Political Corruption - Republican mostly

AAR's Rachel Maddow got me on a roll today, checking out former GOP Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and others (mostly all Republican -- surprise, surprise!). You might be interested in surveying some of the blatant and rampant political corruption that gets little play in the rightist corporate media. (And no, the Democrats did NOT get money from Jack Abramoff.>

See Grand Old Docket -- http://talkingpointsmemo.com/grandolddocket.php

Also, as Rachel noted, at >http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007709.php Josh Michah Marshall details Duke Cunningham at length and he links to a 35 page sentencing memo. He gives some highlights but Rachel also mentioned that Duke had printed on Congressional letterhead potential bribes and the stuff you could get for it.

Cunningham pled guilty and is awaiting sentencing. They are asking ten years for tens of millions of dollars of bribes. Meanwhile, thanks to Rockefeller drug laws, there are people serving in New York State prisons fifteen and twenty year sentences for possessing a few ounces of weed. Hmmmmm. White collar crime pays more and demands less in sentencing if you are caught. And if you can hide your criminal activities under secret wraps, the gray laws will protect you. If the administration can't release secret documents you have requested for your prosecution, you can, like Oliver North, get off Scot-free. Ah, justice.

If you want to catch Rachel Maddow's show, it will be posted soon (by 11 AM) and you can stream it for free until the next show is posted at maddowonline.com.

Peace Hugs!
Kate Anne

Sherrod Brown - Paul Hackett: the Ohio Story (& NY??)

As a former Ohioan, I've been following the Sherrod Brown - Paul Hackett Democratic primary race for the US Senate. God knows we need good people of peace in the Senate (and everywhere else). That said, I'm not sure how peaceful former militaryman Hackett really is, especially given his dubious comments following withdrawal from the campaign. David Sirota, who had added previously to my discomfort with Hackett, has posted a rundown on a Cleveland Plain Dealer Story, which basically said MONEY played a big factor in Hackett's leaving the race.

Meanwhile, we may have to work to appease some of the webloggers who feel more betrayed -- perhaps because their truth isn't our truth. I attemped to post something at Get Rid of the DLC and we will see if the moderator chooses to release it, but I am posting it here as it shows my take on the Brown/Hackett story:

Can't stand the DLC either, but Sherrod Brown is a long time progressive Democrat. I spoke with him one on one during my Ohio days while I was working at the Ashtabula NOW booth at the Ashtabula County Fair. He was proud of his feminist mother and his family's long-time peace advocacy. He has a proven progressive record.

Hackett is the unknwn quantity. Some like his fire-in-the-belly. My personal gut feeling is discomfort with Hackett. Politics involves compromise. Does Paul Hackett understand that?

Thom Hartmann reported his mail was 50/50 split on the Hackett/Brown news BUT Brown was highly favored by those emails from OHIO constituents. Ohio knows Brown is no party hack. The web should embrace Sherrod, and Paul Hackett should run again, IF he hasn't shot himself in the foot by shooting off his mouth. His post-withdrawal comments confirm my gut-feeling. He's not ready for the Senate -- he does not have the necessary diplomacy and savoire faire.

I want more men and women of peace in office. All this flirtation with former military men campaigning makes this peace and justice activist uncomfortable indeed. Unless they are from the Major General Smedley Butler school and loudly proclaim, "War is a Racket", they must be looked at carefully.

That said, The Christian Progressive Liberal who writes Get Rid of the DLC posts some pretty good stuff. But I question her basic underlying comment beneath her blog title, "THE DLC STANDS FOR: DELUSIONAL group who LOSES CONSISTENTLY. SO, THEY NEED TO GO!" It is not their losing that bothers me so much as their corporatist policies. We don't need Republican-lite. We need real Dems who espouse to traditional Democratic values to win: pro-labor, pro-peace, pro-healthcare, pro-working family. Hillary Clinton screwed up her husband's attempt to get some relevant US healthcare established because she bowed to the insurance companies and then they still weren't happy. What do we expect of a DLC Democrat who served on Wal-Mart's board? While I hope and pray Sherrod's campaign recovers from the wounds Hackett's graceless withdrawal have made, I look forward in New York to hearing more from Hillary Clinton's senate primary rival Jon Tasini, scheduled to be at the Monday, Feb. 27th meeting of the newly forming PDA NY Metro group: 6:30 to 8:30 PM at SEIU, Local 1199, 310 West 43 St., Auditorium, A Floor, Manhattan.

So much work to be done for Peace and Justice -- in Ohio and in NewYork, indeed EVERYWHERE. Energy!

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Clip Cheney's Wings

Besides the questionable time (around 5? - probably too dark) and the drinking thing (with Cheney mixing himself a cover-up cocktail immediately after the shoot), what is really annoying is what is being suggested about the quails themselves, being farm quail with wings clipped. Ah such sportsmanship! The man is a killer! (You can google and see an article on Cheney's Canned Kill on the HSUS.org's website about a 2003 pheasant shoot with pen-raised Pennsylvania pheasants being slaughtered -- Cheney killing 70 of 'em in one day!) Cheney should get HIS wing's clipped.

That said, thanks to Reidreport.com's juicecast, there is the original Quail Hunter's Rhapsody to enjoy at http://www.reidreport.com/juicecaster/juicecast.php?id=720

Ah Cheney, who shoots pheasants, quail, Texans, and CIA careers -- don't forget Valerie Plame and the Cheney/Rove conspiracy! And will he get away with some/all of it? Keep speaking out.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Busy Winter Weekend

Despite the snow, I was busy with peace and justice events. Sr. Anne Montgomery and Arun Gupta in the afternoon with Sunnyside Woodside Peace at All Saints' Church and a little later with a lot of fine people (including Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, Congressmember Anthony Weiner, and my favorite State Senator John Sabini) at Queen's Winter Pride, where my friend and neighbor Jimmy Van Bramer was honored with an award for outstanding community service. Jimmy and Dan drove me home while the snow amounted to only a couple of inches. Then came the record breaking snowfall -- 26.9 inches in Central Park, but slightly less, though plenty, in Sunnyside (knee-high).

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Contact Shoot-from-the-hip Mayor Bloomberg

Click on the above link to leave your thoughts for NYC's Mayor Bloomberg. Spotting an employee playing a video solitaire game, he fired him. For the full story, check out the NY Times article. But, this is what I wrote the mayor:

I am outraged at your heartless treatment of a worker callously fired because he had taken a break and was playing a video solitaire game on his work computer -- summarily, without consideration of his overall work record. If one plays games repeatedly instead of working, that is one thing, but such games can be a way to unwind and refresh so one can return to work and work better and more effectively. Some people go get a glass of water, chat with a colleague, call a spouse, say a prayer. Are you going to fire them too? I strongly urge you to revisit your decision in light of the employee's overall record and work habits.

I wonder if he would have fired someone checking his stocks on a work computer? Hey, breaks are necessary part of work life and the mayor is guilty of extreme over reaction. Will he reconsider and rehire Edward Greenwood IX? If not, I would say so much for Mayor Bloomberg being more like a Democrat -- I say this action puts him in good standing with the unfeeling Repugs.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

State of the Union? Critical

I didn't listen to Bush's State of the Union address. Nope -- I was at the rather vocal World Can't Wait demo, in a pen with hundreds of protestors -- including my friends Gail Harper, Thomas Gallagher, Joan Mendelson, and Colleen Primrose, below Time Square, where fewer tourists could see us, but oh could they hear us! -- with lots of noise and chanting and signs with variations of "Bush Step Down! And take your neo-con cronies with you!"

My sign was pink-rimmed, in honor of my CodePink friends, and simple: Bush Lied, Bush Spied, Bush Must Go.

Not that I could have stomached Bush's speech anyway. I am much better waiting for the critiques. (Too bad the Dems gave such a lack-luster presentation in their follow-up speech -- but at least they got to clap and cheer during Bush's speech when he talked about Congress not passing his Social Security "reform" legislation.)

I would suggest everyone read some alternate speeches and critiques, which include:

• Bush's Simple State of the Union - and the World by David Corn -- published in The Nation (and at CommonDreams.org)



• More Dishonesty from Bush in State of Union written by Matthew Rothschild for The Progressive magazine (also at CommonDreams.org)



• Gore Vidal's State of the Union: "Let the Powers That Be Know There is Something Called We the People of the U.S. and All Sovereignty Rests in Us" -- DemocracyNow.org's Transcript of Gore Vidal's Jan 31st address (also at CommonDreams.org)



• The State of the Union by William Rivers Pitt at TruthOut.org

Both Common Dreams and Truth Out offer alternative media and are worth frequent visits to get the information that the rightist/corporatist so-called "liberal media" don't tell us.

I have some misgivings about World Can't Wait and prefer working with the United for Peace and Justice coalition -- but I was happy World Can't Wait provided people with an important alternative to hearing the Bush lies. There are local actions being planned by various groups for the week of March 15-22 but the next big mobilization event for UFPJ isn't until April 29th, and the world really can't wait. We have to continue action NOW. Let's keep the pressure on the White House and Congress -- and keep talking to our friends about issues other than Jen and Brad and American Idol. These are critical times and we do have to commit to political action.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne