May 13 2008
The primary is just one week away here in Oregon. When you look at the polls from the past month there’s only one conclusion you can make. Oregon Senate candidate and current House Speaker Jeff Merkley is climbing up the polls. Here’s a snippet from Survey USA:
Eight days until votes are counted in the Democratic Primary for US Senate in Oregon, state House Speaker Jeff Merkley and attorney Steve Novick remain effectively tied, though today Merkley has the nominal advantage, 31% to 27%.
May 13 2008
…just let me say this one more thing… start having political cocktail parties and start getting people thinking about our situation and perhaps this will also enlarge their world view
pfiore8
Have we started a list yet of all of the things that have to
be undone beginning next January????
masslass
To answer masslass, well yes, now we have.
Pull up a barstool, grab a cold one of your choice, and let’s have a Political Cocktail Party…
From an essay last week entitled “The Revolution Started Yesterday. Well YOU Started It! Political Cocktail Party,” I asked all of you enlightened Dharmites to discuss in the comments of that essay the things you feel could and should be addressed beginning Right Now in order to begin the undoing of all of the twisted and underhanded things that have been visited upon our country and the world by our “Current Criminal Administration“.
The response was even better than I had hoped for, and I would like to thank you all so much for taking the time to get involved in more than just talking or typing about what we need to do, but to begin actually doing something about the issues we identify.
Under the Topic of Action, we even created a new tag called Issues Project so everyone that wanted to get involved by writing essays that address this issue can be easily found by others here that are interested in these issues.
May 13 2008
John McCain’s speech and policy constructs on Global Warming have gotten a bit of attention from the Energy Smart blogging world. The following are few of the worthwhile discussions to date.
May 13 2008
By Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator, UFPJ:
Since last fall, on the third Friday of every month, people in cities and towns around the country have organized protest activities and other events as part of the nationally coordinated Iraq Moratorium. This coming Friday, May 16th, is Iraq Moratorium #9.
First, we want to congratulate the local organizers who keep pulling together these activities. And we also want to congratulate the national organizers who have maintained and expanded this effort, including the Iraq Moratorium website at: www.IraqMoratorium.org
Second, we want to encourage more local groups to get involved. There is still time to organize something in your community, at your school or workplace, or anywhere you might be able to reach people.
You can find reports from past Moratorium actions, as well as listings for events already planned for this Friday, at the Iraq Moratorium website. Reading through all of this will inspire you and might give you an idea of something you can do as part of this project. If you do plan something, please be sure to list it on the calendar.
Finally, if you are planning something for May 16, try to take some photos or video. Then we hope you’ll take a few minutes to go back to the site and post a report on what happened — not just numbers but anecdotes, descriptions of who came, etc. If you have them, include photos or video. What you do, and the stories you tell, can inspire others for future actions.
Again, the website for the Iraq Moratorium is www.IraqMoratorium.org – be sure to check it out!
(UFPJ — United for Peace and Justice — is the nation’s largest peace coalition, with more than 1,400 affiliated organizations.)
May 13 2008
John McCain stands with George W. Bush, and against the troops. These two politicians, have consistently funded the scandal ridden mercenaries of Blackwater and let the DoD shield KBR rapists from prosecution, and both men have continued to allow US tax dollars to be used to shore up a corrupt Iraqi government: while “Overlooking Rampant Corruption in the Iraqi Government
These two politicians, one the current Commander in Chief, and the other the GOP’s presumptive nominee to be the next CIC, have again allied to Oppose the new GI Bill. As Bob Herbert, writing in his NYT Column, “Doing the Troops Wrong” says:
There’s more…
May 13 2008
AP reports that charges have been dropped against the alleged “Twentieth Hijacker”, Mohammed al-Qahtani:
The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi at Guantanamo who was alleged to have been the so-called “20th hijacker” in the Sept. 11 attacks, his U.S. military defense lawyer said Monday.
Mohammed al-Qahtani was one of six men charged by the military in February with murder and war crimes for their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks. Authorities say al-Qahtani missed out on taking part in the attacks because he was denied entry to the U.S. by an immigration agent.
But in reviewing the case, the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford, decided to dismiss the charges against al-Qahtani and proceed with the arraignment for the other five, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, the Saudi’s military lawyer.
The charges were dropped without prejudice, meaning that they could be reinstated. al-Qahtani was to face the death penalty, along with five others, in trials before Military Commissions at Guantanamo.
Why were the charges dropped? Because al-Qahtani had been tortured. Of course, Crawford did not say. And his lawyer couldn’t comment yet.
Officials previously said al-Qahtani had been subjected to a harsh interrogation authorized by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. /snip
U.S. authorities have acknowledged that Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding by CIA interrogators and that al-Qahtani was treated harshly at Guantanamo.
Al-Qahtani last fall recanted a confession he said he made after he was tortured and humiliated at Guantanamo.
The alleged torture, which he detailed in a written statement, included being beaten, restrained for long periods in uncomfortable positions, threatened with dogs, exposed to loud music and freezing temperatures and stripped nude in front of female personnel.
May 13 2008
The magnitude of this disaster is overwhelming. I cannot even begin to imagine the suffering that is taking place as I type this.
NPR Correspondent Andrea Hsu reporting from Beichuan County, China: http://www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu/
This video was shot as the quake was happening:
May 13 2008
Neil and Peggy, ‘Four Strong Winds’
According to this Yahoo!News story, a scientist who discovered a new species of trapdoor spider has named it for Neil Young.
The new species is called ‘Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi’.
May 13 2008
MSNBC reports.
Volunteering on Frank Jackson’s campaign for mayor of Cleveland in 2005, I was not surprised to hear a very unpleasant and vulgar word beginning with the letter ‘n’ used two different times. Still irritated, to be sure, but not surprised. Cleveland is a prime example of a town where racism still flourishes. This is why Obama’s tossing of his former pastor under the proverbial bus did absolutely no good, and may have even hurt his campaign in the long run. Obama cannot separate himself from his African roots no matter how hard he tries, no matter how white and nonthreatening he tries to make himself to white people. Obama was never going to get the bigot vote. Yet he thought he could simply by making a few speeches.
It saddens, but doesn’t surprise me that some of his followers are shocked to see racism alive and well on the campaign trail. No, their candidate cannot work miracles, cannot simply talk his way past hatred or heal racial divides by dissing his own as angry old relics. But why are these folk shocked? The other night I was having a political argument with my friend and mentor about Jeremiah Wright. He thinks Wright is a racist because the preacher believes AIDS may have been an invention of the white man to use against Blacks. While I disagree, and don’t think that is the case (no one would be crazy enough to create a virus that destroys the human immune system and think it wouldn’t affect everyone instead of just one group), I can see — given our history of experimentation with contagions and upon humans — why Wright and others like him might not think it such a far-fetched theory. And that appears to be the only thing my friend thinks makes Wright a racist. Never mind that false preachers such as Hagee, Falwell, and Robertson have actually blamed America for things such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and other major disasters — all for imagined crimes of immorality.
The point is that just because Barack Obama waves his oratorical magic wand and declares an end to racism in politics doesn’t mean his snake oil pitch has worked, and no one should be expressing any surprise over this.
May 13 2008
Our Goal Posts Are As Solid As The Mud They Are Set In.
Death toll rises in China quake
The most powerful earthquake to hit China in 30 years has killed at least 10,000 people in south-western Sichuan province, with thousands more trapped.
Chinese state media said that 10,000 people were thought to remain buried in one town alone near the epicentre of the earthquake in Wenchuan county.A team of 1,300 troops and medics has now reached Wenchuan, which was largely cut off by the quake.
But rescue efforts are being hampered by heavy rain and badly damaged roads.
Premier Wen Jiabao – a trained geologist – had urged rescuers to clear roads into the worst-hit areas as fast as possible.
‘No Hope’ for Children Buried in Earthquake
DUJIANGYAN, China – The children who were considered fortunate escaped with a broken bone or a severed limb. The others, hundreds of them, were carried out to be buried, and their remaining classmates lay crushed beneath the rubble of the schoolhouse.
“There’s no hope for them,” said Lu Zhiqing, 58, as she watched uniformed rescue workers trudge through mud and rain toward the mound of bricks and concrete that had once been a school. “There’s no way anyone’s still alive in there.”Little remained of the original structure of the school. No standing beams, no fragments of walls. The rubble lay low against the wet earth. Dozens of people gathered around in the schoolyard, clawing at the debris, kicking it, screaming at it. Soldiers kept others from entering.
Support disaster relief in Myanmar (Burma) Through the UN
May 13 2008
 Spectacle
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Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…
May 13 2008
Lately it’s become apparent to some of us that if one desires to see one’s diary reach the rec list, one’s chances are greatly improved if the title includes a hint of conversion to Obamaism, a pillorying of Hillary, or the old stand-by, BREAKING!!! Now, by nature, historioranters don’t get to shout “breaking” all that often, but since you all seem to have abandoned Mike Gravel, and have said everything that could possibly be said about Barrackemiah and/or Billary, I’m left with little choice but to pander like Senator Clinton at a Great Silent Majority rally.
So join me, if you will, just outside the Cave of the Moonbat, where tonight we’ll be scanning the skies, on the lookout for a school-bus-sized piece of space junk that NASA tells us (well, told us – the subject of this story broke literally and figuratively between 1973 and 1979) could crash/land almost anywhere on Earth. Perhaps in our observations, we’ll even get a glimpse of that rarest of celestial phenomena: A presidential candidate with a viable, workable, ambitious space policy.