Monday, April 10, 2006
Blue Hearts 12.4.10.06
Miracle of miracles. A new blog so quickly. What's going on?
I know. I know. But I just wanted you to be able to read everything in one sitting (not one day) for a change. Besides, there are a few things you need in a more timely manner.
So, here goes...
HUMOR
=====
Read Sunday's Doonesbury: http://www.ucomics.com/doonesbury/2006/04/09/
GENERAL
======
From: "John Kerry" Reply-To:
Subject: Deadline for Iraq
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 14:21:08 -0500
Half the names on the Vietnam Memorial wall were added after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion. You and I have to do everything in our power to stop that from happening again.
Two weeks ago, President Bush said that the timing of complete withdrawal from Iraq "...will be decided by future presidents...."1 But this is our responsibility now, not the responsibility of future presidents or a future Congress.
I believe that American combat troops should come home from Iraq in 2006 - not the distant future as President Bush does. Furthermore, I believe we must set a May 15th deadline for the Iraqis to form an effective unity government. And, if the Iraqi politicians choose to ignore that deadline, then I believe things will only get worse and we will have no choice but to withdraw immediately.
It's not enough to express our convictions -- we need to back up our beliefs with concrete actions. Today I introduced a resolution into the Senate that will give members of both parties the chance to tell the president that our course in Iraq must change.
I am setting tough deadlines for action in Iraq, and you know as well as I do how fiercely the extreme right wing will attack us. So I'm asking you today to be a citizen co-sponsor of this important resolution. Show the White House and my Senate colleagues a groundswell of support.
Sign up today as a citizen co-sponsor of my Senate resolution:
http://www.johnkerry.com/action/deadline/
President Bush is willing to let American soldiers and their families wait endlessly, while risking life and limb, as some Iraqi politicians incite sectarianism to grow their personal power and private militias. But we are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years. The first was against Saddam Hussein and his alleged weapons of mass destruction. The second was against Jihadist terrorists who the Administration said it was better "to fight over there than here." Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating civil war.
We will defeat Al Qaeda faster when we stop serving as their best recruitment tool. Unpinning our military from Iraq will allow us to prosecute the war against Al Qaeda more effectively -- both inside and outside Iraq. And regaining our global options will also strengthen our hand in addressing the Iranian nuclear threat.
For speaking the truth, the right wing and their surrogates will question our courage and commitment. They're going to question our patriotism.
Only one thing will overcome this onslaught and put our country on the right path: a truly massive and visible groundswell of support for this call to bring home the troops. America has prospered throughout its history because we have never allowed bad leaders to pursue bad ideas for very long. The Bush administration uses fear as a weapon against dissent. But you have the power to stand up to this new McCarthyism: show the depth and breadth of support for a timely withdrawal by co-sponsoring my Senate resolution now.
Sign up today as a citizen co-sponsor of my Senate resolution: http://www.johnkerry.com/action/deadline/
We want democracy in Iraq, but it's now the job of Iraqis to build it. Our troops have performed gallantly and heroically. The best way to keep faith with them is to set deadlines for bringing our troops home and getting Iraq on its own two feet. That's the only way to give their sacrifice its best chance of resulting in success.
Thank you,
John Kerry
P.S. It's important that we show a huge groundswell of support. Please forward this email to friends, family, and co-workers who share our belief that we must get tough with the Iraqis and get our combat troops home.
1. White House press conference, March 21, 2006
-----------------------------------------------------
Blue Hearts members. You have no excuses now. We really need some good candidates out there in order to replicate what has been done by the other side. (Although their candidates haven't been good, just successful!)
From: "Tom Hughes, Democracy for America"
Subject: DFA Night School
Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 19:05:18 GMT
Change is coming. And Tom DeLay's resignation announcement earlier this week is only the tip of the iceberg.
The current Republican leadership can no longer hide the culture of corruption behind their spin machine. From the bungled
response to Hurricane Katrina to port security to the war in Iraq, Americans are tired of pay-to-play politics and a lack of
accountability.
We're in a position to make huge gains in 2006, but we need to prepare for the battle to come. This won't be easy. But if we
commit ourselves, we will take our country back. So in light oflonger days and cherry blossoms blooming -- we're "Springing
into Action" by bringing back the DFA Night School.
http://www.dfalink.com/nightschool
In order to build a grassroots army and elect progressive candidates up-and-down the ballot, we need to make sure that DFA
members have the skills to be effective in the campaigns ahead. Throughout the month of April, we are offering four online
sessions of the DFA Night School that will focus on campaign basics. Join any or all of the DFA Night School sessions from
the comfort of your home or office today:
April 11: Moving our Message
April 18: Building a Grassroots Army: Volunteer Recruitment
April 25: Rules of the Road: Canvassing
May 2: How to Make Phoning Fun
DFA Training Coordinator Arshad Hasan will lead a live session each Tuesday at 8:30pm Eastern Time for the next four weeks. During the first session, Arshad will give you helpful tips for spreading the progressive message in your area. If you have a computer and a phone, you'll be able to join DFA Night School for free. After each session, the workshop will be available for download on DFA-Link at:
http://www.dfalink.com/nightschool
We can change our country, but it's going to take a strong ground game and the commitment of thousands of trained activists working together in the coming months. We've already shown that we have the power to bring down Tom DeLay and his money-for-influence machine. Now let's win back America.
Thanks for everything you do.
Sincerely,
Tom Hughes
Democracy for America
--------------------------------------------------
I thought this would make a great Blue Hearts opportunity for action. Many of you have said you'd like to "do" something. I need some help organizing these kinds of things. Anyone interested???? Please let me know. Thanks. K
From: "Howard Dean"
Subject: Breaking News: Tom DeLay is Out
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 10:02:09 -0500
Indicted Republican leader Tom DeLay announced late last night that he will withdraw from his race for re-election and leave Congress within months. This comes after Friday's news that a key former DeLay aide pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with the ongoing federal investigation of DeLay's money-for-influence machine.
DeLay says he made his decision because he doesn't want to let Democrats make him the issue in the 2006 elections. But Tom DeLay himself has never been the issue.
DeLay is a symptom of a larger disease -- a sick Republican culture of corruption that touches everyone who took his dirty money, voted for his corrupt leadership, or sat silently while their party has sold our government to the highest bidder. The corruption extends to the House, the Senate, and the Bush Administration -- and this November the accountability must reach just as wide.
Democrats aren't running against Tom DeLay this year. We are running to end the Republican culture of corruption and restore integrity to our government. What we stand for is clear.
On April 29th, when tens of thousands of volunteers hit the streets in the first-ever 50-state canvass, they will be carrying the six simple things that Democrats stand for. At the top of the list is a clear commitment:
1. Honest Leadership & Open Government: We will end the Republican culture of corruption and restore a government as good as the people it serves.
In honor of Tom DeLay's retirement, today I am ordering another 250,000 of the door-hangers that bear this message -- that's an investment to reach another quarter-million voters on our April 29th organizing day.
Your $50 can put 233 pieces of literature in the hands potential volunteers and potential voters. Will you make a donation?
http://www.democrats.org/delayretirement
Already over 370 neighbor-to-neighbor organizing events have been scheduled for Saturday, April 29th. Democrats across the country will be going door to door, talking with folks in their communities about what Democrats stand for and the kind of change our country needs.
Please take a moment to find or create an event near you. Learn more about the 50-state canvass here:
http://www.democrats.org/50statecanvass
This year's election will be about fundamental change in Washington, and it's up to each one of us to fight for every vote in every single state.
Tom DeLay is just the tip of the iceberg. The American people have had enough of the Republican culture of corruption -- but it's going to take your involvement to make change happen.
Thank you for doing what you can.
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
------------------------------------------
A must-read! K
April 8, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Divine Right of Bushes
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
So the ai! de turns out to have been loyally following his leader's dictates, rather than going around the boss's back to peddle secret information. Scooter is a "good Judas," as it turns out, just as Judas himself was, according to a 1,700-year-old Christian manuscript found in the Egyptian desert that asserts that Jesus wanted Judas to betray him, so he entrusted his disciple with special intelligence.
"You can see how early Christians could say, if Jesus' death was all part of God's plan, then Judas's betrayal was part of God's plan," Dr. Karen King, a professor of the history of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, told The Times. Since President Bush seems to see his mission in Iraq as part of God's plan, he must have assumed that getting Scooter Libby to leak parts of a classified document on Iraq to rebut Joe Wilson's charge about a juiced-up casus belli was part of God's plan.
When other officials leak top-secret stuff — even in cases where the whistle-blowers feel they are illuminating unlawful acts — they are portrayed by the White House as traitors who should be investigated and fired.
After The Times broke the story about the president allowing unauthorized snooping in America, W. was outraged. The F.B.I. and Justice Department were sicced on the leakers. "Revealing classified information," W. huffed, "is illegal, alerts our enemies and endangers our country."
Really, W. should fire himself. He swore to look high and low for the scurrilous leaker and, lo and behold, he has himself in custody. Since the Bush administration is basically a monarchy, he should pass the crown to Jenna. She couldn't do worse than this bunch of airheads and bullies.
Patrick Fitzgerald filed court papers indicating that Scooter testified that in 2003, when the White House was getting rattled by the failure to find W.M.D. and by criticism from a former diplomat on the margins of the war scheme, the president authorized Dick Cheney to authorize Scooter to make a one-sided dump of classified information about Saddam's arsenal to The Times's Judy Miller.
Scooter was so concerned about the propriety of the deal that he checked with the vice president's lawyer, David Addington, before he spilled. Addington, whose politics are to the right of Louis XVI, said, go right ahead. Now Black Adder has Scooter's job. Coincidence?
The Bushies once more showed incompetence by creating this elaborate daisy-chain leak and giving it to the one person in journalism who had been roped off from writing about the prewar intelligence, while her editors sorted out problems with her past W.M.D. coverage. Judy never authored an article about what Scooter gave her, either that intelligence or the identity of the woman whom she wrote down in her notebook as "Valerie Flame." (Stripper or spy?)
W. subscribes to the Nixonian theory that when a president does it, it's not illegal — or maybe it's the divine right of kings. God has been pretty active in Republican politics lately: Tom DeLay said God told him to drop out of his re-election race.
If the administration were seriously trying to declassify something in the national interest, wouldn't it have President Bush explain his decision or have his Scottish terrier yip it out from the podium, rather than having Scooter whisper it in Judy's ear?
Instead, sounding very Lewis Carroll, the White House claims that when the president leaks something secret, it's not secret anymore. It's the Immaculate Declassification: intelligence is declassified by passing it on to a friendly reporter.
"The president believes the leaking of classified information is a very serious matter," Scott McClellan said. "And I think that's why it's important to draw a distinction here. Declassifying information and providing it to the public, when it is in the public interest, is one thing. But leaking classified information that could compromise our national security is something that is very serious. And there is a distinction." And thank goodness we have a White House that gets that distinction. Democrats who don't, he sniffed, are guilty of "crass politics."
If W. wants the information out, it's good for the country to make it public. If W. doesn't want the information out, it's bad for the country to make it public. L'état, c'est moi.
That's how we got mired in the Iraq war in the first place. The administration ruthlessly held back classified information that contradicted its bogus case for war, and leaked classified information that supported it.
The Bushies keep trying to manipulate reality, but reality bites back. That's not only crass politics. It's lethal politics. L'état, c'est mess.
LOCAL
=====
I thought some of us might be interested in going to this. K
From: True Blue Women
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:45:43 -0500
Please join True Blue Women at a screening of the film, Slow Food Revolution.
*Time/Place: Wed. April 12, 7 pm; UMKC, Royall Hall, Rm 104, 5100 Rockhill Road.
*Admission Free
*TBW's Environment & Health Committees invite you to join them in watching this important film that discusses the following:
Traditional foods are at risk of disappearing forever, as a speed-obsessed world turns increasingly to fast foods. To counter this trend, there is an international gastro-economic movement known as Slow Food. Its aim is to protect traditional culture, the environment and biodiversity by encouraging regional food production. The movement is now active in 45 countries. Italy
is the home of the Slow Food movement and there is a revival of growing such regional foods as Bronte pistachios, Sorrento lemons and the original Neopolitan tomatoes. Towns like Orvieto have declared themselves to be "slow cities," free of fast food outlets, neon and noise. Beautifully photographed, Slow Food Revolution is a celebration of the sustainability, seasonality and quality of the earth's bounty.
Join Us!
We look forward to seeing you at tonight's Quarterly Meeting. 7p.m. @ Asbury Methodist Church, 75th & Nall.
-----------------------------------------
OK. This might fall under HUMOR but it's local. I thought it might be fun to hear Calvin Trillin speak on his newest book: A Heckuva Jog: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme. Sounds good to me! K
Calvin Trillin, a writer for Time, The New Yorker, and The Nation, and Author of the national bestsellers: Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco and Tepper Isn't Going Out. From telling stories of finding continental cuisine to finding a prime parking place in New York City to finding more Bushisms, Calvin Trillin is a superlative prose stylist and inimitable humorist. Calvin Trillin will return to his old stomping grounds to share his wit and wisdom with us in another hilarious dialogue about his new book, A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme, $12.95 Softcover, ISBN 1400065569, at our Rainy Day Books Author Event on Sunday, June 11, 2006, at 1:30 PM, at Unity Temple on The Plaza, Sanctuary, 707 W 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Admission Package: $12.95 plus Tax, includes from Rainy Day Books, One (1) Stamped Ticket, One (1) Guest Ticket (if needed) and One (1) Copy of A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme (Softcover) to be Autographed on a First Come, First Served Basis, while supplies last.
Rainy Day Books, Inc.
Phone: 913-384-3126
www.RainyDayBooks.com
I know. I know. But I just wanted you to be able to read everything in one sitting (not one day) for a change. Besides, there are a few things you need in a more timely manner.
So, here goes...
HUMOR
=====
Read Sunday's Doonesbury: http://www.ucomics.com/doonesbury/2006/04/09/
GENERAL
======
From: "John Kerry"
Subject: Deadline for Iraq
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 14:21:08 -0500
Half the names on the Vietnam Memorial wall were added after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion. You and I have to do everything in our power to stop that from happening again.
Two weeks ago, President Bush said that the timing of complete withdrawal from Iraq "...will be decided by future presidents...."1 But this is our responsibility now, not the responsibility of future presidents or a future Congress.
I believe that American combat troops should come home from Iraq in 2006 - not the distant future as President Bush does. Furthermore, I believe we must set a May 15th deadline for the Iraqis to form an effective unity government. And, if the Iraqi politicians choose to ignore that deadline, then I believe things will only get worse and we will have no choice but to withdraw immediately.
It's not enough to express our convictions -- we need to back up our beliefs with concrete actions. Today I introduced a resolution into the Senate that will give members of both parties the chance to tell the president that our course in Iraq must change.
I am setting tough deadlines for action in Iraq, and you know as well as I do how fiercely the extreme right wing will attack us. So I'm asking you today to be a citizen co-sponsor of this important resolution. Show the White House and my Senate colleagues a groundswell of support.
Sign up today as a citizen co-sponsor of my Senate resolution:
http://www.johnkerry.com/action/deadline/
President Bush is willing to let American soldiers and their families wait endlessly, while risking life and limb, as some Iraqi politicians incite sectarianism to grow their personal power and private militias. But we are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years. The first was against Saddam Hussein and his alleged weapons of mass destruction. The second was against Jihadist terrorists who the Administration said it was better "to fight over there than here." Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating civil war.
We will defeat Al Qaeda faster when we stop serving as their best recruitment tool. Unpinning our military from Iraq will allow us to prosecute the war against Al Qaeda more effectively -- both inside and outside Iraq. And regaining our global options will also strengthen our hand in addressing the Iranian nuclear threat.
For speaking the truth, the right wing and their surrogates will question our courage and commitment. They're going to question our patriotism.
Only one thing will overcome this onslaught and put our country on the right path: a truly massive and visible groundswell of support for this call to bring home the troops. America has prospered throughout its history because we have never allowed bad leaders to pursue bad ideas for very long. The Bush administration uses fear as a weapon against dissent. But you have the power to stand up to this new McCarthyism: show the depth and breadth of support for a timely withdrawal by co-sponsoring my Senate resolution now.
Sign up today as a citizen co-sponsor of my Senate resolution: http://www.johnkerry.com/action/deadline/
We want democracy in Iraq, but it's now the job of Iraqis to build it. Our troops have performed gallantly and heroically. The best way to keep faith with them is to set deadlines for bringing our troops home and getting Iraq on its own two feet. That's the only way to give their sacrifice its best chance of resulting in success.
Thank you,
John Kerry
P.S. It's important that we show a huge groundswell of support. Please forward this email to friends, family, and co-workers who share our belief that we must get tough with the Iraqis and get our combat troops home.
1. White House press conference, March 21, 2006
-----------------------------------------------------
Blue Hearts members. You have no excuses now. We really need some good candidates out there in order to replicate what has been done by the other side. (Although their candidates haven't been good, just successful!)
From: "Tom Hughes, Democracy for America"
Subject: DFA Night School
Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 19:05:18 GMT
Change is coming. And Tom DeLay's resignation announcement earlier this week is only the tip of the iceberg.
The current Republican leadership can no longer hide the culture of corruption behind their spin machine. From the bungled
response to Hurricane Katrina to port security to the war in Iraq, Americans are tired of pay-to-play politics and a lack of
accountability.
We're in a position to make huge gains in 2006, but we need to prepare for the battle to come. This won't be easy. But if we
commit ourselves, we will take our country back. So in light oflonger days and cherry blossoms blooming -- we're "Springing
into Action" by bringing back the DFA Night School.
http://www.dfalink.com/nightschool
In order to build a grassroots army and elect progressive candidates up-and-down the ballot, we need to make sure that DFA
members have the skills to be effective in the campaigns ahead. Throughout the month of April, we are offering four online
sessions of the DFA Night School that will focus on campaign basics. Join any or all of the DFA Night School sessions from
the comfort of your home or office today:
April 11: Moving our Message
April 18: Building a Grassroots Army: Volunteer Recruitment
April 25: Rules of the Road: Canvassing
May 2: How to Make Phoning Fun
DFA Training Coordinator Arshad Hasan will lead a live session each Tuesday at 8:30pm Eastern Time for the next four weeks. During the first session, Arshad will give you helpful tips for spreading the progressive message in your area. If you have a computer and a phone, you'll be able to join DFA Night School for free. After each session, the workshop will be available for download on DFA-Link at:
http://www.dfalink.com/nightschool
We can change our country, but it's going to take a strong ground game and the commitment of thousands of trained activists working together in the coming months. We've already shown that we have the power to bring down Tom DeLay and his money-for-influence machine. Now let's win back America.
Thanks for everything you do.
Sincerely,
Tom Hughes
Democracy for America
--------------------------------------------------
I thought this would make a great Blue Hearts opportunity for action. Many of you have said you'd like to "do" something. I need some help organizing these kinds of things. Anyone interested???? Please let me know. Thanks. K
From: "Howard Dean"
Subject: Breaking News: Tom DeLay is Out
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 10:02:09 -0500
Indicted Republican leader Tom DeLay announced late last night that he will withdraw from his race for re-election and leave Congress within months. This comes after Friday's news that a key former DeLay aide pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with the ongoing federal investigation of DeLay's money-for-influence machine.
DeLay says he made his decision because he doesn't want to let Democrats make him the issue in the 2006 elections. But Tom DeLay himself has never been the issue.
DeLay is a symptom of a larger disease -- a sick Republican culture of corruption that touches everyone who took his dirty money, voted for his corrupt leadership, or sat silently while their party has sold our government to the highest bidder. The corruption extends to the House, the Senate, and the Bush Administration -- and this November the accountability must reach just as wide.
Democrats aren't running against Tom DeLay this year. We are running to end the Republican culture of corruption and restore integrity to our government. What we stand for is clear.
On April 29th, when tens of thousands of volunteers hit the streets in the first-ever 50-state canvass, they will be carrying the six simple things that Democrats stand for. At the top of the list is a clear commitment:
1. Honest Leadership & Open Government: We will end the Republican culture of corruption and restore a government as good as the people it serves.
In honor of Tom DeLay's retirement, today I am ordering another 250,000 of the door-hangers that bear this message -- that's an investment to reach another quarter-million voters on our April 29th organizing day.
Your $50 can put 233 pieces of literature in the hands potential volunteers and potential voters. Will you make a donation?
http://www.democrats.org/delayretirement
Already over 370 neighbor-to-neighbor organizing events have been scheduled for Saturday, April 29th. Democrats across the country will be going door to door, talking with folks in their communities about what Democrats stand for and the kind of change our country needs.
Please take a moment to find or create an event near you. Learn more about the 50-state canvass here:
http://www.democrats.org/50statecanvass
This year's election will be about fundamental change in Washington, and it's up to each one of us to fight for every vote in every single state.
Tom DeLay is just the tip of the iceberg. The American people have had enough of the Republican culture of corruption -- but it's going to take your involvement to make change happen.
Thank you for doing what you can.
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
------------------------------------------
A must-read! K
April 8, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Divine Right of Bushes
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
So the ai! de turns out to have been loyally following his leader's dictates, rather than going around the boss's back to peddle secret information. Scooter is a "good Judas," as it turns out, just as Judas himself was, according to a 1,700-year-old Christian manuscript found in the Egyptian desert that asserts that Jesus wanted Judas to betray him, so he entrusted his disciple with special intelligence.
"You can see how early Christians could say, if Jesus' death was all part of God's plan, then Judas's betrayal was part of God's plan," Dr. Karen King, a professor of the history of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, told The Times. Since President Bush seems to see his mission in Iraq as part of God's plan, he must have assumed that getting Scooter Libby to leak parts of a classified document on Iraq to rebut Joe Wilson's charge about a juiced-up casus belli was part of God's plan.
When other officials leak top-secret stuff — even in cases where the whistle-blowers feel they are illuminating unlawful acts — they are portrayed by the White House as traitors who should be investigated and fired.
After The Times broke the story about the president allowing unauthorized snooping in America, W. was outraged. The F.B.I. and Justice Department were sicced on the leakers. "Revealing classified information," W. huffed, "is illegal, alerts our enemies and endangers our country."
Really, W. should fire himself. He swore to look high and low for the scurrilous leaker and, lo and behold, he has himself in custody. Since the Bush administration is basically a monarchy, he should pass the crown to Jenna. She couldn't do worse than this bunch of airheads and bullies.
Patrick Fitzgerald filed court papers indicating that Scooter testified that in 2003, when the White House was getting rattled by the failure to find W.M.D. and by criticism from a former diplomat on the margins of the war scheme, the president authorized Dick Cheney to authorize Scooter to make a one-sided dump of classified information about Saddam's arsenal to The Times's Judy Miller.
Scooter was so concerned about the propriety of the deal that he checked with the vice president's lawyer, David Addington, before he spilled. Addington, whose politics are to the right of Louis XVI, said, go right ahead. Now Black Adder has Scooter's job. Coincidence?
The Bushies once more showed incompetence by creating this elaborate daisy-chain leak and giving it to the one person in journalism who had been roped off from writing about the prewar intelligence, while her editors sorted out problems with her past W.M.D. coverage. Judy never authored an article about what Scooter gave her, either that intelligence or the identity of the woman whom she wrote down in her notebook as "Valerie Flame." (Stripper or spy?)
W. subscribes to the Nixonian theory that when a president does it, it's not illegal — or maybe it's the divine right of kings. God has been pretty active in Republican politics lately: Tom DeLay said God told him to drop out of his re-election race.
If the administration were seriously trying to declassify something in the national interest, wouldn't it have President Bush explain his decision or have his Scottish terrier yip it out from the podium, rather than having Scooter whisper it in Judy's ear?
Instead, sounding very Lewis Carroll, the White House claims that when the president leaks something secret, it's not secret anymore. It's the Immaculate Declassification: intelligence is declassified by passing it on to a friendly reporter.
"The president believes the leaking of classified information is a very serious matter," Scott McClellan said. "And I think that's why it's important to draw a distinction here. Declassifying information and providing it to the public, when it is in the public interest, is one thing. But leaking classified information that could compromise our national security is something that is very serious. And there is a distinction." And thank goodness we have a White House that gets that distinction. Democrats who don't, he sniffed, are guilty of "crass politics."
If W. wants the information out, it's good for the country to make it public. If W. doesn't want the information out, it's bad for the country to make it public. L'état, c'est moi.
That's how we got mired in the Iraq war in the first place. The administration ruthlessly held back classified information that contradicted its bogus case for war, and leaked classified information that supported it.
The Bushies keep trying to manipulate reality, but reality bites back. That's not only crass politics. It's lethal politics. L'état, c'est mess.
LOCAL
=====
I thought some of us might be interested in going to this. K
From: True Blue Women
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:45:43 -0500
Please join True Blue Women at a screening of the film, Slow Food Revolution.
*Time/Place: Wed. April 12, 7 pm; UMKC, Royall Hall, Rm 104, 5100 Rockhill Road.
*Admission Free
*TBW's Environment & Health Committees invite you to join them in watching this important film that discusses the following:
Traditional foods are at risk of disappearing forever, as a speed-obsessed world turns increasingly to fast foods. To counter this trend, there is an international gastro-economic movement known as Slow Food. Its aim is to protect traditional culture, the environment and biodiversity by encouraging regional food production. The movement is now active in 45 countries. Italy
is the home of the Slow Food movement and there is a revival of growing such regional foods as Bronte pistachios, Sorrento lemons and the original Neopolitan tomatoes. Towns like Orvieto have declared themselves to be "slow cities," free of fast food outlets, neon and noise. Beautifully photographed, Slow Food Revolution is a celebration of the sustainability, seasonality and quality of the earth's bounty.
Join Us!
We look forward to seeing you at tonight's Quarterly Meeting. 7p.m. @ Asbury Methodist Church, 75th & Nall.
-----------------------------------------
OK. This might fall under HUMOR but it's local. I thought it might be fun to hear Calvin Trillin speak on his newest book: A Heckuva Jog: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme. Sounds good to me! K
Calvin Trillin, a writer for Time, The New Yorker, and The Nation, and Author of the national bestsellers: Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco and Tepper Isn't Going Out. From telling stories of finding continental cuisine to finding a prime parking place in New York City to finding more Bushisms, Calvin Trillin is a superlative prose stylist and inimitable humorist. Calvin Trillin will return to his old stomping grounds to share his wit and wisdom with us in another hilarious dialogue about his new book, A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme, $12.95 Softcover, ISBN 1400065569, at our Rainy Day Books Author Event on Sunday, June 11, 2006, at 1:30 PM, at Unity Temple on The Plaza, Sanctuary, 707 W 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Admission Package: $12.95 plus Tax, includes from Rainy Day Books, One (1) Stamped Ticket, One (1) Guest Ticket (if needed) and One (1) Copy of A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme (Softcover) to be Autographed on a First Come, First Served Basis, while supplies last.
Rainy Day Books, Inc.
Phone: 913-384-3126
www.RainyDayBooks.com
