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Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Going on Vacation
I'm heading off on vacation till August 16th. If I can get setup to post using my laptop (and depending on whether the beach house has Internet access) then I will attempt blogging. If not, have a great week watching the Olympics. Take care.
10:53:04 PM   | COMMENT [] | TRACKBACK []

20 things you have to believe to be a Republican today

If I had the time right now, I'd love to add a few things to this list. But I don't....so I won't.  I noticed it over at Rayne Today, who copped it from Calypso Dragon 13.

1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

3. Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.

4. "Standing Tall for America," means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.

5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

6. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

7. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

8. Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.

9. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

10. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

11. HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.

12. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

13. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

14. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

15. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

17. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

18. You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.

19. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

20. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

10:46:18 PM   | COMMENT [] | TRACKBACK []

Vote for Change Tour
MoveOn and PAC have put together a concert tour focused on getting Bush out of office. Look at the line up of bands:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Babyface, Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Harper, Jurassic 5, My Morning Jacket, Keb' Mo' and Bright Eyes.

A MoveOn email quotes Mike Mills of R.E.M. saying the following about the tour: "...this unprecedented coming together of musicians underscores the depth of the desire for change in our country's direction."

But check out what Bruce Springstein says on his website about participating in the event:

"I think that the government has drifted too far from American values. After 9/11, I was like everybody else -- I supported going into Afghanistan, and I felt tremendous unity in the country that I don’t think I’ve ever felt exactly like that before. It was a moment of great sadness, but also tremendous possibility. And I think that was dashed when we jumped headlong into the Iraq war, which I never understood, and I talked about that on the road. I never understood how or why we really ended up there. We offered up the lives of the best of our young people under circumstances that have been discredited. I had to live through that when I was young myself, and for any of us that lived through the Vietnam War, it was just very devastating."

"Along with that, the deficits, the squeezing of services like the after-school services for the kids who need it the most, the big windfall tax cuts, the division of wealth that has threatened our connection to one another over the past 20 years that is increasing…. these are things that as the election time neared -- I couldn’t really keep true to the ideas that I’d written about for 30 years without weighing in on this one."

"I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before in my lifetime. I think that the freedoms that we’ve taken for granted -- I spoke about this on the road a little bit, too -- they are slowly being eroded. In the past I've gotten involved in a lot of grassroots organizations that sort of expressed my views, and where I thought I could be of some small help. I guess I’ve been doing that for about 20 years, and that was a way that I was very happy to work. I always believed that it was good for the artist to remain distant from the seat of power, to retain your independent voice, and that was the way I liked to conduct my work. But the stakes in this one are just too high. I felt like, given what I’ve written about, the things that I’ve wanted our band to stand for over the years, it’s just too big a battle to lay out of."

..."Myself, I like John Kerry a lot. I don’t think he has all the answers, or that John Edwards has all the answers, but I think they have the experience, the life experience, and I think they have the sincerity to ask the hard questions about America and to try to search for honest solutions. I believe they’re going to do that. And I don’t feel that way about the guys who are in there right now. I feel that trust has been broken, and there’s no going back."

(Thanks to Geraldine Sealy of the War Room 2004 for pointing this out today.)

I was hoping to see these names as well -- Outkast, Josh Groban, Usher, Linkin Park, etc. The list seems to be lacking ethnic/cultural diversity. But I can understand if these bands are already on tour.

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