www.leefur.com

That's mathematical notation all up in yo ass.

So before I even delved into CNN.com, I saw this on the front page:

Democrats triggered a closed session of the full Senate on Tuesday in an effort to pressure the chamber's Republican majority into completing an investigation of the intelligence underpinning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Democratic Whip Richard Durbin said they wanted to find out if Americans were misled into believing the Iraq invasion was necessary. Majority Leader Bill Frist said: "[This] is an affront to the United States of America, and it is wrong."

The more I read this, the more upsetting it is.

Have you seen Good Night, and Good Luck? If not, I highly recommend it. It is an important film at a time when people in power are saying things like that.

One of the many wonderful, brave things that Edward R. Murrow said in his news telecasts while dealing with the McCarthyist witchhunt was "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty."

So we have a group of people in the Senate who are concerned about fears, which are quite reasonably evidenced, that we've been duped into killing thousands of American boys and girls (not to mention tens of thousands of 'brown' boys and girls). How dare Mr. Frist accuse these people of being 'wrong'? How dare he insinuate any sort of anti-American motivation? And this closed-minded cynic is a leading contender for the Presidency?

Despicable. 

I'll close with Murrow's full quote:

"If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought."

– Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show, CBS and NBC, June 1953, "Conclusion." Murrow: His Life and Times, A.M. Sperber, Freundlich Books, 1986

It is my duty as a cynical, marginally intelligent American to question our leaders, to expect more of them than I do of myself, and to make fun of them. Lots of fun. Poke, poke. If I wasn't such a damn lazy American, I would put together this site, DubyaSpeak.com. To whet your whistle, the top 10 Dubyisms:

TOP 10 AS SELECTED BY DUBYASPEAK VIEWERS

10. At this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly outta Ronald Reagan Airport.
9. Laura and I will thank them from the bottom of my heart.
8. When you have your own money, it means you've got more money to spend.
7. The benefits of helping somebody is beneficial.
6. We're in for a long struggle, and I think Texans understand that. And so do Americans.
5. Sometimes when I sleep at night I think of "Hop on Pop".
4. I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here.
3. And one of the things we've got to make sure that we do is anything.
2. We're making the right decisions to bring the solution to an end.
1. Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better.

TOP 10 AS SELECTED BY THE EDITOR (from the remainder of the collection)

10. I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war.
9. I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.
8. You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.
7. No, I know all the war rhetoric, but it's all aimed at achieving peace.
6. My mom often used to say, "The trouble with W" -- although she didn't put that to words.
5. In 1994, there were 67 schools in Texas that were rated "exemplorary" according to our own tests.
4. I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right.
3. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.
2. I understand small business growth. I was one.
1. Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.

Go play with the site a bit. They have tons of audioclips of Bushy flubbing his lines, and even some video clips. Like one of him flippin the bird to the camera that I'm not allowed to link to (go find it - Dubya Incidents, "Fratboy Statesman"). God help us.

Again, the link.

(I found this through a link on Graffiti)

 

 

Does anyone remember the word "Taliban"? The feelings it would elicit, say, 3 years ago? I know the president doesn't give one coke rock about them, but in a "hey! over here! pay attention to us!" move that smacks of North Korea's Kim Jong Il's actions in the past, the Taliban took credit for blasting a US helicopter out of the skies over Afghanistan. (link)

What's this "Afghanistan", you ask? Good question, I had to look it up, too. Turns out it's this country that houses some group that tried to kill off a couple million Americans, but sadly only got a few thousand. Whatever - ancient history.

Following up on earlier posts (spinal cord regrowth, fukin' Bush, S. Korea steps in), here's a collection of poll results from various sources on America's opinions on stem cells. The short version of the story? America supports stem cell research, lifting limits on spending, etc. In a related story, I heard today that Bush's approval rating reached its lowest point yet, with 52% DISapproving of the job he's doing. Good job, red states. Link

... South Korea? Looks like South Korea is taking the lead on stem cell research, fully supporting it with financial backing and legal committments. This one South Korean scientist, Hwang, last year cloned a human embryo, and last week created the first embryonic stem cells that match the patient. His government was providing $2 million to him, and said they'll throw in another $1 million, plus more later if he needs it.

So listen up, chronically diseased, paralyzed, or disfigured Americans - start saving for a trip to the Orient!

Link

Get it? I was gonna say "More On Stemcells", but the headline just wrote itself.

So anyway, the Republican House yesterday voted to lift limits on embryonic stem-cell research, to which President Bush basically responded "Yeah? Well I can veto that, so meh!"

I'll sum up with these pull quotes:

"This bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life," the president said Tuesday. "Crossing this line would be a great mistake."

"Being pro-life also means fighting for policies that will eliminate pain and suffering," said Rep. James R. Langevin (D-Rhode Island), who was paralyzed at 16 in a gun accident.

Link

Eep. I'm sounding left an extreme leftist these days. Anyway. Scientists have used stem cell treatment on rats with crushed spinal cords (ouchy) to allow them to walk, pee, and poo again. Link.

The researchers injected one group of rats seven days after injury, and another group 10 months after injury. In all of the mice, the cells became mature cells and migrated to areas of the spinal cord where they were most needed. In the recently injured rats, the cells, called oligodendrocytes, formed myelin, a protective insulator of neurons. The myelin wrapped around damaged neurons in the spinal cord, and within two months the rats were walking much better than injured rats that received no treatment.

Good god, yall. So the Pope had his third speech yesterday. I couldn't make this up if I tried. Pull quotes:

1. "History, in fact, is not in the hands of dark forces, left to chance or just human choices"

2. "Above the unleashing of evil energy, above the vehement interruptions of Satan, above the so many scourges of evil, rises the Lord, supreme arbiter of history"

3. He urged Catholics to look for and recognise what he called "hidden divine interventions in history"

So allow me to rephrase that for today's generation.

1. Do not succumb to the dark side. Luke.

2. Rely on the Lord to counter the evil scourges plaguing the world. You know, like we could count on him in the Inquisition. Or the Crusades. Or a policy of inaction during the Holocaust. Or... (oh, are you thinking "but the pope can't be held responsible for those atrocities ... the church is focused on the now, and the future, not the past!" Well read on, dear.)

3. Religious kooks of the world (listen up, US government), join the horoscope-believing, fortune cookie awing, mental midget masses in a project to look back over time for places where we can shoe-horn God into the sequence of events, as a power that changed the outcomes of war. Pearl Harbor? That was probably Satan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Those had to be God then. Sigh.

Does anyone else get the feeling that things are ... wrong? Like, in the convergence of a radically right movement in the highest powers of the United States government at the same time as a radically right Pope (the head of the radically right Church, at that)? Perhaps we are upon the apocalypse. Are you scared yet? If not, maybe having to evacuate the American temples of power'll do it. (Link)

CNN article on the Pope: Link.

While we're at it (see previous post, just below) ... god dammit! From a Grist weekly newsletter I get:

The Bush administration last week gave the heave-ho to the sweeping Clinton administration roadless rule, which put some 58.5 million acres of national forests off-limits to development. In its place, a new rule will put 34.3 million acres of that land back into play, at the discretion of governors, who will have 18 months to petition the feds either to open national-forest land in their states to development or keep it protected. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey claimed that "the way [the Clinton rule] was done developed a substantial amount of ill will." As more than 90 percent of the public comments on the Clinton rule were positive, while more than 95 percent (nearly 1.8 million) on the Bush rule were negative, said "ill will" likely came primarily from the oil, gas, logging, mining, and road-building industries.

It's like they're trying to usher in the apocalypse!
Links: Philadelphia Inquirer, LA Times.

I found the links for theis on Gabe's post.

Apparently (I'm feeling sick just thinking about it) a sheriff in North Carolina fired one of his workers with the threat "get married, move out or find another job after he found out she and her boyfriend had been living together for three years". This is based on an 1805 law that North Carolina (and Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi and North Dakota!!) has forbidding cohabitation of unmarried couples (how fucking Puritan). Link to that article.

And I'd like to quote from Gabe's post, because he says it all (he quotes the article then reacts):

"We think that it's good to have a law against cohabitation because the studies show that couples that cohabitate before they're married, that their marriages are more prone to break up, there's less stability in the marriage," said Bill Brooks, executive director of the conservative North Carolina Family Policy Council.

Luckily, the ACLU is on their case. No mention on whether or not Bill thinks people with divorced parents are allowed to marry, as they are less likely to be able to have a stable marriage as well. Also, no mention on where Bill gets his facts from, as they seem a wee bit counter-intuitive.

There's also the church that threw out anyone who voted for Kerry. Let me repeat that. The CHURCH BANISHED ANYONE WHO VOTED FOR KERRY. What the bloody hell is going on in this country? Please, for my edification, entertainment, and understanding ... someone who agrees with these things, defend them.

Again, Gabe's post.