Tonight is Hillary night evidently.  So here is my take.

I will not vote for Hillary Clinton.  Last week Edwards referred to her as a Corprocrat.  He's right.  At the YearlyKos convention she was the only candidate to say yes she most certainly accept lobbyists' money..... thank goodness she was in a live forum to hear the booing.  That's not ordinary American's money, Senator Clinton.... that's AIPAC money and they own you.

I will not vote for Hillary, and I will speak these reasons to anyone in Real Life who entertains the thought.  In debate with Barack Obama she said no on diplomacy but yes on nukes.  If this is a position coming out of the Democratic party.... then I must have slept the sleep of Rip Van Winkle.

my mother was a woman warrior
I am something of a warrior myself
although I’ve been in three longterm relationships
I think my spiritual nature is to be alone

living apart
I have as little to do with
"the world as we know it"
as possible

I hate this world
I hate the cruelty of mankind
I hate the destructiveness of this
man/ant

The Ward Churchill affair is no more about Free Speech than the war in Iraq is about Democracy.  My question is why are the American people so susceptible to fraud, lies and fabrications?

The responsibility for the Ward Churchill fiasco lies with the University of Colorado board of regents who hired him in the first place and built a department around him... the Department of Ethnic Studies at Colorado University.  

It is clear that Churchill's longstanding "pattern of behavior" was inventing research to suit his theories, even to invent his own ethnicity, the same way Bush "fixed the intelligence" to suit his policy/plan to attack Iraq.

Not being able to find a transcript of the July 12 House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (Miers no-show) this is the transcript I made from the hearing.  (follows)

Then I read an item from July 17 that says that Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) forced Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to retract, "the President lied" or face a reprimand:

Nevertheless, Watt - who joked around with Cannon before the hearing - withdrew his words in a deal with Cannon, who agreed not to seek a procedural reprimand of Watt that would deny him the right to speak in committee or on the floor the rest of the day. (follows)

WTF?

By now everyone has read Kos' post "with us or against us".  I am sure the majority have understood it to mean that we are best not to attack each other but to keep our eye on the goal.

But for the minority like me the message is not to attack Dems viciously and personally because they are not moving on the two issues most important ... Iraq and restoration of the Constitution (impeachment) in a way that we want them to, or expect them to, a more important point.

We all know that as of today Harriet Miers has been cited for contempt of Congress for failing to appear before the House Judiciary.  How many Kossacks were confident that this was the direction the House Judiciary was moving?  How many Kossacks have now swung back to supporting the Democratic party?

Mariane Pearl, widow of Wall Street Journalist Daniel Pearl is suing a Pakistani bank charged with financing Al Qaeda.  Thing is, the lawsuit has been filed in New York where the bank has a branch.

Habib Bank Limited, which has a branch on 42nd Street in Manhattan, is accused in the complaint of aiding and abetting terrorism by handling financial transactions of the Al Rashid Trust and Al Akhtar Trust, two entities linked to either al-Qaida or the Taliban. The suit contends that the bank knew the trusts, which are also named as defendants, and others acted on behalf of terrorism.

Today it became part of the Congressional Record: the words of Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) were not stricken from the record, despite the efforts of Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT).  

George W. Bush is a "lying imperial president", and these words were ruled by the chair Rep. Linda Sanchez, and so voted by the majority, to be within Congress' parliamentary rules.

This is my typed transcript from today's House Judiciary Subcmte. Hearing on the Firing of U.S. Attorneys.

While Bush conversed with the Pope about the "worrisome situation in Iraq" expressing concern for the remaining Christians in Iraq he apparently failed to mention that the US has been driving them out.  It might have slipped Bush’s attention, but it is impossible that the Pope was unaware of what has been happening in recent months.  The US and British forces have been evicting monks from monastaries to make quarters for their troops.

"Bush was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the Christian religion," Bush explained at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi during the president’s swing through Europe.  MSNBC

A reporter asked Bush if he and the Pope discussed if Iraq is a "just war"... The president said their was no discussion of "just war," a Christian doctrine that says war must have a reasonable chance of success of not doing more harm than good. According to the doctrine, war must be a last resort, launched in response to unjust aggression and civilians must be safeguarded.

Please read this Bill Moyers' interview with the writer Maxine Hong Kingston:

In 1993 Maxine Hong Kingston put out a call to veterans to join her in workshops devoted to turning their experiences into poems, novels, and essays. Here in the hills of Northern California, over 500 veterans...from every war since WORLD WAR II have taken part, and some of their finest work has now been published in this book, VETERANS OF WAR; VETERANS OF PEACE. For many of them it has been a life-changing even life-saving experience

The House and Senate have voted to approve another $100 billion to the war in Iraq.

There’s just one ultimate benchmark in this legislation for the withdrawal of US troops:

The bill also for the first time explicitly states that the U.S. would leave Iraq if asked by the Baghdad government. (Associated Press)

That benchmark has been met:

In an historic step, the besieged Iraqi parliament has taken a stand against the US occupation and for a rapid withdrawal of American troops. This is the perfect opportunity for a face-saving and orderly US withdrawal based on the request of a sovereign government. To reject the offer would paint the US as a naked imperialism without a fig leaf of legitimacy.  Tom Hayden: They Want Us Out: Iraqi Parliamentarians Sign Withdrawal Petition

"I think that every painter is more or less obligated to re-enact, very rapidly, the entire history of painting in his or her own development - that is to understand and pass through classicism, the 19th century, the Harlem Renaissance, impressionism, surrealism, and abstraction. Contrary to the myth of the artist as an exceptional being neither parents nor conditioning, I am persuaded that there is a precise theoretical logic in the history of painting.

"The most important dimension of painting lives in the zones of silence, emotions, and mystery created by the forms, the lines, the colors, the materials, the brushstroke, and the frailties forged by chance. No one would dare say that a painting by Rembrandt or Monet is not an accumulation of abstract passages even if there is a figure. You need simply observe the picture surface to understand the extent to which, if you isolate any given square centimeter, you are immersed in an abstract canvas."

Artist Statement of Milton Bowens
Photo of Milton Bowens from 2006 exhibition catalog

Until TMZ made it public, the threats of the actor Alec Baldwin against his young daughter were not a matter of public record.  TMZ has brought the frightening tirade to the internet media, and now it's on YouTube as well.   This morning it was broadcast in a seven minute segment on NBC's "Today Show."  NBC Today Baldwin has taken legal action against his ex-wife Kim Basinger for having made his private communications with his daughter public.  Yesterday Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner Maren Nelson heard the tape and temporarily suspended Baldwin's visitation rights.  This is a temporary intervention.

The actor Alec Baldwin’s phone message to his daughter Ireland:  

You have insulted me for the last time.  So you'd better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me. So I'm going to let you know just how I feel about what a rude little pig you really are. You are a rude, thoughtless little pig, OK?

As a child the Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui could not speak, and this was a concern to his parents, his grandparents, and his uncle.  It wasn’t that he couldn’t speak a second language, English, that he would have had to learn when his parents emigrated to the US when the child was 9 years old, it was that he didn’t speak at all.  His disability was pronounced at an early age, impacted negatively on his socialization skills, and learning a second language would have been that much more difficult.

Gunman troubled parents because he did not speak as a child

Like many, I watched the Virginia Tech Convocation today.  This is what I heard: Representatives from some of the world's major religions spoke.  Islam -- I was not comforted, just uncomfortable at the fatalism.  Buddhism -- the words of the Dalai Lama were good.  Judaism -- reciting Ecclesiastes... "there is a time for mourning and a time to be comforted"... this was good, until it came to the part "there is a time to make war"... no comfort there.  Generic Christianity... this was ok.  At this point a man in the second row behind the President broke down unconsolably.  The President reached back to put a supporting hand on the man... that was good.  The Dean of Students spoke, the head of the Mental Health counselling services spoke... There was an emptiness, shock, horror... a terrible bewilderment, bereavement loss, and despair...

Until the poet Nikki Giovanni spoke... this is what she said.  At the end the auditorium rose to its feet to applaud her, to applaud Virginia Tech, and the room was filled with "Let's Go, Hokies"

They've (the Democrats) even created controversy over the words we use to describe the challenges now facing America. According to news accounts, one committee in the House has decided to stop using the phrase, "Global War on Terrorism." I'm left to wonder -- which part of that phrase is the problem? Do they deny the struggle is global, after the enemy has declared the ambition of building a totalitarian empire that stretches from Europe around to Indonesia? Do they deny this is a war, in which one side will win and the other will lose? Do they deny that it's terror that we're fighting, with unlawful combatants who wear no uniform, who reject the rules of warfare, and who target the innocent for indiscriminate slaughter? VP Cheney April 13, 2007

If you visit KurtVonnegut.com you'll find just one of his images... the bird cage with the open door.  An appropriate image for a sad commemoration.  

© Kurt Vonnegut, Joe Petro III

The rest of the website is (temporarily?) disabled, but you can still see the graphic work of Kurt Vonnegut through the Wayback Machine.

On this day 33AD:

Today is a day to remember
when they tortured and executed an innocent man.

Put him on trial... what did he do??  Probably no more than Socrates who was charged with "corrupting the youth of Athens."  He pissed off a lot of powerful people in high places.  However, it was the justice system that was corrupt.

Take responsibility... "Not me," said Pilate, "Not me," said Herod...

Throw him to the crowd... let them decide.
What happened next is the mystery... it's all politics.

From today's Crook's and Liars:

Jeff Gatlain, a Catholic priest in KY

"As a Christian, a Catholic Priest, I stand in opposition to any and all hateful speech used by anyone, especially when they do so in the name of Jesus. I do not believe that one can claim to be a disciple of Jesus and at the same time deride, mock, insult, or threaten violence against another person. Mr. Donohue clearly makes hateful remarks as well as violent comments towards (the sculptor) Mr. Cavallaro and as such he insults God, his fellow Catholics and humanity for that point.

Proclaiming the Salvation of Jesus means that we are to refrain from such vile speech. One cannot preach the love of Jesus while cursing one's neighbor. The two cannot co-exist. To continually use hateful, crude, violent language is indicative of what dwells within one's heart. Mr. Donohue speaks only for himself and not the Catholic Church."

Would that quote be okay? I am a pretty low key person and I strive to be a force of unity and healing in the parishes I serve. I just do not want to become yet another screaming voice like Mr. Donohue.