The truth will set you free

What I Learned From Bush

1. Lying is O.K.
2. Cheating is O.K.
3. Torture is O.K.
4. Taking people's rights is O.K.
5. Neglecting the poor is O.K.
6. Being a religious hypocrite is O.K.
7. Killing is O.K.
8. Incompetence is O.K.
9. Cronyism is O.K.

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Sekou Sundiata (1948 to 2007)

Sekou is to contemporary African American Poetry, what Marvin Gaye was to modern soul. He is gifted with a rich, undulating voice which heightens the bittersweet wordscapes heard through this collection. Listen carefully and he'll take you there!

Bill Moyer's Journal
We have sad news to report this week. Poet, musician and historian Sekou Sundiata, featured in our series "The Language of Life" passed away on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 5:47am. We remember him and the music of his words.

TPM has video of the AG prevaricating before the Senate committee on Tuesday. What a hoot!

If Gonzales had any class he'd step down and spare the Justice Department any further embarrassment. Gonzales may have had a promising future - that is until he cast his lot with the group of morons currently dirtying the White House linens.

Shalom Rabbi Wine

Rabbi Sherwin Wine, 79, who in 1963 founded the Birmingham Temple -- the first congregation of Humanistic Judaism -- died in a car accident while in Morocco.
Services are pending. Arrangements are being handled by the Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield.
Wine, who was born in Detroit in 1928, graduated from the University of Michigan and the Hebrew Union College, according to a biography on the Web site of the temple in Farmington Hills. In 1963, he founded The Birmingham Temple, the first congregation of Humanistic Judaism.

In 1969, he helped establish the Society for Humanistic Judaism to serve as national outreach for the humanistic movement. In 1986, he helped to create the International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews, a worldwide association of national organizations in North America, Israel, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Detroit News

I was fortunate to hear Rabbi Wine speak at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington (UUCF), Michigan. The Rev. Suzanne Paul, past president of the American Humanist Association and UUCF minister at that time, shared Rabbi Wine’s dedication to Humanistic philosophy. Rarely are we privileged with the opportunity to share in the experiences of so accomplished a mind as that of the late Rabbi Wine’s. The world has lost an outstanding teacher and humanist.

May there be peace and life for all of us and for all Israel. Let us say, Amen.

Let He who makes peace in the heavens, grant peace to all of us and to all Israel. Let us say, Amen.

Bush Refuses to Rethink Current Iraq Strategy

Duyba in Iraq, like Hitler in Europe, willfully ignored the advice of their military commanders and built a strategy based on a flawed worldview. Duyba’s inability to formulate a new strategy in response to his abysmal failures to-date is proof enough that he is no longer, if he ever was, capable of leading our country. And the powerlessness of the Democratic House to force this moron to abandon his failed “War on Terror” will only result in the unnecessary death or injury of thousands of additional solders. We’re pissing away our country’s lifeblood and neither the president nor the congress has the balls to do what’s right. Is it any wonder their public support has fallen to historic lows?

Haliburton's Obscene Profits

And the REAL reason that we cannot bring the troops home? Because they are the cheap labor protecting Halliburton's gravy train. Think about it, and check Halliburton's profits for the last five years. And the unholy grotesque disgrace in all of this? The fact that Halliburton has now moved its corporate headquarters offshore to avoid paying taxes on its obscene profits -- a fair percentage of which will probably end up in Cheney's blind trust.

Comments on Salon.com from the spouse of a Haliburton employee killed in Iraq.

Famous Southern Senators: David Vitter (R) LA

Vitter’s just the latest conservative hypocrite to join the ranks of those caught indulging their private sexual fantasies while publicly advocating a lifestyle of strict Christian rectitude. In deference to the Senator, it’s quite possible that his wife has an aversion to crotchless leather panties and labial piercing that may have prompted the Senator to seek professional gratification. Caught with his penis in the honey pot, he invokes the Jimmy Swaggert defense claiming that demonic temptation precipitated his fall from grace. If he could only return every illicit orgasm he could escape the opprobrium of his sanctimonious peers. “Sin is a dangerous toy in the hands of the virtuous, said H.L. Mencken, “It should be left to the congenitally sinful, who know when to play with it and when to let it alone.”

Tucker Carlson Doesn't Get It

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. David Vitter, R-La., apologized Monday night for ``a very serious sin in my past'' after his telephone number appeared among those associated with an escort service operated by the so-called ``D.C. Madam.''

In response to Senator David Vitter's confession of infidelity, Tucker Carlson was indignant that Democrats were making such a big deal of the Senator’s private sex life. Tucker essentially accused Democrats of cooperating with the pornographer Larry Flint to dredge up sexual peccadilloes to embarrass conservatives. Tucker doesn’t understand that Senator Vitter is one of the primary voices behind the defense of marriage amendment. When hypocrites like Vitter attack same-sex couples for undermining the sanctity of marriage, he loses any right to the moral high ground. Come on Tucker, if you wish to protect your conservative supporters from charges of moral turpitude – tell them to keep it in their pants.

Impeach Bush/Cheney

Crooks and Liars
Keith Olbermann delivers arguably his most pointed and most powerful Special Comment yet on the ramifications of Bush’s commutation of Libby’s sentence.

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but instead to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it. Full report ...

Bush and Cheney - equal parts evil and stupidity. Impeachment remains the only option to protect what's left of our democracy.