Bush Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs tells British MP's "I hate all Iranians"
Taliban reject Karzai peace talk offer saying there would be no negotiations until U.S. and NATO troops had withdrawn from Afghanistan
Punks get asses kicked by grumpy old man
Republican donors give money to Hillary
Flip flopping Romney investment ties to Venezuela and Iran reveled after he called on Republicans to support divestment
Seymour Hersh of New Yorker Magazine says Bush has accepted ethnic cleansing in Iraq among other things in wide ranging interview with German Magazine Der Spiegel
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Look In The Mirror Limbaugh Can't Handle The Truth Of Who's The Real Phony
The truth is Rush Limbaugh never served in the military. It be hard for him to have any idea what it means be a soldier. He says phony soldiers are opposed to the war in Iraq. Who's the real phony here? Bill Moyers poignant segment "for the fallen"answers the question I think.
Artistdogboy Daily Observations
Democrats recruit a 12 year-old to reply to Bush threat of Veto of kid's health bill
Halloween and Christmas canceled in Illinois seen as offensive to Muslims
French President Sarkozy the new Tony Blair
Iran invites Bush to speak at University if he's ever in Tehran
The whole truth about congressional earmarks
Halloween and Christmas canceled in Illinois seen as offensive to Muslims
French President Sarkozy the new Tony Blair
Iran invites Bush to speak at University if he's ever in Tehran
The whole truth about congressional earmarks
Friday, September 28, 2007
Sixties Goddess Brigitte Bardot Turns 73
Much of my puberty was spend dreaming about BB. When I was 21 in 1968 I actually traveled to Cannes on military leave from Germany in hopes of somehow capturing a glimpse of her at the beach or walking the seawall. Cannes was not as well known then. It seemed quite possible. I spent two weeks there. Alas I never did see her. But I did run into Ed Sullivan while having a drink in the bar at the Carlton Hotel.
Bardot represented the near perfect woman to me for many reasons. Beautiful, rebellious and free, a true iconoclast and role model for all women of that period. Never much for publicity or glamour she led a reclusive life and became better known for her great love of animals then her film career as she got older.
Bardot represented the near perfect woman to me for many reasons. Beautiful, rebellious and free, a true iconoclast and role model for all women of that period. Never much for publicity or glamour she led a reclusive life and became better known for her great love of animals then her film career as she got older.
Video Shows Japanese Journalist Shot Dead in Burma
Horrified Japanese watched footage today of Kenji Nagai's death in Rangoon that contradicts junta's version of events
Warning video content contains graphic violence
Warning video content contains graphic violence
Artistdogboy Daily Facts And Observations
Tecktonik dance craze takes Paris by storm
Tell me it isn't so, Brigitte Bardot turns 73
Mariners management decides to continue to let team suck in 2008
China running out of water
Maliki rejects US Senate proposal to divide Iraq into Sunni Shiite and Kurdish federations
Yuppies sell apartment in NYC buy house with pool, 2 cars and open popular restaurant in Portland with money
Tell me it isn't so, Brigitte Bardot turns 73
Mariners management decides to continue to let team suck in 2008
China running out of water
Maliki rejects US Senate proposal to divide Iraq into Sunni Shiite and Kurdish federations
Yuppies sell apartment in NYC buy house with pool, 2 cars and open popular restaurant in Portland with money
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Artistdogboy Daily Observations and Facts
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Americans Need To Live and Travel Abroad More
“Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled." — Mohammed
The childish narrow minded name calling and temper tantrums that took place when Iranian President Ahmadienjad visited Columbia University and the UN in New York demonstrates, among other things, how globally isolated and narrow minded American thinking is when it comes to understanding how we appear in the eyes of most of the rest of the world. Put aside whether you agree with Iran's Punch and Judy show being orchestrated by Ahmadienjad.
Once a nation others looked to as a beacon of tolerance, justice and for a free flow of ideas. We have become something rather ugly, isolated and ill tempered in the eyes of the world these days I fear.
I think it’s because most Americans don’t travel enough very far from home. Disneyland, Aunt Martha's or Sturgis, South Dakota being the extent of it usually. President Bush prior to being elected apparently hadn’t really gone anywhere or immersed himself in a foreign culture of any kind. Many Americans are sort of one dimensional in their thinking about foreign countries and people. Often it seems they are more concerned with the trivial things then understanding any relationship to other countries and their people, not understanding the cause and effect of American foreign policy on others. They call it blowback these days.
Maybe there should be some government program that requires that American students travel in conjunction with learning geography and history. Emphasis has been placed on the importance of math and science. Perhaps it’s travel and the study of history and geography that’s really needed to further the cause of understanding cultural differences and as a path to world peace or empathy for others.
I recently traveled to the Catalan region of Spain for a three-week vacation. Something I do every few years when I can afford it. Several native Catalan friends there always welcome me with open arms and unbelievable amounts of hospitality. It would be unthinkable to them to be rude to visitors even if you disagree with their politics. A custom found and practiced in many cultures. Simply don’t be rude to a guest, especially if you invited them.
Politics have changed drastically in the United States and there since the first time I traveled to Catalonia in 1979. I'd been living in Europe busking and performing street theater with a troupe for nearly a year by the time I finally reached Spain. Spain’s fascist leader Francisco Franco’s rule had ended with his death in 1975 and his authoritarian regime came to its end just one year before we arrived when a new Spanish constitution was drafted and was being implemented.
There was an exuberant display of the new freedoms recently gained by the people, and the unfettered creative possibilities they offered were the talk of in every bar, bistro and sidewalk cafe in Catalan capital of Barcelona. Millions of Catalans, whose unique culture and language had been forcefully suppressed under the rule of the Generalissimo, openly celebrated life. For the first time many were allowed to speak their native tongue in public without fear of being beaten or worse by a member of the Guardia Civil police.
This last trip in June and July was very interesting in that I was able to see distinctly how much suspicion and apprehension there is about American foreign policy these days. Most people had a hard time understanding how George Bush could ever have been elected president of the United States. He appeared to them to be limited in his understanding of the world around him. Even though I’m from a blue state it was not easy to explain. Nor was it easy to explain that evidence exists that not one but perhaps two presidential elections had be stolen from the rightful winner through conservative based vote manipulation or tampering.
I would guess that many Americans who voted for Bush haven’t traveled much out of their own immediate backyards. They apparently don’t understand much about other cultures. They tend to see everything with sort of a American insular tunnel vision. European culture is perceived as being inferior to that of the US. Conservative politicians rhetoric constantly tells Americans that we are the greatest and biggest and best thing going. We’re god’s gift to humanity, when more often the facts prove otherwise.
The ironic thing about it is I sense that many people I’ve met in my travels have in the passed look to America for moral and political leadership. They find it troubling that apparently such leadership cannot be found in today’s America.
A good example of this is the way people acted when dealing with the Ahmadienjad visit. The insulting and juvenile tone of the Columbia President Lee Bollinger speech before the Iranian President spoke certainly show the world an America that was acting out it’s fear, without manners, paranoid and weak.
The childish narrow minded name calling and temper tantrums that took place when Iranian President Ahmadienjad visited Columbia University and the UN in New York demonstrates, among other things, how globally isolated and narrow minded American thinking is when it comes to understanding how we appear in the eyes of most of the rest of the world. Put aside whether you agree with Iran's Punch and Judy show being orchestrated by Ahmadienjad.
Once a nation others looked to as a beacon of tolerance, justice and for a free flow of ideas. We have become something rather ugly, isolated and ill tempered in the eyes of the world these days I fear.
I think it’s because most Americans don’t travel enough very far from home. Disneyland, Aunt Martha's or Sturgis, South Dakota being the extent of it usually. President Bush prior to being elected apparently hadn’t really gone anywhere or immersed himself in a foreign culture of any kind. Many Americans are sort of one dimensional in their thinking about foreign countries and people. Often it seems they are more concerned with the trivial things then understanding any relationship to other countries and their people, not understanding the cause and effect of American foreign policy on others. They call it blowback these days.
Maybe there should be some government program that requires that American students travel in conjunction with learning geography and history. Emphasis has been placed on the importance of math and science. Perhaps it’s travel and the study of history and geography that’s really needed to further the cause of understanding cultural differences and as a path to world peace or empathy for others.
I recently traveled to the Catalan region of Spain for a three-week vacation. Something I do every few years when I can afford it. Several native Catalan friends there always welcome me with open arms and unbelievable amounts of hospitality. It would be unthinkable to them to be rude to visitors even if you disagree with their politics. A custom found and practiced in many cultures. Simply don’t be rude to a guest, especially if you invited them.
Politics have changed drastically in the United States and there since the first time I traveled to Catalonia in 1979. I'd been living in Europe busking and performing street theater with a troupe for nearly a year by the time I finally reached Spain. Spain’s fascist leader Francisco Franco’s rule had ended with his death in 1975 and his authoritarian regime came to its end just one year before we arrived when a new Spanish constitution was drafted and was being implemented.
There was an exuberant display of the new freedoms recently gained by the people, and the unfettered creative possibilities they offered were the talk of in every bar, bistro and sidewalk cafe in Catalan capital of Barcelona. Millions of Catalans, whose unique culture and language had been forcefully suppressed under the rule of the Generalissimo, openly celebrated life. For the first time many were allowed to speak their native tongue in public without fear of being beaten or worse by a member of the Guardia Civil police.
This last trip in June and July was very interesting in that I was able to see distinctly how much suspicion and apprehension there is about American foreign policy these days. Most people had a hard time understanding how George Bush could ever have been elected president of the United States. He appeared to them to be limited in his understanding of the world around him. Even though I’m from a blue state it was not easy to explain. Nor was it easy to explain that evidence exists that not one but perhaps two presidential elections had be stolen from the rightful winner through conservative based vote manipulation or tampering.
I would guess that many Americans who voted for Bush haven’t traveled much out of their own immediate backyards. They apparently don’t understand much about other cultures. They tend to see everything with sort of a American insular tunnel vision. European culture is perceived as being inferior to that of the US. Conservative politicians rhetoric constantly tells Americans that we are the greatest and biggest and best thing going. We’re god’s gift to humanity, when more often the facts prove otherwise.
The ironic thing about it is I sense that many people I’ve met in my travels have in the passed look to America for moral and political leadership. They find it troubling that apparently such leadership cannot be found in today’s America.
A good example of this is the way people acted when dealing with the Ahmadienjad visit. The insulting and juvenile tone of the Columbia President Lee Bollinger speech before the Iranian President spoke certainly show the world an America that was acting out it’s fear, without manners, paranoid and weak.
Artistdogboy Daily Observations and Facts
Isreali Army killing children in Gaza
Seventy percent of overseas absentee ballots not reaching voters
Cost of war balloons
Giuliani fires chief fund raiser
In reversal, baseball umpire suspended instead of player
Vick caught smoking pot while awaiting sentencing
Cuba plants trees
Seventy percent of overseas absentee ballots not reaching voters
Cost of war balloons
Giuliani fires chief fund raiser
In reversal, baseball umpire suspended instead of player
Vick caught smoking pot while awaiting sentencing
Cuba plants trees
Friday, September 21, 2007
How Long Will Americans Continue To Swallow The Bowl of Rhetorical Bullshit From The Likes Of Bush and Healthcare Industry about Universal Coverage?
“The fundamental question is, what should we do about it? On that question, our nation has a clear choice. One option is to put more power in the hands of government by expanding federal health care programs and empowering bureaucrats to make medical decisions. The other option is to put more power in the hands of individuals, by making private health insurance more affordable and accessible and empowering people and their doctors to make the decisions that are right for them. That's the divide.”
President Bush statement: June 27, 2007
Apparently Frat Boy Bush doesn’t realize poor people don’t have doctors to make decisions with or that the current system hasn't worked to empower any of the approximately 45, or more, million Americans without coverage now.
What he really is saying is that the right wing nuts no new taxes no new services and medical industry and insurance industry types like the status quo and they don’t intend to change anything as long as their in power. Why would they wish to kill a goose that continues to lay billions and billions of golden $ eggs for them anyway.
The real question is why do most Americans seem to have such a hard time getting their heads around these misrepresentations about universal health care?
Are we a nation of morons with no empathy for the poor? Do we not desire to control the spiraling cost of health care? Are we afraid of providing health care to all citizens like every other modern, and not so modern, western nation does? Are we not concerned that the current health care deliver system in this country makes American business less competitive in a gobal economy?
Bush also promised to veto the continuation of State Children's Health Insurance Program if it were to be passed by the congress. The compromise program by the congress would cover 10 million uninsured children for 5 years at a cost of $35 billion. The proposal is to be paid for by a tax of sixty-one cent per pack on cigarettes.
Seems like a good idea. Higher taxes on cigarettes would impact only smokers who may quit because the price of smokes goes up, which improves their health. Keeping them off the doll for health care that they don’t have insurance to cover or lowering the cost to their existing plan due to their healthier lifestyle.
Oh and we’d get those 10 million uninsured kids covered too!
Not so fast dummies! Don’t you understand this isn’t going to happen while us right wing nut bars are running the show. Our buddies in the medical and insurance industry would be cut out of the take and you’d end up probably raising taxes on rich folks. Plus we all have to become some kind of a red commie socialists and our daughters would be forced into becoming members of an army of socialist gay marrying lesbian prostitute zombies.
Bush and other conservatives argue rhetorically against this and other attempts to reform healthcare along the lines that government bureaucracy would lead to some sort of doomsday financial crisis for the country in the long run or that options to choose one’s doctor or course of treatment would be hindered or lost entirely. If this approach doesn’t work they often return to the 1950’s style boogieman scare tactic red herring labeling of any attempt to address the problem as a form of subliminal communist Frenchy European Canadian leaning “socialized medicine”.
If the usual talking points don’t work then opponents of healthcare usually will revert to the billions and billions of dollars it going to costs us all and the need to increase taxes to pay for it monologue .
Meanwhile we waste billions on the war in Iraq every minute of ever day which seems to be a recurring major mental disconnect for Americans when they lament about where all their tax money is going. As if the money being wastefully spent there doesn't ever count against the total.
Democrat Presidential candidates have proposed universal coverage plans with costs that run between $80 billion to $110 billion per year. One of the things that is so devastating about the Iraq war and current American foreign policy is that $456 billion has been spent through 2007 on the war and other administration programs like the ballistic missile defense program which will alone cost $11.1 billion in FY 2007. It doesn’t take a idiot to see that America’s priorities are to make war and be a world bully rather then care about the health of its citizens.
The main problem is Americans continue to eat the big bowl of warm shit their being fed by the right on health care. I know that better understanding of this issue is happening. Even the business sector has come around. They realize that universal health care would stimulate the economy, control their skyrocketing medical cost, and bring about cost saving modern medical data a record keeping and processing. Of course it also means that Americans would live healthier when full access to preventive medicine becomes available which should lead to lower costs over time due to people living better and healthier lifestyles. Improving everyone's bottom line.
But, ignorance continues to reign. Americans seem to not understand the immediate need and benefit it would be to this country if it were to establish a national health care program. The coming elections , it is hoped, will finally bring us politicians who support some sort of universal plan and also can get it passed through the congress. For god's sake how much longer must we wait?
President Bush statement: June 27, 2007
Apparently Frat Boy Bush doesn’t realize poor people don’t have doctors to make decisions with or that the current system hasn't worked to empower any of the approximately 45, or more, million Americans without coverage now.
What he really is saying is that the right wing nuts no new taxes no new services and medical industry and insurance industry types like the status quo and they don’t intend to change anything as long as their in power. Why would they wish to kill a goose that continues to lay billions and billions of golden $ eggs for them anyway.
The real question is why do most Americans seem to have such a hard time getting their heads around these misrepresentations about universal health care?
Are we a nation of morons with no empathy for the poor? Do we not desire to control the spiraling cost of health care? Are we afraid of providing health care to all citizens like every other modern, and not so modern, western nation does? Are we not concerned that the current health care deliver system in this country makes American business less competitive in a gobal economy?
Bush also promised to veto the continuation of State Children's Health Insurance Program if it were to be passed by the congress. The compromise program by the congress would cover 10 million uninsured children for 5 years at a cost of $35 billion. The proposal is to be paid for by a tax of sixty-one cent per pack on cigarettes.
Seems like a good idea. Higher taxes on cigarettes would impact only smokers who may quit because the price of smokes goes up, which improves their health. Keeping them off the doll for health care that they don’t have insurance to cover or lowering the cost to their existing plan due to their healthier lifestyle.
Oh and we’d get those 10 million uninsured kids covered too!
Not so fast dummies! Don’t you understand this isn’t going to happen while us right wing nut bars are running the show. Our buddies in the medical and insurance industry would be cut out of the take and you’d end up probably raising taxes on rich folks. Plus we all have to become some kind of a red commie socialists and our daughters would be forced into becoming members of an army of socialist gay marrying lesbian prostitute zombies.
Bush and other conservatives argue rhetorically against this and other attempts to reform healthcare along the lines that government bureaucracy would lead to some sort of doomsday financial crisis for the country in the long run or that options to choose one’s doctor or course of treatment would be hindered or lost entirely. If this approach doesn’t work they often return to the 1950’s style boogieman scare tactic red herring labeling of any attempt to address the problem as a form of subliminal communist Frenchy European Canadian leaning “socialized medicine”.
If the usual talking points don’t work then opponents of healthcare usually will revert to the billions and billions of dollars it going to costs us all and the need to increase taxes to pay for it monologue .
Meanwhile we waste billions on the war in Iraq every minute of ever day which seems to be a recurring major mental disconnect for Americans when they lament about where all their tax money is going. As if the money being wastefully spent there doesn't ever count against the total.
Democrat Presidential candidates have proposed universal coverage plans with costs that run between $80 billion to $110 billion per year. One of the things that is so devastating about the Iraq war and current American foreign policy is that $456 billion has been spent through 2007 on the war and other administration programs like the ballistic missile defense program which will alone cost $11.1 billion in FY 2007. It doesn’t take a idiot to see that America’s priorities are to make war and be a world bully rather then care about the health of its citizens.
The main problem is Americans continue to eat the big bowl of warm shit their being fed by the right on health care. I know that better understanding of this issue is happening. Even the business sector has come around. They realize that universal health care would stimulate the economy, control their skyrocketing medical cost, and bring about cost saving modern medical data a record keeping and processing. Of course it also means that Americans would live healthier when full access to preventive medicine becomes available which should lead to lower costs over time due to people living better and healthier lifestyles. Improving everyone's bottom line.
But, ignorance continues to reign. Americans seem to not understand the immediate need and benefit it would be to this country if it were to establish a national health care program. The coming elections , it is hoped, will finally bring us politicians who support some sort of universal plan and also can get it passed through the congress. For god's sake how much longer must we wait?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Backbone Campaign Protest The War And Bad Government With A Sense of Humor
Maybe I like them because the roots of the organization were planted on Vashon Island. But in any case their Bonzo for Congress 08 Campaign "rubber stamps, spineless wimps, we'd do better with a bunch of chimps"and Pledge for Peace Initiative are great. Check out the video.
Although they mission is deadly serious, I continue to admire the people at the Backbone Campaign because they rarely make the mistake of taking themselves too seriously like me and most of the rest of anti-war movement. It appears that the "boners" see that humor can be a bridge to get a serious message out to those who normally would turn a deaf ear to the same old over used and unoriginal anti war drone of, lets say, the Code Pink folks or even Cindy Sheehan. Their sense of comedy and understanding of theater comes through.
Although they mission is deadly serious, I continue to admire the people at the Backbone Campaign because they rarely make the mistake of taking themselves too seriously like me and most of the rest of anti-war movement. It appears that the "boners" see that humor can be a bridge to get a serious message out to those who normally would turn a deaf ear to the same old over used and unoriginal anti war drone of, lets say, the Code Pink folks or even Cindy Sheehan. Their sense of comedy and understanding of theater comes through.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Congress 22 Most Corrupt Members Named Includes WA 4th Doc Hastings
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its third annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress entitled Beyond DeLay: The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch). This encyclopedic report on corruption in the 110th Congress documents the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Time Catches Up With Fascist Progeny In Spain
THESE are difficult days for the heirs of General Francisco Franco. One of the dictator’s grandsons has been arrested for allegedly beating his girlfriend and a granddaughter was ridiculed for taking part in Spain’s equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing.
More worrying, however, were demands in parliament last week for the Franco clan, reputed to be one of the wealthiest in Spain, to vacate some of its sumptuous properties on the grounds that they had been expropriated by the former leader.
The battle began some months ago when the regional government of Galicia announced that the Pazo de Meiras, the family’s summer residence, was part of Spain’s cultural heritage and should be opened to the public.
Supposedly given to the generalisimo by the people “to congratulate” him on victory in the 1936-39 civil war, this historic three-turreted mansion was in need of renovation after a fire in 1978, the authorities argued. The family ignored an offer of financial help to repair it and on August 30, when a delegation of architects, historians and archeologists arrived to do a survey, they were not allowed in.
The government has since gone to court, threatening the Francos with a fine of £45,000 if they refuse to cooperate.
There were also demands last week that the Francos return other houses “given” to the dictator. Among them are a 2,000-square-metre palace outside Madrid and the 18th-century palace of Cornilde in Corunna. Francis, one of Franco’s seven grandchildren, has been building 4,000 homes on a plot of land confiscated by the dictator in Madrid in 1960.
The Francos’ wealth is matched by flamboyant lifestyles: scarcely a day seems to pass when Carmen Martinez Bordiu, the 56-year-old granddaughter of the late fascist leader, is not seen in a celebrity magazine.
Last month Jaime Martinez Bordiu, her brother, was held by Marbella police and accused of beating his girlfriend.
After the death of Franco in 1975, the government judged it better to encourage forgiveness than to stir antagonisms that could engulf the fledgling democracy. “Recovering goods held by the Franco family at that time was considered unthinkable without provoking riots,” said Jesus Andreu, a professor of political science.
The public mood has altered, however, and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Socialist prime minister and grandson of a republican executed by Franco’s soldiers, has cut off funding for the Franco foundation run by Carmen Franco Polo, 81, the daughter of the dictator.
Zapatero has said he wants to heal the wounds of the war and one initiative is payment of reparation to victims on both sides. It is unlikely the Francos will qualify for any more funds.
What Global Warming Looks Like Sodo District Starbucks Headquarters Safeco Field Sleep With The Fishes
Architecture 2030, in a partnership with Google Maps, determined how American coastal cities would be affected by predicted sea level rise.
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