Saturday, March 17, 2007
Blue Hearts 19.3.17.07
Hello one and all,
It’s been such a long time and I’m so excited to get back to you. Hope you’re having a great year in 2007.
The Blue Hearts have actually met this year. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, we had former Salon writer, Michelle Goldberg at my house. She wrote Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. I recommend this book for a better look at what the conservative Christian movement is doing to try to force their agenda on the largely unsuspecting U.S. citizenry.
Now for the Blog. I’m keeping the same format, humor first, followed by general interest, then local.
Happy reading and keep it blue!!
Kristin
HUMOR
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I think we’ve seen these before but they are too funny to pass up. K
BUMPER STICKERS
That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway
Let's Fix Democracy in This Country First
If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran
Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.
If You Can Read This, You're NOT Our President
Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet?
George W. Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight
America: One Nation, Under Surveillance
Jail to the Chief
No, Seriously, Why Did We Invade Iraq?
Bush: God's Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap
We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language
We're Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them
Is It Vietnam Yet?
Bush Doesn't Care About White People, Either
Where Are We Going? And Why Are We In This Handbasket?
When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46
The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century
What Part of "Bush Lied" Don't You Understand?
One Nation Under Clod
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This is funny on many levels. K
http://www.glumbert.com/media/irack
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Subject: Why did the chicken cross the road?
DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on THIS side of the road before it goes after the problem on the OTHER SIDE of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his CURRENT problems before adding NEW problems.
OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.
GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.
COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image
of the chicken crossing the road.
ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.
JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.
NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.
PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.
MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider
information.
DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes,
the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.
JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth in
front of your face? The chicken was going to the "other side." That's
why they call it the "other side." Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay.
And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other side." That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.
GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.
BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the
chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it
experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.
JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in
peace.
ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2005, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your
checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^( C \ ....
reboot.
ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the
chicken?
BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of
chicken?
AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!
COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?
DICK CHENEY:
Where's my gun?
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LOVE THIS!! K
Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting, and what they do to have some fun. Well, for example, the other day I went down town and into a shop. I was only there for about 5 minutes and when I came out there was a cop writing a parking ticket. I said to him, "Come on, man, how about giving a person a break"? He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a "Nazi." He glared at me and wrote another ticket for having worn tires. So I called him a "doughnut eating Gestapo." He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first ticket. Then he wrote a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him the more tickets he wrote and put them on the windshield.
Personally, I didn't care. I came downtown on the bus and the car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that said "We Love Bush."
I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important to my health.
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At last, A bumper sticker for both parties.
FINALLY, someone has come out with a 100% bipartisan political bumper sticker. The hottest selling bumper sticker comes from New York State . .
"RUN HILLARY RUN"
Democrats put it on the rear bumper.
Republicans put it on the front bumper.
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Dear Red States...
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.
Peace out,
Blue States
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GENERAL INTEREST
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives
November 14th, 2006
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.
Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.
Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:
Dear Conservatives and Republicans,
I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:
1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.
2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.
3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.
4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.
5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.
6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.
7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.
8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.
9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.
10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.
11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.
12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.
I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one.
Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.
Signed,
Michael Moore
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EDITORIAL
What’s Right With Kansas
Published: November 15, 2006
It would be remiss to finish the election post-mortems without noting a major shift in the nation’s heartland. Kansas — lately considered the reddest of red states — emerged from the election as a bastion of moderation.
Just two years after President Bush carried the state by 25 percentage points, Kansas voters rebelled against continued domination of the state’s politics by the sharply conservative state Republican Party. The Democratic Party posted major gains, including some by former Republicans who switched parties.
The moderate Democratic governor, Kathleen Sebelius, received a whopping 58 percent of the vote to secure her re-election. Three moderate Republicans holding statewide jobs also won easy re-election, two of them after beating back conservative challengers in the primary. And two of the four people elected to the House of Representatives were Democrats, a result that would have seemed inconceivable not too long ago.
Victories by moderate Democrats and Republicans ended conservative control of the Kansas State Board of Education, which tried to replace evolution with creationism in public school classrooms.
And for us, one of the most satisfying results was the resounding defeat of Attorney General Phill Kline, an anti-abortion zealot who gained national notoriety by misusing his office to further his ideology. He tried to force health care workers to file reports on the sexual activity of teens, and to seize women’s confidential medical records. That gross assault on privacy and legal rights was a major issue in the campaign. The 58-to-42 landslide that elected a former Republican, Paul Morrison, was a victory for moderation and the rule of law.
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I read this in the latest Vanity Fair. Please go to http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/04/wolff200704
to read the rest of the article. K
THE WHITE HOUSE
Caught in the Spin Cycle
When the selling of the war turned as sour as the war itself, Lewis "Scooter" Libby was in trouble. His perjury trial exposed the White House P.R. machine–and the first hint of a split between his boss, Dick Cheney, and President Bush.
by MICHAEL WOLFF
April 2007
Around the corner from the trial of Scooter Libby, during a late-afternoon break, Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, was telling me that the Republican Party is kaput. "The brand isn't just sick—it's dead. The G.O.P. is cracking up." (Luntz is a marketer marketing his new book, Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear, about political marketing, and knows he needs a compelling message. We have a brief discussion about whether his thesis about the end of the Republicans might get him some publicity.) The Bush administration, in other words, could well have brought one of the greatest marketing and P.R. success stories of the modern era—the rise of conservatism and the Republican Party—to an end.
It may be smart to analyze the Libby trial and the Republican Party in marketing rather than political terms. Effective marketing is the Republican lifeblood—developing and crafting and delivering the message. The Democrats surely would never have been organized enough or clear enough on their talking points to have convinced the media and nation of the rightness of war. "The Democratic message comes out of academia, which is chaotic. The Republican message process comes out of corporate America, where the first rule is discipline," noted Luntz proudly, swilling Diet Coke.
The one constant I've observed, in 27 years as an on-again, off-again political reporter, is that Republicans return reporters' calls and Democrats don't. To a great extent, this is what got Scooter Libby into trouble, calling back The New York Times's Judy Miller and Time's Matt Cooper. Libby is a superb example of the much-vaunted Republican Party message discipline—he's got tenacious follow-through. He's one of the people who helped give the Bush administration its reputation—intact as recently as 24 months ago—as the most masterful iteration of Republican media management, a leviathan of political marketing.....
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Terry Jones
Saturday January 6, 2007
The Guardian
Early this year the Bush administration is to ask Congress to approve an additional $100bn for the onerous task of making life intolerable for the Iraqis. This will bring the total spent on the White House's current obsession with war to almost $500bn - enough to have given every US citizen $1,600 each. I wonder which the voters would have gone for if given the choice: shall we (a) give every American $1,600 or (b) spend the money on bombing a country in the Middle East that doesn't use lavatory paper?
Of course, there's another thing that George Bush could have done with the money: he could have given every Iraqi $18,700. I imagine that would have reduced the threat of international terrorism somewhat. Call me old-fashioned, but I can't help thinking that giving someone $18,700 brings them round to your side more quickly than bombing the hell out of them. They could certainly buy a lot of lavatory paper with it.
In 2002 the house budget committee and the congressional budget office both guesstimated the cost of invading Iraq at approximately $50bn; $500bn seems a bit wide of the mark. What's more, with over half a million dead, it means that the world's greatest military superpower has spent a million dollars for every Iraqi killed. That can't be value for money!
So how on earth could such a vast overspend occur? After all, the US is the flagship of monetary common sense. Well, for starters, in 2003 the White House refused to allow competitive bidding for contracts in Iraq, which is odd for the champions of free enterprise. Then the White House ensured there would be no overseeing of what was spent. In the original Iraq spending bill, which earmarked the first $87bn to go down the drain, there was a provision for the general accounting office to keep a check on things, but that provision was stripped from the bill - even though the Senate had originally voted for it 97 to 0.
But what I want to know is: how do they actually spend all that money? Well the answer is: they don't. According to the website Halliburtonwatch, the Halliburton subsidiary KBR bills the US taxpayer for $50-$80 per day for labourers working for it in Iraq, but pays them only $5-$16 per day. It's the same with Halliburton. In December 2003 the US army discovered that the company had overcharged by $61m for fuel transportation and $67m for food services in Iraq.
Then there is good old-fashioned incompetence. Take the al-Fatah pipeline: KBR went through $75.7m of taxpayers' money, supposedly trying to replace a pipeline across the river Tigris that US forces had blown up. They never finished the job, but still got paid.
With all this double-dealing and incompetence, you'd expect that those responsible would have been penalised by now. But that's where the mystery deepens. Companies such as Halliburton and its subsidiaries have never had it so good. In January 2006 the Bush administration intervened in a dispute between the Pentagon and Halliburton, and agreed to pay the company $199m in disputed charges. On January 26 2006 Halliburton announced that its 2005 profits were the "best in our 86-year history". And to date KBR has received around $16bn from its contracts in Iraq.
Vice-President Dick Cheney, formerly CEO of Halliburton, has not had a bad war either. His tax returns for 2005 show that he earned $194,862 from his Halliburton stock options alone. Mind you, it's small change compared to his $36m payoff when he left the firm. Was that for his past role, or was Halliburton anticipating further services from the future vice-president of the US? Perhaps it's just as well that in 2003 the White House removed from the Iraq spending bill any provision to penalise war profiteers whodefrauded US taxpayers.
Terry Jones is a film director, actor and www.terry-jones.net
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The Least Immoral Choice
Squander No More U.S. Lives in Iraq
By Sally Quinn
Tuesday, January 9, 2007; A15
I am an Army brat. I have seen the effects of war firsthand. My father fought in World War II and in the Korean War. I lived on Army posts and saw or heard about the human devastation of war each day.
During the Korean War my father served on the front lines, leaving us behind in Tokyo. Every day I read in the newspaper Stars and Stripes about soldiers being killed. I fell ill because of the emotional stress of having him at war, and at age 10 I ended up in Tokyo General Hospital.
The hospital was filled with severely wounded soldiers who had been airlifted from Korea. It was decided that having parents visit their sick children would be too disruptive, so my mother wasn't allowed to see me for months at a time.
Finally, after nearly nine months, I was transferred to Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio. My mother, younger brother, younger sister and I were placed on an Army hospital plane with the most seriously wounded soldiers, who were to fly back with us. There were no seats on the plane, only three rows of litters, five high, all filled with badly wounded and dying soldiers, most of them still kids themselves. I was strapped to my litter, as they were, but my mother, brother and sister were ambulatory.
The thing I remember most vividly is the soldiers screaming in pain and crying out for their mothers. My mother went up and down the aisles holding their hands, stroking their brows, giving them sips of water. My sister helped light their cigarettes. Many of them were amputees. Some had no stomachs, some had no faces.
The soldiers in the litters above and below me both died, blood dripping from their wounds. Many other soldiers died while we were in the air. We had to stop in Hawaii overnight to refuel and to leave the bodies.
I hope that when President Bush discusses sending more troops to Iraq, knowing that we will have to pull out sooner rather than later, that the conversation comes around to the human suffering. Does anyone at the table ask about the personal anguish, the long-term effects, emotional, psychological and financial, on the families of those killed, wounded or permanently disabled?
When I hear about the surge, all I can think of is those young soldiers on the plane to Texas. We have already lost more than 3,000 soldiers, and many more have been wounded and disabled.
We have three choices here. All three are immoral. We can keep the status quo and gradually pull out; we can surge; or we can pull out now. When I think about those young soldiers on that plane coming back from Japan years ago, I believe pulling out now is the least immoral choice.
The writer is a co-moderator of On Faith, an online conversation on religion athttp://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith
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Wilmer J. Leon III | President's Day: Where Has Integrity Gone?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021907A.shtml
Wilmer J. Leon III writes, "As I compare the vision, sacrifices, and perception of honesty and integrity in both Washington and Lincoln and look to find those same traits in President George W. Bush, I am astonished at the polling data. According to the Washington Post, Americans now question the integrity of President Bush. The Post's survey found only 40 percent view him as honest and trustworthy. In 2006, according to the PEW Research Center, an independent opinion research group, 'The single word most frequently associated with George W. Bush today is 'incompetent,' and close behind are - 'idiot' and 'liar.'"
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Congratulations to Blue Hearts’ own Maria and Linda. An excellent example of how local individuals’ efforts can make a global differnce. Great job!!! K
Buying Influence Inc. Proves That Consumer Activism Works As Pressure on Wimbledon Results in Equal Pay for All Players
Kansas City, MO (March1, 2007): Buying Influence Inc., a non-profit organization seeking to influence corporations to make more socially responsible business decisions, has “influenced” Wimbledon to change its pay practices toward its women players. “By garnering the support of consumers that purchase products from the sponsors of Wimbledon, we have shown that consumer activism does bring about change,” says Dr. Maria Kunstadter, founder and CEO of Buying Influence, Inc.
In the spring of 2006, Buying Influence Inc. launched The Wimbledon Campaign because Wimbledon was the only professional tennis match that continued to pay its women players less than the men players. The campaign consisted of directing consumers to send letters to the corporate sponsors of the tennis match complaining of their sponsorship of a world class event that practiced wage discrimination. Dr. Kunstadter states that “the next step was to get consumers to boycott the funding sponsors of Wimbledon, which included not only sending letters to the sponsors and Wimbledon, but not buying the products of the sponsors. The nine month campaign succeeded when Wimbledon agreed to change their pay practices and pay women equally. This is an event that is seen around the world, so equality is important, but all women and minorities are champions whom deserve equal pay.” Tim Phillips, Chairman of the All England Club, states that “…taking into account both the overall progression and the fact that broader social factors are also relevant to the decision, they have decided that the time is right to bring this subject to a logical conclusion and eliminate the difference.”
“Buying Influence Inc. works with consumers on all levels by informing them of situations that are occurring, educating them on what to do, encouraging them to take a stand, and empowering them to go after specific results,” says Linda Eakes, Executive Director of Buying Influence Inc. “Consumers want to make a stand on the issues that are important to them. By shining the light on inequities and corporate lack of responsibility, we are supporting them in their quest,” continues Ms. Eakes. “The net effect on corporations is to realize that business decisions they make which are socially irresponsible are also socially unacceptable to the buying public.”
Dr. Kunstadter adds, “We expected results and we got them. Lack of equal pay affects everyone, from professional tennis players at Wimbledon to the minimum wage earners in our corporations. The Wimbledon Effect will be applied to other inequities as an effective means to align equal pay across the board.” As Tim Phillips says, “…we believe our decision to offer equal prize money provides a boost for the game as a whole and recognizes the enormous contribution that women players make to the game and to Wimbledon. In short, it’s good for tennis, good for women players and good for Wimbledon.”
Buying Influence Inc. is located at 801 W. 47th Street, Suite 110, Kansas City, MO 64112. For more information contact Linda Eakes, Executive Director, at 816-931-7896, or at lindae@buyinginfluence.com. Their website is www.buyinginfluence.com.
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Very SCARY Thought
by a friend
Nearly lost in all the hootin' and hollerin' about U.S. Attorney-gate is a delicious truth: Two of the worst offenders in this whole mess were at the top of President Bush's list to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancies last year. That's right, friends, had Bush had his way in the fall of 2005, we'd be looking today at a court fearlessly led by a Chief Justice Alberto Gonzales and starring an Associate Justice Harriet Miers.
LOCAL ITEMS
PLEASE come this Sunday to Penn Valley CC for the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War. If you care that we are at war, show it and show up! K
CONGRESSMAN CLEAVER TO ADDRESS AREA PEACE GROUPS ON 4TH ANNIVERSARY OF IRAQ WAR
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II will join over twenty area community groups in Greater Kansas City at an event to mark the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War.
Who: Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II, Senator Jolie Justus, Senator Chris Steineger, U.S. Army Specialist Tomas Young, Army Veteran Carl Webb, Patrick Farnan, Rev. Fuzzy Thompson, Rev. Bob Francis and Joe Carr.
What: Event to memorialize the 4th Anniversary of the Iraq War When: Sunday, March 18 at 1:00 p.m. (Cleaver to speak promptly at 2:30 p.m.)
Where: Penn Valley Community College, 3201 Southwest Trafficway, Kansas City, Missouri. The event will be outside on the grass bordering Southwest Trafficway.
In addition to Congressman Cleaver, other speakers will include: Carl Webb, Veteran, Texas Army National Guard resister of "stop-loss backdoor draft"; Tomas Young, U.S. Army Specialist and Iraq War Veteran paralyzed from the chest down from injuries sustained in Iraq; Patrick Farnan (Father of SPC Colby Farnan: killed 02/25/05); Rev. Fuzzy Thompson (President KC Southern Christian Leadership Conference); Missouri State Sen. Jolie Justus; Kansas State Sen. Chris Steineger; Activist Joe Carr; and Rev. Bob Francis (Military Chaplin).
Ira Harritt, event organizer, said the purpose of the event is "to remind elected officials that the only thing which will be accomplished by the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is more U.S. deaths and an escalation of the civil war. Too many U.S. troops have died. It is unforgivable to continue this failed Iraq policy knowing that each day three or four more U.S. soldiers and Marines will die and dozens more Iraqi civilians. The events marking the fourth anniversary of the war provide an opportunity for area residents to reaffirm their demand that the Iraq war end and that a plan for a responsible withdrawal of U.S. troops begin immediately."
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I have known Beth for 15 years. She’s incredibly hard working and in sync with our causes. PLEASE consider supporting Beth for City Council, 4th District At-Large. Thanks, K
Election Day - Call for Volunteers!
Volunteers are the lifeblood of our campaign to send Beth to City Hall. Even if you can only spare an hour or two, you CAN make a difference.
Phone Banks: Phonebanking works. We need your help to contact key, targeted voters. We'll phonebank Tuesday through Thursday from 5:30pm - 9:00pm until Election Day. (If you want to call from home, we can accommodate you.)
Canvassing: We knock on doors for the next three weekends. Please let us know if you can walk with us, or would like to walk your neighborhood for us.
Yard Signs: Yard signs increase Beth's visibility across the city. We have yards signs for your and your friends.
Resources: Campaigns are expensive. To reach our voter base, we need your help. Please contribute today by mailing a check payable to Friends of Beth Gottstein, PO Box 30592, Kansas City, MO 64112.
If you can join us, please call the campaign headquarters at 816-931-5209 or respond to this e-mail.
Ladies, make note on your calendars for DIVA nights, each consecutive Monday from now until the Election from 5pm - 9pm. Come for all or part of the evening to share good company, hard work (and some wine & cheese). We will write postcards (please bring your address books) and call women to urge them to elect the first female majority City Council!
ELECT KANSAS CITY'S FIRST MAJORITY FEMALE CITY COUNCIL
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"By and large, women govern differently. They listen. They engage. They share." -Quote from a Tucson Councilwoman from its first female majority city council.
Kansas Citians are ready for a change. We have capable, well-qualified women ready to deliver that change. Let's get together and help put them in office.
Join us for a get-tegether frunraiser and support Beth Gottstein and Cindy Circo in their bid to hand Kansas City its first-ever, female majority city council.
Tuesday, March 20
7-8:30 pm
Rockhill Tennis Club
Please Bring Your Friends!
Hostessed By: Committee for a Majority Female City Council
Anne McGregor
Principal
MC2 Consultants
(816) 561-9629 voice
(816) 516-9851 mobil
www.mc2utilityconsultants.com
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Why Wait Till ‘08
Paul Rola
Many of us have just come off of local political races, not all of us were winners. Need a breather? Maybe. Need some more training? Probably! As we look back at those races, what could we have done differently? What could we have done better? I'm sure all of us have some questions. Maybe there are some areas where we could make some improvements, sharpen our skills? Maybe there are some areas where we would like to get some help, some advice, maybe somebody else's ideas???
Democracy for America is offering an opportunity to do all of those things, right after you take your breather. April 14th & 15th there will be training sessions held in Columbia Mo. These will be of benefit to you whether you are a Democrat, Independent or a Green and ever plan to participate in a political campaign (Republicans, we don't think would understand the concepts or material).
I am not going to tell you all about it, there is a website that does it better than I can. I do wish to mention that this email is sent to those people and organizations who I think can add to our combined knowledge and receive some benefits from this gathering as well. I know I have included some highly effective professionals (who no longer need any training [cough, cough]), but who might know someone within their group who could use some further exposure. Please pass this information along to them!
Here's the website: http://www.dfalink.com:80/event.php?id=17117 Finding great progressive leaders to run this country our a full time job! We can't afford to wait till '08.
Hope to see all of you there!
Thanks &
Take Care
Paul
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Greetings!
I am the Volunteer Coordinator at Bridging The Gap, a local nonprofit environmental education and action organization. If you are receiving this email, it means I have you on a list of contacts for local organizations that participate in volunteer activities in the community. This is one of my bimonthly emails to let you know of upcoming environmentally oriented volunteer opportunities your group might be interested in. (For those of you who are not familiar with Bridging The Gap, you may want to check out our website, www.bridgingthegap.org, for more information about us.)
Highlights for March-May 2007:
All volunteer opportunities require scheduling in advance by calling 816-561-1090 unless another contact number is listed.
Litter Index Volunteer
Want to see more of the city? Want to really see the impact litter has on our community? Help survey the amount of litter in Kansas City, Missouri, and you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the litter issue. Volunteers work approximately four hours by attending a group training, completing the survey in teams of three people to a car and recording observations. (This is a visual survey done entirely from the car.) The results are compiled into a report that helps track litter trends in our community.
2007 dates: March 24, 9:00 AM. Groups of 12 or more may request a different time or day during March. Contact Andrea Babbit at 816-561-1061 ext. 102 or andrea@bridgingthegap.org.
Great American Cleanup
March-May. Why not help with some “spring cleaning” for our whole community? You can choose from a number of community cleanups and beautification activities from March through May. All are part of the Great American Cleanup, a nationwide cleanup event sponsored nationally by Keep America Beautiful and locally by Keep Kansas City Beautiful. For information, call Andrea Babbit at 816-561-1061, ext. 102 or e-mail andrea@bridgingthegap.org.
Arbor Day
Help beautify our community and address local air quality issues by joining Bridging The Gap's Heartland Tree Alliance program to help plant trees! We'll be in the city of Parkville in English Landing Park on Friday, April 27 from 1:00-4:00 PM. Registration is required. Contact Suzy Latare at 816-561-1061, ext. 110 or email suzy@bridgingthegap.org.
EarthWalk/EarthFest Volunteer
Saturday, April 21, Shawnee Mission Park. Come help us celebrate the planet and raise money for Bridging The Gap’s environmental programs by helping staff the 11th annual EarthWalk and EarthFest! A variety of volunteer positions are available, from helping with setup to serving as a Course Monitor to staffing the food tent to helping with environmental education activities, and more! Positions available the week of the event and the day of.
EarthWalk Participant
Saturday, April 21, Shawnee Mission Park. You can also participate in the EarthWalk by signing up to be a walker. Walkers can participate as individuals or form a team that walks together! Participants gather pledges as part of their participation in the event or may simply pay a fee to participate. Call Leslie Barland at 816-561-1061, ext. 128 or e-mail leslie@bridgingthegap.org.
Kansas City WildLands Spring Community Restoration Workday
Saturday, May 5, 9:00 AM to noon. Get Planting! Focus will be on planting wild flower seedlings grown from locally harvested seed. Sites include Rocky Point Glades in Swope Park, Kansas City, Missouri; Ernie Miller Park prairie in Olathe, Kansas; Jerry Smith Park prairie in south Kansas City, Missouri. For information or to register, contact Linda Lehrbaum at 816-561-1061, ext. 116 or linda@bridgingthegap.org. Future workdays: Sept. 29 and Nov. 3.
Heartland Tree Alliance Tree Care Days: Help keep our community green and beautiful by keeping our urban forest healthy! We’ll care for trees on public property (parks, neighborhoods, municipal property, etc.) in the Greater Kansas City region by helping with mulching, weeding and sucker cutting. Tree Care Days take place throughout the year, usually from 9:00 AM to noon. Contact Suzy Latare at 816-561-1061 ext. 110 or suzy@bridgingthegap.org.
The Community Recycling Centers need you to help reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill! Sign up to volunteer at one of our recycling centers, and you’ll help conserve resources, reduce waste and meet other citizens who care about the environment. The centers operate every week and are almost completely staffed by volunteers, so volunteers are critical to the ongoing operation of the centers. Scheduling is flexible – whatever amount of time you have to give is appreciated! This is a great opportunity for individuals or groups. Locations: 48th & Forest, 91st and Hillcrest, Metro North.
Looking for group teambuilding activities? Bridging The Gap can often schedule a special date for your group for some of our volunteer opportunities if you are looking for a group activity on a date not mentioned in any of the opportunities above. Please give me a call at the number below if you would like to discuss these options.
Laura O'Brien, Volunteer Coordinator
Bridging The Gap - Connecting Environment, Economy, Community
816-561-1061, ext. 109
www.bridgingthegap.org
Join us in creating a more sustainable world. See www.bridgingthegap.org to learn how you can get involved in Bridging The Gap's volunteer program.
It’s been such a long time and I’m so excited to get back to you. Hope you’re having a great year in 2007.
The Blue Hearts have actually met this year. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, we had former Salon writer, Michelle Goldberg at my house. She wrote Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. I recommend this book for a better look at what the conservative Christian movement is doing to try to force their agenda on the largely unsuspecting U.S. citizenry.
Now for the Blog. I’m keeping the same format, humor first, followed by general interest, then local.
Happy reading and keep it blue!!
Kristin
HUMOR
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I think we’ve seen these before but they are too funny to pass up. K
BUMPER STICKERS
That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway
Let's Fix Democracy in This Country First
If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran
Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.
If You Can Read This, You're NOT Our President
Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet?
George W. Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight
America: One Nation, Under Surveillance
Jail to the Chief
No, Seriously, Why Did We Invade Iraq?
Bush: God's Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap
We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language
We're Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them
Is It Vietnam Yet?
Bush Doesn't Care About White People, Either
Where Are We Going? And Why Are We In This Handbasket?
When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46
The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century
What Part of "Bush Lied" Don't You Understand?
One Nation Under Clod
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This is funny on many levels. K
http://www.glumbert.com/media/irack
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Subject: Why did the chicken cross the road?
DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on THIS side of the road before it goes after the problem on the OTHER SIDE of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his CURRENT problems before adding NEW problems.
OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.
GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.
COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image
of the chicken crossing the road.
ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.
JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.
NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.
PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.
MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider
information.
DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes,
the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.
JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth in
front of your face? The chicken was going to the "other side." That's
why they call it the "other side." Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay.
And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other side." That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.
GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.
BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the
chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it
experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.
JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in
peace.
ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2005, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your
checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^( C \ ....
reboot.
ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the
chicken?
BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of
chicken?
AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!
COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?
DICK CHENEY:
Where's my gun?
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LOVE THIS!! K
Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting, and what they do to have some fun. Well, for example, the other day I went down town and into a shop. I was only there for about 5 minutes and when I came out there was a cop writing a parking ticket. I said to him, "Come on, man, how about giving a person a break"? He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a "Nazi." He glared at me and wrote another ticket for having worn tires. So I called him a "doughnut eating Gestapo." He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first ticket. Then he wrote a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him the more tickets he wrote and put them on the windshield.
Personally, I didn't care. I came downtown on the bus and the car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that said "We Love Bush."
I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important to my health.
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At last, A bumper sticker for both parties.
FINALLY, someone has come out with a 100% bipartisan political bumper sticker. The hottest selling bumper sticker comes from New York State . .
"RUN HILLARY RUN"
Democrats put it on the rear bumper.
Republicans put it on the front bumper.
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Dear Red States...
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.
Peace out,
Blue States
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GENERAL INTEREST
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives
November 14th, 2006
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.
Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.
Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:
Dear Conservatives and Republicans,
I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:
1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.
2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.
3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.
4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.
5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.
6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.
7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.
8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.
9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.
10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.
11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.
12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.
I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one.
Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.
Signed,
Michael Moore
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EDITORIAL
What’s Right With Kansas
Published: November 15, 2006
It would be remiss to finish the election post-mortems without noting a major shift in the nation’s heartland. Kansas — lately considered the reddest of red states — emerged from the election as a bastion of moderation.
Just two years after President Bush carried the state by 25 percentage points, Kansas voters rebelled against continued domination of the state’s politics by the sharply conservative state Republican Party. The Democratic Party posted major gains, including some by former Republicans who switched parties.
The moderate Democratic governor, Kathleen Sebelius, received a whopping 58 percent of the vote to secure her re-election. Three moderate Republicans holding statewide jobs also won easy re-election, two of them after beating back conservative challengers in the primary. And two of the four people elected to the House of Representatives were Democrats, a result that would have seemed inconceivable not too long ago.
Victories by moderate Democrats and Republicans ended conservative control of the Kansas State Board of Education, which tried to replace evolution with creationism in public school classrooms.
And for us, one of the most satisfying results was the resounding defeat of Attorney General Phill Kline, an anti-abortion zealot who gained national notoriety by misusing his office to further his ideology. He tried to force health care workers to file reports on the sexual activity of teens, and to seize women’s confidential medical records. That gross assault on privacy and legal rights was a major issue in the campaign. The 58-to-42 landslide that elected a former Republican, Paul Morrison, was a victory for moderation and the rule of law.
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I read this in the latest Vanity Fair. Please go to http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/04/wolff200704
to read the rest of the article. K
THE WHITE HOUSE
Caught in the Spin Cycle
When the selling of the war turned as sour as the war itself, Lewis "Scooter" Libby was in trouble. His perjury trial exposed the White House P.R. machine–and the first hint of a split between his boss, Dick Cheney, and President Bush.
by MICHAEL WOLFF
April 2007
Around the corner from the trial of Scooter Libby, during a late-afternoon break, Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, was telling me that the Republican Party is kaput. "The brand isn't just sick—it's dead. The G.O.P. is cracking up." (Luntz is a marketer marketing his new book, Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear, about political marketing, and knows he needs a compelling message. We have a brief discussion about whether his thesis about the end of the Republicans might get him some publicity.) The Bush administration, in other words, could well have brought one of the greatest marketing and P.R. success stories of the modern era—the rise of conservatism and the Republican Party—to an end.
It may be smart to analyze the Libby trial and the Republican Party in marketing rather than political terms. Effective marketing is the Republican lifeblood—developing and crafting and delivering the message. The Democrats surely would never have been organized enough or clear enough on their talking points to have convinced the media and nation of the rightness of war. "The Democratic message comes out of academia, which is chaotic. The Republican message process comes out of corporate America, where the first rule is discipline," noted Luntz proudly, swilling Diet Coke.
The one constant I've observed, in 27 years as an on-again, off-again political reporter, is that Republicans return reporters' calls and Democrats don't. To a great extent, this is what got Scooter Libby into trouble, calling back The New York Times's Judy Miller and Time's Matt Cooper. Libby is a superb example of the much-vaunted Republican Party message discipline—he's got tenacious follow-through. He's one of the people who helped give the Bush administration its reputation—intact as recently as 24 months ago—as the most masterful iteration of Republican media management, a leviathan of political marketing.....
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Terry Jones
Saturday January 6, 2007
The Guardian
Early this year the Bush administration is to ask Congress to approve an additional $100bn for the onerous task of making life intolerable for the Iraqis. This will bring the total spent on the White House's current obsession with war to almost $500bn - enough to have given every US citizen $1,600 each. I wonder which the voters would have gone for if given the choice: shall we (a) give every American $1,600 or (b) spend the money on bombing a country in the Middle East that doesn't use lavatory paper?
Of course, there's another thing that George Bush could have done with the money: he could have given every Iraqi $18,700. I imagine that would have reduced the threat of international terrorism somewhat. Call me old-fashioned, but I can't help thinking that giving someone $18,700 brings them round to your side more quickly than bombing the hell out of them. They could certainly buy a lot of lavatory paper with it.
In 2002 the house budget committee and the congressional budget office both guesstimated the cost of invading Iraq at approximately $50bn; $500bn seems a bit wide of the mark. What's more, with over half a million dead, it means that the world's greatest military superpower has spent a million dollars for every Iraqi killed. That can't be value for money!
So how on earth could such a vast overspend occur? After all, the US is the flagship of monetary common sense. Well, for starters, in 2003 the White House refused to allow competitive bidding for contracts in Iraq, which is odd for the champions of free enterprise. Then the White House ensured there would be no overseeing of what was spent. In the original Iraq spending bill, which earmarked the first $87bn to go down the drain, there was a provision for the general accounting office to keep a check on things, but that provision was stripped from the bill - even though the Senate had originally voted for it 97 to 0.
But what I want to know is: how do they actually spend all that money? Well the answer is: they don't. According to the website Halliburtonwatch, the Halliburton subsidiary KBR bills the US taxpayer for $50-$80 per day for labourers working for it in Iraq, but pays them only $5-$16 per day. It's the same with Halliburton. In December 2003 the US army discovered that the company had overcharged by $61m for fuel transportation and $67m for food services in Iraq.
Then there is good old-fashioned incompetence. Take the al-Fatah pipeline: KBR went through $75.7m of taxpayers' money, supposedly trying to replace a pipeline across the river Tigris that US forces had blown up. They never finished the job, but still got paid.
With all this double-dealing and incompetence, you'd expect that those responsible would have been penalised by now. But that's where the mystery deepens. Companies such as Halliburton and its subsidiaries have never had it so good. In January 2006 the Bush administration intervened in a dispute between the Pentagon and Halliburton, and agreed to pay the company $199m in disputed charges. On January 26 2006 Halliburton announced that its 2005 profits were the "best in our 86-year history". And to date KBR has received around $16bn from its contracts in Iraq.
Vice-President Dick Cheney, formerly CEO of Halliburton, has not had a bad war either. His tax returns for 2005 show that he earned $194,862 from his Halliburton stock options alone. Mind you, it's small change compared to his $36m payoff when he left the firm. Was that for his past role, or was Halliburton anticipating further services from the future vice-president of the US? Perhaps it's just as well that in 2003 the White House removed from the Iraq spending bill any provision to penalise war profiteers whodefrauded US taxpayers.
Terry Jones is a film director, actor and www.terry-jones.net
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The Least Immoral Choice
Squander No More U.S. Lives in Iraq
By Sally Quinn
Tuesday, January 9, 2007; A15
I am an Army brat. I have seen the effects of war firsthand. My father fought in World War II and in the Korean War. I lived on Army posts and saw or heard about the human devastation of war each day.
During the Korean War my father served on the front lines, leaving us behind in Tokyo. Every day I read in the newspaper Stars and Stripes about soldiers being killed. I fell ill because of the emotional stress of having him at war, and at age 10 I ended up in Tokyo General Hospital.
The hospital was filled with severely wounded soldiers who had been airlifted from Korea. It was decided that having parents visit their sick children would be too disruptive, so my mother wasn't allowed to see me for months at a time.
Finally, after nearly nine months, I was transferred to Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio. My mother, younger brother, younger sister and I were placed on an Army hospital plane with the most seriously wounded soldiers, who were to fly back with us. There were no seats on the plane, only three rows of litters, five high, all filled with badly wounded and dying soldiers, most of them still kids themselves. I was strapped to my litter, as they were, but my mother, brother and sister were ambulatory.
The thing I remember most vividly is the soldiers screaming in pain and crying out for their mothers. My mother went up and down the aisles holding their hands, stroking their brows, giving them sips of water. My sister helped light their cigarettes. Many of them were amputees. Some had no stomachs, some had no faces.
The soldiers in the litters above and below me both died, blood dripping from their wounds. Many other soldiers died while we were in the air. We had to stop in Hawaii overnight to refuel and to leave the bodies.
I hope that when President Bush discusses sending more troops to Iraq, knowing that we will have to pull out sooner rather than later, that the conversation comes around to the human suffering. Does anyone at the table ask about the personal anguish, the long-term effects, emotional, psychological and financial, on the families of those killed, wounded or permanently disabled?
When I hear about the surge, all I can think of is those young soldiers on the plane to Texas. We have already lost more than 3,000 soldiers, and many more have been wounded and disabled.
We have three choices here. All three are immoral. We can keep the status quo and gradually pull out; we can surge; or we can pull out now. When I think about those young soldiers on that plane coming back from Japan years ago, I believe pulling out now is the least immoral choice.
The writer is a co-moderator of On Faith, an online conversation on religion athttp://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith
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Wilmer J. Leon III | President's Day: Where Has Integrity Gone?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021907A.shtml
Wilmer J. Leon III writes, "As I compare the vision, sacrifices, and perception of honesty and integrity in both Washington and Lincoln and look to find those same traits in President George W. Bush, I am astonished at the polling data. According to the Washington Post, Americans now question the integrity of President Bush. The Post's survey found only 40 percent view him as honest and trustworthy. In 2006, according to the PEW Research Center, an independent opinion research group, 'The single word most frequently associated with George W. Bush today is 'incompetent,' and close behind are - 'idiot' and 'liar.'"
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Congratulations to Blue Hearts’ own Maria and Linda. An excellent example of how local individuals’ efforts can make a global differnce. Great job!!! K
Buying Influence Inc. Proves That Consumer Activism Works As Pressure on Wimbledon Results in Equal Pay for All Players
Kansas City, MO (March1, 2007): Buying Influence Inc., a non-profit organization seeking to influence corporations to make more socially responsible business decisions, has “influenced” Wimbledon to change its pay practices toward its women players. “By garnering the support of consumers that purchase products from the sponsors of Wimbledon, we have shown that consumer activism does bring about change,” says Dr. Maria Kunstadter, founder and CEO of Buying Influence, Inc.
In the spring of 2006, Buying Influence Inc. launched The Wimbledon Campaign because Wimbledon was the only professional tennis match that continued to pay its women players less than the men players. The campaign consisted of directing consumers to send letters to the corporate sponsors of the tennis match complaining of their sponsorship of a world class event that practiced wage discrimination. Dr. Kunstadter states that “the next step was to get consumers to boycott the funding sponsors of Wimbledon, which included not only sending letters to the sponsors and Wimbledon, but not buying the products of the sponsors. The nine month campaign succeeded when Wimbledon agreed to change their pay practices and pay women equally. This is an event that is seen around the world, so equality is important, but all women and minorities are champions whom deserve equal pay.” Tim Phillips, Chairman of the All England Club, states that “…taking into account both the overall progression and the fact that broader social factors are also relevant to the decision, they have decided that the time is right to bring this subject to a logical conclusion and eliminate the difference.”
“Buying Influence Inc. works with consumers on all levels by informing them of situations that are occurring, educating them on what to do, encouraging them to take a stand, and empowering them to go after specific results,” says Linda Eakes, Executive Director of Buying Influence Inc. “Consumers want to make a stand on the issues that are important to them. By shining the light on inequities and corporate lack of responsibility, we are supporting them in their quest,” continues Ms. Eakes. “The net effect on corporations is to realize that business decisions they make which are socially irresponsible are also socially unacceptable to the buying public.”
Dr. Kunstadter adds, “We expected results and we got them. Lack of equal pay affects everyone, from professional tennis players at Wimbledon to the minimum wage earners in our corporations. The Wimbledon Effect will be applied to other inequities as an effective means to align equal pay across the board.” As Tim Phillips says, “…we believe our decision to offer equal prize money provides a boost for the game as a whole and recognizes the enormous contribution that women players make to the game and to Wimbledon. In short, it’s good for tennis, good for women players and good for Wimbledon.”
Buying Influence Inc. is located at 801 W. 47th Street, Suite 110, Kansas City, MO 64112. For more information contact Linda Eakes, Executive Director, at 816-931-7896, or at lindae@buyinginfluence.com. Their website is www.buyinginfluence.com.
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Very SCARY Thought
by a friend
Nearly lost in all the hootin' and hollerin' about U.S. Attorney-gate is a delicious truth: Two of the worst offenders in this whole mess were at the top of President Bush's list to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancies last year. That's right, friends, had Bush had his way in the fall of 2005, we'd be looking today at a court fearlessly led by a Chief Justice Alberto Gonzales and starring an Associate Justice Harriet Miers.
LOCAL ITEMS
PLEASE come this Sunday to Penn Valley CC for the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War. If you care that we are at war, show it and show up! K
CONGRESSMAN CLEAVER TO ADDRESS AREA PEACE GROUPS ON 4TH ANNIVERSARY OF IRAQ WAR
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II will join over twenty area community groups in Greater Kansas City at an event to mark the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War.
Who: Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II, Senator Jolie Justus, Senator Chris Steineger, U.S. Army Specialist Tomas Young, Army Veteran Carl Webb, Patrick Farnan, Rev. Fuzzy Thompson, Rev. Bob Francis and Joe Carr.
What: Event to memorialize the 4th Anniversary of the Iraq War When: Sunday, March 18 at 1:00 p.m. (Cleaver to speak promptly at 2:30 p.m.)
Where: Penn Valley Community College, 3201 Southwest Trafficway, Kansas City, Missouri. The event will be outside on the grass bordering Southwest Trafficway.
In addition to Congressman Cleaver, other speakers will include: Carl Webb, Veteran, Texas Army National Guard resister of "stop-loss backdoor draft"; Tomas Young, U.S. Army Specialist and Iraq War Veteran paralyzed from the chest down from injuries sustained in Iraq; Patrick Farnan (Father of SPC Colby Farnan: killed 02/25/05); Rev. Fuzzy Thompson (President KC Southern Christian Leadership Conference); Missouri State Sen. Jolie Justus; Kansas State Sen. Chris Steineger; Activist Joe Carr; and Rev. Bob Francis (Military Chaplin).
Ira Harritt, event organizer, said the purpose of the event is "to remind elected officials that the only thing which will be accomplished by the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is more U.S. deaths and an escalation of the civil war. Too many U.S. troops have died. It is unforgivable to continue this failed Iraq policy knowing that each day three or four more U.S. soldiers and Marines will die and dozens more Iraqi civilians. The events marking the fourth anniversary of the war provide an opportunity for area residents to reaffirm their demand that the Iraq war end and that a plan for a responsible withdrawal of U.S. troops begin immediately."
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I have known Beth for 15 years. She’s incredibly hard working and in sync with our causes. PLEASE consider supporting Beth for City Council, 4th District At-Large. Thanks, K
Election Day - Call for Volunteers!
Volunteers are the lifeblood of our campaign to send Beth to City Hall. Even if you can only spare an hour or two, you CAN make a difference.
Phone Banks: Phonebanking works. We need your help to contact key, targeted voters. We'll phonebank Tuesday through Thursday from 5:30pm - 9:00pm until Election Day. (If you want to call from home, we can accommodate you.)
Canvassing: We knock on doors for the next three weekends. Please let us know if you can walk with us, or would like to walk your neighborhood for us.
Yard Signs: Yard signs increase Beth's visibility across the city. We have yards signs for your and your friends.
Resources: Campaigns are expensive. To reach our voter base, we need your help. Please contribute today by mailing a check payable to Friends of Beth Gottstein, PO Box 30592, Kansas City, MO 64112.
If you can join us, please call the campaign headquarters at 816-931-5209 or respond to this e-mail.
Ladies, make note on your calendars for DIVA nights, each consecutive Monday from now until the Election from 5pm - 9pm. Come for all or part of the evening to share good company, hard work (and some wine & cheese). We will write postcards (please bring your address books) and call women to urge them to elect the first female majority City Council!
ELECT KANSAS CITY'S FIRST MAJORITY FEMALE CITY COUNCIL
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"By and large, women govern differently. They listen. They engage. They share." -Quote from a Tucson Councilwoman from its first female majority city council.
Kansas Citians are ready for a change. We have capable, well-qualified women ready to deliver that change. Let's get together and help put them in office.
Join us for a get-tegether frunraiser and support Beth Gottstein and Cindy Circo in their bid to hand Kansas City its first-ever, female majority city council.
Tuesday, March 20
7-8:30 pm
Rockhill Tennis Club
Please Bring Your Friends!
Hostessed By: Committee for a Majority Female City Council
Anne McGregor
Principal
MC2 Consultants
(816) 561-9629 voice
(816) 516-9851 mobil
www.mc2utilityconsultants.com
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Why Wait Till ‘08
Paul Rola
Many of us have just come off of local political races, not all of us were winners. Need a breather? Maybe. Need some more training? Probably! As we look back at those races, what could we have done differently? What could we have done better? I'm sure all of us have some questions. Maybe there are some areas where we could make some improvements, sharpen our skills? Maybe there are some areas where we would like to get some help, some advice, maybe somebody else's ideas???
Democracy for America is offering an opportunity to do all of those things, right after you take your breather. April 14th & 15th there will be training sessions held in Columbia Mo. These will be of benefit to you whether you are a Democrat, Independent or a Green and ever plan to participate in a political campaign (Republicans, we don't think would understand the concepts or material).
I am not going to tell you all about it, there is a website that does it better than I can. I do wish to mention that this email is sent to those people and organizations who I think can add to our combined knowledge and receive some benefits from this gathering as well. I know I have included some highly effective professionals (who no longer need any training [cough, cough]), but who might know someone within their group who could use some further exposure. Please pass this information along to them!
Here's the website: http://www.dfalink.com:80/event.php?id=17117 Finding great progressive leaders to run this country our a full time job! We can't afford to wait till '08.
Hope to see all of you there!
Thanks &
Take Care
Paul
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Greetings!
I am the Volunteer Coordinator at Bridging The Gap, a local nonprofit environmental education and action organization. If you are receiving this email, it means I have you on a list of contacts for local organizations that participate in volunteer activities in the community. This is one of my bimonthly emails to let you know of upcoming environmentally oriented volunteer opportunities your group might be interested in. (For those of you who are not familiar with Bridging The Gap, you may want to check out our website, www.bridgingthegap.org, for more information about us.)
Highlights for March-May 2007:
All volunteer opportunities require scheduling in advance by calling 816-561-1090 unless another contact number is listed.
Litter Index Volunteer
Want to see more of the city? Want to really see the impact litter has on our community? Help survey the amount of litter in Kansas City, Missouri, and you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the litter issue. Volunteers work approximately four hours by attending a group training, completing the survey in teams of three people to a car and recording observations. (This is a visual survey done entirely from the car.) The results are compiled into a report that helps track litter trends in our community.
2007 dates: March 24, 9:00 AM. Groups of 12 or more may request a different time or day during March. Contact Andrea Babbit at 816-561-1061 ext. 102 or andrea@bridgingthegap.org.
Great American Cleanup
March-May. Why not help with some “spring cleaning” for our whole community? You can choose from a number of community cleanups and beautification activities from March through May. All are part of the Great American Cleanup, a nationwide cleanup event sponsored nationally by Keep America Beautiful and locally by Keep Kansas City Beautiful. For information, call Andrea Babbit at 816-561-1061, ext. 102 or e-mail andrea@bridgingthegap.org.
Arbor Day
Help beautify our community and address local air quality issues by joining Bridging The Gap's Heartland Tree Alliance program to help plant trees! We'll be in the city of Parkville in English Landing Park on Friday, April 27 from 1:00-4:00 PM. Registration is required. Contact Suzy Latare at 816-561-1061, ext. 110 or email suzy@bridgingthegap.org.
EarthWalk/EarthFest Volunteer
Saturday, April 21, Shawnee Mission Park. Come help us celebrate the planet and raise money for Bridging The Gap’s environmental programs by helping staff the 11th annual EarthWalk and EarthFest! A variety of volunteer positions are available, from helping with setup to serving as a Course Monitor to staffing the food tent to helping with environmental education activities, and more! Positions available the week of the event and the day of.
EarthWalk Participant
Saturday, April 21, Shawnee Mission Park. You can also participate in the EarthWalk by signing up to be a walker. Walkers can participate as individuals or form a team that walks together! Participants gather pledges as part of their participation in the event or may simply pay a fee to participate. Call Leslie Barland at 816-561-1061, ext. 128 or e-mail leslie@bridgingthegap.org.
Kansas City WildLands Spring Community Restoration Workday
Saturday, May 5, 9:00 AM to noon. Get Planting! Focus will be on planting wild flower seedlings grown from locally harvested seed. Sites include Rocky Point Glades in Swope Park, Kansas City, Missouri; Ernie Miller Park prairie in Olathe, Kansas; Jerry Smith Park prairie in south Kansas City, Missouri. For information or to register, contact Linda Lehrbaum at 816-561-1061, ext. 116 or linda@bridgingthegap.org. Future workdays: Sept. 29 and Nov. 3.
Heartland Tree Alliance Tree Care Days: Help keep our community green and beautiful by keeping our urban forest healthy! We’ll care for trees on public property (parks, neighborhoods, municipal property, etc.) in the Greater Kansas City region by helping with mulching, weeding and sucker cutting. Tree Care Days take place throughout the year, usually from 9:00 AM to noon. Contact Suzy Latare at 816-561-1061 ext. 110 or suzy@bridgingthegap.org.
The Community Recycling Centers need you to help reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill! Sign up to volunteer at one of our recycling centers, and you’ll help conserve resources, reduce waste and meet other citizens who care about the environment. The centers operate every week and are almost completely staffed by volunteers, so volunteers are critical to the ongoing operation of the centers. Scheduling is flexible – whatever amount of time you have to give is appreciated! This is a great opportunity for individuals or groups. Locations: 48th & Forest, 91st and Hillcrest, Metro North.
Looking for group teambuilding activities? Bridging The Gap can often schedule a special date for your group for some of our volunteer opportunities if you are looking for a group activity on a date not mentioned in any of the opportunities above. Please give me a call at the number below if you would like to discuss these options.
Laura O'Brien, Volunteer Coordinator
Bridging The Gap - Connecting Environment, Economy, Community
816-561-1061, ext. 109
www.bridgingthegap.org
Join us in creating a more sustainable world. See www.bridgingthegap.org to learn how you can get involved in Bridging The Gap's volunteer program.
