Month: October 2005

There are states of mind we will not win over anytime soon. I’ve been in one of those states for a month and have a story to tell. I’ve lived for a long time (30 years) in other red states, Virginia and Colorado. I now live in Maine (my home state) for the past two years. (PS.I haven’t been able to blog in a while and may not be able to respond promptly.)

We arrived in Mississippi a week after Katrina to do post Katrina construction relief work. Get people back into their houses, roof over their head and so forth. We started in Laurel, MS, a town of some 30,000 90 miles from the coast. Every fourth house had a tarp on it, trees into houses, across driveways, debris in the roads, well, it looked like a week after a mighty big storm. Now, before anyone gets started, there are great people in MS, there are great people everywhere (regardless of political affiliation), and there is always the possibility of changing peoples minds. I’m sure Kerry got over 30% of the vote in MS, I even saw a Southerners for Kerry sticker. I got help and advice from Dems and progressives in MS. I live in a rural state, I lived in rural Colorado but I am here to say, there is a different world down here.

Sol Wisenberg on Chris Mathews had an interesting comment. He was asked what is Fitzgerald’s motivation. Wisenberg responded (and I am paraphrasing) that on the one hand he’s been appointed by a Republican Administration and he doesn’t want to offend them but he’s doing everything he can to make it …to dot all the I’s and cross the t’s.

The implication is what I have been suspecting (after a brief moment of possible weakness) that Fitzgerald is making it look like he’s doing a thorough investigation. But he may not be. He is sympathetic to the people who appointed him, Fitzgerald  is the godfather to Comey’s child. Comey appointed him. Comey once again works for Lockheed Martin, where Lynn Cheney was a board member and no doubt still retains influence there.

A very brief diary.  I was just skimming the online version of Aftenposten – Norway’s paper of record – and came across an article about punishment of minors.  The article was primarily based on this recently released report from Human Rights Watch:

The Rest of Their Lives
Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States

You might call it historical amnesia, or maybe its just the hope that eventually people will forget what you’ve done.  But the stink of corruption and the whiff of the arrogance of power that accompanies the acolytes of the GOP still shocks me.  It takes a lot of chutzpah to suggest that Medicare recipients should be forced to pay for Hurricane Relief

“Let us have the courage to make the tough choices to find the means to pay for the cost of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath through reductions in government spending.

“Let’s do the work of rebuilding our Gulf Coast with the compassion and the fiscal discipline that the American people expect from a Republican Congress.”

Yet while our boy Mike is willing to steal money from little old ladies (clearly Mike learned a lot as a Young Republican), this (what do you call someone who sells themself for money?) man is unwilling to cough up tainted ARMPAC contributions.
More on the flipside 🙂

Our South Seas Adventure pictures courtesy of Paul Gauguin and in honor of our very own Secondnature who has written this very excellent diary Here’s your stinkin community.