Too Weird! the sequel

Okay, I think I need to take a break and step away from media.

The television was left on by the kids; the VCR turned off, leaving the television set to local public school programming.  Featured is a second grade class singing in the less-than-melodic fashion inimitable to 8-year-olds; they’re doing a medley of American folk tunes.  As I read the news and type up a blog post, I pay desultory attention to the mindless little ditty they’re singing:

“Peas, peas, peas, peas, eatin’ goober peas…

Goodness they’re delicious, eatin’ goober peas!

Peas, peas, peas, peas, eatin’ goober peas…

Michigan Militia’s eatin’ goober peas!”

Omigod, I am so creeped out…did I actually hear them sing THAT???  Do I dare call the school and ask???

I turned off the television.  And I’m logging off, right now, even if CIA director Tenet did just fall on his sword.

7:42:53 PM    comment []

Bookreporter.com Poll this week:  Do you know what Chick-Lit is?

Select one of the following answers:

• Yes
• No
• WHAT are you talking about?

I could point to it, but I couldn’t define it.  Thankfully, there are others who have.

Perhaps this poll would have been more effective if it had also asked, “Do you read Chick-Lit?”

I would have to check Yes, I know what it is, and No, I don’t read it.

What about you?  Let me guess…

7:32:19 PM    comment []

Too weird!!!

After reading Miss Neva’s post, Which 2004 Presidential Candidate Are You?, I took the test and got these results:

1. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (100%)
2. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (89%)
3. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (81%)

No surprise, of course, that Bush was in the basement in these results.

The surprise was Kucinich; I guess I didn’t realize some of my ideology was that close to his.  After a little poking and nosing around, I think I figured out how Kucinich came out above Dean on my scores.  It’s both a function of prioritization on each subject, and on a better published voting record on Kucinich’s part as a Senator.  Dean is still a bit of an unspecified entity since he doesn’t have the voting record to pin down his position by issue.  Kucinich has become something of the Democratic conscience, picking up the banner where it was left after Senator Wellstone’s untimely demise.

The really freaky part?  The Kucinich campaign just called me for a donation.  They called me, had my address, pegged me for a Democrat – even though my number is unlisted.

If it had been any other political party, I’d have sent them packing and drilled them about where they got my number.

Just wish I could believe that a donation to Kucinich would do any good; I genuinely don’t believe he stands a chance even through the first couple of primaries.  He’s way too left to appeal to the centrists among the Dems, too much the old school Dem to appeal to the fiscally conservative-socially liberal New Dems.

6:58:39 PM    comment []

Build-A-Meme Project:  Take out the opposition by demanding the truth

Pardon me, please, I’m a little rusty yet.  I'm still re-gearing after one of the longest vacations I’ve had in my adult life.  For this reason I’m going to borrow some material for my first post-vacation posts under the Build-A-Meme category from our good friends at MoveOn.org.

One of the critical components of an effective offense is not only to make sure your team is built properly and moving in the same direction as your vision, but that your opposition is taken out of play.

In this case, the Bush Administration deservedly needs to be held accountable for the outrageous distortion of the truth used to promote war.  The price for this swashbuckling, swaggering stretch of the truth is thousands of civilian deaths, a fractured formerly sovereign nation, hundreds of American troop deaths, and an as-yet untold tens of billions (possibly hundreds of billions) of dollars in cost at a time when the American economy can afford this least.  We, the voting American public, deserve to know the real truth behind the rationale to unilaterally and preemptively strike against Iraq; we owe it our troops who’ve served valiantly, continue to serve under fire every day in worst of conditions, to find out why we had to commit them and their lives to this end.  Further, we need to ensure the entirety of the American voting public knows everything about this shoddy assault on the truth before the next election.

Do your part and check out MoveOn’s effort, sign the pledge and ask your Congressman to support an independent commission to seek the truth.

-----

From MoveOn.org:

Three weeks ago, MoveOn launched a petition asking Congress to create
an independent commission to investigate whether the Bush
Administration manipulated and distorted evidence to take the country
to war in Iraq. Over 190,000 of us joined the effort. Now Congress
is literally taking up our call: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has written
a bill that would create just such a commission, and it's already
co-sponsored by a wide array of moderate Democrats -- including many
who voted for the war.

This commission can really happen -- and the truth about the Bush
Administration's manipulation of evidence can really come out -- but
we'll need your help.  We're launching a drive to get every member of
Congress to personally pledge to support and vote for the independent
commission.  Please take a moment to ask Congressman <i>(Your House
Representative’s name here)</i> to pledge today at:

http://moveon.org/wmdpledge/?id=1504-3069701-wmpu8fIJk8n.VykJ8YoYRg

If you sign right now, your comment may be among those read on the
House floor by some of the Representatives pushing this resolution.
Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), George Miller (D-CA),
Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and a
number of others are looking forward to hearing what you have to say
and reading some of the messages into the Congressional Record on the
House floor.

It's hardly a secret that members of the Bush Administration used
misleading and scanty evidence to bolster their case. As US News and
World Report noted in early June, even Colin Powell became alarmed at
the level of intelligence distortion. When he read the first draft of
his speech to the UN -- prepared for Powell by Vice President Richard
Cheney's chief of staff -- he was so upset at the weakness of some of
the evidence that he lost his temper, throwing several pages in the
air and declaring, "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit." (US News
and World Report, 6/9/03, URL below)

Breaking news over the last few days has shown how untrustworthy the
Bush Administration is on this issue:

* The White House has finally admitted that the President's State of
the Union statement that Iraq was trying to procure nuclear materials
from Niger was wrong, but officials remain adamant that the
Administration did not mislead the public.

* Ambassador Joe Wilson, who was sent to Niger in February 2002 to
determine whether Iraq was trying to purchase uranium materials there,
concluded in a recent New York Times Op-Ed that "I have little
choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's
nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

* An official British investigation into two trailers found in
northern Iraq -- the trailers that the President referred to when he
said, "We found the weapons of mass destruction" -- has concluded that
the trailers were definitely not related to weapons production. As
one scientist told a British newspaper, "They are not mobile germ
warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological
weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the
Iraqis said they were - facilities for the production of hydrogen gas
to fill balloons."

The evidence that supported the war is unraveling, and it's time for
Congress to hold the President and his administration accountable. As
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said in a recent statement, "What else
did the Bush Administration lie about? What other faulty information
did Administration officials, including President Bush, tell the
American people and the world? Did the Bush Administration knowingly
deceive us and manufacture intelligence in order to build public
support for the invasion of Iraq? Did Iraq really pose an imminent
threat to our nation? These questions must be answered. The American
people deserve to know the full truth."

Ask your Member of Congress to pledge to reveal the truth right now by
signing the petition at:

http://moveon.org/wmdpledge/?id=1504-3069701-wmpu8fIJk8n.VykJ8YoYRg

We should know if the war in Iraq was a war built on deception.

Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
  The MoveOn Team
  July 10th, 2003

P.S. For more information, check out our recent bulletin on about Iraq
intelligence:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin21.html

P.P.S. The article in which Colin Powell is quoted as saying "I'm not
reading this. This is bullshit." is available online for $2.95 at:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/archive/030609/20030609040506.php

2:53:09 PM    comment []

Water, water, everywhere...

Which one to pick?  Worse yet, I have many more from which to choose.

Top: Lake Superior, looking east from below Big Bay lighthouse

Bottom:  Foot of Alder Falls, outside Marquette MI

11:32:30 AM    comment []