When is it appropriate for a leader to change their opinion? Both sides have been accused of flip-flopping on important issues - President Bush on establishing the Dept. of Homeland Security and steel tariffs, Senator Kerry on the Iraq war. But changing opinion due to thoughtful reconsideration ought not to be derided as flip-flopping. Tell us about a time when you had an honest change of opinion on a topic of national importance.
- Jeremy, 30, of WA
Mr. Ralph Nader Responds:
When I first arrived in Washington, DC, one of my first meals was a hot dog. After I discovered what were in hot dogs I never ate another one. I changed my mind. When we get new facts or new information, it is foolish to continue on the same course as if the new information did not exist. The Bush administration has been among the most anti-scientific, anti-fact based administrations we've ever seen. They are willing to amend the facts in government reports in order to justify the policy choices they make. We've seen this with critically important issues like global climate change and the war in Iraq. In truth, facts matter - science matters and we need to seek it out, understand it and make decisions based on it.
Senator John Kerry Responds:
It is important for leaders to tell the truth to the American people. If the leaders get the facts wrong then they should admit it. If leaders form their opinions based on a set of facts and they learn that those facts are wrong, it is appropriate to change their position. American government works best when it works based on trust and honesty.
President George Bush Responds: President Bush declined to answer this question. - Editor
There's a part of me
that wants nothing more
than to be inside of you
completely I can burrow in,
I can fit into the small spaces
between your organs.
I could live happily in you,
I could live happily as your captive.
I glow in the dark!
I glow like a fork searching for spaghetti
Its harder than it looks,
to get that spaghetti wrapped up
Fang was the name of my dog, his arms were
welded by God, his doggy toes exploded with joy
once every 5 minutes.
He loved everything small,
the cats scoffed at him,
at his tail curved between his legs, and his crying
because he was afraid. He was afraid the way
the cats stalked waterbugs at night slinking stealthily
around corners that were barely there.
My heart wakes up one day,
And she says to me “I will not pump blood any more!”
For too long, I have pumped your blood.
And I am sick and tired of it,
No matter how much I pump,
There is more of it to pump.
Pump pump pump! For so long.
I can’t anymore.
Do you understand what I’m telling you?
No, I don’t,
I am a bit baffled and I don’t really know what to say,
Then a train runs into my chest,
from the inside.
I scream. You hit me!
Yes, I hit you.
You hit me again!
I yell.
After all these years, she says,
you call me a crazy bitch.
I’m sorry, I gasp, I fall to my
Knees,
And hold my hands to my chest
Thud
Please stay.
I have stayed for too long,
for what cause I do not know.
Help me out,
There is a carving knife in the kitchen.
All expectations were shattered,
And all joys were ended.
And every single ball of yarn fell to pieces
All of them rolled away
The day that the girl in the artichoke
moved out.
She lived in the very middle of the artichoke
For seven long years!
And it was she that provided the warmth
that the artichoke needed
To beat like a drum,
like the drum of a heart
swollen with the heavy sickness of love.
All expectations were shattered.
Every single ball of yarn grew colonies of moths,
And everybody in the world felt their stomachs
Lurch forward, as though
The end of the world had happened in an instant.
Nothing happens in an instant.
Especially not the pains of childbirth
The joy of finishing something that was hard to do.
But everything happens in an instant.
The lust of a creature
Becomes love
in an instant.
Everything is small and goes away fast.
In the end, the music was all jazz, sitar, guitar on my chest
like a breast,
they moved like
a gypsy dancer,
ready to jump into the ocean.
Will sleep cure my lonely life?
In dreams I am amoung the giant trees,
soaring at enormous speeds
red-cape around my neck and young
wizzing through the leaves,
I can leave! I can leave!
"take
...
time
...
take
...
time
...
take
...
time"
The darkest holes of memory,
are childhood
hole-filled and crevase-deep
sandy and wet,
earlier and earlier,
longer and longer.
Clearer and clearer.
It is an old woman's sleep.
House Votes to block new FCC rules, Senate likely to follow, and Bush likely to Veto. I am so happy that the House of Representatives decided to do this. Take that FCC! And I bet that Congress will override silly Bushkie's veto attempt.
Udday and Qusay Saddam Hussein are dead. That is good news too. I wonder how long it will be before Iraq is sort of stable again?
These are scary times. With North Korea posing more of a threat, and with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and some in Liberia, it doesn't look good.
The Road Map to peace.... it might work? Any predictions?
So, today the FCC will vote about the old rules, and will likely decide to get rid of those rules. I wrote a letter to my representative and signed an online petition, but I think the rule changes will go through anyway.
Here's some links and articles about the rule changes.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of the Federal Communications Commission has "no doubt" the agency will vote Monday to ease restrictions on media ownership, but a key lawmaker said he is concerned about further consolidation in the industry.
The changes are expected to be approved on a 3-2 vote, supported by FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
"There is no doubt," Powell told ABC's This Week. "There will be a vote tomorrow."
Sen. John McCain, Commerce Committee chairman, which oversees the FCC, said he fears that concentration of broadcast outlets in the wake of the vote "might deprive Americans of diversity and localization of their news and information." McCain, R-Ariz., has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to question the FCC's five commissioners about the rules.
"I can assure you that Congress will be involved," McCain said Sunday. "Some legislation has already been introduced and if necessary it will be passed."
Under the proposed rules, a single media company could own enough television stations to reach as much as 45 percent of the U.S. television market, up from the current ceiling of 35 percent. Companies would be allowed to own both television stations and newspapers in all but the smallest markets, and in large markets, individual companies could own several radio and television stations as well as the newspaper and cable outlet.
Powell said changing the rules would balance the public interest with concerns about the health of the broadcast industry in the face of competition from the Internet and cable television.
"It's a contextualizing of those rules, modernizing of rules, many of which date back to the Roosevelt era," he said.
Opponents range from the conservative National Rifle Association and the Family Research Council to liberal groups like Common Cause and the National Organization for Women. They argue that eliminating most ownership rules for radio in the 1996 Telecommunications Act led to less competition, less local news and fewer voices being heard on public issues, and predicted the same thing would occur under this proposal.
Members of Congress, consumer groups and the FCC's two Democrats have asked for a delay of Monday's scheduled vote, but Powell -- the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell -- said no delay is necessary.
"It seems to me only in Washington is an additional 30 days meritorious when the record is complete, when we have heard an extraordinary amount of comment from the public, and we have the specifics that we need," he said.
The FCC held just one public hearing on the issue, but it has received hundreds of thousands of comments from the public. Critics say that comments run overwhelmingly against the changes, and that the proposal has been publicized widely only in the past few weeks.
Outside the television studio where McCain and Powell discussed Monday's vote, a half-dozen people chanted and carried signs protesting the proposed rules. One sign said, "Democracy requires media diversity."
One woman brought an item of lingerie emblazoned with the words "Michael Powell, you're cancelled." She called it "Michael Powell's Pink Slip."
Powell discounted fears that the changes would result in widespread concentration of ownership and predicted they would result in more public interest programming.
"I think you'll see some restructuring, but I happen to personally believe not nearly as much as some of the alarmist rhetoric would suggest," he said. "Just because somebody can buy something doesn't mean it makes strategic or financial sense to do so."
He acknowledged that similar rules changes in the radio industry in recent years had caused "problems in radio" and he said the FCC is looking at strengthening some rules involving radio stations.
McCain told ABC the new rules can "probably" be justified, but said the experience of the radio industry -- where one company, Clear Channel Communications, now owns more than 1,200 stations -- raises "a major concern."
"I do believe there is a situation of continued consolidation within the media which may, over time, deprive Americans of the news and information that they need," he said.
His concerns were echoed by consumer advocacy groups. "I don't think this country can afford to have a handful of giant companies control the nation's television stations, radio stations, newspapers, cable systems, even access to the Internet," said Jeffrey Chester, of the Washington-based Center for Digital Democracy.
"If you care about diversity of viewpoints, if you care about what kinds of kids' programming your kid can see on television, how much you pay for cable rates, more importantly, whether or not there's a good journalistic watchdog covering your city hall or telling you about the latest threat from al Qaed, we need to have safeguards to protect the public's right to a diverse media system.
"Tomorrow, because the biggest media companies have been lobbying the Bush administration, the FCC will sweep away these critical safeguards," he told CNN.
But the prospect that the proposed rules changes will lead a handful of media congomerates to rule over the nation's communications outlets "is just nonsense," said Randolph May, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.
"There are 25, 30, 40 companies -- major media companies -- that have significant media properties," he told CNN.
The landscape of the media marketplace has undergone revolutionary change in the decades since many of the current rules were enacted, he said. "When they were adopted, there was no cable television with 300 or 400 channels, and no satellite television, no Internet.
"The fact of the matter is that the marketplace has changed so much that without these types of ownership restrictions, consumers will be able to get the information they want from a diversity of resources."
Among the critics is CNN founder Ted Turner, who said Friday that he could not have succeeded in launching his cable networks if the proposed rules had been in effect in the 1970s.
"When you lose small businesses, you lose big ideas. People who own their own businesses are their own bosses," Turner wrote in an editorial published in the Washington Post. "They are independent thinkers. They know they can't compete by imitating the big guys; they have to innovate. So they are less obsessed with earnings than they are with ideas."
Turner merged his networks, including CNN, with the communications giant Time Warner in 1996. In 2001, Time Warner merged with America Online to create AOL Time Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate.
AOL Time Warner now owns CNN and its sister networks; Home Box Office; the Warner Bros. movie and television studio, WB television network and affiliated record labels; the AOL Internet service; and the Time Inc. magazines, such as Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, People and Entertainment Weekly.
Other major U.S. media conglomerates include:
• Disney, which owns the ABC television network, the ESPN cable sports network, the Disney amusement park and movie empire, including subsidiary studios like Miramax and Hollywood Pictures.
• NewsCorp, which owns the Fox broadcast television network and cable news channel, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, the New York Post and several newspapers and television networks in Europe and Australia.
• Viacom, which owns the CBS and UPN television networks; the Infinity radio network, with nearly 200 stations; the cable television networks MTV, Showtime and BET; the Paramount movie and television studios; and the Blockbuster Video movie rental chain.
• Bertlesmann, the German-based company that owns magazine publisher Gruner and Jahr, the music labels RCA and Arista and the book-publishing giant Random House and its subsidiaries.
--CNN Producer Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.
Private Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war, and the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict.
But her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived. There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound.
Private Lynch, a 19-year-old army clerk from Palestine, West Virginia, was captured when her company took a wrong turning just outside Nasiriya and was ambushed. Nine of her comrades were killed and Private Lynch was taken to the local hospital, which at the time was swarming with Fedayeen. Eight days later US special forces stormed the hospital, capturing the "dramatic" events on a night vision camera. They were said to have come under fire from inside and outside the building, but they made it to Lynch and whisked her away by helicopter.
Dr a-Houssona found no bullet wounds. Reports claimed that she had stab and bullet wounds and that she had been slapped about on her hospital bed and interrogated. But Iraqi doctors in Nasiriya say they provided the best treatment they could for the soldier in the midst of war. She was assigned the only specialist bed in the hospital and one of only two nurses on the floor. "I examined her, I saw she had a broken arm, a broken thigh and a dislocated ankle," said Dr Harith a-Houssona, who looked after her.
"There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound - only road traffic accident. They want to distort the picture. I don't know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury."
Witnesses told us that the special forces knew that the Iraqi military had fled a day before they swooped on the hospital. Dr Uday was surprised by the manner of the rescue. "We were surprised. Why do this? There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital," said Dr Anmar Uday, who worked at the hospital.
"It was like a Hollywood film. They cried 'go, go, go', with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show for the American attack on the hospital - action movies like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan." There was one more twist. Two days before the snatch squad arrived, Harith had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance. But as the ambulance, with Private Lynch inside, approached a checkpoint American troops opened fire, forcing it to flee back to the hospital. The Americans had almost killed their prize catch.
When footage of the rescue was released, General Vincent Brooks, US spokesman in Doha, said: "Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this happen, loyal to a creed that they know that they'll never leave a fallen comrade." The American strategy was to ensure the right television footage by using embedded reporters and images from their own cameras, editing the film themselves. The Pentagon had been influenced by Hollywood producers of reality TV and action movies, notably the man behind Black Hawk Down, Jerry Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer advised the Pentagon on the primetime television series "Profiles from the Front Line", that followed US forces in Afghanistan in 2001. That approached was taken on and developed on the field of battle in Iraq. As for Private Lynch, her status as cult hero is stronger than ever. Internet auction sites list Jessica Lynch items, from an oil painting with an opening bid of $200 to a $5 "America Loves Jessica Lynch" fridge magnet. But doctors now say she has no recollection of the whole episode and probably never will.
Democrats stage a Lone Star revolt As former Houston bug man Tom DeLay and the Texas Republicans use nasty tricks to consolidate their power, the Democrats are fighting fire with fire.
salon.com
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Andrew Nelson
May 15, 2003 | ALPINE, Texas -- As U.S. Special Forces scour Iraq for Baath Party poohbahs, Lone Star State Republicans are gunning for their own political outlaws. They've even published a card deck illustrated with the portraits of the evildoers.
Their quarry? Fugitive Democratic legislators, without whom the Republicans can't rule Texas. The Dems are on the lam in order to derail a congressional redistricting plan widely credited to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, the former Houston exterminator who's now one of the most powerful and relentless politicians in Washington.
Hogtied for the moment, and still well short of victory, angry Republican legislators have taken to calling their colleagues the "Chicken D's" for leaving Austin. New GOP Gov. Rick Perry unsuccessfully dispatched state troopers to find the wayward pols, arrest them, and drag them back across the border. DeLay, calling the Democrats "cowards," investigated putting federal agents on their tails. If so, FBI agents would stop hunting al-Qaida and instead try to smoke out security threats hailing from San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso, instead.
For Texans, the dramatic political fight has become the equivalent of a summer movie blockbuster -- filled with busy troopers, back-stabbing, stalkings and skullduggery. But the fight holds serious national implications.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans currently outnumber Democrats 229 to 205, with one independent. But in the 32-member Texas delegation, Democrats outnumber Republicans 17-15. If the Republican redistricting plan passes, strategists say, Democrats could lose from four to seven congressional seats. In a Congress where the balance of power is so close, seven additional Texas Republicans who owe their jobs to DeLay could make it significantly easier for Republican President George W. Bush to give tax breaks to the rich, slash health programs for the poor, undermine environmental safeguards, and push through other central elements of his legislative agenda.
"The stakes are extremely high," says Gary Keith, a lecturer on Texas politics at the University of Texas at Austin. "If you think about it -- each of the last few national elections has been a battle over five to 10 House seats. Now [with the new redistricting plan], boom! [Republicans] could win with just one state."
To prevent what they called a "relentless" effort by "Washington Republican political leaders" -- read: Tom DeLay -- to ram through the redistricting plan, the Texas House Democrats simply took the best and most effective political option available: They left town. The exiles -- discovered last Monday in a Holiday Inn in Oklahoma -- refuse to budge from their hideout until key legislative deadlines expire on Friday.
The GOP won control of the Texas legislature for the first time in 130 years during the 2002 elections. That all but assured they would have the clout to push through a plan that would redraw congressional district boundaries to the advantage of Republicans, allowing the party to solidify its power in Texas and in the U.S. House.
But the drama accelerated last Sunday night. Facing certain defeat over the redistricting plan inspired by DeLay, more than 50 Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives fled the state capitol in Austin -- sneaking across the state line on two chartered buses to Ardmore, Okla. They vow to remain there -- holed up in the motel off Interstate 35 -- until their GOP colleagues shelve the controversial bill.
With Republicans the majority party in Austin, the bill's outcome was never in doubt. But Texas law mandates that 100, or two-thirds of the house's 150 representatives, be present for a quorum.
The math isn't complicated. The Democrats knew that a well-organized boycott could hamstring the GOP juggernaut, and so they counted heads and decided to make a run for the border. With 51 politicos missing and at large, the Republican redistricting bill will expire on Friday -- effectively derailing the GOP's plan, at least temporarily.
Furious Republicans asked Perry to issue warrants for the Democrats' arrest. They urged him to send "wanted" bulletins to neighboring states. New Mexico state Attorney General Patricia Madrid, a Democrat, replied with a sarcastic promise of cooperation:
"I have put out an all-points-bulletin for law enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favor of healthcare for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy."
By most accounts, the proposed congressional districts are blatantly political -- designed to ensure the DeLay keeps his job and Dubya's home state is colored red for a generation.
"The districts are drawn by Republicans to the advantage of the Republicans," says Keith, who also points out that Democrats, when they ruled Texas, redrew districts to suit them.
What's new, however, is how blatantly the plan gerrymanders Texas cities and towns.
"This plan takes the white conservative camp in Texas and institutionalizes it," Keith says. "It completely smashes up communities all over [the state]." Keith uses liberal Austin as an example. Currently one congressional district, the city -- under the Republican plan -- would be redrawn and quartered -- chopped up into four pieces. Each portion would be sewn onto a rural, Republican district.
To deflect the partisan nature of the dispute, the Democrats argue their boycott is about local control. There are also other issues caught up in the fight. Now that the Republicans hold the top jobs in Texas government, the Democrats are fighting a conservative assault on the environment and on health and home insurance reform. But the redistricting plan remains the flash point. The Dems insist they will return to Austin only if the GOP kills the bill.
"We will hop on a bus two minutes from now and go home as soon as the Republican leadership agree that other issues are more important than redistricting," says state Rep. Pete Gallego, a Democrat from Alpine who's residing, temporarily, at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore. "We will be back in the capital post haste."
So far the Republicans haven't caved, and the state is gridlocked. "It's a train wreck," Keith says.
It's also thrilling drama -- even if most of the participants resemble actors on the suburban dinner theater circuit and not the buff, nostril-flaring thespians of "Matrix Reloaded."
Depending on one's politics, the spectacle resembles two different movies.
To Democrats, the Republican redistricting effort is a partisan "Frankenstein," with the monster cobbled together by mad Dr. DeLay. House Democrats play the role of the torch-bearing, rake-rattling peasants, united in their efforts to destroy the monster and save the Democratic congressional delegation from destruction.
Republicans are more apt to believe Democrats are playing Glenn Close's scorned yuppie from "Fatal Attraction." As the GOP sees it, the Dems, dumped by voters, are out to avenge their rejection. The redistricting bill is the bunny they've dropped in the stew pot.
DeLay is nobody's boiled rabbit. When the Dems went on the lam, the Republicans went ballistic. This being Texas, they called for the sheriff. State House Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican, ordered Department of Public Safety troopers to go forth and arrest the missing legislators.
On Monday, staffers at Gallego's offices in the West Texas town of Alpine were treated to the sight of three armed troopers arriving to capture the 74th District's democratically elected representative. To no avail. Gallego was safe -- already in Democrat-ruled Oklahoma, where the Republican troopers have no legal jurisdiction.
DeLay waded into the dust-up on Tuesday. The irritated U.S. House Speaker ordered staffers to see whether the FBI might be brought in to arrest the absent Democrats.
Calling DeLay's idea "incredible," Keith warned that such tactics could backfire, especially if voters watch popular pols dragged back home to be displayed like Caesar's captured Gauls in chains.
"I can't imagine anything that would blow up in DeLay's face more than having FBI agents arrest the Democrats," he says. "The Republicans can be really hurt by this."
Others have similar opinions. "When this goes down in history they [the Democrats] will be heroes, and we'll be a bunch of schmucks," Republican state Rep. Pat Haggerty of El Paso warned the El Paso Times.
That seems to be the impression in Gallego's Alpine, a conservative town near Big Bend National Park. Voters here expressed a certain dismay upon learning the governor had ordered the Democrats' arrest for, well, being Democrats.
"Does that mean they can come to my door and pick me up whenever they want?" wondered bartender and independent Michael Espinoza.
With the Republicans left hyperventilating in Austin, the Democrats are staying put north of the Red River.
"They're still here," says Shelba, who works in the Denny's that adjoins the now famous Holiday Inn, "and they're eating a little bit of everything, especially the Grand Slam [breakfasts]."
The Democrats-in-exile are eager to show the voters they're not enjoying their time off. For instance, they're not openly quaffing cosmos in the adjoining Gusher Lounge; nor are they enjoying Ardmore's tourist marvels, which include the Gene Autry Oklahoma History Museum, which is "Dedicated to the Singing Cowboys of the B Westerns." Instead, they're holding meetings, scripture readings and working groups while dutifully turning out for the TV crews making the drive north from Dallas.
Republicans, meanwhile, have few options but to heap ridicule on their missing colleagues. Images of the wandering Democrats were pasted on milk cartons. Texas GOP's Web site published a downloadable deck of cards of the "Chicken D's," each one sporting a photograph of a missing Democrat. Gallego, for example, is the 10 of spades.
The results only energized the Democrats. Ardmore was soon lousy with fruit baskets and Texas Democratic loyalists who drove north to Oklahoma to cheer on their heroes.
Such twists and turns might seems absurd to voters in other democracies, but Texas has a soft spot for cussed stubbornness. The cry "Remember the Alamo" is still taken seriously in the state -- which was an independent country for nine years before joining the United States.
"We Texans are schizophrenic," Keith says. "On one hand we want things to work smoothly, but when someone stands up against the odds we admire their chutzpah, to use a non-Texas term. There's a rich history of Texas populism, of people liking it when those without power stand up to those with power."
During the 1971 legislative session, 30 mostly liberal Democrats and even a few conservative Republicans revolted against state House Speaker Gus Mutscher. The legislators, dubbed the "Dirty Thirty," pushed for a vote to investigate a scandal swirling around him. Mutscher retaliated by killing bills and ordering the reformers' state districts redrawn to destroy them politically. The reformers retaliated by barnstorming the state urging Mutscher's overthrow. It worked -- the speaker was later voted out of office and convicted of bribery charges.
In 1979, 12 Democratic state senators called the "Killer Bees" hid out above an Austin garage for five days to stop the state legislature from recasting the presidential primary date to favor a former governor, the Democrat-turned-Republican John B. Connally.
Keith doesn't see the Republicans buckling. The Democrats refuse to return. The redistricting bill will most certainly die. So what happens next?
"I think Tom DeLay wants a congressional redistrict so badly that if the bill expires this week, his supporters will try to resurrect it and attach it to another bill during the session's final weeks," Keith predicts. "At that point, Democrats won't flee again, but probably use a filibuster or other guerrilla tactics to kill it." By making speeches long enough to rival Castro's -- a whole series of them, in fact -- they would block a vote and, in effect, talk the measure to death.
But even if the Democrats win this battle, Texas still needs to be governed. Bills on home insurance, healthcare and the state deficit -- which is running at $9.9 billion -- need to be debated, voted on and passed. What will happen if the entire legislative session collapses like the Hindenberg?
The result, Keith says, could well be an even bigger fight later this summer when the legislature will return for a special session before the fiscal year ends on August 30.
In Oklahoma, Gallego reiterates he and his fellow Democrats will cooperate fully with the majority Republicans -- as long as redistricting's a dead issue.
"The Republican leadership is out of step with folks at home. If you ask anybody in Del Rio, Fort Stockton or Alpine if lowering property taxes is more important than redistricting, they say yes. Is funding for education more important than changing congressmen? They say yes. Redistricting is not the fundamental priority of Texans."
Will Texas stand down? Keith isn't optimistic.
"Who can step in and cool things off?" he asks. "There are no candidates that have arisen yet.
"It's always hot in Austin during the summer, but when the politicians get back here, the tempers are going to be so frayed it will be a very hot summer, indeed."
Loyalty Day, 2003 By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
To be an American is not a matter of blood or birth. Our citizens are bound by ideals that represent the hope of all mankind: that all men are created equal, endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On Loyalty Day, we reaffirm our allegiance to our country and resolve to uphold the vision of our Forefathers.
Our founding principles have endured, guiding our Nation toward progress and prosperity and allowing the United States to be a leader among nations of the world. Throughout our history, honorable men and women have demonstrated their loyalty to America by making remarkable sacrifices to preserve and protect these values.
Today, America's men and women in uniform are protecting our Nation, defending the peace of the world, and advancing the cause of liberty. The world has seen again the fine character of our Nation through our military as they fought to protect the innocent and liberate the oppressed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We are honored by the service of foreign nationals in our Armed Services whose willingness to risk their lives for a country they cannot yet call their own is proof of the loyalty this country inspires. Their service and sacrifice are a testament to their love for America, and our soldiers' honor on and off the battlefield reaffirms our Nation's most deeply held beliefs: that every life counts, and that all humans have an unalienable right to live as free people.
These values must be imparted to each new generation. Our children need to know that our Nation is a force for good in the world, extending hope and freedom to others. By learning about America's history, achievements, ideas, and heroes, our young citizens will come to understand even more why freedom is worth protecting.
Last September, I announced several initiatives that will help improve students' knowledge of American history, increase their civic involvement, and deepen their love for our great country. The We the People initiative will encourage the teaching of American history and civic education by providing grants for curriculum development and training seminars. The Our Documents initiative will use the Internet to bring infor-mation about and the text of 100 of America's most important documents from the National Archives to classrooms and com-munities across the country. These initiatives are important, for it is only when our children have an understanding of our past that they will be able to lead the future.
This Loyalty Day, as we express allegiance to our Nation and its founding ideals, we resolve to ensure that the blessings of liberty endure and extend for generations to come.
The Congress, by Public Law 85-529, as amended, has designated May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day," and I ask all Americans to join me in this day of celebration and in reaffirming our allegiance to our Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2003, as Loyalty Day. I call upon all the people of the United States to join in support of this national observance. I also call upon government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Loyalty Day.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
"Ishmael thought for a moment, then took a branch from the pile at his right, held it up for me to see, then let it fall to the floor. "That's the effect Newton was trying to explain." He waved a hand toward the world outside. "That's the effect I'm trying to explain. Looking out there, you see a world full of species that, environmental conditions permitting, are going to go on living indefinitely."
"Yes, that's what I assume. But why does it need explaining?"
Ishmael selected another branch from his pile, held it up, and let it fall to the floor. "Why does that need explaining?"
SARS 471,000 hits
"mad cow disease" 170,000
dubya 178,000
AIDS 11 million hits
Iraq+war 3.9 million
"Britney Spears" 2 million hits!
"Saddam Hussein" 1.2 million
"george w. bush" 2 million
"Iraq" 12 million
Iran 5 million
Zimbabwe 4 million
Mexico 25.3 million
America 44.5 million
Canada 52 million!
China 28.6 million
9/11 5.27 million
terrorism: 4.9 million
"axis of evil" 188,000
"global warming" 1 million
america + imperialism 225 thousand
america + communism 330 thousand
religion 17 million
science 55 million
cancer 15.7 million
astrology 3.2 million
astronomy 4.3 million
"civil rights" 2.5 million
Genetics 3.5 million
chocolate 6.5 million
sex 127 million
"internet" 148 million
coffee 12.6 million
futbol 7 million
libertarian + socialist + anti-authoritarian +anarchy + nocturnal 19
turtle+babushka+cabbage 91
cows + milner + swimming + marshall 79
I think it is one of the strangest signs of our times, this "level red alert" level orange, level yellow thing. I got this in my email today, from the university:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
The US Department of Homeland Security has lowered the threat level to
³elevated² (yellow). In response, the University will resume normal
security operations. Effective immediately, guard kiosks will resume normal
hours of operation (7:30 a.m. 4:00 p.m.) and allow through traffic on the
main campus. The metal detector on the tower will be removed, and tower
tours may be scheduled.
To paraphrase Michael, it seems like if we need security, we need security. How can you randomly change that from day to day?
Headlines! I always notice them, on the corner of Dean Keaton and Whitis when I'm coming back from class. Today this is what 2 of them say, probably the Dallas paper and the Houston one, but I'm not really sure:
About the Michael Moore talk, I liked him because he was plain. He was just a regular old lardo. Like me. Like all of us, and yet he has convictions and stands next to them. And even though he is probably a little fanatical, he seems to truely want to do good things. He was funny and inspirational and not too self-righteous. At the end, I felt like I could take over the Travis county democractic party if I wanted to. Everyone can do something. And everyone should do something. I think that was his main point. That not only can we make a difference, but it is our duty to do things. If we don't, we are responsible for the results of our indifference.
Is it true? From the Tao te Ching, 57, thanks to Alex.
The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men's weapons,
The more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.
Therefore the sage says:
I take no action and people are reformed.
I enjoy peace and people become honest.
I do nothing and the people become rich.
I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life.
