Leave No Trees Behind

"Managers of the nation's 155 national forests will have more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews under a new Bush administration initiative."

Read more about it in

• San Francisco Chronicle
• NPR

Or use this Google search phrase:

national forest lengthy environmental reviews

U.S. Cutting Food Aid Aimed at Self-Sufficiency

Another Screw-the-Poor move by the right wing extremists

An email alert from TrueMajority:

It turns out that while the number of the world's people who go hungry is rising for the first time in years, the Bush administration can find no better way to reduce spending than to cut $600 million from global food aid programs aimed at helping millions of people climb out of poverty.

That belt-tightening of $600 million doesn't make much of a dent in a federal discretionary budget of $965 BILLION (it's 0.0001 percent), but in the developing world it's emergency food to prevent the starvation of millions, and long-term agricultural development to help people feed even more people themselves.

Read more about it in the New York Times. If that article has expired, use this archive.

Bush won't "negotiate with himself"

Now I understand why Dubya won't negotiate with anyone, he can't even negotiate with himself.

This UK Reuters story explains it all: Bush won't "negotiate with himself".

Pictures we have aren't the ones we want

"I wish every newspaper in America could have run the New England Journal of Medicine photos next to Rumsfeld's mug shot on the day he shot off his mouth. It would have ruined some breakfasts, yes. But when our soldiers are dying horrible deaths and surviving unspeakable wounds, the least we can do is bear witness." -- Joan Ryan, San Francisco Chronicle

• New England Journal of Medicine's photo essay: Caring for the Wounded in Iraq (not for the squeamish)
• Related article in NEJM: Casualties of War — Military Care for the Wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan
• Rest of Joan Ryan's SF Chronicle article

Economy not the only Challange [sic] for Dubya

While he's gutting Social Security, Dubya does it again:

• 'Challenges' Prove Too Much for White House
• A Spelling Challange

A comment on the second link: "It fits right in with Bush’s faith based budgeting process. He can’t add, he can’t spell, but it don’t matter because the Rapture is just around the corner anyway…"

We got the Wine & Cheese!!!

Passed on from my friend Shea regarding Nov 2nd:

Not to worry. With the Blue States in hand, the Democrats have firm control of 80% of the world's fresh water, over 90% of our pineapples and lettuce, 93% of the artichoke production, 95% of America's export-quality wines, 90% of all cheese production, most of the US' low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy League and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, CalTech and MIT. We can live simply but well.

The Red States, on the other hand, now have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans (and their projected health care cost spike), 92% of all US mosquitoes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. A high price to pay for controlling the presidency.

Sorry Everybody

Some of us — hopefully most of us — are trying to understand and appreciate the effect our recent election will have on you, the citizens of the rest of the world. As our so-called leaders redouble their efforts to screw you over, please remember that some of us — hopefully most of us — are truly, truly sorry. And we'll say we're sorry, even on the behalf of the ones who aren't.

(More on http://www.sorryeverybody.com/)

People can always be Sheep

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

Nazi leader Hermann Goering, interviewed by Gustave Gilbert during the Easter recess of the Nuremberg trials, 1946 April 18, quoted in Gilbert's book 'Nuremberg Diary.'

Read more about it on Snopes.

And yet it melts

Some people still think the world is flat. Others firmly believe that the sun rotates around the earth. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, they cling to their opinions based on the naive realism... (remainder of the Guardian article)

Bush Receives Endorsement From Iran

TEHRAN, Iran - The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in Tehran's best interests... (rest of this news article or other similar ones)

True conservatives would back Kerry

True conservatives would back Kerry

The right should recoil from Bush's war without end

September 21, 2004 – If they were true to their principles, moderate Republicans and consistent conservatives would be supporting John Kerry. Instead, their acquiescence to the reckless whims of George W. Bush marks a descent into that political abyss of opportunism where partisanship is everything and principle nothing.

How else to explain their cynical support for this shallow adventurer, a phony lightweight who has bled the Treasury dry while incompetently squandering the lives of young Americans in a needless imperial campaign? If Al Gore had been knighted president by the Supreme Court and overseen this mess instead of Dubya, the rational remnant of the Republican Party would be rightly calling for his head.

Instead, a century's worth of conservative ideals are tossed out the window for political expediency. Soaring budget deficits suddenly don't matter, and not a tear is shed for the wasted surplus accumulated during Bill Clinton's tenure. Despite two huge tax cuts for the super-rich, Bush turns out to be a big believer in that old GOP boogeyman, Big Government. An equal-opportunity spendthrift, he throws billions into the sinkhole of Iraq as easily as he doles out corporate handouts.

(Read the rest of this article in Common Dreams. The original LA Times article requires registration.)

Bush's Accurate Case for War

Let's alter history just a little bit, and imagine that President Bush had given us an accurate case for war in Iraq...

``We must remove Saddam Hussein from power, although his only known threat to the United States is that he hates us. While we know that Hussein possessed and used weapons of mass destruction in the past, we have no evidence that he has them today or that he's making more. But he hasn't proved that he doesn't have them, and this constitutes an urgent threat to America.

``So we must act now, because Hussein, who had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks, might choose to give the WMDs that he doesn't have to Osama bin Laden, with whom he has never collaborated.

``That's why I've decided to shift the bulk of our military resources away from catching bin Laden, who has already attacked us and vows to do so again, so that we can pursue a man who hasn't attacked us and almost certainly can't, based on the remote possibility that he'll give aid to bin Laden, who no longer is my top priority...

(read the rest of this Miami Herald article in Common Dreams)

Changing All the Rules

The Bush administration, the big power companies and the undoing of 30 years of clean-air policy...

Read the archived version of Bruce Barcott's April 4, 2004 New York Times Magazine article.

I'm glad I live within a mile of the Pacific Ocean (which cleanses the air), and I don't have kids (their asthma bills will blow away any tax cuts from Dubya). My condolences to those of you who live east of me and/or are breeding.