Arundhati Roy: Bush cabinet 'thugs'
Tue Aug 24, 2004 at 08:50:54 AM PDT
Indian activist Arundhati Roy was speaking to an overflow crowd at the San Francisco Hilton, in a speech titled "Public Power in the Age of Empire".
Roy generated some of her biggest responses when she urged the United States to immediately pull its troops from Iraq and "pay reparations" to Iraqis, criticized John Kerry and other Democrats ("How dare the Democrats not be anti-war!") and described President Bush's Cabinet as "thugs."
Read the entire article here, from the San Francisco Chronicle. She got two standing ovations.
More Rise and Fall parallels
Tue Aug 17, 2004 at 08:06:02 AM PDT
I've been reading
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer (1960), looking for parallels with current happenings. This morning the following jumped out at me. It is on p248 from the chapter titled "Life in the Third Reich, 1933-37":
No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime's calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometime in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a cafe, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for the truth, said they were.
Senator Barney?
Tue Jul 27, 2004 at 09:03:11 AM PDT
In an interview on Air America just now Barney Frank announced that he would seriously consider running for Kerry's Senate seat if the Dems do not regain control of the house in November.
But if they do regain control he has a juicy committee chairmanship lined up that he would rather have.
SIRIUS adds "patriot" channel
Sat Jul 03, 2004 at 04:53:02 PM PDT
In my mailbox today was a notice from SIRIUS satellite radio that beginning July 7, among the other new channels they are adding, would be the "SIRIUS Patriot" channel. Described as "Traditional American values programming and other prominent conservative voices."
Made my stomach turn. Just speculating what those traditional values might include. Bigotry, hate, uninformed self-centeredness..
Oh yes, they are also adding an "all Elvis all the time" channel.
Air America now on SIRIUS
Wed Apr 21, 2004 at 06:50:15 AM PDT
Air America added a new outlet this week, when the Sirius satellite radio service started carrying them on Stream 125. Sirius now has two full time liberal talk channels.
Press and Candidates flunk civics
Wed Jan 07, 2004 at 05:31:42 PM PDT
I was listening to John Kerry being interviewed on the radio today and steam started coming out of my ears. I screamed futilely at the host, "Do something! Don't let him get away with that!"
I thought back to Miss Todd, my high school Government teacher, who would have given an "F" to both of them.
What I wanted the host to say, after John Kerry had described his health care plan:
Sounds like a reasonable program, Senator Kerry.
As you know, the United States Constitution gives different powers and responsibilities to different branches of government. So you know know that it is not in the power of a President to implement plans such as you propose. But it is in the power of the Legislature.
Yes, we know all about the "bully pulpit" of the White House. But you do not have to be in the White House to propose legislation or guide it through the process. Anyone in Congress can do that. So exactly when did you introduce a bill in the Senate that would implement this plan your describe? If not, what are you waiting for? A Democratic majority, perhaps? Voting for you in the Democratic Primary does not automatically create that majority, any more than voting for any other Democratic candidate.
From your time in the Senate you are aware that by the time a bill gets to the President it may not look exactly like it did when it was introduced. In fact, the amount of change introduced in the negotiating process can introduce more variaion than the differences between the current health care proposals of the all the Democratic candidates, wouldn't you say? Isn't quibbling over such minutae during the Primary a bit premature?
I am sure any Democratic President would be glad to sign the bill implementing this plan should it cross his or her desk. Yet you make it sound like only you would do it. Isn't that disingenuous?.
So let me ask you a question directly related to the powers of the Presidency: in your first 30 days in office are there any Executive Orders signed by Mr. Bush that you would not immediately rescind?
This is not anything specific to John Kerry; they all do it, and the press lets them get away with it.
