Please check out these links:

http://act.credomobile.com/campaign/support_tibet/

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/

This is important. Tell your friends.

Saudis to Execute a Woman for Witchcraft

I've heard of this story, obviously, but this morning leorising1959 posted a link to a petition you can sign to encourage the King of Saudia Arabia to halt the execution. This is a legitimate petition. I don't know if it will work, but it's very respectful and moving -- I'm sure that it will at least give the Saudis food for thought.

Sign the Petition

Thank you.

After vetoing a bipartisan law to give health insurance to millions of Americans, mostly children:
"'Poor kids first,' Bush said. 'Secondly, I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system.'"

WHAT THE FUCK??!!

What the living hell is he thinking?! Yet another mind-boggling case of "do they even listen to themselves?"

I swear to the gods, I could literally slap someone right now. Hard. Or commit serious property dammage. (Yeah, that might sound kind of wimpy, but coming from me, it's like saying I could stab someone in the neck with an icepick.)

Furious? Outraged? Ready to slash the tires of the next Hummer with a "W" sticker? If not, go here for the rest of the story.

my gods, when will it stop? when will people GET it?

From winterbadger comes today a comment on a disgusting little bit of grave dancing and postumous libel that really ought to make you sick: Soldiers fighting the war aren't smart enough to write their own op-eds, much less form a reasonable opinion on the war.

Support the troops, kids -- unless they disagree with your pet delusion!

This is a little rambling: it's been hard to put all this together.

In response to a friend's post on 9/11:

I had completely forgotten what day it was (which is not unusual for me in general), until I read winterbadger's entry here. Then, of course, at the gym, CNN was all over memorials. I confess that my initial reaction was resistance – this war is so wrong and this administration is so corrupt, that while by no means do I "blame the victims" or would wish to downplay the bravery of the police and firefighters and civilians who risked their lives to help, I seem to balk at media-driven mass-mourning. Personal grief I can sympathise with, but sometimes I just think that the US, as a whole, is using 9/11 as an excuse to wallow and play victim and make everything bad Not Our Fault.

And that's not fair to those who did help and those who lost loved ones in the attacks and in the rescue. I tried to take a deliberate moment to look at the situation more clearly, more "neutrally," in a way, and reflect on the horror and sacrifice and courage of that day. I did do this, but I'm sorry to say that my day-to-day concerns pushed it all out of my mind more quickly than I'd like to admit.

A friend who posted yesterday said that “six years later, the events of 9/11/01 barely seem to register in mass media. I was at the zoo today ($2 Tuesday) and people were out, having fun, watching the animals. I didn't notice flags lowered … or anything else.”

And then I thought, why shouldn't people enjoy the zoo? When do we move on? If six years is too short a time to remember 9/11 with national grieving and lowered flags and closed businesses, when is long enough? Should we have a national holiday, like Memorial Day or Labor Day? Should we replay our fears and grief and anger every year for the next 10? 20? 100? And if so, how do we avoid 9/11/20xx from fossilising into just an excuse to feel self-righteous in our victimisation? Or, conversely, how can we keep the date from being a center of internal bickering, name-calling, and hate-mongering?

What happened on 9/11/2001 was evil. The people who planned and carried out those attacks were sick and, yes, evil – I don’t care what the alleged provocation was. But we are not unique. If every country ground to a halt every time there was a terrorist attack on its soil, there would be many nations that would have simply collapsed under the weight of their own pain. It is not morally worse that it happened in NYC that in Dafur or Bosnia or Palestine; it’s just scarier to us. Our surge in unity and compassion towards the victims was accompanied by an equal surge in hate and violence. Retribution – well we’ve seen how well it works in, say, Israel, eh?

I think one thing we have to do is take our collective head out of our asses. We are not the best, most righteous, most intelligent nation in the world. The US does not “deserve” peace and prosperity any more (or any less!) than any other country. We need to step outside our smug little glass bubble and take a look at how our actions and policies affect other peoples and how those same actions and policies might come back to bite us. Find the reasons and causes, not just lash out with violence. Sometimes I despair, but I have to believe that we can learn from this.

My heart is with all those lives were changed irrevocably by 9/11. I am proud of the people who rushed to help regardless of their own lives. I salute everyone who helped in other ways – with food, water, money, blood donations, or just a compassionate heart and willing hand. May we not forget what happened, but may we see it clearly, so we can prevent it from happening again.

That's 'cause it's a non-vital organ. As amply illustrated by this article: Bush: No Deal On Children's Health Plan (note: this site requires a sign-in. I just lie to them, myself...)

Here's a couple choice quotes:

"President Bush yesterday rejected entreaties by his Republican allies that he compromise with Democrats on legislation to renew a popular program that provides health coverage to poor children, saying that expanding the program would enlarge the role of the federal government at the expense of private insurance."
- And the problem with this is...?

****

Bush: "'And I think it's going to be very important for our allies on Capitol Hill to hear a strong, clear message from me that expansion of government in lieu of making the necessary changes to encourage a consumer-based system is not acceptable.'"
- Pay no attention to the Department of Homeland Security behind the curtain.

****

"Bush said he is opposed to a bipartisan legislation that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products, which could lead to stronger warning labels and limits on nicotine and other ingredients.

'We've always said that nicotine is not a drug to be regulated under FDA,' Bush said.

[Mike] Leavitt [Secretary of Health and Human Services] added that one danger is that the FDA could be seen as giving its stamp of approval to a product 'that will never be safe.'" Oh, yes!
- That's it! The power of the Tobacco Lobby has nothing to do with it!

Eat that, right-wing idealogues!

AP Poll: GOP pick is 'none of the above'

Well, not too badly, anyway. ^_^;;

Yesterday I was, in fact, jubilant. Today, after a bad night of very scary dreams, I'm more subdued, and mostly likely more realistic. I can't believe they're not going to impeach Bush, though! I mean, they went after Clinton about consensual sex, for christssake, and they don't want to "seem partisan" over the President who has literally run this country into the ground through lies, slander, murder, and more lies? Cowardly fucktards.

Overall, though, there is much to be thankful for. Even if the Dems weenie out on some things, at least Bush and cronies no longer have carte blanche to do just any damn thing they please. America's stock has just gone up all around the world, and there's a chance we'll finally get somewhere on Iraq (not holding my breath, though). Here in Oregon, Kulongowski's still Governor, none of the really evil ballot measures passed, and the one really good one did. Metro got their Open Spaces initiative approved (yay!), and in Hillsboro we got our library, fire and police, and school bonds approved (in fact, in all of Washington county, only Forest Grove didn't get their school bond). So, I'm much relieved and a little more hopeful about the idiots voters of this country.

Wow.

Just...wow.

( Robertson -- with Christians like this, who needs Satanists? )

...let's have a little schadenfreude, eh?

Bush lashes out against Democratic war critics -- will he alienate everybody? (We can only hope.)

Embarrassing indictments. (Hee.)

My own personal glee: let's see those numbers hit the single-digits!



Man, am I an evil bitch.

Thanks, kmccready!

( Politics Test -- see the pretty picture! )

With thanks to vj_pdx: http://swiftreport.blogs.com/news/2005/08/god_denies_link.html

I can't say I was surprised by Patty's latest attack of brain disease. And, depressingly, I also wasn't surprised that the Bush Cabal's Administration's response was so tepid. Fuckwads. (Just keep reminding yourself: he can't be re-elected again!)

Shit, with Christians like this, who needs infidels?

>:-/