Saturday, March 31, 2007

Sweet Jesus!


Quite a kerfluffle over this Confectionery Christ. GT12's fave Catholic Headjob Bill O'Donahue leads the (successful) charge.

Once again we see that torture is OK, but not nudity. Or creamy nougat-ty goodness.

Read here, then here, then here and then, of course, this congratulatory letter from Jesus W Bushies' greatest soldier Jesus' General.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Cut And Fund

It's Not Just For Believers Anymore


Only certain kinds of believers. I have heard, in my own office, the terms 'christian' and 'catholic' used as antonyms.

"I don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression."

-- Focus on the Family's James Dobson on former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), according to U.S. News and World Report.





I mean, what's a lawyer-turned actor-turned politician-turned actor again-turning-politician-again-any-day-now supposed to do?
Anna Nicole Smith Finally Reaches Target Weight

The Onion

Anna Nicole Smith Finally Reaches Target Weight

NASSAU, BAHAMAS—Some weight-loss experts do not find Smith's achievement inspirational, claiming that such drastic dieting can lead to a dangerous loss of muscle mass.

The Onion

Injured Troops Request Extended Tours To Avoid Being Sent To Walter Reed

BAGHDAD—Many injured U.S. troops are actively lobbying for an additional six months of combat duty in Iraq to avoid returning to the United...

The Onion

Friend Who's Into Politics Makes You Feel Stupid Again

CHICAGO—Nate Carney, 28, your well-read, politically minded friend of eight years, made you feel ignorant again Tuesday with his incisive...

It's Here!


With transcendant bonus tracks. Sweet Buddha I am happy.

Friday, March 23, 2007



What Would Jesus Say?


Ex 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name

Peace Be Unto You


Noted fringe Catholic Mel Gibson smites his foe.


In his defense, Mayans did play a form of soccer with the heads of their enemes.


From TMZ:

TMZ has learned Mel Gibson exploded in anger last night on a college campus after an expert on Mayan culture accussed him of racially stereotyping the Mayans in the movie "Apocalypto."


It happened last night at Cal State University at Northridge in the San Fernando Valley. Gibson was speaking to a film class about his movies, and several members of the Mayan community came to hear the famous director.


After Gibson's presentation, the crowd was allowed to ask questions. Alicia Estrada, an Assistant Professor of Central American Studies at CSUN, challenged Gibson, asking him if he had read about the Mayan culture before shooting the controversial film. Gibson said he had.


Estrada persisted, stating that representations in the movie that the Mayans engaged in sacrificial ceremonies and had bloodthirsty tendencies were both wrong and racist. Estrada and others tell TMZ that Gibson exploded in anger, responding, "Lady, F**k off."

Love Bunny


Some time ago I mentioned the beginnings of a ‘blogalogue’ between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan over this whole issue of ‘Religion: Why?’

They are still
going at it. The discussion has been more civil than any that I have seen so far. As always, Andrew is a voice of sincere, thoughtful belief. Sam behaves himself, avoiding the type of ad-hominem attacks so popular amongst the activist atheist set (Dawkins and of course the ur-soldier Madelyn Murray O’Hare) but he pulls no punches.

It will come as no surprise that I find Sam’s contributions to be overwhelmingly more persuasive than Andrew’s. What I like about Andrew’s role is that I find myself kinda hoping he’ll find some good argument to support his belief in god, because he is so eloquent and moving when writing about the good that can and should come from religion. The problem for him, of course, is that his best arguments for the existence of god are simply arguments in support of the beneficial aspects of faith.

Andrew does lead one to ponder about how man created god.
Of course, his inadvertent-point may have been best stated in the Velveteen Rabbit:




Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."


"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.


"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."



It’s just that somewhere along the line humans turned a concept into an entity. And they can't let go.
Even today so many people who I know say "Well, I don't believe in an 'old man in a beard up in heaven' but I think 'we are all connected' ......" OK, that's not a belief in god. Own up to that. It's an embracing of a philosophy. Just let your culturally indoctrinated view of 'god' remain that 'old man' and acknowledge that you don't believe in it.
Let's make 'love' or 'compassion' or Rock and Roll' real and stop propping up a primitive myth.

More Cowbell


Is Neil Peart really a great drummer or does he just seem like one when you compare his drumming to his lyric writing? And don't get me started on that squeaking ferret of a lead singer...

Mr G. Baker has forwarded us Dave Grohl's favorite drummer jokes.

1. What do Ginger Baker and canteen coffee have in common?
They both suck without Cream.



2. How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?


Just one, so long as the roadie gets the ladder, sets it up and puts the bulb in the socket for him.


3. What is the difference between a chiropidist and Ginger Baker?
A chiropidist bucks up your feet


4. How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Five: One to screw the bulb in, and four to talk about how much better Neil Peart would have done it.


5. How can you tell a drummer's at the door?
The knocking speeds up.


6. How can you tell a drummer's at the door?
He doesn't know when to come in.


7. How can you tell when the drum riser is level?
Drool comes out of both sides of the drummer's mouth.


8. What do you call a drummer that breaks up with his girlfriend?
Homeless.


9. How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb?
None: they have a machine to do that now.


10. What's the last thing a drummer says in a band?
"Hey guys, why don't we try one of my songs?




Actually, Ginger Baker and Canteen Coffee suck with or without Cream.


My fave has been left off the list:

What do you call a guy who hangs around with musicians?

- A Drummer

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Time For Dick To Get Out The Shotgun, Or A War

from The LA Times

Republican Party loyalty in decline since 2002
By Janet Hook, Times Staff Writer12:31 PM PDT, March 22, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Public allegiance to the Republican Party has plunged since the second year of George W. Bush's presidency, as attitudes have edged away from some of the conservative values that fueled GOP political dominance for more than a decade, a major new survey has found.

The survey, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for People and the Press, found a "dramatic shift" in political party identification since 2002, when Republicans and Democrats were at rough parity. Now, half of those surveyed identified with or leaned toward Democrats, while only 35% aligned with Republicans.

What's more, the survey found the public attitudes are drifting toward Democrats' values: Support for government aid to the disadvantaged has grown since the mid-1990s, skepticism about the use of military force has increased and support for traditional family values has edged down.

Those findings suggest that Republicans' political challenges reach beyond the unpopularity of the war in Iraq and Bush."Iraq has played a large part; the pushback on the Republican Party has to do with Bush, but there are other things going on here that Republicans will have to contend with," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

"There is a difference in the landscape."A key question is whether those trends signal a broad and lasting change in the balance of power between the parties or just a mood swing that will soon pass or moderate. It remains to be seen whether Democrats can capitalize on Republicans' weakness and gain a durable position of political dominance.

"This is the beginning of a Democratic opportunity," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "The question is whether we blow it or not."

Us Too Baby, Us Too

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Ja!, Und Arbeit Macht Frei


No doubt 'bout it, he 's the man for James Dobson.

"We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do,"


- Rudy Giuliani, March 1994.


Monday, March 19, 2007

Oakland Obamania




12,000 come out to visit the junior senator from Illinois.

From the SF Chronicle:


Excitement surrounds Obama's visit to Oakland
Candidate calls for ending war, solving problems at home
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Sunday, March 18, 2007

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, appearing before an adoring crowd in Oakland, one of the state's largest African American communities, delivered a rousing call Saturday evening for an end to the Iraq war, saying "we can't continue this occupation" because America has got "business right here at home.''



...



"I am proud of the fact that I opposed this war from the start, that I stood up in 2002 and said this is a bad idea, that this is going to cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives,'' Obama told the audience, which wildly cheered his statements. Noting that he has sponsored a bill calling for drawing down troops beginning on May 1 of this year, the senator said that "we've got to send a signal to (the Iraqi government) that America's not going to be there forever."



...



Obama also talked about the recent scandal over poor treatment of Iraq war veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center ...With his voice rising in anger, he said the nation must ensure "that we treat them right ... that we're getting them the treatment they need,'' and that "they don't end up homeless because nobody's looking after them.''




"Don't stand next to a flag and say you believe in supporting the troops when you forget them when you come home,'' he yelled, as the crowd cheered.



Obama's campaign speech -- delivered on a gloriously sunny day with the elegant backdrop of Oakland's historic City Hall -- drew an enormous crowd that snaked for blocks throughout the downtown and filled the plazas and streets nearby. And the mood had the feel of a community picnic, with merchants selling Obama T-shirts, rap musicians hawking their wares, and a wide range of supporters, from curious Democrats and loyal grassroots activists to families with children.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Rastafarians Really Need To Get Involved With This One


From Raw Story:

NYT: 'Bong hits' case divides Bush and religious right
RAW STORY


A free speech case has divided President Bush from key supporters of his base, as many religious rights groups have joined the ACLU and others in defending the rights of high school students, an article in Sunday's New York Times reports.
The case which will be argued in front of the Supreme Court on Monday "has opened an unexpected fissure between the Bush administration and its usual allies among conservative Christian supporters," Linda Greenhouse reports for the Times.


"On the surface, Joseph Frederick's dispute with his principal, Deborah Morse, at the Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska five years ago appeared to have little if anything to do with religion," Greenhouse writes. "As the Olympic torch was carried through the streets of Juneau on its way to the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City and as television cameras focused on the scene, Frederick and some friends unfurled a 14-foot-long banner with the inscription: 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus.'"


The principal tore down the sign, after Frederick initially refused her demand to remove the banner, and suspended him for ten days.


"The Bush administration entered the case on the side of the principal and the Juneau School Board," Greenhouse notes.


But, Greenhouse continues, "While it is hardly surprising to find the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship on Frederick's side, it is the array of briefs from organizations that litigate and speak on behalf of generally conservative Christian groups that has lifted Morse v. Frederick out of the realm of the ordinary."

Erin Go Gay!

Anything to keep it out of NYC.

NYC council leader marches on St. Patrick's Day - in Dublin

March 17, 2007, 12:22 PM EDT

DUBLIN, Ireland -- New York Council Speaker Christine Quinn finally marched Saturday in a St. Patrick's Day parade _ and it took her just 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) to do it.

Quinn, the first openly homosexual leader of New York City Council, has boycotted the New York parade for years because of the organizers' refusal to let gays and lesbian groups march.

This year, she accepted an Irish government invitation to join the Dublin City Council contingent here _ and highlight the big differences between the parades in Ireland and New York.

"The fact I'm here in Dublin and able to march and participate in inclusive events should send a message of how backwards the New York parade is," said Quinn, who is the city's second-most powerful politician behind Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a likely 2009 mayoral candidate.

The New York parade has been bedeviled for years by chronic bickering between its conservative organizers, the Ancient Order of Hibernians fraternal group, and New York's legion of special interest groups, particularly gay and lesbian groups.

Nobody's Said It Better

This is a must watch from Friday's Bill Maher

Banished Babies


Between the end of WWII and 1965 more than 2,200 Irish infants were adopted out of the country, mostly by hopeful parents in the U.S. All the adoptive parents were, by mandate of the church in Ireland, Catholic. Until the late 1990's and the work of Irish journalist Michael Milotte this was a fact known to few in Ireland and fewer in the U.S. In Ireland Milotte's work, emphasizing both the emotional and physical brutalization of the birth mothers and the country's loss of vital human capital, led to great furor.


In 2001, the Washington Post reported:

Milotte, a senior reporter for the Irish television network RTE, says life was particularly hard for the mothers in these convents, which were largely self-sustaining thanks to the women's labor but also received public funding. In some cases, he says, the priests and nuns received money from the adoptive parents, who paid "confinement and medical costs" associated with their child's birth.


"Where did the money go?" he wonders. "It sustained the people who ran the institutions in a manner they wouldn't have otherwise enjoyed."


But money likely wasn't the primary motivator, he says. Rather, there was a demand for children, and many of the nuns believed they were doing God's work by sending some of Ireland's social outcasts to a better life in the land of opportunity.


"They thought they were doing good," says Milotte in a phone interview from Dublin. "The fact that people might have rights didn't enter into their thinking. They thought they knew best. If, in doing the best thing, there was an opportunity to make money, that was all the better."


In those postwar days, it was not uncommon for Irish children to be adopted by U.S. military and government employees living abroad, Milotte says.




The birth mothers of these children spent their pregnancies and post-natal, pre-adoption lives in various 'homes' (often convents) for girls and women who were seen by the conservative Catholic culture as shame-worthy moral degenerates. The horrific conditions that these women underwent was recently dramatized in the movie the Magdelene Sisters.


Milotte spoke with NPR's Daniel Zwerdling upon release of his book Banished Babies in May of 1998:
Many of these women were seen as the next thing to prostitutes, and were very often told that when their identities became known. Even when girls got pregnant, very often they didn't get married even if -- because there was the stigma attached to having had sex before marriage. So even where a relationship endured, the child would be given up for adoption. And it was all done in secret.


I am one of those kids given up for adoption. It was in that interview in May of 1998, two days after I returned to Chicago following my mother's funeral, that I learned of the controversy. I have always known that I was adopted, that I was a 'true Irishman', and I had always been proud and honored by the distinction. In the days immediately following my mom's death I told my Dad that I had never for a second doubted who my 'real' parents were, that he and my mom were the only ones who can lay claim to me. I feel no different today.


None-the-less, as the NPR story continued I found myself getting information that I'm sure even they didn't have.

ZWERDLING: Here's one of the most curious aspects of this story.It's hard enough for most women to give up a baby for adoption during the first few hours or weeks of its life. But church officials forced the young mothers to stay in their convents and raise their own infants for at least one year or more before adoptive families could come and get them.Reporter Mike Milotte says he's turned up cases where young women changed their minds after their babies were born and tried to leave the convents. But the nuns sent guards to capture the women and bring them back.For her part, Mary O'Connor says, she knew she'd have to give her baby away. She felt she literally had no choice. But by the time the nuns came to take her son, she'd been raising him for 17 months. Then one evening, O'Connor says, a nun told her, "Get him ready. We're giving him away in the morning."


O'CONNOR: So she just carried it over to the convent. There was two parts, like there was a hospital part where the children were kept and then there was the convent part. And the child was brought over to the convent part. And there was three steps up. You went in the side door and there were three steps up. And they went to the top of the steps and they said, "Just say goodbye now. That's it."


SOUNDBITE OF O'CONNOR SNIFFING ZWERDLING: Did you say goodbye?


SOUNDBITE OF O'CONNOR SNIFFING


O'CONNOR: Yes. I waved and they went off. I have not seen him since.



I was 19 months old, August 1959, when I came to America. My parents had been involved in the details of my adoption since Christmas eve of 1958, eleven days before my first birthday. I have seen pictures of the first moments of my life with Mom and Dad (Detroit International Airport) and I have to admit, I looked significantly less enthused than they did. I now can see why. I came over in the company of another boy and a priest. My family actually maintained regular contact with the family of my traveling companion for several years after our arrival. In my high school were two sons, both from Ireland, of one of the lawyers involved in the adoptions.


In appreciation for their gift from god (with special thanks to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes) my parents contributed yearly and generously to Catholic missionaries throughout their lives. Following the directives of the adoption officials they raised my sister and I Catholic, sending us both to Catholic grade and High schools. It took me a awhile to forgive them for making sure that I had nuns for teachers for the first four years of my life but it was a humble and pious decision on their part which had negative consequences unforeseeable by them and ultimately not that traumatic to me. Except that I get way crazy whenever nuns are discussed. If any one thing can be said to be a root cause of my disdain of authoritarianism it would have to be all those nuns early in my life.


Half of the children of my friends from my youth are adopted, as is my Godson (happy birthday A!). Although I obviously had no say in that, I am proud of it none-the-less. I would like to think that my life provided some reassurance that adoption is a great choice.


I am truly pained that the life of the woman who gave me birth and took care of me for my first year and a half was most likely one of shame and depredation. But the end result, for me, has been wonderful and I would have it no other way. She may have been lied to about many things but not about how much better her child's life would be.


This is how I planned to end GT12's Irish Fest. There were fewer posts than planned due to the realities of my life as, among other things, a 'tax professional'. And this one is a day late. Maybe next year we can honor James Joyce, and James Connolly, Synge and Shaw, DeValera and The Dubliners. Thanks for following along. I hope you better understand how important my Irish identity is to me and how graced our western world is by the presence of Eire in it.

Thursday, March 15, 2007


Weeeenie


Oh Come On.....

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) "has told new Democratic members of Congress to steer clear of Stephen Colbert, or at least his satirical Comedy Central program, The Colbert Report,"


The Hill reports. Reports Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN): "He said don't do it... it's a risk and it's probably safer not to do it."

A Real Landmark In American History

From Politcal Wire

Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) "might have crossed what some are calling 'one of the last frontiers' in politics when he delighted atheists this week by acknowledging that he does not believe in a supreme being," reports the San Francisco Chronicle."Just a generation ago," says Democratic political strategist Dan Newman, "you couldn't go anywhere near" such a statement, which "would have been political suicide."

Stark’s "frank declaration that he is 'a Unitarian who does not believe in a Supreme Being' indicates, says Newman, that a significant page has been turned -- and maybe it's not such a political liability anymore."

Ya'll Stay Away Now, Ya Hear?

Obama Erases Gap with Clinton

According to a new Time magazine poll obtained by the New York Post, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has erased Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) "once-sizable lead and dramatically closed the gap to single digits."

Clinton now leads 30% to 23% [not sure we follow that math - GT12]. "That's a statistical tie, since it's within the survey's 4-point margin of error."

Key finding: "The Time poll reveals southerners scrambling away from Clinton. She now leads Obama in the region by just 4 points -- down from a whopping 23-point edge in the South last month."

Update: Political Wire has learned that the poll also shows Rudy Giuliani widening his lead over Sen. John McCain to 20 points in the Republican presidential race.
Office of The Chairman
The Joint Chiefs of Staff
Washington, D.C.

Dear Generals,
As an enlisted man with an honorable discharge, who served in the same USAF (1968-72) as your present commander-in-chief, I found your recent letter of protest to The Washington Post concerning a Tom Toles cartoon rather curious and disappointing.

Certainly I was not disappointed with the spirit of your letter -- with which I wholly agree in defense of the sacrifice of enlisted soldiers, sailors and airmen. I wholly applaud your remarks ("brave men and women with a sense of purpose…"), but I find your timing rather timid and late-coming.

Where were you guys before the war, when U.S. Gen. Eric Shinseki opposed your boss Rumsfeld and rightly declared that for any invasion of Iraq to succeed, the U.S. would need twice the manpower? The subsequent bloody occupation has proven Shinseki correct, but he got fired for his frankness.

Where were you guys when the lone voice of restraint and common sense, retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, said invading the Middle East was foolhardy? General Zinni served in the Middle East and so he knew from experience. Did anybody at the Pentagon write a letter to the secretary of Defense suggesting Zinni might be correct?

The leadership of my great nation distresses me. Likewise the leadership there at the Pentagon disappoints me. I realize it may frustrate fine career officers like yourself that you must submit obediently to men who not only never served in the military, but dodged every opportunity to don a uniform.

Many of these civilians now devise military policy as if they possessed more experience than the six of you fine generals put together!

Sirs, your collective frustration is understandable. Frustration at civilian leaders who make war without understanding the complexity or ramifications. Frustration at sunshine patriots who support invasions from the comfort of their armchairs. Frustration with the media, who alternately praise and criticize you.

Instead, out of frustration, you write a joint letter to The Washington Post protesting a cartoon that depicted a wounded serviceman, an amputee. You wrote: "While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency not to make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices."

So true.

And yet, with reports of another war coming, a rumored attack on Iran, what letters of protest do you intend to send to The Post? Or to the civilian war planners who issue your orders? Do you intend to protest that such an attack, on a nation that has not attacked the U.S., is unconstitutional? Let me remind you, sirs, you are sworn to uphold the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, not unquestioningly conduct new wars where our servicemen, who "so selflessly serve our country," are put into harm's way.

You wrote in protest about a cartoon, calling it "a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defend this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds." A cartoon, mind you, not the actual war that resulted in 18,000 to 20,000 "traumatic and life-altering wounds."

Many of us veterans who have watched the events of the last three years -- an illegal war -- find the lack of leadership, from both military and civilian leaders, highly disappointing.

We suggest, rather than protest cartoons, you quietly and strongly protest foreign policy that aversely affects the future of our great nation.

Thank you,
Douglas Herman Ssgt,
USAF

Douglas Herman lives in Pompano Beach.

Thousands Are Sailing

The Pogues take a look at Ireland's steady loss of it's population to the alluring promise across the pond.

Never has "and we danced" sounded so sad and so bitter.

A brilliant, brilliant, brilliant song.

The island it is silent now
But the ghosts still haunt the waves
And the torch lights up a famished man
Who fortune could not save

Did you work upon the railroad
Did you rid the streets of crime
Were your dollars from the white house
Were they from the five and dime

Did the old songs taunt or cheer you
And did they still make you cry
Did you count the months and years
Or did your teardrops quickly dry

Ah, no, says he, 'twas not to be
On a coffin ship I came here
And I never even got so far
That they could change my name

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
To a land of opportunity
That some of them will never see

Fortune prevailing
Across the western ocean
Their bellies full
Their spirits free
They'll break the chains of poverty
And they'll dance

In Manhattan's desert twilight
In the death of afternoon
We stepped hand in hand on Broadway
Like the first man on the moon

And "The Blackbird" broke the silence
As you whistled it so sweet
And in Brendan Behan's footsteps
I danced up and down the street

Then we said goodnight to Broadway
Giving it our best regards
Tipped our hats to Mister Cohan
Dear old Times Square's favorite bard

Then we raised a glass to JFK
And a dozen more besides
When I got back to my empty room
I suppose I must have cried

Thousands are sailing
Again across the ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery

Postcards we're mailing
Of sky-blue skies and oceans
From rooms the daylight never sees
Where lights don't glow on Christmas trees
But we dance to the music

And we dance

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e'er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of Priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies

And we dance

Collins


Tax season is a killer...


Anyway, back to March mick-ness.



Michael John ("Mick") Collins (Irish: Mícheál Seán Ó Coileáin; 16 October 189022 August 1922) was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance in the Irish Republic, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, both as Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-Chief of the National Army.


He was shot and killed in August 1922, during the Irish Civil War. Although most Irish political parties recognise his contribution to the foundation of the modern Irish state, members and supporters of the political party Fine Gael hold in particular regard his memory, regarding him as their movement's founding father; the party was originally called Cumann na nGaedhael.


Michael Collins first became known during the Easter Rising in 1916. A skilled organiser of considerable intelligence, he was highly respected in the IRB, so much so that he was made financial adviser to Count Plunkett, father of one of the Rising's organisers, Joseph Mary Plunkett, whose aide-de-camp Collins would become.


When the rising itself took place on Easter Monday, 1916, he fought alongside Patrick Pearse and others in the General Post Office in Dublin. The rising became (as expected by many) a military disaster. While many celebrated the fact that a rising had happened at all, believing in the theory of "blood sacrifice" (namely that the deaths of the rising's leaders would inspire others), Collins railed against what he perceived as its ham-fisted amateurism, notably the seizure of prominent buildings such as the GPO that were impossible to defend, impossible to escape from and difficult to supply. (During the War of Independence he ensured the avoidance of such tactics of "becoming sitting targets", with his soldiers operating as "flying columns" who waged a guerrilla war against the British, suddenly attacking then just as quickly withdrawing, minimising losses and maximising effectiveness.)


By October 1917, through skill and ability, Collins had risen to become a member of the executive of Sinn Féin and director of organisation of the Irish Volunteers; Éamon de Valera was president of both organisations.


Like all senior Sinn Féin members, Michael Collins was nominated to seek a seat in the 1918 general election to elect Irish MPs to the British House of Commons in London. And like the overwhelming majority (many without contests), Collins was elected, becoming MP for Cork South. However, unlike their rivals in the Irish Parliamentary Party, Sinn Féin MPs had announced that they would not take their seats in Westminster, but instead would set up an Irish Parliament in Dublin. That new parliament, called Dáil Éireann (meaning "Assembly of Ireland", see First Dáil) met in the Mansion House, Dublin in January 1919.


Collins in 1919 had a number of roles. In the summer he was elected president of the IRB (and therefore in the doctrine of that organisation making de jure President of the Irish Republic). In September he was made Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army,[2] as the Volunteers had become (the name symbolising the organisation's claim to be the army of the Irish Republic was ratified in January 1919). The Irish War of Independence in effect began on the same day that the First Dáil met in January 1919, when two policemen guarding a consignment of gelignite were shot dead by IRA volunteers acting without orders, in Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. {See also Dan Breen}.


In 1919, the already busy Collins received yet another responsibility when de Valera appointed him to the Aireacht (ministry) as Minister for Finance.


Collins, however, who produced a Finance Ministry that was able to organise a large bond issue in the form of a "National Loan" to fund the new Irish Republic. Such was Collins' reputation that even Lenin heard about his spectacular national loan, and sent a representative to Dublin to borrow some money from the Irish Republic to help fund the Russian Republic, offering some of the Russian Crown Jewels as collateral. (The jewels remained in a Dublin safe, forgotten by all sides, until the 1930s, when they were found by chance.)


In retrospect, the sheer scale of Collins' workload and his achievements are impressive. From creating a special assassination squad called The Twelve Apostles to kill British agents to the arrangement of an internationally famous "National Loan"; from running the IRA to effectively running the government when de Valera traveled to and remained in the United States for an extended period of time; and managing an arms-smuggling operation; Collins nearly became a one-man revolution.


Collins and Richard Mulcahy were two principal central organisers for the Irish Republican Army, in so far as it was possible to direct the actions of scattered and heavily localised guerrilla units. Collins is often credited with organising the IRA's guerrilla "flying columns" during the war of independence, although to suggest Collins organised this single handedly would be false. He had a prominent part in the formation of the flying columns but the main organiser would have been Dick McKee, later executed by the British in retaliation for Bloody Sunday (1920). In addition, a great deal of IRA activity was carried out on the initiative of local leaders, with tactics and overall strategy developed by Collins or Mulcahy.


By 1920, when he was 30 years old, the British offered a bounty of £10,000 (a vast sum in the 1920s) for information leading to the capture or death of Michael Collins. His fame had so transcended the IRA movement that he was nicknamed "The Big Fellow."


In April 1922, a group of 200 anti-Treaty IRA men occupied the Four Courts in Dublin in defiance of the Provisional government. Collins, who wanted to avoid civil war at all costs, did not attack them until June 1922, when British pressure forced his hand.


This led to the Irish Civil War as fighting broke out in Dublin between the anti-Treaty IRA and the Free State troops. Under Collins' supervision, the Free State rapidly took control of the capital. In July 1922, anti-Treaty forces held the southern province of Munster and several other areas of the country. De Valera and the other anti-Treaty TDs sided with the anti-Treaty IRA. By mid-1922, Collins in effect laid down his responsibilities as Chairman of the Provisional Government to become Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, a formal, structured, uniformed army that formed around the nucleus of the pro-Treaty IRA.


En route through County Cork on 22 August 1922, at the village of Béal na mBláth (Irish, "the Mouth of Flowers"), Collins was killed in an ambush which lasted around 40 minutes, between 7:30 and 8:10 P.M.. Collins was the only fatality in the action.


Michael Collins has gone down in Irish history as one of the great "what might have beens". A man of extraordinary intelligence, incredible passion but most of all a monumental work rate, his loss was a disaster for the nascent Irish state. Despite opposition, he had supported and supplied the IRA in Northern Ireland throughout the civil war, a policy which was quickly discontinued after his death. It is doubtful he would have regarded the findings of the Irish Boundary Commission with the same equanimity as his successors. His loss was made all the more tragic by the death of President Griffith only 10 days before due to stress. One of Collins' last public appearances was marching behind the body of his friend and cabinet colleague. Within one week, Collins joined Griffith in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

This Is The Best She Can Do?

Senator Clinton is asked directly by Jake Tapper

"Is homosexuality immoral?"

Her response:

"Well I'm going to leave that to others to conclude. I'm very proud of the gays
and lesbians I know who perform work that is essential to our country, who want
to serve their country and I want to make sure they can."


Screw Her. Screw Her.

After all the years of gay people faithfully backing her and Bill she can't take a stand on this????

I don't care if she promises to step down immediately after inauguration so that Bill can take over, I am not voting for her.

Talk About Your Triangulation

Hillary Clinton Tries To Woo Voters By Rescinding Candidacy

The Onion

Hillary Clinton Tries To Woo Voters By Rescinding Candidacy

DES MOINES, IA-"For the first time, she's really speaking to the whole nation," said pundit Chris Matthews about Hillary Clinton's latest bid to appease constituents.

Pre-Order This Now


One of the Five Greatest Live Albums of all time finally is being released on CD.


If you don't own this album by the end of April you are, well, soulless, cheap and lame.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

After His Last Year On Air America I Can See Why this Is True

From Political Wire:


In Minnesota, Coleman Ahead by 10

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) holds a 10-point advantage over challenger Al Franken (D), according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey. Coleman currently leads 46% to 36%.

Thank You, Now Go Away

The 'mastermind' behind the inspiring campaigns of Al Gore And John Kerry reflects (from Politcal Wire):

Shrum Says He Pushed Edwards on Iraq

John Edwards "was skeptical about voting for the Iraq war resolution and was pushed into it by advisers looking out for his political future," according to an upcoming book by political consultant Robert Shrum, the AP reports. Shrum writes "that he regrets advising Edwards to give President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. He said if Edwards had followed his instincts instead of the advice of political professionals, he would have been a stronger presidential candidate in 2004."An Edwards spokesman disputes the account, saying the former senator "cast his vote based on the advice of national security advisers and the intelligence he was given, not political advisers."

Would You Dance With The Devil In The Cold November Night?

From Salon:

Gary Kamiya :


"For this isn't really about Coulter at all. This is about a pact the American right made with the devil, a pact the devil is now coming to collect on. American conservatism sold its soul to the Coulters and Limbaughs of the world to gain power, and now that its ideology has been exposed as empty and its leadership incompetent and corrupt, free-floating hatred is the only thing it has to offer. The problem, for the GOP, is that this isn't a winning political strategy anymore -- but they're stuck with it. They're trapped. They need the bigoted and reactionary base they helped create, but the very fanaticism that made the True Believers such potent shock troops will prevent the Republicans from achieving Karl Rove's dream of long-term GOP domination."

Do You Get A Discount If You Impeach The Whole Administration At One Time?



From TPM Muckraker:


See it for yourself,

....the September 13, 2006 email from Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, to Justice Department liaison to White House counsel Harriet Miers.
Fifteen minutes earlier, Sampson had sent the same email to the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, Monica Goodling, asking "Any corrections?" before sending it over.

In the email, Sampson outlines the "USAs We Now Should Consider Pushing Out." They were: Arizona's Paul Charlton, San Diego's Carol Lam, Western Michigan's Margaret Chiara, Nevada's Daniel Bogden, and Seattle's John McKay. All five were eventually fired. Arkansas' Bud Cummins had his own heading, "USA in the Process of Being Pushed Out."

In the summary portion of the email, Griffin lays out his recommendation to use a legal loophole to install replacements without Senate confirmation.

"I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed -- It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don't have replacements ready to roll immediately. In addition, I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments.... we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House."

Sampson added, intrigiuingly, that he had "one follow up item I would want to do over the phone."

Not That We Were Supposed To Know


A commenter points us to HRC's secret radical history. We must acknowledge that Mrs. Bill has Alinsky deep in her past. We are not impressed that it was suppressed.


Anyway, here it is,


WELLESLEY, Mass. - The senior thesis of Hillary D. Rodham, Wellesley College class of 1969, has been speculated about, spun, analyzed, debated, criticized and defended. But rarely has it been read, because for the eight years of Bill Clinton’s presidency it was locked away.


As forbidden fruit, the writings of a 21-year-old college senior, examining the tactics of radical community organizer Saul D. Alinsky, have gained mythic status among her critics — a “Rosetta Stone,” in the words of one, that would allow readers to decode the thinking of the former first lady and 2008 presidential candidate.


Despite the fervent interest in the thesis, few realize that it is no longer kept under lock and key. As MSNBC.com found, it is available to anyone who visits the archive room of the prestigious women’s college outside Boston. With Clinton’s opponents in the 2008 presidential race looking for the next “Swift Boat” attack ad, and the senator herself trying to cast off her liberal image, Clinton's 92-page thesis is certain to be read and reread by opposition researchers and reporters visiting the campus.

Off With Their Heads!


I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed. It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don't have replacements ready to roll immediately. I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments. [By sidestepping the confirmation process] we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House,"


- Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales's Chief of Staff.

White House: Ex-aide wanted all U.S. attorneys canned

From CNN (just now!)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chief White House lawyer floated the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys at the start of President Bush's second term, but the Justice Department objected and eventually recommended the eight dismissals that have generated a political firestorm two years later.

The long-simmering feud erupted with the new revelations, causing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to cancel a planned trip Tuesday to Syracuse, New York, amid calls from Congress for his ouster.

Additionally, Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson, announced his resignation Tuesday. In a statement, the attorney general said he is "very appreciative" of Sampson's service, which began when Gonzales was White House counsel. Sampson resigned Monday night, the statement said.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers raised with an aide to Gonzales the prospect of asking all chief federal district prosecutors to resign in 2004 as a logical way to start a new term with a new slate of U.S. attorneys.

All The Way To The Top

From NY Times:

White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors

WASHINGTON, March 12 — The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday.

The president did not call for the removal of any specific United States attorneys, said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman. She said she had “no indication” that the president had been personally aware that a process was already under way to identify prosecutors who would be fired.

But Ms. Perino disclosed that White House officials had consulted with the Justice Department in preparing the list of United States attorneys who would be removed.
Within a few weeks of the president’s comments to the attorney general, the Justice Department forced out seven prosecutors.

Previously, the White House had said that Mr. Bush’s aides approved the list of prosecutors only after it was compiled.

The role of the president and his advisers in the prosecutor shakeup is likely to intensify calls by Congress for an investigation. It is the worst crisis of Mr. Gonzales’s tenure and provoked charges that the dismissals were a political purge threatening the historical independence of the Justice Department.

Herstory



Accepting her award, Ms. Smith recalled a kitchen table argument with her husband, Fred Smith, shortly before he died in 1994. “He said to me, ‘Tricia, one day you’re going to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,’ ” Ms. Smith said. “He asked me to accept it like a lady and not say any curse words and to make certain to salute new generations. Because it is the new generations that will redefine the landscape of rock ’n’ roll.”

Welcome Patti.

A Two-fer

"the love of one's country is a terrible thing"

Two Incredible songs, one great melody.

"The Patriot Game", written by Brendan Behan's brother Dominic, is a song that I have perfomed countless times since learning it in the late '70's. Sung from the perspective of a dying 16 year old Irish republican soldier it was popularized by the Clancy Brothers during the folk revival (before odes to the IRA became politically incorrect here) and remains a touchstone.

Here's a version that celebrates the horror of the Republican cause:


"The country I come from is called the Midwest"

Now, if you watched the Scorsese documentary of Bob dylan, you saw a lot of Liam Clancy talking about Zimmy's days in NY during the folk revival.

Bob heard The Clancy's perform the 'The Patriot Game' and quickly took that melody to muse on Vietnam-era America's self satisfaction, sense of itself as 'God's chosen' and the racism inherent in ours and all people's wars. He first performed 'With God On Our Side' at the Newport folk Festival with Joan Baez.

As we watch Christian America once again enter into a crusade against people darker than ourselves, people who believe in a strange god (because we can't really wrap our heads around the fact that Allah is the same god of Abraham that Moses and Jesus followed), people whose countries seem desperately primitive the song is timely timely timely.

GT12 Honoree Buddy Miller recorded this new version of Dylan's 'With God On Our Side' and you will thank me after you watch this. It is a bit lengthy but it will become a favorite.

Wilde


Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
Oscar Wilde


"To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance."-- “An Ideal Husband”


Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer. Known for his barbed wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. As the result of a famous trial, he suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned at two years of hard labour after being convicted of the offence of "gross indecency", which also included homosexual acts not amounting to buggery in British legislation.[1]


While at Magdalen College, Wilde became particularly well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements. He began wearing his hair long and openly scorning so-called "manly" sports, and began decorating his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china and other objets d'art.


Wilde was deeply impressed by the English writers John Ruskin and Walter Pater, who argued for the central importance of art in life. He later commented ironically on this view when he wrote, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, "All art is quite useless". Wilde was associated with the phrase Art for art's sake, though it appears nowhere in his writings: it was coined by the philosopher Victor Cousin, promoted by Theophile Gautier and brought into prominence by James McNeill Whistler.


The aesthetic movement, represented by the school of William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, had a permanent influence on English decorative art. As the leading aesthete in Britain, Wilde became one of the most prominent personalities of his day. Though he was sometimes ridiculed for them, his paradoxes and witty sayings were quoted on all sides.


In 1879 Wilde started to teach Aesthetic values in London. In 1882 he went on a lecture tour in the United States and Canada. He was torn apart by no small number of critics — The Wasp, a San Francisco newspaper, published a cartoon ridiculing Wilde and Aestheticism — but also was surprisingly well received in such rough-and-tumble settings as the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. [1] On his return to the United Kingdom, he worked as a reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette in the years 1887-1889. Afterwards he became the editor of Woman's World.
Politically, Wilde endorsed an anarchistic brand of socialism, expounding his beliefs in the text "The Soul of Man under Socialism".


On May 29, 1884, Oscar married Constance Lloyd. Constance was four years younger than Oscar and the daughter of a prominent barrister who died when she was 16. She was well-read, spoke several European languages and had an outspoken, independent mind. Oscar and Constance had two sons in quick succession, Cyril in 1885 and Vyvyan in 1886. With a family to support, Oscar accepted a job revitalizing the Woman's World magazine, where he worked from 1887-1889. The next six years were to become the most creative period of his life. He published two collections of children's stories, “The Happy Prince and Other Tales” (1888), and “The House of Pomegranates” (1892). His first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in an American magazine in 1890 to a storm of critical protest. He expanded the story and had it published in book form the following year. Its implied homoerotic theme was considered very immoral by the Victorians and played a considerable part in his later legal trials. Oscar's first play, “Lady Windermere's Fan,” opened in February 1892. Its financial and critical success prompted him to continue to write for the theater. His subsequent plays included “A Woman of No Importance” (1893), “An Ideal Husband” (1895), and “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895). These plays were all highly acclaimed and firmly established Oscar as a playwright.


In the summer of 1891, Oscar met Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas, the third son of the Marquis of Queensberry. Bosie was well acquainted with Oscar's novel “Dorian Gray” and was an undergraduate at Oxford. They soon became lovers and were inseparable until Wilde's arrest four years later. In April 1895, Oscar sued Bosie's father for libel as the Marquis had accused him of homosexuality. Oscar withdrew his case but was himself arrested and convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labor. Constance took the children to Switzerland and reverted to an old family name, “Holland.”


Upon his release, Oscar wrote “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” a response to the agony he experienced in prison. It was published shortly before Constance's death in 1898. He and Bosie reunited briefly, but Oscar mostly spent the last three years of his life wandering Europe, staying with friends and living in cheap hotels. Sadly, he was unable to rekindle his creative fires. When a recurrent ear infection became serious several years later, meningitis set in, and Oscar Wilde died on November 30, 1900.


"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."-- “Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”