McCain's popularity contest...and the elites

Huh? I just don't get how useful it is that McCain keeps pointing to how popular and admired Obama is. First he showed us how much the press, especially NY Rudy-loving Chris Matthews, loves Obama. Now he's showing us how much the world loves Obama. Gee, it's almost like Obama's RONALD REAGAN. I honestly think McCain is trying to lose.

Meanwhile, I keep hearing rich white collar execs say that Obama's going to soak them with tax cuts (which means they are rich, but they vehemently deny being rich, which drives this formerly poor person over the edge of anger). I said to my husband, "Yeah, and the Bush's think they aren't rich because the Saudi's have more money than they do." That's our whole problem, isn't it? That's Limbaugh's job, to convince poor people that voting for Republican elites helps them. A scam! As if to answer my prayers, here's this: Bill Kristol

Pell Grants for kids $20...thanks Greg Palast.

God forbid we fund the SCHOOLS instead of the millionaires and get rid of No Child Left Behind's multi-millions money-making test scheme. I wake up every day and think, "In what way is Bush a Christian? Bush's worldview is 'Let those of us on earth fund the millionaires, for they are God's best."

Funding Blackwater

I want to know how Congress allows the Pentagon to contract paramilitary units. I believe this is unconstitutional.

Obama's query to the Pentagon

I guess Obama has no standing to ask the Pentagon to stop hiring military contractors as a lone Senator, but I think this is a good question for Obama to answer. Would he allow the Pentagon to hire private military as President? As Naomi Wolf points out, our government having the capability to send private paramilitary troops into U.S. cities is a chilling sign of the threats of fascism.

McGovern

Schmog is reading Schlesinger's Journals and Schlesinger notes that the McGoverns voted for Ford, not Carter, in 1976. McGovern is not a blind partisan. In any case, this is a meaningful and welcome move on his part.

10 steps toward a closed society

I thought I saw Naomi Wolf walking down the street today and I wondered what she's been up to. Then I found this link going from Swiftspeech to the man who walks in our name. Wolf puts all the dots together and shows us why we have to act now to prosecute the criminals that are running our country.

There are too many Americans who are complacent about torture, rolling back civil rights, and Homeland Security targeting Americans, not terrorists. What the hell is Blackwater doing getting government funding? Why the hell should the President have greater power to call a national emergency now? Why are we tasering students in Florida and placing academics and Code Pink on Homeland Security lists???

If I were pregnant with a girl, I'd want to name her Naomi.

Peace.

The big lies

It is absolutely 1984 that Karl Rove is falsely blaming Democrats for rushing to war in Iraq (the bigger the lie, the more it's believed, right?) and that President Bush is now calling Congress a do-nothing. If the Democrats in Congress needed in any help, Bush is now providing it because his athttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giftacks on Congress make ME want to defend "impeachment off the table" Pelosi. Thom Hartman has noted on his show that the House has actually had an ambitious agenda, that gets stalled or changed in the Senate and then gets vetoed at the top (e.g. Healthcare insurance for children).

For Bush to say Congress isn't doing anything cries out for a "then what the hell are you vetoing? Oh yeah, poor children's access to healing."

The Senate did this!!

And who needs enemies when your "friends" report the "news" like this: Feingold responds to Joe Klein

And of course, WWW III and Iran.

Bush, Cheney and the U.N. override Iraq's representative government

Thanks, Vigilante. I think every American should understand what's happening here.

Class warfare

No one knows exactly why Bush and Co. wanted to invade Iraq. I think at this point it's easy to see that oil was a big motivator, and so was the WW2 idea that we could fight a grand war and seem to be beating terrorists (after all, how many terrorists were we going to find in Iraq? It should have been easy.).

I personally think that it was the simple sin of greed.

I recently heard a story, from a good source, about the Saudi King and Queen when they go to Las Vegas (usually in a stretch luxury vehicle). They spend millions of dollars there. So much so that they have been given a multi-million dollar diamond necklace as a parting gift by the hotels and casinos. It's a kind of wealth that seems unimaginable to me (not desired) but it occurred to me that perhaps THIS is what the Bushes, Cheneys and Roves want for themselves. They want to be as rich and internally _powerful_ as the Saudi royalty. As I write about it the whole thing seems less profound than when the idea first occurred to me, but then, what else do they want? This seems to make sense to me...as trivial as it seems now (since these are not my values).

I'm hoping to write several entries on my criticism of elites (the very wealthy and influential) in our country. I think they are a mess and we need to reform our economic system and cultural ideals radically and quickly.

I called my congresswoman today

I called Rep. Jane Harman's office and told her assistant:

#1 I want her to support Pelosi's strict enforcement for lobbying reform.

#2 I am growing (I tried to sound like I was not crazy) to support the immediate impeachment of Cheney and Bush because I heard today that Bush is meeting with James Dobson regarding our foreign policy. I said that that reveals an unstable, dangerous and insane approach to our foreign policy and the next two years are going to seem like forever if we're on the edge of our seats waiting for this man to invade the NEXT country that he deems a threat to us.

I'm considering e-mailing my entire address book about impeachment--help me compile the SIMPLE list in your comments.

The Bully Guy

Looking at video feed on CNN I saw a picture of a guy taking a chain saw away from a worker in Kansas just so he could start it and stop it. Then I saw a video of the same guy doing a bad mimic of an African dance at the White House, and he pushed his way onto a drum that was physically attached to a drummer, just so he could beat it for a few beats (not well).

Why does our President have such a need to push and pull? I guess he DOES have a lot to prove.

Peace.

Parade of the Figure Head

I wondered this morning if Barbara and other women, e.g. Dr. Rice, have always tried to salvage Bush's reputation. Why in the world did the White House want it to be seen as his wife's idea to invite the Queen? Would it look too political if Bush did it himself? Does the Queen wonder why he wishes to parse the invitation in this way? It's BIZARRE! I can't imagine my husband saying to anyone, let alone royalty, "It was my wife's idea to invite you all over today, I did not think of it!" What's the message in that?! Everything is so spun out of that White House it was probably Dr. Rice, or Karl Rove who actually came up with this royal parade.

I guess the image they would like to create is of Bush fretting about how to win the already lost "war" and Barbara tapping on his shoulder saying, "Oh honey, let's invite the Queen!!!" I can't decide if that's better or worse than when I found Barbara babbling about restoring grasses and wildflowers on her ranch in Texas earlier in this Iraq debacle.

They are out of touch.

There was so much talk of our alliance. That was the only substance behind the dinner...here we are, formal allies and we have formal ties (sorry).

Well, I frankly think that a lot of Brits are probably going to flinch when they, like me, see a picture of their Queen next to our "King." In my mind, this dinner does nothing to unify the people of England with us, although many U.S. anglofiles will certainly be pleased by it. Republicans eat that stuff up--those f-ing Tories. So this was all about Bush's popularity at home. No historian is going to go, "Barbara invited the Queen and that changed the whole tone of Bush's failing Presidency!"

They want to be liked (or, maybe I mean, admired).

I hope that the Queen thought it was an opportunity to teach Bush something about war; from an academic but probably more accurate point of view.

Perhaps she said, "George, you're no Winston..." (-:

Peace.

About the War -- Stop Bush Now

It's been SO LONG since my husband I started supporting the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq that it feels like our troops have been out there in deadly limbo forever. Most Americans are not suffering at all. I think it's wrong that we are asking our troops to sacrifice their lives while we go shopping as our "sacrifice" (I must credit John Edwards for that stream of thought).

I predicted that Americans would be in the streets by March asking for us to pull out, alas, despite the "Honk to stop the war," protestors on a street corner in Echo Park yesterday, it looks like most Democrats are hoping Democrats in Congress will change Bush's mind.

Who could ask us to protest that would get us all protesting? Colin Powell? Who is a beloved American right now? Are we too partisan, too divided? [I was really sad yesterday when I heard a bunch of yuppies calling a union picket line "crazy!" How crazy is it not being able to make a living wage in L.A.?]

Yes, I do believe Democrats in Congress are working on stopping the war (yawn), and as Hillary pointed out during the Thursday night debate, those Democrats are facing a lot of Republicans in lock-step trying to thwart their efforts (she asked for their help, she was very good that night). I have hope that this veto (has it happened already?), and Tenet's (et. al) testimony, is going to bring Bush's war to an end within the month (just call me a perpetual optimist).

I was very sad to learn of the death of the journalist (car accident), David Halberstam, who was a critic of this war. Peace be with you and yours. He leaves us with this legacy:

"In both Vietnam and Baghdad, you have American governments constructing their policies out of mendacity and delusion, and young men and women are dying for that lethal combination."

Mendacity, I had to look that up (doesn't it look like a combination of the phrase, "the audacity of men?") but I think I understood what he meant. Lying, but more than that, the TENDENCY to lie. The ongoing nature of LYING. CONTINUING the lies.

The fact that most Americans do not support our President and his job, and do not support the war, or his surge, means to me that Americans should be holding our President accountable for all of this NOW!!! We have an unrealistic, menacious and delusional man, pursuing this war by using American troops to carry out his corrupt, deadly plans. He is making it more and more HIS war every day.

WE NEED TO STOP HIM, NOW!!