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."
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."
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.
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
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 August1922, 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.
"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.
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.
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%.
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."
"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."
....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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
"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.
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.
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”
Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.
Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people. The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”
Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”
Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.
Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”
Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.
Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
