Take Down the Porno from the Top Shelf

Take Down the Porno from the Top Shelf

Instead of allowing children to see nudity, and exploring healthy sexual mores, Parents want to shelter the child from any sexuality. Usually because they themselves are going through similar societal training and are uncomfortable with it. "Oh no, my child saw people lusting after each other, how will they ever recover, I must stop it."

Instead of teaching the beauty of nude human form, Kids get sex on TV. Instead of parents explaining intimacy and love, family planning, and personal sexual safety they try to hide it from them. Instead of teaching the true loving romantic nature of eroticism we learn that natural sexuality is hedonistic.

The government is forced to censor so parents don’t have to parent.

And the effect is adults who do not know how to be sexual, have unfulfilled marriages, and premature pregnancies. Women who don’t know how to be mothers and lovers. To be feminists and sadomasochists. Men to be masculine and erotic.

We have people uncomfortable unhappy and searching for safe egalitarian sex with partners desexualized by societal norms on natural eroticism.

I am not talking about sexuality run rampant, no standards on mass media and five year olds looking at porn; I am talking about healthy discussions with pre-teens and teenagers about sexuality, love, and marriage. Real discussions on breasts and beauty, not senseless censorship and repressive norms that only hurt us as adults. Not knee jerk reactions to sexuality but parents responsible for their children’s norms.

Abortion Lie

Abortion Lie

If making Abortion illegal would solve the problem of unwanted pregnancies I would be for it. But in truth it does nothing to answer the questions.

IF anything Republicans cause unhealthy sexual practices. As discussed in past entries, the social wahabism which causes unhealthy outlooks on sex, combined with wrong information about safe sex causing teens to choose unhealthy sexual activity, combined with repressive mores, and you get the increased rates of Abortion under Republican administrations.

We need to discuss real ways to lower rates of Abortion, because putting women, men, couples into hard emotional and moral situations of unexpected pregnancies is unfair. We should arm our teens with real education about their sexual choices, and parents should teach their teens about love, marriage and the importance of open communication about sexual needs.

We progressives should offer these up to the country, not just reactionary stop gaps to their assault on women as listed below

Progress report:

WOMEN'S RIGHTS
The Assault on Liberty

Yesterday, President Bush addressed a gathering of tens of thousands of people who want Roe v. Wade to be overturned and reaffirmed his support for criminalizing abortion. Bush told the crowd they were "making progress" toward their goal. The organizers of the rally, March for Life, favor criminalizing abortion even in cases of rape and incest. Bush's hostile views towards women's rights are of even greater concern because he could "make several Supreme Court appointments in his second term" who oppose Roe. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, at least 21 states would quickly outlaw abortion. That's why it's so important for progressives not to abandon their commitment to reproductive rights.

BUSH'S AGGRESSIVE ANTI-WOMAN AGENDA: Bush's opposition to abortion is more than just talk. The National Right to Life Committee heralded the 2003-2004 Congress as "the most successful ever for the pro-life movement." With the help of his right-wing allies in Congress, Bush signed a number of laws which erode women's rights in the United States. The new laws criminalize certain abortion procedures, define a fetus at any stage of development as a person, and make it harder for women to obtain abortions at publicly funded hospitals. Out of over 200 judges nominated to the federal bench by Bush, only two have expressed any respect for abortion rights.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF INTIMIDATION: Now "lawmakers in Congress and several states, meanwhile, are introducing the latest in a wave of measures aimed at making it more daunting to obtain an abortion." One bill would require abortion providers to read a script telling women 20 weeks or more pregnant that an abortion could cause pain to their fetus. Also under consideration: a bill that makes it a crime – even for family members – to take a minor to another state for a legal abortion.

PUTTING WOMEN'S HEALTH AT RISK: Criminalizing abortion won't end abortion – it will just put women's health at risk. In 1930, "almost 2,700 women died from illegal abortions – and that's just the number who had abortion recorded as their official cause of death." In 1962, "almost 1,600 women were treated for incomplete illegal abortions in at Harlem Hospital." Forty-three percent of all abortions worldwide are performed in countries where abortion is illegal. According to the World Health Organization, "80,000 women around the world still die each year of complications from illegal abortion." Maybe that's why Laura Bush opposes overturning Roe v. Wade.

COMMON GROUND – REDUCING UNWANTED PREGNANCIES: In a speech yesterday at the New York State Capital, Sen. Hillary Clinton said, "There is an opportunity for people of good faith to find common ground in this debate – we should be able to agree that we want every child born in this country to be wanted, cherished and loved." The best way to reduce the number of abortions is to help people out of poverty, get them access to medical care – including family planning – and a high-quality education. That is what happened during the 1990s, and the abortion rate declined. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during the Clinton years the abortion rate fell by about 27 percent. Now that we have abandoned many of those policies and poverty is back on the rise, the trend has reversed. A new independent study by an ethics professor at Fuller Theological Seminary finds that "contrary to popular assumption, abortion has risen in the U.S. during George W. Bush's presidency." And protecting women's rights isn't about rejecting faith. The Rev. Debra W. Haffner writes that "for more than fifty years, many religious leaders from diverse denominations have affirmed the moral agency of women."

BUSH PRAISES ANTI-ABORTION TACTICS: Bush praised abortion opponents for "the civil way that you have engaged one of America's most contentious issues." But since 1982 "there have been 169 arsons and/or bombings of abortion clinics." The Pro-Life Action League, a group affiliated with the march, supports "sidewalk counseling," which involves approaching "a woman about to enter an abortion clinic…in an effort to talk her out of aborting the baby."

Republicans and Their Sexuality

Republicans and Their Sexuality

HEALTH
Factual Abstinence

The Bush administration is pouring hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into programs – billed as abstinence-only "education" – that "teach adolescents false and misleading information about reproductive health." A study released by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) found that 11 of the 13 most commonly used abstinence-only programs contain errors. For example, one popular curriculum teaches students that touching another person's genitals "can result in pregnancy." Moreover, these abstinence-only programs have proven ineffective in reducing teenage sexual activity and increase risky sexual behavior among teenagers. Nevertheless, President Bush – apparently more concerned about promoting right-wing ideology than accuracy or effectiveness – has pushed for significant funding increases for such programs, requesting $270 million for 2005. (For more on the problems with the push for abstinence-only programs, read these columns).

FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT CONTRACEPTIVES: One abstinence-only curriculum teaches students that "in heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately 31% of the time." The program bases that assertion on a 1993 study that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) described as "flawed," based on "serious error" and contradicted by other more recent, larger studies. According to the CDC, the scientific consensus is that latex condoms, used properly, "are highly effective in preventing the transmission of HIV." Another program teaches students that HIV and other STDs can "pass through" condoms. This contradicts the CDC's scientific conclusion that "latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of STD pathogens."

FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT ABORTION: Several abstinence-only programs use taxpayer money to advance a political agenda which criminalizes abortion. One curriculum claims that, after a woman has an abortion, there is a five to ten percent chance she will become sterile and her next child is more likely to be born premature. Scientific obstetrics textbooks reveal that both of these claims are flatly false.

ABSTINENCE-ONLY PROGRAMS DEMEAN WOMEN: Abstinence only programs frequently reinforce false and demeaning stereotypes about women. For example, one program instructs impressionable students that "women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments." Â Another program lists "financial support" as one of the "5 Major Needs of Women" and "domestic support" as one of the "5 Major Needs of Men." Another program tells the story of a princess who advises a knight to save her from a dragon using poison. The poison works, but the knight feels "ashamed" because he needed the help of the princess. He ends up marrying a village maiden only after making sure she knows nothing about poisons. The moral of the story: "occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess."

ABSTINENCE-ONLY DOESN'T INCREASE ABSTINENCE AND DISCOURAGES SAFE SEX: Advocates for Youth, a non-profit group, evaluated eleven state abstinence-only programs and found there were "few short-term benefits and no lasting, positive impact." Five programs measured long-term impact on sexual behavior: "No evaluation demonstrated any impact on reducing teens' sexual behavior at follow-up, three to 17 months after the program ended." In at least two states, AFY Evaluators noted that abstinence-only programs' emphasis on the failure rates of contraception, including condoms, "left youth ambivalent, at best, about using them."

Republican Sexuality

Republican Sexuality

The two things couples fight about sex and money ironically are more endangered by the placebo morality of the Christian wahabism embraced by the Bush Administration and parental groups, then by liberals. Of course Republican economic warfare forces people especially white southerners, to have their marriages the most threatened. (proof by the higher rates of divorce and out of wedlock pregnancies in so called red states.)

Not knowing where they will find employment and how they will pay for things after the employment pays next to nothing, will strain even the healthiest of marriages. Add to that an unhealthy sexuality perpetuated by self-hating radicals, and its no wonder most Republican moral crusaders are usually sexual deviants, pedophiles, closet bisexuals, and\or a sexual worker’s loyal clientele. Nor is it surprising that the women (because to be such a moral crusader usually means oppressive gender roles) are sexual deviants themselves searching for power through closeted sexual power plays.

It’s no wonder that under the Bush Administration divorce and teenage birth rates are rising.

Republicans are ruining marriage; they have cut out healthy sexual fulfillment and added the stress of economic strife.

Sex Week Part I: Monogamy under attack

Monogamy under attack

I read something interesting in Utne, which basically said that monogamy is under attack, not by increased sexuality or some homosexual agenda, but by paternity tests. Basically saying human beings have been running around on their significant others for years.

The article pointed out that even animals we once thought had only lifelong partners have been found to have just as many problems with monogamy as humans.

In truth we have conflicting interests, one in which romantic loves cause us to “mate guard” because we want to the security to open up and true companionship. And while historically men have been indoctrinated with the idea of having to spread their sperm, women also have an interest in “sperm competition to fertilizing.” Thus are just as prone to run around.

I think monogamy has always been under attack, it is just more out in the open then it has ever been. Children used to get married around 15 to men much older, today we call it statutory rape. People ran around on each other just as much in the 1940’s as they did in the 1990’s. But the openness is a good thing.

Instead of trying to push it back in the nether regions of our society we should embrace it and work toward changing out norms toward sexuality. I don’t think there is too much sex on TV, I think there is not enough perversion in our society. We should have more open sexuality and more discussion.

Imagine if during an erotic sex scene between a recently married couple on a TV show, they grab for a condom before the lights fade out. Or imagine on Sex in the City we actually saw Carey enjoying sex and in some sort of erotic way.

And then instead of parents trying to turn their pre-teens away they simply explain that in healthy loving relationships it’s good to have a sexual appetite. And when they are ready they will have amazing sex because its better with someone you truly care for.

Monogamy is not under attack by increased promiscuity as the wahabist elements of our culture would have you believe. Monogamy is under attack by increased spread of negative mores, oppressive views on natural sexuality, confused adults unsure if they should be erotic or adults. Monogamy is under attack by the strain of economic warfare on families already struggling with unhealthy sexualities. This week I am going to talk about it more.

The true agenda of PNAC

On the night of August 17th, British and US intelligent services started a coup to overthrow the Democratically elected leader of Iran, Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq and replace him with the Shah. Mosaddeq nationalized the Iranian oil industry, popular with the Iranian people struggling economically, but unpopular with British and American oil companies.

“The administration of President Harry Truman initially had been sympathetic to Iran's nationalist aspirations. Under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, the United States came to accept the view of the British government that no reasonable compromise with Mosaddeq.”

A Republican Administration more sympathetic to the corporate interests, what a surprise.

“On August 19, pro-shah army units and street crowds defeated Mosaddeq's forces. The shah returned to the country. Mosaddeq was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for trying to overthrow the monarchy,”

My point is this; Republicans have always had grand schemes to control oil interests. And soon after the Iranian Revolution which overthrew that Shah, the principals in what would become the Project for a New American Century.

I believe firmly that Iraq will be better off without Saddam Hussein and eventually American control. A dictator gone is a GREAT thing. But let us never forget that this was never about weapons of mass destruction and certainly for the Repubs not about Spreading Democracy. Its about controlling oil. Just as we did under the Republican Administration in 1953 with Iran and as we are doing today with the British in Iraq.

The Project proves just that.

Other blogs through the PBU will be speaking more to these plots and agendas of today, but I wanted to get a grander view of history when we say this war was for Oil.

Makes me wonder what we will do, when the newly democratic Shiite Religious government tries to privatize the oil in Iraq?

rel="tag">PBU8

SEX ITS COMING

I have had some technical difficulties with the blog

But fear not, I should have it back up Monday

and like all good publications I am having a sex issue

SEX

COMING MONDAY (pun intended)

Technical Difficulties

Don't worry I am still blogging.

I am just going through some technical difficulties as I try to update my blog. Please be patient.

Howard Dean our Savior

The Doctor is in to fix the Democratic Party

(oh this moment definitely called for some sort of cheesiness)

There are so many reasons that I love Howard Dean. I think the more you listen to him, the more you realize he is absolutely not Liberal, he is not anything the media says he is, he is simply right.

The problem with the DLC rise to power in the Democratic Party is that it brought with it huge corporate money. While Dems have always taken corporate money, it was because they were in power. That dependence on corporate money for their interests has led to a loss of foundation.

But Howard introduced the ability to raise large amounts of money from the base itself. Donations even very small have two effects, it not only funds your operations, it also gives them an interest in the campaign because they are now invested.

Without the dependence on the large corporate donations, the party can finally have its foundations in opposing corporate exploitation and eroding of our moral obligations to ALL of our citizens.

I remember when I fell in love so to speak with the Dr., I saw him speak in D.C. and he simply said, "workers can't continue to shop at Walmart and then wonder why their jobs are being sent to China."

Finally someone just said it, and hopefully we will finally have a spokesperson who just says what needs to be said.

Where the hell is G-d?

So today I went to temple, and the torah portion is about the dimensions of the traveling tabernacle, great temple, sanctuary, whatever you want to call it. What interested me (because lets face I don't often speak about each week's parsha) Was this:

"They shall make for Me a Sanctuary, and I shall dwell amidst them."

That we needed to build a temple for people to understand that G-d is amongst them. In the commentary, (cause us Jews love to comment and think about the torah) it said that this was to serve as a place G-d could come to chill with his peeps here on earth.

But why does G-d need a place to chill on earth? Isn't G-d always here? Implanted on us, everywhere, in every synagogue, church's, temples, peoples homes, everywhere. Aren't we G-d's image?

Simply put I think we sometimes need to be reminded of our ethereal lineage. Whether that be a sanctuary in a desert, the son of g-d, an Asian philosopher, an Indian peacenik, a negro from Alabama who doesn't know his place, a South African unchanged by his oppression.

Produce and Penis Envy

In America we do not just use our cars to represent Penis envy. Walking through the supermarket today I relized even our produce has penis envy.

And as much as I hate to admit it as a Black Man (lets face it the stereotype had to come from somewhere) the bigger the produce the worse the taste seems to be. I had small grapes that were wonderful, jucier than any of the steroid size ones I have had recently.

I mean everywhere in our society it seems to be bigger is better (except for people's waste size). Who knew an entire society centered around penis envy. No wonder the oppress the black man so much.

Why You Should Be Scared of THIS MAN

I know what you are thinking, and it is not just because he looks like a white person we should all be scared of. This one is actually doing something scary.

This is Kevin Martin the new FCC chair taking over for Michael Powel who stepped down at the end of Jan. You think Powell who used a .8 second exposure of Janet Jackson's boob to curtail any free expression the conservative right deemed inappropriate, wait till you see Kevin Martin, a young conservative who has worked for Cheney and who's wife is currently in Bush's west wing.

Martin has expressed interest in expanding FCC control over Cable and Sattelite TV. He wants to stop cursing on Comedy Central, stop the free conversations of sex, ethics, and race on HBO, and the soft porn on Cinemax.

Yes be scared of this white dude, he wants to curb first amendment rights on the people's airwaves.

This post by blogger, edwardpig, does a great job summizing our future media options. PLEASE READ THE PART ABOUT PTC AND THEIR MONOPOLY ON FCC COMPLAINTS

"....Martin worked for Ken Starr during the witch hunt against Clinton, and when the Florida fix was in danger of falling apart in 2000, "Martin left for Miami so quickly he didn't pack a bag. Working round the clock, he could be seen on TV peering over ballot counters."

The possibility of having a Bush rubber stamp in the position of FCC chair is bad enough. What's worse is that Bush's primary motivation for naming Martin is to throw a bone to the cultural conservatives. Specifically, Brent Bozell, the head of both the Media Research Center (MRC) and the Parents Television Council (PTC), strongly endorses Martin for the post.

Bozell is an interesting character, in that he has made an effort to break his political crusade into two, supposedly unrelated, components. The MRC is a shameful, unashamedly partisan conservative organization devoted to eradicating 'liberal bias' from the media, principally by using bluster and shoddy research to intimidate broadcasters away from airing anything which deviates from the RNC line.

The PTC embodies the 'family values' aspect of Bozell's crusade. Its members spend hours with TiVo recording and cataloging every profanity, sexual innuendo, and instance of graphic sex and violence on prime time television, eventually to be submitted to the FCC as complaints. ...

...But the fact is that Bozell, for all of his conflicts and sleaze, is about to wield considerable power at the FCC. Not only do PTC members account for 99.8% of the complaints filed with the FCC in the past year, Martin seems favorably disposed to heed those complaints and act on them in a big way. Furthermore, Martin does not appear to be content with simply regulating broadcast television. He has suggested that he'd like to explore broadening FCC authority to regulate satellite and cable TV as well."

PBU

Black History Month

When I think of Black History Month, I think of the insermountable odds to overcome that days struggle, that generations hurtle toward our quest for eqaulity.

A young freed Man Crispus Attucks not only fighting for his equality but fighting the injustice of British Monarch Rule. I think of Joe Lewis, overcoming all the doubters of Blacks ability to think and move and becoming the Heavyweight Champion. I think of Benjamin Bannaker, who said black people can be great thinkers and great mathamaticians. Jessie Owens, not only saying that the German race is not surperior, but bringing honor to a country that could not honor him because of his race. I think of the Tuskegee Airman who were told that Negros could not fly plains let alone fighters because we were to stupid. I think of Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr who endured FOUR YEARS of no one speaking to him to be the first Black American to graduate from West Point. I think of my mother who to this day is scared of Dogs because once she was faced with police dogs and water hoses.

I think of all that we owe today, and it makes me weep at the enormity of our duty.

Today's struggle that we must overcome is the apathic attitudes toward our institutionalized poverty and continued economic racial segregation. I think of how our generation has responded, I think that I have failed.

No More Faux

No More Faux

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SHOULD STOP APPEARING ON FOX.

All Fox Channels owned by Ruport Murdoch, are media wings of the GOP. We should stop legitimizing the stations by appearing on them.

Look in the short term we will not convert people who watch FOX on a regular basis because they are being indoctrinated with GOP propaganda riveling any fascist regimes.

Appearing on the channels only gives them undo fairness.

It is very simple, we will act as Unions on strike do.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PUTS OUT BOYCOTT OF APPEARING ON FOX. ANY DEMS WHO CROSS THE LINE, LOOSE ALL DEMOCRATIC FINANCIAL SUPPORT OR ANY FUTURE EMPLOYMENT WITH DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATIONS OR CAUSES.

At the very least this will put the spotlight on Fox’s clear biasis. The other “news” organizations will be glad to cover this and expose FOX for what it is, THE GOP TALKING POINTS.

People in turn will not want to watch a channel that has no legitimate debate, no opposing views or any sort of news. Imagine Bill O’Reiley being forced to argue with Hannity, because they get no guests to yell at and no Colmes to pretend there is a Democratic voice.

This ban could go to USA Today as well. Just stop talking to them. No Dems appear in quotes or on their stations.

THIS WILL WORK. NO DEMS ON FOX. AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

FUCK

I really can't think of a reason to go on

FUCK

HAS ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF MASSACHUSETTS THIS YEAR?

Finding Neverland

I saw Finding Neverland.

First let me say that was so much better then I ever thought… If any of the elements were overstated it just would have been corny. But every part of the movie was perfectly suited. The Cinematography was subtle and perfect. Johnny Depp could have been over the top, but instead he was just right.

But what I was thinking was about when I was kid I never wanted to grow up, I really thought I could always be five years old. My parents would always say you can’t do that when you get older and I would just sing: “I don’t wanna grow up, I don’t wanna grow up, I wanna be a kid, I wanna be a kid.”

I don’t think I have ever given up that hope that I would have to grow up. No matter how much time goes by I wish more and more I could still be that kid. This movie really brought that home. Here is a man whose genius is in his ability to be a full grown child. And the world met that with cynicism and whispers. The beauty to touch the youth in all ages embodied in Peter Pan came out of this imaginary existence.

Truth is I was never really much of a kid, I didn’t have much imagination and I spent most of it by myself in my room… But now that I am adult I want nothing more to live in another existence that is as magical. Like I need a guide to Neverland as well.

When I was a child I was such a bad kid and as an adult I am a terrible grown-up.

Its so ironic.

Dems "Moving to the Center"

The Bush administration works so much out of the norm or reality, we Dems need to stop calling it moving to the center.

It is not moving to the Center it is moving to the rational.

Saying THAT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT REAL IS NOT RATIONAL
Calling for increase in Pell Grants because the year before you cut them is a not rational, calling for an increase in programs to fight gang violence then proposing a cut is a not rational. Saying a program is in crisis when you CREATED THE CRISIS is just not in the realm of rational. Create an educational program which mandates certain levels of funding and just don't fund it is not rational. Creating the Clear Skies initiative to make our skies less clear, create the patriot act to take away our patriotic rights as Americans, all ridiculous.

There is so much more.

But what Dems are supporting is not centrist, is common sense. Get rid of the tax cuts that created the "crisis" in Social Security and created the deficit. Cut emissions and foster global warming alternatives technology so the POLAR ICE CAPS DON'T FLOOD THE EAST COAST. Don't give tax cuts to corporations profits OVERSEES (enacted September of this year). Foster and create jobs here. Fund Education as SET OUT IN THE LAW. Protect our civil liberties, finish the war in Iraq by giving real control to Iraqis. (they still have no say over their oil, security, or other economic policy).

AND WHEN YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO INCREASE FUNDING FOR A PROGRAM THAT SHOULD MEAN YOU ARE GOING TO INCREASE FUNDING.

The Democratic party is not moving to the center. It is simply standing for bring back rationale to our government. It is standing for common sense.

We don't need to move to the center, we need to move out of 1984.

What Democrats Should Have Said In Response to the State of the Union Address

We knew the President would be elusive, spread fear, and continue to lie. But what was so sad, was Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. I mean could they have sucked any more. Man our party is in deep shit. Anyway I wish they had some balls and say what was really need to be said. (Thank G-d for Boxer who in 3 minutes on NBC afterward summed up our cause better then our two elected party leaders)

What Democrats Should Have Said:

Tonight we heard more of the President’s distortions. The President continues to create a panic about Social Security, when clearly the only danger to the program, is the Republicans raiding its coughers for more corporate welfare. Let me state this clearly, there will be no privatization or cutting benefits of social security, no matter how much the president wants to scare the public into believing there is a problem. In 1978 Congressional Candidate Bush said that if Social Security was not privatized it would be bankrupt by 1988. Of course it was a lie then, just as it is now.

When the President said that the Trust Fund would be bankrupt in 2027 is because this administration has raided the Trust Fund for his corporate tax cuts. It is ludicrous to say that the government has to come up with the money, we should rollback this corporate and rich people giveaway and put the money back from where they took it, shoring up the program.

What is a crisis in this country is the 45 Million Americans who now don't have healthcare. What is in Crisis is the middle class which is under attack from outsourcing of quality jobs and fiscal irresponsibility of this Administration. What is in crisis is the 32% of Americans who suffer under poverty and who the President offers no policies initiatives to help. What is in crisis is the Environment.

According to real Scientists as soon as 2028 the polar ice caps could melt if we continue to do nothing about the worsening global warning condition. Global Warming is a problem, we are in a dire situation, and for the President to continue to do nothing about it is unconscionable and almost criminal. By 2042 Social Security could be endanger, but by 2028 Florida may be under water, we contend that this is more of a crisis. The Polar ice caps are melting and thanks to the Republican Senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe we have a guideline for the impending crisis and what we can do about it. And yet this universal issue, with true bi-partisan support is not addressed in the State of the Union nor by any administration official.

The President talked about bi-partisanship, but in the past four years he has never once tried to work at it. Bi-partisanship is not setting out a policy and demanding Democrats agree, bi-partisanship is working with both parties to craft legislation that compromises the concerns of all the representatives and creating more complete law because of it.

Tonight we heard the President declare an American Foreign policy of fostering Democracy. And yet he continues to deny democracy in the capital of this country. Residents of the District of Columbia, the home of this government and the White House, do not have representation in any body of Congress. The Presidents wants to spread democracy, but he need not look further than a few yards out of his windows to see a people needing enfranchisement.

The president talks of spreading our values of freedom throughout the world, and yet senate Republicans are poised to appoint an Attorney General who advocated the very un-American principals of torture. The President talks of liberating the Iraqi people from the rape and torture centers of Saddam and yet this Attorney for the American People was the architect of allowing a policy where our troops were torturing Iraqi citizens.

Accountability for the atrocities at Abu Grab and Guantanamo Prison should not end with lower level soldiers following orders. Accountability should lie with ALL the policy makers that allowed such an un-American Policy to exist.

Soldiers have born the grunt of the President's inability to properly manage the Iraq War. While the election has been a success, it is only as a result of our Service Men and Women. And yet when 0ur service men and women come home they face veterans’ affairs offices that are cutting benefits and veterans’ hospitals that fail to honor their service. This country has not done what it should to honor our soldiers and we should all be ashamed.

This President continues to deny representation of the 49% of American voters who did not vote for him and calling it a mandate. 51% does not mean the President can move forward with purposely divisive issues.

Marriage is not under attack by the desire of same sex couples to have equal representation under the law. Marriage in America is under attack by the continued loss of quality jobs, the lack of affordable healthcare and continued insistence by this President to preside over decisions that should be made in the privacy of a bedroom. Marriages break up because of arguments over money and sex, not because Gay people have commitment ceremonies.

In truth the President OFFERED NO PLANS on the most pressing matters facing this nation. No plan to create quality jobs or increase opportunities for affordable health care, because these issues require real leadership and true compromise.

We are not in the majority of congress, but that does not mean that our constituents have no say. While we respect the President has the right to Govern, we will not stand by while he continues to marginalize a great portion of this country. We will stand up to the President when he is wrong because we stand for the values our country was founded on.

(If only the democrats stood for something)

Daily Kos Sums up the Anti-War Movement Perfectly

I like concise summaries of large ideas, to really help organize what is usually a jumble of feelings and thoughts. This post by Daily Kos is a perfect summary of why Republicans were wrong about the war and continue to be.

Desperate
by kos
Sat Jan 29th, 2005 at 12:18:26 PST

Glenn Reynolds joins a long list of 101st Fighting Keyboarders who, rather than question the bullshit rationales for war, and rather than question the incompetent waging of the war by this administration, would rather lash out at the "Left" for calling bullshit what it is.
Expect more of this. This war is long past lost. Time to pack it in, and save the lives of our men and women in uniform that will otherwise face a barrage of bullets and RPG rounds during their extended stay in the desert.

In the feverish minds of the war apologists, it doesn't matter that no WMDs were found, that torture chambers are still open for business, that this war is now rivaling Saddam's brutality for sheer number of Iraqis killed, that the Army, Marines, and National Guard are all having trouble recruiting, that our equipment is degrading to the point where we're creating a hollow military, that the war is costing us $200 billion and counting, that Israel is not safer as a result of this war, that nearly 1,600 allied troops and counting have died on this fool's errand, that the US's original choice to lead Iraq -- Chalabi -- was an Iranian spy who told our enemies that we had cracked their communications code, that most of Iraq is not under government control, that terrorists are now using the lawlessness in Iraq to recruit and train a whole new generation of terrorists, that our "Coalition of the Willing" is now a mere shell of its former self, that the world hates the United States, that the Euro is suddenly the hot currency, that Europe and Asia are both creating security organizations excluding the US, and that tens of thousands of our soldiers are coming home physically and mentally maimed.

None of that matters to them.

But they see the war getting out of hand. They've see our chances of victory go from little to nothing. And they've got to blame someone. Anyone. And of course, it can't be Saint George, because he's perfect and can do no wrong. So blame Kennedy. Blame Boxer. Blame France. Blame Canada. Blame anti-war bloggers. Because it is they who have botched up the Iraqi campaign to the point of no hope. If it wasn't for them, our troops would still be basking in a flood of rose petals.

The faith-based lunatics taking up residence in the White House and the Pentagon have ample ideological company in Tennessee law schools and other hidey holes of the wingnut blogosphere.

But at the end of the day, whether they'll ever admit it or not -- we were right, they were wrong. Reality isn't being too kind to their side.

Cop Out Day

This was kind of sad to see all the places I haven't been but want to, (I guess I am a half empty kind of guy)



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