Democratic Debates

This time I felt that Edwards really separated himself from the pack and especially from Hillary. She waffled and refused to take a definitive stance on anything, a true politician using political speak - sound important but don't really make a commitment that will offend anyone. Edwards never had that problem, he took a firm stand on everything and did not waffle at all.

First came the Iraq War, Edwards stated flat out that he would immediately start bringing the troops home as fast as the generals say it's safe to do. Hillary said she might leave some troops in to still do military ops. Hard to be more different than that. This falls in line with her vote for the war with Iran earlier today, she's republican light, not a true liberal and democrat. The pundits are making a big deal this morning of the fact that none of the top three would promise to get out of Iraq by the end of their first term. This doesn't bother me, it's actually a good idea to not commit to something you can't be certain of. I'd rather see that than have people make promises when they have no idea if they can deliver.

The second instance that stood out was on Social Security, Hillary was so vague she didn't even answer it at all but just said we have to first move towards fiscal responsibility and she would not say one thing she would do to fix it. Edwards immediately came out and said he would raise the cap on the income limit on taxes, to me the single most important issue about Social Security. He said exactly what I think, that it's ridiculous that someone who makes $50 million a year will only pay FICA tax on the first $97,000 and none at all on the rest. While someone who makes $80,000 will be taxed for his entire income. Make everyone pay the tax on ALL their income and all problems will be solved and we could probably even lower the tax rate. Edwards gave real answers even if it might not please everyone.

The pundits on MSNBC all said the same thing, especially Chris Matthews, he seemed really angry that Hillary dodged so many questions. And they all gave Edwards points for being direct and honest. On the Today Show this morning Tim Russert commented on Hillary's reluctance to take a stand on many issues.

But Kucinich had the best line of the night. He said: “You can have someone who was against the war from the beginning, and voted against it consistently ever since . . . or you can have someone taller.”

Delusional

It seems that President Bush has been sending memos through back channels to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with tips on how to stay in Iraq. Really! I'm totally serious here, this really happened, it says so in the new book by Bush's lapdog Bill Sammon, The Evangelical President.

Apparently Bush thinks that once someone is sitting in the Oval Office and sees the intelligence (a really appropriate name for it, eh?) that Bush has seen a rational person can only come to the very same conclusion Bush has, that we have to stay there forever!

And he wants to keep Gitmo open so that his successor will have that option. It's almost enough to make you start feeling sorry for the guy, I wonder if there is enough air up there in the clouds where he lives.

The fun part is imagining what the Hillary and Obama camps did when they got those memos. First I would imagine stunned looks all around, follow by peal of hysterical laughter.

Someone ought to put Bush and O'Reilly in the same room together, alone but with video running, just to see what they might say in private to each other.

Racist O'Reilly

It seems that Bill O'Reilly, affectionally called Billo by Keith Olbermann, went into Harlem with Al Sharpton and had dinner at a place called Sylvia's. Supposedly famous but I've never heard of it, but then I do live on the other coast and haven't been to New York in 38 years.
Apparently Bill has never been there before either and was amazed at what he saw:

I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship.

First time I heard about this I just couldn't believe it but it's the real thing as you can see here at Media Matters. They even have the audio of Bill saying this. Bill goes on to say:

There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all.

Wow! Black people acting just like ordinary people!!?? When did this happen? Must have been when Bill had his head up his ass.

It's astonishing that anyone could be that much of a racist in this day and age and not even know he was one. In fact, when CNN did a story on this, playing the audio so everyone would know Bill really said it, O'Reilly called up the anchor and screamed at him over the phone for making him look like a racist.

Seems like Billo's head is still firmly jammed up there.

Bill Maher Against Religion

In last Friday's show Bill really disses religion and speaks up for rationalists everywhere:

Olbermann Slams Bush

And here is Keith's comments on Bush's comments at the press conference. The one that made the democrats jump up and yell "How Far, Sir!"

MoveOn

Myself and many others have been fuming at the democrats being spineless, craven twits and voting to censure MoveOn for their ad. Here's a note I sent to the Democrats in the Senate:

"Why are you spineless Democrats jumping every time Bush says anything? He's supposed to be a lame duck yet a bad answer at a press conference initiates an immediate vote. Why do you keep letting him play you like puppets?"

And here is a letter I received from MoveOn, I'm incredibly moved by the comments from military people who understand what America is all about and aren't falling for Bush's horse-puckey. It makes me so angry that the burden of this war has fallen on a very small percentage of our population - the families of our professional military, mostly poor and rural folks, while the rich sit back and make big bucks off their lives and limbs:

Dear MoveOn member,

Yesterday, an amazing thing happened. After the Senate's shameful vote, and after President Bush called MoveOn "disgusting," our email started to fill up with messages like this one:

I'm currently in Iraq. I do not agree with this war, and if I did support this war, it would not matter. You have the RIGHT to speak the truth. We KNOW that you support us. Thank you for speaking out for being our voice. We do not have a voice. We are overshouted by those who say that we soldiers do not support organizations like MoveOn. WE DO.

YOU ARE OUR voice.

And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000—more than we've raised any day this year—for our new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq.

The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don't back down. Take the fight back to the issues that matter.

All day, messages from vets and military family members kept pouring into our email, many of them aimed at the Senate:

I have given a son to this country. My brother, my father, my uncle have all served honorably and bravely. I am a loyal American. I am outraged and sick to death of the tactics this administration uses to try to silence dissent to a war that is unjust, built and maintained on lies, political power, and greed. I was content to let others fight more loudly, but no more.
–Sharyn W., NC

I am a prior soldier who served in Iraq for 13 months, and am now an expecting mom with a husband who is deployed in Baghdad. I don't think I can ever forgive the Bush administration for the lies that tricked America into this war and hurt my family so badly. I am ashamed of those American politicians who would condemn an organization for practicing the Freedom of Speech that so many soldiers have died for.
–Danielle B., OH

As a US Navy veteran and an Iraq war veteran of over a year I want to ask, What has happened to us? What has happened to our voice? Where is this country going with stopping free speech and free press? ... Every time I think of the long nights I had in Anbar remembering what I was fighting for, well here it is....
–Ahmad H., LA

These folks have made sacrifices many of us can't imagine. Their charge to us was clear: keep speaking the truth about how President Bush and the Republicans have betrayed our trust.

And still the messages kept coming ...

I've had three nephews serve since 2002, one of whom was killed in Anbar Province. I have a fourth nephew at Quantico training. I want this war over before he is deployed and before any more of our soldiers are sacrificed.
–Michele R., NE

Three members of my family are military. Two Marines have served in Iraq and an Army Lt. is deploying in November. If we had all spoken out when the administration used General Powell perhaps we would not be in this mess.
–Carol B., PA

As a Marine I served for many reasons but one of them was to allow people the freedom of speech, whether I agreed with it or not. Wearing a uniform does not mean someone isn't a shill, is spewing propaganda, and downright lies. MoveOn has every right to buy an ad and say what they want about a public figure. This administration has lied to us, deceived us, misled us and when posed with a challenge this is how they respond?
–Keith G., VA

The Senate won't pass a policy to end the war or even to make sure our troops in the field have enough rest time between deployments, but they hold votes to crack down on millions of Americans who are upset about the war?

Well—it isn't going to work. We put together a hard-hitting ad that highlights how Republicans failed our troops and if we can raise enough money today, we'll air it across the country. Please help if you can:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/mcconnell.html?id=11275-8591002-R2tYtm&t=4

For all of us on the MoveOn staff, this week was a bit of a rollercoaster—MoveOn was attacked by nearly the entire Republican party, while too many Democrats ran for the hills. But what kept us going were messages like these—and the incredible privilege we feel to serve all 3.2 million Americans in MoveOn.org.

When the story is written of how the Iraq war ended, you will be the heroes. Thank you.

Health Care

Here is a story on American Prospect by Ezra Klein. Supposed to be about Hillary but seems to be more about Edwards. He says we have Edwards to thank for getting Obama and Hillary to come out with health insurance plans as far towards universal coverage as they have. Without him they would have been much more timid. One of the reasons I support Edwards:

Edwards was perhaps an unlikely candidate to push the health care conversation forward. In 2004, his primary campaign released a plan that didn't even pretend to cover every America -- it sought little more than coverage for kids. But freed from the (partly self-imposed) strictures of his 2004 role as the southern moderate, Edwards' 2008 campaign has been far bolder in its policy. Exhibit A is his health care plan, released long before that of any other major candidate, which achieves full coverage, offers a public insurance option, regulates the insurers, and much more. It is easily the most impressive health care reform proposal adopted by a national Democrat in 15 years.

I saw him speak about health care at one of the debates and he was very passionate about it and seems to really understand what the problems are and the cost in money, suffering and lives with our current health care system. How much any candidate can do remains to be seen, I think a lot of that will depend on how many Democrats get elected to congress.

Adobe Icons

I final got Adobe Creative Suite 3, so now I am fully Intel Mac-ed with my most important and most used applications. They are very nice and very fast - but man, what god-awful icons they came up with!!

This is a company whose main focus for years is making the top creative apps in the biz, every graphics pro uses these apps, and this is the best they can do for their own icons? Sheesh!

Fortunately, all is not lost for people are coming up with new ones to replace them with - Adobe Icons.

None of these are great but great isn't needed to be better than Adobe's icons. Actually, just being awful would be an improvement. The Adam Betts ones are my favorite.

Hillary Health Care

My friend, Long Live the Village Green has a post about Hillary's new health care plan. Like most of us she is still trying to figure it out because many things aren't spelled out:

At lunch I checked my Faithless (Atheist and Agnostic) Group email and found a posting from one of our members about Hillary Clinton's newly revealed health plan. He was outraged. In his words, "This isn't universal health care, this is mandatory health insurance. Health insurance is not health care. Millions of people who have insurance aren't getting the health care they require because the insurance companies decide what gets covered. And this nation values the private sanctity of the insurance companies more than health care."

I'm on that same list and share those concerns but supposedly part of her plan is government subsidies to the insurance companies to make sure the cost of insurance is reasonable. Also she has the option of joining Medicare, which I think must be either free or low cost, but she doesn't say. There is something about insurance payments always being a percentage of your income.

Hillary may not have the best plan but any step to universal health care in this country is a good one. And for those who think the government can only be terrible with these things I have to point out my wife Darcy. Diagnosed with a fatal lung disease 14 years ago and needing a transplant, she had to go on Medicare. She was part of an online group of people waiting for lungs and the stories of all of them were terrible. Every single time those with private insurance were initially turned down for the transplant. Some would just give up at that point and die, others would fight and most of the time would finally get approval, but a fight with your insurance company is the last thing someone with a fatal illness should have the face.

But Darcy was the only one who didn't have any problems, because she had Medicare - government insurance. Those who think private insurance will work better than the government has never had to put their insurance to the test.

After the transplant there are tons of very expensive drugs one has to take, totaling around $5,000 per month, far beyond what any working person can afford. Once again, Darcy had no problem but those with private insurance got messed with every step of the way. One had her insurance company sold to an HMO who only allowed a limit of $250 a month for meds. She's dead now.

This is the concern of the writer above, it is still private insurance and they will still try to get out of having to pay for anything expensive. There has a to be a way around that.

Rebutting Bush

Bush's speech last night was so far from reality that on MSNBC Joe Biden practically blew a gasket and almost called Bush insane. He was as angry as I'd ever seen him. Today on Hardball Chris Matthews spent the whole time showing how everything Bush said was an outright lie. Especially his ridiculous claim that there are 36 other countries helping us. Turns out there is 24 and a few of those are a single soldier, and one of those was just asked to withdraw by his government. Our troops number 15 times all the other countries combined. I don't even like Matthews and think he's nothing but a kiss-ass Republican sycophant, but I could see even he was pissed off and amazed that Bush could say what he did. After 6 years and a million dead human beings it seems the press has finally caught on that Bush is lying - amazing.

On Alternet there is a very good article by Howie Klein that sums it all up, with comments from several Democrats, but the best thing on there is the video of Edwards' commercial that came on right after Bush. With that speech he showed himself different from all the other Democrats, he laid it on the line and told off congressional Democrats as well as Bush, all the others are still playing political games while people die. I had high hopes for Obama when he entered the race but instead of being a leader and showing he was outside of the usual party leadership he fit himself right in as just another player, saying all the right things in just the right way, which is why he's second, and the media likes him. Howie has quotes from Hillary, Obama, Harry Reid, Pelosi and Howard Dean. Compare them all to what Edwards says, only Dean even comes close and Edwards is suffering from the same thing that ended Dean's run in 04, the media doesn't like him.

The only three candidates with the guts to go outside of the mold and speak their minds are Edwards, Kucinich and Gravel. Kucinich and Gravel don't stand a chance, the media don't like them either, although after hearing Dennis earlier this week on the Ed Schultz Show my opinion of him went way up. I'd probably vote for him except I really do like Edwards better and he has a chance to win, even though the odds are against him right now it isn't out of reach, he IS leading in Iowa.

How Popular Is Bush Now?

I just found a new blog that looks interesting, here's an excerpt of one post:

Do you want some swing state proof that the GOP is on its last legs? Ok, how about in my home state of Ohio, the ultimate swing state.

Example 3: Here in the Buckeye State, George W. Bush had a 61% approval rating in April of 2003, which now stands at 30%. On Iraq his approval has fallen from 66% to 28%. Whether the War in Iraq was worth all we have lost, he has fallen from 51% saying yes to 28% now saying yes.

Wow, Americans hate him, Ohioans hate him as much if not more than their countrymen overall and all hate his policies.

Oh, how the "mighty" have fallen. And despite all the polls neither Bush nor the Democratic Congress seem to have a clue about how most of America feels.

A note about Petraeus, when asked if the war in Iraq was making us safer he paused for a minute and looked confused then said he didn't know, he had been focused on meeting his objectives in Iraq. Excuse me? Does everyone get what this means? The man leading our war in Iraq doesn't know if the war is in our best interest. This means that saying we were safer was too big a lie for him to tell to congress but he couldn't go against Bush so he said I don't know, and had that deer in the headlights look for a minute or so. It wasn't the kind of question where he could pull a Gonzales and say "I don't recall" so "I don't know" was the best he could do.

Liberal & Conservative Brains

There is a new study out on the difference between liberal and conservative brains and how each type functions. Full article can be read here.

Frank Sulloway, a researcher at the Institute of Personality and Social Research, at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study, said results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity."

Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times more likely than conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts and were 2.2 times more likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.

What does this mean? Very simply that liberals actually use their brains more - this is that little known activity called THINKING! Some people (especially conservatives) have heard rumors of such activity but haven't experienced much of it themselves.

It doesn't say if this is genetic, that our brains are hard wired for a particular way of thinking. The study really isn't broad enough for that but my guess is it would be 50/50. This is the usual percentages researchers in nurture/nature studies cite. This is because they don't really know except that both seem to have very large influences.

My guess is that this type of mindset is learned and is based on two very different perspectives. For the liberals it's all about curiosity, for the conservatives it's all about fear. How does one get their particular perspective that shapes how their brains function? That brings us back to the nurture/nature argument. In my opinion nurture vs nature is all over the board, some people seem to be highly influenced by how they were raised while others seem to be completely untouched by it and go their own way, and still others seem a nice blend of both. In my case I've pretty much always been curious and still am. I read science and history books for fun, after all, just to learn something new. Conservatives seem to be more concerned with being safe than in learning new things. In fact, one very strong image I have of the religious conservative is they want to keep their children away from knowledge because it's dangerous.

They'd be right, it is dangerous, probably THE most dangerous thing around, but that just makes it more interesting.

Larry Craig

I love this guy! As far as bad publicity for the Republicans we couldn't ask for a better guy, not only is he gay and refuses to admit it, got picked up by the cops and pleaded guilty, but he won't resign! The leaders of the GOP must be in a frenzy, only by tossing him out can they get him out of the news cycle, but he won't go. The last word on Friday is he WILL resign. I sure hope he un-resigns again, after all, he didn't leave right away but will stick around for a couple more weeks. Plenty of time for him to change his mind 2 or 3 times.

And to add to the irony, the Republican Presidential Convention next year is being held in Minneapolis. This means everyone going to it has to go through the same airport that Craig was arrested in. Oh, that should be fun. They should rename it the Larry Craig Memorial Airport, or maybe just the men's room; The Larry Craig Memorial Men's Room with a little plaque on the door and arrows pointing to it placed all over the airport. Oh, what fun.

And they can't drive there because the bridge is gone. All of which makes Minneapolis the perfect place for their convention since it sums up a large part of Republican rule nicely.

Keith Olbermann lays waste to President Bush

Like he hasn't done that before, but Keith's commentaries are well worth listening to. It's like he's the only special commentator left in America who isn't on the right wing payroll or an idiot, the only one really willing to tell the truth about Bush.

Glossy Screens Part 3

A while back I wrote a post on the new iMac glossy screens, only problem was I hadn't actually seen one yet.  So I went and found some at the Apple store so I could see for myself what all the fuss was about.  Unfortunately, they were far worse than I imagined and I wrote a second article on it.

Today I was at Fry's to look for a couple of things and thought I'd see if they got the new iMacs in yet, they hadn't had them the last time I was looking.  Now they did and I checked the screen out very carefully and it was much, much better.  I'm still angry that Apple made the very stupid decision to put a 6 bit TN panel in instead of the 8 bit ips panels that Apple monitors have always been, but at least the color and tone was even over the whole screen this time.

So it must have been a bad batch in the first ones that went out and they seemed to have fixed them now.  The screen looks good but it's still glossy, another really bad choice by Apple.  And as good as this screen is it can't hold a candle to the screens in the last generation white iMacs that I ended up buying.  Even the 24", which is an 8 bit ips panel, doesn't look as sharp and clear as my 20" because of that god-awful gloss on it.

But at least they have a usable screen now in the 20" imacs.  A non-pro might not notice the lower quality of the new screens and if the glossy doesn't bother you, now you can at least be sure you aren't getting a monitor faded out on the bottom and too dark at the top.  Although I bet there are still a few of those floating around.

The New iPods

The Classic and Shuffle remain the same, the Nano becomes a Mini Me of the Classic, which I think is an excellent idea. For those on a limited budget you get the full iPod just with smaller disk space. The 4 GB is $149, the 8 GB is $199, and you can watch videos.

But the really cool one is the iPod Touch. Looks just like an iPhone only slightly shorter with the full touch screen and WiFi. You can even download songs from the Apple Store if you have a WiFi connection. And they are working a deal with Starbucks to sync their music and WiFi with what Starbucks is playing in their store. Hear a good tune while buying your coffee? Just whip out your iPod Touch and you are immediately on a WiFi connection to the iTunes store where they will let you know automatically what song is playing and you can buy it with just a touch. Surf the web with Safari, too. Runs $299 for an 8 GB, $399 for a 16 GB.

They still aren't doing enough, though. This is the perfect opportunity for them to turn it into a full blown PDA with notes, calendar, games and things. They have half of that now and the touch screen for easy maneuvering and typing, why stop with it half full? Still, I don't own an iPod and don't need one (especially if it isn't a PDA). Darcy has one but after spending $299 just last Xmas I'm certainly not getting another one now, especially since I just spent a fortune on 2 new iMacs. Someday they will make the iPhone good enough, as well as AT&T good enough (and cheap enough) and I'll put away my Palm and LG flip phone. For now I'll just wait and see what develops.

Baby Boomers

I wrote this a while back but thought it was too good for just a single posting. It was one of those moments where I just got angry and started typing and captured some raw emotion. So I'm presenting it again:

How Did This Happen?

I'm sitting here listening to Cat Stevens songs and thinking about my youth, we had such ideals back then, we wanted so much and dreamed so far. World peace, love, brothers and sisters to all. It's with tears in my eyes that I look at what we've become as America totters on the brink of fascism and we are responsible for the death of close to 1,000,000 people in Iraq. We railed and protested against our parents and their generation for being hypocrites, but looking back now they were practically saints compared to what this generation has become. The worst our parents did was fail to live up to the ideals of what America should be, what the boomer generation has done is throw those ideals to the ground and stomp on them as if they were evil.

I'm now old and tired, as old as my mom was when Cat recorded these songs, 3 years older than my dad ever made it to. Oddly enough there is still fire in my belly, rage against the machine. Too bad it's accompanied by nausea. My whole body hurts and I'm tired down to my bones and my beloved Darcy is about to die soon. And Cat Stevens is now a devote Muslim who did not condemn the Ayatolah's death sentence of Salman Rushdie, so much for peace and love.

And on top of that we stand at the brink of world disaster with global warming. It won't lead to the end of mankind but it will lead to world-wide problems like nothing we've ever seen, millions of refugees across the globe, hunger, misery and death for multiple millions of humanity. I fear the future will look at the baby boomer generation and see us as either monsters or insane, maybe both. We all claim Hitler and the Nazis as the worst evil that men can sink to but future generations will put that label on us.

How did this happen? Christians and rich people, the fundamentalists who have tried to ram theocracy down our throats and the neocons who have gladly used them as the means to power. If any good can come from all this it will be if both such groups are reviled and hated for as long as humanity lasts.

Saving the World

I had several different ideas for my holiday posting but when I saw this story on the Today Show I knew this was it. It's all about a web site called Kiva that allows all Americans to give small loans to poor entrepreneurs around the world, and by small I'm talking about starting at $25. These loans are then paid back with 2% interest, Kiva takes no cut at all.

I did a story about this very thing a while back on my commentary blog Here In The Future, about a guy named "Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the World's Poorest Citizens." He began loaning money to the poor, the people who really needed it and found they paid back the loans at a much better rate than rich people. And the amount they needed was ridiculously small.

The Kiva web site makes it possible for all of us to chip in and help those who need it most, and not charity but a loan. This is how economic growth really happens, from the bottom up, not from the top down. Trickle down is another way of saying getting pissed on.

Belief

Over on Atheist Revolution he has a nice rant on what religious people believe. I hardly need to redo it here since he did such a good job of it. Check it out and read the whole thing yourself. Here's just the very end which sums it up perfectly:

This is my main pet peeve - the confusion of personal belief with truth and the unfortunately common tendency to elevate personal beliefs to the level of empirical reality.

NPR on Atheism

NPR just did a segment about atheists. I didn't really like it much but was pleased that a show of this kind would be done at all, certainly mainstream media would never do one.

One thing it showed is that even the reporters on NPR don't understand it. I find people's confusion over atheism really puzzling, why do they think it's so odd and so different from the rest of the world?

Even believers are atheists about every other god but their own, so lack of belief is perfectly natural and something everyone does. All of us learn our morality from society so there really are few moral differences between atheists and non-atheists, and most believers live the same as any atheist would 80% of the time, only fanatics think about god and their religion all the time.

What is it that is so confusing to most people?

Bomb, Bomb Iran . . .

. . . sung to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann, from a classic moment of John McCain, making people wonder if he's lost it. But the tune keeps haunting me because I'm convinced Bush is planning a massive bombing attack on Iran in the very near future and no degree of sanity will stop him. He thinks he's King George and can do anything he wants and the congress has done nothing to disabuse him of this idea. Here is an article by Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan aide:

Bush is too self-righteous to see the dark humor in his denunciations of Iran for threatening "the security of nations everywhere" and of the Iraqi resistance for "a vision that rejects tolerance, crushes all dissent, and justifies the murder of innocent men, women, and children in the pursuit of political power." Those are precisely the words that most of the world applies to Bush and his Brownshirt administration. The Pew Foundation's world polls show that despite all the American and Israeli propaganda against Iran, the US and Israel are regarded as no less threats to world stability than demonized Iran.

More and more even conservatives are alarmed by Bush. Congress needs to start impeachment proceedings in order to prevent this disaster, which will be far worse than even Iraq has been, but the spineless democrats are unlikely to do it.

I do have hope in that Representative John Conyers says that even if impeachment is off Nancy Pelosi's table it is not off of his. If only that is true, or if it is true that the democratic leadership doesn't try to stop him.

Conyers has been an invisible hero for the last few years, opposing Bush and his administration but receiving little media coverage, trhe corporate media (mainstream media) is Bush's friend. But it's possible that Pelosi is secretly behind Conyers, it's a typical strategy, let someone else be the attack dog and bear the brunt of resistence. In other words, getting what you want without sticking your own neck out, typical political crap. Which makes Conyers' heroism that much more important, not many politicians will do what is right despite the risks.

Knot Jesus

Zeno's blog contains an image of Jesus in a tree. There is also a link to Dogbutt-Jesus, which is really funny.

The true absurdity of these Jesus sightings is that everyone sees the western, stylized Jesus we are all familiar with, which has nothing to do with what Jesus really looked like. No one knows what his image was except that he would look like a Jew or Arab, so if God is actually sticking these images in knots and grilled cheese sandwiches he's just play a cosmic joke on everyone.

Well, not everyone, only the . . .

Insert your own adjective.