Mother Nature

Sometimes Mother Nature just takes the upper hand, and puts us in our place. I was reading about Hurricane Ike, currently a Category 4 hurricane.

From NOAA:

A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE CUBAN PROVINCES OF
GUANTANAMO...
PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO
COMPLETION.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS REMAIN NEAR 135 MPH...215 KM/HR...WITH
HIGHER GUSTS. IKE IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR
HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH
ARE POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS...BUT IKE IS EXPECTED TO
REMAIN A MAJOR HURRICANE DURING THIS PERIOD.


STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 13 TO 18 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS...
ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE
EXPECTED IN THE WARNING AREA NEAR AND TO THE NORTH TO THE OF
THE CENTER OF IKE.

HISPANIOLA AND EASTERN CUBA COULD SEE 6 TO 12
INCHES OF RAIN WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF UP TO 20 INCHES
POSSIBLE. THESE RAINS COULD CAUSE LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS
AND MUDSLIDES OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.

I don't wish ill to the planet or people, but I must admit, there is a part of me that hopes they evacuate Guantanamo Prison safely, and Mother Nature cleansed the planet of this horrible place ~ Close the book on this remote prison. Is it wrong for me to wish Nature would do what humans have failed to do?

NO HEART for Palin

Sarah Palin relaxing amongst dead animals.
If Palin had it her way, she'd have the entire Arctic Wildlife carcass collection.

The Republicans used the HEART band song "Barracuda" at the end of the convention. Barracuda is Palin's nickname.

"Heart's lead singers, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson (who also plays guitar), announced Friday that Universal Music Publishing and Sony BMG have sent a "cease-and-desist" letter demanding that McCain's campaign stop playing the tune "as the congratulatory theme for Sarah Palin."

"The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted permission," Heart announced on its website. "We have asked the Republican campaign not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored."

In a statement posted on Entertainment Weekly’s EW.com website, the Wilson sisters said Palin’s “views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there.” ~ As reported by the L.A. Times.


I heart Heart

The POW & Barracuda show comes to an end

Happily, the RNC convention came to a close today. For the most part it was damage control. First Mother Nature had her say & threw a hurricane on opening day. No one is going to forget the awful images and memories of the Katrina catastrophic disaster enhanced by the Bush administration incompetence.
Cindy McCain & Laura Bush actually stood in front of the mostly empty convention hall, and said " it's time to take off our Republican hats, and put on our American hats" and help hurricane victims. How's that for a snapshot of a mindset? They must have been wearing their Republican hats during Katrina.
Palin was all over the map. Was she the holier-than-thou respect my daughter's privacy persona. Sister Palin would have us bow to her pro-life choices and ask, no demand we respect their privacy, while she & the republican would destroy our ability to make our own personal choices. Palin opposes abortion, even in the case of rape.


Then we saw pit bull Palin. The gun in each hand, Annie Oakley persona. She's a rootin' tootin fighter. But don't cross her or she will fire you. She had the gall to insult Biden's 35 year service in the Senate, claiming she had more experience. Palin was 9 years old when Biden became a U.S. Senator.
Palin showed us some bitchy snark, and in her attempt to put down Obama, just happened to distort the facts, and lots of them. I hope the media does their homework, to let the public & Palin know, she is playing loose with the facts, and call her on it.

I want to add that it is not a double standard to question the wisdom or practicality of having parents of an infant, a 4 month old special needs infant , in the mix of the Executive branch of Government. It is not a double standard for females, it is practical question and an observation- I've never seen an infant in ANY executive branch family male or female, because it is both parents choice and responsibility to care for their infant. It's not fair to the infant, or either parent that such a demanding job would come first over the care of an infant. Palin's political power hunger trumps the needs of her infant. I'm sick of reading articles saying no one ever questions male politicians parenting skills or obligations. To that, I reply no male politician has sought an Executive Branch position with in infant in tow. Like vinegar & oil, the two don't mix. Parents with infants have stayed away from the job for good reason. Let's not leave common sense at the door, trying to make this a gender issue.

The republican party is 93% white. There is not much diversity there. This convention spent waaay too much time retelling the Prisoner of War story of McCain. I have no doubt McCain went through hell. It is an amazing story, and he did an honorable thing, I respect and admire his story. That being said, it really has nothing to do with the problems we face in the here & now, problems HE was a part of creating. The problems we face will not be solved by the minds that created them. ( Ok I am quoting one of my bumper stickers now)... but it's true. McCain IS a part of the problem. He's votes with Bush policies 90% of the time. Why would anyone think we would see any different policies or much change at all, with McCain at the helm?

The republicans want to carry on the same agenda. They want to bow to big oil and allow the rape & pillage of our land. Alternative energy to them means Nuclear power plants, nuclear waste dumps, offshore oil drilling, and coal mining. McCain & Palin will support Exxon, Mobile, Chevron & Shell, and the rest of us can go to hell.
McCain said he hates war & wants peace, but that was after he said a 100 year war was fine by him. I'm sure his speech writers & handlers advised him to try to soften his original remark. More damage control ~ their reputation is at an all time low- and they have earned it. Remember George Bush promised to restore integrity to the White House in his presidential campaign. Safe to say his mission failed, miserably.

There was a whole lot of glitz and shallow, sanctimonious rhetoric. What crowd there was, chanted U•S•A, and at some point, people were yelling "Drill baby Drill". The republicans are big on enemies, terror, and fear.
The party is so tattered, they decided to keep Bush out- no personal appearance from the sitting president. They beamed him in via sattelite, for a video appearance. He was allegedly immersed in overseeing relief efforts for the hurricane. Truth is he is just a liability.
There was nothing the republican party could have said or done to get my vote.
In summary, their version of "leadership" has been torture.

Palin ~ A Bridge to Nowhere

What is it that bothers me so about Palin?

First, it's the doublespeak. While touting anti abortion, & abstinence, we are asked to respect the family's privacy on this personal matter, while at the same time Republicans are making laws and stacking the courts with judges who would deny us our ability to make equally personal choices of our own.

Then it's the double standard. Without making a personal judgement on teen pregnancy, it is a program of the Bush administration- the abstinence program that has the teen pregnancy rate up for the first time in 14 years.
This is a failed policy. Not only has it led to more teen pregnancies, it is a double whammy- it is coupled with the idea that funding teen parent support programs, sex education & healthcare, are considered "pork barrel spending".

Where's the Substance? We've heard Hockey Mom, PTA, and Mayor. We've heard about the family pregnancy issue.
We've not heard about Foreign policy. Where she stands on the Iraq War, Gitmo, Iran, Afghansitan. The US economy, the mortgage crisis, global warming, funding education.

We have heard she fired the Wasilla Alaska librarian for not banning books, and she fired anyone who did not agree with her agenda.
Palin did run a small Alaska suburb as Mayor. A population under 7000. She handled such matters as should they pave dirt roads, and putting a financially unfruitful sports complex project ahead of installing sewers. Although the Mayoral position of Wasilla is non partisan, she made it partisan.

Just read an excellent editorial by Ellen Goodman:

"The Straight Talk Express twisted itself into a pretzel trying to defend her qualifications to be commander in chief. More to the point, the mother of five had a personal story meant to capture the imagination of the American people, whose minds were beginning to wander ominously to such non-entertaining narratives as the Iraq war and the economy.
Then along came the news that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. Immediately, the “family values” folks who have fashioned a political wedge out of moral judgments began insisting that anyone who remarked on this baby bump was an insensitive invader of privacy.
But let’s not forget that it’s the right wing that made social issues into a political issue. The right wing decided that pregnancy was not a matter of private decision-making but a harsh and unrelenting political battle.

Palin opposes sex education programs that go beyond abstinence only.

John McCain, an unrelenting opponent of abortion, was once asked whether the government should provide contraception and replied, “You’ve stumped me.” The Republican platform is not similarly stumped with its implacable opposition to every abortion and its renewed “call for replacing ‘family planning’ programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior.”

Pregnancy is indeed private. Decisions are to be discussed and determined in a family. But the party meeting in St. Paul, Minn., would put decisions about pregnancy in the hands of the government and replace sex information with disinformation. No, you don’t have to pass judgment on a 17-year-old to pass judgment on these unrelenting policymakers.

Sarah Palin? So far, she looks like a Bridge to Nowhere."

My commentary on Palin's RNC Speech:

I found her speech to have very little substance. Her lengthy introduction to her large family, including 5 children, and parents took up a whole lot of time that should have been used to tell us about her platform specifics.
I don't care that her husband is a champion snow mobile racer~ I honestly don't. I sincerely believe the people whose mortgages are about to foreclose, or who must file for bankruptcy because they do not have health care coverage really did not tune in to get the extensive low down on her family tree.

I think Palin showed just how desperate she was-- she discounted Obama's entire resume by playing loose and sloppy with facts-- he's "just a community organizer".

8 years in the Illinois Legislature
Harvard Law School Grad
2 years of teaching Constitutional law @ the College level
4 years as a US Senator

He also did community organizing & practiced as a Civil Rights Attorney.

So for her, and her podunk Hockey Mom, PTA, Mayor of a tiny suberb "governmental experience", discounting Obama's accomplishments was just pure bullshit.

If you don't have much to tout about yourself, then you are reduced to attacking the person you are running against. If that is in fact the case-- this tough talking lady is really running scared, and she should be.
For her to proclaim on National TV that she herself has more experience than Obama & Biden combined was ludicrous.

Biden himself has served in the US Senate since 1973. Thirty five years of experience.on the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee. That means Biden has been dealing with Federal Foreign Affairs since Palin was 9 years old.

As one pundit put it-- it is one thing to read a prepared speech in front of an adoring crowd... quite another to answer real questions in a debate setting on complex foreign affair issues.

I hope anyone who has the wherewithall to listen to what the RNC is serving up, it would be helpful to have an interpretive guide to terminology:

• Energy Independence = Drill for Oil
• Lower Taxes = For the Rich
• Alternate Energy = Nuclear Power Plants & a National Nuclear Waste Dump
• Clean Coal = Delusion
• Lower Fuel costs = Sacrifice Arctic Natl. Wildlife Refuge/Kiss Polar Bears Goodbye
• Attack Obama = Easier to talk about than actual issues
• Hockey Mom, PTA = I have no Foreign Affairs knowledge whatsoever

It is hard to imagine a McCaine regime could be even more oppressive and mismanaged, than the Bush adminstration- but I believe that would be the case.

The more I learn of Palin's political resume, I am convinced her path is abuse of power, with limited knowledge ~ a dangerous combination.
The American Gothic image the republicans would like to portray.






The surreal likeness of something a little more close to reality.

Vagina Monologues

Tonight is the Palin speech. It seems to have turned into a Vagina Monologues presentation- who was pregnant when (was Palin pregnant back when she eloped?), is the 4 month old baby HERS or her now pregnant daughters?
It's all so much fodder. The shot gun wedding, soon-to-be son-in-law is flying in for the circus.
I don't so mch care about who slept with whom when, although it is amusing to watch the super conservative republicans conduct straight faced interviews on the topic, some clearly not happy or comfortable having to field these questions.

In an earlier post I composed a long list of purely political issues of Palin that I don't like.

Screw the soap opera... what about Polar Bears, Arctic Wildlife refuge protection & several multi million dollar Whoops items she screwed up on. I heard one repub respond about concerns regarding the lack of foreign experience, that understanding Foreign affairs "will come with time". Please!!!

Pay no attention to the fact the abstinence program is yet another failed Bush policy... teen pregnancy rates up for the first time in 14 years. I don't so much care she is pregnant ~ but the irony of it all.



We've already made it through the synchronized pandering segment. Joe Lieberman called himself a democrat while standing at the podium of the republican national convention, urging us to vote for Johnny.













While grandmothers get handcuffed by riot police.

So tonight should be a whole lot of tap dancing & razzle dazzle.

Planet RNC

While about 500 people gathered outside for the Poor People's March, facing Police in Riot Gear...



A partially empty arena conducted the Republican Nlt. Convention. It's hard to tune in to the RNC, it's really like a different planet. When I first tuned in, I caught the tail end of Fred Thompson's rant. Talking about democrats raising taxes. Right Fred, because why should people- especially wealthy people have to pay taxes.... nothing wrong with running a $9.5 trillion dollar debt. Fred made a strange comment- that McCain picked a VP who is the only one who "knows how to field dress a moose" (hunting reference). Maybe this was meant to be funny and macho, but please..... what an insult to everyone's intelligence.

Next up was "lost sheep" Joe Lieberman. Joe pointed out over & over & over again that he is an AMERICAN, ans we all are, before we might be Democrats , Independents or Republicans. He had the gall to call himself a Democrat, as he stood at the podium at the RNC, pitching McCain as the man for the presidency. Joe has all the appeal & fervor of a wet dishrag. My dolt-o-meter was in the red zone.

I heard a lot of reference to the "T" word. Terrorism & some fear mongering. Lots of grumbling about why a sitting president fails to make a personal appearance @ the convention of his party. The answer is he has tarnished the Rep brand. He is a liability and a black mark on a candidacy. They are saying he is busy with hurricane relief business- but it's not like he does not have his own government plane he can hop in & go wherever he wants. It's been 40 years since a sitting president has not attended their convention. Then again- think about it-- if they tried to make one of those video montages about his terms as president, it would be some horrific recount.

Scenes from Abu Ghraib, bodies floating in the floods of New Orleans, crowds of people chanting We Need Help!.
The first election, settled by the Supreme court. His "bring it on" international "diplomacy" tactic. Six years of an illegal occupation, with the Mission Accomplished backdrop. The indictments. The revolving door of his staff as Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Powell, Scooter, Delay, Abramoff, Gonzales and a host of others came and went- often to jail, or should have gone to jail, but skated. Now we have economic failure, the mortgage mess, and his abstinence only program has raised, for the first time in 14 years, the teen pregnancy rate. That failure has hit really close to home as the wildcard VP choice of Palin is abuzz with the announcement her unwed 17 year old daughter is pregnant.
Chalk up another one for republican failed policies. Thus the absence of both the president & the video montage.

There was a strange & uncomfortable moment of a Minnesota firefighter, making no rah rah political statement, just saying she is proud to be a firefighter who sorted through the rubble of the collapsed bridge.
The crowd looked uncomfortable and somber.
The speaker in her floral dress just matter-of-factly told the story & said she was a proud firefighter.
The republicans have this disaster to be responsible for- as it happened under their watch.
The failing infrastructure is another republican legacy.

While this yammerfest went on, I found this story about a 17 year old who was beaten by 5 officers in St. Paul.

From The Minnesota Independent:
As he walked along, someone asked him if he had a lighter. He said he didn’t think so but he would look and then set his backpack onto the ground and began to look through it. He explained that almost immediately five police officers surrounded him and demanded that he “put the bag down and put his hands in the air.” He was confused but immediately dropped the bag. Being inexperienced with the police, he did not raise his hands over his head immediately, but rather held his hands out and said, “What? I’m not doing anything!” They immediately attacked him, throwing him to the ground, repeatedly kicking, beating, dragging and hitting him. He responded by protecting his body, only to be accused of resisting arrest. When he was escorted away from the scene he was heavily covered with blood, so the police officers used a shirt to cover his body, possibly to avoid media coverage of the attack. The officers subsequently arrested those that were within the area who attempted to defend our son. Apparently because the people within hearing distance responded to his screams during the attack, he was later told that he was being charged with felony conspiracy to incite a riot. Additionally, he was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and despite giving his correct name and telling the officers exactly where his wallet was in his backpack so they could see his id, providing false identification. However, I should add at this time that since he never had his Miranda rights read to him, was never offered a phone call nor were we, his parents, ever notified of his arrest or charges, and when we sought information from the Juvenile Division they refused to give it to us, and since he was not provided with any paperwork indicating what he was arrested for or ever arraigned in court before being released, we are not entirely certain what the charges against him are.


To our horror, despite his medical needs, he was released from the Juvenile Detention Center, into the darkness of night, alone, without a parent ever having been contacted, to a city that was unfamiliar to him, by the Ramsey County Juvenile Division. He was forced to borrow a stranger’s cell phone to call home. After much confusion about his location, his father found him and brought him into our hometown hospital for medical treatment. They treated his multiple wounds, bruises and scrapes, took pictures, wound measurements and after hearing the story, stated that they would record the incident as a criminal assault.

Our family is devastated. The police could not have attacked a more respectful young man. We are asking anyone who might have been present for the beating to please contact us. Our son is unsure where he was located at, but he overheard an officer refer to 9th and believes that may be the street he was on or near. He was wearing tight fitting, knee length, dark grey corduroy pants and a dark green and black long sleeve flannel. The police ripped off his shirt during the attack and replaced it with a white t-shirt with a flag on it that said “Remember 9/11”. We are also interested in any recordings or still photos of the incident. We are currently seeking legal advice for how to proceed. Any suggestions are appreciated."


Full story here


How much more can we stand to listen to the *God Bless America* speeches, knowing this chaos in the streets is going on?

Cindy Lou ~ Advice on what hat to wear!

Cindy Lou McCain takes to the podium & says:
1:33 "This is a time when we take off our Republican hats, and put on our American hats"

So does this mean they were wearing their "Republican Hats" when Hurricane Katrina hit?

The Problems with Palin

Sarah Louise Heath Palin. Palin was sworn in as the governor of Alaska on December 4, 2006, becoming the first woman and youngest person to hold the office. Since Palin is a newcomer to the D.C scene & Executive branch - the #2 position in the entire country, she had best learn to embrace the scrutiny. Palin is vastly inexperienced, and comes with lots of questionable political baggage.

Hates Bears?
In May 2008, Palin objected to the decision of Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican United States Secretary of the Interior, to list polar bears as an endangered species. The State of Alaska filed a lawsuit to stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts. She said the move to list the bears was premature and was not the appropriate management tool for their welfare. I think Palin was more concerned about her ability to go ahead with oil drilling & resource extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sorry, but when an entire species like Polar Bears is at risk, the responsible thing to do would be to give special protection. Apparently her idea of appropriate management is to foul up and or make their habitat disappear.

Natural Resource Exploitation
In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.

Flip-flop on the bridge, but not the Money
The Gravina Island Bridge (also known as The Bridge to Nowhere) was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island. Governor Sarah Palin also supported the project, but canceled the bridge when the Alaska delegation was unable to prevent changes to federal funding levels that more than doubled Alaska's portion of the bill from $160M (40%) to $329M (82%) of the bridge's cost.
In August 2007, Alaska's DOT stated that it was "leaning" toward alternative ferry options, citing bridge costs, despite having already received the funds from the federal government. The project was canceled in 2007 by governor Sarah Palin, a supporter of the bridge. Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer.

I don't really care about the Palin family soap opera of unwed teen pregnancy, or the questions about if the 4 month old special needs baby Trig, with Down's Syndrome, is in fact her baby- but instead question & observe we've not seen parents of infants in the Executive branch of government for good reason. Taking care of an infant is a demanding task that requires full committment from both parents- and even moreso with a special needs baby, The whole thing is tinged with varying degress of *crazy*.

All things considered, I am left to wonder- what were they thinking, to choose such an inexperienced, unqualified candidate?

Serving a cause greater than self interest

Serving a cause greater than self interest ~ The noble thought graces the headline page of the RNC website for opening day.

To be honest the headline could read:

Backstepping and trying to do damage control of past neglect and ineptitude.

Indeed, it would look bad, REALLY bad to have windbags blathering on at the RNC podium, while the Gulf Coast is battered by a catastrophic hurricane Gustov.

W himself has cleared his schedule so he can monitor the situation in Texas.... and frankly, he is nothing but a party liability. The hurricaine's timing & location are conjuring up memories of bodies floating, and gross negligence, of the murky waters that drowned New Orleans & Mississippi, in the Katrina Hurricaine.

While I'm sure there will be strong efforts to have vastly improved photo ops of Republicans at the ready to help Hurricane victims, the truth of the matter is the Lower 9th District of New Orleans remains an abandoned shambles, 3 YEARS after the storm hit. The Industrial Canal in that zone is on the brink of breeching & flooding again, today.
I think it is safe to say, I doubt we will be seeing the helpful republicans posing for pictures in front of those ruins.

The rest of the RNC week promises to be a theater of the absurd ~ learning just how much more havoc and catastrophic results can be brought in our lives when you have inexperienced and unqualified people running things. From the top- President Bush himself, to the reminiscent unqualified Brownie, in charge of FEMA at the time of hurricane Katrina's peak of crisis, we have witnessed what it's like to have clueless "leaders", who do more harm than good.

We won't be hearing about death tolls, National Debt. poverty, or just how much the Iraq occupation is NOT an accomplished mission, by any means. We will see hurricane photo ops, promises of jobs drilling oil & building "safe" nuclear power plants- maybe even in known hurricane zones & on earthquake fault lines.

I can almost smell the apple pie baking in the oven, when we hear the virtues of a Mom with PTA & Mayor of Podunk experience being fully qualified to step up to the #2 position in our country. Who knows- maybe Palin will even wear her beauty Queen bikini & Rhinestone Tierra to the Convention as an added resume reminder item?

This week will be an interesting excercise in putting spin on the worst regime in American History.

RNC Protestors Under Search & Seizure Raids

Raids by the County Sheriff have obtained warrents to invade protest hubs for the Repub. Ntl Convention, before the convention has even started.

Check out the Salon.com site here for the full story