Author: dhonig

The original of this cartoon:

is for sale on EBay.

Products with the cartoon are also for sale at Café Press.

A bit more on the flip.

South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families is collecting signatures to undo the horrible South Dakota anti-abortion law, and they need help. Any money I raise will go there. Getting this atrocious law overturned will be a huge black eye for the rabid anti-choicers, and will make the other states contemplating similar litigation rethink it.

I got the idea from another cartoonist, who raised more than $2,000, for South Dakota Planned Parenthood and the Oglala Sioux. I was trying to decide whether to do it for South Dakota Planned Parenthood or my local chapter (in which I’m an active participant) when I saw this diary on Daily Kos. It gave me a third idea, and any proceeds will go to the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families.

So if you think this might help raise some money for a good cause, pass it along anywhere and everywhere you blog. ALL money will go to the Campaign. I will keep nothing.

You can also

contribute directly.

Thank you.

With permission, I am here (and a lot of other places) attaching a communication from my rabbi about a meeting held with Indiana’s Speaker of the House.  For anybody who believes this is a nation where people of all religions are to be treated with fairness, equality, and dignity, this should shake you to your very bones.

Please feel free to copy and disseminate widely.

Thank you
For those not familiar with the Indiana prayer issue, here is a Washington Post article-  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/31/AR2005123100723.html. The whole thing blew up when one person offered the House’s openening prayer, then led the whole legislative body in a rousing, with standing and clapping, rendition of “Just a Little Talk With Jesus,” which many found rather less than non-denominational.

Last Tuesday, the Indianapolis JCRC’s Jewish Lobby Day was held.  Around 40 Jews from around the State of Indiana came to Indianapolis to lobby our state senators and representatives on a number of issues.

The day ended with a private meeting with Speaker of the House Bosma meeting our group in the beautiful House chambers.  We asked questions about full day kindergarten, about the clinics, and a young member of the delegation asked about providing sexuality education in public schools that is more than abstinence based.  He responded to everything we asked.  Sometimes we liked what he said and sometimes we didn’t.  Speaker Bosma wondered why we hadn’t discussed the controversy surrounding the issue of prayer in House chambers.  He told us his version of what happened and what he believes, and a passionate exchange took place.  The end of this exchange left us, the Jewish delegation, in shock.  Speaker Bosma, defending the prayer issue, asked, “How many Jews are there in Indiana?  About 2%?  There are at least 80% Christians in Indiana.”  The implication of this statement was that our minority community doesn’t and shouldn’t have any say or any voice.  It is about the majority and what the majority wants.  The jaws of the delegation dropped to the floor.  We were speechless.  Everything we believed about this country had just been trampled.  Gone was the belief of the constitutional protection of minorities.  Gone was not feeling marginalized.  Gone was the belief we were not strangers in this country.  I am sure that Speaker Bosma is a fine man, but in that moment, for the first time in my life as a citizen of this country, I was scared.  It is what I now call the 2% solution (and Jews are much less than 2% of this state) that if you are only 2% don’t even bother to speak up as the “Tyranny of the majority” will prevail.

I am sorry to bring such a depressing message as we prepare for Shabbat, but it needs to be said and addressed.  I have been reminded about why we need to be vigilant. So I come to you on this Friday, February 17, 2006, to ask you to use this Shabbat to think about joining me and others at times to raise our voices.  We might not agree on all the issues, but we agree that as Jewish residents of this State we should have a voice.  2% or less shouldn’t matter.  It is not about the majority.  It is about us.

As you light your Shabbat candles this evening, light one for this great nation that has allowed us to grow and prosper and worship as Jews without restrictions.  Light the other as beacon to our elected officials who if they follow the light will understand that leadership comes with responsibility to all, to be inclusive of all, and to help those who need the most help.

Shabbat Shalom

DON’T MISS IT.  Seriously, how often have I said that.  Editorial pages are really starting to turn on Bush. They are simply ignoring his PR campaign to turn domesic spying into “terrorist surveillance,” instead attacking Rumsfeld’s incompetence, Bush’s disregard for law, and the utter failure that is Medicare Part D.

I’m still looking for a couple of new contributors, so drop to the bottom if you’re interested.
The Decatur Daily

Our military will be decades recovering from Rumsfeld.  Ultimately, the man is a petulant, arrogant child, so married to his idea that he refuses to note when it is failing.

Army report evidence of breakdown in command

The conclusions reached by a consultant — that the Army is stretched to the breaking point — come as no surprise. The surprise is who had to hire Andrew Krepinevich for that nugget of information. …

The question is, why does the Pentagon have to hire an outsider to conclude that its own Army is deficient? Why does Mr. Rumsfeld have to hire someone to track down publicly available evidence of the Army’s deficiencies?

The existence of the consulting contract and its conclusions suggest a catastrophic breakdown in communications between Mr. Rumsfeld and Army officials. In a healthy organization, Mr. Rumsfeld would have a sit-down with Army commanders. “Do you have enough troops?” he might ask. “Can we continue the war in Iraq at current levels without letting other commitments slip through the cracks?” …

The revelation is not that the Army is short on troops. The revelation, rather, is that the chain of command is in such disarray that the only way the Pentagon can get a straight answer is by hiring an outside consultant to do the digging.

Journal Gazette & Times Courier

This is a pretty amazing rant from a self-proclaimed pro-Bush Democrat.  I had to cut a lot of it, so follow the link for the whole thing.  The most pithy line to me describes the 38% Bush will never drop below, “the Christian right and Bush groupies.”   The other lesson of this diatribe, therefore, is that we can NEVER turn certain people, no matter what the reality, and we should damned well stop trying.

Just what’s so bad about `Big Brother’ Bush?

The Bush Administration claims the president can authorize spying on any American if he deems it necessary.

Strip away all the arguments justifying unfettered domestic spying, and that’s what it boils down to. …

I suppose there are some American citizens who have no difficulty accepting the proposition that it’s fine to live in a fish bowl. …

Most blindly chatting the mantra are Bush supporters on the Christian right (who believe Bush might be capable of walking on water) and Bush groupies (people for Bush right or wrong, by gosh). …

In order for America to be the world’s democratic beacon, we must insure the values codified in our Constitution and Bill of Rights are adhered to.

Not idle words, to be discounted in the heat of the moment.

Yes, it is easier to protect Americans by stripping them of their liberties and rights.

This would be a far safer nation if unchecked domestic spying were permitted. It would. …

I trust George Bush. I believe he would not abuse his self-proclaimed right to spy on me without warrant or any oversight.

I trust George Bush.

But, what about the next president?

The Morning Call

Lynn Swann is the latest celebrity neophyte politician.  It is interesting that he is staking his claim in Pennsylvania, sure to be on the hottest spots in the ’06 Senatorial fight (don’t fool yourself into thinking Santorum will give up and walk away, his numbers will start to climb when it counts.  We’re in for a dog fight, folks).  This will assure a higher than average mid-term turnout, and that will have to be a huge consideration in the Republican endorsement.  I, for one, hope the whole thing turns into a blood bath we can watch from afar.

State’s Republicans are poised to stage a fascinating gubernatorial contest

Bill Scranton or Lynn Swann? Former lieutenant governor and scion of one of Pennsylvania’s blue-blood political families, or charming pro football Hall of Famer, former Pittsburgh Steelers star wide receiver and recently resigned television sports analyst? …

So, what should Pennsylvania Republicans do? Are they confronted with choosing between a celebrity neophyte or an experienced campaigner? Do they stick to the tradition of blessing a candidate with an endorsement, or do they let Republican voters decide? …

Pennsylvanians still are fuming about the pay raises. How Republicans resolve Scranton vs. Swann will indicate whether they will try to win the governor’s office with emotion or reason. As the Republicans work this out, they must remember to keep the voters in mind, and that an open process is the best way to serve them.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors know where Jesus lives- he lives in the County Jail.  After all, everybody who gets held awaiting trial finds him there.  That’s why it’s such a brilliant comparison to Congress’ sudden lobby reform awakening.

Without enforcement, Congress can forget reform

Like miscreants who find God in prison when a link to the Almighty may help them win parole, lawmakers from both sides of the congressional aisle are backing lobby reform proposals that might distance them from a lobbyist felon. The talk increased yesterday during a Senate hearing.  …

That’s a mistake. Congress has clearly shown its inability to monitor itself. The perfect example is the behavior last year of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. The Illinois Republican rebuffed a request for reappointment from the GOP chairman of the ethics committee and ousted two Republican members after the group reprimanded then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. As if that weren’t enough, Mr. Hastert then appointed to the committee, which still was deliberating allegations against Mr. DeLay, two replacements who had given large sums to the DeLay legal defense fund.

What is needed is an independent investigation and enforcement mechanism — an ethics commission whose funding can’t be cut off when it admonishes congressional leaders and whose members can’t be replaced when it fulfills its duty to check complaints. Senate Democrats proposed such a body, an Office of Public Integrity, in legislation introduced Friday.

Such an ethics police force is essential to ensuring that members of Congress follow the rules — or else risk getting caught green-handed.

Red Wing Republican Eagle

Medicare Part D is bad, and it is only going to get worse as several things happen.  First, and worst, people will drop into the doughnut hole and never know what hit them.  Second, the enormous cost to states, since state Medicaid programs got discounted prices and Part D doesn’t, will become apparent as states try to make new budgets over the next couple of years.  And third, all those seniors who diligently searched for the program with their drugs will be disappointed to find they were victims of a bait and switch- they’re stuck in the Cadillac program all year, while it gets to switch to Yugo drug coverage after 60 days.

Medicare drug plan remains a big mess

We’ve said it before and we say it again: The Medicare prescription drug benefit is a nightmare for the people it’s supposed to help. Those people believe it, too.
In a poll done for the Associated Press, 52 percent of those surveyed said the plan was difficult to understand. Another 33 percent weren’t sure if the plan was difficult or not. In other words, more than 80 percent of those polled either find the plan confusing or they don’t know whether the plan is confusing. The underlying factor is confusion about a drug benefit that was supposed to be simple.  …

This is not about a glitch or two in a new program. It’s a systemwide failure that is affecting thousands of people, mostly elderly, who thought they finally were getting a drug prescription benefit that worked. It’s about the fashionable notion that a government program can rely on a competitive private sector to deliver the goods more efficiently.  …

And what about the major selling point? Beneficiaries are supposed to save money because of the benefit. But the AP poll revealed that six in 10 of those enrolled in the program have realized no savings.  …

It’s a mess. It’s already far more expensive than advertised and it’s not delivering as promised. It’s little more than a spigot of federal dollars from Medicare to the treasuries of insurance companies and drug firms. No wonder they did not oppose it in Congress.
There’s some talk in Washington that the drug benefit should be withdrawn. Bad idea. It should be fixed by making it simpler. If that means fewer private insurers can back up their trucks to the money machine, so be it.

Sheboygan Press

Editorials around the country are amused at Congress’ sudden interest in lobbying “reform.”  They are also bemused over the concept of a Congress so obviously corrupt regulating itself.  

Can we trust Congress to reform itself?

If it weren’t such a serious problem — that our government appears to be for sale — it would be laughable to watch as politicians scurry to distance themselves from lobbyists like Jack Abramoff.  …

What is disturbing is that so many people we’ve put in charge of our government and our tax money seem so willing to look the other way when things like golf vacations, high-priced tickets to sporting events and other lavish gifts come their way or to people on their staff.

How could anyone not think that someone was trying to buy his or her vote? …

Many of these ideas are sound steps toward ethics reform, but the question we ask is: Can we really trust Congress to propose rules and police itself? The House and Senate ethics committees have been responsible for enforcing the past rules, but much of the effort has ended up in partisan politicking.  …

While it is impossible to legislate honesty, rules should be passed to bring lobbying off of the golf course or out of the resort swimming pool. Lobbyists can provide Congress with information or state a position. No gifts. No loopholes.

If an elected representative needs to go to a conference or attend a seminar, he or she should pay for it. If hunger hits along the way, buy your own lunch.

These are very basic rules. But they are easy to understand and easy to enforce — even for Congress.

___

I’m ramping The Daily Pulse back up, and viewership has increased significantly.  It took 4 months to get the first 3000, and about two weeks for the next thousand.  If you’re interested in being a front-page contributor, let me know.  Ideally, we’re looking for the following, all to be surveys of different editorial sites like the above:

    * Letters to the Editor.  I’ve been doing it once a week, but think a daily column gives the best picture of all what people outside the beltway or the political junkie blogs are thinking.  Daily is ideal

    * Foreign editorials.  The best would be to have several different people, each posting once a week.  I’d love to have a European Pulse, an Asian Pulse, a Middle Eastern, etc.  Now, I try to include one foreign per main entry, but think the blog would be more valuable with a wider voice.

    * Alternative editorials.  I include GLBT, African American, Jewish, etc., newspapers in my database, from which randomly select editorial pages.  But they are such a minority, they rarely pop up.  If somebody dedicated themselves to an alternative column, that would be incredibly cool.  It could also be broken up- weekly or semi-weekly GLBT, ditto African American, etc.

    * Local columnists.  Local columnists tend to have their fingers on the pulse of their communities, even better sometimes than the editorials.  The editor gets to write whatever s/he wants.  Columns sell, and they don’t sell if they’re too far from the community.  Daily is best, but a couple of times per week would be cool.

    * Other content, esp. local radio and television.

*Whatever else might fit in the format.

The Google subpoenas remain in people’s minds, indicating that this search might actually have more traction than the FISA debacle- it’s harder to paint as related to the “War on Terror.”  And speaking of the “War on Terror,” is there one if we aren’t really doing anything about our dependence on foreign oil, the lifeblood of our terrorist foes?  Finally, The Daily Pulse drives north across the border to check up on Canada’s reaction to their elections, and perhaps the news is not as bad as we think.

I’m still looking for new blood to front page at The Daily Pulse, so let me know if you’re interested.  Details at the end.
Concord Monitor

This piece makes two interesting points about the Google subpoenas.  The first is that the government could generate its own searches if it wanted to show what pops up on Google- so why do they need what we searched?  The second is that the whole issue exists because everything stays in the search engines’ databases.  Nothing gets erased.  That’s scary in its own right (and makes you wonder if there is a market opportunity for an erasing search enginge).

Google right to fight government stickup

With apologies to Willie Sutton: Why is the federal government trying to rob Google’s data bank?

Because that’s where the information is. Your information, probably. …

What the government is after is a little mysterious. The official line is that the Justice Department is trying to defend the constitutionality of a law passed by Congress aimed at protecting minors from internet pornography. A worthy goal, to be sure, but one that parents and private industry are better equipped than Congress to work toward. …

In any event, no matter where that distinction is drawn, everyone can agree there is objectionable material on the internet. Tons of it. But the Justice Department doesn’t need search logs from Google and the rest to prove that. The government can generate its own random searches and find for itself just how much smut is out there.

So root for Google. In resisting what amounts to a ridiculously broad raid on its private records, the company is fighting the good fight. …

But whether Google is right isn’t the only question you ought to be asking. If you use Google – which is a little like saying, if you drink coffee – you need to think about what’s in that giant data bank the government wants to get its hands on. …

Nothing gets deleted. That’s a truism of the internet age, but face it: Most people don’t act like they know it. They should.

Denver Post

There is no “War on Terror,” merely a propaganda tool at the expense of our fighting men and women.  Why do I say something so extreme?  Because any real war on terror will start with, not new subsidies to oil companies, but an Apollo-like commitment to alternative fuels combined with a new gasoline tax.  Islamicist terror is funded with oil money, and everybody knows it.  The answer might be as simple as small bio-diesel hybrids (the technology is already there, combining the European small diesels with Toyota’s hybrid system), and it might some new whiz-bang idea nobody knows about today, but until we are serious we are just throwing away lives.

Energy should be key issue for 2008

Sen. John McCain’s call for U.S. energy independence highlights a problem whose solution should be a top priority for Congress and the president. …

“We’ve got to get quickly on a track to energy independence from foreign oil …” Sen. McCain said on Fox News Sunday. “We better understand the vulnerabilities that our economy, and our very lives, have when we’re dependent on Iranian mullahs and wackos in Venezuela.”  …

He’s right. The United States is more dependent on oil imports than when Jimmy Carter donned his cardigan and declared the energy crisis the moral equivalent of war. In 1970s, the United States imported 36 percent of its oil; today, it’s 62 percent. With world oil production already running at 97 percent of capacity, any disruption in supply could produce a global economic shock.  …

Electricity can be generated by coal, natural gas, solar, wind or nuclear. But cars and trucks don’t run on electricity (at least not yet). Almost all our imported oil is used to make vehicle fuels. More nuclear power simply won’t wean the U.S. from foreign oil.
The congressional election of 2006 and the presidential election of 2008, should include a hard-nosed discussion of steps to lessen America’s dangerous dependance on fuel from volatile regions of the world.

Gwinnett Daily Post

Rumsfeld came to Defense with an idea- smaller lighter more mobile forces.  Unfortunately, he didn’t come to Defense with what he considered a testable hypothesis, willing to experiment and accept whatever result he found.  Instead, he came to Defense with a mission, and closed his eyes to the results.  What is happening to our fighting forces might be the best example of all of the difference between dogmatic Republicans and reality-based Democrats- we might have wild-eyed ideas, but we are willing to test them, instead of treating them as scripture.

Study: Army near breaking point

Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a “thin green line” that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon.

Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon’s decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended.  …

The 136-page report represents a more sobering picture of the Army’s condition than military officials offer in public. While not released publicly, a copy of the report was provided in response to an Associated Press inquiry. …

Rep. John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat and Vietnam veteran, created a political storm last fall when he called for an early exit from Iraq, arguing that the Army was “broken, worn out” and fueling the insurgency by its mere presence. Administration officials have hotly contested that view.

George Joulwan, a retired four-star Army general and former NATO commander, agrees the Army is stretched thin.  …

Krepinevich said in the interview that he understands why Pentagon officials do not state publicly that they are being forced to reduce troop levels in Iraq because of stress on the Army. “That gives too much encouragement to the enemy,” he said, even if a number of signs, such as a recruiting slump, point in that direction. …

St. Louis Post Dispatch

The Administration is on the offensive, reacting as they usually do to a problem- choosing offense rather than defense.  I only hope that rather than allowing them to do so we, too, remain on the offensive, because, frankly, we suck at defense.  Also, this is our issue, the fact that George W. Bush thinks he is king, and if we let the Republicans control the conversation, the conversation is already over.

DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE: When they say “You shouldn’t worry,” worry

IT WAS SAID of Gen. George S. Patton that when he arrived in Normandy with the Third Army in 1944, “He attacked in all directions at once.”

Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s political adviser, is the Gen. Patton of politics. With his boss’s approval ratings stuck at 43 percent, with his own neck grazed by a grand jury investigation into national security leaks, with a major battle looming in Congress over the president’s authorization of warrantless electronic surveillance on Americans and with Republicans in Congress nervous about facing voters in November, Mr. Rove is doing what he always does when his president is in trouble: He is attacking in all directions at once. …

Mr. Bush is scheduled to rejoin the battle today with a speech at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md. Other events are scheduled later in the week, all designed to place Democrats and recalcitrant Republicans in box: Love America? Hate terrorism? Then shut up about the wiretaps.

Someone in Congress – Republican, Democrat, doesn’t matter – must stand up and insist that the president obey the law. Congress passed the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978. The special court that it set up can issue all the warrants that intelligence agencies need as quickly as they’re needed. For Mr. Bush and his lawyers to claim otherwise is not merely arrogant, it is dangerous.

Where, exactly, do the president’s powers end?

If the first five years of the Bush administration have proved anything, it’s that when an administration official says we don’t need to worry, we need to worry.

The Norman Transcript

We are not going to see reform.  The Republican plan is a farce, mandating bribery on top of bribery.  The new rules they propose go like this- you can’t bribe me with fine wines and fancy trips … unless you also make a campaign contribution.   How on God’s Green Earth is that an improvement?

Congress gets serious about lobbyist reform

There’s a popular euphemism about folks finding religion about the time they meet their maker.

That seems to be what’s happening in Congress these days. House leaders this week announced they had now found a map to the high road and would set up principles to govern what lobbyists can and cannot do for them. …

The American people want meaningful reform but let’s not strike the hammer only on lobbyists. They often perform a valuable service and provide information that Congressional staff members don’t have. But lobbyists can’t push the envelope on ethics without a willing member of Congress.

Both sides of the political aisle have fingerprints from lobbying practices that seem to defy some basic principles of representative democracy. If members don’t get caught up worrying about who gets credit for them, the American public could see some real reform this year.

The St. Louis American

This is one of the finer African American papers in the country, and I’m always delighted when it pops up on the randomizer  (I’m still looking for somebody to do a regular alternative paper feature.  If you’re interested, drop me a line).  Here, it opines on Alito, and as you might expect, not with enthusiasm.

Alito will bring pattern of bigotry to Supreme Court

The dubious confirmation hearings and impending Senate approval of Samuel Alito Jr. as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court are affronts to those who ascribe to the values and revere the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court provides another rock-solid anchor for the George Bush Republican Party that already has a stranglehold on the national government.

Alito’s record as a member of the Reagan administration and as a judge on the Court of Appeals leaves little doubt that he will align himself with the other extreme right wingers on the court to help roll back the hard-fought gains of the King era, gains that extended beyond African Americans to Latinos, white women, gays and lesbians as well as the physically challenged. The blessings of freedom have brought benefits to the entire society, extending far beyond black victims of bias. …

Based on his record Alito is a threat to the future of civil rights in the country. After his certain confirmation to the Supreme Court, Alito will vote on already pending cases alleging minority vote dilution. Despite his benign manner, Alito’s indisputable record on and off the bench shows a constant pattern of bigotry that is almost certain to continue after he joins the Supreme Court.

Toronto Star

Today’s foreign entry is a short trip north, across the border.  Let’s not go to insane about the election of conservatives in Canada.  This election was far more a response to corruption than a desire to turn Canada into Kansas.  Here is an editorial listing ten reasons why the vote was a good thing.  Follow the link for all of them.

Ten good reasons to cheer this vote

Not every Canadian woke up yesterday morning with a smile on his face and a song in her heart after watching the federal election results on Monday evening. At the Star, we endorsed the Liberals last week in an editorial and felt a Liberal victory would have been better for Canada, Ontario and Toronto than a Conservative win under their leader, Stephen Harper.  …

Here, in no particular order, is our list of 10 things to celebrate from Monday night’s result:

 …

3. In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois under leader Gilles Duceppe fell well short of breaking the 50 per cent mark in popular votes. The Bloc garnered 42 per cent of the vote, down from 48.9 per cent in the 2004 election. It also dropped from 54 seats won in 2004 to 51 seats Monday. The result shows the majority of Quebecers still prefer the federalist option.
4. The Conservatives with 124 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons have a mandate to lead the delivery of cleaner government in Ottawa that Canadians demand, but their power is subject to a healthy check by 103 Liberals, 51 Bloc Québécois, 29 New Democrats and one Independent. …
8. Canadians went to the polls in large numbers to cast ballots. Turnout was 65 per cent, up almost four percentage points from the 2004 election. We were particularly pleased the turnout at Poll 37, which the Star followed during the campaign, was 40 per cent. In the last election, just 18.5 per cent voted at Poll 37, the lowest turnout in the riding of Etobicoke-Centre, which itself had the second-lowest turnout in 2004 in Ontario. …

These are gains for Canadians of all federalist political stripes. The election that few voters initially wanted, especially over the Christmas holidays, ultimately delivered a little something for almost everyone.

_________

I’m ramping The Daily Pulse back up, and viewership has increased significantly.  It took 4 months to get the first 3000, and about two weeks for the next thousand.  If you’re interested in being a front-page contributor, let me know.  Ideally, we’re looking for the following, all to be surveys of different editorial sites like the above:

    * Letters to the Editor.  I’ve been doing it once a week, but think a daily column gives the best picture of all what people outside the beltway or the political junkie blogs are thinking.  Daily is ideal

    * Foreign editorials.  The best would be to have several different people, each posting once a week.  I’d love to have a European Pulse, an Asian Pulse, a Middle Eastern, etc.  Now, I try to include one foreign per main entry, but think the blog would be more valuable with a wider voice.

    * Alternative editorials.  I include GLBT, African American, Jewish, etc., newspapers in my database, from which randomly select editorial pages.  But they are such a minority, they rarely pop up.  If somebody dedicated themselves to an alternative column, that would be incredibly cool.  It could also be broken up- weekly or semi-weekly GLBT, ditto African American, etc.

    * Local columnists.  Local columnists tend to have their fingers on the pulse of their communities, even better sometimes than the editorials.  The editor gets to write whatever s/he wants.  Columns sell, and they don’t sell if they’re too far from the community.  Daily is best, but a couple of times per week would be cool.

    * Other content, esp. local radio and television.

*Whatever else might fit in the format.

In today’s letters, the voices against an imperial Presidency are starting to rise.  Remember, I pick these at random.  I don’t look for letter with which I agree.  When they start to look this one sided, things are starting to improve in the heartland.

P.S. I’m still looking for more front-page writers, so if you’re interested see the bottom of the diary for details.
The Daily Reflector

The outlawing of abortion might now be inevitable.    The question then becomes what happens to the “perpetrators,” and when will outrage create a backlash and reversal.  

Outlawing abortion a mistake

Criminalization of abortion will create a new criminal industry that will have devastating consequences for desperate young women who find themselves pregnant with no where else to turn. … Gullible young women who have criminal abortions in many cases develop horrendous infections and other complications leading to surgery, sterility, and even death. Let us not turn back the clock to the dark ages of criminal abortion.  …

DR. WILLIAM MEGGS

Greenville

The Daily Reflector

I’m starting to sound lke a borken record, but is Islamic fundamentalism really the greatest threat we ever faced?  Is it more of a threat to our lives and way of life than Naziism, seccession, Soviet Communism, or the coming fight for economic survival with China?  I don’t think so. And because I don’t think so, I can’t imagine why we are so willing to surrender everything that makes us American in exchange for “security.”

Citizens should be outraged over spying

It worries me that some of my fellow citizens seem to be having some difficulty understanding the serious threat posed to our basic civil rights by warrantless surveillance/data-mining of private communications, of the kind (illegal/unconstitutional) that King George (the W. stands for “war”) Bush and his men were recently caught doing, and continue to do. The Bushers clearly think they are above the law. …

If the executive branch is allowed to ignore the law in the incidence of terrorism, it won’t be long before any number of criminal (?) activities will be “listen-able” to the delight of over-zealous bureaucrats and political opportunists everywhere. Welcome to 2084. …

True patriots cannot afford to let this bastion of backward thinking go unchallenged.

MITCH BOWEN

Greenville

The Daily Astorian

Is Bush Napolean? Has he turned the Republic into a monarchy destined for war and destruction?  I don’t think so, but not for lack of trying, only because there is today no Great Britian to balance us out.

Wake up now

Fear-driven American people accepted the notion that while we were busy building nuclear weapons for ourselves, we were justified evidently in slapping Iraq around, killing thousands of innocent people who lived there, for the purpose, so we were assured, of preventing Iraq from building nuclear weapons. Never should we have allowed our government to sally forth on such premise. …

A thousand years after Caesar disappeared from the scene, King John put his seal on Magna Carta. Since that day there has existed in the western world legal precedent holding no man above the law, be he sheriff, senator, president, or king.

Yet when President George W. Bush signed into law the Defense Appropriations bill containing Senator John McCain’s anti-torture amendment, the President issued a “signing statement” presumably reserving to himself a right to bypass that very law. …

We approach a precipice and the hour is late. Even now the American people may have neither the will nor the means to avert disaster. In a war with Iran we may re-learn hard lessons that the French people learned when they allowed their own Bush, named Napoleon, to invade Russia; a vainglorious move that squandered 400,000 French lives. This time, however, it can be worse because Fourth Generation warfare is conducted not on a foreign battlefield but rather on a local main street. We have heard it said; we may now learn what it means: What goes around comes around.

JACK DENNON
Warrenton

The Spokesman-Review

Read the whole thing.  Cutting enough to keep to “fair use” really deprives the letter of the laundry list of crazy that is George W. Bush.

A look inside Bush’s head

Let’s imagine a candidate for president of the United States with the following psychological tendencies.

He views the world in absolutes and opposites – good or evil, right or wrong, friend or enemy, victory or defeat.

Believing he is always right, he is unmoved by evidence to the contrary. So he won’t compromise, pay attention to critics, or consider changing his mind. …

Wishing to become a great historical figure in world affairs, he longs for an evangelical mission of international deliverance. …

These tendencies are anti-democratic and dysfunctional, so a person who has them ought to be last in line for consideration as president, wouldn’t you think? Or, if such a person already were the president, you would hasten to shorten his tenure, wouldn’t you?

Lee Freese
Pullman

Midland Daily News

Calls for impeachment are starting to resound.  But will all be for naught if we fail to take both houses of Congress in ’06.  In a way, this is disturbing.  I have very little personal doubt that Bush won (to the extent that he “won” by keeping democrats from voting with long lines, inadequate machines, and whatever else) not for love of him, but because people didn’t want to “change horses in midstream” during a war.  If the mid-terms become about impeachment, that issue arises again.

Abuse of power

  It is time for the American people to stop the abuse of power by the executive branch of our government. The actions of these power-hungry individuals is eroding the democracy we believe in. …

    The most recent and frightening abuse is the President’s endorsement of wiretapping. He has admitted ordering eavesdropping on American citizens. Mr. Bush justifies this disregard for civil rights and the law as it is written as necessary during the war on terror. When Richard Nixon was questioned about illegal wiretapping he responded that it was not against the law for a president to authorize wiretapping if it was for national security. History proved him wrong. …

    I vote to start impeachment proceedings against President Bush. No one in this country, especially not our leader, should consider himself above the law.

    Our democracy is being put to the test. We will lose our system of checks and balances if we don’t stand up for law and order for everyone, President Bush included.

    Kap Siddall
    Midland

El Paso Times

You will need to follow the link to find the list to “think about,” but perhaps you should.  Bush has no regard for the Constitution, merely for his own power.  As for the “emergency” that makes the extraordinary abuse of power “necessary,” see above, for I think it is a mere fart in the wind, and one most easily dissipated not by violence, but by international cooperation.

Surveillance boggle

Think it’s a good idea to trash the Constitution in exchange for “security?” Think about this: …

The reason for the president’s actions is not to make us safer but to restore the “Imperial Presidency.” Simply “feeling safer” doesn’t actually make you safer.

Barbara Corona
East El Paso

Request for contributors:

I’m ramping The Daily Pulse back up, and viewership has increased significantly.  It took 4 months to get the first 3000, and about two weeks for the next thousand.  If you’re interested in being a front-page contributor, let me know.  Ideally, we’re looking for the following, all to be surveys of different editorial sites like the above:

    * Letters to the Editor.  I’ve been doing it once a week, but think a daily column gives the best picture of all what people outside the beltway or the political junkie blogs are thinking.  Daily is ideal

    * Foreign editorials.  The best would be to have several different people, each posting once a week.  I’d love to have a European Pulse, an Asian Pulse, a Middle Eastern, etc.  Now, I try to include one foreign per main entry, but think the blog would be more valuable with a wider voice.

    * Alternative editorials.  I include GLBT, African American, Jewish, etc., newspapers in my database, from which randomly select editorial pages.  But they are such a minority, they rarely pop up.  If somebody dedicated themselves to an alternative column, that would be incredibly cool.  It could also be broken up- weekly or semi-weekly GLBT, ditto African American, etc.

    * Local columnists.  Local columnists tend to have their fingers on the pulse of their communities, even better sometimes than the editorials.  The editor gets to write whatever s/he wants.  Columns sell, and they don’t sell if they’re too far from the community.  Daily is best, but a couple of times per week would be cool.

    * Other content, esp. local radio and television.

*Whatever else might fit in the format.

I don’t know how many straws the Bush camel can hold, but I wonder if Google might have been one of the last ones.  People might be fool enough to believe they’re only listening to phone calls with al-Qaeda. More likely they just never call outside the country so figure it’s somebody else’s problem.  But does the equation change when Billy Joe Bob finds out the Department of Justice knows he was looking for “naked 12 hairless oral”?  Or the county Right to Life chapter President googled “abortion discrete”?  Yeah, maybe.

In other news, filibuster or not?  Was Orwell just 20 years too early?  And how big a threat is al-Qaeda after all?

P.S. I’m still looking for contributors, so if you’re interested drop me a line.  Go to the bottom for more.

Gainesville (Florida) Sun

While it is true we lost on Alito in ’04, I don’t agree we should not filibuster.  I disagree for a strategic reason- I think this country, focused as it is on abortion, is NOT for the radical imperial presidency, pro-business, anti-worker, anti-liberty stance the new Court will stand for, and unless we can say ‘we did EVERYTHING in our power to stop it,’ we have nothing to gripe about.  And yes, Republicans are cynical enough, when the time comes, to say ‘they could have filibustered.’

Judging Judge Alito

We would rather not see Samuel A. Alito Jr. become a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. …

We hope the U.S. Senate will refuse to consent to his nomination. But that’s not going to happen. The confirmation vote in the Senate will likely fall out along party lines. Republicans have the votes to confirm, and the only way Democrats might prevent that from happening is by mounting a messy filibuster battle.

But that would be a mistake. It would further divide the country and set a dangerous precedent that Democrats may later come to regret. …

In stark contrast to President Bush’s previous nominee, the spectacularly unqualified Harriet Miers, Alito’s credentials are impeccable. …

We would not insult the voters by suggesting they did not understand that, in choosing between George W. Bush and John Kerry, they were also choosing between a court that was going to lean more to the right or more to the left. Neither did candidate-President Bush mince words when he indicated his intention to appoint conservative justices. …

A rightward shift on the court seems unavoidable at this point. If opponents of his nomination have a legitimate recourse, it is to try to influence voters in 2008 in the hope that the next president will be inclined to fill future Supreme Court vacancies with more moderate nominees. …

Democrats lost the fight over the Alito nomination in 2004. Resorting to procedural obstructionism and delay tactics would be ineffective and counterproductive.

And now, my very own editorial cartoon (how can I post an entire copyrighted cartoon and still stay in “fair use,” the way I try to do with editorial columns?  Easy. Post my own).  The rest can be seen at HYPNOCRITES, my cartoon blog.

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

The (Longbeach, California) Press Telegram

Hooray for Google.  And Hissssss for everybody else.  Perhaps this will get people’s attention.  Sure, Bush can mouth lies about ‘if you’re talking to al-Qaeda,’ and the morons believe him.  But in this case his DoJ is trying to look at what EVERYBODY is doing.  And if you don’t like it, look at the piece above, and remember why we should filibuster.

Google this: Civil Liberties

Yahoo is yellow. Microsoft is meek. American Online is out-of-line. Each gave the U.S. Justice Department a peek at millions of search-engine queries. Only Google rebuffed Big Brother by reminding the Feds that Justice wears a blindfold (a Google search of that word will quickly take you into the world of porn).

Google is fighting a subpoena to turn over a week’s worth of searches. The government should fight spyware, not install it, and the billionaires from Mountain View are courageous enough to resist what we see as an illegal search. …

The Feds are trying to data mine the minds of millions of Americans something that, last time we checked was as private as the phone lines they’ve been tapping. …

Now you may not be a fan of porn, and much of it is gross, but going after those who like it is like going after anyone who is marginalized. They’re easy targets, albeit a large one….

There’s plenty of indecency on the Net, but spying on online users is what’s truly obscene. It’s time to turn over the Internet spying to those who can really protect children: parents.

The Times (Frankfurt, Indiana)

Get on Barnes & Noble, or Amazon, or go to the used book store, and by every copy of 1984 you can find.  Give it to friends, acquaintances, work-mates, etc., for birthdays, anniversaries, anything.  Don’t speechify, or sell it as anything but something worth reading.  Talk to them afterward.  We CAN open eyes.

‘1984’ More Pertinent and Real in 2006

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about George Orwell’s “1984.” So I visited my pal the Internet this week for a short refresher. …

It’s a story of government run amok. It’s one of Thought Police, of a Ministry of Truth, of controlling human behavior. …

The main theme is that Big Brother is always watching. …

Today, Orwell’s “1984” seems more fact than fiction. He was just 20 years early. …

President Bush has acknowledged that his administration has eavesdropped numerous times on U.S. citizens at home and abroad to root out would-be terrorists. It has done so without obtaining warrants through the justice system. Those warrants, by most accounts, would have been easy to get.

We can all agree that using any number of methods to keep this country safe is fair game. But there’s a right way and a wrong way. This is the wrong way. …

The fact is, the door is now open to abuses, or the appearance of. The bigger thing is that our system of government was created to shun absolutism.

In “1984” Orwell writes of a society in which the right to privacy doesn’t exist. …

We’re not there, obviously. But is that the direction we want to go? …

You might say that anything is fine, as long as it keeps the country safe. Or that electronic chips are OK to keep tabs on people with a criminal history.

But will it stop there? I want to keep civil liberties and still go after the bad guys.

It’s up to common folk to demand it. If we don’t start at some point, Big Brother’s only going to cast a larger shadow.

And now, a short trip across the border.

Calgary (Canada) Herald

I don’t agree with everything here, but I do agree with the (unintentional) underlying premise- Islamicist terrorism just isn’t that big a deal.  Do you really think they pose as big a threat as secession, Naziism, or Communism?  Or even the coming threat of China’s economic rise?  Then why in the world, facing the most minor threat of modern times, are we willing to give up rights clung to through the hardest of times?

Al-Qaeda’s Offer Doesn’t Add Up

It’s hard to imagine the terrorist al-Qaeda organization offering terms, if it thought it was winning its war with the U.S. Last week, a taped message from Osama bin Laden offered a “long-time truce,” with “security and stability” for both parties. …

Yet, for all its apocalyptic rhetoric, it suggests bin Laden’s organization would actually like time out to regroup. History shows few examples of military operations which, having momentum, offer relief to the object of their attack. …

U.S. President George W. Bush was therefore right to dismiss such a crude attempt to drive a wedge between his administration and those Americans who, while supporting his war effort, would also like an end to anxiety. (Bush stated the U.S. did not negotiate with terrorists, and would end the war on terror at a time and place of its own choosing.)

Could bin Laden still organize a strike on the North American mainland? Perhaps. …

However, it is doubtful bin Laden could cause greater confusion than the recent summer’s hurricanes. If the U.S. can handle the displacement of nearly one million people, and damage to Louisiana’s concentration of oil refineries, it should be able to withstand the worst bin Laden’s much-reduced organization can perform. …

The proper western response, then, is business as usual. …

The West owes it to every Iraqi who voted for the country’s new government, and every Afghan who voted for that country’s new constitution, to stay the course.

Request for contributors:

I’m ramping The Daily Pulse back up, and viewership has increased significantly.  It took 4 months to get the first 3000, and about two weeks for the next thousand.  If you’re interested in being a front-page contributor, let me know.  Ideally, we’re looking for the following, all to be surveys of different editorial sites like the above:

• Letters to the Editor.  I’ve been doing it once a week, but think a daily column gives the best picture of all what people outside the beltway or the political junkie blogs are thinking.  Daily is ideal

• Foreign editorials.  The best would be to have several different people, each posting once a week.  I’d love to have a European Pulse, an Asian Pulse, a Middle Eastern, etc.  Now, I try to include one foreign per main entry, but think the blog would be more valuable with a wider voice.

• Alternative editorials.  I include GLBT, African American, Jewish, etc., newspapers in my database, from which randomly select editorial pages.  But they are such a minority, they rarely pop up.  If somebody dedicated themselves to an alternative column, that would be incredibly cool.  It could also be broken up- weekly or semi-weekly GLBT, ditto African American, etc.

• Local columnists.  Local columnists tend to have their fingers on the pulse of their communities, even better sometimes than the editorials.  The editor gets to write whatever s/he wants.  Columns sell, and they don’t sell if they’re too far from the community.  Daily is best, but a couple of times per week would be cool.

• Other content, esp. local radio and television.

*Whatever else might fit in the format.

I can’t keep up the pace every day, but when I do put one together lately, I try to combine an American “Daily Pulse” with a view of editorials from somewhere else in the world.  Today, Africa.  In America, Republicans question their identity, Hitler ads backfire in Virginia, and evolution remains a hot topic.  In Africa, Egyptians worry about American imperialism, and Kenyans worry about starvation.  Read, enjoy, and visit The Daily Pulse for regular entries, and “Your Home Town,”  a place to add your own interesting, offensive, or utterly insane editorial content.
The Evansville (Illinois) Courier

But what if God is a Sunni?

God has lesson for us in Iraq

Life’s impossibilities are God’s opportunities. One of those is the situation in Iraq. As long as there are radical Sunni Muslims who will kill, maim and destroy, whoever, whenever, however, in order to get back control over Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others, and as long as the general Sunni Muslim populace is content, maybe even giving support, for this radical action of indiscriminate murdering to take place, we definitely have a problem for which only God has the answer.  …

Hal Branson

Henderson

The Arizona Republic

What is a “Republican”?  Is it a fiscal conservative, or a religious zealot?  And how long can the Republican Party hold the two together?  More important, has the Democratic Party prepared itself for that division?  Or will it waste the opportunity, and just lose more people to whatever comes next?

Same reasons to leave GOP

Amazing. I just read state Rep. Cheryl Chase’s alleged reasons for switching her party affiliation from the Democrats to the Republicans (“Changing parties puts District 23 in better position,” Opinions, Monday). Chase cites reasons like national security, forest health, water education, health care and immigration.  …

Funny thing is, these are almost the identical reasons that I, a 45-year-old Republican, have been thinking of leaving the party for more reasonable, less intransigent clime. …

Duane Daum, Cave Creek

The Herald Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania)

Warning- the following will seem terribly elitist. Tough.  Greyhound is dying, and it is being killed by airlines.  What do I mean?  If you travel a lot, you will have noticed changes over the last two decades.  There was a time when air travel was expensive, something done primarily as a business expense.  Families traveled by car, and individuals traveled by bus.  At some point, the airlines decided that if it costs $150 to fly each passenger, they could try to make a profit by selling a LOT of tickets at $120.  The result?  The airlines are dying, and they are taking the bus lines with them.  Many of the people flying today are the people that used to take the bus.  Air travel has gotten so cheap there is no reason to travel any other way.  Of course, the ultimate result will be the death of bus lines, repeated airline bankruptcies, raiding of airline pension accounts, union-busting contracts, and lower wages throughout the industry.  Eventually, the whole shaky edifice will come crashing down, and the cycle will start again.  

Go, Greyhound: Bus firm’s Uniontown pullout sign of times

It’s lamentable but not surprising that Greyhound Bus Lines will cease serving Uniontown Oct. 29, eliminating a public transportation mode that’s fallen victim to low ridership. Although the loss provides little solace to those who used the service out of necessity or convenience, the fact remains that no business can justify continued operations when its customer base dwindles below an even marginally acceptable level.  …

Job growth and economic opportunity cure many ills. Let Greyhound be an illustration of what still needs done. If it’s not, other businesses will surely follow suit.

The News Virginian

It appears Kilgore’s campaign of hate is backfiring.  That is good news for anybody that cares about the political process.  Now he is trying to focus on the death penalty, something that effects a few people in Virginia each year, but stands as a blatant proxy for race-baiting of elections past.  The only thing missing is Willie Horton.  When will America get past its orgy of hate and vengeance, and stop looking for new and interesting ways to jail and kill its own?

Wasted campaign

Virginia’s gubernatorial campaign has digressed toward a number of trivial topics and red herrings over the past year or so.

Now it’s the death penalty. …

How did the death penalty jump over education, transportation, the environment and jobs as a valid discussion point? …

The strategy seems to be failing.

In March, Kilgore had a 10-point lead. A poll taken over Oct. 14-16 for WSLS-TV in Roanoke, which like The News Virginian is owned by Media General, found Kilgore down two points – a statistical dead heat.

Voters obviously want Kilgore to discuss real issues.

And now The Daily Pulse will take a trip across the water, to look through Africa’s editorial pages.

Cairo (Egypt) Live

This letter writer sees a conspiracy between Israel and the United States to reshape the Middle East in their own image.  I wonder if this is a common point of view on the “Arab street.”  If it is, the chances of “democratization” in the Middle East are about the same as the chances of Israel being unanimously selected to be on the U.N. Security Council.

Have we no pride?

Today I saw Mr. C.I.A. Woosley’s emotional comments on TV about all the wonderful changes coming the Arabs way, no matter who they might be, and I also heard about another checkpoint misfortune, with the lives of three Iraqis, including that of a two year old girl, taken away by well meaning US Marines.

And I would just like to ask my Arabs brethren: Why is it that many of us are so unwilling to forgive Iraq for its miscalculations and yet be so forgiving, so patient, so polite, to Israel’s and the US’s many adventures in our physical realm?

Have we no pride left to defend ourselves? Do we really disdain ourselves this much? Aren’t we all Arabs first? …

We have no time to waste. The Arab world in its entirety has no choice but to let those two satellite dreamers see that this is our turf and anyone invited into it will sit where they are told to sit and eat what we have to offer to eat.

There can be no bigger betrayal to our future generations than to delay ourselves in this most important task.

E.A.S. Saleh

Middle East Times (Cairo, Egypt)

This editorial argues that our failures in Iraq have actually pushed the Middle East toward increased nuclear armament, and increased the danger in the area.  Is there anything here with which you can disagree?  Me either.

Like it or lump it

President Bush’s national security advisor spelled out precisely why Iraq is now on course for a geopolitical train wreck. In an op-ed published coast-to-coast last weekend, Stephen Hadley makes unmistakably clear that Iraq’s new constitution is federal with provisions for regional governments that will not be allowed to intrude on the powers of the federal government.

Out of the window is any notion of Iraq as a unitary state, which it has been since its birth in 1920, through five previous constitutional iterations. Now, if the Baghdad federal government objects to “intrusions” in its prerogatives, it will simply be told to mind its own beeswax. …

The constitutional referendum left 34 important issues in abeyance. Fifty of the constitution’s 130 clauses are incomplete. They are to be determined later when laws are passed to implement the federal architecture.

Baghdad’s power to tax is up in the air, state religion is still uncertain, human rights, at least for women, are unclear, the role of the police is unspecified, and the militias are to be disbanded, but the document doesn’t say by whom. In the event of a full-fledged civil war, which some knowledgeable observers say is already underway subrosa, federal zones are tailor-made for ethnic cleansing. …

But long-time observers of the Iraqi scene seem to agree that only a strongman can keep Iraq together. And that general is yet to emerge from the new Iraqi army. Such a figure would ensure that Iraq’s three component parts stick together during a long transitory period. …

The uncertainty of Iraq’s future, and its destabilizing impact on the Middle East, has already gotten several regional players to think of a nuclear future for themselves. A British intelligence report says that both Egypt and Syria have sought to obtain dual-use capabilities from Western countries to advance their nascent, drawing-board nuclear programs. The same intelligence sources say that nuclear Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have frequently discussed a nuclear future for the Wahhabi kingdom; both nations have denied this at high levels.  …

With the prospect of a Palestinian state fading once again in the chaos that followed Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, the Middle East is living up to its reputation as the world’s most dangerous neighborhood.

Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large at United Press International

Middle East Times (Cairo, Egypt)

This writer sees the Iraq war as part of a grander American scheme in the Middle East, as scheme that began after World War II, and that is dying in Iraq.  I do not believe this to be correct, though I do believe it to be an accurate description of the present White House and the neocons intent on reshaping the world at the end of a gun barrel.

End of an empire?

BAGHDAD —  US involvement in the Middle East is a fairly new phenomenon, but has been growing sharply in the past 20 to 30 years. It has now reached a critical point and stands at the brink of spectacular failure. …

The Iranian revolution, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the first Gulf war and peace treaties between Israel and some of its neighbors as well as the peace process with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), all in their own ways forced Washington to rethink policy for the region. …

It seems that the invasion and occupation of Iraq were only the first part of a major plan that included the following: the replacement of autocratic regimes in Iran and Syria, by military action if necessary; the establishment of a mini-Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip; and the replacement of the old and traditional ruling political classes or personalities in the Gulf by a younger generation of leaders.

The initial victory in Iraq gave the US administration the impression that it could proceed with relative ease with the rest of its plan. But the impression proved wrong, and indeed has worked in contradiction to the theory. …

Iraq remains the main battleground for the time being. In failing to come to grips with the resistance and in failing to come up with any sustainable means for either staying in or leaving, Washington’s entire project in the Middle East is dying a painful death. And just like the Suez crisis presaged the end of the British Empire, Iraq could prove the beginning of the end of the American, at least in the Middle East.

Saad N. Jawad is a professor of political science at Baghdad University. Acknowledgement to bitterlemons-international.org

The Standard (Kenya)

This editorial discusses changes that can be made within Kenya to address repeated food shortages. But it does not address the BIG issue, protectionism in the United States and Europe that makes it impossible for smaller countries to compete for the agricultural markets, the only markets to which they have access.  We yell at the top of our lungs about the “free market” and “competition,” but would rather see millions starve than let others into the game.

Why can’t we tame perennial famine?

More than two million Kenyans will soon be faced with starvation.

This shocking fact was revealed yesterday by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Kipruto Kirwa, at a ceremony to mark World Food Day. He blamed the approaching famine on poor food production. …

The nagging problem of food insecurity is paramount for any nation seeking to develop, because a starving people cannot work. We have said before that the Government needs to do more by putting in place the right policies and funding agriculture to boost food production. It is commendable that the minister announced that 490 field officers would be employed and posted to the grassroots and that Sh80 million has been set aside to buy relief food. …

Lastly, the Government must put in place policies to free idle land for commercial farming and encourage the use of modern techniques in food production to maximise returns per acre. If these issues were addressed, Kenya would not only be food secure, but also a major net food exporter in the region.

Todays letters come from around the country and around the world.  In Tennessee, fair voting with paper trails is the key to keeping our democracy.  In Oklahoma, those “touchy-feely” Democrats might have helped people, rather than created racist fantasies to let them die. Meanwhile, the evolution debate rages from South Carolina to the Czech Republic, and God’s wrath by hurricane is questioned from Louisiana to Trinidad and Tobago.  Here, at home, God is perceived as angry at individual sins, such as drunkeness and homosexualtiy, while abroad, he is pissed off at a murderous war based upon lies.  If you were God, which would upset you more?
Hendersonville (Tennessee) Star News

Fair voting should be the issue of our lifetime.  Not war, not poverty, fair voting.  For without it, we lose our democracy.  Once that happens, war, poverty, and all the other ills wait on the sidelines, just bursting with excitement, waiting to take the field to add to the riches and disparity of a corporatist oligarchy.  One undemocratic “election” of 9 robed judges picked a President in 2000 (whatever the vote count might have been, we know two things.  First, it was a statistical tie; and second, it would not have been, but for the “butterfly ballot” screw-up.), and another undemocratic election based upon who had the longest lines at the voting booths picked him again in 2004 (with or without the accusations of computer-voting fraud, Ohio was won when Democrats could not stand in lines for 12 hours, while their Republican counterparts hardly waited 12 minutes).  Right now, we only have a democracy of the super-majority, and a dictatorship of close elections.  If that does not change, we will lose our country.

Paper ballots are a must to ensure validity

Now’s the time to ensure freedom with fair elections. The election commissions are currently planning to purchase voting equipment. There is now much evidence that electronic voting machines are not dependable, that, in fact (according to the Department of Homeland Security) some systems are easily hacked; yet there is no paper ballot in most of Tennessee. (“Commission to call for changes in voting,” Sept. 19).  …

What are citizens to do? Contact elected officials and election commissions. Tell them, first, that all voting equipment should come with a voter-verified paper ballot. This means a voting machine should give a receipt as you vote. You could use it if you agree, start over if not; and put it in a ballot box when you’re satisfied. Random boxes could be hand-counted for accuracy; and all paper ballots could be hand re-counted if needed. Second, there should be no remote or wireless access to voting machines, so local control is kept.

Shannon Williford
Nashville 37212

The Norman (Oklahoma) Transcript

Republicans hate Democrats, deriding us as too “touchy feely,” as soft-hearted fools, rather than the hardened realists they believe themselves to be.  Well, perhaps a little more empathy might have helped save people in Louisiana.  Instead, from those “hardened realists” we got fraudulent fantasies of blacks gone wild, stories of rape, murder, and mayhem that justified letting them die, stories we now know to be false.  So, how many weak, elderly, sick, young, or helpless lost their lives as those “hardened realists” recoiled, not from violence, but from the very idea of actually helping people darker than themselves?  Too damned many, and may every one of those poor tortured souls haunt the dreams of every heartless racist bastard to sully our TV screens from the studios of Fox and others.

Democrats would have cared, done better

I am constantly haunted by the spectacle of people in the New Orleans Superdome pleading for water and food for five days. I can’ help but know that if Clinton, Gore or any Democrat had been in the White House at the time of Katrina, there would have been water, food, medicine and sanitary facilities there for those American citizens in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana much earlier. Any Democrat would have cared about and known what was happening in our country. …

LORI HILBERT
Norman

Beaufort (South Carolina) Gazette

The whole evolution vs. creationism argument really brings out the anger in some people.  This letter is obviously responding to a rant of similar heat, confusing evolution with social Darwinism, and calling anybody who believes in evolution a communist.  It is really amazing to me, more than a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, that the right still calls anybody that disagrees with them a communist.

Don’t practice willful ignorance

A recent letter states that in Christian schools “both evolution and creationism will be taught fairly and objectively.” It illustrates such teaching with an ad hominem attack on Justice Black, equates evolution with racism, fascism and Marxism and confuses evolutionary theory with social Darwinism. If the writer is aware of the viciousness of this perverse creed, he should change his voting habits and learn enough about the subject to know that neither Charles Darwin nor evolutionary biology has anything to do with the fantasies of social Darwinism. …

Evolution is Marxist? It is ironic that those who condemn “random” evolution have only praise for it in economics — centralized planning, an attempt at “intelligent economic design” is totally condemned where money is concerned. But when the essence of life is at issue, we must have just such planning. Humans are not capable of this, but God (or the carefully unnamed force — a deified Marx?) certainly is. If you want your Communist parallel, intelligent design is Lysenkoism — an ideology imposed upon us in denial of all evidence. …

Larry Lepionka
Beaufort

The Coffeyville (Kansas) Journal

Sometimes, there is nothing whatsoever the matter with Kansas.  This writer hits the Roberts nail on the head- Roberts believes in a constitution protecting those already in power, not a constitution making everybody equal.

Reject John Roberts

…

This man has refused to release key documents; all Americans deserve to receive equal protection under the law, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

John Roberts’ career has been defined by the argument that the constitution requires no such equal protection.

E. Upton
Independence

Hendersonville (Tennessee) Star News

There is a lot more here, and you can follow the link to find it.  Racism, it seems, can make hypocrites of anybody.  

Bush deserves better than Wickham’s sniping

Apparently columnist DeWayne Wickham finds it perfectly acceptable for rapper Kanye West to make scurrilous remarks about President Bush but takes offense when Mrs. Bush characterizes such remarks as disgusting. (“The president’s problems with blacks run deep,” Sept. 19). …

I also found it interesting that Wickham referred to President Bush’s faith-based initiative as “pandering to black preachers” and then further in his column suggests that he shore up his relationship with the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, which of course would not be “pandering.” …

Bill Gaskill
Dickson 37055

The Norman (Oklahoma) Transcript

Please follow this link. The writer has done a terrific job of itemizing the slime/spin point, and the responses.  We know them when we hear them, but if we see them first, the point have less ability to take hold.

Hurricane slime

The Republican Slime Machine is up and running after the hurricane recently hit the Gulf Coast. The disaster relief was a fiasco and the Republicans are hopping to get out the spin to absolve themselves and Bush from any blame. Below is a condensed version of the “do” and “don’t” say spin lists that will be provided (or withheld from) the media when the slime begins to ooze. Use these to play a game. See how many you hear in the media and keep a count! The winner will be named the next director of FEMA. …

Hope these talking points help you sort out the spin sure to be flying over the next few months. Good luck in playing the game of “Counting Spin” and if you win, hope you also get a “great job, Brownie” from the president when you mismanage a FEMA response to our next disaster.

LARRY STEELE
Norman

Shreveport (Louisiana) Times

I know devout believers mean well, but warnings about “end times” and sin in light of Hurricane Katrina are not acts of love, they are acts of hate and accusation. As for the whole “end times” absurdity, two thoughts. First, Jesus promised the end times would come in his disciples’ lifetimes, and so much for that.  Second, if we are STILL in “end times,” they are dragging a bit, for right now they constitute about a third of all recorded history, and more than a third of all the Bible’s history.  It makes my three year old’s promise to stop playing, put away his toys, and go to be seem instantaneous.

We have turned back to Bible’s teachings

I have read with compassion and love of these people evacuated from all the towns devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I can’t help but wonder if anyone reading their Bibles can see God warned us of these things near the end of time. America has turned its back on God and is living in sin as if nothing matters and God has no part in people’s lives. But I can assure you my Bible says he is coming, and I believe it will be soon. …

Betty Lister
Frierson

The Day (Connecticut)

The debate of the Pledge is legitimate.  Only the believers in God seem to be unoffended by the addition of God to the Pledge.  Well, the Bill of Rights is not about the rights of the majority to do what they wish, it is about the rights of the minority to not be subject to the will of the majority.  Every fight in the Bill of Rights is a fight against the majority.   That is why the very idea that most people are offended by this fight is so utterly irrelevant.  Truth be told, the majority would not be offended by a Jesus in every classroom, and a religious test to hold public office.  But we are not a country ruled by the majority (though they forget that in their lust for power), we are a country ruled by law and by rights, including those protecting the rest of us from most of you.

Keep Religion Out Of Pledge And Anthem

I read a New York Times editorial in The Day that I totally disagree with (“One father, indefatigable,” Sept. 20). Remember the story of the little boy putting his finger in the dike? That was the same as Michael Newdow going to court to challenge the addition of “under God” into the pledge of allegiance. That was the start of the invasion of religion into too many aspects of patriotism.

It has been more than 50 years since it became officially part of the pledge and a great many still find it inappropriate and were content with it as it was, because it now violates the separation of the state and religion. …

Leonard Lowy
North Stonington

Tyler (Texas) Morning Telegraph

Suddenly, at the thought of giving money to black people to rebuild their homes and their lives, Republicans are rediscovering fiscal responsibility.  They are not giving up their bridges to nowhere, or their Midwestern rain forests, but they sure don’t like the idea of using federal money to rebuild New Orleans.  Of course, this misses a pretty basic point- the disaster in New Orleans started with the hurricane, but ended with the collapse of the levees exactly because the federal government failed to maintain them. In other words, this is restitution for incompetence at least as much as it is payment for natural disaster.

NATURAL DISASTERS NOT GOVERNMENT’S PROBLEM

Life is a four-letter word and can be tragic to the limits of one’s imagination. But, we the taxpayers do not owe for losses outside our control.  

The citizens of this country, through their states, cities and churches, have donated millions toward the Katrina surviving families’ welfare. Now the federal government has taken the task of reconstruction “for these areas of devastation to be rebuilt better than they were before.” This decision abounds in the lack of common sense.

The federal government owes the millions of taxpayers in this country a sound responsible fiscal policy. For the federal government to set a precedent for taking responsibility for natural disasters is a step into an abyss with no known bottom, all at the expense of taxpayers. …

The surviving families obviously need help and by all reports they are getting it. But what we do not need is for taxpayers to be forced to foot the bill for this pick and choose type of discrimination. The precedent has unfortunately already been set with this same brand of knee-jerk reaction with the monies doled out in the aftermath of 9/11. That in itself is tragic, and reflects poorly as a responsible stance by our government.

Vance Cline
Winona

The Daily Tribune News (Georgia)

I like letters like these, for they remind me the South is not a monolith.  There are progressives who understand the value of a life over the value of a dollar, even south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

I wish we had Hillary, right now …

In 1992, we had a President Bush-41 and a Clinton who wanted his job to help our country and take it forward. Now, we have a President Bush-43 and a Clinton who wants his job — to help our country — get out of the biggest mess I’ve ever seen. Hillary is capable and I hope willing in 2008.

Bush-43 has made us, the U.S.A., look like a village of only idiots and no elders. Again, I wish we had Hillary, right now, to deal with some of our very serious problems, i.e., the Katrina disaster, drug war, our sluggish economy and jobs, and actually caring for the poor, etc. …

Accommodating the needs of ALL our U.S. citizens is not only morally right, it’s the smart thing to economically do long-term.

Freddie E. Lewis Sr., Cartersville

And now for a few international entries.

The Korea Times

It seems we are not the only nation with a fundamentalist fight over science.  In this letter, from South Korea, a writer responds to an anti-science screed.

Anti-Science Rant

I write in response to “Affluenza¡” by Mr. Kim See-bong. I’ve read this piece twice now and have to admit I’m not entirely sure of his exact point. My reply concerns the one thing that is clear: Mr.Kim’s editorial is a perverse anti-science rant.

Mr. Kim begins by summarizing the tale of Adam and Eve. He concludes that “this is the beginning of science.” It is not. The notion that science comes from a Bible story is ridiculous. Science began in the 6th century B.C. on the Greek island of Ionia.

Science teaches that the Earth is our home, our one and only home, and that to pollute it is suicide. If our governments heeded scientists’ warnings about the continued destruction of the Earth’s environment, our laws would be radically different than they are now. Mr. Kim writes “Death is the surefire weapon God wields upon man. The Creator invents increasingly harder-to-cure diseases and man counter-challenges them with science.” Mr. Kim, why do you worship a God that wants to kill you? Does God want to kill us because He loves us? Did God love all the people He killed with His tsunami last December? God invented diseases and hurricanes and terrorist bombings and genocide and poverty, and if He didn’t invent them He does nothing to stop them. What’s the difference? Which is it: God values these things or He is powerless to stop them? These questions, and the fact that religious people ignore them, illustrate the flat-Earth mentality at the heart of religious belief. Sincerely,

Chris Thomsen, Inchon    

Trinidad and Tobago Express

I do not believe in divine retribution, for I do not believe in a day-to-day looking over our shoulder sort of God.  That said, it is interesting to see that others around the world see Katrina and Rita as retribution, not for homosexuality or licentiousness, but for greed, warfare, and death.  It does raise an interesting point- if you were God, which would piss you off more, two men you made to be gay acting out on it, or a powerful country killing hundreds of thousands based upon lies?

Hurricane ‘weapons’ for Bush

US President George Bush unleashed a “sledgehammer” attack on poor Iraq, just to crush a tiny biting ant like Saddam Hussein. He pounced on these poor people with sophisticated bombs and missiles, destroying families and everything in his path. The end result is a divided people living like dogs under the barrel of the US/UK guns, with Marines dying every day for a cause they do not understand or agree with. The alleged weapons of mass destruction never materialised.

Today, through the power of a just creator, Bush has now found some weapons of mass destruction. They lie in Hurricanes Andrew, Frances, Charlie and Ivan of yesteryear. So far for this year he has seen the likes of Katrina which has caused more costly damage to his country than all of his advantageous wars combined. Lurking on the horizon is Hurricane Rita, waiting to exhale its mighty breath on an innocent American people, as if God is seeking expiration for all the suffering meted out to innocent men, women and children in the Middle East. Mr Bush aimed his guns at the oil producing world, not to remedy their problems, but, as we all know to get his hands on their oil. Katrina has devastated the oil producing Gulf region of America and Rita has its “eye” on oil rich Texas. What irony.

Your war now is with Almighty God, Mr Bush. Aim your missiles at the heavens!

S Ali
San Juan

Prague Post

Evolution in Prague.  Well, this letter actually comes from Oregon, but it is in response to an article about evolution in the Prague Post.  Such an article here in the U.S. would cause a cascade of diatribes about God and blasphemy.  Sometimes, I read the foreign papers just to see how much they are laughing at us.

Evolution

I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see an article about human evolution (“Fossils are among oldest in Europe,” News, June 1-7) that states what scientists believe to be true in a straightforward, dispassionate manner. Back here in the States, we have our own set of “Neanderthals” who cannot accept science when it appears to conflict with their religion. While that is their right, unfortunately our current government owes them, and their sad rantings actually influence public policy, something I suspect the Czechs and other Europeans would consider absurd. As our esteemed President George W. Bush says: “The jury is still out on evolution.” Scientists looking for evidence that Neanderthals or other archaic humans still walk among us should look to Washington, D.C., as a good place to start their investigation.

Charles Merriweather Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

[cross-posted from The Daily Pulse]

The basic premise behind The Daily Pulse is that we best understand the real thoughts and feelings of the country by exploring the local editorial pages for opinion, columns, and letters. The things people write about are the things people are thinking about the most, and with the most passion. The result, we hope, is a picture over time of what America really finds important. But we need help. We need more content. Right now, we’ve got The Daily Pulse, a daily (weekdays) review of editorial content randomly selected from around the country. Once a week, on Tuesdays, there is a “Daily Pulse: Letters Tuesday Editor” version, but it would be wonderful, and far more informative, if somebody wanted to do a daily letters pulse. Any volunteers? Baldandy does a terrific Pundit Parade, giving a roundup of local and national punditry, so that is pretty much covered, as is Newsie’s news roundup. But there could be so much more. I would dearly love to add:

• Daily Letters- a regular collection of letters to the editor;
• Foreign Pulse- so far, I have tried to do a European, Asian, African, Pacific, Central American/Carribean, and South American Pulse, each once a week. We learn a lot more about our own country, and the world, by viewing it from the outside. Is anybody interested in doing a weekly pulse from any of the above?
• Canadian or Mexican Pulse- I know that’s foreign, but they are our closest neighbors, and worth seeing at least once a week
• Alternative Pulse- I include specialty newspapers, be they GLBT, African-American, Jewish, or others, in my Daily Pulse databank for random selection, but think it would be a wonderful addition to see weekly pulses from all of them, or even monthly pulses from each

So, do you have a little time? Would you like your own space on a new blog? Do you have a specific interest in any of these areas, or anything else that might fit here? If so, drop a comment and volunteer. We will give you all the help you need to get started, to help us make The Daily Pulse the best place to come for editorial roundups and comment.

Thanks.

The Daily Pulse