Young Democrats Election Tonight
If you are a member of the Young Democrats of Allegheny County then you should make certain to show up at The Deja Vu Lounge located at 2106 Penn Avenue in the strip tonight at 6:30 PM to participate in the election of a new executive board.
Scott McClellan gets asked about the Downing St Memo
The rest of the cartoon along with a bunch of links to information is available at Zencomix
In Memoriam
Join in a minute of silence at 3:00 p.m. local time.
If you are driving, turn on your lights.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, the holiday in which American’s honor the lives of those who died in service to this great nation. Americans have always been a people who fought for what they wanted, often times justly and others, well, not so much. As a result there are multitudes of men and women whose lives were cut brutally and violently short in order that we could arrive where we are today, at the apex of civilization as we know it. Now I am aware that that statement may sound arrogant to some but it is my belief that, even with all of it’s short comings, the United States of America holds a unique position in the history of humanity as a guiding beacon for the people of the world to look upon.
There is no other nation that is as wealthy in mind, body and spirit as the U.S. The great people of this nation have the ability to exercise their free will however they wish which can not be said for any other nation in existence today. Of course that freedom comes with ultimate responsibility for our actions. It is my belief that as a population we are still immature in this regard, too often willing to blame others for our misdeeds or lack of actions. Understand that those we honor tomorrow fought and died so that we could enjoy this position, and all they asked in return is that we fully respect and appreciate the rights and freedoms they deliver to us.
This is no time to pick fights with people over differences of opinion, instead it is a time to reflect upon the responsibility we hold as citizens of this country. These men and women gave their lives, the least we can do is honor them by not taking advantage of our wealth and comfortable position. While you enjoy time with your families this holiday I ask that you take a moment to reflect upon the lives of all those who died so that you could enjoy your freedom. I apologize if this list is incomplete but it is the best compilation I could find of U.S. war casualties throughout our history (courtesy of Wikipedia).
| War or Conflict | KIA | Total Dead | Wounded |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Revolutionary War | 6,824 | c. 25,000 | 8,445 |
| Quasi-War | 20 | 20 | 42 |
| Barbary Wars | 35 | 35 | 64 |
| Other 19th century actions against pirates | 10 | 10 | 21 |
| War of 1812 | 2,260 | ? | 4,505 |
| Indian Wars (1817-1898) | 1,000+ | ? | ? |
| Mexican-American War | 1,733 | 13,283 | 4,152 |
| American Civil War | 214,938 | 558,052 | 412,175+ |
| Korean Expedition, 1871 (Shinmiyangyo) | 3 | 3 | 13 |
| Spanish-American War | 385 | 2,446 | 1,662 |
| Philippine-American War | 2,008 | 5,224 | 3,718 |
| Boxer Rebellion | 37 | 37 | 204 |
| Mexican Revolution 1914-1919 | 35+ | ? | 70+ |
| Occupation of Haiti 1915-1934 | 146 | ? | 26+ |
| World War I, see also: World War I casualties | 53,513 | 116,708 | 204,002 |
| 1918-1919 Northern Russian Expedition (Polar Bear Expedition) | 180* | 353 | ? |
| World War II, see also: World War II casualties | 292,131 | 407,316 | 671,846 |
| Korean War | 33,651 | 36,516** | 103,284 |
| Vietnam War | 47,369 | 58,167 | 153,303 |
| Iran Hostage Crisis (Operation Eagle Claw) | 0 | 8 | 5 |
| El Salvador Civil War | 9 | 20 | 35 |
| Beirut Deployment | 256 | 266 | 169 |
| Bombing of Libya (Operation El Dorado Canyon) | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Persian Gulf Escorts | 39 | 39 | 31 |
| Invasion of Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) | 18 | 19 | 119 |
| Invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause) | 23 | 40 | 324 |
| Persian Gulf War | 148 | 383 | 467 |
| Somalia, (Operation Restore Hope) | 29 | 43 | 153 |
| Haiti, (Operation Uphold Democracy) | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Bosnia | 1 | 12 | 6 |
| Kosovo, (Operation Allied Force) | 0 | 2 | ? |
| Afghanistan & the Philippines (Operation Enduring Freedom) | 55+ | 156 | 238+ |
| War in Iraq (invasion & occupation), see also: Invasion and occupation of Iraq casualties |
1,184 | 1,493*** | 11,069 |
| Haiti, (Operation Secure Tomorrow) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* Some reported KIA may have been held as POW’s[1] (http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/memoir/aef_cong.htm)
** Does not include nearly 8,000 listed as MIA.
***The actual count of dead as of 5/29/05 is 1657 (Courtesy of Iraq Coalition Casualties).
Stem Cell Research and George Bush’s Culture of Life
Stem Cell Research and George Bush’s Culture of Life.
Zencomix
John Bolton and The United Nations
John Bolton and The United Nations
Zencomix
The Note’s New News Quiz
The Note announced this morning that they have decided to do a weekly news quiz to fill the vacuum left by the disappearance of the New York Times’ quiz. What a perfect meme for lazy Friday bloggers such as me!
Here are the ground rules as laid out by The Note:
0-3 correct answers: You are our mothers.
4-6 correct answers: You are Warren Beatty.
7-8 correct answers: You are a Hill leadership aide who tells their staff (and their Member) to leave them alone from the moment The Note arrives each morning until the reading is done.
9 correct answers: You are Russell Hampton. LINK
10 correct answers: You are Mike Allen.
Answers will appear in Saturday’s Note.*
And here is the quiz (please provide your answers in the comments section):
1. What are three things that Scott McClellan would say from the podium these days that “disappoint” him?
2. Why do almost no newspapers today include the fact that Sen. Thune says he will vote against the Bolton nomination (broken by AP and confirmed by ABC News)?
3. If you were going to pick one American city in which to do a focus group on what voters think about the filibuster deal and its aftermath, what would that city be?
4. Who are Mary Lu Carnevale and Zachary Coile?
5. Which Republican leaders will see themselves in the mirror of today’s lead Wall Street Journal editorial attacking the (allegedly) do-nothing Congress?
6. What two adjectives best describe how Elisabeth Bumiller will feel about today’s Roland Betts quotes in the New York Post?
7. What African nation has a stamp “depicting an imaginary jam session featuring Elvis and a saxophone-toting (Bill) Clinton” that is on display at the Clinton library in Little Rock?
8. To which country did Sen. Daniel Inouye travel this week, causing him to miss the Bolton vote?
9. What strikes you as funny about this Liz Smith item: “Larry King has an all-star VIP lineup to mark his remarkable 20th anniversary. First, Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne . . . the former President George Walker Bush and his Barbara . . . after that former President Bill Clinton . . . then Dan Rather will appear in his first TV interview since he left the CBS anchor chair . . . after that comes Barbara Walters interviewing Larry on his own show! . . . and finally, the attorney Mark Geragos”?
10. What is the definition of a “Googling monkey”?
BONUS: Explain, in an essay, how the FEC ruling against Jesse Jackson and the Democratic Party and the Texas judge’s ruling against TRMPAC differ in content, context, and implication, and assess the relative media coverage of the two decisions.
Holocaust Survivor Says He’s Leaving The US
While I can not verify the validity of this story I feel it is worth republishing in its entirety if only for the effect of sparking debate. Give it a read and then let’s discuss in the comments section why such a story might ring true for so many Americans.
One of our neighbors is moving. I’ve been in this neighborhood for about six years now, but didn’t really know them very well at all – just waves and nods, mostly.So I heard the moving van pull up this morning. When I got home this evening I happened to spy my neighbor (he’s like 85 years old – I don’t know exactly, but he’s old, talks and moves very slowly) standing on the sidewalk next to the van. I walked over and shook his hand, and we started talking. I asked him where he was moving, and he said, “Back to Germany.”
I had been stationed in Germany for two years while in the military, so I lit up, and commented about how beautiful the country was, and inquired if he was going back because he missed it.
“No,” he answered me. “I’m going back because I’ve seen this before.” He then commenced to explain that when he was a kid, he watched with his family in fear as Hitler’s government committed atrocity after atrocity, and no one was willing to say anything. He said the news refused to question the government, and the ones who did were not in the newspaper business much longer. He said good neighbors, people he had known all his life, turned against his family and other Jews, grabbing on to the hate and superiority “as if they were starved for it” (his words).
He said he was too old to see it happen right in front of his eyes again, and too old to do anything about it, so he was taking his family back to Europe on Thursday where they would be safe from George W. Bush and his neocons. He seemed resolute, but troubled, nonetheless, as if being too young on one end and too old on the other to fight what he saw happening was wearing on him.
I gotta tell you – it was chilling. I let him talk, and the whole time, my gut was churning, like I had mutated butterflies in my stomach. When he was finished, he shook my hand, gripping it really hard, until his knuckles turned white and he was shaking. He looked me in the eyes, hard, and said, “I will pray for your family and your country.” He let go of my hand and hobbled away.
I have related this event to you in the hopes it will serve as a cautionary anecdote about the state of our Union, and to illustrate the path we Americans are being led down by a group of fanatics bent on global economic and military dominion. When a man who survived the fruits of fascism decides its time to leave THIS country because he’s seeing the same patterns that led to the Holocaust and other Nazi horrors beginning to form here, it is time for us to recognize the underlying evil inherent in the actions of those who claim they work for all Americans, and for all mankind. And it is incumbent upon all Americans, Red and Blue, Republican and Democrat, to stop them.
We’ve got no more ground to give!
Goose recently asked at what price has this filibuster deal come?
Well, Bush got three more judges who shouldn’t be approved, approved; and four or five more will soon follow. Sure, two other judges now, and two or three others soon, who shouldn’t be approved apparently won’t be approved; but that hardly qualifies as any sort of “advance” for progressive causes, let alone a “victory” for Democrats — particularly given the circumstances under which these concessions have been exacted: The threat by the GOP to cheat on the rules — having Cheney, as President of the Senate, rule incorrectly on a Point of Order that to change the rule on filibuster, as any rule of the Senate, would not require a two-thirds vote of the Senate — amounts to extortion. Negotiating with a blackmailer is not only nothing to brag about but is also an invitation to endless extortion in the future.
The “deal” just concluded by a handful of Senators on their own effectively commits in writing the Democratic Party as a whole to voluntarily give up the filibuster — the one and only real lever of federal power we have remaining — except under the most “extraordinary circumstances”.
I don’t seem to remember that phrase in the Constitution: The Senate shall give blanket approval to all Presidential appointees, except under the most extraordinary circumstances.
In Korea and Vietnam, the Congress effectively gave to the President its Constitutional powers to declare war; now it effectively gives up its check on Executive power over the Judicial branch.
And we Democrats are supposed to savor this “victory” because the Far Right is throwing a tantrum over not having gotten every single thing that it wanted.
I heard a Redneck comedian on the radio the other day making fun of a Left Wing couple’s kid throwing a tantrum; he joked how he would’ve gotten his butt whipped by his daddy if he would’ve acted up like that. He respected his daddy for that, and he — and his audience — disrespected the other folks for letting their brat get so out of control. We Democrats had better not expect to earn any respect — let alone regain any meaningful political power — if we continue to give ground: If we hadn’t already noticed, we’ve got no more ground to give!
It is one thing for your political opponent to take unfair advantage on its own — in full view of the American public, a majority of whom were decidedly opposed to just such action (the elimination of the filibuster) — it is quite another thing for you to emasculate yourself — likewise in full view of the American public, a majority of whom are undoubtedly even more convinced than ever that the Democratic Party cannot be entrusted with the security of our nation (“Heck, just like when Kerry was attacked by the Swift Boat Veterans and didn’t fight back, the Democrats can’t even defend themselves; how are they going to defend the whole country?” the conventional wisdom goes).
Of course, the filibuster “deal” pleads with the President to be more considerate and merciful in future judicial nominations. On exactly what evidence or precedent is that notion based? (“The Democrats are way too naive for their own good, let alone ours,” the conservatives and independents continue.)
Bush is expected to consult more with the Senate, presumably out of respect for its members — the vast majority of whom were not consulted about this “deal,” binding upon them all.
And lest we think this de facto coup by probably for the most part well-meaning “centrist” Senators — led by now Presidential front-runner John McCain (Name one Democrat who could beat him now. And don’t mention Hillary, even if she were going to run) — will be limited to this issue at hand: “Some who forged the deal expressed hope that the agreement would create momentum for compromise on other knotty issues, such as Social Security…”
Yes, let’s “open the door” on privatization “just a little bit” — what’s the harm in that? My God, are we actually complete “relativists”, as everyone on the Right from the Pope to the Shrub keeps harping? Do we have absolutely NO principles left? Is everything on the bargaining table? Are we going to just try to keep cutting our losses and never try to take a stand on anything? How the hell are we ever supposed to regain any power? It all depends on support from the public — not the Senate, not the President, not the Chief Justice, but John and Jane Q. Public — and that all begins and ends with R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
I thought that after one electoral DISASTER after another — particularly after having made accommodation after accommodation to the GOP on taxes, Iraq, etc. etc. — and after having made Howard Dean our Party leader that we were finally going to show some backbone and stand up for what we believe in, come what may. We may lose some battles that way; but in the end, we will gain respect and regain our rightful share of political power.
As President Clinton demonstrated time and again, compromise can be a virtue in politics; rarely does either side get all it wants. The policies of Mr. Bush are in large measure abhorrent precisely because they are almost uniformily polarizing and belligerent: It is he — the President, who sets the tone of the national and much of the international debate — whom history will condemn in no uncertain terms for most of the disharmony and aggression in the country and around the world in this most dangerous time.
However, that does not mean that giving in to blackmail in order to minimize injury in the short term is in any way, shape, or form a “victory” or is anything but an invitation to extortion ad nauseum, ultimately ending in disaster.
As Faust, Neville Chamberlain, and Anakin Skywalker found out the hard way, making a deal with the devil will cost you your soul.
Dirty Willy’s Make My Day
Bill Frist
Zencomix
Stem Cell Stupidity
Imagine this for a moment, you and your spouse have spent years trying to have a child but have had no luck. With the frustration mounting and fertility options dwindling you decide to speak to your doctor about in-vitro fertilization, a process whereby your doctor removes several eggs from your ovaries, fertilizes them in a test tube, then reimplants some or all of the resulting embryo’s into your womb. During this process it is highly likely that most if not all of the embryo’s will not survive but it is also possible that they all will – producing triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, etc. In the end, the question remains as to what to do with any remaining embryo’s you choose not to implant?
According to the Los Angeles Times, “the vast majority of them – 87% – were frozen in case the parents might need them, but the vast majority of that vast majority will never be needed or used.” But even if all of those embryo’s were eventually used, which is not the case, many of those created in the fertilization process are destroyed because of defects, die during implanting, or are damaged in the freezing process. In short, the process inherently causes the destruction of many embryos. You would think then that the Bush administration, whose position it is that any embryo is a life worth saving, would adamantly oppose in-vitro fertilization, right? Wrong.
The President has stated many times that in-vitro fertilization is a “pro-family” policy. Why then is he so opposed to using the left over embryo’s, the ones that will ultimately be destroyed anyway, for stem cell research? It makes absolutely no sense. On Tuesday the house passed a bill that would effectively allow the use of these left-over embryo’s, with the donating family’s permission, to be used in stem cell research. While it was not passed overwhelmingly it did carry the support of several Republican’s determined to find a middle ground in this debate. What was the President’s response to this?
Bush reacted bluntly to the House’s 238 to 194 vote, which fell far short of the two-thirds needed to override a veto. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said he has made it clear that he opposes “the use of federal moneys that end up destroying life.”
“The Congress has made its position clear, and I’ve made my position clear,” Bush said. “I will be vetoing the bill they send to me if it were to pass the United States Senate.”
Hmm. So it is ok to fund in-vitro fertilization, which caused the destruction of embryo’s, but it is not ok to fund stem cell research which will use those embryo’s to save lives? Man this fundamentalism thing is confusing.
Culture of Life?
Darfur
Coalition for Darfur
Zencomix
2008
Disaster Averted, But at What Cost?
In a scene reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis, moderate Republicans and pro-corporate Democrats came together at the eleventh hour last night to reach a compromise averting “nuclear option catastrophe” in the Senate. On the surface it would appear that the 14 Senators, seven Republicans and seven Democrats, have done the wise thing by throwing out partisan politics in favor of a compromise that will keep the minority-rights rules of the Senate in tact. But is the deal really all it is cracked up to be?
Immediately after the deal was struck the Democratic leadership proclaimed victory. It is undeniable that maintaining the ability of a minority party to filibuster is something that sets our Democracy apart from totalitarian rule. Had the radical right wing of the Republican party got their way it would have been tantamount to strict one party rule, which is simply intolerable in these United States of America. Unfortunately, in order to make the deal happen the seven Democrats agreed not to filibuster three of the five judicial nominees President Bush had returned to the Senate for a vote.
One of these nominees, Priscilla R. Owen, is simply a bad choice for the American people. Owen, who prior to her election was a extreme right-wing Federalist Society lawyer, began her judicial career by winning a seat as the most right wing of the ultra-conservative Texas Supreme Court with the help of her paid campaign consultant Karl Rove. Once on the court Owen was cited repeatedly by then Texas Supreme Court justice (and current Attorney General) Alberto Gonzales as attempting to rewrite law instead of interpret it. The National Council of Jewish Women, who opposes Owen’s nomination, said this about her;
In six different cases, she voted to deny a teenaged girl permission to forego parental notification prior to seeking an abortion. In one such case, she objected strenuously to the majority’s effort to expedite such a case, even though a timely decision meant the minor could undergo a simpler abortion procedure than if the decision were delayed. Her objections were cited by then-fellow conservative Texas Supreme Court justice Alberto Gonzales as “an unconscionable act of judicial activism.”
Even more alarming is her tendency to side with big business donors over individuals in cases that come before her. PHXnews has a great piece that breaks down her record that I will quote here;
THE CORPORATE CONNECTION: There has been a good deal of coverage of Owen’s anti-choice stance but her pro-business leanings may be as bad. In 2003, the Austin-American Statesman declared that Owen could “usually be counted upon in any important case that pitted an individual or group of individuals against business interests to side with business.” Furthermore, she had a questionably ethical tendency to take “campaign contributions from law firms and corporations and then, without recusing herself, [rule] in their favor when their cases came before her.” Owen’s rulings are considered so business-friendly and tainted that a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association once quipped, “In my more cynical moments, I suggest that, just as sports stadiums are now named after corporations, judicial seats are soon to follow. In that vein, I believe that Justice Owen could well fill the Exxon/Mobil or Wal-Mart seat on the Fifth Circuit.”THE ENRON AND HALLIBURTON CASES: Two notable past corporate-friendly cases ruled on by Owen involve very publicly known corporations: Halliburton and Enron. Both of which had donated to Owen’s judicial campaign. In the case of Sanchez v. Halliburton, a Halliburton field worker “won a $2.6 million verdict after the jury found that a company supervisor had framed him to test positive for cocaine.” After an appeals court ruling overturned the verdict, Sanchez tried to bring the case to the Texas Supreme Court. In the months during which the case was before the Court, Halliburton made its only campaign donations to Texas Supreme Court justices that year, giving thousands of dollars to three justices: Priscilla Owen, Nathan Hect, and Alberto Gonzales.
Result: the court declined to hear the case and the ruling overturning Sanchez’s case stood. In Enron Corp. v. Spring Independent School District, Owen “authored the opinion for a unanimous court [decision] that saved Enron $225,000 and resulted in lost revenue for the school district.” It’s called bribery.
In short, in their effort to avoid nuclear catastrophe, Senate moderates have agreed to give a lifetime appointment to this highly flawed Federalist Judge. Their actions may have saved the Senate from a rules change and kept the country from immediately becoming a one party state, but the compromise is dubious at best and poses a serious threat to the rights of individual U.S. citizens. Is that the best they could do?
Nuclear Option
“It’s a dessert topping!”
NO! It’s a floor wax!”
Administration Propaganda Hits Home
No one can forget the story, a high paid NFL player decides to drop the fame and fortune in order to don a US Army Ranger uniform and fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. The story Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan was the ultimate in tales of a great American Hero, or at least we thought. With Tillman Jersey’s flying high above NFL tailgater’s and his number emblazened on the helmets and shoulders of players throughout the league everyone wanted to celebrate the heroism that was Pat Tillman. Now I have to say, with the exception of the story of how he died all of this was true. Tillman did indeed leave the league to fight for the country he loved but that is not the end of it.
Like Jessica Lynch before him it, the incident which resulted in Tillman’s death was not what it seemed.
Tillman was killed in a barrage of gunfire from his own men, mistaken for the enemy as he got into position to defend them. Immediately, the Army kept the soldiers on the ground quiet and told Tillman’s family and the public that he was killed by enemy fire while storming a hill, barking orders to his fellow Rangers.
Great story but it was all bullshit. After the patriotic fervor calmed down the Army came clean with Tillman’s family about what really happened but the damage was done. The Army had used Pat Tillman as a propaganda tool to drum up patriotism and in the process completed a sham perpetrated on the American public and most importantly Tillman’s family.
“Pat had high ideals about the country; that’s why he did what he did,” Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son’s death. “The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.”
This is just one example of why it is crucial to the functioning of our Democracy that we have a free and unencumbered press. As a result of their focus on the bottom line coupled with a White House in information lock down mode there was no way the news media could even check this story. Instead they willingly gobbled up the Pentagon press releases and official quotes about what happened and echoed it throughout the media. Had even one mainstream media outlet spent the money to have reporters on the ground in Afghanistan (or outside of the Green Zone in Iraq for that matter) it would be much more difficult for official lies like this to make their way to the American public. But instead we are left with a careless, vain, capitulating media that is more concerned about access to power than to holding them accountable to the people whom they are there to serve.
Personally I find this kind of Pentagon myth making disgusting but I am even more disappointed in the fourth estate and their complete lack of concern for serving the public. You can call the media liberal if you like, I prefer to call them lazy, stenographers for power.
Read the Bills Act of 2005 (RTBA)
While I am certainly far from being a Libertarian I have to give credit where credit is due. The organization DownsizeDC has put together a draft piece of legislation that makes damn good sense. It is called the Read the Bills Act of 2005 (RTBA) and the purpose is fundamental:
We hold this truth to be self-evident, that those in Congress who vote on legislation they have not read, have not represented their constituents. They have misrepresented them.And since Congress has repeatedly committed “legislation without representation,” strong measures to prohibit these Congressional misrepresentations are both justified and required.
To this end we have created the “Read the Bills Act of 2005 (RTBA).” RTBA requires that . . .
- Each bill, and every amendment, must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and Senate.
- Every member of the House and Senate must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on.
- Every old law coming up for renewal under the sunset provisions must also be read according to the same rules that apply to new bills.
- Every bill to be voted on must be published on the Internet at least 7 days before a vote, and Congress must give public notice of the date when a vote will be held on that bill.
- Passage of a bill that does not abide by these provisions will render the measure null and void, and establish grounds for the law to be challenged in court.
- Congress cannot waive these requirements.
Read the full text of this draft legislation here and spread the word.
Hat tip to Steve.
Republicans Ready To Burn Down The Senate
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