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Alison: Loquacious as ever with a touch of elegance -- & right on target as usual!
"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it."
- Noam Chomsky
Speaking of bloody pulpits (see previous post), here's more on Afghanistan
it's not like i don't get on mine on a regular basis...
robert greenwald of brave new films is putting together a documentary on afghanistan where he attempts to put together some of the issues facing the u.s. and the world in that country... as i sit here in kabul typing this, i wish him luck...
i made an offer to john aravosis at americablog a few weeks ago to arrange for him to visit kabul but i think he's wussed out... i just made the same offer to brave new films... let's see if someone there can muster the cojones...
Watch this short video, think of the startling implications, and then sign the petition. It has been signed by over 47,000 laypeople and over 2,200 doctors.
McCain doesn't have to die for Sarah Palin to take over the reigns of the Presidency.
This year, the tax loophole has given Henry Kravis: $33,116,174 and counting
Tell the presidential candidates to pledge to close the buyout industry's tax loopholes
19,349 signers [as of 8:52 a.m. U.S. pacific time/8:22 p.m. Afghanistan time, 6 May 08]
Dear presidential candidates,
Buyout industry executives with multi-million dollar incomes have been amassing fortunes by exploiting a major tax loophole. Their tax privileges have robbed the public purse and placed the burden on working- and middle-class taxpayers.
Make a pledge, if elected, that you will work to close the buyout industry's tax loopholes.
The "carpet-bombing" of Obama continues and has even spread to Germany and France
check out how germany's spiegel seems to have signed up for the destroy-obama campaign...
Hillary Clinton has succeeded: Her rival Barack Obama has lost his shine, and now even he looks susceptible to campaign-season dirty tricks. Both candidates are attacking each other in the hope of a clear victory on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. But are they also handing ammunition to John McCain?
Obama's voice sounds erratic, impatient, almost angry. His microphone fails. "Hello? Hello?" And his voice lacks its usual melody; his orchestrated cascades of words sound dull. At one point he stanches the flow of applause -- "People, listen!"
Obama reads for 20 minutes from a piece of paper, sounding tired and laconic. He evokes, as usual, this "defining moment in history." And he fulminates against "war without end." He condemns "the broken politics of Washington … the politics that's all about tearing each other down when what we need is to lift this country up."
But then that's just what he does. The second half of his speech consists of attacks on his rival, Hillary Clinton. "She has taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any candidate in this campaign," he says. Clinton is running a "negative campaign," just like "the Republicans would do it." And now, when Obama mentions Hillary's name, the crowd boos.
Until now, Obama has stood aloof from political mudfights, renouncing ad hominem attacks and generally playing the grown-up.
But he started to bow deep into the muddy trenches after Clinton finally managed, in the last few weeks, to bring him down with biting personal attacks.
It's having a visible effect on his usually calm demeanor; his lighthearted moments come less often and his bearing is grimmer. He seems to be bearing a weight, perhaps the weight of someone not living up to his own claims.
Democratic White House contender Barack Obama could not hide his irritation Monday when asked by a reporter what he thought about former president Jimmy Carter's meeting with Hamas last week.
"Why can't I just eat my waffle?" the Illinois senator said as he ate breakfast in Scranton, Pennsylvania, according to MSNBC television pictures.
Pressed again for an answer, he replied: "Just let me eat my waffle."
and, of course, on the domestic scene, fox leads the charge... fortunately, robert greenwald and brave new films are all over fox like flies on shit...
FOX’s objective is clear: carpet bomb Barack Obama with negative stories, distortions, and smears before the Pennsylvania primary in an attempt to skew the outcome toward the Republicans’ preferred adversary, Hillary Clinton. But did FOX imagine that the “liberal” media would be such willing accomplices?
Check out our latest episode of the gameshow sensation that’s sweeping the nation — THE FOX IS WRONG: OBAMA! Play along as FOX guests and personalities distort and misrepresent the statements of Obama and those around him, only to have that pesky “liberal” media pick up the smears and keep on running! For the finale, watch in wonder and amazement as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos allows Sean Hannity to actually spoon-feed him a question on Hannity’s radio show, then parrots it almost word-for-word a day later during ABC’s infamous Democratic debate in Pennsylvania!
obama's only human, after all... weathering constant, ugly, mean-spirited, attacks 24/7 is something nobody should have to face, but, unfortunately, that's his reality for the time being... the best we can do is to send our encouragement, our good wishes, our warm and unconditional support (money works too!), to let him know that we are behind him and sending good thoughts to help him rise above the tawdriness that characterizes u.s. politics in the modern age, a tawdriness that we are putting our faith in him to dispel...
Torture: you commit the crime, then lie about it, you pay the consequences... We're talking about YOU, Condi...
ok... let's get really real... despite the virtual non-coverage of bush's admission and approval of the use of torture and the revelation that his most senior advisors, led by condoleezza rice, were the ones who met and specified what, how, and for whom, it's now time to impose the serious and highly appropriate consequences on those who participated and lied to cover it up, starting with condi...
robert greenwald and his gang put together another stellar video, this one comparing the run-up to iraq with the same garbage that's going on right now...
p.s. i'll get over it... i have a half-day drive ahead of me to a smaller town where i begin teaching a graduate class this evening... it'll keep my mind off of doom and gloom and might even improve my outlook, who knows...
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