See You in 2009

I'll be in South Africa from December 12 - 31. I am guessing it will be difficult to post as I will be mostly in the bush. See you in the new year. Some good news to watch while I am gone:

Simply Criminal

It troubles me greatly that our democratically elected government consciously decided to torture detainees and imprison Iraqis and others indefinitely (using my tax dollars). These are not American values. We are better than this. Many experts and soldiers in the field strongly believe that torture does not yield positive results. Even John McCain lied while being tortured.

Here is a link to an excellent opinion piece in the Washington Post from a US soldier who witnessed our soldiers torturing Iraqis. This soldier, who uses the fake name Matthew Alexander for protection (from our own soldiers?), conducted over 300 interrogations and oversaw over 1,000. His team found one of the most wanted men in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. And he didn't use torture.

This is a great article, and it is not too long. You should click on the link above, but if you don't have time, here are a few excerpts:

I'm not some ivory-tower type; I served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, began my career as a Special Operations pilot flying helicopters, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. What I saw in Iraq still rattles me -- both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn't work.

The Army was still conducting interrogations according to the Guantanamo Bay model: Interrogators were nominally using the methods outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the interrogators' bible, but they were pushing in every way possible to bend the rules -- and often break them. I don't have to belabor the point; dozens of newspaper articles and books have been written about the misconduct that resulted. These interrogations were based on fear and control; they often resulted in torture and abuse.

I refused to participate in such practices, and a month later, I extended that prohibition to the team of interrogators I was assigned to lead. I taught the members of my unit a new methodology -- one based on building rapport with suspects, showing cultural understanding and using good old-fashioned brainpower to tease out information.

Our new interrogation methods led to one of the war's biggest breakthroughs: We convinced one of Zarqawi's associates to give up the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader's location. On June 8, 2006, U.S. warplanes dropped two 500-pound bombs on a house where Zarqawi was meeting with other insurgent leaders.

Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.

How did we get Here Again?

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., 38th president of the USA

I turned my computer on this morning to this lead story on the BBC.com:

US job losses reach 34-year high

US unemployment rose by 533,000 in November, official figures show, the biggest one-month rise since 1974.

Not exactly remembering who was president when I was seven, I Googled:

president 1974

I actually Googled "presedent 1974" as I'm not a great speller, but that's beside the point. And I guessed Nixon and for the first seven months of 1974, Nixon was pres. But I digress.

Ford took over when Nixon resigned. The first link that appeared in my search was the USA government website on Gerald R. Ford. This was the third paragraph:

Ford was confronted with almost insuperable tasks. There were the challenges of mastering inflation, reviving a depressed economy, solving chronic energy shortages, and trying to ensure world peace.

So it was Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th president of the United States, who brought us to a place not too unlike today. And my next thought is, "The GOP: destroying the USA for the masses (at least in my lifetime)." But we keep on electing these people. Nixon, Reagan, Bush & Bush. And the same thing always happens: more USA instigated wars around the world, more economic hardship in the United States (for everyone not in the top 2% economically at least).

My friend Oliver once told me part of the definition of insanity is, "doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome," or something along those lines. And this makes sense. America must be insane.

My assistant as school recently told me that he heard SUV sales are on the rise again since gas has gone bellow $3 a gallon. Insane.

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more...

See my November 21st Posting for more things Christians who voted for Prop 8 can't do

(thanks for sending this Van)

Are we Living Life to the Fullest?

Pretty heavy duty to learn that a high school classmate of yours just died of cancer.

I read about it on Facebook and saw the tribute video that was made on the request of the dying classmate of mine on YouTube. How the times have changed.

I didn't know Tracy Ann Leonardo very well and over twenty years have passed since I have even seen here in the halls of Northport High School, but seeing the posting on Facebook stopped all my thoughts. Here is someone who I once sat in class with and now I am reading about her final days on her blog. I am thinking about the husband and son and immediate family and extended family, friends and acquaintances left to grieve her passing and it makes all of my gripes with work, our government, and my dirty kitchen seem so petty.

Even though, as a Buddhist, I fully embrace and am at peace with the fact that life is impermanent and that my mother, my sisters, my nephew, my father and my friends will all leave this life at some time, it is sobering to learn of one of my high school classmates dying.

From her blog, it seems she lead a happy and fulfilling life. Makes me stop, reconsider my priorities and think if I am living my life to the fullest.

Hate to Say, "I Told You So"

Add, "We are not in a recession" to the nonsense from the right. Put it in the same bucket as "global warming is a myth," "Obama is a Marxist/terrorist," "Evolution is false," "Fox News is fair and balanced," and "the world is flat." I listen & read to a lot of news and it has been amusing to hear all these "experts" shout that we are not in a recession for the last year.

We don't know we are "in a recession" until the the NBER (see below) tell us we are, and guess what? We have been in recession for the last twelve months!!! If I knew this, why didn't so many economists know it?

Excerpts from the BBC:

US recession 'began last year'

Machinary" border="0" height="170" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="226"> US manufacturing has now contracted for four months in a row

The US entered a recession in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Its business cycle dating committee, which is considered the arbiter of whether the US is in recession, met on Friday to make the decision.

The NBER says that the US economic expansion lasted 73 months, from November 2001, before contracting.

It used a broad range of economic indicators, such as employment and production, to make this judgement.

In a statement, the committee said that the "decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession".

It said that employment peaked in December 2007 and has been falling every since.

And it said that personal income all began falling in the first quarter of 2008, while industrial production peaked in January 2008.

The NBER uses key monthly indicators of economic output, including employment, industrial production, real personal income, and wholesale and retail sales - to determine when economic growth has turned negative, rather than relying solely on two quarterly declines in GDP.

It defines a recession as a "significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income and other indicators."

Although a private sector body, the NBER has been dating the business cycle since 1929.

It does not forecast the length of the recession.

Say Goodbye to Your Oyster Bar

To all the people on the right who still believe the "scientists" the Bush administration have been paying to disagree with the prominent scientific studies about our rapidly deteriorating global warming problem, I'm curious to see how you're going to explain the high price or disappearance of mussels and other shellfish:

From National Public Radio:

Mussels Lose Out As Carbon Dioxide Changes Ocean

by Richard Harris

Morning Edition, November 25, 2008 · All the carbon dioxide pouring into the atmosphere is making the oceans more acidic — and those effects appear to be striking very close to home.

Scientists have been fretting about what ocean acid will do to coral reefs and certain species of plankton. And a new study now documents a startling and rapid change in ocean acid on an island just off the coast of Washington state.

Ocean chemistry measured from Tatoosh Island found that the ocean there is becoming acidic 10 times faster than expected, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And the study's author J. Timothy Wootton says the island's ecosystem is changing rapidly as a result.

During an eight-year period, he says, 10 to 20 percent of the mussels on the island have been replaced by acid-tolerant algae.

"When we project where these shifts are going in the long run, they're actually pretty alarming," Wootton says.

Given this trend, he expects 60 to 70 percent of the mussels on the island to disappear in the coming decades.

"The demise of mussels as a dominant species is potentially a pretty big deal," Wootton says. Mussels provide shelter for many animals that live along the tide line. They form a key part of the food web that includes the fish we eat.

Wootton isn't sure why the acidity changed so rapidly on this island. One lesson, though, is that ocean chemistry doesn't change uniformly over the entire planet — there are hot spots. No other studies along the Pacific coast have been monitoring acidity regularly, as this study did, so it's not clear how widespread the phenomenon is.

It's also not clear what we can do about it. Marine scientist Jane Lubchenco at Oregon State University says that even if the world abruptly shifts away from fossil fuels — and stops emitting billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year — the oceans will continue to soak up carbon dioxide from the air and become more acidic.

Lubchenco says that means other ways must be found to help marine organisms survive this global threat. She recommends protecting marine life by reducing overfishing, cutting back on nutrient runoff, and creating marine reserves to protect the most valuable and vulnerable marine ecosystems.

Can we Survive Two More Months of Bush?

As our current president tries to seal his reputation as the United States most destructive leader by deregulating Protected Species laws in his last months of his reign, our president elect has at least realized that he must take action even before his new job begins. Obama's short radio announcement includes things I have never sincerely heard come from Bush's lips: millions of new jobs, rebuilding of roads and bridges, modernizing schools, and manufacturing hardware for our renewable energy infrastructure.

Bush to Relax Protected Species Rules

Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.

New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a "back door" to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change. Warming temperatures are expected to melt the sea ice the bear depends on for survival.

The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats. - ABC News

Obama Announces Economic Stimulus Plan To Create 2.5 Million Jobs

President-Elect Barack Obama has revealed plans to pursue a massive economic stimulus program by creating 2.5 million jobs and spending as much as $700 billion to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Obama unveiled the plan on Saturday during the weekly Democratic radio address.

President-Elect Barack Obama: "I have already directed my economic team to come up with an economic recovery plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011. A plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office. We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead but it will be a two-year nationwide effort to jump-start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernising schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead. These aren’t just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis, these are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long.” - Democracy Now!

Murders and Lies, Our Tax Dollars Hard at Work

Does anyone really believe that the CIA tells Congress or the American people the truth in all the dirty work (terrorism?) they do? This from Democracy Now!

CIA Accused of Lying over Agency’s Role in Downing of Plane in Peru in 2001

An internal CIA investigation has determined agency officials lied to members of Congress and withheld crucial information about the CIA’s role in the downing of a civilian plane in Peru in 2001. An American missionary and her infant daughter died when a Peruvian military jet shot down their plane after a CIA surveillance aircraft had mistakenly identified their plane as a drug-smuggling aircraft.

Here is a Salon.com article from 2001 about the shooting down of the plane.

Eating Shrimp & Lobster is As Bad As Gays Marrying

This is a MUST SEE video, whatever you think of Keith Obermann

If you Christians are forcing us none-Christians to live by what is written in your 'holy book,' I want you to live by all it says. Here is a start:

"Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property." (Leviticus 25:44-45)

"Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." (Leviticus 19:27)

"...and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you." (Leviticus 11:7)

"...do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear material woven of two kinds of material." (Leviticus 19:19)

"But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you." (Leviticus 11:10)

"They (shellfish) shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination." (Leviticus 11:11)

"Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales; that shall be an abomination to you." (Leviticus 11:12)

Nothing to Fear from the GOP

Sarah Palin has a 91% favorable rating with Republicans and 64% of GOP members want her to run for president in 2012.

I would love to see her run against Obama in four years. I can't think of a better canidate to represent this hollow/hate mongering party.

Here is a great holiday gift idea, The Complete Book of the Collected Wisdom of Sarah Palin: In Her Own Words.

The End of our Imperialism

From the BBC

US global dominance 'set to wane'

The US will face more competition at the top of a multi-polar global system

US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends.

The National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence.

It also says the dollar may no longer be the world's major currency, and food and water shortages will fuel conflict.

However, the report concedes that these outcomes are not inevitable and will depend on the actions of world leaders.

It will make sombre reading for President-elect Barack Obama, the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says, as it paints a bleak picture of the future of US influence and power.

"The next 20 years of transition to a new system are fraught with risks," says Global Trends 2025, the latest of the reports that the NIC prepares every four years in time for the next presidential term.

Washington will retain its considerable military advantages, but scientific and technological advances; the use of "irregular warfare tactics"; the proliferation of long-range precision weapons; and the growing use of cyber warfare "increasingly will constrict US freedom of action", it adds.

Nevertheless, the report concludes: "The US will remain the single most important actor but will be less dominant."

Nuclear weapons use

The NIC's 2004 study painted a rosier picture of America's global position, with US dominance expected to continue.

But the latest Global Trends report says that rising economies such as China, India, Russia and Brazil will offer the US more competition at the top of a multi-polar international system.

The EU is meanwhile predicted to become a "hobbled giant", unable to turn its economic power into diplomatic or military muscle.

A world with more power centres will be less stable than one with one or two superpowers, it says, offering more potential for conflict.

Global warming, along with rising populations and economic growth will put additional strains on natural resources, it warns, fuelling conflict around the globe as countries compete for them.

"Strategic rivalries are most likely to revolve around trade, investments and technological innovation and acquisition, but we cannot rule out a 19th Century-like scenario of arms races, territorial expansion and military rivalries," the report says.

"Types of conflict we have not seen for a while - such as over resources - could re-emerge."

There will be greater potential for conflict in the future, the NIC says

Such conflicts and resource shortages could lead to the collapse of governments in Africa and South Asia, and the rise of organised crime in Eastern and Central Europe, it adds.

And the use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely, the report says, as "rogue states" and militant groups gain greater access to them.

But al-Qaeda could decay "sooner than people think", it adds, citing the group's growing unpopularity in the Muslim world.

"The prospect that al-Qaeda will be among the small number of groups able to transcend the generational timeline is not high, given its harsh ideology, unachievable strategic objectives and inability to become a mass movement," it says.

The NIC does, however, give some scope for leaders to take action to prevent the emergence of new conflicts.

"It is not beyond the mind of human beings, or political systems, [or] in some cases [the] working of market mechanisms to address and alleviate if not solve these problems," said Thomas Fingar, chairman of the NIC.

And, our correspondent adds, it is worth noting that US intelligence has been wrong before.

Markets Gone Amuck

Just in case Fox News is only talking about how Senator Stevens was falsely accused or Hannah Montana's Sweet Sixteenth birthday, this is what was in the news (BBC.com) yesterday:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: Jan-Dec 2008

Chickens Have Come Home to Roust

Sorry to my core readers that I have not blogged in a couple of days. I am being hit with difficult news on all economic sides (I have a feeling I'm not the only American) and I am both in frantic survival mode and a bit depressed. Which brings us to today's post:

"A free economy governs itself"

"There is no need for the NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] because corporations will fund public art"

I was feed these lines by an influential and once close relative for much of my life. And I bought it. I had closet conservative tendencies as I lived openly as a liberal.

Cut to Thursday November 14, 2008; the twilight months of an eight year stint of George Bush (and Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc.). I turned on my computer to find out that I had just lost my third of four jobs in less than two months.

Okay, rewind. Why do I have four jobs? Reminds me of the video clip of our Commander in Chief talking to Nebraska resident Mary Mornin, an American in her late 50s, working hard to raise three kids – one mentally challenged — back in 2005:

MS. MORNIN: That’s good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

So, like many Americans, I need to work more than one job to get by. I WAS actually doing just better than getting by... just. But that has all changed now.

So now I am left with one part-time job, which I understand is better than many. I am still grateful I have an 80% job with decent benefits, a job I love waking up for every morning (and yes, though I only 'go to the office' three days a week, I do work this job just about every day. I read some ignorant dribble in the right-wing online hate site NewsMax.com about how teachers hardly work. Shows just how much their writers really know about the world).

So I'm calling bullshit on the Reagan trickle-down, free market, laissez faire system that I have been told for most of my life is best for this 'land of the free.'

This from the Wall Street Journal's Market Watch Weekend Edition:

Voluntary Regulation Doesn't Work, SEC's Cox Says

By Rex Nutting

Last update: 10:32 a.m. EDT Oct. 23, 2008

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Financial regulators made "fateful mistakes" that helped drive the global financial system to the brink, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, in congressional testimony Thursday. Cox said he and other regulators have learned many lessons, chiefly that "voluntary regulation does not work." Cox urged Congress to fill "regulatory gaps" that are still putting the economy at risk. "The lessons of the credit crisis all point to the need for strong and effective regulation, but without major holes or gaps." Cox said Congress should appoint a select committee to address the challenges of regulation on a comprehensive basis.

This from the Guardian, Friday October 24 2008:

The former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, has conceded that the global financial crisis has exposed a "mistake" in the free market ideology which guided his 18-year stewardship of US monetary policy.

A long-time cheerleader for deregulation, Greenspan admitted to a congressional committee yesterday that he had been "partially wrong" in his hands-off approach towards the banking industry and that the credit crunch had left him in a state of shocked disbelief. "I have found a flaw," said Greenspan, referring to his economic philosophy. "I don't know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact."

It was the first time the man hailed for masterminding the world's longest postwar boom has accepted any culpability for the crisis that has engulfed the global banking system.

During a feisty exchange on Capitol Hill, he told the House oversight committee that he regretted his opposition to regulatory curbs on certain types of financial derivatives which have left banks on Wall Street and in the Square Mile facing billions of dollars worth of liabilities.

"I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms," said Greenspan.

Now I have relatives and friends who's retirements and savings are in great jeopardy and many I know are loosing jobs or seeing their friends and workmates loose their jobs. And I keep reading about the multimillion dollar 'golden parachutes' executives are getting as they leave their failing companies. Somewhere in here lies the new definition of the American Dream.

Is There a More Violent Bully than the USA?

Your tax dollars hard at work killing people around the world. Two stories from Democracy Now!

Report: Bush Authorized US Attacks Anywhere in the World

The New York Times has revealed the US military has waged nearly a dozen secret attacks inside Syria, Pakistan and other countries since 2004. The assaults were approved under a classified order signed by then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and authorized by President Bush. The order authorizes US military attacks anywhere in the world if they can be linked to targeting al-Qaeda. Last month’s US attack inside Syria appears to be the latest known instance under the policy. Syria says eight civilians were killed. The attacks have often been carried out in collaboration with the CIA.

US Admits to Killing 37 Afghans in Attack on Wedding

In Afghanistan, the US has admitted to killing thirty-seven civilians and wounding dozens more in a military attack last week. The victims were bombed as they attended a wedding party outside the city of Kandahar. The Pentagon says the US bombed the area after coming under fire from nearby militants. It was the Pentagon’s quickest admission of a mass killing of Afghan civilians to date. It took nearly two months before the US admitted killing up to ninety civilians in a similar attack in August.

Land of the Free?

Denver Riot Police

Judge Backs “Denver 3” Bush Speech Removal

The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing a federal court ruling upholding the ejection of three Denver residents from a speech by President Bush in 2005. The “Denver Three,” as they’ve come to be known, were removed before Bush took the stage. They weren’t being disruptive. White House staffers forced them out after noticing they had parked in a car with a bumper sticker reading “no blood for oil.” Bush was in Denver as part of a national tour promoting his now widely discredited plan to privatize Social Security. The ACLU had sued the White House for infringing on the residents’ constitutional rights. But in a new ruling, US District Court Judge Wiley Daniel said the “Denver Three” had no guaranteed right to be present.

from Democracy Now!

Everyone Wants a Piece of Obama (at least the Irish)

This song might not be in my iPhone but that doesn't make it any less significant.



US President-elect Barack Obama's roots have possibly been traced to 18th century Ireland and a village called Moneygall in County Offaly.

Irish band, Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys have highlighted Obama's Irish heritage with the song, 'There's no one as Irish as Barack Obama'

America's Credability Comeback

On November 4th, the front page of the Pravda online newspaper's lead story's headline read:

Eight years of hell are over

Well, Russia may not be our best friend after eight years of Bush, but what is the rest of the world thinking? If you are not a regular reader of international press, this video sums it up pretty well.

MLK Jr.'s Dream not Realized Yet

The Haun's Mill Massacre of October of 1838, is just one of many examples of persecution against the Mormons. Now the Mormons are turning to persecute gays in the USA.

This email was sent out to all teachers at my school (no need to mention who sent it, not important). I know about six of my students who are gay. Of the 85 students I teach, that seems about right. I'm sure there are two or three that I don't know about. Here is the email:

If statistics are accurate, approximately 100 of our students (10%) are gay. The passing of Proposition 8 on Tuesday may very well have sent each of them the message that they are second class citizens, not worthy of the liberties afforded their heterosexual classmates and neighbors. Given the high frequency of depression and suicide among gay teens, I believe we should all keep our eyes open for signs of dismay and depression among our students as they process the impact of Tuesday's election.

"...I did not want to see one more teenager go through what I did: The terror and fear I felt when I first realized I had intimate feelings for boys and not girls, the isolating belief that I was the only one who felt that way, the depression that haunted me from twelve until well into my twenties causing constant suicidal ideation.

As a boy I saw how hatred cloaked in religion was used to oppress an entire race of people; I also witnessed their struggle, based in a different set of churches, to overcome that oppression and achieve equality."

Mitchell Gold, author of Crisis: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay in America; 2008

So, because of certain group's religious beliefs, some of my students lives are in jeopardy! Because an unusual coalition of evangelical Christians, Mormons and Roman Catholics are forcing their narrow religious beliefs on all citizens of the United States, certain 16, 17 and 18 year old youths that I teach may want to kill themselves to escape the persecution and inequality forced on them.

Still, to this day, I don't understand how two men being married in the Castro of San Francisco effects the marriage of a heterosexual couple in Kansas or Utah. But if one of my gay students kills themselves because of the inequality sponsored by groups like the Mormon Church, I'll hold them directly responsible.

The Mormons surprise me. Their 'family values' are much different than others who worship Jesus as a god. They don't believe marriage is between one man and one woman as they believe in polygamy. And they have a history of being persecuted. So why are they now showing this hate toward another group who are just trying to live their lives the way they wish in accordance with the US Constitution.

Read this great opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times.

Petition here to take away the Mormon Church's 501 (c)(3) tax status as they are now clearly a political group intent on hate and persecution of Americans.

If you are Mormon and disagree with your church's stance and the $20 million they pumped into my state to take away the equal rights of so many of my friends, colleagues and students, then now is the time to stand up and speak out against this hatred.

Religious Fundamentalists In the USA

HOPE

Barack Obama's Grandmother Dies a Day Before Historic Election

Barack Obama with his grandmother Madelyn Dunham,
during his high school graduation in 1979.

A day before the election in which her grandson could become the first black president of the United States, Madelyn Dunham, Barack Obama's grandmother, age 86, died of cancer.

Barack Obama has said that one of his greatest regrets was not being by his mothers side when she died of ovarian cancer in 1995.

It seems sad that Mrs. Dunham could not have lived another day or two to see if her son makes history. Then again, she was there for Barack when he needed her. She has been such a large inspiration and support to Obama, and helped him get to where he is today.

I really and truly wonder if Republican strategists and pundits like Brad Blakeman are feeling any remorse for attacking Obama for his visit to his grandmother last week or if these humans are in fact as soulless as they seem. It is really beyond me to imagine how these people think, people like Blakeman, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, W. Bush plus a few of my relatives and acquaintances.

If stressful events like this election bring out the true essence of an individual, I have learned quite a bit about those on the modern right and left. I have witnessed so much downright skulduggery as well as compassion and empathy. I have learned about people that spin and spin and spin and haphazardly cast the worst insults they can dream up vs. those who keep an even keel and stick to their principles.

All of this makes me remember a time when I was proud of this great country; and today I have hope reborn that this pride can return in the near future.

Sen. Barack Obama cries while speaking about his grandmother
during a rally at University of North Carolina on Monday.

The ROP is Even Mean to Kids!

Thanks Mark Z. of Chico

Bush Street Renamed

From the SFist (thanks for sending this Erika):

In the spirit of change, Bush Street got a makeover over the weekend. We suspect Hogarthian vandals at work here.

Update: Tim Redmond has the scoop: This is the work of local artist Alex Zecca. It seems Zecca "managed to get all the way from Presidio to Grant" with this rechristening effort before the fuzz made him remove all the stickers. Heh.

Bush Street highlighted in red.

Possible (Vice) President Fooled, Ya Betcha

Not sure what scares me more, that a vice presidential candidate could be so easily fooled by a random caller or that McCain had the lack of judgment to choose such a dimwit.

Sarah Palin duped by prank call

US vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin has become the victim of a prank phone call by a Canadian comedian posing as the French president.

Marc Antoine Audette convinced Alaska's governor she was speaking to Nicolas Sarkozy during a six-minute chat aired on a Montreal radio programme.

Topics discussed ranged from the beauty of Mr Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni, to the prospect of a joint hunting trip.

Masked Avengers

Mr Audette said he would be keen to join her on a helicopter hunting trip.

"I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," he said in an exaggerated French accent.

"I'd really love to go, so long as we don't bring along Vice-President [Dick] Cheney."

Excerpts from BBC.com

The GOP is despicable!

To deny any American the right to vote is un-American (well, convicted felons, depending on the state, is another story explained in the Straight Dope, 2000). Seems this may come to a surprise to some Republicans. Every four years we hear the same thing coming form the Grand Old Party. Its happening again.

Two days ago I wrote about a few of the nefarious tactics Republicans are presently using to deny honest Americans from casting their vote or to paint an evil cloud over those left of center. I forgot the very story that inspired the post.

This from the Washington Post:

Virginia elections officials said fliers are making the rounds in several Hampton Roads localities attempting to confuse voters.

The fliers advise Republicans to vote on Nov. 4, and Democrats on Nov. 5.

Election Day for everyone, of course, is Nov. 4.

The bogus advisory features the logo of the State Board of Elections and states the two voting dates are intended to ease the load on local balloting officials.

State police are looking into the source of the fliers.

Happy Celtic New Year

This holiday was the Celtic New Year and Gaelic harvest celebration before Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1 in an attempt to ride the world of non-Christian religions. Some things never change.

What is More Despicable Than The GOP?

I'm serious! Day after day I hear about nasty, nasty, un-American activities condoned by the Republican Party and it really makes me sick that Americans find this acceptable (well, maybe not. This seems to be why life long Republicans who have never voted Democrat are voting for Obama).

I'll start with the nut job from the RNC who carved a letter "B" in her face saying that a large black man did this to her because she had a McCain sticker on her car's bumper. A communications director in Pennsylvania from the McCain Campaign then called media outlets to tell them how to report on this horrendous fabrication. Is that American values?

I'm listening to a Allen Raymond interview on Bill Maher. From Wikipedia:

Raymond told investigators that his former Republican National Committee colleague James Tobin approached him with a plan to tie up the phones of NH Democrats on Election Day 2002, during a close Senate race between Republican John E. Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. Raymond collected $15,600 from the NH Republican State Committee and paid a small Idaho telemarketing company $2,300 to make non-stop hangup phone calls to six NH phone lines. Five of these were being used by Democrats to get out the vote; the sixth belonged to the Manchester (NH) Firefighters' Union, which offers non-partisan rides to the polls.

Raymond spent three months in federal prison.

Why can't they just run a clean campaign on the issues? What is wrong with that.

This from Democracy Now!:

GOP Ads Darken Skin of Indian American Dem. Candidate

Republicans in Minnesota are being accused of racism after running attack ads that apparently darken the skin of an Indian American Democrat running for Congress. The Democrat, Ashwin Madia, is a former Marine and Iraq war veteran. Attack ads funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee appear to show him with a darkened complexion. Madia is challenging Republican Erik Paulsen in Minnesota’s third congressional district.

Colorado to Reinstate Thousands of Purged Voters

In voting news, voter rights activists have won another major victory, this time in Colorado. State officials have agreed to reinstate tens of thousands of people whose names had been removed from the rolls. Colorado Secretary of State [Repulican] Mike Coffman said he had removed up to 30,000 voters because they appeared twice on the rolls or had moved out of state. But in a lawsuit against Coffman, the civil rights group the Advancement Project accused of him of an illegal purge. Under a settlement, the removed voters will be able to cast provisional ballots that will be counted unless officials can prove their ineligibility.

I'm not criticising the pre-Reagan fiscal conservatives of my father's Republican party (mostly because I don't know much about them).

Greed is Good!

Oliver stone gave us a bit of foreshadow in 1987 with these Gordon Gekko speeches from the film Wall Street:

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.

From another scene:

The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it. You've got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you.

A Return to Our Constitution?

According to my conservative email group, a new one dollar coin is being distributed in the USA without the phrase "In God We Trust." If true, and I seriously have my doubts, then I am ecstatic. It's hard for me to believe that under a Bush government, the people in charge would finally follow the law of this land and separate church and state on our currency.

I'm not sure why these conservatives hate our Constitution, our Supreme Court and Thomas Jefferson so much. George Bush seems to have done his best to ignore or destroy this foundation of our great nation but George Walker and his cronies are on their way out, finally.

The conservative email asks its followers to reject these coins. If you support our Constitution and the foundation the United States was built on, embrace the new one dollar coin. Show these splinter religious fanatics that have taken over the GOP that Americans love the country our forefathers built for us.

A Sad Moment in History?

One of America's greatest filmmakers ten years ago made a beautiful, shocking, happy and sad film about one of the greatest humans breathing Earth's air today. Everyone should run out and rent Martian Scorsese's 1997 Kundun. This spiritual leader asked the help of the dominating power of the Free World at the time (that was us in case you have for some reason forgotten) against a Communist invader in the 1950's and the USA ignored him (except for a possible CIA intervention that may have left 1.2 million Tibetans dead). Now, this Noble Peace Prize winner is giving up his struggle against the seeming next leader of the world, China. What if we went to his people's aid in the 50's just as we went to "bring freedom and democracy to Iraq" under George W?

Excerpts from a BBC.com article:

Dalai Lama 'loses hope' for Tibet

This weekend the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, told his followers he had lost hope of reaching agreement with China about the future of his homeland.

For decades, the Dalai Lama's approach to China has been cheerfully patient and optimistic.

So the announcement he is giving up attempts to persuade China to grant greater autonomy to Tibet will come as a shock to many.

He has expressed frustration before - and threatened to go into political retirement. But the key question now is what implications this announcement will have.

The full answers may not emerge until after a special meeting of Tibetan exiles, now scheduled for November.

It is clear that frustration in the Tibet camp has rarely been greater.

In the aftermath of the riots in Tibet and surrounding areas earlier in 2008, China promised fresh talks.

Some Tibetans said at the time that they feared this was an empty gesture, merely designed to ease international pressure on Beijing in the run up to the Olympics.

The apparent deadlock in the talks seems to have confirmed those fears.

Despite China's allegations, the Dalai Lama has always stopped short of a demand for full independence.

But pressure for independence has grown amongst a feistier young generation which feels years of attempts at compromise have achieved nothing.

That would have striking implications. His international profile is one of Tibet's strongest cards and the government-in-exile would surely be weakened without his advocacy.

But his absence would also raise the stakes for China. Many see the Dalai Lama as Beijing's best hope - and urge the Chinese to do business with him while they can.

Read more about one of my great heroes here.

Wass Up

This from 60 Frames
(Thanks Grasshopper)

Free Wilco Song

WILCO w/Fleet Foxes

"I shall be Released"

Written by Bob Dylan
Recorded Live in Bend, Oregon
08.23.08

Such tumultuous times. And in the spirit of giveaways that seem to be sweeping the nation, we've got something free for you. No it's not a pile of cash (sorry) but rather an audio postcard of sorts from a summer's night in Oregon with our friends the Fleet Foxes & a lovely Bob Dylan tune. All we ask is you check the "I pledge to vote in the 2008 Election" button below. If you can spare it, we also encourage you to consider a donation to Feeding America. (and please feel free to pass this link along to friends, family members, etc.).

Follow this link: www.wilcoworld.net/vote/

Wow!? part 2

One can't create this kind of stuff. When will Palin just go away? Just when I think I can't be surprised any more, Palin pulls another from her bag of tricks. I'm starting to believe she is a plant from the Democratic party to sink the Republicans. Forget about how absurd she is and think about McCains choice to have her as VP.

MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolfe said Palin's statement about fruit flies "is the most mindless, ignorant, uninformed, comment that we have seen from Governor Palin so far and there's been a lot of competition for that prize."

Do Repulicans Have Souls?

Ok... I'm am trying my hardest to find something honorable with the Republican party. I am serious, I pride myself in my objectivity (I mostly spotlight left views on this blog, a blog of opinion, but I am also a journalist and that training has made me constantly check my objectivity). But, after all the negative ads by McRage, after all the stupidity that has come out of the moose killer, now we have a Republican operative who is attacking Obama for flying as quickly as he can to visit his ill grandmother, the very person who has spent much of her life to raise Barack. The "family values party." This is purely despicable. Please Republicans, find your souls. Please. And if you are on the right and outraged by these imbeciles, denounce these sickos who speak on your behalf.

Wow!?

I am beside myself. Not even sure how to respond. My faith is humanity has taken a hit. Conservative race to the bottom.

This is a McCain campaign worker who has claimed a black man attacked her and carved a letter "B" into her face because she had a McCain bumper sticker on her car. She was not at the ATM where she claimed it happened. The "B" is backwards, the speculation being that she carved it into her own face while looking in the mirror. Sick. America is too weird to comprehend.

When is Terrorism not Terrorism?

The Return of the Taleban?

Why didn't we take care of these guys in 2001? Oh yeah, we decided to invade the sovereign country of Iraq because... um, oh yeah, weapons of mass destruction. Turned out Iraq didn't have WMDs but guess who did: The United States. Many estimate we have killed over one million civilians in Iraq over the last seven years. And the Taleban are gaining strength while Bush still can't find their leader.

From the BBC.com

Taleban insurgents have killed at least 27 people travelling on buses in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

A Taleban spokesman said that all those killed in the attacks on three buses were Afghan government soldiers, but officials said they were civilians.

The attacks happened on Thursday but the bodies have only just been found, dumped over a wide area.

A number of the men were beheaded after the attack in the Maiwand district, local and military sources say.

A Taleban spokesman said its fighters had boarded the buses travelling on the province's main highway, removed men identified as soldiers and shot them.

Afghan officials said all the victims were civilians as soldiers travel in military convoys or by plane.

Kandahar province has seen fierce fighting in recent months.

Here is an interesting fact: While the Taleban were in power, only three countries gave them diplomatic recognition: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, all of whom also provided aid to the Taleban. Guess who are allies with all these countries? You got it, the USA!

I'm Truly Scared

I'm not sure what scares me more, that these are my fellow country folk or that this video is playing on Middle Eastern TV.

Why does a Smart President Scare Conservatives?

I'm on a conservative email list and I received this image this morning with the text:

Are You Packed Yet?
Canada's readiness preparedness plan...November 2008

This cracked me up for so many reasons. First, I guess Republicans are accepting that Mc$ame/Palin are done.

Second, I was laughing out loud because Canada is so much more liberal than the USA (don't tell the conservatives, let them find out after they move).

Third, I imagined our country minus the people who are responsible for the nightmare of the last eight years:

Iraq
Abu Graib/torture
WMD
Katrina mess
warrentless wire tapping
Stock Market crash
Alberto Gonzolas
Florida elections
Dick Cheney
Karl Rove
Donald Rumsfeld
surplus to gigantic debt
4185 of our soldiers dead in Iraq
signing statements
our plummeting reputation around the world
health care crisis
end of the American dream (remember the American Dream? Summer home, boat, two cars, a JOB...)

But then I realized that some of my favorite cities such as Montreal and Vancouver would be full of Bush supporters and I stopped laughing.