Individual Liberty—Progress—Humanity—Ethics—Rule of Law
"...if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties—if that is what they mean by a "liberal," then I am proud to be a liberal."
Hanging on the wall of our camp in Maine, my dad had a small rustic sign on which someone had wood burned...
Everybody's crazy except me and thee...and sometimes I wonder about thee.
It was one of those items one picks up as a souvenior on one's travels.
Governor Sanford has been traveling. Not just to Argentina it would seem but he has made a journey somewhere in his mind and no one else can follow. Everytime the man opens his mouth you can tell that he is getting further and fruther away from the reality which is supposed to be his life...married man, father, governor of a state. None of this seems to be at the forefront of the Governor's mind, or what is left of it.
Joan Walsh has written about the slow and inexorable melt down that is taking place and which we have been watching for lo this past week or so. The implosion of Governor Mark Sanford. Won't someone get this man some help?
"In terms of altering sociological patterns, free speech, rather than being the enemy, is a long-tested and worthy ally. To deny free speech in order to engineer social changes in the name of accomplishing a greater good for one sector of our society erodes the freedoms of all."
Sarah Evans Barker
Judge, U. S. District Court
Decision overturning Indianapolis Pornography Ordinance, 19 November 1984
I would love to write an open letter to Jenny Sanford,telling her how I feel about her situation and the idiot she suddenly finds herself married to, but I am sure she has had more advice than enough already and so my "leave the cheating SOB" would not be anything new. Who am I to judge what Jenny Sanford's mindset may be at this point? I do know that I admire her greatly for handling this bombshell in her life the way she has with graciousness and aplomb, and I am so glad that she refused to "stand by her man" when he had his moment of tearful public confession. Excuse me, confessions. There are many reasons why people chose to stay together. The kids, the finances, co-dependency I guess can do it too.
Yes, Bill Clinton had his moments in the Oval Office, but he never left the country and his little affair did not compromise his ability to run the country. He never left in order to have a rendezvous with Monica. It matters little what I think about the whole mess. I am not a resident of South Carolina, although my brother is a Yankee transplant of some thirty years, and sad to say last I knew he was still a Republican. But that truly is neither here nor there. While the Dems have had their share of sexual escapades, I can really think of none that match Mark Sanford's fall from grace. But I can think of nothing remotely redeeming about his looking for forgiveness from God, (the Devil made him do it??) or Jenny or the populace of the great state of South Carolina either. Begone with you Governor Sanford! Leave your wife with some semblance of dignity and your state's citizens with someone who will govern them. You have betrayed more than one trust and it is hard to tell which one was worse.
Sitting in my backyard is a 1500 pound animal that my husband likes to refer to as the large brown dog. "Samson" is a registered American Quarter Horse and an escape artist. Perhaps a better name for him might be Houdini as this is an animal who can undo any lock or chain. Many a morning we have had the local police knocking on our door to inform us that "Sam" is taking a stroll up the middle of the street, or is grazing in the neighbors yard. And this seems to always be around 5:00 am!
We rescued Sam. The man who owned him was not a very nice owner. He was the type of person who was determined to make the horse do what he wanted him to do...just because he could. On the other hand we call my daughter in law Mrs. Dr. Doolittle. Animals just naturally gravitate to her. Perhaps she has a bit of St. Francis in her as well. So far this year we have rescued two dogs, rehabilitated an orphaned squirrel, a chipmunk and at the moment an orphaned baby rabbit residing in our shed, being nursed back to health after a run in with the larger animal which undoubtedly was the cause of it's being orphaned.
We are not a partcularly religious family in the strict sense of the word, and indeed, as the recent advertising on the sides of some NYC buses proclaims,"
You don't have to believe in God to be a moral or ethical person."
I guess we see ourselves as keepers of the earth which translates into doing what we can to take care of it as well as those other animals who share it with us. But there are some who do not see animals as anything other than a fat wallet, and what happens to them after the money has been collected is of no concern. When one cannot show compassion to the other animals, is it any wonder that wars and the killing of humans is not considerd any big deal?
Sometimes events conspire to reveal an essential truth. If you are a Liberal or Progressive, your world view is dynamic and unlikely to be anchored to just one point of reference, one point of view, one set of cherished beliefs. If you are a conservative of most any stripe you are more likely to be anchored, as it were, tethered, and in fact bound to a set of axioms about life and how to live it. Not all Liberals and Progressives are eager thinkers, and not all conservatives are mired in outdated dogmas, but even those of either camp who can chew gum and walk, tend to flinch one way or the other about the idea of modern life being better. Liberals instinctively lean into a new idea or point of view; conservatives lean away, more or less shielding themselves ... and their long held belief systems ... from the hard radiation of change.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."
Marcus Tullius Cicero(106-43 B.C.)
Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
Breaking News CNN-- Minnesota's Supreme Court has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the state's disputed U.S. Senate race.
The New York Times reports this:
Court Rules Franken Has Won Senate Seat
The Minnesota Supreme Court has just issued its long-awaited judgment in the Senate race, declaring that Democrat Al Franken is the winner.
I will never in my life understand how someone can come up with the tripe that Rush Limbaugh manages to day in and day out. His latest flight of fancy involves Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) who has admitted to his affair with an Argentinian woman.
Here is a man who has literally torn his family apart on the public stage and Rush says it is not his fault! Is the man a robot? Has be been pre-programmed like some Manchurian Candidate? NO! Rush will now tell you that it is all President Obama's fault!! They do live in a fantasy world all their own, don't they?
You can hear what Rush has to say about all this here.
Eight years ago President Bush issued a direct order to one and all. Bin Laden was to be captured "dead or alive". After all the man was from Texas, remember.
But here we are eight years gone and still no Bin Laden. As the following article points out at least we know he is still alive, and even with a price tag of millions on his head, no one has come forward to expose him. Some people just cannot be bought.
It seems that when those on the right have nothing better to say, or do not have their facts up to snuff why then they just go ahead and tell a lie and hope no one is paying attention. But some of us are paying attention and the lies will not fly.
There has been much made of Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. She would be replacing retiring Justice David Souter who I am sure wishes he were already ensconced on the porch of his New Hampshire homestead with a good book of history in his hands. Meanwhile, Judge Sotomayor is anticipating her confirmation hearings, and after today's Supreme Court decision about a lower court ruling that she had made, there will be even more made of the racist accusations. Of course the lies have ratcheted up on the right.
Keith Olbermann has more on this in this COUNTDOWN segment.
The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people.
Claiborne Pell
US Democratic politician (1918 - 2009 )
Senator from Rhode Island 1961 - 1997
There is not a day that has gone by in the last week when we did not have headlines glaring at us telling us that Jon and Kate Gosselin are splitting and we can look forward to years worth of articles detailing their eight offsprings travels through the mental health system.
Governor Mark Sanford's flights of fancy have taken down eight people as well (a wife, a mistress and six offspring). Can we say selfish? And no I am not trying to point fingers and I am not blaming anyone but jeez Louise, did anyone ever stop and think just who else was going to eventually be involved? We have a total of fourteen children here we had no say and no choice in their parents mess ups but they will be the ones who ultimately pay the price.
While Cairo is in the midst of the recount of the questionable Iranian vote, the powers that be in Tehran have said they will extend the deadline for the recount for five more days.
Meanwhile, they have also released several of the BBC hostages that were taken the other day. The BBC Persia station has continued to be a thorn in the Iranian side.
There is one thing that as Americans we truly do take for granted and that is our supermarkets and the plethora of food stuffs which they offer. But we do have hunger here amidst all this plenty. Hunger, starvation and "food insecurity" as our government has decided to label it, is nothing new and it is a global condition.
This editorial from the Charleston, W.VA. GAZETTE speaks to this latest food crisis.
This is our democracy if we can keep it. This is a grand planet if we can save it. It really is up to us, each person is the hero of the world and in saying that, I do not joke or exaggerate. Every one of you has the power to do this, to start something big and necessary and beautiful.
Doris"Granny D" Haddock (1910- ) American politician and liberal political activist from the state of New Hampshire.
Democratic Candidate for US Senate 2004
Perhaps if they had had the No Child Left Behind boondoogle back in the day we might have politicians who knew what they were talking about.
Read the following and then think of all the time and effort that was wasted in this person attending school. What does this say about the voters of South Carolina and their education as well? And the Governor wants to reject the stimulous money which would aid the school system? HA!
Quote of the morning
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., came out with a mind-bogglingly bad healthcare reform plan earlier this week. It didn't seem possible to top that, but DeMint has, following it up with a fundraising appeal that has to be seen to be believed.
The pitch starts going downhill with the second sentence, which reads, "I believe the only way to take back our freedom is to return to the constitutional principles our founding fathers promised in 1776."
That's my emphasis, because the Constitution wasn't written until 1787, 11 years later. The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, but it didn't contain "the constitutional principles our founding fathers promised." In fact, there was a whole other system of government in place in the U.S. before the Constitution was written.
Normally, I'd write this sort of thing off as a simple, one-time mistake, someone making an easily-explained slip in the writing of one sentence. But the whole fundraising appeal is based off the idea of constitutional principles promised in 1776. It continues:
I can't do all this alone. That's why I launched my Club 2010 team of Internet activists to help propel my re-election campaign. Just last week we received $5,000 from donors giving $17.76. I trust that conservative activists are willing to stand behind the ideas I've been pushing in Washington, so I've set a loft (sic) goal of raising $17,760 in $17.76 increments over the next five days.
Now if he went with the 1787 figure he would come out eleven cents richer. Maybe math class was a challenge too.
The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons
In between your husbands marched away with drums and guns
And you never thought to question, you just went on with your lives
And all they taught you who to be was Mothers, Daughters, Wives"
(The Corries)
War and warfare have always been the purview of men, however, women have also almost always been a part of some of the more major of those wars. Some are famous such as the exceptional women Boudiccia and Joan of Arc who led attacking armies, but there are also countless stories of women who have disguised themselves as men and joined the ranks of brothers in arms. Our own Revolutionary War tells the story of Molly Pitcher although some have questioned the veracity of her story, and the Civil War saw many women, on both sides, disguising themselves as men and fighting for the cause.
Now the cause is in Iran and women there are fighting for their rights as citizens and voters. Fighting for a democracy that is not simply a democracy wrapped in theocracy. They are the new revolutionaries.
I know a young man who has PTSD. And when I say young man I really do mean young. He is only 14, and that just barely by virtue of an end of June birthday. So now I am sure you are wondering how a child who is on the cusp of puberty has a syndrome which is usually reserved for battle weary soldiers. Well in his own way he is a battle weary soldier.
When this young man had just turned three his father had his mother removed from the house under the pretense that he was fearful for his children's safety. An emergency 209A (restraining order) was granted and in the middle of the night she was removed. Was she really a threat to her children and their safety? Not really, but she was a threat to dad and his girlfriend. She went out one door and dad had the girlfriend moved in within 24 hours. Thus began a long and protracted court battle with mom trying to regain custody and dad determined not to allow it if at all possible. Why? The girlfriend was pregnant and he did not want to have to maintain two families.
At three years of age, a boy's mom is his world and to have that suddenly torn asunder is so traumatizing. Mum is gone but where did she go? When the little boy asks about mum he is told that she left him and if he persists in knowing where she is, rather than being given an answer, he is beaten. This then dredges back up those times he had seen dad throw mom into walls and gives rise to the statement that he later made to a counselor that it was "a good thing mummy has bones in her head", alluding to a time when he had seen dad go to punch mom she ducked, he connected to the wall and put his fist through it.
I have never been a fan of Bill O'Reilly's and even less of a fan of Karl Rove. Together they are like two quarters of the Axis of Evil.
For them to gnash their teeth and feign outrage about the "liberals" talking over the sexcapades of the GOP, especially O'Reilly, is really quite laughable. Yes, Bill Clinton had his indiscretion but it was those who were so embroiled in their own pecadillos that were making the most noise about resigning or impeachment. Those Family Values folks that is.
Now they are saying that the liberals, we mean spirited folk, are coarsening politics by even recognizing that there are sexual misdeeds taking place in the Republican party.
I remember the Iranian hostage crisis which dragged on for over a year. Now it seems it is the Brits turn. I hope there is a better and quicker solution to this crisis.
Medicine practiced 400 years ago was in it's infancy as compared to today and yet it was the Eygptians, thousands of years before Christ, who knew that honey was a natural antibiotic. Have we discarded too much of the old in favor of the new? We may have life saving drugs now, but we also have black box warnings about them.
"We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence
3rd US President
This week Gwen and her guests discuss President Obama's hardening of his stance against violence in Iran as his relationship with the press begins to evolve, the Supreme Court's decision in the cases involving both the Voting Rights Act and the strip-search of a middle-school student, and
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's fall from grace. What does it mean for the GOP?
Gwen's guests this week inlcude David Sanger of The New York Times, John Dickerson of SLATE Magazine and CBS News, Pete Williams of NBC News and Gloria Borger of CNN.
Sometimes events conspire to reveal an essential truth. If you are a Liberal or Progressive, your world view is dynamic and unlikely to be anchored to just one point of reference, one point of view, one set of cherished beliefs. If you are a conservative of most any stripe you are more likely to be anchored, as it were, tethered, and in fact bound to a set of axioms about life and how to live it. Not all Liberals and Progressives are eager thinkers, and not all conservatives are mired in outdated dogmas, but even those of either camp who can chew gum and walk, tend to flinch one way or the other about the idea of modern life being better. Liberals instinctively lean into a new idea or point of view; conservatives lean away, more or less shielding themselves ... and their long held belief systems ... from the hard radiation of change.
