Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, and "Ava"

Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, and "Ava"

Listen to these kids. They're wise beyond their years. I couldn't look Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, or "Ava" in the eye and tell them I think they're wrong. These kids already have more common sense and maturity in their fingertips than some MSM reporters have in the entirety of their hollow skulls.

In the age of the Internet, new journalists are maturing and they know there's no going back. Our leaders need to be consistent and they need to make sense. They need to tell the truth.

In their future, the Judith Millers will not get away with what this Judith Miller got away with. Presidents will not get away with lying a nation into war.

How did THIS generation of journalists and editors let them get away with it?

It boggles the mind.

I commend Third Estate Sunday and The Common Ills for their fine, consistent coverage of the fall of Daniel Okrent.

John Edwards to Co-Chair Council Task Force on Russian-American Relations

John Edwards to Co-Chair Council Task Force on Russian-American Relations

John Edwards and Jack Kemp will co-chair the Council on Foreign Relations' new Independent Task Force. They will review current U.S. policy toward Russia and make recommendations on future policy - from global security to Russia's evolution as a democratic state.

Issues which they will focus upon making recommendations are:

Co-operating against terrorism
Non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
Strategic energy partnerships
(De-)Democratization
Russia's relations with its neighbors
Cold War legacy issues
Chechnya

I'm glad Sen. Edwards is co-chairing this Task Force. To me, it's almost like an answer to a prayer.

If you read my thoughts after the Beslan tragedy, (and before the 2004 election), you will see that I asked a question:

"We can either proceed with our unilateral war on terror and push US/Russian relations toward a new cold war or we can start offering some genuine diplomacy....

Every one of our actions should be geared for the strength of America in pure harmony with a caring for liberty and justice for all throughout our world.


Ask yourself who will lead us to the strongest and truly safer America when you vote on November 2.
Is it the man who cuts down and mocks international alliances or the man who promises to restore and strengthen them?"

It's good to know Sen Edwards will be there. Honestly, I'll sleep better at night knowing he's there.

__

Other task force members are as follows:

Stephen E. Biegun (Ford Motor Company), Coit D. Blacker (Stanford University), Robert D. Blackwill (Barbour Griffith & Rogers, International), Antonina W. Bouis(Andrei Sakharov Foundation), Mark F. Brzezinski (McGuire Woods, LLP), Richard R. Burt (Dilligence, Inc.), Lorne W. Craner (International Republican Institute), Robert J. Einhorn (Center for Strategic & International Studies), John L. Gaddis(Yale University), John A. Gordon (General, USAF, Retired), James A. Harmon (Harmon & Co.), Steven E. Hellman (OILspace, Inc.), Fiona Hill (The Brookings Institution), George Joulwan (General, USA, Retired; One Team, Inc.), Clifford A. Kupchan (Eurasia Group), Jessica T. Mathews (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Michael A. McFaul (Hoover Institution), David R. Slade (Allen & Overy), Walter B. Slocombe (Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered), Strobe Talbott (The Brookings Institution), Judyth L. Twigg (Virginia Commonwealth University), Margaret D. Williams (World Wildlife Fund), Daniel H. Yergin (Cambridge Energy Research Associates), Dov S. Zakheim (Booz Allen Hamilton).

PressCon: Bush Serves Up A Crock of Malarkey

Bush Serves Up A Crock of Malarkey at Press Conference
Takes Americans for Fools

"I think the Iraqi people dealt the insurgents a serious blow when we had the elections."

- G.W.Bush at today's Press Conference

Hewitt on Brownstein

Hewitt on Brownstein

Hugh Hewitt has a very good point about L.A. Times columnist Ron Brownstein.

"...how in the world are we supposed to believe that employment by a significant Washington player and probable presidential candidate [John McCain] of a spouse of a reporter [Brownstein] who covers Washington players and probable presidential candidates won't affect Brownstein's judgments?"

New Media on the Rise

New Media on the Rise

In today's WSJ, Glenn Reynolds asks a very important question:

"...when you take content from correspondents around the world, organize it in an easy to navigate form, and deliver the eyeballs that it attracts to advertisers, you've created something that looks rather a lot like . . . a newspaper. But it's a very different kind of newspaper, one that takes advantage of the big-media capabilities that, thanks to technological progress, are now in the hands of individuals worldwide.

Will traditional newspapers be able to keep up?"

Honor Our Troops With the Truth

We Honored Them on Memorial Day, Now Let's Honor Our Troops with the Truth

TPM Cafe

TPM Cafe
TPM Cafe is up and running.

Instruction Manual HERE



TPM's First Guest Blogger

John Edwards has posted HERE - "Being Poor is Expensive."

UPDATE: John Edwards has a new entry titled "Things We Know We Can Do".

Matthew Yglesias is HERE.

My own first shot at blogging the TPM Cafe is HERE.

From Ivo Daalder's 'America Abroad' contribution "We Don't Do Treaties":

"..This division between the nuclear haves and nuclear have-nots is not new, and neither is the failure of an NPT review conference (which has happened once before)....What is new is the lack of concern shown by an American administration over the failure to strengthen the nonproliferation regime. While other countries sent foreign ministers to the conference, all we could do was send a mid-level state department official. Rice, so we were told, couldn't even find one hour to fly up to New York anytime this month.

What explains this lackadaisical attitude towards a treaty that is meant to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and help prevent weapons or materials from falling into the hands of terrorists (which Bush in his debate with Kerry last year agreed constituted the gravest threat to America's security)?"

Find out by reading the entire essay.

David Hackworth

David Hackworth

Today, the US military will lay to rest Colonel David H. Hackworth -- among its most decorated heroes of all time -- at Arlington National Cemetery. A recipient of two Distinguished Service Medals, 10 Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars, and eight Purple Hearts, his bravery consisted not only of his service and heroism during WWII and the Korea and Viet Nam wars, but more predominantly of the fact that he questioned the Pentagon when his fellow soldiers wanted to, but didn't feel comfortable raising complaints with superiors. A father figure to thousands of grunts, he wouldn't have cared that Washington's top Brass is shunning him today. I'll bet a league of angel Vets are gathering in Heaven this morning to guide David to a shining place.

Bryan Bender has written a great tribute to Hackworth. [ Boston Globe ]

Don't Look Back, Muscle Jesus!

Don't Look Back, Muscle Jesus!
An American Catholic's Reflections on Pastor Ted and his anti-Catholicism

"...As a Republican, I'll say goodbye to "old Jesus" and hello to "new Jesus. " Sure Christ started out as a liberal Jew, and look where that got him. Compassion, love and diatribes against the rich only encourage the weak and punish the most successful among us. The Jesus that Republicans worship is a muscular, decisive, pro-war crusader hard at work cleansing the world of evildoers, not, God forbid, turning the other cheek..." - LINK

___

Jeff Sharlet's Soldiers of Christ is available for reading at Harper's Online.

Jeff has covered related stories at The Revealer for quite a while, and I'm glad Harpers continues to pick up on some of them.


"Pastor Ted"
Click photo to see related story by Jeff Sharlet

Pastor Ted Haggard, leader of Colorado Springs' New Life (mega)Church, and head of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), talks to President George W. Bush (or his advisers) every Monday.

I am a Catholic. I get a real sense, after reading about Ted Haggard, that he is anti-Catholic. It seems to me that Pastor Ted, for all intents and purposes, thinks that Catholics are losers because we "look back" to the works and examples of the Saints and, darn it, we just aren't blood-thirsty enough.

"Muscle Jesus" has bulk and fangs. Haven't we learned?

Ted blames poverty and third world conditions in Mexico on Catholicism. (Instead of placing blame where it lies: corrupt, inefficient government and pure greed).

Listen to his stereotyping, his smackdown of the value we Catholics place on the compassionate works of the Saints, and his arrogance:

"Catholics," he said, “constantly look back.” He went on: “And the nations dominated by Catholicism look back. They don’t tend to create our greatest entrepreneurs, inventors, research and development. Typically, Catholic nations aren’t shooting people into space. Protestantism, though, always looks to the future. A typical kid raised in Protestantism dreams about the future. A typical kid raised in Catholicism values and relishes the past, the saints, the history. That is one of the changes that is happening in America. In America the descendants of the Protestants, the Puritan descendants, we want to create a better future, and our speakers say that sort of thing. But with the influx of people from Mexico, they don’t tend to be the ones that go to universities and become our research-and-development people. And so in that way I see a little clash of civilizations.”

I think Pastor Ted is using his pulpit to divide Christians - and that is anti-Christian.

This, my friends, is the fellow who has our President's ear.

Take a look at the violence in Belfast, Ireland that continues today, and think about America's society and how we've learned that the separation of church and state can alleviate a lot of stupid and senseless fighting over religion. Imagine Pastor Ted on a Belfast street - in a Catholic neighborhood - preaching about the benefits of Protestantism. Those Belfast Catholic boys would beat the daylights out of old Ted - and if I weren't a Christian myself, I might be tempted to applaud.

The 'Muscle Jesus' is at work in the hearts and minds of men with old grudges.

Pastor Ted thinks the Catholics are "out", and evangelicals are 'in'.... and the battle boils down to evangelicals versus Islam.

QUOTE from article:

“My fear,” he says, “is that my children will grow up in an Islamic state.”

And that is why he believes spiritual war requires a virile, worldly counterpart. “I teach a strong ideology of the use of power,” he says, “of military might, as a public service.” He is for preemptive war, because he believes the Bible’s exhortations against sin set for us a preemptive paradigm, and he is for ferocious war, because “the Bible’s bloody. There’s a lot about blood.”

Pastor Ted is down with the idea of engaging in a Crusade. Isn't that stealing directly from the Catholics? Is that not "looking back?"

As a progressive Catholic who subscribes to Liberation theology, I think Pastor Ted should get 40 lashes from the power-whip of his own created "Muscle Jesus".
That'll learn him!

I promise not to look back.

___

"Our lord loves the country, he's with you at the polls
He knows the lever that you pull
He's keeping track of souls

The way it used to be
The way it ought to be
The way it's going to be again
And when we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry then.."

-From Soldiers Of Christ by Jill Sobule

__

"I think we Christian believers are responsible not to lie, but I don’t think we’re responsible to say everything we know."

- From the Christian wisdom of Pastor Ted

Memorial Day Parade

Memorial Day Parade, Camillus, N.Y.
Monday, May 30, 2005

"To honor them, why speak of duty
or the will of governments?
Think first of love each time you
tell their story.
It gives their sacrifice a name and takes from war its glory."

- Sam Hazo (Real Audio)

See 2LT Cowherd, Final Roll Call - I think this is the best Memorial Day Tribute available on the blogs today. See this related post, also.

TAR HEEL TAVERN

TAR HEEL TAVERN

MAY 28, 2005

Greetings, everyone. I am hosting my first Tar Heel Tavern at Iddybud and I'd like to start by thanking everyone who participated. It was great to hear from you. I enjoyed meeting many of you last week in Greensboro, and in honor of that May 18th Meet-Up, I am including my entry about it.

It was also the deciding factor in this week's Carnival Theme: "Virtual Meet-Up".

I asked each participant to consider this week's Tar Heel Tavern to be a Virtual Meet-Up...a round wooden table with plenty of comfortable chairs in a neighborhood tavern or coffee shop, and to sit back and discuss events of the day - or whatever was on their mind.

GREENSBORO:



• David Wharton of A Little Urbanity asks: Is the building of Disneylike, fake downtowns a good thing? He has concerns about Greensboro's Starmount Company, which is developing the West Friendly Avenue property on which Greensboro's Burlington Industries building stood until last Monday as a shopping center. Since this week's theme is the Virtual Meet-Up, David says he's hoping the new center won't be the
preferred meet-up spot for Mickey, Goofy, and Donald!

• At Lewis Byers' Barber Shop Blog, the entry "To who's IS Concerned- District $20.00" talks about the concerns that the folks in District 2 in Greensboro have. The social experience of being in the barbershop is well represented by links to photos, an mp3 of conversation, and various online topics of the day.

• I had linked to Stewart of Lenslinger earlier this week regarding his blog coverage of last Monday’s staged implosion of the Burlington Industries building. Lenslinger's chosen Tar Heel Tavern entry discusses the "new breed of onlookers" who had risen up to record the event. Read more about his belief that, "whatever new paradigm takes hold, it’s a safe bet the two-person news crew is an endangered species" by going to the link.

• Billy the Blogging Poet points to The Red Hook Community Justice Center in New York State, the nation's first multi-jurisdictional community court, which has been a success in a neighborhood known to be a high crime neighborhood for almost a century. Billy asks: "Why should East Greensboro wait a century to have restorative justice when we could have it today?"



• VFW NC asks you to listen to words taken from a video, made during the WW II era, on safeguarding Military Information. They warn of consequences that have relevance and apply to our world of bloggers today, at all times. They say: "Your blog can be a weapon, your words and images ammunition, so be careful how and where you point it."

• Tara Sue says "Show Me the Jobs," and she cites a mission for Greensboro, which is primarily to avert unemployment. Ideas: Support the restructuring of industry; contribute to the growth in traditional manufacturing; work effectively to reintegrate marginalised social groups; create jobs for young professionals; bring new life into redundant historic monuments or industrial buildings; facilitate the regeneration of run-down city districts; provide the soft infrastructure of cultural tourism; develop the knowledge economy; and demonstrate the value of contemporary culture and stimulate innovation.


• Jerry McClough's ThatsWhatzUp! blog speaks of "Going Forward." The entry is about the things that he sees that he believes are going wrong, not only in Greensboro, but all over the world. He says: "If you are aware that there are unjust things going on and you are not standing up for what is right, then you are as guilty as the person that is doing the wrong." Jerry expresses some disillusionment with the blogging community, but stresses that progress cannot be stopped, he offers some 'street love' to his community members, and closes by expressing the hope that everyone will take a moment and just think about a positive future - where you are at this time, and where are you heading.




ASHEVILLE


photo: AcousticSyndicate.com

• At Scrutiny Hooligans, Funk-o-Meter posts on the final days of a western North Carolina musical institution, the killer bluegrass band known as Acoustic Syndicate. Their last show is this weekend. It's a personal story told by the Hooligan who knew the Sugar Hill recording act - up close and personal.



CHARLOTTE

• The Charlotte Capitalist Many in Charlotte
Mecklenburg are upset about schools, taxes, the arena...The list goes on.
The ideas of two men can reverse this trend. Who are they? He says: "Check it
out!"

• Anonymoses was surprised to learn that the NY Times best selling book titled "1000 Places to See Before You Die" had only talked about a few North Carolina destinations. Suspecting "they just didn't look hard enough," Dave has supplemented the guide with his own entry, "1000 Places in North Carolina to See Before You Die".



TRIANGLE


photo credit: ABC11


• When I read this week's entry at Pam's House Blend, I double-checked my calendar to make sure I was in 2005. "This sh*t shouldn't happen here: crosses burned in Durham" discusses how three crosses were burned in Pam's progressive hometown of Durham, one only a couple of miles away from her own house, near a middle-class, suburban subdivision. Pam says "There's no place here for this kind of bull, and people came out to show that it won't be tolerated." She has provided the link to a follow-up post about Durham vigils -- and speculation about the motive for the cross burnings.


• Coturnix has some thoughts on the use of animals in research and teaching. He is disturbed by the fact that, in the course of his work, he is writing proposals guided not by the importance of experiments that need to be done, but by how likely is it that the experiments will be approved by IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.) He believes what is needed is the freedom to use whatever technique and approach is suitable for a particular question he or his colleagues are asking. He says that the activity of IACUCs have had a 'chilling effect on animal research in the USA', resulting in a precipitous decline in whole-animal research in this country. The result is a slowdown for Science.

• Photoblogger Mandie from It's a Pixelated Life displays a lovely photo of TJ's Deli

• phin's boss doesn't like a few of phin's work habits. He's made it clear, and phin shares the 'Not to-do List' in "A memo from the boss."

• What's wrong with this picture? At Words Fitly Spoken? by Maximilian Longley, a post titled "George Bernard Shaw: Playwright, vegetarian, Socialist propagandist . . . and right-wing gun nut?" points to a quote by Shaw that may surprise you.

• If you've ever hung out at a coffeeshop or a bar in a college town, you have heard geeks argue about Star Wars. Robust McManlyPants says it's just that simple. Here is his contribution - the random, perhaps uncouth but heartfelt defense of a silly subject: "Star Wars Analysis, Now With More Idiot."


• Josh Staiger has a nice write-up on "Roth IRAs and a nod to Vanguard Funds." He adds a recommendation: that you take a stroll down to your local art house movie theater and see Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room in order to "build up your mistrust of corporate America and investment bankers before you give them your money."

• William at Pirates Cove has a photoshop creation to share. He is amazed/maybe not so amazed that Democrats are "all over" the story featured in the now-infamous Isikoff Newsweek (Newsweak) article. Deciding that 'the word of Islamic extremists who want to kill Americans as more credible then that of American soldiers and citizens' is the way he views the attitude of some Democratic citizens. I would imagine this would raise much discussion at a Meet-Up. How about you?

• Jennifer of Open Book provides us with some "Scraps," which she describes as bits and pieces of her mind on a Saturday morning.


photo: Peers & Peerless

• At Peers & Peerless, Alex gives us "Balloon Animal," including photos and a write-up about a film shot in Carrboro last weekend.

___


• A Reminder: Hoggfest is tomorrow in Greensboro. I hope many will attend.

• NEXT WEEK'S TAR HEEL TAVERN WILL BE HOSTED BY BILLY THE BLOGGING POET.

John Edwards Will Guest-Blog at TPM Cafe Debut

John Edwards Will Guest-Blog at TPM Cafe Debut

Josh Marshall has announced that John Edwards will join him for the debut week of the new Talking Points Memo Cafe. Josh will be launching the site on Tuesday, May 31st. John will have the guest blogging seat from Tuesday May 31st through Friday June 3rd.

John just got back from a trip to London. See his post at the One America blog.

Edwards was the commencement speaker at William and Mary Law School last week. A transcript of his speech is available here.

"...it matters who's with you on this journey. It does. So many times life is going to be hard. It's going to seem that heartache and struggle just won't go away. So it matters whose hand you reach out to; whose advice you rely on and whose kindness you depend on to get through the day.."

That is so very true - it really does matter. I consider that a golden piece of advice for young people. I'm thankful for the hands of kindness which help to lead me through those inevitable dark days and I wish each one of you the blessings and benefit of the same.

While you're at Josh's link, check out Fox News' David Asman's totally unprofessional slip of the lip. One of those things that make you go "Hmmmmm".


UPDATE: Matthew Yglesias has actually closed down his old blog in order to join Josh's TPM Cafe. Josh AND Matthew? Man, this is sure to be a POWERHOUSE! I am thrilled for them and for us readers.

Parry: Fear Used for Conservative Success

Parry: Fear Used for Conservative Success

"What the American conservative movement has done so effectively over the last three decades is to perfect a dynamic of fear and inject it into the key institutions for generating or disseminating information."

This article by journalist and author Robert Parry is one to print out and put into your political strategy reference books. How did the American conservative movement succeed so well in saturating the mainstream media with their talking points? How did they turn what was once an investigative and critical press into their lapdogs?

From where we stand today, it's not only the press about whose democratic integrity we must be concerned.

What is perhaps even more troubling is that this fear is spreading to other institutions. Academia is now feeling the heat from conservatives who want to eliminate it as the last bastion of liberal thought. Corporate leaders also appear to be suffering from paralysis in the face of policies that are threatening the long-term future of the United States...CEOs are mostly staying on the sidelines in these crucial debates.

All is not hopeless, as Mr. Parry states that he believes there are solutions.

It’s simply not enough to tell journalists, politicians and others that they must buck up and do the right thing, especially when people who do show courage are systematically destroyed and made into object lessons for colleagues left behind.

If individuals are expected to be courageous, there must be courageous institutions to surround and protect them. That’s why the creation of a counter-infrastructure – one that will take on both the powerful conservative infrastructure and the cowardly mainstream media – is so vital.

Examples of how this counter-dynamic could work can be found in the take-no-prisoners ethos of the anti-Bush Internet sites, or in the irreverent comedy of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” or in the unabashed liberalism of the fledgling progressive talk radio.

All have shown toughness in refusing to genuflect before Bush and his enormous political power.

Read the article. It's a keeper.

John Edwards: The Four Pillars to Develop A Just New World

"Went to see John Edwards speak at the LSE today. Wonderful speech and an hour spent answering the audience questions. It is nice to see liberal causes of egality and ending poverty put across so well. Hopefully he is a future President of the United States."

- From a London blogger

John Edwards: The Four Pillars to Develop A Just New World

Re:Remarks By John Edwards
London School of Economics
May 25, 2005
Audio (Podcast411)
text (One America)

The first pillar:
America and Europe must both prepare for the challenges of globalization.

Nations like India and China are in a race to be on the cutting edge of innovation and technology. Europe is transforming to deal with this reality. It is in America's interest for the European Union to succeed. America needs to remain competitive.

- The American education system must be reformed. Rising tuitions are increasingly putting the hope for a college degree out of reach for many families and their children.

- American budget deficits cause our dependence upon other nations, and we have become less competetive in the world because of those deficits. Our budget must be balanced.

- In the American health care system 46 million people are uininsured and health care costs are exorbitant. This works against America's interests, putting our companies at a competetive disadvantage. Example: Health care adds approximately $1400 to the cost of building each American car.


The second pillar:
We must ensure that people live in a world that is free from want

- In America, 36 million people wake up in poverty every day. We need to strengthen the foundation for families that work and that means health care for everyone and child care for parents who need it.

- One idea to provide hope and assistance is, using Great Britain's example:

"Britain has led the way with the Child Trust Funds. We ought to consider the same thing in America—providing $500 to every child at birth, and perhaps an additional $500 for lower-income families. If parents could contribute too, then by the time a child turned 18 years old, they could have as much as $40,000 in the bank. Money to spend on college or a home.. or money to store up for retirement. Imagine what it would say to a poor boy growing up in my home state of North Carolina...if he knew that if he studied hard..if he stayed in school...then he would have $20 or $30 or $40 thousand dollars in the bank when he turned 18. Imagine what it would do to his sense of hope and possibility for the future. It could change whole communities."

The third pillar:
America and Europe must work together to eliminate the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

- We need critical organizations like NATO to remain strong.

- We must close the loopholes in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by creating a new "Global Nuclear Compact.

- America and Europe must ensure that the know-how to build nuclear weapons never reaches terrorists by strengthening existing plans which ensure that nuclear scientists are employed for peaceful purposes.


The Fourth Pillar:
The final pillar is promoting liberty and democracy around the world.

"Ordinary men and women, from Egypt to Morocco to Indonesia, need to be convinced that democracy and liberty are the pathway to possibilities."

- Just as poverty and disillusionment isolate and drain hope from our own people in our own cities and towns, it does the same thing for every person around the world who feels like they don't have a chance. General John Abizaid has said that the war against terrorism is "a battle of ideas as much as it is a military battle."

[Freedom]stirs the soul and makes all people long for that fundamental human right to be free. And a world where poverty and despair are accepted is a world that's going nowhere—a world that isn't really free. Think about it. Freedom is meaningless if your children are dying of preventable diseases like Malaria. Freedom is meaningless to a child that shows up at a school but is turned away because that child can't pay for a uniform. And freedom is meaningless when 1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day.

There's been a lot of talk about freedom in America and around the world. Let me be clear: the idea that America stands for freedom is not new. It is not owned by any political party. It is not owned by any one country. It is an idea that is borne from our words and our wishes, and given life through our actions.

* the reaction was resounding applause

president2008

Photo

Coturnix (Bora) and Iddybud (Jude)
at Chapel Hill last week
Photo by David K. Beckwith (Anonymoses)

Sign This Letter Re "Downing Street Memo"

Sign This Letter Re: "Downing Street Memo"

On the same day President Bush said that 20 years from now, historians will look back on the Iraq war as "America's golden moment," Raw Story reports that Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) seeks to amass 100,000 signatures from U.S. citizens calling on President Bush for more answers about a 2002 meeting during which a senior British official said intelligence was "being fixed" to present a case for the Iraq war.

Please sign the letter and tell others to sign as well.

From JohnConyers.com:

"...Along with 88 of my colleagues, I wrote to the President requesting answers about this grave matter. Thus far, our search for the truth has been stonewalled and I need your help. I believe the American people deserve answers about this matter and should demand directly that the President tell the truth about the memo. To that end, I am asking you to sign on to a letter to the President requesting he answer the questions posed to him by 89 Members of Congress...

..Please pass on this important letter to your friends and colleagues, and ask them to sign as well.

Thank you for your help and support."

John Conyers, Jr.

Letter to President Bush Concerning the Downing Street Memo

Raw Story has learned that a coalition of activist groups running the gamut of social and political issues will ask Congress to file a Resolution of Inquiry, the first necessary legal step to determine whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in misleading the country about his decision to go to war in Iraq. It cites the Downing Street Memo and issues surrounding the planning and execution of the Iraq war. A resolution of inquiry would force relevant House committees to vote on the record as to whether to support an investigation.

NOTE: Telling us that history will judge this as our "golden moment" is quite a leap from Bush's reply to Bob Woodward when he asked the president how history would judge Bush on Iraq. Back then, Bush had replied:

‘History,’ and then he took his hands out of his pocket and kind of shrugged and extended his hands as if this is a way off. And then he said, ‘History, we don’t know. We’ll all be dead.’”

Reference: AfterDowningStreet.org

___

From "the farmer" at Corrente:

Is this a lie...?
"I have no knowledge of the Downing memo."

Is that a lie? That's what the host of this mornings episode of CSPAN's Washington Journal told a caller when asked to briefly explain the Downing Street memo. (Friday, May 27, 2005).

So noted informed tv-journalist host, after informing the caller that he had no knowledge of such things, then suggested the caller might try searching about on the internet to find what they were looking for.

That's our liberal media!

BBA

Memorial Day - Fair and Balanced

Memorial Day - Fair and Balanced

Fox News tells us, by it's slogan (which, ironically, they betray every day), that we should be fair and balanced.

Memorial Day is approaching.
With the world as it stands today, I wanted to find a way to be Fair and Balanced about the American Holiday's observation.

I have chosen to honor soldiers' sacrifices in the face of my bitter and realistic heartbreak over our current foreign policy.

I recently thought to myself, "If the world is watching me, what will I say, as an American who wishes to honor my nation's war dead - knowing fully well that some perfectly innocent people have died in a war which, after knowing what we now know, my nation never had to initiate?"

That's a difficult question.

Diane, a writer at Daily Kos, has written a poignant story called "One Hundred Names You Won't Hear This Memorial Day". From the photo of the first young man on her list, who resembles my own son, I cannot turn away from what is true and what is real. I am Pro-Life. I believe innocent boys and girls should never die in the name of collateral consequence, regardless of the material benefit an optional war provides for us as citizens of a nation.

Stem cell research has little to do with Memorial Day, but asking for logic that would follow a straight path has a lot to do with the point I'd like to make. On ABC News' This Week, Rev. Billy Graham's daughter, Ann Graham Lotz, recently said:

"My father has Parkinson's disease. I have a son who has cancer, a mother who has degenerative arthritis and I have a husband who has diabetes. And those are four very close family members, each one of whom has a disease that I have read, anyway, could be possibly affected by stem cell research, which is exciting to me, but embryonic stem cell research, which is still distressing to me. I would not want any one of my family members to benefit from the willful destruction of another human life."

If that is true, and unless she is a complete hypocrite (which I do not believe she is), then we can put Ann Graham Lotz in the category of "Anti-war". After all, given her logic, the many innocent deaths we have willfully caused in Iraq, which were of a secondary (collateral) nature to our intent to win in an optional war which benefits our nation would surely not be morally acceptable.

Yet, listen to what Anne Graham Lotz said when asked by Jane Clayson on the NBC Today Show about 9/11:

Clayson asked, "I've heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you say?"

Lotz replied, "I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection.."

Anne Graham Lotz blamed American culture for 9/11. Basically, she's saying "God's gonna getcha for that." Wouldn't that mean that Anne Graham Lotz believes that God, with vengeance, was, in some way, with those hijackers on that fateful September morning? Is that what the "gentleman God" in Lotz' head is all about? Perhaps she'd believe, following her logic, that her "gentleman God" was so angry and saddened with American culture that He allowed the President and his administration to lie to the American public and send us to unnecessary war? I wonder what Anne would say about Iraq? In my search for any comment whatsoever on Google, I am only met with her glaring silence on Iraq.

This and many other moral confusions and hypocrisies are what makes America such a mockable spectacle to secularists around the world. I'm sick to death of these hypocrisies (whether or not the people truly believe what they're saying). I'm hoping Americans will soon come to their senses and work together for a land where we can exist at peace with one another and tend to our common values and goals.

God has been used to raise emotion on Memorial Day, and I believe there is a proper and fitting place for God in the National observance of the holiday. It doesn't rest with the loons of the far right, however. It rests with the trust, love and devotion that the individual soldier holds in his or her heart.

One listen to the music and poetry of "Each Time You Tell Their Story" (Real Audio) by Sam Hazo will help you to understand this.

"To honor them, why speak of duty
or the will of governments?

Think first of love each time you
tell their story.

It gives their sacrifice a name and takes from war its glory."

I weep for the men and women we've lost in Iraq. My heart is torn to shreds over their loss. They have my undying love, thanks, and respect.

I believe in God. My faith has not been shaken by 9/11 or by the sickening path by which President Bush's foreign policy has led us. My fervent prayer is that God forgives us for the careless and arrogant mistakes the Bush administration has made in Iraq - in the name of the People of America.

I dedicate this post and Memorial Day to Pat Tillman and his family.

Arianna on Hillary's Confusing Iraq Statement

Arianna on Hillary's Confusing Iraq Statement
Why on Earth is Hillary speaking this way?! Arianna Huffington points out the importance of clarity and longs for a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate who owns a dictionary where the words "political poison" appear under the definition of "equivocate".

Why can’t Democratic leaders talk straight about Iraq? The latest example is Hillary Clinton on CNN: "You know, I am not one who feels comfortable setting exit strategies. We don't know what we're exiting from. We don't know what the situation is moving toward…. How do we know where we're headed, when we don't know where we are?"

Wow. Very existential. Very Zen koan. If a foreign policy disintegrates in the desert and no one hears it fail, what does this mean for our country and for our safety? Do you hear that? It’s the sound of one Greek gagging. I’ve just decided that I do have a litmus test for the 2008 Democratic nominee: someone who can utter, in plain English, an unambiguous, unequivocal sentence about Iraq.

Read more here.

Jim Goldsborough on John Bolton

Jim Goldsborough on John Bolton

Jim Goldsborough continues to be a strong voice of reason. In his recent column titled "We Deserve John Bolton", he says:

"The new Anglo-Saxon Crusade against the infidels is a disaster. We have killed tens of thousands of innocent people with our bombs and turned a functioning nation into a hellhole. The murdering will not stop and our reputation will not begin to be restored until we are gone -- and even then it will take decades or even centuries. Our armed forces, which opposed this war, have seen their reputation besmirched again, and we are implicated in torture and human rights abuses as never before.

This is the America Bush has given us. This is the America that deserves John Bolton at the United Nations."

I went to Blogsboro

I went to Blogsboro
...and all I got was this lousy t-shirt my picture on the front cover!



Yes Weekly:
New media gains national attention in Greensboro
There’s something happening here.


Oh, yes, there's something definitely happening in Blogsboro. Yes Weekly's Editor Brian Clarey and photographer Lee Adams have done a fantastic job of helping you to envision the social (blogging) scene at Panera's on Lawndale last Wenesday night. It was a warm and welcoming group on a warm Spring evening. Billy Jones, who has graciously organized and hosted the monthly Meet-Ups, was the first person I recognized when I arrived. Roch Smith fooled me..he'd shaved off his beard, so I didn't recognize him right off the bat. Because I'd only seen him in photos, I expected to see Roch as he'd appeared on the mysterious Mr. Sun's website. I tried to squeeze Mr. Sun's true identity out of Roch, by the way, but he wouldn't sing.
*Mr. Sun, your secret is safe with Roch.

I was invited to see the Revolution Mill Studios afterwards, and I found it to be quite an interesting evening. Tara Sue Clark is a vivacious and energetic idea-wielder who told us about the history and renovation of the mill and her plans for its future. Making internet users feel comfortable with blogging tools is something that comes naturally to her.

Ross Myers, sitting with us at the massive wood conference table in an airy room of glass and sturdy wooden beams, spoke of a potential for a prosperous future in the world of citizen's media. Ross is, to say the least, uncomfortable about the new "private box" into which he sees the traditional media attempting to put the blogosphere. He believes a true "Public Square" should be owned by the public and maintained in the interest of the public and not the special interests. Myers' ideas go far beyond the borders of the lovely community in which he lives and works. He has asked, if 10 men from six highly competitive New York newspapers could have met and agreed to work together…and within 100 years become one of the largest news gathering organizations in the world, what could 8 million people from all over the world accomplish in just a few years, given the technological advantages we have today? That, according to Ross, is the question the blogosphere needs to be addressing. With blogging, it's anyone's game. New business models are emerging.

My Idea Consultants colleague Nick Lewis said recently in his column titled "The Evolutionary Origins of the Weblog":

"The MSM is sustained through legal safeguards, readers and watchers who have no where else to turn, and revenue from ads. In contrast, the blogosphere’s growth is sustained by our natural desire for social belonging; to find meaning through cooperation towards common goals. Look at those two models again. Which is more likely to outlive the other?"

I know this topic has come up in Greensboro before. Much has been discussed. Ed Cone has asked:

"Is Roch [Smith] ethically wrong at 101? Are Ross and Tara ethically wrong to look at blog networks as a way to do affinity marketing?...This is not the old media world, where the success of one entity must come at the expense of another."

Anonymoses replied, (in his unmistakable Anonymosian way:)

"..you seem to be talking about sins of inclusion, which, if a sin at all, is at least a shared sin…which basically means you will only go to Heck, a bedroom community on the outskirts of Hell. Climate-controlled. WiFi…"

I love the idea of everyone in Blogsboro working cooperatively...flourishing financially...constantly striving to benefit all citizens within that community and beyond..providing citizens with a strong voice and a simple way to relay their message in this land of the free; this home of the brave; this abode of the entrepreneurial. With cooperation and ethical consideration, I believe they may succeed in being the pioneering success they dream of being. Sky's the limit.

I especially enjoyed speaking with Ron Newton, GED Tutor of the Year in 2004, whose SAT College Board Preparation blog is the only one of its kind in existence today.

Jerry McClough of ThatsWhatzUp was recently voted President of his child's Elementary School PTA.

Lewis Byers' Barbershop blog is a pretty hip idea. I'll be watching it closely to see how it evolves and grows.

Jay Ovittore, Sue, Chewie,JW, Lenslinger, Ben, F.S. Patrick, Michael, Jill Williams from Truth and Reconciliation...I enjoyed meeting you.

In January of this year, Ed Cone wrote:

"..Something is trying to happen in Greensboro. If you compare the weblog scene here and now to the situation one year ago, the progress is phenomenal. But it's an experiment. The people behind it are sincere and committed. It could falter, at least as a business proposition, which would lead some to say it failed. It may succeed in ways that the mass market or at least current understanding does not recognize as success.

It is what it is."

I think, for tonight, that is a fitting way to end this blogpost.



* See Yes Weekly's list of Greensboro's Top Ten Hometown Blogs. Congrats to all who made the Top Ten list and the Honorable Mention list.