustard plant corrects bad gene!

OK, this is not a joke. A common specimen plant actually restores a bad gene inherited from parent plants, using, presumably, an unknown template. Now why is this a big deal, aside from flying in the face of classical Mendelian genetics? Because somewhere in said humble plant's tissues lies a mechanism altogether unknown to science. They can see its effects, but that is about it. So it is being described the way science always describes the suspected but directly undetectible. Like planets outside our solar system (yes, I know we finally detected 2 of them directly this month). Like quantum particles. Like Deep Throat (wasn't s/he supposed to be revealed about now?). Like deity. . . And couldn't this be a great addition to the geneticist's toolbox? Like clicking on the default button when you are totally messed up? Or a Restore option. It's like the little jammy has a built-in Save or Back-up device.

But of all the application possibilities, just imagine if you could trigger the one for rewiring the bad gene in the peanut inside the skull of the POTUS!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/23/science/23gene.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

WAR BY MERCENARY

Writing in Counterpunch ostensibly about the prospects for a reinstituted draft, Tom Reeves actually gives a nice account of our privateer army. I personally think the odds against a draft are overwhelming. One, the neos know that a draft would instantly mobilize a massive antiwar movement that would pull down their whole house of cards. Two, they like privatization, so mercenaries are literally made to order. Three, as much as grunts may be in short supply, the neonderthals are confident they can always just bomb the hell out of their perceived enemies. All of which leads to a thought---cynical as hell---on why we are better off with the neos' privateer troops in Iraq: because they aren't HERE.


http://www.counterpunch.org/reeves03192005.html

J. Raimondo picks up on Kyrgyzstan

The drama continues, with military bases (both sides) at stake. Unfortunately, this type of crap ticks off the Russians, but then again, when did the braindamaged little despot in the white house and his toadies ever care about offending anybody, even those into whose souls he gazed. . .What really bothers me is the idea that we are messing with every little state we can simply because we can, in the name of the reigning halfbaked idneology and with absolutely no regard for America's real longterm interests. That was sort of my point in yesterday's post about K-stan and Freedom House.


"If the idea is to encircle the former Soviet Union with another in a series of color-coded provocations, then the "Pink Revolution" seems to be running according to an all-too-familiar script. "Opposition forces, financed from the outside, are seeking to bring about the collapse of our society," says Kyrgyzstan President Akaev."

http://antiwar.com/justin/

Djibouti is 9th African nation to adopt positive stance against female genital mutilation

You can pass over the matter with a nod to the headline above, but note continuing objections from fundamentalists. You may also care not to learn the distinctions between variations of clitorectomy and the extreme mutilation, fibulation, rivaling in horror male subincision. You have been warned.

"For two days, in meetings with about forty other religious leaders, Sheikh Mohammed talked about female pleasure, the Koran, and the length of the clitoris, a rhetorical debate impenetrable for the neophyte. For a number of the Ulemas, Koranic commandments to respect the body and preserve health must carry the day. That's also the opinion of the Djiboutian government, which, by ratifying the Maputo Protocol, became the ninth African country to commit to the rights of women and their physical integrity."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/032205WC.shtml

The Crisis in the Labor Movement (Actually, everything is in crisis except the incomes of the Kleptocrats)

In an excellent essay for Z Net, Jerry Tucker describes the crisis facing today's labor movement. He sketches a succinct history of labor in America, its failed policies in the last half-century, and the nature of the present challenge.


"U. S. labor needs a counter-offensive. And, the centerpiece of labor's counter-offensive, with or without all current labor leaders, should be derived from a new vision of America based on justice and the creation of a new social intersection for all of those abused by the nexus of corporation and state and today's neoliberalism."

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=19&ItemID=7498

Georgetown Students in 7th day of Hunger Strike

Amidst the unbelievable climate of greed and arrogance overtaking the political leadership of the nation, a group of Georgetown University students begins the seventh day of a hunger fast to secure a living wage for their school's custodial workers. Let us hope their example is infectious.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52340-2005Mar20.html

POTUS' ASSAULT ON SCIENCE: Tristram Hunt reports in the Guardian

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0322-25.htm

In Memoriam 

NY Times all but calls Bush and cronies enemies of the state

"Republicans have traditionally championed respect for the delicate balance the founders created. But in the Schiavo case, and in the battle to stop the Democratic filibusters of judicial nominations, President Bush and his Congressional allies have begun to enunciate a new principle: the rules of government are worth respecting only if they produce the result we want. It may be a formula for short-term political success, but it is no way to preserve and protect a great republic."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/opinion/22tue1.html?hp

Apologies to Maryland

In my rants I have occasionally referred to the braindamaged and otherwise denigrated states south of the Mason-Dixon line. That is largely just a figure of speech, but unfairly lumps the brave little state of Maryland in with her severely misoriented, incestridden, violenceprone, racist, misanthropic, misogynic, culturecrippled, superstitious, fascist southern neighbors (exceptional little scattered clumps notwithstanding). I will try to remember to refer to these bastions of intolerance, intemperance, and insanity as south of Maryland.

Lou Dobbs: Nationalize Airline Industry

The call came during his Tuesday night CNN show featuring a segment on United Airlines' pending default on pension payments. The multibillion-dollar obligation, if passed on as expected to the pension guarantor, will likely reduce present pension payments to retirees by 30-50 per cent. The segment claimed that pension obligations are currently underfunded by 450 billion dollars!

Hardly a leftwing radical, Mr. Dobbs has nonetheless seemed increasingly frustrated by corporate and governmental corruption and irresponsibility---the word he used to describe United's executives---particularly with respect to outsourcing, ethics, and illegal alien labor.
***************************************************
In a related article detailing United's failure to make scheduled payments, it was noted that the Pension Benefit Guarantor Corporation, credited with a 9.7 billion-dollar surplus as recently as 2000, was saddled with a 9.7B dollar deficit as of last March, and is currently petitioning congress for increased empowerment to attach assets in corporate bankruptcies. (Editorial note: this is one more example of the astounding decline, during the short incumbency of the wretched little despot in the white house, in funds and protections originally mandated for workers in middle-class America. I can only hope that younger Americans, instead of buying into the fatalistic propaganda that the government cannot afford the traditional safety nets and entitlements enjoyed by their parents, will hold the hogs at the trough responsible for the true inequities, the deliberate redirection of wealth upward into the pockets of the superrich. That 9.7 billion did not just evaporate from the PBGC. It was stolen, directly or indirectly, like the social security surplus, like the 450 billion originally slated to fund corporate employee pensions, like the ENRON and World Com stock value, like your health insurance premiums, etc. etc., by the filthy corporate kleptocrats and their political whores.)

" 'There is a possibility of a looming train wreck here that could cost the taxpayers of America untold billions of dollars,' McCain said."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16552-2004Oct7.html

Amnesty Intnl Honors Women and Human Rights

http://women.amnestyusa.org/defenders/hawaaden.asp

US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PUSHES CAFTA(Does anyone remember NAFTA?)

The Public Citizen reports on the flaws in the expanded NAFTA treaty, promoted by your friends of small business in the US Chamber of Commerce. What was it Ross Perot warned about when the whore Clintons were pushing the original Edselian model? The sound of a vacuum as US jobs were sucked south:

"WASHINGTON -- March 21 -- While Central American ambassadors continue to travel the United States as part of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce-sponsored public relations tour to promote a proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) NAFTA expansion, a new study by Public Citizen exposes the flawed methodology around the Chamber’s claims about CAFTA’s potential affects on the United States and Central America."

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1903

Pecunia non olet, but take down the portrait of Ken Lay

Hey, You can't blame the schools for accepting the money, but don't they include any fine print in the terms of receipt?


"Universities Squirm After Donations Linked to Corporate Criminals
by Tim Jones

COLUMBIA, MO. -- Most people breeze right by the large, gold-trimmed watercolor hanging in the small lobby of Lowry Hall. They rarely glance at, much less give a thought to, the portrait of Kenneth Lay, AB `64, MA `65, one of the more prominent graduates of the University of Missouri."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0321-03.htm

WORLD WATER DAY TODAY

"WORLD WATER DAY: EU Urged to Stop Privatisation

"Stefania Bianchi, BRUSSELS, Mar 21 (IPS) - Civil society groups are calling for a change of course in the European Union's approach to water and sanitation in developing countries. A consortium of civil society groups, led by the Dutch campaign groups Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Both ENDS, and the Belgian non-governmental organisation (NGO) 11.11.11, says the European Union (EU) must end its preoccupation with private sector expansion and instead support 'workable public water delivery options.' "

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=27948

The nasty little monster nominated to head the World Bank, in a photo taken as reporters pressed him on policy position regarding Venezuela. 

The Totalitarian Creep: Now it's Not-for-Profits

Let's call it as we see it. Intimidation, doublespeak, erosion of civil rights, unwarranted arrest and detention, erosion of consitutional protections, propagandizing, control of media: all tools of totalitarian government. The latest alarm may be targetting not for profits with audits and investigation, and filthy, bought and paid for congressmen are playing along:

"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is locked in a standoff with the Internal Revenue Service, preferring to risk its tax exemption rather than hand over documents for an I.R.S. review that the civil rights group contends is politically motivated. . .

"...a dozen nonprofit organizations have publicly contended that government agencies and Congressional offices have used reviews, audits, investigations, law enforcement actions and the threat of a loss of federal money to discourage them from activities and advocacy that in any way challenge government policies. . . "

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0321-05.htm

Scraping off the Slime

A Washington Post article reports how the Justice Department redacted embarassing, not classified, sections of an internal memo regarding DOD interrogation methods:

"U.S. law enforcement agents working at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, concluded that controversial interrogation practices used there by the Defense Department produced intelligence information that was "suspect at best," an FBI agent told a superior in a memo in May last year.

"But the Justice Department, which reviewed the memo for national security secrets before releasing it to a civil liberties group in December, redacted the FBI agent's conclusion."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55136-2005Mar21.html

Scraping off the Scum

Tom Barry, writing for the IRC, offers an in-depth profile of John Bolton, the nutjob the brainchallenged little despot in the white house is sending to the UN; we wonder that such filth as Bolton and company would ever see the light of day in any other era:

"In early 2001 Bolton observed: 'It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so because, over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrict the United States .'
. . .
" Bolton will face a spirited confirmation battle in the Senate, where four years ago his nomination as the new Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security was approved by a vote of 57-43. All fifty Republicans voted to confirm Bolton, joined by Democratic hawks Ben Nelson, Zell Miller, Joseph Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Russell Feingold, John Breaux, and Evan Bayh. " (Fascinating how peabrain Miller, whore Ladrieu, and flapjaw Lieberman keep acting in the interests of the Republicans. It's time to stop making excuses for them.)

http://www.irc-online.org/content/commentary/2005/0503bolton.php

Scraping off the Sleaze

Like him or not, David Brooks will go after Republicans as well as Dems. In today's Times he sets his sights on Norquist and Abramoff:

"Before long, folks like Norquist and Abramoff were talking up the virtues of international sons of liberty like Angola's Jonas Savimbi and Congo's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko - all while receiving compensation from these upstanding gentlemen, according to The Legal Times. Only a reactionary could have been so discomfited by Savimbi's little cannibalism problem as to think this was not a daring contribution to the cause of Reaganism."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/opinion/22brooks.html?ex=1269147600&en=79789cfef5ebeee1&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

States of Brain Damage

No, I don't mean the geopolitical entities south of the Mason-Dixon. I mean cases like Terri Shiavo's, and here is a nutshell summary of everything you never wanted to know about states of brain damage. Be forewarned, however, that this little article was written by three journalists, and one journalist is bad enough writing about technical matters. Here is an example of their clumsiness:

"After Mack awoke, he remained almost entirely paralyzed. He could smile and frown, but he could not speak and had trouble swallowing. He would go through periods of depression, though he said he didn't regret the decision to be kept alive."

See? He "could not speak," but "he said he didn't regret the decision. . ." In any event, it looks like there are three major categories for helpless people who lack consciousness: the BRAINDEAD, with no brainstem function, who die immediately without life-support; the COMATOSE, who may be anywhere on the spectrum from mild brain damage to severe or profound, so they usually either wake up or die pretty quick, and they may respond to pain and exhibit some reflexes and may require life-support; and the PERSISTENT/PERMANENT VEGETATIVE STATE, characterized by those disturbing illusions of expression and gesture as well as sleep/wake cycles, but no true responses.

In 1997---although the reporters do not go into this---the Aspen Neurobehavioral Conference Workgroup settled on another category, MCS, or the minimally conscious state, to distinguish patients with some degree of awareness of self or surroundings, from those in the vegetative state. Dr. William Cheshire introduced this possibility in a court affidavit he submitted regarding Terri 3/23/05, pointing out that although a CT scan (considered a structural imaging procedure) had been done, Terri had not received tests of functional imaging (CRI, PET). That may seem incredible, given the amount of public, legal, and medical attention the case has received, but then again, this is Florida; some concern should be paid also to how any given present circumstance is the incremental sum of its own history, not necessarily the sum of the history of the universe around and containing it. Thinking about MCS, for example, developed well after Terry was historically labeled vegetative. And there are more exotic, lesser known states that I have seen referenced, such as akinetic mutism.

So it looks like these categories can be pretty fuzzy. And thorough clinical observation by skilled neurologists is obviously expensive and time-intensive, and---although nobody has said this---maybe impossible, because these reigning experts cannot devote the continuous and intermittent hours, maybe days, of direct observatioin that would assure the best diagnosis in difficult cases. So it is helpful to look at the imaging evidence of not only structural damage to the brain, but of functioning in the brain. If the lowerfunction area is shot, unplug me. If there is severe damage to the cortex and it doesn't look like the lights are on, unplug or untube me. But if there is minor or moderate damage and the functional imaging is suggestive. . .sorry, guys, but please hang in there for a while. David Mack, referenced above, came out of a persistent/permanent vegetative state after 20 months, supposedly the longest such state anyone has survived. He was conscious and cognizant, but remained almost entirely paralyzed. Then again, so is Stephen Hawking.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-schiavobrain22mar22,1,2672416.story

Potus and aides join congressman to gather around Terry Shiavo in hopes of restoring her feeding tube 

Feeding Tubes for the Third World's Hungry

"March 20, 2005 -- In an attempt to call the attention of the United States Congress to the plight of poorer countries, a coalition of anti-poverty organizations has launched a new campaign called "Feeding Tubes for the Third World."
Staff members of more than one of them say they were struck by the great lengths the Republican leadership in Congress was willing to go to in order to keep a feeding tube in a permanently comatose Florida woman, Terri Schiavo, against her husband's will.
"A light bulb went off," said Michael Freeman of Stop International Hunger. "We needed to get people into comas and insert feeding tubes."

http://www.newsdissector.org/blog/2005/03/21/#1140

Will Pitt covers the Antiwar Protests

Dear F&F, With hardly a mention in the MSM, yesterday's demonstrations DID nonetheless occur. Will Pitt provides a succinct narrative.

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/21/9466/08728

Let us Hope So, but not the Green and Red, Please

"LAS VEGAS (AP) -- After a brief incarnation in the early 1950s and a short-lived revival in the 1980s, 3-D movies are now getting serious consideration among filmmakers who want to send images leaping off the movie screen and into the audience.
“Star Wars'' creator George Lucas and “Titanic'' director James Cameron were among those promoting a new digital alteration that converts two-dimensional movies into 3-D."

http://www.space.com/entertainment/film_3d_050318.html

More on Ms. Abdirasulova

In looking into the case of the referenced "monitor" for Freedom House, I find that she was described as a leader of the Erkindik (freedom) party and detained by authorities in Bishkek for 2 hours on 06.29.01 during a demonstration there to protest an agreement with China to cede some acreage. On 04.15.04 she was one of 18 people arrested and released while protesting the imprisonment of an opposition political leader; she was described as a leader of the human rights group Kylym Shamy. Another incident dates to October of 2003. Although these activities may be highly praiseworthy, I am merely making the point that Freedom House seems to employ rather activist "monitors."

We Seem to be Very Busy in Russia and the -Stans. . .

It was interesting enough that the DLC was involved in the Ukraine elections. Now I see mention that a "monitor" for Freedom House was reporting from Osh yesterday. Where is Osh? Kyrgyzstan. The country borders China. It is famous?for its sheepshead dish featuring the eyeballs. I think Indiana Jones may have ranged through there at some point. Anyway, we all know that Freedom House has been publishing pretty much boiler-plate reports on the relative "freedom" of countries for some years. Some of their funding comes from Soros' foundations, but at the same time you find interesting specimens like Brzezinski, Woolsey, P.J. O'Rourke, Dan Quayle (this is the guy who makes POTUS look like a rocket scientist), Jean Kirkpatrick, Steve Forbes, Andrew Young, et al. et al. all serving as trustees or directors; they really got a boost during Reagan's time, or so it looks to me. I am going to stop at this point because to go further is to get into some very scary territory like the CFR and the ghostly Illuminati, and the air up there is just too thin to breath unless you are a god. My point is, Freedom House certainly has stickier fingers than they care to admit, would make a perfect front, and would have virtually unlimited access to funding. Not that the flow of dollars (or pounds) would make any sound. But back to one of many incidents tearing up the country at the moment:

"This morning, a crowd of protesters stormed a regional administration building in Osh, about 35 miles south of Jalal-Abad, said Aziza Abdirasulova, a monitor in the city for Freedom House, a U.S.-based organization that promotes democracy. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that police had refrained from using force to avoid causing casualties."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kyrgyz21mar21.story

War on working class rages on

"GOP Governors Cut State Workers' Rights
By ROBERT TANNERAP National Writer
Republican governors in a few spots across the country are angering state employees by removing one of organized labor's strongest tools - the right to collective bargaining. . ."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOVERNORS_UNIONS?SITE=MYPSP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

My Dad just got nominated to head the World Bank! 

Nominated to head the world Bank 

Alan Taylor's Interview with Noam Chomsky

It was only 45 minutes, but the old geezer is always worth a read:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0320-24.htm

Bill McKibben Upbraids Christie Whitman

The author of END OF NATURE puts Christie and her book in perspective: what a wasted opportunity to stand for something:

"Christie Whitman's autobiography is, as always with politicians, about her courage. She stands up to sexism, she stands up to class-ism (ceasing, for instance, to wear pearls to work because it just encouraged all those nasty stereotypes about "wealthy women who enter politics"). Mostly the former New Jersey governor and onetime head of the Environmental Protection Agency stands up to "social fundamentalists" who seek to impose "rigid litmus tests" on their fellow Republicans.
Well, bully for her. But in fact, Whitman had the chance that few politicians ever get. She found herself in a place where actual courage would have done great — maybe even historic — good. And she punted spectacularly. It's a story worth rehashing for the light it sheds on how easily moderates and centrists are run over by zealots, a subject that bears on current debates such as the one over Social Security."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mckibben20mar20,0,2306713.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Inspired by his nomination to head the World Bank and loaded with viagra, the filthy little monster performs his favorite precoital dance for his girl friend, already (in truth) an employee of the Bank. 

Stiglitz warns against Wolfowitz

The Business.telegraph reports on the World Bank's former chief economist and his warning against the appointment of the wretched little monster:

"In an exclusive interview, the American Nobel laureate said: "The World Bank will once again become a hate figure. This could bring street protests and violence across the developing world." He described President Bush's determination to appoint his deputy defence secretary to the important post as "either an act of provocation or an act so insensitive as to look like provocation". Wolfowitz is widely regarded as the creator of the policy that led to the US war in Iraq. . ."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml;sessionid=TJC05Y3WIGGVPQFIQMFCM5OAVCBQYJVC?xml=/money/2005/03/20/cnwbank20.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/20/ixportal.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=9721

Russian Oil and a new Cold War? Thanks, POTUS.

Writing in the Asia Times, an investment risk analyst argues that in their arrogant dreams to establish US hegemony worldwide, the POTUS and his nutjobs have driven Russia into a counter-position forging new alliances with US foes. Strategic cutbacks in Russian oil production, likely out-ranking Saudi capacity, could leverage record energy costs. Thank goodness the smirky little fraud in the white house can see into the soul of his soviet buddy. Will he still be smirking with Putin's member up his rectum?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GC18Ag01.html

Very nice Slideshow: Thanks to FarceofNature for the link to Hubble---see several posts below, "Dad, here's . . ."

Diagram of third-world deep-mining exploitation proposed by the nasty little monster just nominated to head the World Bank 

Read about W. Arkin's Revelation of the Pentagon's DOMESTIC Hunter/Killer Units (02.06.05)

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2005/02/06/922316.html

Now read about the Forged Pentagon Cable accusing Arkin of Spying for Saddam (03.18.05)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45614-2005Mar17?language=printer

Dad, here's something for you!

http://dr-joe.net/flash/hubble.htm

pics and cools music of some of the Hubble's best...get 'em before the Hubble is retired

A Final Thought for this Sunday: All but forgotten in the Press and by the press of our own political entropy is the continuing horror in the Sudan and Congo, even as the Rwanda movies keep coming. . . 

Now we're driving the whole world nuts---or not

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Chanting "fatherland or death,'' dozens of President Hugo Chavez's supporters lined up in formation, vowing to defend the country if the United States tries to invade. Led by an army reservist, the volunteers in black caps said their numbers would swell in the coming months.

Will Pitt's Advice to the Braindead Dems

Will Pitt, still in bad shape from the ANWR vote, nonetheless got it together yesterday to put out a great little essay showing the dems how to hammer the nutjobs at midterm: a series of succinct voting records that could crucify them in their home states, like voting down vets benefits. These are ready-to-go commercials, truthful, easy to understand, cheap to market. BUT IS ANYONE OUT THERE LISTENING? YO, YOU DEMS, YOU GOT ABOUT A MONTH OR SO LEFT BEFORE THE HUMAN RACE WRITES YOU OFF AS NOT JUST ENDANGERED, BUT EXTINCT. Now, there's an idea, the metaphore of the Dems on a feeding tube while the republicans kick it into federal court. . .

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/18/11719/9579

New IRA Terror Alerts

For students of 21st C. political warfare, check out the Guardian's article on new fears in the UK.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1441975,00.html

Your new Social Security card, but not to worry: POTUS says it won't effect anyone over 50. Ditto for health care, pensions, voting rights, freedom from search and seizure, and the draft. 

Norm's a Keeper when it comes to Environment

Following is a copy of Sen. Coleman's response to my email thanking him for supporting the protection of ANWR. As form letters go, it is well-tailored and conveys a lot of information, even if I don't agree with all of it. Good for him. . .

"Thank you for taking the time to contact me concerning Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) provisions being included as part of the fiscal year 2006 Congressional Budget Resolution.

"During consideration of the fiscal year 2004 Budget Resolution, I voted in support of the Boxer amendment to strip out a provision concerning ANWR drilling because I believe that the ANWR debate is a detour from the road we ought to be traveling if we want to maximize environmental protection, energy independence, and economic development dividends. I strongly believe the road to these dividends is renewable energy, including ethanol, biodiesel , wind, and even livestock waste.

"In the 108 th Congress I cosponsored legislation that would require an increasing portion of our U.S. energy supply to be met by renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel . One study suggests that this legislation would displace more than 1.6 million barrels of oil at a crucial time when foreign oil imports account for 56 percent of domestic oil consumption a figure expected to climb to a staggering 70 percent in the future unless things change. The same study indicates that this legislation would also reduce the nation's trade deficit by more than $34 billion, increase our gross domestic product by $156 billion, create more than 214,000 new jobs, expand household income by an additional $51.7 billion, and increase net farm income by $6 billion annually. With fourteen ethanol plants already having more than a half billion dollars in positive economic impact on Minnesota , imagine the impact on our State alone under this legislation.
"In short, renewable fuels offer a lot of promise a promise I want to help become a reality. I understand that those who support oil exploration in ANWR see it as an opportunity for economic development and energy independence, while those who oppose oil exploration in ANWR see it as important to environmental protection. Yet, while I support the important objectives of both sides, I happen to see renewable fuels and renewable energy as the optimal and most relevant way to advance all three.
Please know that, as you request, I will keep your concerns in mind when ANWR issues come before the full Senate for a vote and that I value your advice.
"Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me. If I can be of further assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,Norm ColemanUnited States Senate"

What do you see? Supposedly, preconditioning determines whether you see the amorous couple or the 9 dolphins. Right. 

The Perfect Marriage of Industry and Metaphysics 

Review of Democratic Leadership and the AntiWar Movement

Dear F&F, Yesterday we went to Oneonta and joined the Student Alternative Voices demonstration at the little plaza on Main Street. A half dozen or so grayheads from the local political action group joined the students, but overall it was a rather small turnout despite terrific weather, for whatever reasons: lack of publicity, lack of any real push, a sense of defeatism, and maybe something more sinister (later on this). What did surprise me, however, was the response from motorists driving on Main Street right by us. Probably a good third honked, gave the V sign, or otherwise signified support. As you know, standing in a demonstration or walking a picket line gets boring very fast, so observing the reaction of drivers-by (it would be great if we had a meaningful number of passers-by these days, but pedestrians are a dying breed even in Oneonta unless it's Friday night when the colleges are in session). We saw no hostility, although a number of drivers/passengers seemed indifferent. So I wondered about all the additional souls who were driving to or from whatever business they had on a beautiful Saturday afternoon when their sympathies were with us and our signs on the sidewalk. At one point, across the street, a rather colorful young man stopped to address us, expressing sympathy but letting us know that all the war and mischief had to go down before Jesus comes back and makes everything alright.

I came to these two thoughts. 1) The lack of antiwar leadership among the dems is due to their political cowardice and guilt, and I don't know which came first. Did they really believe the transparently fake reasons for POTUS' invasion of Iraq, as they now say they did, or were they merely afraid of the political liability in opposing it? In either case, having voted him his war powers, they were then trapped by either their own stupidity/gullibilty or by their own political complicity, and now can only criticize his conduct of the war. This was the silly, weak position Kerry found himself in. And of course to help strengthen their political stature they also add that the world and Iraq are in any case better off without the little monster Saddam. But are we? Was the little tyrant really a threat, and were most of the Iraqis any worse off than most of the Arabs in the Mideast? We tend to blur the horrors of Afghanistan with life in Iraq; can you really separate some of the video clips from two years ago? If the dems among others were truly deceived by POTUS and company, and if they were true to their ideals, it seems to me they would have but one course of action, to seek the impeachment of the POTUS for either his intolerable incompetence or for deliberate deceit, a crime against the state. But only Ramsey Clarke's is the audible voice for this cause (toward which I recommend whatever contributions you can make).

And so to thought number 2). How do we all feel about Iraq converting to an Islamic theocracy? Probably something like Iran with Shiite dominance. Isn't this the real, usually underspoken concern, more relevant than fears of civil war (would the Iraqis experience any difference anyway)? Isn't this the eventuality that whispers in our ear, "Here is the promotion of the terrorist threat." The destruction of Iraq therefore becomes preferable to the conversion of Iraq to a patently enemy state, a bad thing in itself but also contributory to the fall of the dominoes in favor of fundamentalist Islam worldwide, just as we feared the spread of communism during the cold war. If you believe in this danger, you have to accept the present scenario in Iraq, it seems to me. But if you are also persuaded to the politically correct manner, as most dems and republicans try or pretend to be, you are reluctant to express aversion to ANY religion, including fundamentalist Islam. Instead you refer to terrorists and evildoers. So what is it? Are fundamentalist Muslims the enemy? Or is there a subset of fundamentalist Muslims who are the enemy? And do fundamentalist Islamic states per se support terrorists and sponsor terrorism? Or do they merely sympathize? If you are an Irish American, how did/do you view the IRA? If you are approximately a rationalist in our country who values truth and science, how do you view the fundamentalist Christians? A small number of them are terrorists and have been actively perpetrating terror throughout this century, bombing Black churches and abortion clinics, shooting freedom riders and abortion doctors. But here is the tricky part: as a group, they are threatening the civil liberties of all Americans and the sciences and philosophies inherited from the age of reason, which, embraced by our founding fathers, made possible the invention of this magnificent republic. Can you have it both ways? Can you fight the footsoldiers of the movement while tolerating the movement itself? And even if the leaders and spokesmen of the movement condemn the actions of their minority fringe (or even the fringe itself, which is a different thing), how do you deal with the fact that it is the core beliefs of the movement which inevitably produce the fringe activists? Can you grow the poppy without its flower? The lion without its teeth? Now it is also the truth that as you move out from the identified subset of dangerous activists, you can describe successively broader contributory supersets ad nauseum, so I would never assign this problem to John Kerry among others. ( It is hardly useful to believe that we must tolerate Christian extremists who lynch Blacks and bomb clinics and who are members of a generally peaceful group of fundamentalists who in turn are members of the Protestant religions who in turn are members of the Christian community who in turn are members of the Abrahmic group who in turn are members of the group of human beings who are religious people who are members of the human race, simply because we do not want to regard the human race as the enemy.) I think there is a simple test to discriminate the group, once you identify the terrorists. The group must meet two requirements: its core beliefs and teachings in themselves support or generate the actions, and absent the group and its core beliefs, the terrorists lack identity and would not exist. These are actually two ways of stating the same dynamic, but it seems useful, for problem-solving, to express them as different approaches. A third consideration is, do the core beliefs and teachings impact the larger society negatively, aside from the actions of the terrorists? Do they detract from or seek to replace positive values of the larger group?

My own feeling is that both fundamentalist Christianity and fundamentalist Islam satisfy the tests.

With those thoughts in mind, I mentally revisited our little demonstration in Oneonta yesterday. Most of the signs were antiwar. But others ranged from general distress (SOS) through Impeach Bush (mine) and Save the Palestinians to Save ANWR. So, this being an antiwar rally, it is interesting that, for a number of those who showed up, FOR SOME REASON higher concerns than a focus on the war itself held sway. . . And part of the reason for that may be that a number of people are intuitively, if not logically, reluctant to walk away from Iraq and the fear of what it may become. I also suspect that this intuition is largely misplaced from where it more immediately belongs, facing our own home-grown threat.

So here it is. Yes, withdraw from Iraq, knowing it will likely revert to a theocracy. At the same time, require a Palestinian state and withdraw our interventionist people and policies from the Mideast, which are the larger cause of all this in the first place. Mistrust all political leadership. Study the analysis and advice of the libertarians, who in matters of foreign affairs seem to be the best thinkers at the moment. And confront the snowballing threat of the evangelical fundamentalists here at home. They are twice the danger of the Islamic terrorists. They are already in our congress and maybe the White House, if it were capable of metaphysical thought. They are already affecting our public education and censoring textbooks and the media. They are fueling the fascist autochthons. Until and unless they abandon their goal to control government and through it, you, they are the immediate enemy of this republic. They will drag you screaming or in silence right back through 1776 to the dark ages. And the scene will be dramatically backlighted by the burning of your books, if not of heretics. . .

Finally, lest my biases dominate, you are referred to John Walsh's interesting piece on the PERFIDY of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S PUPPETS (his alliteration does not infect the essay), as excerpted here:


"Scarcely a day goes by that I do not receive an email from a self-proclaimed "progressive" organization soliciting contributions and asking for support and participation. Unfortunately most of these groups are tightly allied with, if not completely controlled by, the Democratic Party leadership and they toe the party line with a fidelity that would make an old Stalinist blush. The groups are legion: MoveOn, ACT, American Family Values, True Majority, etc. They raise many issues, the favorites being Social Security and (surprise!) electing Democrats in 2006. But one issue that is rarely mentioned is the war on Iraq. And although these groups will tell you that the war was a mistake, they are careful to state that now the U.S. cannot withdraw ­ at least not anytime soon. They are for "staying the course," although they do not like to use those words. The giant fissure now separating these groups and their hawkish masters like Howard Dean, H. Clinton and John Kerry from genuine progressives and from a near majority of the American people is the issue of total withdrawal from Iraq, commencing at once.
Perhaps no organization is more illustrative of this kind of sell-out, and none more powerful, than MoveOn.org. . ."

http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh03182005.html

Quote for the Day

"People are forever attributing informed wisdom to power, while willful ignorance might be closer to the truth."

---William Sloan Coffin, 80, from his parlor in Strafford, Vt. Read a recent interview at:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0318-02.htm

Link to ARCTIC POWER

The Alaskan group advocating ANWR drilling. Their site offers a number of interesting associations.

http://www.anwr.org/power.htm

Link to Barbara Boxer's Letter of Boycott to Oil Companies

Quick link to sign the petition:

http://ga4.org/campaign/boycott?source=petitionsearch

The ANWR Vote and other BEDFELLOWS

Another force for drilling ANWR is the Teamsters, actively involved in the lobbying effort to secure lucrative jobs. Here is the link to their own website celebrating this week's "victory." It is in PDF. Other info and links to follow as this story develops for the future congressional struggles. PS---I have to repeat the need to continue emailing the traitors and heroes in the Senate vote; the debate is not over.

http://www.anwr.org/features/pdfs/03.16.05HoffaANWRVote.pdf

You want olives ? You got olives. 

Hans Bethe requiescat in pace

A short note in a recent copy of Time Magazine
tells of the death of Hans Bethe, 98, the "last of the
scientific titans who helped devise the atom bomb for
the U.S. government's Manhattan Project." Bethe was a
"brilliant, unpretentious refugee from Nazi Germany."

During the Reagan years, Bethe became a vocal
proponent of disarmament and criticized the Star Wars
plan, saying "We need to try to understand the other
fellow and try to come to some agreement about the
common danger. That is what's been forgotten."

Anything that looks and acts this dumb has got to be a tool, right? Well---er---even a tapeworm can generate enough original impulse to get a hook in your asshole. . . 

WIRING THE POTUS

Prologue. This post is not satire. I have read a bit of the conspiratorial speculation about what was under the stumbling ragbag's suit jacket during the debate and some of it seems plausible. What bothered me during these readings, however, was an underlying feeling that there has always been something vaguely unreal about his affect during his press conferences and the debates. I felt this way before the idea of a radio receiver was raised. Initially I attributed his peculiar behavior to apparent stupidity and lack of confidence: the "deer in the headlights" expression which was so frequently described before he assumed the status and stature of a dangerous deranged tyrant who may actually be calling the shots. So I am going to explore this possibility from some different angles.

WOULD THEY USE THE TECHNOLOGY? Let's remind ourselves of the totally unscrupulous strategies and tactics of this administration. 1) To go to war, they manipulated intelligence and invented rationale. Many of us thought it was obvious at the time and were amazed that the media and political opposition went along with it (the WMD, the aluminum tubes, the Al Qaida connection etc.). For us, the clincher was Powell's inept, unconvincing presentation of the case for war before the UN; I remarked at the time that as a high school term paper, his arguments would get an F. What we did not fully understand was the extent to which the administration was already intimidating and controlling agency officials, the media, and the members of Congress. 2) Not only have they bought the best PR the market can offer, they have adopted the techniques of totalitarian control to invest paid agents in the media, to craft a language of doubletalk and deceit which misrepresents their real objectives and actions, to inject packages of prepared propaganda into the news industry, and to promote watchdogs in academia. These actions are also matters of fact. 3) They have systematically advanced the totalitarian agenda of limiting civil rights. The provisions of the Patriot Act, together with surreptitious initiatives/advances such as extraordinary rendition and interrogation under torture, represent a policy of depersonalization and objectification of human beings. The specific actions referred to here are now matters of fact. 4) The administration is undeterred by considerations of conscience or fear of detection, as demonstrated by its widescale distortions and character assasinations, and by its practice of revisionistic rationalization (in the absence of the initial pretexts for invading Iraq, new reasons were added---democratization---along with generalizations of the original pretexts---Saddam as a threat absent any basis for his threat).

I could go on, but these considerations alone seem to me sufficient to predicate not only the possibility, but the likelihood, that they would use any means available to further their advantage, including wiring the POTUS to enhance his performance in areas where he is admittedly uncomfortable and obviously unskilled, namely, the spontaneous discourse required in debates and press conferences. Most likely, they would consider themselves derelict if they did NOT take advantage of the opportunity.

So, yes, they would certainly use the technology. In a heartbeat.

Next: COULD they use the technology?

YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

Dear F&F, Ok, we know Floridians aren't the brightest of the brain-dead, but no way can they or anybody else go for this ludicrous spectacle of the stumbling ragbag barely capable of speech dragging Moms out to stump for him on the Social Security ripoff---because she is worried about the financial security of all her grandchildren. If you know anyone dumb or sentimental enough to fall for this, do him a favor and apply an extreme anesthetic. As the LATimes reports it:

"ORLANDO, Fla. — As the mother of President Bush and the matriarch of America's presiding political dynasty, Barbara Bush probably does not rely on Social Security to get by. But on Friday, the former first lady joined her son's campaign to convince seniors that they need not fear an overhaul of the retirement program.The 79-year-old first mother said she was worried about what Social Security might mean for future Bushes if the president's plans were not adopted.

"I'm here because your father and I have 17 grandchildren," she said. "And we want to know, is someone going to do something about it?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush19mar19.story

WorldCom Directors Re-agree to Personal Restitution

Dear F&F, former WorldCom directors settled yesterday to repay 20M from their personal funds. Of course, 20M to these whorehogs is like 11M is to Walmart. But then again, the conviction of whore Ebbers may have been an inducement if they were reading the handwriting on the wall. MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN

"A landmark agreement by former WorldCom directors to pay millions of their own money to settle with investors was revived yesterday about six weeks after it was scuttled by objections from other defendants in the case.
Under the terms of the settlement, which was reached early yesterday evening, 11 former WorldCom directors will pay $20 million out of their own pockets to settle with Alan G. Hevesi, comptroller of New York and trustee of the state's Common Retirement Fund. Mr. Hevesi is lead plaintiff in the civil suit representing hundreds of thousands of investors who held WorldCom stock and bonds in the years immediately before its bankruptcy filing in 2002."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/business/19worldcom.html?th

Mea Culpa, Julia

Ms. Childs, I have just been informed, is no longer among the brain-active, brain-damaged, brain-challenged, brain-severely-damaged, or even the brain-dead.

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE

Dear F&F, OK, James Cameron did it, crossed the line and started down the slippery slope when he said (of the creationists' objections to his film VOLCANOES):

"It seems to be a new phenomenon, obviously symptomatic of our shift away from empiricism in science to faith-based science."

"Faith-based science," Jimmy? Is that anything like science-based faith? Have you joined our braindead brethren south of the Mason-Dixon? Here's an idea, just make Jesus flix for all the Imaxes in the south/southwest/midwest, and show your science features in New England and California. . .and the rest of the civilized world. Whatever possessed these cracker bipeds to imagine they had the capacity to form opinions? When does the book-burning start?

Seriously, dear F&F, this is a creeping issue that needs massive counter-pressure. Suggest heavy mailing to the offending (slipping) parties. An excerpt from the NYTimes article follows:

"Volcanoes," released in 2003 and sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and Rutgers University, has been turned down at about a dozen science centers, mostly in the South, said Dr. Richard Lutz, the Rutgers oceanographer who was chief scientist for the film. He said theater officials rejected the film because of its brief references to evolution, in particular to the possibility that life on Earth originated at the undersea vents.

Carol Murray, director of marketing for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, said the museum decided not to offer the movie after showing it to a sample audience, a practice often followed by managers of Imax theaters. Ms. Murray said 137 people participated in the survey, and while some thought it was well done, "some people said it was blasphemous."

In their written comments, she explained, they made statements like "I really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact," or "I don't agree with their presentation of human existence."

(Whatever happened to the good old days when really dumb people just walked around confused? I remember them in school. Since when did they start trying to think? And most important, who gave them the idea that they have anything to say that anyone else in the whole known universe wants to hear? ---Do I climb in the ring with Vitali Klitchko? Do I enter a bakeoff with Julia Childs?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/national/19imax.html?pagewanted=2&th

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"It was odious, it was shocking, it was disgusting and I think all Americans should be alarmed."

---Lawyer for Terry Schiavo's husband, on the spectacle of the vulture-whores in congress making whatever political gain they could contrive from the wretched spectacle. (No, I can't visualize a vulture-whore either, but the concept seemed appropriate.)
I originally was not going to draw any more attention to this truly pathetic little family drama, but after receiving hundreds of emails to the contrary, am yielding to popular demand. The first Terry joke I have heard came from Bill Maher last night when he announced that the feeding tube had been removed, adding that Kirstie Alley was heard calling out, "I'll take it, I'll take it!"
Of course with our absolutely shameless elected officials now embracing this poor brain-damaged shell of a human being, you don't need comedians to point out the absurdities. Like the subpoena. If this works ok in this case, talk is, they'll be issuing one for Jimmy Hoffa. Henry Waxman was heard ruminating that they should have tried it with the baseball players. And just as some of the more clever dems were starting to wonder if subpoenas for the brain-damaged had broader political application, the ever-loyal and -protective Condi Rice flew back to DC to pre-empt their iniative with a speech drawing the distinctions between truly brain-damaged and merely brain-challenged.
The dems decided that strategic retreat was a no-brainer, so they backed off and let the republicans rally the righteous in their orgy of sanctimonious life-saving. "It's not brain surgery," declared Henry Waxman, "to see this would be a losing issue for us." Others wondered if there were any issues for Hank and his friends that were NOT of the losing kind. In the other chamber, Sen. Ladrieu was overheard confessing that she would be compelled to vote with the republicans on this issue. Her Hawaiian colleagues wondered if indigenous Americans really did eat seal brains.
And otherwise, among the millions of brain-dead who voted in the first place to put the republicans in the white house and congressional majority, there was a handful---just a handful---who sadly remembered that once upon a time the GOP stood for smaller government with little interest in intruding in our private lives. . .

REVEALED AT LAST - As an interesting corollary to the House hearings on steroid abuse, Michael Jackson confessed today that Rep. Henry Waxman has the look that the pop star had pursued during his many years of rhinoplasty.

Your Congressmen Hard at Work Spending your Tax Dollars to Obtain the Following Decisive and Profound Opinions

Mr. McHenry asked the baseball players if using steroids was cheating. "That's not for me to determine," Mr. McGwire replied. Mr. McHenry persisted: "For you, is it cheating? Yes or no." Mr. McGwire repeated, "That's not for me to determine."
Mr. Schilling said, "Yes." Mr. Palmeiro said, "I think it is." Mr. Sosa and Mr. Canseco each said, "I think so."

Help Chuck Schumer fight Extremist Judicial Appointments

http://www.dscc.org/fight

Municipal Wireless and Broadband News

Dear F&F, An excerpt below for those interested in the democritization of internet access. Muniwireless.com is a great site for news on the developments and battles to bring lower cost access.

"A victory in Texas for those who came out against the anti-municipal broadband restrictions in Texas House Bill 789! Because of their letters, faxes and phone calls to state legislators, the language in HB 789 prohibiting municipalities from delivering broadband service was removed. However, no one expects this issue to go away. Adina Levin of EFF-Austin says SBC is still lobbying hard and expects similar language to pop up in other bills.
The FCC has opened access to the 3650-3700 MHz bands which Sascha Meinrath calls an innovative scheme - a nationwide non-exclusive licensing paradigm where anyone can use the band by just signing up. The FCC is also seeking comments on the Wireless Broadband Task Force's report; the deadline is April 22. If you want to have a say in the FCC's broadband policy, please send in your comments."

A NEW GUSHER: The Neos, the Realists, and the Battle over Iraqi Oil

Dear F&F, Last night the BBC aired a major story outlining the secret wars between the neos and the oil industry (the realists/pragmatists, fortified by the State Department from time to time) over the exploitation of Iraq's oil. The lead reporter was Greg Palast, and Harpers collaborated with the BBC in the story development.
In simple reduction: the Neos argued from the beginning for the privatization of Iraqi oil, scheming to overproduce/underprice and destroy OPEC (not coincidentally the economies and attending politics of the Arab world?). Concurrently, the oil industry feared that privatization could go wrong and they might be blocked from bidding, as they were with the Russian oil. They also have long-standing arrangements with the Saudis and enjoy the profits from high oil costs a la OPEC, not to mention the strategic advantages presented by the status quo. Both plans predate our invasion of Iraq. Remember those mysterious early meetings between Cheney TRex and the industry, still secret? Remember the articles by Naomi Klein et al. about the neo plots to devastate the Iraqi infrastructure and let "capitalism blossom" from the roots up? It all starts to congeal.

Here are some of the players contributing to the story that aired last night:

Falah Aljibury---The Iraqi-born oil industry consultant who goes back to Reagan's administration and reportedly was that admin's access to Saddam.

Robert Ebel---CIA oil analyst.

Ahmed Chalabi---Well-known neo lapdog.

Phillip Carroll---Former CEO of Shell and annointed manager of Iraq's post-invasion oil operations, credited with standing up to Bremer and stalling the sell-off.

Ariel Cohen---Neo with the Heritage Foundation.

Amy Jaffee---Representative of the James Baker Institute in Texas, worked on the third report completed Jan. '04 calling for the industry-backed plan for a state-owned operation.

James Baker---Familiar political whore, former Sec. of State, currently representing Exxon-Mobil and the Saudis.

The story also features documents outlining the third plan, FOILed by the news; in any event they offer further evidence in addition to the testimonies. Of course, inasmuch as they postdate the invasion they are not so politically damaging. But here I get amazed again, grounded as I must be in senile naivetee: why is this story not in the banners of our MSM today? Here is some very substantial information on the perceived economic arguments for the invasion. There is also a terrifying impression that the stumbling ragbag barely capable of speech wasn't even decided as to how we would manage Iraq's oil resources until after the invasion. But then again, it could be that the oil industry had the edge all along, courtesy TRex, and the fix was simply withheld from the drooling neos. On the other hand, don't count the neos out; the little monster just got the World Bank.

So the folks who seem more sure of these things than is an old grey ent are saying the neos lost in this particular effort to bring on Armaggedon. I suppose we should be grateful in some measure that incorporated greed and self-interest trumped the apocalyptical wetdreams of the filthy little ideomaniacs, many of whom still pick their noses. Repeat that mantra as you pay record prices at the pump. . .

You can get started on this story at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm

Quote of the Day

"It (yesterday's Senate action on the budget proposal) provided a huge amount of tax cuts. We didn't know what we were doing."

---Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R, New Mexico

Well, double duh on that, Petey. What it does look like you whores did was authorize 134 billion in tax cuts, 34B more than even the stumbling ragbag barely capable of speech requested. You not only did this during a time of threatening deficits, but from I can see, all the new tax cuts benefit (here comes the surprise) the wealthy. Now we wait and see what the lower class whores on the other side of the tracks want to do with it when you convene (that means cum together).

Wiener girls watching The Ring on DVD 

Naomi Watts and The Ring 2

Dear F&F, Predictably, the NYTimes pans the sequel, and it could well be a dud despite Hideo Nakata's direction, but the reviewer is obviously taken by the "luminous presence" of my favorite lady star of the decade, Naomi Watts. Ever since she turned my head inside out and back again in Mulholland Drive, I have tried to catch up on all her flicks. I hope Peter Jackson exercises her skills well in his Kong; it will be hard to beat Jessica Lange's drug-hazed sacrificial scene in the '76 remake (about the best 5 minutes in that flawed ambition), but Jackson and Watts have the talent to do it. An excerpt from the times article and link follow:




"The mercurially talented Ms. Watts had to endure an unfair share of humiliation on her road from obscurity, including stinkers like "Tank Girl" and a host of similarly forgettable fare. Since her breakout appearance in David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" four years ago, she has followed the now standard trajectory that finds certain higher-profile screen actors methodically alternating between nominally independent boutique items, like "21 Grams," which helped lift Ms. Watts's serious-film profile, and bigger-budget, high-concept entertainments like "The Ring," which are meant to show that she can hold the larger-stakes screen and do the mainstream thing without selling out her talent. Or so the Hollywood thinking seems to go. . .
"One of Ms. Watts's current projects is Peter Jackson's remake of "King Kong," and while the real star of that show will be the special effects, the movie should help secure Ms. Watts pop-movie credibility. By the time "King Kong" opens, "The Ring Two" will have rotated to the DVD bargain bin. Meanwhile, here's hoping her handlers begin exhibiting as much prudence as Rachel Keller does in her fight against evil; an actress in Hollywood has a preciously short shelf life, and you can't build a brilliant career with expired goods."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/movies/18ring.html?th

The ANWR Vote: Email/webform addresses for the Traitors and Heroes

Dear F&F , Suggest MANY MANY emails of extreme censure to whore landrieu and the hawaiian idiots. Recommend emails of appreciation to the 7 brave republicans. It is not an easy matter for these to go against the thugs in power.

The traitors:
senator@akaka.senate.gov
senator inouye
senator landrieu
The heroic republicans who crossed over:

coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm
collins.senate.gov/low/contactemail.htm
mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Contact.Home
chafee.senate.gov/webform.htm
http://dewine.senate.gov/
gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm
olympia@snowe.senate.gov

View of Connemara  

Happy St. Paddy's and this is all there is, courtesy Jen

Mary Clancy goes up to Father O'Grady after his Sunday morning service, and she's in tears. He says, "So what's bothering you, Mary my dear?" She says, "Oh, Father, I've got terrible news. My husband passed away last night." The priest says, "Oh, Mary, that's terrible. Tell me, did he have any last requests?" She says, "That he did, Father..." The priest says, "What did he ask, Mary?" She says, "He said, "Please Mary, put down that damn gun."
***********************************************************

Three Irishmen, Paddy, Sean and Seamus, were stumbling home from the pub late one night and found themselves on the road which led past the old graveyard.. "Come have a look over here," says Paddy, "It's Michael O'Grady's grave, God bless his soul. He lived to the ripe old age of 87." "That's nothing," says Sean, "here's one named Patrick O'Toole, it says here that he was 95 when he died." Just then, Seamus yells out, "Good God, here's a fella that got to be 145!" "What was his name?" asks Paddy. Seamus stumbles around a bit, awkwardly lights a match to see what else is written on the stone marker, and exclaims, "Miles, from Dublin."

Newgrsange neolithic tomb, County Meath 

Happy St. Paddy's somemore courtesy Jen

An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped forspeeding in Connecticut. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then seesan empty wine bottle on the floor of the car. He says, "Sir, have youbeen drinking?" "Just water," says the priest. The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?" The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
*****************************************************************************

Two Irishmen were sitting at a pub having beer and watching the brothel across the street. They saw a Baptist minister walk into the brothel, and one of themsaid, "Aye, 'tis a shame to see a man of the cloth goin' bad." Then they saw a rabbi enter the brothel, and the other Irishman said,"Aye, 'tis a shame to see that the Jews are fallin' victim to temptation as well." Then they see a catholic priest enter the brothel, and one of theIrishmen said, "What a terrible pity...one of the girls must be dying.
*********************************************************************************

Drunk Ole Mulvihill (From the Northern Irish Clan) staggers into aCatholic Church, enters a confessional box, sits down but says nothing.The Priest coughs a few times to get his attention but the Ole justsits there. Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall. The drunk mumbles, "ain't no use knockin, there's no paper on this side either.">

Guess who is the little baby? 

Will Pitt Gives them Hell: a Most Excellent Rant

Dear F&F, Will Pitt just published his most excellent rant of the year, complete with photos and poems. He drips venom on Ms. Landrieu's treacherous betrayal of the dems in her unforgivable vote on ANWR. The traitors deserve to be scourged with thousands of emails excoriating their evildoing. An excerpt:

"The list of appalling and abominable and flatly criminal acts perpetrated by this administration is literally becoming too long to manage. I suppose this is what happens when the entire government is owned by one party. I suppose this is what happens when that one party is owned lock, stock and barrel by a cancerous combination of oil companies, weapons manufacturers and Rapture-happy fundamentalist Christians who think God put dinosaur bones in the ground to mess with our heads.

This is what happens when the ‘opposition party’ sells its people down the river.

Let us be clear: The Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve is about to be ravaged for one reason. Three Democratic Senators jumped the fence and voted with the drill bits, undoing a twenty-year-long fight to preserve the land. Senators Landrieu, Akaka and Inouye were the reason this went 51-49 the wrong way. . ."


http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/17/94845/3273

New York Alerts from our local Action Group

Voting in New York - Call to Action Who wants to get involved in assuring that every New Yorker's vote is counted and counted correctly?We must take action now to convince our state legislature to adopt paper ballots/optical scanners (PBOS) as THE voting system across New York State. It has several advantages over touch screen voting machines, often referred to as direct recording electronic voting machines, or DRE's, including, most importantly, reduced opportunities for tampering. In addition, PBOS uses proven technology whereas with DRE's we would be the "Beta-testers." Furthermore, the DREs would need replacing, at great cost, every 5 years! (For further information, see, www.nyvv.org.) At present, both the Senate and the Assembly have passed bills relating to voting machines. S-1809 would mandate paper receipts, escrowed source code, and random sampling. S-1809 can be found by typing s1809 in the window at http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgiA-5 is similar in many respects but would require that a DRE be present at every polling place! A-5 can be found at http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A5 Thesebills have been sent to a joint Senate-Assembly conference committee that will try to come up with a bill that will be acceptable to both the Senate and the Assembly. If we want PBOS to be the voting system for NYS, the time to act is now.Actions contemplated include: meeting with Senator Seward, Assemblyman Magee, the Otsego County Board of Supervisors, and officials on the Otsego County Board of Elections. We also might plan to lobby the conference committee and the NYS board of elections, which, depending on what legislation is finally enacted, could end up being delegated the responsibility of making the final decisions.All interested persons are encouraged to attend a meeting Tuesday evening, March 22, at 7:00pm at the First United Methodist Church, Chestnut and Church Streets, Oneonta.If you want to be involved but can't make it Tuesday, please let us know by phone or email.Etlesq@aol.com

County Limerick 

Happy St. Paddy's courtesy Jen

An Irishman arrived at J.F.K. Airport and wandered around the terminal with tears streaming down his cheeks. An airline employee asked him if he was already homesick. "No," replied the Irishman, "I've lost all me luggage!" "How'd that happen?" "The cork fell out!" said the Irishman.

Failed Monsters Part Deux

Dear F&F, The hubris of the stumbling ragbag that is barely capable of speech presents yet another affront to human decency, the appointment of a squeaky little monster who has spent his career fomenting nasty schemes designed to avenge himself on the human race, motivated--- according to an acknowledged personal acquaintance who also coincidentally went to church with Michael Jackson and reports how the pop star tempted choir boys with pieces of host he secreted in his pockets--- by the humiliation he experienced in eighth-grade gym class, when, in addition to being 4 inches shorter than the class average, he insisted on showering in his underwear because of his delayed pubic pilosity. How this wretched little creature managed to crawl out of a third-tier think tank and exercise any degree of influence at all is one those marvels of corrupt governance: an accident in historical timing when the greatest service that can be paid the aforesaid stumbling ragbag barely capable of speech is slurping sycophancy. . .or, as Jim Valette writes:

"President George W. Bush has shocked the international development world by announcing that he wants Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to be the next president of the World Bank. Choosing Wolfowitz for this job makes perfect sense if the Bush administration intends to completely alienate the world community. It’s the worst presidential nomination since Ronald Reagan picked James Watt to head the Interior Department, and it betrays the government’s practice of putting business and geopolitical interests above all else."

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/why_wolfowitz.php

View from Blarney Castle 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Jokes today courtesy Jen:


McQuillan walked into a bar and ordered martini after martini, each timeremoving the olives and placing them in a jar. When the jar was filled with olives and all the drinks consumed, the Irishman started to leave. "S'cuse me", said a customer, who was puzzled over what McQuillan haddone, "what was that all about?" "Nothin', said the Irishman, "my wife just sent me out for a jar ofolives!"

Mystery Quote Contest

The first person to identify the author and year of the following quote will receive one grandstand ticket to the '05 Delaware County Fair demo derby. the ticket must be claimed at the gate. Identification of the mystery quote is to be made via post to this item. Winner will be required to sign a statement in blood that s/he did not google or otherwise search-engine the quote. Winner is also encouraged NOT to recite the quote aloud in said grandstand.

"I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it."

Welcome to 03.17.05. . .and counting 

More Betrayals by the Democrats

Dear F&F, Just when you think the woods can't get any darker, here is more evidence that the National Democratic Institute is helping the neos do their work. Just whose agenda is this? Cui bono? as they say:

"Elections provide a good crisis point—and there are elections in Lebanon in May. Therefore the question is: are there groups currently in Lebanon preparing the ground for a “Beirut spring” in two months’ time? Is there a “Cedar Revolution” being prepared in Lebanon, modelled on the one in Ukraine?"

http://www.sandersresearch.com/Sanders/NewsManager/ShowNewsGen.aspx?NewsID=871

J.P. Morgan Settles among 14 Investment Bankers

Dear F&F, One day before going to trial, JP Morgan Chase&Co settled with 13 other investment bankers to pay $6B, a record for a securities fraud class action, following Worldcom's bankruptcy. Lead plaintiff was NYS Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who oversees the State pension fund:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/16/news/fortune500/jpmorgan_worldcom/index.htm?cnn=yes

Snow Goddess #1

Snow Goddess Rob and I made..she is pregant and armless...

Snow Goddess #2

snow goddess 3

Snow Goddess #3

snow goddess

One Item of Good News

Dear F&F, Lin reminds us, amidst the awful news of the almost unbelievable wickedness coming out of Washington, that Pale Male and his mate are on eggs. Equally wonderful, one of their offspring is on eggs at Trump Parc. So spring is on its way. ---It seems only days ago we were writing the city officials and other interested parties about the outrageous actions of the human residents who destroyed the nest. Incidentally, to the best of my knowledge, Paula Zahn has still not addressed her part in that nasty little scenario. Let me know if I am wrong because I am still boycotting her show on CNN and continue to send her and the station letters to that effect. It may seem a trivial matter, but what is the difference between the mentality that casually destroys the nest of a hawk on a NYC luxury hirise and the one that invades an arctic refuge for the distant promise of a small oil reserve? I think arrogance, selfishness, and the loss of genuine connection with life are operating in both cases. So it is not a small thing after all. If we fail to protect one, we succeeded in the other. Among the rampant evils covering the world today, much of it generated from the beautiful white stone edifices of our capitol, where the most corrupt demons in the history of our republic gorge themselves in an orgy of greed and deceit, we occasionally come upon islands of promise and opportunity.

Ebbers Convicted by Jury

NEW YORK — The conviction Tuesday of former WorldCom Inc. chief Bernard J. Ebbers for orchestrating an $11-billion accounting fraud could have deep repercussions for other disgraced executives who claim they were unaware of financial scams taking root beneath them.A federal jury found Ebbers, 63, guilty of securities fraud, conspiracy and filing false documents with regulators. He was convicted on all nine counts that he faced. It was the government's biggest win yet in a string of victories against top corporate figures, including Silicon Valley financier Frank Quattrone and lifestyles entrepreneur Martha Stewart. He faces a possible prison term of more than 30 years.There was little hard evidence against Ebbers — no smoking-gun e-mails or paper trails — and the defendant insisted the fraud was masterminded by Scott D. Sullivan, his onetime finance chief who became the federal government's star witness.
The LA Times article continues at:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ebbers16mar16.story

FUCKING SHIT ASS GODDAMN SHIT ON A STICK

so that's it folks...ANWR is now open to raping and pillaging, and it's a huge symbolic victory to neocon greed. Make sure you at least write to your senators who DID vote to block this, especially the Republican moderates who voted with their consciences. The filibuster, once our strongest weapon, is now dead. What a fucking depressing day.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050316/ap_on_go_co/arctic_drilling_10


WASHINGTON - Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush

The Senate, by a 51-49 vote, rejected an attempt by Democrats and GOP moderates to remove a refuge drilling provision from next year's budget, preventing opponents from using a filibuster — a tactic that has blocked repeated past attempts to open the Alaska refuge to oil companies.

Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass., argued that more oil would be saved if Congress enacted an energy policy focusing on conservation, more efficient cars and trucks and increased reliance on renewable fuels and expanded oil development in the deep-water Gulf where there are significant reserves.
"The fact is (drilling in ANWR) is going to be destructive," said Kerry.

Lloyd Axworthy Gives it to Condi

The former Canadian foreign minister speaks some truth to power. Following Canada's rejection of the US bid for her to share in funding our stumbling missile defense program, the neos got their shorts all bunched. Now the arrows fly. How much more polarized does the geography get? Somebody suspected me of favoring isolationism recently; well, it looks like we are confronting a new kind of isolationism: remember the bully in the school yard? All he could do was pick on the rest. . . Thanks to rl for referring us to this item. You can read the letter at: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/2610442p-3026695c.html

Wolfowitz greets members of the press following announcement of his appointment to head the World Bank. In addition to bringing smiles to our EU friends, the event reminded many of the old adage about scum and filth rising to the top. It was widely reported that millions of third world children awoke from violent nightmares with headaches and hunger pangs. Read Jeannine Aversa's article at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/031605Y.shtml

Robert Kuttner on the Dems Asleep at the Wheel

THE REPUBLICANS just did it again. They pushed through Congress a bankruptcy ''reform" bill written by credit card companies. The bill makes it harder for ordinary people crushed by debt (often medical debt) to start anew. It leaves intact dodges used by wealthy people, such as asset-hiding trusts, and the corporate ability to use bankruptcy to slash wages, evade pension responsibilities, and stiff creditors.

There's a larger story here. Time after time, Bush administration policies do real economic harm to ordinary people, yet the Democrats can't seem to turn that reality into winning politics. Why not? . .

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/16/democrats_asleep_at_the_wheel/

Welcome

Dear Friends and Family,

As I write this, numerous matters seem to be running against the clock. Kerry et al. are warning of an imminent vote that will position the Senate on ANWR. In NYS the legislature is about to decide on voting machines. Considerable support has been generated for Optscans which include a paper ballot, maybe a nice thing for a democracy plagued with the problem of counting votes or maybe not counting votes. . . On the other hand, the DRE lobby is said to have its hands or maybe its money deep in the legislators' pockets. So take nothing for granted here; email our virtuous state pols including the governor. Saturday appears to be the day for the next round of demonstrations against the hegemon. It looks like Oneonta or Cooperstown for our immediate area, 1 pm in the former case, on Main Street.

In any event, an ent does not consider these things rapidly, as you have been told, and would prefer to speak of them thoroughly, maybe to the point of exhaustion, even when the forest is a-falling. So it is that I reach the point of welcoming you to this blog and asking patience while I muster my small skills to make it useful and maybe even interesting. Lex was the prime mover, like a number of others inspired to intervene between my emails and her inbox. I will try to put up working links, but please persevere when necessary to copy and paste.

You are most cordially invited and encouraged to post your comments and ideas. The little "comments" tag under the post will open a window for you. You can do this without registering, but you are equally welcome to do so and contribute as a blogger.

These are not happy times for the country, and unless we get a miracle they will remain so for a while, but humor is even more important now so good jokes are welcome. Let's stay in touch and pass on information and ideas.

---nickdad, writing as the old grey ent

Kerry's Last Minute Plea on ANWR

Mar 2005 11:03:06 -0500>>>>Republican leaders came to the floor of the Senate to complain directly about our Citizens' Roll Call to stWe are hours away from the vote to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the heat is on thanks to your efforts over the last 24 hours. A vote is expected around 1:00 PM EST and floor debate begins at 10:15 AM EST. Tune in and watch live on C-SPAN2.>>In the last 24 hours we have seen an amazing display of our johnkerry.com community's ability to quickly mobilize - and a passionate outpouring of commitment to the Arctic Refuge. And you got the attention of the Republicans too. In fact late last night op this special interest giveaway.>>So far, a quarter of a million citizens - more than 260,000 people, have signed our Citizens' Roll Call in support of the Cantwell-Kerry Amendment to prevent the oil drills from invading one of our greatest natural treasures. With the roll call vote in the Senate fast approaching TODAY, we must keep the pressure on - and our Citizens' Roll Call growing.>>Sign the Citizens' Roll Call today:>>http://www.johnkerry.com/RollCall

Culture wars

The culture wars are raging again as to whether the Olmecs were mothers or sisters. Check out the NYT article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/science/15olme.html?ex=1111554000&en=34672178edaf213a&ei=5070

Advice to the faint of heart

Before you are tempted to give too much credence to the decision-challenged who wonder if bush could have been right, check out Harry Brown's advice:
http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/BushWasntRight.htm

So this is about where we exdems stand now, trying to keep the way open and waiting for the caravan. . . 

When Will the Chickens Come Home to Roost?

Chickens