Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To all my fellow Wood County Democrats, I wish you a safe, healthy and prosperous 2006.

Actually it's 11 pm our time but I just watched the East Coast celebrations on TV. Okay, admit it. How many of you celebrate at 11 o'clock and fall asleep before midnight our time?

I was going to post a fairly long post concerning some of the topics that Dave discussed on Ryan Lindsay's Insight show on Friday but decided to put if off until a little while. I will just use this space to congratulate Dave on a good job on the show.

As the deadline for filing papers for local offices approaches, I have heard some encouraging news about Democrats filing for office. I'll write more about this later.

Good luck to all in the New Year...be safe if you're out tonight.

Christmas for Democrats

Hi everybody.

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday Season to everybody in Wood County.

Those of you who are into the "blogosphere", are aware that there is a fascination in Democratic circles with the work of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who is conducting the investigation into the outing of former CIA Agent and wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson by Robert Novak. A lot of joking is going around about having a "Merry Fitzmas", that is getting indictments of top Republicans given to us for Christmas presents. In honor of that, Symbolman of Take Back the media, has given us our own Fitzmas Tree to decorate. It's a lot of fun to play around with.

Here's a graphic to give you a hint of what's in store:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/mayor80/fitzmastree.jpg

Here's the link:

http://www.tbtmradio.com/flash/merryfitzmasornaments.swf

This link is provided with full permission of Take Back the Media and the famous Symbolman himself.

Last Chance Democracy Cafe

If you haven't heard of this series of articles, you're really missing something.

The Last Chance Democracy Cafe is a series of articles by Stephen C. Day writing for Buzzflash.com. It is set in a Cafe owned by a retired lawyer and features conversations among him and an eclectic group of regulars at the Cafe. More than any other site, I have found Day and his mythical group of liberals to more clearly give voice to ideals of the Democratic/Progressive movement than any other site I have visited.

Here's a link to the archives.

http://www.buzzflash.com/day/index.php

Read it at your leisure. There are lots of episodes. I'm pretty sure that, like me, you'll become a devoted fan of Stephen C. Day and eagerly await each new episode.

Ed

Don't let Bush scam you again!

Finally, somebody took the time to go back and find the quotes that President Bush was referring to in his speech from Alaska (at Elmendorf AFB with our troops used as a backdrop)in which he "quoted" Democratic leaders supposedly supporting his invasion of Iraq. In case you haven't seen it, here's the text of his speech:

"Let me give you some quotes from three senior Democrat leaders: First, and I quote, 'There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons.' Another senior Democrat leader said, 'The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as Saddam Hussein is in power.' Here's another quote from a senior Democrat leader: 'Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think the President is approaching this in the right fashion.' They spoke the truth then, and they're speaking politics now."

Break it down: There are three separate Democrat leaders quoted but Bush doesn't use their names. The Rude Pundit Blog took the time to track them down and guess what...

They were all quoted COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTEXT.

Here's the link if you want to see EXACTLY what was said...and let me give you a hint: what they said wasn't what Bush claims it was. http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

The next time you're having coffee with friends and they start mouthing the Republican Talking point that:

"The Democrats supported Bush and now they're just playing politics." Well, you'll have the evidence.

I was raised to believe that the Office of the President of the United States deserved great reverence and respect but I cannot believe how this man continues to dishonor the Office he holds.

I'll stop here before this becomes a rant.

E

Our Fundamentalist Friends have been duped!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/3/224529/687

The above link to Daily Kos shows how cynically the religous right and our fundamentalist friends have been duped by the leaders of the Republican Party.

Look at this quote from Delay's aide, Scanlon:

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."

There it is. The Neocon strategey exposed for all to see. And do you know what the worst part is?

It's this: that memo from Scanlon came out of the investigations into indicted Lobbyist Jack Abramoff who has now been tied directly to Tom Delay.

Feel free to read the post and also be sure to pass it to others.

e

WARNING! SATIRE FOLLOWS

Editor:

I was strongly opposed to Senator Dave Zein’s newest incarnation of the Concealed Carry Law until events just this very week convinced me that Zein is probably right. Let me explain.

The first thing that happened to convince me was at the grocery store. There I was in the “Express Lane” which is clearly market “15 Items or Less”, and sure enough, the lady in front of me had at least 20 items. I politely asked her to go to another line and she told me to do the dame thing to myself that Dick Cheney told Patrick Leahy to do. Well! If I had been allowed to carry a gun, she wouldn’t have been so snippety!

Then, on Central Avenue, I saw a guy in a pickup truck make an illegal left turn. If I had a gun on me I could have pursued this wanton lawbreaking individual and held him for the police. But, alas, I’m not yet allowed to carry a gun.

But the most important thing happened at the Clinic. I think I saw a terrorist cleverly disguised in a lab coat. He looked to be of Middle-eastern descent or something like that but it was obvious that he wasn’t from around here. He had a name plate and badge that he got from who knows where that said “Doctor” so-and-so and he looked like he had access to sensitive places at the clinic. He could have been a terrorist and if I had a gun I could have detained him until Homeland security could question him. Hey. We’ve all got to do our part because you never know how many terrorists are lurking in Spencer, Auburndale, Stratford or Marshfield.

So you see, I think Zein is onto something.

A taste of New Orleans to share with the people who still back this failed administration

Today, I found out that one of my blacksheep Republican relatives (who, by the way, is poor and without transportation, much the same as the people stranded on rooftops after the hurricane) forwarded a message she received from her daughter (who would be penniless had it not been for the Pell Grants that paid for her schooling during the Clinton administration) about how Hurricane Katrina was a man-made disaster: a welfare state. This article is far too obscene to be republished here, so I will spare you the details. Obviously from one of those faux journalists.
I, on the other hand, am an accredited journalist, but opt to use blogs and editorials to express opinions rather than a news page.
I am mad as hell, but have been advised not to write, email or call these family members because there is no getting through to them. But where words fail, perhaps a little care package can do the trick. And here is my suggestion:
Take one box of Zatarain's Dirty Rice. Add one steaming dog turd. Reseal the box. Package and send via priority mail (and yes, you can send feces through the mail, as I have done this to break up with a former beau-yeah, you don't want to mess with me), and for the return address, use the name and whereabouts of another equally hated Bush backer (not Republican-there are some good ones out there). In the bottom of the box, place a note saying the following:
"Thought you might enjoy this taste of New Orleans. This is all that the citizens of this city were left with for five days as incompetent government officials finished up their vacations. They waded through it and drank it as it was their only option. These people were good people; the kind of people Jesus died on the cross to save. Since you feel they deserved to have their city flooded and families die, I think I am justified in saying that you are the kind of person whom Lucifer was rejected for and he has a nice warm place waiting for you. So get used to eating this Dirty Rice. And by the way, that isn't sausage."

What you can do to help

To help victims of Hurricane Katrina, please visit woodcodems.com and click on the "link of the week," which will link you to the Coalition for Rebuilding Louisiana's Coastline Web site. Here you will find a listing of several reputable organizations to donate to. You may also donate clothing and supplies locally at Baker IGA in Wisconsin Rapids or through the Salvation Army in Stevens Point. When shopping for items to donate, I urge you to think beyond water and food, and include baby formula, baby food, diapers and personal care products for adults.
If you want to assist in the pet rescue, please follow the link on woodcodems.com to the Humane Society of the United States. For many of the elderly victims of Katrina, their pets are all they have left. Without the rescue efforts of the HSUS and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (aspca.org), the health risks would be exacerbated as stray dogs would continue to form packs and pose a danger to other rescue and recovery workers in the region.
Please post an information about area businesses and organizations who may be collecting supplies for Katrina victims. In the next few days, there will be an area blood drive for hurricane victims. I will keep you posted.

What we have here is a failure to communicate...

...And on so many levels of government! The federal government failed to respond fast enough and I will make no excuse for Bush, Chertoff or FEMA, but local government is not without fault either. People should have been given evacuation notice sooner, but aside from that, people outside of New Orleans had no concept of the amount of people without transportation, people who were trapped while the city flooded. I would like to think that local and state officials would have a better understanding of their area's demographics. Someone should have contacted the Department of Homeland Security right away to make sure they were on their way. Meteorologists told us that this hurricane was coming, so all the planning should have been done before it hit. But apparently, that did not happen.
There is one consolation and that is that private citizens have more on the ball than their elected officials. The outpouring of generousity from people around the world is truly touching. Even Afghanistan, a nation that has experienced plenty of hardship, has pledged $100,000 in aid. Germany, Great Britain and Russia have pledged money outside of their NATO contributions for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief.
Perhaps it is because the leaders of these nations realize that the rebuilding efforts will require serious environmental protections, ones that began to be implemented in 1995 under the leadership of President Clinton, but have been significantly cut under the Bush administration. To find out more about the need to rebuild Louisiana's coast, visit http://www.crcl.org/
This site is also functioning to further relief efforts in the region devastated by Katrina.
As someone who teaches communication, I understand that listening is vital. The greatest failure in communication was that of the Bush administration, failing to listen to scientists who warned that New Orleans would would be covered in water if action was not taken to restore the Louisiana coastline. It is too bad that a disaster has to serve as a wake-up call.

Rage over Refugees

As if the unjust war, tax cuts for the wealthy, ruination of the environment, messing with Medicare, and threatening to privatize Social Security were not enough to set my teeth on edge, now we have the utter chaos, breakdown of security, and needless loss of lives in the Gulf region to fret about. If anyone should wonder why security is a problem in Iraq, let's take a look at this week's news in our own country. The hurricane hit the New Orleans area on Monday. On the FIFTH day following this huge catastrophe, our president finally did a walk through tour. As I write, thousands of mostly poor, black people are languishing at the New Orleans Convention Center and at the Superdome. Looting has been rampant, shots have been fired, and people have feared for what little is left of their lives. At times, evacuation efforts were halted due to anarchy in the streets. This is NOT supposed to be a third-world nation; this is America.

Let's examine the facts: For years, the officials and others in New Orleans have known that the system of levees that keeps the water out is adequate only for a force 3 hurricane. Katrina just happened to be at least a force 4 when it hit. The Bush administration cut many of the funds needed and suggested by congress to fix this problem. There is also the current administrative scorn for scientific facts. Of course, even a bit of global warming will change weather patterns and if huge bodies of water become warmer over years, the hurricanes will progressively become stronger. Removing protective marshlands from the Gulf area has also added to the problem. Then there is the whole issue of FEMA which President Clinton actually made a cabinet agency. Under the Homeland Security overhaul, FEMA was removed from the cabinet and placed under the oversight of the Homeland Security bureau. The last 2 heads of FEMA did not come to their jobs with resumes rich in expertise on how to accomplish rescues on a vast scale. Quite the opposite. Both were Bush cronies (evidently a prerequisite for any important post in this administration) who were uninitiated in the art of widespread evacuation in emergencies. Now we see the results: Perhaps thousands dead; poor desperate folks suffering for days from lack of food, water, and toilet facilities; police walking off the job and evacuation efforts held up because of looting and shooting; almost no communication with families split up and going all directions; and total chaos for at least 4 days. All of this in a nation which prides itself on solving any difficulty, and on quickly fixing any problem. All of this in an area which is predominantly black and poor and in which many of the same problems existed BEFORE the hurricane and subsequent flood. People in New Orleans did know beforehand that their city could be destroyed. The local press had done a series on the levee problem recently. People also must have known that many of the poorest folks could not evacuate before the storm because they had no car or could not afford the trip. Problems with crime were not news here, either. Problems with looting, drugs, rape, and murder have existed for years. This whole disaster points up yet another unfortunate example by this present administration of lack of planning, lack of compassion, and gross ineptitude in managing catastrophic events. Most of all, it clarifies the notion that we have an underclass, a "hidden" population that again suffers untold misery while more privileged people like me can sit here at our keyboards in comfort and gripe about it all!

Thanks for being my sounding board today! I am in a rage about all of this as you can tell. Even 2 reporters on Fox news were at their wits end last night. Geraldo Rivera was at the Convention Center holding up a baby and begging the government to come in and save it. Shepherd Smith, who was absolutely irate over the lack of care for the people he was witnessing, was told by Hannity to get some perspective on the situation. Smith snapped back that this suffering indeed was the perspective! Normally, I am not a Fox News junkie, but I was really curious to see how they were handing this latest government gaffe.

Insights

Today, August 26, Dave Wille, Chairman of the Wood County Democratic Party, appeared on two local radio stations including WDLB here in the Marshfield area. The program he appeared on is called the Insight Program, hence the title of today's blog. The program was totally refreshing and interesting. The moderator asked pertinent questions, allowed Dave to finish explaining his thoughts, and chimed in with helpful comments of his own when needed. Several of us, including me, called in with questions concerning education, mixing of religion with politics, the war in Iraq, and other current concerns. One person even called in to ask for more information on affiliating with the Democratic Party. Dave was adept at using many facts and figures to prove his points on education, the war, and other topics. It was so refreshing to listen to a talk radio program in which the parties were not yelling, screaming, and interrupting each other that I just had to email Ryan Lindsey, the moderator, to tell him how much I enjoyed the program. Here is the most amazing part: Ryan emailed back to say that today was perhaps the one with the most positive feedback he had ever gotten in the two years that he had moderated the program. So--this was a very exciting day for me and I want to share this good news with all of you party members.

My big fat disguise

I am able to blend in quite nicely among Republicans. I show up at an event that they are hosting and they embrace me with open arms. I guess that is because so few people show up at these events without being paid, as in the case of Rep. Mark Green's appearance in Wood County on Monday (most of the people there were part of Green's entourage). But aside from Republicans being desperate for followers in Wood County, I blend in because I am a bit fat. Fat is the Republican uniform. I guess it is because it is a visual representation of all the pork they pack into their bills. Such is the case with the 2002 Farm Bill that. While it introduced the MILC (Milk Income Loss Contract) provision, it also sought to decrease competition. But you can read that for yourself at http://www.eenews.net/sr_farmbill.htm
Now, you may have received a recent action alert that talked about how Rep. Green has changed his stance on MILC. Green claims that this is "liberal propaganda," and that he still supports the provision. I may have believed his chest-pounding message had he been able to stop blinking. You see, I teach a course in communication and I know a thing or two about body language. When someone cannot look you in the eye without constantly blinking, that is a sure sign that they are lying. Also, the overt gesture of placing one's hand over their heart when answering a question as mundane and unemotional as "why have you changed your position on the Milk Income Loss Contract?" signals that the politician protest too much.
When Green said that Rep. Dave Obey and Sen. Russ Feingold had initially voted against the bill, I thought there must have been a reason and the pork is the answer. Funny how such free-market martyrs, as the Republicans portray themselves to be, continue to do everything in their power to discourage competition. Oh well.
While speaking to Green, I also questioned him about what he would do with the UW system. He quickly replied "I would save it," and recounted his own college days. While I cannot deny that tuition has increased under Governor Doyle, I also cannot deny that Doyle has shrunk the deficit considerably. When I asked, "well, what would you cut to balance the budget," Green slipped up and said "nothing needs to be cut." He later commented that he would cut state funding for people in rehabilitation programs to attend college and that all non-teaching jobs in the UW system need to face the chopping block. This would mean cutting the very jobs that support students and enrich campus life. I felt like asking him if his comments would mean that he would be vetoing bills proposed by Republicans in the State Assembly and Senate, but I didn't have the heart to debate a man who appeared to have a sudden case of dry eye. I do hope that he gets over his blinking problem. It must come and go, since he hardly batted an eye when chit-chatting with well-wishers.

Security scam

This is a letter that was never published in the Daily Tribune, but one that I believe Lincoln High School Principal Gus Mancuso was allowed to screen. I still can't imagine what Editor Mark Treinen's reasoning for allowing Mancuso to read this letter prior to publication would be, but you can see for yourself what I mean:

In April of 2001, on the second anniversary of the Columbine shootings, an incident happened here, in our school district. While the incident did not end in tragedy, it very well could have. The greatest tragedy is that violence in our schools could be prevented if only school administrators took the time to assess what the real cause of such violence is. But instead, we see stop-gap, PR solutions.
When a school shooting happens, and I can tell you that the environment at LHS is rife for this, the geeks or the outsiders are always the ones who get blamed. But have you ever lived life as a geek? Even if you have, you would be out of touch because the situation has only worsened over the years. Not only are you an outcast among your peers, being constantly harassed, taunted and beaten, but you are shunned by most of the teachers and administrators as well. In a middle class community where sports are so prized, because let’s face it, they earn money for the financially strapped schools in a district such as Rapids, you have two school systems: one for the jocks and one for everyone else. To make matters worse, when it comes time to cut co-curriculars, while sports are seldom cut, programs that offered refuge to geeks, such as debate, are.
Instead of punishing bullies who are often popular jocks, school administrators crack down on the geeks, the outsiders, who are the subject of torment. This is often the tipping point that leads to a bloody massacre such as what happened in Littleton, CO.
When I was a student a Lincoln, I was told that I just didn’t have school spirit even though I was an active volunteer in my community, a member of art honor society, debate and forensics. I have written this letter because I have school spirit, and more than that, I happen to love this community… too much to stand by and let it be forever stained with the blood of school children.
I realize that LHS is looking at having security cameras installed. I agree that something needs to be done to heighten security, but installing cameras with visible shields and no one watching the footage during the day will not heighten security but rather only alienate teachers and service workers. When there is a school shooting, and I say when not if because if this administration keeps on this same road that they have been on for the past 17 years this will indeed happen, all of these cameras will prove no use in saving lives and will only provide footage for the nightly news. What a sorry state.
Gus Mancuso used to tell us LHS students every morning over the intercom to make all the right choices. Wisconsin Rapids School Board and LHS administrators need to make the right choices for the district. The district demands a real solution for heightening security, one that is more complex than spending $25,000 of the budget to install cameras that look good on the surface but provide no real protection. Cameras themselves are not a bad idea, but with no one watching them, they are utterly useless. Perhaps the district could save a little money by hiring some of their technically inclined students to install the cameras in exchange for class credit. Perhaps they would save enough money to hire someone to monitor the cameras. But even with someone watching, school violence will not be prevented unless a major paradigm shift occurs.

Since the letter was never published and I was not allowed to speak at a meeting last month, I brought the following questions to the school board on August 8th. I only asked the first six questions aloud and instructed school board members to get back to me on the seventh. The only question that I received an answer to that night was #7, as school board members, Superintendent Dean Ryerson and Gus Mancuso dodged my questions and replied with a familiar line about seven weeks of research. No one backed up any claim with evidence and Jim Geise committed numerous logical fallacies, most troubling of which was his slippery slope that $25,000 is peanuts if lives can be saved (remember, no one answered whether research shows that security cameras save lives or make schools safer, rather emphasis was placed on preventing theft and vandalism). Here are the questions:

To WR School Board and School Administrators

1) Mr. Ryerson mentioned at the last meeting that seven weeks of research was conducted regarding installation of security cameras at LHS, but was any research conducted to see whether or not security cameras actually make schools safer?
2) Has the School Board and LHS School Administration considered saving money by hiring some of your more technically inclined students to install cameras and/or software? If you are concerned with students using the system, you could hire only second semester seniors to work on this project in exchange for class credit.
3) If the camera footage is on a Web site or an FTP (file transfer protocol) site, couldn’t it be easily hacked into?
4) If the cameras have visible shields, wouldn’t that make them easy targets for destruction, particularly if there was a school shooting?
5) Have other means of making the school a more secure environment been explored by the district? If so, what are they?
6) How will a swipe card system enhance the security of LHS? Aside from the cost of the (I’m assuming Kronos) system, what will the cost of installation and upkeep be? What will be the cost for the replacement of lost or stolen swipe cards?
7) If debate was cut from the co-curricular budget because it was “basically the same” as forensics, why hasn’t cross country been cut when it is basically the same as track?

Musings

Greetings from Lolo:

I am a first time ever blogger so will keep this short until I get the hang of it.

My musings lately have been mostly about 2 subjects: The first is the Karl "Rovegate" affair. I, of course, would like to see him fired, but more importantly, I would like the media to again focus more on how the outing of Valerie Plame has actually changed her life and work, and how it affects not only our national security but also how the whole affair affects our trust in our administration and how it refllects on and relates to the Downing Memo and our trumped up reasons for going to war in Iraq. For several days, the media did an excellent job of reporting on this; however, I have seen little or nothing in the news lately about this subject.

The second subject is the war itself. Not only are the insurgents becoming more numerous and more sophisticated in their use of weaponry and choice of victims, but also they are becoming so bold as to actually kidnap the mayor of Bagdad yesterday and replace him with a militant Shiite fundamentalist. I think it is time we put our energies into bringing a close this ill-conceived and terribly mismanaged preemtive war.

Blog How-to

In response to the Web site survey I emailed, I have seen a couple of common threads: 1) that events and meeting information is found to be the most useful feature of woodcodems.com for our members and 2) the blog needs to be more "user-friendly." Since this is a free service offered through blogspot.com, there is nothing I can offer to change the format of this blog (other than to change some of the visual aspects), but I can, given a suggestion from one of our members, offer a how-to for people who wish to post on the blog.
You can post, even anonymously, by clicking on comments in the lower right bottom corner of each post.
In order to start a new thread, you must be invited to the blog. If you wish to be invited, email me at jenjen76@charter.net. Once invited, you will receive an email from Blogger Invites. Follow the link in the email. When you get to the Blogger screen, scroll down and click on the "Create an Account" button. Choose a username and password for the account and you are on your way.
To post, just login (if you are on a private computer, you can click on the box where it says "remember me").
Once you are signed in, you will arrive at the "dashboard." Click on "new post" and type away. When you are done, hit submit.

War crimes and misdemeanors

Whether or not Guantanamo Bay is a "Gulag of our times" as the non-partisan and globally respected organization Amnesty International has labeled it, the facility and the atrocities that have taken place on this compound are far from model behavior. (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/01/1441204)
There was a time in the history of this country where the phrase "military intelligence" was not an oxymoron. There was a time when the United States treated war prisoners in a humane manner because it was thought, quite rationally, that if you treat your prisoners well then the enemy would be more likely to treat your men well if they were captured. But gone are those days of common sense. Every beheading, every act of torture done to one of our service men and women, aid workers and contractors is directly related to the atrocities at such facilities as Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. That bit of wisdom that our armed forces used to practice, do unto others, has proven true. That is the part of the story that people dare talk about. (http://www.progressive.org/july05/roth0705.php) But the story about Amnesty International's charges, including the evidence that they built their claim on, is not covered in the mainstream media, so please read the stories I have linked you to.
I think you will be convinced, given the mounting evidence, that we need an independent council to look into this.

Conservative = Conformity

Identify the red nemesis! Yes, the Republican party under the leadership of Bush and his corporate contributors is showing its true stripes of Parastroika with their big government shenanigans. Uniformity reigns supreme as every town comes equipped with one media monopoly that includes TV, radio, print, cable and Internet access, one gigantic blue box for all your shopping needs--Wal-mart--and a handful of big restaurants where you better like the crap they are serving because there is no other choice until you hit the border!
Enough people have falsely compared Bush to Hitler. He is not like Hitler... he is like Stalin, a man who sentenced his own people to death (see Bush's gubernatorial record in the state of Texas). Stalin. Bush. Each man has taken a fairly decent form of government, and through his abuse of power, corrupted it so that it will never again be recognized as a positive force in global politics. Each man has committed atrocities that have served to destroy the credibility of his political party. Our mission is to make this known.
Identify the red nemesis! Dig out that "Better dead than Red" button and let the world know who the real enemy is.

Post your comments

Post your comments, links to stories and letters here as replies to this blog. If you would like to post independently, please email me at jenjen76@charter.net and I will send you an invitation to the blog.

Silly politicians, the First Amendment is for individuals

As I head off to St. Louis for the Free Press Conference, I look forward to meeting George Lakoff, a person who knows how important language is when it comes to politics. Sadly, many prominent elected officials, including Democrats, do not.
Case in point, the argument that by placing limits on pharmaceutical advertisements would be a violation of the First Amendment. Now, you can call me crazy, but I really don't think that our founding fathers wrote the First Amendment with corporations in mind. While individuals and members of the press are guaranteed freedom of speech, corporations should be held responsible for the content in their advertisements. Ads depicting people who are unnaturally happy to promote drugs with, often, life-threatening side effects, is down right unethical. When people began to wise up to similar advertisements, cigarette ads in the 1970s, the ads were banned from finite media (radio and television). Now, I'm not saying to ban all pharmaceutical ads, just those on television. Despite the hushed or microscopic (when in print) disclaimers, these ads are still marketing potentially harmful substances. Aside from that, these ads are so much more damaging to the health of our country because they contribute to the sky-rocketing costs of all medications. Because this is a unique situation and because there is infinite media (online and print), we as a nation really need to limit the content of advertising on finite media. Therefore, it is not a violation of First Amendment rights to ban pharmaceutical ads from television.
Remind your politicians of this.

Brother Warner

Ok, if you are like me you contribute to a number of different opinion polls, get at least a dozen emails from Democratic organizations each day and have noticed the name Mark Warner dropped throughout. So, who is this Mark Warner dude and why would he be a reasonable contender for the presidency in '08? He is the Governor of Virginia who has bipartisan appeal (very Clintonesque). You can learn more about him here http://www.governor.virginia.gov/Governor/GovBioHome.html

When you drive with Mid-East oil, you ride with bin Laden

When it comes to wars waged in the Mid-East, oil is thicker than blood. Therefore, one of the simplist and most effective ways to counteract terrorism and prevent war is to eliminate our dependency on foreign oil. While our federal government funds stop-gap solutions such as researching hydrogen-power-cells (which would only provide a means of storing power generated from other Mid-East commodities like natural gas), the development of biodiesel, a real answer to our environmental and economic woes as well as the surest way to end our cycle of Mid-East oil addiction, is largely ignored. So, what can we do? First, learn more about biodiesel at http://www.biodiesel.org/ Second, contact your legistators about supporting biodiesel research. Third, support only those gas stations that do not import Mid-East oil. They are:
Citgo, Sunoco, Conoco, Sinclair and BP/Phillips.