Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Class Size Ammendment

So let me get this right, Jeb Bush says that Florida can't afford the class-size ammendment, but we do have enough money to give a tax cut to the wealthy. Do these citizens contribute to the GOP?
The income who are in the 99th percentile (which means they have more income than 99 percent of the general population) has risen 87 percent;
The income at the 99.9th percentile (which means they have more income than 99.9 percent of the general population) has risen 181 percent;
The income at the 99.99th percentile (which means they have more income than 99.99 percent of the general population) has risen 497 percent.
But we don't have enough money to make schools better for students....

Just for fun...

><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>¸.
·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>

Too much free time, don't you think?

Monday, February 27, 2006

What Do Democrats Stand For?

We need to get Democrats elected to political positions. In order to do this, we have to find candidates that can are electable. In order for a candidate to be electable, he/she will have to make compromises that will help them appeal to a wider constituency and get elected to office. But the burning question that seems to stir the most debate among our group is this: if the end-game is only getting a candidate into office, at what price do we pay to get that someone elected into office? If we have to give up the very principles that we hold dearest to our heart in order to get elected, is that acceptable? Is it possible to stand by your principles, and still get elected? What principles do we hold dearest to our hearts? Should that be our message?
I’m told there are many disillusioned Republicans right now who would vote for Democrats if they would just take a stand and stand for something….

When All Else Fails, Laugh

So, according to the Neoconservatives, those of us who have a problem with GW Bush suffer from something called, "Bush Derangement Syndrome." OK, even if we do, it never hurts to laugh. Max's Daily Feed can give you something to smile about whenever the news gets too much!

America for Sale


The Cost of Republican Corruption

Find out who is outsourcing jobs overseas in your area

Find out which companies in your area are exporting jobs:

Sunday, February 26, 2006

100 People Screwing Up America? Add Bernard Goldberg to the list

I believe that in order to find a common ground between this current political divide between the Left and the Right, it is important to hear what both sides have to say. So I decided to check out the book on tape from the library titled: "100 People Screwing Up America" by Bernard Goldberg.

It became painfully clear from the start the Mr. Goldberg never met a conservative that he didn't like and that for the most part, liberals are a problem in this country. Mr. Goldberg places at the feet of anyone who is not a conservative all of the social ills he feels are plaguing this country, including yelling "F---" on an airplane and everyone thinking nothing of it. He does include one or two conservatives but the bulk of blame for messing up this country, in his estimation, is liberals.

Actually, I didn't disagree with him on many of the arguments he made and felt he had some valid points. But the closer we got to the top 30 people he blamed for screwing up this country, the more alarmed I became. I started to get really concerned when we got to:
#10- Jimmy Carter—for being a hypocrite
#8 Paul Krugman—for criticizing the GOP economic polices

But here is the one that really was a wake up call!
#7 is a
Jonathan Kozol. Jonathan who? Number 7? Look at this man's website
Check Wikipedia. I can not even find information on this man and yet, according to Goldberg, this man has single handedly turned schools into an instrument of the state where teachers are teaching pro communism propaganda to students everywhere. Yup, that's right! According to Goldberg, this man, Jonathan Kozol, is one of the most influential people in America schools. And because of his widespread influence, teachers everywhere are using classrooms convert students into commies. I can assure you that 99.999% of teachers in this country have never even heard of Jonathan Kozol, and yet, according to Goldberg, he deserves to be listed as #7 in the ranking of people who are screwing up this country.

Now if Bernard Goldberg was as an obscure writer as Jonathan Kozol is, I might not be concerned. But Goldberg’s book, "100 People Screwing Up America" has been on the New York Times best seller's list for how many weeks? How many people who have read his book are going to walk away with the impression that this obscure man, Jonathan Kolzol's propaganda is being spread like a virus throughout the schools in this country? Saying that Jonathan Kozol is one of the most influential men in American education is so laughable and easy to dismiss were it not for the fact that there are people out there who might actually believe this!

And as I reflected on this book, I realized how one by one the validity of divergent views, which is a stronghold of democracy, had been discredited.
The sad thing was that he sounded so sincere.

If I can summarize his gripe with the liberals it is this: we do not respect their views. All the conservatives want is for their values to be respected and not dismissed by those (the liberals) who work to minimalize them through name calling and offensive behaviors. Fair enough. But didn't Jesus say that before you try to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye, you ought to take the log out of your own eye?

Perhaps Mr. Goldberg can return the favor by listening to Paul Begaula and James Carville’s new book, "Take it Back." Maybe then he would understand that the Conservative Right is not without sin. Didn't Jesus say "he who is without sin cast the first stone?" I just listened to this man verbally stone to death people who he claims are hypocrites, evil doers, dirty, bad, immoral, liberal people.

Perhaps Mr. Goldberg needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and add his name to the list of people that are screwing up this country.

The Arabs Are Coming and the GOP strategy to confuse the issues

Does the GOP pay these guys to write this stuff?





So here is the heading:
OP-ED COLUMNIST


By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Regardless of what the OP-ED piece says, here is a perfect example of where the voice of Democratic Party becomes muffled.
Kristof: "Do Democrats really want to join the scaremongering on the Dubai ports deal? "

--Throw this question about the argument of port security into the public arena to confuse the issue...
--Remind Democrats that they will be viewed as racists if they take a stand and say no to this issue...
--Appeal to the intellectual crowd to debate the merits of the debate...
Really, isn't this how the GOP moves the argument away from their failures to make the issue the Democrats?

Monday, February 20, 2006

Dear New Orleans and Katrina refuges, we won't forget you.







Several news shows last night that were discussing Katrina and the aftermath. ( CNN Presents, Larry King Live ) I head many of the people who live in the Gulf Coast area that they fear that we have forgotten them and that the American people's attention has moved on. There is wide-spread fraud in the insurance industry. The insurance industry is not paying the claims and people are loosing everything.

We have not forotten you...
Behind the Scenes:
'Nothing could prepare me'Gallery: Bay St. Louis ravaged by KatrinaWatch: CNN's Kathleen Koch returns to Bay St. Louis Watch: Residents face insurance nightmare

Bush: Sell off National Forests to pay for education!

So you might ask, "What happens when its time to start paying for some of the wonderful things this "Conservative Agenda" has brought to this country?" Fair Question? Here's a news item that may give you an idea of where their priorities lie.

And if you aren't sure why that is a bad idea, read the book, "Collapse" by Jared Diamond.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Dead whales in Mexico -- the good news and the bad news

There is more bad environmental news in the papers today.

I read in the
New York Times today that in Mexico they found 10 dead whales in two weeks. They are now averaging 1 dead whale per week and the whales are just starting to arrive in the Sea of Cortes where they will spend the winter. The average number of deaths in the past has been 9 per year. And they say that they don't know why these creatures are dying...

In a recent article of the March issue of
Fast Company (which is an awesome magazine BTW) it was noted that we are dumping 70,000 synthetic chemicals into the fresh water supply and that TOXIC CHEMICALS ARE SHOWING UP IN THE BREAST MILK OF THE ARTIC INUIT MOTHERS WHO ARE NURSING THEIR CHILDREN but they don’t know…

The good news is that there are an army of people out there who care about what is going on in this country and around the globe. I care and a lot of other people care too.

This is bad news for our corrupt incompetent leaders. We are going to find a way to stop them and hold them and accountable. We are going to find a way to elect men and women who are going to fight this corruption. Our tragic indifference has allowed them to wreck the environment, and cause havoc in the lives of men and women around the world. But people are starting to care again. We care about the world we leave behind for our children and their children. For too long we have allowed greed and corruption be the norm.

On
NOW this week,(hear the podcast) we watched our Senators and Congress men and women being bought and sold to the highest bidder. They are passing laws without even reading them in exchange for pork barrel ear-mark appropriations for their districts.

We will coalesce and we will find a way to put a stop to it.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

How much did Cheney drink?

So now Cheney admits that he had "ONE" beer before he went hunting. Any amount of alcohol would be irresponsible, but how are we to believe him if he waited 20 hours before reporting it?

The only news organization he would talk to was GOP TV (Fox news). They are trying to "manage" the press coverage of this event.

Only on beer huh? Sounds like he is not being forth-right, doesn't it?

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The Gossip about Cheney's shooting accident

The gossip at the gym about the real reason why Cheney didn't immediately report the accident for 20 hours:
They were drunk and they had to sober up.

What are the facts?
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issued its hunting accident report, which said the main contributing factor was a "hunter's judgment factor" when Cheney sprayed his fellow hunter while aiming at flying birds. This is a nice way of saying that:

They were drunk and they had to sober up.

The report says both Cheney and Whittington were violating state game law because they did not have required $7 upland game bird stamps. Both are issued warning citations.

Also, was also consensus among those gossiping at the gym that they were glad they weren't in the vicinity of these two 70+ year old drunks with shot guns.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Peak Oil -- Fact or Fiction

We went to see the documentary called, The End of Suburbia," a couple of weeks ago. Even if only half of what they say in this movie is true, there were reasons for concern and a reason to modify our consumption habits. I received this wonderful cartoon parity of about the greed of the Oil executives called, "Exxon Toast the Planet." This is a good add on to the message of the documentary.

The New York Times had an article titled
"G-8 Ministers Warn of Wider Risks From Tight Oil Supply" by Andrew Kramer in the February 12, 2006 paper. He highlights the concern of global leaders of how much oil is needed to keep the global economy moving forward. Their solution of course was to simply find more oil, not try to move away from our dependency on oil.

The debate goes like this: if we just cut our oil consumption by replacing 10% of our energy needs with renewable sources of energy, we could slow global warming. If we continue consuming at our current levels we are heading for the edge of a cliff and we won't be able to stop once we realize it is upon us.

Some say the PEAK has already happened, some say it is the near future, while others say it is a long way off. Anyway, I posted the artice in the comment section. See for yourself what they are saying.

Made in China -- how the media misleads Americans

Illustration by The New York Times

New York Times Business Section, February 9, 2005-- Lead article"Some Assembly Needed: China as Asia Factory," by David Barboza (posted complete article in comment section if you would like to read article.

I read this article by David Barboza that catches my attention on the China/outsourcing debate. I am an avid listener of "Lou Dobbs" CNN News, Moneyline, M-F from 6:00 to 7:00 EST. He has made the outsourcing debate on of his mantras this year. This article offered a different perspective to the debate so I thought I'd check it out. It made me stop and think. But it was quite deceptive.

Some of the interesting points David made:

The US trade deficit to China distorts the true picture.

A lot of things that China makes are really outsourced to other countries in the Pacific Rim, so even though it may say, "Made in China" various parts are made in other countries, and then shipped to China where the "Made in China" label is applied. So just because it says, “Made in China” it may not have been.

The profits don't all go to China. He uses a Barbie doll as an example. The Barbie Doll costs $20 and but China really only gets 35 cents. That's because the company that makes the Barbie Doll is really a multi-national corporation and the profits go to the corporation, not to China.

Most of these multi-national corporations are really American and European companies so we are the one who really benefits and the American consumer benefits as well.

The US Trade Deficit with China renamed-- China's trade SURPLUS with the US and that this China's Trade Surplus with American that is about $2200 billion is offset by the trade deficit with the other countries where they outsource to and that equals around, $137 billion.

This whole article is coordinated with cute pictures of another article that talks about Barbie and Ken breaking out.

Cute... then he mentions toward the end of the article, when most people have stopped reading, the workers are getting about 75 cents an hour which is good for them over there because it is bringing jobs to their country.

He praises the entrepreneurs in China who are "making a difference."

Wow, what great story, right?

And then at the very end, when most people have either fallen asleep or moved on to the next page, or started reading about Barbie and Ken, he mentions, "Oh, by the way, two of those wonderful entrepreneur will soon be flooding the American market with Chinese manufactured cars.

Never mind that he forgot to mention that these cars were going to be built by people making 75 cents an hour and that is one of the big reasons that American car manufacturers: GM, and Ford are moving their plants to China and laying off workers in America.

Never mind the fact that he forgot to talk about how the working and living conditions of these workers in China. This work will be outsourced to other countries. It doesn’t matter right. It’s good for business.

And what I have a problem with this is the way it was sugar-coated. There’s no debate or human face put on this story. No mention that these multi-national corporations might be exploiting these workers. No mention about what this will do to our citizens. Just a sweet lullaby to the American public that lulls into a quiet slumber of happy consumerism.

HAPPY CONSUMERISM EQUALS HAPPY AMERICANS. Isn’t that what we are being told in this article?

Who is David and the New York Times speaking for? You? Me? Or is he speaking the views of the Corporatocracy? What page did they publish the other views reflecting the human side to the story? The environmental side? Hmm?

Friday, February 10, 2006

What is wrong with the Democrats


There was an article in the New York Times titled: "Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities." In this article, there is an analysis of what is wrong with the Democrats.

From the grassroots level, I can tell you what I see is wrong with the Democrats. They are a bunch of "old farts" who are looking in the rear-view mirror, trying to re-live the glory days of yester-year.

They have no vision for the future. They know everything they are against and nothing that they are for. As much as I disagree with the Republicans vision of the future, at least they have one. Yes, we changed the world with our protests in the 60's, but we live in the 21st century now and the world has changed. We are never going to win any election as long as we keep living in the past.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Addicted to Oil?

According to Peter Tertzakian, we are using a thousand barrels of oil per second. That equals four olympic sized swimming pools per mintue that we are consuming. There is a book by that title: A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World

Bush sneaks privatization of Social Security into budget

According to Truth Out, Bush is trying to sneak in ... that will take $700 billion dollars out of the Social Security Trust Fund that will begin the process of privatizing Social Security.

Baby Boomers, get ready, you are not ever going to see any of the Social Security money you have been paying into for 4o years. The money is gone; it's paying for this war in Iraq and for tax cuts for 1% of the American people who have more money than they know what to do with.

We rejected Reaganomics -- Reagan’s trickle down economics only to have it come back in through the Bush administration. We rejected Reagan’s economic policies and went from a deficit to a surplus under Clinton, and back to a deficit with Bush.

For all of those who love Bush, may his policies trickle down on you…

Coretta Scott King's Funeral and Bush's black eye

I listened to Chris Matthews tonight and he had Kate O'Beirne on his show. She was berating the Democrats and declared their speeches at Coretta Scott King’s funeral to be nothing more than "cheap political stunts."

-Jimmy Carter took a jab at Bush's domestic eavesdropping program. "It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance," Carter said.

-Former President Bill Clinton, loved by civil rights leaders, offered a teasing hint of the possible presidential candidacy of his wife. "I'm honored to be here with my president and my former presidents and ...," he trailed off, motioning in his wife's direction to loud and sustained applause.

Lowery, who was the former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Martin Luther King helped, found in 1957, gave a playful reading of a poem in eulogy of Scott King and made an obvious reference to the Iraq war launched by Bush.

My favorite quote:
We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more, but no more for the poor," Lowery said.

So the Republicans were whining because they were able to jab them in the eye and saying it was a cheap political stunt. They compared it to Paul Wellstone's funeral.

Perhaps they are upset because:

1. They didn't get to prescreen the attendees to the funeral so Bush would not be exposed to opposing views.

2. They are mad because they couldn't control the message and manipulate the media

3. They wanted to steal yet another Democratic value and dress it up as their own. Instead the Democrats beat them over the head with it

They mock the Democrats and say they don’t stand for anything. When they do, it's a "cheap political stunt."

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Interpol issues ‘urgent global security alert’

Khaled Fazaa / AFP - Getty Images file
Unbelievable!

So I was sitting with my husband at dinner tonight discussing the recent revelation that the Bush administration had planned to dress up a airplane and make it look like a UN plane so when Saadam was shot it, we could use that as a pretense to go to war. We were also discussing the latest revelation that Powell's Former Chief of Staff called the Pre-War Intelligence a 'Hoax on the American People'.

I explained that I thought what would happen if Bush's numbers go too low in the polls; some terrorist related event would happen to make everyone afraid. My husband quickly sounded in, "I don't; I'm not a conspiracy theorist." I said that I wasn't either, but it wouldn't surprise me if some type of warning would be issued to scare people. He agreed that could be plausible. We both agreed it would most likely be something overseas; somebody escapes or something gets blown up.

So when I go home, I check my e-mail and see this global security alert: a mean terrorist has escaped. How convenient. That seems to play right into Carl Rove’s, fear mongering political strategy, doesn't it? What lucky timing for the Bush administration! Some how they always seem to be in the right place at the right time on every single issue. It's almost like they have a crystal ball and can peer into the future, doesn't it? How interesting... I suppose it would be to cynical to consider whether or not someone who was guarding this man was on the CIA payroll, wouldn't it? And it would be REALLY way over the top to ask whether or not Jamal was on the CIA's payroll, right? His timing is superb, isn' t it?


See American... BE AFRAID.. but don't worry, we'll keep you safe...

Why Blogging Matters

Here is a good article that explains how the media is shifting and why niche marketing is the next big thing. Blogs are about niches and are the gateway to a group of like minded viewers.

Why did the "Red State" people elect Bush ?

Here is a video that might help us understand the Red States!
Red State Road Trip: A 60-Minute DocumentaryA Film
by Chris Hume and L. Wild Horse

'PBS: Powell's Former Chief of Staff Calls Pre-War Intelligence a 'Hoax on the American People'

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/

-- In an interview airing tonight on the PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson makes the startling claim that much of Powell's landmark speech to the United Nations laying out the Bush Administration's case for the Iraq war was false.

"I participated in a hoax on the American people, the international community, and the United Nations Security Council," says Wilkerson, who helped prepare the address.

Are you ok with this?
People are beginning to protest!


Demand the truth. Rember the movie, "A Few Good Men" when Tom Cruise (Lt. Daniel Kaffee) risks all and confronts the arrogant Col. Nathan R. Jessep, played by Jack Nicholson? Lt Kaffee tells Jessep to sit down because he wasn't through questioning him? Jack Nicholson/Jessep sits down and smuggly asks Cruise/Kaffee, "OK sunny, what is it that you want?"

Cruise yells, "I WANT THE TRUTH!"
Nicholson yell's back, "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

That's all I want, " I want the truth about the 9/11 attacks, the role of the CIA, the FBI, the administration, and this mismanaged war!" I WANT THE TRUTH!!! DON'T YOU?

We got a special prosecutor to investigate Bill Clinton lying about his sex life. Doesn't this qualify as equally egregious and something that should be investigated?

This isn't a Democrat or Republican issue, this is an American issue!

Blog Pulse -- Wake up my friends

So if you compare blogging to Malcom Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point" you can think of bloggers and the "connectors." Blog Pulse is a new blog service that is monitoring and quantifying the sphere of influence a blog has. I started this blog with no grand ideas about reaching large numbers of people. I really just wanted to see what it was all about and to make sure that the right wing ideas didn't dominate the blogspehere the way they have the AM radio.

So here I am, one small voice crying out into the night and little by little people are beginning to read my views and giving them a voice. That is why I think blogging is so important. It is a tool for the moderate voices, and the liberal voices to get their views out there. What blogging does is open a window for the possibility of dialogue with other voters throughout the country. I have even seen now because of my site new meter that people from other parts of the world have read my blog. This is quite humbling for sure, and I'm amazed at the different blog sites that visit my blog. But I use my experience to share with my friends the importance of harnessing this new tool for communication purposes.

Your voice does matter. It's worth the time and effort that it takes to learn to blog. Are there going to be abuses? Absolutely. That goes with the territory. But you don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Bottom line: Don't give up, don't be discouraged, keep the drumbeat going. You do and can make a difference. We live in a democracy and in order for a democracy to work; we have to become informed citizens. If we don't want to take the time to be involved in our country's civics, then elect a king and let's forget about, life would be easier. Are politics dirty? Unfortunately often they are but not always. There are some really sincere people on both sides of the isle that are serving this country because they care and care deeply about this place that we call home. There are others on both sides of the isle that need to be given their suitcase and asked to go home for good.

Our country is in the mist of change. If we throw up our hands and say there is nothing we can do, the Corporatocracy that wants to control everything will win and we deserve what-ever we get in the face of our own apathy. We will have the ultimate top-down society where no one has any input into what decisions are made and something external to us will control our lives.

You choose every day of your life and your decisions, no matter whether you realize it or not, will and do shape the future of this nation.

Blowback from Bush's State of the Union speech

I would be remiss not to post all of the funnies that poke fun at President Bush’s state of the Union Speech that are coming out. So here is a collection of all of them that I’ve gotten so far.

Bush Impression

Asshole (I didn’t name it so don’t blame me)

Nixon and Bush

Now why didn't the Democrats thing of that for the war in Iraq.
The only solution is to reinvade our own invasion of Iraq to free freedom from itself! Giblets hereby redeclares Operation Re-liberationization!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Church Fires in Alabama




The headline should read “Fire Destroys 3 churches and the media fans the flames of the political divide.” Ok maybe not the media, just Chris Matthews.

Last night on his show, he was interviewing,
Jon Beacham and probing his thoughts of “who could have possibly done this?”

Talk about “leading” questions, his interview was something like this:“Who would have been motivated to burn a church?” “Could it have been someone who had a different philosophy and wanted to see the church and all it represented leveled to the ground? “Might it be someone or some group who doesn’t like what the church stands for?” “Might it be, you know, some one who is to the left of where the churches are or some one who is gay and felt wronged by the Baptist church?”

Jon laughs and doesn’t take the bait.

Chris continued, doing everything he could but put the words in his mouth, to “imply” that this could have been one of those anti-Bush, America Hating, Liberal, DEMOCRATS!

Hey, it’s good for ratings to keep this political divide alive.


“Democrats are burning churches!”

What a headline that would read, right Chris?

NASA responds to the accusation that they filter information on Global Warming etc.

Last week I talked about the article in the NY Times that showed where the Bush administration appointees were silencing scientist at NASA who spoke out about Global Warming when they took a different position than the administration’s views. NASA’s official response was, we are a community of scientific openness. This comes after the fact that several other scientist who were encouraged by Dr. Hansen’s boldness, sent documents to the NY Times showing where Bush appointees had also doctored their releases to the public in an effort to control the information.

White House appointees at NASA headquarters responded by saying, the agency would never do such a thing.

Yeah, right.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Dumbfounded

Actually, I have been dumbfounded for the last two days. At lunch yesterday, I overheard some Republican pro Bush people discussing the State of the Union speech.

Complaint number 1: Why did he have to talk so long? Couldn't he have cut it down to 45 minutes? Ok, nothing new on that complaint.

Complaint number 2: "I couldn't listen to the Republican (she meant Democratic) response because I couldn't stand to look at his EYEBROWS. They gave me the creeps so I turned the channel..."

Needless to say, I was speechless.

Perhaps the idea of an "informed electorate" is really too much of a burden to ask of people and that is why our democracy is doomed to fail. I may not like the Republican point of view on many issues, but at least I feel that I should listen and try understand their position. We are allowed to have differing views in a democracy and debating the issues requires and understanding of both sides. I don't see many Republicans willing to do that. Maybe that is just sour grapes because I'm on the side of the party that is out of power. Would I be as willing to hear the Republicans if the role was reversed? Who knows?