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Unconscious Mutterings 183

Unconscious Mutterings 183

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Unconscious Mutterings

Weekly Unconscious Mutterings Meme – Week 183

I say … and you think … ?

  1. Affair :: of the heart, Family (that dates me), adultery, euphemism

    Family Affair: Season 2

  2. Package :: books, chunky, tied up wtih string, delivery
  3. Warner :: Brothers, Time, Dena, cartoons
  4. Drop :: cookie, balance, from the tree, down, silver, drip
  5. Balance :: drop (nice reversal there), sneakers, beam, centered, judicial, viewpoint
  6. Shore :: rocky, cliffs, New England, hug, lighthouse, hurricane, up
  7. Confirmation :: notice, payment, tickets, hearings, appointment
  8. Nose :: nuzzle, ugga-mugga, Pinocchio (and see HK), pry, needle
  9. Talking :: low, points, whispering, together, conversation, negotiation, reconciled
  10. Bend :: it (name of a song I used to warm up to), stretch, break, flex, rules

And here’s an example of the ugga-mugga, almost at the end.

Did you know that Mister Rogers once saved PBS from Nixon? This is terrific!

I would love to see a warrior of caring such as this change hearts and minds in Washingon today. I loved Mister Rogers (and I liked the comedy sketches based on him too – it was easy to make fun of him, and many did). But what a wonderful voice and what a great form of communication, especially for children. Now, as a mom, as an American, as someone who can still be affected even today by what he is saying here and how he is saying it, I can’t help but think that this is the kind of thing we’ve been missing in our public discourse.

We don’t have a love and peace movement, and I can’t see how one could succeed at the moment. Our religious leaders seem to present more of a problem than a solution. The progressive faithful still lack strong voices in the public sphere.

Are there still people who can speak in contemporary terms, who can speak like this? Wouldn’t that be something to see? Imagine how differently Senate hearings would go, for instance, if the testimonies rang with authenticity, not mendacity.

Dubya’s Dashboard – ooh, shiny

Dubya’s Dashboard – ooh, shiny

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Since I’m considered a nationally influential blogger, particularly for the viral distribution of bright shiny Blogger objects, here’s another: Dubya’s Dashboard from JumperBailey.com

In addition to counting the number of days left, it gives a few hints as to why many of us are counting down the days.

I’m placing it on the sidebar right beneath the running national debt so as to quicklook the misery.

Here’s the explanation, and I’ll plug in the numbers for today.

  • Days Left, 911
    The number of days left in Dubya’s presidency. 911, huh?
  • Approval = 31%
    Dubya’s current approval rating as determined by Gallup (updated every couple of weeks)
  • Deficit/Surplus = $319B
    The current U.S. budget deficit (updated annually)
  • Forbes 400 = $1.13T
    The cumulative wealth of the richest 400 Americans, which interestingly dwarfs the deficit (updated annually)
  • Soldiers = 2648
    The number of coalition deaths in the Iraq War (updated weekly)
  • WMD = 0
    The number of “weapons of mass destruction” found, which is the ostensible reason we went to war in the first place (updated whenever we find them)

Links:

  • An approval “trend” graph which shows the president’s Gallup approval rating over the course of his administration. (Updated every few weeks)
  • A budget deficit “trend” graph (shown as a percentage of GDP) which charts our budget deficit history from JFK to Dubya. (Updated annually)
  • A “winners” table which shows which segments of society won and lost after taxes from 2002 to 2003.
  • A list of the names, ages, and hometowns of the men and women who have lost their lives in the Iraq conflict. (Updated weekly until the deaths stop)
  • A “Get the Dashboard!” link which allows people to get their own dashboard.

My criticisms are these:

  1. The statistics, graphs and lists aren’t updated often enough.
  2. It’s not intuitively clear that you can click within the frame to return to the original state of the display.
  3. I had to adjust the width and height to get rid of scrollbars.
  4. It would be a better strategy all around to have the links go out to full webpages

I would like to see an expanded version of these kinds of statistics. Here are some of my suggestions for blog toymakers:

  • How much money is being printed (trend report)
  • Amount of tax revenue lost through corporate welfare (trend report)
  • Environmental effects – Increase in children with asthma, extinctions, top 50 companies who destroy for profit, etc.
  • Number of schools “left behind” (Does that phrase remind you of the Rapture, or is it just me?)
  • Average college tuition (trend report)
  • Average student loan debt (trend report)
  • Average household credit card debt (trend report)
  • Consumer price index, and price of a gallon of: milk, gasoline, housepaint, water (trend report)
Stem Cell Funds Veto – Who Benefits?

Stem Cell Funds Veto – Who Benefits?

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Bush finally decided to veto something after six years: Stem cell research – a bill that even this Congress passed in both Houses.

“Now that’s something to save yer virgin veto for! All the people who might benefit from the research – well, they don’t matter so much. Those are future people – they don’t hardly count, not like those itty bitty blobs of cells so dear to the heart of that God-guy who’s gonna kill all you damn Liberals right soon. What matters is the manly action (superman!) to protect them pre-differentiated embryonic cells from study before they still get discarded. Well, we never said they wuz goin’ anywheres to thrive.”

My first line of thinking on this was simply that if this research doesn’t go forward here, it will elsewhere. Scientists in other countries will move ahead, and we won’t. Meanwhile, Rove is slinking around with his typical misinformation.
Tell me the truth – are there people who believe anything at all that Rove says? Can’t we just bestow a title, like “Duke of Propaganda and Slander,” upon him? Maybe they could have some pagentry, with flags and boots (or slippers?).

But wait! Didn’t Bush already allow limited funding of embryonic stem cell work in August 2001?
I think we should be debating bioethics on several fronts, including this one.

However, I don’t really think the Bush “virgin veto” is about morals or values – or even religious conformity.
It’s not even primarily about his “base” (did you know that’s how “al Qaeda” translates?).

This bill isn’t so much about the research itself. It’s about the funding! It’s about….privatization!

Private foundations and companies have continued funding this research, after all. It’s an investment.

Hmmm…. could it be that there might be private interests who might (gasp) want to be the ones to make all the money on this?

Maybe even…. some major contributors to Bush and the Republican party?

I wonder if someone would do a crosslisting of the likely companies who might profit from internal discoveries and applications and, say, those who were given the Medicare drug benefit to write for our legislative branch? Can we see a list of the companies who are doing this research now, and their campaign contributions?

I’m sorry to say it (and to believe it too), but when this administration talks values and morals, follow the money.

Corruption is a serious threat to our form of government, and all the more so until we have public-funded elections. The news tonight was full of horrified reporters noticing that some Katrina money was wasted and used inappropriately (they don’t mention the money that went to Pat Robertson, though). Still, we haven’t gotten much explanation of the disappearance of much larger sums through the hands of completely different segments of our population (and corporations who have been granted “personhood”).

What would be the benefit to Americans if the research was funded by the federal government, rather than by corporate interests? I’m not a lawyer, but if anyone out there has an informed opinion on the possibilities here, please comment.

Ducking Congressional Oversight – Again

Ducking Congressional Oversight – Again

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Republican Pete Hoekstra, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has criticized Bush for hiding more surveillance programs from Congressional oversight. The NY Times has published his criticism of Bush on this matter.

On Fox News Sunday, Hoekstra said that a whistleblower came to him with several more spying operations that were in danger of being abused without oversight.

Wait… several more??

Hoekstra: …this is actually a case where the whistleblower process was working appropriately. Some people within the intelligence community brought to my attention some programs that they believed we had not been briefed on. They were right. We have now been briefed on those programs, but I wanted to reinforce to the President and to the executive branch in the intelligence community how important and by law–the requirement that they keep the legislative branch informed of what they are doing.

See video at Crooks and Liars

So…. first, an internal whistleblower comes to him because he knows that the legislative branch hasn’t even been informed about several other spying operations.

Then, once it’s clear that this is the case, they are (probably very partially) informed under a question-and-answer format?

Even this Republican ally says

“The U.S. Congress simply should not have to play Twenty Questions to get the information that it deserves under our Constitution.”

So what are you going to do about it, Congress?

What are you going to do about it?

My United States of Whateva

My United States of Whateva

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There are tons of lip-synchs and other versions of Liam Lynch’s song My United States of Whateva.

I’m not sure who Liam Lynch also did the George Bush version, the soundtrack they are all using on the Bush versions.

Overall, the John-Richie version is the best.

The depictions of Bush (and others) on these two are…. well… see for yourself and let me know your perspective.

The Naruto-Bush version

Anime-type cowboy version (from a Bush supporter)

American Understanding Dawning

American Understanding Dawning

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We are an optimistic nation, a hopeful nation. Whatever our politics, we hope that our political and corporate leaders value our lives. This is a wonderful thing about America. But it does leave us somewhat open to manipulation, deceit, and betrayal. I think this Administration is disastrous to us in ways that are have been sufficiently transparent for some time but that many people don’t want to see or believe.

Fellow Americans, I do believe that more of us are beginning to understand. More information will only show how deep the damage goes.

Read, please. Read more. Ask questions. Find out. Pick an issue and find out everything you can about it – from different points of view. Put together your own ethical judgment – whatever it is. Become truly informed to your very best ability. Only in this way can we have a functioning democracy again.

Here are a few links to articles that I think are worth reading.