Election

Patriotic Discourse

Moore-wellian fables skew

truth by Alex Hughes, Daily Lobo Opinion

Another thing that really irks me is the constant banter stating what Moore is doing is

simply ”patriotic discourse.” Michael Moore is not a patriot. He is a traitor. …

[T]o be a patriot, one has to love

their country. Moore hates America and Americans with equal fervor. I think if it were up to him, he would have sent Osama a

basket of muffins with a nice little thank you card after the Sept. 11 attacks.

I applaud Alex Hughes for actually seeing

F/911. Most of the conservative commentary I have read indicates he’s rather unusual in that regard. That he would then calmly discuss

the movie’s flaws is also respectable. Still, he manages to earn his true credentials as a conservative by declaring Moore a traitor and

dictating what constitutes ‘acceptable’ patriotism (to him). Finally, he finishes trashing Moore by stating Moore is glad America was

attacked. Shameless, Alex. Were you afraid your cohort would reject you if you stayed rational? Or is it that calm conservatives don’t

make it into print — or office?

Hughes says of Moore, he ”doesn’t lie, per se, he just tells the version of the truth that

ignores things that are problematic to the advancement of his world view.” Sounds exactly like what Bush supporters say in defense of

Bush, who said, ”I’m a uniter, not a divider.”

I would call that a lie, per se, told to deceive in order to get something one

would not get if the truth were known. Of course, there is that other classic defense of Bush, ”it wasn’t a lie if he believed it at

the time” (all evidence to the contrary now). Maybe not, but then it is an indication of delusion. mjh

Republicans

get Moore than a challenge from filmmaker By Marisa Demarco

Republicans Review 9/11

Election

Class Warfare

Opinion > Guest Columnist: Dude, Where’s That Elite?”

href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/01/opinion/01EHRE.html”>Dude, Where’s That Elite? By BARBARA EHRENREICH, NYTimes

My point

is not to defend Moore, who — with a platoon of bodyguards and a legal team starring Mario Cuomo — hardly needs any muscle from me. I

just think it’s time to retire the “liberal elite” label, which, for the past 25 years, has been deployed to denounce anyone to the left

of Colin Powell. Thus, last winter, the ultra-elite right-wing Club for Growth dismissed followers of Howard Dean as a “tax-hiking,

government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing

freak show.” …

But the left I encounter on my treks across the nation is heavy on hotel housekeepers, community college students,

laid-off steelworkers and underpaid schoolteachers. …

But it would be redundant to speak of a “conservative elite” ….

So

liberals can take comfort from the fact that our most visible spokesman is, despite his considerable girth, an invulnerable target for

the customary assault weapon of the right. I meant to comment on his movie, too, but the lines at my local theater are still

prohibitively long.

photos

New Photos

I have just put some new photos on the Web. I hope you’ll have a look, enjoy them, and let me know what you think. These are just a few from hundreds taken over about a 6 week period, during which time Merri and I had visits from John Stewart and Steve O’Neill. We also traveled to Prescott, Arizona, and camped along the way over a few days (hot and dry, of course). I got to return to two fantastic National Monuments: Tuzigoot and Montezuma’s Castle (and Well).

We also took a trip just north of Chama, New Mexico and barely into Colorado, discovering some new places and returning to some familiar. That is a spectacular, mountainous area; it spit rain and snow on us once, and was cold at night (36°F). We got our wish to camp by streams every night (and paid for that in mosquito bites).

In June, we seemed to spend more time than usual seeing the sights inside Albuquerque. We went to the Biopark (Aquarium and Botanical Garden — plus Butterfly Pavilion — adjacent to the Zoo) a couple of times, including a concert. We went to the rebuilt Isotopes Park — shockingly expensive, though busy and beautiful.

All in all, it was a great, long vacation, even without our usual longer camping trip. mjh

See some of the pictures: Photos around Albuquerque.

ps: if you are interested, I’ve also written something about the evolution of the mechanism I use for presenting these pictures.

Election

Edwards is a Brilliant Choice

The selection

of John Edwards as the Democrats Vice President will enrage the Republicans. He’s a Trial Lawyer, something they hate more than lesbian

socialist welfare mothers on dope. Trial Lawyers are THE enemy (because they hold businesses accountable to their customers and employees

— something the govenment doesn’t do anymore).

Edwards is the antithesis of corporate welfare. The Republicans will try to exploit

him as ”anti-business,” just like liberalism is ”anti-American” — a horrible lie.

Worse, Edwards is going to steal the

whole ‘optimism’ argument. No one is more optimistic than Edwards. Stand Edwards next to Cheney and pick the one who exudes confidence

in the future.

And that’s why Cheney will withdraw and McCain will be Bush’s new choice for VP. If Cheney can’t let go of power and

Bush can’t let go of Cheney’s hand, they’re sunk. mjh

Dump Duhbya

Let Freedom Ring?

Free Speech ZoneBush in West Virginia for Fourth

A couple from Texas was taken out of a speech given by President Bush in West Virginia Sunday.

Police placed Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi in restraints after they entered the event with a ticket and then removed their clothes to reveal anti-Bush T-shirts, according to the acting director of the Capitol police in Charleston.

He said the two were asked to go out to the designated protest area, but refused.

Bush came to West Virginia on the nation’s 228th birthday….

About 6,500 people packed into the Capitol’s north courtyard to hear him.

As police rushed her out, Nicole Rank shouted that they were told they couldn’t be there because they were wearing anti-Bush shirts.

Police say the two were issued citations for trespassing and released.

Remember when all of America was a ”free-speech zone”? mjh

Rooftop Revolt — Overthrow Bush

Letters-to-the-Editor

Krauthammer Does a Cheney (and feels better for it)

In Defense of the F-Word By Charles F. Krauthammer, washingtonpost.com

The F-word was used.

Washington is scandalized. The newspapers were full of it. Lamentations were heard about the decline of civility. …

Democrats, feeling darned outraged, demanded apologies. The vice president remained defiant, offering but the coyest

concession — that he “probably” cursed — coupled with satisfaction: “I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done

it.” …

Ah, but the earnest chin-pullers are not amused. Cheney’s demonstration of earthy authenticity in a chamber in

which authenticity of any kind is to be valued has occasioned anguished meditations on the loss of civility in American politics.

Liberals in particular have expressed deep concern about this breach of decorum.

Charles Krauthammer is the

darling of the radical right. Here he presents a pseudo-intellectual dissertation on “fuck you” vs “go fuck yourself,” and gleefully

speaks of hurling insults at other drivers. Just in case anyone is actually offended, he speaks of Cheney’s ”alleged

indiscretion.” Alleged? Really? Did he curse or didn’t he? Where is that gutsy ‘you know where they stand’ manliness? Not to be

found in ”I probably said it.”

Krauthammer ends with contrasting the furor over Cheney’s witticism vs no furor over Gore

comparing Bush to Hitler and Stalin. And, in a way I’m sure he finds clever, says ‘fuck you’ to Gore.

Some might say there is a

difference between citizen Gore speaking to a partisan crowd and Vice President Cheney in the People’s House. Others cut Gore a lot of

slack as the true President deposed in a bloodless Supreme Coup — maybe attacking the usurper ”makes him feel better,” Dick.

As

a liberal, I don’t give a shit that Cheney, and Krauthammer, are assholes. I’m certainly not surprised. What’s significant is that

these are the holier-than-thou American Ayatollahs. These are the Christian right’s darlings. These are our mullahs, decrying the

decline of Western civilization at the hands of foreign infidels. These are the Compassionate Conservatives who want to restore family

values, defend marriage, leave no child behind. Fucking liars. These guys are coarse, common and mean as shit — and scared, to boot.

mjh

PS- The first few dozen time I used the word ‘fuck’ around my mother, she winced and covered her ears. I don’t mind using the

word, but writing it here in this public forum does make me very conscious of readers who don’t like it. I’m not saying I’m sorry,

just that I’m not indifferent or oblivious.

mjh’s Blog: Cheney says: Go Fuck Yourself, America!

mjh’s Blog: American Ayatollah

Search edgewiseblog for ‘Krauthammer’

Dump Duhbya

Bush Secrecy and the FOIA

Secrecy and the Bush Administration
 By Ben Carlson, alibi

Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memo to government agencies in October of 2001 urging that FOIA requests be rejected whenever possible, using the vaguest reasoning possible. Ashcroft then assured federal agencies that the Department of Justice “will defend your decisions.”

In November 2001, President Bush effectively signed the 1978 Presidential Records Act out of existence. Executive Order 13233 granted former presidents, their heirs, and sitting presidents the right to veto the release of presidential documents to the public. In one fell stroke, Bush freed the supreme executive from public scrutiny of his records. (The 1978 law required their release after 12 years — a reaction to Nixon’s secretiveness.)
Even information that was already released or slated for release fell prey to the federal government’s hostility to disclosure. …

Without offering an explanation, Bush delayed the declassification of millions of documents in March 2003 and gave FOIA officers greater freedom to reclassify information that had already been released. …

A Brief History of the Freedom of Information Act

Growing efforts to pry open the doors of the government finally came to fruition in 1966, after JFK’s notoriously closed-door presidency. Public outcry had reached such a pitch by that time that President Johnson had little choice but to sign the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on July Fourth. (He still managed to drag his heels, though; he dodged the press cycle by signing it late at night on his Texas ranch.)

Since 1966, FOIA has varied in strength depending on the compliance of each administration. Nixon’s, naturally, was a low point, though his stonewalling led to the strengthening of FOIA (a weak bill initially) under Gerald Ford. In the ’80s, Reagan attempted to scale it back, complaining that FOIA had become too expensive—an ironic point, considering that he spent more on Pentagon marching bands at the time.

Presidential compliance reached its zenith under Clinton, who issued a memo declaring his commitment to “enhancing [FOIA’s] effectiveness in my administration.” Attorney General Janet Reno further asserted a “presumption of disclosure” in matters of FOIA. Their words became action in 1996, when Clinton approved the expansion of FOIA rights to the Net, requiring agencies to post the most frequently requested information online.

For the complete guide [to filing FOIA requests} and agency addresses, go to http://archive.aclu.org/library/foia.html

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams