Howard Dean is first.

Inhofe is an idiot--even by Oklahoma standards

Circus is in Town

http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_robert_b_080329_circus_is_in_town.htm

Democracy at work

Choose some lame ass jerk

Rule out anyone progressive

Stick to the regressive

Limit the debate

To the millionaire candidates

Let the people rejoice

In the corporations’ choice

Weed the oddballs and idealists out

They haven’t got the clout

Don’t publicize their ideas

Make them look like queers

Only room for two parties

The Laurels or the Hardys

The candidates compete

Avoiding the concrete

Not obligated to the truth

Their words are lawsuit proof

They all voted for the patriot act

That really is a fact

Listen to the debate

These lawyers hold your fate

Democracy at work

Choose your style in jerk

6:23pm

HERSH GETS IT RIGHT

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.php?id=55767

Prominent journalist Seymour Hersh says the US is 'in real trouble' because news coverage on Iraq is anything but balanced and unbiased. When the American government says the US is winning in Iraq and is not torturing prisoners, they are just words, Hersh told his audience of journalism students in Regina, Canada. "We are in real trouble [in Iraq]."

6:27PM

THE LAND OF THE FREE...........

http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2008/03/30/police-arrest-anti-war-protester-80-at-mall/

An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.

Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as “graphic anti-war images.” Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words “Dead” and “Enough.” The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.

6:29PM

Printable version

With some 45 million Americans uninsured, how to pay for medical treatment is a big issue in this year's presidential election.

Now officials in Oregon say they have come up with a fair way of providing coverage for some of those who cannot afford it.

In her comfortable home in Portland, Oregon, Louanne Moldovan sifts through a pile of papers.

They are unpaid medical bills, stretching back a year, arising from treatment for Crohn's Disease, the chronic intestinal condition she suffers from. She thinks she owes nearly $15,000 (£7,500) in all.

"It's a symbol of how degraded our system is in this country that we are resorting to a lottery," she tells me.

Inhofe proves elections do matter.

platform chatter on the internet here ... I'll share a snippet of the kind of back and forth...

We felt that the Education sub-committee should have a resolution about 'vocational rehabilition', with respect to ex military personnel, former incarcerated individuals, and/or those transitioning due to spousal abuse, natural disasters, or other reasons.  We didn't feel that 'vocational rehabilition' was strictly a healthcare concern, but needed to be addressed for these groups.Social security needs to be addressed by Government and Law or Commerce and Labor, some counties had addressed it in their Healthcare planks.Resolutions about veterans benefits we felt should be in Government and Law, and all counties referred to  the need to fund adequate programs for veterans in areas of healthcare, education, and housing assistance.  We felt this issue extended beyond healthcare.Repealing the law prohibiting HIV positive individuals from becoming citizens should be referred to Government and Law.

53.*** cChalfonte***
Sun, 03/30/08

Total destruction of the State of Israel....that is their goal.

=============

They usually call for "Zionist Israel" or "Zionism"  to be destroyed, in favor of a State of all its people, including Jews.

The media and the right wing of Israel like to allude to such statements as a form of "Arab holocaust" rather than what is really meant - Regime Change - which does not have to involve a violent overthrow, but can occur from within Israel.

short cut back

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/24632#comment-1184412

They usually call for "Zionist Israel" or "Zionism"  to be destroyed, in favor of a State of all its people, including Jews.==

Nope.  They call for the destruction of Israel.  Period.

"from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free".

They usually call for "Zionist Israel" or "Zionism"  to be destroyed, in favor of a State of all its people, including Jews.==

Nope.  The only person calling for a "one state solution" is fred in OR.

Palestinians call for a Palestinian State. 

Regime Change - which does not have to involve a violent overthrow, but can occur from within Israel.=====

Yes, Israelis have elections.  Likud can and has lost elections.  Some Israelis support Likud, some do not.  They express this at the ballot box.  NO Israelis favor the destruction of their state.  Fred does....most Palestinians do...Israelis do not. 

9.

*** cChalfonte***
Sun, 03/30/08

They usually call for "Zionist Israel" or "Zionism"  to be destroyed, in favor of a State of all its people, including Jews.==

Nope.  They call for the destruction of Israel.  Period.

============================

I guess it depends on whom your They is.

As a matter of fact if  "They" is a Jewish Israeli right wing Zionist, support for "a land of all its people"  is code for "the destruction of Israel."

As a matter of fact if  "They" is a Jewish Israeli right wing Zionist, support for "a land of all its people"  is code for "the destruction of Israel."========

^word salad^ 

http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDia ry.do?diaryId=5484

Hey Inofe, don't forget....ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

My Senator said so

11.

*** cChalfonte***
Sun, 03/30/08

Yes, Israelis have elections.  Likud can and has lost elections.  Some Israelis support Likud, some do not.
=========================

What they right wing fears is a "true Democracy" as opposed to a "Jewish Democracy" or a "Democracy for Jews only"

LIkud (or worse) has had th upper hand for decades since before 1948.  They  maintain the status quo with violence and fear, and fear through violence.   They entire history is revisionist, and the school children are protected from the truth of atrocities against Arabs, but not atrocities by Arabs.

The trauma of WWII, the holocaust, and the world abandonment of Jews during that time has a lot to do with it.

The new historians of Israel are revisionists of the revisitionist, that is, revisionists for the truth, as pieced together with archives, newspapers accounts, and documents. etc.

Israel need a revolution.

7:01 pm edt, almost sunset time... it's getting pretty!

http://www.hazecam.net/burlington.html

But to *rdorgan, yes I am difficult to understand - sometimes because of the nature of Internet communication and sometimes because I struggle. 

...

+++

Paine -

Thanks for the response.  For a second there, I thought you were downplaying soccer and baseball playing in late March.

Go Revs and go Red Sox !

For god's sake, people, listen to Judy for Dean and read Carter's book and remember the stance that our beloved Howard took (and was censured by the Jews in Congress).

Judy for Dean wrote:  and I commend her. 

I stop back at the blog for a few moments to see I/P discussions in full blast. That would be great if people were truly paying attention to each other as those discussions need to be held. But, as usual, both sides seem to be hurling insults or long-superseded words at each other.

Believe me, from what I myself have witnessed, most Israelis and Palestinians who actually live in the area get along one heck of a lot better than we do in the US in our *discussions* of the issue. In fact, if we had long ago stood firm on no Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories for one thing, this festering sore could likely have been lanced much earlier.

Rather than continue to throw words past each other, take a look at the situation on the ground from groups that actually work there, who see with their own eyes what is happening on a daily basis.

Is every other country in the world wrong about what is going on in the I/P situation? Are these groups wrong? Are we in the US always right about everything? He**, most of us speak only English and haven't a clue about what is going on in any of the cultures there, so it's not likely.

This is a situation that is so full of grays that there is no black and no white left.

If you can't go there and see for yourselves, which would be a major eye-opener for everyone here and would likely result in a decided shift in tone from some, at least listen to those who have been and who continue to try desperately to find solutions, while also trying just to help people keep body and soul together amid horrifying conditions.

I have been. I was shocked. I guarantee that many here would also be.

******

http://www.un.org/unrwa/48Commem/index.h...

http://www.undp.ps/en/index.html

http://crs.org/middle-east/

http://www.worldywca.info/index.php/ywca...

http://www.oxfam.org/en/programs/develop...

http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/coun...

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf...

In 1992 Rabin was elected as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party. In the elections that same year his party, strongly focusing on the popularity of its leader, managed to win a clear victory over the Likud of incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

However the Left bloc in the Knesset won an overall narrow majority, facilitated by the disqualification of small nationalist parties that did not manage to pass the electoral threshold. Rabin formed the first Labour led government in fifteen years, supported by a coalition of left wing parties and Shas, a Mizrahi orthodox religious party.

7:13 PM EDT

the world is a little darker today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080330/ap_on_re_us/obit_dith_pran_10

FILE **Dith Pran, center, embraces some of his relatives he has not seen since 1979 at the Site 2 refugee camp in Thailand seen in this Aug. 16, 1989, file photo.

`Killing Fields' survivor Dith Pran dies

By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer

9 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields," died Sunday. He was 65.

nice try Davidson

12. *** cChalfonte***
Sun, 03/30/08

^word salad^

=============

You want word salad? Well...

You always say that when I make a juicy meaty point.  What happened to your appetite for debate and  your  respect for a tantalizing question? 

It would be nice to get a little adverserial admiration from you than the same half-baked cliche.

Details of the research have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The researchers found that some Christian men in Lebanon carry a DNA signature hailing from Western Europe.

Four crusades came through Lebanon between the 11th and 13th Centuries - the first, second, third and sixth. The bulk of the crusader armies came from England, France, Germany and Italy; many of the men stayed to build castles and settlements, mixing with the local populations.

The scientists also found that Lebanese Muslim men were more likely than Christians to carry a particular genetic signature. But this one is linked to expansions from the Arabian Peninsula which brought Islam to the area in the 7th and 8th Centuries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7316281.stm

~~~~~~~~~~~~

been going on awhile, folks, won't be settled on the blog

bbl - ribs for dinner

Al Gore comin' up on '60 Minutes'

putz and Olmert are buds.  putz invades countries who can't adequately defend themselves.  So does Olmert.

So...are we known by the company we keep, or not?

This is not rocket science.  It's revenge, hate, oneupmanship, displaced rights of entitlement, and worst of all, tragic human suffering.

While Americans talk about word salads and base lines and rights to exist,  children are dying and starving and women are in unspeakable emotional agony.

Even my Jewish friends think this is deplorable. 

Thank you, Karen.  Maybe he'll address the I/P horror.

The Fred/ cC debate illustrates, alas, that even for rational and good people, there appears to be no middle ground on the ME.

Israel has the right to exist. The united states (AND the United Nations, given the opportunity) will enforce that right.

Israel does NOT have the right to inflict collective punishment on Palestinians; nor does it have the right to colonize the West Bank. There's definitely a chicken-egg thing here. Israel would not be pursuing its punitive, arrogant policy towards Palestinians without the unstinting support of the US; military, diplomatic, and financial. The US holds the key to ME peace. Hamas and Hezbollah are the products of US-Israeli arrogance and hubris.

 If the Palestinians are treated as equals by Israel, their leadership will rein in the terrorists, much as the early Israeli leadership reined in their terrorist crazies.

7:34 pm

 7:32 PM EDT

Shoulda said, Al Gore comin' up on '60 Minutes' , the second segment. First segment on now.

Fred, I would love to see Likud voted out of power.  However, from a point of scale, calling for "revolution"  in Iran, Jordan, Egypt and ANY number of Arab countries .....if any one of those countries were to democratize, commit to the rule of law.....following Israel's model, the ME would be moved forward exponentially.

JudyforDean, I've marked and will read your links.  The bottom line for me is that any one of the oil-rich Arab countries in the ME could do so much to advance democracy in their region but they choose not to....having their populations impoverished is just fine and even preferred by them.  I tire of hearing Israel blamed for all of the woes, most of which could be overcome by regime change in ARAB countries.....regime change that leads to democracy and rule of law, of course. 

so serene... 7:34 pm edt

http://www.hazecam.net/burlington.html

10.*** cChalfonte***
Sun, 03/30/08

They usually call for "Zionist Israel" or "Zionism"  to be destroyed, in favor of a State of all its people, including Jews.==

Nope.  The only person calling for a "one state solution" is fred in OR.

Palestinians call for a Palestinian State

===============================

If you just listen to the US media and the Israelis, that is what you will think.  Nothing else has ever been offered to them, a Palestinian State is the only door stated to possibly be open to them.

IMO  I don't believe that will ever come to pss de facto.  It is a great political red-herring though, for the right wing.  They've been alluding to it for decades while they build settlements and import the most right-wing orthodox immigrants from Russia, etc.

 bbl

Population of Israel:  7.2 million

The Arab world -- all of the Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the northeast. It consists of 22 countries and territories with a combined population of some 325 million people spanning two continents.

You always say that when I make a juicy meaty point.  What happened to your appetite for debate and  your  respect for a tantalizing question? ======

No.  I say that when you toss up a batch of meaningless sentences....."word salad". 

It would be nice to get a little adverserial admiration from you than the same half-baked cliche.=======

well, you'd have to earn that. 

Israel has the right to exist. The united states (AND the United Nations, given the opportunity) will enforce that right.

Israel does NOT have the right to inflict collective punishment on Palestinians; nor does it have the right to colonize the West Bank.========

You and I have no disagreement here, John. 

7:53 PM EDT

Marian Robinson:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185143625/bctid1478268018

"60 is the new 59"... Al Gore

WHEREAS, the State Government Committee of the Iowa House and Senate, have approved HF805 and SF 553—the Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections Act(VOICE) on a bi-partisan basis;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Iowa pass Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections(VOICE) legislation, as spelled out in House File805 and Senate File 553. Under this law an election system will be established in which candidates could choose to no longer raise money from private sources. Instead, each participating candidate would receive a set amount of money from a publicly financed election fund. Spending by the candidate would be limited to the amount they get from the election fund.

~~~~~~~~~~~

more platform work

28.

*** cChalfonte***
Sun, 03/30/08

Population of Israel:  7.2 million
The Arab world -- all of the Arabic-speaking countries

=====================

If Israel had not had a truly Democratic government, that did not show preference to religious or geneological Jews, I guarantee you the State of Israel would be much larger geographically, and more Jews would be living there too.

But then we would have to go back to the 1930s and rework the mentality from there.

first story on sixty minutes worth a watch too

To further assist and reach out to veterans we also support a significant increase in state education assistance. And to attain the goals, we support the creation of a permanent planning structure with goals equitable to all veterans

The cost for veterans' health care is projected to increase multi-fold because of the unique injuries associated with our current wars thereby compounding the problems of chronic under funding of the veterans' care system. Great human suffering and distraught social consequences have been created in the past by the failure of our government

This is not rocket science.  It's revenge, hate, oneupmanship, displaced rights of entitlement, and worst of all, tragic human suffering.=========

well, seashell, your remarks, imo, are typically hysterical and lacking any basis in fact. 

While Americans talk about word salads and base lines and rights to exist,  children are dying and starving and women are in unspeakable emotional agony.======

You don't corner the market on compassion, sea.....not by a longshot. Passive-aggressive behavior always irritates me.

Anyone who disagrees with meeeee supports "children dying/starving and women in unspeakable emotional agony."====

You cannot legitimately win a debate by emotional blackmail. 

We call for academic studies on philosophical, ethnic, cultural, and religious traditions in public schools in order to better equip our citizens with the social skills and understandings that are needed in our increasingly diverse communities.

2008 CLINTON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM

As amended and adopted by the Clinton County Democratic Convention, March 15, 2008

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

We reaffirm that the Democratic Party should be the party of the common person and should stand strongly for jobs at a living wage, decent and affordable housing, adequate health care, and a fiscally sound social security system for all.

We oppose discrimination based on gender, age, race, creed, religion, sexual orientation, economic status, disability, or ethnicity.

The increasing flow of our nation's wealth into the hands of fewer people continues. Tax cuts should not disproportionably benefit the wealthy at the expense of low and middle-income families.

Corporations continue to offer part-time and temporary jobs with no benefits and low wages. We believe that Iowa's future growth is dependent on full employment and that our people need full-time work with benefits and higher pay. We believe that part-time workers should have pro-rated benefits and decent pay. We support efforts which give workers organizational opportunities to deal with multinational corporations.

39.

*** cChalfonte***
Sun, 03/30/08

You don't corner the market on compassion, sea.....not by a longshot. Passive-aggressive behavior always irritates me....

You cannot legitimately win a debate by emotional blackmail

==================

You sure can.... the Zionist Right does it all the time by alluding to, or invoking, the holocaust.

dith pran--a profile in courage

***************

must-read:  today's latimes.com has a piece about rev wright's style of preaching, called 'prophetic theology,' to explain accountability through damnation.  the word, 'damn'--as in 'god damn america'--is used in that biblical sense.  btw, that snippet was cut from a sermon on god vs government.

************

scrappy davidson deserves to be damn proud!

Bill Clinton LIve!  - ready to come out to a crowd of 2,800 here in the valley in Medford, OR any minute now - live coverage on local channels here.

I'll give you a report on the lines.

You sure can.... the Zionist Right does it all the time by alluding to, or invoking, the holocaust.======

Take the Israel/Palestine thread monopolization & re-post cut-n-paste blather to private email "chat," pls.

It gets old (every weekend), ad nauseum.

Obama's Got All the Mooo-mentum!

See pictures of Barack feeding a calf.

It looks like he's got the Holstein vote corralled.

Ok, no more farm puns. Sorry, I watched Even Cowgirls Get the Blues last night on tv. 

Clinton on stage now in Medford OR

thanks in order to all locals

"amazing election...your votes will count... we should't stop.... big victory in PA, etc,."

"Everybody's gonna be heard, cant understand not counting FL..."

It gets old (every weekend), ad nauseum.======

I haven't participated in that discussion in several months, myself, Maine.

You can scroll in 0.25 nanoseconds. 

I'm not always interested in the minutae of the State Parks of Maine or neurotic repititions re. Hillary, the presumptive...or other items...so I just scroll.  You can do the same.  Pronto. 

The IP discussion is not preventing anyone from discussing something/anything else.

"Who will make the best future...??? ... I love her [Hillary]  but I love my country too....

I'm Trying to help new Orleans,  doing AIDs work around the world,...  I'd be for Hillary even if I wasn't married to her,....best plans....best plans....Iraq.... she's the best change maker...

The president is personally responsible for changing others' lives...people forget when they get to DC ....Bush and Katrina....It is easy forget who you are when president....[laughter]

Pres gets best housing, etc.  ...Hillary will never forget who she is...

I'll give you a report on the lines.=======

Now see....here is a personal pet peeve.  I find it tedious and not particularly informative when folks narrate something to the blog that they are watching on the tellie.....so I scroll it.

(not intentionally singling you out here, fred--many folks do it)

My point is this:  You can scroll what doesn't interest you....introduce a new topic or walk away....but the constant admonitions and wrist-slapping are a waste of time, really.  Not to mention annoying.