Thirteen Reasons (Or Not) You Should Vote For Me If I Ran For Office

This Thursday Thirteen from Carmen’s Gone to Plaid blog just begs to be reposted and forwarded via email all across the Internet to everyone everyone knows before Election Day next Tuesday. There are some excellent reminders in there no matter who you’re voting for (and you should be voting for someone).

(note: my own Thursday Thirteen is a few posts down.)

Thirteen Reasons (or Not) You Should Vote for Me if I Ran for OfficeTuesday is Election Day (GO VOTE!).
[…snip…]
PS: You have the right to disagree with me (isn’t America great?), but not to be mean in my comments.

1. Being a Democracy isn’t easy. Take free speech. You may not like what I say, and you have the right to disagree. But I still have the right to say it. That includes questioning our leaders without being called “unpatriotic.” Questioning our leaders and speaking your mind is the most patriotic thing you can do. However, these freedoms require responsibility.

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Tags: vote, Election Day, Democracy, free speech, Patriot

3 comments See also in Politics & Causes, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World

Work Your Brain — 11/1/06

Tales of the Detainee Kind

• The Case Of Bilal Hussein — Justin Gardner @ Donklephant reports on Bilal Hussein, an AP war photographer, accused by the U.S. military of helping some insurgents kidnap a couple journalists. Only those journalists have been rescued and they say Hussein is a hero. The AP wants to know why he’s been detained since April with no charges having been filed against him while right-wing bloggers call for his head.
  

  Six months is more than enough time to get some facts together and make a case against Hussein. The military hasn’t done that, and they should…or else they should release Hussein without charge.

  As Gardner points out, Hussein isn’t the first journalist to be treated as such.

  More

  Tags: detainees, Bilal Hussein, Abdul Rahim Al Ginco, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, al-Qaeda, Insurrection Act, FEMA, Lynne Cheney, Bill O'Reilly, liberals, rightwingers, patriotism, pragmatism, American soldiers, Republicans, Democrats, GOP, Georgia, Genital Cutting, abortion, pro-choice, pro-life, TSA, airport security, bomb-making materials, Christopher Soghoian, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University, fake boarding passes, Ed Markey, FBI, Police State

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, Women's Rights, The Middle East

9/11: Around The Blogosphere

Remembering the Day

• For Thou Art With Us — Sarah Bunting @ TomatoNation.com was there.
  

  We come up the rise to the corner where a crowd of people has gathered, all looking up, and the towers come into view — the south tower closer to us and to the left. “Ohhh, man,” we both say, and “Jeeeesus Christ,” and “This is not good. This is not good at all. This is fuckin’ bad.” So dumb. So dull. We sound like frat boys when the keg is dry, but there’s nothing else we can say about what we’ve got in front of us. In front of us, high above us, the south tower has a huge hole torn through it, a burning, screaming maw with thick black smoke pouring out. Occasionally, flames lick up one corner of the twisted mouth of the hole and then retreat, only to reappear on the other side. It doesn’t seem real. It doesn’t even seem that serious at first, actually, until I remember just how big the building is, how many stories high — and that the hole must therefore cover twelve stories, at least. “This isn’t the kind of history I want to be present at,” I say, lamely, to Bob. “Me neither,” he says.

  More

  Tags: 9/11, World Trade Center, terrorism, New York, American flag, Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, Conspiracy Theories, George W. Bush, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, ABC, tragedy, patriotism, Ground Zero, We Will Never Forget, al-Qaeda, CIA, Pakistan, Taliban, Joint Special Operations Command, NSA, National Counterterrorism Center, Tora Bora, al-Zawahiri, Paul Krugman, NATO, Bill Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, Pentagon, healthcare, Iraq

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Conspiracy Theories, The Middle East

Patriot Pugly

Tags: Pug, the puppy, photo blogging, Patriot

Work Your Brain — 09/02/06

First Some Fun

• Thursday Thirteen #3 — Baggage @ Baggage That Goes With Mine wrote thirteen reasons why the internet is better than real life. This is my favorite.
  

  11. On the internet, you can pop into a forum or a blog and tell a person that their beliefs are dumb, they should be breastfeeding, they should never co-sleep, they should divorce their husband, they should shave their legs, and they should stop wearing mom jeans. In real life, people would punch you in the face.

In Memory Of Katrina

• But you can keep them for the birds and bees — Mac @ PeskyApostrophe wonders about all of that Katrina aid money the U.S. asked for and got from other countries last year. She comes to the same conclusion I did.
  

  I’m appalled at a variety of things when it comes to the Katrina rebuilding effort and FEMA’s role in it all, but this is a whole new level of incompetence. As part of my new job, I am now involved in grant-writing. In a good portion of grants, the grantee expects a report as to how the money was used. While I’m sure these gifts did not come with any reporting requirements, if one of our grantees found out their money had been either wasted or didn’t got to the program for which it was intended that would pretty much guarantee they’d never give money to us again. And you have to wonder if, should another emergency situation arise, these countries would think twice about giving aid money to the U.S. if we’re not going to use it and use it wisely.

• First the Flood, Now the Fight — Spencer S. Hsu @ WashingtonPost.com wrote a special report on the butting of heads between FEMA and state and city officials in the rebuilding of the Gulf States and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. FEMA swears it’s not trying to be difficult but the process seems to be designed to wear down those requesting help until they just give up and either take what little they’ve been given, which isn’t much if anything.
  

  Through hundreds of such disputes large and small, the most costly disaster in U.S. history is fast becoming its most contentious, with appeals and disputes worth nearly a billion dollars bogging down repairs of critical public systems and delaying the return of residents.

  Current and former officials at all levels blame FEMA workers’ inexperience with eligibility rules, weaknesses in U.S. disaster laws and inconsistent treatment by Congress for much of the wrangling. The huge scale of the storm and honest disagreement over whether federal or local taxpayers should pay the tab add to the conflict.

  “Disasters should be difficult to declare. . . . But once you get them, FEMA should not worry about cutting costs,” said Daniel A. Craig, who stepped down in October as head of FEMA’s recovery division and is now consulting for New Orleans. “Public entities are eligible for everything they have lost due to the disaster. It is not up to FEMA to cut corners or makes sure money is saved.”

  Gil H. Jamieson, FEMA’s deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery, agreed that “we’re in this to rebuild the city” and added: “We are not in it to delay for the sake of delay. Are there folks who sometimes hose it up? Absolutely. But I think we’re doing a good job of helping it recover.”

  The disputes come as the costliest part of the recovery begins: restoring water, power, roads, bridges, schools and other public facilities along the Gulf Coast. Agency veterans said the spending will have more impact on the physical rebuilding of the Gulf area than anything else FEMA does over the next decade, possibly eclipsing its role in aiding individual victims of the storm.

  The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, for instance, sustained $446 million in storm losses, said Executive Director Marcia St. Martin. But FEMA has committed just $113 million so far.

  FEMA notes that New Orleans promised U.S. environmental regulators $640 million in repairs before Katrina, and that the antiquated system is too big for the Crescent City’s reduced population.

  “That’s what makes a city — if you don’t have water, sewer and drainage, you don’t have a city,” lamented Robert Jackson, spokesman for the sewer board. “The money so far only scratches the surface of the devastation.

  Hat Tip: Susie @ Suburban Guerrilla

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Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Internet, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, aid money, Gil H. Jamieson, Daniel A. Craig, Gulf Coast recovery, New Orleans, Islamofascism, George W. Bush, Muslims, women in the media, Support the Troops, defense appropriation bill, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, Lower 9th Ward, National Hurricane Canter, 9/11, Max Mayfield, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, terrorism, Ann Jones, Taliban, NATO, Christians, American Dream, Martin Niemoller, Germany, Nazis, Rocky Anderson, Utah, Salt Lake Tribune, patriotism, lie, Walter Jones, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Caddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld

What Will People Think Of Next?

• If you are feeling a bit cynical these days about the State of the Union and you’re a bit of a smart ass like me — not to mention you find that it’s always fun and game at airport security for you no matter what anyway, try this out. You can purchase a copy of the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United States printed on both sides of a sturdy, pocket-sized pieces or metal and next time you travel by air, take the Bill of Rights - Security Edition along with you so when you’re asked to empty your pockets, you can proudly toss the Bill of Rights into that plastic bin. After all you need to get used to tossing those freedoms away so the government can enforce inspections and the USA Patriot Act; if you keep the Bill of Rights with you when you travel, it’ll only lead to alarms going off and trouble.
• From the “Files of Owie!” comes this invention: Pierced Glasses! No, the glasses themselves aren’t pierced. Your bridge is pierced to keep your glasses on. James Sooy and Oliver Gilson started in November ‘04 working on the prototype in Sooy’s garage. They are currently on Mark III. They hope to one day sell their product for $75 - $100 a pop. Oddly, while I didn’t mind LASIK or having my ears pierced twice or my nose pierced, I find Pierced Glasses a bit on the extreme side and looking a bit painful, but Sooy has a different opinion:
  

  Paying two thousand dollars to have someone cut your eyes and shoot a laser in them (just so you don’t have to wear glasses) seems extreme to me… but I don’t have a problem with that either. And we’ll give you your dose of X-treme Eye Action for a twentieth of the price! X-TREME!!!

Tags: Patriot Act

Vote None Of The Above

Over the weekend my mom and I got on the subject of politics. That doesn’t really happen often. Usually if I’m going to chat politics with anyone it’s my dad. It’s not that I don’t think my mom knows anything about politics, it’s just that I think she tends to be more of a follower and less of a thinker. She’s definitely a liberal but she’s more of a follow-the-leader liberal though she doesn’t know it. She scoffed at my grandmother’s follow-the-leader Republicanism but she does tend to say “Well your father thinks…” more than she should where politics are concerned, which is why I prefer to go straight to the source.

Anyway, it’s really not her politics I want to talk about anyway (thought that sort of “follow-the-leader” mentality is a big pet peeve of mine). I want to talk about my politics or at least my point-of-view this year.

At first, at the beginning of the year, I was thinking that this would be a good year to back a third party. In fact, it may still be; I just don’t know if enough dissatisfied Dems and Reps could be convinced to jump their parties ships to do the same. It’s easier to get Independents like myself to vote for third party candidates because we don’t feel party loyalty or guilt and we don’t feel our hands drawn to check off the party candidate on the Diebold machine or the paper ballot. We haven’t been to any of the secret brainwashing meetings where we sold our souls and signed in blood or promised our first borns or anything. So, if we choose to vote Green Party this year, we can do so and walk away relatively unscathed.

I still think that now is the time to think about a third party. I think the days of the Republicans and the Democrats controlling the government have got to end. Obviously they’ve become complacent and they are feeding each other the power rather than doing their jobs — you know, their jobs, right? We elected them to take care of us, protect us, govern us, ensure our safety, provide for us, etc. Mostly they seem to bicker and struggle and fight for power and ignore the people who need help.

However, I think that the general public isn’t ready to consider a third party yet. At least not seriously. That’s the impression I’ve gotten the last few months.

So…where does that leave me? How am I going to vote in November? Well, it turns out that Olympia Snowe is up for re-election. She’s a republican and I was thinking of voting for her actually. I have enjoyed our letter exchanges and she and Susan Collins have been big supporters of the environment and the Katrina victims. However, Snowe has voted the party line consistantly even on issues where she claimed she did not want to vote for the issue — she always followed up in an interview stating that she “held her nose while doing it.” This is inappropriate. If you don’t thing you should vote for something, you don’t vote for it. This is exactly what has been wrong with the Bush Republican Congress.

Also, I made a decision the day the Patriot Act was renewed. I truly and honestly believe that anyone in Congress who voted to renew the Patriot Act should not be re-elected to Congress — that includes Democrats, especially John Kerry. I have begun my own personal campaign to remove the Patriot Act renewers from Congress. I could almost forgive them for voting for it in the first place because of how the Bush Administration manipulated the situation originally, but the renewal was completely different and most of them, like John Kerry, had spoken out against it. They can no longer be trusted to look out for the best interests of American citizens.

My mom thought this was very practical of me…of course she thought my father might agree with me.

Anyway, while I was thinking this over, I couldn’t help but remember the movie Brewster’s Millions with Richard Pryor, where he has to spend a fortune in 30 days to inherit so much more. One of the ways he does this is by running for office in New York, when he starts winning, he drops out and instead starts running the campaign encouraging everyone to vote “None of the Above”.

What would happen if this November 2nd we all spoke out and voted “None of the Above”? Would they get the message that we’re tired of all the crap? We want them to stop playing games and start running the government. We want them to stop thinking just about themselves and their bank accounts and start thinking about our growing lower and middle classes and the number of starving children right here in the United States. We want the to actually keep their campaign promises.

Tags: vote, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, politics, Green Party, Patriot Act

Bush Thumbs His Nose At Oversight In Patriot Act

In another nose-thumbing at the U.S. Constitution and Congress, President Bush wrote another love note to Congress and the American people on the Patriot Act when he signed the latest version on March 9th. He wants to make sure that everyone knows that he doesn’t have to answer to anyone no matter what the law. What happened to checks and balances?

WASHINGTON — When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act’s expanded police powers.

The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

[…]

Past presidents occasionally used such signing statements to describe their interpretations of laws, but Bush has expanded the practice. He has also been more assertive in claiming the authority to override provisions he thinks intrude on his power, legal scholars said.

Bush’s expansive claims of the power to bypass laws have provoked increased grumbling in Congress. Members of both parties have pointed out that the Constitution gives the legislative branch the power to write the laws and the executive branch the duty to ”faithfully execute” them.

[…]

Bush’s signing statement on the USA Patriot Act nearly went unnoticed.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, inserted a statement into the record of the Senate Judiciary Committee objecting to Bush’s interpretation of the Patriot Act, but neither the signing statement nor Leahy’s objection received coverage from in the mainstream news media, Leahy’s office said.

Yesterday, Leahy said Bush’s assertion that he could ignore the new provisions of the Patriot Act — provisions that were the subject of intense negotiations in Congress — represented ”nothing short of a radical effort to manipulate the constitutional separation of powers and evade accountability and responsibility for following the law.”

[…]

David Golove, a New York University law professor who specializes in executive power issues, said the statement may simply be ”bluster” and does not necessarily mean that the administration will conceal information about its use of the Patriot Act.

But, he said, the statement illustrates the administration’s ”mind-bogglingly expansive conception” of executive power, and its low regard for legislative power.

‘‘On the one hand, they deny that Congress even has the authority to pass laws on these subjects like torture and eavesdropping, and in addition to that, they say that Congress is not even entitled to get information about anything to do with the war on terrorism,” Golove said. [“Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement” (Boston Globe)]

(Emphasis placed by myself.)

Hat tip to Tennessee Guerilla Women.

Tags: George W. Bush, Patriot Act, Boston Globe, The U.S. Constitution, Congress, Conspiracy Theories

Republican Lies -er- Spin

This Week the Republicans released a new radio ad in Wisconsin:

RNC AD: “Censure”

Announcer: September 11th changed our country. And it changed how America responds to terrorists. President Bush is working to keep American families safe. Passing the PATRIOT Act which has disrupted over one hundred and fifty terrorist threats and cells making sure the US is monitoring terrorist communications. But some Democrats are working against these efforts to secure our country, opposing the PATRIOT Act and terrorist surveillance program. Their leader is Russ Feingold. Now Feingold and other Democrats want to censure the President. Publicly reprimanding President Bush for pursuing suspected members of al Qaeda. Some Democrats are even calling for President Bush’s impeachment.
Is this how Democrats plan to win the War on Terror? Call Russ Feingold and ask him why he’s more interested in censuring the President than protecting our freedom. Paid for by the Republican National Committee not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee www.gop.com. The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.

FactCheck.org does a nice analysis of the inaccuracies and mischaracterizations of Feingold’s Censure Resolution in the Repulican’s ad. I’d like to review some of that here, but I want to be fair and point out that these kinds of commercials are a personal pet peeve of mine as they come from both sides. They were particularly aggrevating during the 2004 election and after awhile they sound less like spin and more like lies and after awhile I’m just offended by both sides.

Now Feingold and other Democrats want to censure the President. Publicly reprimanding President Bush for pursuing suspected members of al Qaeda.

This must be more of that “if they aren’t with us, then they’re against us” mentality. Feingold nor any Democrat has ever reprimanded President Bush or anyone for pursuing suspected terrorists. In fact, Feingold has repeatedly, publically said that we should be wiretapping terrorists and suspected terrorists; that isn’t the issue — the issue is the wiretapping of Americans on American soil without obtaining court orders as well as a failure to disclose what he was doing to the appropriate Congressional committees.

Some Democrats are even calling for President Bush’s impeachment.

But not Russ Feingold. John Conyers in the House, yes, but he isn’t even calling really for an impeachment so much as an investigation that could lead to an impeachment. The implication is that the Democratic agenda is to impeach President Bush, which I find hilarious because if they were paying attention, they’d know that the Democrats are too scared to do any such thing.

It’s really all about the spin. Scare Americans into thinking that only Republicans can keep them safe. God knows that the terrorists are going to attack Wisconsin any day now. You aren’t a patriot if you vote Democrat.

Tags: Terrorists, Patriot Act, Russ Feingold, Republicans, Democrats, George W. Bush, factcheck.org, Censure, 2004 election, Impeach

Recommended Reading

There’s so much going on in the news and on the web that I really wanted to comment on it all today but it’s got my brain buzzing. Still I didn’t want some of these things to slip away without sharing because they really are worth a good read.

• Iraq through the Prism of Vietnam - a nice comparison of the two wars by Retired Gen. William Odom. “He lists striking similarities and asserts that only after it pulls out of Iraq can the U.S. hope for international support to deal with anti-Western forces.”
• To the Inequality of Men and Women - Matsu wrote an excellent history of the modern day fight for equality of the sexes and how maybe it wasn’t exactly everything we thought it was going to be and what it might take to get it right.
• It’s about damn time! - Kevin brings up the question that if a woman has the right to choose whether to abort, give a child up for adoption or raise a child, shouldn’t the father have the right to choose whether or not he wants to be financially responsible for the child? Currently, our legal system makes that choice for men.
• What’s Good for the Wiretapped Goose Is Apparently Not Good For the Wiretapped Gander — the writers at Wonkette feel that if Bush can listen into their calls, they should be allowed to drop in on enator Rockefeller’s conference calls.
• The nattering nabobs of…patriotism? — this is a very creative editorial by Paul Lewis, a what if, if you will. It’s an amusing mismatch of 1776 and 2006.

Tags: politics, Iraq, Vietnam War, Women's Rights, warrantless wiretapping, patriotism, Men's Rights

John Kerry Needs His Mouth Sewn Shut

No, seriously. I’ve been mulling it over since last Thursday when the Patriot Act got renewed.

Mostly I’ve been quietly seething as that’s just another nail in the coffin of our dying civil liberties and freedoms and my first impulse was to write a post about how every single one of those Senators who voted to renew the Patriot Act should be voted out of office when their seat came up — which is saying a lot since I actually like Snowe, Collins, Baucus, Vitter, and up until very recently McCain. However, I decided to sit on it and think on it.

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Tags: John Kerry, Democrats, Patriot Act, Senate, loss of Freedoms

Proud to be an American?

If you get the chance, check out Scott-O-Rama’s Proud To Be An American? post from yesterday. I must say I feel his anger and disappointment in the current state of a country we were raised to believe was the best country in the world. It’s hard to be proud when you feel you should appologize to the world just for being an American.

In the United States, we are taught from a very early age that the U.S.A. is the greatest country in the world. We learn about other cultures that don’t have the freedoms that we have in America. We are led to believe that the U.S.A. only fights to protect the oppressed and spread freedom and democracy around the world. And we are told that when we grow up, we can be anything we want to be… and astronaut, a CEO, the president… all because we live in America.

As I’ve grown older, I have come to realize what a load of crap propaganda it all is.

A little less than a month ago, we celebrated the 4th of July- Independence Day in the U.S.A. As I have done so many times in the past, I hung the flag out in front of the house to show my patriotism. This year though, I did not feel any pride. Instead, I felt anger. Yes, I’m mad at my country, and here are a few reasons why:

Read the rest here…

Tags: blogs, propaganda, patriotism

Are Libraries A Safe-Haven For Terrorists?

According to CNN.com House limits Patriot Act rules on library records!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates of rewriting the USA Patriot Act are claiming momentum after the House, despite a White House veto threat, voted to restrict investigators from using the anti-terrorism law to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.

Wednesday’s 238-187 vote came as lawmakers ramped up efforts to extend the Patriot Act, which was passed quickly in the emotional aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. When Congress passed the law, it included a sunset provision under which 15 of its provisions are to expire at the end of this year.

Since the Patriot Act passed, liberals and libertarian-oriented conservatives have pressed for changes, citing privacy and civil liberties concerns. The administration has said weakening of the act would draw a veto from President Bush.

“No question, this is a real shot in the arm for those of us who want to make changes to the USA Patriot Act,” said Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vermont, sponsor of the provision that would curtail the government’s ability to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects. He said the vote would help “rein in an administration intent on chipping away at the very civil liberties that define us as a nation.”

The real irony is that the Patriot Act hadn’t been used to investigate bookstore receipts or library records as of March 30th. Yet, the Justice Department claims that the authority to be able to do so is a great benefit to investigating possible terrorists and terrorist enablers. WTF? Shouldn’t there be a rule that if they haven’t used it in 3 years, then it should just go away? Obviously they don’t need it. It’s kind of like my George Foreman Grill. Yeah, it’s trendy to have but I never use it and it’s just taking up space in my cabinet.

I particularly like this quote:

“It bodes well that the first vote Congress has taken on the Patriot Act this year has been in favor of liberty and freedom,” said Gregory Nojeim, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union.

And this is actually kind of funny:

Supporters of the Patriot Act countered that the rules are potentially useful and argued that the House was voting to make libraries safe havens for terrorists.

So, now I’m seeing the backrooms of libraries filled with smoke and bomb-making supplies and little gray-haired ladies in bifocals running after shady-looking types and fussing about how they treat the books on bomb-making. I really think that’s a bit extreme. Like the House wants terrorists to win. Please.

Anyway, it’s a small victories for people concerned with civil liberties and the freedoms Americans claim to be passing on to other countries, but with President Bush’s promise to veto any “weakening” of the Patriot Act, we still have a long way to go.

Tags: Public Library, Patriot Act, ACLU, House of Representatives, Freedoms, Terrorists

In The Words of Senator Russ Feingold

From an address in October of 2001 on opposing the U.S. Patriot Act:

…There have been periods in our nation’s history when civil liberties have taken a back seat to what appeared at the time to be the legitimate exigencies of war. Our national consciousness still bears the stain and the scars of those events: The Alien and Sedition Acts, the suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War, the internment of Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, and Italian-Americans during World War II, the blacklisting of supposed communist sympathizers during the McCarthy era, and the surveillance and harassment of antiwar protesters, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the Vietnam War. We must not allow these pieces of our past to become prologue…even in our great land, wartime has sometimes brought us the greatest tests of our Bill of Rights…

…Now some may say, indeed we may hope, that we have come a long way since the those days of infringements on civil liberties. But there is ample reason for concern. I have been troubled in the past month by the potential loss of commitment to traditional civil liberties.

As it seeks to combat terrorism, the Justice Department is making extraordinary use of its power to arrest and detain individuals, jailing hundreds of people on immigration violations and arresting more than a dozen “material witnesses” not charged with any crime. Although the government has used these authorities before, it has not done so on such a broad scale. Judging from government announcements, the government has not brought any criminal charges related to the attacks with regard to the overwhelming majority of these detainees…

…Even as America addresses the demanding security challenges before us, we must strive mightily also to guard our values and basic rights. We must guard against racism and ethnic discrimination…

…And, of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists.

But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. That would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America.

Preserving our freedom is the reason that we are now engaged in this new war on terrorism. We will lose that war without firing a shot if we sacrifice the liberties of the American people…

Tags: Russ Feingold, Patriot Act, Freedoms, terrorism, politics

A Nation Divided

I have for some time been searching for a way to express how I feel about the war in Iraq. I’m tired of being told I’m unpatriotic and Unamerican if I disagree with the war itself. I’m tired of being insulted and being accused of not supporting the troops because I vocally believe exactly what Kerry has said — “Wrong war, wrong time.”

Someone finally put into words what I’ve been trying to convey. It is possible to support our troops while disagreeing with the commander-in-cheif. I think the men and women who choose to serve in the military are very special, brave people who deserve respect. I am aware that many of them believe in the “cause” they are fighting for in Iraq, though I suspect that number is higher than it probably would be if many didn’t feel the need to believe it’s righteous to make themselves feel better about it all.

D was supposed to ship out to Iraq last month. His orders changed at the last minute to my relief. Apparently to his as well. He told me how important it is to vote in this election and vote for someone who’ll put an end to the madness.

My neighbor, a man who has served in the Navy in several wars including Vietnam, doesn’t like what Kerry did immediately after coming home from Vietnam (something he and I disagree on), but he’s voting for Kerry. He doesn’t seem to think that Bush is doing a very good job making decisions for this country, particularly where our military is concerned.

My father who was Army, who I thought was a Republican growing up, is probably the most liberal person I know now. He’s voting for Kerry. Like me, he never believed in the WMD claims by this administration.

I feel so sad because at one time I did respect President Bush. I thought that while he didn’t appear to be a very smart man, he had been smart enough to surround himself with smart people. Now I think that has turned around and bit him in the ass. I think he sees the world through rose-colored glasses provided to him by the likes of Dick Chenney and the other Bush minions. I think that Bush can stand up there and tell lies and mislead the country because he’s been misled by his own people, the people he trusts. I’m not saying his completely innocent. I also think he wanted to get Sadaam and he challenged his people to find a way.

It’s all such a disappointment.

The truth is that I like Kerry. I even like most of the things that the Republicans accuse him of. When I have gone to investigate the accusations and claims, I’ve found that in the correct context, mis-quoted things make sense and show him to be an intelligent man who looks at the changing world and changes with it as needed. I look at his record in Congress and I am not at all upset by most of his choices. I don’t know how he’d be as president. Obviously I hadn’t known how Bush would be. You take that risk when you vote. I know how Bush has been the last two years. I see how his administration has misled this country, sent our men and women to die, left Osama Bin Laden running free despite claims to get him no matter what, and destroyed most of the environmental protection legislation in favor of unregulating corporations who are out to help themselves despite the effects on the less-than-priviliged and the next generations who inherit the world.

But still mostly, I’m tired of the division in this country. Bush was supposed to be a uniter but from Nov. 2, 2000, he has been everything but with the exception of the few months following September 11, 2001 — which was more a coming together of patriotism and pride and mourning by the American people. Al-Queida united us far better than Bush has.

Tags: Iraq, patriotism, John Kerry, George W. Bush, Support the Troops, mud-slinging

Disappointed In The American Crowd

Yesterday at the Clam Festival, I stopped to watch the Firemen’s Muster. At the beginning they marched out the American Flag and played the national anthem. I was really disappointed, that in a country that slings around the words “patriot” and “patriotism” like they are compliments, privilleges and duty, very few people removed their hats and just as few people placed their hands over their hearts. In fact, some people who were chattering raised their voices so their mundane conversations could be heard over the music.

Tags: Yarmouth Clam Festival, patriotism

One Patriot’s Point-Of-View

I cannot seem to accept the idea that more people seem to unquestioningly, blindly believe every single utterance of the Bush Administration despite any contrary facts than believe unquestioningly that there is a God.

It frustrates me to no end that you cannot argue or debate the issues with these people because they can only regurgitate the rhetoric and propoganda and will eventually turn to name calling and accusing those who don’t whole-heartedly agree as unpatriotic traitors and resort to their anthem “Remember 9/11!”

I, of course, vividly remember 9/11, sometimes still in waking nightmares. I believe that those involved should be punished. What they did was an autrocity, an act of war on our own soil. Even as a pacifist with serious doubts in the rightness of capital punishment, I believed and still believe that invading Afghanistan and hunting down the evil masterminds was the right thing to do. I wish with all my heart that we would have finished the job and in my heart of hearts, I suspect that turning our attention on Iraq was a way to distract the American public from the fact that Bin Laden has never come to justice. I am aghast that there are still so many people who cling to the belief that Iraq was involved in 9/11. Not only is there no proof of such a connection but the very likelihood has been disproven. I can only guess that they cling to this belief so tightly because accepting that they were misled and duped is a far worse fate to them than the fate of 100’s of American soldiers sent off to an unnecessary war and the fate of 100’s if not 1000’s of Iraqi’s, innocent and not, and the survivors who must now deal with the aftermath.

I am also patriotic. I love my country. I display my flag on my front door. I vehmenently resent the accusation that if I don’t hang on and embrace every utterance of the current administration, I am somehow less a person and less an American than someone who marches blindly to patriotic propoganda. Certainly this country was founded by rule breakers and those who thought outside of the box, those that wanted these freedoms they set up for us, those that gave serious thought to the good of the country. I am an American and I am entitled to my opinions, my belief in the facts, my disbelief in the compentency of an administration that has misled the American public repeatedly and appears to believe that it is above the very laws and freedoms it claims to be defending. I am an American and that does not mean I am a fanatic. It does not mean that I must accept the world as it is nor does it mean that I should roll over and pretend I love the way the current administration is doing it’s job. I am entitled to know the facts; I am entitled to express my rage, my horror, my discontent; I am entitled to these things without fear of abuse and imprisonment.

My alias is N. Mallory and I approved this message.

Tags: politics, George W. Bush, propaganda, patriotism, 9/11, lie, Iraq, Afghanistan

anxiety all around

Well, I ended up not going to see Carla and Connie. The reviews in the papers and all over haven’t been pretty for the modern day Victor/Victoria rip-off. Even at matinee prices it would have been $6 to see since the movie theaters up here don’t appear to take my MovieWatchers.com card, which at least got me a free popcorn occassionally or 50¢ off of a soda. So, I just couldn’t justify spending the money to go see a movie that I wasn’t sure was going to be good since I’ve not heard anything from people I know yet.

There are some upcoming movies that I’m anxious to see and will definitely spend the money on — Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Troy (Brad Pitt actually looks yummy in this one), Shrek 2, and Spiderman 2 to name a few. I’d actually like to see that Olsen Twin movie but I think I’ll wait until it’s on tv or DVD.

So, in leiu of the movie, I went to South Portland and went shopping at Target and then the mall. Target was much better than the Wal-Mart I went to in Falmouth — too bad the gift card a friend gave me is for Wal-Mart. It was weird however being in a one-story Target and I think I was looking for a cheap desk calendar at some point, but I didn’t find it, which actually isn’t unusual as I can never seem to find stuff at Target, but it’s so clean and shiny and a much pleasanter place to be.

I’d been looking around for a copy of Cheaper By the Dozen. Though I hadn’t seen it, I was sure I was going to want to have a copy. It was getting great reviews and the cast is wonderful (including that cutie Tom Welling from “Smallville” — yum!). Back in New Orleans (which I still often refer to as “back home”), new releases often come out at a reduced price, usually between $14.99 and $17.99, depending on where you go. Up here, the price has been steadily $19.99 everywhere. So I finally broke down and bought it. I ended up watching it on my laptop yesterday. It was really cute. Nothing award-winning, but extermely amusing, though with some predictable bits to the plot and not enough Tom Welling.

Anyway, I also bought two pairs of slacks at New York & Company in the mall. They were on sale and they fit. Today however, the pants seem a bit loose around the waist though they are still snug on the hips. I don’t understand. I haven’t been doing the Hollywood Diet or anything the last two days or anything. Very annoying. I still think the next size down will be too small and I need something to wear right now. Even once my clothes come, I still don’t fit right into a lot of the pants because I’ve gained back some of the weight I lost during the unemployment diet. :confused:

I was going to buy the CD with “I Love This Bar” on it, but again, the prices in the FYE and Best Buy kind of took me back. Maybe it’s just been so long since I’ve been able to spend money and I’m not used to the costs of things, or maybe everything really is more expensive up here. :crazy:

I still don’t know what Patriot’s Day is about. There didn’t appear to be a parade or anything. In fact, there wasn’t much in the paper that signified any great events. There was a big fair on Sunday with crafts and stuff but it was in a town that I can’t pronounce and am not sure where it was so I didn’t go. (I really need to venture away from the coast at some point…basically I just travel up and down I-95/I-295.) I did note that the Boston Marathon was yesterday, which makes sense. But basically, I guess it’s just a day off of work for people. I don’t think back in New Orleans we could have let the day pass without some sort of excuse to parade, drink, and eat. Here it was just an extra weekend day.

So, I spent the day cleaning up the suite, playing part of a game of Austrailia Rails, watching Cheaper By the Dozen, making a beef roast and cheese brocoli and potato wedges, working on some paperwork, and watching the end of Spartacus. Don’t get to excited about the dinner. I bought one of those pre-seasoned Hornel roasts and a bag of frozen veggies that just had to be heated. In fact, while I really liked the new Shaw’s that opened up in Freeport this weekend because of their large produce and health food sections (and huge ice cream section), I was extremely disappointed in their frozen veggie section. I guess it’s a sign of the times when the frozen veggies take up 1/4th the space that the ice cream section takes up. There weren’t a lot of variety and 1/3rd of the selection appeared to be those prepackaged Green Giant microwave selections (though the corn niblets are really good, I must admit). I didn’t care for Hannafords, but I might drop by there again to check out their frozen veggies. I’d hate to have to split my shopping, but I will if I have to. Veggies are essential for a healthy diet.

I had a migraine last night and it’s still with me, despite having every window in the suite open and nice cool air last night. The pain originates in my neck, I think, so I don’t know if it’s the uncomfortable pillows on the bed or the uncomfortable pillows/chairs that are in front of the tv or something else entirely. It’ll be nice to sleep in my own bed, or even on my own futon, next week. Plus, I can’t recall if I mentioned but the shower is so small that I practically drown when I’m in there from lack of space to avoid the water coming down. In fact, in order to breathe, I have to stand at an odd angle, and I’ve noticed that the neck muscle on my left side appears to be sore, though I’m still having issues with my left jaw aching too.

***In New Orleans today, my mother has given out my home phone number to everyone she knows to call her there while they load the truck and finish packing. However, the phone had been forwarded to my cel phone up here, and while I had told her that, she didn’t recall. Then they got a slow start this morning to get the truck and get over to the apartment. At 11:03am CST, I was still receiving calls from people trying to get in touch with them.In fact, at 9:52am, I received a call from BJ who was calling the apartment to be let in because my parents had called him earlier and asked him to meet them an hour and a half earlier. The phone forwarded to me. I called the cel phone of JE since I assumed they were with him since he was helping move stuff and they were staying at his house. They weren’t with him. Instead they were supposed to be getting the truck and were going to call him. He gave me the cel phone of his step-father because he said they had borrowed it. I called and asked them to call BJ. In the next hour, a friend of my mother’s called twice. I gave her the borrowed cel phone number and she said JE’s wife answered it. Eventually, I called BJ to talk to my mom and talked her through un-forwarding the phone. It’s been quiet on my cel phone since then.So much for my dad’s anal claims that they would get started loading the truck early (early being by 9am…). I mean, when we were going to move me to Alabama, he was being such an ass about getting the truck early to get it all done. Now that I look back, this is pretty much how it went when we loaded the truck for NM too. Heh.

***Needy has always had the occassional bout of upset stomach. He goes through stages. The vet and I thought he was just eating his food too fast, but living in a one bedroom suite and having had the whole weekend to observe, I have realized that he does not eat his food too fast. However, starting this weekend, he started having upset stomach…a lot. I will admit that it’s easier to clean up from hardwood floors than carpet (and unfortunately the new apartment is carpet with a tile kitchen and bath). I wish I knew what to do to help him, because by the time I know he’s going to through up, it’s too late to give him anything for it. I remember the vet told me once that you can give cats pepto and milk of magnesia to calm their stomachs, just in small doses. I never have because generally once he’s thrown up, he’s done. This weekend though…If I didn’t have that stuff already packed in a box still down yonder, I might have gone out and got some to try it.I’m wondering if he’s just so neurotic and anxious that everything gets all worked up inside and backfires, so to speak. If so, he’s definitely my cat. Sometimes, o.k., often, I will get myself all worked up and feel sick to my stomach over things, even imagined things. Lately, I’ve been getting worked up over this job. The job is going well and all but I’m terrified that I’m not going to do well, that they’ll “find me out” or something, that I’ll get fired again just after I get settled and sign a 12 month lease and start to like it here. I’m terrified that I’m going to screw up. So, every now and then at random times, I’ll get this overwhelming feeling of anxiety and unsurity. It happened yesterday in the grocery store. It doesn’t have to be while I’m here. I know there are no guarantees, but it would be nice to feel a little safe, a little less scared to death, a little less out on a limb all by my lonesome.Maybe I’m just not used to life without all the drama…

Tags: Patriot's Day, migraine