Centrist Defectors

Atrios says "Centrist" Dems need to apologize to Pelosi":

Call the offices of Steny Hoyer (202) 225-4131, John Tanner (202) 225-4714, and Ron Kind at (202) 225-5506, and tell them to apologize to Pelosi for being babies and apologize to America for voting for and vocally supporting that bankruptcy bill. Remind them that they did indeed sell out to special interests, we know they did, and we will not stop pointing that out. If they make these decisions, they will be called on it.


As someone in Ron Kind's district, I take his vote on the bankruptcy bill as an insult to the people who have voted him easily into office in the last several elections.

Catholics: No SoupLiving Wills For You!!

According to the Madison, WI diosece:

The Bishop of the Madison Diocese is clarifying the church's position on living wills.

He answered in a recent edition of the Catholic Herald stating that, "According to the church's doctrine, if a living will gets in the way of medical procedures that could prevent death, even if a person is permanently unconscious, it is a mortal sin."
"When the boxes are checked off, one would get the impression that the author of this document intends suicide under certain circumstances, and that can never be for a disciple of Christ," says Bishop Morlino.

(Emphasis mine)

I can see the need for the Diosece to need to clarify their stance on living wills, but this is just absurd. Taken to its logical end, the Bishop is stating that, in essense, a Catholic's refusal to let modern technology keep that person alive by any means constitutes sin. Also, a person's choosing to not hold onto life no matter what cost also constitutes sin.

So is a willing martyr of the Christian faith also a sinner? After all, he/she is choosing to die for their faith.

Luke 17:33
"Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose 'his life' shall preserve it. "

Just another part of the Catholic faith that I do not understand.

An Open Letter To Rep. Melissa Bean

After the 2004 election, many democratic voters like myself took solace in the fact that, amidst the great disappointment of the presidential and congressional losses that occurred, some small feeling of victory for common-sense American values was gained by victories in races like yours.

However, your and several other Democrats have chosen to vote in favor of the Bankruptcy bill and the Estate Tax Repeal Bill. Evidently, you feel obliged to serve more lucrative interests than the average American can offer.

Maybe your constituents feel more comfortable with your voting for these bills - they must all be very well off, or else they would feel concerned about your being in favor of easing the tax burden of the super-rich while at the same time being willing to remove protections from those who suffer financial hardships.

Please feel free to remove your "non-Rich" constituents from any further offers of financial support for any of your future campaigns - I'm sure you will be rewarded plenty from the new interests you have decided to serve.

Red State Values - PimpingLife, What A Beautiful Choice

Sickening -

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. - A woman was arrested for allegedly forcing her 12-year-old daughter into prostitution and trading a 14-year-old daughter for a car.The 39-year-old woman was charged with aggravated child abuse and sexual performance by a child. Both girls have been turned over to the Department of Children & Families.The youngest girl and her mother were living out of their car, and would sell sex for food and an occasional shower at the men's homes, according to a report by Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office Detective K.J. Ammons.


Welcome to Red State America.

The American Media Machine: A View From Riverbend

About a month ago, we were treated to an interview on 20/20 with Sabrina Harman- the witch in some of the Abu Ghraib pictures. You know- the one smiling over faceless, naked Iraqis piled up to make a human pyramid. Elizabeth Vargus was doing the interview and the whole show was revolting. They were trying to portray Sabrina as an innocent who was caught up in military orders and fear of higher ranking officers. The show went on and on about how American troops never really got seminars on Geneva Conventions (like one needs to be taught humanity) and how poor Sabrina was being made a scapegoat. They showed the restaurant where she worked before the war and how everyone thought she was “such a nice person” who couldn’t hurt a fly! We sat there watching like we were a part of another world, in another galaxy. I’ve always sensed from the various websites that American mainstream news is far-removed from reality- I just didn’t know how far. Everything is so tame and simplified. Everyone is so sincere.

Furthermore, I don’t understand the worlds fascination with reality shows. Survivor, The Bachelor, Murder in Small Town X, Faking It, The Contender… it’s endless. Is life so boring that people need to watch the conjured up lives of others?

I have a suggestion of my own for a reality show. Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in the suburbs of, say, Falloojeh for at least 14 days. We could watch them cope with the water problems, the lack of electricity, the check points, the raids, the Iraqi National Guard, the bombings, and- oh yeah- the ‘insurgents’. We could watch their house bombed to the ground and their few belongings crushed under the weight of cement and brick or simply burned or riddled with bullets. We could see them try to rebuild their life with their bare hands (and the equivalent of $150)…I’d not only watch *that* reality show, I’d tape every episode.

Better yet, how about Jenna and Not-Jenna in an Iraqi version of "The Simple Life"? Jenna avoiding IED's and RPG rounds as she scours Falloojeh looking for a bar to score a drink........see "not-Jenna" get harrased by fundamentalists for not wearing a hijab and veil. Should be a hoot.

Blame The Clenis

Repub's at it again, laying the blame of Iraq intelligence on WMD's, 9/11, and anything else that has not gone right so far this century on.........you guessed it......William Jefferson Clinton.

The United States' pre-war intelligence on Iraq was dead wrong, according to the president's Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite the report, Missouri's senior U.S. senator says the decision to go to war was still the right one.
In an interview here on Thursday, Bond (R-Missouri)said the bad intelligence came from an archaic system based on assumptions rather than thorough analysis and human intelligence. He also placed much of the blame on the Clinton administration.

[...]

The senator notes that the commission cleared the Bush administration of manipulating the intelligence for political purposes. He took a shot at the Democrats.
“The Clinton administration cut the intel budget by 20 percent. The Director of Intelligence got rid of spies -- human intelligence that we badly needed in the war against terror,” said Bond.

So, we went to war in Iraq based on bogus intel........Clinton was to blame for the bogus intel.......but in spite of the bogus intel, it was still a good idea to invade Iraq.....so Bush gets credit for invading Iraq to stop Saddam from giving WMD's to his Al-Queda friends. liberating Iraq due to faulty intelligence information caused by the Clinton administration......and the Clinton administration gets blamed for causing bad intel to be used as a reason to liberate Iraq go to war to stop Saddam from giving WMD's to his Al-Queda friends.

Evidently, Reason, Common Sense, and Rationality just had their feeding tubes pulled by the Republican Party.