2/13/2006

isaiah on signging statements, alice walker and more



i love all of isaiah's the world today jut nuts but this one, from sunday, really made me laugh. hey, where's cokie roberts on signing statements? or lying us into war? remember her (as c.i. calls it) 'clutch the pearls journalism' as she went on and on about how bill clinton's lying about a blow job, 'as a mother', was just a shock to the nation's children and what kind of an example was he setting for children? so when i saw isaiah's latest, i was laughing my ass off. and, fyi, what a hotty daddy. truly, he's a hunk. even with that retro mustache.

if you're in the dark, when bully boy signed the overly applaueded mccain-bill-anti-torture-act, he also signed a statement that said 'we'll do what we want' basically. he'll follow that law of the land if he wants and if he doesn't want to, he won't.

it's a funny comic. and it's monday which is always a drag so let's have a good laugh.

and thank you for the e-mails. everyone wrote 'no, i get what you're saying.' i think what happened was that everyone was willing to 'add water.' but thank you.

back to the laughter, need more? check out wally's "THIS JUST IN! DICK CHENEY HAS A FISHING MISHAP!" i bring that up because sherry wondered why i and others hadn't been noting isaiah's last two comics (prior to the 1 above)?

we were all in disbelief that, given the chance to stand, democrats chose to collectively cave on the alito nomination. then coretta scott king passed away. it was a lot to deal with. and wally took it especially hard. really hard. and there was a feeling that he might stop blogging. c.i. told all of us to back off and give him space (good advice and we followed it) so he could sort things out. 1 thing he always did was note isaiah's comics and none of us wanted to risk posting 1 when he might be thinking 'okay, if nothing else i can post isaiah's comic'. we didn't want to risk stepping on his toes or him thinking 'well rebecca's already posted it so . . .'

wally took a week off and really was ready to go back to blogging on the 5th day but that ended up being the day he phoned c.i. and c.i. said 'kat and i are going to d.c., want to come?' so it got postponed, resuming blogging, until the monday after. at which point, he was still in d.c. and got to see some of the gonzales hearing on the bully boy's warrantless spying on americans. that, and a number of other things, led him to his return post with the dateline of 'd.c.' and the 'bully boy press' tag. (c.i. was pointing out the reporters running to 1 another asking 'what's the lead!' of each other which wally found pretty disgusting to witness.) that's what he's doing now, the bully boy press, at the daily jot but, as c.i. cautioned, that's what he's doing now. he may go with something else tomorrow, next week or next month.

enjoy it while we've got it and, trust me, cheney's latest mishap (wally's created the mishap, it didn't happen) is funny so read it.

here's another thing that's funny and worth reading, "Cowardly Journalism Review (Parody)" as karen would say on will & grace, it's funny because it's true. what sort of watchdog never barks while the house is being robbed? think of the house as our country and you'll see that it's cjr.
as noted in "A Note to Our Readers" ava and c.i. both objected to many features when they were proposed but then got into the swing of things. c.i.'s contributions on this were factual but they were also funny. when we thought something was funny and were all laughing, c.i. would either say (or jess or ava or 2 of them or 3 of them) 'uh-huh, but say it this way' or 'uh-huh, but add this' and then after we did and read back over it, we'd be laughing even harder.

this may end up being nothing but recommendations, but did you watch democracy now today?
if not, please check out:

"I am a Renegade, an Outlaw, a Pagan" - Author, Poet and Activist Alice Walker in Her Own Words
February is African-American History Month. To honor it, we bring you a conversation with the renowned author, poet and activist Alice Walker. She is perhaps best known for her book "The Color Purple" for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983, becoming the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer for fiction. The novel was adapted into an Oscar-nominated feature length film and has been recently made into a Broadway musical. Alice Walker's latest novel is "Now is the Time to Open Your Heart."
Last month, 1,000 people gathered in the First Congregational Church in Oakland to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Media Alliance. We spend the hour playing Amy Goodman's onstage interview with Alice Walker. [includes rush transcript - partial]

alice walker's a favorite writer of mine. that said, most of you are aware that i sat on reading possessing the secret of joy. c.i. gave me that in hardcover for christmas the year it came out. i did mean to read it, i just never got around to it until the end of last year. it's a great book. i think my favorite walker book, however, (after the color of purple, it's everyone's favorite) was her latest novel now is the time to open your heart. that's about the search for peace and justice and what does it mean. the main character learns early on that it doesn't mean doing yoga in nice environment. and that it doesn't mean denying a range of emotions. i really love that book and bet you will too.

also note robert parry's "Why U.S. Intelligence Failed, Redux:"

Some key officials in George W. Bush's administration -- from former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to Vice President Dick Cheney -- have long been part of this trend toward seeing intelligence as an ideological weapon, rather than a way to inform a full debate. Other figures in Bush's circle of advisers, including his father, the former president and CIA director, have played perhaps even more central roles in this transformation. [More on this below. Also see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege.]
For his part, the younger George Bush has shown little but disdain for any information that puts his policies or "gut" judgments in a negative light. In that sense, Bush's thin skin toward contradiction can’t be separated from the White House campaign, beginning in July 2003, to discredit retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson for publicly debunking the Bush administration's claim that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. That retaliation included the exposure of Wilson's wife as an undercover CIA officer.
Dating Back to Watergate
Though one cost of corrupting U.S. intelligence can now be counted in the growing U.S. death toll in Iraq, the origins of the current problem can be traced back to the mid-1970s, when conservatives were engaged in fierce rear-guard defenses after the twin debacles of the Vietnam War and Watergate. In 1974, after Republican President Richard Nixon was driven from office over the Watergate political-spying scandal, the Republicans suffered heavy losses in congressional races. The next year, the U.S. -backed government in South Vietnam fell.
At this crucial juncture, a group of influential conservatives coalesced around a strategy of accusing the CIA's analytical division of growing soft on communism. These conservatives -- led by the likes of Richard Pipes, Paul Nitze, William Van Cleave, Max Kampelman, Eugene Rostow, Elmo Zumwalt and Richard Allen -- claimed that the CIA's Soviet analysts were ignoring Moscow’s aggressive strategy for world domination. This political assault put in play one of the CIA's founding principles -- objective analysis.

secrecy & privilege is a great book. all of robert parry's books are worth reading. he's probably my favorite author. in the article above, he's walking you through how intel was fixed.

last week, i did a dream entry about a dream (nightmare) i'd had and i've received a number of e-mails asking for more like that. the problem is that i usually don't remember my names. but i spoke to kat and she recommended a herbal mixture you drink as a tea so i'm headed to the health store tomorrow and hopefully that will help. but remember that the dream was inspired by reading joan mellen's a farewell to justice. that book is a must read but it's a frightening read so i'll repeat what i said before: read in broad daylight. but read it. if you're thinking, 'what's the point?' let me note 1 more time mellen's article "HOW THE FAILURE TO IDENTIFY, PROSECUTE AND CONVICT PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S ASSASSINS HAS LED TO TODAY'S CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY." if you're on the fence about reading a farewell to justice, read the article and see if it doesn't make you want to pick up the book.

last recommendation, i swear, c.i.'s "NYT: "Republicans on Hill Add Voice To Dissent Over Eavesdropping" (Sheryl Gay Stolberg)" which addresses more topics than can be named in a brief sentence. just read it.







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