The REAL State of the Union

General Wesley Clark gave a state of the union speech that actually tells the truth. Considering that I saw two blatant lies just skimming the pre-release of Shrubya's speech, it's nice that someone is willing to tell it like it is. Too bad Clark isn't the president.

Murtha's Plan

MyDD recently paid for a poll, done by a non-partisan polling company, with specific questions that most polls don't use. So far, the results were exactly as expected, but today's release stunned me. Look at Question 15:

A new troop deployment plan was proposed recently. The plan is to withdraw US troops from Iraq but to keep them close by in neighboring countries like Kuwait to be sent back in if they are needed to maintain civil order. Do you, strongly support, support, oppose or strongly oppose this new troop deployment plan for Iraq?

This is Congressman John Murtha's plan on troop deployment, developed with help of some of his friends in the Pentagon. This is the real plan, not the stupid mis-representation of his plan by neocon scum.

What surprised me was the amount of support across the board for this plan. Supposedly, Republicans hated the plan, called it "cutting and running". But when they are actually polled about it, and given the real plan, they overwhelmingly support it. In fact, Republicans support the plan MORE than Democrats!

It makes me think that maybe our congresscritters ought to take a second, and more serious, look at the idea put forward by the most conservative of Democrat Congressmen.

Checklist

The 14 characteristics of fascism:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -- Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -- Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to 'look the other way' or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -- The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic, or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military -- Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism -- The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media -- Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or through sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security -- Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -- Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected -- The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed -- Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -- Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free-expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -- Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses, and even forego civil liberties, in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -- Fascist regimes are almost always governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions, and who use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections -- Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against (or even the assassination of) opposition candidates, the use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and the manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Hmmm - 10 out of 14.

Blood for Oil

Exxon Mobil recorded the highest quarterly profit ever for a publicly traded U.S. company. That's what happens when you have an oil man for a President who is willing to start an illegal war to help your profit margin. I'm sure the shareholders are pleased.

As If Iraq Didn't Have Enough Problems...

...now they've got a case of bird flu.

Spies, Lies, and Wiretaps

New York Times Article:

A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies.

The wiretaps are illegal. There is a legal way to do wiretaps, and that involves getting FISA approval within three days of making a wiretap. Bush's wiretaps don't do that, which means that FISA, which is basically a rubberstamping court, wouldn't approve of them. If FISA wouldn't approve, the wiretaps are not for national security. That makes them illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional. A former President was impeached and resigned for EXACTLY THE SAME THING. Why hasn't Bush been impeached yet?

Abramoff

I don't understand lobbying well, and I don't think I really get the whole scandal or its implications, but Elayne points out that this Abramoff guy only ever gave money directly to Republicans, and Democrats only got money from the Indian nations that he was cheating. Yeah, the nations were his clients, but they apparently weren't giving to Democrats under his orders.

I guess this whole scandal really is just a Republican thing.

Record Profits for Oil Companies

Chevron Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit climbed 20 percent to $4.14 billion. Exxon will announce profits Monday that are expected to top its world record third quarter profit report of $10 billion.

In the meantime, poor families can barely keep their cars running to get to work.

But then, what do you expect when the country "elects" oil men to the presidency and vice presidency. The shareholders investments seem to have paid off.

Support Our Troops?

Republicans seem to think that "supporting our troops" means tripling their healthcare costs.

No wonder military recruitment is so low.

More on Torture

The Christian Argument Against Torture. In short: It's wrong, we shouldn't do it, ever.

Seattle City Council

This story makes me happy in so many ways, it's hard to describe. This is the way politics ought to be.

This Modern Age

Junior asks his dad, "Daddy, how was I born?"

His dad sighs and replies, "Ah, my son, I guess one day you would have to find out anyway!

"Well, you see your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on MSN. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, but it was too late to hit the delete button.

"Six weeks later your mom sent me an instant message saying that her operating system was showing signs of unauthorized program activity from a self extracting file which had implanted itself in her BIOS. Then nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared and said: 'You've Got Male'!"

More on Diebold "Voting" Machines

An Eyewitness Account of the "Harri Hursti Hack" which proved that Diebold machines should not be used in elections. Here's the truly frightening part:

"[T]he Hursti hack is individually significant because the flaw it exposed is a planned vulnerability in the system, not something that is accidentally there. It had to be PUT there (programmed) on purpose. For Diebold to claim innocence about this would be absurd. It would be like saying you didn't know your garage had a door while you were standing there holding the garage door opener."

In other words, Diebold purposely made it possible to alter election results with a small hack on a memory card. And the memory cards were available to countless election workers, thus making the security of the system nonexistent. And, because there is no voter verifiable paper trail, there is absolutely no way to determine if the votes were altered.

Paper ballots. Insist on paper ballots when you vote. If there isn't a paper trail, there isn't an election.

Social Security - Not In Crisis

Dave asks about the Crisis, and what the current silence of the Republicans means.

The Fourth Amendment

From The National Archives:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

No citizen can be searched, and that includes wiretaps, unless a warrant that is based on probable cause is issued. The government has made a nice allowance for national security that makes it possible to do a search as long as you get a warrant for it after the fact in a reasonable amount of time. The government even set up a court to rubber-stamp national security warrants... a court that's only denied a handful of warrants in the entire time it's been operating.

So explain to me why Bush thinks it's ok to ignore the Fourth Amendment and conduct illegal searches without ever getting a warrant.

Then explain to me why we haven't already impeached Bush and tossed him in jail for this act of treason.

How can anyone in this entire nation be stupid enough to still support Bush?

To Cheney

If you are going to hire your ex-company to war-profiteer in the country you invaded for their oil, at least make sure they can do the job. Our troops don't deserve waste water that could cause diseases or kill them, especially not when we're paying your buddies millions of dollars to make sure they are getting clean water.

Our troops deserve better. Halliburton should be sued into non-existence.

College Sophmore Confuses Bush, Who Then Lies To Her

Here's the story. A student asked how cutting 12.7 billion dollars from education at the Federal level was supposed to help students, and Bush was at first confused, then lied outright about it. Bush can't tell the truth to save his life.

Who Are These People?

"They are vehemently against abortion, they resist progressive woman's rights. They view homosexuality as a crime against nature and God, some advocate the death penalty as an option for it. Separation of Church and State is despised by these folks; they insist the nation is founded on the principles of their religion, and they work hard to bring that de facto theocracy about. They deplore strong language, gay characters, and sexual content on TV and in the media. And they ignore the Geneva Convention when it suits their ideological purposes, including provisions against torture or due process. They're anti-stem cell research, pro-creationism, and generally distrustful of science. These folks are easily whipped into a state of frenzy with ideological manipulation to the point where they will commit violence, or at least tacitly endorse that violence is acceptable, if it advances their Divine agenda. They then take great pains to justify that violence, including unprovoked attack of civilian areas, under certain conditions, with convoluted theological gymnastics. They are almost to the man pro-death penalty ..."

Who are they? Go here to find out.

Goin' To The Super Bowl!

An Illustration Of How The Media Has Failed Us

From Media Matters.

Lying about sex:

On January 22, the day after The Washington Post first broke the Lewinsky story, the paper ran ... a total of 11 articles, written by or using contributions from at least 20 reporters, and comprising 11,844 words dedicated to allegations that the president lied about a consensual relationship.

The New York Times gave the story similar treatment....a total of eight articles, written by at least eight reporters, comprising 9,044 words.

Spitting on the Constitution with Illegal Warrentless Wiretaps:

Now, here's what the Post did on December 17 -- the day after the initial disclosure of the Bush administration's use of the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct domestic surveillance that has been widely described as an illegal trampling of the Constitution.... Three articles, eight reporters, 3,227 words -- and that's generously including the USA Patriot Act article in the tally.

And from the Times, which had broken the NSA story the day before.... two articles, four reporters, 3,076 words.

You think we have an objective media? HA! The media is heavily slanted toward being a Republican propaganda machine. The only reason anyone ever believes the stupid "liberal media" lie is because the Republicans keep repeating it. Say it enough times and people will start believing it.

The media isn't liberal, the media is owned by rich Republicans, and that's who they support in their overwhelmingly slanted coverage. Otherwise, Shrubya's crimes would be obvious to the nation, and he'd already be rotting in prison where he belongs with the rest of his gang of liars, thieves, war profiteers, and murderers.

Mainstream Media FINALLY Reports on Diebold

The Washington Post is apparently the first newspaper to pick up on the fact that Diebold machines can be easily hacked. This should be a front page story in every city that uses Diebold voting machines, instead it's trickled into the news after months and months. Sheesh.

Are there any real journalists still working for news outlets in this country? Where have all the investigative reporters gone?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Eric, my loving and wonderful hubby! Yup, that's right, our birthday's are a day apart! Hope you have a great day, sweetie. Thanks for being my husband.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Laura, my co-conspiritor on this blog (okay, it's mostly her blog, but she lets me post stuff here, too). May we have many more of them to celebrate together!

BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY DESTROYED BY FLOOD

Crawford, Texas -- A tragic flood this morning destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. The flood began in the presidential bathroom where the books were kept. Both of his books have been lost. A presidential spokesman said the president was devastated, as he had almost finished coloring the second one. The White House tried to call FEMA but there was no answer.

via

NY Op Ed

You may have to register to read this, but it's well worth reading if you care at all about our troops and their future reputations.

IT should come as no surprise that an arch-conservative Web site is questioning whether Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has been critical of the war in Iraq, deserved the combat awards he received in Vietnam.

After all, in recent years extremist Republican operatives have inverted a longstanding principle: that our combat veterans be accorded a place of honor in political circles. This trend began with the ugly insinuations leveled at Senator John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries and continued with the slurs against Senators Max Cleland and John Kerry, and now Mr. Murtha.

Military people past and present have good reason to wonder if the current administration truly values their service beyond its immediate effect on its battlefield of choice. The casting of suspicion and doubt about the actions of veterans who have run against President Bush or opposed his policies has been a constant theme of his career. This pattern of denigrating the service of those with whom they disagree risks cheapening the public's appreciation of what it means to serve, and in the long term may hurt the Republicans themselves.

...

A young American now serving in Iraq might rightly wonder whether his or her service will be deliberately misconstrued 20 years from now, in the next rendition of politically motivated spinmeisters who never had the courage to step forward and put their own lives on the line.

The Forgotten Wounded of Iraq

Written by a wounded Vet from Vietnam.

Suessian Politics

Tom DeLay Denies All Charges (As Told by Dr. Suess)

Zork!

Shrubya plays a game.

If This Is True...

If any of these soliders die from wounds that their personal body armor could have stopped, then whatever idiot at the top of the chain who gave the order should be charged with murder and jailed for the rest of his miserable life. First the military refuses to get adequate body armor for our troops, then it refuses to let the troops wear body armor they get from other sources.

King's Legacy Lost

The King Foundation supresses his "I Have A Dream" speech, demanding huge fees to be allowed to play it. I wonder what King himself would think of that sort of greed?

Majority of Americans Want Bush Impeached

Zogby Poll says that 52% favor impeachment if Bush really did spit on the constitution by authorizing illegal wiretaps.

Impeach Nixo- Er, Bush

Elizabeth Holtzman presents the case for Impeachment.

What He Says

Danny Westneat tells us about Sen Murray's refusal to give in to the scandal of the moment, and what it means.

Flu's on First?

Bird Flu Humor. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Twenty-Two Days of Rain

The Seattle Times tells us that we've had 22 consecutive days of measurable rain in Seattle, which is (yes) unusual.

"Usually we have a few days of rain and one or two days of cloudy and dreary days and then it rains again and that's the way it goes," National Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg said Monday. "We're not getting our dry days in between — just having one system follow another."

The record in Seattle is 33 consecutive days of measurable rain, set in 1953.

Legal Analysis

A rather impressive analysis of the legality of the NSA's wiretaps.

Political Party Chairs Stepping Down

Good Riddance.

Anonymous Annoyers Now Illegal?

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail. Shrubya apparently doesn't realize his most vocal supporters on-line are anonymous cowards, or he wouldn't have signed this into law. But then, apparently Shrubya doesn't believe laws apply unless he says so, so I guess he'd just say that any of his supporters being anonymous is fine.

No Dems Took Tainted Money?

I thought that some Democrats were definitely involved in the Abramoff scandal, but Howard Dean says otherwise:

BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who has now pleaded guilty to bribery charges, among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington, should the Democrat who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?

DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

BLITZER: But through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.

DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either. There is no evidence...

BLITZER: What about Senator Byron Dorgan?

DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth. They have misled the American people. And now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.

BLITZER: Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, we've got to leave it right there. Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, always speaking out bluntly, candidly.

Crooks and Liars has the video. But it does seem strange, like it's looking at the problem from a particular viewpoint. I'm not naive enough to think that Democrats are all honest and trustworthy. They may not be neocons, but they are still politicians. I'd like to see more numbers on this one, raw numbers, so we can decide for ourselves if there was corruption involved in the money Democrats got from non-Abramoff agents who were nonetheless linked to Abramoff. But I think it is important to point out that Abramoff himself never gave any money to Democrats, but he gave millions to republicans.

Today is...

I keep thinking it's Monday. Clearly my internal calendar needs resetting.

Extra Armor Would Have Saved Troops

This item made me cry.

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

Read the whole thing.

Ruling By Fear

Why Shrubya succeeds: basically because all of his support base are cowards crying "save me from terrorism!" This pretty much sums it up. Bush supporters are pure cowards who will happily give up their rights and freedoms for a false promise of security against the boogieman.

Best Blonde Joke Ever?

Elayne links to the best blonde joke ever.

Snarky

Very Snarky.

Alive

Twelve miners found alive.

Update: Oh man. I feel for the families, being told that all twelve survived, only to find out that only one was alive, and he was in critical condition. Manohman.

Abramoff's List

Think Progress has a nice comprehensive rundown of who is most likely in trouble besides Abramoff. Some very interesting names on that list.

I had thought that one of my senators was on the list, but I don't see her there. We'll learn more over the next few weeks, I'm sure.

A Good Question

Mark Evanier says:

I'm watching MSNBC and a reporter just said, "[Jack] Abramoff's plea bargain deal today should keep his prison time down to between nine and eleven years."

How guilty do you have to be to make that kind of deal? The charges could have put him away for thirty years but how often does anyone in a non-violent crime get the maximum? Abramoff and his lawyers had to be pretty sure he was heading for a lot more than fifteen or sixteen.

In case you don't know who Abramoff is, he's the lobbyist who worked with Tom DeLay to force poor laborers to have forced abortions. He's also a racist scumbag who pretended to be helping Indian nations with casino work while playing them against each other for a huge personal profit.

And I hope all the crooked congresscritters who took money from Abramoff and his co-scum get punished for it. As Evanier said, "and it's about time politicians of all kind saw that there can be accountability (i.e., prison time) for selling out the public trust for lobbyist dollars."

Sleep... Unwanted Sleep

Diane Duane pointed me to this note which highlights a serious problem that's about to hit thousands of people who rely on a certain medication.

Seems that the medication was implicated in 13 liver failures since 1976 (yes, it's been on the market that long), so the company that made the medication carefully made sure that all doctors and patients were aware of the potential problem. But that wasn't enough for Nader, even though the instances had dropped to only one case in the last 6 years. No, Nader and Public Citizen got the medicine banned by the FDA, even though it's the only therapy that works for a great number of people who suffer from Narcolepsy.

Says Teresa: "Xopher and I and god knows how many other people with narcolepsy, ADHD, and other tricksy neurochemical impairments are looking at THE END OF OUR FUNCTIONAL WORKING LIVES."

Contact your congresscritters today, a good example note is here:

In November of 2005 the FDA announced the total withdrawal of the drug Cylert, and its generic Pemoline, from market due to concerns about liver toxicity. The move was apparently prompted by pressure from Ralph Nader and Public Citizen, and the spokesman for Public Citizen, Dr. Peter Lurie, asserts that the drug is outmoded and no longer has any reason to be on the market. The problem is that Dr. Lurie is mistaken – there are very compelling reasons to keep Pemoline on the market and available to those who need it -- and the FDA move means that hundreds or thousands of people for whom Pemoline is the only medication that allows them to lead normal lives, hold down jobs, or even be conscious most of the day, are facing the dire prospect of having their working lives abruptly cut short, without hope of reprieve.

Pemoline is a central nervous system stimulant, and approved as such for the treatment of ADHD. There are other stimulants available for ADHD sufferers, but for some, Pemoline is the only one that helps them. For ADHD patients who also happen to have heart ailments such as tachycardia, stimulants that also cause heart palpitations are proscribed due to risk of heart attack. For such patients, such as my friend Christopher, Pemoline can be the only option for treating ADHD. Without any treatment, Christopher cannot focus enough to hold down a job or lead a normal life. For him, Pemoline is what makes normality possible. Without it he has to make a choice between heart attack or permanent joblessness. As you can imagine, his prospect is bleak. Multiply that prospect by the number of people who simultaneously suffer from ADHD and heart disease.

And, contrary to the claims of Public Citizen, Pemoline isn’t only used in the treatment of ADHD. It is also one of a battery of drugs sometimes prescribed to try to combat narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a rather poorly understood and complex galaxy of symptoms that affect the central nervous system, and affects different sufferers differently. But it can certainly take the form of leaving the victim unable to stay awake more than a few hours a day, and those few hours may be experienced as if in a drugged or drowsy stupor, without the ability to think clearly, carry on lucid conversation, read, or write meaningfully, follow the plot of a TV show, or do much of anything else that gives life content, joy, or savor. Imagine sleeping your life away, interrupted only by brief moments of hazy, ineffectual, and dimwitted drowsiness. Now imagine having found a way out of that darkness and back to being able to hold a meaningful job, enjoy your family, write sparkling prose, engage in and appreciate witty conversation, do gardening and cooking and reading and teaching again. Now imagine that someone has told you that you have to give all that up again and go back to the darkness.

That is the prospect my friend Teresa now faces. She’s had narcolepsy for 24 years. In the early years she spent a lot of time being shuttled between various neurologists who couldn’t quite pinpoint the nature of her problem. They tried her on varying cocktails of stimulants, searching for one that would restore her ability to function. Sometimes things helped for a while, sometimes she slept much of her life away, and when she was awake felt as if her brain had been taken away. Teresa is a woman of considerable brain, so having it taken away is a terrible punishment. Eventually her doctors found a combination of medications that, with monitoring and occasional breaks, allows Teresa to have a life again. That combination is absolutely dependent on Pemoline. Other drugs also help her, but only in synergy with Pemoline. I really can’t imagine the panic and despair she’s in right now. I hope I never have to face such despair myself; no one should have to.

And the thing is, again, Teresa is not alone. Over 200,000 Americans suffer from some variant of narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia. Some of them will be able to find alternatives to Pemoline, but some of them won’t. And for the ones who won’t, the FDA has sentenced them to a grim twilight existence, bereft of work, of meaning, of understanding, and of joy.

There is no question that liver toxicity is a matter of concern where prescription medicines are concerned. But the risk should surely be kept in perspective. Since warnings of the danger of liver toxicity were made more emphatic in the packaging of Pemoline in 1999, the drug has been implicated in one death. One death, in six years, in a user population of 10,000 patients. By comparison, Isoniazid, commonly used in the treatment of latent tuberculosis, was implicated in 7 deaths in the three year period from 1989-1992. Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is also capable of causing liver toxicity in large doses. In one study of 179 patients who had overdosage of acetaminophen, two patients died. From a drug that is available over the counter without prescription, you see a greater death rate than from Pemoline.

It is the nature of our modern pharmacopeias that effective medicines often come with increased risks and side-effects. It certainly behooves us all to be well informed of these risks and side effects, and to know our alternatives in order to be able to weigh them, and it is part of the FDA’s brief to make sure that we are so informed. But there will still be times when no entirely good choice is available, and at those times it seems to me that it is up to the well-informed patient, in collaboration with her doctor, to decide what risks and side-effects are worth the candle. Liver function can be medically monitored on an ongoing basis so long as there is awareness of the need. But for Teresa and Christopher, and untold others like them, there is no substitute for Pemoline, and the more normal lives it gives them.

Please join me in petitioning the FDA to reconsider its decision. Whole lives depend on it.

No Man is Above the Law

The ACLU has a full page ad comparing Nixon to Shrubya. And William Safire condemns Shrubya's unconstitutional acts.

Moving on, here's a couple more political stories:

A nice round up of recent Diebold action. Check out the Diebold Ad Parodies.

And Ann Coulter shows again why nobody who has any moral values at all aligns themselves with the racist neocon rethuglicans. I hope that someday the true conservatives will take their party back from the scum, but I'm not holding my breath.

How Shrubya Has Made Us "Safer"

AMERICAblog has the list of ways in which Bush's actions have decidedly made this country FAR less safe.

Worse than 9/11

Via Hit and Run:

What's the worst thing that Al-Qaida can do to America? We have probably already seen it. Of course, the government can talk about bigger things, like the use of weapons of mass destruction, to justify its use of totalitarian tactics.

I would much rather live as a free man under the highly improbable threat of another significant Al-Qaida attack than I would as a serf, spied on by an oppressive government that can jail me secretly, without charges. If the Patriot Act defines the term "patriot," then I am certainly not one.

By far, our own government is a bigger threat to our freedom than any possible menace posed by Al-Qaida.

Go read the full article. As soon as we lose our freedom, the terrorists have won.

The most disgusting thing about the latest unconstitutional act by the so-called President is that he already had the authority to place wiretaps and such, with the only caveat being that he get it rubber-stamped by a secret court that had only turned down five requests while accepting tens of thousands. What kind of wiretaps would he want to hide from his rubber-stamping secret court? Certainly if the wiretaps were legal and would protect the nation, the court would have approved the warrants.

Happy New Year!

May 2006 be better in every way than 2005 was for you and your loved ones.