alone

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

~ Maya Angelou

quagmire.

Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Iraqi leader

Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.
'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.'
Allawi, who was a strong ally of the US-led coalition forces and was prime minister until this April, made his remarks as further hints emerged yesterday that President George Bush is planning to withdraw up to 40,000 US troops from the country next year, when Iraqi forces will be capable of taking over.
Allawi's bleak assessment is likely to undermine any attempt to suggest that conditions in Iraq are markedly improving.
'We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' he added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them.'

Responding to the former prime minister's comments, Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, said: 'It is inconceivable in the higher reaches of the command of the multinational forces that there was not an awareness of what is being done by some Iraqis to their own countrymen.
'The assertions by Mr Allawi simply underline the catastrophic failure to have a proper strategy in place for the post-war period in Iraq.'

agreed. makes me ashamed to be part of the nation/machine that set all this into motion. what a mess.

americans.

CNN has an article today that explores how people who voted for Bush and generally have supported him in the past feel about him and his policies now. Here are a few highlights:

Selena Smith, an advertising agency director in Atlanta. "The war is more important to me now. What’s the plan? Give us something to hang our teeth on," she said.
hmm...that makes my teeth hurt.

"I think people put their faith in Bush, hoping he would do the right thing," said Stacey Rosen, 38, a stay-at-home mother in Boca Raton, Fla., who said she voted for Mr. Bush but was "totally disappointed" in him now. "Everybody cannot believe that there hasn't been one shred of evidence of W.M.D. I think it goes to show how they tell us what they want to tell us."
Newsflash!

"I like his cut-and-dry, take-no-prisoners style," Ms. Wilson said. "I think people are used to more spinning."
umm. . ."take-no-prisoners"? more like "torture-all-prisoners." but yes, the bush admin definitely engages in no spinning at all. good point there.

"What's really top of mind for me is how many people are getting killed across the creek, and how are we going to get them home?"
in boxes (which the president will never see)

watch out. . .

Tactics in Marketing Drug Plan Draw Complaints

Bush administration officials say they have received scores of complaints about the aggressive tactics used by some insurance companies and agents to market Medicare's new prescription drug benefit.
Possible violations reported to Medicare officials in the past few weeks include uninvited door-to-door solicitation of business and misrepresentation of insurance products.
Federal and state officials said they had also received complaints that some insurance agents identified themselves as working for the Social Security Administration or the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In addition, they said, some insurance agents have asked beneficiaries for personal information like Social Security numbers and credit card or bank account numbers.

In 27 days, I will officially finish law school, and have earned my law degree (wheee!). A week after that, I get down to business chasing after these fools who think they can get away with this bullshit. So, be warned - that's 34 days until I am a full time ass-kicker and I'm comin' for you, insurance whores!

fixing a hole.

I'm taking the time for a number of things
That weren't important yesterday
And I still go.
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
And stops my mind from wandering
Where it will go.

warning: if you are on medicaid, it is still not safe to get sick.

Okay, so the Pennsylvania legislature has oh so graciously decided to forego the raises they gave themselves this summer. During the state's budget debate, Gov. Rendell insisted that there would be no raises if his proposed Medicaid cuts were not also passed. Both the cuts and the raises were passed. Here's a real brain-buster: how much of the money from those raises do you think will be funneled back in to Medicaid?

exit strategy

check out this video in which W. demonstrates his true finesse.

the truth. . .

it's not just for wacky liberals anymore.

A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" and "flexibility" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.
"There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."
At another point in the interview, Wilkerson said "the vice president had to cover this in order for it to happen and in order for Secretary Rumsfeld to feel as though he had freedom of action."

In a speech to U.S. troops in South Korea, President Bush on Saturday rejected Democratic calls to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, vowing to "stay in the fight until we have achieved the victory our brave troops have fought for."

hmm. . .

Love the life you choose.
keep yourself feeling brand new.
And love your strife with life.
Everyone wants to know why.
And love your strife with youth.
Keep yourself feeling brand new.
And love you strife with god.
Yeah, everyone wants to know love…
Love, love, love…

The best place is to find your home.

growed-ups

Why are our nation's leaders acting like 8-year-olds? Can't we find better people than this???

At one point in the emotional debate, Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, told of a phone call she received from a Marine colonel.
"He asked me to send Congress a message -- stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message -- that cowards cut and run, Marines never do," Schmidt said. Murtha is a 37-year Marine veteran.

funyuns

if you're looking for a way to procrastinate (which clearly i am),

there's some fun to be had at
http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/

perspective

CNN.com reported today that the U.S. has detained over 83,000 foreign people in the last four years. They talk some about torture and the fact that the great majority of these people are released soon after their capture. To me, this figure is greatly disturbing, and worthy of careful examination and serious treatment by the news media. But, I'll leave it to CNN to put it all in the right perspective:
"To put that in context, the capacity of the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field, the NFL's largest, is 91,704. The second largest, Giants Stadium, holds 80,242."
Am I the only one who thinks that this might not have been the most necessary or most appropriate factoid to include?

in memoriam

Suspense—is Hostiler than Death—
Death—tho'soever Broad,
Is Just Death, and cannot increase—
Suspense—does not conclude—

But perishes—to live anew—
But just anew to die—
Annihilation—plated fresh
With Immortality—

~Emily Dickinson

to the stars

one part sad and two parts brave
one part silent and one parts says:

to the stars!

one part black and two parts blue
one part wishes the best for you
one part changed and two parts fine
i'm telling you, i'm fine!

to the stars! to the stars!
we are lit within by all we've been and by
all we care to be
to the stars! from the wars!
we'll wake up a little this morning
a little better than
we were before



one part luster, two parts shine
heaven's above, trouble behind
one part glory, two parts glow
shine on! shine well! you're free to go!

to the stars! to the stars!
we are lit within by all we've been and by
all we care to be
to the stars! from the wars!
we'll wake up a little this morning
a little better than
we were before

one part brilliant, two parts fade
stars apart shine the same

~erin mckeown

no fair!

The Supreme Court ruled in a closely watched education case on Monday that parents who disagree with a school system's special-education plan for their child have the legal burden of proving that the plan will not provide the "appropriate" education to which federal law entitles all children with disabilities.
"Until now, there has been impetus for both sides to really mediate and work things out," said Wendy Byrnes, a parent advocate at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley, Calif., who added that most cases are settled in mediation. "This decision tips the scale in the district's favor, so that a school district will not be so motivated to work something out."

i respectfully dissent on grounds that this is some seriously unfair bullshit.

someone's failing science. . .it's the guv'mint.

Report Details F.D.A. Rejection of Next-Day Pill

Top federal drug officials decided to reject an application to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill months before a government scientific review of the application was completed, according to accounts given to Congressional investigators.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, concluded in a report released Monday that the Food and Drug Administration's May 2004 rejection of the morning-after pill, or emergency contraceptive, application was unusual in several respects.
The report suggested that it quickly became apparent that the agency was not going to follow its usual path when it came to the pill. "For example," it said, "F.D.A. review staff told us that they were told early in the review process that the decision would be made by high-level management."
Top agency officials denied many of the report's findings, including its conclusion that the top officials' involvement was unusual and that they had decided to reject the application before the agency's own scientific review was concluded.
But on Monday, Dr. Susan F. Wood, former director of the agency's office of women's health, said that what she described as the F.D.A.'s willingness to ignore science in the service of abortion politics has "only gotten worse" since the events that were the focus of the G.A.O. investigation. Dr. Wood resigned in August after the agency decided to delay its decision on the morning-after pill once again.

what is the goal here? controlling poor, minority women's sexuality and reproduction? serving the right-wing nuts? preserving a caste society? i freakin' don't get it. well, i guess i do, but i really just don't want to. this is pathetic.

Alito rejected abortion as a right

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.

"I personally believe very strongly" in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application to become deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III.

there is more, and the article provides an interesting discussion of what various people think this document does/doesn't prove.

learn yourself a little something 'bout medicare

Confusion Is Rife About Drug Plan as Sign-Up Nears

Enrollment in the new Medicare drug benefit begins in three days, but even with President Bush hailing the plan on Saturday as "the greatest advance in health care for seniors" in 40 years, large numbers of older Americans appear to be overwhelmed and confused by the choices they will have to make.
Beneficiaries around the country are flocking to Medicare workshops, where experts present them with complicated descriptions of drug formularies, "tiered co-payments," "creditable coverage" and "true out-of-pocket costs," and caution about penalties for late enrollment.
In most states, beneficiaries have a choice of more than three dozen prescription drug plans. Premiums, deductibles, co-payments and covered drugs vary widely. Many retirees also have other options: getting drug coverage through former employers or through Medicare-managed care plans.
In a survey issued this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, only 35 percent of people 65 and older said they understood the new drug benefit.
Asked about beneficiaries' confusion, Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, said: "Health care is complicated. We acknowledge that. Lots of things in life are complicated: filling out a tax return, registering your car, getting cable television. It is going to take time for seniors to become comfortable with the drug benefit."
Even after attending the seminar, Raymond L. Middlesworth, 70, a retired truck driver from Urbana, said he was baffled. "I've tried reading the Medicare book about the drug plan," Mr. Middlesworth said, "but I couldn't make sense of it. This is the biggest mess that Medicare has ever put us through."

So, in a few weeks, it'll be my full-time job to help explain this crap to some of the most vulnerable and confused of the vulnerable and confused. And also to try to kick as many asses and take as many names of the people in charge of this bullshit. Wish me luck!

it just keeps getting scarier. . .

Senate votes to bar challenges to detentions by foreigners

The Senate voted Thursday to bar foreign terror suspects at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from filing lawsuits in American courts to challenge their detentions, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted such access.
Under the provision, Guantanamo Bay detainees would be allowed to appeal their status as an "enemy combatant" one time, to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington. But they would not be able to file petitions known as writs of habeas corpus, which are used to fight unlawful detentions, in that or any other U.S. court.

are you kidding me?

President Bush Friday accused critics of the Iraq war of distorting the events that led to the U.S. invasion, saying Democrats viewed the same intelligence and came to similar conclusions.
"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began," the president said during a Veterans Day speech in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania.

yes, it certainly is.

milgram lives.

An Extra Shift at McDonald's Becomes a Terrifying Interrogation

this story was on primetime on abc tonight. it is amazing the things ordinary people will do just because someone they believe to be in authority is telling them to do them. or, in some cases, because they actually like what they are doing. scary. . .

fotos

i created a companion site to this one for pictures only. i have become obsessed with photoshop, and just got a new camera, so i needed more room for all my fotos!

you can go see it at hereandrealfotos.blogspot.com.

bad majority leader, bad!

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he is more concerned about the leak of information regarding secret CIA detention centers than activity in the prisons themselves.
Frist told reporters Thursday that while he believed illegal activity should not take place at detention centers, he believes the leak itself poses a greater threat to national security and is "not concerned about what goes on" behind the prison walls.

fun with injustice. . .

via talkleft:

Senator Lindsay Graham is introducing an Amendment to the defense appropriations bill pending in the Senate (S. 1042) that would strip those designated by the Administration as enemy combatants of the ability to seek habeas review in federal courts. This is an end-run around the Supreme Court's decision in Rasul v. Bush which held Guantanamo detainees have the right to challenge the legality of their detentions.

His amendment would prohibit detainees from using the court to challenge:
-The legality of their detentions
-The propriety of returning detainees to their home countries
-Adequacy of medical care at Guantanamo
-Quality of the food
-Speed of mail delivery
-Allotment of exercise time and other conditions of confinement

good idea, senator. those people at gitmo are practically at club med. way to get them to quit their bitchin'.

times select

(just random expression of my frustration...)
this new thing with the ny times website does not sit well with me. now i am being asked to pay for most of the things on the site that i usually like to read. no fair!!!

how in the world???

WTF, White House. Really - how can you possibly oppose a ban on torture and inhuman treatment of people in U.S. custody? I know even if the ban passes, you'd still get your kicks however you had to, but to publicly declare your opposition to this ban? Something is very, very wrong here.

And yes, I chose this color for the blood that is and will be on your hands.

two thumbs down.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has some intriguing new ideas for how to deal with graffiti artists in his city...along with some other really great things to say:

"I'm saying maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb," the mayor added. "That may be the right thing to do."
Goodman also suggested that whippings or canings should be brought back for children who get into trouble.
"I also believe in a little bit of corporal punishment going back to the days of yore, where examples have to be shown," Goodman said.
"I'm dead serious," said Goodman, adding, "Some of these (children) don't learn. You have got to teach them a lesson, and this is coming from a criminal defense lawyer."
"They would get a trial first," he added.

well, at least he's fair.

beautiful people...

stars of track and field

on restraint. . .

Via Washinton Post:
In 1985, Office of Legal Counsel head Charles Cooper asked Alito to be his deputy; he said it was clear that Alito, although less vocal than the political appointees, shared their philosophy of judicial restraint.

For example, Alito helped write a opinion that employers could legally fire AIDS victims because of a "fear of contagion, whether reasonable or not," because discrimination based on insufficient medical knowledge was not prohibited by federal laws protecting the disabled. Alito later explained that "we certainly did not want to encourage irrational discrimination, but we had to interpret the law as it stands."

ok, it was 1986 when he wrote this decision, and it was early on in the aids epidemic. but still, it's kinda scary. "fear of contagion, whether reasonable or not" seems to be a pretty weak reason for firing someone, even if it is in the context of a relatively new illness. i may not be able to restrain myself from kicking this guy's ass.

brownie's emails

Via crooksandliars, check out these unbelievable emails between Mike Brown (FEMA extraordinaire) and some of his pals during the Katrina disaster and aftermath. Here are a few of my favorites, but it is definitely worth going through the whole lot of them.

To Michael Brown on the subject of his shirts: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt...all shirts. Even the President rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this crises and on TV you just need to look more hardworking. . .ROLL UP THE SLEEVES!"

From Michael Brown on the subject of his shirts: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
"I got it at Nordstroms. . . Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?"

yes mike. you can quit now. go home.

irony is alive and well in the city of brotherly love.

The 25-year-old son of Miami police Chief John Timoney was arrested for trying to buy 400 pounds of marijuana from an undercover federal agent, the Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday.
A court complaint said Sean Timoney of Philadelphia gave the agent a gym bag filled with approximately $450,000 in cash.

so, i guess everyone's got their problems. i am not one to gloat about someone else's misery, especially when it is on a drug-infraction for which i would normally be more sympathetic to the kid. but when that kid's daddy is the one in charge of arresting a whole bunch of my pals at the republican convention in 2000, many of them for just being there, i hafta admit this gives me a bit of a chuckle...does this make me evil?

we're the sea

Tonight, we're the sea and
the rhythm there
the waves and the wind and night is black
tonight we're the scent of your
long black hair
spread out like your breath
across my back
Your hands they move like waves over me
beneath the moon,
tonight, we're the sea