Protests Greet Bush in Benton Harbor

by: bfealk

Fri May 29, 2009 at 00:01:50 AM EDT

A handfull of us showed up at Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor.  But we got our media exposure from Fox 28 out of South Bend, Indiana.

On Catching Up, Or, Good News Told, And The Bush Book Reviewed

by: fake consultant

Wed Mar 25, 2009 at 12:04:55 PM EDT

Facebook Group formed to Protest George W. Bush in Southwest Michigan

by: bfealk

Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 05:56:58 AM EDT

I have started a Facebook event to ask people to join us to protest George W. Bush's appearance in Michigan on May 28 in Benton Township.

Click here to RSVP.

Bush and Rice to speak in Southwest Michigan

by: bfealk

Mon Mar 16, 2009 at 06:50:41 AM EDT

'Disorderly collapse'

by: Hazen Pingree

Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 18:01:00 PM EST

"The president is not going to allow a disorderly collapse of the companies. That is not an option," (WH Press Secretary Dana) Perino told reporters. "We're nearing a conclusion, we're narrowing options, I just don't have anything for you today."

Damn you, 20th amendment!

George Bush, our knight in shining armor

by: Hazen Pingree

Mon Dec 15, 2008 at 06:56:02 AM EST

White House officials said they did not anticipate announcing funding for the companies on Monday, as auto industry officials held discussions with the administration on the amount of money and any conditions that might be imposed.

(Tennessee Republican Senator Bob) Corker urged the White House to seek similar concessions from the auto companies and their unions in return for the money. "Of course, the benefit they have - they don't have to negotiate. They can say this money is available but it's only available under these conditions," he said in a broadcast interview.

Hopefully my paranoia is just that and they all emerge tomorrow with a deal that works for everyone. But...the longer this drags on, the louder and more alluring the right-wing "let them die" drumbeat will get. For instance, here's some of the red meat they threw to the Senate Republicans last week before they blocked a vote on the auto rescue, as reported by Olbermann and mentioned in Diane's post below:

From:
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:12 AM
To:
Subject: Action Alert -- Auto Bailout

Today at noon, Senators Ensign, Shelby, Coburn and DeMint will hold a press conference in the Senate Radio/TV Gallery.  They would appreciate our support through messaging and attending the press conference, if possible.  The message they want us to deliver is:

1.       This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election.  This is a precursor to card check and other items.  Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.

2.       This rush to judgment is the same thing that happened with the TARP.  Members did not have an opportunity to read or digest the legislation and therefore could not understand the consequences of it.  We should not rush to pass this because Detroit says the sky is falling.

The sooner you can have press releases and documents like this in the hands of members and the press, the better.  Please contact me if you need additional information.  Again, the hardest thing for the democrats to do is get 60 votes.  If we can hold the Republicans, we can beat this. (emphasis added)

Match My Donation: Put W's Stimulus Check to Good Use

by: gregsullmich

Fri Oct 17, 2008 at 07:40:28 AM EDT

Just a few months ago, the Bush Administration sent me a $600 Economic Stimulus Payment. By sending such payments to taxpayers, this Administration thought it could jump-start the economy.

This stimiulus program has proven to be a miserable failure. I put my stimulus payment into the bank,where it has drawn a paltry interest, far less than the rate at which price inflation is eating it away. Thank goodness I didn't put it into my mutual fund, where it would have lost far more of its value.

 I have decided that the only way I can help stimulate the economy is to help Barack Obama get elected, and bring real change to our economy and to our nation. So, yesterday I took that stimulus money out of the bank and I donated it to his campaign. I hope all his supporters will consider doing the same.

Thanks for the Memories George W. Bush and fellow Republicans

by: bfealk

Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 10:17:51 AM EDT

WOW! This is a powerful ad

by: bfealk

Thu Aug 14, 2008 at 12:19:30 PM EDT

Nancy Pelosi in Ann Arbor. What will it take, Nancy Pelosi?

by: bfealk

Sat Aug 09, 2008 at 18:22:59 PM EDT

Nancy Pelosi was in Ann Arbor, Michigan at a Border's book store promoting her new book, Know Your Power. 

I find it simply amazing.  I was sitting in the audience listening to Nancy Pelosi talk about her life as portrayed in her book, Know Your Power.  She was asked some polite questions about her book and her life after the moderator interviewed her.  They made us ask question on 3X5 cards instead of taking questions live from the audience.  I had asked a question about Ron Suskind's book and the allegations that the White House asked the CIA to forge a letter making a connection between Iraq and 9/11, but they didn't choose it, naturally.  One man from the back of the room asked, "What about impeachment?"

During her answer, Pelosi mentioned Suskind's book but admitted she hadn't read it.  HADN'T READ IT?  How can you be the person that has the power to push impeachment forward, know that there is a book out there that makes explosive allegations, with recordings to back up the assertions and not have read the book? 

What is wrong with this woman that she won't even consider impeachment, even though this President has most assuredly committed high crimes and misdemeanors.  Forget the misdemeanors, he's committed probably hundreds of high crimes.  And yet no word from the Speaker of the House, the woman with the power to start impeachment hearings. 

Why?  I keep asking myself that question.  The answer the Speaker gives is a political calculation, he's almost done with his term.  But that is no excuse, in my mind anyway.  If a murderer, which Bush has been accused of being too, had this kind of evidence against him, no law enforcement officer in the land would not prosecute him, no matter what.  Why is Bush special and why won't Pelosi at least let the trial, which is what impeachment hearings would be, go forward and hear the evidence?  My personal opinion is that the administration has something on Pelosi obtained through illegal wiretaps, that she doesn't want to see the light of day and she is being blackmailed.  That is the only explanation that makes sense to me and some of my friends, as we discuss this matter. 

What do you think?   Cross-posted at Daily Kos.  Please vote in my poll and leave a comment.  It would be great if you recommended it too.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/9/164858/5556/1019/565460

Abuse of Power Hearing in Congress

by: bfealk

Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 14:14:33 PM EDT

I thought as many people as possible should see this video.

Wes Clark, Blue America, and a Visit from President Bush

by: Gary Peters

Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 10:44:06 AM EDT

Today, I am proud to announce that our campaign has just received the endorsement of General Wesley Clark.

Gary Peters is a uniquely qualified leader with the experience, character, and judgment that we need in Washington right now. From the Navy Reserve to the state Senate, Gary Peters has made a career out of taking action to solve problems, and that's what he'll do as the Congressman from the 9th District.

Peter Hoekstra and George W. Bush hate children. (UPDATED!)

by: LisainManistee

Wed Oct 03, 2007 at 13:55:30 PM EDT

"Bush cast his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage."

We only needed 15 Republicans to change their NAY votes to overrule bush's veto... My Congressman Pete Hoekstra was one of the Republicans in Congress that refused to change his vote. He refused to protect the 23,061 children living in MI-02 without healthcare! Let me repeat that:

PETER HOEKSTRA VOTED AGAINST 23,061 CHILDREN IN MICHIGAN'S 2nd U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT!!!

PETER HOEKSTRA HATES CHILDREN!!!

I will be standing on the corner of River Street and US 31 in Manistee, MI at 6:00pm tonight. I will be the one holding a sign questioning Hoekstra's heartless vote and bush's evil veto. Hopefully, I will not be standing there alone, but I will if I must. I am heartbroken by this veto and Hoekstra's vote.

I've spoken to people about Hoekstra's vote against SCHIP and heard:

So what? I've never even heard of SCHIP before.

And those people are right... Sort of.

It's true that we don't have SCHIP here in Michigan, but we do have MIChild, and MIChild gets funding from the Federal SCHIP program. No SCHIP funding means no MIChild funding.

Librescu Day

by: invisibleafrican

Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 17:17:53 PM EDT

There isn't room enough on the calendar to honor every American hero, but Aug. 16, the birthday of one such hero, is a day teachers and others who cherish education should make a point of celebrating.

No one knows what drove Liviu Librescu, four months short of his seventy-seventh birthday, to martyr himself to the cause of education. But that is what Librescu, a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor and mechanical engineering professor, did when he blocked a gunman from entering his Virginia Tech University classroom on April 16 - earning him five bullets, one of them to the head - so that most of his students could escape through the windows.

Because he was slain in a public learning institution, public schools are where he should be celebrated. And because Librescu (the root of whose name, "libre," is Latin for "free") came to America searching for freedom, those who teach subjects like U.S. history and government should make honoring him a lesson on where his adopted country truly stands on freedom.

By the time they enter college, many students in this country can't think critically about history and politics, having rarely been encouraged in school to think creatively outside of art and music class. Yet wolfing down hot dogs and soaking up sun on a field trip to celebrate Librescu Day could amount to more than just indigestion and sunburn, if the day were also an occasion for students to reflect on how their country, a magnet for immigrants seeking freedom, too often deprives people in other countries of the very freedoms Americans enjoy.

Throughout its history, the United States has - in places like Latin America, Haiti, the Philippines and elsewhere - picked fights at the drop of a dime whenever dollars were to be made, a fact that is largely ignored in classrooms around the country. The result is that, as the country gets bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, many students don't know any better than to think thousands of their fellow citizens, most only slightly older than them, are killing and being killed in those countries in the name of spreading freedom.

But freedom can mean many things. Librescu, born on Aug. 16, 1930 on the outskirts of Bucharest, was barely nine when World War II broke out and could only watch as his government, also in the name of freedom, helped the Nazis annihilate hundreds of thousands of Romania's Jewish citizens. Luckily he survived, became an accomplished scientist and, in 1986, after living several years in Israel, left for Virginia on a sabbatical and never looked back. Little did he know that years later a frustrated, mentally-ill college student would alone succeed where the focused efforts of the entire Nazi Party had failed.

Still, Librescu's death will have been partly in vain if teachers ignore the dedication symbolized by a colleague's choosing to die so that his students might live to see another classroom. Ignorance that isn't necessarily willful but rather the result of intimidation.

How else to explain that so many U.S. history and government teachers go out of their way to avoid discussing the context in which President Bush, in his second inaugural address, for example, used words like "freedom" and "liberty" some dozen odd times? Or in which Vice President Dick Cheney, during remarks to Westminster College in Missouri a few years ago, paraphrased Winston Churchill's assessment of the struggle against Soviet communism, in order to paint a picture of the chaos in U.S.-occupied Iraq as a contest between "those who served an aggressive, power-hungry ideology and those who believed in human liberty, freedom of conscience and the dignity of every life"?

Words like "liberty" and expressions like "freedom of conscience" are easily said; the challenge is living up to the ideals they represent. But often politicians aren't so challenged to begin with, and worse, sometimes rely on such words, as George Orwell wrote, "in a consciously dishonest way."

Dignity of life, after all, means little coming from someone like Cheney, whose central pursuit over the past few years has been to enrich his friends at Enron and Halliburton over the dead bodies of an estimated million or so Iraqi civilians - people who might have lived in fear under Saddam Hussein, but who at least could've expected to live with far more certainty than can Iraqis today.

Propaganda and censorship is something that, growing up in communist Romania, Librescu knew all too well. The same can be said of another Jewish hero to whom he is often compared.

On Aug. 5, 1942, German soldiers stormed an orphanage for Jewish children in Warsaw, instructing the man who ran it, Janusz Korczak, that he was free to go, but that his 200 or so orphans and several staff members were slated for extermination. Unlike Librescu, Korczak couldn't save his charges from death. Instead, he followed them to the gas chamber, his final gesture to children who'd had so little and died so young.

A renowned children's author and pediatrician, Korczak was also a teacher, and instructed hundreds at his Dom Sierot (Polish for "house for orphans") with little regard for convention. Those who survived the war recount being allowed to form a "kind of a republic for children, with its own small parliament, court and newspaper," according to an entry on Wikipedia.org. By contrast, a half-century later, American public schools appear intent on turning students into automatons.

And even that they're getting wrong.

Students in the United States, in subjects like math and science, which require learning mostly by mind-numbing rote, lag behind their counterparts in miserably poor countries like Bangladesh, Burundi, El Salvador and Nepal. Generally, though, American students also read less for pleasure, visit fewer museums and attend schools with mediocre teachers, all easily gleaned from comparing how flippant and addicted to pop culture many young Americans are next to kids in less fortunate parts of the world.

Maybe that is because, as one credit card company likes to say, there are some things money can't buy. China, where teachers get paid a pittance by a government that looks with scorn at individual rights and free speech, generally has a more well-read, independent-minded, smarter population than ours. Which is what outright censorship does: breed rebellion.

Censorship, though, shouldn't be allowed any wiggle room in a country billing itself as the "land of the free." Yet the United States has become fertile ground for it, an indication of which is that mainstream media, not satisfied with just obscuring the "who," "what" and "where" in its news coverage, goes to great lengths to avoid the "why" altogether. It may be just as well, then, that many kids come home from school in the afternoon only to get super glued to MTV, video games or Websites like Myspace.com, since much of what's in the news would sooner confuse than educate them.

Were that not sad enough, the education that does manage to seep into the minds of these would-be torchbearers of democracy is watered down to the point of irrelevancy. Not because teachers are stupid, evil or lazy but because most are simply too afraid to rock the boat.

Many teachers understand they swim in murky water. Water that has swallowed teachers like Deb Mayer at Clear Creek Elementary in Monroe County, Indiana, near Bloomington (home, ironically, to liberal arts-dominated Indiana University). Mayer was fired in 2003 after she dared discuss the subject of peace movements during a general class discussion about the build-up to the war in Iraq.

Similarly, a school in Wilton, Conn., recently banned a play about the conflict in that country.

"In Wilton, most kids only care about Britney Spears shaving her head or Tyra Banks gaining weight," 16-year-old Devon Fontaine, a cast member, told The New York Times. "What we wanted was to show kids what was going on overseas."

The school administration's reply: "You can't always get what you want."

Censorship is well documented in schools throughout the country. Schools like Columbine High School in Colorado, where Alfred Wilder was fired in 1996 for showing Bernardo Bertolucci's film, "1900," which explores fascism, to a senior class studying logic and debate. That instance of censorship may even have cost 13 students and a teacher their lives.

A video depicting students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold rehearsing for the massacre they'd go on to carry out at the school three years later wasn't allowed to be shown on school grounds because of the controversy surrounding the Bertolucci film.

"If the video had indeed been shown," Al Hidell wrote in "The New Conspiracy Reader," "perhaps somebody would have realized the serious threat it represented, which may have prevented the tragedy from occurring."

Rarely, of course, is censorship so dramatic in its outcome that it becomes a matter of life and death. But there is such a thing as a slow death. Appalled by the stifling of his film, Bertolucci wrote that it was no less than a prelude to totalitarianism when classrooms become a place "in which the voice of established authority denounced criticism or debate, and used the high school classroom to silence other voices."

Voices that hold that "children are the future. Teach them well and let them lead the way."

Before letting cocaine lead the way for her instead, Whitney Huston knew what she was singing about. The minute students are fit to broach subjects like history, government and political affairs is the minute they should be challenged to imagine their future roles as informed, voting citizens. Citizens like Librescu, who wore many hats but probably would have been happy to be remembered as one more in a long line of educators who eschewed empty slogans, who knew that leaving no child behind meant arming students with curiosity, compassion and courage.

Courage, though, shouldn't mean that almost 3,500 young Americans, and counting, have to take their final breath in a country that never meant the United States any harm. Courage should mean educating the nation's youth so that they can spot a charlatan when they see one, even if he worms his way up to the presidency itself. Those who will inherit this nation need that kind of courage from those who've been here a while, so that they too can develop the courage to die if need be.

But to die in the spirit of someone like Librescu, who took one bullet after another yet refused to let go, so that others might live and learn.

And be free.

Bushies give Levin a head pat

by: David Boyle

Mon Apr 30, 2007 at 18:10:10 PM EDT

  "...Senate Armed Services panel Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, has discussed language in a second bill to measure the Iraqi government's progress on goals like a law to share oil revenues fairly among Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds.
  McConnell and other congressional Republicans have signaled openness to benchmarks. A senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that was a "promising area" and praised Levin's role. ..."

  "praised Levin's role." I'm as happy as a clam.

My talk with Carl Levin on Iraq funding and war today (w/photos)

by: David Boyle

Sun Apr 15, 2007 at 17:40:20 PM EDT

Senator Carl Levin and myself--but what is he doing with the Black Flag shirt, and how did his hair get so long?

  As per our earlier notation, the popular senior U.S. Senator from Michigan, Carl Levin (Democrat, by the way), visited the Michigan Union at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from about 12:45-some to 2-some p.m. today. He spoke, largely about Iraq, and took questions afterwards.

C. Lev holding forth at podium, Pendleton Room, Michigan Union

  He said a number of worthwhile things about Iraq, including how bad the war was, how he'd voted against it initially, how important it was that the Iraqi politicians work to reach a solution to their problems (and how crucial it was that the U.S. keep pressing them to do so).

  (much more below)

Washtenaw Cty. Dem. convention today

by: David Boyle

Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 22:22:16 PM EST

  Besides some announcements and delegate elections (Mich. Dem. Party convention coming up in 2 weeks, etc.), the main focus was on passing resolutions, or not passing them.

  About 10 or so were up, and just about all were passed, including ones for: an investigation of the Bush administration's intelligence failure and Iraq war; for federal action to end the violence in Darfur; TWO resolutions "Condemning Abuses by the Bush Administration" (one guy gallantly withdrew his version in favor of the other one); allowing felons who served their sentence to serve on juries; that the essence of American patriotism is to honor the Constitution; for universal health care; for election reform (hand count audits etc.); redeploying troops from Iraq; and...
  I had two, both very short, and submitted just yesterday,

"1. Resolved, that the State of Michigan should adopt legislation like Illinois, New Jersey, California, and other states ensuring that the state has no direct or indirect investments in Sudan until the genocide in Darfur has ended.

2. Resolved, that the State of Michigan, through the Governor, should make an official apology to the victims of slavery or of legal (per se) or other (de facto) racial segregation by state law, private covenants, or other means of segregation."

  Due to the latish appearance of mine, they had to be voted on even to be considered...and the latter one failed by 2 votes even to be considered. The Darfur one did pass, fortunately; who knows, up the chain it might be merged with the other Darfur resolution, or not. (No point in petitioning the federal government to do something about Sudan if our own state hands aren't even clean.)

  ...All the above stuff to the best of my memory, sorry for any errors.

  Thanks to the folks who put this on. (Including Marcy Wheeler, whose book "Anatomy of Deceit" was on sale there, and who also introduced the resolution--the one that passed--re "Condemning Bush Abuses" above...how she does get around!)

George W. Bush, a/k/a "Mr. 26 Percent"

by: Hy Dudgeon

Sat Feb 03, 2007 at 00:08:55 AM EST

Only 26 percent of Michiganders approve of George W. Bush's job performance, the lowest level of his presidency. Is it any wonder that the Michigan Republican Party has long since scrubbed the president from its website?

Bush's approval rating is even lower among women, voters under 35, and residents of metro Detroit.

Bush Wants To Use Mirrors To Protect Against Global Warming. Seriously.

by: Rhonda

Sat Jan 27, 2007 at 13:16:42 PM EST

The Guardian is reporting that the Bush Administration wants to put giant mirrors in space to block sunlight from reaching the earth as a means of protecting against global warming.
I am not kidding.

I know it sounds like a joke, but apparently it is no joke.