Good...!

So rarely do I read a news story lately in which the establishment decides "my way."

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to block a federal judge's ruling that a Ten Commandments monument be removed from the rotunda of Alabama's state Judicial Building in Montgomery.

The one-line order dismissing an emergency appeal from Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore came hours before a midnight deadline set by U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson for removing the 4-foot-tall, 5,300-pound monument. If officials do not remove it, the state faces a $5,000-a-day fine for defying the judge's order.

To remind readers, the First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

Complete story here.

Get out your telescopes...!

On Aug. 27, Mars will be closer to Earth than it has been in nearly 59,619 years! That long ago, the Neanderthals still had Europe to themselves and anatomically modern Homo sapiens remained mostly in Africa.

On the 27th, the two planets will be only 34,646,418 miles apart--about five times closer than only six months ago.

Complete story here.

And in Israel....

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday on a packed bus on a main thoroughfare in Jerusalem, killing at least 20 people, Israel Army Radio said.

The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility in a call to the Lebanese TV station Al Manar. The attack killed three children and wounded at least 100 more.

The blast on the extra long bus, which had two passenger sections that were full, went off shortly after 9 p.m. Another bus nearby also was hit by the explosion.

It's horrible. Absolutely shocking and sickening.

How can any of these so-called religious extremists--be they Christian, like Bush; Islamic, like the perpetrators of this bombing; or Jewish, like the settlers who bomb Islamic schools--claim their actions are moral?!

Lest you object to my inclusion of Bush in that group, consider the “collateral damage” in Baghdad and Iraq from our missiles and bombs. At Bush's orders, our military intentionally rained down ordinance on cities, knowing hundreds of innocent civilians would "accidentally" be killed.

And don't try to defend his actions by saying he weighed the costs against the lives to be saved. NO weapons of mass destruction have been found. In the end, Bush's ill-conceived war has made the entire population of the world less safe, as we are seeing every day.

Complete story here.

The death toll rises in Baghdad....

BAGHDAD -- The United Nations' chief official in Iraq died today along with at least 14 others when a suicide bomber struck a hotel serving as the headquarters for the U.N., injuring about 100 people.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was working in his second-floor office when the explosion occurred, was trapped in the rubble of the Canal Hotel after the blast. Despite rescuers' attempts to pull him free, the U.N. confirmed in a statement that he died.

The blast, occurring about 4:30 p.m. local time, caused part of the hotel to collapse, and thick, black smoke rose above the rubble. The explosion, which was believed to be caused by a vehicle bomb, jolted Baghdad up to a mile away.

At least 14 people are known dead, with the death toll expected to rise.

Right below this story on the L.A. Times website is one about a suicide-bomber attack on a Jerusalem bus that just killed at least five people.

Tell me again, how are we "winning the war on terrorism?"

I will say it again: you cannot "defeat" terrorism with force, no matter how overwhelming. Did we not learn that in Vietnam?

Moreover, if Israel--with the finest military, police and intelligence forces in the world, operating in a tiny country with a small population--cannot prevent terrorists acts through force, what makes us think we can?

I only wish that the people suffering from these terrorist strikes were the ones driving our insane foreign policy, like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al, and not innocent bystanders.

Complete story here.

Bush in San Diego....

President Bush yesterday thanked military personnel in San Diego for helping the United States toward winning the war against terrorism as he steered clear of the California political spectacle that is overshadowing even his own re-election campaign.

The president raised more than $1 million for that campaign last night at the San Diego Convention Center, telling supporters, "You're laying the groundwork for what will be a great victory in 2004."

[...]

Last week, when Arnold Schwarzenegger declared his candidacy to replace Davis, Bush's remark that the actor would make a "good governor" was widely interpreted as a veiled endorsement.

The day before leaving his Texas ranch for California, Bush amended the comment to say, "He would be a good governor, as would others running for governor of California."

"I'm going to campaign for George W.," he said.

And indeed he is! Raising more than $1 million at a single fundraiser.

I couldn't find any mention in a quick scan of the major papers of Bush addressing the blackout....When he spoke at his fundraiser or elsewhere, did he make any mention of the fact that the entire northeastern United States was without power?

Local story of his speech here.

Isn't it ironic...?

...White House officials were monitoring the blackout from Washington and from San Diego, where President Bush addressed troops at midday.[Emphasis mine.]

I don't know why, but it seems ironic to me that he's in the city where I live when this goes down in the city where I want' to be.

The LA Times and other news outlets are reporting that the blackout has stranded commuters in New York in the subways underground. Yikes!

Complete story here.

New York blacked-out...!

As of around 4:30 p.m. today, New York city is without power. The NYT says the area without electricity extends along the east coast south to Maryland, north to Toronto and west to Cleveland and Detroit. No other details yet.

Ashcroft goes after Voices in the Wilderness...!

The Department of Justice is suing VitW seeking $20,000 for violations of the Iraqi Sanction Regulations. VitW, which solicits funds for humanitarian aid to Iraq, says it will not pay the fine. Instead, it vows to continue its work organizing delegations to Iraq composed of teachers, veterans, social workers, artists, health care professionals and others with the aim of educating the world about the deadly effects of the US bombing and embargo of Iraq.

View the summons.
Participate in the campaign against the summons.

Aren't Christians supposed to be generous....?

Just when I start thinking we're making progress, I'm reminded how bigoted, selfish and narrow-minded many Americans remain.

A strong majority of the public disapproves of the Episcopal Church's decision to recognize the blessing of same-sex unions, and a larger share of churchgoing Americans would object if their own faith adopted a similar practice, according to a new Washington Post poll.

So broad and deep is this opposition that half of all Americans who regularly attend worship services say they would leave their current church if their minister blessed gay couples -- even if their denomination officially approved those ceremonies.

The poll also found that public acceptance of same-sex civil unions is falling. Fewer than four in 10 polled said they would support a law allowing gay men and lesbians to form civil unions that would provide some of the rights and legal protections of marriage.

How bighearted of them.

Naturally, opposition was strongest among evangelical Christians—those charitable folk who believe the Bible is the literal word of God. Eight of 10 polled rejected gay unions, and two of three said they would abandon their home church if it began performing commitment ceremonies for gays.

One was quoted, "It's against the word of God. . . . The Lord didn't make these rules to be mean to us. We will find our greatest amount of health and peace by following his [sic] law."

Well, I am sure relieved to hear that God isn’t mean! It’s a little hard to tell, looking around at the suffering in the world. Suffering that God, being omnipotent, as you believe, could alleviate in the blink of an eye. If he deigned.

As for following “His law,” the Bible also says don’t eat pork or shellfish, don’t mix meat and milk in the same meal and don’t ever have (heterosexual) sex when a woman is on her period.

On the other hand, slavery and polygamy are fine.

I respect people who, without trying to foist their belief system onto others, follow an ethical code of living for the value and meaning it instills into everyday life—whether or not they consider the code divinely-ordained. I practiced orthodox Judaism in that manner for a brief period when I was young.

As for the Evangelicals, who preach “family values” but forbid two men or two women who love each other to consecrate their lives together, I'd rather roast in hell than spend eternity surrounded by the hypocritical, selfish, holier-than-thou likes of you!

Complete story here.

Not the way to gain the people's trust....

BAGHDAD -- American troops shot dead two members of the new Iraqi police force and beat up a third, Iraqi police officers said yesterday, in a development that has aggravated already stressed relations between US troops and the Iraqi people.

[...]

The driver, whom police said was interviewed yesterday by US investigators, offered the following account, according to [Iraqi Police Captain Alaa] Isamil:

The police were trying to apprehend alleged car thieves, who shot at the police car. Iraqi police returned fire, and American soldiers -- apparently hearing the shots -- arrived on the scene. But the troops shot at the Iraqi police car, hitting the officer in the back seat, Isamil said.

The lieutenant in the front seat stumbled out of the car with his hands up, wearing his black and white Iraqi Police arm band and shouting that he was a police officer. A soldier then shot the lieutenant between the eyes. The driver, who had been crouched down in the front seat and waving his badge, was kicked and beaten by US troops.

US military officials earlier told reporters that US forces had "engaged" Iraqi police. But when pressed yesterday about how the two Iraqi police officers died, they said the incident was under investigation.

The image of the lieutenant, shot dead with his hands up, is shocking. Even if he had been a thief, since when is it legal under the Geneva Convention--or any system of law--to kill someone holding their empty hands in the air?

Complete story here.

Dare we hope…?

Thousands of US physicians have endorsed a broad proposal that would abolish for-profit hospitals and insurers and transfer all Americans into an expanded and improved Medicare program for all ages, reigniting the debate over universal health care a decade after President Clinton's failed plan.

While the four physicians who wrote the plan -- three of whom are affiliated with Harvard Medical School -- are members of a nonprofit organization that has long pushed for universal health coverage, the new proposal is important for two reasons: It was published today in one of the country's most prestigious and its most widely circulated medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and because of the large number of doctors -- nearly 8,000, including two former surgeons general -- who endorsed it.

AMA officials said it is unusual for the journal, which has a circulation of about 700,000 worldwide, to publish an article endorsed by such a large number of physicians. JAMA's editor, Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, said that an editorial accompanying the article represents the journal's viewpoint that it is time for the country to grapple more seriously with major problems in the health-care system.

Here’s the good part: private insurance companies would be virtually eliminated! Considering how many politicians are in the pockets of the insurance companies, this factor alone probably insures the plan's defeat.

But look how great it would be!

The physicians estimate that the country would save $200 billion annually by eliminating profits of investor-owned hospitals and insurance companies and by reducing administrative costs for hospitals and doctors who must bill dozens of different insurance companies. Private health insurers now consume 12 percent of premiums for overhead, while Medicare and the Canadian national health insurance system have overhead costs below 3.2 percent, the doctors reported.

Taxes, the doctors said, would increase. But except for the very wealthy, higher taxes would be offset by the elimination of insurance premiums and out-of-pocket copayments and deductibles, they argued.

Yeah!

Complete story here.

A rose by any other name....

Have we ever had an administration more into couching the truth in incomprehensible, flowery language?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — The Pentagon said today that about 200 more United States troops could soon go ashore in Liberia — but officials emphasized that their mission was not peacekeeping in the usual sense.

Rather, their purpose will be "to achieve a stable environment so that humanitarian assistance can be provided to the people of Liberia, and also to facilitate the transition to a U.N.-led international peacekeeping operation," Maj. Gen. Norton Schwartz said...

And check this out:

…When a questioner suggested that the Americans' mission could potentially put them in combat, General Schwartz said, "There is a reaction capability, should something unexpected occur."

Jeeze, among other crimes, try these morons for butchering the English language!

As for committing troops to Morovia, I actually think using U.S. troops to help stabilize a worn-torn region and protect civilians is a legitimate operation, although I’d like to have the U.N. in charge as soon as possible.

Complete story here.

Here's the war America should be fighting....

For more than a decade, health workers in Africa have been sounding the alarm about the growing numbers of orphans, left on their own after AIDS kills their parents. Imagine what America could be doing with the $68 billion-plus we’ve squandered to invade Iraq, a country that was in no way a threat to us, if we spent that money Kenya, where $300 represents a family’s annual income.

LOOK what they are enduring:

…In East Kagan, a sprawling village of 3,000, one in every three people has the disease and there are more than 400 orphans, many struggling to survive on their own. Tucked into a trail of knobby grass and mud footpaths, the village is made up largely of the Luo tribe, the second-biggest ethnic group in Kenya.

The village is in one of Kenya's poorest districts. Mud huts with thatched roofs sit in clusters of three or four in the scrappy, flat fields. Small sprouts of wilting maize cover fields that are gray and dry from the hot sun and lack of rain.

A few men herd cattle. A few children lead donkeys to carry water and firewood. Like many rural communities in Africa, the village has no cars, no electricity and no running water.

Parents who are dying of AIDS linger at the village's one-room health clinic, looking weak and begging for aspirin to ease their pain. No one here can afford the life-saving drugs available in the West.

Parents are dying so quickly that they don't have time to ask relatives if they can take in their children…

While dying parents are begging for aspirins, starving children are eating grass. Grass!

I am ashamed. How can we in the developed world go about our daily routines in face of such appalling suffering and injustice?!

Story here.

Washington Post on the prelude to the Iraq war....

...The new information indicates a pattern in which President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their subordinates -- in public and behind the scenes -- made allegations depicting Iraq's nuclear weapons program as more active, more certain and more imminent in its threat than the data they had would support. On occasion administration advocates withheld evidence that did not conform to their views. The White House seldom corrected misstatements or acknowledged loss of confidence in information upon which it had previously relied...

No White House, Pentagon or State Department policymaker would speak on the record to the Post about the administration's nuclear case. The official line remains that the regime was pursuing nuclear weapons, that it had biological and chemical weapons and that it intended to use them, even though there is absolutely no proof to support the allegations. In fact, mounting evidence contradicts them.

They lied to coerce this country into an unprovoked war that has cost U.S. taxpayers between $68 and $76 billion to date, and killed more than 300 coalition troops, 10,200 Iraqi soldiers and 6200 Iraqi civilians.

And it's not over yet.

Long and very comprehensive story here.

The Terminator falters out of the gate….

Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition from movie star to gubernatorial candidate hit its first rough patch Friday as he ducked questions about the state's fiscal crisis, gay marriage and workplace benefits.

[...]

Asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" about gay marriage, he replied: "I don't want to get into that right now."

Asked about a news report quoting aides saying he was open to tax increases, Schwarzenegger said: "I can't imagine anyone on my team said that." He said that his solution was not raising taxes or cutting programs, but to "bring businesses back to California." But Schwarzenegger offered no strategy for attracting business. In fact, he has argued for reversing an increase in the car tax — which would cost the state treasury billions — even as he has advocated for more spending on school buildings and teacher hiring.

[...]

On NBC's "Today Show," interviewer Matt Lauer pressed him. "You talk about the budget deficit. You talk about the energy crisis, the slumping economy, people leaving California. Give me some specifics, Arnold. How are you going to turn it around?"

Schwarzenegger offered no details, focusing his answer on the governor:

"Well, I think the first and most important thing is to know that it takes leadership, because Gray Davis is saying he has the experience and all of those things. We have seen now what happens. He has sold himself as the man that has experience you cannot buy. What happened with all his experience? Look at the situation we're in right now."

Asked later in the same interview whether he would disclose his tax returns, as candidates for high office typically do, Schwarzenegger fiddled with his earpiece and said he could not hear the question. (In an appearance in Bellflower later Friday, Schwarzenegger said he would make disclosure but did not say when. "Absolutely. I have nothing to hide," he said.)

This man is as competent to govern the State of California as the sad-sack eldest son of a well-heeled New England political dynasty is to govern America.

I guess we should thank our lucky stars that, under the U.S. Constitution, a foreign-born naturalized citizen can’t be elected president.

Of course, Bush wasn’t elected, was he? So ultimately, a constitutional amendment could put anything up for grabs along with the governor’s office of the most-populous state of the union.

Jeeze, I wish I had confidence that California voters will reject this inarticulate, overblown Hollywood buffoon. But Minnesota voters put Jesse Ventura into the governor's mansion. And look how many people actually did vote for Bush!

Speaking of which, Bush endorsed Arnold today, elevating the political discourse in his inimitable fashion.

"Yes, I think he'd be a good governor," Bush said. The president did not say if he would campaign for Schwarzenegger.

A lighthearted Bush added: "I will never arm wrestle Arnold Schwarzenegger No matter how hard I try, I'll never lift as much weight as he does."

Awwww, shucks....

Complete story here.

California's next governor...?

TERMINATED TAKE: Arnold Schwarzenegger has some big ideas when it comes to running for governor -- but he was definitely thinking small when it came to shooting that bathroom dunking scene for his new action flick, "Terminator 3."

"I saw this toilet bowl," Schwarzenegger told Entertainment Weekly in its July 11 edition. "How many times do you get away with this -- to take a woman, grab her upside down, and bury her face in a toilet bowl?"

But, the Mighty Terminator adds: "I wanted to have something floating there."

Ughhh.

"The thing is, you can do it," Arnold argued, "because in the end, I didn't do it to a woman -- she's a machine! We could get away with it without being crucified by who-knows-what group."

Maybe -- but in the end, the "floating" idea was itself terminated.

"They thought it was my typical Schwarzenegger overboard."

From here.

Join Stop Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The violence in Iraq is escalating....

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 7 — A car bomb exploded today outside the Jordanian Embassy here, killing 11 people and wounding at least 65, in the bloodiest day since the Bush administration declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq on May 1.

The bomb exploded at 11 a.m., as many Iraqis stood about the entrance waiting to apply for visas. The force of the explosion blew a 30-foot-wide hole in the wall that separates the embassy from the street, hurling bodies and shrapnel and debris hundreds of yards. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

In addition,

Unidentified militants detonated a bomb on an American Humvee shortly after the car bombing, opening a ferocious, two-hour gun battle in the heart of one of Baghdad's most prosperous neighborhoods. Three soldiers were wounded in the firefight, officials said, while witnesses said two soldiers in the vehicle had been wounded as well.

Late Wednesday, two American soldiers died when they drove into an ambush in central Baghdad, the Central Command said.

I have so much to say about this, and yet it seems so futile. I’ve said it before, as have many anti-war activists. Indeed, as have wise persons throughout history: Violence begets violence.

What scares me is that it’s just a matter of time until the car bombs and martyrs start exploding on U.S. soil as well.

Complete story here.

Jerry Springer will not run for the Senate....

in Ohio so he can declare for the governor's race in California.

JUST KIDDING!

Although at this point, nothing would surprise me about the California recall.

OHIO: JERRY SPRINGER IS NOT A CANDIDATE To the relief of some national Democrats, Jerry Springer said that he would not run for the United States Senate in Ohio because he could not escape "the clutter" of his television show, where guests often brawl. Mr. Springer, a former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati, had hired a team of consultants and had traveled the state widely for months, testing the waters for a 2004 campaign against the Republican incumbent, George V. Voinovich. In a news conference, Mr. Springer said he thought voters were receptive to his populist message, but he said he was "not the perfect messenger," acknowledging high negative ratings in some polls.    James Dao (NYT)

That he would consider running for any political office is an indication of how low this country has sunk.

Complete story here.

Must see to believe....

Thanks to This Modern World, for the link to this limited-edition, 12- inch figure of George Bush in a naval aviator flight uniform. It's a "meticulous 1:6 scale recreation of the Commander-in-Chief's appearance during his historic Aircraft Carrier landing" on May 1, 2003. I kid you not.

I can think of a few fun things to do with this "fully poseable [sic] figure"...

Was this the plan all along...?

If so, I never saw it coming!

SAN DIEGO – Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who bankrolled the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis and was one of the first to say he wanted to replace him, tearfully said he will not run in the Oct. 7 election.

His announcement comes a day after actor and fellow Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the race.

The congressman from Vista had gone to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters office in Kearny Mesa ostensibly to join the race officially.

But as his supporters stood around him holding posters touting his candidacy, Issa became the latest to reassess his or her aspirations in light of the breathtaking changes threatening to reshape California's political landscape.

Other declared candidates are independent Arianna Huffington, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, and state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi (the latter two both Democrats). With until Saturday to declare, political analysts are forecasting a field of hundreds. One analyst, on NPR this morning, predicted 400.

And remember, all you need is a majority of those who bother to vote to win.

Complete story here.

Hasta la vista, Davis....

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6 — The recall election on Gov. Gray Davis of California took stunning turns today, as one of the state's most respected elected officials, Senator Dianne Feinstein, announced that she would not run to replace Mr. Davis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, a politically untested movie star, announced that he would.

As extraordinary bookends on a day of fast-moving events, the two decisions could not have been more dissimilar in style and substance. Public opinion polls have identified Ms. Feinstein, a Democrat, and Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as among the most popular alternatives to Mr. Davis, who faces a recall vote on Oct. 7.

I thought Arnold's recent disavowals were purely strategic, designed to give this evening’s announcement even more punch.

If Feinstein persists in staying out of the race, I fear Schwarzenegger will be the state’s next governor.

If the stakes weren’t so incredibly high, this circus would be hilarious.

Complete story here.

Very troubling....

One of Europe's leading scientists yesterday raised the possibility that the extreme heatwave now settled over at least 30 countries in the northern hemisphere could signal that man-made climate change is accelerating.

"The present heatwave across the northern hemisphere is worrying. There is the small probability that man-made climate change is proceeding much faster and stronger than expected," said Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief scientific adviser to the German government and now head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall center.

Prof Schellnhuber said "the parching heat experienced now" could be consistent "with a worst-case scenario [of global warming] that nobody wants to come true". He warned that several months' research would be needed to analyze data from around the world before scientists could say why the heatwaves are so intense this year.

"What we are seeing is absolutely unusual," said Prof Schellnhuber. "We know that global warming is proceeding apace, but most of us were thinking that in 20-30 years time we would be seeing hot spells [like this]. But it's happening now. Clearly extreme weather events will increase." [asides are in the original]

While Europe burns and 1,500 people die from heat prostration in India, President Bush continues to scoff at global warming and Republicans blocked efforts last week by Senators John McCain and Joseph Leiberman to force a vote on their bill limiting greenhouse gas emissions. (The vote has been postponed until the fall.)

As that famous margarine commercial used to exclaim—was it in the 1970’s?—“You can’t fool Mother Nature.” We’re risking not only rising sea-levels, but large-scale agricultural failures, droughts and ensuing famines that could make those the world has already experienced pale in comparison.

On the other hand, some scientist fear that the rising temperatures could trigger the next ice-age, which—according to ice-cores in Antarctica and the Arctic—is about due anyway.

What are you doing to help? I’ve traded my gas-guzzling clunker (the only kind of automobile I can afford) for a bicycle. That’s right: I actually live and work in Southern California and do not own a car. It can be done.

Stories here and here.

I expected more….

Terry Gross just interviewed Bill Maher on Fresh Air. You know, he's not as radical as I'd expected. He said he was only “40-60” against the Iraq war, and he added that even if you were against the war, you should “support the plan now because it may have been Bush's war, but it's America's peace."

I don’t understand that logic. If the invasion of Iraq was morally wrong, fiscally indefensible and logistically unwise, what makes the occupation any different?

One glaring difference is Americans keep dying almost everyday. That ups the potential political cost for Bush and his Neocon cronies. They will never quit Iraq due to morality, fiscal considerations or because the occupation actually increases the risk of terrorist attacks at home. But they might leave if the U.S. body count grows too high.

How sad.

The best we can do now, it seems, is invite in the United Nations and hope—hope!—they don’t rebuff the overture on account of the way Bush spurned them prior to the war.

I was really disappointed in Maher.

Not sure how I feel about this....

New York City officials said yesterday that they planned to systematically review biological evidence from hundreds of unsolved sex crimes, with the goal of indicting the unidentified attackers based on their DNA profiles before the 10-year statute of limitations runs out.

Under the initiative, called the John Doe Indictment Project, prosecutors, investigators and scientists will seek to tie the most serious unsolved sex crimes to specific DNA profiles, then file charges even before they have linked a name to the DNA or have arrested a suspect.

Complete story here.

The beginning of a trend...?

For the first time since the government started keeping statistics, California has lost more residents to other states than it gained.

WASHINGTON — Although the state's population continues to grow because of immigration, more people left California in the last half of the 1990s than moved in from other states, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.

More than 1.4 million people in the U.S. migrated to California from 1995 to 2000, while 2.2 million left — the highest migration numbers in the country. That exodus is "unprecedented," said Hans P. Johnson, a demographer with the Public Policy Institute of California, an independent San Francisco research organization.

Even so, the state's estimated population was still a whopping 35.1 million in 2002.

The article says a big reason people are moving is the cost of housing, and I can vouch for that. I saw a sign yesterday advertising a two-bedroom house for rent in my neighborhood for $2,200/month!

Complete story here.

Victory for transgendered rights....

I almost missed this, it slipped by so quietly. From what I can gather, it wasn't even mentioned in the L.A. Times.

CALIFORNIA: NEW BAN ON BIAS Gov. Gray Davis has signed a bill banning housing and job discrimination against transgender people, making the state the fourth to extend such protections. The measure, signed on Saturday, will take effect on Jan. 1. The new law prohibits discrimination against people whose "perceived gender characteristics are different from those traditionally associated with the individual's sex at birth."  (AP)

Complete story here.

Congratulations...!

It's about time!

MINNEAPOLIS - The Episcopal church made history today when it elevated an openly gay priest to bishop, ending months of bitter dispute that culminated in 11th-hour accusations about Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson's character.

Robinson, a 56-year-old divorced man with two adult children, has lived with his partner, Mark Andrew, for 13 years. He was elected bishop this summer by the priests and lay leaders of the Diocese of New Hampshire, and secured the backing of priests and lay deputies for his election on Sunday.

Today a majority of the nation's dioceses - 62 out of 107 - approved his election at the church's national General Convention in Minneapolis, a church spokesperson said this evening, making Robinson the first openly gay man to be approved as a bishop in the church's history.

Complete story here.

Chaos in Iraq....

Anne Garrels’ from Baghdad this morning on NPR described 120-degree heat, traffic-clogged streets, rampant unemployment, intermittent electricity, alcohol and pornography on open display and violent crime.

That's liberation for ya!

The L.A. Times put a face on the story:

BAGHDAD -- A man walked into Dr. Mohammed Alrawi's private clinic in an upscale part of the capital last Sunday moaning and complaining so loudly of kidney pain that he was ushered straight past waiting patients.

Inside, the "patient" immediately pulled out a pistol and shot the doctor through his right eye, killing him.

As the gunman dashed out, he passed Alrawi's wife, Bushra, who also practices medicine at the clinic. "I looked at his face. I will never forget that face," she recalled.

"I went to my husband. I saw him collapsed in his chair. I hugged him while his blood covered the floor."

Murder is stalking this city. In the aftermath of the U.S. campaign to oust Saddam Hussein, residents who have no memory of violent street crime during his iron-fisted rule are now being terrorized by killers — not to mention thieves and vandals — whose motives range from retribution to rapaciousness. The crime wave poses a challenge for the U.S.-led occupation as it grapples with a multitude of problems — electricity shortages, joblessness and a guerrilla campaign among them — that have destabilized this shattered country. Iraqi police have started to work, but ineffectually. They defer to the U.S. soldiers, who often have no clue about what is going on in the streets and alleys around them.

Alrawi, 52, was a former dean of Baghdad University, physician to Hussein and chairman of the Iraqi Physicians Syndicate. His family believes he is a victim of reprisal killings aimed at members of Hussein's government.

Why isn’t the American public demanding Bush's impeachment for this monumental squandering of lives and taxpayers’ money?

Complete story here.

"Hunting for Bambi...."

Apparently, a couple of weeks ago a story broke in Las Vegas about an alleged local business, called “Hunting for Bambi, that sold men the opportunity to hunt nude women with paint-balls. Whether or not the business exists remains to be seen, but violence against women is real. This op-ed on Common Dreams makes the point that the light-hearted media banter about HFB is indicative of the denial and ignorance that perpetuates domestic violence.

...To expose the invisibility of the cultural acceptance of violence against women in an “easier” way, just ask the following question: Would the opening question on the site have been the same if the video had been titled, "Hunting for Muslims?" Or how about, “Hunting for Jews?” or “Hunting for African-Americans?” Or, Hunting for _____________ (insert the name of your favorite minority group). Would it still be depicted as a “big put-on” if named any of these and if it was “only” a video? No outrage? No condemnation? Hardly, there would be collective national and possibly even international outrage if this had been the case. This is not hard to see. Seeing how the same should apply to women, however, reveals the invisibility and unacknowledged cultural acceptance of VAW [violence against women].

[...]

When hearing about someone being abused by a partner, the first question usually asked is, “Well, hell, why doesn’t she just leave?” Well, she doesn't “just leave” for some very good reasons. Reasons, in fact, that reflect her being in her “right mind.” For instance, she will be homeless, she will have no financial resources, her children will have no home, their school will be disrupted, she will be seen as "breaking up the family," she may be threatened with deportation, she might be reported to child protective services, her family of origin will disown her, her church group will shun her, she will be "sinning," etc.

[...]

Actually, the question of “Why doesn’t she just leave?” is the entirely wrong question to ask. The real question is, "Why isn't the abuser held accountable?" Why does everyone expect the victim of the abuse to do something about it? When it comes to other violent crimes, do we expect the victim to do something about it? Imagine someone having just been assaulted in their home during a burglary and the police saying to the victim, "Sorry, Mr. Smith, you have to leave your home now because you have been assaulted and your home has been burglarized." Huh? Or what about a neighbor, after finding out that someone down the street had his car stolen, asking the question, “Good lord, we all know that this is a high crime area, why doesn’t John just move?”

Go read the full story here.

For shame...!

Israel's Parliament has passed a law preventing Palestinians who marry Israelis from living in Israel. The move was denounced by human rights organizations as racist, undemocratic and discriminatory.

Under the new law, rushed through yesterday, Palestinians alone will be excluded from obtaining citizenship or residency. Anyone else who marries an Israeli will be entitled to Israeli citizenship.

Now Israeli Arabs who marry Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza Strip will either have to move to the occupied territories, or live apart from their husband or wife. Their children will be affected too: from the age of 12 they will be denied citizenship or residency and forced to move out of Israel.

Complete story here via Common Dreams.

Liberation...but only if you've got a penis....

NAJAF, Iraq, July 30 — The United States Marine colonel supervising the reconstruction of this Shiite holy city's government indefinitely postponed the swearing in of its first-ever female judge today after her appointment provoked a wave of resentment, including fatwas from senior Islamic clerics and heated protests by the city's lawyers.

Protestors, some of them women, accused Americans of invading Iraq in order to undermine Islam. (Actually, that's more plausible than Bush's claim of WMD.)

According to the NYT, the 45-year-old lawyer who was to be nominated, Nidal Nasser Hussein, has a history of setting precedents. She was the first female lawyer to work in Najaf when she started 16 years ago--now there are 50.

"There were demonstrations against the first elementary schools for women, too, but everything needs a beginning," she said to the colonel. "Don't just talk to the people who are shouting, talk to sensible people."

One female protestor insisted that a woman cannot be a judge because "women are always ruled by their emotions."

So, tell me, who would you prefer sitting in legal judgment over you?

One of these "unemotional" men, observing a religious holiday in the city of Karbala, Iraq, in late April of this year? (Those are self-inflicted scimitar wounds, by the way.) Story here.)



Or, Nidal Nasser Hussein?




Complete story here.

Poindexter is out....

WASHINGTON, July 31 — The Pentagon official who oversaw the development of a plan for the military to operate a terrorist futures-trading market is resigning under pressure, a senior defense official said today.

John M. Poindexter, a retired rear admiral who was President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser, is stepping down "in the next few weeks," the official said, following disclosure of a proposal that outraged lawmakers and embarrassed senior Pentagon officials. The plan was to create in essence an online betting parlor that would have rewarded investors who forecast terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups.

As if there weren't quite a few other--better--reasons to oust the guy. Or never appoint him in the first place. Like, duh, he's a felon! In 1988, he was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of Congress and making false statements, all in connection to Iran-Contra. The convictions were reversed on a technicality in 1991.

Of course, our current head-of-state is a military deserter who actually lost the election....

I'm glad Poindexter's out. Now, when are we going to impeach Bush?

Complete story here.

Divine intervention in Iraq…?   

This Aussie columnist argues convincingly that for Bush and others like him, a belief in divine election has been conflated with the idea that America itself is a God-directed project, placing the rest of the world in grave danger.

...What is lacking in the Pentagon and the White House is not intelligence (or not, at any rate, of the kind we are considering here), but receptivity. Theirs is not a failure of information, but a failure of ideology.

To understand why this failure persists, we must first grasp a reality which has seldom been discussed in print. The US is no longer just a nation. It is now a religion. Its soldiers have entered Iraq to liberate its people not only from their dictator, their oil and their sovereignty, but also from their darkness.

As Bush told his troops on the day he announced victory: "Wherever you go, you carry a message of hope - a message that is ancient and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'To the captives, come out, and to those in darkness, be free."'

So US soldiers are no longer merely terrestrial combatants; they have become missionaries. They are no longer simply killing enemies; they are casting out demons.

Similarly, he says, the presidency is turning into a priesthood.

So those who question Bush's foreign policy are no longer merely critics; they are blasphemers, or "anti-Americans". Those foreign states which seek to change this policy are wasting their time: you can negotiate with politicians; you cannot negotiate with priests. The US has a divine mission, as Bush suggested in January: "to defend ... the hopes of all mankind".

Check it out here. (Thanks, Emily, for the heads-up!)

Why are they so scared...?

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Wednesday he has government lawyers working on a law that would define marriage as a union between a woman and a man, casting aside calls to legalize gay marriages.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and I believe we ought to codify that one way or the other and we have lawyers looking at the best way to do that," the president said a wide-ranging news conference at the White House Rose Garden.

Bush also urged, however, that America remain a "welcoming country" -- not polarized on the issue of homosexuality.

"I am mindful that we're all sinners and I caution those who may try to take a speck out of the neighbor's eye when they got a log in their own," the president said. "I think it is important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts."

"On the other hand, that does not mean that someone like me needs to compromise on the issue of marriage," he added.

When he says "someone like me," does he mean a callous, vain, holier-than-thou, devious and hypocritical charlatan?

And, for the record, in September, 1996, President Clinton signed the misleadingly-named "Defense of Marriage Act," that requires the federal government to ignore legal marriages between same-sex couples and allows states to do likewise. What Bush is talking about here is an amendment to the Constitution stipulating the same thing.

Complete story here.

California has a budget...!

Capping the lengthiest legislative session in state history, the Assembly on Tuesday approved a $100 billion spending plan and sent it to Gov. Gray Davis.

[...]

While the new plan closes a $38.2 billion shortfall through a combination of borrowing, tax shifts, fees and spending cuts, lawmakers acknowledged it will also leave California with an $8 billion gap between income and spending in the next fiscal year.

"Make no mistake, this is a budget that will, in fact, hurt people," said Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, who kept sleep-deprived lawmakers in the building all night, refusing to let them leave without a deal.

Wesson actually "locked down" the chambers to force lawmakers to come to a deal. Any legislator who tried to leave could be arrested by the sergeant at arms!

Complete story here.

"Living the American dream...."

It seems that the conservative Republican from north San Diego county, who single-handedly financed the campaign to put the recall of Governor Gray Davis on the California ballot, has been a bit loose and careless with the facts regarding his youth, military-service record and business career.

...In his short political career, Issa — so far the only declared Republican candidate for governor in the special election this fall — has faced both small and large questions about his record in business and the military and his brushes with the law. Republican and Democratic opponents have accused him of concealing arrests as a youth and embellishing his personal story.

The [L.A.] Times examined Issa's statements and campaign literature over the past 13 years and compared them with military records and other public documents. The review reveals a number of claims contradicted or were unsupported by records and verifiable facts.

Like Bush, not only has Issa frequently embellished his credentials and life-story, but when confronted with the facts, he follows the time-tested strategy that the best defense is a strong offense:

Issa now attributes some of these discrepancies to misunderstandings or omissions from his Army records. He blames Gov. Gray Davis for the questions about his resume, some of which were first raised by fellow Republicans in his 1998 run for the U.S. Senate.[Emphasis mine.]

"Gray's job is to get you to ask 30-year-old questions," he angrily told a Times reporter Saturday at a Sacramento rally, where he accused Davis of "felony behavior."

"If you want to be a shill for Gray Davis' opposition questions, go ahead. We've moved on."

Even Issa’s whiny petulance is reminiscent of Bush.

Well, lying has worked incredibly well so far for the president, so why shouldn’t Issa go for it?

Check out the real story behind the guy whose efforts to wrest office from a duly-elected governor is going to force Californian taxpayers to foot a $30 to $60 million bill for a recall election here.

Why not...?

It's like this in Canada and most of western Europe. Why not here?

...So-called healthy competition can only be possible in an environment where healthcare workers have strong unions and patients have strong consumer advocates fighting for their interests. Unions and advocacy groups are crucial to the American way of life. But currently, the situation in healthcare is different. HMOs all look the same, they all offer similar inefficient, ineffective, insincere products at a premium cost to the patients. To be sure, they are constantly decreasing what they pay to providers, but the savings goes into their own pockets, not back into the system. The term for this uniformly poor product is not competition but collusion. Expanding this private system to include the elderly and the infirm would be to expand the problem, not its solution.

The solution is to centralize healthcare under governmental control, where there is at least a basic health insurance available for all. The government bureaucracy may have many inefficiencies, but it nonetheless better serves the public than a corporation motivated strictly by profit. Patients are a large constituency and can, and should, influence re-election if the system is not going well.

Second: Prescription drugs should be covered for all elderly, but the first question that must be addressed is, At what cost? Many of these drugs are overpriced duplicates of one another. The government should not be asked to swallow these prices but should use the entire group of elderly as a cohort to force lower, more reasonable prices. This is the current system throughout much of Western Europe, and one of the main reasons drug prices are so much lower there.

I know this has been said before, but Dr. Marc Siegel, at The Nation, said it so passionately and articulately that I got all inspired again!

Complete column here.

Why don't they just become Republicans...?

PHILADELPHIA, July 28 — The moderate Democratic group that helped elect Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992 warned today that Democrats were headed for defeat if they presented themselves as an angry "far left" party fighting tax cuts and opposing the war in Iraq.

The warning, by the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of moderate [sic] Democrats that helped move the party to the center 10 years ago, was largely a response to the popularity enjoyed in early presidential primary states by Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont.

Dr. Dean has attracted wide notice for his criticism of the Democratic Party for supporting the Iraq war and some of President Bush's tax cuts. [emphasis mine]

This story lays bare the true heart of the modern Democratic Party. Mark J. Penn, a Democratic pollster who worked for Mr. Clinton and now advises Senator Lieberman, is quoted, "We're at a postwar historic low of Democratic Party membership." The conclusion he and other DNC loyalists draw, however, is that the Democratic Party must move even further right.

Why don't they get it?! In historic numbers, voters are opting out precisely because the Democrats' Republican-Lite fare repels them. If they're as conservative as the DLC, they can vote Republican, for crissakes! Whereas, we leftists can only turn to underdogs, like Kucinich.

As for Dean, he doesn’t deserve the moniker of “liberal.” He’s pro-gun, pro-death-penalty and fiscally conservative. Twenty years ago, his stands would have made him a Republican!

Complete story here.

Bush fights former P.O.W.'s over Iraqi money....

When 21 freed American P.O.W.'s returned home from the Persian Gulf war in March 1991, Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, welcomed them at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

"Every man and woman who cares for freedom," Mr. Cheney said, "owes you a very special measure of gratitude."

Of those 21 former prisoners of war, 17, who had been tortured by their Iraqi captors, would like something more tangible. This month they won a court award of almost $1 billion against Iraq, and a federal law says they may be paid from frozen Iraqi funds.

The Bush administration has expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs over what they endured but is fighting them about the money, saying it is urgently needed to rebuild Iraq.

The government is citing "foreign policy interests in ensuring a safe and successful transition in Iraq," as justification for trying to stiff the P.O.W.'s out of their money.

Whenever the Bush administration starts saying how grateful they are, grab hold of your wallets!

Complete story here.

Stranger than fiction....

WASHINGTON, July 29 - The Pentagon office that proposed spying electronically on Americans to monitor potential terrorists has quickly abandoned an idea in which anonymous speculators would have bet on forecasting terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups in an online futures market.

[...]

Under the discarded plan, traders bullish on a biological attack on Israel, say, or bearish on the chances of a North Korean missile strike would have had the opportunity to bet on the likelihood of such events on a new Internet site established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The Pentagon called its latest idea a new way of predicting events and part of its search for the ``broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks.'' But two Democratic senators who disclosed the plan on Monday called it morally repugnant and grotesque. The senators said the program fell under the control of Adm. John M. Poindexter, President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser.

One of the two senators, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax. ``Can you imagine,'' Mr. Dorgan asked, ``if another country set up a betting parlor so that people could go in - and is sponsored by the government itself - people could go in and bet on the assassination of an American political figure?''

After Mr. Dorgan and his fellow critic, Ron Wyden of Oregon, spoke out, the Pentagon sought to play down the importance of a program for which the Bush administration has sought $8 million through 2005. The White House also altered the Web site so that the potential events to be considered by the market that were visible earlier in the day at www.policyanalysismarket.org could no longer be seen.

Oddly enough, the principle behind this actually works. Markets have been amazingly successful at predicting seemingly random events, because they are effective tools at collecting dispersed and even hidden information on a grand scale.

That said, betting on the potential assassination of a foreign leader or the likelihood of a deadly hijacking is, to say the least, ethically questionable and morally offensive. I don't know how the White House or the Pentagon could have thought this program, euphemistically called the "Policy Analysis Market," and intended to start registering traders on Friday--would fly politically. Especially with John Poindexter, of Iran-Contra infamy, in charge!

Complete story here.

And this is not...!

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican hopes to rally public opposition to gay marriages in a worldwide campaign spurred by its alarm over growing legal acceptance of same-sex unions in Europe and North America.

Pope John Paul II has been speaking out for months against legislative proposals to legalize same-sex marriages. But instructions to be released this week go a step further by outlining a course of action for politicians and other lay people to oppose extending the rights accorded to traditional couples, Vatican officials told The Associated Press.

This makes me so angry! Any group purporting to be in favor of "family values," should welcome gay marriage as it increases the potential for more stable families.

Moreover, if the Catholic hierarchy devoted even a fraction of the hypocritical attention they waste opposing gay rights to protecting children from sexually-predatory priests, the world would be a safer and happier place for all.

The article states that the Vatican is concerned about "the waning influence of the church in Europe." If so, the Pope and his hidebound clerics should remove their collective heads from the sands of medieval denial and join the 21st Century!

Complete story here.

This is so cool...!

After 70 years of helping brides walk down the aisle, Condé Nast's Bride's magazine has crossed a threshold of its own. Its September-October issue, on newsstands now, contains a full-page article on same-sex weddings. This is the first time that any of the five top-selling bridal magazines has published such a feature.

Okay, I know it's profit-driven, but still!

Complete story here.

Saudi cakewalk….

Think this has anything to do with the U.S. Congressional report on the intelligence failures related to 9/11, critical of the Saudis, released here last week?

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Six suspected militants were killed Monday in a firefight with Saudi police, who raided a farm where they were hiding out. Two police also were killed.

The shootout, which came amid an anti-terror crackdown in the kingdom, took place in al-Qassim, 220 miles north of the capital, Riyadh, state-run TV quoted a Ministry of Interior statement as saying.

The article later suggests as much. (Check out the quote from the defense minister! Isn't he as much as saying that the Saudis have gotten a free pass from the Bush family?)

A U.S. Congress report on Sept. 11 released last week accused Saudi Arabia of not doing enough to counter terrorism.

The unclassified version of the report also said that one suspected organizer still at large paid many of the expenses of two Sept. 11 hijackers and "had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia." It did not say if Saudi government funds were involved.

Saudi officials have rejected those conclusions.

"We are confident about ourselves and it is just a matter of mere talk," Defense Minister Prince Sultan was quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency as saying Sunday night. "The American administration under the leadership of Bush has declared officially that the kingdom is not a party in these issues."

Complete story here.

Time to bring up 9/11....

Bush’s slipping popularity, the MIA WMDs in Iraq, and the rising numbers of Americans coming home in body-bags seems to be spooking Bush and his minions. So, in true NeoCon fashion, they’re stoking the fires of fear.

WASHINGTON, July 27 — Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, defending the Bush administration's justification of the Iraq war, said today that intelligence on terrorism is by its nature "murky," and that the United States may have little choice in the future but to "act on the basis of murky intelligence" if terror attacks are to be prevented.

Mr. Wolfowitz appeared on three television programs today, carrying a message about the progress [???]he had witnessed on a recent tour of Iraq. But he was pressed on each to defend the intelligence that portrayed Iraq as holding banned weapons that posed an imminent threat — weapons that have yet to be found.

"I think the lesson of 9/11 is that if you're not prepared to act on the basis of murky intelligence, then you're going to have to act after the fact, and after the fact now means after horrendous things have happened to this country," Mr. Wolfowitz said on "Fox News Sunday," referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.

One implication of Wolfowitz's statement is that Americans are safer from terrorist attacks now than we were before the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan: an assertion I strongly challenge.

Also, when will Americans balk at the hypocritical and cynical use of the innocent deaths on 9/11 to advance a political agenda on the books of the Project for the New American Century long before the 9/11 attacks?

We are currently squandering $5 billion a month of taxpayers money on military costs alone in Iraq and Afghanistan. That sum doesn’t begin to tally the costs of infrastructure repair—money also flowing from taxpayers’ wallets into the pockets of the business associates of George Bush Sr. and Jr., Dick Cheney and assorted other administration officials and hangers-on.

In the same NY Times article, Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is said to have called on the administration for a budget plan for security, aid and reconstruction costs that would cover four years. Do the math: that’s $240 billion dollars, over the next four years for the military costs alone. Consider what that will do to our domestic budget.

Of course, we may pull out of Afghanistan, which could save $1 billion/year. Then again, we may invade Iran, Syria, North Korea or the Philippines. With the fanatics currently in control of the White House, who knows? Especially if it looks like Bush might lose the 2004 election.

Complete story here.

Why weren't they captured alive II....

The media may be developing some backbone. Or, maybe they're simply responding to a growing uneasiness on the part of Americans over the rising death toll to guerilla warfare in Iraq (four more soldiers killed today). Whichever, a reporter for the Boston Globe reported the following exchange at a news conference this week on the deaths of Hussein's two sons:

The ground force commander, General Ricardo Sanchez, was asked by two reporters similar questions Wednesday if the operation was indeed professional. The first reporter asked whether the mission was something of a failure given the value of the sons and the fact that they were armed with light weapons. Pentagon officials say they stormed the house of the sons only after the sons resisted.

Sanchez said, ''I would never consider this a failure.''

The second reporter said, ''The Americans are specialists in surrounding places, keeping people in them, holding up for a week if necessary, to make them surrender. These guys only had, it appears, AK-47s, and you had immense amount of firepower. Surely the possibility of the immense amount of information they could have given coalition forces, not to mention the trials that they could have been put on for war crimes, held out a much greater possibility of victory for you if you could have surrounded that house and just sat there until they came out, even if they were prepared to keep shooting.''

Sanchez said, ''Sir, that is speculation.''

The reporter said, ''No sir, it's an operational question. Surely you must have considered this more seriously than you suggested.''

Sanchez said, ''Yes, it was considered, and we chose the course of action that we took.''

The reporter asked, ''Why, sir?''

Sanchez said, ''Next slide - or next question please?''

Complete story here via Common Dreams.

Suicide, lawsuits and rancor....

This NY Times Magazine article about the nine miners, rescued from a flooded Pennsylvania mine one year ago, paints a bleak picture of stress created by traumatic events and sudden celebrity on ordinary people.

...For the nine men who were the beneficiaries of those prayers, however, it has been a tough year. When they were lifted out of the mine in that yellow rescue capsule, they were reborn into a different world. For a few days, they were the most famous men in the country, expected to speak in sound bites and show up on time for photo shoots with Annie Leibovitz. (None of the miners had any idea who she was.) To President Bush, they were symbols of ''the American spirit''; to blue-collar America, they were forgotten men who labored in the darkness for our daily light and heat; to the church faithful, they were living testimony to God's grace. ''After the rescue, people would literally come up to me on the street and ask if they could touch me,'' Mark Popernack recalls.

Tragically (and predictably), for several miners and rescuers, the story goes downhill from there.

Long, but interesting, because I can't help but wonder how I'd handle a second chance at life after staring death in the face, and fame and sudden fortune to boot. Complete story here.

History will decide....

Three Dominican nuns who, last October, trespassed at a Minuteman III missile silo in northeastern Colorado, cutting the chain link fence, banging on a railing with a small hammer, symbolically spilling their own blood - collected in baby bottles - and praying, singing and chanting for peace until they were arrested, were sentenced yesterday in Denver.

Ardeth Platte, 66, sentenced to 41 months, will probably serve about 29 months with time off for good behavior and credit for time already served.

Carol Gilbert, 55, sentenced to 33 months, will probably serve about 22 months.

Jackie Marie Hudson, 68, sentenced to 30 months; will probably serve about 20 months.

The sentences are less than the 92 months for Platte, 78 months for Gilbert and 70 months for Hudson sought by federal prosecutors. On the other hand, the nuns and their numerous supporters worldwide had hoped the judge would sentence them to time served and let them go free.

The women have been arrested many times for anti-war activism: Platte, at least 10 times, Hudson five times and Gilbert, at least 13 times. Platte and Gilbert live in the Baltimore activist community founded by the late peace activist Philip Berrigan, while Hudson lives in a similar community in Poulsbo, Wash.

Complete stories here and here.

9/11 intelligence report....

As you must all know by now, the joint inquiry conducted by the Senate and House intelligence committees on the Sept. 11 attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon finally released its report this week, after battling the Bush administration for 7 months over issues of secrecy and national security.

Bush supporters are proclaiming there's no "smoking gun" to incriminate their leader and his staff for failing to prevent the attacks. Considering how much of the report remains classified, their declarations are at the very least premature.

Smoking gun or not, the content of the report is damning enough. As David Corn in The Nation says:

The final report is an indictment of the intelligence agencies--and, in part--of the administrations (Clinton and Bush II) that oversaw them. It notes, "The intelligence community failed to capitalize on both the individual and collective significance of available information.... As a result, the community missed opportunities to disrupt the September 11 plot by denying entry to or detaining would-be hijackers; to at least try to unravel the plot through surveillance and other investigative work within the United States; and, finally, to generate a heightened state of alert and thus harden the homeland against attack.

One colossal missed opportunity occurred right here in San Diego, where an FBI informant had numerous contacts in 2000 with two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. (I've read previously they were housemates for a time.) He may also have had more limited contact with a third hijacker, Hani Hanjour. Again, from The Nation:

In 2000, the CIA had information that al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar--who had already been linked to terrorism--were or might be in the United States. Yet it had not placed them on a watch list for suspected terrorists or shared this information with the FBI. The FBI agent who handled the San Diego informant told the committees that had he had access to the intelligence information on al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi, "it would have made a huge difference." He would have "immediately opened" an investigation and subjected them to a variety of surveillance. It can never be known whether such an effort would have uncovered their 9/11 plans. "What is clear, however," the report says, "is that the informant's contacts with the hijackers, had they been capitalized on, would have given the San Diego FBI field office perhaps the intelligence community's best chance to unravel the September 11 plot.

Later, in August 2001, the FBI wanted to locate al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar (not sure why), but –incredibly--they failed to inform the San Diego field office of the search. The FBI agent who was handling the informant in San Diego told the committees, "I'm sure we could have located them and we could have done it within a few days."

The White House adamantly refuses to reveal what Bush knew and when, nor to release to the committees, much less to citizens, the contents of an August 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief (PDB) that contained information on bin Laden. Claims by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that the PDB contained only historical perspectives on bin Laden's methods and activities have been contradicted by an intelligence community source who told the committees the intelligence was much more specific.

Not only that, the Bush administration--who prior to 9/11, planned to de-fund counterterrorism, including the CIA unit whose business was bin Laden--refuses to declassify 25-1/2 of the report’s 27 pages on foreign support for the 9/11 hijackers.

The prevailing assumption among the journalists covering the committees--and it is well-founded--is that most of the missing material concerns Saudi Arabia and the possibility that the hijackers received financial support from there. Is the Bush Administration treading too softly on a sensitive--and explosive--subject? "Neither CIA nor FBI officials," the report says, "were able to address definitively the extent of [foreign] support for the hijackers globally or within the United States or the extent to which such support, if it exists, is knowing or inadvertent in nature…

Complete column here.

One of the greats passes....

From Associated Press

John Schlesinger, whose Oscar-winning "Midnight Cowboy" and thrillers like "The Falcon and the Snowman" explored lonely underdogs in modern society, has died. He was 77.

The British-born filmmaker had a debilitating stroke in December 2000, and his condition deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. He was taken off life support at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs on Thursday and died early today, hospital spokeswoman Eva Saltonstall said.

"He did pass this morning," she said, declining any further information.

Schlesinger broke ground in 1969 with his first American film, "Midnight Cowboy," which starred Jon Voight as a naive Texan who turns to prostitution to survive in New York and Dustin Hoffman as the scuzzy, ailing vagrant Ratzo Rizzo.

I just watched Midnight Cowboy the other night for the first time in 30 years and was blown away. Schlesinger's dark vision of America was astonishingly prescient. Years before homelessness became ubiquitous in America, Schlesinger saw where the widening gap between the decadent haves and miserable have-nots was leading.

"You know what they do to ya when, when they know you can't, when they find out that you can't walk-walk," says crippled Ratso Rizzo, brilliantly portrayed by Dustin Hoffman (fresh from success in The Graduate). Those poignant words foreshadowed Governor Ronald Reagan's actions, in the years after the film, when he forced the residents of California's mental hospitals out onto the streets, where they formed the core of today's homeless population.

Perhaps Schlesinger’s gayness gave him both an outsider’s perspective and the necessary courage to turn an unflinching lens on the hypocrisy of America: its "rag-to-riches" fairytales, puritanical sexual mores, cruelty to and neglect of children and perverted ideals of masculinity and femininity. The film foretold the demise of small-town (bigoted) America in face of creeping commoditization, consumerism and globalization, and did it with unflinching honesty (Midnight Cowboy was originally rated X) and heart.

In 1970, Schlesinger said, "I'm only interested in one thing -- that is tolerance. I'm terribly concerned about people and the limitation of freedom. It's important to get people to care a little for someone else. That's why I'm more interested in the failures of this world than the successes."

We could sure use more like him in Hollywood today.

Complete story here.

Bush & AIDS update....

Since late April, I've been following this story about the Bush administration "tripling" global AIDS spending to $15 billion over the next 5 years (here, here and here).

I've been skeptical from the start and so far, my skepticism has been warranted. Bush and right-wing Republicans have grandstanded plenty, while attaching Moral-Majority strings to funding and refusing to cough up the promised increases.

Here's the latest installment.

WASHINGTON, July 23 — Two weeks after President Bush toured Africa with promises of vast increases in spending on global AIDS, the House of Representatives was poised today to approve a measure that would bring total spending on the epidemic next year to roughly $2 billion — $1 billion short of the amount set out in a bill Mr. Bush signed in May.

Democrats sought to introduce an emergency spending measure that would have added the $1 billion, but were prevented from doing so under House procedures. Instead, they offered amendments that would increase AIDS spending by $375 million, taking $75 million from foreign aid to Colombia's military and $300 million from a new foreign aid initiative, the Millennium Challenge account, which is also a high priority of the president.

But the White House has threatened to veto the entire $17.1 billion spending package for foreign assistance if the amount in the Millennium Challenge account is reduced, prompting an angry outcry from Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York, who is pressing for more money.

"This veto threat proves one thing — that the president had no intention of fully funding our AIDS commitment," she said. "The rhetoric surrounding the signing of the H.I.V./AIDS bill and his trip to Africa was hollow..."

The fancy-sounding "Millennium Challenge Account" is a proposed US program to make aid to poor countries conditional on their dropping trade barriers and opening their markets. Critics claim it will substantially increase misery in Latin America and Africa.

It seems the hypocrisy and greed of this administration knows no bounds.

Complete story here.

Recall date set....

On October 7, Californians will go to the polls to decide both if Governor Gray Davis should be recalled, and who should replace him. His fate could be decided by as few as one-third of the state's 15 million registered voters--that would be 5 million people, out of 35 million residents.

The article, in today's NY Times, blames the recall partially on the crazy political situation created by ballot initiatives in California during the last 25 years.

Proposition 13, which passed in 1978, not only cut property taxes in half statewide, but also required a two-thirds vote to raise new local taxes to replace them. Proposition 98, passed a decade later, required that 40 percent of state revenues go directly to public schools. When mandatory health care spending is factored in, there is little discretionary spending left for the governor and Legislature to adjust to produce a balanced budget.

Term limits, meanwhile, which were also imposed through public initiative, and gerrymandered legislative districts have produced a State Legislature that is inexperienced, highly polarized and seemingly immune to compromise. The result, many experts say, is a state that is virtually ungovernable.

The article doesn't let Davis off the hook.

Analysts from both parties say that many of Mr. Davis's problems are his own making. They cite his passive response to the energy crisis three years ago, his participation in a state spending spree during the boom years early in his governorship and his relentless fund-raising.

Trying to steer a political course down the center of the state's ideological divide, in part to attract donations from corporations, he managed to offend countless Democrats from the party's traditional base among blue-collar workers and minorities.

Robert Gnaizda, the policy director of the Greenlining Institute, a group in San Francisco that promotes the interests of low-income and minority communities, said Mr. Davis ignored the group for his entire first term and met with its leaders for the first time in April, as the recall campaign was gaining steam.

"Not meeting with the Greenlining coalition wasn't the problem itself, but it was symptomatic of how minority groups were viewed," said Mr. Gnaizda, who said he thought Mr. Davis had seen the error of his ways. "Many people believe it would have been best if he had won his second election by one vote so he would have understood the importance of courting the voters from the base."

And don't forget, while all this is happening, the legislature--confronting a $38.2 billion shortfall--still hasn't approved a state budget.

Insane.

Complete story here.

Huffington on corporate tax cheats....

...According to a new study released last week by the Multistate Tax Commission, a nonpartisan coalition of state taxing authorities, corporate tax shelters robbed states of $12.4 billion in desperately needed revenues in 2001 -- a figure that represents more than a third of the money corporations rightfully owed.

Companies sheltering their assets overseas are draining another $70 billion a year from the federal Treasury -- funds that often make their way back to states through programs such as Head Start and AmeriCorps.[Emphasis mine.]

Huffington goes on to personalize those numbers, citing kindergarten classes delayed for a year, nursing homes shut down, the California Arts Council killed, school districts shutting weeks early for summer, teacher layoffs, and so on.

It's becoming a discouragingly familiar litany. What I want to know is, why don't taxpayers--stuck shouldering ever more of the burden for ever diminishing returns--get mad?

Complete column here.

No worries, folks...!

According to today's LA Times, Gray Davis, the first California governor to face a recall, is going to "fight like a Bengal tiger" to remain in office.

I saw that sub-head and cringed. Bengal tiger? Mentioning "Davis" and "tiger" in the same sentence only serves to highlight what a hopeless milquetoast he is.

As governor of the most populous state in the union, doesn't he employ speech-writers? If so, why did he go on to say this?

"One of my greatest strengths is that people have underestimated me since I was born," Davis said shortly before [Secretary of State Kevin] Shelley's announcement. "Every time they say I'm road kill, I continue to win, because I have great faith that the California voters are fair."

That's right, remind voters that they don't respect you. Leave them with the winning image of "road kill."

As you can surmise, the recall has qualified for the ballot and things are happening very fast. Barring a California Supreme Court challenge, which seems unlikely, voters will be choosing a governor in late September or early October--less than one year after Davis was reelected.

As furious as I am at conservative Republicans for blatantly hijacking the democratic process, I am equally dismayed at Davis' hitherto lame response. Why have mainstream Democrats become so pathetically incompetent?

Under Terry McAuliffe's corrosive leadership, the Democratic Party is a gutless and conservative machine, concerned more about cozying up to wealthy donors than taking principled positions and fighting for constituents. What baffles me, though, is how utterly inept they are. Look at the way Al Gore, following a two-term Democratic president and given a healthy economy and burgeoning federal surplus, still managed to blow the 2000 election. If it wasn't so tragic, it would be comical.

And now Davis. If he wants any hope of clinging to office, he better get himself a new speech writer and stick to a script.

Complete sad story here.

Why weren't they captured alive...?

This Iraqi, quoted in today's LA Times, voices my feelings.

"I'm not convinced the pictures shown are of Uday and Qusai, and even if they were I'm not happy. I would have been happy if they were captured alive and brought to justice before the Iraqi people," said Shant Agob, 37, an accountant who saw them broadcast on CNN in a Baghdad hotel.

Wouldn't you think U.S. military intelligence would like to interrogate Qusai, Hussein's second-in-command and heir-apparent, at the very least regarding the whereabouts of his father, if not the elusive WMD?

Complete story here.

Guess who said this...?

"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq," he said. "Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not."

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, that's who! No one could ever accuse the Bush team of practicing what they preach.

Wolfowitz was also quoted thusly in today's NY Times:

"You don't build a democracy like you build a house," Mr. Wolfowitz said over tea, honey pastries and water buffalo cheese. "Democracy grows like a garden. If you keep the weeds out and water the plants and you're patient, eventually you get something magnificent."

He forgot to mention the importance of fertilizer.

Complete story here.

Horror in Liberia....

Three weeks after President Bush pledged American assistance in restoring security in Liberia, there is still no word on how, when, where or even if the U.S. will intervene.

While I oppose unilateral U.S. intervention, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has been practically begging Bush to send in U.S. troops as an incentive for other nations to get involved. While Bush crows about supporting freedom and opposing terrorism worldwide, civilians continue to be murdered, starved and brutalized in this country that the U.S. helped to found 150 years ago.

Our inaction is shameful.

Stories here and here.

Hussein's two sons have been killed....

This just in from the NY Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 22 — The two sons of Saddam Hussein targeted by allied forces, Uday and Qusay, were killed today in an extended firefight with American troops in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the United States military said.

The Bush administration has been so prone to exaggeration and lies, I can't help but wonder if this story will hold up.

Complete story here.

North Korea, on the other hand....

When a country really does have a nuclear weapons program, President Bush is a lot more circumspect.

CRAWFORD, Tex., July 21 -- President Bush appeared today to shrug off evidence that North Korea may have begun producing plutonium at a second, hidden nuclear facility, and avoided any hint of confrontation with the country as it races to expand its nuclear arsenal.

The message seems clear: if you're going to confront the U.S., you better be well on the way to having the nuclear arsenal.

Complete story here.

New Yorkers, check this out...!

A 5-week series of skill shares in arts and activism, organized by Voices in the Wilderness: Resistance Camp.

Deja view all over again....

President George Bush issued a strident new warning to Iran and Syria yesterday, accusing them of harboring terrorists and hinting at the consequences. "This behavior is completely unacceptable," he said during a joint press conference at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, with the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. "And states that continue to harbor terrorists will be held completely accountable."

He must be getting worried about his plummeting poll numbers.

While Iran continues to deny charges that it is developing nuclear weapons, saying such a program would imperil its own safety, Bush and his cabal are using the same language (including, ominously, "regime change") that led to the Iraq debacle.

Unbelievable.

Complete Guardian UK story here via Common Dreams.

More on the recall....

If the stakes weren't so high, this crazy recall would be amusing.

As it is, things are unfolding fast.

...Barring court intervention, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley could certify as soon as Thursday that sponsors of the petition for a recall election have gathered enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot.

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante would have to set a date for the election to occur within 60 to 80 days of Shelley's certification — so, if the recall is certified this week, the election would have to occur no later than mid-October. As a practical matter, that means that candidates could have as little as one day to decide whether to run; they must file the required paperwork at least 59 days before the recall election. [Emphasis mine.]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the Republicans weighing whether to run, plans to return today from a trip to France, Germany and Spain, where he has been promoting his latest "Terminator" sequel. His top political strategist, George Gorton, said that Schwarzenegger had not made a final decision, but that all signs point toward a run by the actor and former champion bodybuilder.

"I'm pretty darn sure he's running," Gorton said.

Complete story here.

Demo's winning ways....

Oh, this should advance Davis' and the Democrats' hopes in resolving the state budget crisis and retaining office in the upcoming recall election!

SACRAMENTO — In a meeting they thought was private but was actually broadcast around the Capitol on Monday, 11 Assembly Democrats debated prolonging California's budget crisis to further their political goals.

Members of the Democratic Study Group, a caucus that defines itself as progressive, were unaware that a microphone in Committee Room 127 was on as they discussed slowing progress in an attempt to increase pressure on Republicans to accept tax increases as part of a deal to resolve the state's $38-billion budget gap.

The conversation was transmitted to roughly 500 "squawk boxes" around Sacramento that political staff, lobbyists and reporters use to listen in on legislative proceedings.

For my many readers residing outside the State of California, a little background. Since July 1, the state of California has been lumbering along with no budget because legislators and Governor Gray Davis cannot resolve a $38-billion (!) budget gap. The conservative Republican leadership opposes any and all tax increases, including a recently tripled state vehicle license tax. (Considering the impact of the car culture on California, a justifiable increase if ever there was one.) And ultra-conservative Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, from just north of where I live, has financed what looks like a successful bid to recall Davis, with one of the likeliest replacements being Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger.

I kid you not.

In the meantime, while road repair work is cancelled, libraries cut back hours even further, school districts lay off thousands, state workers face job cuts and reduced wages, our Democratic "allies" in the state legislature are conspiring to prolong the crisis for their political gain.

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Complete story here.

The very idea...!

According to the current issue of Harper's, damali ayo, a conceptual artist in Portland, Oregon, put up a website (Rent-a-Negro.com) and has received approximately 500 requests for her services.

The excerpted responses are absolutely astonishing. (Go buy Harper's!) Although, were I African-American, I expect I wouldn't be surprised. I'd probably be inured to the insensitivity, ignorance and downright bigotry of white people.

As a white person, however, I am shocked that society has evolved so little since the Civil Rights Movement. The very idea that someone would, in all seriousness, fill out an online form to "rent a Negro," for a social function!

(Brilliant art project, though!)