Habitus

Even though the earth has limited resources, there is enough for the current population to have enough to eat and a place to live - but only if those who have way more than enough reduce their consumption and share with those who don't have the basics.

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss

Is it just for fun, or do you take it seriously? How long have you been reading tea leaves?

Many people I've met from other countries are amazed at how 'afraid' North Americans are to just talk with each other about political issues. In many other countries people meet after work and talk and argue and debate and then go home friends and do it again on other nights. In the U.S. people seem to act as though debating is dangerous to people's friendships or acquaintanceships. People seem to be less able to avoid hard feelings if they express different opinions about issues. Why is that do you think? Why are we so afraid of just talking and talking and talking openly with people we don't agree with?

Commerce, Treasury Funds Helped Boost GOP Campaigns

By Marisa Taylor and Kevin G. Hall

McClatchy Newspapers

Friday 17 August 2007

Washington - Top Commerce and Treasury Departments officials appeared with Republican candidates and doled out millions in federal money in battleground congressional districts and states after receiving White House political briefings detailing GOP election strategy.

Political appointees in the Treasury Department received at least 10 political briefings from July 2001 to August 2006, officials familiar with the meetings said. Their counterparts at the Commerce Department received at least four briefings - all in the election years of 2002, 2004 and 2006.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the White House's political briefings to at least 15 agencies, including to the Justice Department, the General Services Administration and the State Department, violated a ban on the use of government resources for campaign activities.

Under the Hatch Act, Cabinet members are permitted to attend political briefings and appear with members of Congress. But Cabinet members and other political appointees aren't permitted to spend taxpayer money with the aim of benefiting candidates.

During the briefings at Treasury and Commerce, then-Bush administration political director Ken Mehlman and other White House aides detailed competitive congressional districts, battleground election states and key media markets and outlined GOP strategy for getting out the vote.

Commerce and Treasury political appointees later made numerous public appearances and grant announcements that often correlated with GOP interests, according to a review of the events by McClatchy Newspapers. The pattern raises the possibility that the events were arranged with the White House's political guidance in mind.

I think I'd like to look more like my maternal grandfather because of his strong face and his mass of thick white hair.

I'm clueless about car engines, I know that.

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/cheneyvideo.html?r=2...

Cheney outlined in 1994 all the reasons it was not going to work to go into Iraq and take over. And his predictions were exactly what happened since the U.S. went in.

Bush, Congress Could Collide on Iran

By Matt Stearns

McClatchy Newspapers

Friday 10 August 2007

Washington - Taking military action against Iran could put President Bush on a collision course with Congress, leading Democrats and a Republican lawmaker cautioned Friday following Bush's threat of unspecified consequences for alleged Iranian meddling in Iraq.

It's been the consensus for months among the Democrats who hold the majority that Bush must get congressional authorization before any military strike.

But the authorization would be no easy sell. Two knowledgeable U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because intelligence on Iran is highly classified, said that the administration so far doesn't have "smoking-gun" evidence that could be used publicly to justify an air attack.

In America, the top one-tenth of one percent of earners makes about the same money per year collectively as the millions of Americans in the bottom fifty percent combined. This is putting a tight squeeze on the middle class, while leaving millions of others in the cold.

Do our beliefs make this seem acceptable? Is it really acceptable? Are there extremes neoliberal capitalism that are as damaging as extremes of state-enforced communism?

Just feeling frustrated about the same old talk and non solutions.

So just throwing something odd ball out there.

I mean the furry dirt digging moles and the human information seeking moles.

I'm just tired of all of this 'intrigue' and 'secrecy'.