Monthly Archives: September 2005

QOTD

If Only

The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better

for them — and the country.

Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of

Americans the truth that President Bush’s government doesn’t work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and

self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like

this. — E. J. Dionne Jr.

End of the Bush Era

Bush’s Approval Rating Drops To New Low in Wake of Storm By

Michael A. Fletcher and Richard Morin

The bungled response to the hurricane has helped drag down Bush’s job-approval

rating, which now stands at 42 percent — the lowest of his presidency — in the Post-ABC poll and down three points since the

hurricane hit two weeks ago. Fifty-seven percent disapprove of Bush’s performance, a double-digit increase since January.

Even

some members of Bush’s own party appear to have lost faith in their leader: The president’s overall approval rating among Republicans

has declined from 91 percent in January to 78 percent in the latest poll.

Overall, half the country now characterizes Bush as a

“strong leader” — down 12 points since May of last year. And the proportion who say he can be “trusted in a crisis” likewise has

fallen from 60 percent to 49 percent now.

other voices

It’s Hard Work!

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Being President is Hard Work!
ON 9/11/01: GEORGE BUSH reads “My Pet Goat” while

the towers burn.
12/26/04: George throws a mondo-bucks party while the great tsunami inundates the Sri Lanka area.
9/28/05:

George takes a month’s vacation, flies around the western United States, rides his bike in San Diego while Katrina devastates the South.

He did, however, caution people to take shelter and stay out of the way of the storm.
9/30/05: George cuts his month’s vacation

short by two days to see about releasing some of the oil kept in reserve.
What a guy! No wonder he said being president is hard

work!
SALLY C. SANCHEZ
Albuquerque

other voices

Arctic Folly

Arctic Folly By Jimmy Carter

Congress is about to make one

of those big decisions that marks an era. Unless wiser heads prevail, it may do it badly — making the wrong decision in the wrong way

and about the wrong place. At stake is America’s greatest wildlife sanctuary, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To dissuade

Congress from this environmental tragedy, Americans must rally, and quickly. …

[T]he White House and Big Oil are

pressuring Congress to allow drilling rigs to rip into the ecological heart of America’s preeminent wildlife sanctuary. We must not

confuse this with Prudhoe Bay, which lies west of the Arctic refuge and is already an industrial landscape resembling Houston more than

Yellowstone. …

We cannot drill our way to energy security or lower gasoline prices as long as our nation sits on just 3 percent

of world oil reserves yet accounts for 25 percent of all oil consumption. An obvious answer is to increase the fuel efficiency of motor

vehicles, at least to the level we set more than a quarter-century ago. …

[C]onservation-minded Americans must ask our elected

representatives to vote down any final budget reconciliation bill that would allow the sacrifice of our Arctic sanctuary.

Now is the time to speak up for the ecological integrity of this unsurpassed 18-million-acre wilderness. Many

Americans will be in Washington on Sept. 20 for the Arctic Refuge Action Day rally on the Mall and to contact congressional

representatives personally.

If we are not wise enough to protect the Arctic refuge, future generations will condemn

us for needlessly sacrificing the wilderness of their world to feed our profligate, short-term and shortsighted energy habit.

The pathway to a better, more sustainable energy future does not wind through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Letters-to-the-Editor

Who Would Jesus Kill?

Four years ago, I watched TV all day and into the night. I saw the famous, fascinating yet horrible

footage over and over again. I listened to the noise, straining for information. I wondered who would do such a thing, why, and

what we should do in response. I’m not sure I would have done anything the way we as a nation have done it.

I wish President Bush

had said then: “Today, thousands of innocent people were murdered by a very small band of insane religious fanatics. We will do

everything we can to bring to justice those who helped them commit this murder. We know the entire world joins us in repudiating this act

and no one can believe this assault served anyone’s interests. But ours is a great nation that cannot be shaken by a handful of thugs.

We will not let your violence change us.”

Instead, we changed everything. We let the tragic deaths of a few thousand at the hands

of two dozen change our nation and the world. We have done almost nothing correctly and yet we continue on the same course.

Today,

this fourth anniversary is being officially marked by a Pentagon-sponsored rally. Participants had to pre-register and gather behind

fences. Those attempting to join the rally without pre-registering will be arrested.

Is this a great nation or what? mjh

Tight Constraints on

Pentagon’s Freedom Walk By Petula Dvorak

What’s unusual for an event on the Mall is the combination of fences,

required preregistration and the threat of arrest.

Park Police officials … said they have approved a permit for

a small group of protesters that plans to stand along Independence Avenue.

U.S. Can Confine

Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer

A federal appeals court yesterday

backed the president’s power to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil without any criminal

charges, holding that such authority is vital during wartime to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.

Standing in the Way Of a Good Story By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer

When NBC anchor Brian

Williams and his crew were trying to take pictures of a National Guard unit securing a Brooks Brothers shop in downtown New Orleans, a

sergeant blocked the footage by ordering them to the other side of Canal Street.

“I have searched my mind for some justification

for why I can’t be reporting in a calm and heavily defended American city and cannot find one,” Williams said yesterday. “I don’t like

being told when I can and cannot walk on the streets and take pictures.” …

There have been other moments of tension. At a fire

near the French Quarter, Williams noted in a posting on NBC’s Web site, a police officer from out of town “raised the muzzle of

her weapon and aimed it at members of the media . . . obvious members of the media . . . armed only with notepads.” He also

noted that the National Guard is barring journalists from the city’s convention center and Superdome, the very facilities that evacuees

were barred from leaving last week.

“I saw many fingers on triggers,” Williams said yesterday, producing such a

sense of being in a foreign land that he repeatedly caught himself saying, “When I get back to the States.”

Fort St. John – canada.com network
Ex-SP journalist feels wrath of New Orleans police
Daniel Jungwirth
The

StarPhoenix

Reporters Without Borders raised concerns over police violence against journalists covering the aftermath of

hurricane Katrina. A second incident involved a New Orleans journalist who was detained and had his equipment smashed.

“We understand that the security forces are overwhelmed and we are aware of the great tension and the difficult conditions under which

they are having to work in areas hit by Katrina, but it is very worrying that this is reflected in violence against journalists,” the

press freedom organization wrote in a press release.

loco

Reject the Right’s Wrongs

1 Comment
class="mine">I wrote at Duke City Fix about

a piece of campaign literature from Brad Winter that has an embarrassing typo (and two inexplicably underlined sections).

Over

there, I chose not to say what bothers me most about this piece — the title of the committee that paid for the flyer: “Committee to

Restore Honesty and Integrity to City Politics, a committee of the Republican Party.”

This is nauseating and typical of

the Radical Right. This simple committee name declares that heretofore City Politics have been dishonest, but the Republicans (of all

people) will restore it. That is a specious claim that slanders many good people of various political affiliations. Republicans have been

doing this smear for years, and it has served them very well. It’s ugly and rude. Citizens need to stop rewarding the

Radical Right’s despicable tactics and start punishing them, instead. mjh

loco

Tedious Phil, The Call-In Drudge

1 Comment

I don’t listen to KUNM’s Call-In Show very often (Thursdays, 8am-9am, 89.9 FM). When I do, it is usually just

for a few minutes. Still, I’m glad the show is on and it clearly meets a need for some in our community.

Like Phil. Somehow, I

always hear Phil call, even if I tune in at some random moment for just 5 minutes. Phil knows exactly what’s wrong with the world:

government wants to steal all his money. This guiding awareness figures into every call he makes. I’m pretty sure that even people who

agree with Phil can’t stand to hear him talk. If only he realized his rampant arrogance turns off most listeners. He bloviates and

pontificates and barely restrains his exasperated anger. Phil is definitely pissed off — you would be, too, if you thought government is

a thief and your enemy, as, sadly, so many of our fellow citizens think today. Extreme conservatives have ridden that horse — the

government is the enemy — into power. Now we get to struggle for survival in a world ruled by cheap bastards who believe they deserve

anything they can get and you deserve nothing. Such “self-made men” are oblivious to the Commonwealth and the Common Good and to the debt

each of us owes each other. We are a nation and every one of us benefits from a communal pool of resources. No one is truly self-made or

self-sustaining. Things must be paid for — things beyond just an army to hold back the poor from your gated community. mjh

Dump Duhbya

Guff you, Cheney

Leave a comment

I noticed in my stats that several people had found my blog by searching for “Cheney fuck

you.” What they found was my account of Cheney

swearing in the Senate at a Democratic Senator (decorum and civility being so important to Republicans). But why would so many people

be looking for this item from June, 2004? More likely, they were looking for the details of someone swearing at Cheney in Mississippi.

mjh

‘Going to Get It Done,’ Cheney Vows on Gulf

Tour – New York Times

In Gulfport, a block off the ocean on Second Street, in a neighborhood so devastated that residents

needed permits to visit their destroyed properties and had to be out by dark, a heckler in an orange shirt hurled profanities twice to

disrupt Mr. Cheney’s remarks, but the vice president just smiled his lopsided smile and, when asked, said it was the first time he had

heard such guff.

We all wish

we could, I suppose. | MetaFilter

Today, during Cheney’s tour of storm damaged Miss., a resident approached Cheney’s press

meeting and shouted: “Go f_ck yourself, Mr. Cheney!! Go f_ck yourself!!!”. The exhortation was aired on at least one national cable

channel. Here is the video ( ALT ). The LA Times,CNN, and FOX are carrying the story.
posted by troutfishing

Dick, Go Cheney Yourself!

what tian has learned: Go

F_ck Your Self, Mr. Cheney

During a discussion on hurricane relief efforts, an off camera protester shouts, “Go fuck yourself,

Mr. Cheney. Go fuck yourself.” The camera remains on Cheney while we hear scuffling in the background.

Google Search: dick cheney go fuck yourself

Rooftop Revolt — Overthrow Bush