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Nine Protestors Shot and Killed while Shouting, "Give Us Freedom"?Tiananmen
2007-09-28 04:48:00
When I read about the tens of thousands of peaceful protesters in Burma (no fair that the military junta overthrew a sovereign government, rules by force, and insists on calling the country "Maynmar"), I was afraid of bloodshed. Any government that did what they did would stop at nothing less. Protesters, many of whom are monks, shouted, "Give us freedom."Today, the government opened up their automatic rifles and fired into the crowd, killing nine and injuring others. The protest began August 19 in response to a much-loathed price hike. But when the Buddhist monks join in, the sheer numbers and the media coverage, must have severly threatened the junta.One of those killed today was a Japanese journalist and protests from their Asian neighbor have been mighty.The US has imposed additional economic sanctions and we bugged China to lay down the law with the country too. If anyone can have Burma's ear, it's the Chinese.Sadly, there's likely to be further violence at the hands of the ...
More About: Freedom , World Politics , Shot , Killed

Gender Dynamics: Are Women Being Held to Lower Standards?
2007-09-26 01:06:00
My esteemed and brilliant girlfriend, who is, by the way, quite analytical and logical in her predominant style of thinking, asked me what I thought about a piece by one of her writer girlfriends that addresses some issues of gender dynamics. To read the post--brace yourself--in a right-wing site called "Family Security Matters"--check here. I could not help but write a rejoinder. (There was nowhere on Family Security to comment, so I'm countering here.) What do you think?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Oh, Pamela Meister's post is reasonably balanced, all right, reasonably balanced right-wing pabulum. I take special exception to this paragraph: ?Men and women are different, both physically and temperamentally. While there are many exceptions to every rule, men tend generally to be stronger, more logical and analytical. They also tend to be more focused on goals and problem solving. They are also more combative and territorial. Women tend to be physically weaker, and often rely on their intuit...
More About: Standards , Dynamics , Issues , Gender

Castro Knows 9/11 Was an Inside Job
2007-09-24 19:24:00

More About: Inside , Inside Job

Six-Year-Old Wunderkind Budhia Singh, the "Marathon Tot"
2007-09-22 22:37:00
Meet Budhia Singh , child prodigy, athletic savant, atypical six-year-old boy. (Isn't he adorable?)Here's the upshot on Budhia, he: Has been running extreme distances since the age of fourHas completed several marathonsHas run races as long as 40 miles (65 kilometers)Grew up in a slum in eastern IndiaHas since achieved great fame in India and has appeared in television commercials, bringing wealth to his familyWas forced by the government to stop training at the age of five?due to medical concernsHis former coach withheld all water until after each race?meaning the boy could go as long as six or seven hours, sometimes in severe heat?with no water. The coach was later arrested on suspicion of torturing him.Controversy swirls around whether or not a child should be allowed to train to such an extent at such an age?is it safe? Will his future health suffer?In any event, he is now training for the Olympics, and has joined an athletic h...
More About: Marathon , Year , Mara

Bye-Bye OJ: One Less Murderer on the Streets
2007-09-19 19:42:00
Rewind to 1995. I was working in a fancy-schmancy resort. It was the day of The Verdict. The day the jurors in the highly publicized O.J. Simpson murder trial promised—after much delay and mistrial antics and outrageous difficulty putting together an "impartial" jury—to return a verdict. In marched the jurors. In my office we all dropped what we were doing and gathered around the radio . . . Not guilty. Huh? Not guilty. Waitjustaminutefercryingoutloud! Everyone in the country probably saw that aerial chase scene in which the white Ford Bronco sped down the highway. Everyone, from the families of the murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, to the average Jane and Joe on the street KNEW intuitively that O.J. had done the double-murder. Evidence and logic and any other sort of reasoning (plenty of DNA evidence) backed up the intuitive sense. And why would an innocent person flee with such bravado, anyway? So O.J. walked, maybe because the jurors just wante...
More About: Murderer , Streets , The Streets

If Mothers Ruled the World, There Wouldn't Be Any G**D***** Wars in the Fir
2007-09-17 17:03:00
Here's what Sally Field said last night in her Emmy acceptance speech: "If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any god-damned wars in the first place." Girlfriend, you speak the truth. Painful, but true. I've thought the same thing many times over the years since the invasion of Iraq. Many times. As a mom. "This belongs to all the mothers of the world?may they be seen and valued." Amen. May we be seen and valued. Thank you. The perfect mantra. May we be seen and valued.Backstage, she explained, "I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world. And I very, very seriously think that if mothers ruled the world we wouldn't be sending our children off to be slaughtered." Women did not start this war, although women fight and die in this war?both military women and civilians. Latest reports from the British firm ORB suggest that as many as 1,200,000 Iraqi civilians have been slaughtered since the 2003 unprovoked U.S. invasion of ...
More About: World , Wars , The World , Mothers , Rule

Over One Million Civilians Dead in War on Iraq?and Who Will Count Them?
2007-09-14 19:53:00
Who will do an actual body count of civilian casualties in the war on Iraq ? "Not I," said the U.S military, who are busy with the surge-o-mania, and with General Betray-us as their leader, who would expect the truth? Civilian casualties are to the military as errors are to fielders in baseball?it doesn?t look good on the record. ?Not I,? said the U.S. government, for to do so would be as good as admitting their policies had created the Iraquagmire and oh, possibly wasted the $450 Billion that could have, say, paid for the health care of every child who is a U.S. citizen, with enough left over to start talking about insurance for everyone who needs it. "Not I," said the Iraqi people, who are so besieged and distraught by their own losses?and who can blame them? Not easy to arrange for body counts when you are not sure when the electricity is coming back on or whether you are going to get cholera from drinking the tap water. "Not I," said any of the "36 nations who have t...
More About: Dead , Count , Million

Bush Jonesing to Attack Iran: Three-day Blitz Planned
2007-09-03 15:45:00
Massive air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran ; an attempt to annihilate the Iranians? military capability in three days; Bush claiming Iran puts Middle East ?under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust?; inventing a "proxy war against America in Iraq" rhetoric. Sounds like the manic drumbeat of the Cheney-Bush War Consortium warming up for its magnum opus before departure power--before the first primary election. Sure, attacking Afghanistan did not work. By everyone's account except Cheney-Bush-Petreus's, attacking Iraq did not work. But since when has that deterred the War Consortium? Despite all these in-your-face defeats and quagmires that scream out how American war policy as stinking to low heaven, nope, they are forging ahead with full-scale plans to detonate the entire Iran--a whole 'nother can of worms entirely--military apparatus. Iran. Different country from Iraq. Hmmm. I may not be a military expert, but let's do a public knowledge review of facts: Iran has its...
More About: Progressive Politics , Blitz , Attack

¡Adios, Gonzo! We Won't Miss You, Buddy
2007-08-27 17:54:00
Yeah! Gonzo has left the building, too. With the exhaust fumes from the white Bronco still in our noses from his guilty dash to the exits (only, yeah, the dash has taken a few months).It may take years to get to the bottom of Alberto Gonzales's reservoir of illegal deeds while in the Attorney General position. But, ah, let me feel a little joy for just a while. Hurray!
More About: Buddy , Miss , Miss You , Adio

Doesn't Take a Crystal Ball?Iraq's Puppet Government Broke Its Crown, and P
2007-08-23 22:25:00
Nouri Al-Maliki's faux-government in Iraq?really a bunch of cardboard cut-outs of Iraqi faces with their long strings pulled by the puppet masters in D.C.?are tumbling down, way on down into the abyss of anarchy and chaos. Meanwhile, swarthy and scary, well-supported young ne'er-do-well Shiite Cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr is slouching toward Bethlehem, er, Baghdad to replace him?as supreme leader or pseudo-leader, we have yet to see. Iraqi lawmakers have admitted Al-Maliki and his government were failing as early as this past April. Al-Sadr has been gathering forces and taking over bits at a time. Now he and his forces have seized some of the power grid. How long until they own the last shreds of the severely tattered country?On the other side of the strings, the Bush regime has even begun to use less-than-rose-colored glasses terminology to speak about the Al-Maliki impending disaster, saying they are "frustrated at the pace of progress" [ooooh], all while insisting the Iraqi people wi...
More About: Government , Crystal , Anti-War , Ball , Puppet

U.S. Taxpayers Fork out $1.6 Billion for Propaganda
2007-08-15 19:52:00
A new Government Accountability Office report just published reveals what we already know?that the Bush administration has been buying news. That is, federally funded public relations contracts to report "news" that spouts a predetermined agenda written by the Bush administration?all while the networks and other agencies that air the instanews disclose nothing about the source of the information. What we did not know was how enormous was the expense. And naturally, why the media, who may also be on the government payroll, are not making huge efforts to publicize this finding (or maybe we know that too).State-run media might be nothing out of the ordinary in a country such as, um, North Korea. But here in the U.S., we like to think our media at least retains a semblance of democracy and objectivity.What the Bush administration is doing is a violation of federal law and therefore fraudulent. (Hey, they're already culpable for the lives of thousands of service men and women, hundreds ...
More About: Propaganda , Anti-War , Progressive Politics , Prop , Billion

Bush's Brain Has Left the Building
2007-08-13 17:09:00
Was that a bobble-head doll or was it Karl Rove, dashing to the exit only after Rummy, Colin Powell, and everyone else with an ounce of self-preservation left in their evolutionary hoard of goodies? One-and-a-half years being interminable to those of us who do not profit from the Bush-oil cartel (Haliburton's certainly having a hay-ride), I've taken to creating my own fantasy-land, complete with warm, fuzzy thoughts about Edwards, Hillary, Obama, Hell-Anybody-for-President. Even—gasp—Ralph Nader (I still hate him for firmly placing Lil' Hitler Bush in the White House to begin with back in the Hanging Chad 2000 Election Fraud).Insiders swear that with Cheney jonesing to bomb Iran ( I know--how ugly and stoopid can you get? Let's just solidify the American role of most-hated in the world with a coup de grâce, huh?), and Rove on the other end of the ring urging, what? Caution?Meanwhile, Rove's been dodging subpoena bullets that are flying thick and furious from the U.S. Attor...
More About: Building , Left , Brain

Warrentless-and-Legal Flava Wiretapping?Now at a Snoop Shop Near You
2007-08-09 00:39:00
"The White House maintained Monday that the surveillance measure signed into law by President Bush over the weekend did not give the government any sweeping new powers to eavesdrop on Americans without court warrants." Thus speaketh The New York Times.Did anyone ever wonder that maybe the White House is right? The newly signed surveillance measure did not, in fact, give new powers to eavesdrop on Americans without court warrant because the eavesdropping powers already in place are powerful enough.How the framers of the U.S. Constitution would roll in their graves with this new?now fully sanctioned?level of the decimation of democracy by an uber-powerful Federal government that can pop on over and check out your stupid joke e-mail, your testosterphone calls ("I'm on my way home now." "OK, hon. See you in a few. Bye"), your heated conversations with your annoying neighbor?all at any time for no reason. Well, let's just say the words "suspected terrorism" as a reason and b'gosh, any...
More About: Legal , Shop , Snoop , Progressive Politics , Wiretapping

U.S. Drops Atom Bomb on Hiroshima, August 7, 1945: The Choice between Hell
2007-08-06 16:54:00
How unfortunate for the citizens of Hiroshima, Japan to know that their city is famous throughout the world only as the first city to be bombed with a nuclear bomb. The bombardier of the Enola Gay dropped ?Little Boy? on the unarmed city 62 years ago today, killing 70,000 civilians instantly. Not distinguishing among elderly, babies, women, or other innocent non-military.But that wasn't the end of it. 70,000 may have perished as a direct result, but 60,000 more died shortly thereafter from related injuries and illnesses. And as many as 200,000 total died within five years, from the bombing or the after-affects.Nagasaki became the only other city to be the victim of an atomic bomb a few days later, where Japanese report 75,000 more were killed instantly.One week after the first bombing, Japan surrendered, perhaps explaining the propaganda found in every American child's history textbook that the "atomic bombing was justified as a stimulus to end the war" If you could stand in the ...
More About: World Politics , Anti-War , Progressive Politics , World Cultures , Atom

Cleavage Club Clacks Clinton: Breasts Not Bombs Protest Bounces into Action
2007-07-26 16:22:00
How many peace rallies have you been to that had an actual impact? Made the media squirm?but they at least showed up? Maybe even became national news, all while raising consciousness about a scary and unpleasant cause? The radical anti-war group Breasts-Not-Bombs staged a peaceful protest outside the Hillary Clinton campaign launch party in San Francisco last Saturday. Clinton had been notably silent about her Yes vote for the invasion of Iraq (unlike Edwards, who said he was sorry), refusing to come out against the illegal war since then. Many of us want to forgive Clinton, but have a hard time doing so?can she really be our bosom buddy, as a fellow woman, after such a dodge?Meanwhile, what's wrong with a little breast in peace? Or even a big breast in peace, if you are doubly blessed? One of the leaders of Breasts-not-Bombs had this to say about the outrage against her form of nudey protest: ?Why does the public at large have such a definitive and immediate reaction to women's f...
More About: Women , Action , Issues , Progressive Politics , Protest

"Haircut Journalism" Smear Tactics Now Focus on Clinton's Cleavage
2007-07-23 20:33:00
The Washington Post stooped to a new low with Robin Givhan's July 20th article on Senator Hillary Clinton?s cleavage (?Hillary Clinton's Tentative Dip Into New Neckline Territory??I am not linking to it because I will not promote such an article). Would The Post run a similar article on George W. Bush's crotch bulge (or lack thereof), or perhaps on Dick Cheney's declining sex appeal that is inversely proportional to his expanding belly? The answer is an unequivocal ?no.? This kind of reporting may be worthy of The National Enquirer, but People Magazine would not even stoop so low. Was the editor asleep on this one or was there complicity with the Republican agenda to discredit a viable Democratic candidate and therefore a threat? Abominable and disgusting political tactics and bad journalism, this style of reporting is what noted blogger Majikthise calls "haircut journalism," after the smear campaign the mainstream media focused on John Edwards' pricey haircuts, published solel...
More About: Women , Journalism , Tactics , Issues , Progressive Politics

India's Elects First Female President
2007-07-23 18:44:00
Congratulations to the people of India for electing the first female President . In a landslide victory?a whopping 66%?Pratibha Pail, 72, was elected last Saturday. She defeated incumbent, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.India has also had a female Prime Minister?by far the more powerful position?the much-loved Indira Gandhi. (Indira was no relation to Mohandas Gandhi although he was a family friend). Indira Gandhi was the daughter of the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, of the Nehru collar. When Indira was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, it set off nationwide protests that could have spun into civil war.You may remember another female elected leader of the post-partitioned Indian state of Pakistan, the lovely Benazir Bhutto, who was elected not once but twice. In India, the position of President is mostly ceremonial, but has traditionally been one to represent and to help underprivileged in the country. Discrimination against women is still a powerful force in a country...
More About: Female , World Politics , World Cultures , Resident

If Bush Had His Way, We'd Attack Pakistan and Iran?We're Lucky He's Undergo
2007-07-20 21:28:00
Musharraf Going Down?"The Bush administration, after publicly demanding that Musharraf rein in militants linked to al Qaida, on Wednesday threatened to launch attacks into Pakistan i territory if it sees fit." Not the first time Pervez Musharraf has heard a threat of bombing extrude from the many mouths of the Bush regime. The Taliban in that area of Pakistan?North Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan?have given up on peace talks. 17 soldiers were killed in a recent clash there, and speculation has been rampant that Musharraf?whose fortunes have been waning of late with the reinstatement of his arch-enemy, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry?would send a forceful military crackdown to the region. If Paki military forces show up in the area, though, expect reprisals and a delicate situation to blow right up. Doesn't help that Bush's press-patsy, Tony Snow, shakes his skinny baboon fist in the air, droning on about U.S. military chutzpah. Meanwhile, the street cred is that Mushar...
More About: Iran , Anti-War , Progressive Politics

Happy Birthday to Me and Thanks, Mom!
2007-07-17 22:17:00
[From left to right, my daughter Jaclyn, my dad, my brother Louis, me, my mom]Every July 17, I give my sweet mama a call. She lives a long way away--in the mountains of North Carolina. On this day, I give her my thanks. "Thanks, Mom, for my birthday." When I got home from the grocery store and from yoga just now, she'd left a message for me, singing "Happy Birthday to You" in her sweet soprano, only slightly smudged by age.[Pausing to call Mom]Shucks, she's busy. Probably out partying with my dad and brother, which would mean, basically, they'd all drive to a favorite local restaurant (the more low-brow, the better) and have a little lunch. Mom is 85, Dad is 86--and still drives.I'm 45 today. Who-hoo. I am grateful to still have my parents.I'll call Mom again later. I vote that everyone make a habit of calling their mom to thank her on their birthday. After all, it's the moms who went through all the pain and struggle of our birthdays, and who know it the most intimately. It o...
More About: Personal , Happy Birthday , Hank

Harry Reid to Republicans: Give me Cloture? I'll Give You an All-nighter
2007-07-17 16:13:00
Cloture vs. All-nighter Withdraw troops no later than April, 2008Reduce the number of troops no later than 120 days after the passage of the amendment These are the two strictures of the Reed-Levin Troop Redeployment bill. In one corner are Republicans threatening a filibuster. In the other is Senate majority leader Give -'em-Hell Harry Reid , threatening cloture--which would allow up to 30 hours of debate--with no breaks. Meaning, you filibuster this puppy and you fixin' to pull an all-nighter.I remember an all-nighter in college where I downed an entire pound of peanut M-n-Ms. The feeling I got was somewhere between high and the color the the one M-n-M that's reputed to make you feel amorous. (That was the 80s, before the blue M-n-M hit the candy aisles.) When I hear all-nighter, I think green M-n-Ms. Ick. But the Senate has let us down, has let the world down, and an all-nighter is the lightest punishment I could imagine. Glad Harry Reid has the courage of the Wizard of O...
More About: Anti-War , Progressive Politics

Republican Sentator: The Bush Administration ?F?ed up? the War
2007-07-16 20:02:00
Comes as a big, fat, late, "duh" from most of us Progressive bloggers, but still shocking when a GOP big-wig senator admits this truth, using the F-word in all its infamy to describe the way the White House handled the War Against Iraq (WAG, effectively, as in Wag the Dog). The profanity-spewing senator in question? George Voinovich of Ohio. The context was that Voinovich was warning Karl The-Architect-of-the-Illegal-War Rove that Bush needed to be concerned about his legacy, ?unless he can come up with a plan that protects the troops and stabilizes the region.? Notable Republican senators have been noisily defecting from the president's side on the Iraq issue in recent weeks. But how many Republican senators does it take to screw in a lightbulb, er, draft a get-out-of-Iraq now plan? Stay tuned, for as Voinovich so ignominiously pointed out, "the fur is going to start to fly." (I would have said, "the fur is fixin' to fly" because it rolls off the tongue better and because I'm a ...
More About: Bush administration , Administration , The Bush

Firm Your Butt, Tone Your Thighs, Smooth That Cellulite--all with a Shoe?
2007-07-11 16:28:00
Earth Shoe s?Old School RenaissanceRemember Earth Shoes? I had a pair--as a girl--in the 70s. I was so proud of them, despite their clunky, over-built footbed. I wore them until they cracked in the middle. Did they improve my posture and reshape my butt? Dunno. I was a kid, so probably had good posture and butt shape then anyway. More likely it was the 'jolie-ladie" factor--the cute-ugly thing that made them so appealing to me. Like a squat, drooling English bulldog that makes you just want to tweaks it's widdle floppy cheeks, that's how I loved my Earth Shoes. Over the past few years, the Earth Shoes--originally designed by a Danish yoga master--have undergone a hip replacement and are now more cute than Herman Munsterish. (A little over $100.)Birkenstocks?Always in StyleThen there are Birkenstocks, and I don't mean just for granola-heads and academics, either. Can't deny that anyone can wear them: surfer dudettes, trustafarians, and grannies included. When I lived in Japan, I...
More About: Beauty , Cellulite , Fashion , Butt

Madonna Rocks Live Earth with Celtic-Gypsy-Spanish La Isla Bonita
2007-07-10 01:17:00
Love this performance by Madonna and company at Live Earth --great backdrop, killer twist to the old song, La Isla Bonita, with revved up, uber-spicy Gypsy singing and fiddle-work. The Goddess, pushing 50 though she may be, looks like a 20-something (kinda scary, isn't it?). If nothing else, you've gotta admit, she's a style-pioneer--always cutting edge in her taste. Her voice? Not much there, but as a former singer, I can tell you, it's close to impossible to do all that choreography onstage (I stayed in mostly one spot when I sang) and belt out any semblance of a good voice. Too much going on. All in all, I love this piece. It's so much fun to watch her, and I would so love her hand-me-down clothes (we're the same size, height and weight, amazingly--I just don't have her rock-hard physique).
More About: Music , Spanish

Bremelanotide: Hey, Baby, Come a Little Closer to Me
2007-06-28 23:54:00
Sure, I usually post articles on progressive politics. And yes, I do get burnt out with frustrations sometimes, and occasionally, yeah, I let off steam by writing about food or beauty or even [gasp] aphrodisiacs. Ever since I was a 10-year-old reading my big sister's copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask (at an early age, I had decided to be a sex therapist?instead, I moved to Japan and came back disillusioned with the whole Western-centricity of psycho-babble), I confess to a fascination with what substances can persuade people to, um, procreate. Used to be Spanish Fly was the only legit one. Now there's a whole pharmacopeia of prescription love potions.I had a blast covering the latest homegrown Viagra discovered in the UK recently?one that comes from the quotidian and cheap winter-flowering heather?and have also written extensively on, well, chocolate, just because it's fun. So, indulge me as I procrastinate covering the role of the U.S....
More About: Science , Baby , Nature , Aphrodisiac , Closer

John Edwards Supports Gay Pride: Mainstream Recognition for the LGBT Commun
2007-06-22 22:48:00
For the first time in U.S. history, a candidate for President is coming out of the closet to support the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community. Through his wife, anyway. It's been a long wait, my friends, and I am sorry this mainstream support could not have come sooner. But here it is: Elizabeth Edwards , spouse of presidential candidate, John Edwards , will be the keynote speaker at the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club breakfast (that is a mouthful!) this coming Sunday.I cannot wait to read the transcript of Elizabeth Edwards' speech, or to see a snippet of it. What will she say? She was a gifted attorney during her earlier career and is the author of Saving Graces, a memoir that covers the tragic death of their son, Wade, her own struggles with breast cancer that are still ongoing, her life as a military brat, and how she found strength from the support of her community throughout it all.During the John Edwards bid for the Whi...
More About: Gay Pride , Progressive Politics

Iraq is Number 2: Where Is Your Country on "The List"?
2007-06-19 22:19:00
1. Sudan2. Iraq 3. Somalia4. Zimbabwe5. Chad What comes to mind when you read this list? Countries in states of civil war, chaos, dire poverty (well, Iraq had some oil wealth, though Saddam Hussein hoarded it)? African nations (except for the oddball, Iraq)? The list goes on: 6. Cote d'Ivoire7. Democratic Republic of Congo8. Afghanistan9. Guinea10. Central African Republic11. Haiti12. Pakistan13. North Korea Ah-ha?countries with horrible governments, failed governments. How about Failed States?Every year, The Fund for Peace puts together the "Failed States Index," a detailed list that is the analysis of "hundreds of thousands of articles from global and regional sources." Each country gets a score based on 12 criteria, such as demographic pressures, refugees, severe economic decline, criminalization of the state, deterioration of public services, etc.The 2007 Failed States Index includes first world countries as well?all get ranking, and all get assigned a discrete color zone. ...
More About: Country , World Politics , List , Progressive Politics

California Considers Canine Eugenics Bill: Purebreds Only Need Apply
2007-06-14 19:13:00
Photo at left: Our mutts, Saiki and Woogie, sharing a little kiss. Both passed away within three months of each other (from old age) this past year. We miss them. Mutts RULE!If you haven't heard, the California State Assembly has already approved a bill, AB 1634, which mandates the forced sterilization by the age of four months of all but select breeds of dogs and cats. In order to have your designated purebred pet keep its reproductive organs intact, you would have to pay a hefty fee (one site said $500) and provide evidence of your noble intent to keep the breed pure. Known euphemistically as the "California Healthy Pets Act," this legislation ought to be known as the "California Nazi Eugenics Pet Act," to go into effect April 1, 2008, pending further objections (let's hope there are lots of further objections--the bill still needs approval from the State Senate).My entire life, my family and I have had only mutts for pets. Good ol' loveable, unpredictable, mixed-breed, hybridi...
More About: Pure , Bill , Cons

Vice-monster In Chief Has New Grandson: Is Baby-Cheney a Conflict of Intere
2007-05-24 16:34:00
Just when you thought only komodo dragons and now hammerhead sharks could have virgin births, VP (for Vile & Pugnacious) Dick Cheney and his heavily face-lifted wife, Lynne, are the proud grandparents of a fresh, eight-and-a-half pound baby boy from their daughter, Mary (whose namesake had that other famous virgin birth a coupla millennia ago). While this birth may not be parthenogenesis, it is disapprove-a-genesis from the senior Monster-in-chief. Did George W. Bush come before the child with hearty congratulations and flowers? Because for sure, he did not bring gold, frankincense, or myrrh, as he is definitely NOT a wise man.For the VP and Tight-Face Lynne, this new birth is their sixth grandchild, but their first to be conceived under a policy Dick may not approve of?openly, anyway. Yeah, he gives lip service to "I want everyone to be treated fairly with respect to their living choices," but he works with Mr. Doo-Dah-Dubya (I cannot say ?works for? as we all know who has the sign...
More About: Humor , Baby , Chief , Progressive Politics , Conflict

The Decider Has Decided: Give Me a Catastrophe and I'll Be Your Emperor, or
2007-05-22 01:39:00
Just when you thought it was safe to start thinking about something innocuous like the primaries, that now start next January, thanks to Florida and New Hampshire . . . just when you thought it was safe, well, Bush progressed from anointing himself King (wiretapping private citizens without a warrant, the Patriot Act, retaliating against whistleblowers, firing federal judges, torturing anywhere and everywhere, the slaughtering of Habeas Corpus, etc.) to anointing himself Emperor . Yes, Julius Caesar Bush, you are now closer to God on the level of unprecedented Executive branch powers in the United States of America. (The same U.S. of A. that opted NOT to have a king--remember "taxation without representation"? The Revolutionary War, anyone?)And just how did Bush accomplish anointing himself Emperor of America? Quietly, without so much as a whisper in the mainstream press, and disguised with mysterious and ambiguous, you guessed it, verbiage. The one article on the feat was in The ...
More About: Progressive Politics , Give , Catastro , Astro

Intervention is the Incubator of Terrorism
2007-05-21 20:22:00
?How can all of our meddling fail to spark some terrible retribution? Have we not suffered enough - Pan Am 103, World Trade Center (1993), the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dares Salaam - not to know that intervention is the incubator of terrorism? Or will it take some cataclysmic atrocity on U.S. Soil to awaken our global gamesmen to the going price of empire.America today faces a choice of destinies. We can choose to be a peacemaker of the world, or its policeman who goes around night-sticking troublemakers until we, too, find ourselves in some bloody brawl we cannot handle." ?Pat Buchanan, in a 2000 speech while running for the PresidencyShocking, really, coming from the mouth of none other than the founder of The American Conservative, and supporter of Ron Paul in the Republican primaries. Dang, dude. If we had only listened to Pat before September 11, 2001.
More About: Terrorism , Progressive Politics , Error , Vent