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The
die has been cast
by
IseFire
- Tue 02/24/04; 10:49 pm EST
George
W. Bush's onerous speech today in favor of Constitutionally
codifying discrimination against a section of the American citizenry
was an irrevocably unacceptable display of sheer animus. Mischievous,
divisive, and disingenuous, his ridiculous attempt to realign
the debate over gay marriage as one not of equal rights and civil
law but of religion and changing "the meaning of marriage...forever"
cannot be allowed to stand. Terry McAuliffe, the Chair of the
Democratic National Committee, has condemned Bush. Give
to the DNC now! We must send Bush a signal in the
wake of his vile rhetoric. Bush has nearly a half-billion dollars
to spend against the Democratic nominee. Give
now if you care at all.
Give
to Barrow's campaign
by
IseFire
- Mon 02/23/04; 8:29 pm EST
Since '98, only one Republican incumbent has lost reelection in
the South. But John Barrow, Democrat of Georgia, is targeting Republican
Max Burns. Burns represents a district where Senator Max Cleland
received 57% in the last election. Dems have a real chance here!
Please consider contributing.
"Draft
Kerry/Edwards" website launched
by
IseFire
- Mon 02/23/04; 7:49 pm EST
A new web site, draftkerryedwards.com,has
been launched. It's getting so many hits that it might load slowly
for you. Its premise is that there's no groundswell of support for
an Edwards VP spot. Do you agree? E-mail
me. My sense is that a Kerry/Edwards movement is
exactly what most Democrats want. Perhaps the new site is
crying wolf. (They link to two article suggesting Bill Richardson
and Bob Graham are the candidates in play.)
If you wonder what I think about Nader's announcement, this cartoon
sums it up well.
I say
to Nader, "Good-bye, and thanks for all the seat belts"
Pentagon
apocalypse papers on global warming uncovered
by
IseFire
- Sun 02/22/04; 9:25 am EST
Deeply humiliating to the Bush administration,
which denies the very existance of global warming, a
Pentagon study uncovered by the UK's The Observer
concludes that
[article excerpt] climate change over the next 20 years could
result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars
and natural disasters.
[The report,] suppressed by US defence chiefs,...warns that...by
2020....abrupt climate change could
bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear
threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies.
The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism,
say the few experts privy to [the report's] contents.
"Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,"
concludes the Pentagon analysis. "Once again, warfare would
define human life."
Vietnam
vets flock to Kerry (R.
Poe article in Salon.com)
by
IseFire
- Sat 02/21/04; 4:19 pm EST
A very important article
by Robert Poe in Salon.com hypothesizes that in the
'04 race Vietnam veterans will finally come into their own as a
political force, with huge positive implications for John Kerry's
campaign. (Photo below: Kerry stands with former swift boat
crew members in nh in Jan. L: former Green Beret Jim Rassmann, who
credits Kerry with saving his life.)
[Excerpt] The
gathering of veterans in his camp made Kerry the Bush team's nightmare
opponent. They turned its greatest advantage, its flag-bedecked
character costume, into its greatest weakness. They didn't go out
of their way to attack neocons for having avoided combat service
-- Vietnam vets have always been the most nonjudgmental members
of their generation. Rather, simply by showing their faces in politics,
as veterans supporting a veteran, they invited comparisons unflattering
to Bush and his friends.
When
Jim Rassmann talks about Kerry in public, even a skeptical viewer
finds it hard to avoid the thought: The candidate is a better man
than the president he seeks to replace. The more veterans appear
in political settings, the more neocons will find themselves facing
the kinds of questions they've managed to dodge for most of their
adult lives.
The
questions take a lot of forms, but stripped to the basics, they
add up to what the press apparently considers an outrageously in-your-face,
emperor-has-no-clothes verbal assault: If you believe that patriotism
should be wholehearted, and should transcend politics and selfish
concerns, what does it say about your patriotism that you didn't
volunteer for Vietnam? (That wasn't so hard, was it?) Or, as a vet
might be tempted to put it: If you're such a great patriot, why
didn't you go fight like we did?
More
evidence of Bush AWOL in '72
by
IseFire
- Sat 02/21/04; 12:09 pm EST
[Excerpt from Hardfort
Advocate story] Two members of the Air National
Guard unit that President George W. Bush allegedly served with as
a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told to expect him and were
on the lookout for him. He never showed, however; of that both Bob
Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain.
Isebrand.com
link addition and Bill Moyers self-deletion...sort of
by
IseFire
- Fri 02/20/04; 4:59 pm EST
I've added a new link under "News
w/ a View," a category that itself I've renamed. The new link
is to Project
for The Old American Century. Check it out. It's
well worth it.
Other news: Bill
Moyers is retiring from PBS. Well, the guy is nearly
70, after all! He's going to quit PBS after the November elections
to write a book about LBJ. His PBS show NOW
will be sorely missed.
AT&T
Wireless pulls ads from Drudge Report, reports THE
DRUDGE RETORT
by
IseFire
- Fri 02/20/04; 4:32 pm EST
A great new news site that is also a Matt
Drudge watchdog site, has revealed that AT&T
wireless has pulled its ads from The Drudge Report
following Drudge's lie about John Kerry having had an affair.
I was going to title this post, "Fuck Matt Drudge." Then
I realized I shouldn't wish on him something he'd like so much.
It's also an unfair denegration of a sexual practice millions of
honest American men and women enjoy. Anyway, I predict that this
website, The
Drudge Retort, is going to be a popular one.
We've
got Bush scared. Now it's time to hold the "4th estate"
accountable, too
by
IseFire
- Thurs 02/19/04; 8:19 pm EST
Eric Alterman has written a
fantastic piece in TAP excoriating the
media for being lazy and caving into Bush administration
intimidation. He offers 5 suggestions to journalists:
1. Go beyond the "he said,
she said" and tell us what you believe to be true and important.
[Excerpt] The chief convention of most news reporting--this side
says this, that side says that--needs a drastic rethink. In the
age of spin, an age brought to new lows by this White House, a formula
that requires giving equal weight to both sides ends up helping
the side that's lying.
2. Challenge the master narrative
with investigative reporting. [Excerpt]
the Washington media have given this administration an almost
total pass. Even the one criminal probe into the administration,
the Valerie Plame-leak investigation, was...leaked to The Washington
Post by a disgruntled administration official and only became
a full-blown story after the Department of Justice announced its
investigation.
3. Show proportionality in covering
controversies. [Excerpt] The New York Times'...published
a front-page article examining Kerry's...contributions from special
interests...."Mr. Kerry denounces President Bush for catering
to the rich, but he has depended more heavily on affluent donors
than the other leading Democrats..." [Yet it] would have taken
the [authors] about 90 seconds to go to a Web site every political
journalist knows and discover that in fact, Bush has received 28
times more money in PAC donations than Kerry has.
4. A little solidarity on behalf
of the truth, please. [Excerpt] our greatest media institutions
are accepting conditions that every undergraduate journalism student
in the country is taught to reject. Individual reporters...can't
change this on their own. It's up to their bosses and owners.
5. Don't let non-news organs drive
the news cycle. [Excerpt] A lot of things get "reported"
on shows like Hardball with Chris Matthews and The O'Reilly
Factor, and by people like Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh,
that are, to be more than generous, not exactly nailed down. The
fact that they are "out there," as an MSNBC producer once
said...is not a reason for journalists to put their own names
and that of their news organizations behind them. Journalists need
to ask themselves not only whether a story is true but whether it's
significant. Is it somehow more important that John Kerry may have
gotten a Botox shot when the nation's deficit is shooting out of
control and Iraq is proving not only unmanageable but...to have
never been threatening?
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