Phil Donahue: "The progressive voice is silenced in this country..."

If you double click on the video it will take you to the YouTube site for this video. Then you can access the other parts of this series through "related videos".

This is simply BEYOND amazing

Oh my goodness. Please watch this. Then just try telling me that animals are not sentient beings or that they don't deserve rights that are protected by law:




You can find more elephant art right here.

Yes, this elephant was trained to do this. But some of the elephant art is abstract and done entirely on their own. The proceeds from this art goes to support the elephants who are out of work from the logging industry.

Earth Hour 2008

Let's do this, folks. It's tonight at 8:00. Get out those candles. Turn off the lights for one hour. It's the right thing to do.

UPDATE: I just thought I'd remind you again that the best way you can fight global warming is to become a vegetarian. Look at this:

Last November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined.

You can get tons of information about this at a page called "Meat Eating and Global Warming". Please. Do your homework on this issue!

More comic relief

I laughed so hard I seriously upset the dog!

Thank you, Keith Olbermann

Keep watching until you get to the bit about the radioactive cat. What can I say?

Today's CNN QuickVote

Once more with feeling: this election is ours to lose:

Will the ongoing battle between Obama and Clinton damage the Democratic Party's chances of winning the presidency in November?

Yes - 70%

No - 30%

Friday cat blogging!

Harriet

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

(Caption by Harriet!)

The war

I was just over on Alternet reading through a comment thread in which a lot of people were taking on a right wing troll. Said troll had, at one point, insisted that "there's no substitute for victory." Here's what one commenter replied:

First, there is a substitute for victory--it's called peace. Oh, by the way, are you familiar with 'pyrrhic victory'?

I like that. I like that a lot. In case you don't know what a Pyrrhic victory is, here you go:

Pyrrhic victory: A victory achieved at great or excessive cost; a ruinous victory.
...
A Pyrrhic victory is so called after the Greek king Pyrrhus, who, after suffering heavy losses in defeating the Romans in 279 B.C., said to those sent to congratulate him, "Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone."

Can you believe that the president of the United States has a degree from Harvard in history??? So, you'd think he'd know of the concept.

Snark

This is pretty disgusting:

To give you an idea how bad the Democrats are doing, in a stunning reversal, John McCain now 10% ahead of Hillary Clinton and 7% ahead of Barack Obama. And this is after Iraq, a recession, and no healthcare. Imagine how far ahead he’d be if the Republicans had actually done something.

- Jay Leno

As I've said before, this election is ours to lose and it looks like we're hell-bent on doing just that.

Secretary of Happiness

You'd think, since the idea of the pursuit of happiness as a human right is enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, that the US would have something like this.

Oh well.

Hat tip to Paul at Byzigenous Buddhapalian.

A dfferent kind of comic relief!

Paul Rogers sent me this. Love it!

Desmond Tutu's Statement on China and Tibet

I hope the Chinese will listen:

I wish to express my solidarity with the people of Tibet during this critical time in their history. To my dear friend His Holiness the Dalai Lama, let me say: I stand with you. You define non-violence and compassion and goodness. I was in an Easter retreat when the recent tragic events unfolded in Tibet. I learned that China has stated you caused violence. Clearly China does not know you, but they should. I call on China's government to know His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as so many have come to know, during these long decades years in exile. Listen to His Holiness' pleas for restraint and calm and no further violence against this civilian population of monastics and lay people.

I urge China to enter into a substantive and meaningful dialogue with this man of peace, the Dalai Lama. China is uniquely positioned to impact and affect our world. Certainly the leaders of China know this or they would not have bid for the Olympics. Killing, imprisonment and torture are not a sport: the innocents must be released and given free and fair trials.

I urge my esteemed friend Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet and be given access to assess, and report to the international community, the events which led to this international outcry for justice. The High Commissioner should be allowed to travel with journalists, and other observers, who may speak truth to power and level the playing field so that, indeed, this episode -- these decades of struggle -- may attain a peaceful resolution. This will help not only Tibet. It will help China.

And China, poised to receive the world during the forthcoming Olympic Games needs to make sure the eyes of the world will see that China has changed, that China is willing to be a responsible partner in international global affairs. Finally, China must stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing one whose life has been devoted to non violence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Nobel peace laureate.

Another Wal-Mart atrocity

THINK WAL-MART CARES ABOUT ITS EMPLOYEES?

MEET DEBBIE SHANK.

Wal-Mart sued this brain-damaged employee for $470,000.

Missouri Wal-Mart employee Debbie Shank used her Wal-Mart health care plan to pay her medical expenses after a tragic accident left her severely brain-damaged. Then, Wal-Mart sued her for almost $500,000. The court ruled against Debbie in 2006, the same year she lost one of her three sons in Iraq. Last week, the Supreme Court refused to hear her case. Debbie lives in a nursing home, requires 24-hour care and now owes Wal-Mart $470,000.

TELL WAL-MART TO LET THE SHANKS KEEP THEIR MONEY.

Jim Shank already works two jobs and doesn’t know how the family will pay Debbie’s future nursing home bills. The Shank family’s tragic story has been covered by the national media including CNN and the Wall Street Journal. This family has suffered enough. The largest company in the world with $11 billion in profits doesn’t need Debbie’s money.

Contact your local Wal-Mart store manager, or write to CEO Lee Scott at:

Lee Scott
c/o Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611
E-mail: lee.scott@wal-mart.com

To learn more about Debbie Shank's case, and Wal-Mart's employee health care policies, visit our website at: http://walmartwatch.com/

WAL-MART WATCH

1730 M St. NW. Suite 601

Washington, DC. 20036

http://walmartwatch.com/

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO WORKS AT WAL-MART?
Make sure they read the fine print of their health care plan.

(The above is the flyer that Wal-MartWATCH is asking people to distribute.)

About pigs

I've known for a long time that pigs are considered the fourth most intelligent creature on the planet. I've known that the conditions under which they are typically raised are unspeakably cruel and inhumane. And I've known that they are often alive and conscious when dropped into scalding water at the slaughterhouse. What I didn't know is what the pork industry does to make them overeat:

Pigs appear to have a good sense of direction and have found their way home over great distances. Adults can run at speeds of up to 11 miles an hour. Pigs have shown gentleness and forgiveness. Norwegian author Bergljot Borresen writes about a mountain farmer who mistreated his pig. The pig locked her jaws into his thigh but didn’t bite down. The farmer believed it was a warning not to treat her unkindly again. In her own way, she gave him another chance.

Author John Robbins notes that “unlike dogs, horses and humans, they will never dangerously overeat even when given access to unlimited food.” The pork industry, however, has wreaked havoc on this healthful habit with a drug called Hog-Crave, which causes pigs to overeat so that they will grow faster and will thus be more profitable to those who kill them.

Pigs have been known to save the lives of others, including their human friends. According to The Daily Telegraph, “a pet piglet called Pru was praised by her owner … after dragging her free from a muddy bog.” The owner said, “I was panicking when I was stuck in the bog. I did not know what to do and I think Pru sensed that. … I had a rope with me that I use as a dog lead and I put it around her. I was shouting ‘Go home, go home’ and she walked forward, slowly pulling me out of the mud.”

Like dogs, pigs have done many heroic deeds. Babe’s real-life counterparts have rescued human and nonhuman companions, stopped intruders in their tracks, and even saved themselves from slaughterhouses. In addition to the previously mentioned piglet Pru, who dragged her human companion from a muddy bog, there is also Priscilla, who saved a young boy from drowning; Spammy, who led firefighters to a burning shed to save her calf friend Spot; and Lulu, who found help for her human companion who had collapsed from a heart attack. A pig named Tunia chased away an intruder, and another named Mona held a fleeing suspect’s leg until the police arrived. A pig in New Jersey jumped off a truck en route to the slaughterhouse, while in England, a stone carving of a pig named Butch was placed upon a historic cathedral after Butch and his friend Sundance escaped from a slaughterhouse and roamed the country for several days before being captured. Fortunately, a national outcry against slaughter allowed Butch and Sundance to go to a sanctuary.

Please folks. Even if you're bound and determined to continue eating meat, consider giving up pork.

Well, THIS tells it like it is!

Definitely the wrong thing

Oh, man, do I ever agree with this:

You can count on this government to do the wrong thing. The Bush administration gives tax cuts to the rich when they should be soaking them, as Roosevelt did to help the nation climb out of the last depression. What we need is a new New Deal, putting people to work rebuilding the infrastructure of the country, instead of a stimulus package handing out $600 checks. The money will mostly be used by debt-loaded Americans for paying off overdue credit cards. No shot in the arm for the economy there.

Talk about irony

Oh, mercy! Look at this excerpt from an article entitled "Healthcare or Warfare, Time to Choose":

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is, by no coincidence, also the wealthiest nation in the world that does not provide its people with health coverage. About one in six Americans has no health coverage at all, and another two or three out of those six lack adequate coverage even though they pay more than enough to receive it and to provide it to those who lack it as well.

Millions of Americans, consequently, lack preventive health care, are deeply in debt for the expenses of emergency treatment, are forced to work longer hours to provide health coverage to themselves and their families, and suffer unnecessary illnesses and deaths. One result of this is that Americans have less time and freedom and energy to invest in civic life, including in peace demonstrations and lobbying of elected officials. If we had universal health care, we would be in a much better position to demand universal heath care. Isn't that how it always seems to go?

Now, our government is funded and heavily lobbied by the oil barons and weapons makers and disaster capitalists - the corporations who destroy and then pretend to rebuild. We dump at least half of every tax dollar into these immoral expenses. In fact, we spend as much on our military as do the rest of the nations of the world combined, and we call those expenses "defense" although they are used entirely for offensive wars, bombing missions, and the maintenance of a thousand military bases in other people's countries.

To contrast this gluttonous expense with our health care disaster can be misleading if taken to imply that the money should be moved from killing to saving. The fact is that, as a society if not as a government, we already spend enough on health to provide universal coverage and have money left over. But we don't use our government to create efficiencies. Instead as much as a third of every dollar goes into waste and bureaucracy and advertising for the private insurance industry. Eliminating those middlemen and simply providing everyone with health care, to be paid for by the government, would eliminate 90 percent of the paperwork. The health coverage would be public - as it should be. The health care would still be private. You choose any private doctor you want, just leave with no paperwork, including no bill. If this sounds too good to be true, remember that every other wealthy nation on earth already does this and gets more health care for less money than we do.

Please, please, please notice the difference between coverage and care. Health care would still be private. This is so simple and obvious. Why don't we do it?

Actually, I think the title of this article is wrong. The above paragraphs demonstrate that we can have universal health care with the money we already spend on health care. We don't need to choose. Of course, our approach to war is wrong entirely on it's on merits. But that's another discussion altogether.

Our disgusting Vice President

Oh this just makes me sick:

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked what effect the grim milestone of at least 4,000 U.S. deaths in the five-year Iraq war might have on the nation.

Noting the burden placed on military families, the vice president said the biggest burden is carried by President George W. Bush, and reminded the public that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

Sure they volunteered. Because they had no other opportunity to make a decent living. And what about you, Mr. "Five-deferments" Cheney? What did you do when it was your turn to serve your country? Oh, right. I forgot. You told us. You had "other priorities."