Merry
Christmas!

As way of a holiday wish, please read the article Jer links to in his post below. It proves the power of imagination, invention, and faith in people. A city on the brink as brought back by the strength of an individual.

I can't think of a better message of hope.

Thanks again for sharing Jer.

- rob 1:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Bogota as social experiment.

Mockus, the only son of a Lithuanian artist, burst onto the Colombian political scene in 1993 when, faced with a rowdy auditorium of the school of arts' students, he dropped his pants and mooned them to gain quiet. The gesture, he said at the time, should be understood "as a part of the resources which an artist can use." He resigned as rector, the top job of Colombian National University, and soon decided to run for mayor.

The fact that he was seen as an unusual leader gave the new mayor the opportunity to try extraordinary things, such as hiring 420 mimes to control traffic in Bogotá's chaotic and dangerous streets. He launched a "Night for Women" and asked the city's men to stay home in the evening and care for the children; 700,000 women went out on the first of three nights that Mockus dedicated to them.

When there was a water shortage, Mockus appeared on TV programs taking a shower and turning off the water as he soaped, asking his fellow citizens to do the same. In just two months people were using 14 percent less water, a savings that increased when people realized how much money they were also saving because of economic incentives approved by Mockus; water use is now 40 percent less than before the shortage.

"The distribution of knowledge is the key contemporary task," Mockus said. "Knowledge empowers people. If people know the rules, and are sensitized by art, humor, and creativity, they are much more likely to accept change."

Mockus taught vivid lessons with these tools. One time, he asked citizens to put their power to use with 350,000 "thumbs-up" and "thumbs-down" cards that his office distributed to the populace. The cards were meant to approve or disapprove of other citizens' behavior; it was a device that many people actively - and peacefully - used in the streets.

- jer 4:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Power corrupts, punditry deranges
Being a powerful pundit on Fox News condemns one to hell?

"Somewhere Jesus is weeping" over attacks on Bill O'Reilly

FOX News host Bill O'Reilly declared that "[s]omewhere Jesus is weeping" over criticism of O'Reilly in the print media. O'Reilly issued this lament at the end of his December 20 "Talking Points Memo" segment -- a monologue he devoted entirely to responding to criticisms of him by various op-ed columnists -- on The O'Reilly Factor.

During the segment, O'Reilly falsely claimed that a New York Times article on various controversies surrounding Christmas "blames the dreaded conservatives for causing all the ruckus." He claimed that his critics have launched personal attacks on him because "[i]f these smear merchants can diminish me personally, they don't have to deal with the argument." But far from avoiding the substantive "argument" in favor of attacking O'Reilly, all of the articles O'Reilly cited mentioned him only in passing in the course of addressing various controversies surrounding some holiday celebrations.

O'Reilly began the "Memo" segment by declaring: "Tonight, the media forces of darkness counterattack and go after the defenders of Christmas." But O'Reilly himself is the only "defender" he named in the segment, though he noted that "The FOX News Channel and its commentators stand in the way of the secular agenda."

After the broadcast O'Reilly talked to his assistant about vibrators and slowly caressed some falafel.

- rob 2:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

What do you give to timber companies for Christmas?

Especially when they gave you so much money for your re-election campaign.

What would be the nicest gift you can think of? How about the run of America's publicly owned forests?

New forest regulations would eliminate environmental reviews

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration unveiled new management regulations Wednesday that could open the national forests to increased logging and other commercial activities without the lengthy environmental reviews now required.

Administration officials said the final rules will improve "performance and accountability" in a system that has become mired in lawsuits and environmental challenges. They would give forest managers more flexibility in developing their management plans, the officials said.
...
"This is the single most significant change in forest policy the Bush administration has done yet," said Michael Anderson of The Wilderness Society in Seattle.

Anderson and other environmentalist said the new regulations also would do away with a Reagan-era requirement that viable populations of wildlife be maintained in the national forests. Instead of being a requirement, Anderson said it will now be a goal for forest managers.

"The viability requirement is second in importance to only the Endangered Species Act when it comes to wildlife protection," said Mike Leahy, a lawyer with Defenders of Wildlife.

The viability standard is also the foundation of the Northwest Forest Plan, which guides management of the old-growth forests of the Northwest, he said.

Under the new regulations, Leahy said, each forest manager can come up with "whatever standards they want," rather than having mandatory environmental standards across all national forests.

But Bush strongly believes he is doing the right thing, that's why the change was enacted right before Christmas so the news coverage would be minimal to non-existent. The guy is a coward.

- rob 10:09 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

Yet one more thing we want to be wrong about.

Last summer we heard about the increased in violence was all attributable to the coming hand over of control to the Iraqi interim government. The violence was because the "out side forces" didn't want Iraq to be under the control of Iraqis. Alas, the violence continued and it continued to get worse.

Now I hear reported over and over that the increase in violence is due to attempts to derail the coming election, implying that the violence is temporarily high.

Sounds like the same wishful reporting we heard this summer.

I hope I am wrong.

- rob 9:14 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

A Week of Inauguration Protests Planned

A week of Inauguration Mourning is also planned by many.

- rob 5:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

So I guess it Doesn't really matter the Kerry lost Ohio... he didn't get New York either?

Wrong John Kerry Gets NY Electoral Votes

WASHINGTON -- Even John Q. Public knows the middle initial of losing presidential candidate John F. Kerry. But New York's 31 electoral college votes are currently on the books for some guy named John L. Kerry.

State officials acknowledged the mistake Tuesday after the official "certificate of vote" appeared on the Web site of the National Archives.

- rob 4:53 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Republican Looting of America gets a little too obvious

Daily Kos :: GOP hill staffer a thief

The House Small Business Committee's chief economist was charged by Capitol Police with the attempted theft of a plasma television Thursday night.
According to a Capitol Police memorandum, officers apprehended the suspect, Thomas Loo, in the Rayburn House Office Building at approximately 10 p.m. Thursday after a Financial Services Committee staff member discovered Loo removing a plasma television from a room on the building's second floor.

Daniel McGlinchey, a professional staff member of the Financial Services panel, said he entered the committee's overflow hearing room, Room 2220, shortly before 10 p.m. to retrieve items from his office, located in a connected room.

"There was this guy standing there, and on a dolly there was something large wrapped in cardboard," McGlinchey said in a telephone interview. "He seemed a little surprised to see me."

Loo is a Republican. McGlinchey works for Democrat Barney Frank.

There's a joke about "values" in here somewhere.

- rob 4:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

USA TODAY: Latest deadly attack in Iraq calls for U.S. reality check

Unfortunately we here at TCS have been very cognizant of reality for quite some time now (reality often calls us on the phone to talk to us about new investment opportunities, that's how close we are to reality). Which brings us to this new Get Your War On:

- rob 4:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

- rob 3:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Election roundup:

• Olbermann: Time to separate the wheat from the chaff
  
  
• Daily Kos: Election Update 12/21 [Updated]
  
  
• Electors across US break traditional pro forma ritual to use electoral college to protest election
  
  
• The 2004 Recount in Ohio: County Reports
  
  
  - rob 2:53 PM - [PermaLink] -
  
  ----

Did Bush himself order tortures? Is it what Jesus would do?

Harsh interrogations in Iraq went beyond FBI standards, memo says

The memo about interrogations in Iraq shows the FBI trying to distance itself from such techniques as sleep deprivation, use of military dogs, "environmental manipulation" such as the use of loud music and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc."

"We have also instructed our personnel not to participate in interrogations by military personnel which might include techniques authorized by executive order but beyond the bounds of FBI practices," the top FBI official in Iraq reported to bureau officials in Washington. The FBI official wasn't named in the memo.

The memo includes several references to an "executive order" signed by President Bush, but the two government officials said that was an error and that the reference was to Defense Department directives.

White House officials also said the memo's reference to an executive order from the president was a mistake.

"No such executive order exists or has ever existed," said Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

- rob 2:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

To follow up Michael's post below.

I too want to reiterate that the anger TCS has with Bush, The Pentagon, Rummy, and many military brass, has nothing to do with our soldiers. We wish only the best for our troops and wish them a safe return (and a quick return).

They have volunteered to secure our nation and keep our nation free, the least Bush could have done was used their sacrifice only when necessary, and not for... I don't even know what for - honestly. Money? Oil? Business for his pals? Revenge for Dad? Thought it'd be cool? (probably the last).

Even anger at the rare (given the amount of soldiers stationed there) case of a soldier acting with a wanton brutality is tempered with the sadness knowing that that person was thrown into a situation of daily life and death struggles. That kind of pressure must be horribly caustic to one's soul.

Best Wishes, and hopes for safety for the holiday season and for the length of their stay.

And now back to anger at Bush and Rummy: War on the CheapGreg Rund was a freshman at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 when two students shot and killed a teacher, a dozen of their fellow students and themselves. Mr. Rund survived that horror, but he wasn't able to survive the war in Iraq. The 21-year-old Marine lance corporal was killed on Dec. 11 in Falluja.

The people who were so anxious to launch the war in Iraq are a lot less enthusiastic about properly supporting the troops who are actually fighting, suffering and dying in it. Corporal Rund was on his second tour of duty in Iraq. Because of severe military personnel shortages, large numbers of troops are serving multiple tours in the war zone, and many are having their military enlistments involuntarily extended.
...
The Bush administration, which has asked so much of the armed forces, has established a pattern of dealing in bad faith with its men and women in uniform. The callousness of its treatment of the troops was, of course, never more clear than in Donald Rumsfeld's high-handed response to a soldier's question about the shortages of battle armor in Iraq.

As the war in Iraq goes more and more poorly, the misery index of the men and women serving there gets higher and higher. More than 1,300 have been killed. Many thousands are coming home with agonizing wounds. Scott Shane of The Times reported last week that according to veterans' advocates and military doctors, the already hard-pressed system of health care for veterans "is facing a potential deluge of tens of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq with serious mental health problems brought on by the stress and carnage of war."
...
From the earliest planning stages until now, the war in Iraq has been a tragic exercise in official incompetence. The original rationale for the war was wrong. The intelligence was wrong. The estimates of required troop strength were wrong. The war hawks' guesses about the response of the Iraqi people were wrong. The cost estimates were wrong, and on and on.

A little over a week ago I posted a link to an Article in Salon about SGT. Frank "Greg" Ford and his story about being taken out of Iraq because he complained about the tortures going on.

Whitewashing Torture Article

A "anonymous" person posts two comments following up on the story, noting that Mr. Ford is indeed mentally unstable and that his stories should be taken with a hand full of salt. I've looked around and can't find any article that follows up the article from the anonymous posters side. However the person does note that Mr. Ford is wearing a Navy Seal badge that he did not earn. That being said and denoting the importance of these badges and insignias in the military perhaps it would be best to consider all of the other stories of sanctioned torture from military officers on up to the White House, and leave Mr. Ford's account to the dark corners of the internet (you know, like TCS).

- rob 2:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

REFORM THIS

The Bush motto: If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it's broke. Completely broke.

That's right. Every single penny you ever paid into the system "for your retirement" with a gun to your head since the day you first drew a paycheck is being stolen. Well this was always true, of all administrations, but that "lockbox" that Saturday Night Live had such a field day with was actually a piece of legislation enacted in 1990 that guaranteed you the money (even though it makes no interest) upon retirement; no more. The "witholding" is a euphemism. When it comes time for you to open up that lockbox, you'll find nothing but an I.O.U. from the government, courtesy of Bush & Co., worth exactly zero dollars and no change. Remember, it's your money! Then how come they took it? If I tried it, it would be called "bank robbery" and I'd get 25 to life, without parole. George just emptied your piggy bank. This is called "values" and "self-reliance."

I'll say.

- Michael 2:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

TO ANY U.S. SOLDIERS READING THIS BLOG

I'm not impugning anyone's integrity except the assholes behind the desks. You have an unimaginable job to do, without asking where or why, for your families' sake, for my sake. I think about you every single day, and I hope the fuck you make it back. I know the only thing that matters is your buddies' backs, and that's the only thing that matters to them. I know Iraq is chaos, that anything goes, that no law applies. This is war. It's the oldest story in the book, before the book burned.

No I never fought, but I lived through Vietnam, and I was seriously confused and angry at the righteous fucks who gave our guys the finger when they came home. I'll never forget it as long as I live. Don't blame them, man. Jesus Christ. It was a fucked-up time, everyone thought they were right, no matter what shit they were shoveling -- and all of it stank, and still does.

So does this.

Stay in one piece, and Merry Christmas guys. This whole enterprise is pure bullshit, but you're still the real deal, and not a day goes by that I don't think about what you're going through. I can't even imagine it. Some guys are really close. It never ever stops, ever.

Come back alive and try as hard as hell to avoid the scene.

- Michael 5:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Subscribe to the TCS Feed

Having trouble with some of the poor English on this site?
Imagine what it looks like when translated by a machine:

Search TCS

Archive

Archive Index Page

What is this?

This is a "team" blog.  We are a bunch of Americans, whose rising distress in our leader's decisions brought us together to make this site.  As Bush said, he's a "uniter."  Many of us have never even met.
That's the internet for you.

This Century Sucks Store

Buy our cool stuff.
And tell everyone what you feel.  

We have a little Store you can visit.  

Our store's selection of items is constantly growing. Come see what we have.

 

We're also Amazon Associates, so if you want to buy something from Amazon, please search for it below, and we will get a few bucks from the sale.

Search Now:

Sites we often like:

Tin Foil Caps

The Free Speech Zone

The office of the independent blogger

Buzzflash

Tom The Dancing Bug

VerifiedVoting.org

Get Your War On

This Modern World

Eschaton / Atrios

Daily Kos

Contribute to America's Future

It is now more important then ever.

Donate to the Democractic Congressional Campaign Committee

Donate to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Some More Site Mottos

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt



"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting response."
 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson



"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

More Sites we often like:

more coming...

"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.