States' Rights, Anyone?

Stephanie,
Here is just another example of how the feds support states' rights when it is to their advantage and deny states' rights when the states try to enact laws that aren't in line with BushCo's policies. There are plenty of examples of the feds trumping states' rights from the case of Medical Marijuana to Environmental Regulations, yet they are all in favor of states' rights when the state is trying to ban abortion or gay marriage. I don't think they should be able to have it both ways, but my opinion is apparently in the minority (or is it?). As with many issues in these times, this administration doesn't seem to consider what the people think.

Here's the Tenth Amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Yet another example of how selective this administration is in its reading of the U.S. Constitution.

Here are a few relevant links:
Death Penalty Information Center
Cornell Death Penalty Project

Colorado House Panel Votes to Abolish Death Penalty

New Mexico House Passes Bill to Ban Death Penalty

Maryland Governor Calls for Repeal of Death Penalty

Cheers - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

Federal Prosecutors Widen Pursuit of Death Penalty as States Ease Off

By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY and GARY FIELDS

Wall Street Journal online
February 3, 2007

At a time when many states are backing away from capital punishment, the federal government is aggressively pursuing -- and winning -- more death sentences, including in jurisdictions that traditionally oppose them.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York persuaded a jury to give a death sentence to Ronell Wilson, a 24-year-old man convicted of killing two undercover detectives by shooting each in the back of the head. The decision -- the first time in more than 50 years that a federal jury in New York agreed to sentence someone to death -- marked something of a milestone for the Justice Department in its continuing effort to apply the death penalty more evenly across the country.

Today, there are 47 people on federal death row -- more than double the number six years ago -- and Mr. Wilson this week became the seventh sentenced in a state without a death statute of its own since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988. The ranks may grow in the months ahead, with several capital cases on tap in locales traditionally opposed to the death penalty.

The last federal execution was in 2003, when Louis Jones Jr. died by lethal injection at an Indiana facility where all federal executions now take place.

"I get the sense that it's really beginning to change a lot. There seems to be a renewed emphasis on this," said Jensen Barber, an attorney defending Larry Gooch, a man facing federal drug-related murder charges and a potential death sentence in Washington, D.C.

We'll Keep Fighting the Good Fight, Molly...

The Nation
BLOG Posted 01/30/2007 @ 5:35pm

Molly's Pledge

Many Nation readers know that the inimitable, invaluable, iconoclastic columnist Molly Ivins has been battling cancer. It started in her breasts and now has spread throughout her body. This past weekend she was back in the hospital for the third time since the disease was first diagnosed in 1999.

In the second-to-last syndicated column she's been able to write she declared herself on an "old-fashioned newspaper campaign" and vowed to use every column she had to "write about this war until we find some way to end it."

But since then she's only managed to write one more column. That one ran on January 11 and opposed President Bush's proposed "surge" escalation of the war. In strong language -- even for a writer famous for plain talk -- Ivins stated: "We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."

And now, with Ivins too sick to write, the rest of us will have to carry her "old-fashioned newspaper campaign" forward.

To read more about the "Molly Ivins Festschrift," at the Berkeley Daily Planet. Click here.

Here's Molly's obit in the Texas Observer.

Paul Krugman & Readers weigh in thoughtfully on Molly's passing.

Here's a tribute by a favorite Terrier (Roxie): Roxie's World: What Would Molly Say?

Read Maya Angelou's Tribute to Molly Ivins, HERE.

What I learned from Molly Ivins. By Dahlia Lithwick (Slate.com).

Point Austin: What Molly Wrote by David Denison

Molly on Why She Won't Support Hillary Clinton.

Dixie Chicks - Don't Shut Up!

Shut Up and Sing

Hello Stephanie,
I'm no movie critic, but I just wanted to highly recommend the film "Shut Up and Sing" the documentary that features the Dixie Chicks. I'd also like to offer a sneak preview of my favorite line in the whole film - Natalie Maines is being interviewed by Howard Stern on the air and he asks her if she is wearing underpants and she replies, "I'm not wearing panties until the war is over." It's a great line among many others that make the film loads of fun and well-worth watching. Check it out!
Cheers - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

Congratulations to the Dixie Chicks for their FIVE Grammy Awards.

Great Quotes from Saturday's March for Peace in Washington DC

"The president has been saying there is no plan. But I've offered a 12-point plan and elements of it have been out there for three full years. Our plan is peace. Our plan is to end the occupation. Our plan is to bring the troops home."
Representative Dennis Kucinich (D - IL)

"It's not the American people or the United States Congress who are emboldening the enemy. It's the failed policy of this president, going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely, going to war without enough troops, going to war without enough equipment, and lastly, now sending 17,500 people in the middle of a city of 6.5 million people with bullseyes on their back with no plan."
Senator Joseph Biden (D - DE)

"George W. Bush led us into this immoral war. He tricked the American people, and he told us there were weapons of mass destruction. He did not tell the truth. He came out on the battleship and said, 'Mission accomplished.' He misled us again. He said we were working with the coalition of the willing. It was only a figment of his imagination. He said that we were moving forward with training the Iraqi soldiers who would take over the security. Where are they? They are nowhere. As a matter of fact, they're undermining our soldiers in this civil war. He said we were going to get proceeds from the oil that would be pumped back into Iraq so that it could be reconstructed. As a matter of fact, he told us he made these decisions; he said he is the decider. But you know what? He's not the decider. He is the liar!"
Representative Maxine Waters (D - CA)

"We all know it’s not about winning or losing. It's about doing the right thing. Everybody knows this. Everybody knows this, except the President. He asks us to sacrifice more of our tax dollars so he can win in Iraq. You know what they say. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results."
Representative Lynn Woolsey (D - CA)

"President Bush is the Commander-in-Chief of the military, but he is not the Commander-in-Chief of the citizens of this country. He is not. Vice President Cheney has said repeatedly,

'Congress can't stop me.' But we must stop him! We're going to stop him. And so, the founders of our country gave the Congress the power of the purse, because they envisioned a scenario exactly like the one in which we find ourselves today. Not only is it within our power to stop Bush, it is our obligation to stop Bush."
Representative John Conyers (D - MI)

"You and I will not let this country slide back to our barbarian ancestors, the barbarians that lived to plunder, torture, rape and murder innocent people for their bounty. We are a civilized nation. We need to bring an end, an end to blood oil. We need to bring an end to the training of our children to massacre the villages of Iraq for Halliburton's oil."
Bob Watada, Father of Lt. Ehren Watada, Iraq War Resister

"What’s Hollywood doing here today? We're here, because it’s our job, just like it’s yours. We’re Americans, and our fellow Americans are dying as we're standing here today. We are dependent on our congress, but our congress is dependent on us, and we're going to come out here in these numbers and in doubled numbers, and we're going to send our congress this message. We've heard the excuse, "if I had known then what I know now." Well, we're here to tell them now what they have to know in 2008. And if they don't stand up and make a resolution as binding as the death toll, we're not going to be behind those politicians. We're here, and we’re going to be in local districts, and we’re going to push this until this resolution is binding, the money stops and the troops come home."
Sean Penn

"I’m so sad that we still have to do this; that we did not learn the lessons from the Vietnam War; that we've made the same mistakes, blindness to the realities on the ground, hubris and arrogance in dealing with a people and culture far older than we are; and that we understand so little, carelessness and thoughtlessness in our approach to rebuilding a country we've destroyed, allowing billions of dollars to be stolen, squandered at the hands of private contractors, just as this administration has done in our own gulf in the post-Katrina era."
Jane Fonda

"Here are some staggering facts. One in three homeless Americans are military vets, and that is rising. One in four vets with PTSD sought medical care from the VA, where they experienced a two to three month wait to see a doctor. Over 53,000 are wounded. The ratio of doctors to patients is one doctor for every 500 patients. Veteran males aged 20 to 24 have twice the unemployment rate. 40% of troops currently being rotated are National Guard or reservists. 95% of them are experiencing problems getting their pay. Many are being sent back are on potent anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs with little or no counseling or supervision or screening. Over 200 have committed suicide. There's a 70% divorce rate for returning soldiers. The GOP plan for 2007 drops $65 billion in benefits over the next five years."
Susan Saradon

"This god seems to be giving George a pass on stealing, stealing the resources of the Iraqi people, on squandering the hard-earned tax dollars of United States citizens for an unnecessary war! Money that could be used to intelligently fight against terrorism is squandered in a way and in a war that creates more terrorists. Money that could be helping the elderly, the poor, the infirm here at home is instead lining the pockets of war profiteers from Halliburton and private mercenary militias like Blackwater."
Tim Robbins

INDN's List Video on YouTube

You can now view the INDN's List (www.indnslist.org) video on YouTube. Please check it out and watch for news on upcoming events: Campaign Boot Camp August 2007 (Location TBD) and "Prez on the Rez" August 2007 (Location TBD). Things are really heating up at INDN's List and we would love for you to be a part of what's happening. Check us out!

INDN's List Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpw-KH2x4MY

Another Brilliant Piece by Mo

Maureen and Stephanie - Separated at Birth?

Dear Stephanie,
Maureen Dowd has received some flak lately for her column on Hillary-bashing, but I think that she more than redeems herself with this brilliant piece on the utter derangement of Darth Cheney. It's something that you've been pointing out for quite some time, and I think it is just more evidence that you two were separated at birth (you got the slutty, comic gene and Mo got the brainy, writing gene), nevertheless you are both so clearly on the same wavelength that I'm not sure who owes whom credit for each one's respective success. I've, as usual, taken the liberty of highlighting a few of my favorite passages, but the truth is this column is so rich and full of quotable lines that I think that you could take just about any sentence from this piece and it hits at least a handful of nails on their heads.

"Delusional is far too mild a word to describe Dick Cheney. Delusional doesn’t begin to capture the profound, transcendental one-flew-over daftness of the man. Has anyone in the history of the United States ever been so singularly wrong and misguided about such phenomenally important events and continued to insist he’s right in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?"
Maureen Dowd, NYTimes, Jan. 27. 2007

"You must have a real talent for derangement to stay wrong every step of the way, to remain in complete denial about Iraq’s civil war, to have a total misunderstanding of Arab culture, to be completely oblivious to the American mood and to be absolutely blind to how democracy works. In a democracy, when you run a campaign that panders to homophobia by attacking gay marriage and then your lesbian daughter writes a book about politics and decides to have a baby with her partner, you cannot tell Wolf Blitzer he’s 'out of line' when he gingerly raises the hypocrisy of your position."
Maureen Dowd, NYTimes, Jan. 27, 2007

"Mr. Cheney has turned his perversity into foreign policy. He assumes that the more people think he’s crazy, the saner he must be. In Dr. No’s nutty world-view, anti-Americanism is a compliment. The proof that America is right is that everyone thinks it isn’t. He sees himself as a prophet in the wilderness because he thinks anyone in the wilderness must be a prophet. To borrow one of his many dismissive words, it’s hogwash."
Maureen Dowd, NYTimes, Jan. 27, 2007

NYTimes, January 27, 2007, Op-Ed Columnist, Daffy Does Doom

Grand Opening of GARBO's

Traveling around the Oregon Coast soon? Well, you are in for a real treat! You can stop in Wheeler, Oregon and visit Garbo's Vintage Global Wear on Hwy 101 (695 Nehalem Blvd.) in loverly downtown Wheeler. The proprietor of this glorious Shoppe in none other than this blogger's sister, Lynn Hadley, vintage clothier extraordinaire... So if you find yourself in the neighborhood, please stop in and say hello and tell Lynn that you read about it on my blog and she'll give you a 10% discount. Congratulations Lynnie and best wishes for a magnificent venture!!!

GRAND OPENING

GARBO'S

Vintage Global Wear

Saturday, January 27, 2007

10:00am - 6:00pm

695 Nehalem Blvd. (Hwy 101), Wheeler, Oregon

503-368-GARB (4272)

Response to the State of the Onion Speech

Stephanie,
I have just one question for Comandante KooKoo Bananas - "Would it fuckin' kill you to say "DemocratIC"? That might be one way to show a true commitment to bipartisanship. How about vowing to stop with the "Signing Statements?" Talk about advancing laws that nobody has voted on (in case he doesn't remember, a majority of Americans didn't vote for him!). I gotta go back to bed, my head is killing me...

“Most Americans believe that escalation will not bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end, and that's why I've proposed not just a troop cap, but a phased redeployment that will start bringing our troops home,”
Senator Barack Obama (D - IL)

“It will be clear to us whether he’s ready to work cooperatively to do that or if he’s saying, ‘I’m the decider,”’
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D - CA)

"When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day."
Senator Jim Webb (D - VA)

"In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy ­ that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today."
Senator Jim Webb (D - VA)

Click here to read The Nation's comments on Webb's response.

UPDATE: Navajo Marine Given Conscientious-Objector Status

Man's beliefs pit military vs. Navajos
By Electa Draper
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 01/20/2007

Durango - Ronnie Tallman comes from a long line of Navajo spiritual leaders, but there also were soldiers among his kin.
At the age of 19, he decided to follow in the footsteps of the soldiers, joining the Marines in October 2004. Now he believes it was the wrong path, that his destiny lies in healing, not fighting.

The Navajo Nation and an organization of medicine men agree. The Marines do not, and now a federal court must decide a case that pits the spiritual beliefs of the Navajo against United States military rules. It started in November 2005 while Tallman was on weekend leave on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.

There, he says, he underwent a spiritual experience and discovered he had been given the gift of a sacred entity known as teehn leii, a rare form of spiritual diagnosing and healing celebrated among Navajos. Tallman is a hand trembler. While a simple definition is clouded in the translation from Navajo, hand tremblers are rare medicine men who can sense people's problems and illnesses and often restore physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

Please see the updated story: Navajo Marine Given Conscientious-Objector Status

Best of Monday Morning Quotes

"The war was so successful, they don't have any arguments left. They can't even sound busy. Just two weeks ago, they claimed American troops were caught in another Vietnam quagmire. That didn't happen. They predicted huge civilian casualties. That didn't happen. They said Americans would turn against the war as our troops came home in body bags. That didn't happen."
Ann "Transsexual, Plagiarist, Psychic(?)" Coulter, Jewish World Review, May 1, 2003

"Every single person out there that is of any consequence knows the vice president doesn't know what he's talking about. I can't be more blunt than that. He is yet to be right one single time on Iraq."
Senator Joe Biden (D - Dela.), Jan. 21, 2007

"The most important lies to watch for now are the new ones being reiterated daily by the administration’s top brass, from Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney on down. You know fiasco awaits America when everyone in the White House is reading in unison from the same fictional script, as they did back in the day when 'mushroom clouds' and 'uranium from Africa' were the daily drumbeat."
Frank Rich, Op-Ed column, NYTimes, Jan. 21, 2007

"The war -- literally -- is basically being run by a handful of war-hungry extremist ideologues out of the American Enterprise Institute who are driven by an insatiable appetite for endless war on various Middle Eastern countries and little else. They are backed up by Weekly Standard and Fox News (starring John McCain and Joe Lieberman), and that is all that's left -- a tiny band of fringe war-obsessed extremists who are highly unrepresentative of the American public. But that is more than enough to ensure the pointless, wasteful, and tragic continuation, even escalation, of this war because they are the ones to whom the President listens."
Glenn Greenwald, Blogger at Unclaimed Territory, Jan. 20, 2007

Are the Hoosiers for Real?

Hoosiers Top Connecticut, 77-73, For Fifth Straight Win
Senior Roderick Wilmont scored a game-high 23 points, including the basket that gave IU the final lead, as the Hoosiers defeated Connecticut, 77-73, on Jan. 20.

Jan. 20, 2007

HARTFORD, Conn. - Three Hoosiers scored in double figures, with two over 20 points, as the Indiana University men's basketball team defeated Connecticut, 77-73, in the Hartford Civic Center on Jan. 20. Senior Roderick Wilmont led IU with 23 points, including a runner in the lane that gave IU the lead with just over a minute to play, as the Hoosiers improved to 14-4 on the year. It was IU's fifth consecutive win. The Huskies fell to 13-5 with the loss.

Who Can Stop Comandante KooKoo Bananas?

Dear Stephanie,

Cant' somebody PLEEEASE STOP this man? Does the concept of a Democracy completely elude this idiot? Does he not understand that he has made a horrible mess and it is up to him and his cronies to put an end to it? What can "We the People" do to make sure he doesn't do any more damage to this country and the world? These are among the many questions that run through my mind every day, if not every hour. I hate to make a doomsday prediction, but I don't think that we can wait until 2008 to change this disastrous course that the incompetent, arrogant boob who inhabits the white house has set for us...

Cheers,

Faye in Tulsa, OK

The Nation

This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070205/editors
For the Republic
[from the February 5, 2007 issue]

World opinion is against it. The American people are against it. The Democratic Party is against it. The Congress of the United States is against it. The Iraq Study Group is against it. The Iraqi people are against it. The Iraqi government is against it. Many Republican lawmakers are against it. The top brass are against it. But George W. Bush is going to do it: send 21,500 more troops into Iraq. Can a single man force a nation to fight a war it does not want to fight, expand a war it does not want to expand--possibly to other countries? If he can, is that nation any longer a democracy in any meaningful sense? Is its government any longer a constitutional republic? If not, how can democratic rule and the republican form of government be restored? These are the unwelcome questions that President Bush's decision has forced on the country.

What's Wrong with Living Single???

Stephanie Miller
The Matron Saint of Single Grrrls Everywhere

Hey there Stephanie,
With all the commotion about Barbara Boxer's comment to childless Condi Rice (that was completely misrepresented by the right wingers) and the here-to-fore ignored comments by Laura Bush that were very inflamatory toward single women in particular, I thought that the following article might shed some light on the shifting demographics in this country, regarding single living. As a single (never-been-married) woman in my forties, I must agree with the women who find their singleness liberating. I had an opportunity recently to join a partner in a living situation, but turned it down, because I enjoy my life and my freedom too much. My doggies and I are just fine, thank you very large...

“For better or worse, women are less dependent on men or the institution of marriage. Younger women understand this better, and are preparing to live longer parts of their lives alone or with nonmarried partners. For many older boomer and senior women, the institution of marriage did not hold the promise they might have hoped for, growing up in an ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ era.”
Dr. William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington.

“This is yet another of the inexorable signs that there is no going back to a world where we can assume that marriage is the main institution that organizes people’s lives.”
Professor Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research group.

“Although we can help people ‘do’ marriage better, it is simply delusional to construct social policy or make personal life decisions on the basis that you can count on people spending most of their adult lives in marriage,”
Professor Stephanie Coontz, the author of “Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage.”

“Considering all the weddings I attended in the ’80s that have ended so very, very badly, I consider myself straight up lucky. I have not sworn off marriage, but if I do wed, it will be to have a companion with whom I can travel and play parlor games in my old age.”
Sheila Jamison, lives in the East Village, works for a media company, is 45 and single.

January 16, 2007
51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse
By SAM ROBERTS

For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

Kalyn Free on Native America Calling

Today, Tuesday, January 16, 2007, Kalyn Free, (founder of INDN's List - www.indnslist.org) along with Frank LaMere, both spoke on Native America Calling. They both spoke about 'Prez on the Rez." You can listen to the fantastic interview at the following link:

http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/

National Conference for Media Reform

The National Conference for Media Reform is for anyone who is concerned about the state of our media and committed to working for change. This energizing weekend presents ideas and strategies for winning the fight for better media and connects you with thousands of media reformers from across the nation.

"As ownership gets more and more concentrated, fewer and fewer independent sources of information have survived in the marketplace; and those few significant alternatives that do survive, such as PBS and NPR, are under growing financial and political pressure to reduce critical news content and to shift their focus in a mainstream direction, which means being more attentive to establishment views than to the bleak realities of powerlessness that shape the lives of ordinary people."
Bill Moyers, National Conference for Media Reform, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 14, 2007

“The cold-blooded murder of Abeer and her family is a tragedy. But it’s almost as great a tragedy when her story and all the other stories that are difficult to hear and difficult to accept are buried in the back of news pages and quickly shuffled off the nightly news. A truly powerful media is one that can stop a war, not start one.”
Jane Fonda, National Conference for Media Reform, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 14, 2007

The Spirit of Dr. King Lives in Burgeoning Media and Democracy Movement

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Today, the country honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have been 78 years old. The civil rights leader, who was assassinated in 1968, was only 39 years old when he died.

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."
Martin Luther King Jr.

Weekend in Review

Stephanie,
There were just so many stories that broke over the weekend, I thought I'd send you a little "weekend in review" with a compilation of stories that caught my eye since Friday afternoon. BTB, I've had plenty of time on my hands as Tulsa has been essentially closed down with an ice storm this weekend. Not even sure whether I'll be able to get to work tomorrow - we are working even though it's MLK Jr. Day ;-(
Take care and stay warm - you, West Coast Wussie, you...
Cheers,
Faye in Icy, Frigid Tulsa, OK

Afghanistan Suffers as More Troops are Sent to Iraq...
"Already, a U.S. Army infantry battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks in order to deploy to Iraq." In a January 11 article (https://exchange.utulsa.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104%26article=41693%26archive=true) reporting that "U.S. commanders [in Afghanistan] have issued a request for reinforcements against a resurgence of Taliban fighters," Stars & Stripes observed that, based on the Sun's report of a battalion move (https://exchange.utulsa.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.afghanistan07jan07,0,3288686.story?coll=bal-attack-headlines), "[t]he 'surge' option in Iraq also could have a direct impact on the mission in Afghanistan."

Bush Tries to Woo Conservative Republicans to the "Surge"...
"We're aware public support is dwindling, and if we're going to ask the American people to sacrifice even more, we want to have a level of comfort,'' said Putnam, who along with other Republican leaders was invited to spend part of the weekend at Camp David with Bush." [emphasis added]
Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, Florida
as quoted by LESLEY CLARK, Miami Herald, Sat. Jan. 13, 2007
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/16450802.htm

Coalition Partners Look to Scale Back
Citizens in Many Nations Want Troops Home
By William J. Kole AP - Associated Press January 13, 2007
VIENNA, Austria · The Italians have left, and the Slovaks are about to. Britons want to start getting out, and so do Danes and South Koreans.President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq has not inspired America's coalition partners to follow suit. Washington's top war partners, London and Seoul, are looking to draw down their forces, and they are not alone.U.S. forces in Iraq, which now number 132,000 and would swell to 153,500 under Bush's strategy, are supported by 15,857 mostly noncombat troops from 25 nations. reduceIn the months after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the multinational force peaked at about 300,000 soldiers from 38 countries -- 250,000 from the United States, about 40,000 from Britain, and the rest ranging from 2,000 Australians to 70 Albanians.American forces have always shouldered most of the burden and suffered most of the casualties in Iraq.Some say there is little point in boosting forces in the largely Shiite south, where most non-U.S. coalition troops are concentrated. Yet as more countries draw down or pull out, it could create a security vacuum if radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stirs up trouble there.Italy, once the third-largest partner with 3,000 troops in southern Iraq, brought the last of its soldiers home last month.Now Britain, America's chief ally, hopes to cut its 7,000-member force in the southern city of Basra by several thousand in the first half of the year. Prime Minister Tony Blair is preparing to announce a withdrawal of about 2,600 soldiers, the Financial Times reported Friday."As for the future shape in the coalition, there continue to be coalition forces operating in Iraq," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday in Washington. "The South Koreans, the Japanese, others have re-upped their forces again to continue operating in Iraq. And there is a NATO training mission for officers in Iraq. And so, I think you'll continue to see that kind of international support."Fact check: South Korea, the current No. 3 contributor, plans to halve its 2,300-member contingent in the northern city of Irbil by April, and is under pressure from parliament to devise a plan for a complete withdrawal by year's end.And Japan has not "re-upped" yet, though news reports Friday said the Japanese government was considering extending a special law that authorizes the deployment of its 600-member humanitarian mission for another year.Poland has extended the mission of its 900 troops through the end of 2007. But most of the other coalition members that have extended their commitments are small, mostly symbolic contributors. They include the Czech Republic, which has 100 military police in Iraq; Armenia, with 46 peacekeepers under Polish command; and the 40 Estonian infantry serving with U.S. forces in Baghdad.Denmark is trying to scale back its 470-troop contingent serving near the southern city of Basra. Six Danish soldiers have been killed since the 2003 deployment, and recent surveys show six in 10 Danes want out of Iraq.Ordinary citizens in Slovakia, which is bringing home its 103 soldiers early next month, know the feeling."It's an American war, and we have nothing to do with it," said Mikulas Krkolak, a bartender in Bratislava.

Steph,
Here's a righteous piece on the current inhabitants of the white house and their ceaseless attempt to ignore, if not completely destroy, the Constitution. I think it's worth reading the entire piece on the air... if you feel so inclined... in any case here it is:

Editorial NYTimes
Round Up the Usual Lawyers
Published: January 13, 2007
No one who has followed President Bush’s policies on detainees should be surprised when a member of his team scorns American notions of justice. But even by that low standard, the administration’s new attack on lawyers who dare to give those prisoners the meager representation permitted them is contemptible.Speaking this week on Federal News Radio, a Web site and AM radio station offering helpful hints for bureaucrats and helpful news for the administration, Cully Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, tried to rally American corporations to stop doing business with law firms that represent inmates of the Guantánamo internment camp. It does not seem to matter to Mr. Stimson, who is a lawyer, that a great many of those detainees did not deserve imprisonment, let alone the indefinite detention to which they are subjected as “illegal enemy combatants.” And forget about the fundamental American right that everyone should have legal counsel, even the most heinous villain.In his interview, reported yesterday by The Washington Post editorial page, Mr. Stimson rattled off some of the most respected law firms in the country that, after initial hesitation, have courageously respected that right. He called it “shocking” that they were “representing detainees down there” and suggested that when corporate America got word of this dastardly behavior, “those C.E.O.’s are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms.” He added: “We want to watch that play out.”When his interviewer asked who was paying these firms for the work, Mr. Stimson said, “It’s not clear, is it?” Actually, it is quite clear. Mr. Stimson surely knows that the vast majority of those cases are being handled for free by law firms that have not signed on to Mr. Bush’s post-9/11 revision of the American rules of justice. Still, he persisted, saying some lawyers were “receiving monies from who knows where.”The interview was a greatest-hits remix of Bush administration nonsense about Guantánamo, including Mr. Stimson’s message to corporate executives that lawyers “are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line in 2001.” The only terrorists at Guantánamo associated with 9/11 were transferred there recently after being held for years in secret C.I.A. prisons where no lawyer could enter.
Not only do we find Mr. Stimson’s threats appalling, we differ with him about 9/11. The tragedy and crime of that day was that thousands of innocents were slaughtered — not that it hurt some companies’ profit margins.

Incompetency Alert! Auditors' Report on the Dept of Homeland Security 2006 FY

Stephanie,
I sure am glad that the folks at FireDogLake.com digested this long (161 pp.) and dry government report (Independent Audtiors' Report on the Dept of Homeland Security's FY 2006 Financial Statement) Although I have nothing but time on my hands this weekend as the city of Tulsa is once again homebound - this time with ice rather than snow (which is worse for driving, IMHO), fortunately I haven't lost power yet, but the ice storm is not predicted to subside until Sunday evening. Anyway, I hope that you are staying warm in that frigid LA weather (50 degrees) compared to 25 degrees here in Tulsa.
Cheers - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

"FEMA was unable to fully support the accuracy and completeness of certain unpaid obligations, and accounts payable, and the related effects on net position, if any, prior to the completion of DHS’s 2006 PAR. These unpaid obligations, as reported in the accompanying DHS balance sheet as of September 30, 2006, were $22.3 Billion or 46% of DHS consolidated unexpended appropriations at September 30, 2006."Independent Audtiors' Report on the Dept of Homeland Security's FY 2006 Financial Statement

"FEMA has lost and/or failed to account for a sum of money that is almost half of DHS’s entire budget and 130 times greater than the amount of money that the Department of Homeland Security is willing to spend to secure the homeland."
Looseheadprop, Blogger at FireDogLake.com

Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Hypocrisy Alert: Homeland Security Undocumented!
By: looseheadprop

The Department of Homeland Security underwent an audit. The audit was done by the well known firm of KPMG at the direction of Inspector General Richard Skinner.

The entire report can be found in a very large pdf here but, unless you are a glutton for hundreds of pages of accountant speak, I thought I might save you the eye glazing and sing you some of the real show stoppers from the libretto.

KPMG was unable to render an opinion on DHS’s books because of “financial reporting problems at four bureaus and at the department level.” The auditors found ten material problems, two other reportable conditions, violation of eight separate laws, and a partridge in a pear tree….Oops. Skip that last one. I still have Christmas carols on my mind.

Here’s my favorite. It’s a doozy folks. You may want to read it twice: FEMA was unable to fully support the accuracy and completeness of certain unpaid obligations, and accounts payable, and the related effects on net position, if any, prior to the completion of DHS’s 2006 PAR. These unpaid obligations, as reported in the accompanying DHS balance sheet as of September 30, 2006, were $22.3 Billion or 46% of DHS consolidated unexpended appropriations at September 30, 2006. [emphasis mine]

To give some idea of proportionality, in fiscal year 2005 the entire Grants and Training (formerly know as State and Local Government Preparedness, a/k/a grants to get working radios for NYC firemen and protection for bridges, tunnels, chemical plants and nuclear facilities) was only $171 million.

A Conservative Questions Bush

Stephanie,
As glad as I am that this "practicing christian and political conservative" has started to see the light, it doesn't excuse in my mind the fact that this guy is one of millions of Americans responsible for awarding Bush the power that he has so contemptibly abused. This is a fine mess that they have gotten us into - how do they propose to extract us from the fallout from this abysmal administration? Any ideas above and beyond bashing the Democrats would be much appreciated. Vamos a ver (we'll see) if they have any true constructive suggestions to offer the country in an effort to atone for their horrible misjudgment.
Cheers,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

Bush, Iraq Lead a Conservative to Question
From an on-air essay that aired on NPR, January 11, 2007:

"As President Bush marched the country to war with Iraq, even some voices on the Right warned that this was a fool's errand. I dismissed them angrily. I thought them unpatriotic. But almost four years later, I see that I was the fool. In Iraq, this Republican President for whom I voted twice has shamed our country with weakness and incompetence, and the consequences of his failure will be far, far worse than anything Carter did. The fraud, the mendacity, the utter haplessness of our government's conduct of the Iraq war have been shattering to me."Rod Dreher, contributor to National Review and the Corner, a current columnist for The Dallas Morning News, a self-described "practicing Christian and political conservative."

Guess these Quotes!

"Republicans in Congress who do not want to be quoted tell me that the State Department under Condoleezza Rice is a mess. This comes at a time when the U.S. global position is precarious. While attention is focused on Iraq, American diplomacy is being tested worldwide -- in Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Korea and Sudan. The judgment by thoughtful Republicans is that Rice has failed to manage that endeavor."
Robert D. Novak, from: Washington Post, The Mess at State, Thursday, January 11, 2007

"All I want to say is, right now American soldiers are dying in a Sunni-Shiite civil war, a sectarian civil war -- that’s a fact, based on my personal observations. Soldiers’ hands are tied to defend themselves. Every time a soldier fires his weapon, he has to sign paperwork making sure it was justified. I want to stress that soldiers want to go on the offensive, but everything we’re doing here is on the defense. And it’s a belief of the soldiers I’ve talked to that any troop increase over here, it’s just going to be more sitting ducks, more targets."
Sargeant Ronn Cantu, author of One Soldier's Musings: The Death of a Pro-War Conservative -or- The Day I got Away with Murder

"The increasing prices in the economy that’s collapsing stink and the Iraqi government policy stinks, even the American policy, that so-called surge in Iraq, stinks, too, because, as you know and Iraqis know and the others, that the occupation is a form of war. So any escalation in this type of war, the resistance is going to escalate, too."
Sami Rasouli, Iraqi American currently living in Najaf.

"Secretary Rice, to be very blunt, I cannot in good conscience support the president's approach."
Senator Joe Biden, (D - Dela.)

"After six years of this, I think we all know that he who frames the debate and chooses the vocabulary wins from the beginning. Let's be sure to not accept the White House framing, no matter how wimped out the MSM is."
Nicole Belle, a blogger at CrooksandLiars.com (as Quoted in the LATimes, Jan. 10, 2007)

UN - freakin' - believable

Stephanie,
This is so freakin' unbelievable - turns out Maliki does NOT even want more US troops!!! So let me get this straight - we are sending over 22,000 more soldiers or extending the tours of those already there, against the wishes of nearly 70% of the American people, against the will of the military troops and officers, at a cost of over three billion dollars a week, and without Congressional approval, thereby extending a war that was entered into under false pretenses, blatant lies, and outright deceit, and the puppet Prime Minister al-Maliki that Bush (AKA Comadante KooKoo Bananas, as Steph has so cleverly dubbed Dubya) hand picked and set up to run the country under KooKoo's watchful eye doesn't even agree with his master's proclamation, that what we need are more American troops in Iraq !!! Un - freakin' - be - freakin' - lievable !!! Some of us have got to STOP this IDIOT !!! Somebody STOP him !!! IMPEACH him, just MAKE him GONE !!!
Best Regards - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

NYTimes
January 11, 2007
SABRINA TAVERNISE and JOHN F. BURNS

BAGHDAD, Jan. 10 — As President Bush challenges public opinion at home by committing more American troops, he is confronted by a paradox: an Iraqi government that does not really want them.

The Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has not publicly opposed the American troop increase, but aides to Mr. Maliki have been saying for weeks that the government is wary of the proposal. They fear that an increased American troop presence, particularly in Baghdad, will be accompanied by a more assertive American role that will conflict with the Shiite government’s haste to cut back on American authority and run the war the way it wants. American troops, Shiite leaders say, should stay out of Shiite neighborhoods and focus on fighting Sunni insurgents.

“The government believes there is no need for extra troops from the American side,” Haidar al-Abadi, a Parliament member and close associate of Mr. Maliki, said Wednesday. “The existing troops can do the job.”

Hey Dubya - Guess these Quotes!

"I refuse to put more American lives on the line in Baghdad without being assured that the Iraqis themselves are willing to do what they need to do to end the violence of Iraqi against Iraqi."
Senator Norm Coleman (R - Minn)

"My consultations with both military and Iraqi political leaders confirms that an increase of troops in areas plagued by sectarian violence will not solve the problem of sectarian hatred."
Senator Norm Coleman (R - Minn)

"While we cannot make a precipitous withdrawal, we can transfer more security responsibility to the Iraqis and reduce the threat to American troops."
Senator Sam Brownback (R - Kan)

"The United States "cannot sustain a war effort without broad public support, and we cannot count on such support unless the situation in Iraq improves and American casualties decrease."
Senator Sam Brownback (R - Kan)

Tribute to Patti Smith

Tribute to Patti Smith
New inductee into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fall

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

What better time to say a huge THANK YOU to Patti Smith and congrats on being inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Thanks, Patti – rock on…
Cheers,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

Ain't It Strange? (Patti Smith, NYTimes, March 12, 2007)

More Natives Join Washington Legislature

"We love Washington," said Kalyn Free, president of INDN's List, who flew in from Tulsa for the honoring ceremony, held at the longhouse at Evergreen State College. "Washington was one of the states we focused on the most. You are a swing state, and you have proven the Indian vote can make a huge difference. We want more Indian people here to vote and to run for office."

More Natives step into Legislature
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2003515951_indian10m.html
By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times staff reporter

OLYMPIA — Wrapped in Pendleton blankets and honored by neighboring tribes, four members of the state Legislature were recognized Monday night in a ceremony celebrating the largest number of Washington lawmakers ever claiming American Indian or Alaska Native heritage.
The increase parallels national growth, with 64 Native people serving in legislatures in 14 states, up from 50 people last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Oklahoma has by far the most, with 18 Native lawmakers. Alaska and Montana are next with nine each, then New Mexico with six, and Washington with four.

"It's the most ever," said Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

And that's no accident: It's a result of a renaissance of political activism in Indian Country. While Indians are only about 2 percent of the state's population, casino wealth has helped Washington tribes gain clout. Tribes helped oust former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton in 2000, provided important financial help in the recount in Gov. Christine Gregoire's razor-thin victory, and helped boost U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell to re-election. Groups such as NCAI and INDN's List, or Indigenous Democratic Network, have worked to get out the vote in Indian Country, encouraged candidates to run and educated all candidates about Indian issues.

Newly elected lawmakers Don Barlow, an enrolled member of the Ottawa Nation of Oklahoma and Democratic representative from Spokane, and Claudia Kauffman, an enrolled member of the Nez Perce tribe and Democrat from Kent just elected to the Senate, both attended INDN's List's first-ever campaign camp in Washington. They learned how to raise money, knock on doors and run professional campaigns.

The state's other two Indian lawmakers are Reps. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, and Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon. McCoy was first elected in 2002 and Morris in 1996.

An Exhausted Gay American

From: An Exhausted Gay American
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/06/002620.php
Written by Richard Rothstein
Published January 06, 2007

"Some mornings I feel exhaustion for no reason other than the fact that I'm a gay American. I wonder if my fellow citizens who spend their days campaigning and crusading to limit my civil rights — the civil rights that they themselves take for granted — ever consider the inhumanity and irrationality of what they do? And I wonder if the millions of Americans who stand by apathetically and allow this travesty to play out with each passing day ever consider the emotional anguish they are deliberately or carelessly causing to millions of children, teenagers and adults?"
Richard Rothstein

"If we set the precedent that religious belief trumps constitutional law, where do the zealots go next? They base their homophobic crusade on the belief that the Bible is the literal word of God. Why does this nation assume that they will be satisfied with cherry picking? You may not care if I'm exhausted by living my life at the forbearance of heterosexuals, but you might consider that it's worth caring that if the religious fundamentalists and neo-conservatives prevail in denying full civil rights to American citizens of any minority, the future for all is likely bleak."
Richard Rothstein
(http://rjr10036.typepad.com/manhattandetails/)
Blogger on BlogCritics.org

Western Shoshone Defense Project

"Our land has never been ceded or deeded to the U.S., so it not possible for

them to just take it and determine that our title to the land has been extinguished"

Mary and Carrie Dann

Carrie Dann, Rancher, Grandmother, Shoshone Indian

"We are who we are because our nation survived here. It is written on our earth."
Bernice Lalo, Western Shoshone

“The earth is our mother and we can’t give up our mother. No way in hell”
Carrie Dann

Mission

To affirm Newe (Western Shoshone) jurisdiction over Newe Sogobia (Western Shoshone homelands) by protecting, preserving, and restoring Newe rights and lands for present and future generations based on cultural and spiritual traditions.

The Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP) was established in 1992 by the Western Shoshone National Council to provide support to Mary and Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmothers, faced with the confiscation of their livestock which they graze on Western Shoshone homelands.

More resources on Carrie Dann and the Shoshone land fight:
Defiance in the land of the free
A Native American woman is at war with the US. For 30 years she’s been fighting to keep her ancestral land — and now the United Nations is on her side.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2142374.html

Mary & Carrie Dann v. United States
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cases/75-02a.html

This post is dedicated to Geo, who often inspires me...

President Pelosi?

"The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them. But if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it and this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions,"
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi on Face the Nation, Jan. 7, 2007

Hey there Stephanie,
I was just watching Speaker Pelosi's gracious, strong, and articulate performance on "Face the Nation," and it got me thinking, perhaps the Dems have been focusing on the WRONG woman to run as the first female President of the United States. Why not Nancy Pelosi for President in 2008??? Just a thought, though I think it is worth considering.
Cheers - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

To check out Nancy Pelosi's appearance on Face the Nation, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/07/ftn/main2335193.shtml

Molly on the Folly that is Iraq

We let them do it
Molly Ivins - Creators Syndicate
01.04.07 -

The president of the United States does not have the sense God gave a duck -- so it's up to us. You and me, Bubba.

I don't know why Bush is just standing there like a frozen rabbit, but it's time we found out. The fact is WE have to do something about it. This country is being torn apart by an evil and unnecessary war, and it has to be stopped NOW.

This war is being prosecuted in our names, with our money, with our blood, against our will. Polls consistently show that less than 30 percent of the people want to maintain current troop levels. It is obscene and wrong for the president to go against the people in this fashion. And it's doubly wrong for him to send 20,0000 more soldiers into this hellhole, as he reportedly will announce next week.

What happened to the nation that never tortured? The nation that wasn't supposed to start wars of choice? The nation that respected human rights and life? A nation that from the beginning was against tyranny? Where have we gone? How did we let these people take us there? How did we let them fool us?
(c) 2006 Creators Syndicate

Read the entire column here:
URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=21830

White House Visitor Records Closed

Stephanie,
I guess the White House just doesn't get it - they are NOT going to be able to make enough new rules or signing statements or whatever to exempt them from the LAWS of the land. I just hope that the new Congress holds the administration's feet to the fire and lets them know in no uncertain terms that this kind of dodging the laws just isn't going to fly anymore. It makes me sick how Bush and Cheney think that the laws apply to everyone but them and their cronies. This illegal pattern of secrecy has NO place in a true democracy!
Cheers - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

"This memo reflects the Bush administration's view of American government, which is that the people's business should be conducted behind closed doors."
Steven Aftergood, Director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists

White House Visitor Records Closed http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070105/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_visitors
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Fri., Jan. 5, 2007

The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.

The Bush administration didn't reveal the existence of the memorandum of understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration's lawyers used the memo in a legal argument aimed at overturning the judge's ruling. The Washington Post is suing for access to the Secret Service logs.

The five-page document dated May 17 declares that all entry and exit data on White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, the agreement states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. ...

The chief counsel to another Washington-based group suing to get Secret Service logs calls the creation of the memo "a political maneuver couched as a legal one."...

In the mid-1990s, a conservative group, Judicial Watch, obtained Secret Service entry logs through a lawsuit.

Secret Service records played a significant role in the Whitewater scandal in the 1990s, supplying congressional Republicans with leads to follow in their investigations of the Clintons....

Rally Set for Monday in Columbus

Farewell to Stephanie - Plea for Stay of Execution of WTPG
http://www.ohiomajorityradio.com/

Columbus fans of WTPG, Columbus's only progressive radio station, are gathering in front of the Statehouse Monday, 11-noon, to say a joint farewell one of their favorite talk show hosts, Stephanie Miller. It is the last hour of her program scheduled to air in Columbus.

Mary Jo Kilroy is scheduled to speak, and Mayor Coleman has been asked to call in. Our strong supporter, Ohio Rep. Dan Stewart may also show up.

The gathering of WTPG fans will listen on their portable radios to the last Columbus hour, and near the end of the broadcast, the group will call out their good-byes over a cell phone. Stephanie Miller announced this event on her radio program, Thursday, January 4. Afterwards, attendees are invited to join a mock funeral procession to Clear Channel Communications, 2323 W. Fifth Ave., to present a petition of over 2000 names, requesting a stay of execution so that WTPG listeners can attempt to work with Clear Channel to make WTPG viable.

If the plea is turned down, the group will thank Clear Channel for 2 wonderful years of WTPG, and depart--to start the job of finding a radio station that would like to serve a community of dedicated, loyal, progressive fans.

The OhioMajorityRadio.com petition and linked web site will remain the rallying point for that effort.

Please note that signs can have cardboard handles only. And let's be friendly, to show what good listeners a station can gain by providing progressive programs. The Statehouse grounds are reserved for inaugural preparations, but we were advised that the wide sidewalk in front of the Statehouse is often used when statehouse grounds are unavailable. Hope to see you there.

Guess the Quotes

Hey there Steph,
Thanks to you, Jim, Chris, and Rebekah and a whole lotta fabulous (and I mean that in the very best sense of the word!!!) Americans - we've taken back the Country. Here are a few Guess the Quotes for the Voice Guy in celebration of this momentous occasion! The theme is the 110th Congress and its new leadership! Enjoy!
Cheers - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

"The genius of our founders was that every two years, new members would bring to this House their spirit of renewal and hope for the American people. This Congress is reinvigorated, new members, by your optimism and your idealism, and your commitment to our country."
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi"

"Shortly, President Bush will address the nation on the subject of Iraq. It is the responsibility of the president to articulate a new plan for Iraq that makes it clear to the Iraqis that they must defend their own streets and their own security, a plan that promotes stability in the region and a plan that allows us to responsibly redeploy our troops."
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

"For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling. . . . Now the sky is the limit. Anything is possible."Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

“The Democrats are back, and the Congressional Black Caucus. is in the lead, in the lead! We envision a new direction that is there for all of the people, not just the privileged few, a direction that builds and strengthens the middle class.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

“With the opening of the 110th Congress and the beginning of new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, it’s time to start moving America forward. Guided by the spirit of bipartisanship, Democrats are ready to take this country in a new direction.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual."

Frank Herbert(1920 – 1986) was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. He is best known for the novel Dune, and the five other novels in the series that followed it.

Save Progressive Radio Drop

Click here to hear Stephanie (AKA Momma) and Jim "Voice Deity" Ward (Playing dubya - much better than Bush does, I might add) as they valiantly attempt to save WTPG 1230AM (now WYTS) in Columbus, Ohio:
http://www.switchpod.com/users/nonstop/nonstopspecial-steph-columbus.mp3

Buddhists in Congress

Good Morning Stephanie,
Here an interesting piece on the religious beliefs or lack thereof of some new members of Congress. I'm all for religious diversity in Congress and across America. I think it's a great thing that there are two Buddhists in Congress. I think that you said one time that ex-Catholics probably make up the majority of new Buddhists in this country. I don't know whether that is true, but I like the fact that there are those in public life who look beyond Judeo-Christian religion for guidance in their lives.
Cheers - your radical militant librarian,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

Monday, January 01, 2007
Keith Ellison: Tip of the Iceberg
http://petty-larseny.blogspot.com/2007/01/keith-ellison-tip-of-iceberg_01.html

While everyone goes ooh and ah over new Rep. Keith Ellison's choice of magic book to place his hand upon when he says the magic words that will make the man in the sky ensure that he keeps his promise, folks seem to have missed something. Ellison's status as the first Muslim in the House was just the tip of the iceberg with this new Congress. There's an even bigger milestone that I haven't seen much mention of (with one exception).

In Susan Jacoby's essential "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism," she quotes a North Carolina minister's objection to the proposed U.S. Constitution's ban on religious tests for officeholders. He called it, "an invitation for Jews and pagans of every kind to come among us."

Meet Hank Johnson and Mazie K. Hirono. They're two other members of the 110th Congress who are doing something no one in Congress has done before. Not even Ellison. They don't believe in God. Not the Judeo-Christian God. Not the Muslim God. They're Buddhists. The first ever in Congress. For the first time, as far as I can tell, bouncing around adherents.com, the U.S. Congress as of Thursday will now include as members representatives who openly do not subscribe to any version of monotheism.

Johnson is from Georgia (4th district), for Christ's sake. And check out Hirono. She's from Hawaii. What does Hawaii's House Caucus look like in the 110th Congress?
Mazie K. Hirono -- Buddhist.
Neil Abercrombie -- "Non-Affiliated."...

Read the entire post:
http://petty-larseny.blogspot.com/2007/01/keith-ellison-tip-of-iceberg_01.html

Park Service Caves in to Christian Extremists

How Old Is the Grand Canyon?
Park Service Won't Say
PEER Press Release
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801

Orders to cater to creationists makes national park agnostic on geology.

Washington, DC - Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

"In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is 'no comment.'"

A Grim Milestone...

I woke up this morning, only slightly hungover, to the grim news that the 3000th American soldier has died in Iraq. This number, of course, doesn't reflect the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been murdered in this wrong and insane occupation, this unnecessary, unprovoked war. Please visit the link to United for Peace and Justice (http://www.unitedforpeace.org/) or the American Friends Service Committee (http://www.afsc.org/3000/), for ideas on how to mark this tragic number.

Another Grim Milestone -- 3,000 Deaths Too Many .

U.S. Toll In Iraq Reaches 3,000
Deaths in December Most in Two Years
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 1, 2007

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 -- The number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003 reached 3,000 on Sunday, a symbolic milestone at a time when the Bush administration is rethinking its strategy for the increasingly violent conflict.

As the year drew to a close, the U.S. military announced that a soldier was killed Saturday by a roadside bomb while on patrol in a southeastern neighborhood of Baghdad. Two soldiers were injured in the attack. Their names were not released.

The Defense Department also announced that Spec. Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Tex., was killed by small-arms fire Thursday in Baghdad.