More synopese of my blogs...
Here are a few more posts that you all might have missed this week:
At Let's Talk About Democracy:
http://bushmeister0.tripod.com/bushmeister0
Will wonders never cease? The US is now offering to talk to Iran about its nuclear program, and even more shocking than that, Condi Rice told NPR yesterday that she could even envision sitting down with Iran's foreign minister at some point in the future. This is pretty monumental shift in US policy considering that just a few weeks ago the administration was still hinting at military options being on the table and adamantly insisting that direct talks were "impossible," and that "bad behavior" wouldn't be rewarded. That sort of unequivocal, obstinate rhetoric ---mainly the expression of the Cheney/Rumsfled cabal's influence on the policy debate within the administration --- has given way to the more pragmatic State Department position of engagement, or so it appears.
go to LTAD for the rest...
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At Non Sum Dignus:
http://imnotoworthy.blogspot.com
Yesterday the WaPo reported:
"North Carolina should provide economic and social compensation to victims of Wilmington's 1898 racial violence, said a panel that also concluded the attack was not a riot but rather this country's only recorded coup d'etat."
On November 9th 1898 whites in Wilmington, (populated by 9,000 whites and 11,000 blacks at the time) rampaged through the black sections of town buring, looting and lynching. The next morning the 1898 Foundation reports:
"Literally at gunpoint, Mayor Wright and all of the members of the city council who were presented were forced to resign, and a new city government was formed. Captain John Melton of the city police had also been arrested and he and all of the other members of the city police department were also forced to resign, and Edgar Parmele was made chief of police. There was no resistance. Wright, Melton, and the others were happy to escape with their lives. In addition to the white Fusionist leadership in the city, many African American leaders were also arrested and/or driven into exile."
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As I watched Taylor Hicks become the new American Idol last Wednesday night, the thought suddenly occurred that the Democrats winning back the Congress might be a sure thing after all. It was the weirdest thing; I don't know whether it was Prince unexpectedly swooping in out of nowhere just before Ryan Seacrest announced the winner, or the fact that a gray haired, 29-year old --- who'd actually heard of Buddy Holly before he did one of his songs on Idol ---had actually gotten some 45 million votes from a bunch of Bush babies.
I really got the impression, though, that this is some sort of bellwether, some kind of sea change. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has been wondering when the tipping point was finally going to come, and it's really seemed that it would never come, but the moment Hicks won I thought this might actually be it. People are sick and tired of the fear mongering, the lies, the rampant corruption and the seemingly enless blunders this administration is responsible for. 'Enough is enough,' is what a vote for Taylor Hicks says!
____________________________________________________________________________________________
On this Memorial Day weekend I thought it might be appropriate to mention some of the brave soldiers that have served their country with distinction despite the shoddy treatment some of them have received over the years from their own government. In addition to the day to day travails of being a soldier on the battle line, long hours of monotony punctuated by a few seconds of sheer terror, there have been men who have had to endure discrimination and ill treatment by their superior officers in some cases and the complete abandonment of their leaders in Washington. The fact that such adversity never caused them to leave their post and to keep fighting is a testament to all American fighting men and women and should never be forgotten because this is what has made our fighting people the best in the world.
Such a case is the story of the 54th Massachusetts, the colored regiment made again famous a few years ago in the movie "Glory." The Boston regiment fought with bravery and distinction in the Deep South from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. They are most remembered for their legendary failed storming of Battery Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863 that caused the death of their white commanding officer Col. Robert Gould Shaw along with eleven other officers, 135 men wounded and almost a hundred missing or captured.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
That's it for now, you're basically all caught up, just go to the blogs to see the rest.
At Let's Talk About Democracy:
http://bushmeister0.tripod.com/bushmeister0
Will wonders never cease? The US is now offering to talk to Iran about its nuclear program, and even more shocking than that, Condi Rice told NPR yesterday that she could even envision sitting down with Iran's foreign minister at some point in the future. This is pretty monumental shift in US policy considering that just a few weeks ago the administration was still hinting at military options being on the table and adamantly insisting that direct talks were "impossible," and that "bad behavior" wouldn't be rewarded. That sort of unequivocal, obstinate rhetoric ---mainly the expression of the Cheney/Rumsfled cabal's influence on the policy debate within the administration --- has given way to the more pragmatic State Department position of engagement, or so it appears.
go to LTAD for the rest...
____________________________________________________________________________________________
At Non Sum Dignus:
http://imnotoworthy.blogspot.com
Yesterday the WaPo reported:
"North Carolina should provide economic and social compensation to victims of Wilmington's 1898 racial violence, said a panel that also concluded the attack was not a riot but rather this country's only recorded coup d'etat."
On November 9th 1898 whites in Wilmington, (populated by 9,000 whites and 11,000 blacks at the time) rampaged through the black sections of town buring, looting and lynching. The next morning the 1898 Foundation reports:
"Literally at gunpoint, Mayor Wright and all of the members of the city council who were presented were forced to resign, and a new city government was formed. Captain John Melton of the city police had also been arrested and he and all of the other members of the city police department were also forced to resign, and Edgar Parmele was made chief of police. There was no resistance. Wright, Melton, and the others were happy to escape with their lives. In addition to the white Fusionist leadership in the city, many African American leaders were also arrested and/or driven into exile."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I watched Taylor Hicks become the new American Idol last Wednesday night, the thought suddenly occurred that the Democrats winning back the Congress might be a sure thing after all. It was the weirdest thing; I don't know whether it was Prince unexpectedly swooping in out of nowhere just before Ryan Seacrest announced the winner, or the fact that a gray haired, 29-year old --- who'd actually heard of Buddy Holly before he did one of his songs on Idol ---had actually gotten some 45 million votes from a bunch of Bush babies.
I really got the impression, though, that this is some sort of bellwether, some kind of sea change. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has been wondering when the tipping point was finally going to come, and it's really seemed that it would never come, but the moment Hicks won I thought this might actually be it. People are sick and tired of the fear mongering, the lies, the rampant corruption and the seemingly enless blunders this administration is responsible for. 'Enough is enough,' is what a vote for Taylor Hicks says!
____________________________________________________________________________________________
On this Memorial Day weekend I thought it might be appropriate to mention some of the brave soldiers that have served their country with distinction despite the shoddy treatment some of them have received over the years from their own government. In addition to the day to day travails of being a soldier on the battle line, long hours of monotony punctuated by a few seconds of sheer terror, there have been men who have had to endure discrimination and ill treatment by their superior officers in some cases and the complete abandonment of their leaders in Washington. The fact that such adversity never caused them to leave their post and to keep fighting is a testament to all American fighting men and women and should never be forgotten because this is what has made our fighting people the best in the world.
Such a case is the story of the 54th Massachusetts, the colored regiment made again famous a few years ago in the movie "Glory." The Boston regiment fought with bravery and distinction in the Deep South from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. They are most remembered for their legendary failed storming of Battery Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863 that caused the death of their white commanding officer Col. Robert Gould Shaw along with eleven other officers, 135 men wounded and almost a hundred missing or captured.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
That's it for now, you're basically all caught up, just go to the blogs to see the rest.