Apollo Alliance : The Resurgence of Movement Politics:

"Right now, America is being held hostage by one very conservative movement, and there is not an equally strong alternative force to counter it. That means there is a genuine thirst in our country for a new grassroots political movement that doesn't use divisive social issues to pursue an elitist's economic agenda, but uses unifying economic issues to pursue truly populist policies. It is time for the critical pieces of the progressive coalition to reconnect with our movement history, to become comfortable embracing an ideological agenda and to focus on true grassroots progress, even if it means angering politicians from one party or another. Because the hard truth is this: We can only win with an ideological movement that captures Americans' hearts and minds, and we will never win if we just put our thumbs to the wind and pander for votes every four years."

Apollo Alliance : Bush's Waterlogged Halo: "If Mr. Bush wants to make anything of his second term, he'll have to do his own Nixon-to-China turnaround, reframe the debate and recast the priorities of his presidency. He seems to think that by offering to spend billions of dollars to rebuild one city, New Orleans, he'll get his leadership halo back. Wrong. Just throwing more borrowed money at New Orleans is not leadership. Mr. Bush needs to frame a new agenda for rebuilding all our cities and strengthening the nation as a whole. And what should be the centerpiece of a policy of American renewal is blindingly obvious: making a quest for energy independence the moon shot of our generation."

i saw ted koppel today.

Rita Upgraded to 'Monster' Category 5 Hurricane:

"'We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm but we got to be ready for the worst,' Bush said in his speech to the Jewish group."

He certainly has a way with words.

Jon Udell: Accelerating Change 2005: "Vinge distinguishes between two scenarios he calls 'soft take-off' and 'hard take-off.' In a soft take-off, the singularity occurs gradually enough so that humanity has a chance to adjust to the changes. This, everyone agreed, is what we want. A hard take-off, by contrast, is a near-instantaneous and cataclysmic event, like Vonnegut's ice-nine or the awakening of SkyNet in Terminator. This, everyone agreed, is what we probably don't want -- not that we'll have a choice, mind you. In either case, life on the other side will make no sense to beings left behind. If you were to bring Mark Twain forward from the mid-1800s to the present day, Vinge said, you could explain the current situation to him in an afternoon, and he'd very much enjoy what he would learn. But nothing at all could be made intelligible to a goldfish. That's us: just goldfish to the post-human super-intelligences."

i thought george's speech last night was one of his better performances. to hear him utter the word poverty surprised me a bit. he spoke of grand ambitions, yet failed to mention where the money would come from. too bad he's allowed our deficit and debt to soar to historic numbers due to his irresponsible tax breaks and misguided war in iraq. remember when he arrived in office in 2001 with a $2 trillion surplus? too bad we hadn't fixed social security and dealt with our nation's poverty then.

AlterNet: Post-Katrina Talking Points: "Did the Dems learn nothing from 2004? Bush won because he had a double-digit lead on the question of who was going to keep us safer. Well, Katrina shoots that idea straight to hell, doesn't it? And Democrats should make clear once and for all just how illusory the president's purported strength, leadership, and steely-eyed resolve really are."

AlterNet: Post-Katrina Talking Points

In a stinging Wall Street Journal analysis of the administration's lethally slow response, the first two reasons given for "why the U.S. didn't adequately protect and rescue its citizens" were, 1) "the absorption of FEMA into the gargantuan -- and terrorism-focused -- Department of Homeland Security"; and 2) "a military stretched by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which made commanders reluctant to commit active-duty units nearby."

AlterNet: Start Making Sense: Start Making Sense: How To Talk To America

i originally posted a link to this article on 6/7/2005:

"We are living in the good old days. The century defining crises have yet to hit. The energy crunch, peak oil has yet to hit. The globalization; China, India coming on line and finally being able to come into their own; that has not yet hit and affected our economy. Global warming hasn't hit. The massive species extinctions haven't hit. We are in the good old days. Whatever movement prepares itself now not to protest but to govern. [Applause.] A movement that prepares itself to govern a broken country, a hurt country, a country that needs solutions, not issues, not critiques, not complaints, not kvetches but the country that needs strong people who are willing to take responsibility and bring forth solutions. That movement will be welcomed, beloved, accepted, celebrated and lauded at Thanksgiving tables in blue states and red states."

so the bush administration is now asking people to not take photos of the dead in new orleans. they claim that this out of respect for the dead. when eisenhower went to europe after wwii to inspect the concentration camps, he took camera crews with him so that generations later germans couldn't deny what had happened.

it seems to me that asking people not to take photos of the dead in new orleans is disrespectful. the bush administration is seeking to minimize the photographic record so that 20 years from now the atrocities of new orleans can be minimized. taking pictures of those who died ensures that americans will not forget what happened for decades to come.

Deeply difficult times for the Big Easy | Economist.com

so what affect did US involvement abroad have on the hurricane evacuation?

United for Peace:�September Mobilization

saturday sept. 24

march on washington

welcome everyone as i endeavor to expand this little project.

so far so good.

We are now posting from

We are now posting from cell phone text msgs.

Hi

Hi

is it just me or is george's response to everything:

"a lotta people doin' a lotta hard work"