Musings of a Liberal Texan

"If You Haven't Left, You're Hezbollah" by Dahr Jamail SIDON, Lebanon - The Israeli attack on Qana has taken the biggest toll of the war, but it is only one of countless lethal attacks on civilians in Lebanon. Large numbers fled the south after Israelis dropped leaflets warning of attacks. Others have been unable to leave, often because they have not found the means. The Israelis have taken that to mean that they are therefore Hezbollah. Israeli justice minister Haim Ramon announced on Israeli army radio Thursday that "all those in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah." Justifying the collective punishment of people in southern Lebanon, Ramon added, "In order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in." This policy explains the large number of wounded in the hospitals of Sidon in ...

Is it me or does it appear that the media is finally awakenning from a deeeeeeeep slumber?

Save 1.800.SUICIDE MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD – BEFORE OUR GOVERNMENT SUFFOCATES THE NATION’S LARGEST PRIVATE & COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL HELP SYSTEM. 1-800-SUICIDE is in danger of being shut off or worse falling into the hands of the Federal Government. With teenage suicide being the 3rd leading cause of death between 18 to 24 year olds - our government should not be duplicating prevention efforts but helping fund the many local organizations and non-profits with proven track records on prevention. In addition our government should not be in the business having access to this private and sensitive information! No other crisis hotline is owned by the federal government! Read more... Despite the fact that almost 2 million callers have reached help and hope over the last 8 years, and a government funded evaluation stating the benefits of 1-800-SUICIDE, the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), a division of Health & Human Services, has decided to create ...

The Price of a Minimum Wage? July 28, 2006 The House is preparing for a last-minute vote today on a House leadership sponsored minimum wage bill. Weighted down with an Association Health Plans (AHPs) attachment and labor poison pills, the bill will likely hurt workers more than it will help them. In the past two months, Representative Hoyer (D-MD) and Senator Kennedy (D-MA) have offered Congress prime opportunities for a serious consideration of the minimum wage. Congress has not increased the minimum wage since 1997. During this time, the economy has grown and profits have risen to record highs, making it very feasible for businesses to raise wages. Nearly 15 million Americans, 70 percent of whom are workers 20 years and older, would benefit from a minimum wage increase. Almost 60 percent of these workers are women, 40 percent are people of color, and more than a third are the sole breadwinners for their families. Americans overwhelmingly support an increase to the minimum wage. Accor...

Insanity Musings I was thinking about how the guys on hate radio always sound as if they are reading from some sort of fact sheet, not just blowing opinion through an over-confident, distorted mouthpiece. I usually try to listen once or twice a week, whichever I can stomach. My son refuses to allow it on in the car because he believes they are rude and arrogant and he gets enough of that from people he can’t turn a nob to shut the heck up. But it concerns me that so many people blindly follow these guys and think that what they say is true. So, here’s a little something on Sean Insanity that I found that if you listen to him, perhaps you might want to read. It is only from what he has said, countered with certifiable fact. June 2004 Speaking at the Take Back America conference on June 3, American Progress CEO John Podesta said, "I think when you get so distant from the facts as -- as guys like Limbaugh and Sean Hannity do, yeah, I think that tends to -- it kind of -- it tends to c...

US Agency Hid Cost Overruns in Iraq, Audit Finds By Greg Miller The Los Angeles Times Sunday 30 July 2006 The report says expenses in projects that exceeded budgets were concealed in unrelated accounts. Washington - The U.S. agency responsible for administering $1.4 billion in reconstruction funds in Iraq has sought to hide major cost overruns on high-profile projects from Congress by engaging in questionable accounting maneuvers, according to a federal audit released late Friday. The agency has masked budget spillovers on a children's hospital in the southern city of Basra and other facilities by hiding the expenditures in seemingly unrelated accounts, the report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says. Overall, the report found a "lack of effective program management" by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees U.S. reconstruction spending in Iraq and other countries. The accounting issues are th...

July 30, 2006

Great Time for the Rich in America by Rob McKay It's a great time to be rich in America. But if you're the kind of person whose idea of a good time involves a certain level of risk--high stakes gambling, sky diving or tax fraud, for instance--the Bush Administration just took away one of your thrills. Within the next 70 days, the IRS will permanently eliminate the jobs of half of the lawyers who audit the wealthiest Americans' tax returns. According to internal IRS documents leaked to the New York Times by outraged IRS employees , six of whom agreed to be interviewed by the paper, the IRS is axing 157 of its 345 estate tax lawyers and 17 support personnel. The Agency is doing de facto what the Bush tried and failed to do de jure: Sway Congress to entirely eliminate the estate tax to help the richest taxpayers in the country pay even less of their fair share. The decision is not because the Agency's estate tax lawyers have too much time on their hands or aren't findi...

July 30, 2006

Israel's Secret War: The Humanitarian Disaster Unfolding in Palestine by Anne Penketh in Gaza City A 12-year-old boy dead on a stretcher. A mother in shock and disbelief after her son was shot dead for standing on their roof. A phone rings and a voice in broken Arabic orders residents to abandon their home on pain of death. Those are snapshots of a day in Gaza where Israel is waging a hidden war, as the world looks the other way, focusing on Lebanon. It is a war of containment and control that has turned the besieged Strip into a prison with no way in or out, and no protection from an fearsome battery of drones, precision missiles, tank shells, and artillery rounds. As of last night, 29 people had been killed in the most concentrated 48 hours of violence since an Israeli soldier was abducted by Palestinian militants just more than a month ago. The operation is codenamed "Samson's Pillars," a collective punishment of the 1.4 million Gazans, subjecting them to a Lebanes...

Interesting interview........

I'll apologize now. I would write but I am so exhausted that I don't think I could put a paragraph together that would be readable. Damn you cute four week old puppies! Every three hours. They are up. I forgot what having babies is like. Egads! How does anyone do this over the age of forty!? I have to admit, I have become selfish with my sleep. I like having it, unbroken, when I choose. I am still a HUGE advocate of fostering. I don't regret it for a second. I'm just really tired. That's why you have to read what other people are writing for a little while.. Homeland contracts oversight deemed poor By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 27, 8:28 PM ET The Homeland Security Department spent $34 billion in its first two years on private contracts that were poorly managed or included significant waste or abuse, a congressional report concluded Thursday. Faulty airport screening machines, unused mobile homes for hurricane victims and lavish employee office...

OPPOSE SUNSET COMMISSIONS, H.R. 3282 AND H.R. 5766 ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/wright/pnum428.php Two bills are moving rapidly through the U.S. House of Representatives that would undermine or eliminate critical public health and environmental protection programs. The legislation creates un-elected and unaccountable commissions with the authority to eliminate federal programs and agencies behind closed doors with no opportunity for public input. The commissions are being called sunset commissions because they sunset programs. Unless you act now, critical public health programs including EPA's Clean Air programs that offer protection for all Americans to breath cleaner air, the Preventative Health and Health Services Programs run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many others are at risk for elimination. These programs could be eliminated without any public input or a specific vote by Congress. The legislation, H.R. 3282 and H.R. 5766, is moving through C...

For those that appreciate history and experience - this from The Washington Post A Time To Act By Warren Christopher Friday, July 28, 2006; A25 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's just-concluded trip to Lebanon, Israel and Rome was an exercise in grace, bravery and, to my regret, wrongly focused diplomacy. Especially disappointing is the fact that she resisted all suggestions that the first order of business should be negotiation of an immediate cease-fire between the warring parties. In the course of her trip, the secretary repeatedly insisted that any cease-fire be tied to a "permanent" and "sustainable" solution to the root causes of the conflict. Such a solution is achievable, if at all, only after protracted negotiations involving multiple parties. In the meantime, civilians will continue to die, precious infrastructure will continue to be destroyed and the fragile Lebanese democracy will continue to erode. My own experience in the region underlies my bel...

July 27, 2006

Speaking of Iraq.... Q: Is the country closer to a civil war? SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't know. You know, I thought about that last night, and just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it. If you think of our Civil War, this is really very different. If you think of civil wars in other countries, this is really quite different. There is - there is a good deal of violence in Baghdad and two or three other provinces, and yet in 14 other provinces there's very little violence or numbers of incidents. So it's a - it's a highly concentrated thing. It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I'm not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all. Thanks for clarifying that for us, buddy. Golly. Sure am glad that those in the know are in charge.

July 27, 2006

If you don't know about factory farming you need to read this: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/campaign/standards_booklet_FINAL.pdf it is a comprehensive, factual information booklet that is based, soley, on what is allowed by the government and the standard practices of the Meat and Dairy (MAD) Industry in this country.

July 27, 2006

I have to be honest....I could not have said the following better myself. It's true! I tried. From the Democratic Underground Thoughts on Republican Accusations of “Class Warfare” Against Democrats Posted by Time for change on Wed Jul-26-06 07:40 PM The term “class warfare” as it is used in the United States today is very misleading – and purposely so. It is primarily used by Republican operatives to conjure up fears of the “lower class” masses rising up to steal from the rich what is rightfully theirs, in the process plunging our country into Communism or anarchism. For example, the number one Republican operative in our country, George W. Bush, said not too long ago in preparation for another round of tax cuts for the wealthy: "I understand the politics of economic stimulus -- that some people would like to turn this into class warfare."Not only is this line of propaganda condescending and offensive, as it implies the existence of a so-called “lower class” that is som...

Four UN observers were killed in Lebanon, after making 10 calls to the Israeli commanders, stating that the bombing was getting very close to their location. Hmmm. Considering this administration and its allies obvious contempt for the UN, I have to say that it appears deliberate. Ten calls? That can be documented, easily. How many calls does it take, anyway? And what's the real possibility that Annan's request for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of these observors will actually be followed up. I'm sick to death of these people bashing the UN. What's the point? People on the outside, who have never truly understood the inner workings of this organization are so quick to point out the problems it has had, the scandals, etc. Look to our own administration and our own government's corruption. That's just one country's inability to stay clean. Now step back and look at the whole picture. So easy to judge, isn't it? I have to...

FINALLY! Andrea Yates has been given a verdict that will get her the help she needs. She got "not guilty by reason of insanity" for the drowning death of three of her five children. After the 2002 verdict of guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison, I really thought that we had completely lost our way. Mental health is such a misunderstood phenomenon. Did she know right from wrong at the time she was drowning her children? What a ridiculous question! When you are suffering from mental illness that standard is just so simplistic. Maybe now, real strides can be made in this area. Maybe we can start delving a little deeper into these cases and start coming up with real solutions. At least, now, a real precedent has been set. Thank God.

Why is President Bush Against the (Notso) Fair Tax? By Steve Young “The check is in the mail" has long been one of the world's greatest lies. And today that pitch just might be the prelude to the biggest lie ready to be foisted on the American public...a national sales tax, or what some have taken to call the Fair Tax. When the new congress assembles in January, the so-called Fair Tax will hit on the legislative agenda - if some Republicans have their way. In a preemptive strike, talk show host Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder (R. Ga - 7 District), have put out a book (pamphlet), then ran the talk show table facing toothless hosts hustling the benefits of their Fair Tax. Representative Tom Price (R. Ga - 6th District) is making it his baby as the co-sponsor of a bill that will catapult the IRA from existence. It sounded great. A little too great. Snake oil salesman great. And when I read the dedication of the Bootz/Linder pamphlet, the snake oil began to put out that od...