What an embarrassment

Our utterly inarticulate president said this on June 14, 2006:

I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?

-- George W. Bush

We are so selfish.

Look at this:

Americans do not realize that the wealth we have gained since the middle of the twentieth century has slowly made us into a very selfish people. We know that after World War II we helped rebuild Europe under the Marshall Plan, and we still think that the same kind of generosity marks our present-day foreign policy. That is not the case. Of the twenty-two industrial nations of the world, the United States is dead last on per-capita giving to the poor peoples of the world. By way of comparison, let me point out that on a per-capita-basis, for every dollar that America gives to the world, the people of Norway give seventy.

-- Tony Campolo

Badge of honor

God, I miss The West Wing:

Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things – every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.

-- Matt Santos, The West Wing

Shameful

I couldn't agree more:

The war in Iraq is shameful. Whether you're pro or con Bush, you've got to admit it: The guy lied. And he continues to do so. I can't understand why he's just not run out on a rail. To send somebody's kids off and have them killed for no good reason — he's going to have his day in hell for that. I wouldn't want that karma. When you kill somebody's little sister with a missile, he's going to hate you forever. And the next generation will hate you even more.

-- Tom Petty

Presidential secrecy

Well, well, well. Looks like even the Republicans (some of them, at least) are getting upset about Bush's attachment to secrecy. Look at this excerpt from a CNN article entitled "Hoekstra: Major program kept from Congress":

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee accused the Bush administration Sunday of failing to inform Congress of "significant activity" in ongoing secret intelligence programs.

"There are lots of programs going on in the intelligence community. We can't be briefed on every little thing," Chairman Peter Hoekstra said on "Fox News Sunday."

"But in this case there was at least one major -- what I consider significant -- activity that we had not been briefed on," the Michigan Republican said without specifying what that activity was.

"It is not optional for this president or any president or people in the executive community not to keep the intelligence committees fully informed of what they are doing."

Hoekstra said "people within the intelligence community" informed him about programs his committee had not been told about -- a tip Hoekstra said he discovered was true only after making inquiries.
...
Under the law, the executive branch must inform the legislative branch of what it is doing, Hoekstra said.

There he goes again - breaking the law. Oh but don't forget, this president is above the law. (Sickening.)

Pure snark

Why we are abdicating our freedom

From The True Believer:

People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief of the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility.

~Eric Hoffer

It breaks my heart.

Frank Ford sent this cartoon.

So now we're like the Communists.

Can you believe that the right wingers are now complaining that flying the flag at half-mast to honor the war dead is a protest against the war? Read this excerpt from an article entitled, "Flying Flag at Half-Staff Undermines War on Terror?":

At the same time as Congress was distressed over the occasional burning, the right wing was concerned over how the flag was being flown. In some states governors have begun flying the flag at half-staff to honor their sons and daughters who have died in the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld war.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal by Jeffrey Zaslow, 16 states have begun this practice. Some people see honoring the dead as a disguised attempt to criticize the war. Bruce Butgereit is one of those. He is the national patriotic instructor of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. He objects to the Michigan governor’s call to lower the flag saying it violates the Flag Code that was adopted in 1942. Not without compassion, he acknowledges that the governor “feels some sense of loss” when one of Michigan’s own dies, but having unique insights into her motives adds that “her motivation to order the flag lowered was purely political.”

Republican County Executive Brooks Patterson in suburban Detroit at first refused to follow the governor’s order that the flag be lowered. His spokesman said Mr. Patterson believed lowering the flag “would be a constant reminder of the high cost of war, and would undermine the war on terror.” According to the report in the Journal, “he didn’t want the governor using this as a political thing, holding a tearjerker news conference every time a soldier was killed.”

Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

And now take a look at an excerpt from the same article about flag desecration:

Two hundred eighty six members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 67 U.S. senators would have loudly applauded the decision by the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeals.

In 1999 Ng Kung-Siu and Lee King-Yung, regular protestors at pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, were convicted of flag desecration. Their offense consisted of marching in demonstrations bearing torn Chinese flags on which were inscribed the words “shame." When Hong Kong was a democracy (like the United States was before George Bush became president), it had no law against flag desecration because its former rulers did not think that important. When Hong Kong became part of China, however, it became subject to the laws of China and flag desecration was considered a crime.

Well, well, well. Look who we're emulating. If we criminalize flag burning we'll just have one more thing in common with China. Why not? They practically own us financially anyway.

Virulent nationalism

I agree:

And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail last year that God speaks through him.

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

-- Howard Zinn

Germany prepares for Bush

A wild boar? And these security costs are simply obscene:

Officials in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are feverishly preparing for a visit by US President George Bush next week. A local hunter is trying to shoot the perfect wild boar for the event and 12,000 police and a jet full of Secret Service agents have descended on the area. Most residents, however, are worried about the €12-million security costs.

The above is from an article entitled, "A Wild Boar for the President".

Cheney and dictatorship

Andrew Greeley

I want to call your attention to an article entitled, "Cheney Really Wants US Dictator" by Andrew Greeley. Fr. Greeley is someone I really respect. He's not a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist by any means. So when he says Cheney wants a dictatorship, I take him seriously. Here's part of what the article says:

The United States is caught up in a new campaign for a military dictatorship -- rule by a military chief with absolute power. The White House, inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney, has argued that in time of great danger, the president has unlimited powers as commander in chief. If he cites "national security" he can do whatever he wants -- ignore Congress, disobey laws, disregard the courts, override the Constitution's Bill of Rights -- without being subject to any review. Separation of powers no longer exists. The president need not consult Congress or the courts. Moreover the rights of the commander in chief to act as a military dictator lasts as long as the national emergency persists, indefinitely that is and permanently.

Many, perhaps most Americans, don't mind. The president is "tough on terrorists" and that's all that matters. What is the Bill of Rights anyway? George W. Bush, his supporters will argue, is a good man, even a godly man. He won't misuse the powers, even if the power he claims is no less than Don Hugo Chavez exercises in Venezuela
...
Richard Cheney is a vile, indeed evil, influence in American political life. He is a very dangerous person who would if he could destroy American freedom about which he and his mentor prate hypocritically. His long years in Washington have caused him to lose faith in the legislative and judicial processes of the government. The country, he believes, requires a much stronger executive. Such concentrated power would have been necessary even if the World Trade Center attack had not occurred. He uses the fear of terrorists as a pretext to advance his agenda of an all powerful president, a military dictator. So long, of course, as he is a Republican.

What saddens me is this sentence: "Many, perhaps most Americans, don't mind." Most American know so little history that they have no idea what a treasure our Constitution actually is and so they are willing to let it be shredded right in front of their eyes. It's tragic.

Amphibians threatened by global warming

Every day it seems I read some news about global warming that tells of another horrible consequence of which I wasn't previously aware. Now it's about how amphibians all over the globe are threatened. Read these excerpts from an article entitled, "EXTINCTION CRISIS FOR AMPHIBIANS":

A strange new fungus disease that kills frogs and toads and every other species of amphibian is spreading around the globe and -- combined with pollution and overdevelopment -- is driving more and more of the creatures to extinction, a coalition of the world's top biologists warns.

At least one-third of the world's known amphibians are threatened by the combination of attacks, and up to 122 species have become extinct within the past 25 years, the international team of specialists is reporting in today's edition of the journal Science.

"Amphibian declines and extinctions are global and rapid," 50 of the world's leading specialists on water-dwelling animals declared in a joint report. At least 427 species are "critically endangered," they said.
...
But the fungus, a unique species called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, could start taking on a larger role in the increasing extinction because of global warming, which scientists suspect is lowering amphibians' resistance to the disease.
...
The team of experts focusing more broadly on amphibian extinction estimates that nearly one-third of all 5,743 known amphibian species in the world are now threatened; more than 40 percent of all the species have suffered significant
population declines, and within the past 25 years alone, 122 species have become extinct.

"It's shocking and dismaying," said Wake. "This incredibly rapid increase in the extinction of amphibians around the world is unprecedented in my lifetime."

The class called amphibians includes not only frogs and toads, but also salamanders, newts and the little-known group of legless, worm-like creatures called caecilians. They are extremely ecologically useful because as predators they consume harmful insects by the millions; in the laboratory they are widely used for basic scientific research; their bodies can be harvested for medicines as well as food; and many instances of mass mortality have warned -- like canaries in a coal mine -- of environmental problems in the offing.

Why are we not paying attention to the canaries in the coal mine? The consequences of these extinctions are very dire.

Friday cat blogging!

Frank Ford sent me this picture of his cat, Petey.

Tutu on gays and lesbians

I just came across this today:

We reject [gays and lesbians], treat them as pariahs, and push them outside our church communities, and thereby we negate the consequences of their baptism and ours. We make them doubt that they are the children of God, and this must be nearly the ultimate blasphemy... Are we ready to offer the blessing, God's blessing? You know, I don't marry a man and a woman. In the church's understanding they marry themselves. They are the ministers, and all we do is to seek to communicate God's blessing on that union. And I would, myself, say 'Why not?' I mean, I've met very many people who are gay, and they are incredible people -- gifted, some of the most gentle, most compassionate, and we treat them like dirt. I, for myself, would say 'If that is how God wants us to treat them, then, thank you, that God I don't want.' I will not worship that God! The God that I want is one that says 'You are beautiful, and I have made you as you are, and I want you to develop to the fullest possible extent, all that you are, become all that you have it in you to become.'

-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

If God wants us to treat them like dirt, then fine, that God I don't want. I love Desmond Tutu's courage and directness in making such a point. And I want to concede the fundamentalists' accusation that we worship different Gods. I don't worship or even believe in a God who hates and condemns.

"We have work to do."

Not long ago the Presiding Bishop Elect of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, was interviewed on the Diane Rehme show. Here's a statement she made that's worthy of attention. It's a reminder that the fundamentalists do not offer the only Christian voice in our country today.

Katharine Jefferts Schori: I've made major statements about the Federal Budget the last time around, and on immigration issues. The church has a voice to contribute to the conversation, and I think it's essential that we do so. Obviously, if we're a nonprofit organization, we can't promote one particular candidate or one particular political initiative. But we have a responsibility as Christians to express our moral understanding of the implications of actions of Congress, and our government, and I think we need to do more of that work probably than less....I think the work around Millennium Development Goals has been a politically motivated initiative in the large sense of what that word "politics" means. I understand it as the art of living together in community. We are called to transform the world around us as Christians, into something that looks more like the reign of God. And the last time I checked, I don't think the hungry are all being fed, I don't think the ill people are all being provided with healthcare. We have work to do.

I love her definition of politics: "the art of living together in community." If we all thought of politics that way - instead of as a war - this would be a far, far better world.

Planet in crisis

"If there were no life on Earth, it would be a giant arid desert, just like Mars and Venus" -- James Lovelock

The BBC has published a brief essay by environmental scientist James Lovelock entitled, "The illness in Planet Earth." Lovelock is the one who developed the Gaia hypothesis - the hypothesis that the earth itself is a living organism. He also recently wrote a book called The Revenge of Gaia in which he outlines a very horrifying prospect of what is going to happen to the earth. Here's part of what the article says:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, published in 2001, is one of the scariest documents you will ever read. It talks about changes to the Earth by the end of this century, which will be as great or greater than occurred between the end of the last Ice Age and the time when humans started changing the atmosphere; it is huge. It alarms me, and it should alarm anyone… as the world gets very hot, it will not be able to produce anything like as much food as it does now; so quite literally, billions of us are going to be faced with starvation… we cannot just go taking [life on Earth] for our convenience, cutting down forests, turning the productive oceans into the marine equivalent of deserts, and expect Gaia not to take revenge. In 100 years' time, I would expect life to be very grim… I hope that as climate change worsens that same sense of purpose, [as England found in WW II] that almost tribal pulling together, will work again, to find such solutions as are still available in Gaia's damaged state.

Lovelock says that the earth could well end up a desert like Mars or Venus with no life on it at all.

About easy answers

I wish the Republicans would ponder this one:

Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.

-- H.L. Mencken

What a Democrat needs to say

I want to call your attention to an article called, "Democrats, Here is Your Platform: 'It's Time for a Change!'" It basically states what the Democrat running for president in 2008 needs to say to the American people. Here's an important question to consider:

Who gave the Republicans the morality issue? Is it moral to attack a country for deceitful reasons and then proceed to massacre 50,000 innocent civilian Muslim men, women and children? Leaving Iraq now will help build a bridge between the Christian and Muslim people who all believe in the same God who handed the 10 commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai 3,200 years ago, including “Don’t Murder!” Who gave the Republicans the American flag? The Democratic candidate needs to wrap himself up in the Star Spangled Banner, so tarnished across the globe by the Republican Party. The Republicans claim to be Pro Life. Aren’t innocent Iraqi Muslim children lives?

And here's part of what the Democratic stump speech needs to say:

And finally let me say this. Stephen Hawking, the greatest scientist alive, recently warned that global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels and now the thawing of the permafrost threatens the existence of life on earth forever. The only people who disagree are the White House and Congress Exxon Executives. Big oil finances their campaigns and they have sold you and your children out. The US spews 25% of the world’s pollution into the air. The Republicans have taken control of the networks, the newspapers, and are now poised to censor the internet, so that only their filthy lies and propaganda will hit your ears. When global warming melts the polar Ice Caps in the near future, and it is well underway, every coastal city on earth will be submerged under 50 feet of water as the melting Ice turns into water and raises the level of the earth’s one ocean by 50 feet. The earth only has 40 years of oil left anyway. I will ban SUV’s like your President drives, and only allow American car manufacturers to produce tiny fuel efficient hybrid cars. This should save General Motors and Ford from being wiped out by the foreign competition. I will invest heavily in solar energy, and wind energy and bicycles.

These are serious times. Every nuclear scientist on earth knows that Nuclear World War 3 our present heading and its aftermath nuclear winter then ultraviolet summer will have zero survivors. World Peace is our only chance to survive. The question is not did we evolve, but will we evolve into a peaceful species in order to survive. By definition if 200 ambassadors at the United Nations raise their hands for world peace, we can have world peace overnight. I personally will spend a great deal of my time at the United Nations educating the ambassadors to this fact, and I will make the Prince of Peace proud, or die trying. The Time has come for a Change! We must save ourselves!

Of course, these things will never be said. I've expressed before on this blog that I think humanity has a corporate death wish. I still think so. I think, as a species, we are bound and determined to do ourselves in. What I don't understand is why.