Politics

Excerpted from the Salon Article, “How should John Kerry talk about values?” The Rev. Andrew Greeley, professor of sociology at the University of Arizona; author of the novel “The Priestly Sins”:
The Democratic Party needs to demonstrate that it shares these values with the vast majority of Americans:
Americans have the right to honest and accountable political leadership, not leadership that dissembles and shirks responsibility for its public actions.
Anyone who is willing and able to work — regardless of age, race or gender — is entitled to a job that is sufficient to support a family. No CEO is entitled to earn as much in a morning as their employees do all year.
Americans of every age are entitled to adequate healthcare at reasonable cost. They should not be subject to a system designed to maximize profits for pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
American children, wherever they live and whatever their background, have the right to a good education.
Americans should have access to financial safety nets at times of crisis in their lives.
Every American who is willing to study should be able to go to college.
Economic policies should benefit all Americans, not merely the rich and the super rich.
The United States should go to war only when there is absolutely no other choice, only as a last resort.
The United States should be a beacon of leadership to the whole world, not a superpower bully.
The government should demand honesty from corporate leaders, no matter how much they may have contributed to political campaigns.
No group in American society is a legitimate target for hate.
Workers have the right to join one another to seek a just economy for all Americans.
The freedom of all Americans should not be abridged by the government with false arguments about security.
Democrats should appeal to the openness and generosity of the American people, not to fear and greed.

Singer Linda Ronstadt was escorted offstage at her concert at a Las Vegas hotel last weekend when she praised the controversial film “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which criticizes President Bush.
This just a week after Whoopi Goldberg was fired from her job for Slim-Fast for making jokes about the Bush Administration during a Democratic Fundraiser.
I may not have mentioned this before… but George W. Bush is a dumbass. He’s a moron, an evil self-righteous, hypocritical bastard.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-FL) represents 600,000 Americans in the Duval County/Jacksonville area.
During the 2000 election, 27,000 ballots went ptooey from faulty machines, just in Rep. Brown’s district alone. And you can guess the relative skin shades of the folks whose votes a) were not for the governor’s brother, and b) didn’t count.
Thursday, the Congresswoman was censured by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. Why? For speaking the obvious out loud, without fear or hesitation, that’s why:
“I come from Florida, where you [the GOP leadership] and others participated in what I call the United States coup d’etat. We need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said get over it. No we’re not going to get over it and we want verification from the world.” — said to Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Indiana, after Buyer proposed a measure barring any federal official from requesting that the United Nations formally observe the U.S. elections on Nov. 2.
The Reason Why: about a dozen members of Congress, including several leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, recently called for UN observers to verify American elections, given the hanky-panky we all know is coming.
The GOP, displaying their usual integrity, promptly produced a bill forbidding any such thing, shouted the Congresswoman down when she wouldn’t just “Go Fuck Herself”, censured her, and then had her comments stricken from the Congressional Record.

I had no idea this Responsible Shopper site existed! For a long time, I’ve been thinking something like it would be good. I can never remember what companies I’m supposed to be boycotting at any given time… is it still wrong for me to go to Cracker Barrel, for example? Because it’s owned by Altria Group Inc. (formerly Philip Morris) Brands, probably not.
To get more specific information, I can do a search on “discrimination” and get a list of companies and how they rate on gay and lesbian as well as other descrimination issues.

Look up who your favorite celebrities are endorsing for president. Chekc out who in your zip code is supporting your candidate. Or just search for everyone with your last name.
Hmmm. Something’s not quite right here, because I made contributions that should be showing up here.

The wingnuts of Team Bush (1,2) were out in force last week trying to knock down John Kerry’s selection of John Edwards as his running mate – to very little avail. Ken Lay (3) was indicted, which was exciting, and George Bush pretended not to know him (again). Meanwhile it was revealed that the Bush Administration (4) are already in the process of organizing an October Surprise – or a “July Surprise” if they get really lucky. And if just in case anyone started asking awkward questions, along came Tom Ridge (5) to scare the pants of everyone with another terror alert – well, more of a terror reminder really. Elsewhere, the Boston Herald (6) are really stretching it by pretending that there’s a link between John Kerry and Enron, Jeb Bush’s Banana Republic of Florida (8) is doing what it can to win the election for Dubya, and the Pentagon (9) has mysteriously mislaid Our Great Leader’s military records. How peculiar.

I have a copy of this great documentary on DVD:

”Outfoxed” has been made in secret. The film is an obsessively researched expose of the ways in which Fox News, as Greenwald sees it, distorts its coverage to serve the conservative political agenda of its owner, the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. It features interviews with former Fox employees, leaked policy memos written by Fox executives and extensive footage from Fox News, which Greenwald is using without the network’s permission. The result is an unwavering argument against Fox News that combines the leftist partisan vigor of a Michael Moore film with the sober tone and delivery of a PBS special. A large portion of the film’s $300,000 budget came in the form of contributions in the range of $80,000 from both MoveOn and the Center for American Progress, the liberal policy organization founded by John Podesta, the former chief of staff for Bill Clinton; Greenwald, who is not looking to earn any money from the project, provided the rest. […]
”Outfoxed” was made in an unusually collaborative fashion. In January, Greenwald rigged up a dozen DVD recorders and programmed them to record Fox News 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for about six months. After scrutinizing the initial footage, Greenwald and a team of researchers compiled a list of what they saw as Fox’s telltale themes and techniques: stories questioning the patriotism of liberals; relentlessly upbeat reports on Iraq; belligerent hosts who scream at noncompliant guests. Greenwald planned for the list’s categories eventually to become organizing sections of the film. As he envisioned it, the film clips grouped by theme, together with voice-overs and commentary, would lay bare Fox’s tactics, frame by frame.

It’s even on CNN — so fucking wake up and pay attention, for pete’s sake:

U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.
The department wants to know about the possibility of granting emergency power to the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, authority that [DoJ spokesman Brian] Roehrkasse said was requested by DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the commission’s chairman.
Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey.

ALSO — If that weren’t enough… Pakistan is being ordered by the Bush administration to produce Osama bin Laden during the Democratic National Convention, which is July 26-29th. Don’t call me during the convention, I’ll be glued to the TV set.