and the Supreme Court says...
"No, Mr. President! You canNOT have your
secret little war tribunals! Take that!"
but okay we're not saying anything about detaining hundreds of possibly innocent people without charging them...except we don't like this "enemy combatant" term kindaWho's thinking that in the meantime Dick Cheney is now looking up info on the Supreme Court Justices that opposed him-I mean, the President...same difference..."I want dirty pictures and I want them,
now!"
The Supreme Court did also support the majority of the Texas remapping which was done under the influence of Tom DeLay...BUT I love the headlines:
The New York Times - "Justices Uphold Most Remapping of Texas by GOP"
The Washington Post - "Justices affirm GOP map for Texas"
The New York Sun - "A Victory for Minority Groups"
with the article start line "The Supreme Court throws out part of a Texas Congressional map ..."hmmmm...which is the
conservative paper?
you know it's an election year when...
We have the vote on flag burning. There is no reason to discuss this EVER unless the Republicans are in trouble...and they are. This is the "time to get your base back"
vote and while it was ridiculously close (the Dems in swing states felt they had to try to vote
for this piece of nonsense), it still failed...again...as it should. There are those who would say that it is an insult to those who fight for our freedom, yet one can see that it is an act of the freedom for which they fight. And, as I have said numerous times before on this blog, and will most certainly say again, the way the Bush administration has been treating the rights and freedoms of the civilians and soldiers of this nation, it is as if they have burned our flag and our Constitution, desecrating the democracy they claim to hold so dear.
And speaking of them administration messing with our rights...of course, there are folks looking to sue the
New York Times for reporting on the fact that the government is looking into our bank records as well as checking up on our phone calls. This is a time of WAR, the pundits, a couple of Republican congressmen, the President and the Vice President all spout. We NEED this information and have every right to go after it in this fashion! Or at least that's what they've told Alberto Gonzalez who will gladly rewrite the law and make it so. Basically, what it comes down to is that Dick Cheney, who couldn't hack the restrictions put on the presidency after Nixon ("whaddya MEAN we can't tap the White House phones?!?!"), et al can't hack the fact that yes, there are restrictions of their power and even during wartime, there must be some rules...and you know, it's not only The New York Times...they seem to have overlooked the fact that the Washington, the Wall Street Journal ("No! not THEM!"), the Los Angeles Times also printed articles about the domestic spying...but I guess they just aren't worthy of the same amount of petty conservative ire as that crazy intellectual bastion of liberal thinking (in a shuddering voice)
The...New...York...Times...
particularly when that paper (and others and the network news and, well, everybody else) are not talking about the cruelty of flag burning, but rather the cruelty of the governmental waste and incompetance when it comes to
Hurricane Katrina relief...
oh and about how Arlen Specter and others in Congress are outwardly
criticizing his "I don' hafta if I don' wanna!" approach to laws he
signs...
and you know, such criticism might mess with his attempt at getting
line-item veto power...
and let's not even get into the whole
troop pullout fiasco...*"no we will not set a timetable!...I don't care if the Pentagon already has!"*
and the "Miami 7" (are there still any articles about those guys since? I don't think so..."did they have any funds?" - "no" - "um...any evidence of a connection with Al Quaeda?" - "no" - "were there any weapons found?" - "Uh...no" - "were they organized? how many are there?" - "Um there are, uh, 7 of them and uh..." - "Were there detailed plans of how they were going to do this?" - "Uh we do know that one of them had been to Chicago...at one time..." PAUSE "Um, do we get dinner for having to sit through this?" - "only after you write about it and scare the nation back into voting for the GOP in November...that'll be all, thank you")
Time to EMAIL, CALL, WRITE, FAX your friends and family, the press, and your Congressfolk and reiterate to them that YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION! You know that the President and his posse are playing politics and want them to actual deal with real issues, not pose for a vote about flag burning. And dig for that change to give to your Democratic/Independent or heck just DECENT candidates in November.
Peace --Alex
P.S. My horoscope for the week a la Rob Brezny...
The U.S. Congress creates a constant stream of new legislation, but that doesn't mean President Bush has to enforce it. Since he took office in 2001, in fact, Bush has chosen to disobey more than 750 freshly minted laws. At the risk of getting you in trouble with the powers-that-be, I'm advising you to make Bush your role model in the coming week. Try to get away with ignoring any rules of the game you don't like or agree with. To maximize your chance of sailing through unscathed, proceed as Bush does--in a stealth mode, not calling attention to the fact that you're in a rebel outlaw mode.
Frontline
WHY can't they put this story on the network news?!?!? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/
WILL this end up on the networks...sadly, I think not. Though feel free to go to pbs.org or take the link from this page and email, call, write, fax your local network news as well as the major networks at ask why they don't ask these questions, have these people on, and reveal the truth about Dick Cheney and Iraq.
Two more soldiers have died. They were beheaded by insurgents. And this past week we passed the 2500 mark of American soldier deaths.
If ever there was a time to get in touch with your congressfolk and the press, this is it.
Peace --Alex
just wanna thank...
John Murtha for this comment on Sunday. I wish I'd seen it live but at least I heard about it (thanks mom)
REP. MURTHA:
He’s, he’s in New Hampshire. He’s making a political speech. He’s sitting in his air conditioned office with his big, fat backside, saying, “Stay the course.” That’s not a plan. I mean, this guy—I don’t know what his military experience is, but that’s a political statement. This is a policy difference between me and the White House. I disagree completely with what he’s saying. Jack was apparently saying this about Karl Rove who's evil minions shredded enough evidence to keep him from being indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald. It is just sad and wrong...and just further proof that Karl Rove indeed signed his soul over to Satan.
IN THE MEANTIME...Rice's second in command decided to leave the office after 16 months as he said his job was done...and he found the computer chip embedded in Condi's neck and wasn't gonna wait around for Cheney to get to him...
Last week, the guy who gave us the phrase of "Axis of Evil" left the White House. Who's gonna write those short easy sentences with small words for George, now?
Check out
True Majority as you can get the transcript from the Iraq pull-out debate. You can read through it and then send emails to your representative to say "Hey thanks!" or "You stupid bastard!"
And speaking of Iraq, Dick Cheney, a year after he claimed that the insurgency was on it's last legs, says that "Yes, I do [still] believe that"...Um...um...did anyone tell Dick about the latest kidnappings?
And now, in the Shameless Publicity section...the show opened...I like to call this past weekend a "preview weekend" as there was still stage traffic to work out, but I think we got the flow down by yesterday. Come on out for a little melodrama magic if you're in the area.
AND allow me to congratulate my friends Doug and Shawn who are man and man as of yesterday :):):) I sadly had to miss this blessed event, but I did help design and paint the chuppa, was there is spirit and apparently was well represented by the boyfriend :) Laheim to you boys!
okay...
if I hear the phrase "cut and run" one more time from some fat (or otherwise) Republican I will indeed start throwing things atthe Capitol building.
WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE GONE INTO IRAQ. THE REASON WE HAVE MORE TERROR OVER THERE IS BECAUSE
WE ARE THERE. WE SCREWED UP! AND, as John Murtha pointed out, there is also the situation with insurgents fighting
each other with our soldiers caught in the middle. Our soldiers need to go. And they need to go now. Now it can be a pullout by degrees, but it needs to happen. Things most likely will calm down once our people actually LEAVE. If Iraq is ever going to be independent as our administration appears to believe it ought to be, it's time to stop holding their hand and let them work on this governing thing. Our being there is NOT helping the situation.
The majority of this Congress is an insult to the American people, man.
There was more I had to say, but man, I'm delirious from three days of tech and opening night panic.
Peace --Alex
The New York Post....
Look, I'm glad Al-Zarquawi is dead. He was a vengeful hate-filled human being and violent terrorist, but having to see his dead face far too up close and personal on the front page of the New York Post...with attached cartoon balloon saying "Warm up the virgins"...was just not the way to wake up this morning. Good lord...
And yet is the Bush administration thinks that this will be boost for his poll numbers, the Zogby people say "Think again, mister!" As according to their latest poll (as faxed to my office this morning...a co-worker who no longer works here still gets the faxes here :), says that, even if Osama Bin Laden-you know, the guy who actaully attacked us-were actually captured, 52% of those polled would not give Bush any credit for it as essentially, they feel that Bush coulda caught him a long time ago if he'd stayed focused on Afghanistan and hadn't gone into Iraq. 28% would give him all the credit (one percent short of the people who actually still approve of his ) and 17% would give Bush some of the credit.
Okay, despite this poll, who think that bin Laden is going to be caught around the mid-term elections? Anyone? Anyone? Place your bets, folks...
IN THE MEANTIME...because the Republicans want to distract you from such issues, they tried-and failed-to add a ban of gay marriage to the Constitution (and of course some Republicans say that they will keep trying to add that amendment...cause yeah, that's gonna work), AND now they are debating the estate tax. I may have to agree with Harry Reid who is quoted as saying that the Republicans bringing this stuff up now are "wasting [Congress'] time" with such nonsense.
Also, apparently they are trying to cut funding to public television and NPR AGAIN...(just cause, of course, public television actually supports, you know, real education and actually tells the stories about things like Haditha, etc). You can go to
MoveOn or
True Majority OR just write your own letter to your Congressfolk and make sure that this does NOT happen. :) Once again...we actually have to
discuss this?
And all right...my two cents on Ann "you can't MAKE ME EAT THAT COOKIE!" COulter...I saw the interview with Matt Lauer and while I agree with groups like Media Matters that she truly does not deserve the airtime, it's not necessarily because of the issues. She's allowed to be speak her mind, but dude, she is just a bad interview. She appeared quite obviously flustered as Matt asked her questions not related to her book, she kept saying "I don't know," even though she supposedly knows what the American people are thinking. When he stepped it up a notch all she could say was "Now you're getting testy with me!" She said that at least twenty states were looking to put gay marriage on the ballot (last I heard it was 6...maybe), AND...can anyone really be sure that she wasn't serious when she asked "Where's Katie? She leave or something?" (it appeared she would've rather dealt with Katie). Coulda been a wisecrack, as you would have to have lived in a cave for the last 6 months or more not to know that Katie was leaving Today, but then again...we are talking about Ann Coulter.
and now for the Shamless Publicity update:
WORK: Yes, Alex has a gig. I'm doing Wuthering Heights: A Romantic Musical 6/16-7/2. I also will be part of a great installation being put together by Katrina Grigg-Saito about mixed-race/ ethnically-ambiguous folks called FishBird. It will be a combination of sculpture, sound and slides and I am very excited to be part of it. :)
GRANTS: waiting on one...hopefully this one will be a YES (please dear GOD). BUT my friend Evie's sister Ellie, who has A LOT of experience with grant writing and accepting etc, has offered up some great advice, editing, and resources so hopefully THIS will all help as well :)
SW?F showcases: you apply for festivals in like February, March...you might hear by May or July for an event that may happen in the summer or fall. Say all the prayers, hum all the karma, cross all appendages and send out the light for big YES's from BOTH the Sola Voce Estrogenius Festival AND The Culture Project festival this fall. I applied for both in May and hopefully will hear something in July about both :) ...thinkin' positively...
as should we all. Spread the love and KEEP E-MAILING!!!
Peace --Alex
it is positively sad...
when the big issue George spoke out on today was of all things,
gay marriage.
Gay marriage is what is wrong with the world today...not
Iraq and the fact that the administration, while finding out about the
Haditha massacre back in MARCH, but said (and most likely
did) nothing about it til reporters brought it up last week (yeah, NOW he wants an investigation...which present reports have shown that the
Marines involved were essentially re-enacting
Mi Lai in Iraq...further proof that these soldiers are stretched to thin and physically and mentally); not Iran; not a continuing
crisis with
AIDS; not gas prices and the
energy crisis; not issues with FEMA and the continued pathetic state of New Orleans; not the
fact that
New York and
Washington, D.C. are having Homeland Security funds slashed because we supposedly have no landmarks worth targeting...(oh and that we have had our share of funds...and apparently the paperwork was not completed properly...)
Nope nope nope...these things are not important. At least not to Bush's ever retreating
base. What is important to them and the President is making sure that people who love each other and want to give themselves to each other with the taking of vows before God (or Goddess or just their friends) are banned from doing this with a
constitutional amendment...I figure the founding fathers are rolling in their graves that a president would want to put a discriminatory amendment in the Constitution, but perhaps that's just me.
Bush blames "activist judges" (not an election year) for driving him to supporting this amendment, though a Congressman I just heard on NPR made decent point: a good number of these "activist judges" were voted in by the Republican Congress and administration. Harry Reid has also been speaking out basically asking "why the heck are we even TALKING about this?"
Most likely, this amendment will not get through, but it can't hurt to call your
Congressfolk juuuuuust in case...and to remind them to work on some REAL issues right now, as I-and the majority of Americans- really don't believe that my friends Doug and Shawn's wedding in a couple of weeks is a harbinger of the impending downfall of morality in America. What it is is a harbinger of love.
Peace --Alex
