Phoenix Femme

HEY!!

2005-12-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

I know I've been letting this blog sit idle for a while - but since I may be getting a few new visitors dropping by courtesy of a link from Eroxs' page (thanx) - I just wanted to say GREETINGS! to you all.

Introduce yourselves and I promise I finally start writing again!

HAPPY CORONATION DIPSHIT

2005-01-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

Link to story above

HAPPY? NEW YEAR

2005-01-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well another holiday season is over *whew* - I hope everyone had a nice one.

My Christmas was pretty decent, but my new year got off to a pretty shitty start. I had to put my sweet kitty Abbie (named after Abbie Hoffman) to sleep yesterday. His age was starting to catch up to him the last month or so (he was 13), he was keeping more to himself and getting a little thinner, but he was still eating and functioning fairly normally otherwise, so I was just keeping an eye on him. Well, over the weekend I could definitely see a change that he wasn't eating and going downhill, so not being able to afford any major vet bills and not wanting him to suffer, he joined his playmate Bailey (my other cat I had put to sleep about 6 months ago), over across the Rainbow Bridge.

In other news, 2005 is shaping up to be another very interesting year, both in world events and in my personal life.

As Bush & Company prepare his coronation, the death toll continues to rise both in Southeast Asia and Iraq. Even half of the estimated $30-40 millions dollars being spent on this travesty would make a world of difference to those who have lost everything. But once again the Snake Handlers have shown their brand of Christianity only extends to those they approve of. See Len at BLOGESQUE and Pen of CG at his
blog THE ER January 4th entries for some fine examples of today's Christian Taliban thinking. Yes folks, this is what is running our country at the beginning of the 21st Century.

In personal news, I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to devote to this blog in the coming months. On a positive note, I'm working on putting together a regular web-site as a companion to this blog, my very own .com!

On a not so positive note, I think I'm on the verge of some major changes in my life which in the long run will be for the better, but I'm going to have to step off into the unknown and go through the fire to get to that other side. ooohhh, cryptic eh? LOL I think the time has come that whether or not I'm ready, I have to make the change.

I will be bringing this into the open more as the time gets closer.

Stay tuned . . . and "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

WHAT CAN ONE SAY?

2004-12-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

Except that my thoughts are with those suffering:

Parents grieve over the body of their child, which washed ashore Monday at Silver beach in Cuddalore, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where 1,705 people were killed.

As the numbers keep rising as high as the sea did, please help if you can, link to the International Red Cross above.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

2004-12-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

And no, there is nothing wrong with saying "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" rather than "Merry Christmas." The two more generic greetings in no way shape or form exclude the Christian meaning of the season, but rather, include all forms of observances of this time of year.

So fuck you O'Reilly, Hannity, Rush, etc. and your trumped up "war to save Christmas."

So that being said, to all my wonderful internet friends and compatriots, who even though we don't actually "know" each other, you're all special.

THE DOWNWINDERS

2004-11-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

.....also known as 'America's Chernobyl'

One of my favorite local journalists - Jana Bommersbach (I guess I'd call her Arizona's Molly Ivans) - did an incredible write-up in the November issue of Phoenix Magazine about the effects of the nuclear testing the U.S. government did in the 50s in Nevada to the people (who were children then) of Kingman, Arizona. Unfortunately the full article isn't on-line, but here are some exerpts from it:

From one of the survivors who remembered the tests from her childhood:

"She and her classmates were learning firsthand that light travels faster than sound, as they saw the "bright yellow" flash before they ever heard the "boom.""

"And she clearly remembers the "pink dust" that always came after the glow, clinging to the sweaters and jackets and shoes of children who giggled with glee at such an unbelievable sight."

"Sometimes there were Geiger counters at the school doors, and the needle would swing wildly, and some kids were chosen to wear badges that measured radiation, but nobody was concerned. . . . . "The tests were like a celebration - in Las Vegas, the served 'boom burgers' on test days. Our teachers didn't know either."

Since then, just about every family living in Kingman at the time has been touched by cancer and death from cancer in one form or another - one has lost 26 of 31 family members.

"Experts say five generations will suffer before all that radiation will finally stop its slaughter."

And for their pain and suffering: "Congress decided that each death was worth $50,000 to the immediate family."

How generous.

"The government said it was safe, that there was nothing to worry about."

"Nobody ever thought the government would poison its own people."

What is really said is that here we are, 50 years later, and after the human toll and suffering of this community at the expense from the lies from their government (who frankly has turned their backs on them), one would think that this community would demand honesty and accountability and certainly leaders who would advance the cause of advances in medical science right? Well amazingly enough, Mohave County voted for Bush 63%.

My heart goes out to these people, but something is very wrong in society when even people who know first hand the damage that a lying government can do vote against what is best for them.

Links for more info:
http://www.janabommersbach.com/index.htm
http://www.phoenixmag.com/

http://www.downwinders.org/Mohave/Feb.pdf [pdf file]
http://www.downwinders.org/

HUMANITY?

2004-11-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

Click the link to see the photos of what really happened in Fallujah. The photos the American press doesn't show. WARNING: Graphic - but then sometimes reality is.

I don't fault the soldiers, I fault the "moral values" of our so-called leadership in this country.

And to those 59 million who voted Bush & Co. back in, these innocent souls will haunt you in hell.

"We starve-look
At one another Short of breath
Walking proudly in our winter coats
Wearing smells from laboratories
Facing a dying nation
Of moving paper fantasy
Listening for the new told lies
With supreme visions of lonely tunes

Somewhere
Inside something there is a rush of
Greatness
Who knows what stands in front of
Our lives
I fashion my future on films in space
Silence
Tells me secretly
Everything
Everything

Manchester England England
Manchester England England
Eyes look your last
Across the Atlantic Sea
Arms take your last embrace
And I'm a genius genius
And lips oh you the doors of breath
I believe in God
Seal with a righteous kiss
And I believe that
God believes in Claude
Seal with a righteous kiss
That's me, that's me, that's me
The rest is silence
The rest is silence
The rest is silence

[Singing]Our space songs on a spider web sitar
Life is around you and in you
Answer for Timothy Leary, dearie

Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in
Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in
Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sun shine in..."

Song: The Flesh Failures / Let the Sun Shine from "HAIR"

IN MEMORY OF VETERAN'S DAY

2004-11-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

In honor of Veteran's Day, I want to post this letter from my Uncle Melvin's commander to his mother (my grandmother) from another time and another war. He was stationed in the Aleutian Islands off of Alaska during WWII. He was 21.

And just to say, thank you to all veterans.

U.S. Naval Fueling StationNavy 629,
c/o Fleet P.O.
San Francisco, CA
31 December 1943

My Dear Mrs. S-:

Weak and fruitless will be any attempt of mine to communicate to you by letter my heart felt sympathy in this hour of sorrow as you mourn the loss of your son, Melvin S-. Anything I might do, whatever I may say will on serve to add my condolence to those already received. However, I feel it my duty, as your son's commanding officer, to tell you something of the facts which surrounded this most unfortunate accident; not be means of sending you a copy of official statements, that have been made for the records, but rather thru this personal letter.

Your son, no doubt, has acquainted you with such facts regarding our station as censorship permits to be disclosed. We are not a very large base and, consequently, I am very close to all my men. I know their habits, their likes and dislikes, and many of their very personal problems.

Your son, Sarge, as he was familiarly known to most of his shipmates, was one of my good boys. His experience in the Navy had been very limited when he arrived here but he responded well to his training and developed very satisfactorily. During most of the time he had been on the station he had been assigned to one of the boats' crews. This was the type of work he was interested in. In fact, the only time that his performance was not especially satisfactorily was for a short period when he was taken out of the boats' crew and given the job of mess cook for about two months. He had too much energy for this latter assignment and I was very happy when it was possible to get him in the boat again.

He usually acted as coxswain and he took particular delight in operating his boat. He never complained about anything he had to do, so long as he had to make use of the boat in order to carry out his orders. He seemed to enjoy being out in his boat most when the water was a little rough and he had to wear his foul weather gear, rain clothes and goggles. To use an expression that to me would seem to characterize him best, "The tougher the going the better he liked it."

Since two days before Christmas our weather had been particularly bad. Monday morning, December 27, 1943 started out to be about the usual day. A moderate wind was blowing and there was some snow and sleet falling. I was at the dock when two of my officers came up to inform me that they were going out in one of the boats on a routine trip. I granted them permission to proceed and thought no more about them for about an hour and a half. Many times these trips require most of the morning.

About ten thrity I did inquire of one of my officers if he had seen anything of our boat. By this time it was becoming a little squally and visibility was poor, due to heavier sleet and snow. The wind was blowing but it was not stiff; the water was choppy but it was not too rough around the dock.Suddenly my signalman rushed up to me and said, "Commander, our boat has capsized out in the harbor about a mile and half out and 250 yards off shore." I couldn't believe it until I noticed that in the direction of the harbor entrance there was evidence of small "williwawa," and when they come in they move in rapidly.

I immediately asked who was in the boat and was informed the two boarding officers, Lt.(jg) J.F. Orloff and Lt.(jg) Leonard Springer and the two regular members of the boat's crew, Melvin S- and Paul Jones were the only ones known to be aboard.

This was an emergency. Speed would be necessary, judgment would be required. Things did move promptly and efficiently. Our second motor whaleboat was on the marine railway, disabled without a rudder, but the boys launched an outboard motor boat, which I probably would not have permitted had I been there, and without regard for their own safety headed up the harbor. A small fishing schooner, of a friendly flag, was at the dock and I got aboard and the Captain got her underway.

By this time I had learned that one of the officers who was in the boat had swum ashore and made his way back to the officer's quarters to report the accident. By now the schooner had cleared the dock; the wind was howling and the visibility had closed in to half a mile at best. I had the doctor, my executive officer and several of my men aboard and we headed up the harbor, keeping the shoreline in sight, because from reports I felt that the boys had made the beach.

I knew there were life jackets in the boat, but I also knew that the boys did not like to wear them, and it was certain in my mind that if they did not have time to get them on their chances of getting ashore were not good. The officer that swam ashore and gave us the report was a swimmer in college, a well built boy who has plenty of stamina.

It has been proven that, life jackets or no life jackets, a man cannot expect to live in these waters longer than fifteen or twenty minutes. He may no drown, but he will simply freeze to death. So I knew that these boys had to be on the beach, and not too far from the scene of the accident, or they would never come back to us alive.

As we proceeded up the harbor on the schooner, I saw that our small outboard had been driven upon the beach by the wind. Also, a life boat that was launched by a ship in the harbor was on the beach at about the same spot. The wind now seemed to be at gale force, judging from the song it was singing as it whistled thru the rigging. We were running before it. My hopes began to dim as we passed a raft, dropped by one of the ships not to far from the scene of the accident, and the boys were not on it. But I said to the Captain of the schooner, "Keep going until we reach a position opposite the point up ahead."

When we got just beyond the point we saw two men running up and down the beach and then we could make out a life boat at the far end of the cove. This was about three miles from the station and a mile and a half from the accident, and I couldn't believe that these could be our boys.

The force of the wind was so terrific we could not think of entering the cove and their was no use for us to launch a boat with little chance of it reaching the beach safely and if it did it certainly could not get back to the schooner.

We decided that our only chance of reaching these men was overland, so we brought our boat about and headed back for the dock and directly into the teeth of the gale. The Captain of the schooner has spent many days at sea, but he told me that he had never experienced such a strong wind.

Our little craft trembled and shuddered with every gust. At times with our engines going full ahead we were barely holding our own. Twice I had visions that we might end up where the life boats had come to rest, shipwrecked on the beach right in our own front yard, and we too might have to swim for the beach.

To reach the boys on the beach, and it had to be done, because we knew that some of the boys in the life boats crews were wet and there could be serious results due to exposure, meant a tough journey over rugged terrain made more difficult by high snow drifts and a very strong wind sweeping and swirling snow before it.

Finally, we made the dock with our little craft. It then was reported to me that the second officer in the boat had made the shore about one and a half miles up the beach. He was standing in the water waist deep practically exhausted when rescued. He was at sick bay when I saw him and his condition did not seem to be too bad.

I had all hands get chow as quickly as possible. A resue party of three men was to go out in the first group and head for the men farthest up the beach (3 miles). For this party we picked our strong boys and they carried two blankets each. They left about 1300.

I then decided that subsequent parties would go out at about one hour periods, so that fresh men would be leaving at intervals who would be able to intercept and assist some of those who had gone to more distant points and needed help. Some parties carried a stretcher, others hot coffee in insulated jugs, and others took brandy and more blankets.

About four thirty one boy from the first party out came in. He reported that his party had reached the men they were sent out to contact and given them the blankets they had carried. Also he said the life boat's crew fartherest up the beach had covered our two boys from the water, both had life jackets on but they were dead. The member of the life boat's crew who went into the water to recover the bodies was not in very good condition because of exposure.
About this time we sent out our last rescue party. Five men were in this party including a pharmacist mate. They had flashlights, a jug of coffee and blankets. Their specific instructions were to get everyone back. They had to bring everyone in; no one was to be left behind.

Soon after they departed I went out to meet a boy who had gone out in the first party. He was barely able to stagger in. When I got to him he said, "I'm all right, Captain," as he leaned on my shoulder, "but if you don't get to those boys pretty soon they're never going to make it."
For about a week I had had a dose of cat fever and it left me about as weak as a cat. I really don't know whether Hoover helped me or I helped him into sick bay.

At this time I received a report that there were two members of this life boat's crew farthest out who were dead.

Our last party had gone out and the instructions given them were definite. But I wasn't sure the results would be that which I had asked for -- it was a big order. The wind continued stiff and it was now dusk. A storm in the daytime can make things difficult, but a real storm at night is terrifying -- and we were have a real storm.

Everything possible had to be done. Now it was our wits against the wind. The two boys we had gone out to rescue were gone, we knew that, but there were now eleven men in the rescue parties still out who had to be saved. I felt that they could not make it back overland and unless we got a change in the weather we could not get them off the beach in a boat.

Finally, it was decided that we would load a life boat with essentials including dry clothing, more blankets, some hot food, a bale of oil-soaked rags, etc. Then we would tow this life boat out by the schooner to a ponit off the beach where we wanted to land it. The life boat then would be cast off and paid out on a tow line so that possibly we might have some control over it as we attempted to float it safely ashore.

It was now about eight o'clock at night and we were almost ready to leave when I looked up and saw a string of lights coming up over the last ridge. It was more rescuers to be sure, but how many were left behind. I came up from the dock to meet them. Some were being partially carried and dragged while others were under their own power, although not in good condition. We got the first bunch into sick bay, there were five of them. They were exhausted and their faces, hands and feet were very cold but apparently not frozen. I said to one of them "Where is Harper?", he was reported to be in bad shape and the reply was "He's coming in and we think he'll make it." "What about the two members of the life boat's crew who have been reported dead?" "No sir," this man replied, "they are only in very bad shape but they are bringing them in. They need assistance if you have any fresh men you can sent out."

We mustered a relief crew and they went out to give assistance. I told them that they were the last men we had and it was up to them to be responsible fro themselves and they had to get back without assistance. Within half an hour they were back with three men in very bad shape. After Doc had worked on them awhile he reported to me that they would come thru.

Doc was a busy man most of the night. Some of the men we had moved out of the sick bay into their barracks were becoming hysterical and Doc had to give them knock out shots. By this time I had no strength left so I turned in. I slept very little and altho I went to bed late it was a very long night.

By morning the wind had subsided somewhat. I got up but felt weak, got dressed and went down to the dock. No sooner did I arrive than I turned around and came back to my house and barely made it. Doc said that I would have to stay in that I was allright but in perfect shape to catch anything.

I gave instructions to send a boat up the beach to recover the bodies. About one o'clock their mission completed, this boat returned. I had had lunch and felt a little stronger so I went down to meet it.

We kept the bodies here until the next day, Wednesday, when a boat came over to take the remains to Dutch Harbor, where they will be buried.

All the boys have felt the shock. Partly, perhaps, because we are a small station and we live so closely to one another. They are not anxious to go out in the boats, and I didn't receive many volunteers for a boat's crew. I am sure that these boys would be brave in battle, but this all seemed different. It was not the same as if these lives had been lost as a result of enemy action. It seemed to come as a tragedy. They were not the first to meet their death in these waters but they were the first men I had lost.

I feel that proper safety precautions were taken before the accident occurred and that by getting into their life jackets the boys responded well to the instructions they had been given. Had they been stronger swimmers they possibly would have made the shore. I also feel that after we received the word everything possible was done to effect their rescue.

It was not my original intention to give you a letter of such lenghth but I have given you the full story of everything that took place as I now remember it. We haven't fired a shot except in practice and we haven't had a bomb dropped on us, but there are times when we find that we have a battle on our hands. A battle with the elements, the wind and the sea. Both can be treacherous opponents. Unless you are strong and well equipped when you have to face them you may not survive. This afternoon you might properly have named the harbor "Mirror Lake," but by morning all the reflections will have been erased.

The Plan of the Day for 28 December 1943, carried the following tribute:"Today the station mourns the loss of our two shipmates, Melvin S-, S1c, and Paul Jones, S1c, who gave their lives in the line of duty. May we not all accept their sacrifice as a direct challenge to carry on our assignment here to the best of our ability and strength."

Three ships in the harbor furnished commendable assistance and I sent this letter to two of them:"The Commanding Officer wishes to convey his deep and sincere appreciation to you and your brave life boat's crew, who without regard for their own safety, launched their boat during a 'williwaw' in the harbor and made every effort to rescue from the water two American Sailors whose boat had capsized. Later your men exhibited fine courage and spririt in making a three mile overland journey over difficult terrain and against a wind of gale-like velocity, after it had become necessary for them to beach their boat. This act shall ever serve to further cement our pleasant friendship."

To the third vessel, the schooner I made the trip on, I sent this letter:"The Commanding Officer wishes to convey his hearty thanks and sincere appreciation to you for your efforts in assisting us with your vessel in a search for missing crew members of our small boat that capsized and sank. The dispatch with which you got your ship under way and cleared the dock under unfavorable weather conditions demonstrated fine ship handling. I accept your assistance as an act of truest friendship and fine cooperation."

This is my record of the most difficult experience of my life. There may be others ahead and for the reason we are here we stand ready to face them.For you and the other members of your family, I fully realize that you have suffered an irreparable loss. May you enjoy God's blessing.

Cordially,
E.S. LEE
Lt. Comdr., USNR

59,054,087

2004-11-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

"Moral values" ?!?

Excuse me......what the hell is so moral about lying a nation and a world into a senseless war? Whatever happened to "Thou shalt not kill?" Over 1,100 American servicemen and women and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians (of course they mean nothing to you).

Abu Graib -- that was moral? War profiteering -- moral? More Americans falling into poverty --- moral?

We tried once again rational discourse in getting our point across, we tried beating the facts over your heads, but I guess keeping two people of the same sex was a more urgent concern of yours.

You chose to "stay the course" ............... right over a cliff. You wanted it, you own it now.

You say to took and overseas trip and got spat upon? Gee, that's too bad.
You say you lost your job and your health insurance? Gee, that's too bad.
Oh no, you have cancer? Maybe they can find a cure for it, in 50 years.
The lake you fish in is polluted? You're having more trouble breathing than ever before. Gee, that's too bad.
Your daughter-in-law and her two kids are living with you after she lost her job while her husband/your son was shipped overseas? Oh, that's gotta be rough.

Our conscience is clear, we tried to warn you and give you a viable, intelligent alternative (although it's plain to see Kerry would have just been hamstrung anyway).

"My friend years ago had this joke, where he was talking about how he'd tell his girlfriend that he thought she was being a bitch, to which she'd reply - "Oh you'll KNOW when I'm being a bitch." Republicans don't even know how nasty we can be." ... Margaret Cho

Yeah, we're not going away. If anything we're going to be even more relentless advocates of the truth. We're going to continue to point out and bring to light all of BushCo's fuckups, and no doubt there will be many of them.

Maybe in a few years you'll be willing to listen and get it.

NOT SO FAST DICK

2004-11-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

Mandate? I don't think so. Of course I realize he doesn't give a damn anyway, but just for the record:

PROVE IT

2004-11-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

"So today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it.” ... GW Bush

You've had four years, you and your mouthpieces have never gave a damn about our opinion, we're just a "focus group" remember? "traitors" "un-American" "unpatriotic"

What makes us think you'll start now?

If you really wish to earn our trust and support you can start by sending your princesses to Iraq.

BLACK WEDNESDAY

2004-11-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Stunned is all I can say.

Are the American people really that stupid? This person and this adminstration has been proven over and over again to be incompetent liers.

Totally dropping the ball on all pre-9/11 attacks. "the lights were blinking red" "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK IN U.S." 7 minutes reading "My Pet Goat" while people died.

Squandering a moment of national and world unity and sympathy we will NEVER see again in our lifetime.

Reckless tax cuts to the rich, the loss of a budget surplus to a massive debt.

Not one job created, more Americans losing jobs and losing benefits, more Americans falling into poverty and without healthcare.

Patriot Act.

Schools underfunded.

'yellow-cake' - Valerie Plame outed - no massive WMD - no ties between Saddam and al Queda - greated as liberators - dismissing top military leaders opinions on how to run the war.

Our allies have turned against us (remember "We are all Americans now" - we if God forbid there is another 9/11 attack, we sure as hell can't expect that again) -- we're pretty much now shouldering 90% of the burden in Iraq, and even our biggest member of the so-called coalition, Tony Blair, is on shaky ground.

The Gitmo and Abu Graib stain on our national honor.

Hallibuton no-bid contracts - war profiterring.

1,100 American servicemen and women dead -- thousands more wounded for life, physically and mentally.

100,000 Iraqi civilians dead.

Tons of munitions now in the hands of the enemy that was supposed to have been secured in the first place.

I just don't get it - what is it about this person -- and we thought Reagan was the telfon President - that no matter what happens he never pays for it or called into account for it.

Well America, you've got what you deserve now, we tried to warn you -- but now you've chosen this path. Maybe it's time that we Democrats and lefties and progressives stop trying to save you from yourselves --- but it's just too bad you're taking us with you.

Enjoy the further errosion of your civil liberties, further trashing of the environment, the errosion of the middle class, and the upcoming draft that will come for your kids (except for the ultra-wealthy of course).

I guess when you are turning black from choking on the policies of Bush & Company you'll finally wake up and do something.

PS -- oh, and by the way:
http://bushflash.com/ihr.html

JUDGEMENT DAY

2004-11-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well here we are - finally - Election Day, 2004 - the world will be watching to see if the American people themselves have come to their senses about our so-called leadership.

The jackals that are running this country right now have bankrupted this country and perverted justice iteself.

This country and the world cannot take four more years of them.

"How will we find our way forward? How will we keep America safe, and keep the American dream alive? I believe we begin by giving this country we love a fresh start. This morning, I would like to give you as plainly as I can the summary of my case on how –- together –- we can change America." - John Kerry

9/11: THREE YEARS LATER AND HALF-WAY AROUND THE WORLD

2004-09-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Riverbend's latest post deserves special mention and attention. Her description of her feelings while watching Michael Moore's F-9/11 brought home once again the fact that as much as some of the American media try to sugarcoat and distance us from this war, it is not some abstract concept. It may be taking place 'over there' but these are real lives and real human beings caught up in this.

"Ah, that mother. How she made me angry in the beginning. I couldn’t stand to see her on screen- convincing the world that joining the army was the ideal thing to do- perfectly happy that her daughter and son were ‘serving’ America- nay, serving, in fact, the world by joining up. I hated her even more as they showed the Iraqi victims- the burning buildings, the explosions, the corpses- the dead and the dying. I wanted to hate her throughout the whole film because she embodied the arrogance and ignorance of the people who supported the war.

I can’t explain the feelings I had towards her. I pitied her because, apparently, she knew very little about what she was sending her kids into. I was angry with her because she really didn’t want to know what she was sending her children to do. In the end, all of those feelings crumbled away as she read the last letter from her deceased son. I began feeling a sympathy I really didn’t want to feel, and as she was walking in the streets of Washington, looking at the protestors and crying, it struck me that the Americans around her would never understand her anguish. The irony of the situation is that the one place in the world she would ever find empathy was Iraq. We understand. We know what it’s like to lose family and friends to war- to know that their final moments weren’t peaceful ones… that they probably died thirsty and in pain… that they weren’t surrounded by loved ones while taking their final breath."

That someone like Riverbend who has lived a hellish nightmare day after day could still feel for a woman she never met who lost her son in her homeland reminds me why we have to get Bush and his neo-con criminals out of power this November.

In spite of all of the death and destruction they have wrought, they still have not destroyed basic human compassion and humanity -- yet.

MUST SEE: 'OPERATION FORTUNATE SON'

2004-09-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Pass it on. Time to fight back.

ONE OF THE NONE

2004-09-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Records Say Bush Balked at Order National Guard Commander Suspended Him From Flying, Papers Show

President Bush failed to carry out a direct order from his superior in the Texas Air National Guard in May 1972 to undertake a medical examination that was necessary for him to remain a qualified pilot, according to documents made public yesterday.

Documents obtained by the CBS News program "60 Minutes" shed new light on one of the most controversial episodes in Bush's military service, when he abruptly stopped flying and moved from Texas to Alabama to work on a political campaign. The documents include a memo from Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, ordering Bush "to be suspended from flight status for failure to perform" to U.S. Air Force and National Guard standards and failure to take his annual physical "as ordered."

What an absolute insult this man is to those 58,000 names on the wall honoring the dead of the war he got out of, and of the 1,000+* who he sent to death in the war he started -- those who did follow orders.

What kind of twisted thinking allows him to justify it all?

It's not just the fact that here was a young man who took advantage of a opportunity to stay out of harms way, many young men of the time did, but to not even be able to recognize his good fortune and to have the sense of decency to at least show up and honorably complete his cushy state-side position is a complete slap in the face and a larger sign of disrespect to those who have worn the uniform than any anti-war protest rally or march could ever be.

ONE OF THE 1,000

2004-09-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

Damn. How many more in the name of a lie?

Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph McCarthy hands candy out to Iraqi children who approached him at a military checkpoint west of Fallujah, Iraq, on April 22. McCarthy died in enemy action this week; he was 21.

ST. JOHNS MOURNING SOLDIER
Young Marine killed in Iraq

It's the kind of warmhearted image that Lance Cpl. Joseph McCarthy's family says it will always remember.

In a newspaper photo last spring that received wide circulation, the 21-year-old Marine from St. Johns was hunched down on a dusty Iraqi road with his automatic weapon slung over his shoulder, handing a piece of candy to a smiling child. He told a reporter of his personal mission to win the hearts and minds of the people.

But that mission came to a violent end on Labor Day, when McCarthy and six other soldiers, including Lance Cpl. Quinn A. Keith, 21, of Page, were killed by an attacker who detonated a car bomb near Fallujah, where McCarthy had earlier passed out sweets."He was a Marine's Marine," said Paula Johnson of Concho, McCarthy's grandmother. "He couldn't wait to get out of high school to get in the Corps. He even did the paperwork to enlist before he graduated."On Wednesday, flags were displayed throughout St. Johns, an eastern Arizona city, population 3,500, for the former football player, wrestler and all-around class clown, who dressed up as the Cat in the Hat for kindergarten reading programs. He graduated from high school in St. Johns in 2001.

Floral bouquets dotted the entrance to the Circle K that McCarthy's mother, Rhonda, manages.McCarthy, who was raised in the sparsely populated rolling pinyon-covered hills between St. Johns and Snowflake, had been back in St. Johns last Thanksgiving after his first tour of duty in Iraq ended.

The year before, he had married his high school sweetheart, Amanda, said Erlinda Salazar, Amanda McCarthy's grandmother."You couldn't beat that kid's personality. He proposed to my granddaughter at the Marine ball in Las Vegas because he wanted all of his buddies to think of her as his fiancee, not just his girlfriend," Salazar said. Salazar said that McCarthy left again in March with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force of Camp Pendleton, Calif., for another tour of duty in Iraq and was scheduled to return home, for good, in three weeks."He got wounded on Palm Sunday and just received his Purple Heart last month," Salazar said. "The story they told me, because I'm old, is that he had shrapnel in his leg. But then I found out recently that it was within inches of his heart."

Keith, McCarthy's fellow Marine, will be honored Oct. 9 at a "Support Our Troops" program for the Page community and surrounding settlements on the Navajo Reservation, said Page resident Carl Krigbaum. Krigbaum, a retired National Park Service employee who knows the Keith family, is organizing the program, which will feature patriotic songs, prayers and ceremonies. It will start at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Southern Baptist Church in Page.

SHINY, HAPPY PEOPLE

2004-09-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

So warm and luvable aren't they? Makes you just want to take them to your bosom.

ONE THOUSAND CASKETS

2004-09-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Wow. Of the anti-RNC protests going on this week in NYC, the most effective pieces of street theatre I've seen has to have been the parade of a thousand flag-drapped coffins marching by Madison Square Garden.

Patriotic and respectful of the dead servicemen and women, visually stunning, and shoving the death right in the faces of the RNC.

Bravo!

HOW'S THAT AGAIN ARNIE?

2004-09-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

You've got to be kidding me...

"If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government — then you're a Republican!" Arnold Schwarzenegger at the RNC

You mean the party of Nixon and Watergate?

This administration makes them look the schoolboys. Bush & Co. have precided over the most secretive and veiled administration in history.

"Some call you haves and the have mores, I call you my base." G.W. Bush

This is the same guy who has a why bother attitude towards cracking down on tax dodgers since they're only going to get away with it anyway since they know all the loopholes that the rest of us smucks don't.

Oh, and when do we get to find out who outed Valerie Plame?

Accountable to the people? Yeah, right.

LOO-SAH!!!

2004-08-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

The man does know the power of images.

Although does anyone else have a feeling there was another finger he was just itching to show instead?

BUSH VS. WORLD

2004-08-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

TIME MAGAZINE: Critics throw out so many charges against the President. Is there any one that you found the most unfair?

LAURA BUSH: I think they're all very unfair. [Laughter.] I really do.

TIME MAGAZINE: Do you think these swift-boat ads are unfair to John Kerry?

LAURA BUSH: Do I think they're unfair? Not really. There have been millions of terrible ads against my husband.

So, has anybody asked Teresa Kerry if she thinks the attacks against her husband have been unfair? Sounds like Laura has been taking lessons from her "why should I waste my beautiful mind on the masses dying" mother-in-law.

This week the Republicans are in NYC doing their damndest to co-opt the honor and valor of WWII and today's "war on terra" and to paint Lauras' hubby and Barbaras' son as some sort of second coming of Winston Churchill.

Churchill was a stubborn SOB (and I mean that with all due respect and affection) whose backbone (and humor) helped get his country their its' darkest days.

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."-Winston Churchill

"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival."- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

"As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us."- Winston Churchill

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."- Winston Churchill

Damn, where are statesmen like this today?

Instead, when appearing on NBC’s “Today,” Bush was asked whether the war on terrorism was winnable. “I don’t think you can win it."

Now there's a real confidence builder. As a leader, Bush isn't even fit to lick Churchills' boots.

For resoluteness, I'll take the words of the The Boss when Kerry stepped to the podium to accept his parties nomination:

"We made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night with a vow to defend
No retreat no surrender"

'MISCALCULATION' MY ASS

2004-08-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

"Mr. Bush also acknowledged for the first time that he made a "miscalculation of what the conditions would be'' in postwar Iraq. But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency that has upended the administration's plans for the country was the unintended by-product of a "swift victory'' against Saddam Hussein's military, which fled and then disappeared into the cities, enabling them to mount a rebellion against the American forces far faster than Mr. Bush and his aides had anticipated."

Sorry, try again. Doesn't cut it.

How many warnings were they given by people like David Kay and other actual experts about what was going to happen? You ignored and disregarded even members of the top brass of the military who said you needed more troop strength.

No, the mess and chaos that is Iraq today is becuase you chose to listen to people who told you what you wanted to hear, not what you needed to hear.

"Oops, my bad"

Oh you are soooo fired.

LESSONS NOT LEARNED

2004-08-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

"We are here to ask, and we are here to ask vehemently, where are the leaders of our country?

Where is the leadership? We're here to ask where are McNamara, Rostow, Bundy, Gilpatrick, and so many others? Where are they now that we, the men they sent off to war, have returned? These are the commanders who have deserted their troops. And there is no more serious crime in the laws of war. The Army says they never leave their wounded. The Marines say they never even leave their dead. These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. They've left the real stuff of their reputations bleaching behind them in the sun in this country....

We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped away their memories of us. But all that they have done, and all that they can do by this denial, is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission: To search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war; to pacify our own hearts; to conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ten years and more. And more. And so, when, thirty years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead where America finally turned, and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning. "
.... John Kerry April 27, 1971

UGLY HO

2004-08-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

No, that kind of ho.

I'm talking about the beautiful historic Westward Ho Hotel here in downtown Phoenix.

1928

1940s

1960s

Beautiful right? And it's pretty cool to be able to see this old historic hotel from my office window.

Well, they went and painted it this ugly greyish-tan color. Come on people, we have so few of these historic buildings left in Phoenix, this one should have remained as it was built - white.

I'm sorry, but - ugh.

JUST TRY TO DENY THE BELT

2004-08-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Every so often you read a story that just hits you.

Think about that - a nine inch waist - that's about the size of a large can of soup (I wish the online version had a picture of the belt).

I hope Mr. Geslewitz and his family can make proper arrangements for that belt - possibly to the National Holocaust Museum. It belongs there along with all the other artifacts and physical proof that it happened.

May you have peace Mr. Geslewitz.

*I'll post the entire article here before it gets lost into the archives

'PAYOFF' FOR ATROCITY
Holocaust survivors get last checks this month for work as slave laborers
Danny Geslewitz's leather belt is cracked and weathered from decades of wear.You can see the ragged holes he poked to make the belt smaller, and smaller still, as his body wasted away. Buckled at the final hole, its diameter measures 9 inches. In the Nazi concentration camps, he had shrunk to the size of a dead man.
Geslewitz, now 80, keeps this reminder of his horrific past in a white plastic grocery bag, tucked in a shoebox on a closet shelf. It is a silent witness to his youth in Poland more than 60 years ago, where he survived a Nazi-controlled ghetto and five concentration camps.Any day now, Geslewitz will walk to the mailbox outside his McCormick Ranch house in Scottsdale and find a check, money meant to compensate him for the horrors of his youth.
Geslewitz is one of 211 Holocaust survivors in Arizona who will receive money from the German government through the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, commonly known as the Claims Conference. The legal team was established to handle civil lawsuits seeking damages for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, including slave laborers.The $1 billion compensation fund was set up in 1999 after negotiations between the New York-based Claims Conference and the German government. The sum sounds hefty, but divided evenly among the world's 130,681 Nazi-era Jewish slave laborers, each will receive about $7,000 in two installments. For Geslewitz, no amount of money can compensate for what he endured and what he lost.

Daily intimidation
Adolf Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939. Seven months later, Hitler's army was in Geslewitz's neighborhood in Lodz, the second-largest city in Poland.The Germans renamed the city as Litzmanstadt. It became one of 400 ghettos where Germans forced Jews to live, rounded up and segregated within barbed-wire fences. Geslewitz was forced to work in a Nazi-run shoe factory. He cut out wooden platforms for shoes. Later, he would realize that the shoes he built were for Jews imprisoned in concentration camps. He would later wear a pair in Auschwitz.There was no paycheck. Only two pounds of potatoes every two weeks.
Geslewitz remembers it all, with a clarity reserved for images impossible to forget. "They always had for us surprises," said Geslewitz, who slips in and out of his Yiddish accent as he speaks.Robbery, beatings and intimidation became rituals in the Lodz ghetto. Once, Geslewitz watched the Nazis hang one of his co-workers for stealing shoelaces.As Nazis emptied the ghettos, deporting more and more Jews to concentration camps, the only way to survive was to hide. He hunkered with his family in silence inside a room, its doorway camouflaged by a bookcase. Each time they heard the familiar steps of boots draw closer, the German soldiers' voices growing louder, Geslewitz remembers how he held his breath.
He was used to hiding; he took cover behind a woodpile when his co-worker was hanged. Daily life, the intimidation and terror in the Lodz ghetto is well documented. Many Jews secretly buried written reports in old milk cans.To this day, not all those reports have been unearthed. But the ones that have been discovered have resulted in a bulky book, translated from Yiddish to English, The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto 1941-1944.
'History payoff'
"The money is pittance for what they went through; you get more in a fender bender," said David Kader, president of the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors Association and a son of survivors."Compared to what happened to these people, it's laughable," he said.Yet Kader acknowledges the significance of the checks, calling them a "history payoff.""There are plenty of Holocaust deniers out there," he said. "If you deny this event happened, then why did the German government and German companies generate this fund?"By agreeing to make these payments, he said, the German government and businesses are accepting responsibility for exploiting humans in Holocaust-era crimes."That's important as we go into the future."

Evasion nearly worked Geslewitz's belt followed his trials like a diary.Each chapter was marked with another hole, ripped out with anything he could find. As time passed, as his life became more tenuous, the holes became more precarious."If it could talk, it could be a witness," he said.One of his older brothers, Henry, was the first in his family to die. He doesn't know what killed Henry. There was no medicine in the ghetto, and conditions were so unsanitary that Jews took it upon themselves to get rid of sewage, like oxen pulling wooden carts loaded down with an unwieldy sewage tank to a deep sandpit.
The next to die was his father, Itzak. He starved to death.Geslewitz and his family nearly eluded the Nazis in his Polish ghetto. The illusion of the bookcase worked, almost.On Aug. 27, 1944, Geslewitz and his family were among the last to be discovered. They were on one of the last transports to leave the Lodz ghetto for concentration camps.They were marched down to the railroad platform where cattle cars waited. No matter what squalor they lived in, they didn't want to leave Lodz. At least there they knew what they were up against.The terrible place had become a safe haven, Geslewitz said.As Geslewitz, his mother, three brothers, two sisters, a sister-in-law and a nephew made the trip to Auschwitz, allied forces arrived on the beaches of Normandy. Yet Geslewitz says they hadn't heard of any such thing. "There was a little window I looked out of. It had barbed wire nailed over it. That was my first train ride."

Shrinking
When they arrived in Auschwitz, the men and women were divided.Men made good workers. Not 40-year-old women, like his mother, Mirla, or his sisters, or his nephew."They marched us away."Stripped, shaven and thrown into a shower, they gave him a blue-and-white striped prisoner's uniform.They took everything but his belt.Nine days later, he was among the prisoners plucked from Auschwitz by civilian employees of a small forced- labor camp in the Büssing truck factory in Braunschweig, Germany. He and his brothers were shipped on cattle cars, Jewish slave laborers on their way to build trucks for the Nazi war machine."At this camp, I lost two brothers. They died from hunger, my oldest brothers, Mayer and Samuel."He, too, was shrinking from starvation.With each new hole he ripped into his belt, he defied death."I never gave up the thought that I would not survive," he said. " 'I will outlive Hitler, the Nazis, I said, I'm going to survive this war.' "

A big month
Hope for a better life pushed him to sustain himself on one chunk of rock-hard bread and a bowl of warm water. Geslewitz, the youngest of his family, lived to see his father and three brothers die. His mother, one sister and a nephew were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Another sister and a sister-in-law, he discovered after liberation, were gunned down in a death march.Somehow, he survived Hitler's quest to kill all European Jews.
As the Nazis lost their hold in the war, Geslewitz was dragged from camp to camp until, finally, at the last prison camp in Woebbelin, the German soldiers disappeared.The camp was liberated on May 2, 1945. Geslewitz was so sick, his gaunt body covered with lice, that he didn't know who rescued him. Records show that the U.S. 8th Infantry and the 82nd Airborne found about 1,000 inmates dead in the camp and little food or water. The next day, Geslewitz and the last of his family, his brother Leon, walked to the neighboring town of Ludwigslust.
That is where he lived until 1950, when he immigrated to America. He rebuilt his life in New Jersey, becoming a cabinetmaker, taking up where his father left off in Poland. He married, raised a family, became a grandfather and then retired in Arizona.Through it all, Geslewitz hung on to his belt and his desire to live.August has been a big month in Geslewitz's life.This month he celebrated his 80th birthday and received notice that his check for his slave labor was in the mail.Sixty years ago in August, he was aboard the last transport that left Lodz.
The Polish government is now honoring survivors of that trip. He's decided against attending the reunion. He's too old.Besides, he was one of the youngest Jews in the ghetto. If he's 80 now, who will be at this reunion? He would be but a stranger among the people and the streets of his boyhood home.It was on those same streets that Geslewitz found his belt, discarded or lost, he's not sure which.The son of a cabinetmaker never could have afforded such a belt, with its silver buckle. He immediately threw out his suspenders and wrapped it around his waist."When you change from suspenders to a belt, it showed you were growing up," he said.He relished his newfound maturity for three years before Hitler came. Now, sitting at his kitchen table, Geslewitz unwraps the belt that saw him through so much. He flips through a book on the Holocaust. The sunken eyes of the survivors of Woebbelin stare out from the pages detailing its liberation.This was his last concentration camp. These were his comrades in hell. This page in history is his.He rubs the belt as the echoes of his tortured past linger. One more hole would have been the end.

ABOUT DAMN TIME

2004-08-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

This isn't about freedom of religion.

This is about another cult that uses the facade of religion as a basis for child abuse and forced marriage.

If this were some group of 'satan worshipers' pulling this stuff (with taxpayer dollars) this would have been put to a stop a long time ago.

WHAT KIDS LEARNED FROM BUSH

2004-08-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

I guess the kids felt the need to do a preemptive attack. After all, it worked so well in Iraq.

ROCK-THROWING KIDS ANGER 120,000 BEES
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Kids throwing rocks stirred up more trouble than they bargained for when they dislodged a swarm of bees from an enormous hive built in the wall of a Southern California apartment building, authorities said on Friday.
An estimated 120,000 bees held residents of the apartment building and nearby homes hostage in Santa Ana, California after the children pelted their 500 pound (227 kg) hive with rocks on Thursday, Santa Ana Fire Captain Steve Horner said.
Several people, including firefighters, news reporters and a TV cameraman, reported being stung and at least two people were taken to a hospital with multiple stings, Horner said.
Firefighters cordoned off a four-block area to allow the bees to calm down and return to their hive.
An exterminator later fogged the hive and vacuumed out 40,000 dead bees, then set a trap for returning worker bees, of which about 80,000 were captured, Horner said.
The quarter-ton honeycomb, which may have accumulated inside the apartment wall for years, was so big it was threatening the structural integrity of the two-story building, Horner said.

MAN TO MAN (Miller vs. Maher)

2004-08-17T10:44:00.001-07:00

The September 2004 issue of Marie Claire (yeah, yeah, it's one of my girly indulgences - so what?) had interviews with Dennis Miller and Bill Maher regarding the candidates for POTUS. A couple of highlights (it's not online):

MARIE CLAIRE: List the top three reasons women should vote Republican(to Miller)/Democrat(to Maher).
MILLER: 1) Republicans might not be pro-choice in many ways, but they treat women respectfully. (Stepford wives maybe) 2) Also, I believe the Democratic Party is beginning to take for granted that women will vote for them - and women should, more than anybody else, understand the allure of mystery. Call if the Garbo factor: They should throw the democrats a curveball once in a while to keep them on tenterhooks. 3) The third reason is, I think, that Bush at this point cuts a more swashbuckling swath than Kerry does. I look at Kerry and can't help but think the The Adams Family's butler.

MAHER: 1) I think we all - especially those of us who voted for Nader last time - got a good scare trown into us by George Bush. In 2000, we were like, "Democrat, Republican, whatever." I used to call them Bore and Gush - no difference. We thought it was Coke and Pepsi, but it turned out it was Coke and Jesus Juice. 2) Bush is literally bad for my health. The truth is, most of us will probably not be killed by terrorism. We probably will be killed by the air, and the mercury in the ozone layer, and global warming - and on that score, he is a dismal failure. Bush is a corrupt president. If you sell out, as he has, to energy-supply contributors to relax rules on polution, then you're not protecting Americans. More people are going to die from that; they're going to get asthma and lung cancer. 3) George Bush reminds me of me at 19: loud, confident and wrong.

MARIE CLAIRE: If a woman dislikes both candidates, why should be vote for Bush/Kerry?
MILLER: He's going to win, you know, so maybe they want to be on a winning team. Listen, I don't treat this frivolously. Sometimes my answers are a little flippant, but it's a dangerous world right now, and I think that even if you're not drawn to either of these men, you want somebody who's not neurotic about attacking the enemy.
MAHER: I've thought about this, becuase I did vote for Nader last time. Looking back on that vote, it was somewhat bratty and indulgent of me. We're lucky; we live in a country that's so prosperous and peaceful that we think we have the luxury of thumbing our noses at the lesser of two evils. In a society where there really is evil, nobody doubts that the thing to do is vote for lesser evil. It's not perfect, but grow up, the world is not perfect.

MARIE CLAIRE: Spin the following words into a reason why women should vote Republican/Democrat: rich, sexy, powerful, women, evil, poor, safety, happiness, danger, Viagra, fishnet stockings.
MILLER: Alright, um . . . Rich, sexy, powerful, evil, poor - all women should realize that there's more to happiness than Viagra and fishnet stockings. There's Bush, who will protect you from danger.
MAHER: Rich: John Kerry will not be a puppet to the rich - unless you count getting bossed around by his wife. Women: Behind every great republican stands a wonderful woman - and he prays his wife won't find out about her. Viagra: A Bush/Cheney war is like a Viagra erection: artificially induced.

Okay ladies, haven't we been around enough and dated enough jerks to see the difference between a guy who plays to our fears and the guy to plays to our intellect? Throughout the interview, Mahers' answers focused on the issues, adult to adult, while Millers' had a bit of the "vote for Bush becuase he will protect you little ol women folk" condescending attitude.

Besides, are we really supposed to listen to a guy who brags about collecting Abu Ghraib prison abuse photos? Be sure to tell us Dennis when the "Sodomizing of Little Boys" collection comes out.

JOHN McCAIN: P.O.W. (Again)

2004-08-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

What the hell happened to the real Senator McCain?

One of the few Republican leaders I had a great deal of respect for because of his maverick tendancies in bucking some of the more extreme factions of his party, he seemed for years to be the one to follow in another famous Arizona senator's footsteps, the late Barry Goldwater (certainly in his later years) as much-needed voice of reason in the face of the takeover of the Republican party by the so-called 'moral majority' (which is neither).

It was a pleasure to watch him in 2000 wipe that smirk of of Shrubya's face (even if only briefly) - and he paid for it for being the target of a disgusting smear campaign in South Carolina (where the voters actually fell for it).

He had courage to work with Kerry on behalf of POWs.

He had courage last week to denouce another smear tatic against a fellow vet.

But his stumping for Bush is just too painful to watch.

Please ask yourself sir where was this man while you lost 5-1/2 years of your life in hell; and then remind yourself that you are not there anymore.

You've earned better than this. Don't let your courage that got you through those days be MIA.

You're not in the Hanoi Hilton anymore.

KERRY IN ARIZONA

2004-08-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

Some amazing images from the kerry site of his recent trip through Northern Arizona. Glad to see him here as Arizona is a battleground state (10 electoral votes up for grab) and the surprising turnout from Goldwater country.

Pretty amazing, 12,000 people in the middle of the night from a town of 60,000.

And then several thousand in Kingman - a town hopefully working hard to overcome it's McVeigh connection.

Too bad Kerry didn't see this one only a few blocks from where I work, I'm sure he would have smiled.

HE WOULD KNOW

2004-08-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Among all the latest gaffes (he must really be losing it), this one has got to be the most priceless:

"Bush also said high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."

It really is a testament to the power of imagry that so many people still think of Bush as a "regular guy."

And the wonderful Steve Benson weighs in on the "and so do we" comment:

I do feel for job that politcal cartoonists have, how do you scewer someone who does such a masterful job of it all by himself?

BYE, BYE DICK

2004-08-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Wow. It was 30 years ago today that Nixon left the White House.

I was 8 then, but somehow that image of him leaving the White House has stayed.

It was my first real memory a major world event, I wish I could remember just how my folks explained it to me. I do remember feeling that something big was happening.

Did anyone ever think there would come along an administration that would make Nixon look good?

HERE WE GO.....

2004-08-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hi there and welcome.

A little about me - I'm a native of Phoenix (one of the few), my politics are liberal (and no, that's not a dirty word), single and in no hurry to change that although I'm very much happy with the great guy I have in my life, Mark.

I love cats, road trips, music, history, current events ..... well, basically my interests are anything and everything that catches my fancy.

More than likely that will reflect itself here as I go along. This blog will consist of a little vent therapy, commentary, thoughts, musings, and rants du jour.

So, drinks and munchies are over the left there on the table by the window, make yourself comfortable.

(thanks to Bruce Springsteen for finally someone writing a song about redheads - and yes, I do resemble the avatar a bit, that's why I picked her)