April 4, 2008 archive

Well, No Kidding?

More than 80 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the highest such number since the early 1990s, according to a new survey.

This according to a CBS – New York Times poll released yesterday (Thursday).

No shit?  Maybe we have been Yelling Loud Enough! Somebody is listening.

The people of this country ARE really beginning to pay attention and it couldn’t come at a better time!  

With national elections only 7 months away, the wheels are falling off the Republican propaganda wagon at a good time for Americans.  Yes, even the Republican-Americans that don’t even realize it.  

From CNN:

The CBS News-New York Times poll released Thursday showed 81 percent of respondents said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” That was up from 69 percent a year ago, and 35 percent in early 2002.

To borrow from Ricky Ricardo, “Bushie, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do.”  Yet, I don’t think anyone is listening anymore, Bushie.

No, not even to the “FEAR, BE AFRAID, TERRAHRISTS IN YOUR CORN FLAKES,” or even the old standby of “the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century” distortion of world policies that Bush wants to sell to you and I.  

His continuous insult to over a billion Muslims around the world by repeatedly speaking of Islam, fascism and terror in the same breath is only upstaged by his domestic slash and burn policies that are beginning to weigh down so hard on the entire population of the United States that even the most staunch of his backers are now backing away.

The only ideological struggle we are having in this 21st century is neo-con greed vs. the good of the people.

Pony Party, Phone it in Friday

Apparently, there are people in the world who have the same distaste for war that i do..

99 red balloons

In Memoriam

Photobucket

Dr. Martin Luther King

(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

May he rest in peace.  And may we honor his memory.

Update: The rest of this essay is here.

What are you reading?

First, the request: I need someone to fill in for me next week (April 11) I also need someone for April 25.  On April 11 I will be guest host Frugal Fridays (at dailyKos); on April 25 I will be out of town

If you like to trade books, try BookMooch.

cfk has bookflurries on Weds. nights

pico has literature for kossacks on Tues. nights, but it’s on hiatus

What are you reading? is crossposted to dailyKos

If you have ideas for future weeks, let me know.  In two weeks, I am thinking of “books that explain America”

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

The Weapon of Young Gods #17: Sounds Like Screaming Mimes

Three hours after Frankie left our room, Peter and I were cruising through campus to Isla Vista, followed by Alex and a girl named Anna, who turned out to be Frankie’s Filipina neighbor. The night was bubbling with languid contentment all around us, and every once in a while we’d acknowledge this phenomenon with sleepy grins and stupid giggling. We soon ambled into the Isla Vista Brewing Company as calmly and cooly as we could despite being hand-stamped, underage, and debilitatingly stoned. The venue was a big pool hall, but crowded, stuffy, and hot inside. The Screaming Mimes were already well into their set when we began to weave through the crowd of frat guys, their sorority dates, and other scattered neo-hippies and nerdy indie-rock types.

Previous Episode

Happy Birthday Peace Sign

The Peace Sign turned 50 years old today, April 4th, 2008.  It was introduced at a British rally to ban nuclear bombs on April 4, 1958. Gerald Holtom, a graphic artist, had a simple idea:  “I drew myself . . . a man in despair . . . put a circle around it to represent the world.”  The Wikipedia adds that the symbol  is “representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad.”

Body armor: BILLIONS in contracts awarded improperly

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed this issue over the past two-plus years:


The Army can’t be sure some of its body armor met safety standards, partly because it didn’t do proper paperwork on initial testing of the protective vests, a Defense Department audit said.

Howard Zinn: Empire or Humanity – A History of the American People

Read a transcript and a lot more – including much uncensored news – here

http://www.informationclearing…

Dr. King: Beyond Iraq — A time to break silence

Dr. King at Riverside Church, April 4, 1967


“Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Iraq. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Iraq. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours…

“America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood…

“We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate…

“We must find new ways to speak for peace in Iraq and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

–April 4 is the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968.  It is also the anniversary of the speech he gave a year before his death, entitled “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence.”  This is taken from that speech.  I have taken the liberty of changing only the name of the country.

Read or listen to the whole speech here.

A Brother Returns, 39 Years Later!

39 years later, a military burial


PhotobucketAir Force honor guard members carry the remains of Maj. Perry Jefferson during burial services at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, April 3, 2008 in Arlington, Va. (AP | Kevin Wolf)

 

Writing In The Raw…..Through Herself & Back Again

Love is like oxygen….not enough & you’re gonna die

in through your nose, out through your mouth

moving in silent desperation… a hypothetical situation…….

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