If You're Not Boycotting Disney Already...

As if Michael Moore's new movie, Fahrenheit 911, needed more publicity, Disney has decided to become a censor for Ashcroft and refuse to distribute it in the US. If Michael Eisner would take a second to pull his head out of his ass, he'd notice that when Moore's publisher initially tried to stop Stupid White Men from being published, it only raised the ire of librarians, who started a grass roots drive to make sure the book was published, without any pro-Bush rewrites. The fuss only fed the publicity. Or, maybe Eisner really wasn't worried about keeping his Florida tax breaks from Jeb. Maybe he's really a genius and is trying to create media bounce to actually boost box office for Fahrenheit 911.

Naaaa....

Tina Fey quote about John Kerry's medals, and W's reaction

John Kerry addressed criticism that he had claimed in 1971 to throw away medals he received in Vietnam, calling the dispute "a phony controversy stirred by Republicans." President Bush fired back saying, "If I had gone to Vietnam, and I wasn't such a stone, cold dummy, and I coulda done somethin good and got a medal for it, I sure as heck would have kep it."—Tina Fey, SNL, May 1, 2004

Wolfowitz didn't just underestimate the number of US military deaths in Iraq

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the Iraq war, grossly underestimated the number of US military deaths in Iraq yesterday, during testimony before a House committee. He said 500, with approximately 350 from combat. He was off by more than 200. But what's worse is the complete flippancy with which he answered. He seemed annoyed by the question.

Gee, Paul, sorry to bother you. Maybe you need to get back to the cave, to plan your next invasion. But before you do, you murdering scumbag, you should watch Nightline tonight, while Ted Koppel reads the list of all the US Soldiers who have died in Iraq. Maybe you should send a card to all the families, apologizing for all the lies you told to get everyone to believe sending them over there would be a cakewalk, and was necessary.

PNAC's Call for a New Pearl Harbor

I'm reading Amy Goodman's new book, The Exception to the Rulers. She pointed out something that really bothered me, that I hadn't heard before.

The Project for a New American Century, a posse of neo-con hawks, wrote a report (Rebuilding America's Defenses) in September, 2000, that they sent to Bill Clinton. Out of the 18 people who signed the letter, 10 are currently in the Bush Administration. They include Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, John Bolton, and Zalmay Khalilzad. Dick Cheney was one of the PNAC's founders. The urged Clinton to attack Iraq and take out Saddam.

So what's the big deal here? Well, these war mongers (most of them chicken hawks who never saw service) actually said that a shift toward a more aggressive policy in the middle east would happen slowly, absent "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor."

Now if that doesn't send a chill up your spine, you must paralyzed with the fear the people have been injecting us with. Or just stupid. Because when the most influential members of the current administration actually wrote that they needed a "new Pearl Harbor" to speed up American Military aggression in the Middle East, it sure gives fuel to the conspiracy theorists I've argued with. And even if they didn't actually say, hey, old buddy Osama, you know we trained you and funded you all those years, now we need a little favor, this little nugget certainly gives some credence to the possible motive behind Operation Ignore, as Al Franken calls the now well documented Bush Administration lack of enthusiasm for anti-terrorism efforts.

When you hear Paul O'Neill say they ignored it, and Richard Clarke says they ignored it, and John O'Neill says they wouldn't let him investigate Bush's oil buddies, like Bandar Bush, who fund terrorism through their Wassabi "charities," it certainly looks like the Bushies didn't want to do anything that might prevent the "new Pearl Harbor" they needed to advance the American Empire.

This story was reported on Nightline in March, 2003. This is worth looking back on as Bush sits on Cheney's knee while "testifying" before the 9/11 commission. Especially the bit about John O'Neill, who I've never heard the mainstream media mention. That's why I'm going to start watching Amy Goodman on Democracy Now more often!

Response to and Editorial in The News Harold, Panama City, Florida

RE: Up Against Fanaticism By Phil Lucas, Executive Editor, Panama City New Herald

What a shame it is, then, that instead of attacking the fanatics who attacked us, in Saudi Arabia, or instead of putting a lot more force in Afghanistan (several US Commanders in Afghanistan, including Tommy Franks, were really pissed when he got orders to send men and equipment to Iraq that we needed to find Bin Laden), Bush and his Cabal kept insisting that we attack a relatively secular regime which the US had installed because he was best of bad choices. We kept saying he had weapons, which he did not, and had ties to Al Qaeda, which he actually hated. Iraq was not a threat. And yet, here we are, bogged down, fighting a bunch of fanatics who had nothing to do with the attack on us. Meanwhile, Bin Laden keeps making tapes encouraging all his stateless buddies to attack us.

My question is, are we going to go around attacking all the bad guys, or not? Are these wars of liberation going to liberate the North Koreans? The Iranians? The Saudi Arabians terrorized by the Wassabi sect that the Saudi Royal Family (and Bush's lifelong oil buddies) has been funding for years? When will we step into African countries where the WMDs are hundreds of thousands of machetes?

And what of the messOpotamia we've made? Iraq is arguably more of a terrorist state now than it was under Saddam. And the argument that it's better to fight them there with our forces than here with the FBI? What the hell makes you think they're going to stay there now? This ain't the middle ages. Globalization allows Bin Laden's buddies to ship old Russian nukes from Uzbekistan to the US in shipping containers that we don't even scan.... Just think what 12 terrorist with assault rifles and a few 18 wheelers of ANFO can do. Every day a huge train full of chlorine gas goes right through the heart of Washington DC, and the company that runs it, which used to be run by Treasury secretary John Snow, has not been forced to go around town, because they say that would cost too much.

Meanwhile, we cut funds for first responders and sent $50 billion to Iraq. Then we sent another $87 billion to Iraq, while running up the biggest deficits in history. Now our kids will have to pay for this misdirected, bogged down, un-planned for occupation and rebuilding, while our Social Security goes broke, bridges are collapsing, school ceilings are falling in on kids' heads, and Halliburton is spending most of the money earmarked for rebuilding on security. Paid mercenaries making plenty of taxpayer money protecting convoys of over-priced fuel for troops with big targets on their backs.

Crusade? Indeed. And anyone who thinks killing more of them will scare them into stopping is dead wrong. Most of the insurgent recruits are Iraqis who were happy we "liberated" them. Now they're just mad that the great power that toppled Saddam in two weeks can't get the water and electricity working in one year.

If we want to win the hearts and minds of Arab moderates, I suggest we stop killing their children first.

Kerry Campaign: Key Unanswered Questions on Bush's Record In National Guard

Tue Apr 27, 1:33 PM ET

To: National Desk, Political Reporter

Contact: Stephanie Cutter or Chad Clanton, 202-712-3000, both of John Kerry (news - web sites) for President; http://www.johnkerry.com

WASHINGTON, April 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Kerry campaign today released the following "Key Unanswered Questions: Bush's Record in the National Guard":

Key Unanswered Questions: Bush's Record in the National Guard

"If George Bush wants to ask me questions about that through his surrogates, he owes America an explanation about whether or not he showed up for duty in the National Guard. Prove it. That's what we ought to have. I'm not going to stand around and let them play games." -- John Kerry, NBC News, 4/26/04

-- Bush Has Said He Used No Special Treatment To Get Into The Guard. How Does He Explain The Fact That He Jumped Ahead Of 150 Applicants Despite Low Pilot Aptitude Scores?

-- Col. Albert Lloyd Said A Report From Alabama To Ellington Should Have Been Filed. Where Is That Report?

-- Why Did Bush Miss His Medical Exam In 1972?

-- Where Are The Complete Results Of The Required Investigation Into Bush's Absence From The Exam?

-- Why Did Bush Specifically Request To NOT Be Sent Overseas For Duty?

-- Why Does The White House Say Bush Was On Base When Bush's Superiors Had Filed A Report Saying He Was Gone For A Whole Year?

-- Why Is The Pentagon (news - web sites) Under Orders To Not Discuss Bush's Record With Reporters?

-- Where Are Bush's Flight Logs?

-- Why Hasn't Bush Himself Demonstrated That He Showed Up For Service in Alabama?


Bush Has Said He Used No Special Treatment To Get Into The Guard. How Does He Explain The Fact That He Jumped Ahead Of 150 Applicants Despite Low Pilot Aptitude Scores?

"There was no special treatment." -- Then-Gov. George W. Bush (Dallas Morning News, 7/4/99)

-- FACT: With Family Connection, Bush Got Coveted Slot in Texas Guard Shortly After Graduating from College. A family friend of Bush's father pulled strings to secure Bush's spot; Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard after his student deferment ran out when he graduated from Yale in 1968. Before he graduated, Bush personally visited Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt -- the commander of the Texas Air National Guard -- to talk about the Guard. After Bush met with Staudt, he applied and was quickly accepted -- despite a waiting list of over 150 applicants. Staudt recommended Bush for a direct appointment, which allowed Bush to become a second lieutenant right out of basic training without having to go though officer candidate school. The direct appointment also cleared the way for a position in pilot training school. (New York Times, 9/27/99; Houston Chronicle, 10/10/92; Los Angeles Times, 7/4/99)

-- FACT: Bush Scored in 25th Percentile on Pilot Aptitude Test. When Bush applied for the Guard, his score on the Air Force pilot aptitude section, one of five on the test, was in the 25th percentile, the lowest allowed for would-be fliers. (Dallas Morning News, 7/4/99)

-- FACT: No Shortage of Pilots in Texas Guard. Although a Bush spokesman claimed Bush was fast-tracked because the Guard needed pilots, Charles C. Shoemake, a chief of personnel in the Texas Guard from 1972 to 1980 remembered no such shortage. "We had so many people coming in who were super-qualified," Shoemake said Texas Guard Historian Tom Hail said there was no apparent need to fast-track applicants. "I've never heard of that," he said. "Generally they did that for doctors only, mostly because we needed extra flight surgeons." (Los Angeles Times, 7/4/99)


Col. Albert Lloyd Said A Report From Alabama To Ellington Should Have Been Filed. Where Is That Report?

-- FACT: Col. Lloyd: Guard Records Should Include Evidence Of Alabama Service. Lloyd also said he did not know whether Bush performed duty in Alabama. "If he did, his drill attendance should have been certified and sent to Ellington, and there would have been a record." (Boston Globe, 5/23/00; AP, 6/24/00)

-- FACT: White House's Own Expert Said Bush Should Have Done More. According to the Globe, "the White House included with the documents a memorandum from a Texas Air National Guard personnel specialist stating that the documents prove that Bush had a 'satisfactory year' for 'retirement/retention' purposes between May 27, 1972, and May 26, 1973. But that specialist, retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert C. Lloyd Jr., acknowledged in an interview last night that he evaluated Bush using the lower of two measures for rating Guard service. Guardsmen, he said, needed to serve more days to meet minimum-training requirements than to meet the lower threshold to receive retirement credit for the year. 'Should he have done more? Yes, he should have,' Lloyd said of Bush, who was a fighter-interceptor pilot. 'Did he have to? No.'" (Boston Globe, 2/11/04)


Why Did Bush Miss His Medical Exam In 1972?

-- FACT: Bush Was Suspended From Flight Duty For Failing To Take Mandated Medical Exam.

On September 29, 1972, Bush was officially suspended from flying for missing his annual medical examination. The orders note that Bush's suspension is authorized under the guidelines presented in Air Force Manual 35-12 Para 2-29m, which reads that Bush's local commander "will direct an investigation as to why the individual failed to accomplish the medical examination." (Aeronautical Orders, Number 87, 29 Sept 72; AFM 35-13, Para 2-29m)


Where Are The Complete Results Of The Required Investigation Into Bush's Absence From The Exam?

-- FACT: The order suspending Bush from flight duty stated: "Verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Aug 72 suspending 1STLT George W. Bush from flying status are confirmed Reason for Suspension: Failure to accomplish annual medical examination. Off will comply with para 2-10, AFM 35-13. Authority: Para 2-29m, AFM 35-13. (Aeronautical Orders, Number 87, 29 September 1972)

-- Para 2-29m, AFM 35-13: "When a Rated Officer Fails To Accomplish a Medical Examination Prescribed by AFM 160-1.... (1)The local commander who has authority to convene a Flying Evaluation Board will direct an investigation as to why the individual failed to accomplish the medical examination. After reviewing the findings of the investigation, the local commander may convene a Flying Evaluation Board or forward through command channels a detailed report of the circumstances which resulted in the officer's failure to accomplish a medical examination, along with a recommendation that the suspension be removed. (2) The individual's major command will forward the report along with the command recommendation to USAFMPC/DPMAJD, Randolph AFB TX 78148 for final determination." (Para 2-29m, AFM 35-13)


Why Did Bush Specifically Request NOT To Be Sent Overseas For Duty?

-- FACT: Bush's Application Indicated Bush Did Not Volunteer for Overseas Duty. On Bush's application to the 147th Fighter Group at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas, Bush was asked what his "Area Assignment Preferences" were. Bush checked the box beside "Do Not Volunteer" for overseas duty. (Application for Extended Duty With The United States Air Force, 5/27/68)


Why Does The White House Say Bush Was On Base When Bush's Superiors Had Filed A Report Saying He Was Gone For A Whole Year?

-- FACT: Bush's Superiors Were Unable to Evaluate Him for a Full Year, Saying he "Has Not Been Observed at This Unit...."

May 2, 1973: Bush's superior officers William D. Harris Jr. and Jerry B. Killian, wrote on his yearly evaluation form, "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report," and that a "civilian occupation made it necessary for him to move to Montgomery, Alabama. He cleared this base on 15 May 1972 and has been performing equivalent training in a non flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama." (AF-77, 2 May 73)

...But the White House Claims Bush was on Base the Same Day Superiors Filed Report.

o White House release says Bush paid on May 2, 1973, the very day his superiors reported, "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report." (2nd Q 1973 pay record)

-- FACT: Bush's Superior Officer Says He Would Have Known If Bush Had Reported for Duty.

November 12, 1973: Rufus G. Martin signed a report on Bush's evaluation, saying Bush was "Not rated for the period 1 May 72 through 30 April 73." (AF-77a, 12 Nov 73)

Boston Globe: "But retired colonel Martin, the unit's former administrative officer, said he too thought Bush had been in Alabama for that entire year. Harris and Killian, he said, would have known if Bush returned to duty at Ellington." (Boston Globe, 5/23/00)


Why Is The Pentagon Under Orders Not To Discuss Bush's Record With Reporters?

-- FACT: Freedom of Information Officers Under Orders From Senior Pentagon Officials To Ignore Requests on Bush Files. According to the Spokane Spokesman-Review, "at the National Guard Bureau, now headed by a Bush appointee from Texas, officials last week said they were under orders not to answer questions. The bureau's chief historian said he couldn't discuss questions about Bush's military service on orders from the Pentagon. 'If it has to do with George W. Bush, the Texas Air National Guard or the Vietnam War, I can't talk with you,' said Charles Gross, chief historian for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C. Rose Bird, Freedom of Information Act officer for the bureau, said her office stopped taking records requests on Bush's military service in mid-February and is directing all inquiries to the Pentagon. She would not provide a reason. Air Force and Texas Air National Guard officials did not respond to written questions about the issue. James Hogan, a records coordinator at the Pentagon, said senior Defense Department officials had directed the National Guard Bureau not to respond to questions about Bush's military records." (Spokane Spokesman-Review, 3/14/04)

Al Franken's Blog

The great thing about Al Franken is his research staff. If you've read his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, you'll realize he has a great staff of people working for him. In the book, it's a sharp group of Harvard students. On his blog and radio show, the research director is J.R. Norton. His post today, 04.27.2004, is really well researched. He proves that Cheney is lying about Kerry's record on defense. In typical right-wing-nut fashion, it turns out it was actually Cheney who wanted to make the cuts he was blaming Kerry for!

Compare and Contrast

Here's all you need to know about Bush v. Kerry on who served their country during Vietnam.

Post from my friend, Jon Cupp

Here is the link to the 361 photos that the bush people don't want you to see. The bush people are trying to make the argument that these photos are an invasion into the privacy of the family members of military casualties in Iraq. These are photos of coffins. There is nothing in these photos to personally identify those killed in Iraq or their familiy members.

Rather, these photos are an invasion of truth into the lies of the bush people and the cost of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

You may get an error page. I think this site is getting a lot of hits.

What the Bush administration doesn't want you to see

TAMI SILICIO gave this picture to the Seattle Times. She was fired by Maytag Aircraft for that violation of US Government and Company regulations. The Bush administration has prohibited photographs of returning caskets of US service personel, continuing a policy started by George HW Bush in 1991.

Air America

While liberal radio breaks streaming audio records, I'm amazed at how many people are buying our Bush magnets! They're great if you're on a diet! Put these Bush quotes on your fridge and you'll lose your appetite... Oh, and check out the Dead Soldier Bush picture.

Bush Lies

Representative Henry Waxman has created this great site full of the Bush administrations lies, in case anyone would like to see what real lying looks like. So, when the Bush Cartel claims Kerry is lying because he won't name the 99% of world leaders who would rather see him win, be sure to remind yourself that that's just the Bush Junta calling the other guy what they are.

Oil Execs Get Tax Cuts - Theirs and Yours

The fact that a Petroleum based White House is running up trillions on the credit card shouldn't suprise us. The fact that they cut taxes on millionaires, a few of whom are in the oil business, AND helped raise energy prices through higher demand for war, the strategic reserve (yes, they've been filling those salt caverns lately, paying record prices with our tax dollars), and various other policies that have contributed to making us less safe (like attacking a country that had nothing to do with 9-11, because it was in violation of less UN Resolutions than Israel). So, their buddies in the energy bidness get richer on tax cuts, and even richer sucking up our tax cuts. Big suprise.

Put up or shut up

Resident Bush's recent challenge to John Kerry to name the foreign leaders who would like to see Bush defeated is another Bush administration exercise in futility. We all know that the French, the Germans, the Russians, and many other nations were opposed to the war in Iraq. They also don't like the way Bush and his cronies have behaved towards the UN, International Treaties, the environment, trade, taxes, and many other issues that affect the whole world. They are amazed that Bush trashed the good will the whole world felt for us after 9-11. It doesn't take a genius, or even a C student, to realize these leaders would prefer someone else be in charge of the US.

In the final analysis, though, the Bush challenge for Kerry to put forward the names of these leaders is the ultimate in hypocrisy. Until Bush and his supporters put forward facts to back up these claims made by the President, I suggest they shut up:

"There is no doubt the Iraqi regime continues to possess the most lethal weapons ever devised."
(David Kay, among many others, said this is not true.)

"We found the weapons of mass destruction."
(He was referring to mobile hydrogen production trailers, which are not WMDs.)

"By far the vast majority of the help goes to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder."
(Congress' bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation said households making less than $40,000 - roughly the bottom half of the economic ladder - would receive only 10 percent of Bush's income tax cut.)

"This nation has got a deficit because we have been through a war."
(He said this two months after his own budget acknowledged that his economic policies and tax cuts for the wealthy - not the war - were what created the largest deficits in American history.)

John Kerry for President

If you know someone in Ohio, start talking to them about how much better John Kerry would be as President now. No Republican has ever won the Presidency without Ohio. If you know someone in Florida, call them too! We need those 100,000 Nader voters to vote for Kerry... Other swing states to contact your friends and relatives in: Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Contact Moveon.org for more info.

We Know What W Was Doing

Lines. That's right. George W Bush requested his transfer to a non-flying assignment in the Air National Guard at the same time they started random drug testing. Bush has admitted that he hasn't done drugs since 1974, so that means he was doing them before then. As this story documents, plenty of people saw George at Blount's campaign, performing dirty tricks on the opponent (gutter politics). They also remember him bragging about drinking and driving a Yale and having the cops let him go when they found out who he was. They remember him bragging about how much beer and whiskey he drank. And they remember doing lines in the bathroom.

We can all figure this out. It's pretty obvious that Dubya was drinking and doing drugs, knew he wouldn't pass the drug test and/or physical to keep frying, so he ducked out. He was snorting blow, drinking whiskey, smoking dope, and he got a big, fat, pass because he was privilaged. Now he's lying about it. This is not something we should drop. This goes to the credibility gap. I don't care what he did back then. I care that he's still lying about it now.

Ask the right questions

Now that the story that GW Bush did a half-assed job of his duty in the Air Guard has grown legs, it's time that we ask a few of the right questions. Why does it suprise people that Bush did a half-assed job at anything? He scored in the 25th percentile on the flight exam, barely enough to get in, yet he leap-frogged over more qualified applicants and avoided Nam. Click here to read Lou Dubose asking all the right questions, again, in the LA Weekly. Of course, Lou and Molly Ivans have been asking the right questions since Dubya became Gubna. Seems the press was taking a little vacation. Good to have them back.

While even some of my liberal friends are suggesting we leave this issue alone, I think there's something bigger here that deserves looking into. Of course, weapons of mass destruction are much more important. But the AWOL story and how the bushies handle it is part of a pattern of deceit these neo-cons have been perpetuating about their boy. From here, the press can easily slide into Harken Energy records that will show Bush taking the kind of loans he now says CEOs shouldn't, selling stock on insider tips, not filing paper work with the SEC while his Daddy was President and not getting in trouble for it. There's funeral gate, and Bush saying "show me the money" to lobbyists on the steps of the Texas Capitol. There's Bush telling Jews they're all going to hell, because only Christians get into heaven. And when asked about these, and many other stories, Bush's hemming and hawing will provide great fodder for Jon Stewart and the talented Daily Show writers.

I would also like to remind my liberal friends that this issue goes to much bigger points, like crediblity. For instance, when he says he didn't take the physical exam because he knew he wasn't going to be flying, how did he know that? Because he chose (or did someone assign him) to be trained in an antiquated plane that was being phased out (and therefore he would not be sent to Nam)? Aren't exams REQUIRED of people the public has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars training? What if he had been called up to active duty and sent back to his base in Texas, where they needed him to fly? Would someone in the press please ask him if he didn't take the test because he knew that with cocaine in his system he would flunk the physical, and that would fly in the face of the Texas Air Guard's Refer-Madness poster boy facade. “George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn’t get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed,” says the 1970 National Guard press release. “Oh, he gets high, all right. But not from narcotics.”

If this guy is such a straight shooter, as his neo-con apologists want to believe, then why doesn't he just come clean? Hell, even Clinton finally admitted that he tried to get out of the draft, but eventually drew a high number. Seems W didn't want to just avoid the possiblity of a low number, he wanted to cut in line to go to the head of the class with the lowest score (elite affirmative action), and then he wanted to get by doing as little work as possible. If character is indeed as important as these people have been suggesting, then these questions aren't just important, they're essential.

Finally, for my liberal friends who suggest we move on, I would like to point out how quickly debate can shift these days. With massive acts of civil disobedience taking place all over the country at marriage license counters this Valentine's Day, we should never underestimate how one story can shift debate in this country quickly and righteously. Thanks to the Mass. Supreme Court, Civil Unions ala Vermont are now the middle ground. Just four years ago, Civil unions were considered liberal. Just think where reasoned debate, and asking the right questions about military service can take this country over the next five and a half months.

Miserable Failure

Please fight the right on this one by creating this link on as many pages as possible. Post in bulletin boards, and every web site you can. They have made Michael Moore's site come up on this google search, instead of Bush's--which was the original manifestation of this "google bomb."

Check out this miserable failure. And here's another miserable failure. And yet another miserable failure. Are we seeing a pattern of miserable failures here?

AWOL BUSH

Want some fun? Read this exchange between Scott McClellan and reporters over Bush's service (or lack thereof) in the National Guard. It's so refreshing to see the press doing its job.

I started a supak for Wes Clark blog. I will support whoever the Democrative nominee is, of course, but I'm pushing for Clark because I think electability is the most important factor. I think a Dean - Clark ticket would be good, but they seem to be ruling it out now.

"The question is whether we are to abandon the standards and habits of a free society, fleeing the risks of freedom for the deadlier risks of opression. The question is whether we are to relinquish the standards of Jefferson for those of Torquemada."

"Down there in the jungles, unregenerate, ingenious, tricky, as tiny as a louse or a termite, and as hard to get at, emerged a strange creature whose potency we had almost forgotten: man."—I.F. Stone

A Chat with Jack Sheldon back stage at Like Jazz

I sat down next to one of my favorite Jazz musicians, Jack Sheldon, backstage at the Mark Taper Forum last week. We're they're doing "Like Jazz" through Jan 25th. I'm running projection. Jack is 1st trumpet and sings two songs. We chatted about the Hollywood Bowl. He asked me who my favorite Jazz musician is and I said Art Pepper, and Jack went off. All kinds of Art Pepper stories. Art had a tough life and a heroin addiction. But Jack only mentioned that briefly, like it was a sad disease. What mattered most to Jack about Art was how well he played. I could see a hint of tears welling up in the chubby bags under his tired eyes.

Apparently, his eyes are the only things of Jacks that's tired. He flirts a lot (even on stage during "Don't Touch My Horn." And, he's doing eight shows a week!

I never knew Jack was the voice of the I'm still just a bill up here on capitol hill guy of School House Rock fame....

Response to a "Don't vote for tax increases" mail I just got

Considering that the rich in California pay less as a percentage of their income in taxes than the middle class and poor, I'd say you're kinda right. Don't vote for someone who is going to raise your taxes, especially if you're rich, because you wouldn't want to have to pay for all those lazy, middle class, over-paid union guys who seem to think they have some right to health care and social security and decent wages?

Also considering that the term "taxes" can include many things, like payroll taxes, higher fees, price increases, bigger fines, less services, less benefits, and the middle class paying a higher percentage of all taxes due to tax cuts for the rich, the middle class should definately not vote for BUSH. HE HAS RAISED THEIR "TAXES."

As someone recently said, Republicans like to say Democrats are "Tax and Spend." Well, Republicans are now the party of "Don't tax -- and spend."

Fighting Fires With Tax Cuts

We're fighting a nasty flu here in Canyon Country, while firefighters battle the fires all around us. Our air is full of fine particles, which are dangerous to breathe. Our kids aren't going out to recess. And as I read this morning's news, I find that many people are being told the firefighters simply don't have enough people to protect homes. Why? Because a great many firefighters are in Iraq—called up as reservists.

While they're over there protecting us from the dangerous weapons of mass destruction, over a thousand homes (and counting) have been destroyed, and our air quality resembles a chemical attack. Fire, the oldest weapon of mass destruction, is plowing through these neighborhoods, which are, ironically, mostly Republican. These people, whose homes are now being destroyed, mostly supported the action in Iraq, which destroyed so many Iraqi homes. These people, most of whom will probably vote for Bush again, probably don't make the connection between the man telling them there's not enough resources to save their home and the reservists sent to Iraq. They probably don't make the connection between their vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger and how his cut in the car tax will mean massive layoffs of the very firefighters he's praising today.

While these people sleep in gyms or in their cars packed with what they could save from their houses, will it sink in that we have to pay for all this? Or will they continue to buy the slickly marketed Republican snake oil tax cuts?

We have a friend in San Bernardino who's family lost their home to fire yesterday. She has breast cancer. Her son has health problems too. They barely get by, and now they have to suffer this. So when I hear talk of laying off firefighters and cops to pay for Arnold's tax cut, or when I hear that more reservists are going to be sent to Iraq, it makes me wonder how greedy Republicans can actually be. It makes me wonder how the party that likes to talk about values and safety and community could actually say "Screw all that, I want my tax cut." It makes me wonder if they can ever admit they were wrong about anything.

Ain't Killing Palestinian Children And Destroying Houses By American Jets Terrorism?

Here's the picture. I like to vote pictures like that onto the top of Yahoo's highest rated sights list. Five votes gets a story or picture up there, so all you need is 5 Yahoo user profiles. If it's a great shot like that one, the kind that makes a point Fox news won't, it will get voted down viscously by a group of about 50 that watches that thing like a hawk for anything really pertinent. Like, during the war, you'd never find a story about little Ali (whose family was killed and arms were blown off) up there, no pictures of bleeding or dead children. Only arguments that it must have been an Iraqi bomb that did it.

The terror we spread there will come back to us. Because the US is the world's largest arms dealer many times over, there's a lot of killing with "made in the USA" written on it. Predictably, the people who create war in this country are the same people who profit the most from it. Dick Cheney, who made millions at Halliburton where government contracts increased 90% during his tenure as CEO, and the Project for a New American Century posse (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle), advocated attacking Iraq since 1999, and got their chance after 9-11. Now, through no bid contracts, the companies they work for (Cheney still receives $150,000 a year from Halliburton, and the George HW Bush owns an undisclosed chunk of the Carlisle Group, which W would inherit) are being paid in borrowed dollars by the Bush administration to rebuild what they just blew up.

In this month's Harper's magazine, Chalmers Johnson writes, in The War Business Squeezing a profit from the wreckage in Iraq, "When war becomes the most profitable course of action, we can certainly expect more of it." I'll be checking out Johnson's new book, The Sorrows of Empire: How the Americans Lost Their Country.