CSPAN is more than a little educational. Sure, those who watch it at three in the morning are often ridiculed for being nerds and policy wonks, but amazing things happen on CSPAN that are not seen or reported widely or accurately in the mainstream slap-dash corporate press. I happened to be watching the night the Medicare legislation came to the House floor for a vote, and wondered why it took three hours as opposed to the usual fifteen minutes to record all of the votes. Turns out administration officials, who have no business on the House floor during debates or votes, were twisting arms and the compliant House leadership kept the vote open far longer than is normal.

Come to find out the budgetary numbers were cooked and a Medicare actuary threatened with reprisal should he give to Congress the actual figures, as he is required to do by law. A Republican House member due to leave office after his current term was similarly threatened that his son, preparing to run for his father's seat, would face stiff opposition from his own party if he refused to change his vote so the measure would pass.

But that isn't why I laud the educational and public service functions of CSPAN. I sing its praises this night because it provides context for events later portrayed in the media stripped of same. I speak specifically about the case of Richard Clarke, formerly Counter -Terrorism Coordinator for the Shrub Ministries. Clarke held the same position for Clinton, Shrub the Elderberry, and worked in the Reagan administration as well. (A full video of his appearance can be found at CSPAN. Look for "Sept. 11 Commission Hearing, Day 2, afternoon" and click on the link.)

What transpired in open testimony and what has appeared in the news media are two very different things. In the latter, Clarke is framed as a man of questionable intent, perhaps a "disgruntled former employee" as Paul O'Neill was characterized by the Shrubbites. He is cast as a guy just trying to sell a book, to be famous, get his fifteen minutes, as it were.

The Shrubsters ran around all day Tuesday and Wednesday refuting anything and everything this man said, is alleged to have said, and might utter some day in the far flung future. To call their shrill denials desperate is to be kind. He is said to have been out of the loop, misinformed, and a liar. That last comes from the central figure who has steadfastly refused to answer in public for her role in the September 11 attacks, Condoleeza "oil tanker" Rice. She has played it safe, lobbing spitballs at Clarke every chance she gets, but only in forums where hard follow up questions cannot be asked. Unlike Clarke, she was not under oath when making her comments.

Watching the entire period of Clarke's testimony revealed to me several things. He is a serious and thoughtful man in his professional capacity, well spoken, and willing to admit not having answers to some questions due to a lack of knowledge. He strikes me as a hawkish, cold warrior type of guy, advocating the aggressive use of military and covert options in the fight against terrorism. I disagree with some of his assumptions and probably all of his methods, but I took him to be truthful and consistent in his testimony.

And in a classy move, he opened his remarks with a public apology to the families who lost people on 9-11.

Contrast his hours in front of the committee with the hatchet job being done on him by the White House in the form of Rice, Cheney, Shrub, and Scott McLellan, the press secretary who has led the charge. To listen to these people, Clarke was incompetent, lazy, uninformed, out of the loop, and disloyal. That last one stings the most for this secrecy obsessed crowd, that a former official cuts the cord and speaks his mind in public.

The Shrubministeries even went so far as to release Clarke's resignation letter, then fed the wolves at Faux News a briefing Clarke gave, on background (which means unattributed and unquotable), at the express request (order) of his higher ups. That it does not exactly jibe with what appears in his book casts a bright lie on the routine practice of trotting out officials to "put a good face" on lousy policies or mistakes. That the Resident's minions would feed this directly to Faux ought to enrage reporters everywhere, for background briefings are essential to their daily jobs, and no one is likely to perform even this off the record task if the risk of being named is so high.

It is a truism, that he who doth protest, and all that. In this case, the big guns are out in a way they have not been for anyone else who has publicly questioned the Shrubberites and their policies. A tip of the hat to Clarke for taking the heat, even though he already knew what was in store for him.

And for those who ponder such things, let us consider:

Outing Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife, a CIA operative, then refusing to reveal who committed this crime.

Bashing Paul O'Neill, formerly Secretary Of The Treasury, for noting in his book that Iraq was in the cross hairs from the earliest days of the Shrubberites.

Intimidating and threatening at least two public servants and bending the rules to the breaking point in order to score a political victory in the Medicare legislation.

Refusing to allow key officials to testify in open session about the 9-11 attacks. In truth, what they could actually testify to in public is far less important than the mere act of doing so.

Manufacturing a war by intentionally lying about the nature and severity of the threat posed by Iraq. According to Clarke, this egregious action disrupted our declared war on terrorism.

The list literally goes on and on, and I contend that the viciousness of the Shrubberites is due in large part to their underlying belief that the American system of government, as described in our Constitution, is not a legitimate constraint upon their agenda to remake America into something it is not: a corporate dictatorship.

One of my brackets is completely blown up. Yes, the one where Gonzaga and Stanford play for the national championship. Sadly, they have both been booted from the tourney, and I should have known better. Gonzaga, while very talented, is a victim of parity. Stanford, well, I really should have known better. Yes, only one loss, but their schedule, compared to say, any team in the ACC, was weak, and those sorts of teams always get spanked come tournament time.

Alas!

I may still be ahead on that blown up bracket due to other picks made in it, and the collapse of several other high profile teams.

----------

The Shrub & pony show is underway on Capital Hill and the CableSpews channels. Colin Powell, who traded any shred of credibility he once had in exchange for our belief during his UN presentation before the Iraq war, is talking around the truth in front of the commission. No surprise, so is everyone else from the administration. Ms. Rice won't even be testifying, sending a deputy stand in to dodge questions. All of this in light of former Terrorism Czar for Shrub (and two other Republican presidents) Mr. Richard Clarke's allegations that the Shrubberies intentionally conflated Iraq with Al Qaeada to manufacture a war they wished to prosecute from the very day they took office.

The commission, hamstrung already by the Shrubsters' refusal to cooperate in timely manner, will wind up issuing a watery report stating that all recent administrations were unprepared for terrorist attacks upon the United States, and it was all due to a "failure of intelligence," the catch-all vague blame phrase these people rely on to get away with extraordinary lies.

Makes me want to puke.

The terrorists are coming. Daddy Dick Cheney says so. Shrub says so. Colin says so. And they all reassure me that John Kerry is unable and unwilling to defeat them.

Yes, they are coming. As they came to Turkey to bomb the British. As they came to Spain to bomb the Spanish. as they will to Poland, or to Japan, or to the Red Cross, or to poor soldiers in powder blue helmets when our lying leaders turn this mess over to them.

They will come strapped in explosive laden automobiles, flak jackets, "improvised devices" by the side of the road. They may come again in airplanes loaded with fuel and pilots content to burn themselves up to make a point we cannot understand.

They are alleged to have come to Iraq already. As if those who never threw flowers and candy could not elect to throw bombs instead.

The terrorists are coming. My esteemed leaders tell me so, night after night on the evening news.

They come as they once did to Guatemala, Indonesia, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq...

"And when the band plays Hail To The Chief, ooh they're pointing the cannon at you."

(Fortunate Son
Creedence Clearwater Revival.)

I just finished my sheets for the NCAA tournament that begins on Thursday. I'd tell ya my picks, but then I'd have to claim them if they lose.

Ok ok, I took Duke on one sheet, and Stanford on the other. I'd love to see Maryland replicate their stunning success in the ACC tourney and win it all, but I think not.

And a note of television pique: During that extraordinary defeat of Duke for the ACC title, ESPN here in the southern plains chose to leave that game, just entering the overtime period, for the very start of the OK State game. I know how important OSU basketball has been in this part of the world this year in light of OU's total collapse, but I can't imagine that any other than the most die hard Okie fans wouldn't want to see the end of a stellar game. Coming on the heels of the amazing comeback Maryland pulled off against NC State just the day before, this was a matter of quality over loyalty.

At any rate, a two cheek moon to ESPN and /or Cox Cable for denying basketball fans everywhere (and especially me!) the end to a spectacular game.

Representative Barney Frank is one of the sharpest guys in Congress, a true parliamentarian. In a recent speech on the House floor, he dissects the current state of the American economy and the reasons recent growth has not, and will not translate into more jobs. The speech is a little long, but very well worth reading.

I was going to prattle on about college hoops, but I read this and thought it was a tad more important.

From a Washington Post article:

Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought
Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost

"The Justice Department wants to significantly expand the government's ability to monitor online traffic, proposing that providers of high-speed Internet service should be forced to grant easier access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to documents and government officials.

A petition filed this week with the Federal Communications Commission also suggests that consumers should be required to foot the bill.

Law enforcement agencies have been increasingly concerned that fast-growing telephone service over the Internet could be a way for terrorists and criminals to evade surveillance. But the petition also moves beyond Internet telephony, leading several technology experts and privacy advocates yesterday to warn that many types of online communication, including instant messages and visits to Web sites, could be covered."

Somebody needs to take the car keys away from these guys.

{See also a CNet article.}

Candidate John Kerry tells it like it is. A supporter urged him to take on Shrub, and Kerry replied into a still-open microphone:

"Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary."

This is a straightforward assessment of the Republican Party as presently constituted. Too bad the only time Kerry has said this is when he didn't realize the mic was hot.

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This Washington Post article is worth reading, even with the hassle of free registration. The subject is the small but growing minority of families of service members killed in Iraq or serving there currently. The central focus of those beginning to speak out against the war is the complete lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the original and central focus of the Shrubster's campaign to invade.

An organization of military family members opposing the war can be found online. They are organizing a number of protest actions, including a " Dover to D.C. Memorial Procession: A trail of mourning and truth to honor those killed and wounded in Iraq" on March 14 & 15, which will begin where US soldiers killed come home - Dover Air Force Base.

I'll miss Spalding Gray. A guy who made a sly joke out of his own life has come to an uncertain end, pulled from a river after going missing for almost two months. If the concept of seeking the "perfect organic moment" intrigues you, rent Swimming To Cambodia and drink your fill of Gray's peculiar humor.

Thank God for the wisdom of the Supreme Court. The judges who brought you election-by-judicial-fiat have acted to further expand the rights of defendants.

Not!

Little by little, in dribs and drabs, the Supreme Court and our esteemed legislators are tightening the noose around our collective necks.

Another book well worth reading - I'm on a tear lately. This time, economist and New York Times op ed writer Paul Krugman has gathered many of his columns thematically into a book length critique of the Shrubster's administration. It is entitled "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century." In some ways this book is especially instructive in that each column is reproduced and dated as it originally appeared in the newspaper, giving us little windows of Krugman's thinking on Shrub-o-nomics, politics, and social policy. I have to confess to being tickled by an economist describing the current crop of Neowackos as a "revolutionary power."

He isn't wrong about that, by the way. Read the book and find out why.

Joe Conason has written two books well worth reading. The earlier of the two volumes is entitled "The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton." It covers the decade long assault upon Clinton by right wingers intent upon destroying his presidency. I have a lot of trouble with Clinton, as does Conason, which makes this even more eye-opening. The events and hectics outlined in this book make even more sense given the current administrations operating procedures.

The second book is "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth." Lots of little media gems in this one, plus a straightforward and coherent defense of liberalism.

The Resident, Shrubmeister himself, is predictably and revoltingly kicking off his re-election campaign with a glossy ad extolling his virtues as Leader against a backdrop of images of destruction and death on September 11, 2001. It has been no secret that the Republicans intended to work 9/11 for all they could, scheduling their national convention in New York very late in the campaign season and appropriating the anniversary of that awful day.

From September 12, 2001, Shrub has been exploiting the gruesome deaths of nearly 3,000 people and the terror all of us experienced in order to drape himself and every single one of his regressive policies in the warm wrappings of the American flag. The war in Iraq was predicated on false assertions about weapons of mass destruction (-program related activities and so on) and an unproven link to Al Qaeda, and finally, when all else was failing, on September 11 itself. Time and again administration officials drew a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 they knew to be false, so they could pursue their war of vengeance and oil.

Sickening, no?

And if that isn't enough to condemn these ads as the basest of political propaganda, consider this: Shrub opposed the 9/11 commission charged with finding out what our intelligence services and political leaders were, or were not doing about terrorism prior to that day. Shrub, under pressure from the surviving family members, finally did allow for the creation of the panel, then stonewalled it by withholding mountains of documents, encouraging administration officials not to testify, and when the commission complained they were running out of time because of the Resident's obstructionism, opposed an extension. Further pressure and the coming campaign forced Shrub to relent, and a two months extension is in the works.

Firefighters have come out in force to condemn these ads, as have many surviving family members. A few find no problem with the ads, saying they are happy the events of that day are out in front of the public, lest we forget. I don't know about you, but I haven't forgotten. Nor am I likely to for the rest of my life. Respectfully, I find that reasoning hollow in the face of the naked political opportunism these ads represent. They are not history, they are advertising on behalf of a pathological liar seeking to remain in power.

-------------------

Ok, so I was wrong, and my house is still standing. :)

But there were spectacular storms across northern Texas and all of Oklahoma, spawning several tornadoes in both states. Lucky for me, none of them occurred in my neighborhood.

I must be prescient - Norman has its first tornado watch of the year today. Outside it feels like storm season - cloudy, strong winds, and very humid, all the ingredients necessary for some real fireworks. The National Weather Service map for Oklahoma looks like a crazy patchwork quilt done by a band of drunken grandmothers.

Ok, it's true, I'm a bit of a weather geek. :)

I'm declaring today the beginning of Oklahoma's storm season. We've had thunderstorms and very heavy rains since last night, and they are forecast to continue through tomorrow. There really isn't an official start to the storm season here - it can be anywhere from mid-February to Late March or even early April. It all depends upon the weather patterns in play any given year.

While I have experienced some fantastic, powerful storms in my three and a half years here, I have not seen a tornado. The closest was the Moore tornado of May 2003, which tore up businesses and homes just six miles or so from here, following a track close to the monstrous tornado of May 1999. I watched it live on television while the wind whipsawed outside, changing directions every minute or so, spitting rain all over the place. A few days later, I drove past the area where it crossed highway 35. On the left was a motel missing all of its top floor. On the right side of the highway a wide track of demolished houses and trees snapped off at the ground were visible. It literally looked like bombs had been dropped.

Incredible.

I have no idea what this year holds in store weather wise. I'm thinking now about the Oklahoma Home and Garden show Rachel and I went to last month (her mom was working a booth for a friend) where we saw safe rooms made of thick steel you could purchase for inside your home. The likelihood of being hit by a strong tornado is very, very small, but if you are at home when it happens, your likelihood of surviving isn't all that high without at least a basement to take cover in, much less a full fledged storm shelter. I love our house, but it isn't particularly solid, and sits on a concrete slab.

Yikes!

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council and a cogent critic of the Shrub's environmental policies. This article illustrates Shrub's willingness to create his own "science" to further his corporate agenda. Kennedy also gave a speech to the National Press Club some months back that laid out a defense of the environment that not only fits the true definition of "conservation" but also has the potential to appeal to a wide range of voters. A written version of it can be found here.

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How Shrub and his foreign policy geniuses are accommodating Haiti's slide into further chaos.

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John Kerry is the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States. In a foreshortened primary season, Kerry proved the safe choice, the "electable" Democrat to face the Shrub and his Republican character assault machine in the November general election. Next up: Eight long m months of bitter invective, sleazy ads, anonymous "leaks" to the media, and so on. The prospect makes me tired, and angry.

As Democrats, we have chosen the wrong man, a candidate who squandered his considerable political and military credentials by casting a vote authorizing Shrub to make war in Iraq when and how he saw fit to do so. That vote was the height of irresponsibility, a choice to abandon the advise and consent function of the Senate and colluding with the House to give up the Congressional power to craft a declaration of war after the president has requested it. Kerry, a would be statesman, proved all too willing to ride along with Shrub in a virtual tank across the desert, blowing up hapless Iraqis along the way. Kerry's modulated stance on the vote he cast is that it came "with conditions," among them a requirement that Shrub exhaust all manner of diplomatic solutions. By the time of the vote it was painfully clear Shrub intended to have his war, and the vote was the closer, providing political cover domestically.

As Democrats, we have taken the easier choice, a Senator with some military credentials and a record of opposing the very in which he fought. That Senate vote rendered those bona fides irrelevant, and Kerry honestly has nothing else to offer us. Many of his votes went against the little guy, so to speak, embracing runaway globalism that is tearing apart our work force and lowering environmental standards across the country. He was also a supporter of Clinton's welfare reform which has pared down welfare rolls across the country by punishing poor people for their poverty. He has yet to articulate a coherent plan for the health care crisis facing the 40+ million people lacking any health coverage at all, nor for those who will soon be priced out of insurance as costs continue to rise well ahead of inflation. He has yet to tell us how he can solve the Iraq mess, or stimulate employment. For all of the media bluster about Howard Dean's unfitness for president, he at least had a comprehensive legislative plan, and was willing to speak plainly about some ugly realities facing voters and legislators both in the coming years.

As Democrats, we wimped out this time around, as we do every time out. Frankly, Kerry is little better than our current Resident, with a single glaring exception - he isn't George W.

And that is the crux of it. and the sole reason I am casting a reluctant vote for Kerry in the November election.

So a guy in an SUV hits and kills a man on the highway, then drives more than 8 miles to his house, where he finally realizes a body is lodged in the front end of his car. Are you fucking kidding me? Never mind the guy was intoxicated - he had enough awareness to keep from driving off the road on the way home, but didn't know he'd taken on an extra passenger?

Hmmmm. Could be the start of a new SUV ad campaign.

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That grocery strike has come to an end. Workers will shoulder some of the cost of their own medical care, and no raises are written into the contract. New hires will have capped salaries, and take up to four years to reach those caps, which are lower than top pay earned by current employees. New hires will also have to pay more for their health care. The only "victory" the union can declare here is that the employees weren't locked out permanently. In the future, those new hires will become old hires, and wonder why, at their diminished salary, they are paying union dues at all.

Look for many of them to be fired or harassed off the job as Walmarts begin to open up.

A grocery worker strike in California may be headed toward settlement, after five months and a lockout. Several chain stores were trying to lay a heavier burden of their health care costs on workers in violation of the existing contract. Labor went on strike, and Albertsons, not initially involved, locked its workers out in sympathy with the other chains.

Management cited higher health care costs (no shit) and the coming of Walmart grocery stores as the impetous for breaking the contract and drasgging the strike out for five months. In the face of dropping stock prices and migration of their customer base to other chains, the companies finally decided to negotiate a settlement. Details are not available, but Wall Street is waiting with baited breath to find out what concessions the union has made.

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A serial killer may be on the loose in Oklahoma. I, of course, am properly terrified.

No kidding, law enforcement officials from several states are meeting in Oklahoma City to discuss a number of unsolved killings of women, most described as prostitutes, whose bodies have been found in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Four of the seven victims were from the Oklahoma City area.

Fascinating thing here is the difference between the Associated Press story carried by major news outlets, and this one, from Native American Times.

-----------------------

Seems John Ashcroft and the Justice Department have all gotten medical degrees. Motivated by his long standing opposition to abortion, Ashcroft has issued subpoenas to Planned Parenthood for the medical records of women who have received abortions, especially those performed after the first trimester. This is partially motivated by his irritation over several lawsuits filed claiming the ban on "partial birth abortion " is sometimes medically necessary. To determine whether necessity applied, Ashcroft wants to go fishing in medical records.

Intimidation?

Of course not!

It turns out the Pentagon, contrary to the rest of the Shrub administration, believes that global warming not only exists, but is a major threat to the security of the United States.

See article here.

Download report here.

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An Illinois couple has filed a lawsuit alleging that the federal government's ban on the importation of medicines from Canada is unconstitutional.

This goes hand in hand with the recent passage of the Medicare "reform" bill, which includes a prescription drug benefit of dubious value to anyone who might have to buy drugs when it comes into effect next year. That same bill also explicitly prevented Medicare, the largest single buyer of drugs in the US, from negotiating the price of drugs with the pharmaceutical industry. This segment of the legislation was an unabashed giveaway to the drug companies, since other federal agencies, like the Veteran's Administration, routinely negotiate the price of prescription drugs for sale in their own pharmacies.

Some cities and states are challenging the prohibition against reimportation of drugs from Canada. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has created a website specifically to provide information on Canadian pharmacies that sell into the United States. Pawlenty testified before a Congressional panel that met while the Medicare legislation was being written in secret by Republicans and their lobbyist friends from the pharmaceutical companies. Pawlenty said he'd be willing to go to jail over this issue if the Food And Drug Administration wanted to press the case. FDA has held to its position that drugs reimported from Canada are unsafe. This is false, as Canadian quality control of drugs and their pharmacy system are just as tight as those here in the US. The second claim is that some of the online pharmacies are scam operations that my not even be operating from Canada. This is likely true, which is why programs like the one in Minnesota, where individual Canadian pharmacies are checked out, then recommended by state government.

This is a very serious issue. The couple who have filed the lawsuit said they did so because they cannot keep up with their monthly costs for drug, which is over $1,000 per month. I can tell you from my own experiences that the anti-convulsives I am taking cost me almost 80% less when purchased from Canada. Americans pay the highest prices in the world for American manufactured drugs, which are sold through a very small number of national distributors. That choke point in the supply chain is one of the reasons prices remain so high.

Over the last 15 years drug prices have risen by a fairly steady rate of close to 18% per year, far outstripping the rate of inflation. Despite the many methods of socialization of the costs of research, the industry continues to trot out the tired canard of research and development costs as the source of high prices, even while they sell into price-controlled foreign markets at deeply discounted prices.

It is no accident that over the same fifteen year period, the pharmaceutical industry has been the most profitable in the world.

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Clare Short, British Cabinet Minister in Tony Blair's government, has alleged her government bugged UN General Secretary Kofi Annan's office prior to the war in Iraq. Short claimed to have seen printed transcripts of conversations that took place in Annan's office during the heated back and forth between Britain, the US, and the UN.

Such surveillance would be illegal, and Annan is quoted as saying that if anyone wanted his opinion on any issue, they need "only have asked him directly."

Blair refused to confirm or deny her allegations, going only so far as to say that her comments are "deeply irresponsible." It remains to be seen whether Short, a Labor Party MP, will face party discipline.

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Howard Stern has been booted off several Clear Channel Communications owned radio stations for alleged indecency and insensitivity during one of his radio broadcasts. I'm not a fan of Stern's at all - I find him dull, nasty, and extraordinarily self-centered - but this sort of ploy is obviously Clear Channel's response to the recent hearings held on Capitol Hill over indecency on television and radio. Clear Channel has a lot of business that regularly comes before Congress and federal regulatory agencies, and the message from politician's during the hearings was hard to miss: clean up your act, or we will attempt to hinder your ability to reap profits at the expense of the public.

This is no different to the cravenly cave-in of CBS over the Reagan "docudrama" a number of months ago.

-------------------------

Thanks to my AZ friend for the following link.

Send a letter to Mary Cheney asking her to speak with Daddy, Vice President Cheney, about his puppet's proposed constitutional amendment to "defend marriage."

Andrew Sullivan and other gay supporters of The Shrub are experiencing a rude awakening, and it is long overdue. Only Geraldo Rivera's manic support for the illegal war in Iraq surpassed Sullivan's, who regularly excoriated those who opposed the war. The Log Cabin Republicans have acted as apologists for the anti-gay stance of the Republican party through a number of administrations, and now can only offer a mild rebuke to the Resident over the proposed amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

The pathetic thing is how surprised they all seem to be. The Shrub gets a pass from these people for lying about a war that has claimed thousands of lives, then act shocked when the same Shrub, always a willing captive of the extreme Christian Right, goes forward with his promise to "defend marriage," a phrase whose meaning no one could possibly have mistaken.

I'm not one of those people who hate to say "I told you so," so:

I told you so.

A doff of the cap for Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco for issuing gay marriage certificates and forcing California to test in court a referendum barring gays from marrying one another.

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An old friend called me last night, spluttering over Larry King Live on CNN, where Newsom and a female wing-nut from Colorado were squaring off over this marriage debate, such as it is. My friend declared Newsom fit for the presidency, which, after listening to the good mayor, I could agree with. Seems more honest a man than the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, John Kerry, still trying to have it both ways on the war in Iraq.

My friend knows a little about the extreme right, given that he called from Arizona and owns a bumper sticker that says "Don't pray in my schools and I won't think in your church," if I have it correctly. It must be very frustrating to be politically rational and live in a wing-nut state.

Then again, I live in Oklahoma. :)

Today's musical servings:

Keb' Mo' - Keb' Mo' & Just Like You

Lloyd Cole - Lloyd Cole

John Ashcroft's subpoenas, and why you should be afraid.

Very afraid.

---------------------

Ralph Nader has told us all to "relax, rejoice," at the prospect of his independent candidacy for president.

Let me make one thing crystal clear - contrary to popular and media wisdom, Nader was not the cause of Al Gore's loss in 2000. Gore's lame campaign, his refusal to employ arguably the greatest campaigner of the 20th century, Bill Clinton, to stump for him, and the criminal behavior of the state of Florida cost him the election. OK, technically, Nader drew enough votes to trigger the recount, but Gore should never have been in that position to begin with.

This time, it's different. Shrub is an illegitimate Resident of the white house, and needs to be deposed. Dividing the "left" vote, such as it is, prepares a recipe for defeat. This is going to be a close election once again, and narrowing the margin may well result in another round of disputed recounts. This cannot be left to state officials again.

To that end, Nader must step out of the race, or endorse the Democratic nominee closer to November. Likewise, Dean will have to endorse the party nominee in order to sway his supporters to come out and vote. This will be crucial, as many of Dean's backers are people who have been reluctant to vote, or are eligible for the first time this year.

Rachel and I visited the Friends Of Oklahoma County Library book sale, held annually at the Oklahoma State Fair Grounds. Thousands upon thousands of books were available in two building halls. Most were duplicates, I imagine, but the rest were donated books they couldn't use or store. I was amazed how much stuff there was to pick through, once I was able to navigate around the book dealers and their 55 gallon plastic trash bins. Watching them sweep whole tables clear reminded me that this sale was not intended for them - it was aimed at library customers, not resellers.

Ah, well, so it goes.

We came home with 40 some odd books, and spent just under $30.00.

Howard Dean has abandoned his campaign for the presidency. To my mind, it is about time. Though I think he had the best chance to bludgeon Shrub in the general election, it is more than clear that Democratic voters have chosen, yet again, to play it safe. Dean's message is closer to what Democrats have expressed as their position on various issues, but the media hatchet job done on Dean has frightened a lot of voters. The endless blather about "electability" has also clouded the debate, because, as anyone with half a brain knows, "electability" is a code word for centrist vanilla candidate. Ask yourself this: in 1998, while he was still governor of Texas, did anyone think a brainless monkey like Shrub could possibly be "electable?"

Right.

Farewell, Dr. Dean, you were fun while you lasted. The machine has got the better of you, I just hope you intend to keep biting the asses of those Republican Lite posers at the DNC & DLC.

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Cows don't get mad, they just get even.

Seems the one that caused such consternation in December wasn't a downer.

Yikes!

An editorial in the Washington Post by Don Henley, formerly of the Eagles, addressing issues of music piracy and the consolidation of the recording industry.

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I admit to a conflicted attitude about downloading copyrighted content off the Web. My impulse is always to support artists, because they produce the music I love to listen to, the books I read, the films I watch. In a society where value is placed on the formation of artistic content, those who create it expect renumeration, and to that they are entitled.

But.

But.

At what price? In simpleton economics the answer is "whatever the market will bear." Which market? The one where the recording industry promised us twenty years ago that CD prices would soon come down as mass production of releases kicked in. Lo and behold, once listeners across the globe had been weaned off vinyl and invested in the new digital format, CD prices went up, and did so year after year until retail pricing of $18.99 was commonplace. During the 1980's and into the 1990's I purchased easily 4,000 CDs or more, most of them from retail prices, though not all at full boat. I also began frequenting used CD stores for bargains, and also for out of print and hard to find stuff. The secondary market soon became my primary place of music purchases - the selection was quirky, but the prices were right.

The record industry tried to quash the secondary market by withholding advertising and promotional materials to any store that sold retail CDs and used CDs in the same store. Stand-up struggling artists like Garth Brooks backed this campaign. Further muscle was applied if used CD shops also dabbled in bootlegs. Raids were conducted and prosecutions mounted, putting a number of stores out of business and intimidating others. All probably very legal, but grotesque.

All told, I've easily spent better than $50,000 on music purchases, only to have confirmed what I've known all along - that the music distributors engaged in illegal price fixing and collusion to keep the retail price of CDs at an artificial level, long after the costs of production had plummeted. I felt I was due; owed something for the way I was taken.

But.

But.

The folks who actually make the music couldn't really be blamed for this, could they? How much power do they have over the way their music is marketed and sold? I have no answer to that question, and it is likely that the majority of musicians weren't getting that extra piece of the price pie cooked up by the record companies. They need that money to live, to feed their families, provide shelter and health care for them. Only a select few mega-selling artists are making out so well that downloading tunes will have a negligible effect on their earnings. I don't give a damn about them - they are the few who do have the power to influence industry pricing structures, and not one of them steeped up to do so during the hey-days of nearly $20 a pop for a CD.

The smaller selling folks, well, that is a tough nut.

Broadband has enabled multiple ways of spreading digital music files all over the globe, making them instantly available to millions of people. It has become basically idiot proof, encouraging the practice. Thus far the RIAA has engaged in intimidation of some select individuals, including a comic incident involving a twelve year old girl. Notable is the absence of lawsuits against Internet Service Providers, essentially the enablers of rampant downloading. I suspect the suits against individuals is intended not only to scare would-be file sharers but to set a precedent that can be exploited in court against an ISP. that action is inevitable, but it will be costly and may go against the record industry, which would close off one avenue.

The other avenue is mandating changes in the way computers actually function, essentially turning them into one way appliances. Various ways of rendering hardware incapable of copying anything are being explored, as are methods to gate keep systems to prevent them from playing improper content. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) technically prohibits what has been considered "fair use" copying of music and software for personal use in cars and other portables, not to mention back-ups in the event a CD is scratched and unable to play. Further proposed legislation would strengthen such prohibitions until the content can only be accessed in a manner dictated by the industry.

To take the longest way possible around this, I find myself mildly disturbed by the notion that some artists may not be getting their due, but I also understand why so many people are engaging in what is illegal activity. They feel screwed, and to some extent they have been. If the industry has its way in the near term, they'll continue to be screwed. Downloading is unstoppable unless some radical changes in the way music is delivered take place, and the hardware we use is largely disabled. The industry has been forced to move into offering online music downloads for a fee, but that fee adds up to the same prices as a store bought CD, but with crappier sound quality. That, in my mind is no solution at all. This is the wild west, and the sheriff is coming.

He just ain't here yet.

Seems the woman who was the subject of the Kerry affair rumors has gone on record denying the allegation as utterly false. An additional statement by her parents cast doubt upon the comments attributed to her father characterizing Kerry as a "slimeball." The Drudge Report, intent on getting all the mileage it can out of this patently false story is still pumping it, claiming major investigations are underway by the Washington Post, NY Times, etc. These investigations are taking place nowhere beyond the confines of Drudge's sleazy, lowbrow mind.

No doubt the CableSpews programs are disappointed by the failure of this story to mature into full blown scandal.

Alas! Back to Michael Bryant, er, Kobe Jackson...whatever.

---------


An interesting selection of quoted presidents. Consider these quotes in the context of todays' political landscape, and try to imagine who would and would not be elected. :)

Also, read Joe Conason's piece in Salon concerning the rumors about John Kerry. By the way, the day pass, watch-the-ad to read Salon's content is a really good deal. The ads are quick and painless, and some of the stuff on the other side is actually worth reading.

Today's music gem is The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta.

-------------

I'll spare you the link to Matt Drudge's "world exclusive" on the rumored affair John Kerry is said to have carried on with an intern. Suffice to say the air of the World Weekly News is all over the Drudge Report, specifically about this "story," which has no legs thus far. All I've been able to find beyond the Drudge sludge is a mention of a friend of the girl and her parents. The former tells a vague and possibly lurid tale, but nothing at all specific. Her parents reference a phone call said to have taken place between their daughter and Kerry about coming to work on one of his senate campaigns. The girl's father has some harsh words for Kerry, describing him as a "slime ball" without any mention at all of what he is supposed to have done to earn that moniker.

In other words, there is nothing here, not until the girl herself, said to have "fled to Africa" appears to make the accusation publicly. I honestly doubt that will come to pass. It would be highly illuminating to see who got this brushfire started - it may *not* be the Shrubites warming up for the coming campaign. Much as they fear a Kerry nomination, it is quite possible one of the other Democratic campaigns unearthed what little there is to this and aired it out, feeding Drudge, well-known for posting anything even mildly salacious about almost anyone, regardless of facts. He was one of the outlets that funneled the Arkansas Project's Clinton tales to a mainstream media hungry to scoop one another on their 24 hour-a-day shoutcasts.

Kerry does not suit me as the candidate to face off against Shrub and his Nixon/Reagan/Bushdaddy retreads, but I'll hold my nose and vote for him because this election really matters. As I have been for the last several elections, I am of two minds about the way this country is run. On the one hand, both parties are utterly compromised by the rich interests that fund their campaigns, give plum positions to spouses, sons, and daughters, and punish them when they stray by flooding their opponents in cash. Voting for either is to split hairs, choosing one wing of the Big Business Party over the other, often based on media analysis of the candidates looks or demeanor. In this scenario, voting for the radical Shrubites is different from the Democrats only by degree, not substance. Think of the Clinton years, where nasty legislation punishing poor people, blessing massive mergers, and sinking national health care were signed into law. Gore was more of the same, and so is Kerry, who knew better about the Iraq war but voted for it to retain political cover.

On the other hand, the Shrubite administration is comprised of many of the old time cold warriors and radical tax cutters from previous Republican administrations, people who have felt for a long time that there is much unfinished business from those days. In Shrub they found a dim-witted glad hander who would be the lying public face reassuring the population that he was earnest, and that all of his decisions had our best interests at heart. Those with their hands on the strings have a Republican Congress ready and willing to cede all of their powers to the Presidency, and they have done so with pleasurable ease. Thus the enormous tax cut gifts to their rich friends and business interests, sweetheart legislation for the energy and pharmaceutical industries, and the destruction of social programs through the slash and burn defunding technique made famous by Newt Gingrich and John Kasich. If you don't know who those two are, find out.

In this more terrifying picture, Wolfowitz and company will remake the Middle East into a giant oil field fit for our consumption. Note where the newest permanent military installations were built - both the Afghan disaster and the Iraq invasion are, and have always been, about oil. It is little noticed but not secret that the Shrubites are pursuing an "energy security" policy which they consider to be paramount. Fulfillment of this policy includes wars at home and abroad. Here, against the poor soaking up dollars better suited for Halliburton and Booz, Allen, Hamilton; against children in dire need of a decent education, and the sick, literally dying for lack of health care coverage. Wars abroad will alter the balance of power in key oil-bearing regions, propping up nasty regimes while our military acts as armed stewards of the great black gold treasure troves hidden beneath other people's lands.

In the latter case, defeating Bush outweighs the paid pandering Kerry has done during his Senate tenure.

Judging by the above, it is easy to see where I've come down this time around.

"Weapons of mass destruction program-related activities."

Now doesn't that sound really stupid? Who writes this shit anyway? In a desperate bid to reframe the continuing debate about the validity of the Resident's case for making war upon Iraq, Shrub and Co. have seized upon this laughable and meaningless euphemism to describe the "imminent threat" Iraq was supposed to have posed to the United States.

A year ago there were "nukular weapons" littering the desert, bioweapons of every form lurking in caves and beneath the hoods of "mobile labs." Turns out it was all a fiction, cooked up by Wolfowitz and Cheney to close some unfinished business and seize power in the Middle East in a bid to alter world oil politics.

Remember Colin Powell at the UN, with his show 'n' tell performance, complete with satellite photographs and all of those scary and very specific descriptions of the purpose of those buildings and vehicles? All a lie.

Now the story has undergone another revision. Weapons of mass destruction have gone AWOL, so now "freedom and democracy" were the reasons for going to war, and oh, don't forget the imminent danger of those

"Weapons of mass destruction program-related activities."

Sounds exactly like something Baghdad Bob would have said as bombs were raining down around him and the Iraqi Army was deserting en masse. If any other world leader dared to utter such an absurd phrase, he would have been mocked pitilessly by members of our government and press. Since the empty words fell from the lying lips of our Commander-In-Thief they are taken as gospel by a pliable and lazy media, repeated without any sense of irony at all.

The final twist in this sickening farce is the new Shrub assertion, echoed by all of his cabinet officials (cabinet criminals, say I) on the Sunday media blab fests, that he and all of his cohorts were misled by faulty intelligence and the blame lies with CIA, NSA, and the rest of the alphabet soup crowd. This runs counter to the oft repeated mantra that the blather about armageddon weapons was based on "reliable, comprehensive intelligence." It remains to be seen whether or not George Tenet will attempt a second stumble onto his sword to save the Resident from the hard truth.

Al Franken Rules!

Go buy his book, and find out what the hell is really going on.

Do it.

Now!

Fox's Bill O'Reilly is, in the words of a friend's wife, a big pussy.

Hear why.

Fox News is bad for your brain!

Ah-Nold's Real Agenda

Get a close look at the sort of thing the Gropinator intends to do to the state of California.

Now Showing

If you are a movie fanatic and own a DVD player, run, don't walk to Netflix.

'Nuff said.

Call A Plumber!

Years ago a family friend whose father worked for the CIA was asked what he told people who wanted to know what his father did for a living. He replied:

"He's a plumber."

Seems his services are needed today in the Bush Respectability Retirement Home on Pennsylvania Avenue. So much for integrity and all of that - when crossed, these bastards will stoop as low as they need to for their petty revenge. In the case of Joseph Wilson, they've outdone themselves, committing a felony in order to get their "enemy." The White House deliberately outed his wife, a CIA undercover operative. Since Republican abuse of the independent counsel statute prompted Congress to pass on renewing it, the only avenue of redress lies in the Justice department, headed by America's favorite lawman, John Ashcroft.

You can see why the Shrubites expect to get away with this one. I expect they will, but the message is sent - go along or we'll stop at nothing to hurt you, even if it involves committing felonies and possibly endangering national security. Hey, sounds like a great Republican administration of yore, where a lot of the current crew served.

And in the event you are having trouble getting your mind around how easy the press has been on Shrub, just imagine this had all taken place during the Clinton administration...

Yikes!

You Get What You Pay For...

...And ESPN has just discovered this for themselves. Having hired the motor-mouth conservative blowhard Rush Limbaugh to inject some "controversy" into ESPN's Sunday night football pregame show, the execs who made that dubious decision got exactly what they paid for.

Seems they didn't like it much. Rush is a football illiterate, which begs the obvious question: What the fuck did ESPN expect him to contribute? Apparently, crappy analysis and cutting edge racist commentary was what they expected, 'cause it only took 4 weeks to get it.

The only shocking thing here is that Rush was hired in the first place. Afterall, his stock in trade on the radio and back in the day of DittoHead TV was exactly the kind of barely disguised code he employed in his comments about Donovan McNabb, who, regardless of what Rush may think, is so good he scares the shit out of opposing teams. Rush has built a multi-million dollar empire on fact-challenged so called "political" commentary rife with white middle class scare tactics: Black folks are taking your jobs, fucking your daughters, and the "liberalmediaestablishment" colludes to promote this agenda. It's all misdirection while Rush's masters loot the public treasury for themselves while telling the rest of us to work longer hours for less pay, and never mind the over time!

As for ESPN, well, they are in it now. Whoever hired Rush knew full well what they were getting, and it will be to their everlasting discredit that they pulled this stunt in a cynical ratings grab. Sports, despite the associated problems, has time and again been out in front on race issues, sometimes dragging a reluctant society with it. ESPN has taken a regressive step with this foolishness. One good thing to come out of this is that ESPN's football drama Playmakers is coming under some much needed scrutiny. Billed as a hard hitting, reality based show about a professional football team, it feels a lot more like a bad 1980's gangsta rap movie, all drugs and gold chains and no plot. I won't say it is racist, but it is absurd...

Shameless, shameless, shameless.

Absolutely shameless.

Listening closely to the utterances coming from the Shrubministration one can only surmise that they really did make it all up. Every sentence is now a retro-rationalization for invading Iraq.

-----

A case can be made for the impeachment of Shrub.

In America, lying about a blowjob from someone other than your wife is a mortal sin....lying to start a war and getting US citizens killed is not.

Our priorities are seriously fucked up.

-----

Vote Dean. I don't necessarily agree with all of his politics, but I get the distinct impression lying is not his forte. Might be a refreshing change from the mealy mouthed political managers running the scene right now.

I'm outta here.

Addendum

Read the post below, then this:

The real story behind this Iraq/Niger nuclear thing is the fact that the documentation was forged, and poorly so, yet either never caught by anyone reviewing it or the Resident's State Of The Onion address, or inserted into it with the knowledge that it was wholly untrue, but highly useful to the propaganda effort.

And lastly, but not leastly, the White House finally admitterd it in July, even though there were published reports many months ago in progressive media pointing out that the docs were forged, CIA knew it, and others in the administration knew it. Only when investigations were started into the body of evidence concerning mass destruction weapons did the White House "get out in fornt" of this very old story.

Liars and cheats, top to bottom.

==================

Richard Cohen, with whom I often disagree, has taken the CEO/President analogy one small step further, and it is kind of funny:

Audit.

Follow me into fantasy land:

Don Rumsfeld has floated a new justification for invading Iraq: seeing old "evidence" in "new" light. That particular light is said to be the experiences of September 11th, though he proffered that idea without any further explanation.

Talking in code again, I see.

This from a man who has spent hours at his press podium parsing words and splitting the finest of hairs in order to avoid simple truths, like the fact that US forces, no longer involved in "major hostilities," are now fighting a guerilla war. Rumsfeld hotly denied that it was guerilla warfare, preferring instead any one of a number of other terms, most of them involving the word terrorism, a catch all term intended to shut down the conversation.

A CNN reporter finally looked up the term "guerilla warfare" in the Defense Department's own book of definitions and terms, and read it to Rumsfeld, then asked the obvious question: What is the difference, if any, between this definition and what is happening in Iraq? Rumsfeld made some weak joke about the book, and failed to address the question.

It is telling that the point man in the administration on the war against Iraq spends much of his time and energy splitting fine hairs to make them finer and continues to search desperately for justification after the fact for a war the US had no business conducting. The White House is so cowardly that folllowing the "news" that the reports quoted in the State Of The Onion address asserting Iraq was buying nuclear materials from Africa (Niger, to be precise) proved to be totally false and the documentation supporting it pathetic forgeries, no more than a statement from an unidentified administration official was released. The Resident Shrub also tried to brush the discovery of vaporous evidence away, proclaiming with a puzzled furrow in his brow that he believes he made the right decision, and that ought to be good enough for everyone.

Frankly, these fuckers care nought that they have been caught in a tremendous lie, one made as part of the speech given to justify the war and get the public to go along with it. The deed is done, justification in and of itself. The real looting is now underway, and those fingers fiddling in your pocket don't belong to Mary Ann's shaky hands.

Randominity

I don't post much anymore, 'cause no one's reading. I ought to anyway, lest my half-broken brain turn to complete mush.

So here are some mostly random observations and scattered thoughts. Enjoy!

My country is being operated as an ongoing criminal enterprise. Were it a prtivate company, it would be liable for a laundry list of conspiracy charges under the RICO statutes most commonly applied to Organized Crime as we used to know it. The plunder of Iraq is thievery on a staggering scale. The looting of the public treasury here in the United States by Shrub and his many many corporate friends is nothing less than astonishing, and it's not over yet. Repeated tax cut packages further swell the pockets of those who need it the least while crucial services are being cut off due to a lack of funds.

Ya think?

Prosecutors in the Laci Peterson case need to shut the fuck up. Trying this case in the media is the pervue of the defense, and something not looked upon very highly by most folks. Having the agents of the state, whose job is to follow and apply the law, leaking shit all over the media stage is revolting. Then again, take a look at the DC sniper case for an example of how to take a mighty steaming piss into the jury pool...

To say the Shrubministration overstated the case concerning weapons of mass destruction would be to understate the truth, if you'll permit me to butcher the language in ways that amuse me. Colin Powell, allegedly the man in government with integrity coming out of his fucking ears, lied his way through that crucial presentation to the UN, knowing he was doing so every last second of it. The French, a contrary people still harboring aspirations to empire themselves, had it right from the start. The only thing to go after was Hussein himself, and Shrubministration bleatings aside, that was never the aim or justification for invading Iraq, killing thousands of civilians, loosing chaos upon the land, and stealing all of the oil for our greedy selves.

Oops. That sounds suspiciously like the truth of it!

Next up, Iran! Woohoo!

I am not afraid of SARS. Neither should you be. It has killed fewer people in its run than malaria kills in a single day. or AIDS. And so on. It does happen to translate well to a television "news" envorionment, what with all of those Chinese wearing face masks. Too bad it didn't come up so hard on the media radar a little later - it could have been the summer non-story to flog until the fall brings us something else approximating real news. Achoo!

Reality TV isn't. 'Nuff said.

Molly Ivins On The FCC.

(from Alternet)

In Plain Sight

I trust you all are paying attention, 'cause the wholesale thievery by the Shrub administration continues unabated.

Iraq has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Friends Of Shrub Inc., and the FCC, run by Colin Powell's corporate clone son Michael, has relaxed the remaining restrictions on concentrated media ownership even further. The "public" airwaves, which have not been public in decades, have truly been given away, and your tax dollars paid the salaries of those who did it. This is the second time in under a decade that a wholesale giveaway has been granted to the giant media companies, who benefitted wildly from the Telecommunications Act passed by Congress and signed by that alleged liberal Bill Clinton into law. The following morning, waves of enormous media mergers were announced in a multi-billion dollar feeding frenzy on a scale unlike anything in the history of USA, inc.

And so in the coming months, while less spectacular, expect a number of similar mergers to take place, as media companies move to consolidate right to the limits of ownership, flimsy as they are now, while pushing for the destruction of the last, tissue thin regulations preventing a single company from literally owning all of the media in a given market, or all of the TV stations in the United States.

The argment is made that in the new century, new rules must come into play, that new media allows a wide variety of voices to be heard. The untruth in this argument is both obivous and simple to understand - media companies are larger than ever, and more diverse than ever in their holdings. ISP's and TV/movie compannies are now one, and own cable systems, newspapers, television and radio stations within their corporate umbrellas. The Internet, while wondrous in so many ways, is also more of a top-dog environment, as the entire concept of search engines and the way they function serve to promote the popular over the accurate or comprehensive. In raw terms, fewer companies already own more media than ever before in our history, and yesterday's FCC ruling, so clearly not in the public interest (which that organization allegedly exists to serve), paves the way toward an even narrower pyramid of ownership.

Oil is proving to be the driving factor in the Shrub annexation of Iraq. Yeah yeah yeah, it's great that Saddam Hussein is gone, but that was never the aim, rationale, or true consideration in the manufacture of a motive to make a bold oil grab in the Middle East - not at all. As the Pentagon looks foolish trying to deny that the Saving Of Private Lynch was as staged as the opening scene of the Tom Hanks film, the US has strong-armed the UN into dropping the sanctions against Iraq, unlocking the oil deposits. It is said the wealth generated by that oil is destined for the pockets of "the people of Iraq," but in the same news reports that carry such administration statements can be found a brief explanation of the true destiny for all of that black gold - American corporate pockets. See, the oil is tro be sold at market price, and the proceeds used to pay all of those American companies, er, make that the few American companies able to penetrate the private bidding process, that are "rebuilding" Iraq. So, the taxpayers of the US (and following another mammoth tax break giveaway to the rich, this means the middle to lower class) and the people of Iraq are joined together as benefactors of wealthy American corporations.

It is raw thievery, and were it committed by individuals and not countries, Interpol would be making mass arrests of the perpetrators.

Worth Repeating

Thanks to Alternet.


Senate Floor Remarks - May 21, 2003

Senator Robert Byrd, WVA.

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers."

Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to
obscure it. Distortion only serves to derail it for a time.
No matter to what lengths we humans may go to
obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of
squeezing out through the cracks, eventually.

But the danger is that at some point it may no longer
matter. The danger is that damage is done before the truth
is widely realized. The reality is that, sometimes, it is
easier to ignore uncomfortable facts and go along with
whatever distortion is currently in vogue. We see a lot of
this today in politics. I see a lot of it – more than I would
ever have believed – right on this Senate Floor.

Regarding the situation in Iraq, it appears to this Senator
that the American people may have been lured into
accepting the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation,
in violation of long-standing International law, under false
premises. There is ample evidence that the horrific events
of September 11 have been carefully manipulated to
switch public focus from Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda
who masterminded the September 11th attacks, to
Saddam Hussein who did not. The run up to our invasion
of Iraq featured the President and members of his cabinet
invoking every frightening image they could conjure, from
mushroom clouds, to buried caches of germ warfare, to
drones poised to deliver germ laden death in our major
cities. We were treated to a heavy dose of overstatement
concerning Saddam Hussein's direct threat to our
freedoms. The tactic was guaranteed to provoke a sure
reaction from a nation still suffering from a combination
of post traumatic stress and justifiable anger after the
attacks of 9/11. It was the exploitation of fear. It was a
placebo for the anger.

Since the war's end, every subsequent revelation which
has seemed to refute the previous dire claims of the Bush
Administration has been brushed aside. Instead of
addressing the contradictory evidence, the White House
deftly changes the subject. No weapons of mass
destruction have yet turned up, but we are told that they
will in time. Perhaps they yet will. But, our costly and
destructive bunker busting attack on Iraq seems to have
proven, in the main, precisely the opposite of what we
were told was the urgent reason to go in. It seems also to
have, for the present, verified the assertions of Hans Blix
and the inspection team he led, which President Bush and
company so derided. As Blix always said, a lot of time
will be needed to find such weapons, if they do, indeed,
exist. Meanwhile Bin Laden is still on the loose and
Saddam Hussein has come up missing.

The Administration assured the U.S. public and the world,
over and over again, that an attack was necessary to
protect our people and the world from terrorism. It
assiduously worked to alarm the public and blur the faces
of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden until they
virtually became one.

What has become painfully clear in the aftermath of war is
that Iraq was no immediate threat to the U.S. Ravaged by
years of sanctions, Iraq did not even lift an airplane
against us. Iraq's threatening death-dealing fleet of
unmanned drones about which we heard so much
morphed into one prototype made of plywood and string.
Their missiles proved to be outdated and of limited range.
Their army was quickly overwhelmed by our technology
and our well trained troops.

Presently our loyal military personnel continue their
mission of diligently searching for WMD. They have so
far turned up only fertilizer, vacuum cleaners, conventional
weapons, and the occasional buried swimming pool. They
are misused on such a mission and they continue to be at
grave risk. But the Bush team's extensive hype of WMD
in Iraq as justification for a preemptive invasion has
become more than embarrassing. It has raised serious
questions about prevarication and the reckless use of
power. Were our troops needlessly put at risk? Were
countless Iraqi civilians killed and maimed when war was
not really necessary? Was the American public
deliberately misled? Was the world?

What makes me cringe even more is the continued claim
that we are "liberators." The facts don't seem to support
the label we have so euphemistically attached to ourselves.
True, we have unseated a brutal, despicable despot, but
"liberation" implies the follow up of freedom,
self-determination and a better life for the common
people. In fact, if the situation in Iraq is the result of
"liberation," we may have set the cause of freedom back
200 years.

Despite our high-blown claims of a better life for the Iraqi
people, water is scarce, and often foul, electricity is a
sometime thing, food is in short supply, hospitals are
stacked with the wounded and maimed, historic treasures
of the region and of the Iraqi people have been looted,
and nuclear material may have been disseminated to
heaven knows where, while U.S. troops, on orders,
looked on and guarded the oil supply.

Meanwhile, lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq's
infrastructure and refurbish its oil industry are awarded to
Administration cronies, without benefit of competitive
bidding, and the U.S. steadfastly resists offers of U.N.
assistance to participate. Is there any wonder that the real
motives of the U.S. government are the subject of
worldwide speculation and mistrust?

And in what may be the most damaging development, the
U.S. appears to be pushing off Iraq's clamor for
self-government. Jay Garner has been summarily replaced,
and it is becoming all too clear that the smiling face of the
U.S. as liberator is quickly assuming the scowl of an
occupier. The image of the boot on the throat has
replaced the beckoning hand of freedom. Chaos and
rioting only exacerbate that image, as U.S. soldiers try to
sustain order in a land ravaged by poverty and disease.
"Regime change" in Iraq has so far meant anarchy, curbed
only by an occupying military force and a U.S.
administrative presence that is evasive about if and when it
intends to depart.

Democracy and Freedom cannot be force fed at the point
of an occupier's gun. To think otherwise is folly. One has
to stop and ponder. How could we have been so
impossibly naive? How could we expect to easily plant a
clone of U.S. culture, values, and government in a country
so riven with religious, territorial, and tribal rivalries, so
suspicious of U.S. motives, and so at odds with the
galloping materialism which drives the western-style
economies?

As so many warned this Administration before it launched
its misguided war on Iraq, there is evidence that our crack
down in Iraq is likely to convince 1,000 new Bin Ladens
to plan other horrors of the type we have seen in the past
several days. Instead of damaging the terrorists, we have
given them new fuel for their fury. We did not complete
our mission in Afghanistan because we were so eager to
attack Iraq. Now it appears that Al Queda is back with a
vengeance. We have returned to orange alert in the U.S.,
and we may well have destabilized the Mideast region, a
region we have never fully understood. We have alienated
friends around the globe with our dissembling and our
haughty insistence on punishing former friends who may
not see things quite our way.

The path of diplomacy and reason have gone out the
window to be replaced by force, unilateralism, and
punishment for transgressions. I read most recently with
amazement our harsh castigation of Turkey, our longtime
friend and strategic ally. It is astonishing that our
government is berating the new Turkish government for
conducting its affairs in accordance with its own
Constitution and its democratic institutions.

Indeed, we may have sparked a new international arms
race as countries move ahead to develop WMD as a last
ditch attempt to ward off a possible preemptive strike
from a newly belligerent U.S. which claims the right to hit
where it wants. In fact, there is little to constrain this
President. Congress, in what will go down in history as its
most unfortunate act, handed away its power to declare
war for the foreseeable future and empowered this
President to wage war at will.

As if that were not bad enough, members of Congress are
reluctant to ask questions which are begging to be asked.
How long will we occupy Iraq? We have already heard
disputes on the numbers of troops which will be needed
to retain order. What is the truth? How costly will the
occupation and rebuilding be? No one has given a straight
answer. How will we afford this long-term massive
commitment, fight terrorism at home, address a serious
crisis in domestic healthcare, afford behemoth military
spending and give away billions in tax cuts amidst a deficit
which has climbed to over $340 billion for this year alone?
If the President's tax cut passes it will be $400 billion. We
cower in the shadows while false statements proliferate.
We accept soft answers and shaky explanations because
to demand the truth is hard, or unpopular, or may be
politically costly.

But, I contend that, through it all, the people know. The
American people unfortunately are used to political
shading, spin, and the usual chicanery they hear from
public officials. They patiently tolerate it up to a point. But
there is a line. It may seem to be drawn in invisible ink for
a time, but eventually it will appear in dark colors, tinged
with anger. When it comes to shedding American blood –
when it comes to wreaking havoc on civilians, on innocent
men, women, and children, callous dissembling is not
acceptable. Nothing is worth that kind of lie – not oil, not
revenge, not reelection, not somebody's grand pipedream
of a democratic domino theory.

And mark my words, the calculated intimidation which we
see so often of late by the "powers that be" will only keep
the loyal opposition quiet for just so long. Because
eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And
when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall.

"News"

Three headlines as seen on the Google News page:

"Ridge Says US Safer From Terror Threat"

"Bush Cites Ongoing Terror Threat"

"FBI Issues New Warning On Al-Qaeda"

What color day is it today?

Sheesh.

Eating Their Own

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of Howard Dean, but I do admit that he is exactly what the Democrats need: a candidate who says pretty much what he is thinking, admits to not knowing absolutely everything, and is a common sense kinda guy with a very humanist aura surrounding his political ideals. Personally, I need someone more Left than he to light my voting fire, but at least he isn't part of the same worn out stable of losers, liars and soft compromisers that have annihilated the Democratic Party and forcibly morphed it into Corporate Party #2.

It is no surprise, then, that the organ responsible for selling off the party apparatus to the corporate moneymen are so miffed with Mr. Dean that they have begun a public attack campaign, using words that were once honest descriptors of the ideals of the party to "smear" Dean in advance of the hard campaigning to come. The Democratic Leadership Council, self-described as "centrist" and "moderate", and the primary mover behind Bill Clinton's ascension to office in 1992, has called Dean "an elitist liberal" and member of "the McGovern-Mondale" wing of the party, responsible for losing "49 states in two elections and transform[ing] Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one."

There are too manyy flaws within this one brief statement to examine them all, but foremost among them is the idea that sch a wing in the party exists ( it does not), or that it has anything to do with losing elections. The Democrats lost recent elections, uncluding 2000 (the Supremes stole the election in legal terms, but Al Gore and Co. put them into that position in the first place, and they slavishly served their masters) election, by dint of their owen hubris, arrogance, stupidity, and foolishness. The guy the DLC put into office for eight years, and a brilliant campaigner, Bill Clinton, was not invited to do what he had already proven he could do at the convention, which is energize the base and assault the opposition.

The Democratic party is a mess at the national level because it has been bought and paid for by corporate interests, the same ones that own Resident Shrub and his merry band of war criminals. They keep the Dems to one side for obvious reasons - should the unruly rabble (also known as voters) put them back into national power, corporate boardroms will be protected. Given the choice between Republicans and Republicans - Lite, they'll take the real thing every single time, but at least the faux version can't hurt them too much should they get back into the drivers seat. The DLC is exactly that - faux Republicans and corporte lap dogs.

So Howard Dean, despite his very "conservative" stance on gun control and financial issues, is too "liberal" (be sure to put the requisite sneer into your mind-voice when reading that word) for the "centrist" junta that has taken over the Democratic Party, once quiter proud of its liberal values and policies...and it should be again.

The only person to come to Dean's defence is, of all people, Sen. Jim Jeffords, who equated what the DLC is doing to Dean to the tactics employed by the Republican party that Jeffords disavowed by becoming an independent. Pathetic that a former Republican and still political conservative senator is the only one to come to the aid of such a "liberal" candidate. Frankly, anyone from the Democratic party that wnats to catch my attention should brand him or herself a Liberal and run with it. Better to live as a lion than to die sheared sheep.

Neuro-withdrawal

About three weeks or so have passed since I was forcibly detoxed of my anti-convulsive meds, and while I don't miss powerful drugs that failed to stop or control my seizures, there is a withdrawal effect that is subtle, but noticable. Prior to going into the hospital I felt slow, groggy, and mentally confused too much of the time. This is partialy, at least, attributable to the secondary, simple (partial) seizures that I experience, which, in and of themselves, are a fairly new phenomena for me. Beyond the failings of my brain, both Dilantin and Zonegran have a damping effect on the firing of synapses, the workings of neurotransmitters, and thus, even after acclimation, tend to slow the thought processes of the person taking them.

Within 48 hours of having the meds removed I began to feel strangely. Numbness in my extremities was the first thing I noticed, and it returns once in a while still. My vision seemed to undergo changes as well, with things becoming indistinct, focus hard to find or enforce on what I was looking at. That has largely passed. My sleep, never a dependable thing, is off the rails. I get tired suddenly and wih\thout warning, but once in bed, barely sleep, and wind up crawling from beneath the blankets before I am anywhere close to rested.

Then there is the elevator. Or rollercoaster. Whatever. I've been climbing and falling emotionally in a most irregular way, swinging across the spectrum in seconds at the slightest provocation, or none at all. While it is true that I have become generally more irritable in recent years, this is a little much, and while I am not bipolar, I equate the intensity and fluidity of these feelings with that disorder. Basically I feel weird all of the time, not "myself," whatever the fuck that is. As I took these drugs for years, it may take many months to find a steady state independent of the effects of medication that can be identified and reckoned with on its own.

We return now to your regularly scheduled programming.

Home again, home again, jiggetty-jig.

I have returned from the hospital, largely intact.

Six days of being watched 24 hours a day, 32 electrodes cemented to my head; an electronic leash that prevented me from ever leaving my little crackerbox of a room.

Reading and watching TV was all I could do, really, and take on the phone for as long as people would listen to me ramble.

Some useful information was gathered, but I didn't have enough seizures to get an exact read on their origin and nature. So, as has always been the case with me, there is still no discernible pattern to any of it, even with the trauma of enforced cold-turkey withdrawal from my meds.

Alas.