May 2008 archive

Pelosi’s Statement on McClellan, So…um….now what?

H/t to Kagro X

“I almost wonder how anybody associated with this war, unless they were of completely different philosophy, would not come to the conclusion that this war is a grotesque mistake, that it was misrepresented from the start, not prepared for correctly,” said Pelosi.

“This war is a big lie. It was a lie to begin with..and it continues to be a lie..at some point, maybe the lies just got to be too heavy for him to carry,” she said of the former White House spokesman.

Emphasis mine

So gosh Nancy, the war is a lie…..Is lying us into a war that has killed a million people or so a….ya know….CRIME?

One that it is your duty to investigate and prosecute…like Kucinich’s HRes 333 says we should?

One that YOU have the sole power to…and responsibility to ….prosecute through impeachment?

WTF are you waiting for?

Test Drive: Firefox BETA 3

So far so good except that FF3 does not yet support the Proxy AddOn Gladder that I use for The Great Fire wall. So, I have to run a separate Firefox 2 browser for that which requires jumping thru all kinds of fiery hoops since FF only allows one. (It can be done)

The Good News.  It’s way faster.  I went to CNN.com on both and FF3 won by 20 seconds.  (CNN is very slow here)

The Bestest News:  FF3 allows me to use the DKos BB Codes for html formatting

Woo Hoo! Now, I don’t have to write an essay at DKos and then copy and paste it in over here.

Mozilla says you can easily downsize back to the previous version but I found that bookmarks can get lost doing this and other things, so back up your bookmarks before jumping in the pool.

Impeachment: Bush Says Yes, Pelosi Says No

.

President Bush, did you authorize illegal domestic spying?

Yes



President Bush, did you authorize the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity?

Yes

President Bush, did you authorize torture?

Yes

Photobucket

Courtesy of Time For Accountability

Pony Party, Phone it in Friday

FRIDAY!!!!   Finally!!!!!!!!

corb lund….’truth comes out’…


DNC Blogging: Congrats to LiA & Other Great Progressive Blogs!

 For all my (myriad) frustrations with the Democratic Party, sometimes they get it right correct:  my home state’s premier progressive blog, Left in Alabama, will be live blogging from this year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.  

Here’s “mooncat’s” announcement (hot off the presses) of getting word of LiA’s being credentialed to live blog from Denver.

Well, Left in Alabama and about 120 other blogs from around the country.  Things got a bit sticky a few weeks ago.  I don’t know, and frankly don’t care to know, all the inside story on this (several stories here and orange covered that, I think) when some very worthy blogs were frozen-out passed-over  (through inadvertent neglect, I think, not through intentional sinisterness – thus my point about “frozen out” not being the correct term for what happened),  but that’s all been fixed and word’s just come down from on high that LiA and many other great, state-based blogs are now credentialed and going to Denver.

Thanks are in order to many state party leaders, both here in Alabama and around the country — who listened to, and worked with, the people “in the trenches”, their progressive, hard-working, blogging constituents.  They went into action and worked with the blogosphere and the DNC to get this whole kerfuffle worked out, amicably and righteously.  

The moral of the story:  that screw-ups or oversights happen is not the issue; how decision-makers handle, and react to, and fix screw-ups is the issue.  Here, they did well.  Again, thanks are in order to state and national Democratic Party leaders.

Please feel free to give shout-outs to your favorite state-based progressive, Democratic blog.  We’re all in this together.

Mu . . .

Docudharma Times Friday May 30



Al-Qaeda In Retreat

Al-Qeada In Retreat

Al-Qeada In Retrea

Until The Need

For Good Old Fashion Fear Mongring

Friday’s Headlines:  Former prosecutors challenge White House immunity claim   Europe fuel protests spread wider   Party leader faces ruin over Stasi spy claims    Low-caste tribe riots in Delhi for right to be ‘untouchable’   Internet backlash forces Japan to shelve plans to send relief planes to China   Rogue Sadr militias roam Baghdad   U.S. Withdraws Fulbright Grants to Gaza    Mugabe presides over decline in Zimbabwe’s wildlife parks    Aerial images prove existence of remote Amazon tribe

The last Briton in Guantanamo faces death penalty

After being held prisoner by the US for six years, inmate to be charged with terrorism offences despite protesting his innocence

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor

Friday, 30 May 2008


A British resident who is facing the death penalty in Guantanamo Bay has made a final desperate plea to Gordon Brown to end his six-year ordeal and bring him home today.

In a letter delivered to Downing Street, Binyam Mohamed, the last Guantanamo inmate with the automatic right to British residency, calls on the Prime Minister to use his influence with President George Bush to stop an American military “kangaroo court” sending him to his death.

Mr Mohamed, 29, from Kensington, west London, who is expected to be charged by the Americans with terrorism-related offences in the next few days, claims he has suffered horrific abuse during more than six years in detention without trial.

USA

Campaign Jousting Returns to Iraq War

McCain, Obama Trade Attacks

After a strong push from Sen. John McCain’s allies, the war in Iraq has moved back to center stage in the presidential election, with McCain attacking Sen. Barack Obama for making up his mind about the war without visiting the war zone and Obama charging that McCain has yet to learn the lessons of President Bush’s mistakes.

“The next commander in chief is going to have to make decisions that will either lead to peace and security in Iraq or chaos and conflict,” said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, sounding a theme that Republicans have pushed all week. “The voters need to know how the candidates will make that decision. And the fact that there are 2-year-old Iraqi children who weren’t born the last time Obama was in their country raises questions about what he is making his decisions on.”

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Tunnel

Shiny Objects

Words arrive

at the edge

of consciousness

searching for

meaning, rhythm

and grace

Visual emphasis

focuses

the mind

and heart

connecting

to the words

through what is seen

and what is not

Words are spilled

one life’s blood

hoping a gatherer

happens to pass

this way

The thoughts

are moderately

decorated

into a shiny object

to attract

attention

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–May 29, 2008

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

You know, at one time I aspired to Journalism.  I think any politically active child of an age to have experienced Watergate did as soon as they gave up on being an Astronaut (which I did young because of my poor eyesight óò).  Since l’affair Lewinski though I have become really radicalized about ‘The Press’ and now view 98% with a pure passionate contempt which while white hot is but a dwarf compared to the Rigelian levels they deserve.

The press is a gang of cruel faggots.  Journalism is not a profession or a trade.  It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits – a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.

(I)t (is) a low trade and a habit worse than heroin, a strange seedy world full of misfits and drunkards and failures.  The business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.  There’s also a negative side.

Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.- Hunter Thompson

The transcript of last night’s Hardball is up and it does Gregory no more credit today than his video last night.

A McCain Glossary: Sticky Words and Phrases

It’s about framing the narrative, stupid.

This fall Republicans will trumpet John McCain’s experience and valor, and Democrats naturally will call into question McCain’s judgment and vigor. Barack Obama will throw a few sharp elbows during debates and on the stump, but the grassroots work of shaping the narrative on McCain will fall to Obama’s running mate and to other surrogates, including canvassers and ordinary voters at the precinct and neighborhood levels.

Below the break is a sampling of words and phrases to consider lobbing in McCain’s direction. Some are obvious. Some have already been used elsewhere. Some are wry. Some are harsh.

Surely McCain’s persona and positions will serve as magnets for such descriptive terms, some of which can be made to stick.

Without further ado, here is a modest first draft of a McCain Glossary. Consider the subtitle to be: Narrative Framing for Dummies.

(Cross-posted at Daily Kos and Raising Kaine.)

writing in the raw: love’s labours won

i really didn’t have time to write much. but i didn’t want anybody else to take this evening either. it is the last writing in the raw i’ll do from the states for a while, so even with a sparse essay, i think i’ll keep it for myself.

actually, it’s after 10pm as i start writing this. so it will be brief.

i’m packed. ready to go. exhausted. i’ll definitely blog from the airport tomorrow. i usually pay to get into the business lounge… for $45, you get fruit, cheese, coffee/tea, cookies, alcohol, tv, internet and a little desk from which you blog, and a comfy, quiet place to zone out for a few hours. premium wine/alcohol will cost you… hey Mu, might be one of the tips for your travel space.

okay. so that’s it.

well, and i’ll explain the title. just a bit.

getting on that plane tomorrow is amazing. there have been difficult times and yet, somehow, ej and i managed to hold onto to each other. over the phone. one-line e-mails. packages filled with small fetish items. a sense of humor. and well, we just get along. whenever i’m with him, by heart rate slows (unless you know…), i become very at ease. i smile a lot. i’m actually funny when i’m relaxed and not thinking about George Bush et al.

i sleep really well when i sleep with him. and when we get up, he has this funny little fresh face, squinty eyes and he’s smiling. maybe he looks a little like a baby bird or something. but it touches my heart. and it inspires me to get up and make coffee and cook breakfast.

we hold hands. we like the way each other smells. we think it’s funny when strangers fall down or break something in a store (but we don’t really want anybody to be really hurt). we love to go to museums. or find secret gardens. we like to wander in cities and towns. oh. and we both love madly medieval cathedrals and churches.

he likes to cook. i like to eat. he likes to complain. i like to sit, cross-legged, and listen and laugh at him and how he, in a very animated fashion, counts off each absurdity with his fingers.

i tell him everything has a shelf life. if we’re lucky, we’ll just die together, around 99 years old, in a plane crash or car accident. because i always see us together, old and beautiful. and i just know i’ll love him even more then… the two of us always walking, looking at the world together, my hand in the pocket of his old jacket.

this is one of those moments. when love wins.

A McCain Glossary: Sticky Words and Phrases

An Unhinged McCain in Full Snarl On McCain’s Napoleonic inclinations and his inability to control his temper: –abusive –arbitrary –acrimonious –authoritarian –autocratic –bad-tempered –bellicose –belligerent –bent out of shape –beside oneself –blow a fuse –blow a gasket –blow his top –blow his stack –Bonaparte –browbeating –bullying –comandeering –contemptuous –cranky –crabby –cross –crotchety –despotic –dictatorial –dogmatic …

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McClellan, Writing and Truth

Is this a Judas move? So asks Bill O’Reilly:

Milder reactions have emanated from the White House, ranging from being “puzzled”, intimating that McClellan didn’t write this book because it “doesn’t sound like him, it sounds like a left-wing blogger”, that this is an “out of body experience”, that McClellan was “disgruntled”, that “something dramatically has changed”, that the editor “tweaked some things in the past few months” and “wrote a lot of it”…

…and on, and on, and on.

But the process of writing is sitting in front of a blank screen, staring into one’s soul.

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