The list includes:
Maureen Dowd - Cobra
Dianne Feinstein - Frazier
Jean Chrétien - Dino (as in Dinosaur)
Bill Frist - Fristy
Karen Hughes - The Enforcer, Hurricane Karen
Colin Powell - Balloonfoot
Karl Rove - Turd Blossom
Paul Wellstone - Pablo
Patricia Wilson - Outback Woman
Laura Bush - Bushie
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A white Tennessee lawmaker lamenting his exclusion from the state's Black Legislative Caucus claimed Tuesday the group was less accommodating that even the Ku Klux Klan.
"My understanding is that the KKK doesn't even ban members by race," said Rep. Stacey Campfield, adding that the KKK "has less racist bylaws" than the black lawmakers' group.
The freshman Republican from Knoxville was rebuffed earlier this year when he asked for the Black Caucus' bylaws and inquired about joining. There are 18 black state lawmakers in Tennessee.
Caucus chairman Rep. Johnny Shaw, a Democrat, dismissed Campfield's request and called him a "strange guy" who was simply interested in stirring up trouble. "He is using this as a joke. This is an insult coming from him," said caucus member Rep. Larry Miller, also a Democrat. "Why he chose to focus on the Black Caucus, I have no idea other than he is crazy and a racist."
The 37-year-old Campfield defended himself Saturday in a message on his Web journal, or blog, under the heading "I too dream."
The long excerpts from the Rev. Martin Luther King's famous 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech infuriated some readers. It prompted Campfield to ban reader comments after some of the angry postings included death threats.
Experts on race and hate groups said Campfield hit a nerve when he used King's words to take on a black institution. It's the same tactic white separatists often use, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"Very typically these days we see white supremacists, hate groups, trying to use the words of King and other civil rights leaders to try to advance their agendas," Potok said.
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On the Net:
Campfield's blog: http://lastcar.blogspot.com/
Ironically, it started with an organization called horsesass.org, that on some blog published a false, and, frankly, in my opinion, defamatory statement that the media just continued to repeat over and over. Next, one national magazine not only defamed me, but my alma mater, the Oklahoma City University School of Law, in one sentence alone leveling six false charges.
The film, which airs tonight and tomorrow night on PBS and is also available on DVD, combines unearthed archival footage and fresh interviews -- with the likes of Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, Pete Seeger and Dylan himself -- to illuminate the first and most trailblazing part of Dylan's career, beginning with his Hibbing, Minnesota, childhood and ending with his 1966 Woodstock, New York, motorcycle accident. No Direction Home shows Dylan evolving at an unfathomable pace: In a span of just four years, he conquers the Greenwich Village folk scene, becomes the artistic voice of the civil-rights movement (Dylan is seen on the podium before Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech) and then abandons it all to reinvent rock & roll with "Like a Rolling Stone" and everything that followed. "It's an artist at the absolute peak of his talent," says Nigel Sinclair, one of the producers. "The challenge was making a film worthy of the subject."
Dylan himself sat for ten hours of unusually relaxed and open conversation with Rosen in 2000; he even smiles when reminiscing about a couple of high school girlfriends. "Both of those girls brought out the poet in me," he says.
The film and its accompanying soundtrack, No Direction Home: The Bootleg Series Vol. 7, are packed with previously unheard studio outtakes and rare live tracks, including Dylan's first live electric performance: a thunderous "Maggie's Farm," backed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
"The trash in New Orleans know that soon people with degrees and skills will drain the water, turn the power on, clean the streets, and replace the houses provided for them."
"So why not tear things up? Why shouldn't the zoo animals run wild when the fence breaks?"
"Desperation? Yeah, right. I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic predisposition to steal, murder, and create mayhem."
"I have my questions. How is their money spent? What are membership requirements? A lot of things are contained in the bylaws. I haven't decided how far to push it."
So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock. . I have no control. It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea.
He was born a poor black child
Rep. Stacey Campfield
Tennessee House of Representatives
Dear Rep. Campfield,
I was sorry to hear that your application to become a member of the Tennessee House Black Caucus was rejected. When will they realize that the sons of the Southern Strategy are the black man's friend?
[H]e has shattered the myth of white supremacy once and for all. --Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY)
"He's keeping a very strong public profile. He was the first major Democrat to oppose the Iraq war. He's keeping in touch around the country and doing a lot of speeches. You don't do all that if your goal is to play celebrity golf," says a Democratic fund-raiser.
A top Dem strategist adds: "Americans love comebacks and Gore could come back as a real human being instead of a wooden guy. He could come back as . . somebody who went into the wilderness and found himself."
Iraq is the hot-button issue for the hard left MoveOn/Deaniac Dems who have major clout in presidential primaries — and Gore was loudly anti-war from the start while Clinton voted for the war (as did the now anti-war John Kerry).
It's one thing for Clinton to contemplate a 2008 anti-war foe like little-known Sen. Russ Feingold (Wis.). It's quite another to face the MoveOn darling who won the popular vote against George W. Bush (and the election as many Dems see it).
Even Katrina could boost Gore — he got a standing ovation when he did an I-told-you-so and blamed global warming for hurricanes at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative last week.
"When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic flood waters five days after a hurricane struck, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe, but to hold ... the leaders of our nation accountable.
The warnings about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis, it is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences,"
Hurricane Rita has the potential to flood an area almost twice the size of New Orleans when it reaches shore early Saturday, causing tens of billions of dollars in damage to the Houston metropolitan area and plunging yet another major Gulf Coast metropolis into disarray.
"Dozens of chemical plants and petroleum facilities lie in Hurricane Rita's path, many of which may not be adequately prepared to prevent toxic releases," said Tom Natan, research director of the National Environmental Trust.
The Dallas Greyhound Bus company said don't go there; they have no more room on their buses.
For motorists stranded without gasoline, Texas Department of Public Safety trucks are prowling Interstates 10 and 45 and U.S. 290 with gasoline, said state Homeland Security Director Jack McCraw.
GALVESTON, Texas - Cars clogged Texas highways with 1.5 million people fleeing Hurricane Rita on Thursday as the massive storm roared through the Gulf of Mexico towards one of the largest American cities and the centre of the U.S. oil industry. "I don't think anyone in the Gulf Coast is out of harm's way," said David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A direct hit from Hurricane Rita, the third most potent storm in U.S. history, could disrupt production and send gasoline prices to record highs. Extensive damage to marine terminals on the Texas coast, used to receive crude oil and ship refined products to market, could delay full recovery for weeks.
Parking is no longer available at William P. Hobby Airport. Both on and off-airport parking areas are full to capacity. The parking situation at Bush Intercontinental Airport is fast approaching the same status. . . . The Chronicle's Laura Weisman is heading to San Antonio on I-10 and reports the outside temperature reading on her car reads 118 degrees.
The mayor of Houston said the government will not be able to evacuate everyone who needs help. Mayor White said, “We need neighbor caring for neighbor.”
"The forecast called for three to five inches of rain in New Orleans in the coming days. That is dangerously close to the amount engineers said could send floodwaters pouring back into neighborhoods that have been dry for less than a week.
Rita has Louisiana in her sights," [Gov.} Blanco said. "Head north. You cannot go east, you cannot go west. If you know the local roads that go north, take those."
As for those who refuse to leave, she said: "Perhaps they should write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink."
For two full days, George W. Bush was bashed. He was taken to task on his handling of stem cell research, population control, the Iraq war and, especially, Hurricane Katrina. The critics were no left-wing bloggers. They were rich, mainly Republican and presumably Bush voters in the last two presidential elections.
The Bush-bashing occurred last weekend at the annual Aspen conference sponsored by the New York investment firm Forstmann Little & Co.
....Longtime participants in Forstmann Little conferences...told me they had not experienced such hostility against a Republican president at previous events. Yet, they were sure a majority of the guests had voted for Bush.
What started out as a defensive political play may have suddenly backfired on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
The Tennessee Republican sold all his stock in HCA Inc., the giant hospital company his family founded, in an attempt to shake conflict-of-interest charges that have dogged him through his political career.
[I]f it's okay for the U.S. Federal Government to force Major League Baseball to test for steroids, wouldn't it be prudent for some independent physician to regularly check on our alcoholic President to make sure he hasn't fallen off the wagon? . . . It's legal to test the blood alcohol of automobile drivers and to conduct random drug tests of airline pilots, but what protections do the citizens have from a raving drunk President?
British researchers analyzed rates of female murders and male death rates from all causes in 51 countries in Europe, Asia, Australasia, and North and South America. The prevalence of violence against women was used to indicate the extent of patriarchal control in each of the countries. Socioeconomic factors were also taken into consideration.
The study found that women lived longer than men in all 51 countries. The study also found that those countries with higher rates of female murders (indicating higher levels of patriarchy) also had higher rates for male death and shorter male life expectancies, compared to countries with lower female murder rates, the researchers said.
These data suggest that oppression and exploitation harm the oppressors as well as those they oppress, and that men’s higher mortality is a preventable social condition, which could be tackled through global social policy measures.
For example, changes can be made in the way that young males are socialized into patriarchal gender roles, such as the emphasis on risk taking, aggression and suppression of emotions, the researchers said.
Cindy Sheehan may be the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement. But that didn't stop members of the New York Police Department from marching into the crowd of about 150 people gathered in Union Square Monday to hear her speak and yanking away the microphone.
We can't go through it, we can't go under it, so we have to go over it," she continued, just as the cops rushed the makeshift podium.
Police dragged away Paul Zulkowitz, a.k.a. Zool, an organizer with “Camp Casey New York,” the small encampment that he and other activists helped set up a month ago in Union Square in solidarity with Sheehan’s vigil outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The New York branch existed much to the ire of the city’s Parks Department. Today, Zulkowitz was arrested for failing to obtain a sound permit—a charge that normally warrants no more than a summons.
As the activists hustled away Sheehan and the other family members on the Bring Them Home Now tour, an enraged crowd of about 50 people stormed after the police, chanting, "Shame! Shame!"
ABC Television Network's "Commander In Chief"
Mackenzie Allen (Academy Award-winner Geena Davis), the 45-year-old Independent Vice President of the United States, is about to venture into territory no woman has entered before. While at an official ceremony with husband and Chief of Staff Rod Calloway (Kyle Secor), she is informed by the President's Chief of Staff, Jim Gardner (Harry Lennix), and the Attorney General that President Bridges is about to undergo emergency brain surgery for a tumor.
Mackenzie is stunned when Gardner tells her that, in the event the President does not recover, the party doesn't want her to succeed him. Instead, she's asked to step down in order to allow the Speaker of the House to assume the post, as he shares the party's ideals.
Mackenzie's doubts are confirmed when she visits President Bridges at the hospital and hears from him directly that he wants her to resign. Bridges dies before transition plans are finalized, however, and after sitting through an insulting and sexist conversation with Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland), Mackenzie decides to forge ahead and assume the presidency, despite the obstacles that lie ahead.
Tuesdays, 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET; premieres Tuesday, September 27, 9:00-10:00 p.m.
At a meeting in April 2004, a local communist party boss gave Shi Tao and his colleagues verbal orders on how they were to cover the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Shi Tao took notes at the meeting and, using his private e-mail account, sent off a description of what he'd been told to a pro-democracy Web site run by a Chinese emigre in New York.
A few weeks ago, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for doing so.
Though Shi Tao's "crime" would not have been considered illegal in America, an American company was directly responsible for his conviction. Unfortunately, Shi Tao had a Yahoo e-mail address, and when the Chinese government asked, Yahoo Inc. complied with its request to hunt him down. . . .
"There has never been a time where there is more total spending and more wasteful spending in Washington than we have today." Pat Toomey, former Congressman (R-PA) and head of the ultra conservative Club for Growth.
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. It is a very good evening for me. I am still an obscenely wealthy and powerful autocratic leader of a nation of sheeple who falsely believe they are free. While I am surrounded by misery and suffering, I make this presentation of shameless propaganda from a comfortable, beautiful stage set while surrounded by an entourage of thugs who assure my safety. I am speaking to you from what is left of the city of New Orleans, a gem of an American city which was gutted by a powerful force of nature, and by the insidious social experiment undertaken by my malevolent administration. Millions of lives were destroyed by a cruel and wasteful storm, and by a cruel and wasteful federal government over which I zealously preside.
In the aftermath of Katrina, the haves of this nation have gleefully watched the have-nots dispersed to the four corners of this great nation. As the victims search for loved ones and grieve for the dead, America's attention is diverted from my nomination of a Supreme Court Justice who will strengthen the tyranny I have created, Karl Rove's criminal behavior, and my administration's numerous war crimes related to Iraq. The lies and exaggerations of my media lap-dogs have persuaded many Americans that blacks are undisciplined animals who live off of government hand-outs, feeding my agenda to end social welfare programs and perpetuating the lucrative prison-industrial complex. With their persistent cries for civil rights, blacks have been a thorn in the side of the American aristocracy long enough.
. . .To the victims of the hurricane dispelled far and wide, I send you this message. Many soft, weak people I call "liberals" care about you. In contrast, my base of the obscenely wealthy and I are relishing your misery. We are salivating at the opportunities to expand our wealth by rebuilding your city with you out of our way. The Crescent City will rise again, and as it does, so will the balances in our bank accounts.
For assistance, please call this number: 1-877-EAT CAKE.
"There was rejoicing...when the power came back on for blocks on end. ... The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before [President Bush] drove through.
And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed [after delivering his televised speech to the nation], the lights went out.
The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions."
--NBC News's Brian Williams's, from the Nightly News blog, 9/16/05
NEW YORK With confirmation that an accidental photo of President Bush at the United Nations on Wednesday, writing a note to Secretary of State Condeezza Rice about a “bathroom break,” was indeed real, newspapers around the U.S. and abroad are now planning to run it widely. But many, it seems, will treat it as something more than a joke.
A source at the Washington Post tells E&P that the paper is considering it for prominent play, in the context that, at least in some minds, it raises questions about overall perception of the U.S. at the United Nations, right or wrong. Reuters reports extremely strong interest in the photo today.
Exodus International’s flagship ‘ex-gay’ residential treatment facility, Love in Action, is facing possible closure by the state of Tennessee for unlawfully treating mentally ill gay men.
Tennessee has determined that the ‘ex-gay’ group, Love in Action — led by John Smid, is illegally operating two ‘mental health supportive living facilities.’
Wayne Besen, author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals & Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth,” celebrated news of Tennessee’s action against Love in Action.
“Tennessee is rightfully and responsibly protecting its citizens from unscrupulous and unlicensed practitioners posing as genuine mental health professionals,” Besen said.
Besen called on other states to determine whether other ex-gay groups meet basic mental health guidelines. Read the whole thing.
U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war.
"We really have made every effort to support our associates and give them the time off when they need the time off and support them with continued benefits and supplies wherever we could," spokeswoman Kiley Rawlins said. "Our associates are very important to us, and we know that this is a very traumatic time."
