My buddy Andy sent these and I just had a laugh riot!

White House Props Department

Drink Your Kool-Aid

This morning in NPR’s Morning Edition, Renee Montagne spoke with Peter
Sprigg, director of the Center for Marriage and Family Studies at the
Family Research Council. What he said I found deeply offensive. You
can find their discussion here:
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=1791280

My letter to NPR follows.

Cheers,
-nic

Dear NPR,

In the words of Walt Kelly’s Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
That is the message I take away from Peter Sprigg’s (of the Family
Research Council, Center for Marriage and Family Studies) comments on
Morning Edition (March 25, 2004) regarding the current controversy over
marriage rights.

In his comments, Mr Sprigg tells us that same-sex marriage would be just
the latest affront in a continuing assault on marriage “over the last
fifty years” as we depart from marriage’s traditional role of promoting
and protecting procreation. He claims that the trend of single parent
households, childless couples and now same-sex marriages are eroding
“natural marriage.”

By the time my wife and I got married we had each decided not to have
children. We chose to get married for many reasons, but we never thought
of ourselves as eroding a cherished institution by doing so. Apparently,
though, we are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Not too long ago a man and woman living together without the benefit
of the bonds of marriage were “living in sin.” Now, by the logic of
Mr Sprigg, our decision to get married threatens to destroy the very
institution that we have chosen to celebrate. What is a childless couple
to do? We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

Mr Sprigg would have us believe that the institution of marriage
is something which survived, unchanged, from some long ago time up ’til
fifty years ago, when it came under sudden attack by an immoral society.
Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unless he would have us revert to the not so distant past of arranged
marriages which predated the evolution of marriage as an expression of
romantic love, a development only two hundred and fifty years old, he
should accept that the institution is not immutable. Like any other
aspect of human existence it changes!

I recently sent a series of calls to action to friends and relatives
regarding a state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage,
civil union and domestic partnership. I used a time worn rhetorical
tool — rather than accepting the title its proponents had chosen, “The
Affirmation of Marriage Act,” I referred to it as the “Anti-marriage Act.”
When I did this I felt that it truly was an anti-marriage proposal,
now Mr. Sprigg reveals just how accurate I was.

Now that the anti-marriage forces have placed my wife in their sights, and
not just my gay and lesbian friends, I am even more committed to fighting
to see that all citizens are afforded this most essential of rights.

On 23 Mar, Sarah wrote:

You know, it occurs to me that if a President sets his agenda in his “first 100 days,” as one Bush ad claims, then the claims of Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neill are pretty telling.

Do I smell a response ad brewing…

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An interesting bit of back-and-forth is happening vis-a-vis the Bush administration’s bizarre attempt to paint the Clinton White House as unresponsive to terrorism, while simultaneously claiming to have
continued the same robust policy that administration had put in place.

This schizophrenia has been a recurrent theme since 9/11, as the Bushies cannot seem to make up their minds whether to attack the Clintonistas as laying a red carpet for al Qaeda or not.

For example, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett, last night on PBS’s NewsHour said Bush

…also did another important step and that was to keep Dick Clarke and his counter intelligence team in place for the very reason of having the continuity, institutional knowledge necessary to make sure that there was no effort to drop the ball in the middle of a transition. That’s highly unlikely to happen in an administration to keep such a large organization intact in the White House.

And yet V.P. Cheney yesterday said

The fact is, what the President did not want to do is to have an ineffective response with respect to al Qaeda. And we felt that up until that point that much of what had been done vis-a-vis al Qaeda had been totally ineffective: some cruise missiles fired at some training camps in Afghanistan that basically didn’t hit anything. And it made the U.S. look weak and ineffective. And he wanted a far more effective policy for trying to deal with that. And that process was in motion throughout the spring.

Richard Cohen, in today’s Washington Post writes:

Back in 2002 … Vice President Cheney’s chief aide,Lewis “Scooter” Libby … in a New Yorker interview … listed terrorist attacks on U.S. or allied interests going back to 1993 and concluded that America had shown only weakness in response. “The Americans don’t have the stomach to defend themselves,” he quoted an imaginary Osama bin Laden as saying. “They won’t take casualties to defend their interests. They are morally weak.”

Yet this morning on “Good Morning America” Richard Clarke went on the offensive against his critics:

In the Reagan Administration, 300 Americans died in Lebanon and there was no retaliation. In the Bush I Administration, almost 300 Americas died on Pan Am 103 and no retaliation. Yet for this much smaller threat, we had done a great deal.

So the debate rages on as to who has the biggest cahones, and we have yet to learn just what effect any of this is having on the electorate.

This promises to be a very interesting election year.

My friend Shauna just sent this to me, and I thought y’all might like
it.
-nic

from salon.com
New rule
You can’t be a Washington outsider if you’re already president.

– – – – – – – – – – – –
By Bill Maher

March 13, 2004 | Hearing President Bush these days constantly complain
about “the politicians” and John Kerry being part of a “Washington
mind-set,” and saying things like “I got news for the Washington crowd” is
like hearing Courtney Love bitch about junkies.

“Washington insider” is by definition a function of one’s proximity to the
president. That’s you, Mr. Bush. You’re ground zero. Ever wonder, sir, why
everyone stands and they play music when you enter a room? When you’re given
check-writing privileges by the Federal Reserve, you just might be a
Washington insider.

Lemme try to explain it to you in a different way: You’re not “Mr. Smith
goes to Washington” — you’re the Washington part. We need a Mr. Smith to
mess with you. You’re not on a mission you reluctantly accepted, like the
old farts in “Space Cowboys.” You campaigned for this job, and now you’re
doing it again.

And having been the Grand Poobah for three years, it’s a little late to be
selling yourself as some fish-out-of-water cowboy visiting the big city on
assignment. You’re not McCloud, you’re the grandson of a senator and the son
of a president and CIA director. For 15 of the last 22 years you’ve had a
key to the White House. The last thing that happened in Washington without
the Bushes getting a piece of it was Marion Barry’s crack habit. “The
Exorcist” happened in Georgetown, but Satan had to run it by Jim Baker
first.

So knock off the regular-guy act — and by the way, that also goes for John
Forbes Kerry, the other white meat. Two Skull and Bones preppies, these guys
are, from Nantucket and Kennebunkport, who use the word “summer” as a verb
and probably had monogrammed beer bongs in college.

Please, John Kerry: Stop rolling up your sleeves at campaign rallies like
you’re about to man a register at Costco. You’re a Boston Brahmin who
married not one but two eccentric heiresses — you’re not Joe Sixpack,
you’re Claus von Bulow. I think your current wife is great, but hello, she
inherited the Heinz fortune! She’s the ketchup lady! — which explains why
sometimes he’s gotta smack her on the bottom to get her to come.

Look, fellas, we’ve got almost eight months till the election. That’s a long
time to hold in your gut. To pretend you’re something you’re not. Let’s just
be real and admit that finally, and unfortunately, true class warfare has
come to America.

Yale class of ’66 vs. Yale class of ’68.

Just a few things to think about today:

Chris Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong, and current European Union External Affairs Commissioner, recently appeared on Charlie Rose (March 4, 2004). Among his insightful comments:

We do fairly well when we wage wars against proper nouns – countries, alliances. Any war against a collective noun such as “terrorism” or “drugs” is a bit dodgy and unlikely to be won or lost in the classical sense.

A discussion board about his appearance on the show may be read here:
http://boards.charlierose.com/board/topic.asp?ti=6154

An interesting interview with Patten may be found here:
http://mathaba.net/news/print.shtml?cmd[40]=i-42-495ad5d77e996cc9824ae0363aab5bc3

He has a few things to say about the recent bloodletting at the BBC.

A similar point is made in the speech “TERRORISM AND THE RULE OF LAW” by Nicholas Cowdery AM QC (President, International Association of Prosecutors Director of Public Prosecutions, NSW, Australia) at the International Association of Prosecutors 8th Annual Conference
Washington, DC – 10-14 August 2003

Instead of following the criminal justice path, the war paradigm was invoked – the war on terrorism – and it has continued. It is, however, difficult to control and direct. As will be seen, it has enabled the rule of law to be bypassed in a number of respects. By definition, such a war may have no end and the measures introduced along the way may be with us forever.

Although war was declared on an abstract noun, real places and real people were attacked, including sovereign states. On the military front Afghanistan was overcome and a new government installed; Iraq was later invaded and occupied.

Where does the war against terrorism head next? What consequences is it having for the rule of law?

Oh that we had such critical thinkers presenting these this kind of analysis to American audiences.

Oh that we had American audiences that would listen if they did…

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On a slightly different topic, the NASA Spirit probe sent back a wonderful picture looking back towards Earth:
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article872.html

Just a bit humbling!

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Lastly, The Note, over at ABC News, brought an article from The Washington Post to my attention today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58663-2004Mar14.html

In it, Dan Balz and Jim VandeiHei write:

Republicans express more optimism about their prospects in three other Midwestern states: Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, where they hope cultural issues will trump economic issues.

In Iowa, a year of Democratic campaigning has left Bush damaged. In Wisconsin, the Bush campaign is running ads from the southern reaches of Madison to the rural lakes and woods country of Rhinelander to undo the impact of job losses and the damage Bush
sustained during the Democratic primaries. But Republicans connected to the Bush campaign say all three could tilt to the president in the fall.

One can only guess what they mean by “cultural issues”… Does anyone still doubt that Bush endorsed the anti-marriage amendment as an election year ploy?

AJR 66, the Republican sponsored anti-marriage amendment to the
Wisconsin State Constitution is going to be put to a vote on Tuesday or
Wednesday in the State Senate.

Once again, I ask all of my friends to contact your state senator and
implore them to vote no on this important amendment!

Here are some links you can use to locate your senator’s phone number or
address, or send an email to them:

To make a phone call, look up his or her name and number here:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/waml

Click here to send an automatic email (that you can personalize):
http://capwiz.com/federationlgbt/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=5302126

Thanks in advance for your help in this important matter!

Hey there – Nic writing! I realize that I seem to inundate my friends,
pretty much the same group of friends, with more or less politically
related messages from time to time.

Rather than continue to wade through my address book every time I send
one of these missives, I have taken it upon myself to create a mailing
list for the purpose. Hence this list, rant_at_postilion.org.

If you are receiving this message it means that you can blame me for
putting you on the list. You can remove yourself at any time by
following the instruction at the bottom of every message from the list
– as I fully expect half of you to by this time tomorrow (don’t worry I
won’t take it personally). If you have foolish friends who wish to be
added to the list, forward one of these messages to them, and they can
subscribe.

All replies to the list will go to me (which I guess I deserve).

So, now that that is out of the way, here are some interesting stories
you may have missed:

My friend Andy alerted me to these stories:

Kerry and the Electoral College…. looks pretty good at this point 🙂
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2004/03/projected_elect.html

Ivins: In Search of Adults
http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18037

Oh yes, and David Riemer, running to replace the republican troglodyte
currently running Milwaukee County, is having an art auction/fund
raiser Monday, March 8, at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design:
Frederick Layton Gallery
278 East Erie Street
5:30 – 7:30 p.m. (auction 6:30)

Many fine artists and galleries have contributed works to this event.
Any contribution will be gleefully accepted. We will be there, we hope
that many of you can make it as well. Regime change begins at home,
and this year that means City and County as well as National.

Best regards,
-nic

Oh, and for those of you who haven’t read my Journal from Iowa (Dean
Campaign – Iowa Caucuses), or haven’t looked at it since it was
happening, I have fully edited and updated it with photos. You can
find it here:
http://politics.postilion.org/deanjournal.html

along with all of my other political rants at:
http://politics.postilion.org/