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.