Mind Vomit by the ikss ~ a journal
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Friday, Sept. 03, 2004step up to the plate, bub
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�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
~~~
I didn�t listen to much of Dubya�s speech last night. Listening to him talk about how we�re going to build a �Stronger America� or talk about health care and employment just made me physically ill. And I may be wrong, but didn't he also have the balls to say something about the environment? Aside from the fact that he was not at all specific about how he was going to do anything (nobody is ever specific during convention speeches, of course), I am so nauseated that the leader of our country can stand up there and just flat out lie to all of us.
And yet people wonder why there were hundreds of thousand of protesters on the streets of New York this week.
Based on the speech he gave at midnight last night (well, what I heard of it this morning), John Kerry FINALLY seems to be taking Bush on in a real way and with real facts and figures and I hope he continues to do so. But I wish he�d just STOP TALKING ABOUT FUCKING VIET NAM! Yes, the way the GOP has handled Kerry�s war record is disgusting, especially since the ones throwing barbs around were too chicken shit to go themselves. But let�s face it � if Kerry and company hadn�t leaned so heavily on his war service during the Democratic Natl. Convention a few weeks ago, the GOP wouldn�t have so much ammo.
Kerry needs to step up to the plate and start batting. I�m not talking about bashing Bush with needless rhetoric and sounds bites � leave the low road to the GOP. There are PLENTY of weapons we can use against Bush without having to resort to the same sort of lies and underhanded tactics they use. He needs to ask real questions � the ones for which Bush has no answer, or at least not an answer that he wants to actually say out loud.
For instance�Bush claimed yesterday that �Overall, we've added about 1.7 million jobs since August 2003. The unemployment rate is down to 5.4 percent," he said.
�That's nearly a full point below the rate last summer and below the average of the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s."
But here is the truth about those figures:
BUSH TO ALTER ECONOMIC STATS AGAIN
Last week, the Census Bureau released statistics showing that for the first time in years, poverty had increased for three straight years, while the number of Americans without health care increased to a record level.[1] But instead of changing its economic and health care policies, the Bush administration today is announcing plans to change the way the statistics are compiled. The move is just the latest in a series of actions by the White House to doctor or eliminate longstanding and nonpartisan economic data collection methods.
In a Bush administration press release yesterday, the Census Bureau said next week it "will announce a new economic indicator" as "an additional tool to better understand" the economy. The change in statistics is being directed by Bush political appointees and comes just 60 days from the election. It will be the first modification of Census data in 40 years.[2]
This is not the first time the White House has tried to doctor or manipulate economic data that exposed President Bush's failed policies. In the face of serious job losses last year, the Associated Press reported "the Bush administration has dropped the government's monthly report on mass layoffs, which also had been eliminated when President Bush's father was in office."[3] Similarly, Business Week reported that the White House this year "unilaterally changed the start date of the last recession to benefit Bush's reelection bid." For almost 75 years, the start and end dates of recessions have been set by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private nonpartisan research group. But the Bush administration decided to toss aside the NBER, and simply declare that the recession started under President Clinton.[4]
Sources:
1. "Census: Poverty up in 2003" The Olympian, 9/01/04
2. Census Bureau press release, 8/31/04
3. "Monthly report on mass layoffs dropped" Shawnee News-Star, 1/05/03
4. "Inventing The 'Clinton Recession'" Business Week Online, 2/23/04
Visit www.Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion.
~~~
Bush Team Reversing Wilderness Act's 40-Year Success
Forty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson enacted one of the most forward-looking environmental laws in human history. By signing the 1964 Wilderness Act and creating the National Wilderness Preservation System, President Johnson endorsed a uniquely American philosophy: America's wild lands, untrammeled by industry or machinery -- yet open to the enjoyment of all citizens -- possess special values that merit permanent protection for their own sake.
The decision to preserve wild lands was without precedent anywhere in the world. It symbolized Americans' deep pride in our greatest national asset -- our public lands. The act also inspired an extended period of reflection among the nation's historians, who saw the good in a people who collectively could act beyond the immediate desires of the present and protect something for those who came after them:
"In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia." Charles A. Lindbergh, LIFE magazine, 22 December 1967
Since the law's signing, over 105 million acres of citizen-owned lands have been protected as Wilderness Areas, from the towering summits of the Rocky Mountains, to the pristine forests of the Pacific Northwest, to the biologically rich swamps of Florida.
Another 200 million acres of federal public lands may be suitable for Wilderness designation -- lands with equally stunning vistas, biological diversity and a measure of the quiet and solitude that is rapidly disappearing as more private lands become developed.
Sadly, with the arrival of the Bush Administration, the nation's remaining wild lands are instead now targeted for development by the oil, gas, timber and mining industries.
By definition, Wilderness Areas are off-limits to industrial use, and so have a natural enemy in the extractive industries. When President Bush came to power in 2000, he stacked his cabinet and federal agencies with industry lobbyists who spent their careers fighting the protection of wild lands.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton cut her teeth learning legal tricks from her infamous predecessor and mentor, Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt -- a man who actually advocated selling off our National Parks.
Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a life-long oil and gas man, headed a methane company that is aggressively fighting wilderness designation in the Rockies. Mark Rey, Undersecretary of Agriculture for Environment and Natural Resources, made his living as a top lobbyist for the timber industry before gaining oversight of the National Forest system.
This team of industry handmaidens quickly went to work dismantling the system that allows for Wilderness preservation. The first major volley was an under-cover-of-night decision by Secretary Norton to settle a controversial lawsuit with then-Utah Governor Mike Leavitt (now chief of the Environmental Protection Agency).
The "Norton-no-more-wilderness-settlement," as it's called, established that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management may not legally protect wilderness-quality lands -- ever. Norton's goal is to open tens of millions of acres of roadless and wild public lands throughout the West to oil and gas drilling.
Similarly, this summer, Undersecretary Rey killed the Clinton-era "Roadless Area Conservation Rule," which had allowed the Forest Service to inventory and preserve wild forest lands while they await a decision from Congress over formal Wilderness designation.
The roadless rule was the result of thousands of hours of public hearings. It generated hundreds of thousands of comments in favor of its enactment -- the most popular environmental decision of the last decade. Rey's reversal opened millions of acres of the public's forests to timber cutting, mining, and oil and gas drilling. Indeed, just last week, the Forest Service issued oil and gas leases in an inventoried roadless area south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming -- Vice President Cheney's home away from home.
While the wilderness characteristics President Bush aims to sacrifice are worthy of preservation on their own merits, there is more at stake. Many cities in the West increasingly rely on the clean water that flows from Wilderness Areas; some of the cleanest water in the nation originates there.
Similarly, outdoor recreation, hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing are multi-billion dollar industries that depend primarily on protected public lands. These industries have spoken out against Bush's policies, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Unless the President can be convinced to reverse course, these lands -- and the legal basis of the American land ethic -- may be lost forever.
~~~
Walk for Hope - September 11th, 2004
Bolsa Chica State Beach - 5 Miles north of Huntington Beach Pier Saturday, September 11 | 10:00am-2:00pm
To watch the latest interview about the Walk for Hope on KOCE, click here
Why is the Walk for Hope not a typical "walk-a-thon"?
As you walk along the beach, you will find inspirational quotes and activities (including a rebuilding the twin towers exercise). You and your family will also enjoy speakers and music. Respond to the 9-11 tragedy with an opportunity that builds hope around the planet.
100% of all proceeds are donated to 3 outstanding organizations:
- 9-11 Children's Fund:
Provides educational assistance to those who lost a parent on 9-11.
- Afghanistan Relief Organization:
Distributes relief supplies in war-torn areas.
- HOKISA: Provides care to children in South Africa that have been affected by AIDS.
Pre-Registration: $20 | Day of Registration: $25
To register or for more information, click here
To invite your friends, click here
And yes, the ikss will be there.
~~~
Word of the Day for Friday September 3, 2004
myriad MIR-ee-uhd, adjective:
1. Consisting of a very great, but indefinite, number; as, myriad stars.
2. Composed of numerous diverse elements or aspects.
noun:
1. The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. (Chiefly in reference to the Greek numeral system, or in translations from Greek or Latin).
2. An immense number; a very great many; an indefinitely large number.
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