"Self-governing freemen must have the power to accept necessary compromises, to make necessary concessions, each sacrificing somewhat of prejudice, and even of principle, and every group must show the necessary subordination of its particular interests to the interests of the community as a whole. When the people will not or cannot work together; when they permit groups of extremists to decline to accept anything that does not coincide with their own extreme views; or when they let power slip from their hands through sheer supine indifference; then they have themselves chiefly to blame if the power is grasped by stronger hands." - T. Roosevelt

My irritation with the endless fear orgy promoted for political reasons by our untrustworthy leaders is summarized in the blog post below:

Repetition-Convulsion Syndrome, Posted by James Wolcott

"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." - Albert Einstein

"Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line postures. ... They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities." - George Gerbner

The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005: "43. Rush Limbaugh
Charges: Rather than engage in the admittedly difficult task of justifying GOP policies rationally, the key to Limbaugh's success is attracting an audience that actually yearns to be lied to. It doesn't matter how many righteous fact-checkers assail him in print and on the web, because dittoheads don't care that he's lying, as long as the lies justify their prejudices. Limbaugh's program is not just hypocritical; it is a celebration of hypocrisy for ignorant crackers, angry at smart people and strung out on the dwindling sensation that they are better than everyone else by virtue of their race, sex, nationality or level of bluster, because their character and accomplishments don't warrant such feelings. If political discussion were sex, the Limbaugh audience would be a horde of virgins beating off to deranged rape fantasies.

Exhibit A: Started out in sports radio; hasn't changed his approach one bit.

Sentence: Starved to death in full view of glazed ham; ACLU mistakenly bestowed entire estate due to barbecue sauce stain on last will and testament."

Sometimes, a Tax Cut for the Wealthy Can Hurt the Wealthy - New York Times

Gloomy Gus puts a turd in the holiday punch bowl!

Most writers perceive themselves as failures. They suffer rejection and disregard on a daily basis. Even the lucky few who get published can't get the New York bigwigs to return their calls. The modern writer is engaged in an enterprise almost guaranteed to crush her spirit. And certain blogs -- like other forms of modern media -- serve as bulletin boards for the resulting feelings of despair, spite and rage. Their chosen topic happens to be literature, but it could just as well be politics or sports. Their deepest allure resides in the gratification of primal negative emotions.

As a side note, this dynamic is the reason the conservative movement now runs our government. Rush Limbaugh may be a dissembling fascist, but he knows how to connect to citizens through fear and grievance. In the absence of sustained moral courage, the demagogues win. - Steve Almond, Salon.com, 10/13/05

"'Only when the privileged classes perform military service, only when elite youth are on the firing line, does the country define the cause as worth young peoples' blood and do war losses become acceptable. The answer to what constitutes vital national interests is found not so much on the cause, itself, but in who is willing to die for that cause.'" - Charles Moskos

Lance Mannion: "There is no guarantee that the Republic will last forever, that we won't go the way of others before us and devolve into dictatorship or monarchy. It seems to me that Americans are increasingly more impressed by wealth and celebrity, increasingly more willing to live as spectators to their own governance, increasingly less interested in and concerned about our history and the principles on which the nation was built and by which it survives."

"Nobody talks more of free enterprise and competition and of the best man winning than the man who inherited father's store or farm." - C. Wright Mills

"Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, I think the Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives."- Sunday Portland Oregonian

"How many turning points does it take before it becomes clear you're trapped in a maze?" - James Wolcott on the War in Iraq

"The plural of anecdote is not data." - Frank Kotsonis

"If you torture data sufficiently, it will confess to almost anything." - Fred Menger

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." - Mark Twain (or the SOP for Fox News)

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

"The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

"Old people like to give good advice to cheer themselves up for no longer being able to provide a bad example." - Warren Beatty

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower,in a letter to his brother, Edgar Newton Eisenhower, dated 11/8/54

To my conservative Republican friends and family, please remember that Article VI, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution states "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States".

9,000 people die of AIDS each day
30,000 children die of starvation or preventable disease each day
1,370 die from war each day

44.3 million Americans have no health insurance
13 million American children go to bed hungry
15 million American children live in poverty

25,000 people die from a lack of clean water each year
1/2 of the world's population (3 billion) live on less than $2 a day

Exxon claimed $26 billion in 2004 profits, up 52% over 2003
Chevron-Texaco claimed $13 billion, up 85%
Shell Oil claimed $19 billion, up 48%

Explain the 'culture of life' again.

"morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose." - Nietzsche

"'A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt...If the game runs sometime against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.' - Thomas Jefferson, 1798"

"'I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.'" - William Faulkner

I hope so... We'll see.

"The guilty people are not only the Vulcans [in the Bush administration] but those Americans who in the November election endorsed the war.

They are also responsible for the Iraqi deaths, especially the men who join the police or the army because they need the money to support their families -- their jobs eaten up in the maw of the American ''liberation.'' Iraqi deaths don't trouble many Americans. Their attitude is not unlike the e-mail writer who said he rejoices every time a Muslim kills another Muslim. ''Let Allah sort them out.''

This time of the year we celebrate ''peace on Earth to men of good will.'' Americans must face the fact that they can no longer claim to be men and women of good will, not as long as they support an unnecessary, foolish, ill-conceived, badly executed and, finally, unwinnable war."

- Father Andrew Greeley, columnist and novelist

"I wish you both forgiveness, because
the closer we get the more we're doomed
to let each other down a dozen or a hundred times a day,
and unless those disappointments can be washed away,
they accumulate like barnacles on a hull,
until any careless contact draws blood...
So work those things out as they happen,
or just let them go. Let there be no
scorekeeping, no lifetime won-lost record."

- "A Wedding Toast to Heather and John" by Jack McCarthy

"For Social Security is a government program that works, a demonstration that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to destroy it. " - P. Krugman - 12/7/2004

From Where I Stand by Joan Chittister, October 27, 2004: "At the same time, the poor of the world are fighting for survival. They have nothing to lose by dying for it in bombs of their own making. If truth were known, in many cases death would be a blessing. For many, war is not worse than the way they live from day to day. All around the globe, frustration has turned to rage in lands where all employment is slavery and the land is dry and food and resources, cars and jacuzzis, exist only elsewhere. The need to really be prolife everywhere for everyone will challenge us for years to come. If we really want peace we will have to do justice to all the peoples of the world.
Preemptive war does not secure us from such things. It only plants the seeds of the next war as we strike out at the innocent in an attempt to block the guilty rather than make the innocent themselves our allies. "

The New York Times > Magazine > In the Magazine: Without a Doubt: "That very issue is what Jim Wallis wishes he could sit and talk about with George W. Bush. That's impossible now, he says. He is no longer invited to the White House.
''Faith can cut in so many ways,'' he said. ''If you're penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it's designed to certify our righteousness -- that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There's no reflection.
''Where people often get lost is on this very point,'' he said after a moment of thought. ''Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not -- not ever -- to the thing we as humans so very much want.''
And what is that?
''Easy certainty.'' "

The New York Times > Magazine > In the Magazine: Without a Doubt: "The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' "

"PUBLIC SPLIT ON WHETHER BUSH IS A DIVIDER" - CNN Crawler, 10/19/04

"Skepticism, pragmatism and empiricism are [George W. Bush's] enemies. Absolute faith prevails over open-ended reason, subjectivity over fact. Those who do not pray at the [pResident's] altar of certainty are betrayers of the faith, not to mention the troops. Belief in belief is the ultimate sacrament of his political legitimacy." - S. Blumenthal

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." - Karl Rove

The Census Bureau released a report last week which revealed that 'The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million,' according to the Associated Press. They continued, 'It was the third straight annual increase for both categories.' Third straight increase huh? I guess we're still waiting for Our Great Leader's Great Tax Cut Plan to kick in. Should be any day now. Meanwhile, the AP also noted that, 'The rise was more dramatic for children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That was an increase of about 800,000 from 2002, when 16.7 percent of all children were in poverty.' Leave no child behind my ass. George left 800,000 more children behind last year than he did the year before. Great work. Do the math: since George W. Bush became president, 5.2 million people have lost their health insurance and 4.3 million have fallen into poverty. Meanwhile corrupt CEOs make more money than they ever have before. And that's supposed to be leadership?

I hear George W. Bush is the Pro-Life candidate for President. Who's life?

"'Hell is truth seen too late." - Tyron Edward, 19th Century Theologian

Clinton's description of his political enemies: "the self-righteous, condemning Absolute Truth-claiming dark side of white southern conservatism. Since I was a boy, I had watched people assert their piety and moral superiority as justifications for claiming an entitlement to political power, and for demonizing those who begged to differ with them, usually over civil rights."

"The world is divided between two kinds of people--those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who do not." - Robert Benchely

"But let me stress again that these are my views -- for, contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President [but the candidate] who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters -- and the church does not speak for me. Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected -- on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling, or any other subject -- I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictate. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise. " - John F. Kennedy, 1960

What a difference 45 years makes!

"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity." - Frank Leahy

"Those who disagree with Mr. Gore should challenge him on his facts. Those who agree must look for ways to defend the honor and perhaps the very identity of the United States as we've known it." - Bob Hebert, NY Times, 5/28/04

"'[I]t is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about [the President's] acts... To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.' - Teddy Roosevelt, Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918."

A Prairie Home Companion: April 17, 2004 - The Jokes: "George W. Bush in the White House is like a turtle on a post. 'You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he can't get anything done while he's up there, and you just want to help him get down.'"

Try your hand at balancing the federal budget with the National Budget Simulation.

"If Bush bent over and farted into the mic, conservatives would praise his eloquence and penchant for speaking in terms the common man can understand."

A very conservative individual told me this weekend that she works hard to get what is hers, screw the less fortunate, so that she can send her children to parocial schools and they can learn the peace and social justice teachings of Jesus Christ without interference from the "government". Just like she did!

Bush/Cheney 2004 - Modest men with many things to be modest about.

"Anybody can become angry - that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

"All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth."

- Aristotole

"'Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.' -- Groucho Marx "

"'I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.' -- Kahlil Gibran. "

"'I support a Consitutional Amendment to define 'marriage'' as it is in the Bible. Multiple wives and huge dowries. If we're going to have laws based on religion, let's do it right.' -- Baron Dave"

"'In times of distress, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.' -- Mark Twain"

"'Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy or a facist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.' -- Hermann Wilhelm Goering to psychologist Gustave Gilbert, pub. 1947 'Nuremberg Diary"

"'Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.' -- Harry S. Truman"

"'Bush has been forced to call for an investigation into his own intelligence. And you know what's going to happen: they're not going to find anything.' -- Will Durst"

Framing the Issues - A cognitive linguist explains how the right uses conceptual frames to push their conservative positions, regardless of reason, facts, or logic.

Rush Limbaugh and the ACLU. Will he change his mind about the ACLU now?

Lessons in Comparative Health Care Reform

The Onion | Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over' I thought this was funny when I first read this back in January 2001. I now find the accuracy of many of its predictions troubling.

Rush and his current issues remind me of this quote from the infamous (and imaginary) J.R. "Bob" Dobbs:

"I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."

Eschaton: "More Fair and Balanced

300 bigots and lunatics protesting around a carved rock, worthy of nonstop coverage. 100,000 people protesting a war, worthy of brief snide commentary.

-Atrios 10:33 AM"

"'Liberal policies made America the freest, wealthiest, most successful and most powerful nation in human history. Conservatism in power always threatens to undo that national progress, and is almost always frustrated by the innate decency and democratic instincts of the American people...

If your workplace is safe; if your children go to school rather than being forced into labor; if you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights -- you can thank liberals.

If your food is not poisoned and your water is drinkable -- you can thank liberals.

If your parents are eligible for Medicare and Social Security, so they can grow old in dignity without bankrupting your family -- you can thank liberals.

If our rivers are getting cleaner and our air isn't black with pollution; if our wilderness is protected and our countryside is still green -- you can thank liberals.

If people of all races can share the same public facilities; if everyone has the right to vote; if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race; if we have finally begun to transcend a segregated society -- you can thank liberals.

Progressive innovations like those and so many others were achieved by long, difficult struggles against entrenched power. What defined conservatism, and conservatives, was their opposition to every one of those advances. The country we know and love today was built by those victories for liberalism -- with the support of the American people.' -- Joe Conason"

Pentagon reverses course, won't cut troops' pay

Support the troops...

Who has my name for Christmas?!?!

"Gray Davis’ troubles were caused in large measure by a conspiracy of energy companies led by Ken Lay and blessed by Dick Cheney. The idea that any market manipulation was taking place was mocked as ridiculous paranoia by Republican pundits like Charles Krauthammer and William Safire. The recall effort was funded by more right-wing Republican money. And the state’s deficit is smaller, as a percentage of its budget, than is Bush’s even though he refuses to spend anything like what’s necessary for homeland security — something we will all someday regret. And what’s the result? Voters will punish the Democrats and hand the Republicans the most Democratic state in America. Great.' -- Eric Alterman"

Pie-in-the-sky madness???

"'To gauge just how out of touch the Democrat leadership is on the war on terror, just close your eyes and try to imagine Ted Kennedy landing that Navy jet on the deck of that aircraft carrier.' -- Tom Delay"

"'To say the obvious, that remark reveals a powerful contempt for the public: Mr. DeLay apparently believes that the nation will trust a man, independent of the facts, because he looks good dressed up as a pilot. But it's possible that he's right.' -- Paul Krugman"

"Nothing but lip service" - Army Times Editorial, 6/30/2003

Sounds familiar. "Bush's Divide"

Liberals are losers... Right click and "Save Target As"

Why didn't I get these kind of "divine messages" when it came time to pay my recent car repair bills! I'm guessing he doesn't feel the need to spend a lot of time clipping coupons.

I'm a fan of both Jon Stewart and Bill Moyer.

My first foray into the WMD debate...and this from those fun-loving libertarians at the CATO Institute.

The logic behind the effort to recall Gov. Gary Davis of California is still a mystery to me.

Hope Street Group "...a distinctive vision, a bit naive in places, but mostly smart, pragmatic, and creative." - Ron Brownstein, LA TImes

I saw this article, Triumph of Hope Over Self-Interest, by David Brooks, Senior Editor of the Weekly Standard, in early January and found it helpful, but not very comforting.

Words matter...

Privatization of government activities is not always the best idea.

Bill Moyers always gets me a thinkin'...

Let's hope this is just the crazed rant of an uninformed partisan...but I doubt it.

This is probably not what most Republicans over 65 thought they were voting for. The pharmacy benefits package from the VA will remain the preferred alternative to all those who qualify.
How Not to Fix Medicare

There must be a better way to redistrict...
Re-redistricting is an ugly power grab

I've just entered the new world of blogging. Time to show the world what a miserable speller I am!