LittleJoe

Our rights diminish; still better than Saudi Arabia

An Associated Press story today begins with these disturbing words:

A Saudi court sentenced a university professor to five years in prison Sunday on charges of sowing dissent after he compared U.S. killings of Iraqi civilians to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks.

Frankly, I can see the professor's point. Colin Powell had stated before the Iraq War that the US knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, even stating how many pounds of certain materials Iraq had. Rumsfeld (who, granted, is a very confused man) went so far as to state that we knew where the weapons were! George W Bush either deliberately lied to us about the threat of Iraq, or at least was misled by his advisors and then passed that misinformation on to the American public. Regardless, we invaded Iraq, without UN approval, without proof of any threat from Iraq, without a credible reason, and now over 13,000 Iraqi civilians are dead.

Every American remembers where they were on September 11, 2001. Initially, I thought it was a hoax; nothing that terrible could possibly happen here. Then the shock sank in, and the overwhelming sadness thinking of so many families that had lost a wife, husband, child, parent in this horrible act. How is it any less terrible for Iraqi civilians to lose family members, neighbors, friends ...as casualties of a war that Kofi Annan is finally denouncing.

Given the very close ties between the Saudi royal family and the Bush royal family, it is not surprising that Saudi Arabia would not permit someone to speak words that might be disparaging to both.

Well, here in the USA, whether you agree with me or not, I am extremely grateful that I do at least still have the right to post this. In Saudi Arabia, this university professor stated his views, and is now going to be in a Saudi prison for 5 years!

Tampa Bay Blogger Fest

Tonight was the first annual Tampa Bay Blogger Fest. It is fair to say that a good time was had by all, and that there may need to be a few more gatherings before the second annual. We started out at Splitsville for drinks and BS. I'm guessing there were 20 of us or so. Click the Tampa Bay Blogs link on the left (or of course the link just before these words) to link to more of the folks' blogs. After Splitsville, several of us took the trolley to Ybor City (for those outside of Tampa, this is the part of Tampa for clubbing; many years ago it was big in the cigar industry), and hung out at the Blue Shark, listening to the very talented Cocktail Kings play an eclectic mix of blues, rock, and funk. Now it's past my bedtime, and my clothes are drenched in the smell of cigarette smoke -- it's been several years since I was playing music every weekend in the clubs, and I must say I miss some of the party atmosphere, but I definitely don't miss the smoke :-)

Thanks to all who organized this evening. You guys are the best!

Bush's Ratings At All Time Low

According to the latest Harris poll, George W Bush's approval ratings are at the lowest they've been since he moved into the White House.  I punched the numbers into a spreadsheet to create the graph shown here (click the image to see a larger, more readable graph). Don't let reports from the likes of Fox "News" let you think that the American public is going to let this guy get re-elected! We need a man who has a plan to improve access to healthcare, a plan for an energy-independent America, a real plan for education, a plan to secure peace in Iraq with the cooperation of the family of nations. We need John Kerry.

Roof going on

The framing started yesterday and was finished today. The roof trussess are up and they've started putting up the roof sheathing. Click for more pics.

House framing underway

There was apparently a crew of about 6 working on the house today and the framing is almost done! To me, that's impressive, since the framing just started today. We expect that tomorrow they'll finish the framing and put up the roof trusses. So it's quite possible that all framing and the roof sheathing could be done this week. Dang! Here's some more pics.

New Bedspread

We needed a new covering for the bed. We'd been using a light quilt, but hey, it's summertime in Florida. It's not like it's chilly at night, y'know? So Shirley said she could make us a new bedspread that could serve as a nice light cover at night. I suggested that we go with a Florida theme, and something that would make us smile every time we see it. So she found this way cool flamingo fabric (one can never have too many flamingos, can one?), and made this awesome bed cover. Click the small image to see a larger pic. Suh-weet!

Hurricane drink

We've been to Pat O'Brien's in Orlando a couple of times now, each time meeting other bloggers for a great evening of food, drink, and general debauchery. Well Pat O'Brien's serves a very tasty drink called a Hurricane. And when you buy a Hurricane or Margarita (and probably other drinks), you get to keep the glass (and even with the glass, the drink price is about the same as most places). So the pic at the bottom of this post shows our Hurricanes in Pat O'Brien's Margarita glasses (we have one or two Hurricane glasses, but they're probably in storage or something while our house is being built).

OK, I'm not going to claim that this recipe is the same as the Pat O'Brien's recipe (in fact, I know it's not, since their recipe calls for four ounces of rum and four ounces of the mix that you can buy there). This recipe uses "only" 2 ounces of rum per drink, yielding a very tasty drink that still packs a little kick, and does not use a mix (using a mix is against our religion!)

Enough idle chatter. Continuing our selfless quest to derive recipes for wonderful adult beverages - without using store-bought mixes - we offer the Litton version of a Hurricane:

These ingredients yield 2 Hurricanes:

• 4 ounces dark rum
• 8 ounces passion fruit juice (this may be hard to find, so you could probably substitute juiced mango or papaya)
• 1/2 ounce sugar syrup (to make sugar syrup, heat equal parts sugar and water stirring often until sugar is dissolved)
• 1 teaspoon Grenadine
• Juice of 1 lime

Put all ingredients into a shaker with some ice cubes and shake for a bit to mix and cool ingredients. Strain into glasses, add ice - and maybe an orange slice for a garnish - and kick back! Dedicated to our friends Matt and Jess (pic), who introduced us to Pat O'Brien's. Cheers!

Margarita

Margarita - a drink for the gods! As our selfless gift to humanity, we continue our research to perfect recipes for refreshing adult beverages. In the past we've posted recipes for Mojito and Mai Tai. Well, one of our favorite drinks is a plain Margarita. The problem is that most recipes call for using storebought mix (yuck! ...why do they have to add coloring and all those chemicals?). Today my wife took some time out from less important tasks, and experimented to come up with this simple recipe that yields great-tasting Margaritas ...without any store-bought mix:

• Juice of 2 limes
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 4 Tablespoons sugar syrup (to make syrup, warm equal parts sugar and water until the sugar is disolved)
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 ounces Tequila
• 1/2 ounce Cointreau
• 1 1/4 cup ice

Make the syrup if you don't have any. Toss everything into a blender, mix it up, pour into 2 glasses, and enjoy!

By the way, for those curious about the picture (click on the image to see it full-size), the statue on the left is the Hawaiian god of peace and love (purchased on Maui, July 2004), and the statue on the right is Tangaroa, the Polynesian god of fertility (purchased on Rarotonga, Cook Islands, November 2000).

America Coming Together

The good folks at have posted a great video of Will Ferrell posing as Mr Bush recording a commercial. Click the image to the left to go to the site with the video.  There's a lot of other great stuff at the America Coming Together site. One is a petition to stop fraud in political advertising.

The Bush campaign has adopted a strategy of saying anything - anything - that they think will turn folks away from Kerry and towards Bush. They assume that we voters are too lazy to research and determine whether the claims are true or not. Well there's a lot wrong with this approach. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have now been discredited. Zell Miller's insane rant at the Republican convention included this statement, "Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts." Well, now America does know the facts, and the truth is that Zell Miller recited a list that had been circulating through Internet emails ...and it is false! The text of his speech was approved beforehand, and neither Miller nor the Republicans took the time to see if they were stating the truth. What they were saying was what they wanted to hear ...and they lied. The list goes on and on.

(By the way, it appears that the Bush campaign is so embarrassed now by Miller's speech that the video is not available at their site - at least I couldn't find it - although many other videos of the convention speeches are posted!)

Well, America Coming Together has also posted a petition to demand that the FCC require political ads to be truthful. Bush lied to get us to invade Iraq, he lied about his service in the Guard, he refused to denouce the SBVFT lies about Kerry's service, his party either knowingly allowed Zell Miller to state as truth that which was not true - or they simply did not care enough about the American public to check if the "facts" were indeed true.

It is obvious that our current leadership does not respect Americans enough to be honest with us. Gosh, the Republican Party is supposed to stand for less government, but I really think that the only way we can get these folks to be honest is if the FCC forces them to stop lying.

Movies to see

There's a number of important films that have been released this year that are important for all Americans to see. My goal is to view one or more of these during each of the next several weeks until I've seen them all:

• Super Size Me: A look at the legal, financial and physical costs of America's hunger for fast food. Check the web site for theater locations.
• Control Room: A view of Al Jazeera's presentation of the second Iraq war to their worldwide Arab audience. Check web site for locations.
• The Corporation: Examines the far-reaching repercussions of the corporation’s increasing preeminence. Based on Joel Bakan’s book "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power". Check web site for locations.
• Orwell Rolls in His Grave: The corporate takeover of our media. In very limited theater sreenings, but the DVD can be purchased at the web site.
• Bush's Brain: Meet Karl Rove, the most powerful political figure America has never heard of. In limited theater showings; DVD available at the web site.
• Outfoxed: Fox News Channel's consistent support of the Republican party is an issue critical to democracy. I've seen this a few times (we have the DVD), and it is a must see! Not in theaters; DVD available at the web site.
• Fahrenheit 9/11: An examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11. Still in theaters and the DVD will be out soon. We saw this twice on opening weekend. I posted some comments about this movie.

Impact from Frances minor here; Ivan next

We were lucky (again!). Hurricane Frances made its lazy way across Florida, and we were happily spared anything more than minor inconvenience. There was a lot of rain; I'm guessing we've received about a foot over the past few days. The ponds at the apartment complex are quite a bit higher now, with the water encroaching a fair amount onto the grass. One of the swimming pools had been drained a foot or more, and we noticed today that it is completely full. There are a few small trees that were blown down, and a couple of larger ones. These 2 fell down on the maintenence buidling right across from our building:



Here's a closer shot, showing some of the broken roof tiles:



The playground has about a foot of water in it, which seems to be fine with the kids playing out there:



Downtown Tampa was hit a little harder (by the rain). The local newspaper has posted some more pics showing some of the Tampa flooding. So...here's hoping Ivan decides he doesn't want to visit:

If the USA were a corporation, we would fire our CEO

The day after Mr. Bush's speech at the Republican National Convention, Dr.  Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan, posted an opinion titled The CEO Test for Bush. I highly recommend that you read the entire post, but here is an excerpt:

Bush's basic characteristic is not steadfastness, as the convention attempted to argue, but rashness.  He is a gambler who goes for the big bang.  He loses his temper easily, and makes hasty and uninformed decisions about important matters.  No corporation would keep on a CEO that took risks the way Bush has, if the gambles so often resulted in huge losses.

Let us imagine you had a corporation with annual gross revenues of about $2 trillion.  And let's say that in 2000, it had profits of $150 billion.  So you bring in a new CEO, and within four years, the profit falls to zero and then the company goes into the red to the tune of over $400 billion per year.  You're on the Board of Directors and the CEO's term is up for renewal.  Do you vote to keep him in?  That's what Bush did to the US government.  He took it from surpluses to deep in the red.  We are all paying interest on the unprecedented $400 billion per year in deficits (a deficit is just a loan), and our grandchildren will be paying the interest in all likelihood.

Read Dr. Cole's full post

I do not trust George W Bush

George W. Bush and his campaign continue to distort and mislead the public, and appear to be taking some actions that are at least unethical if not illegal. Consider:

• Bush Tried To Install Crony At Florida Election Board
• Bush To Alter Economic Stats Again
• Swift Boat Vet Got $40M Contract From Bush
• Bush Misleads on Global Warming

For those (like the senile Zell Miller) who believe that we should support the President no matter what, and who might dismiss the above articles without reading them, please note that these brief articles each list the sources for the various statements (sources include the White House web page, Business Week magazine, CNN, and many other respected sources).

Last night I forced myself to watch the Republican Convention. I had honestly thought that at least Bush would stop trying to associate Saddam Hussein with the attacks of September 11, 2001. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. No link between Saddam and al Qaeda has been found. We do know that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11/2001 were Saudis and that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks. So last night Bush stated:

"...We knew Saddam Hussein's record of aggression and support for terror. We knew his long history of pursuing, even using, weapons of mass destruction. And we know that September 11th requires our country to think differently..."

Bush did not directly state that Saddam was behind 9/11; he did, however, intentionally mention 9/11 and Saddam in adjacent sentences, giving the impression to many who don't bother to listen carefully - that the 2 are related. This is just one more reason why I have no respect whatsoever for Dubya. Clinton cheated on his wife - in the White House - and lied about it; the Republicans impeached him for that. Dubya lies and misleads about war, resulting in the deaths (so far) of at least 12 THOUSAND people (11,000 Iraqi civilians and 1,000 coalition forces) ...and the Republicans say "Four more years!" WTF?!?!

Hurricane season

Here we go again. Hurricane Frances is now on its way to finish what Hurricane Charley started. Many out of state friends and family have been emailing (a few even spending the money to call, so they must be really worried or else somehow under the mistaken impression that we've got money and have left it to them - rather than the truth, which is that we don't have money, and if we did we'd most likely leave it to some flaming liberal cause) ....but I digress.

Many have been asking how long hurricane season lasts, are we prepared, will we be ok, etc., etc.  The answers are:

1. June through November - a glorious 6 months
2. We hope so
3. We hope so
4. We can't possibly provide an answer if you're going to be so general with the questions

To give a better understanding of hurricane season and the proper approach to preparation, please read Florida Hurricane Season Notes. I'd write more, but I need to run to the store and see if I can fight off the hoards and buy that last can of SPAM.

House - Concrete in walls

Today they filled the blocks with concrete and added the hurricane ties that will help (hopefully) secure the roof in high winds. ...And speaking of high winds, hurricane Frances - now a Category 4 hurricance - may pay a visit this weekend. We're just keeping a watch on the movement of the storm for now, but this is a huge hurricane, so we kind of expect that we'll at least get some wind and heavy rain. I'll post more news and/or pics when we have more :-)

We've got walls!

The workers were busy yesterday! We swung by the homesite this afternoon and the block walls were in place. This baby is starting to look like a house :-)  ....ok, it wouldn't be the best in the rain, but it will get there. Interior framing should be happening this week. I'm not sure when the roof will be going on, but that is when it will really look like a house. After 6 months of looking at an empty weed patch, it's soooo great to see a home growing there. Here's more pics from today.

Woo-hoo! The house is started!

On February 8, 2004 - a little over 6 months ago - we put a deposit down on a new house. Today the slab was poured. Apparently, this is a normal wait in Florida; the permit process takes a l-o-n-g time. So now the fun begins! By next week the block walls will be up and the framing (for interior walls, roofing, etc) will be underway. We're very used to construction of "stick" houses (2x4 or 2x6 framing on post and beam foundations), and have done a fair amount of remodel work over the years (framing, roofing, siding, plumbing, cement work, brickwork, wiring, laying carpet, hanging wallpaper, fencing...most everything a homeowner could do). But block home construction on slab foundation is new to us, so it will be very interesting to see how things are done down here in Florida. Click the small photo in this posting to see a few shots of the house beginnings.

You can also see in the pics a glimpse of some of the huge houses in the neighborhood. At about 2,000 square feet, we'll have one of the smallest homes in the group, and that's fine by us :-)

Cheers.

Maui vacation pics

We spent the first week of August 2004 on Maui. Since the primary goal was to relax, we spent most of the time snorkeling. We saw plenty of fish and coral, but were amazed at how many sea turtles we saw! We've snorkeled in the waters off Kauai, the big island of Hawaii, down in Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, and now Maui. Never have we seen so many sea turtles! We stopped counting after the first few days. So here's a start on the Maui pics (click any small image on the pics page to see the full-size image, and to be able to navigate through the other pics). Most of these are of turtles seen while snorkeling, and there are a few beach pics. Lots more to come!

Aloha

Vote by Absentee Ballot!

After the voting debacle in Florida (and elsewhere) in 2000, the US Congress passed the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) in 2002. $3.9 billion were earmarked to help states upgrade outmoded voting systems. Here in Florida (and other states) this has included the installation of touch-screen voting machines. The problem with this is that there is not always a means to recount all votes! The Verified Voting web site has a wealth of information outlining the problem, linking to articles about specific instances of audit difficulties, and including several suggestions for actions that one might take.

This press release from the Florida Department of State, includes this disturbing text (I've added the bolding to some of the text):

The Department of State, Division of Elections has been in routine contact with both vendors and national independent testing laboratories inquiring about printers and their development but we currently have no applications from any vendors for a voter verifiable paper trail machine. No vendor has any machines that will be available before the 2004 election cycle.

So if you are a Florida voter, what can you do? Register to vote via absentee ballot. If you are a Floridian, locate the web page for supervisor of elections for your county. The process varies by county. For those living in Hillsborough County (like me), you can apply online for an absentee ballot. Your application will be in effect for all elections in 2004, which at this point is the August 31 Primary and the November 2 General Election.

At this writing we are only 2 weeks away from the primary, so it may be too late to get an absentee ballot for the primary, but please do consider requesting an absentee ballot for the November 2, 2004 General Election. You can request your absentee ballot now for the November election, and still vote at your regular polling place for the August 31, 2004 primary.

Let's help ensure that this time every vote is counted!

I'm a Floridian; Dubya is bad for Florida

I've been living and working in Florida for 7 months now. I've got Florida license plates, Florida driver's license, have voted here in Tampa, and drive with the A/C off and the windows open if it's only 90F, 'cause that's really not very hot. So I wanted to see what effect George W Bush has had on my adopted state; it's not good:

• 87,173 Of Florida Workers Have Become Unemployed Since Bush Took Office.
• 41,900 Of Florida Workers Have Lost Their Unemployment Benefits Since January 2004.
• 61,600 Florida Manufacturing Jobs Lost Since Bush Took Office.
• 51 Percent Of Florida Taxpayers Will Receive Less Than $100 From Latest Bush Tax Cut.
• Florida Families Face Rising Share Of National Debt Burden: $23,940 Over Six Years.
• 737,000 Florida Children Abandoned By Bush, Left Out Of Child Tax Credit.
• 2,843,000 Florida Residents Have No Health Insurance.
• 315,500 Florida Seniors Worse Off Under Bush Medicare Prescription Plan.

Read the full report

Digging the VitaMix

The other day I got home and saw a Vita-Mix Super 5000 sitting on the counter. Shirley had taken a little jaunt to the local Costco and saw a gent demonstrating one of these babies. So US$359 later, it was ours. Man, I first started thinking about getting one of these about 20 years ago! Well, I dropped Shirley and Ben off at the airport today (they're heading up to Vancouver USA to see family and friends), so I'm bach-ing it for a bit. OK, so let's see, what's easy to prepare foodwise? How about just taking whatever fruits and veggies are laying around, and dump 'em in the VitaMix and have a smoothie ready in about one minute!

Here's the before picture. The ingredients included an apple, an orange, a lime, a banana, some strawberries that we bought fresh and then froze, some blueberries, several baby carrots, a slice of cabbage, and a slice of pineapple (and I tossed in a few ice cubes). I did wash the apple and pull out the stem, and did peel the banana, orange, and lime, and cut the rind off of the pineapple. So there was some prep (very fast).

...and here's the finished smoothie (actually, this made two very full glasses). This was very, very tasty! It amazes me that I didn't taste the cabbage nor the carrots at all. What I'm discovering here is a very easy way to have extremely healthy drinks (we've also made soup, salsa, ice cream, nut butter, etc. using the VitaMix). Most of us do not take in nearly as much fresh fruits and vegetables as we should for optimum health. I wish now that we'd bought a VitaMix years ago. I am definitely sold on this machine!

Time for action

Most of us live our lives largely by habit. We get up at the same time each workday, hurry through our morning routine, pop off to work, come home in the evening and relax a little with the family and then sleep a while before we get up and do it again. Pretty soon we wonder where the week went...then where the months went. I blinked a moment ago and suddenly my baby son is in the middle of his college years! Life is far too precious to squander blindly.

So why are we really here? What are you doing with your life? I believe that the single highest purpose to which we can each devote ourselves is spiritual development. I also believe that that is an extremely personal endeavor - a pursuit that should remain outside the reaches of government. Spiritual practice takes many forms and there is no one right way, just as there is no one right religion. It is up to each person to find their way, and it is abhorrent for anyone to push their own spiritual beliefs on another.

Another very important and very worthy pursuit is to do what one can to make the world a better place, and that is my topic today. This work takes many forms, and now it is vital that we each take it upon ourselves to do something to ensure that the government of the United States is steered back to a course that promotes freedom rather than restrictions, opportunity for the many rather than excesses for the few, harmony among nations rather than unilateral interventionism, and hope and vision of a better world rather than fear and expectation of terrorism and war.

The Republican Party, the Bush Administration, Fox 'News' (and all of Rupert Murdoch's media companies), along with right-wing 'conservative' radio hosts and many others have been working for years to promote the legislation of their brand of morality. Bush - through incredibly gullible criminally-negligent dependence on bad 'intelligence' - or through conscious deception - has plunged us into  horrible quagmire in Iraq. After pledging to find Osama in response to September 11, 2001 ...we hardly hear of Afghanistan, and we have killed 13,000 Iraqi civilians, lost 1,000 coalition troops, suffered 5,000 wounded, produced countless orphans, and for what? So that maybe we can control the Iraqi oil?

And what about healthcare? How many more must go bankrupt or go without care due to lack of insurance and high medical bills? What about education? 'No child left behind'? Are you kidding? I know many teachers, and these are some of the most dedicated individuals you could ever find. They certainly aren't in it for the money! They'll spend chunks of their own money and many, many extra hours to see that the kids they teach get the attention they need and have the supplies that they need. It's not due to anything Bush has done.

Folks, Bush and the Republican Party are all talk. They'll toss out little slogans and big blatant lies, and figure that we will just take it at face value. DON'T!

Please:
- Hunt for the references for 'facts' before believing the drivel of Fox 'News' folks like Bill O'Reilly. They just pass on whatever they are told to convey. Why do you think Canada won't allow Fox 'News' to broadcast up there? It's because Fox 'News' is editorial , yet the company bills itself as 'Fair and Balanced'.
- Consider boycotting Fox 'News' completely
- EDUCATE YOURSELF . Please do not believe everything you hear on TV or read in the paper. Find several opposing viewpoints and consider them all. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.
- Go see (or buy or rent) some of the movies that have been released recently (Fahrenheit 9/11, Outfoxed, Control Room, and the various other movies that are out or are coming out offering an alternative to what Fox and the rest of the right-wing media want to tell you.

Now, I know that some will say that they can't stand Michael Moore. Well, I admit you do have to filter what you see from his movies or anyone's. But, I must also state that I have read some of his books, and one of the very good things about his writing is that he lists the reference for every statement he makes. You can go and check if a certain newspaper really published a quoted story, or if the Congressional Record really does contain some quoted text (and I have checked a number of the references, and have always found them to be accurate).

OK, bottom line: Educate yourself, be critical of all that you read and hear, and once you've decided whom to support in the election, get active. Talk to others, write letters to the editor, put bumper stickers on your car, volunteer at the campaign office, donate money to organizations that will help humanity.

Peace.

Mary Beth Cahill puts Ken Mehlman in his place

Mary Beth Cahill is John Kerry's campaign manager. Ken Mehlman is George W Bush's campaign manager. The Bush campaign is a bit miffed over some rude anti-Bush comments that Whoopi Goldberg apparently made at a Democratic fund-raiser. Ken Mehlman has asked Mary Beth Cahill to provide a tape of the event. Ms Cahill's response is quite reasonable: she will provide the tape if the Bush administration will be a bit more forthcoming with some information they've been requested many times to provide. Ms Cahill's response to Mr Mehlman is posted here. And for those too busy to click the extra link, I've copied it for you here:

July 13, 2004

Ken Mehlman
Campaign Manager
BUSH-CHENEY '04, Inc.
P.O. BOX 10648
Arlington, VA 22210

Dear Ken:

Over the past several months, allies of the President have questioned John Kerry’s patriotism while your staff has criticized his service in Vietnam. Republicans and their allies have gone so far as to launch attacks against his wife and your campaign has run $80 million in negative ads that have been called baseless, misleading and unfair by several independent observers.

Considering that the President has failed to even come close to keeping his promise to change the tone in Washington, we find your outrage over and paparazzi-like obsession with a fund-raising event to be misplaced. The fact is that the nation has a greater interest in seeing several documents made public relating to the President’s performance in office and personal veracity that the White House has steadfastly refused to release. As such, we will not consider your request until the Bush campaign and White House make public the documents/materials listed below:

● Military records: Any copies of the President’s military records that would actually prove he fulfilled the terms of his military service. For that matter, it would be comforting to the American people if the campaign or the White House could produce more than just a single person to verify that the President was in Alabama when said he was there. Many Americans find it odd that only one person out of an entire squadron can recall seeing Mr. Bush.

● Halliburton: All correspondence between the Defense Department and the White House regarding the no-bid contracts that have gone to the Vice-President’s former company. Some material has already been made public. Why not take a campaign issue off the table by making all of these materials public so the voters can see how Halliburton has benefited from Mr. Cheney serving as Vice-President?

● The Cheney Energy Task Force: For an Administration that claims to hate lawsuits, it’s ironic that the Bush White House is taking up the Courts’ time to keep the fact that Ken Lay and Enron wrote its energy policy in secret behind closed doors. Please release the documents so that the country can learn what lobbyists and special interests wrote the White House energy policy.

● Medicare Bill: Please release all White House correspondence between the pharmaceutical industry and the Administration regarding the Medicare Bill, which gave billions to some of the President’s biggest donors. In addition, please provide all written materials that directed the Medicare actuary to withhold information from Congress about the actual cost of the bill.

● Prison Abuse Documents: A few weeks ago, the White House released a selected number of documents regarding the White House’s involvement in laying the legal foundation for the interrogation methods that were used in Iraq. Please release the remaining documents.

We also wanted to wish you a happy anniversary. As we are sure you and the attorneys representing the President, Vice-President and other White House officials are aware, today marks one year since Administration sources leaked the identity of a covert CIA agent to Bob Novak in an effort to retaliate against a critic of the Administration.

In light of the fact that the Administration began gutting the laws protecting the nation’s forests yesterday, we hope you will accept the paper on which this letter is written as an anniversary gift. (The one year anniversary is known as the “paper anniversary.”)

Sincerely,

Mary Beth Cahill

Campaign Manager

Summer wardrobe arrived

A week or so ago I ordered my attire for the summer and fall - what I'll be wearing anytime I'm not at work. The main item (several of them, so I don't run out), and here I am modeling the full ensemble.

By the way, for those of you trying to get/stay educated about the positions of the candidates for the Presidential election, do have a look at the web sites for John Kerry and for George W Bush. Kerry's site has 28 specific categories, with more detail and subsections within. Bush's site has 7 categories (the tabs across the top of his site). They both have categories for Economy, Healthcare, Education, Homeland Security, and Environment. Bush has one for Compassion (this from the guy who lied to the world and is responsible for the deaths of 1,000 coalition - as of today :( ...and 11,000 Iraqi civilians ...not very compassionate!). Bush also has a category for National Security. Kerry has 23 other categories that are not listed specifically on Bush's site. OK, that in itself doesn't really mean much ...until you read the sites. For someone who the Bush campaign tries to label as "flip-flopping", I see Kerry as a man who has very specifically detailed his positions on many issues, and providing much more detail (much more)  than what I see on Bush's site.

Now with John Edwards on the ticket I'm even more psyched! Bush's days are numbered, even if he replaces Cheney with John McCain as some are speculating. That would just indicate flip-flopping :-)

Reading...

This weekend I read John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best. I came away knowing a lot more about our next president, and with even more respect for him. It seemed apparent to me that the authors were not big Kerry fans. They publicize the book as basically a series of facts - dates, events, etc - but their own editorial spin and mild digs at Kerry were inserted fairly regularly.

Regardless, it is not possible to learn of the man's life and accomplishments and not at least have a healthy respect for John Kerry.

My son Ben just finished Robert Reich's Reason, and after Ben's raves about how much sense Reich makes (and I've admired Reich for years anyway), this will be my next book.

Also on the coffee table in the living room is Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud (Ben is currently reading this one), and John Kerry's A Call To Service, which my wife is currently reading.

We all plan to read all of these books, and to keep on getting educated throughout this election. There's way too much at stake to just sit back.

John Kerry ROCKS!

OK. No secret that I am a Kerry supporter. In an effort to make good use of this 4th of July weekend, I've been spending some time reading up on world affairs, and also learning more details about John Kerry's positions. I just finished watching a video clip of John Kerry speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in December 2003. The clip is one hour long and worth every minute. I was already a Kerry supporter. I already had tremendous respect for the man and his ideas. I cannot be effusive enough in proclaiming how brilliant I believe Senator Kerry to be. About 5 minutes into watching the video, my wife sat down by the computer and joined me. She heard a little of what Kerry was saying and had to hear more. Our son (also a voter :-) arrived about 30 minutes into the video and was also drawn in by what he heard and sat down to watch and to listen.

Regardless of whether one likes or dislikes Kerry and his ideas, watch this video and one thing is evident: John Kerry is one hell of a good speaker, he presents his ideas with clarity and supporting detail, and responds to questions with refreshing direct precision.

Watch the video. When you follow that link you can also select to read about just specific topics from Kerry's foreign policy. We are talking about the future of the United States and of the planet. This deserves one hour of your time.

Sudan needs the world's attention

"One million Texans threatened with torture and death by roaming gangs" ...Got your attention? Yup, that would certainly hit the headlines if it were true. Yet when a million folks in a Texas-sized area of Sudan are terrorized - men being slaughtered and girls and women being raped - the world pretty much sits by and we scarcely hear a word.

You can get more news from the Dafur, Sudan news blog - or simply search the internet for news of Sudan. There is news coverage; it just somehow doesn't seem to hit the front pages of the newspapers or the TV news headlines. It's a bit of a mystery to me, really, as there is oil in Sudan, and that sadly seems to be what sometimes motivates us to get involved.

OK, so what can be done? Well, the Bush administration so far has done pretty much nothing. They did start talking about maybe considering sanctions if the attacks don't stop. Hey, that should work (not!) Come on, little threats mean nothing. Plop the sanctions on now, and remove them only after a verified period of peace. Kofi Annan, after ignoring the Rwanda genocide 10 years ago (the Clinton administration also sat idly by) - has just completed a trip to Sudan, and perhaps the UN will get involved this time. The rainy season is coming, so that means very serious health issues for the thousands of displaced Sudanese, on top of the worries about being killed or raped and having your homes torched.

The United States plans to spend US$150 million now through 2005 in aid to Sudan. Meanwhile, we have so far spent about US$120 billion on the Iraq War. Seems to me our priorities are rather messed up. If you can find it in your heart to donate to folks who are actually helping in Sudan, please consider supporting Oxfam International , or go directly to their secure donation page.