Still Fighting

Activism

Rep. Lee Introduces Resolution of Inquiry into Iraq War Planning. Haven't heard much about the Downing Street Memos recently? Well, that's a big problem! A couple months ago, Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a resolution calling for investigation into the communication between the U.S. and U.K. regarding the war in Iraq. Seems reasonable, right? But most likely it'll get shot down in the House on September 15th. Maybe that's inevitable, but at the very least, we can get as many Representatives to sign on as possible. Go here to see if your Representative has signed on. If so, call 'em and let 'em know of your support. If not, well, get crackin'!

News

FEMA Chief Sent Help Only When Storm Ended. The questions surrounding the federal government's horrendous response to Katrina continue to mount. Now, we find out that the director of FEMA, Michael Brown, waited five hours before trying to get approval to send 1,000 rescue workers to New Orleans. The memo (!) to Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff requesting the personel "lacked any urgent language." Brown's memo also told the workers to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public." That's real easy to do when you're surrounded by thousands of dead bodies and tons of water, we're sure. In a local-to-us surprise, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has called for Brown's resignation. It's a surprise because Mikulski is frequently referred to as "The Quietest Senator," siding with the party, but rarely vocal. In addition to calling for Brown's resignation, she teamed with Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to introduce legislation to restore FEMA to cabinet-level status, as it was in 2002 before Bush tampered with it. It's obvious that the levels of bureaucracy have helped render FEMA far less effective, and we appluad Mikulski and Clinton's legislation. OF course, major-league bastard Tom DeLay is already trying to blame Democrats for this travesty. You can expect much more of this in the days to come, so be ready to fight back. The buck has got to stop with the President, but all he ever does is pass it.

California Lawmakers Pass Gay Marriage Bill. First, the State Senate passed it. Now, the State Assembly passed it. Next, it would be up to the Governor, but Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken the cowardly approach by "leaving it to the courts," instead of accepting responsibility and signing the legislature himself that would make California the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through legislation, and not through the courts. The most frustrating quote we've read, though, comes from Republican Assemblywoman Sharon Runner. She said, of the bill's passage, "I think the people of California want us to do the business of jobs, the economy, education, illegal immigration, and today we had to spend several hours talking about an issue that the voters decided back five years ago, that marriage should be between a man and a woman ... I think it shows how out of touch the legislature is." We think it shows how out of touch Republicans are not to realize how much of their state is concerned about civil rights. When an elected official complains that the legislature is spending too much time discussing civil rights, we have a problem.

So Much for Mending Fences in Europe. Iraq, North Korea and even Venezuela have been in the news with regards to the Bush administration over the last few weeks. But what about Europe? You'll recall that Bush isn't too popular over there. In the last 10 months, Bush has made four trips to Europe, presumably in an effort to soften his image and bolster support. Guess what? It hasn't worked. In a new poll of ten European countries, 72 percent of Europeans disapprove of Bush's foreign policies. That's amazing! 59% believe that U.S. leadership in global affairs is undesirable, and given America's track record over the last five years, that's understandable. We're not going to win in Iraq, Iran or any other country Bush decides to invade and occupy before his term is over by ourselves. We've shown that with the overwhelming federal screw-up that was Katrina.

Editorials

Treating workers justly pays off. You know, aside from being completely ineffective policy, always watching out for the bottom line, and cutting "unnecessary" services has a terrible side-effect: It completely dehumanizes the worker. A lot of Republicans might be Christian conservatives, but those that aren't seem to worship at the altar of supply-side economics. The problem is that people aren't robots. When they're happy, they're better worked. But Wall Street doesn't ever recognize that. How can we get ethical treatment of workers to be a priority? By making it lucrative - find out what companies provide adequate health care and reasonable living wages, and patronize those companies. Hint: Wal-Mart isn't one of them.

Letter to Washington Post ombudsman. David Brock, of the fantastic website "Media Matters", has written a letter to the Washington Post. Why is this letter so important? Well, there are a trio of issues at hand. For one, it's part of the ongoing saga of the White House trying to push blame away from Katrina. We linked to an article a couple of days ago, entitled "Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting; White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials." By the time we linked to it, the Post had already corrected it, but originally, it contained a quote from an unnamed senior administration official who claimed that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco had not declared a state of emergency. The second issue is that this is a bald-faced lie, but that's not unusual for administration officials these days. And the final issue that gets largely ignored is that the Washington Post printed an obviously false quote without batting an eyelash. How hard would it have been to check and find out that Blanco did declare a state of emergency on Friday, August 26th? Why should an official who is clearly trying to manipulate the press be allowed to maintain his or her anonymity? Clearly, the press has learned nothing from the Valerie Plame outing. We guess they like being Rove's puppets, instead of real journalists.

Blogger Commentary

All Our Extremists Is Belong To You. We're not quite sure where we'd be without Dave Neiwert, but we prefer not to think about it. He aptly nails the mindset of conservatives who seek to defend the failures of those in power: They either pretend the problems don't exist, or that they are entirely the fault of liberals. He goes through a litany of examples where conservatives paint liberals (or simple Bush-criticizers) as extremists: Cindy Sheehan is the latest example. But they convenient ignore some of the more obvious and dangerous right-wing connections to extremists. What about Eric Rudolph? What about the fact that white-supremacists rallied around George Bush in 2000? It's not just biased to ignore these cases - it's dangerous to ignore (or even defend!) the threat these often violent groups pose to our country.

McCain Stinks. There. We said it. And it makes us kind of sad. From time to time, we've praised McCain for his "straight talk", and often opined how much better the country would be if he was running it instead of Bush. And while that might still be the case, the fact is that he's rarely acting like a many of principle and integrity any more. He's simply looking out for his own butt. He's a former prisoner of war, but what has he done to stop the torture at Gitmo? He's a Vietnam vet, but can't be bothered to take a real stance against the war. He's no longer a maverick. He used to be a hero, but now, he seems to have become a coward, and it truly makes us sad.