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Yes, the republic survived.  But the Cherokee nation didn't.  

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But the thing I can't get my head around is -- what exactly do they want, these people who are screaming about the "right to life?"  I mean, yes, we all know they want the feeding tube put back in and for Terri to remain hooked up to it for the rest of her life, however long that may be.  And I do understand that many people's concern is for this particular case.  But all this emotion, all this rage -- it's got to have a larger context, and so far the right-to-lifers have failed to define one.  How would they change existing law such that this never happens again?  What exactly is wrong with the law and the process, that this ever occurred in the first place?  

So who the hell were the 2 who voted in favor of the use of government funds for torture?

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CNEWS reports that the authors of the amendment, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, basically scoffed at the Preznit's reassurances that when prisoners are sent to countries like Egypt or Syria they will not be tortured.  

"Today, we moved one step closer to ending the U.S. practice of outsourcing torture. The passage of this amendment reaffirms our commitment to upholding the Convention Against Torture," Markey said.

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When the House voted yesterday to approve $82 billion more for the War in Iraq, two Democratic Reps -- Earl Blumenauer (OR) and Ed Markey (MA)  -- authored an amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds both for the torture of detainees in American custody, and for shipping them to countries that do allow torture (extraordinary rendition). The good news? The motion passed overwhelmingly, 420 to 2. The bad new?  Two crazy bastards actually voted to fund torture -- Republican Reps. Robin Hayes of North Carolina and Mark Souder of Indiana. If either of these men happen to be your Reps -- well, I'd tell you to write them, but if it was me I'd probably move first.

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1. She's a woman.  As Maureen Dowd so eloquently states today in her column today, men don't like it when women tell them what to do.   She's acceptable in her place as GWB's handmaiden, unquestioningly repeating his talking points on her march around the world.  Finger on the bomb?  I don't think so.

2. Right now, Hillary is the front runner for the Dems.  If Hillary does run, one of the strongest things the GOP could have going for any candidate is the fact that they are NOT a woman, for all the reasons listed in (1) above.  No matter how enlightened many Democrats may claim to be, deep down the idea of a woman president -- particularly Hillary -- is going to bug a lot of them.  The GOP can't pull those votes if they run one, too.
   

According to Sharon, the gathering has been okayed by the police and the city hall of Lincoln City.  If you live near the Lincoln County area, please come by and visit.  There will be speakers, and they are encouraging everyone to bring signs and prayers and make their own statements as well.  

If you need more info you can email me.  Any updates will be posted on my blog here:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_03_06_firedoglake_archive.html#111068497166212290

Looking forward to seeing everyone there, and if you happen to know of any gatherings in your part of the country please feel free to post the details in the comments.

Nobody will talk about it -- not Kelley, who can't be happy.  Not any of the executives at ABC.  And not Roger Ailes, whose Fox News network ABC obviously wants to shield from criticism more than they want to honor David Kelley's first amendment rights.

The controversy stems from this Sunday's episode of Boston Legal, which contained criticism of Fox News and accused them of being a propaganda arm of the GOP.  Not any more.  Also nixed were references to everyone's favorite falafel flinger, Bill O'Reilly.  Kelley evidently had enough juice to maintain excerpts from the excellent Robert Greenwald documentary Outfoxed, but when Greenwald's distributor went to ABC wanting to purchase advertising for the doc during the program, ABC turned them down flat.

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The attached photo, via This Space For Rent, apparently shows some US marines looking into said spider hole after the capture of Saddam in Central Iraq.  If you look at the bunch of dates hanging from the date palm in the background, they appear to be golden yellow.  Now, I know fuck-all about date maturation in the Arab region,  but there is an interesting post over at ridingelectra that tells us that this golden color of the Phoenix dactylifera, according to Agronomy.UCDavis.edu, is the color of dates around late August -- by December they should have ripened to either deep brown or jet black.

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In response to Paul Krugman's NYT article, this is what came down in Freeperville:

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You've probably never heard of her unless you went to Roosevelt High School in Seattle from the 50's through the 70's. She'd been in the back of my mind a lot lately, but I started Googling around for her after reading about the forward lurch that Florida is making toward restricting freedom of expression for state educators. Florida is but one of several states that have been inspired by  former liberal recreant turned neocon sorehead, David Horowitz, who thinks that poor captive conservative students are being bludgeoned by corrupt ideologies at the hands of liberal college professors, and he wants to put a stop to it.  

In other words, he wants to put the state in control of what can and can't be taught.

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Why do I care?  Well, there is so much noise about abandoning pro-choice as a part of the Democratic platform in a headlong sprint by DLC-types to push the party to the right that we need to take a practical stand where we can.  (And please don't waste comment space saying there is no such thing until you've mastered the DKos "search" function and looked for any diary containing the word "abortion.")  Pennacio is running against Bob Casey for the Democratic slot in the 2006 election, and Casey is a strong anti-choice candidate.  

The WaPo is reporting that the support for the plan by GOP lawmakers is weakening after they returned to Washington from a week at home meeting with constituents.  I guess it wasn't all yellow ribbons and Champale:

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I generally don't trust polls.  I don't know who's taking them, what their bias is, how they're phrasing the questions, etc.  But the one thing I find polls to be more reliably revelatory about is trends.  If consistent polling methods are used to conduct a poll from one time to the next, and public opinion seems to be steadily moving in a particular direction, that can be telling.

A newly released poll from USA Today/CNN/Gallup found that Bush's Social Security Piratization road show just isn't working -- only 35% of thoe polled approve of his Social Security plan.  That's down from 43% three weeks ago, and down from 49% just after he took office in 2001.

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I have no excuse.  It was on.  

Anyway, just to make sure everyone knew that Ron is on the "left" and that he is, indeed, a Reagan, they decided to dust off that old gem, stem cell research.  On the pro side they had Alta Charo, professor of bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, and on the con side they trotted out Some Dude whose name I can't remember, whose personal style is cribbed from a 1957 copy of Gent and whose contention is that life begins at the moment of conception when sperm meets egg and having been thus blessed by the Divine Hand of the Creator it is henceforth entitled to the same protections as an adult human.  

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I'm writing because I wanted to have a chat about the whole outing thing.  Okay, a one-way chat, but still.  I can understand that you might be feeling that your privacy has been invaded, that your sexuality is your business, and that whoever took it upon themselves to expose your personal life was really striking a low blow.  

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