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Town Halls
Karen posted about AfterDowningStreet's initiative to engage grassroots activists to develop town halls against funding the Iraq Occupation in our local districts.
These endeavors may seem as though they're wasted. But they're not. I point out to you a few examples.
1. The district where I live, which is represented by a extremest right-winged Bush supporting war-monger-liar, and former paster Walburg has a huge chance of going for the anti-war candidate. The more we the people know about the occupation, the less likely it is that Walburg's election propaganda will be believed.
2. A few years ago, two DCP members, Madame Defarge and Ellen Beth, orchestrated an Out of Iraq educational forum, even in their really red district outside Chicago. They received a tremendous crowd who came to listen to their speakers. In 2006, their candidate Dan Seals came close to beating war-supporting, Bush supporting, and not-so-moderate Mark Kirk.
Ellen Beth has run a website in that district for the past four years. That website track's Kirk's votes, lies, and propaganda.
That dedication has paid off.
3. Oncall's really red district has a few active groups--such as DAWN. And, according to recent news articles, DuPage, Illinois might be able to elect an anti-war Democrat to Congress.
All of those indicate progress. Each time we put pressure on our Representatives, they will get antsy about their war supporting votes.
We need your activism now, so don't give up!
"Raise your hand" by logging in here:
Look under "Congressional District" and see if someone else has volunteered for an Iraq Town Hall. If so, click the link and offer your help in the comments.
If no one else has volunteered, next to "Congressional District" click [Post] and a blank form will open. Complete the form as follows:
Subject: Iraq Town Hall Volunteer
Topic: Iraq Town Halls (#4 on the topics list)
1. Body: Identify yourself and write what you're willing to do, and what you need help to do. If you want to hold a small meeting to plan the event, post a time and place (for example a convenient coffee shop or library).
2. Ask one reliable friend to help you organize this event
3. Pick a convenient auditorium with several hundred seats - a school, church, library etc.
4 Call and ask which Sundays in April are available for a Town Hall Meeting on Iraq, how much they charge for a 2-hour event, and whether you can sell tickets at the door to cover costs.
5. Call the District Office (not DC office) of your Representative in your local phone book or here.
6. Ask for the scheduler to find out which of the available auditorium dates work for your Representative. If your Representative won't give you a date promptly, pick one yourself - and leave an empty seat on the stage for your Representative.
7. Post an announcement of the event by logging in here.
8. Next to "Congressional District" click [Post]
Subject: Iraq Town Hall Scheduled
Topic: Iraq Town Halls (#4 on the topics list)
Body: Date, Time, Location, Address, etc.
9. If you need to raise money to pay for the auditorium, mention how much and where they can send a contribution.
10. Email us at iraqtownhall[at]democrats{dot}com and we'll give you instructions how to email all of our members in your Congressional District.
11. Reach out to local Iraq veterans and their families to speak.
12. Reach out to progressive allies in your area to bring people and spread the word:
http://democrats.com/local
13. Make a 1-page flyer (or use the sample below) and post it in busy locations (coffee shops, supermarkets, libraries, post offices, etc.)
14. Post your event on every community calendar you can think of (internet, radio, newspaper, etc)
15. Email and/or call local reporters (TV, radio, newspaper, blogs) to personally invite them to attend
Here are the basic things to do at the actual Town Hall:
1. Come early to set up and bring all the items you need below
2. Test the sound system to make sure it works
3. Bring video cameras to record the event for Youtube
4. Set up a few long tables in the back for literature from your allies
5. Set up a table and chairs on the stage with a readable sign for each speaker, including your Representative - whether (s)he attends or not
6. On the podium, tape a sign with your Representative's name and DC phone number in large letters so everyone can add them to their cellphone
7. Set up a card table at the door with several clipboards for sign-in sheets. Ask for name, zip, email, and cellphone for texting
8. Bring a cash box for contributions
9. Greet reporters at the door, thank them for coming, and invite them to sit in the front and interview the speakers
10. After the speeches, ask everyone to call their Representative and leave a message with their name and address and a simple demand: vote NO on $102 billion more for Iraq
11. Form a committee to keep up the pressure on your Representative through grassroots events like honkathons, ironing-board letter-writing, anti-war film showings, tables at community events, etc.
12. Make a plan to pass local resolutions in support of ending current wars, not starting new ones, impeachment, and indictment.
*****
There you have it. A step-by-step way to think globally, act locally, to get your neighbors out of the slump of indifference to a horror of a war, and most importantly, to remind your Representative that s/he works for the PEOPLE of the U.S. and not for a political party or the Bush administration!
Discuss, plan, and let's get this show on the road!
Now I realize that it sometimes feels like an uphill battle. But our efforts are paying off and our troops need us to keep the battle up at home so that they can come home too.
Let's make this a series of townhalls that our Congressmen will never forget!
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nmp - I might have been the only place where the lights were out in Tasmania last night - it seems like it was for capital cities only. It's an easy way to remind ourselves though. Good for you. Are lights out all over your city?
They where out all over Brisbane woz
Who wants 4 - 8 more year of the same?
Obama win appears big in Texas delegate battle
Barrack Obama appeared to have scored a clear victory over Hillary Clinton on Saturday in the second step of Texas' multi-tiered process for selecting its delegates to the Democratic National Convention. With results available from about half of the district conventions held statewide, the Associated Press reported that Obama had won 59 percent of the delegates headed to the state party's June convention to Clinton’s 41 percent. That translates into 1,858 delegates for Obama and 1,270 for Clinton.
That result made it likely that when the delegate selection process is finally completed, Obama will have more Texas delegates to the national convention than Clinton, despite Clinton's having won the March 4 primary vote 51 to 47 percent. Under Texas' delegate selection process, 67 of its 206 delegates are selected by the June state party convention.
Tens of thousands of Texas Democrats turned out for Saturday's district conventions in a chaotic day in which many of the meetings in Texas' large cities lasted late into the night. Some delegates — confused and frustrated by hours-long delays, disorder and disorganization — gave up on the process and left, still not sure if their vote counted. “Please move a bit faster,” urged delegate Whitney Larkins, who attended the largest senatorial district in Fort Worth gathered at the Will Rogers Coliseum. “Have some consideration. Think about those of us who took time out of our lives to participate in this.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/32023.html
The body of MIA Sgt. Keith Maupin has been identified in Iraq today.
2. A few years ago, two DCP members, Madame Defarge and Ellen Beth, orchestrated an Out of Iraq educational forum, even in their really red district outside Chicago. They received a tremendous crowd who came to listen to their speakers. In 2006, their candidate Dan Seals came close to beating war-supporting, Bush supporting, and not-so-moderate Mark Kirk.
Ellen Beth has run a website in that district for the past four years. That website track's Kirk's votes, lies, and propaganda.
That dedication has paid off.
Congratulations MDF and Ellen Beth, sorry I can't give you a hand.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23458217-2,00.html
Islam now world's biggest religious denomination
kangaroo said: They (the lights) were out all over Brisbane woz
Yes, I know roo. It's great that this has taken on so well all around the world. It was a big thing for cities - capital cities was where the attention was. I think it should be a universal thing - big town/small town; farmhouse; boarding school - we can all take action for 1 hour a year - surely. I looked out my windows at 8.30 pm and the hillside looked like it does every other night. It didn't seem much of an issue here in Launceston - or the rest of Tassie except for Hobart. And the Tassie government and the Hobart city council are fighting over whose responsibility it was to shut down the outside floodlighting of parliament house. Whoever was responsible - failed!
Democracy on the march?
Saturday: 171 Iraqis, 2 US Soldiers Killed, 289 Iraqis Wounded
Sunday: 95 Iraqis Killed, 28 Wounded
It's a great idea. I can't do much from here so I'll just sit on the sidelines and encourage.
Democracy on the march?
http://antiwar.com/
Madame Defarge and Ellen Beth are marvelous.
I still check Ellen's blog once in a while, and the misdeeds of Congressman Mark Kirk are very revealing.
Of course, there will always be those who defend Kirk as a sensible moderate. But when I met with Madame last May, she made it clear to me that this is not the case.
At least IL-10 has a vibrant Democratic opposition, not only in Dan Seals, but in the community itself. That's why Kirk is so desperate to look "moderate." The same can't be said of my own district (CA-42), however, even though DCCC will run a good candidate, Ron Shepston, here this year. My Congressman Gary Miller is hardcore Bushie.
I am sure they didn't separate the Shi'ites from the Sunnis on that count. Makes as much sense as lumping Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodoxes into a generic Christian demographic.
Ally
I wrote about Rev Moon at SMP.
NMP
Noticed that, and commented on it. Thanks.
THE DECLINE & COMING FALL OF US HEGEMONY
K Gajendra Singh
...An editorial titled ' Collapse of U.S. economy ' in Belleville Intelligencer of 27 Feb, 2008 confirms , by now generally accepted ill health of US economy . Harry Koza in the Globe and Mail recently quoted Bernard Connelly, the global strategist at Banque AIG in London, that the likelihood of a Great Depression is growing by the day. Martin Wolf of U.K.'s Financial Times cited Dr. Nouriel Roubini of the New York University's Stern School of Business, who outlines how the losses of the American financial system will grow to more than $1 trillion, an amount equal to all the assets of all American banks. The next domino to fall will be credit card defaults, and after that... who knows? There are so many exotic funds out there, with trillions of dollars in paper - or rather computer-screen money - all carrying assorted acronyms, and all about to disintegrate into nothingness...US has lost the war on the ground in Iraq and Nato is in disarray in Afghanistan . At the end of 'Operation Iraqi freedom ' transmuted into a ' war on terror' , really the mother of all battles for oil, raw materials and strategic space in west , south and central Asia , the frontiers in the Middle East and even Pakistan are likely to be redrawn , but not by the West but by the movements , militias and peoples of the region...
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=42600
March 31, 2008
As Jobs Vanish, Food Stamp Use Is at Record Pace
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.
The number of recipients, who must have near-poverty incomes to qualify for benefits averaging $100 a month per family member, has fluctuated over the years along with economic conditions, eligibility rules, enlistment drives and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, which led to a spike in the South.
But recent rises in many states appear to be resulting mainly from the economic slowdown, officials and experts say, as well as inflation in prices of basic goods that leave more families feeling pinched. Citing expected growth in unemployment, the Congressional Budget Office this month projected a continued increase in the monthly number of recipients in the next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1 — to 28 million, up from 27.8 million in 2008, and 26.5 million in 2007.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/us/31foodstamps.html?hp
Well,
I'm off to another week of insanity! But before I go, I just had to share with you the best thing.
Bush tossed out the first pitch and the boos are louder than the cheers. (Just looking at his arrogant face and knowing he's pretending just like he did with his "mission accomplished" crap just makes me wanna puke.)
http://thinkprogress.org/#21030
Man, would I like to have hit a screaming line drive up the middle...
I'm surprised his handlers let him leave the W.H.
With 28% approval ratings, I bet ya that he wishes it was the 1990's again!
Hud Secretary just resigned.
He should be arrested.
Or safe territory, like Southern California, where people in dead-end jobs and half-demolished Civics still love him.
Christy
The ENTIRE administration must be arrested, not just HUD Secretary.
Rossi,
Check messenger.
Agree Ally.
Arrested, tried, and HANGED.
Christy
I thought you were against the death penalty? :)
I was. I have decided to make exceptions in the case of High TREASON.
So are you saying you were against the death penalty before you were for it?
Flop flipper!
Sorry, thinking like a campaign hack.
No, I am saying I was ALL FOR the death penalty. Until I was against it.
Now I believe the only people I could pull the trigger or lever on myself is a TRAITOR.
Do you know how much you can learn from a killer? Seriously, catch them, put them in a little cage. Throw peanuts at them. Eventually, you will learn something to prevent other killers from striking.
WTF can you learn from a TRAITOR? What can you do to them to keep the damage from spreading?
There is only one way to deal with a TRAITOR.
No matter what I am for or against not even I can deny they should be hanged. In front of everybody. Just in case anyone else is thinking of betraying our own for greed.
I am against the death penalty, because I am not a killer.But I never pretended I could not be a killer in the right situation. Unlike them, I would never kill for greed or glory.
Insane killers babbling bullsh*t and peeing on themselves were never as dangerous or lethal as murderers in $4,000 suits.
Christy said
Insane killers babbling bullsh*t and peeing on themselves were never as dangerous or lethal as murderers in $4,000 suits.
....
I vote that we can no longer opt out of International Criminal Court. Let the outcome be decided at a World Tribunal, such as at The Hague.
No escaping to ranches in Paraguay either.
Bush wears Oxxford suits, which cost up to $14,000 each.
He orders them six at a time.
Here is where to by the Traitor Suits:
http://www.directclothiers.com/SearchResults.asp
discounted on eBay
http://clothing.search.ebay.com/oxxford_Suits_W0QQsacatZ3001
Be a Traitor .. or just Look Like One
As far as I am concerned NMP, I never did 'opt out' of the World Court.
And niether did you. Or Monkey, Or Rossi, Or Karen or Sparrow or any of us. We have an duty to uphold it, knowing his opting out was an act of treachery.
As a world citizen who believes in LAW, I believe it was again an act of HIGH TREASON for him to 'opt out' of the very obligation that would see him hanged in the end.
Christy
I do make exceptions in case of high treason, as you do.
I also make exceptions for Republican sodomites, because their Biblical law demands death. This means Mann Coulter.
When the US opted out of World Court, I wondered what was planned or to be hidden.
So we are developing principles:
1. You have to follow the law you sign up for. If you don't, you are hypocritical, especially if you judge others according to the law you break, and it's a moral law.
2. If you opt out of a law you may be intending to break it. If you do, it does not mean you are not a criminal because you thought the law didn't pertain to you.
Moral standards pertaining to high figures are not more lenient than for us mere mortals. If anything, these people should be setting a moral example. Moral as in matters pertaining to killing should supercede "moral" as in who one has sex with or what one puts into one's body, which is so much more trivial and lower-ranking.
NMP
Isn't eBay wonderful (even though its CEO is a Schwarzenegger Republican)?
You can also look like the original Ally McRepuke (Calista Flockhart) through eBay...
Remember after 9/11? Rightwingers made lists of "traitors" and "patriots." A "traitor" was anyone who wasn't wildly waving a flag or anyone who was asking questions.
Wikipedia defines TRAITOR the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or nation.
That is the legal definition. The crime is treason.
It's not for asking legitimite questions.
It goes on:
Murder is now generally considered the worst of crimes, but in the past, treason was thought of as worse. In English law high treason was punishable by being hanged, drawn and quartered (men) or burnt at the stake (women), the only crime which attracted those penalties (until the Treason Act 1814). The penalty was used by later monarchs against people who could reasonably be called traitors, although most modern jurists would call it excessive. Many of them would now just be considered dissidents.
(Sounds like we are not the first to have the monarchs try to turn the tables and escape from consequences of their acts.)
I am against capital punishment but as for war criminals in high positions who can be responsible for many deaths, I do agree they should be covered under a Court that supercedes their own power.
Otherwise, they are trying themselves and will let themselves off easy. Imagine any "Justice" being done by the Supreme Court toward those running our country! They own them - that's like the Sheriff being asked to arrest himself.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush had enough to worry about -- like not flubbing the first pitch in front of a crowd that might not exactly be his biggest fans anyway.
So before the game, when a couple of Atlanta Braves gave him a team jersey and suggested he wear it to throw out the first pitch at Nationals Park, Bush laughed. Uh, no thanks, guys. Might as well put on a sign that says "Boo me."
"I'm not going to give them any excuses," Bush said of the 40,000-plus people gathered for the opening of Washington's gleaming baseball stadium.
Over in the Nationals' swank clubhouse, general manager Jim Bowden told the president he expected him to throw a strike. More pressure.
"Shhh," Bush responded. "Keep expectations low."
By the time Bush emerged onto the baseball field, he had ditched the gray sports coat and popped out of the home dugout in a red Nationals jacket. He was greeted by plenty of loud jeers, but also determined cheers, as if the fans in both camps were trying to outduel each other.
The president didn't dawdle on the pitcher's mound. He quickly released the ceremonial first pitch high and to the third-base side of the plate, where Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta caught it with ease.
It wasn't surprising that Bush's pitch went high. People tend to have long memories when the ball is bounced to home plate. So Bush made time this week to hurl some practice pitches in his backyard -- the South Lawn of the White House. He took some private throws just before his prime-time toss Sunday.
"I didn't want to bounce it, that's for certain," Bush later told ESPN announcers Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. "That's why I came in with high heat."
The president stayed until the fifth inning, or about 9:45 p.m. That's a late night for him. He was there long enough to see the ballpark's first strikeout, hit, run and homer, as well as the laughable race between those presidents with the giant heads.
more on...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/03/30/bush.first.pitch.ap/index.html?eref=T1
haha He wasn't being booed because of the quality of his pitching.
NMP
Madame Defarge once gave me a right-wing website that detailed who were the "whiners" (traitors) and who were the "righties" in the entertainment world.
I think it's at www.celiberal.com.
Britney Spears and Gloria Estefan qualified as righties, I remember.
Thousands of police officers who refused to fight Sadr are given the sack
Interior Minister Jawad Boulani has ordered the dismissal of thousands of police members and officers who allegedly refused orders to take part in the fight against the militiamen of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2008-03-31/kurd.htm
An innocent man loses 5 years of his life at Guantanamo Bay
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/31/an-innocent-man-loses-5-years-of-his-life-at-guantanamo-bay/
Trivia for the ladies.
Did you see Obama totally sucks at bowling?
Maybe it was the size 13 1/2 shoes he was wearing.
Damn! That is a big foot.
How tall is he?
Christy
Didn't know that. Interesting to know - since I went bowling yesterday myself.
BTW, I did 178. I normally average 115.
Obama bowled a 37.
Wow, that is so crappy, it is hard not to sneer at it.
Hmmm, I wear a size 13, am six foot four AND I can bowl! Could I be president?
Spare me.
Newsday.com
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.
Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as "graphic anti-war images." Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words "Dead" and "Enough." The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.
Police said in a release last night that Zirkel was handing out anti-war pamphlets to mallgoers and that mall security told him to stop and turn his shirt inside out. Zirkel refused to turn his shirt inside out and wouldn't leave, police said. Security placed him on "civilian arrest" and called police. When police arrived, Zirkel passively resisted attempts to bring him to a police car, the release said.
But Zirkel said he was sitting in the food court drinking coffee with his wife Marie, 77, and several others when police and mall security officers approached and demanded they remove their anti-war T-shirts. The others complied, but Zirkel said he refused, and when he wouldn't stand up to be removed and arrested, authorities brought over a wheelchair. "They forcibly picked me up and put me in the wheelchair," said Zirkel, a deacon at one of the poorest Catholic parishes on Long Island, where a devastating fire recently destroyed the rectory and storage areas.
Zirkel was charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest. He was released on bail. A spokeswoman for mall owner Simon Property Group did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Generally speaking, a mall has the right to control what happens on its property, said John McEntee, a Uniondale commercial litigation lawyer. Activists with dueling opinions had gathered to support and oppose America's five-year campaign.
As Zirkel was being wheeled to the police car, the crowd chanted "We shall not be moved!" Moments later, they moved; police and mall security had ordered them off the property. Many joined a larger anti-war crowd assembled by the mall's entrance, off mall property, on Veterans Memorial Highway. They were complemented nearby by protesters saying the Iraq war is vital for security.
Silenced Majority Portal
Obama doesn't suck - bowling sucks LOL
monkey
I will be happy to challenge you sometime.
BTW, happy birthday.
As far as I am concerned NMP, I never did 'opt out' of the World Court.
And niether did you. Or Monkey, Or Rossi, Or Karen or Sparrow or any of us. We have an duty to uphold it, knowing his opting out was an act of treachery.
Amen
Holy crap. Look!
Willie Ray was a 69-year-old African-American City Council member from Texarkana who wanted her granddaughter, Jamillah Johnson, to learn about civil rights and voting during the 2004 presidential election. The pair helped homebound seniors citizens get absentee ballots, and once they were filled out, put them in the mail.
Fort Worth's Gloria Meeks, 69, was a church-going, community activist who proudly ran a phone bank and helped homebound elderly people like Parthenia McDonald, 79, to vote by mail. McDonald, whose mailbox was two blocks away from her home (she recently died), called Meeks "an angel" for helping her, a friend of both women said.
And until he recently moved out of state, Walter Hinojosa, a retired school teacher and labor organizer from Austin, was another Democratic Party volunteer who helped elderly and disabled people vote by getting them absentee ballots and mailing them.
Today, Ray and Johnson have criminal records for breaking Texas election law and faced travel restrictions during a six-month probation. Gloria Meeks is in a nursing home after having a stroke, prompted in part, her friends say, by state police who investigated her -- including spying on Meeks while she bathed -- and then questioned her about helping McDonald and others to vote. Hinojosa, meanwhile, has left Texas.
Their crime: not signing their name, address and signature on the back of the ballots they mailed for their senior neighbors, and carrying envelopes containing those ballots to the mailbox. Since 2005, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, has been prosecuting Democratic Party activists, almost all African-Americans and Latinos, as part of an effort to eradicate what he said was an "epidemic" of voter fraud in Texas.
"These guilty pleas demonstrate precisely why it is so important to uphold the integrity of our election process in the state," Abbott said, speaking of Ray and Johnson's conviction in a press release. "We will visit justice upon any who ignore the fact that we have election laws in Texas and they apply to everyone."
But Texas Democrats, such as Lisa Turner of the Lone Star Project, onestarproject.net a political action committee that first exposed Abbott's prosecutions, issued reports on it and maintains a staff to fight voter suppression in the state, said Abbott's goal is not merely to prosecute little old ladies. Rather, Turner said it was to send a message to Texas' minority communities, which lean Democratic, by sowing fears among the elderly about voting by mail.
"It's the equivalent if when a gang moves into a neighborhood and spray paints their graffiti or their marker; it's not to deface one building. It is to send a message," Turner said. "You have agents of the attorney general, walking through a neighborhood, walking past three crack houses, to go talk to a voter. Think about that. What does that say their priorities are? It's about holding onto the levers of power."
Attorney General Abbott and the election laws that he has used to bring the prosecutions have been challenged in federal court under a suit that is slated to go to trial this spring. In September 2006, Gerry Hebert, a former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Voting Section -- which oversees the nation's voting rights laws -- and now executive director of the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center, filed a suit challenging the Texas attorney general, secretary of state and a 2003 Texas law that criminalized practices often used to help the elderly to vote by mail.
Abbott's office would not comment on the suit, but Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who works for Abbott, issued a statement in September 2006 saying it "has no basis in law" and "the plaintiffs are combination of political operatives and individual criminals who have already pleaded guilty to voter fraud."
Meanwhile, Texas' attorney general has continued to prosecute middle-aged and elderly political volunteers under a law his office says stops people from impersonating voters and taking advantage of seniors by falsifying ballots. The accused are almost all African-American and Latino and likely Democrats.
In February 2008, Abbott indicted four Duval County residents, Lydia Molina, 70, Maria Soriano, 71, Elva Lazo, 62, Maria Trigo, 55, for allegedly delivering "mail-in ballot applications to numerous residents in Duval County, many of whom were ineligible to vote by mail," his press release said. Under Texas law, only the disabled, people 65 or older, or people expecting to be out of state on Election Day can vote absentee. The accused checked a box saying voters were disabled "when they were not," he said, referring to their actions in the 2006 election.
"The voter registrar's office then mailed the actual ballots to the residents," Abbott's release said. "Once the ballots were completed by the residents, the defendants allegedly retrieved these and mailed them to the registrar to be counted without identifying themselves on the carrier envelope." They face six months and a $2,000 fine.
Only likely Democrats prosecuted
Despite Abbott's repeated declarations nobody is above Texas law, he has prosecuted no Republicans.
"What is especially troubling is that while Greg Abbott's office has prosecuted minority seniors for simply mailing ballots, he has not prosecuted anyone on the other side of the aisle for what appear to be open and shut cases of real voter fraud," Hebert told Texas House Elections Committee,
Conts.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/80589/
Just got our local "Iraq Town Halls" notification.
Do 80 Year Old Men Have Freedom of Speech?
Unfrikingbelievable, and they call this democracy, come live in America the land of the free, just as long as you don't speak out against Georgie and his gang of murderous thugs, Freedom of speech is now a crime, but killing over 1 million innocent Iraqi men, women, and children and 4011 U.S. Military Personnel, is just dandy with this White House.
is just fine.
Iran Brokers Call for Ceasefire;
Fact Or Fiction?
Bush reduced to Irrelevancy in Iraq;
Fighting Continues
By Juan Cole
A parliamentary delegation from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's own coalition (mainly now the Da`wa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq) defied him by going off to the holy seminary city of Qom in Iran and negotiating directly with Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr and with the leader of the Quds Brigades of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Brig. Gen. Qasim Sulaymani.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19647.htm
Iraq In The Balance
"The Iranians Are Killing Americans" Senator Lindsey Graham By Scott Horton
The U.S.-supported venture has probably actually increased Iranian government influence in Iraq, including inside the government. Tehran sees al-Maliki as a transitional figure, not likely to last long. It is intent on building a solid and broad base of support within the Iraqi Shi’a community, and it seems to be achieving its objectives.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19647.htm
"Fact Or Fiction?
Bush reduced to Irrelevancy in Iraq"
I would say..TRUE! 'Irrelevancy' is a good word for it.
Unfortunately, he is still, unbelievably and incomprehensibly, RELEVANT, in that NOTHING will change as long as he remains in his current position.
Dumbo the Relevant.
Kangaroo
Thanks for that image! Brilliant mental association - I juxtaposed it with the 80 year old American antiwar protester and the 80 year old Pakistani guy threatened with a life sentence for blasphemy. Both sound to me like they're getting taken advantage of because of their age, because people don't want to hear their message.
As for the Lame Duck, I don't see what he can do in Iraq because the simplest boiling-down of the situation is that there is a family feud in the south between the Badr and Sadr families. The Iranians had to step in to call off the dogs!
The Lame Duck is headed to Eastern Europe to bribe someone into an air base or two, I think.
Apparently Lindsey Graham doesn't understand about Persians and Arabs either. He needs to learn history before meddling.
I mean can you imagine if some advanced civilization from another planet had come to America and tried to intervene between the Hatfields and McCoys?!
Except in this case, the Hatfields and McCoys are all Shiites, and the border between Iran & Iraq is meaningless. That's why Saddam kept the border sealed. He had 25 controlled points of access and we opened up all but two. Source: My Congressman (but bad things are said about him by those who do not believe in peace.)
NMP
It's W's favorite Eastern European puppet, Poland, that'll get something out of him.
Given the rampant prejudice there, that's one European country I will never set foot in.
John,
My mom was a delegate in Dallas this past weekend. She arrived at 7AM and didn't get to leave until 8PM. She said that it appeared the Clinton delegates were trying to drag things out so long that people would have to leave. She thought they challenged about 3,000 delegates and each of them had to go through the credentialing committee.
One of the Clinton delegates from her group challenged the validity of entire precincts. One of the precincts she challenged was almost entirely African American. Towards the end, after this group was credentialed they came by and shook their fists at the Clinton delegate and chanted "we're still here" in her face. My mom said it was a little tense.
She also said that it was sad to see all of the elderly there having to sit in stadium seats for 13 hours. She didn't know of anyone leaving without an alternate to replace them though. A very pregnant woman in her group had to lie on the concrete floor at times.
I don't know why this didn't make bigger news. She said it was obvious to everyone there what was going on and she thought Clinton had made many enemies from inside the democratic party that day.
Lisa
Poulsbo, WA
http://www.americablog.com/2008/03/say-anything-do-anything-texas-edition.html
Bush: U.S. supports Ukraine's bid to join NATO
In Kiev, he declares Russia won’t have a say at alliance meeting next week
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - President Bush said Tuesday he will work "as hard as I can" to help Ukraine join NATO and declared that Russia will not be able to veto former Soviet states joining the transatlantic military alliance.
"Your nation has made a bold decision and the United States strongly supports your request," Bush told Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko after talks at the Presidential Secretariat here.
Bush praised Ukraine's democratic and military reforms, and noted that Ukraine "is the only non-NATO nation supporting every NATO mission."
Ukraine has sent troops to Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq. He also portrayed the decision as one that is "in the interests of our organization."
The president's brief visit to Kiev was meant to be a show of support for the country's NATO ambitions ahead of the alliance's summit later this week in Bucharest, Romania.
Ukraine is hoping NATO members will vote to give it a so-called membership action plan, which outlines what a country needs to do to join and is a precursor to a membership invitation. Georgia also wants the same treatment.
"In Bucharest this week, I will continue to make America's position clear: we support MAP for Ukraine and Georgia," Bush said. "My stop here should be a clear signal to everybody that I mean what I say: It's in our interest for Ukraine to join."
Moscow's opposition
But among the biggest obstacles in Ukraine's path to NATO membership is Russia. With nine former Soviet bloc countries already members, NATO countries abut some of Russia's borders and Moscow fiercely opposes further eastward expansion of the alliance that it denounces as a Cold War relic.
As a result, Germany and France have spoken out against putting Ukraine on the list just yet. They fear upsetting already strained ties with Russia, which is a major supplier of energy to Europe.
But Bush said Moscow should not — and would not — have the last word.
more on...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23894165/
Good morning!
Another hectic day in my life. But I wanted to wish monkey a very happy birthday! (no kidding!)
Happy Birthday Monkey!
Many More.
Thanks to the best peeps I've never met ;-)
Am I not the perfect poster boy for April Fools Day!?!?
43 today, which kinda bums me out since Dubya is often referred to as 43 (among other things). But enough about Dill Weed, let's get the tunes crankin, the Mimosa's flowin', and get this pawtee stawted!
Next stop, Fo-tee Fo!
Happy Birthday Monkey!
"Man is a noisome bacillus whom Our Heavenly Father created because he was disappointed in the monkey".
"Man was made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired".
"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to".
"Name the greatest of all inventors. Accidents"
- Mark Twain
http://workinghumor.com/quotes/mark_twain.shtml
Harman: women in military ‘more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.’
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/31/harman-military-rape/
"Name the greatest of all inventors. Accidents"
Amen Brother!
monkey
Ukraine is another nation, along with Poland, that W loves, because of its Slavic, Orthodox homophobia and misogyny.
And happy birthday (again). :)
USA 2008: The Great Depression
Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive – a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html
On International Women's Day in 2004, nearly a year after the invasion of Iraq, George Bush, the US President, addressed 250 women from around the world who had gathered at the White House. "The advance of women's rights and the advance of liberty are ultimately inseparable," he said. Supported by his wife Laura, who herself hailed the administration's success in achieving greater rights for Afghan women, the president claimed that "the advance of freedom in the greater Middle East has given new rights and new hopes to women there."
Advance. New rights. New hopes. Stirring stuff, but totally empty claims. In fact, Iraq's women have become the biggest losers in the post-invasion disaster. While men have borne the brunt in terms of direct armed violence, women have been particularly hard-hit by poverty, malnutrition, lack of health services and a crumbling infrastructure, not least chronic power cuts which in some areas of Iraq see electricity only available for two hours a day.
More than 70 percent of the four million people forced out of their homes in the past five years in Iraq have been women and children. Many have found temporary shelter with relatives who share their limited space, food and supplies. But this, according to the UN refugee agency, has created "rising tension between families over scarce resources." Many displaced women and children find themselves in unsanitary and overcrowded public buildings under constant threat of eviction.
Meanwhile, rampant political violence has also engulfed women in Iraq. Islamist militias with links to political parties in government and insurgent groups opposing both the government and the occupation have particularly targeted Iraqi women and girls. A new Islamist puritanism is seeing women and girls being violently pressured to conform to rigid dress codes. Personal movement and social behaviour are being "regulated," with acid attacks (deliberately designed to disfigure "transgressive" women's faces), just one of the sanctions of the new moral guardians of post-Saddam Iraq.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80609/
Iraqi casualties at highest level since August
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2423186320080401
Watch this clip
Jon Stewart Exposes Bush’s “Surge” Doublespeak
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/01/jon-stewart-exposes-bushs-surge-doublespeak/
Rep. Artur Davis says Siegelman should not testify on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON - Rep. Artur Davis said Monday that Don Siegelman should not testify before Congress because it could endanger the former governor's criminal defense and distract the committee from its broader investigation of political influence in the U.S. Justice Department.
Davis, a Birmingham Democrat and leading Siegelman ally, announced his reservations about the testimony in a detailed letter to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
Davis said he feared Republicans would use the opportunity to discredit Siegelman; that his statements could be used against him; and that the committee would be overstepping its mission of oversight.
"Most importantly, we will lose the high ground that maintains that the integrity of the criminal justice system is more important than an individual defendant's guilt or innocence," Davis wrote.
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/120703774595520.xml&coll=2
Isn't that convienant Mr. Davis?
He acts like we don't understand republicans in Alabama could NOT have gotten away with this unless some democrats in Alabama were also on board.
Happy Birthday Monkey from Down Under, have a ball.
Happy Birthday, Monkey! We're the same young age!
Married troops can live together in Iraq
AP IMPACT: in Historic Change, Army Lets Husband-And-Wife Soldiers Live Together in Iraq
BRADLEY BROOKS and RUSS BYNUM
AP News
Mar 31, 2008 18:13 EST
When American soldiers get off duty in Iraq, the men usually return to their quarters, the women to theirs. But Staff Sgt. Marvin Frazier gets to go back to a small trailer with two pushed-together single beds that he shares with his wife.
In a historic but little-noticed change in policy, the Army is allowing scores of husband-and-wife soldiers to live and sleep together in the war zone — a move aimed at preserving marriages, boosting morale and perhaps bolstering re-enlistment rates at a time when the military is struggling to fill its ranks five years into the fighting.
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=109235
[Name redacted],
I agree that the war was a great strategic mistake. The way I see it, Saddam Hussein was a secular leader and therefore a huge stumbling block to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. Yes, he was an evil person and he was our enemy (since Gulf War I) but he was also an enemy of Bin Laden and the Shia extremists etc. If he did have WMDs, he would have used them for regional influence. He never would have given them up to terrorists or risked provoking the US by using them against us. Now, with Saddam gone we have a vaccum that can only be filled by Shia extremists who are more of a terrorist threat than Saddam.
So I agree that coming here was a big mistake for those reasons and others. As far as things on the ground, the outlook isn't much better. In my opinion, what everyone fails to realize is that this is not a counterinsurgency. If we wanted to stay in Iraq, then it would be a counterinsurgency. But it is clear that our goal is to turn over power and pull out. So, in building our strategic endstate, it's pointless to set goals that relate to our presence in Iraq. If the "insurgency" is a function of our being there, then it is not an insurgency in terms of our endstate. For example, if one of our goals is to stop IED attacks on US forces, that is pointless. When we leave, there will be no more IED attacks on us forces. So our endstate needs to be different. We need to ask "if we left tomorrow, what would happen in Iraq?" and from there, we need to determine which of those anticipated results are unacceptable to us. Then we must aim our efforts on making sure those unacceptable results do not occur.
When I look at the problem that way, it becomes almost impossible to find a purpose in what we do. Regardless of what we do, the Shia are going to take control. They have completely infiltrated all the security forces. The only kind of leader who could keep them in check was a tyrant like Saddam. And when the Shia take control, as soon as we leave, they are going to be as brutal as they like against the Sunni and there will be little we can do about it. That is what will happen whether we leave tomorrow or in ten years. As far as the foreign fighters, they will leave Iraq when we do. So what are we trying to accomplish here? Train the Iraqi forces? History shows that training forces in the Middle East can backfire. Any training we offer these people will find its way to our terrorist enemies.
Things are heating up as well. The Shia are getting more aggressive. We lost a man the other day and another was seriously wounded a week or so later. We're facing a high risk with very little potential payoff. We are able to make a difference at the local level. Some of the people are very kind and appreciate our help. That is the only positive thing I can see coming out of this.
Very Respectfully
Junior Officer XXXX
http://toohotfortnr.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-it-have-to-be-like-this-mama-said.html