US Secretary of State Colin Powell has wowed fellow foreign ministers at an Asean security meeting, with a rousing rendition of a disco classic.

Mr Powell donned a hard hat and stuffed a hammer in his belt for the Village People’s YMCA, a massive 1970s hit.

He was backed by five US officials, all imitating the gaily flamboyant outfits of the original band.
…
Nor was it the first time Mr Powell has caused a sensation at the forum.

Three years ago, a skit in which he rolled around on the floor in a love duet with his then Japanese counterpart Makiko Tanaka was universally panned, and prompted harsh words from his wife Alma.

A year later, he ran a video compilation of the world and his wife, literally, begging him not to sing again.

I’m curious as to how this went over with the rest of the homophobic Bush administration.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that the campaign against terrorism notwithstanding, “a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens.”

Inter arma silent leges?

Perhaps not.

Rep. John Peterson, R-Penn., said if hunters support ending logging or road building in the Tongass, they’re misguided.

“I don’t know how many of you hunt, but my hunters hunt where people timber,” he said. “Old-growth forests don’t have a lot of wildlife because there’s no food there.”

What kind of idiot are they electing up there in Pa?
(via pericat)

Yesterday morning as I was driving Michael to work, WV Public Radio was doing as news story on Thunder in the Hills, which is a bunch of people getting together to fire off lots of automatic weapons.

I absolutely loved the news report (go quickly, it won’t be there forever.)

He had some wonderful answers to her questions. (And I thought she did a good job asking the questions that people would want to know.)

Anyway, hurry and listen to the news segment before it’s gone. (Which reminds me, if anyone can help me figure out how to save that segement onto my hard drive, I’ll be grateful. Windows Media Player just confuses me a makes me feel stupid.)

Most everyone remembers Bush’s State of the Union speech about fighting AIDS, here and abroad, yes?

We have confronted, and will continue to confront, HIV/AIDS in our own country. And to meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad, tonight I propose the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS, and for children orphaned by AIDS.

Nice thought. Too bad he didn’t mean it.

The Bush administration and some members of Congress appear to be playing a nasty game of political football with AIDS and global health issues. In recent days, the administration has radically reduced the number of government scientists who will be permitted to attend the biennial International AIDS Conference, slashed its support for the event and its funding for an annual meeting of the Global Health Council. The reason? Aid and comfort for the policies of the religious right.

This is from Laurie Garrett’s article ‘This Nasty Game Is Scored in Lives’ in the May 30th LA Times. (For those who don’t know who Laurie Garrett is, she wrote the phenomenal book, The Coming Plague.

This administration is seemingly doing everything it can to place public health in danger, including cutting funding and staffing for the NIH.

Public health is just that–public. And research into one disease can lead to treatment for another disease entirely.

AIDS is a global threat, and failure to fight this and other diseases with all the tools available is not just foolish, but just plain wrong.

This is not the day that the pools open.
This is not the day you are allowed to start wearing white shoes.
This is not the beginning of the summer vacation season.

This is the day we are to remember those who gave their lives for our country. Those who heeded the need of their government, and gave their lives so that we can now have:
freedom of speech….
freedom of religion….
freedom of association….
freedom of the press….
the right to keep and bear arms….
the right to keep the military out of our homes….
the right to be secure from illegal search and seizure….
the right to a trial by jury….

Read the constitution and other historical documents.

The Great War

WWII Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Digital Memorial for those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq

“A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.”
— George William Curtis

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
— John Philpot Curran Speech upon the Right of Election (1790)

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

I don’t get it.

US politicians have taken the first steps towards imposing restrictions on Google’s Gmail service.

Citing privacy worries, Californian senators have approved a bill that limits Google’s plans to scan messages and include ads based on what it finds.

Now I’m all for restraining corporations to keep them from doing harm, but I fail to see where any harm is done here.

Google is offering GMail–for free–and is being completely forthright and open about what this free e-mail account entails. They are not the only service out there offering free e-mail accounts, so if you don’t like their policy, you can go somewhere else.

And it’s not as if GMail dominated the market, and if you didn’t have GMail, you couldn’t e-mail anyone else.

I don’t get it. It sounds like someone–or several someones–have been standing out in the sun too long.

Well, it’s clear now where the funding for those tax cuts is coming from.

“The Bush administration has told officials who oversee federal education, domestic security, veterans and other programs to prepare preliminary 2006 budgets that would cut spending after the presidential election”

That’s right. The president, who is currently going around touting programs whose budgets he had tried to cut, is planning to put those programs up on the block:

Homeland Security Department 3% cut
Education 2.4% cut
Veterans Affairs 3.4% cut
EPA 2.6% cut
NIH 2.1% cut
Interior Department 1.9% cut

Defense Department 4.3% increase

What do you think the chances are that the increase for the defense department is going towards soldiers pay?

There is, of course, much compassion from conservatives about the issue.

“But with the budget deficit exceeding $400 billion this year, tough and painful cuts are unavoidable, said Brian M. Riedl…”I think the public is ready for spending cuts,” Riedl said. “Not only does the public understand there’s a lot of waste in the federal budget, but the public is ready to make sacrifices during the war on terror.” ”

Ready to make sacrifices for the war on terror? With cuts in education spending while corporate welfare continues? Apparently sacrifices are to be made only by those who are least able to make them–those who are poor. Corporate welfare to help those who are already rich, is to continue unabated.

It confounds me to try and understand what Bush bases his “Christianity” upon, for it certainly isn’t Christianity I was raised in.

(via Body and Soul)

From an article on a preventive program and how it reduces crime and other social ills.

– 79 percent fewer cases of child abuse and neglect among the families who went through the program compared to the control group.
– 33 percent fewer subsequent pregnancies.
– 54 percent fewer arrests among 15-year-olds.
– 69 percent fewer convictions and probation violations among 15-year-olds.
– 58 percent fewer sexual partners among 15-year-olds.

And there’s more!

…for every $1 invested in prevention, $4 were saved in the future…

Sounds like a good program, right? So do they want to implement it across the country?

Despite the success of the Elmira programs, early-childhood prevention programs statewide are woefully inadequate, Wiley said.

Officials are also concerned that when economic conditions worsen and budgets get tight, preventive programs are often the first to get the ax.

As usual, public health programs are the first on the cutting board. For some reason politicians see saving a dollar now as more politically expedient than saving four or five times that in the future.

What’s that old saying? Penny wise and pound foolish. That’s the government for you.

(via Respectful of Otters)

Go read what Jeanne at Body and Soul has posted about the abuses at Abu Garab. She’s been quiet for awhile, and has a lot to say.

I haven’t been writing about it, because I don’t know what to say, but Jean touches on many of the problems in how we in the US are dealing with it. I was reading an editorial in US News that I thought was off the mark, but I think that Jean addresses many of those issues, at least obliqely: it doesn’t matter that torture and abuse are the norm for most governments in the Middle East, we are the United States and we are not supposed to stoop to such levels. Those actions, taken in our name, reflect all of us.

As far as the blame game, Jean asks “Why do we want to absolve people implementing immoral policies?” I believe that the answer is related to why the far right sees war protesters as unpatriotic and condemns those who disagree with the war with a broad brush: Many remember, all to well, the way that soldiers were treated during Vietnam. Soldiers who had been drafted, who had been sent overseas to fight in a war not of their choosing, were ostracized by society. This was a terrible thing for us to have done, and in our efforts not to repeat the past many are going in the other direction: claiming that anything being against the war puts our soldiers at risk.

And to be honest I’m of two minds about this. Soldiers did not create the policy that placed them in Iraq. People join the military for many reasons, but regardless of the reasons, they don’t make policy. They are not responsible for where they are, they are only responsible for the actions they take while they are there.

Where does responsibility lie? With the individual soldiers? Certainly. They are responsible for their own actions. But the responsibility does not end there. They did not place themselves in that situation (regardless of whether or not they were ordered to take the actions they took). The US has placed soldiers where they are. The US military is responsible for the selection and training of those soldiers. The chain of command goes all the way up to Rumsfeld and Bush. They are responsible for soldiers where they are now.

But ultimately, that responsiblity lies with the American people. We elect the president and congress to represent us, and actions that are taken by those who represent us, reflect upon us.

The action of those soldiers reflects upon us. They are Americans. They represent America. They are America, and we have to acknowledge this. We cannot simply shunt it aside with glib statements of “that’s not the America I know.” Their actions are our actions.

Because of this, it is wrong to treat the military with the disrespect such as happened during Vietnam, because they are doing little more than taking actions that ceom from us.

Ultimately, the blood is on our hands.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Tuesday 11 May 2004 is WV Primary ELECTION DAY!

If you would like information on candidates:
Project Vote Smart
West Virginia Secretary of State
League of Women Voters-West Virginia

WV Democratic Party
WV Libertatian Party
(No, you may not have the address for the Republican Party)

Make sure that you exercise your right to VOTE!

If you would like to see how voting made a difference in the results of Presidential elections for the 20th century, you can go here

Remember, if you don’t vote, then you can’t bitch.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Monty Warner is running for governor of West Virginia. This is apparently how a good Republican conducts business in West Virginia:

Their building is worth more than $1 million, but their property tax bill was only $5.57.
They bought the building three years ago for $10,000, and recently put it on the market for $795,000.
And their family businesses are delinquent on more than $75,000 in local property taxes.
…
“Things are dead in Philippi. No new company wants to come to Philippi, West Virginia. No new business wants to move to West Virginia,” he (Kris Warner) said.
…
The Warners are delinquent on what little property taxes they were charged for this year on the $1 million property, Sipe said — $5.55.
….
Another company owned by the four brothers, McCoy 6, owes more than $50,000 in property taxes in Morgantown.
from the Charleston Gazette

Thanks to S for the heads up.

I haven’t said anything about the horrid things that have been happening in Iraq, mostly because I don’t know what to say, other than things like that should never happen.

But they did.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden at Making Light has an eloquent post, as well as a synopsis of the news, and links to the pictures at Memory Hole. The only link I’m giving is TNH’s, so you can read that, and follow the links from there.

I do, however, disagree with Teresa about the flag. Although those who did those acts did them in my name, in the name of my country, the flag and our country are more than that. I will continue to fly the flag with all the respect and dignity it deserves, for those whose actions are not represented by the actions of those ‘soldiers’ in Abu Ghraib.

ADDENDUM the First: Pericat has a nice bit on the stanford prison experiment and the relationship of prisons to society.

ADDENDUM the Second: While I’m thinking about it, here again are the rules for flying the US flag.

Is it okay to have a flag t-shirt with words written on it?
No, the flag should never be worn and no, the flag should never have marks or words written upon it. Section 8d (see below): “The flag should never be used as wearing apparel.” Section 8g: “The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”

Is it okay to use flag napkins or flag paper plates?
No. Section 8i (see below) reads: “It should not be … printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard.”

Is it okay for an advertisement to use the flag?
No. Section 8i (see below) reads, “The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.”

ADDENDUM the Third: Go read this article from the BBC on the abuse of captives and the Stanford experiment.