Vindication for Al Gore

Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won the Nobel Peace Prize today for his work to fight global climate change.

"The Nobel Peace Prize Committee has today made it clear that combating climate change is a central peace and security policy for the 21st century," Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, said in a statement.

"The IPCC and Mr. Gore have contributed to the unprecedented momentum on the climate-change challenge in 2007," Steiner added.

Tony Juniper, executive director of environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth, said of the Nobel announcement: "This is a very welcome signal that the world is beginning to wake up to how environmental challenges are going to shape many aspects of human welfare long into the future.

"We hope that politicians everywhere will see this signal and take heed," he added.

Seems like proper vindication for the Man Who Should Have Been President to me. I only hope Al Gore's ability to influence more action regarding global climate change continues.

Free Paris REDUX - Now I've seen it all

Paris Hilton supporters created a petition asking Gov. Schwarzenegger for leniency. Indulge me while I give you a little excerpt:

Paris Whitney Hilton is an American celebrity and socialite. She is an heiress to a share of the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as to the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton. She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives.

[...]

As most of America now knows, Ms. Hilton was just charged in a Los Angeles court with DUI and sentenced to 45 days in Century Regional Detention Facility in California beginning on or before June 5, 2007.

We, the American public who support Paris, are shocked, dismayed and appalled by how Paris has been the person to be used as an example that Drunk Driving is wrong. We do not support drunk driving or DUI charges. Paris should have been sober. But she shouldn't go to jail, either.

Whatever, people! Yeah, Paris is such a victim. In her own words:

"I think I get in more trouble because of who I am," posits Paris. "The cops do it all the time. They'll just pull me over to hit on me. It's really annoying. They're [the cops] like, 'What's your phone number? Want to go out to dinner?'"

So NOT sympathetic to your cause, girlfriend.

UPDATE: In response to this absurdity, I just had to create a rebuttal petition. Read (and sign) it here.

Say, "Torture!"

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, number 588, poses for a reunion photo with his fellow Harvard alumni.

Kudos to the students at Harvard who effectively forced Gonzales to escape through the back door during visit this weekend to his alma mater:

At a time when many in the nation are calling for Gonzales to resign, one third-year student managed to communicate the mood of his own alma mater directly to Gonzales. While the Attorney General's security detail kept protestors at bay and the photographer prepared the class photo, she slipped though the law library's front doors and approached Gonzales from behind. "On behalf of many other Harvard Law students," she said, "I'd like to tell you that we are ashamed to have you as an alumnus of this school. And we're glad you're here to be able to tell you that." Gonzales thanked the student and offered to shake her hand, but was refused. After the class photo was taken, several of the Attorney General's classmates clapped and approached the protesting students to thank them for their efforts.

Following the group photo, Gonzales ducked into the library to take a stroll around the main reading room, which, on the weekend before final exams, was full of students going over their notes. When the protestors caught up with Gonzales, the cavernous reading room, ordinarily a place of hushed whispers, echoed with chants of "shame" and "resign."

Funny. That last part kind of reminds me of the shower scene in Carrie, for some reason.

Anyway, unfortunately, Gonzales probably won't resign, even though everyone and their mother is asking him to. I swear, the inner circle of the Bush Administration is like a bunch of freakin' cockroaches --- they just won't go away!

Thanks to Jonsey (read his blog now!) for the link.

(Photo lifted from here.)

Bush cuts off NPR and PBS

Is nothing sacred? I urge you to sign this MoveOn.org petition:

George W. Bush is trying—yet again—to slash funding for NPR and PBS. This week, Bush proposed a new budget with devastating cuts to public broadcasting.(1) "Sesame Street" and other ad-free kids' shows are under the knife. So is the independent journalism our country needs.

Enough is enough. We've fought this fight before and won—but we can't afford the risk anymore. With the new Congress, we can make sure this never happens again. We need Congress to insulate NPR and PBS from the political winds.

We can make it happen if enough of us sign this petition: "Congress must save NPR and PBS once and for all. Congress should guarantee permanent funding and independence from partisan meddling." Clicking here will add your name to the petition.

After you sign, please forward this email to your friends, family, and co-workers to keep this campaign going. We'll deliver the petition to members of Congress as they consider Bush's budget—offering a public counterpoint to this dangerous attack.

Congress can protect NPR and PBS from future cuts. The long-term solution to save public radio and TV is to:

* fully restore this year's funding
* guarantee a permanent funding stream free from political pressure
* reform how the money is spent and keep partisan appointees from pushing a political bias

Bush's budget would cut federal funds for public broadcasting by nearly 25%.1 According to PBS, the cuts "could mean the end of our ability to support some of the most treasured educational children's series" like "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," and "Arthur." (2)

As telecommunications chair Rep. Ed Markey said, "In a 24-7 television world with content often inappropriate for young children, the public broadcasting system represents an oasis of quality, child-oriented educational programming. We owe America's children and their parents this free, over-the-air resource."(1)

The cuts could also decimate one of the last remaining sources of watchdog reporting on TV—continuing the partisan war on journalism led by the ex-chair of public broadcasting, Ken Tomlinson.(3) More people trust public broadcasting than any corporate news media.(4) President Bush would rather undermine our free press than face reporters who are asking tough questions.

Memorial Day

I thought it'd be a good idea to celebrate Memorial Day by watching Fahrenheit 9/11, but all it did was succeed in pissing me off.

And that was just the part before the opening credits.

Fighting the war on war .. one yuppie at a time.

Mags' Marines stormed through E-ville and Piedmont this weekend, fighting the good fight and supporting the cause. Here's a few snapshots from their tour of duty:

Activism begins at home.

Fortified with a cup o' joe and a sesame seed bagel, and emboldened by the news that bloggers share the same sheild laws traditional journalists enjoy, Mags' Marines were ready for battle.

First stop: Piedmont Grocery

Tiny tanks need parking spaces too:

"Hello? Bush lied."

Keeping watch at the Amtrak station in E-ville:

What's really in that tank?

Mags' Marines also stopped to pay homage to another fallen soldier, and to honor those fighting a different kind of war ...

(Cross-posted at the Kommandos Project.)

Mags' Marines at the Ready!

The first brigade of Mag's Marines are ready to make their presence known in the east bay, bearing banners that read, "Rumsfailed" (thanks, Kvatch), "Mission Accomplished?", "Bring Us Home!", "No More Lies", and "They Lied ... We Died".

Today we'll focus on E-ville (which in some ways really is evil, but most people know it as Emeryville), with a multiphasic deployment around the Oakland/Piedmont areas.

We'll give those yuppies something to think about this weekend, by God!

(Cross-posted at the Kommandos Project)

Apparently now T-shirts with attitude are illegal

I thought it would be more exciting to shop for a vacuum cleaner than watch Dubya's State of the Union bullshit last night.

Seems like I didn't miss much, except for the fact that Cindy Sheehan, who was invited by Lynne Woolsey (D-Calif.), got kicked out for protesting.

No, seriously.

She was wearing a black t-shirt that said," 2245 dead. How many more?"

Here's Sheehan's account:

I wore the shirt to make a statement. The press knew I was going to be there and I thought every once in awhile they would show me and I would have the shirt on. I did not wear it to be disruptive, or I would have unzipped my jacket during George's speech. If I had any idea what happens to people who wear shirts that make the neocons uncomfortable that I would be arrested ... maybe I would have, but I didn't.

There have already been many wild stories out there.

I have some lawyers looking into filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the government for what happened tonight. I will file it. It is time to take our freedoms and our country back.

I don't want to live in a country that prohibits any person, whether he/she has paid the ulitmate price for that country, from wearing, saying, writing, or telephoning any negative statements about the government. That's why I am going to take my freedoms and liberties back. That's why I am not going to let Bushco take anything else away from me...or you.

Beverly Young, the wife of Rep. C.W. Young (R-Fla.), also was ejected out of the gallery, but she had a pro-war shirt on ("Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom").

Apparently you can't deviate from the standard White House uniform of suit and tie when you go to these things, otherwise you're labeled as a protester.

Well, only if your name is Cindy Sheehan, apparently. Look at this AP link to the story. The AP has attached the "Protester" epithet to Cindy Sheehan's name in their subhead, where as Beverly Young gets no such title.

You've GOT to be kidding me.

Rush Limbaugh has GOT to be back on the drugs, because he had this to say about Cindy Sheehan and her protest:

From the August 15 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show (courtesy of Media Matters):

LIMBAUGH: I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left.

I don't even know what to say. Likening Cindy Sheehan's plight to the guy that produced the "unauthenticated documents" surrounding Georgie's National Guard service is as malicious as it is cognitively dissonant. Rush has got a serious case of elephantiasis of the nutsack, because it takes some major balls to draw such an outlandish parallel. The audacity and ruthlessness with which the Right is attacking Sheehan is just reprehensible. For fuck's sake, Rush. Cindy's son died in the war. What is not "real" about that? Do you need to stick your hand into a dead, rotting soldier's flesh to see that the bodycount from this war is real and meaningful? Some people, I swear.

AP photo courtesy of the HuffPo.

Bush Snubs Cindy Sheehan, again

Just posted on the Houston Chronicle web site today, 1:24 p.m. CT.

Go ahead, Dubya. Keep acting like this. See if the voices of hundreds can't bring you down.

Bush passes by protesters, but doesn't stop
Associated Press

CRAWFORD — From the window of his limousine, President Bush got a motorcade view of more than 100 anti-war protesters camped outside his ranch as he rode to a political fund-raiser today near his spread. Bush did not stop.

Law enforcement agencies used their cars to block two intersecting roads, where the demonstrators have camped out all week, and required them to stand behind yellow tape. They were not asked to leave their makeshift campsite.

Cindy Sheehan, a California mother leading the protesters, held a sign that read: "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?"

It's unclear whether Bush, riding in a black Suburban with tinted windows, looked at the demonstrators as his caravan passed. He arrived before noon, local time, at a neighbor's ranch for a barbecue where he was expected to raise at least $2 million for the Republican National Committee, said RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt.

Dubya likes to posture like he's some tough-guy cowboy, but really, he's the biggest pussy there ever was.

What did our sons die for?

Vacaville, Calif. resident and mother of a fallen U.S. soldier, Cindy Sheehan, is now being intimidated by Not-My-President's Secret Service in an effort for her to cut short her protest.

Sheehan's son was killed in Iraq a year ago. And now Sheehan has vowed not to leave her designated protest spot until Not-My-President agrees to meet with her. So far, he hasn't. Instead, he sent two of his Yes Men, two senior officials (Stephen J. Hadley - National Security Adviser and Joe Hagin, deputy White House chief of staff) to do his dirty work for him.

Last week, 20 Marines from a single battallion were killed in Iraq. Dubya's approval rating is still low. There is still no viable exit strategery coming out of the White House. Sixty-one per cent of people polled by Newsweek say the disapprove of how Dubya is handling the war.

And the longer he waits to meet with Sheehan, the louder Sheehan's voice - and other mothers like her - will become.

For those of you who don't remember Sheehan, you my remember this story of how Not-My-President handled himself behind closed doors while visiting with bereaved families of soldiers. Emphasis mine:

The White House has released few details of such sessions, which Mr. Bush holds regularly as he travels the country, but generally portrays them as emotional and an opportunity for the president to share the grief of the families. In Ms. Sheehan's telling, though, Mr. Bush did not know her son's name when she and her family met with him in June 2004 at Fort Lewis. Mr. Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully toward her by referring to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting.

Some have said that Sheehan's son isn't any different from the 1,800 plus soldiers that have since been killed during the war. And while I respect that opinion - and people's right to be of that opinion - I also think that if Sheehan's camping out at Dubya's Crawford, Texas ranch is what it takes to draw media attention and to put a human face to this war overseas, then so be it. Perhaps many more mothers, like Sheehan, will come forward and tell their stories. It may be one mother's struggle to get answers, but this one woman's fight for answers will hopefully ensure that her son - and the the 1,800 plus sons and daughters of America - did not die in vain.

Then perhaps, many will finally see that we are in the wrong war, for the wrong reasons, and at the wrong time.

And until that happens, we will continue to support her.

(photo credit: jonschwarz at After Downing Street)