Trader Joe

Remember when Joe Lieberman was re-elected to the Senate as an Independent, he said that he still considered himself a Democrat and would caucus with them?

Today, that went out the window.



From WTNH.com:
Lieberman votes against bill to withdraw troops
Posted March 29, 2007 4:31 PM

(Capitol Hill - AP) _ Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman parted with Democrats and voted against a war spending bill that calls for President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq.

The Senate passed the bill on a 51-to-47 vote despite a veto threat by Bush. The vote was mostly along party lines.

Lieberman, a longtime Democrat who won the November election as an independent, joined 46 Republicans in opposition to the bill. Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and 47 other Democrats voted in favor, as did Vermont independent Bernard Sanders and Republicans Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon.

The bill would provide $123 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of passage and sets a nonbinding goal of ending combat operations by March 31st, 2008.

The war is in its fifth year and has cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops and more than $350 billion.


Note from Lizzy:

I'm so done with Lieberman. He hasn't been one of us for a long time, but this was the final nail in the coffin. At this point, he might as well join the RNC.

And, if I really had it my way, I'd have him thrown out of the tribe, along with Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearl and Henry Kissinger. They are an embarrassment to my religion.

Hey Joe! Go fuck yourself.

Impeach, Impeach, Impeach

I must get 20 emails a day from various Democratic leaders, liberal/progressive organizations, and fringe groups. They all want me to sign this petition or that petition, make phone calls, donate money, etc. While I do all of the above, I gotta say, I'm sick of it.

I want impeachment put back on the table. Period. Until it is, I'm tempted to tell most of them to shove it.

Bill Maher is right when he says that Democrats never up the ante.

Our elected Dems should be ashamed - it took a hard-right Republican, Chuck Hagel, to bring up the "I" word in public...

From Esquire magazine:

"The president says, 'I don't care.' He's not accountable anymore," Hagel says, measuring his words by the syllable and his syllables almost by the letter. "He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends how this goes."

The conversation beaches itself for a moment on that word -- impeachment -- spoken by a conservative Republican from a safe Senate seat in a reddish state. It's barely even whispered among the serious set in Washington, and it rings like a gong in the middle of the sentence, even though it flowed quite naturally out of the conversation he was having about how everybody had abandoned their responsibility to the country, and now there was a war going bad because of it.

"...a new political party" - Patti Smith

This was sent to me by a friend of mine. It's a great read, particularly when you get down to the paragraphs about what we can, and should, be doing to create a new revolution.

People have the power -- let's use it.



PATTI SMITH 2007: Alive, well, and…not looking that different than she did on the cover of Easter

by Nick Blakey

"Kurt Cobain was a great performer and a great songwriter…I don't know if he was a great poet."
-Patti Smith

We often fault our heroes a little too hard on their weaknesses, and come down even harder upon those heroes who try to get it together again and stay relevant in the modern world, often failing miserably in the process or becoming dreadfully out of touch. Nostalgia in any form is a crippling and blinding force which causes so much good art in so many forms to become nothing more than a fabrication of memories meant to rid our wallet of anything green while banking on your own wishes for the past to stay relevant to the future.

That being said, none of this applies to Patti Smith, who has little use for nostalgia ("Fuck CBGB's—start your own club. I said that in the 70's…it's just a room…what makes it cool is the energy, the people….") as her mind, body, and soul are planted firmly in 2007 and the modern world. Her recent induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame notwithstanding, Patti Smith is not so much an old punk poetess but a survivor, a widow, a mother, a writer, a rebel, and by all means still a rocker, not to mention an opera fan. ("The last music I bought was Maria Callas, my favorite opera singer, an album of her Italian arias. My cat threw up on it, so I had to buy another copy.")

Addressing a question as to why there are no obscure selections on her new album of cover songs, Twelve (Columbia), due to be released April 24th on Columbia, she merely replied "all of my (own) records are obscure. This is not a record for me; this is a record for the people." Among the tracks, which Smith selected more for their lyrics than anything else ("something (for people) to think about and enjoy and make them think"), the album features Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ("I relate to the lyrics—I got an illumination about it"), and Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule the World." Questioned about this last selection, Smith replied "I never in a million years thought I'd do a Tears For Fears cover, but I was buying coffee and thinking about how fucked up the world is, and then it came on and I heard 'everybody wants to rule the world' and I was like 'yeah'. That simple line, in one reference, says it all."

While the flat reading of the almost 60's style rhetoric from Smith may be rooted in, though not applying to, another time, be it environmental issues or the state of the music industry, Smith knows what the hell is going on, even if, at 60, she's not nearly as active as she once was, though by no means any less creative. "I don't want to be who I used to be; I'm not that person nor try to be nor could I be. I'm never going to have the adolescent power and sexuality that I did when I was younger. I'm not a shadow of my former myself, I'm an evolving person. I don't know if I'm relevant…being an artist, I'm never satisfied. I create work to satisfy myself, learn stuff, illuminate. I haven't even done my best work yet. It helps me to stay curious, agitated, working… I've still got work to do, I'm still working. I sit in my house writing poems, listening to opera, and I help when I can; I speak out against the Bush administration as often as I can. I'll just keep being a thorn in the side of the Bush administration. If you keep poking someone, they're eventually going to bleed."

In her iconic version of The Who's "My Generation" (released as the B-side of "Gloria" in 1976), Smith commandeered her audience and stated "I'm so young so goddamned young…we created it, let's take it over!" Abstractly, Smith is still singing this tune, though not just to her own generation, but to the younger ones as well. "Things are different now, across the board. It seems like new generations are promoting new ways to share work. I'm not really part of their world, it's internet based, but they have a community that's unprecedented. (They) have more tools for unification than any other time in human history. My immediate reaction (to the internet culture) was this isn't any good because it is so isolating. They could be very empowered and not just wackin' off on their computer."

"In a perfect world, these folks would unite and do something really revolutionary: create the biggest environmental movement ever seen, unite and save our fuckin' planet, unite and make change, a new political party. Topple the government and start a new government. How to do it? Read Ralph Nader's books. There's a whole new revolution, but they don't even know (they're) a revolution. They could be a force that has never been seen before. I'd like to see new generations create a new party; pragmatic, unified, and have guts. Republicans are evil, Democrats have moved to the center and are weak."

"The number one issue is our environment, not just global warming, but colony collapse, extinction. If people could look at this as a challenge, not as depressing, these things can be done. We can topple the government, be vigilant and make positive change, to accept what other people are doing to destroy the environment. True destruction of the environment is not a process of evolution, it is a product of greed. China's factories have polluted the air so bad their rivers are black. Something is gonna happen, it just can't stay like this."

Proving herself far more relevant and, though she disagrees, more plugged in than many of her contemporaries, one needs not look any further than her awesome performance at the The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony last Monday, March 12, 2007. Performing three songs: "Because The Night," her cover of The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," and, by her late mother's request, the still sharp "Rock And Roll Nigger." "My mom was the main person in the world who wanted to see me in The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Before my mom died, literally the day before she died, (she asked) if I ever made it, please sing a certain song for her."

But Smith acknowledges that she isn't 100% on the idea, concept, and actual existence of this kind of Hall of Fame. "Before there was one, I felt there shouldn't be one. Rock and roll…it's open territory. MTV Awards are a complete betrayal of our culture, they're stupid and fucked up. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't proud, but it is true I lobbied against (the Hall of Fame). I don't see myself as contradictory. My kids are proud of it, my parents were, and in some ways it's an honor, (but) The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame is a man made institution, and rock and roll will live beyond The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Rock and roll belongs to the people."

As for where she sees herself for the rest of 2007, Smith simply answered "touring touring touring." Continuing to join her on guitar is her son, Jackson Smith, whose father was the late, great Fred "Sonic" Smith, guitarist of the MC5 and Sonic's Rendezvous Band. "Jackson…has new energy like his Dad, has his blood, (though) he's slammin' more towards country." In terms of eradicating nostalgia, though, that may not be such a bad thing at all.

Wrapping up the interview, Smith was thankful that no questions were asked about her personal life. When the response was that that is her business and her business alone, she simply replied "yeah, it's not so great anyways."

Rock on, Patti Smith, rock on.


Reprinted with permission: YOUR FLESH Magazine

Bye Bye Birdie

Wellstone, my African Grey parrot, was picked up by his new owner today. It probably hasn't hit me yet, but I'm not sad. Or, it's because I know I did the right thing.

His new owner is great. He has another Grey so he knows what he's getting into.

Goodbye, Wellstone. You were a good bird.

Colbert's dare

This video goes perfectly with the very last comment I made on the last post. Watch it all the way through. You'll see what I'm talking about at the halfway mark.

Colbert Report: "Impeach Bush" If Congress had balls, they would impeach Bush.

(Sorry you have to sit through a commercial first.)

2 OHIO election workers sentenced to prison for rigging recount

Remember when (then) Ohio's Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell delivered Ohio's decisive electoral votes to Bush, and thus, a second term?

Here's yet another story not being reported by the mainstream media:

From the Guardian UK:
Ohio Election Workers Sentenced

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN
Associated Press Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) - Two county election workers were sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison for rigging a recount of 2004 presidential election ballots so they could avoid a longer, detailed review.

Jacqueline Maiden, 60, a Cuyahoga County election coordinator who was the board's third-highest ranking employee, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer, 40, each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Peter Corrigan allowed the women to remain free on bail pending appeal, but indicated he thought there was a more widespread conspiracy among election officials.

"I can't help but feel there's more to this story,'' Corrigan said.

more...


Note from Lizzy: Yes, John Kerry did win the 2004 election, and no, I'm still not over it...are you?

Lizzy, the 41 year old freshman

I have my final exam for the first quarter of school tomorrow.

From being afraid to turn my Mac on, to learning the basics of Photoshop, I've come a long way in three months. I hope the next three months get even better.

Wish me luck on the final. (Mucho anxiety.)

Vote Different

New Blogger sucks.

Ever since we had to update to the "new & improved" Blogger, I can't get videos to post on my blog. I get a big box, with a little red x instead. I'm also having spacing issues, as well as a few other problems that bug the crap out of me.

Eventually, I'm going to take this blog off Blogger and move it somewhere that isn't so buggy. I also have plans to redesign the interface because it's a little on the busy side (okay, more than a little.) I was hoping that I would learn how to do it in school, but that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon.

The video I was itching to publish was featured on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight. Someone took Apple's legendary "1984" commercial and did something extremely creative with it. It is not an official campaign commercial, but it is very, very cool.

Yes, the campaign season is quite a ways away, but I bet you're like me in that it can't come soon enough. The sooner the season starts, the faster it will seem that the Bush years will finally be over.

Okay, enough about all that, watch this now... you won't regret it:

YouTube: Vote Different

Hindsight is always 20/20

I went to the bar last night to meet up with some old friends, and let off a little steam.

Being that my friends are lefties, the conversation eventually shifted to politics, but there was a guy sitting at the table that I didn't know. Since I didn't want to assume he was a Dem, I asked him what his affiliation was. He said that he swings toward the Republican side.

When I said, wow, you admit that? He gave me a puzzled look. So, I said, aren't you ashamed of what your party has become in the last 6 years? He said, what do you mean?

I had a couple drinks in me, so I wasn't completely on the ball, but I did say, in the last 6 years, Bush has ruined our standing in the world and has fucked everything up.

He said, that started long before Bush, or something to that effect. Feeling my ire rising, I looked to my friend, Brian for some backup. He asked the guy if he reads. He said, no, not like I used to. That was enough for Brian. He didn't need to hear anymore. I should have taken his cue.

I, on the other hand, sat there for a while and tried to engage him, but it was pointless. I did say, isn't it amazing how divided we've become in the last 6 years? He said, again, that started long before Bush. (Sure, the division may have started with Reagan, but it's nothing like it is now.)

Now that it's the next morning, I'm thinking of all of the things I should've said. However, if I had been thinking more clearly, it could have gotten very ugly, very fast, so it was probably for the best.

Wrapping up loose ends: the Gitmo way

Al-Qaida No. 3 says he planned 9/11, other plots

Today we've learned that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to the murder of Daniel Pearl. In addition, he said “I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z.” He has also confessed to the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing, as well as planning to take down a second trans-Atlantic aircraft during would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid’s operation.

But, that's not all...

He also confessed to trying to kill international leaders including Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

AND:

The 2002 bombing of a Kenya beach resort frequented by Israelis.

The failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya.

The 2002 bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia.

Nope, that's still not all!

Other plots he said he was responsible for included planned attacks against the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange in New York City, the Panama Canal, and Big Ben and Heathrow Airport in London.

In the days ahead, we will also learn that he was responsible for:

The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby

The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

The Zodiac murders

JFK's assassination

Hiding the plane parts of the 757 that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11

Killing Elizabeth Short ("The Black Dahlia")

Being Jack the Ripper

Breaking up The Beatles

1871's Great Chicago Fire

The summary execution of Che Guevara

Being the real Son of Sam murderer

Killing the 3 little boys in the West Memphis Three case

Avian Bird Flu

80's fashion coming back

The Macarena

It's amazing what a little water-boarding can accomplish.

For the times they are a-changin'...BACK

I don't know about you, but when I hear the mainstream press describing how the far-left or "radical fringe" is driving the Democratic Party, or how lefty bloggers are shaping the candidates, it warms my heart.

After 6 years of the pendulum swinging all the way to the right, it's about time we had our say.

However, with that being said, I'm not entirely sure that the Dems should have pulled out of the debate on FauxNews. For a certain segment of the population (the ones that only get their "news" from NewsCorp), that may have been their only chance to get an alternative, or correct, point of view.

But, in the end, I respect their decision.

Democrats cancel Fox News debate

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nevada Democratic Party officials said on Friday they were canceling a presidential debate co-sponsored by Fox News, following a joke chairman Roger Ailes made about Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

In a letter sent to Fox, Nevada State Democratic Party Chairman Tom Collins and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Ailes "went too far" with comments made the night before.

The letter makes no reference to a crusade by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org to boycott Fox, which it calls a "right-wing mouthpiece." Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards dropped out of the debate on Thursday, citing in part Fox's participation.

The letter also does not specify which comments by Ailes lead to the decision, but a Democratic source told Reuters it was a joke Ailes made about Obama and President Bush during a speech on Thursday night.

"We cannot, as good Democrats, put our party in a position to defend such comments," Collins and Reid said in the letter. "We take no pleasure in this, but it the only course of action."

Fox News Vice President David Rhodes responded with a written statement criticizing the Democrats for caving in to MoveOn.org.

"News organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus, which appears to be controlled by radical fringe out-of-state interest groups, not the Democratic Party," David Rhodes said in the statement.

more...

Spring ahead

After a long, cold winter, I'm always happy when it's time to spring ahead one hour for Daylight Savings Time.

I don't care that we get one less hour of sleep. I'm just glad that we've turned the corner on Winter, and Summer is around the corner.

ahhh, summertime.

US is funding Al-Qaeda groups

Nothing really surprises me anymore when it comes to the Bush administration, but I was taken aback by this one.

This story did get some play on cable news, but not in the mainstream media. If this story was reported like it should have been, maybe the general public would be demanding Bush's head, just like us.

We have now come full-circle on the war on terrorism.


From Think Progress.org:
Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups

New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the “single most explosive” element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.

Hersh says the U.S. has been “pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight” for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to “stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.” Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of “three Sunni jihadist groups” who are “connected to al Qaeda” but “want to take on Hezbollah.”

Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: “We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.”

Hersh added, “All of this should be investigated by Congress, by the way, and I trust it will be. In my talking to membership — members there, they are very upset that they know nothing about this. And they have great many suspicions.”

This just in...

GUILTY
Woo-hoo!

Cheney's deal

As an agnostic Jew, I don't really believe what I'm about to say, but I thought I'd put it out there, just for fun.

In 1978, when he was 37 years old, Dick Cheney made a deal with the devil. He made this deal while having his first heart attack. In return for his life, he promised Satan that he would do everything he could to destroy America, which in turn, would make the entire world a much worse place, and assuredly bring about the end of days.

Satan took the deal.

Over the years, G-d tried to step in and take Cheney out by striking him with 3 additional heart attacks, but the dark force was too strong. Lucifer covered him.

However, G-d hasn't given up yet. He tried a different tactic today, but it didn't work. I'm sure he'll keep trying.

From The New York Times:

Tests Reveal Blood Clot in Cheney’s Leg

Published: March 5, 2007

WASHINGTON, March 5 — Vice President Dick Cheney was treated today for a blood clot in his left leg that independent experts said was probably not related to his history of heart disease, but rather the result of his recent around-the-world trip, which included 65 hours of plane travel over 9 days.

Mr. Cheney’s office said the vice president experienced “mild calf discomfort” sometime after delivering a late morning speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and visited his doctor’s office at George Washington University.

An ultrasound revealed a deep venous thrombosis, a blood clot, in the lower portion of his left leg. He was treated with anti-coagulant medication, which he will take for several months, and he returned to work. Although blood clots in the leg can be dangerous if left untreated, experts say most are successfully treated with the anti-coagulant drugs that the White House says Mr. Cheney is now receiving.

In September 2005, Mr. Cheney underwent surgery to repair aneurysms, bulges in the arteries that can spawn dangerous blood clots, behind both knees. Doctors implanted devices known as stent-grafts in each of Mr. Cheney’s legs.

Intermission

I took a few days off from blogging to complete Project 3 for school and to also get some stuff done around the house. I'll be back at it within a couple days. I hope everyone had a good weekend.

~Lizzy

In the meantime, here's a cute pic from when they were puppies:



Spooning is good.