Mind Vomit by the ikss ~ a journal
Header
Wednesday, May. 19, 2004houses in order
Navigation
the archives
The last few dribbles...
- -
Wednesday, Jul. 06, 2005
good-bye diaryland -
Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005
Social Security -
Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005
save the arctic refuge -
Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005
it's surreal -
Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005
the latest entry
Contact the ikss
~ the ikss guestbook ~
email the ikss
notes to the ikss
New here? Start here
The Usual Suspects (Cast)
the ikss Mission Statement: Please Read
the ikss bio
the ikss profile, including favorite diaryland links
somebody out there loves me
�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
Also, this is the anniversary of the day Anne Boleyn was beheaded (in 1536)
Oh and also? On this day in 1780, the sun disappeared at noon in New England and parts of Canada for unknown (at the time) reasons. As you might imagine, this caused quite a stir.
Speaking of the past...anyone watching Colonial House? In truth, I've only seen bits and pieces over the past two days (hey, Gilmore Girls was on last night, people!). I assume it will be repeated a hundred and twenty-seven times here in the near future, so I�ll be able to catch it in full. I like the show, thus far, but not as much as Frontier House. Last night, though, one of the guys left the Colony and went in to the real town for a beer. Big no-no. Another guy came out of the closet, which was interesting. While most of the people were pretty accepting of his homosexuality, the appointed �Governor� of the colony was far from impressed and talked a lot about �sin�. Of course, were this really true to the time period, the guy would have probably been hung or at least shunned from the town if he�d admitted to homosexuality. There was also an African American gal on there, just living like everyone else. Cool thing that she was included, but hardly historically accurate. On both Frontier House and Colonial House, some accuracy has been sacrificed in favor of Political Correctness.
Oh and hey � how �bout that moldy, rotten meat they had the �option� of eating? That may have been on the preview of next week�s show, actually, but�eew.
Good show, though. And God bless those folks. I guess I could live like that so long as I knew it was temporary, but I�d be really bad at it. I�m not a good enough cook to make a meal out of rancid meat and corn meal.
Not much of interest going on �round these parts. So instead, I�ll leave ya�ll with this stuff to ponder. Enjoy!
Politics:
FACTORY BUSH TOUTED CLOSES; 1,300 OHIOANS JOBLESS
Last April, President Bush visited a Timken Company manufacturing plant in Ohio to press for passage of new tax cuts that he said would spur the economy. During the speech Bush said that "the future of this company is bright and therefore, the future of employment is bright for the families that work here" (1). Less than a year after the tax cuts for the wealthy passed, that same factory is shutting down -- putting about 1,300 people out of work (2) and inflicting a "devastating" blow to the Canton community (3). With the White House pushing even more tax cuts for the wealthy (4) and supporting outsourcing of American jobs (5), Ohio has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office (6).
Of course, one person who will not be feeling the pain of the President's economic policies is W.R. "Tim" Timken - a top Bush fundraiser and the man who decided to shut down the factory. Having earned more than $2.6 million last year, Timken stands to receive $59,000 in new tax breaks from President Bush this year (7) - Timken also happens to have raised $600,000 for the President in one night (8). By contrast, 89% of Ohio residents will receive less than $100 by 2006 from the latest Bush tax cuts (9).
Sources:
1. President Discusses Plan for Economic Growth in Ohio, 04/24/2003
2. "Timken to close Ohio factory", Pittsburgh Business Times, 05/17/2004
3. "Timken Layoffs Potentially Devastating For Canton", NewsNet5.com, 05/16/2004
4. "Bush seeks to make tax cuts permanent", Washington Times, 09/05/2003
5. "Bush Econ Advisor: Outsourcing OK", CBS News, 02/13/2004
6. "BUSH STUMPS IN OHIO, DEFENDS JOBS RECORD", 05/04/2004
7. Citizens for Tax Justice, Fall 2003
8. Campaign Money Watch
9. Citizens for Tax Justice Brief
Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion
~~~
Dear Karen,
George Bush has failed our country. And my top priority between now and November is making absolutely certain that the American people hold him accountable.
This administration will say anything to avoid responsibility for the massive mistakes it has made. But John Kerry will not let them hide -- and you can help by contributing to his campaign now:
http://www.democrats.org/support/kerry/contribute.html
George Bush cannot be trusted to tell the truth. He misled us about Iraq and his administration's paranoid secrecy cuts the public off from information about our government's actions. He would not testify under oath to the September 11th commission -- and could not even meet the commission in private without Dick Cheney's supervision.
He cannot be trusted with our safety. George Bush has thrown away 60 years of America's moral leadership in the world and left us in weak isolation. He has stretched our military dangerously thin by rushing into Iraq, and by sending National Guard and Reserve troops to join them, left our homeland unprotected.
And George Bush simply cannot be trusted with our future. The millions of jobs lost have weakened our economy. More Americans are sick because he has failed to help the tens of millions of us who have no health insurance. And his attempts to divide us by race, gender and sexual orientation are weakening the fabric of our society.
The first step in making America strong again is electing John Kerry. And today the famous fundraising bat is in your hands to help Senator Kerry take his message to the American people:
http://www.democrats.org/support/kerry/contribute.html
We had a spirited primary season this year. But the differences between any of the former Democratic candidates are nothing compared to the fundamental difference between the Democratic agenda and the right-wing ideologues who are destroying this country.
John Kerry will restore American values and our nation's traditional purpose in the world. And the millions of engaged citizens who will participate in this election will revive our democracy. That work is already beginning with organizations like Democracy for America:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com
With your help, we can take our country back -- and take back the White House in 2004.
Sincerely,
Governor Howard Dean M.D.
~~~
Dear MoveOn member:
As America learns more about the prisoner abuse scandal, it's becoming clear that the path to the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib prison began at Donald Rumsfeld's office in the Pentagon. According to an article in the New Yorker magazine, a policy put in place by Secretary Rumsfeld "encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq." [1]
Despite this horrible scandal and the cascading failures of U.S. military policy in Iraq, President Bush says that Rumsfeld is doing "a superb job." In the absence of presidential leadership, Congress must step in and hold the administration accountable.
Please call your Senators and Representative today and tell them to call on President Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld.
[in California]
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Washington, DC: 202-224-3841
Senator Barbara Boxer
Washington, DC: 202-224-3553
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
Washington, DC: 202-225-2415
Please let us know you're calling.
President Bush approved a policy that the Geneva Convention wouldn't apply to suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. When the war in Iraq started to go badly, Rumsfeld extended these aggressive interrogation policies to Iraqi prisons. According to the current issue of Newsweek,
"It was an approach that they adopted to sidestep the historical safeguards of the Geneva Conventions, which protect the rights of detainees and prisoners of war. In doing so, they overrode the objections of Secretary of State Colin Powell and America's top military lawyers - and they left underlings to sweat the details of what actually happened to prisoners in these lawless places. While no one deliberately authorized outright torture, these techniques entailed a systematic softening up of prisoners through isolation, privations, insults, threats and humiliation - methods that the Red Cross concluded were �tantamount to torture.� " [2]
High-level officials in the Pentagon were sent from Guantanamo Bay to Iraq to implement the more aggressive policies, and it appears that command of the prison was placed in the hands of military intelligence officers. Techniques that had been approved only for suspected al-Qaeda terrorists were suddenly applied to Iraqi prisoners (up to 90% of whom were mistakenly detained, according to the Red Cross) [3].
Despite the eagerness of the Bush administration to blame the torture at Abu Ghraib on a few rogue soldiers, it is now clear that real responsibility lies at the top of the chain of command.
As the Commander-in-Chief, it's President Bush�s job to decide who runs the Pentagon. If he won't take the steps that are needed to restore American credibility around the world, Congress needs to use its power to convince the president to do the right thing - whether it issues a clear public call for the Secretary's resignation or whether it uses other leverage to force the Administration�s hand.
Please call your elected Representatives today and ask them to do the right thing, for America�s sake.
Thanks for making these important calls,
- Carrie, Joan, Noah, Peter, and Wes
The MoveOn.org team
Tuesday, May 18th, 2004
[1] THE GRAY ZONE, How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib. Seymour M. Hersh, 5/24/2004, New Yorker
[2] "The Roots of Torture: The road to Abu Ghraib began after 9/11, when Washington wrote new rules to fight a new kind of war." John Barry, Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff, 5/24/04
[3] Red Cross: Iraq Abuse Widespread, RoutineAlexander G. Higgins, 5/10/04.
~~~
Word of the Day for Wednesday May 19, 2004
doyen DOY-en; DWAH-yan, noun:
1. The senior member of a body or group.
2. One who is knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a result of long experience in some field of endeavor.
doyenne
doy-(Y)EN; dwah-YEN, noun: A woman who is a doyen.
~~~
"I pert near peed my pants on the way home, though. I knew I had to pee before I left, but didn�t realize just how badly I needed to do so�Boy howdy, did I run in to my apartment when I got home.�
- - from males are just messy
last / next
~~~~~~~~~~~peace, love and smooches~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't know why you'd wanna, but on the off-chance you may feel tempted to steal any of my words and claim them as your own, please be advised:
All material
Copyright 2002-2005, Howl-at-the-Moon Words
***DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone. If you know me in my "real life" off the net and have come across this page purely by accident, please keep in mind that you were not invited here and I would suggest you leave this page now. However, should you choose not to do so, please be warned that reading my thoughts here is not an invitation to discuss them off-line. You may discover things you do not know about me and may not like very much. Such is life. Again, this is MY space and I will use it as I see fit. If you are offended by anything here, well that's pretty much your own fault at this point.
I say all of this with love, of course, but there it is.
