Of, By, and For...

The Iraq war was a horrendously bad idea from the very first glance in its direction. Drunk with power and fueled by a greed unparalleled in American history, the Corporate Network behind George Bush salivated at owning their own country and one tenth of the known oil reserves left in the entire world. Yes, the war was hideously wrong, but it the deep and abiding failure of it is simply a product of greed.

Taking over Iraq was easier than cleaning out a Miami bar on Saturday night. The opposition was far less organized and had smaller armaments, as it turns out. Then came a cascade of stupid mistakes...Decisions were made to channel money to Bush supporters and actually to Dick Cheney himself, in the guise of Halliburton stock options and Mutal fund holdings which appear benign until we learn that the majority of the fund's holdings are in Halliburton derivatives, the Republican idea of a blind trust, so beloved by soon to be Ex Senator Frist, among others.

Immediately after waltzing into Bagdhad, a series of disasterous decisions emanated from Bush's Caliphs. Not only was the National Museum left unguarded, but so were hundreds of thousands of Military weapons and munitions in caches spread around the country. A couple of hundred thousand of Saddam's trained military troops were turned out on the streets with knowlege of those weapons.

The business infrastructure of the country was incapacitated and not allowed to participate in the reconstruction of their own country as American operatives came in charging many times more to do the same tasks that the ordinary Iraqi business infrastructure had depended on for its sustenence. An Iraqi coalition of civil engineering and construction firms put forth a proposal to rebuild the main bridge into Iraq at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars...The contract was awarded to an American firm for tens of millions.

In simple terms, George Bush destroyed Iraq's Middle class.

Now, even as he wallows in denial, Bush has a civil war on his hands, so virulent that today, hundreds of thousands of formerly successful Iraqi busnessmen have walked out of the country with what is left of their families and a fraction of their belongings. They now work as illegal migrant workers in Jordan, Syria, where ever they can get to for comparative safety. The Country of Iraq is run by it's highly factionalized religious militias and government death squads.

No event so documents this tragedy as Bush's own meeting with his puppet Iraqi President. After an American Military presence longer than World War Two, thousands of American dead and wounded, and hundreds of thousands of iraqi dead...the meeting with America's President could not even be held inside Iraq.

Republican ideology allowed this cascade of events. it is all about getting rich and cares nothing for you and I...Or our Children. it is an ideology of Corporatism and an Aristocracy, and the Constitution of the United States is simply an inconvenient document that stands in their way. We see their mouthpieces complain about our human rights and freedoms as standing in the way of dealing with "Terrorism"...What we must remember is that George Bush and his Republican allies created and fueled that Terrorism with their greed.
They hate your freedoms, and They hate the Constitution, and They, the Republican leadership and its Corporate masters, hate the power of America's Middle class, and they have done everything in their power to destroy it.

Blessed with ethical natures that make scorpions look like Saints, Republicans, such as Newt Gingrich, decry the Constitution that protects us from people just like him. Gingrich has just called for the crippling of the First Amendment to protect us from Terrorists...The founders of this Nation knew that America would have enemies form outside its borders, but they knew well the more insidious threat from within. This is why American leaders must swear an oath to "Protect and defend the Constitution...From all enemies, foreign and Domestic."

It is our Constitution that gurantees Government OF, BY, and FOR the People!

Long may it survive. Now is the time to protect it from the enemies from within, who do not care about health care for the people...Who do not care about a living wage for the people...Who do not care about a clean environment for the People...Who do not care about education for the People...and who do not care about a government For The People.

It is up to us.

Peace,

Steve

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers
shortly after the election, (President) Bush asked (Newly elected Virginia
Senator Jim ) Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was
doing.
Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back
home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.
“I didn’t ask you
that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.

http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/UndertheDome/112906.html


"Henry Kissinger says the war in Iraq is un-winnable. And if anybody knows how not to win a war its Henry Kissinger." --Jay Leno

War and Peace

The Iraq War, disaster though it is, is a temporary problem on a global scale. But let's not forget how we were fooled into this and that hundreds of thousands of people, many of them American Troops, are dead as a result.

A simple collection of quotes from the architechs of the Iraq war serve as a reminder of how badly we were misled. Remembering that there absolutely was no "clear evidence of peril", it was all cooked books...all of it...This particular quote stands above the rest:

“Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

Think Progress has a "Where are they now?" piece on the largest collection of what can only be thought of as "Traitors to the American cause" outside of Federal prison today.

Rush Limbaugh just wants to "Blow the Place up" since the war he advocated didn't go so well. What a Goon! Why does anyone listen to these evil people? Remember what a cheerleader Limbaugh was for going to war? "We'll lose 150 at most." Now it''s just a toy he's tired of or a puzzle he can't work so he just want's it tossed in the trash...Along with the millions of lives we've destroyed. Thanks, Rush.

And then there's the smiling Conservative wolf....

Something I'm noticing more and more...Lots of people are concerned about the Iraq War but more and more are coming to the realization that the environment should be the number one concern of every human on Earth. The Republican chant of "Environmentalists will hurt the economy" is being replaced by "If we don't do something really really soon...We're all gonna die!"

Turns out that the most anti-environmental Senators and Congressmen lost their jobs because not only are they anti-environment...They're Corrupt!

...Last June, LCV named seven members to its Dirty Dozen roster under the additional moniker of the
Oil Slick Seven. Senators Rick Santorum, Conrad Burns and Jim Talent, plus
Representatives Richard Pombo, Katherine Harris, Heather Wilson and Bob Ney.
Happily all but Congresswoman Wilson lost their seats in the Democratic
landslide three weeks ago, or, as in Ney's case, got caught up in crooked
dealings. Others on the dirty list, which this year totaled 15 instead of 12,
also lost their races or resigned in disgrace. They were Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Rep
Charles Taylor, Sen George Allen and Rep Tom DeLay. Rep. Bob Beauprez left his
House seat to run for governor in Colorado, and lost...

Kos

Peace,

Steve

You wanna Drive? You better have a license

I wonder if the Democratic victory signals a step toward sanity in America's social movements?

The stated position of the Bush Administration is for abstinence only education. they have even issued regulations to prevent information from reaching America's children concerning contraception and STD prevention other than abstinence.

In Western Europe, the opposite is true. Contraceptives are advertised, displayed, dispensed and widely used. Information is ubiquitous. In the school my kids attended in Tennessee, an award winning annual was screechingly condemned when the students balanced an abstinence only page, with a picture of an unmade bed and a condom. Don't tell them and they won't have sex?

Yeah, right...Check this little tidbit...South Carolina is right in the belly button of the Southern bible belt. Bob Jones University and Senator Lindsay Graham are both found there...and so are the two Colleges with the highest rate of student STD infection. (Yes, I can name them, but not now. I have friends with kids attending there) The kids aren't catching that stuff praticing choir.

Now check this:

Pregnancies per 1000 Teenagers...

USA 53
Great Brittain 20
Germany 11
Norway 11
Finland 8
Denmark 7
Sweden 7
The Netherlands 5

Even India and Rwanda have lower numbers that the good old USA.

The rate of teenage sexual activity is roughly equal in the developed nations, so why does the teen pregnancy rate vary so drastically? All of those countries, except one, have government supported contraceptive awareness and distribution programs.

And guess which country has the highest abortion rate?

Here's a good article suggesting things we can do about this problem. Oddly enough, it comes from Georgia.

One thing I know for sure, telling humans to not have sex is no more effective than telling fat people to quit eating. I actually think this is connected to the same mental gymnastic that allows people to actually believe that more guns means a safer society, but that's a rant for tomorrow.


Peace,

Steve

Just so you'll know...

I've seen several erratic meteors the last few nights. Erratic meteors are a gift from erratic sleep habits. We have a nice meteor even scheduled in the next few weeks but I'll say more about that later. Early Winter brings crisp clear nights and the renewal of my fascination with the sky. There's not much that makes me feel more wonderment than the sight of the Pleides through binoculars.

The eagles are getting frisky, too. Three of them were cackling and twirling above the house yesterday as I was tryng to fix the water system. I was well prepared and had all the right parts, except for the one I broke while fixing the ones that were already broken. A fifteen minute job and water outage of one hour turned into a half hour job, an hour trip to the pluming supply, and a total outage of two hours...about normal for one of my projects. I think the cackling overhead was eagle laughter. They kept it up until I went inside to get the family to come out and watch, and then they left immediately.

Cold nights bring sound up close from a fair distance away. The drag racers out on the highway come through loud and clear on a cold Saturday night. Millions were spent on the Whites Creek bridge and I'm glad someone appreciates it. Perfect place to start a street race.

Under the Pleides.

Peace,

Steve

*****

Here's a few things that caught my eye lately....


Donald Rumsfeld personally authorized the suspension of the Geneva conventions in Abhu Ghraib.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002031.php

Radical Shiites took command of the State run radio in Iraq and called for attacks on Sunni leaders. It's a mess and getting worse. Most observers think this event marks the descent of Iraq into full scale civil war and an end to a unified iraq.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/25/234659/32


God hates gays and loves liars.
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.html?id=26704

Hugo Chavez, contrary to what the Bush administration says, was democratically elected last time and currently holds a 2-1 margin with Venezuela elections in 7 days. If Bush loves Democracy, he will hail Chavez when he is elected and turn his attention to bringing down the Saudi government, which is a dictatorial monarchy. So, Yeah, Right! It's all about the OIL!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__061125_hugo_chavez_holds_co.htm

The Congressional race for Katherine Harris' old seat has gross irregularities with an estimate of 60,000 votes not counted and lost. A straight forward case of a stolen election, Essentially ALL of the errors favor the Republican candidate. The only recourse if a new election, but we'll see.
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.html?id=26683

Links to articles like: Boogeymongering....Iraq is Beyond repair...The Quiet Day we Lost the War...Honest News from the AntiWar crowd.
http://antiwar.com/

Want to prevent over 800,000 abortions every year?...Easy...
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/issue-emergency-contraception-9680.htm

A biography of Mohandas K. Ghandi...If you don't already know why you should go read it...that's why you should go read it.
http://www.progress.org/gandhi/

OK, I'm Pissed!

We are the owners of these lands –- but their resources are now apparently
for sale, in ways large and small, without the permission or even knowledge of
the rightful owners. That's piracy.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=21676

Jailhouse Rock

I love where I live, but I won't pretend that we don't have our challenges.

In my little Tennessee county, the County Fathers (I say that because our only County Mother retired last go round) are considering a new jail. Our schools are overcrowded and falling apart, they gave our biggest park to an RV developer, our water systems are more than questionable, their idea of development is another damned traffic light, but a new jail is foremost in the minds of the mental giants running this place.

If I seem harsh let me point out that individually, our commishioners aren't too bad, but put them in one room and call the session to order and their I Q's collectively plummet.

I have a proposal...Let's put all the County Commisioners in a class at Roane County High School for one month. maybe a Civics class would be good. Of course we would have to start one because I'm told they don't teach Civics at Roane County Schools any more. Anyway, after a month, I'm thinking the priorities would change. Even a few days of those over fifty bladders standing in line in the principal's office waiting on the bathroom key might change some minds about who ought to be taken care of first.

Frankly, most thoughtful people who study the problem might conclude that we don't even need a new jail in the first place. A quick look at the books indicates that it isn't overcrowded, except for a few minutes every Saturday night while they process the same old crowd. There are very few folks in our jail that the public actually needs protection from.

Around the country, after an orgy of jail building, they found that crime went up, not down. but someplaces have made some surprising discoveries.

The WaPo has a relevant piece that I hope folks around here will take a look at:

In the past few years, legislators in such conservative states as Louisiana
and Mississippi have passed sentencing reforms. Kansas and Nebraska are
reconsidering prison expansion in favor of far less expensive drug treatment.
The United States annually spends about $60 billion on prisons.

"Crime is down and people realize, sure, we can lock up more people,
but that's why your kid's pre-K class has 35 kids -- all the money is going to
prisons," Jacobson says. "There's a sense of urgency that for the first time in
two decades, we can talk about whether it makes sense to lock up even more
people."
...
William J. Bratton, Giuliani's police commissioner in the
mid-1990s -- now chief of the Los Angeles Police Department -- directed his
officers to make swarms of misdemeanor arrests for fare beating, pot smoking,
gun possession and the like, charges that result in much shorter incarcerations.
Felony arrests, by contrast, dropped sharply, which meant far fewer city
residents were sent to the high-security Upstate prisons.

City and state prisons in New York also turned aggressively to drug
treatment and mental health counseling. They did so as a matter of enlightened
self-interest. The city prison system is the second-largest mental health
provider in the nation; only the Los Angeles County system surpasses it.

Commissioner Horn got his start decades ago as a prison guard. Now he
occupies the executive office at Rikers Island and is a national expert on what
is recognized as an American specialty: mass incarceration.
"I leave it to
the economists and the moralists to decide if we've paid too high a cost to
imprison," Horn said as he walked out of a shadowed prison block. "But New York
proves you can lock up a lot fewer people and get a pretty big impact."

********

Other Fun Stuff:


The top ten best functioning Democracies in the world, based on 60 factors divided over five general categories; free and fair election process, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

1. Sweden 9,88
2. Iceland 9,71
3. Netherlands 9.66
4. Norway 9,55
5. Denmark 9,52
6. Finland 9,25
7. Luxembourg 9,10
8. Australia 9,09
9. Canada 9.02
10. Switzerland 9.02

Why aren't the US and Great Britian on the list? We got failing marks in...

Civil Liberties and Fair elections..

When the new Congress is sworn in they will almost immediately start investigations on danged near everything, since the Bush Administration has been the most closed and secretive in american History. As revelation after revelation hits the fan, whether or not to Impeach will be the question. Are the Neo-Cons worried? Here's the inside joke:

I want them sweating so badly they have to come out with a deoderant called Right-Wing Gaurd: "strong enough for a elephant but made for a pig".

Here's the process for those who were wondering:

The House Judiciary Committee deliberates over whether to initiate an
impeachment inquiry.

The Judiciary Committee adopts a resolution seeking authority from
the entire House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry. Before voting, the
House debates and considers the resolution. Approval requires a majority
vote.

The Judiciary Committee conducts an impeachment inquiry, possibly
through public hearings. At the conclusion of the inquiry, articles of
impeachment are prepared. They must be approved by a majority of the
Committee.

The House of Representatives considers and debates the articles of
impeachment. A majority vote of the entire House is required to pass each
article. Once an article is approved, the President is, technically speaking,
"impeached" -- that is subject to trial in the Senate.

for a good rundown on the prospects try this:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/24/142947/88

As always, Peace,

Steve

America to the World, "Pardon the Turkey"

President Bush pardoned a turkey yesterday. The crime for which the turkey was pardoned was...Being a turkey. I figure this sets a precedent by which President Bush hopes that he too will be pardoned when the time comes...



So what I don't get in this is that even though it got pardoned, the Turkey will go right on being a Turkey! This heinous bird will immediately commit the same capital crime for which it had been sentenced in the first place...So, Mr. Meleagris Gallopavo, or whatever you call yourself, Why are you special that you deserve a pardon for the same crime for which other, perhaps more worthy, turkeys are making the ultimate sacrifice?

Does this mean that it is OK and legal now to commit Turkey in America? Is this yet another case of the Executive Branch creating legislation? If the Supreme Court is wrong to do this, why is it OK for the President to do it? I think it boils down to a self serving machination for the chief executive of the United States of America and other turkeys to excuse themselves for their very existance, no matter how burdensome...Something I'm not sure America is ready to do.

I say Americans should be tired of unrepentent Turkeys. It is time for everyone to rise up and act...No more sitting on the couch while others do your work for you. Do your part, friends. Rid America of the threat created by the Turkey. Go big, today...As an example, I plan to take out an entire drumstick all by myself.

Are you with me, America? Damn the diets...Devour the Bird!

Peace,

And Happy Thanksgiving!

Steve

"Tomorrow at the White House, President Bush will pardon the turkey ... and
today, Dick Cheney spent all day torturing it"

--David Letterman

Molly's thankfull, too:

Thanks from a grateful nation for an obedient press corps that failed during
Bush’s six-hour, carefully orchestrated visit to Indonesia to register the fact
that there were massive demonstrations against his administration and its
policies toward Muslims. The demonstrators during his short visit forced him to
stay behind the presidential palace wall all day and—due to concerns for his
safety—not spend the night.

Thoughts on the Day Before...

Well, here's the deal...The legal case for impeaching George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is pretty much open and shut, as is the case against several more in the Bush Administration. As noted in a nice little book by a former Federal prosecutor:

...Bush, Cheney, et al., "did knowingly and intentionally conspire to defraud
the United States by using deceit, craft, trickery, dishonest means, false and
fraudulent representations, including ones made without a reasonable basis and
with reckless indifference to their truth or falsity, and omitting to state
material facts necessary to make their representations truthful, fair and
accurate, while knowing and intending that their false and fraudulent
representations would influence the public and the deliberations of Congress
with regard to authorization of a preventive war against Iraq, thereby
defeating, obstructing, impairing, and interfering with Congress' lawful
functions of overseeing foreign affairs and making appropriations."

The only question, and it's a big one, is should we or shouldn't we? I can make both cases. let me put it differently. If the standard for impeachment is the Republican led effort against Bill Clinton, in which Joe Lieberman participated btw, then we have to ask ourselves that since we impeached a president for almost screwing an intern and lying about it,

... Should we Impeach a president for screwing our entire country...and Lying about it?

Peace,

Steve

"I plan to celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional American way...I'm going to
invite a bunch of people to bring food and drink over to my house. We'll have a
big celebration, and then I'll kill them and take their land." ...Jon Stewart

Prairie Weather sent this:

Backstory on Carville v Dean

...One essential difference between Democrats and Republicans, I think, is that we actually conduct elections for Party Chair. How Mehlman morphed to Steel and then on to Martinez, I don't really know, but I do know that kind of "top down" was not how Dean got his job. He got it because he understood that in many places the party was sick -- and he had a plan to bring it back to health.

1963:

I was in biology class in Memphis in the 11th grade when I heard the news...Where were you?

Quotes

James Carville has suffered a serious smack down for suggesting Howard Dean be fired as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Even the Clintons have publicly winced, even though secretly, they have to know that Dean has solidified the REAL Democratic Party into a reasonable fighting force.


Fun quotes:

"Why should the Democratic Party take advice from a man who can't even
convince his own wife to vote Democratic?"

Howard Dean (Yeah, that's a repeat, but it's soooo delicious)

There seems to be the growing awareness among Progressives that there is a real movement to retake their political party from the Corporatist wing represented by the DLC and the Clintons.

"Although this is obviously lost on most pundits and journalists, it is
interesting how this seemingly odd alliance between state parties and the
progressive movement is based not upon ideology. Rather, it is based upon both a
shared strategic principle, the fifty-state strategy, and a shared chip on the
shoulder: the sensethat both have been long ignored by the party leadership. It is a sort of Alliance of the Ignored."

Chris Bowers (read the whole piece)

"Screw Carville and the Bleep he rode in on"...Commentor on the Bowers
piece.

And another repeat:

"YeeeeHaaaaaahhhhh!"...Howard Dean

I am going to make a prognostication that Howard Dean will be the next Vice President of the United States...Who will be the Boss?

The next president



Thank God for Evolution.

Reverend Michael Dowd



And from Jay Leno:

President Bush is getting ready for his big trip to Vietnam. Dick Cheney however got a deferment.

There was an embarrassing moment. President Bush had to ask John Kerry for directions.

And more than ever...

Peace,

Steve

Out, Damned Spot...

It's time to get corruption and money out of politics...Period! Yeah, I know that's got a blue sky lightning chance of hitting the target but you don't gain a thing by not shooting. Democrats need to clean up our government...and if their own house needs a good cleaning?


Other voices...

Did you ever want to just konk somebody upside the head with the heel of your hand and holler, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Juanita

And then there's this.

...And what's this? John McCain says that the Bush Administration is breaking laws trying to hide the reality of Global Warming from the American public? Where were you the last 6 years John?

Creep!

McCain, too little too late.

From our "George W. Bush is a piece of scum" Department

You are arrested. You tell your captors you are innocent. They tell you they know you are guilty because they have secret evidence that you cannot see. You will have no lawyer, no judge, only the "officers" who will proceed to ask you questions to establish your guilt.

“They tell you “you are from Al Qaed”’ and when you say “no” they give
the (electric) current to your feet.... As you keep saying ‘no’ this goes on for
two or three hours,” he said, adding he had several times lost
consciousness.

He claimed he was once shackled to a ceiling for “four
or five days”.

“They take you down in the mornings when a doctor comes
to see whether you can endure more,” he said. “They let you sit when the
interrogator comes.... They take you down about three times a day so you do not
die.”

... “I saw several people die,” he said. “Sometimes I
thought I could no longer stand it and would also die.”

"Murat" is not a comedy movie about politically incorrect characature, it is the name of a man who was falsely accused, tortured, held without reason, tortured some more, and finally, after some of the secret documents that supposedly proved his guilt were "accidentally" made public, Murat Kurnaz was released after four years in extrajudicial detention in guantanamo.

When his case was forced up for review by the German government, German reviewers and reviewers from the US State Department said they found no evidence against him, but three officers from Guantanamo claimed they had secret evidence to prove his guilt. When the secret evidence was discovered, it actually had nothing except evidence proving his innocence, for the most part, and one letter claiming he was Al Qeida...unsigned and undocumented. His "crime" turned out to be that he once slept in a hostel that was claimed to have Al Queida ties...A charge which was determined to be false.

What does George W. Bush say about guantanamo detainees?

No question, Guantanamo sends a signal to some of our friends -- provides an
excuse, for example, to say the United States is not upholding the values that
they're trying to encourage other countries to adhere to. And my answer to them
is, is that we are a nation of laws and rule of law. These people have been
picked up off the battlefield and they're very dangerous.

That is a lie...

Murat Kurnaz was picked up in Pakistan at the airport where he was flying home to Germany, imprisoned, denied access to our legal system, tortured on and off because he would never say what his interrogators wanted him to say because it was a lie.

The Presidency of George W. Bush is also a lie.

It is time to save our country from him and his flying monkeys.

Peace,

Steve

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz

Random

So...How does the Fristian idea of doing away with the filibuster look now that Democrats have the power?

I love a good rant. Surprised? Here's one I like:

Conservatism Vs. Democracy

Republicans, given time, will always reveal their true natures. When they
inevitably do, the majority of Americans will send them packing. Finding
themselves outside the gate, republicans will scratch at the door and beg to be
let back in. This happened from 1954 to 1994. Republicans were sent outside
because they're impossible to house-break. It took American voters forty years
to forget that fact and let them back in. Swept into power by the Gingrich
Revolution, they immediately got the biggest shovels they could find and
proceeded to sack the nations treasury. They began dismantling the economic
infrastructure. They shredded the social safety net for the young, the old, the
sick and accelerated the nations withdrawal from its social responsibilities.
Republicans long for the day when the wholesale embracement of corporate power
will eclipse the human spirit.

Quote of the day:

"Heh, heh.... have you ever spent a month clearing brush in the midst of the
biggest threat to the country in our nation's history? Have ya?
Heh, heh, heh..... try dealing with what I had to deal with and then we
can talk. Heh, heh."

...George W. Bush to newly elected Representative Joe Donnely at the official Meet and greet.

Peace,

Steve

Fox News = FoxyMoron

Fair and Balanced My Ass

Job One...Fair and Open Elections

My Mom was a Deputy Director in the Georgia Secretary of State office. Her last Secretary if State was Max Cleland and before that a string of undistinguished people who served in the shadow of the man who may have been the greatest Secretary of State in American History, Ben Fortson.

Mr. Ben was crippled by a car accident and spent the greater portion of his life in a wheel chair. I never saw the man when he wasn't smiling and he remembered my name after one meeting. I was always, "Betty's boy, Steve" followed by a bigger grin and a handshake. The Georgia Capitol building is covered with a facade of gold leaf, but being gold plated didn't stop the offices from being cold and dank so Mr. Ben always had a light blanket covering his useless legs.

Georgia politics are no more corrupt than most and certainly no less. Early on, folks learned to shake hands with politicians and transfer tens and twenties with grace and a smile. My Dad pointed this out to me when I was a grade schooler. "Watch him put his hand back in his own pocket after he shakes hands with Grampa." I don't remember who the politician was but this very tradition got Senator Herman Talmadge disgraced after he chaired the Watergate hearings that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.

"Huhman's" dad, Eugene, was serving as Governor and had just been reelected when he just plain up and died. Lot's of people suddenly claimed that they were the rightful successor, the Lt. Governor Elect Melvin Thompson, Eugene's vanquished opponent current Governor Ellis Arnold, and curiously, Herman Talmadge, who claimed the Governorship by divine right since he was Eugene's son and the plan all along was for Herman to take over when Eugene was finished.

Herman Talmadge had the support of the State Patrol and took over the Capitol building by "Military Coup" in essence. He went about the process of crowning himself Governor but needed, if not the actual support of the Secretary of State Ben Fortson, at least the State Seal of Georgia in order to make the decree "legal" according to State law, which though confusing on succession, was very clear on this point. Mr. Ben looked everybody right in the eye and told them he couldn't find the Great Seal and needed them to help him look. For days every inch of the Georgia Capitol was searched by the State Patrol and Herman waited impatiently. In the meantime, the Ga. Supreme Court was reviewing things and a race was on between finalizing Herman's ascension and the Court delivering their ruling. Unable to find the Seal, the Court delivered the ruling against Herman and for the Lt. Governor, whereupon Mr. Ben lifted up the blanket covering his withered legs and displayed the Great Seal of the State of Georgia, hidden in the one place no one either though of or dared to look.

It is too bad that the current Secretary of State has fallen from the lofty esteem of her predecessors. In a duplicitous Sate government, the Secretary of State in Georgia has always held the people's will to be paramount. I am now ashamed of my birth state's Secertary of State.

Georgia's Secretary of State's office has filed an injunction to stop a citizen from reviewing public election records. Before Diebold became involved in Georgia, election records were fully accessible to the public. The argument being put forward by the Secretary of State is that the election information is proprietary to Diebold.

Who owns our Vote?


One item that needs to move to the top of the list for the First 100 Hours is to outlaw proprietary software in electronic voting machines. This is unthinkable in other countries and we should never allow it here. One must emphaticly question the motives of a Secretary of State who prevents her electorate from examining their own vote!

Peace,

Steve

Interesting...Very Interesting...

These are "Interesting Times" as the old curse proclaimed.

Will Lieberman really caucus with the Dems or will he jump ship? he's laid the groundwork saying that he will jump to the Republican caucus if he decides he isn't being treated right. What a creep.

Karl Rove has learned a new truth...he can't steal a landslide. Nationally, the popular vote went Democratic in a big way. Last count I saw was 57/43...That's freakin huge.

There are calls for Impeachment but I'll predict it won't happen. What wil happen is, using their new subpoena power, the Democratic majorities will investigate what should be investigated for the next two years and George Bush may resign but he won't be removed by impeachment. It's like if Baptist preachers managed to kill Satan, who the hell would they rail against on Sunday? Of course the Dems owe it to the Republicans to make their corrupt lives miserable. Anyone who remembers that the Republicans spent two whole years investigating the Clinton's Christmas card list. If ever there was a travesty of theater, that was one for sure.

And Speaking of Satan....


Take the "Who said it' test:

A condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs; it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor.

Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson

Usama Bin Ladin

Must see Tom Tomorrow

Cheers,

Steve

Quote of the Day

Guess who wrote this...No Googling!

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press-in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years."

I'll tell you tomorrow

Buh Bye, Deadbeat Daddy

The autopsy is being performed on the corpse of the Republican majority even as we examine the people who killed it.

The first words out of right wing spin meisters greasy little mouths were that America elected
conservative Democrats. On further review, that is absolutely wrong. Of the 29 new Congressmen only two are anti-choice...All the others fully support a woman's right to make her own health decisions. The most conservative Democrat in the Senatorial race, Harold Ford Jr., lost and a case can be made that the 50,000 votes he needed could have come by more effectively energizing progressives in this state as opposed to a move further to the right.

The other claim is that the Iraq war was the big issue, and it certainly was large, but Republican Corruption and their inability to create jobs for the average American worker was just as big an issue according to exit polls. One of my own personal concerns is where today's kids are going to find work in the next ten years. An economy that isn't based on making things has to function parisitically on economies that do manufacture. This is a long term worry for every level in America.

So we trade George W. Bush for Nancy Pelosi:


This will be known as the year macho politics failed — mainly because it was macho politics by marshmallow men. Voters were sick of phony swaggering, blustering and bellicosity, absent competency and accountability. They were ready to trade in the deadbeat Daddy party for the sheltering Mommy party.

All the conservative sneering about a fem-lib from San Francisco who was measuring the drapes for the speaker’s office didn’t work. Americans wanted new drapes, and an Armani granny with a whip in charge.

Maureen Dowd


That sums it up nicely.

Steve

Ford's Left Flank

I have kicked this exact premise around with several friends and, so far, nobody has been able to convince me it is incorrect.

Does the 21 votes per precinct make sense?

Steve

The Eleventh Hour, of the Eleventh Day, of the Eleventh Month

At this point in the history of the Iraq War, we have roughly 30,000 American Veterans who will come home with life changing wounds or will come home in a box. We owe them and their families something that has eluded us since the early days in the run up to the war before a single military act was committed. It is time to answer the question,

..."Why did we go into Iraq?"

Saddam was not and could not become a threat to us. He was evil incarnate but imasculated as a player on the world stage except for his county's oil reserves.

Iraq was not harboring terrorists that were interested in the U.S. In fact, Saddam hated Al Zarqawi and would have eliminated him except for the fact that the United States itself was protecting him in the no fly zone.

If "Bringing Democracy" were such a big deal, there are several hundred countries that would pop up on the radar screen ahead of Iraq and the International community barely stood for our invasion of a beligerant dictator's country as it was.

And so on and so on...

Now we need to answer the question decisively and for all to see, because war is a horrible thing that scars even the victor. In an honorable society War cannot be a President's toy for his own personal ambitions or to fill deep psychological abysses, in the "Saddam tried to kill my Daddy" mode. War cannot be a tool of Corporate greed such as the slavering Haliburton or Bechtel have amply demonstrated by their gluttonous clutching of so much American tax money that they themselves cannot find it all, and billions remain lost in their corrupt machinations. All of this must be exposed as a lesson to the American People,

...And to honor our Veterans!

WE let them be sent to war for false reasons. WE must expose everyone involved in this deception and let the chips fall where they may. And most of all we must learn the methods of those who would deceive us for their own dark purposes.

In the Election's aftermath we are hearing that Rumsfeld was a victim of politics and that is he had been replaced sooner, Republicans would still be in control of the Senate. Rumsfeld was not a victim of politics. He was a victim of greed, of corruption, and of failure..not that of others but of his own. Rumsfeld lied so easily and so often that we have no idea at this point where fact and fiction divide. It is time for us to know.

We do not honor war by the celebration of Veteran's Day...We honor our Veteran's sacrifice on our behalf in the cause of Peace and Freedom. We honor them and must not sully that honor by hiding from the truth or failing to expose the corruption and failure of the leaders who made them Veterans of Foreign Wars in a false cause.

America must not fear the truth. Let it be heard for the sake of our future and for the Honor of our Veterans.



Peace,

Steve



*****

A warrior of a different sort is Molly Ivins.

Ivins has published six books, four of them best-sellers, including "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?" The author is working with Lou Dubose on her next book, whose subject -- what happened to the Bill of Rights? — is undeniably a timely one, she feels. "The publisher doesn't know this yet," she avows, "but we're thinking of calling it 'Chickensnake in the Hen House.' It's a story about getting so scared that you hurt yourself."

For those who wish to think...

Massimo