On mission along the border of Chad and Darfur, Human Rights Watch researchers gave children notebooks and crayons to keep them occupied while they spoke with the children's parents. Without any instruction or guidance, the children drew scenes from their experiences of the war in Darfur: the attacks by the Janjaweed, the bombings by Sudanese government forces, the shootings, the burning of entire villages, and the flight to Chad.

Heads up!  A dear old friend has been running marathons (yes, real 26 mile marathons) for the past four years 'running' and has put out a worthy call for help.  At this point, I don't know too many people who haven't been personally affected by someone with cancer and I'm amazed at how Cindy has taken that experience and turned it into the motivation to wake up early and often to sweat and hurt...wow!

Dear Friends,

Many of you know that I have been active with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society over the past four years by running marathons with their Team In Training program.  This year is no different.  I am more than halfway through my fourth season and will be running the NIKE Women's Marathon (26.2 miles) on October 23, 2005 in San Francisco! 

I usually do not ask my friends for donations, or rather give them the opportunity to make a difference themselves, but this year I realized that what I am doing is about finding a cure to blood related cancers...not about me! 

The Society has made leaps and bounds of progress over the past two decades and it is your dollars that make the difference.  Just this past weekend I was speaking with a woman who has had leukemia for the past 8 years and has not had to go through chemotherapy yet.  Every time it looks like that is the treatment of choice another study is completed and new medicines become available!  It is stories like this that make me truly believe we are on the verge of finding a cure for blood related cancers.

I have set a hefty goal of raising $5,000 for the Society this season.  While there is not much time left to accomplish this I also know that most people will decide by the time they are done reading this message whether they are going to donate or not!  If you wish to read more about my involvement with the Society and donate to this wonderful cause, please click on the following link.  All donations are 100% tax deductible!

Click here to donate!

Thank you in advance for your support,

Cindy Biniker

This gives me an idea that's a little more my speed - turning an old college pasttime into a fundraiser for your favorite cause - The Couch-off!  See how long you can remain horizontal on your favorite sofa with nothing but water, iced tea mix, pretzels, basic cable, and one bathroom break every four hours.  Sponsorship starts at $1/hour...

Anyway, please consider doing your part to help Cindy reach her goal.  I mean, she's running 26 flipping miles, what are you doing?

"Young Students Are New Focus for Big Donors"

In the world of education philanthropy, colleges and universities have traditionally received about twice as much grant money as elementary and secondary schools. But, a new wave of entrepreneurs turned philanthopists are changing that dynamic, and education policy as well.  [more]

"Waiting for the time when I can finally say...

this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way."

One year ago today, on their home soil at the Newport State Airport in Coventry, VT, Phish took the stage for the final time together.  The two-day festival in northeast Vermont capped off a 21-year run that saw the band grow from an eccentric Burlington bar band into one of the most successful touring acts in America.  Their incomparable versatility and wide-ranging musical knowledge helped endear them to fans of all stripes and gained them a respect across the music world that few share.

More than anything else I have written for this site, this piece has been the hardest because never before have I had such an emotional attachment to the subject.   The top of the list of the most important things in my life looks a bit like this: my family and friends, the Yankees, and Phish.  Since they came into my life for good, no band has moved me like Phish.  I had actually first learned of Phish in 1990 through the older brother of a good friend, but we were too young to understand the complex music the band was writing at the time.  However in the summer of 1995 I borrowed my first bootlegs and as they say, the rest is history. 

I'll never forget the first time it really hit me- the indescribable feeling of pure musical bliss.  I was on the way home from Cape Cod with my parents listening to a tape from 3/30/92.  During the guitar at the end of "Bouncin" I knew this band was going to have a major impact on my life.  But how much of an impact, even I would not understand until later that year when I saw my first live show: December 4, 1995 at the Mullins Center at UMASS.  It was the most amazing thing I'd ever been a part of; never before had I experienced that kind of energy.  I remember not being able to fall asleep after the show because I just couldn't stop thinking about what I had just seen.  The lights, the power of the sound, and the tightness of the band were pure sensory overload.  At that moment my life was forever changed.

But one of the things that made Phish so special was that it was not just about music, it became a part of who I am.  It was something tangible for me to identify with at a time when that is extremely important.  It gave me the feeling that I belonged to something great, even though many people didn't understand.  And that was part of what made it great; the sense that we knew something other people didn't.  It was an underlying theme of the band's career from the very beginning and one that fans always embraced. 

--

Some of the greatest times of my life were spent at Phish:  New Years 1996 at the Fleet, the infamous "Beruit" fiasco at Darien Lake, "bringing the new" at Pepsi '97, my two trips to Limestone for Lemonwheel and IT, flying the Pittsfield Pride at Oswego, on the road for fall tour 2000, and the greatest of them all, NYE 2000 at Big Cypress.  These are times of my life I look back on with great joy and I want to thank the band and all of my friends who were there with me for helping to make it that way.  Possibly the most important thing Phish did for my friends and I was to provide us with a platform to grow closer.  In many cases, the times spent at Phish turned good friends into great friends.  I always thought the company was as important as the music itself and I hope those who I had the privilege to share this band with know how much it meant.  I hope that they know how grateful I am that we were able to do it together.

That is why no matter what is said about the musical quality of Coventry, it doesn't matter.  I could not have been happier with my crew - people who felt the same passion for this band and who understood the importance of the final weekend.  It was the best of both of my worlds as I had with me friends from home and college; strangers when we began the trip but friends when we finished.  For me Coventry was not about the music.  It was about a ceremonial and celebratory end to a career that helped shape my life and provided me with immeasurable happiness.  It was about one last weekend together, away from society, away from the stress of workaday life.  But mostly it was about closure.  So while it's hard to deny that the band's emotion took away from their sharpness on stage, it's also hard to blame them.  It was a more fitting end that two of the four band members cried on stage during the last day than if they had played the best versions of the final songs.  Because Coventry was not about the music as much as it was about a part of our lives coming to an end. 

I think it took knowing beforehand that Coventry was the end to help realize that I was more okay with it than I expected.  A couple different times I asked myself if I was too old for the mud, the port-o-lettes, and the rather shifty creatures you can find at a Phish festival.  Regardless of the answer to those questions, the fact is that no matter what I told myself I never had the same feeling from the (live) music after the band's two year hiatus.  It was almost like we were both going through the motions, both there to perpetuate a time in our lives that we didn't want to let go.  And I think the reasons the band gave for calling it quits speak directly to that sentiment.  As Trey told Charlie Rose in his May 2004 interview, it's not always healthy to cling to what was driving you at ages 18 and 20; life is about moving on.  They could feel the fire was no longer there and those of us who were truthful to ourselves and the band could feel it too.

However, I am not surprised how much I miss Phish, especially at this time of year.  Sure my life has continued as expected, but there is a void that nothing will ever be able to fill and I'm not really sure I want it to be.  You can never replace something that means as much to you as Phish has to me.  They will always be "The Boys," they will always be my favorite band.  You just have to accept that part of life is letting go of things you love.  So am I ready to do let go of Phish?  In the immortal words of one of my favorite songwriters - maybe so, maybe not. 

Wouldn't it be great to be on a first-name basis with your Congressman?  Just think, you could find his or her website by just typing in Hank.com, or when you talk with you neighbors about the compelling issues of our time not involving runaway/missing brides/fugitives/teenagers you could say, "I wonder what Hank is doing about all this."

Alas, those gentle folk up in what some call the People's Republic of Vermont have just that.  He's a man that EVERYONE in Vermont simply refers to as - Bernie.  Drive around the state and every other Subaru is plastered with a red bumper sticker simply and proudly proclaiming their dedication to beloved Bernie.  As the state's sole Representative, he has quite a diverse electorate to please - from hippies and lesbians to farmers and NASCAR enthusiasts - but this Brooklyn export has won them all over with a brand of blunt populism that often puts him on the same side with the unlikeliest of allies: staunch conservatives, die-hard libertarians, anti-free trade protectionists.  (I can't mention his Brooklyn roots without noting that if he succeeds in becoming VT's next Senator, it will make 3 U.S. Senators - along with Sens. Chuck Schumer-NY and Norm Coleman-MN - that graduated from the same Brooklyn high school)

Yet, as the House's only independent, his is a self-described democratic socialist.  It is this scary s-word that has so many Democrats and Republican wary of the next chapter in the Bernie-saga:  The Senate.  VT's current Independent Senator, James Jeffords, who memorably parted with the Republican Party at the beginning of Bush's first term, is retiring and Bernie has already announced his intentions to seek that seat in 2006.  Surprisingly, the state Democratic Party has said it will not sponsor a candidate, and VT's popular Republican governor (not quite ready for primetime) has said he will not enter the race.  That means that the United States Senate is preparing to receive its first independent; its first socialist.  Oooooo.

On a personal note, I have to admit that writing about Bernie is, in a way, like rolling in a pile of puppies.  The man is a personal hero.  He often came to my alma mater (just outside Burlington, VT) to speak to political science classes and campus groups, and he never failed to impress.  He is witty, articulate, passionate, and intelligent.  Ok, enough of that.

What inspired me to write this ode is an amazing article that appears in Rolling Stone.  While Bernie is undeniably the focus of the piece, it's an amazing - if not frustrating - inside look at the workings of our Congress.  I've suggesting reading many, many things here in the past...some more worthwhile than others, I admit.  But this is something, in my opinion, that high school civics teachers should be photocopying for their classes.  A sample...

Sanders is the amendment king of the current House of Representatives. Since the Republicans took over Congress in 1995, no other lawmaker -- not Tom DeLay, not Nancy Pelosi -- has passed more roll-call amendments (amendments that actually went to a vote on the floor) than Bernie Sanders. He accomplishes this on the one hand by being relentlessly active, and on the other by using his status as an Independent to form left-right coalitions.

On this particular day, Sanders carries with him an amendment to Section 215 of the second version of the Patriot Act, which is due to go to the House floor for a reauthorization vote the next day. Unlike many such measures, which are often arcane and shrouded in minutiae, the Sanders amendment is simple, a proposed rollback of one of the Patriot Act's most egregious powers: Section 215 allows law enforcement to conduct broad searches of ordinary citizens -- even those not suspected of ties to terrorism -- without any judicial oversight at all. To a civil libertarian like Sanders, it is probably a gross insult that at as late a date as the year 2005 he still has to spend his time defending a concept like probable cause before an ostensibly enlightened legislature. But the legislation itself will prove not half as insulting as the roadblocks he must overcome to force a vote on the issue.

The House Rules Committee is perhaps the free world's outstanding bureaucratic abomination -- a tiny, airless closet deep in the labyrinth of the Capitol where some of the very meanest people on earth spend their days cleaning democracy like a fish. The official function of the committee is to decide which bills and amendments will be voted on by Congress and also to schedule the parameters of debate. If Rules votes against your amendment, your amendment dies. If you control the Rules Committee, you control Congress.

It's only a matter of time until Ben & Jerry's comes out with Pistachio Bernie, or some tasty concoction.  Mmmmm.

More info on Bernie Sanders at www.bernie.org

Will someone please put this guy in charge?

Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders. But he's the only sheik with blonde streaks in his mustache — and the only one who attended country music star Toby Keith's recent concert in Baghdad with fellow U.S. soldiers.

Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols he's known as the American sheik.

Sheiks, or village elders, are known as the real power in rural Iraq. And the 5-foot-6-inch Floridian's ascension to the esteemed position came through dry humor and the military's need to clamp down on rocket attacks.

Coming in one of the bloodiest weeks of the Iraqi occupation, this is welcome news.  Despite my early opposition and ongoing skepticism of this 'war,' it's great to see some positive stories coming out of Iraq.  I had a friend in the service who did nothing but go from village to village setting up schools and wells and hospitals, but that's tough for journalists to cover when there are 10 U.S. deaths a day over there.  Maybe we'd have more of these kinds of stories if this Administration didn't doll out contracts to the biggest scumbags on Earth.  Stuart Bowen, a former Bush loyalist and now Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, recently published a report which found the following regarding the billions of U.S. dollars spent on Iraq's infrastructure:

• A contracting officer was handed $6.75 million in cash and told it had to be spent within a week.
• An employee of the Coalition Provisional Authority kept the key to a safe with $140,000 in cash in an unattended backpack.
• The American authority lost track of $9 billion it gave to Iraqi ministries, which had no mechanisms for keeping records. Much of it, according to the Journal, appears to have been embezzled. One ministry, which employed about 600 guards, inflated its payroll to 8,206 guards so it could receive more money.
• An American soldier assisting an Iraqi boxing team at a competition gambled away half the $40,000 he was given for the team's expenses.
• American contracting officers left the country with no record of what became of $1.5 million.
• One-third of the contracts signed in fiscal 2003 — worth $10 billion —were awarded without competition.
• One contractor charged $3.3 million for phantom employees.
• Halliburton Co. apparently lost one-third of the government-owned vehicles it was paid to manage.

Bowen also urged the government to withhold almost $90 million in payments to Halliburton because its cost-reporting was so weak that he could not perform a credible audit, according to the Journal.

Imagine what the Sheik Horns of the world could've done with decent pay and the appropriate resources to rebuild Iraq from the ground up.  I mean, this guy has done amazing stuff with the locals.

Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Horn's spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.

Is Mrs. Horn unaware of the sacrifices necessary during wartime?  We must, for the sake of democracy, be prepared to do what is necessary...and if that means the man must take a second wife, then I ask ye, who are we to stand in the way of peace and prosperity?  If she objects to the polygamy, I wonder what she'll say when he brings home the flock...

Upon getting his 3000^th career base hit earlier this season, Rafael Palmeiro joined Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, and Eddie Murray as the only players ever with 500 home runs and 3000 hits.  It was a milestone most thought guaranteed Palmeiro a place among baseball immortals in Cooperstown.  But it's his place in another, much less honorable club that has his legacy in doubt.

It was learned yesterday that Palmeiro has become the seventh MLB player to test positive for performing enhancing drugs.  Palmeiro denied ever "knowingly" using a steroid via conference call yesterday afternoon, but we've heard that before.  And I don't buy it now just like I didn't buy it then.  These guys are too smart and take too good care of their bodies to not know exactly what they put in them, especially at a time when there is such intense focus on steroids in baseball.  As the Houston Chronicle's Richard Justice said Monday on ESPNs Pardon the Interruption, "He's asking us to believe he's stupid, and he's not."

You may remember that it was Palmeiro who made the fiercest defense to Congress at their little dog and pony show back in March.  He looked the committee in the eye, pointed his finger at them and said he had "never" done steroids.  Never.  I wanted to believe him, and so I did.  But it's obvious that Palmeiro lied.  I don't care that he lied to Congress because they do that to us everyday.  I don't care that he lied to Bud Selig.  But I do care that he lied to the fans.  I care that he lied to the kid whose dad spent $90 on his jersey Sunday night.  I care that he lied because I always thought of Raffy as a man of character who played this beloved game in a manner that would make the greats before him proud.  A man whose career I would someday be proud to tell my son I had the privilege to watch.  Now I don't know what I would say. 

Raffy has always been one of those non-Yankees that I've considered one of my favorite players.  He played AA ball in my hometown of Pittsfield, MA, on the same field I would later play my high school football games.  I can only hope that this is some kind of mistake, that in the next couple of days Major League Baseball will say "Oops, we're sorry!  Raffy is actually clean."  But I know better now; I know that some of the biggest baseball heroes of my generation cheated and lied.  And I could not feel more betrayed.

So now baseball is back in the muck.  We'll talk about drugs instead of another Yankees/Red Sox pennant race, or the Cubs' Derrek Lee shooting for the first Triple Crown in 36 years, or the Braves quest to win their 14^th consecutive division championship.  We'll talk about cheating instead of the White Sox doing their best Secretariat impression, or the fact that Moneyball is alive and well in Oakland.  We'll talk about who maybe shouldn't go to the Hall of Fame instead of who just did.

In a season where there is so much right, we'll be talking about what is wrong.  And that is the greatest shame of all. 

In a daring, yet typically cynical Rovian move, the President moved today to nominate John Bolton to be his Administration's ambassador to the United Nations.  The nominee himself had set off a months long battle over the qualifications, temperment, and sanity of the person the U.S. wants representing its interests at the U.N.  Yet, despite the Senate's trepidations about confirming a man who once declared "There's no such thing as the United Nations," the Bushies circumvented the Senate's two centuries-old process of approving the President's nominees and put Bolton up for a recess appointment.  That is, by waiting until Congress has officially ended its summer session, the President can nominate controversial candidates without Senate approval, allowing them to serve until the initiation of the next Congress (early 2007).

Defending his position, the President claimed:  "This post is too important to leave vacant any longer..." but apparently not important enough for Constitutional checks & balances to do that democracy thing.  Typically, it would not occur to the conservotrons in the White House that if the post is sooooo important to fill right now, they coud just...oh, I don't know, nominate someone else who doesn't hold contempt for the U.N.  Just a thought.

Rather than try to rehash this entire White House leak--Niger uranium--former Ambassador/CIA operative Power Couple business in this rather unstimulating medium, I strongly suggest listening to this NPR report (click "Listen") from senior analyst Daniel Schorr (the guy who played the news anchor that talked to Michael Douglas through the TV in The Game), he absolutely hits the nail on the head.

In related news, people are finally getting it:  Bush honesty rating drops to lowest point

Furthermore, only 41 percent give Bush good marks for being "honest and straightforward" — his lowest ranking on this question since he became president. That's a drop of nine percentage points since January, when a majority (50 percent to 36 percent) indicated that he was honest and straightforward. This finding comes at a time when the Bush administration is battling the perception that its rhetoric doesn't match the realities in Iraq, and also allegations that chief political adviser Karl Rove leaked sensitive information about a CIA agent to a reporter. (The survey, however, was taken just before these allegations about Rove exploded into the current controversy.)

This entire issue is rife with myriad he said/she said disputes, secondary First Amendment principles, and stomach turning flashbacks to the falsified run-up to the Iraqi invasion.  At a minimum, however, it seems that the President's top political advisor sought to destroy the credibility of a critic of the Administration's justification for War by outing the identity of a CIA agent.  If that ain't scumbaggery, I'm not sure what is.

UPDATE: (by Adrock) May I suggest reading Tim Noah's most recent columns on the subject? I've many a commentor make this claim or that in this case, even going as far as to say that Plame wasn't undercover at all! There is indeed too much he said/she said, and unless that all is cleared up, we might as well just ignore the story. Democrats could just come out looking like partisan idiots if Rove isn't in the wrong legally, even if ethically he's out there.

Not that anyone actually cares, or has even noticed for that matter, but I'm going to explain why I haven't written a word on this page for almost six months.  I'm going to do it because while some may see it as childish, I feel it is a perfectly legitimate, sincere reason and that there is also an important underlying point.

I stopped giving a shit about politics.  Admittedly, not total indifference like I wouldn't care if a Republican wins the White House in 2008.  More like, I just can't stand putting myself through the daily masochism of reading about how Congressional Republicans are once again abusing their power and somehow spinning it to imply that the Democrats are truly at fault.  Because when you're the minority in all three branches of government you really have the chance to push an agenda.  I also did it because no matter what the situation, the Bush Administration can always find a way to boil my blood like a Red Sox win in the ninth.

So I cut myself off from all political media.  No more articles about the President or Congress, Howard Dean or Rush Limbaugh.  No more Iraq or Terry Schiavo.  No more Hardball or 9:00 wake-up calls for Meet the Press.  My sleep is more valuable then Rumsfeld trying to turn Russert's mind into a pretzel for the 14th time in the last 20 weeks.  I even stayed away from the blogs, less the amazing material from Matthew Yglesias and Co. that my good friend and colleague Adrock insist I read.

But I can no longer stay silent as we have finally reached the moment every single Democrat (and moderate Republican if you ask me) has feared since January 2001- the retirement of a Supreme Court justice.  The vacancy left by Justice O'Connor's retirement will be filled by either someone of her nature -- a conservative-leaning pragmatist -- a hard-line, strict constructionist like Chief Justice Rehnquist or Justice Scalia, or a winger like the newly confirmed Federal Appeals Court Judge Priscilla Owen.

President Bush has the opportunity to finally show that he is capable of compromise and not 100% beholden to the religious right.  Not just Democrats, but even members of his own party want someone in the mold of O'Connor or Anthony Kennedy.  There is soon going to be a spot opening -- the spot -- when Chief Justice Rehnquist retires.  I pray that President Bush can for once act in the spirit of compromise and fill the Associate spot with someone the Democrats can confirm quickly and without protest.  If he chooses again to act belligerently, to once again exhibit contempt for the parameters of his influence by selecting a radical, reactionary, religious conservative then I fear I may stop caring once and for all.

Because folks, that's the ballgame.  And we lose.

All day long people have been saying to me, "Wasn't it great they didn't pick Paris?" And I've been saying, "No, no, no."

Paris was exactly the right place to pick and the Olympic committee screwed up.

Why? Simple. It would have been a three-week period where we wouldn't have had to worry about terrorism.

First, the French think they are so good at dealing with the Arab world that they would have gone out and paid every terrorist off. And things would have been calm.

Or another way to look at it is the French are already up to their eyeballs in terrorists. The French hide them in miserable slums, out of sight of the rich people in Paris.

So it would have been a treat, actually, to watch the French dealing with the problem of their own homegrown Islamist terrorists living in France already.

...

But, alas, they picked London. I like the Brits. I like London. I hate to see them going through all this garbage when it would have been just fine in Paris.

C'est la vie. Goes to show the Olympic committee doesn't recognize the perfect opportunity when it presents itself.

That's My Word.

The bombings in London: This is why I thought the Brits should let the French have the Olympics - let somebody else be worried about guys with backpack bombs for a while.

So, Thursday was a big day for Al Qaeda. They got nearly four-dozen Brits and they killed the Egyptian ambassador. But you have to ask if the attack in London was in fact so big.

It's the first time big terror attack on Iraq war coalition countries since the Madrid bombing of March 11, 2004. In Spain, 191 were killed. In London the death toll was less.

That's not to minimize what happened today by any means, but one terror expert told me that if anything this attack shows the relative weakness of Al Qaeda.

Why?

The terrorists managed to get a few guys to be suicide bombers. That's strong. But they didn't get the big bang they like to have and it has only drawn the Brits together: the pro-war and anti-war, the left and the right. Now the Brits are mad. All of that is arguably weak.

Now, is it bad that they managed to do this at all? Of course. Should we do everything we can to make sure people who think like this can't act? I argue, yes.

And for this exact reason, I think the Patriot Act and other powers the feds have asked for to keep an eye on potential terrorists are important and should be put in place and kept in place and the police should use those powers.

That's My Word.

Gibson thinks France is "someone else" in the War on Terror. I'm guessing probably because of their opposition of the Iraq War, even though we all know Iraq had very little to do with global terrorism.  Nevermind that in the law enforcement portion of the GWOT, France is our largest ally.  Also, he must have forgotten that the Patriot Act is essentially a law enforcement anti-terror tactic, the sort of stuff that conservatives eschew for being ineffective in combating terrorism, their convenient way of supporting the Iraq War. (Is there any consistency? Or are they just retarded?) I won't even get into the inference that Al Qaeda is on the run, down and out, in it's "last throes" as that's about the most shallow analysis anyone could come up with.

Mostly, however, this post was designed to show how friggin stupid the people that lead us into conflict really are. It's pretty much pointless to harp on the "Fair and Balanced" moniker as that b.s. has been ripped apart the day they started using it.  More importantly though, Gibson and his fellow flag wavers have shown that their true colors--hate for anyone who isn't like them. Yet somehow the American public allows them to wrap themselves in red, white and blue. I guess since the French are white they can get away without being called bigots. But really, what's the difference? Distaste for the French, which even I share at times, is different than wishing death and destruction on them.

So here we are, at a time of tragedy, throwing political bombs every which way. Well, if you can't beat them, might as well join them:  John Gibson, it is truly unfortunate for this world that you were not riding the subway in London at the time of the bombing. That's OUR word.

If a lame duck President gives a speech in the woods, does anyone hear it?  Apparently, no.  I, along with all but 23 million of my fellow Americans, care not what my embarrassing failure of a President has to say anymore.  Even the networks decided to go with their scheduled programming, I love it.  NBC stuck with Average Joe 2: The Joes Strike Back...I absolutely love it.

Much like any other washed up performer, the President went out there and belted out the same old tunes: Freedom, 9/11, Terrorism, War...you know, the classics.  But what has made me happier than rolling in a pile of puppies are the reactions from the press following Bush's latest sideshow.

Yahoo! Mail now gives me Yahoo! News' Top Stories of the day now and the #1 story the morning after the speech honestly brought a tear to my eye.  The headline read:  "Bush Criticized for Linking 9/11 and Iraq" ...not, "Bush Reaffirms Commitment to War" ...or, "President Rallies Troops" ...no, finally, some honest reporting from the mainstream media, I was blown away.

Finally, people are catching on to this tired old routine - when all else fails, talk about 9/11.  For some reason, the 9/11-themed revival that was the 2004 RNC National Convention didn't tune people in to the callous manipulation of the wingers, but constantly invoking 9/11 to explain the costly deceptions and miscalculations that have plagued this war apparently has.  Nice work, fellas.

I've got beef with Boston, too, but this is a little much.  Here's little Dick Santorum (Winger-PA) opining a few years back on the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.  Keep in mind, this man is a United States Senator.  Enjoy:

It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

...I would've blamed Affleck and Damon, but why split hairs.

Fact #1:  Most conservative leaders and elected Republicans are hypocritical, lying, disingenuous scumbags.

Fact #2:  Most Americans are unaware or unconvinced of Fact #1 for a variety of reasons, particularly the wholesale inability of the American media to do its job and ready availability of entertaining distractions in American life.

Solution:  Bring the truth to the people; Bypass the lame-o American media using popular culture as the truth's vehicle.

Proposal:  

Buy ad space on cans of Budweiser and packs of Marlboros to display the following:  "Mmm...tasty and refreshing, eh partner?  Well, this product won't taste so good with a heaping pile of hellfire on it, will it?  Cause that's what you'll get with a Republican Congress - enough hellfire to last a thousand lifetimes."

Create a new NASCAR team - FDUBYA Racing, sponsored by Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Steven Spielberg Productions, and Al Franken's Enormous Head - note: team must mercilessly kick ass

Name the new Yankee Stadium - Yankee Stadium at Republicans Eat Babies Ballpark

We're open to further suggestions.

I wanted this story to be over.  It should be over.  But it isn't...for many reasons too numerous to list, it isn't.  If you haven't heard, the official autopsy report came out on Terri Schiavo.  In sum she was, sadly, beyond hope.  Her brain was half the expected size, she was blind, and no amount of time and therapy could've changed all that.  Alas, the insanity continues.

One might expect a show of capitulation on behalf of those who demonized Terri's husband, impugned his motives, hijacked Terri's life, and embarrassed us all by offending the sensibilities of privacy that Americans historically hold dear.  EJ Dionne of the Washington Post isn't holding his breath (Where's the Apology?):

Nothing in the autopsy report prevents those who opposed removing Schiavo's feeding tube from continuing to insist they were right. It's legitimate and honorable to argue on philosophical grounds that every medical decision in a tragic circumstance such as Schiavo's should be made on the side of keeping the sick person alive.

But those who supported an extraordinary use of federal power to force their own conclusion against the judgment of state courts knew that philosophical arguments would not be enough. Most Americans were uneasy about compelling Schiavo's husband, Michael, to keep his wife alive if -- as the state courts had concluded and as the autopsy confirmed on Wednesday -- she had suffered irreversible brain damage and was incapable of recovering.

So the big-government conservatives had to invent a story. They had to insist that they knew, just knew, more about Terri Schiavo's condition than the doctors on the scene. They had to question Michael Schiavo's motives and imply that he wanted to, well, get rid of her.

You may recall that Dr. Frist stood on the floor of the Senate and proclaimed that after reviewing video tape in his office for one hour the previous evening, he was - as a physician - skeptical of the many diagnoses offered by neurologists and other doctors that she was, in fact, in a persistent vegetative state.  Not to be outdone, House Majority Clown Tom DeLay called on his many years of experience in the pest extermination bidness to provide his own, unwanted, second opinion.

"Mrs. Schiavo's condition, I believe, has been at times misrepresented by the media," DeLay said on March 20. "Terri Schiavo is not brain-dead; she talks and she laughs, and she expresses happiness and discomfort. Terri Schiavo is not on life-support."

Anyway, this is all he-said/she-said stuff.  I suppose people can interpret the report any way they choose, and if your core belief system tells you that Terri should've been sustain in perpetuity, then scientific findings be damned.  But the latest nauseating development in this saga is a prime example of good old spite:

Gov. Jeb Bush asked a prosecutor Friday to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, calling into question how long it took her husband to call 911 after he found her. [CNN.com]

Uggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Where am I?  Can this be for real?  What on Earth is going on?  Mr. Serling, do your thing:

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call "The Twilight Zone".

Doo-doo-doo-doo, Doo-doo-doo-doo, Doo-doo-doo-doo, Doo-doo-doo-doo.

Behold the wookie.

                        ...sound on...

www.passedoutwookies.com

While doing some google-powered geeksearch on the mythology and background of the Star Wars trilogies, I stumbled across something that I think goes beyond the childhood obsession shared by a generation (or two) of Americans and into the very nature and purpose of storytelling.

In 1949 Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) made a big splash in the field of mythology with his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. This book built on the pioneering work of German anthropologist Adolph Bastian (1826-1905), who first proposed the idea that myths from all over the world seem to be built from the same "elementary ideas." Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) named these elementary ideas "archetypes," which he believed to be the building blocks not only of the unconscious mind, but of a collective unconscious. In other words, Jung believed that everyone in the world is born with the same basic subconscious model of what a "hero" is, or a "mentor" or a "quest," and that's why people who don't even speak the same language can enjoy the same stories. Jung developed his idea of archetypes mostly as a way of finding meaning within the dreams and visions of the mentally ill.

To be honest, before reading this I had never even considered this notion; that different people, irrespective of their culture, language, or religion could accept the same myths and stories and even similarly appreciate their underlying meanings.  Certainly, there are some things that have transcended communal and cultural barriers - the Old Testament is critical, to varying degrees, to the dogma of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity - but to think that someone born on the opposite side of the world is engendered with the same appreciation for Luke, Frodo, and Neo is simply amazing.

Obviously, the three religions I previously cited have done far, far different things with the Old Testament.  And while the tales and characters contained in that most ancient of storybooks may add a common flavor to each sect, the human institutions, interpretations, and traditions that have manifested around each are unquestionably different.  But maybe this is where we have gone awry...if it is true that we are all "born with the same basic subconscious model" of truth, justice, and the humanitarian way, why have we developed such complex and disparate conscious models to understand the world around us?

Campbell's contribution was to take this idea of archetypes and use it to map out the common underlying structure behind religion and myth. He proposed this idea in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, which provides examples from cultures throughout history and all over the world. Campbell eloquently argues that all stories are fundamentally the same story, which he named the "Hero's Journey," or the "monomyth." This sounds like a simple idea, but it suggests an incredible ramification, which Campbell summed up with his adage "All religions are true, but none are literal." That is, he concluded that all religions are really containers for the same essential truth, and the trick is to avoid mistaking the wrappings for the diamond.

Since I'm sure there have been thousands of new religions invented over the past 100 years, I won't feel too blasphemous about kicking one off right here.  Rule #1 of the Dogwood Dogma: You do not Talk about the Dogwood Dogma...just kidding.  Tenet #1 of the Dogwood Dogma:  The trick is to avoid mistaking the wrappings for the diamond.

As Massachusetts reflects on the one-year anniversary of its legalization of gay marriage, wacky religious-types in Kansas with too much time on their hands are taking notice.  This time, a 12-year old student from Dracut, MA (home of the Dogwood Papers' own Adrock) has drawn the ire of the professional picketers circuit.  The local Lowell Sun - which endorsed President Bush in last year's race - has come out with this recommendation:

We congratulate the 12-year-old Dracut girl who won a school contest with her essay on openly gay comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. The student deserves credit and praise for her efforts, as does her teacher at the Englesby Intermediate School.

Unfortunately, the winning essay has attracted the attention of a Kansas-based evangelical group, which plans to picket the school next month. We are disturbed and disgusted by the antics of Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, and his followers.

After being notified of the subject of the student's winning essay, the church designed and distributed an invective-laden leaflet that includes a photo of the Englesby School and a devil. Typed statements viciously attack the staff, labeling it a "homo-fascist regime" and much worse.

Even though we are repulsed by the   actions of Mr. Phelps and his supporters, we have to understand they have the right to peacefully demonstrate and must be allowed to do so if they abide by the constraints of the law. We would prefer that they accept our recommendation and stay out of Dracut and away from the grounds of the Englesby Intermediate School.

If anything, Phelps and his supporters should be applauding the young student who saw fit to recognize the biases and discrimination that Ellen DeGeneres has had to overcome to achieve success and become a professional comedienne, actress and talk-show hostess.

Acting Police Chief Kevin Richardson may have no choice but to issue the group a permit to picket, but protesters will not be allowed to demonstrate on school grounds or to disrupt students' academic pursuits. He must balance the group's civil rights and the safety of the school's students   and staff.

Phelps and his supporters gained national notoriety in 1998 by demonstrating at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young Wyoming man who was viciously murdered in an anti-gay hate crime. Cruelly adding to the family's suffering and despair, Phelps and his followers stood across from the church holding placards that read, "Matthew is in hell."

The group has the right to demonstrate peacefully in Dracut next month, but we hope they take appropriate action by deciding to stay home.

Should they choose to come east with this intolerance roadshow, they will likely meet a counter-protest to their picket...Huzzah!  I've got a few ideas for those protesting the protesters:

• "Go Back to Kansas! ... and bring some Common Sense back with you"

• "Jesus didn't picket ... he Loved"

• "Don't you have Jobs?!?"