The Political Correctness of George W. Bush

Arthur D. Hlavaty provides me with a link to Molly Ivins' piece about what constitutes politically correct language, according to the Administration, on Social Security privatization -- excuse me, personalization.

I had already noticed a long time ago that "politically correct" is usually used to mean politically incorrect -- that is, at variance with the reality being promulgated by those who wield political power.

Doesn't it make a lot more sense to refer to the language used by people with political power as "PC", rather than the language used by outsiders who have none?

Pundit Payola

Please. This shouldn't be difficult. I shouldn't have to haul myself all the way up to the lookout just to tell you this:

Tax dollars should not be spent to secretly hire columnists to promote the government's position, and ten times over not to support one side of a partisan debate.

Why would anybody have a hard time understanding that?

Postcards for Buster

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is throwing a tantrum over an episode of the PBS kids' series "Postcards From Buster", because it depicts a real live girl with her real live parents who are . . . maple syrup tapsters!

No, I mean . . . homosexuals!

Yeah, that first thing didn't sound right . . . .

Come to think of it, the second one doesn't, either.

PDX -- That Was Fun

I went to Portland without Kathe today. I hardly ever do things without her, but I had a rarish opportunity due to a space in my schedule, and since Kathe didn't want to go, I devoted the day to hanging out with my Portland friends, spending time with them without having to worry about Kathe being bored or annoyed.

Preparing for the trip, I looked at the box of graphic novels that the Library had chosen not to shelve (see yesterday's entry). Since they had undergone the iconic experience of being hauled in a little red wagon, I decided to take them to Portland and see if Francine or Diane wanted to borrow them.

I met Kathe's daughter Sarah for lunch. She got a kick out of showing me around her workplace, introducing me as her "stepfather". Her amusement at being 45 with a 44-year-old stepfather reminded me of when my son Waldy was born. We went to visit Sarah, and Sarah's son Loy, then six, invited his friends in to see his "baby uncle".

Sarah bought me some food at a Chinese buffet, and while we sat eating and talking in her car, Kathe called my cell phone to inform me that she'd received a text message from our daughter Asnakech, reminding her that today is Ash's 23rd birthday. We were partly excused by the fact that Ash barely remembered it herself.

I went by the apartment Asnakech shares with our son Tesfaye but nobody was home at that point, so off to Tigard to see Francine. I met Francine when we were both innocent yougn college students who could be moved to tears by the (first) death of Jean Grey. It had been a long time since we'd been able to spend a couple of hours together, and it was good to catch up.

I dropped by Ash and Tes' place again and found them home. We had coffee and talked about old times.

Next, I crossed the river yet again to see Diane, a friend of more recent vintage than Francine but also valued and too seldom-seen. Her collection of fantasy memorabilia of all kinds continues to grow.

And then home, and boy did it get late. But a couple of hours of driving in the dark (ecch) were worth it. I feel so good after blowing a day doing what I wanted to do.

Library Books

After several years of working up the nerve, I packed up most of my "graphic novels" and took them to the public library. There, the hardworking Alex sorted through them over several days, set aside the ones which she was actually going to shelve, and called me to pick up the remainder (I wasn't going to donate them unreservedly, and have them wind up feeding some Friends of the Library 3/$1 table).

I'm going to miss the Superman Archives, the Batman Archives and other things Alex accepted. I'm going to wonder why she didn't take Kingdom Come or Somerset Holmes. But I'm going to feel really good seeing my books on the shelves.

Worth a Try, I Suppose

Lawsuit Filed Against George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney

Doug Wallace

WASHINGTON -- January 18 "Information Clearing House" -- A lawsuit was filed late Friday January 14th in the U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada against President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The lawsuit alleges that both defendants have acted outside the scope of their job description in waging a war against Iraq. The complaint alleges that both defendants and others working within the White House and Defense Department have covertly implemented a white paper called “Rebuilding America’s Defenses:” as presented by the Project for the New American Century or PNAC in September, 2000 two months before the murky elections of that year. Among the persons signing the paper were Richard Cheney and Jeb Bush. While the paper was published on the internet, implementation of it by the White House has been in secret.

The thrust of the white paper calls for the complete domination of the globe by the US with wars against Iraq, Syria, and Iran, domination of outer space and of Cyberspace. It calls for an enlarged military to fight simultaneous wars. Security bases world wide with extensive constabulary forces posted to keep all nations subservient to US military and economic power. It also calls for nuclear rockets to be fired from Spy satellites to suppress any challenge to US global domination.

The class action lawsuit filed by retired attorney and great-grandfather, Doug Wallace alleges that the defendants have violated their oaths of office in entering into a private treaty relating to International relations without approval of the Congress and have made a mockery of the Constitution under a false banner of a war on terrorism.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction against further implementation of the PNAC plan without a 2/3 vote of the congress and a full disclosure to the American Public. It also names John Does 1-100 as defendants. The suit seeks restitution to the US Treasury from all Defendants of the cost of the war with Iraq and also seeks a ruling that since the deception about the war and execution of it was outside of their job descriptions they should all be individually liable to private persons injured as a result of their illegal conduct. To view Complaint go to www.dougwallace.com Under the circumstances, notice of support to the court would be appropriate (A printable copy is available at page 26 on website ).

CONTACT: Founders Freedom Defense Fund : Doug Wallace 775-833-5010

Copyright © Information Clearing House. All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

Me Neither

Nothing much happened today.

Didn't do anything special.

And we didn't spend one damn dime.

I Love My Kids

Kathe and I drove to Portland today to deliver some more fo Tesfaye's stuff, primarily his bed. We took the van, ruinous though its gas milage is, in order to hold the mattress and box spring.

Along the way we stopped at a coffee shack, had a mocha and took photos, adding one more entry to our hoped-for coffee table book on the Northwest's coffee shacks.

It was good to see Tes after a few weeks without him. Good to see Biftu (aka Asnakech) again, also. And before we left, we got to sit down and have some wat and injera. *Grin*

Left for another trip will be visits to friend Diane, friend Bella, friend Heather in Salem, and stops at several other nifty coffee shacks seen along the way, as well as the London Eatery, a coffee shack in a retired doubledecker bus.

David Brooks and/or American Women

To: David Brooks, columnist, New York Times
From: John M. Burt, blogging person
Re: Your column on American women's career options

Interesting piece. I agree that the common pattern of a professional woman interrupting her career at mid-gallop in order to have babies after her healthiest and most fertile period has ended is less than ideal. It seems to me that it would indeed make more sense for women to have their children earlier, and go to work later.

Yours is the first proposal for conservative social engineering I've seen in a long time that struck me as reasonable, neither excessively punitive nor offensively condescending. Thank you for something worth chewing over.

Happy Birthday

Follow the link above, to http://www.mecca.org/~crights/dream.html

That should do for today.

Good Morning

I'm up, Kathe's sleeping in, in a few minutes I must go and take a sweet little old lady to Meeting (church). A quiet moment. Of course, since we're going to a Quaker Meeting, the whole morning is going to be pretty quiet. . . .

Yesterday morning there was a thick pebbled coating of ice on everything. Very pretty on the trees, but annoyingly durable on the windshields, and scary on the street.

I had coffee and a sandwich for breakfast. Did you know that if you freeze cream cheese, it comes out in this crumbly form, more cheese and less creaminess? It doesn't spread as well as ordinary cream cheese, but I like the texture.

Some people write entries like this every day on their blogs.

Good News

I actually prefer the good news, believe it or not. True, I don't blog much about it, but really I'd rather climb up to the lookout tower and look up good news, and tell you about it here. I'd rather log onto Heavens Above and look up what satellites and space debris will be visible in tonight's night sky over Corvallis (three rocket boosters, two satellites and the space station, as it happens), and watch them from the lookout (or, if I feel more comfortable in a non-imaginary location, from the street out in front of the house).

The Huygens probe, now there's good news. Excellent news, delightful news. River beds, shoreline, rocks washed up by ancient flows. Beautiful. Delightful. I wonder what the flowing liquid is? And are those rocks water-ice? Just curious.

The next lander will have to have a rover, so it can go hunt around and look for signs of life and interesting patterns of deposition.

Humans have successfully landed a probe on distant Saturn, and have not used it to kill anybody so far. Kinda gives you this funny feeling . . . "hope", I think it's called.

I think I'll climb back down to the house and pet the rats for awhile, and then go cuddle up in bed next to my sweetie.

Dubious Impact

Isn't NASA asking for trouble by naming a spacecraft after the film Deep Impact?

After all, that was a disaster movie.

True, it's only a robotic probe, it's not like they named a space shuttle Titanic, but even so . . . .

We've Got Rats

A family member is moving and has therefore gifted us with rats. Four healthy males: Chewbacca, Horatio, Ratzilla and Bob. Oddly, there is no Bill, even though the family has a long tradition of rats named Bill: Mister Bill, Dollar Bill, Three-Dollar Bill, Food Bill (a large one), &c. They're all friendly and well-socialized, accustomed to crawling back and forth across people's shoulders. Kathe and I have made friends with them and they are now settled into our house and our shoulders.

We may or may not also be receiving the former owner's last rat, a female named Mrs. B. She has been and will be housed apart from the males, in order to ensure that this gift does not keep on giving.

Alberto the Torturer, Still

Columnist David Sarasohn reports, "It's now big news that the next United States attorney general thinks torture is a bad idea. It's a smaller story that it turns out he actually doesn't. "'Despite reports,' Gonzales said firmly, he didn't consider the Geneva Conventions 'quaint and obsolete' -- although the 'reports' consisted of a memo he signed saying that he did."

When pressed on whether he still believed, as another signed statement he made indicates, that the President has authority to exempt torturers from U.S. laws and treaties, Gonzales simply refused to answer.

It looks as though poor, put-upon Judge Gonzales is indeed being "borked" -- Like Robert Bork, he is being rightly condemned out of his own mouth for his bizarre and morally putrid legal pronouncements.

Still Proudly Unindicted

Clackamas County Prosecutor Alfred French has been found by the Secretary of State's office not to have violated any Oregon election laws in the course of filing his affidavit on behalf of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the recent Presidential election.

He is found not to have done anything illegal in using his job title, or in having his statement notarized by a county staff notary.

Left unanswered is whether he did anything illegal or unethical by telling BIG FAT LIES in his affidavit.

But hey, who care about truth?

Psychology 215

Developmental Psychology is the last prerequisite for admission to the nursing program at LBCC. After this, there is nothing else I can do to earn more points towards admission, except come back year after year re-applying.

On the other hand, maybe I'll get in this year. Think positive.

I wasn't looking forward to this. After all, I already have a Bachelor's degree in psychology, even though I happened not to have taken 215, so how much benefit could I gain from taking it?

It's not too bad, though. A little heavy on squashy psychodynamic theorizing for my tastes, but I can handle it, I reckon.

Bush's Mandate

Yes, Mr. President, you DO have a mandate…

It is written in the U.S. Constitution: “…form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” [Preamble to the U.S. Constitution]

Today, as you swear to uphold our Constitution, please consider this:

Form a More Perfect Union
· Help unite our divided American people. Listen to what all sides say, not just those who agree with you.

Establish Justice
· Appoint truly representative Supreme Court justices who have demonstrated allegiance to fairness, not to a particular point of view.
· Protect the individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Do not threaten or weaken them in the name of the War on Terror.
· Protect the weaker, poorer and less powerful members of society from the richer and more powerful members.

Insure Domestic Tranquility
· Help bring peace to our neighborhoods. The Wars on Drugs and Terror have failed to bring this peace precisely because they depend on a war mentality.
· Help strengthen families by providing the tools they need to be resilient, not merely by referring them to religion.

Provide for the Common Defense
· Protect us from real and immediate threats, such as crime in the streets and in corporate suites, hunger and homelessness; not questionable threats from distant lands, such as Iraq and Iran.

Promote the General Welfare
· See that the wealth of this great land is shared fairly and widely enough that no hard-working citizen is denied a stake in it.
· Protect our environment.
· Provide quality public education for grades K through college.
· Ensure that all Americans have health insurance.

Secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and our Posterity
· Ensure that our liberty is protected not just from those outside our country, but also from those inside it.
· Consider the effect on the wellbeing of future generations when making today’s policies.

We, the undersigned, call upon you, Mr. President, to carry out this mandate.

To help Oregon PeaceWorks place this message as an advertisement in the January 20th edition of the Portland Oregonian, send a donation to Oregon PeaceWorks, 104 Commercial St. NE, Salem, OR 97301; www.oregonpeaceworks.org.

Those Poor Savages -- Or Not

Once in awhile you hear about those tiny isolated tribes living on islands in the Indian Ocean, diligently preserving their isolation from the outside world. And good for them.

Now we learn that they, alone of all the nations affected by the Boxing Day tsunami, may have nboticed that something was up and taken effective action to protect themselves.

So now we have a whole new reason for wanting to make contact with them: because they know something we need to learn.

By golly.

Belated Christmas Present for the Infertile

Check out the link above for Soper's clear and brilliant analysis of Mr. & Mrs. Claus' real problem: infertility.

Brilliant.

In other news, I need a haircut. I'll see if I can get Bella or Diane to do it. That would involve going to Portland, but that's okay, I like Portland.

Weighing In

October 8th, 2004: 240 lbs.

November 2nd, 2004: 222 lbs.

December 1st, 2004: 217 lbs.

December 30th, 2004 (counting as my January, since I was near a medical-grade balance scale) : 215 lbs.

Not bad, considering that's weight lost over Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and their various leftovers periods.

It's the chocolate I realy can't escape. Mmmmm, chocolate . . . .

Still, not bad. I'm going to try for 200 lbs.

What was my program? Unfortunately, you can tweak it any way you like with this nutrient and that, this kind of exercise and that, but in the final analysis you have to eat less than will sustain life. This is painful, your body tries to force you to stop doing it, but there's no way around it. Eat less than will sustain life, and stop before you do yourself a serious injury.

For some reason, climbing all those steps to the lookout every day doesn't seem to have any effect on the process.

Also, check out the zine at the link above and here. Not that it has anything to do with my weight, I just think it's cool.

Happy New Year

It's a new year, all things are made new.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

Hope is renewed.

Try to feel it, John.

Try to feel like we can all begin again.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

Can't sleep, clowns will eat me.

It's a new year, all things are made new. . . .