Two days ago I tried to post a little commentary on Americans seemingly being unaffected by the outrageous bulls#%t that the Bush administration has perpetrated on the American people, and the rest of the world. I had started thinking about it after seeing a Public Enemy video. Anyways, there were technical issues so I saved my post and tried again the following night. I should have proof read my piece more carefully, it seems that during my cutting and pasting I omitted some key lines. So if anyone read it....hear it is again, hopefully you will find it makes more sense.
Way sorry 4 the mistakes,
-Zoey

 
I was messing around on you tube watching old Public Enemy videos when I saw this one that I somehow haven't seen before. Like the majority of P.E's songs and video's it was freaking awesome, but after watching it I was reminded of all the things in the seemingly endless years of the Bush administration that have pissed me off and made me wonder where all the freaking outrage in this country is.

At Philadelphia's Constitution Center this morning, I stood with throngs of people all waiting to hear Barack Obama address the racial issues that have haunted his campaign recently.  The auditorium quickly overflowed with guests and members of the press, and though the crowd grew impatient, we never lost our collective sense of anticipation.  This implicit understanding that we were witnessing history.  And Obama's speech, "A More Perfect Union," which he delivered with his trademark poise and grace, exceeded all expectations.

Like I said, why hasn't BushCo been impeached yet:

After Philadelphia's housing director refused a demand by President Bush's housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director.

"Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?" Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene.

"Take away all of his Federal dollars?" responded Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing. She typed symbols for a smiley-face, ":-D," at the end of her January 2007 note.

Cabrera wrote back a few minutes later: "Let me look into that possibility."

Via Oliver Willis.

Yesterday, John McCain had lunch with George Bush at the White House, and then received his endorsement in the Rose Garden. 

A vote for John McCain is a vote for a third Bush term.

Check out our new video, and these facts compiled by our friends at ProgressNowAction:

• McCain Is Exactly Like Bush
• McCain Cast 377 Votes in Support of President Bush’s Position, Supported Bush a Majority of the Time
• McCain/Bush Friendship Based On Shared Views On Issues
• McCain “Steadfast” And “Outspoken” In His Support For War In Iraq
• McCain Said “Stay The Course,” Downplayed Violence And Denied Civil War
• McCain Supported Bush Escalation, Claimed Success Despite Previous Criticism
• McCain’s Reputation Tied To Bush’s Handling Of Iraq
• “A Consistent Supporter Of Personal Social Security Accounts”; Helped Sell Bush Overhaul
• Flip-Flop On Bush Tax Cuts A “Breathtaking Turnabout”
• McCain Supported No Child Left Behind
• McCain’s Health Plan Just Like Bush’s Failed Health Plan
• McCain Supported Bush Nominees

Learn more at JohnMcBush2008.org.

Marc Andreesen, the guy who started Netscape, recounts a 90 minute meeting he had with Obama shortly before he started running for President: 

We asked him directly, how concerned should we be that you haven't had meaningful experience as an executive -- as a manager and leader of people?

He said, watch how I run my campaign -- you'll see my leadership skills in action.

At the time, I wasn't sure what to make of his answer -- political campaigns are often very messy and chaotic, with a lot of turnover and flux; what conclusions could we possibly draw from one of those?

Well, as any political expert will tell you, it turns out that the Obama campaign has been one of the best organized and executed presidential campaigns in memory. Even Obama's opponents concede that his campaign has been disciplined, methodical, and effective across the full spectrum of activities required to win -- and with a minimum of the negative campaigning and attack ads that normally characterize a race like this, and with almost no staff turnover. By almost any measure, the Obama campaign has simply out-executed both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.

This speaks well to the Senator's ability to run a campaign, but speaks even more to his ability to recruit and manage a top-notch group of campaign professionals and volunteers -- another key leadership characteristic. When you compare this to the awe-inspiring discord, infighting, and staff turnover within both the Clinton and McCain campaigns up to this point -- well, let's just say it's a very interesting data point. 

More on Marc's blog, and here's another take on Obama's leadership abilities, as seen through an expert in graphic design. 

Take a look at this powerful new ad starring Iraq veteran Rose Forrest. See her discuss Senator McCain's hundred-year commitment to Iraq and the subsequent cost to those here at home.

Part of a new $20 million election-year campaign that calls for withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, the effort has the support of John and Elizabeth Edwards, MoveOn.org, the Service Employees International Union, VoteVets.org, and the Center for American Progress. Elizabeth Edwards said this,

Reporters certainly don't cover the connection between the issues, there is undoubtedly a connection between oil, the costs of transportation in this country, and this war.

I know I speak for millions of progressives when I say, I miss the Edwards voice. Thankfully though, it looks like their passionate public service is going to continue in a strong and substantive manner and the nation will be better off for that.

O.K., let's not take my word for it, I'm an admittedly biased left-wing provocateur.

Meet Jeff Huber, military expert. Jeff was operations officer of a naval air wing and an aircraft carrier, and he commanded an E-2C Hawkeye aircraft squadron. His analyses of military and foreign policy affairs have appeared in Proceedings, The Navy, Jane's Fighting Ships, and other print periodicals and some of his essays have been required student reading at the U.S. Naval War College, where he received a master's degree in national security studies in 1995. Jeff is a contributing editor with ePluribus Media. His home website is Pen and Sword.

Here's a few excerpts from an article Huber wrote recently about John McCain.

"McCain's war talk consists of the same Rovewellian boo noise we hear from the rest of Bush's echo chamberlains. He cautions that if we withdraw from Iraq, we'll fall into isolationism, which means that his idea of being engaged with the rest of the world is to invade and occupy it. He warns that victory in Iraq is essential because defeat will lead to bigger fiasco that the one we've already created".

"Let's get something straight. The terms victory and defeat long ago lost any relevance to the situation in Iraq and the so-called war on terror. Defeat would entail our troops dropping their weapons, throwing up their hands, and allowing the evil ones to cut their heads off on videotape while one of Osama bin Laden's thousand-and-one number two men holds up a sign in the background that reads Jihad Accomplished. Victory would involve bin Laden signing articles of surrender on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln while latter day American Caesar David Petraeus looks on".

"McCain either knows this, and knows he's pitching us a bale of humbug, or he suffers from an even worse case of arrested cognition that Bush has. Many of us, including and especially me, share McCain's self-confessed many failings; but many of us including me aren't running for president".

"McCain is a slob. He has no patience for detail. He is vindictive. He is a hypocrite, a fawner and a panderer who loudly condemns the practices of fawning and pandering. Newsweek's Thomas relates that as an angry toddler, McCain would hold his breath until he passed out, a habit his parents tried to cure him of by dropping him in a tub of ice water. Today, he's a perpetually f-bombing temper tantrum with a 71 year-old life support system. McCain won't outgrow that sort of thing once he's in the Oval Office. In some ways, I can admire those traits in McCain, and I rather hope Congress always has a "Senator Hothead" or three to shake things up when they need shaking".

"But as president of the United States, John McCain would be the most dangerous human being on the face of the earth".

It was just children playing in the sand
(accompanied by the narcotic scent
of blooming lindens, don't forget),
just children, but after all
the devil, and the minor gods,
and even forgotten politicians,
who'd broken all their promises,
were also there and watched them
with unending rapture.
Who wouldn't want to be a child,
for the last time -- Adam Zagajewski

In 2006 and 2007, The Guardian talked to numerous parents, teachers and doctors in Iraq trying to discern what the effects of war were on the children of Iraq. What they discovered was sobering to say the least. They reported a disturbing number of warning signs of severe emotional distress, from nightmares and bedwetting to withdrawal, muteness, panic attacks and violence towards other children, sometimes even to their own parents. The article went on to say,

No one is sure how many children have been killed or maimed in Iraq. But psychologists and aid organisations warn that while the physical scars of the conflict are all too visible - in hospitals and mortuaries and on television screens - the mental and emotional turmoil experienced by Iraq's young is going largely unmonitored and untreated.

War does not discriminate. No one knows how many children have suffered, felt horrific pain and died in this needless, endless, unconscionable war of choice. One, would have been too many. When this war does end and some semblance of peace returns to Iraq, let's not forget the children and our responsibility to them.