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Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Governor Dean's statement on Ralph Nader
When I announced last week that I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency, I urged my supporters not to be tempted by any independent or third party candidate. I said I would support the nominee of the Democratic Party, because the bottom line is that we must defeat George W. Bush in November, whatever it takes.

This year, our campaign has made the case that, in order to defeat George W. Bush, the Democratic Party must stand up strong for its principles, not paper over its differences with the most radical Administration in our lifetime. In order to win, the Democratic Party must aggressively expose the ways in which George W. Bush's policies benefit the privileged and the most extreme ideologues.

I will do everything I can to ensure that the 2004 Democratic nominee runs as a true progressive, as a champion of working Americans and their hopes for a better future. I urge my supporters, and all other Americans committed to progressive values and honest government, to stick with us, and stick with the Democratic Party, so our cause can prevail in 2004.

Ralph Nader has made many great contributions to America over 40 years. But if George W. Bush is re-elected, the health, safety, consumer, environmental, and open government provisions Ralph Nader has fought for will be undermined. George Bush's right-wing appointees will still be serving as judges fifty years from now, and our Constitution will be shredded. It will be government by, of, and for, the corporations - exactly what Ralph Nader has struggled against.

Those who truly want America's leaders to stand up to the corporate special interests and build a better country for working people should recognize that, in 2004, a vote for Ralph Nader is, plain and simple, a vote to re-elect George W. Bush. I hope that Ralph Nader will withdraw his candidacy in the best interests of the country we hope to become.

Many of my supporters urged me to run as an independent, but I judged it the wrong thing to do. There is still time for Ralph Nader to stand with those in the Democratic Party who are building a progressive coalition to defeat George W. Bush. But time is running out. We can win only if we are united

(as seen on blog for America )


Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Man, I've been really behind on this blogging thing. The problem is mainly that I've been wasting my time with trivial matters like trying to find a job-or-if all goes well, trying to get a freelance design firm off the ground (something I'm anticipating is going to be difficult btw) The other problem is there's just too much that pisses me off on a daily -yay hourly basis to write about. I do have one brief statement tho about the resident's little proclamation pimping a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage this morning.

to quote our fearless leader-
"The union of a man and woman," the president said, "is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society."

Now first off there are plenty of committed gay couples out there who have children-how come their welfare is less important than the welfare of my children will be simply because my husband and i are of different gender. I thought we were trying not to leave any children behind here people!

2nd-How on earth am i supposed to live with the fact that a 20 hour long quickie vegas marriage trumps a decades long loving commitment made by two people simply because the latter couple is gay?

3rd- Bush said in regards to gay marriage this morning, "After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization."
Now I'm one of these crackpots who thinks that the most fundamental institution of CIVILIZATION is working government.
4th-Then he goes on to say, "America is a free society, which limits the role of government in the lives of our citizens. This commitment of freedom, however, does not require the redefinition of one of our most basic social institutions. Our government should respect every person, and protect the institution of marriage. There is no contradiction between these responsibilities. We should also conduct this difficult debate in a manner worthy of our country, without bitterness or anger."How does a limited government that doesn't get overly involved in the lives of its citizens justify severely limiting the rights of a huge group of said citizens? AND THEN SAY THAT"S NOT A CONTRADICTION!? Plus the respect every person line...that fits where in this massive campaign to restrict civil rights and gut the equal protection clause?
Anyway, it all sucks, and I'll weigh in more as this situation festers and gay bashing and hate crimes inevitably go through the roof now that the president has declared war on gay marriage. I hate you-but don't worry, that in no way means I don't love you.


Thursday, February 19, 2004

It appears Bush's NASCAR visit wasn't as much of a grand slam as they'd like us to think. Thanx to Atrios for pointing me towards this hilarious article on Bush's Daytona 500 trip, in the American Prospect.Gentlemen, start your engines...


Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Sorry for the lack of writing lately-
Howard Dean is leaving the horse race. This is a sad day for me. I was an early supporter, and still believe in his message. I also give him credit for giving the Democrats a spine again. It was the kick in the ass we sorely needed. God bless you Dr. Dean for your vitriol and patriotism. You are still a potent party leader. On the bad side of that I heard a murmur that some Dean supporters, pissed at Kerry's surge have been jumping on Nader to run. To you people I say CUT IT THE F*** OUT!!!Remember what's at stake here and don't dare forget KERRY IS NOT BUSH!!! He's a liberal Democrat not a fascist right winger. If you hate Kerry vote for Edwards in the primary, but any vote this fall for ANYONE but the Democratic Nominee is a vote for BUSH!!!!!


Sunday, February 15, 2004

I've seen CNN run that stupid anti-Kerry internet add the RNC sent out about 10 times and it's extremely annoying. So in rebuttal I am posting the entire text of an article in the Washington Post that frames the debate on this one pretty concisely.
Enjoy!


"He Ought to Know

Saturday, February 14, 2004; Page A28


IT'S HARD TO RECALL a more brazen display of political chutzpah than the Bush campaign's assault on Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) as a captive of special interests. A video e-mailed Thursday night to 6 million supporters attacks the Democratic front-runner as an "unprincipled" collector of special-interest cash. The video cites a report in this newspaper that Mr. Kerry led the senatorial pack in collecting money from the very Washington lobbyists that he is busy decrying on the campaign trail. As the dollar amount -- $640,000 -- shows on the screen, a female announcer emits a sound of pained surprise. "Oooh," she says, "For what? Nominations and donations coincided." The video concludes: "Fact. Kerry -- Brought to you by the special interests. Millions from executives at HMOs, telecoms, drug companies. Ka-ching!"



Mr. Kerry's fundraising and his relationships with Washington lobbyists are a legitimate topic, even more so now that he has positioned himself, or tried to, as the scourge of Washington business as usual. But -- how can we say this politely? -- let's consider the source.

Mr. Bush's acceptance of special-interest money and his subsequent rewards to the industries doing the giving dwarf anything in Mr. Kerry's record. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, whose figures are cited in the Bush campaign video, Mr. Bush has raised more than four times as much from lobbyists during the 2004 race as Mr. Kerry has -- $960,000 for Mr. Bush to $235,000 for Mr. Kerry. During the 2000 contest, the Bush campaign assigned an industry code to givers so it would know precisely how much it was beholden and to whom. As electric utility lobbyist Thomas Kuhn explained in a 1999 letter to fundraisers, putting the code on the check "does ensure that our industry is credited, and that your progress is listed among the other business/industry sectors." Mr. Kuhn's progress may well have been noted; he met at least 14 times with Vice President Cheney's energy task force.

"Nominations and donations coincided"? You wonder what possessed the Bush people to bring that up. Of Mr. Bush's Pioneers -- those who raised at least $100,000 in the 2000 campaign -- 21 snagged ambassadorships, and these weren't hardship postings. Checks from "HMOs, telecoms, drug companies"? Mr. Bush has swamped Mr. Kerry in all three sectors during this campaign, raking in 10 times as much from donors connected to the pharmaceutical industry ($585,000 to $58,000) and telecommunications ($578,000 to $58,000). The liberal group Public Citizen counted 53 registered lobbyists among the current Pioneers and Rangers (the $200,000-and-up crowd.) Total amount bundled by lobbyists? At least $6.5 million this time around. Ka-ching. Ka-ching. Ka-ching.

And, since Mr. Bush brought it up, it's worth remembering that Mr. Kerry actually has some bona fides in the area of campaign finance ethics. He swore off checks from political action committees during his Senate races. He supported the McCain-Feingold legislation to end big soft-money checks to political parties -- which Mr. Bush's party did its best to kill and which the president only reluctantly signed. While the Bush administration fights to keep secret the activities of its energy task force, Mr. Kerry has promised to release the records of his meetings with lobbyists during his time in office.

The Bush video may be a long-shot effort to help derail Mr. Kerry's march to the Democratic nomination. More likely, it's an attempt to neutralize the special-interest issue, to inoculate the Bush White House against accusations that it's a captive of special interests and to muddy the waters by convincing voters that both candidates are equally complicit. We don't think voters are quite that slow."


Friday, February 13, 2004

I strongly recommend this extremely powerful piece by Jimmy Breslin.He outlines what this administration is really all about. Then Paul Krugman finishes the job. Do some reading-it's FUNdemental!!


Thursday, February 12, 2004

In the wake of the Kay report that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq the administration's best explanation has become akin to "we did the best we could." I'm sorry, but over 500 soldiers are dead, and thousands of civilians-oops isn't good enough!! Especially if you remember that before the war in the "post 9/11 world" that's always mentioned as another reason we rushed to war, I don'tthink I was alone in doi9ng a double take when war with Iraq was mentioned. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11!!! Then they say "well, Clinton thought they had weapons too." True, but he never launched a pre-emptive war with Iraq did he? And when he did strike at them with airstrikes to keep Saddam contained the republicans accused him of trying to take attention away from the whole Monica thing. Then they say again," well, Clinton wasn't president in the 'post 9/11 world'" No, he was president in the pre-9/11 world-and he kept us safe with prooper use of inntelligence, dedication, and hard work.


Tuesday, February 10, 2004

BREAKING NEWS!!! BILL O'REILLY APOLOGIZES!!!! He said in the run up to war that if there were no WMDs found in Iraq he'd apologize and wouldn't trust the Bush administration again-and he actually f-ing did it!!! As Tom Tomorrow put it, "Apparently, it's snowing in hell today."

thanx to pandagon for the link!!


Monday, February 09, 2004

Bush Report Declares Economic Recovery is Taking Hold

President Bush seems to be running his campaign by immediately going to the state where the latest Democratic primary or caucus took place, and lying through his teeth to paint a rosy picture of his administration to counter the attacks of the Democrats who just got off the stump. The latest example of this strategy was earlier today in Missouri, where the overly optimistic president predicted that his administration would create 2.6 million new jobs this year. On one hand, that is a good way to respond to the Democrats reminding everyone that the president has actually LOST 2.2 million jobs since he took office. On the other hand, it's an extremely bold statement that will have to start bearing fruit before the elections, which come less than two months before the end of the year. Considering that he's probably not a psychic, and he says this job growth will come as a result of his massive tax cuts for the rich I'm not nearly as optimistic as the president seems to be, but then I guess you'd think everything was rosy too if you only delivered these speeches to hand picked groups of supporters and campaign donors, and were constantly shielded from dissent. It all makes you wonder if the president has any idea whatsoever what's actually going on in this country.


Sunday, February 08, 2004

I guess this link has been floating around quite a bit, but I didn't catch it till just now on Tom Tomorrow's site-

Feds Win Right to War Protesters' Records

"DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists.

In addition to the subpoena of Drake University, subpoenas were served this past week on four of the activists who attended a Nov. 15 forum at the school, ordering them to appear before a grand jury Tuesday, the protesters said.

Those served subpoenas include the leader of the Catholic Peace Ministry, the former coordinator of the Iowa Peace Network, a member of the Catholic Worker House, and an anti-war activist who visited Iraq in 2002.

They say the subpoenas are intended to stifle dissent.

``This is exactly what people feared would happen,'' said Brian Terrell of the peace ministry, one of those subpoenaed. ``The civil liberties of everyone in this country are in danger. How we handle that here in Iowa is very important on how things are going to happen in this country from now on.' ''


I recommend reading the rest of the article. It's important we all realize what's happening in this country, and what's happening to our Constitutional rights. If George W. Bush stays in office another 4 years we risk this country becoming a place were everyone who disagrees with the party line of the administration will have their patriotism questioned, and their records subpoenaed.


I just wanted to remind everyone of a fact-I'm going to try to do this on a regular basis so the administration won't get away with rewriting history-The new line-repeated ad nauseum on MTP this morning, is Saddam had to go because he wasn't cooperating with the UN resolutions. What I heard was "He wouldn't let us in." If I recall correctly he DID let the inspectors in, and we gave Iraq a deadline and got the inspectors pulled out before they were done. The UN wanted more diplomacy but we said no-we had to go to war RIGHT AWAY!!! Just a reminder folks-what they say now doesn't change what they did then. Paul Krugman's latest is a great piece of writing on the subject of revisionist history. Definitely more recommended reading.


Here's a great column by Joe Coanson on why, if they aren't already, the Republicans need to worry about John Kerry as the Democratic nominee. It does a great job of dispelling some of the spin we're probably going to hear this campaign season before it can catch fire. Definitely recommended reading.


Here's a great Post synopsis of the Meet the Press interview, and here's the complete transcript of the interview so you can form your own opinion on how it went.


Watching the Prez on Meet the Press. He's delusional-or he's trying to keep the country in a state of deep denial. Let's all remember that there were no WMD's, the deficit is HUGE, and alot of us have no jobs. He also said, during Vietnam, he supported his government, but had a problem with the Vietnam War because he felt it was largely a political war!!! As Dennis Kucinich would say, HELLOOOOO?!In the absence of WMD and the revelations made by Paul O'Neil in Suskind's book show us that this war is, if anything, even more political!! He's been stuttering over issues he, as a world leader, should have a backbone on. He's blatantly lying about issues that anyone who reads a newspaper could refute. This is ridiculous. In other news, the Democrats are gaining a reputation as hard assed intelligent people since we're galvanizing behind the common goal of defeating Bush. Tim just asked G.W. is he's prepared to lose...There's one question he may want to reflect upon some more in the coming months. (I hope :)- )


Thursday, February 05, 2004

Every Democrats needs to read this. The dirty tricks apparently no no bounds.

A Bush Covert Operative Takes Over Al Sharpton's Campaign

Don't let the GOP steal another election. Don't let anyone scare you away from the polls this November. God I hope this gets brought out and nipped in the bud.


Wednesday, February 04, 2004

As the election year rolls on you can expect to hear alot about this-

Green light for gay marriages in Mass.
State's high court says full rights must be granted


It's a divisive issue, or what they call a "wedge issue" in campaigns. What you need to remember though is not to let wedge issues distract you from things like this-

U.S. death toll in Iraq: one GI per day
Casualties rise in 2004 despite Saddam capture


and this...


The Debt No One Wants to Talk About

or this...

A bittersweet taste in wages
Take-home is shrinking, which is bad news for the economy as well as individuals.


or this...

Fallout From the Missing WMDs

Or any of the other myriad problems with the environment, the war, the deficit, the curtailing of civil rights, and the massive unemployment rate in this country. Gay marriage has about as much relevance in this campaign as Janet Jackson's boob has on , well, anything. Don't forget what's important.



Wow, Last night was exciting! Lieberman finally dropped out, and gave what, in my opinion, was the most dignified, and eloquent concession speech I've seen in a long time. He thanked his opponents for their dedication to our country, and vowed to continue to fight in the senate, to fully and vigorously support the eventual nominee, and to do whatever he could to help get the white house back for the Democrats. I tip my hat to you senator Lieberman. Class act at last. Edwards won South Carolina, so he's still in, for now at least. Clark is claiming victory in Oklahoma, but that won't be verified until next week, and he and Edwards are pretty much neck in neck there. The big story, once again, is John Kerry. Winning 5 out of the seven primary states that voted yesterday he continues to gain momentum and seems stronger with every passing primary day. I think the rally around his candidacy that's happened since Iowa has helped him put on quite a happy face, and gives him an air of leadership he'll need to out president George W. in November. Poor Howard Dean did miserably, and is pinning his hopes on Michigan , and Washington, so we'll see next week. And the primaries roll on.....


Monday, February 02, 2004

Here's just the latest example of an incident where protesters of the president were forced into free speech zones. This is in AMERICA-land of the free. Read this account and tell me our country isn't starting to look like an Orwellian nightmare.

Prosecuted for politics, not security


We have got to get Bush out of office before you see people on rafts defecting to Cuba because the government is similar but the weather's nicer.


This rocks!!! Primary season is only just begun and John Kerry leads president bush by seven points in the latest CNN poll WoooHooo!!!!!!!!


Sunday, February 01, 2004

I find it hilarious that in an attempt to smear Wes Clark the press has inadvertently brought the story of George W. Bush's military career and AWOL status into the spotlight. Joe Coanson does a great job of summing up the lack of coverage to date, and the facts about his service or lack there of. Also check out AWOL Bush for a complete list of the facts. Lord I hope this story doesn't die on the vine this election year like it did in 2000. Hey, maybe we'll get lucky and the press will finally cover his DUI, or-Not holding my breath-his actual record on the issues.


More evidence of just how scary the electronic diebold voting machines are:

Md. computer testers cast a vote: Election boxes easy to mess with
In Annapolis, tales of trickery, vote rigging


I can't believe the voter verified paper trail is only a suggestion and not already nessecary-something's fishy here...


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