SoonerBlue

 

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson...giving life to the old Hollywood superstition that big stars in the entertainment field die in threes.

Though it was difficult to remember the deaths of Ed and Farrah...what with the cable news orgies of Michael Jackson memorials.

Viewers who would sit still for it were bombarded with nostalgia...talk of mortality, sex, drugs, scandal, the price of fame, inner demons, and ravaged bodies.

Farrah Fawcett's feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 70's...yet she worked hard to establish herself as a serious actress. I never was a "Charley's Angels" fan, but she gained my respect when I saw her performance as a battered wife in the TV movie "The Burning Bed." The role that sticks with me though, is the one she played in "Extremities"... as a woman who wreaks vengeance on a rapist. Very powerful. People who worked with her said she was a nice person.

Ed McMahon, a TV icon who was around for the baby steps of television, was mostly known as Johnny Carson's genial sidekick whose "Heeeeeeerre's Johnny!" became a part of pop culture. Jack Nicholson used it when he played the ax-wielding homicidal maniac in "The Shining"...we all got the joke. Ed's booming voice made him a natural announcer, and his great booming laugh made him a natural straight man for Johnny. I remember Ed's "Hi-yo!" when Johnny made a racy joke, it became a boys-will-be-boys battle cry. What a pitchman, he could sell everything from Budweiser to Alpo dog food. People also said he was a nice man.

Michael Jackson was truly a music icon - we had Elvis, the Beatles and then Michael. Fans are calling him a genius, I'll just say he was a very talented singer and dancer, But a tortured soul. The abuse he suffered as a child, his father's beatings and ridicule, psychologically wounded him so deeply that he clearly never mended. His many plastic surgeries show that he was filled with self-loathing. He tried to change his face, his race, even his gender.

I never bought any of his albums - I'm more into blues and Rock - but I could appreciate some of his music...like the "Billy Jean" and "Thriller" music videos on MTV. He really lost my respect when he began the angry crotch grabbing in front of little children fans. I do believe he was a pedophile, but not so much a dirty old man predator...more like a young boy playing sex games, because he never matured emotionally beyond the age of thirteen.

May he, Farrah and Ed rest in peace.

I wasn't going to blog about the latest political sex scandal - Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada) admitting that he had an affair with a married woman, a staffer who is the wife of another staffer, even though the hypocrisy of it all ticked me off.

See, Holier Than Thou Ensign is the same guy who has called on other politicians to resign for assorted moral and ethical backsliding...who demanded Clinton's resignation after the Lewinsky affair, said Clinton had "no credibility left"...who asked Senator Larry Craig to step down after the embarrassing airport men's room soliciting gay sex incident.

Come to think of it, Ensign never said anything about Sen. David Vitter (R - LA), who got caught wearing diapers and romping with hookers. I guess adultery or sexual hanky panky is okay if you're a heterosexual Republican.

Anyway, a lot more than adultery is coming to light concerning Ensign's mess...looks like bribery and influence peddling too. You could even call it prostitution with taxpayer money - those cushy jobs he traded for sex weren't paid for with his personal money.

How Republican is that? Screw taxpayers and a mistress at the same time.

Ensign didn't fess up until he was about to be outed. It would've gone on forever, but the husband of his mistress wanted money to keep quiet...another weird form of prostitution, taking money for his wife's services...

At least Ensign didn't have his humiliated wife standing by his side and he confessed...she probably refused.

This is the same guy who said he wanted to pass a constitutional amendment stating that marriage was between a man and a woman only, that to redefine it was to weaken it, that marriage is such an extremely important institution in this country and it needs to be protected.

Gosh, this might never have happened if those dang gays hadn't screwed up the holy bonds of marriage by, uh, wanting to get married.

President Obama swatted and killed a fly that landed on his hand during an interview with CNBC, and now PETA is publicly condemning him for his actions. They even sent him a humane bug catcher. How silly...will they start dressing up as giant flies to protest in front of the White House?

I live in Oklahoma, a very buggy place, and I automatically kill spiders, ants, mosquitoes, flies, ticks...any bug that tries to come into my house. I would never kill a bee or a Lady Bug though.

I'm all for the ethical treatment of animals, but when PETA takes a ridiculous stance like this, they simply shoot themselves in the foot... make mockeries of themselves and hurt their cause.

PETA should devote their time to something more worthwhile...like trying to stop the practice of putting hundreds of injured/unwanted horses on double-decker "cattle trucks" and sending them on long trips without food or water to Mexico and Canada...where a horrible death awaits them.

http://www.savinghorsesinc.com/Horse_Slaughter.html

 

Republicans have their rightie whities in a wad because they think the Obama administration wants to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

There is no evidence that Obama wants to do any such thing.

Personally - I don't think we need the Fairness Doctrine. Maybe we did back in the day of only three TV stations, one radio station and no Internet...but not now. There's plenty of media to go around, whether you're liberal, conservative, moderate, communist, socialist, libertarian, bircher, birther or whatever...no reason for the government to monitor our air time with stopwatches, etc.

See, Ronald Reagan repealed the Fairness Doctrine (which had required broadcasters to give equal air time to both sides of an issue)...which led to the flourishing of conservative talk radio, which the Republicans have dominated for the past 25 years.

President Obama nominated Julius Genachowski to chair the FCC. At his confirmation hearings, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Tex) came right out and asked his opinion about the Fairness Doctrine. Here is the video of him saying he opposes its renewal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4sJ0xxqis8

But that doesn't make the righties happy. Nooo, they're all over the blogosphere saying he's lying, like all liberals, or has found some other way to destroy free speech (Limbaugh's hate radio).

On second thought, maybe we did come up with another way...called "give 'em enough rope"...

I guess I can understand why they are so afraid of something like the Fairness Doctrine. It would destroy their carefully crafted alternate reality. And I have to snicker every time angry white guys (Limbaugh's demographic) wail about being victims under the oppression of Obama's administration. It just goes to show how privileged they've always felt in our society.

Another good snicker - right now Republicans are moaning because ABC invited President Obama to be on TV and are not allowing Republicans equal time.

Huh? Wouldn't that be whining that ABC is not adhering to the Fairness Doctrine?

 

HEALTHCARE: President Obama met with the AMA yesterday and gave a speech about his ideas for healthcare reform. He warned them not to believe all the "scare tactics" that the opposition flings about. The doctors applauded during several parts of his speech, and booed during other parts...something that he is not accustomed to hearing.

In the end they gave him a standing ovation.

All this healthcare talk just makes my head hurt, no matter how much I read about it and try to figure out who wants what...and why. I do know that I want the insurance companies out of all decisions about a patient's care.

I don't understand why everyone is so down on government-run healthcare - the people I know on Medicare pay a small monthly premium and are doing just fine and have no complaints. Just lower the age for Medicare...

I agree with what the president said about not delaying this, that something has to be done NOW. He said General Motors and Chrysler were going down partly because of the "huge costs they racked up providing health care for their workers"...and that "if we do not fix our health care system, America may go the way of GM -- paying more, getting less, and going broke."

 

IRAN: Some newspapers say 2 million Iranians took to the streets, ignoring the protest ban...the biggest outpouring since the revolution against the Shah.

I don't blame them. How could the election officials count millions of votes in just a couple of hours?

Latest news is that the powerful Guardian Council says it will allow the recount of disputed votes.

I heard a Middle East expert say on TV that the Iranian protesters who were killed only deepens the dedication of the other protesters...that nothing will stop the movement now that they have martyrs.

Some people would like President Obama to more strongly condemn the violence against the Iranian protesters. Others say why get in the way when your enemy is busy destroying himself.

Then too, considering our history with Iran, we wouldn't want the Iranian public to think this might be another CIA backed coup-attempt. It might not be in our best interests to come out in support of Moussavi right now.

Ahmadinejad went to Russia? Isn't that a bit weird - to skedaddle while your country is in turmoil and millions are demonstrating against your fake election?

 

NORTH KOREA: Lil' Kim is throwing a temper tantrum because he's jealous of all the attention Iran is getting.

I'm so tired of Lil' Kim's fits...he knows good and well that his miserable country could be blown to smithereens within hours of him lobbing a serious nuke at anyone...but he still keeps on posturing and swaggering about on his tiny high-heels.

He is one of the most annoying little pests in the world, except for Hannity and Limbaugh. At least they don't have a huge personal army to do their bidding. Well, on second thought...

 

My guilty pleasure is that dang reality TV show 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey.' See, I just got Bravo and I keep it on while I quilt in my sewing room. The cast just kills me. They are sooo funny and fabulously tacky...and I just love their accents!

They're The Sopranos in real life. The one wife, Teresa, pays cash for everything...goes into a furniture store, says I'll take that and that, then shells out $120,000 cash. Yes, cash. Is the IRS watching? She also visits her husband at his "construction business" office...which is sparsely furnished and very temporary-looking...

They don't even pretend not to have mob connections.

Sisters Dina (kinda bitchy) and Caroline (the family matriarch) are married to the Manzo brothers who own Brownstone Catering. The NY Daily News says their father was Albert (Tiny) Manzo, who had mob ties to the Gambino family and was found executed mob-style in the trunk of his car in 1983.

Anyway, all the housewives live in huge flashy McMansions, spend money like mad...and everything is about family. Big Italian families. "We are as thick as thieves." Hilarious! "You mess with my family, you mess with me." Bada Bing!

There's Jacqueline (the nicest one), a former cosmetologist, now a stay-at-home mom who is married to a brother of Caroline and Dina.

Then there's the outsider, divorcee Danielle, a cougar...a Botox addict who likes to have phone sex with guys she meets online. She has a sordid past and is being shunned by the other housewives. Ain't that a hoot? One of them found a book in the library written by Danielle's ex-lover - 'A Cop Without A Badge' - containing her mug shot, taken when she was arrested for kidnapping and drugs.

But Danielle ain't going down with a fight, without telling her side of it. She says she was a young model who came to visit her boyfriend and was arrested as an accessory...that she did nothing wrong.

Well, they won't see her and hang up the phone on her, so she's going to track them down and make them listen. From the promos it looks like there's going to be a mob princess throw-down at a posh restaurant on tonight's season finale (June 16).

You'd think with the recession and money being so tight that people would be disgusted with the vapid lives of these women and the way they spend money on Mercedes, jewels, clothes, big hair, spas and fake breasts ("bubbies")...their major goal in life is acquiring stuff and working on their tans.

But no, the ratings are through the roof...probably mostly women who watch as a substitute for living their own lives in these difficult times.

I have a happy, easy life...I don't know what my excuse is. I do feel like an anthropologist watching some new and bizarre culture.

Or...maybe I just revel in a good wallow?

 

 

Florida in 2000 all over again?

Our 24/7 cable news didn't cover the Iranian elections in much depth - maybe because it was the weekend - so we have to look for knowledgeable commentary from Middle East experts and blogs, especially Iranian blogs.

Several Iran-watchers seem to think that there has been a soft coup.

Fellow blogger, Gordon Robison over at mideastanalysis.com, says one of three things could have happened - Ahmedinejad stole the election, Ahmedinejad actually won, and then this:

"There has been a coup. Ahmedinejad and the security services have taken over. The Supreme Leader has been preserved as a figurehead, but the structures of clerical rule have effectively been gutted and are being replaced by a National Security State.

Reports that facebook, twitter, text messaging and foreign TV broadcasts have been blocked, that foreign journalists are being expelled and that large concrete roadblocks (the kind that require a crane to move) have appeared in front of the Interior Ministry all feed a sense that what we are now seeing was pre-planned.

Underlying this is the theory that Ahmedinejad and the people around him represent a new generation of Iranian leadership. He and his colleagues were young revolutionaries in 1979. Now in their 50s they have built careers inside the Revolutionary Guard and the other security services.

They may be committed to the Islamic Republic as a concept, but they are not part of its clerical aristocracy and are now moving to push the clerics into an essentially ceremonial role. This theory in particular seems to be gaining credibility rapidly among professional Iran-watchers outside of the country."

Gosh I hope this isn't true.

I feel sorry for the Iranians, especially the young people who worked so hard to seat a more modern and reasonable government. They must feel the same as we did after George Bush defeated John Kerry in 2004 - ashamed that it appeared to the rest of the world that Americans really did approve of Bush's policies. Young Iranians are probably ashamed that the rest of the world will think that they approve of Ahmedinejad's policies.

I am proud of the president we have now, and his efforts to open a dialog with the Middle East. I just hope that he remembers what Abraham Lincoln said when urged to take an immediate action that might be foolhardy - "You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."

 

Get this - guilt-ridden conservatives are all over the media trying to convince us that the Holocaust Museum murderer - James von Brunn - isn't really a right-winger, he's a leftie.

Let me get this straight -- a white supremacist consumed with hatred of Jews and blacks...who is a Holocaust denier...who said President Obama was created by Jews...who said Obama has a fake birth certificate...who hates the US government...who hates Liberals...who fears the takeover of our country by black governors...who tried to help his segregationist friend (John G. Crommelin). of the ultra right-wing National States' Rights Party, get elected Governor of Alabama...who has published his rantings on many rightwing hate websites like stormfront and freerepublic -- isn't really a right-winger?

Yep, sounds like a typical lefty to me.

We'll just see...after the police get through checking out the contents of von Brunn's car, court documents, arrest record, his 40 years of collected written ravings and his hard-drive....then we'll know how many of his favorite websites were of the leftie persuasion.

Sorry, but I tend to "pigeon-hole" Jew-hating, Afro-American-hating, militia-loving lunatics as rightwing. Deductive reasoning...it's just the way my mind works. Everybody knows that Neo-Nazism and white supremacy are forms of violent extremism of the right...not the left.

Hey, I wonder if they also have proof that the killer of Dr. Tiller is also a leftwing nut job as well...

BTW...I wonder what all his neo-Nazi skinhead friends think about being called "lefties" by their rightwing media BFFs? Doesn't look to me that they'd like it one bit. Has someone pointed that out to them?

It's all an old wingnut propaganda trick - redefine the meaning of a term loud enough and often enough and people will come to - even subconsciously - believe it's true. The swiftboater attacks on John Kerry is a good example...another is claiming that President Obama is Muslim who doesn't have a valid birth certificate.

It's so comforting to think that there are legions of heavily armed lunatics wandering this country coast to coast, getting fired up by the rightwing hate machine, blaming all their problems on them hippies who want to take away their SUV’s...looking for opportunities to shoot people who think like me.

But I won't hold my breath waiting for people like Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, Malkin, Beck and Coulter to realize that words have consequences...that they have all gone far beyond what should be tolerated in a moral society.

Yet, I have to be fair, the majority of Conservatives do not share these extremist rightwing views...too bad they're too chicken shit to stand up and disown these rightwing crazies because they're scared it might cost them votes in future elections.

 

It's "Birthers." I first heard it on the news in connection to the racist murderer who killed the guard in the Holocaust Museum.

I thought it had something to do with women's reproductive rights...but no, when I listened more closely they said James von Brunn was part of the Obama Birther Movement.

After a little research I found that it refers to racist rightwing zealots who claim that our first non-white president wasn't a natural-born American, that he doesn't have a valid birth certificate. "Birthers" are devoted to proving that Barack Obama isn't eligible to be president of the United States.

So they are contending that the United States government gave Obama top secret clearance, and that Obama was able to pass a thorough federal background check, but he is not a citizen?

The question should be - Where is the evidence that Obama isn't a citizen?

Wait...there isn't any...

 

David Letterman should *really* apologize for his "jokes" about Sarah Palin's daughter, I don't care if he thought he was joking about the 18 y/o and not the 14 y/o, he stepped over the line. The children of politicians should be off-limits no matter how old they are...unless they hold political office. NOW (National Org. of Women) stepped up to condemn Letterman by inducting him into their "Media Hall of Shame."

Jeremiah Wright should just shut up and go away, he's an embarrassing bigot. The more attention the media pays to him the larger his ego grows, and the more attention he craves, the more outrageous things he finds to say. I don't buy his explanation...saying he "misspoke" and meant "Zionists."

Hooray for Fox News pundit Shepard Smith for speaking the truth the other day after the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. Shep brought up the recent DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) warning about violent rightwing hate groups...how accurate they were concerning this von Brunn nut.

(Remember how the Republicans had a fit when DHS told us we have more to fear from unknown domestic terrorists than from foreign terrorists? Remember how they savaged Secretary of DHS Janet Napolitano? They owe her an apology, because she was right and they were wrong.)

Shep also mentioned all the nutty e-mail he'd been receiving from viewers, that it had “become more and more frightening” in recent months...especially since the election. He had a hundred messages on that day alone...spewing “hate that’s not based in fact.” He said a lot of it was about President Obama, from those who share the museum gunman’s ideas that the president was not a naturally born citizen.

Shep urgently warned us on-camera of a rise in hate-filled, “amped up” Americans  “out there in a scary place”...who are “taking the extra step and getting the gun out.” Then he mentioned concerns for President Obama.

Chilling.

Well, now the wingnuts are going after him...demanding that Fox fire him for making critical comments about right-wingers.

Shep is the only reason I click on Fox, ever since he spoke the truth about what was actually happening during Katrina, about the Bush administration's neglect. I don't know how Shep keeps getting away with speaking the truth...he must have some secret sexy pictures of Rupert Murdoch.

 

Food For Thought - Just imagine how different things would be if the killers of Dr. Tiller and the Holocaust Museum guard had been radical Muslims?

Indeed, imagine if white guy Richard Poplawski, a right-wing extremist who gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh last April (because he feared Obama would take his guns away) had been Muslim? Or Jim Adkisson, white guy right-wing extremist who opened fire in a Unitarian church (that supports gay marriage) in Tennessee a few months ago because he hated Liberals?

Just imagine if they had all been Muslims. Just imagine how fast Republicans would scramble to pass new legislation. Just imagine all the shows Hannity and Limbaugh could do about the "epidemic" of domestic Muslim violence.

Why, we'd be out there rounding up Arab-Americans like crazy...maybe even put them in "relocation camps" like we did the Japanese.

But no...since von Brunn, Scott Roeder, Poplawski, and Adkisson were all just a bunch of white dudes, our civil liberties are safe.

 

A security officer at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Ever notice how the far-left has loons that advocate such craziness as arson...and the far-right loons advocate such craziness as murder?

Lefty loons are mostly eco-terrorists who chain themselves to trees, set SUV's on fire and torch ski-lodge building sites...while right wing zealots get guns and shoot people.

An ugly undercurrent of violence seems to be taking over our country. Just in the last few weeks a women's doctor was shot and killed in his church by a rabid pro-life terrorist, one of our soldiers was shot and killed outside an Army recruiting center by a rabid US Muslim terrorist...and now a security guard was shot and killed in the Holocaust Museum by a rabid white supremacist terrorist.

Yes, they are all domestic terrorists in my opinion.

BTW - I don't think I'll ever understand how neo-Nazi white supremacists think. They deny the Holocaust when they should be proud of it and want to celebrate that ugly piece of history. I mean if they hate Jews and love Hitler, wouldn't they praise him for the great thing that he did?

I guess denial means denying that Jews are people who suffered, neo-Nazis would probably prefer to think of them as so many cockroaches that have to be squashed.

I heard on the news this morning that this country has more rightwing hate groups now than ever before...the Southern Poverty Law Center says the number has grown to around 900. The catalyst is probably that, for the first time, we have an Afro-American in the White House...and a Democrat to boot.

These crazies have probably stepped up their violence because they see their white culture way of life crumbling. The economy probably exacerbates their hate - if life's circumstances grind you down, you look for someone else to blame for your lot in life.

It's so upsetting that there are tens of thousands of these sick people simmering with the same hatred that James von Brunn was consumed by. They are consumed by anti-semitism, anti-abortionism, xenophobia, homophobia...and don't forget God and guns.

They literally can't sleep because of who the president is - and the flames of their delusions have been fanned by sections of the media. Fox News pundits and Rush Limbaugh are stand-out examples.

I worry about Obama's safety every single day.

These murders were done by sick minds full of hate, sick minds that need tending...not inflaming. When they are egged on by the likes off Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Riley, it's inevitable that some of them will change their thoughts into actions.

It looks like these murders by right wing zealots will continue because the sick rightwing fringes are energized and feel justified...and are all but celebrated by their mouthpieces.

And to think that right-wing zealots preach that Liberalism is a mental illness...

 

 

Can't payback be great? Okay now, stricter banking regulations and oversight please...but keep the pitchforks handy just in case.

The day after Newt Gingrich's speech to the "Lord of the Flies" GOP fund-raiser, in which he proclaimed that all of President Obama's financial rescue programs were abject failures, President Obama announced that ten of the nation's largest banks were set to start repaying $68 billion in TARP funds (Troubled Asset Relief Program). That's a little more than a quarter of the federal bailout money...and a nice little sum of $1.8 billion in interest.

A pretty good investment, but Obama pointed out that our troubles were far from over. I've heard him say that it would take more than a decade for American banks to fully recover.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the returned money would probably be funneled back to help other troubled banks so they wouldn't have to return to Congress for more money.

Of course, these payback banks still have to rely on government support when it comes to FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) guarantees and Federal Reserve credit lines.

But this payback will free the banks from certain bothersome restrictions - like limits on how much they can pay their executives and whether or not they can hire foreigners, etc.

It's been estimated that the banking industry has already spent close to $50 million on lobbying Congress...which bought them such goodies as no interest rate caps in credit card laws, and every deregulation bill that was passed by congress in the last 30 years.

Both Democrats and Republicans have been guilty in helping these greedy SOB`s destroy the working class with sub-prime mortgages and high credit card debt.

Read more here:

''I've said repeatedly that I have no interest in managing these banks -- or running auto companies or other private institutions, for that matter. So today's announcement is welcome news,'' Obama said, noting a small profit for taxpayers.

``But I also want to say: The return of these funds does not provide forgiveness for past excesses or permission for future misdeeds. It is critical that as our country emerges from this period of crisis, that we learn its lessons; that those who seek reward do not take reckless risk; that short-term gains are not pursued without regard for long-term consequences.'' [..]

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1089892.html

 

 

Late-night comedian talk show host David Letterman is picking on Sarah Palin...again. In one of his Top Ten Lists he described her look as "slutty flight attendant." Of source her supporters are ticked off and spouting off...and Governor Palin herself shot back at Dave during a radio interview calling it "pretty pathetic."

Here it is...you can judge for yourself. I think it would've been funny enough without the 'slutty' remark.

David Letterman's Top Ten Highlights of Sarah Palin's Trip to New York

10. Visited New York landmarks she normally only sees from Alaska.
9. Laughed at all the crazy-looking foreigners entering the U.N.
8. Made moose jerky on Rachael Ray.
7. Keyed Tina Fey's car.
6. After a wink and a nod, ended up with a kilo of crack.
5. Made coat out of New York City rat pelts.
4. Sat in for Kelly Ripa. Regis couldn't tell the difference.
3. Finally met one of those Jewish people Mel Gibson's always talking about.
2. Bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her "slutty flight attendant" look.
1. Especially enjoyed not appearing on Letterman

[gathered from NYTimes Laughlines]

 

...you may have finally found a worthy cause.

~~China Requires Censorship Software on New PCs~~

You'd hope that with China's 1.3 billion people, one of then will figure out a way to 'work around' these censorship blocks and beat the government software. Then maybe we can buy the software they developed to defeat our own government's intrusion into our privacy on the web...because the paranoid right are looking for more ways to spy on us in the name of Homeland Security.

Ever since the Chinese people began using illegal fax networks to defeat China's restrictions on news coverage, their government has been losing technology battles.

They’ll lose this one too.

Though some of those brave souls were caught and went to jail for their efforts. I don’t think the dissidents have become any less determined or less brave than they were during Tiananmen Square. Government brutality has never broken any of the dissident movements in China before. Why should it this time?

Read more here:

From the New York Times: "BEIJING — China has issued a sweeping directive requiring all personal computers sold in the country to include sophisticated software that can filter out pornography and other "unhealthy information" from the Internet.

The software, which manufacturers must install on all new PC’s starting July 1, allows the government to update computers regularly with an ever-changing list of banned Web sites.

The rules, issued last month, ratchet up Internet restrictions already among the most stringent in the world. China regularly blocks Web sites that discuss the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, and the Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement. But free-speech advocates say they fear the new software could make it even more difficult for China’s 300 million Internet users to access uncensored news and information.

"This is a very bad thing," said Charles Mok, chairman of the Internet Society, an advocacy group in Hong Kong. "It’s like downloading spyware onto your computer, but the government is the spy."[..]"

 

 

 

While I wouldn't go so far as to say that President Obama's Cairo speech had anything to do with this, it's still good news.

Lebanon voted Sunday in an important election that could toss out a pro-Western government and install one controlled by the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

The pro-Western coalition already declared victory...local television stations were reporting that they had successfully fended off a serious challenge by Hezbollah to grab the majority of seats in parliament.

Our news coverage says official results were not expected until later today, but the winners were already celebrating by shooting in the air, setting off fireworks and driving around honking car horns.

Some people say the election was an early test of President Obama's efforts to bring peace in the Middle East. A win by Hezbollah would have made its backers Iran and Syria very happy.

But I'd say it's too early to tell about that...the coming election in Iran might be more telling. Journalists report that young Iranians secretly like all things American.

It sure feels great to have President Obama representing us in the world...how I cringed during the Bush years.

Read about it here:

"June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Lebanon’s pro-Western coalition claimed an election victory over the Iranian-backed Hezbollah bloc that may help President Barack Obama as he seeks to reinvigorate peace efforts in the Middle East.

"There is no doubt that democracy won today and the bigger winner is Lebanon," Saad Hariri, head of the government bloc, said in a televised press conference early today. His party retained its 70 seats in the 128-member parliament in yesterday’s vote, according to Hani Hamoud, a Hariri adviser. Al-Jazeera reported the Hezbollah-led alliance had secured 52 seats. Official results are due later today. [..]"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJQhY_X85MWU

 

 

My state's largest newspaper, The Oklahoman - in 1999 it was named "The Worst Newspaper in America" by the Columbia Journalism Review - is in hot water again.

This time people are upset over an editorial cartoon that ran in the newspaper on June 2nd with the caption: "Fiesta time at the confirmation hearings." It depicts Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor swinging from a rope like a pinata, with a sombrero-wearing President Obama handing out bats to Republican members of Congress who are waiting to get a shot at her...Obama is asking "Now, who wants to be first?".

You can see it here:

http://podblanc.com/sotomayor-cartoon-in-the-oklahoman-racist

Some are also calling it sexist...suggesting violence against women. I don't know if I want to go that far...but it definitely leans towards racist.

Now, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's P-Galore ad, which shows her in the sights of a weapon with gunfire in background...now that is sexist with violence at its core.

I don't have my knickers in a very big knot over the Sotomayor cartoon - the Post's shot chimp cartoon was much worse - I just think it's culturally and racially insensitive...playing on a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions. It was certainly in bad taste.

The rest of the country may be shocked that our biggest newspaper would publish a cartoon showing a federal judge - who happens to be a minority - strung up by a rope (reminding me of a necktie party)...but I am a True Blue living in a Red State and I see stuff like this all the time.

This cartoon caters to a large section of racist voters in Oklahoma who harbor ill feelings toward 'Mexicans'...never mind that Sotomayor is Puerto Rican, she is 'brown' and that's good enough for them. It's their way of lumping together all folks of Latin American heritage as "Mexicans."

Believe me, good Okies try to stand up to these bigots who have been able to get away with their racism for too long...but we are out numbered. Just know that there are many liberal/progressive Okies who do not agree with these folks, so think of us before you bad-mouth my home state because of our politicians and our largest daily newspaper.

Try to remember our great statesmen, musicians and food!

 

 

 

Cue wingnuts to screech about TelePrompters, America-hating and birth certification.

And from what I’ve heard there hasn’t been a single apology. Once again the wingnuts have egg on their face....

Sit on it all you Neo-cons...the adults are in charge now. This is how you lead a country.

Seriously, I was very impressed by President Obama's Cairo speech this morning:

"I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.[..]"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html

A powerful speech that addressed some touchy issues head on. Most leaders would have avoided some of these uncomfortable issues, but he told his vast audience that he no longer wants to see these problems swept under the rug.

I have waited a long time to see a more even handed, neutral approach to issues in that part of the world...he gave a clear definition of America’s attitude toward the religion of Islam.

I loved his appeal for women's rights...but I thought he was too careful, just talking about hair covering and education and not anything to condemn rapes, beatings and killings.

Maybe that would be too in-your-face, and the reason he's president and I'm not...and I do understand that one person talking for an hour isn’t going to change the world...as he pointed out.

Also - while we rail against fundamentalist Islam for being misogynistic...we have to remember that fundamentalist Christianity is also misogynistic, just a little more toned down. But both are about controlling those women.

BTW, I was talking to an Iranian woman married to an American since the 70's...she said the women of Iraq wore Western clothes, drove cars and attended university before the US invaded.

Again - today’s speech wasn’t a magic fix for anything...but let's hope it opens the door for those in good faith to take the next step in that part of the world.

Obama’s handling of certain domestic issues has not made me happy lately...but this speech is one of the high points of his administration for me.

It's one of the reasons I voted for this man. But there are those who say it's all "just words." They fail to realize the importance of "just words" - powerful ideas expressed powerfully have an enormous impact.

He is the right president making the right speech at the right time in the right place. Hopefully it could be one that reaches a turning point in the Middle East...let’s all hope it does.

 

 

There he goes again...President Obama has once again picked off a Republican to join his team...and created an opportunity for the Democrats. He gets to keep a campaign promise...bake a partisan cake and eat it too.

He has tapped the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), to be his Secretary of the Army.

McHugh will become the fourth Republican to join a high ranking position in Obama's administration - Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who will serve as ambassador to China.

McHugh represents New York's 23rd District and has been winning his district...but Obama took over 50-percent of its vote last November. And now they'll have a special election...which people are saying the Democrats have a good chance to win.

If the Republicans lose the 23rd District, they'll have only two members - Rep. Peter King, from Long Island and Rep. Chris Lee of Batavia - left in New York State. They've already lost seats in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

This move by Obama has to be driving the Republicans nuts.

Some say that Obama is knocking the pins out from under the northern Republican Party, forcing them to become mostly a party of the South...going the way of the Whigs, and for much the same reasons.

I say - so far the Republicans do not seem to need any help with reducing their influence in the North East...they're doing a fine job by themselves.

Ah well...Obama can play Machiavelli all he wants...as long as he picks qualified people who work hard to do a job well, then it's a great ploy. It's a win, win, win.

Some Democrats are whining that appointing R's in such jobs makes it look like Democrats are too 'weak' for national security positions. Yet OTOH, if Cheney has laid a trap with his 'He has made us weaker and we are vulnerable' spiel, this could be Obama's answer. If there is another attack he has Republicans in place instead of Democrats.

It also sets Obama up for 2012, because it will be harder for the R's to bleat 'weak on security' and 'Obama is no bipartisan'.

And did I mention that it weakens Republicans in the north?

Most of us simply don't have the political mind set to understand these clever, farsighted, tactical maneuvers by Obama.

Read more at time.com:

"For all his pledges to practice bipartisan politics, President Barack Obama's cross-aisle appointments are never strictly olive branches. By tapping Republican Congressman John McHugh for Secretary of the U.S. Army, Obama has snatched away a stalwart member of the GOP's shrinking congressional delegation in New York state.[..]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1902377,00.html

 

 

"We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long..."

Koko Taylor has died. She was eighty years old and one of the great blues singers. Over the course of her 40-plus-year career, Taylor received every award the blues world has to offer.

She took her music from the tiny clubs on Chicago’s South Side to concert halls and major festivals all over the world. She shared stages with every major blues star, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy...as well as rock icons Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

Koko's final performance was on May 7, 2009 in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards, where she sang "Wang Dang Doodle" after receiving her award for Traditional Blues Female Artist Of The Year.

Here she is at nearly eighty singing "Ernestine"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62322RC1xyE

Here she is singing her million-selling 1965 hit "Wang Dang Doodle"...which would become her signature song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxCa16-nxtM

May she rest in peace. May she Wang Dang Doodle, all night long.

Here's more about her life:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/06/koko-taylor-chicago-blues.html

 

 

Abortion has always existed, even in biblical times*...only back then it wasn't considered a sin so much as a man's property being destroyed. Should it ever be outlawed again in the US, I dread the consequences for women...the back alley, the wire hangers, the knitting needles, the senseless hemorrhaging deaths. Why don't zealous abortion opponents ever address this horrible history of desperate women dying?

Whether we approve of it or not, safe legal abortion is a necessity in our society.

When done early enough, to me, it's just a blob of jelly-like cells, no more a baby than a watermelon seed is a watermelon.

But a late term abortion is another matter, a heart-breaking procedure. Thank goodness only 1% of all abortions happen after the 20th week of pregnancy.

Anti-abortionists call this "chopping up babies."

But what kind of a society forces a woman to carry an anencephalic baby to term? That would be a tragic nightmare.

None of these babies aborted late term could have lived anything close to a normal life once born, and many, if not most would have died early in infancy...not to mention the immense pain most would have suffered during the short life they lived.

Anti-abortionists like to paint a picture of frivolous women who use abortion as a method of contraception...who wait until six, seven, or eight months into a pregnancy and then suddenly decide to have an abortion.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

These are women experiencing serious, life-threatening medical conditions in the event of a stillborn, severe fetal abnormality or gravely ill baby that wasn't diagnosed until late in the pregnancy.

It’s a flat-out lie to say, as Justice Scalia regularly does, that women get late-term abortions "on demand."

BTW - in Kansas, where assassinated Dr. Tiller worked, the standard is "serious and irreversible loss of a bodily function" to the mother, or a "non-viable fetus"...and that call is made by two physicians, the referring physician and then a second opinion.

Look, I’m far from gung-ho about abortion. I wish education and contraception could put an end to them...but the same people who oppose abortion rights also seem to oppose contraception and sex ed. They promote abstinence only...and it just doesn't work.

More than anything else, it's about the control of women’s sexuality...punishing them for their "sins."

Women should be free to make their own choices about their own lives, bodies, and family needs...and anyone who thinks abortion is an easy or casual decision has never known anyone who had one.

The families who are forced to make these heart-wrenching decisions and the brave medical professionals who help and support them must be supported and protected from the zealous pro-coat-hanger group.

Dr. George Tiller’s assassination was the consequence of 35 years of anti-abortion fanaticism...and the Republican Party’s exploitation of these extremists.

I'm making a sizable contribution to Planned Parenthood in memory of Dr. Tiller.

Salon.com has an interesting article:

"Susan Hill, President of the National Women's Health Foundation, who knew Dr. Tiller for over two decades and referred girls and women to his clinic, said in a phone interview, "We always sent the really tragic cases to Tiller." Those included women diagnosed with cancer who needed abortions to qualify for chemotherapy, women who learned late in their pregnancies that their wanted babies had fatal illnesses, and rape victims so young they didn't realize they were pregnant for months. "We sent him 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds who were way too far along for anybody [else] to see," said Hill. "Eleven-year-olds don't tell anybody. Sometimes they don't even know they've had a period." [..]"

* In Biblical times, a person seems to become a living being "at first breath." Unwanted children were mainly dealt with by means of infanticide. Newborns were exposed on a hillside...or placed in a basket on the river.

The Bible is chock full of infanticide and many other atrocities against children and pregnant women. Here are just a few:

Hosea 13:16...God promises to dash to pieces the infants of Samaria and the "their women with child shall be ripped up".

2 Kings 15:16...God allows the pregnant women of Tappuah (aka Tiphsah) to be "ripped open".

1 Samuel 15:3...God commands the death of helpless "suckling" infants.

Psalms 137:9...Here god commands that infants should be "dashed upon the rocks".

 

 

How about anti-abortion terrorists? The "pro-life" people think that a woman should have to carry a child to term that she and her doctors both know will be stillborn, or horribly deformed...or live at most a couple of hours past birth.

The "pro-life" fanatics don't care about the pain and suffering of that woman and her fetus.

I'm always amazed at the number of people who think they should be allowed to make medical decisions for complete strangers. We saw it with the Terri Schiavo case, and now we're seeing it again.

By killing Dr. Tiller, *not one single child* will be saved. Not one. In fact, there will probably be even more deaths as women with doomed pregnancies or dead fetuses are denied medical care...all because a few fanatics think they know what's better for these women and their families than the women and doctors involved.

Another doctor bravely steps up...

~~A Nebraska abortion provider will help keep Dr. George Tiller's clinic in Wichita open~~

From the Omaha World Herald: "The slaying Sunday of one of the nation's most prominent abortion providers has left a local colleague outraged but with a renewed resolve. Dr. LeRoy Carhart of Bellevue is preparing to temporarily take the helm at his slain friend's clinic in Wichita, Kan.

"Harm one of us, it won't do anything to harm the movement," said Carhart, head of the Abortion and Contraception Clinic of Nebraska.[..]"

Once you decide that killing people you disagree with politically is a perfectly legitimate way to achieve your political goals, you no longer deserve the protections afforded by a decent lawful society.

If you really believe that abortion is murder, then it is your responsibility to also call for the women to be prosecuted and punished...not just the doctor who, after all, was providing completely legal health-care services.

This was a terrorist murder, a kill plainly designed to terrorize others...to intimidate women and health care providers, threaten them with assault, murder, and bombings, etc.

Remember a while back when Republicans in Congress were in a snit over that DHS report on rightie extremist groups being potential terrorist threats?

Well, the Tiller murderer was affiliated with at least two of those groups - Operation Rescue and the Freemen...he was also a tax protester and a 'sovereign citizen.'

Thank goodness that Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered increased security for many "unnamed individuals and facilities."

The police have already pieced together a series of contacts between the gunman and Randall Terry’s Operation Rescue...the same Randall Terry who held a press conference to say that George Tiller "reaped what he sowed" and then asked if someone would buy him lunch.

All before Tiller's family even had a chance to bury him.

Truth is, Dr. Tiller reaped what Randall Terry et al sowed.

I hope the feds are watching them like a hawk.

I don’t care what anyone says. The anti-choice extremists and far-right Christian zealots aren’t any different from the Taliban we are fighting in Afghanistan.

And you bought these people Republicans - now you own them.

　

　

　

　

 

George Tiller, the Wichita, Kansas doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was assassinated, shot to death, yesterday as he attended church services.

Salon.com reports that Fox network's Bill O’Reilly’s show often demonized Dr. Tiller:

"Tiller’s name first appeared on "The Factor" on Feb. 25, 2005. Since then, O’Reilly and his guest hosts have brought up the doctor on 28 more episodes, including as recently as April 27 of this year. Almost invariably, Tiller is described as "Tiller the Baby Killer."

Tiller, O’Reilly likes to say, "destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000." He’s guilty of "Nazi stuff," said O’Reilly on June 8, 2005; a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida, he suggested on March 15, 2006. "This is the kind of stuff happened in Mao’s China, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union," said O’Reilly on Nov. 9, 2006.[..]"

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/31/tiller/index.html#

Is there any cause and effect between hateful rhetoric like this and Tiller’s murder? We don't know yet...but we do know that over the top, demonizing rhetoric has had tragic consequences before. There are many mentally unbalanced people out there who just need a little push...I wrote about it here:

http://soonerblue.bloghi.com/2009/04/20/neck-and-neck-in-the-crazy-derby.html

The thought of partial birth abortion sickens us all - thank goodness it is only a tiny percentage of all abortions - but there are reasons for needing the procedure.

Here is a story about a woman whose child died in her womb, and who couldn't find anyone to do a dilation and evacuation, the safest procedure for someone in her condition, because it was too controversial:

"I could feel my baby's dead body inside of mine. This baby had thrilled me with kicks and flutters, those first soft tickles of life bringing a smile to my face and my hand to my rounding belly. Now this baby floated, limp and heavy, from one side to the other, as I rolled in my bed.

And within a day, I started to bleed. My body, with or without a doctor's help, was starting to expel the fetus. Technically, I was threatening a spontaneous abortion, the least safe of the available options.

I did what any pregnant patient would do. I called my doctor. And she advised me to wait. (...)

On my fourth morning, with the bleeding and cramping increasing, I couldn't wait any more. I called my doctor and was told that since I wasn't hemorrhaging, I should not come in. Her partner, on call, pedantically explained that women can safely lose a lot of blood, even during a routine period.

I began calling labor and delivery units at the top five medical centers in my area. I told them I had been 19 weeks along. The baby is dead. I'm bleeding, I said. I'm scheduled for a D&E in a few days. If I come in right now, what could you do for me, I asked.

Don't come in, they told me again and again. "Go to your emergency room if you are hemorrhaging to avoid bleeding to death. No one here can do a D&E today, and unless you're really in active labor you're safer to wait.""

http://www.msmagazine.com/summer2004/womanandherdoctor.asp

For decades George Tiller was stalked and attacked by fundamental Christian terrorists because he helped women like this, women in tragic situations...who had nowhere to turn for help.

Now he has given his life for it.