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August, 2003 |
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August 28, 2003 - Apparently the President’s “Mission Accomplished” of May 1, 2003 is now listed in the catalogue of “inoperative statements” along with the Niger Yellowcake line that should not have been in a State of the Union Address. This week President Bush seemed to acknowledge that the mission is far from accomplished when he called on Americans to stay the course for as long as it takes to get the job done. He neglected to tell America just what “the job” was this week; what it will take to get it done; how much it will cost; and how we expect to pay for it....click here for entire article August 26, 2003 - It is a chunk of granite, an example of the stone carvers’ art like many that grace the cemeteries festooned with plastic flowers on Memorial Day. It is not a tombstone for it sits heavily in the rotunda of the building that houses the highest court of the State of Alabama. It is not an old memorial nor is it an ancient monument for it was crafted and placed just two years ago. It is neither particularly attractive nor a specimen of soaring art. It is a chunk of rock topped with an open book inscribed with one Alabamian’s paraphrase of a Protestant English translation of a passage of a Latin translation of a Greek translation of an Aramaic rendering of an ancient Hebrew text of obscure origin. It is, of course, suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore’s altar where he, in his self appointed capacity as Chief Priest of the secular religion of state imposed fundamentalist orthodoxy, leads the faithful in daily worship of his only God, his own ego....click here for entire article August 21, 2003 - While the inquiry into the nation’s most devastating power system failure in history is not yet complete it appears that the cascading blackout commenced in lines owned by the largest utility company, FirstEnergy headquartered in Akron, Ohio. A failure in one of the company’s 14,700 miles of high-voltage transmission lines with 103 interconnections to 14 other electrical utility systems appears to have been the first to go down in the cascade that left 50 million people without electrical power. Like ENRON the company is tied to the highest levels of the Bush Administration. FirstEnergy’s president, Anthony Alexander served with Ken Lay on the Administration’s Energy Transition Team. CEO Peter Burg hosted a fund raiser in June that saw Dick Cheney add $800,000 to the Bush re-election war chest. In 2002 the company made over $1.4 Million in contributions to political parties. 70% of that money went to the Republicans. That same year the company spent over $2 million lobbying lawmakers....click here for entire article August 12, 2003 - Unlike the men and women that George Bush has sent to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines and now Liberia the “real bullets” that the Terminator will face in the next two months won’t scar him with physical wounds. When the “land mines” strewn on his road to Sacramento go off no-one will be killed or maimed. But, as the California State Democratic Chairman warned the Austrian muscle man the rhetorical bullets and landmine issues won’t be scripted to be resolved by the last reel. “Hasta La Vista, Baby” won’t do as a response. The Terminator is going to learn that lesson the hard way. As the boss of Chicago’s notorious First Ward once put it, “Politics ain’t bean-bag!” August 11, 2003 - It was buried in a Chicago Tribune article by Gary Marx appearing above the fold on page three of this morning’s edition. Just a note in passing in an account of the latest twists and turns in the streets of Basra. A short paragraph, no more, describing a grenade attack that killed two Iraqis and one Nepalese security guard. That is what caught my eye – a Nepalese security guard. What was a Nepalese security guard, a rent-a-cop, doing in Baghdad? The answer was in the next sentence. The dead man was an employee of a private US firm, Global Security. The firm has the contract to furnish protection and other services for coalition bases in Iraq...click here for entire article August 10, 2003 - It is California, where else? A Republican Congressman puts up $1.7 million to collect signatures to recall the just re-elected Democratic governor and then cries manly tears as he withdraws from the race in favor of the Republican’s leading candidate to succeed the incumbent, an immigrant from Austria who favors gay marriage, abortion, and social services anathema to the Republican Party. It is California. But there are other candidates for Gray Davis’ job. One is just 22 years old. She was born in 1981 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That made her 19, old enough to vote in the 2000 election. Perhaps her vote was one of those “dimpled chads” in the Broward County recount. She claims to be the one candidate with nothing to hide. Her qualifications are 36DD and she wants to tax breast implants and to make California a clothing optional state. (Judging from the photo that Drudge displayed to herald the leading candidate’s announcement it was already!) Like modern candidates everywhere she had her own website (http://www.marycarey.com) where, for a modest contribution of $17.95 you can be treated to the bare essentials of her candidacy literally wrapped in the American flag. It is California...click here for entire article August 7, 2003 - As none of the pundits predicted noted actor and Kennedy in-law Arnold Swartzenegger joined the cast of the California farce – Recall 2003. Other cast members include diminutive unemployed actor Gary Coleman, columnist and talk show personality Arianna Huffington, and “honest” pornographer Larry Flint. The only thing missing from this expensive extravaganza is Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers cavorting in their togas...click here for entire article August 6, 2003 - There is this homeless guy wandering around downtown. It is July and the temperature is in the 90s. He is wearing a black watch-cap; a wool sweater ragged at the cuffs; a military style khaki overcoat and Vietnam era shoepacks. He carries two duffels that must be packed full of his personal possessions. He marches and occasionally stops to argue with his companion; a companion that we cannot see. Why don’t they do something? ...click here for entire article August 4, 2003 - You and I are part of a family, an American family that works together; that plays together; that comes together to celebrate our family’s triumphs; and embraces each other to ease our common grief. We are brothers and sisters and cousins. We are children and parents and grandparents. We are neighbors and friends. We are parts of a whole, bound together and dedicated as a nation with a common purpose. There are no stronger bonds than those that make us The American family...click here for entire article August 3, 2003 - The congressman from the Seventh District of Illinois followed the party line challenging the President. The party’s leader in the House had said, “This is no war of defense but one of unnecessary and of offensive aggression.” The basis on which the President had secured authorization to go to war was being challenged as a best an “exaggeration” and at worst an outright knowing lie. His law partner wrote him to tell him to soft pedal the criticism, that it was contrary to the opinions of the electorate back home. The congressman replied: “Richardson’s resolutions…make the direct question of the justice of the war; so that no man can be silent if he would. You are compelled to speak; and your only alternative is to tell the truth or tell a lie…The Loons are untiring in their effort to make the impression that all who vote supplies or take part in the war do, of necessity, approve of the President’s conduct in the beginning of it. But [we] have from the beginning made and kept the distinction between the two.”...click here for entire article |
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