I was doing my daily blog roll reading and Brother Tim had this posted on his sight.  This is where the rubber hits the road.  Please sign the petition! 

SWMBO and I have been married for 23 years to date.  She is truly an amazing and patient woman.  I love ya Guido.  Who's paying for dinner tonight, you or me?

            In 1963 the population of the American bald eagle fell to an all time low of 417 mating pairs.  Confronted with the very real possibility of seeing our national bird becoming extinct the Federal Government put the magnificent raptors on the endangered species list.  Since that time, changing hunting laws and restrictions on pesticides have resulted in a rebound in the population of the mighty symbol of American freedom to nearly 10,000 mating pairs that can be found in 48 states.  As a result of the bald eagle resurgence the government took the bald eagle off of the endangered species list on Thursday.  While the bird may be flourishing the very freedom it has come to represent has a more ambiguous status.  As long as the “haves” continue to wage their war on the “have not’s” in this country and as long as politicians are available to be purchased to wage that war the significance of the bald eagle as a mighty American icon is in jeopardy. 

            Barack Obama has proposed the most sweeping ethics reform in history and understands we need to change the way our government works.  Obama said this week, “These cynical partisan maneuverings on ethics reform are exactly what allows the lobbyists and special interests to stand in the way of progress on the issues that matter to the American people.   This is why the oil industry continues to hold sway over energy policy and the drug industry has blocked reform that would lower prices for Americans.   It is time for Congress to finally pass the strongest possible ethics reforms as soon as possible so that the voices of average Americans are heard in Washington once more.”  In a recent year big industry lobbied YOUR CONGRESS in the amount of $4.3 million for every member of Congress.  I ask you, how are you going to get your Representatives attention with regard to legislation that is important to you when you are competing with those kinds of numbers?  How are you going to tell your Congressman that gas prices or perscriptions or medical procedures are oppressive when oil and health lobbyists are putting millions into the reelection coiffers of YOUR REPRESENTATIVE?  Barack Obama will end that way of government.  I’m tellin’ ya’’ll…this guy looks like a keeper!  Watch the video below and tell me what you think!

           

I have been tagged as it were

With a meme to be sure

By a friend who is true

Tho the task makes me blue.

 

            Okay, here is the deal.  I have received many meme’s by email in the past and I rather enjoy reading them, if they are from “the right people” but I have always rather resented the “send this on to X number of people or some evil curse will fall upon you” attribute of them.  Thus far I have completed a total of none of them but in this event I dare not break the chain.  I received this from my pal Lori of Hahnathome and as she assigned this meme from her blog and stuck the tag on me via my comment section I must comply.  My complicity is not of a superstitious nature but rather in appreciation.  Lori got me started with this blog which has become an obsession that at times becomes burdensome.  We both launched our sites 516 posts and over 25,000 reader visits ago.  With all that history I am in no position to deny the girl.

 

The rules:

• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Here we go:

1)       I smoke and the more laws that are passed to ban me from doing so; the more I will seek out places where I am permitted to indulge in my nasty habit so I can blow my smoke towards people who look like they support such bans.

 

2)       Wow!  It appears as if I am vindictive!

 

3)       I was a crappy tap dancer.

 

4)       I was a crappy musician.

 

5)       I am no good at sports but enjoy them.

 

6)       I am trying to work up the courage to join my son and do stand up comedy at our local comedy club, Penguins, amateur night.

 

7)       Short of family, friends and God and country the thing I love most in life is riding my Harley.

 

8)       I am obsessed with coming up with something every day to put on these pages in the hopes of entertaining or motivating you to make the world a better place.

 

So there you have it.  I’m still a bit squeamish about forcing this burden upon eight other unsuspecting people.  Because this came from a blog Goddess and because you are reading it here, it would be wonderful if eight of you would help me meet this challenge by posting your meme either in the comment section or doing it on your own blog and then commenting when you have it done.  I see a benefit in having some of the Red Hog Regulars and perhaps a newbie or two sharing some facts/habits about themselves so we can get a picture of our community.  What do you say?  You know you want to.  I’m counting on you now…I would hate to have my hair fall out or the Red Hog server to catch on fire or any other evil malady which might be my curse if eight of you don’t step up with this… Have a great weekend.

 

            I see that your help is needed to encourage Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard Act.  The Matthew Shepard Act is a hate crimes bill that adds protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity to existing laws that target violence because of race and religion.  There is nothing unreasonable about enacting a law that will offer the same protection we offer any other class of people in this God fearing democracy.  In fact, not passing this bill would be heinous, barbaric and uncivilized.  And yet this bill is facing some very real obstacles.  The opposition to this bill has ironically come from the leaders of the Christian Right – men like James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Louis Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition, Don Wildmon of American Family Association, and Tony Perkins of Family Research Council.  These men who proclaim to be men of God or are they perhaps money changers in the temple, have used their organizational muscle to out mobilize compassionate Americans 5-1 in contacts with Congress to defeat this important bill.  Haven’t we had enough hatred in the name of religion using their congregational sheep to oppress the will of the majority of Americans?  Please go here and make your voice heard.

            I see Ann Coulter being confused as to whether she wants to be a comedian or a political pundit.  Ann Coulter appeared on Chris Mathews’ “Hardball” program Tuesday evening.  I watched because I have long felt that Ann’s whole deal was about the money.  I assumed she performs her hateful rants as a means to sell books and get air time but after watching her interview it would appear that she truly believes the hate that comes out of her mouth.  Again, like the money changers referenced above Ann spreads her hate while proclaiming to be doing God’s work.  I have a real problem with the smearing of Christianity by repulsive behavior that completely undermines the message of love that is at the heart of my Christianity.  1 Corinthians 13:13 - “Now abide Faith, Hope & Love but the greatest of these is Love.”  That seems pretty simple to me.  Ann Coulter needs to pick one or the other; if she is a comedian or a political activist.  Coulter tried to disclaim her comments that she hoped presidential candidate John Edwards was a joke.  She fails miserably in her humor when she vents it with acid dripping from her tongue.

            On a lighter note; I see the new mango habanera hot wing sauce offered by Buffalo Wild Wings as a keeper.  The boys, SWMBO and I had dinner there this evening and although the mango habanera is only one degree beneath their hot sauce called Wild and only two from the flame inducing hottest sauce, appropriately named “Blazin’” I managed to enjoy my wings with only a marginal amount of sweat beading upon my brow. 

            On an even lighter note:  Clayton and I went to see the new Bruce Willis movie, Live Free or Die Hard last night.  For pure escapist fun, beginning to end action, mixed in with some classic Bruce Willis comedy you need to see this movie.  It gets a two thumbs up Red Hog rating for those of you who may be into blow em up and chase em down types of action flicks. 

            At what point is it okay to deny human dignity to another human?  At what point did we forget the closing words to that song we hold so dear to our hearts; “…the land of the free and the home of the brave?”  For in a land that has repealed the fundamental human right of habeas corpus we are not free.  To abandon the most basic principle upon which this country was founded out of fear in a time of threat we are surly no longer the home of the brave.  Habeas corpus is the basic principle that nobody has the right to jail another and deprive them of liberty without the due process of law.  Habeas Corpus was assured to civilized society when it was introduced in the Great Charter, Magna Carta, in the year 1215.  It is the foundation of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.   The Magna Carta is one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy and the last Congress and the Bush administration have thrown it away.

            Finally true patriots are standing up in bipartisan fashion to restore habeas corpus, H.R. 1416, S 185) and to repeal the Military Commissions Act. (H.R. 1415, S. 576)  If you believe:

 

1. America should restore habeas corpus and due process.
2. Pass the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.
3. End torture and abuse in secret prisons.
4. Stop extraordinary rendition: secretly kidnapping people and sending them to countries that torture.
5. Close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and give those held currently access to justice.
6. Investigate wrongdoing and ensure those who broke the law are held accountable.
7. Return to the rule of law.

           

Then by all means, please click this link.  You can get more detailed information about the issue there, sign a petition so Congress will know you are a true patriot and see a video of yesterday’s huge rally in Washington where you will learn this movement is supported by millions of Americans.  In a time where our Executive Branch is telling us they are above the law this is your opportunity to stand up for your rights.

 

            I really did plan on putting together a post tonight but I received two joke emails that were just too good to not share with you.  This was from my friend John P.

 

KIDS IN CHURCH

• 3-year-old Reese:  "Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name. Amen."
• A little boy was overheard praying: "Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.  I'm having a real good time like I am."
• After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.  His father asked him three times what was wrong.  Finally, the boy replied, "That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys."
• One particular four-year-old prayed, "And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."
• A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"  One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."
• A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3.  The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.  Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.  "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.  Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
• A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand. "Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked.  "He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, “Did God throw him back down?"
• A wife invited some people to dinner.  At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, “Would you like to say the blessing?"  "I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied. "Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered.  The daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"

 

This next email, from Steve S., is just flat out wrong and dangerous.  As I read through it I was laughing out loud.  I think it was nervous laughter and SWMBO wanted to know what was so funny.  I would imagine most of what I found so funny was how inappropriate this email was…especially in my house.  Right or wrong I had the gall to read this out loud and I think that SWMBO rolling her eyes made it all the funnier to me.  There is a fine line between stupidity and bravery.

 

Why is a Laundromat a really bad place to pick up a woman?
Because a woman who can't even afford a washing machine will probably never be able to support you.

Why do women have smaller feet than men?
It's one of those "evolutionary things" that allows them to stand closer to the kitchen sink.

How do you fix a woman's watch?
You don't. There is a clock on the oven.

Why do men pass gas more than women?
Because women can't shut up long enough to build up the required pressure.

What's worse than a Male Chauvinist Pig?
A woman who won't do what she's told

Why do men die before their wives?
They want to.

Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

In the beginning, God created the earth and rested.  Then God created Man and rested.  Then God created Woman.
Since then, neither God nor Man has rested.

 

Back in February it was first reported Dick Cheney claimed he is not part of the Executive Branch when it comes to disclosure of statistics on document classification and declassification with the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO),  . Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was asked as early as January to verify the VP’s thinking on the issue, but, surprise-surprise, he has not yet ruled on it.   This all came to a head, again, over the weekend when Bill Leonard, head of the ISOO, told the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that Cheney's office has refused to provide his staff with details regarding classified documents or submit to a routine inspection as required by presidential order.  Henry Waxman is the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

I don’t know why everybody is so uptight about all of this.  It isn’t like Cheney’s office loses emails, leaks the identity of CIA agents or even discloses sources and methods employed by our CIA.  Cheney never has heard a secret he could keep.  He even leaked the 2004 GOP Campaign slogan for crying out loud.  If the Dick Cheney wants to claim that he is not under the oversight of presidential orders and the president himself is smirking as he stands behind his man while they stick it to the Congress yet again I guess we should just let him.  I mean really, what could they have to hide? 

I only hope that House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel will follow through and cut funding for the office of the Vice President from the bill that funds the executive branch as he has claimed.  Hey, if the VP Office isn’t part of the Executive Branch I don’t see any reason for the tax payers to fund any executive functions by his office.   The bill is to be presented to Congress next week but I’m not going to hold my breath that the Democratically controlled Congress can get that done.  I thought funding for the troops would have a timeline just as I thought we would have immigration reform.   

 

Let me share with you another lovely email I received.  You most likely received one of these as well as it seems to come around every once in a while.  It is another fine example of demagoguery inflicted on the poor ignorant masses.  The copy of this email that I had received had been forwarded to hundreds of people with all of the typical “forward this to everybody right now” bull crap attached to the end. 

"Like a lot of folks in this state I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test, with which I have no problem.  What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them??

            Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sitting on their ass. Could you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?  Also, let's remember chronic laziness is not a disease or a medical condition.

            I forwarded it alright.  To everybody on the list with this message: "Could you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?"  No, I can't imagine. Why don't you tell me?  Are you saying that people who have to rely on transfer payments until they can find employment after their job was outsourced to some foreign country are all sitting home lazily on their ass, doing drugs?  Are you maybe telling me that single mothers in who have had to sell their only means of transportation to work in order to pay for medical expenses after the board of directors from their employer cut medical plans to shore up the bottom line are converting their food stamps to cash for drugs while their children sit by hungry?  Maybe you are going to tell me that the soldier who came home with post traumatic stress syndrome and can no longer hold a steady job is just sitting around getting high all the time and by God, if you have to pee in a bottle than that lazy soldier ought to have to as well. 

            I never see emails being sent around that are critical of the tax abatements and governmental capital investments in private corporate infrastructure.  If these corporations were not lazy they would be able to find a way to be profitable without government assistance would they not?  Well I have no doubt that they would still be profitable but perhaps that corporate welfare check that is paid out to the CEO and executive officers of those corporations might only be for thousands and not millions of dollars.  Emails like this are disturbing to me because they tend to piss people off about people who are down on their luck while the corporate elite of this country continue to rob you from behind. You are focused on the wrong problems and that is just what those who have the most power and money in this world want you to do. If you opted to forward this email you should feel used and dirty and a little bit ashamed.

 

            It seems like I forgot a Harley event of some significance in my neck of the woods yesterday.    At first, upon our departure from home to attend my nephews graduation party, I couldn’t quite figure out why there were so many bikes out on the road.  After seeing dozens, then hundreds and eventually 1000’s of bikes heading down the highway I knew something was not quite right.  Especially considering all the bikes were going the wrong direction to be heading for the Romper Room Run mentioned in yesterdays post.  J&P Cycles, the world’s largest mail order motorcycle parts supplier, held their summer open house on Saturday.  Last years event had over 10,000 attendees show up from all over the Midwest.  So let me tell you about where J & P Cycles is located.  J & P is neatly tucked along US HWY 151 north of Anamosa, Iowa which is 17 miles from my home.  The family credo from yesterday’s post was tested beyond any deserved level considering our trip to the graduation party was held, more or less, 150 miles from my home…pretty much straight up US HWY 151! 

            The irony didn’t go unnoticed by any of the extended family as they arrived at my sister-in-law’s home.  They all know of my affinity for the open road.  Family member after family member approached me and asked if I had noticed the motorcycles out on the road on our way to the party.  I graciously acknowledged that I did but offered no remorse for my choice to be where I was.  I offered no remorse because I felt none.  I was where I wanted to be.  

            So get this: While at the graduation party I took the opportunity to visit, individually, with two of my favorite of SWMBO’s Aunts.  These Aunts are the older sisters of my father-in-law who recently celebrated his 75th birthday.  Okay, I have favorites on my mother-in-laws side too and did visit with them as well but the conversations I had with the paternal side of the family blew me away.  The first Aunt I spoke with, the younger of the two, was telling me about the newly appointed President of the University of Iowa; Purdue University Provost Sally Mason.  Aunt B. told me Dr. Mason was the first of her family to graduate from college and was raised by parents who never finished high school.  The fact that Dr. Mason knew what it was to work her way up and that she would understand what those who started with nothing faced in life was important to SWMBO’s Aunt who is approaching her 80’s. 

Suddenly my Aunt B. became a little somber and told me she was glad that she was nearing the end of her time because there are so many problems in the world.  We talked about that in a very non-partisan way until a table near us erupted with laughter from their own goings on.  The table was filled with friends of my nephew, many who were recent graduates themselves.  I mentioned that the kids at that table would have to face the problems that are confronting us now and that I had full confidence that they would do a good job of it to which she readily agreed.  Before we could continue our conversation I was called away but as I left her I was dismayed to wonder if all of these years I had missed understanding that this lady is a political kindred spirit.

Later in the afternoon I saw the eldest of my Father-in-laws family sitting alone at the end of a table.  I pulled up a chair and she apologized for being about to tell me something that most people don’t want to hear about.  She then went on to tell me about her passion for working with forgotten senior citizens who suffer from Alzheimer’s.  She told me a very touching story about the reward she felt for having the opportunity to read to two appreciative patients in the last week who happened to be uncharacteristically lucid.  This Aunt, a retired nurse, then told me about how she keeps busy volunteering at a local nursing home where she sometimes offers little more than companionship for lunch to patients who have nobody left to visit them.  This sweet and beautiful lady had shared with me her feelings of being blessed for still having her wits about her and I could not understand why she figured she needed to open our conversation with an apology.  I think she was being sly like a fox and just wanted to draw me in.

Then, unprovoked by me, the conversation turned to politics.  The elder sister told me she had broken the news to her sister that she was supporting Fred Thompson for President in 08 and that the news had bothered her sister.  A HA!  It was all coming together.  I figured I had been right about the sister being a kindred spirit.  “Why, who does your sister support?” I asked.  “She is an avid George Bush supporter.” she said, not exactly answering my question.  She then went on to tell me that while her sister remained a steadfast Bush supporter she had lost faith and wanted to see an end to the war.  I whole heartedly agreed.  My mind was reeling by this point at how enlightening it was that without names or labels all three of us had seemed to have so much in common, how I had agreed with everything they had told me. 

I asked the eldest sister if she thought there might be any way I could convince her to support Barack Obama and for just an instant a look of agitation flashed across her brow.  She recovered quickly and then she said, “That’s the wonderful thing about this country; that we can all have our favorites.”  It got me to thinking about how much we do have in common when it comes to the issues facing our country.  When our politicians need to resort to the language and posturing needed to attract contributions the divide seems to start.  If our representatives would legislate with a focus on meeting the challenges before us and not worry about how that vote might reflect upon them on the campaign trail we might see great gains in meeting the challenges before us.  If we the voters could have conversations without discussing names or political affiliation we might be able to end some of the bitter divide that confronts us.

I learned a lot on Saturday.  For a while, as we made our way to the graduation party, I watched those packs of bikes rolling down the highway against the Grant Wood backdrop of North East Iowa and I have to admit that I suffered some second guessing of my choice to be with the family that day.  I thought about how yesterday I had posted that God had given me peace of mind for my decision to forego a Saturday of riding my bike.  I wondered if perhaps I had been too flippant in posting of my choice when I offered that my peace of mind came from a divine forecast of scattered thunderstorms.  Perhaps parading those 1000’s of bikes in my view was God’s way of telling me to be humble about my prayers.  (Hey, I was raised Catholic and we think like that sometimes.)  None of that matters now.  I did the right thing and was rewarded for it beyond my wildest expectations.  Have a great day Red Hog Readers.

 

            I suppose a guy should really be careful when he uses the words family and obligation in the same sentence.  Lucky for me I’m a very careful kind of guy.  This weekend is the weekend of two annual events that create considerable personal consternation when they pop up on the calendar.  The first is the annual Sturgis Falls Festival in my home town of Cedar Falls.  The event is all about parades, beer tents, and bands and it is the single best weekend of the year to connect with old friends who have moved away.  The other event is the Romper Room Run which is billed as the largest one day Harley ride in the state of Iowa.  Basically it is an opportunity to tour Northeast Iowa barhopping your way to a big finale blow out party, again with live bands, with over 800 other bikers.  It again is an opportunity to meet up with gobs of old friends whom you may have not seen in a long time.  I always have difficulty in choosing which event to attend and this year was no exception.

            No sooner had I begun my annual deliberations of which over-the-top-fun-overload event to attend when my wife reminded me that one of my nephews was having his graduation party this weekend.  Oh man!  End of deliberations.  A credo in my house is that “nothing is more important than family” and I live by that.  But damn it, I thought to myself…of all the weekends…  Oh you know I kept that thought to myself.  She Who Must Be Obeyed would hear no griping, whining, weaseling or other lame attempt to excuse myself from the family credo.  And I really don’t harbor any second thoughts about doing the right thing.  I just wish the requisite nobility and personal integrity I am about to demonstrate didn’t have to be proven on THIS WEEKEND! 

            Sometimes when I am filled with inner turmoil, angst as it were, I turn to prayer to ease my mind and put myself in a peaceful state of mind.  To be honest I made such a prayer earlier in the week.  It seems to have worked because until now the events of the weekend had barely entered my mind.  What brought the whole dilemma to the forefront of my mind, well besides SWMBO reminding me at dinner that I shouldn’t stay up all night blogging, was a weather alert flashing across the TV after we all sat in the living room to watch some Comedy Central after dinner.  Severe thunderstorms are rolling across the state this evening and are projected to last through Saturday.  It looks like my prayers have been answered.  I’m sorry if you are one of the 50,000 people who had wanted to attend the predominately outdoor Sturgis Falls Festival in Cedar Falls or one of the 800 plus bikers looking to have fun in the sun on the Romper Room Run.  My Saturday, that will require travel outside of the area forecasted for thunderstorms, will be spent with my family and I have no doubt that I will have peace of mind with my decision.

 

            One of the negative sides of doing a blog is that you sometimes get emails that show you the darker side of humanity.  Take this email for example:

 

-----Original Message-----

From: BreakingNews@MAIL.CNN.COM [mailto:BreakingNews@MAIL.CNN.COM]

Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:09 AM

To: TEXTBREAKINGNEWS@CNNIMAIL12.CNN.COM

Subject: CNN Breaking News

 

-- U.S. military reports the deaths of 14 troops in Iraq in the last 48 hours, including 5 in a Baghdad roadside bombing Thursday.

 

Red Hog,

Why doesn't CNN do the releases each time an African American shoots someone in the US?  Answer:  There would be too many of them and it would feel uncomfortable to do something like that.

 

Thanks,

(Name withheld)

 

            That email is reflective of many I receive from self proclaimed Christians that frequent my inbox way too often.  It is amazing to me how people are willing to expose hearts so consumed with hatred.  If these emails are not a rant about women, or Muslims, or “libs” or Mexicans or Blacks they are personal attacks against my intelligence, patriotism or values.  I don’t expect that I wouldn’t get negative mail for some of what I post.  Many times I push an issue to a controversial level because I want people to think about entrenched beliefs and other times, I am angry and looking to pick a fight I suppose.  I always regret writing inflammatory posts and consider none of them as examples of my best writing.  But even the strongest of my liberal bent pales in comparison to the demagoguery of your run of the mill neo-con.  Neo-cons don’t have to actually think before they speak because the party line is rammed down their throat 24 hours a day from opportunistic talk radio and cable news hate merchants.    

            We are living in some pretty crazy times and I suppose it is human nature, not our best human nature, to stand up and yell about things that we feel passionate about.  Perhaps the author of the email above has been watching too much Bill O’Reilly.  O’Reilly, the inventor of “the war on Christmas” has most recently been waging a war against news coverage of the War on Terror.  To any rational observer O’Reilly’s objection to covering the War in Iraq is more about the fact that there is nothing good to report.  To suggest that reporting on the number of our soldiers who are killed in Iraq is inappropriate makes no sense to me. 

What makes less sense is how the author could have made the jump to suggest that “African Americans” are a worse threat to us than we face in a war.  This statement was made by someone that I have heard fervently criticize hyphenated-American nomenclature.  I would think that his choice of the words “African-American” came after considerable thought as to how to not appear too unreasonable.  He failed.  How and why did skin color come into that analogy?  Why not just ask if shootings in America are newsworthy.  I will tell you why.  Because the ideology which the author subscribes to continually uses divisive measurements as a means to subvert our civil liberties.  The methodology is all about maintaining the status quo of white male power.  If the traditional power holders can get the masses to worry about what the Blacks, or the Mexicans, or the Muslims, or the Gays or the “libs” want to “do to us” they expect that we will grant them the authority to keep us safe.  I say Bullshit!  Those days are over. 

And you know what else?  Barack Obama is not a Muslim and even if he was his policies are policies that I mostly support.  And that picture of Jesus that the writer probably has hanging in his home; the one where Jesus is white skinned with long flowing brown hair?  Jesus most likely looked more like Osama Bin Laden or one of those job stealing little Mexicans that he can’t wait to build a fence across our southern border to keep them out of his land of prosperity.  The hate has to be eating the writer up.  I wonder how he sleeps at night? 

 

            President Bush made good on his threat to veto legislation to increase federal funding of stem cell research yesterday.  In the days leading up to the presentation of the bill the president promised he would veto the bill saying the bill would mean American taxpayers would — for the first time — be compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. Bush said. "I made it clear to Congress and to the American people that I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line."   Advocates of the research argue that the embryos, created during in-vitro fertilization efforts, will be tossed anyway and federally funded scientists should at least be allowed to study the embryos.  Exactly what moral line is being crossed if life saving research could be done on tissue that is going to end up “tossed” away?  Where are the guardians of morality when stem cells are allowed to be created that will end up thrown away in the first place?

As of Wednesday, June 20, 2007, at least 3,531 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war.  There has been extensive coverage of the opponents to stem cell research not wanting tax dollars used to destroy stem cells.  The flaw in that thinking is that the funding would not have, as its purpose, the destruction of stem cells but rather the pursuit of cures for disease that we may never have without the research.  And yet many of the very same virtuous custodians of life and tax dollars see no problem with spending hundreds of billions of dollars to wage the war in Iraq.  The argument of a contradiction in supporting stem cell research and opposing the war is flawed given the lack of progress in meeting objectives in Iraq.  Furthermore there is significant value in seeking the very cures that would end many causes of human suffering as a result of stem cell research.  This war in Iraq lacks the honorable aspiration of ending the holocaust, reigning in a tyrannical Japanese Empire or say liberating France. 

As I was on my way home from work yesterday I was thinking about what I would post for today when a story on the radio about the war in Iraq concluded with a very after the fact sounding comment of “and one American soldier was killed in the action.”  Those words hung in the air heavily as if all of the air had been pulled from my vehicle.  I had a sudden feeling that I have only experienced in the few times I was involved in an accident.  There is an eerie surreal feeling that one feels when we are shocked and don’t quite know what to do with what has happened.  It is almost as if you are outside of yourself looking in on the activity around you.  I thought of our soldiers and the civilians in Iraq who must experience that feeling on a daily basis.  The moments after an explosion right after all of the debris has landed or the first instants after gunfire has erupted have to leave people disoriented, fearful and confused. 

            I contemplated how fortunate we are in this country that it is only on the rarest occasions that we might experience random life shattering events.  And yet 3,531 times the loved ones of American soldiers have had their lives turned upside down when they receive the news that their brave soldier will never return home from Iraq.  There are 10s of thousands of Iraqi’s who may never live a life even resembling the one they did under the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein.  It would seem that with the right leadership we could be proponents of peace and messengers of hope in medical research.  It would seem that if we want to be a Democracy that others would want to emulate we would hold our leadership accountable when they do not find a way to stabilize Iraq or move forward with proven science that a vast majority of Americans support.  Maybe you could call your Representative or your Senator and give them a piece of your mind.

 

It's time.  Take a stand.  Make a difference.  After you watch this video, please click this link. 

 

Kids, try as I might I got nothin’ to post!  I’m tired of beating up on defenseless Republicans.  After a while it gets to seem like shooting fish in a barrel or however that old cliché goes.  Where the hell did that come from?  Who was the genius that ever thought that the image of blasting away at fish in a large cylindrical container seemed to embody the notion of an easy and mundane task?  And worse yet; how did that catch on?  Why do we all seem to know what someone is talking about when they claim something is easier than shooting fish in a barrel?  Has anybody ever done that?  Has anybody even ever thought about doing that?

            Okay, so maybe Republicans aren’t so defenseless.  But that’s a whole other can of worms.  Another can of worms?  Another can of worms is another cliché that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.  It would seem to me that if you have seen one can of worms you have seen them all.  Oh wait, maybe that is the point.  I suppose if I could figure it all out it would be a feather in my cap.  I guess a guy can never have too many feathers in his cap.  You see all of the hippest people wearing feathers in their caps these days.  But hey, if ya wanna give me a feather for my cap I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth!  See I told you I didn’t have anything to post about tonight. 

Oh wait, Maybe I do.  You have maybe all heard about the Coconut Road project in Florida where $10 million was earmarked by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska to pay for the first steps to connect the road to Interstate 75.  Why would a Congressman from Alaska care if a connecting road were constructed between Fort Meyers, Fl and Interstate 75?  Because Daniel Aronoff, a real estate developer, who helped raise $40,000 (just days before the earmark was written into a transportation bill) for Don Young’ reelection campaign owns 4,000 acres of land along Coconut Road and with this road project his land will appreciate significantly in value.  The strangest part of all of this is that the Republican controlled county authorities are on record as not wanting the project because it threatens wetlands important to the community. 

            Daniel Aronoff  is the son of Arnold Aronoff who in 1979 was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud in a scheme to sell Florida swampland at an inflated price. That's a nice story isn't it?  After studies by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Federal Highway Administration all warned that the proposed interchange could threaten wetlands Representative Young warned the county that refusing this project would make it difficult for them to have success in securing funding for future projects if they did not proceed with the Coconut Road project. 

            That’s how politics work in our country.  My beloved Democrats promised to do something about earmarks when they took over.  Now that the Democrats have control of the Congress they are not seeming so anxious to fully disclose, let alone eliminate, earmarks.  If that bothers you, as it does me, go here.  WE CAN do something to put an end to corruption and cronyism in Washington.  Please support Just $6 Campaign Finance Reform.

 

            Sam Brownback, the Kansas Senator clinging to an outside shot at the Republican presidential nomination found himself in a bit of a tizzy recently.  It seems one of Brownback’s field directors sent out an email guised as an inquiry into Romney’s faith that clearly had the intention of separating the Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from the more zealous of the Christian right.  I am not even tempted to share the contents of the email that were made public.  While I find a lot of reasons not to support Romney, flip flopping on social issues, pretending to be an outdoorsman, and denying