Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Tonight on Indecision 2006

Battlefield Ohio:

The Daily Show -- John Mueller, Ohio State University professor and author "Overblown"

The Colbert Report -- Tim Robbins, actor, "Catch a Fire"

Monday, October 30, 2006

Tonight on Indecision 2006

THE DAILY SHOW
LeBron James -- NBA basketball player, Cleveland Cavaliers

THE COLBERT REPORT
Barry Manilow -- Musician, Emmy winner

Sunday, October 29, 2006

The Election Kendallian is Now Online

You can now view our updated website featuring great election information, new photos, and much more! Click here.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Shut up and sing!


Dixie Chicks won't get ad time on NBC. Watch the trailer and support the Dixie Chicks. Tell NBC they are wrong. Then go see the movie, if it's shown in our area. If not, perhaps we can arrange a screening in Boerne.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

What Has America Become?

The late Pat Tillman's birthday will be November 6, the day before the election. His brother, Kevin, has written a very moving article about the loss of his brother and the loss of our country. He concludes with the words, "Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday."
Maybe I'm unnecessarily worried about past voting frauds, the loss of habeas corpus and hackable voting machines. I can only say, "we'll see".

Monday, October 23, 2006

Oh wait, we never said stay the course!

Read it here Tony Snow and the Bush Co. try to convince us that they never said "stay the cours." What, were we hallucinating? There is a ton of videotape to prove what they said. How in the hell can they deny it?
Oh, wait, if they say it often enough the moronic American public will believe it...or NOT! We really aren't that stupid and cowed...at least half of us, anyway.
Wake your brothers and sisters and vote against the idiots, TODAY!

End run around the chain of command

Monday, October 23, 2006
Active troops ask congress to end Iraqi occupation
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sixty five active duty service members are officially asking Congress to end the war in Iraq -- the first time active troops have done so since U.S. invasion began in 2003.

Three of the service members will hold a press conference Wednesday explaining their decision to send "Appeals for Redress" under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to their members of Congress. Under the act, National Guard and Reservists can send communications about any subject to their member of Congress without punishment.

-CNN


GO TROOPS GO! Sanity might prevail....eventually. Of course, after the Republicans have eviscerated any care for Veterans..shame on them.

They keep forgetting about the videotape!

The Repugs just don't get it that we have a memory and we also have videotape! Can you believe this malarkey about how the prez is not a "stay the course" kinda guy? For cryin' out loud! See the transcript of today's press briefing.

This Week on the Daily Show

REPEAT EPISODES:

Mon. 10/23 -- David Cross -- Comedian & actor, "Freak Show"

Tues. 10/24 -- James Baker -- Former US Secretary of State & author,
"Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics"

Wed. 10/25 -- Lou Dobbs -- Anchor of CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" & author, "War on the Middle Class"

Thur. 10/26 -- David Mark -- Author, "Going Dirty"

This Week on the Colbert Report

REPEAT EPISODES:

Mon 10/23 -- Ariel Levy -- Author, "Female Chauvinist Pigs"

Tue 10/24 -- Randy Newman -- Musician

Wed 10/25 -- George Lucas -- Filmmaker

Thu 10/26 -- Brian Schweitzer -- Governor of Montana

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Unauthorized Autobiography of G.W. Bush

Destined for Destiny: The Unauthorized Autobiography of George W. Bush has recently been published. The book was written by Scott Dikkers, editor-in-chief of the Onion and Peter Hilleren, a former producer for public radio. I suspect this is a parody, although I understand Norm Ornstein does not, having written a serious denial in the National Journal. I can offer no link to the Journal article and have no proof of this denial.
Author Dikkers reports “It was an honor to work with the President on this project. He has been a hero and a role model of mine since Mission Accomplished Day.” Hilleren adds, “The President’s achievement of finishing this book with us is doubly impressive when you consider that he has never actually read one.”
Parody? Your guess is as good as mine.

Early Voting Begins

Go to this website to learn more about how to participate in early voting in Kendall County.

VOTE VOTE VOTE! It's more important than it's ever been! Please perform your civic duties and participate in our democracy before it's completely gone.

If you need a ride, or any type of help in voting, just email us at kendallcountydems@yahoo.com.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Can I just say I'm sorry?

I feel terrible that I haven't done a better job with the blog lately. I won't go into all the excuses, but some of them are quite legitimate.

I just wanted to report that Bill Maher's closing monologue last night was really good! If you have a chance to the see the repeat please do.

Also, Keith Olbermann is doing more and more special comments at the end of his show, and they can get viewers riled up about the sorry state of affairs.

Please don't forget The Daily Show and The Colbert Report as well.

All of these shows are doing a great job in getting out the message that the current Republican party is despicable. Please watch and stay informed.

Monday, October 16, 2006

This Week on the Daily Show

Mon. 10/16 -- Frank Rich -- New York Times columnist, author of "The Greatest Story Ever Sold"

Tues. 10/17 -- Amy Sedaris -- Actress, comedian and author of "I Like You"

Wed. 10/18 -- John Ashcroft -- Former US Attorney General, author of "Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice"

Thur. 10/19 -- Kirsten Dunst -- Actress, "Marie Antoinette"

This Week on the Colbert Report

Mon 10/16 -- Barry Scheck -- The Innocence Project

Tue 10/17 -- Richard Dawkins -- Author, "The God Delusion"

Wed 10/18 -- Deepak Chopra -- Author, "Life After Death"

Thu 10/19 -- Dr. Peter Agre -- Nobel Prize winner

The Daily Show Is No Joke

A study at Indiana University concludes that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart contains as much substantial news as the network news shows. The Express-News editorial claims that this is "a sign that news has been trivialized to the point that a comedy show seems as authoritative as more "legitimate" news programs".

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Moses and God on minimum wage

Full story

Transcript of Colorado ad against amendment 42, you won't believe it!



MOSES: Hello!

GOD: Can you hear me now?

MOSES: We need divine intervention. They want to chisel Amendment 42 into Colorado’s constitution where it doesn’t belong.

GOD: What on earth are you talking about?

MOSES: An annual minimum wage increase in stone for eternity!

GOD: When inflation and recession come, it will be a catastrophe!

MOSES: It’s a plague we’ll face every year.

GOD: We can’t let the people make this mistake. Go. Spread the word. Vote no on 42!


And here are some of the best posts:

1. All I can think of is Mel Brooks’s Moses having to modify his statement from 15 to 10 commandments upon dropping one of the tablets and breaking it…

Why are there pedaphile Republicans in congress?


2. Jesus himself would vote for an increase in the minimum wage. The only folks who would not want the minimum wage increased are the greedy corporate types who would like all of us to work for $1.00 a day.

I guess that would be most, if not all, of the Bush crowd.

3, There oughta be an eleventh commandment:
Thou shalt pay a living wage

Clinton: voters know something is wrong

By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 14, 11:00 PM ET

DES MOINES, Iowa - Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday that voters "know something is wrong" in Washington and urged Democrats to create change in the November elections.

"I have never seen the American people so serious," said Clinton. "I think I know why. People know things are out of whack. The rhythm of our public life and our common life in America has been disturbed."
Clinton urged activists to focus on the midterm election.

"People are sick of partisanship, they are sick of gridlock and they are coming to us in droves," said Clinton. "People know something is wrong and they want to change."

Clinton called the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress "unprecedentedly unaccountable" and said tax cuts for the rich have led to huge deficits.

link

My opinion: Let us all get out there and help get voters out in big numbers! We can call voters right from home, easy as pie.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Economically, Blue is Green

We all know how much better the economy was when Bill Clinton was president. Now an investment company will try to prove that blue companies are better for investors. The Blue Fund has chosen socially responsible companies that will appeal to Democrats. They have made sure the political action committees and three top executives of the selected companies have been primarily blue donors. The companies must also "measure up on issues like environmental sustainability, respect for human rights, fair treatment of employees, and diversity". You will find a link to a complete list of all qualifying companies in the Slate article.
These days, not many of us extra money available. But the Blue Fund sounds like a good investment for those who do.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Tonight on the Daily Show

Lou Dobbs, author "War on the Middle Class"

What in the World Does Habeus Corpus Have To Do With You?



Leave it to Keith Olbermann to turn that which is obscure and hard to understand, to clear and pertinent to your life. In this piece from his show, he lays it out creatively and succinctly. He also puts his concept into a larger setting, which is our Constitution, the metaphorical sun which around all in our political and personal lives revolve.

This is important stuff. Olbermann shows how this administration isn't just whittling away rights that Americans have had for more than 200 years. Whittling suggests a fine tuning or an artful carving. What's going on has a lot more to do with steamrollers and bulldozers.

Please take the time to watch it.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Tonight on the Daily Show

David Cross -- actor "Freak Show"

The World League of Despots

Tongue in cheek letter to George Bush invites him to join league of despots. Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, lists all the reasons our president is qualified to become a member of the World League of Despots. The reasons are true and not at all funny, but the invitation is a bit of much needed humor in a depressing world.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Tonight on the Daily Show

James Baker -- author "'Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics!': Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life"

This Week on the Colbert Report

Mon 10/9 -- Randy Newman -- musician

Tue 10/10 -- Ariel Levy -- author, Female Chauvinist Pigs

Wed 10/11 -- Andrew Sullivan -- author, The Conservative Soul

Thu 10/12 -- Larry Miller -- actor and author, Spoiled Rotten America

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Democratic Headquarters

Hey! Don't forget to stop by your local Democratic Headquarters! Meet others whose feelings and opinions are similar to your own. Also, get lots of good information about all the candidates you'll be seeing on the ballot in November. The headquarters are located at the corner of Lohmann and Main St. in Boerne. There are no Sunday hours at this time.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Vote Democratic and Always Carry a Toothbrush

Another great article! The title says it all, I think. For more than a year I have been joking with my family and friends that if I don't come home from a peace march or other demonstration they should assume I have been "disappeared" to Gitmo.

By Dave Lindorff
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Wednesday 04 October 2006

I've decided to start carrying a toothbrush.

Incredibly, we've reached that point in America where, thanks to a bunch of spineless traitors in Congress (Republicans and Democrats), it is only a matter of time before the state begins rounding up people like me and whisking us off to dark cells without telling anyone.

Congress, with almost no discussion, has just approved a law ostensibly about authorizing military tribunals for alleged terrorists, which actually went way beyond that bad enough end run on the Constitution to include giving the president the Congressional sanction to torture captives and, as well, the power to snatch up any American citizen and declare her or him to be an "unlawful combatant," devoid of Constitutional rights.

Such a victim of presidential whim or pique could be shuttled off to a gulag anywhere in the world, or to Guantanamo Bay, or to a military installation somewhere in the US. Nobody, not even family members, would have to be notified of this capture and detention. No lawyer would be called.

This, sad to say, is America today, courtesy of your elected representatives, a majority of whom have violated their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. Our nation has become a place that the revolutionists of 1776 would easily recognize, not as the country they brought into being, but rather as a reprise of the tyrannical colonial British rule that they struggled to break free from.

Under the guidelines President Bush is using for the made-up term "unlawful combatant," anyone who is said to be giving aid to terrorists (a very slippery term itself, which has been used to describe everyone from a lone bomber to the elected presidents of Iran and Venezuela) could be subjected to secret, indefinite detention without charge, and to torture as well.

Such "aid" could be an innocent donation of money to a charity that, unknown to the donor, turned out to somehow be providing funds to an organization associated with a terrorist organization. A Christian charity that donates some of its funds to an Iranian state orphanage might easily if inadvertently fit that bill. Writing an article critical of the Bush administration's hoked up "war" on terror (like this one here), could qualify the author for arrest, too. Certainly a piece I wrote for The Nation's online edition last week, disclosing that the Bush administration had pushed forward deployment to the Iran Theater of an aircraft carrier battle group by a month in preparation for a probable attack on Iran before Election Day, could pass the terrorist-aid test.

Likewise, a report by Time Magazine reporters the same week, revealing that Navy personnel had received "prepare to deploy" orders to be ready to sail a fleet of minesweepers to the Persian Gulf on October 1, also in preparation for war against Iran.

Once Bush begins really using his new gift from Congress of dictatorial powers of arrest without charge and detention without trial, the brigs of the country's military bases will begin to fill with journalists, anti-war activists and little old ladies who gave to the wrong charity.

Make no mistake. This is going to happen unless this catastrophic sell-out bill passed into law by Congress is repealed or declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, because history has made it crystal clear that powers made available are powers used.

Fatal Vision: The Deeper Evil Behind the Detainee Bill

What a truly excellent piece. It is well worth reading in its entirety.

By Chris Floyd, TO UK Correspondent
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 02 October 2006

There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country - if the people lose their confidence in themselves - and lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
- Walt Whitman

It was a dark hour indeed on Thursday when the United States Senate voted to end the constitutional republic and transform the country into a "Leader-State," giving the president and his agents the power to capture, torture and imprison forever anyone - American citizens included - whom they arbitrarily decide is an "enemy combatant." This also includes those who merely give "terrorism" some kind of "support," defined so vaguely that many experts say it could encompass legal advice, innocent gifts to charities or even political opposition to US government policy within its draconian strictures.

All of this is bad enough - a sickening and cowardly surrender of liberty not seen in a major Western democracy since the Enabling Act passed by the German Reichstag in March 1933. But it is by no means the full extent of our degradation. In reality, the darkness is deeper, and more foul, than most people imagine. For in addition to the dictatorial powers of seizure and torment given by Congress on Thursday to George W. Bush - powers he had already seized and exercised for five years anyway, even without this fig leaf of sham legality - there is a far more sinister imperial right that Bush has claimed - and used - openly, without any demur or debate from Congress at all: ordering the "extrajudicial killing" of anyone on earth that he and his deputies decide - arbitrarily, without charges, court hearing, formal evidence, or appeal - is an "enemy combatant."

That's right; from the earliest days of the Terror War - September 17, 2001, to be exact - Bush has claimed the peremptory power of life and death over the entire world. If he says you're an enemy of America, you are. If he wants to imprison you and torture you, he can. And if he decides you should die, he'll kill you. This is not hyperbole, liberal paranoia, or "conspiracy theory": it's simply a fact, reported by the mainstream media, attested by senior administration figures, recorded in official government documents - and boasted about by the president himself, in front of Congress and a national television audience.

full article

Monday, October 02, 2006

This Week on the Daily Show

Mon. 10/2 Trent Lott -- Senator, R-MS

Tues. 10/3 -- Dennis Miller -- FOX News Contributor

Wed. 10/4 -- Ian Bremmer -- Author, "The J Curve"

Thur. 10/5 -- David Rakoff -- Author, "Don't Get Too Comfortable"

This Week on the Colbert Report

Mon 10/2 -- Michael Lewis -- author, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Tue 10/3 -- Andy Stern -- auther, A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track

Wed 10/4 -- Senator Byron Dorgan -- auther, Take This Job and Ship It

Thu 10/5 -- Amy Goodman -- Democracy Now!

Sunday, October 01, 2006

What a week!

Our nation now allows torture, and repealed habeas corpus rights.
Torture bill Did you hear anything about this on the talking head shows today? Nope. Not a peep. See, you don't educate people about the consitution and they won't know when their rights are being taken away. Add more TAKS tests! Teach less!

Sen. Foley was noted as being "overly friendly" to teenage aides. But worse yet, Speaker Hastert and several GOP leaders KNEW about this for months!

Then the morons vote to build a fence along the Mexican border! Oh man we must be afraid, very afraid of the brown people...oh also the Muslim people, and people who look middle eastern. Never mind the fact that all Muslims are not middle eastern.

Those Mexicans are taking our jobs and using our emergency rooms, blah, blah, and more bullshit. On which border did we catch a terrorist suspect with explosives in his vehicle? It wasn't Mexico! But, are Canadian brethern are seen as all white folks (erroneously), and so they are ok, they only take skilled jobs here and best of all they speak English. Yes, this is what I hear at work from my right wing co-workers who have drunk the Kool aid and worship at Bush the cult leader's feet.

I think I need to go bury my head in an Elizabeth Peters novel, and give my brain a break! This has to be how it happened in Germany...people just did not pay attention or were too afraid to speak up. Where in the hell are we going? It can't be good.

No matter what happens...

No matter what happens in November, we can rest assured the Republican party is like a decaying corpse at a funeral. It may look good on the outside, but it's rotting and crumbling on the inside. These a-holes are fraught with corruption, pedophilia, fanaticism, racism, homophobia, and a plethora of other "sleazy" attributes. We are the party of the people and we always will be. Again, no matter what happens in November--and boy, am I optimistic--we know we're fighting the good fight and we will be proven right. History will be on our side!