February 14, 2008 archive

The video below contains explicit scenes of bad bar mitzvah dancing, political lyrics written by a failed auditioner for “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”, and a song that has been known to cause dementia in laboratory mice.

Side effects include: sickness, nausea, vomiting, migraines, irritable bowels, snorting, guffawing, cringing, earaches, and a strong urge to shoot yourself in the head to get the tune out.

Arrangement by Lawrence Welk.  

This video has not been endorsed by Kenny G, who told us it wasn’t hip enough.

Viewers please note:  

No minorities were harmed in the making of this video except for the ones we needed to sing the song.  

My kids (adults) keep asking me if the Obama campaign, the universal appeal, the energy is like it was with Bobby. It couldn’t be MY Bobby moment, I had already had mine, but was it theirs. Honestly, we would have a much better world if we all lived Bobby moments (the good parts) every election, everyday. If we ever get back in the right track we can have a lifetime of Bobby moments.

That being said, it was a different time, a different place, different circumstances for all there are some similarities. I was not yet 24 years old, expecting my second child and hopeful for the future because my husband had finally found a good job. That hope grew to be hope for the country and for my children’s future with the entrance of Bobby Kennedy to the presidential race. Follow me below the fold for a snapshot of history and my take on if is possible for lightening to strike twice in one person’s lifetime.

The decision to pursue the death penalty against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a number of other suspects creates a situation that no doubt was thought through by the Bush administration more than whether to actually use torture against these people in the first place.  I haven’t seen this angle discussed too much in depth but if it has, please forgive me.

Regardless of whether anyone thinks that the death penalty is a just punishment, is “cruel and inhuman”, or just plain doesn’t agree with it, I want to at least (for now) leave that out of this post.  If Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (“KSM” to make it easier for me) is guilty of masterminding the 9/11 attacks, or if he is guilty of any other crimes that can be proven, then he should receive the justice that he deserves.  This is not about whether he should or should not pay for his crimes.

I don’t think there are many people who would say that he does not deserve punishment (whatever the maximum punishment that can be meted out would be) for planning these attacks.  But, and here is the rub – the fact that his trial will be largely based on evidence that is obtained by torture will forever cloud his trial – if not in the eyes of Americans then most certainly in the eyes of the world .

when it comes to personal problems. They’re difficult to write about. And I know there are folks who’ve far worse problems and who are in far worse shape and in far worse situations than I am. And I’m grateful that I’m not in their shoes.

And more important things are going on in the world–things about which I’ve often been writing and will be writing more. So I’m not a whiner.

But currently I’m in a situation where I can use some support and friendly advice…

1. TPMmuckraker reports the House Passes Contempt Resolution against White House Officials. “The House passed the contempt resolution against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers, 223-32. Most Republicans, having staged their walk out, did not vote. So now the ball’s in Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s court. He’s expected to decline to enforce the citation of contempt… The resolution included both a criminal contempt citation and the authorization for the House Judiciary Committee to sue the White House if Mukasey refuses to enforce the citation.”

   The Hill has more in House finds Bolten, Miers in contempt of Congress. “The matter will now be referred to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. If the fight comes to a head without a compromise having been reached, it could pit Congress’s power to hold White officials in contempt against the president’s right to assert executive privilege. Democrats passed two resolutions through the adoption of a single rule, a procedural tactic that limited the time of debate, angering Republicans. One resolution holds Bolten and Miers in contempt. The second sets the stage for a civil suit the House would file against the administration to compel it to force Bolten and Miers to testify.”

2. TPMmuckraker is also reporting on the testimony of Steven Bradbury, head of the Office of Legal Counsel before the House Judiciary subcommittee in CIA Waterboarding Was Subject to “Strict Limitations”. “The CIA’s use of waterboarding was legal and not torture, a Justice Deparment official argued this morning, because it was a “procedure subject to strict limitations and safeguards” that made it substantially different from historical uses of the technique by the Japanese and the Spanish Inquisition… [Bradbury] argued that what the CIA did bears ‘no resemblance’ to what torturers in time past have done.”

   Earlier in his testimony today, Bradbury stated waterboarding isn’t currently legal. As TPMmuckraker states it is part of the Bush administration’s waterboarding PR campaign.

3. The Guardian reports Total human impact on oceans mapped for the first time.

   Fishing, climate change and pollution have left an indelible mark on virtually all of the world’s oceans, according to a huge study that has mapped the total human impact on the seas for the first time. Scientists found that almost no areas have been left pristine and that more than 40% of the world’s oceans have been heavily affected…

   Human impact is most severe in the North Sea, the South and East China Seas, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf, the Bering Sea, along the eastern coast of North America and in much of the western Pacific.
   The oceans at the poles are less affected, but melting ice sheets will leave them vulnerable, researchers said.

   Different ecosystems have been affected to differing degrees: the study found that almost half of the world’s coral reefs have been heavily damaged. Other areas of concern are seagrass beds, mangrove forests, seamounts, rocky reefs and continental shelves. Soft-bottom ecosystems and the open ocean fared best, but even these were not pristine in the majority of locations…

   Highlighting examples of action, the researchers said that, for example, no-fishing zones have been shown to protect sensitive ecosystems, as has re-routing shipping lanes.

There’s a bonus dinosaur beneath the fold… Follow the link to dig up the ol’ fossil. Or if you’re not into dinosaurs, there’s a spy satellite to shoot down too. Click to launch missiles…

Up until this month, the Bush administration refused to talk about waterboarding. The talking points were always the same. ‘We cannot talk about specific techniques‘ and ‘Whatever techniques we did use were within the law.’ The Senate was told they were being unfair to Michael Mukasey for asking about the technique because he had not been briefed on its use.

Now the Bushies cannot stop talking about waterboarding.  

So yeah…Democrats….Republicans.

If you want to look at it from one perspective there is no difference. From THAT singular perspective you will get no argument from me.

They are The Powers That Be.

You can lump them all in, as far as I’m concerned…from that perspective. Throw in the Bankers and the Insurance Cos and the Oil Cos ad the Defense Cos too. Throw in the 1%, the hyper-rich. Throw in the cops, who protect them. How far do you go? Where do you stop? Throw in everyone who works for one of these entities? Throw in anyone who sells something to them? Throw in anyone who consumes something they make? Throw in everyone who does not spend every waking hour, every minute, every breath out in the streets opposing them?

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

The Original Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy

This is really fascinating.  And short.  Whoever is playing Edgar Bergen has apparently temporarily lost control of his sockpuppet Charlie McCarthy.  The story is that the voices of Bushco apparently don’t agree today on the legality of waterboarding torture.

Join me on stage.