Hunger No More

Free live webcast Monday, June 6, 2005 @7:00 p.m. EST.

On June 6, 2005 at 7:00 PM, the first Interfaith Convocation on Hunger will bring together faith leaders from around the nation with more than a thousand participants to draw attention to the scandal of hunger at home and abroad. In a spirit of reverance, all those in attendance will pray together and stand in solidarity with the millions of volunteers who feed the hungry and bring relief to people in need. Because these are the early days of a new presidential term and a new congressional session, the leaders and their supporters will call on the President and members of Congress to join with Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of other faiths in a new commitment to end hunger. On the eve of National Hunger Awareness Day, this convocation will usher in scores of observances around the United States. It will also be the culmination of the three-day conference called: One Table, Many Voices: A Mobilization to Overcome Poverty and Hunger.

PSoTD has this to say while moonighting at the Unpaid Punditry Corps

Worldwide hunger ought to be one of the most important issues that each of us tries to deal with on a regular basis. When I say one of the most important issues, I mean it completely kicks the shit out of issues like lowering taxes and mandatory sentencing and filibusters and other items. It isn't a preference of society, it is a matter of individual survival, and so much of that individual's success at surviving is dependent on the "luck of the draw" - where a person is born. At the species level, we should focus on it.

But worldwide hunger is an issue many of us give a few minutes of time, if that, and then move on. To go beyond that requires leadership that transcends denominational or partisan or even national limitations. It requires focus, it requires resources, it requires the communication abilities to present the issues and the efforts in a way that can reach and touch many more people than it currently does. It may require a 21st Century Saint, or a martyr, to shake us out of our well-fed doldrums. It definitely requires more.

This isn't to say that charitable organizations and good people aren't doing the most they can with what they have to help the hungry. This is to say that the effort needs elevated into a national, and international, priority of the top order.

So, how does that get done? Because we, as a country and a world, are not getting it done.

eRobin reminds us to click The Hungersite daily. (cool gift ideas and cups of food, too!)


The National Council of Churches offers some solutions, buy the video or download the study guide for free

Hunger No More: Faces Behind the Facts
New Documentary On the Air Beginning Oct. 24 on ABC-TV Affiliates

What Bill Wants

Bill has some pretty serious things to say about the private paramilitary companies that are overtaking our military.

I know this is very important, but it will have to wait until later tonight. My family needs me for a while and the Bush agenda is so much like a rollercoaster full of loose beans that I can pick up later, so...

In the meaan time, Bill wants you to check out this web page
I think you should read New World Order and Disneyfication with it.

Would This Qualify?

Congressman Conyers has a page set up to gather information on intelligence manipulation and secret pre war deals.

Would Ryder's Reward be in that category?

Thank You For Your Concern

You worry excessively about my ability to please womens, my ability to buy more Cialis and Viagra, You are always taking care of my every need and unrealized desires, finding more mortgage brokers and dog trainers,wanting to update my paypal and credit card accounts...how sweet, but it is way too much!

It's embarrasing to be fussed over so much, it's like having my bowel movements monitored and being dressed by a nosy nurse and an overbearing relative.

Some people don't think you are as caring as I do, they think you are trying to steal their stuff. They call it phishing and they want to shut you down.

Farewell my phishies.

Grunts Take the Heat

1670 dead American Soldiers and the President hasn't attended a single funeral.

Three soldiers have been ordered to stand trial at Fort Carson on murder charges in the suffocation of an Iraqi general, who died during an interrogation 1 years ago.
[...]
Welshofer and Williams were interrogators, and Loper a prison guard. All have denied wrongdoing, saying commanders had sanctioned their actions.

Shit really does roll down hill!

Then there is that festering sore we call Fallulah, bad news for everyone.

Oh My, Again

It's a real lesson in life to discover what brings people here. This morning it was licking, this afternoon it's sucking.

Schweitzer Watching

Laura (don't tell people you're fat-make them wonder)really enjoyed his CNN interview. I enjoyed the way she recaptured it, but I'm a wee bit miffed that I will have to hunt Sara down to see recent bunny pics.

http://www.wingsofjustice.com/

Does anybody know what this is, or why it is loading on grannyinsanity?

Ryder's Reward

Last night I linked Dave's post about Thomas Ryder recieving a $20,000.00 bonus, so I thought I would revisit the story about an inexperienced man who was moved into a critical position of importance, overrode every expert, completed his mission and was quietly shifted to another job $20,500.00 richer.

The strange story of Ryder's Reward is an illustration of how the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.

"That's a hell of a lot of money for an intelligence director who had no experience or background in intelligence, and who'd only been running the office for nine months," "Something's fishy."
[...]
Energy officials say Ryder rubber-stamped the administration's conclusion that Baghdad was reactivating a nuclear weapons program over the objections of Energy's nuclear weapons research labs and senior members of his own staff.

"He was doing their bidding,"
[...]
Oddly, Energy headquarters signed on to the hawkish position on Iraq nukes even though Energy's labs debunked the centerpiece of its evidence – that the thick-walled aluminum tubes it sought were more likely intended for artillery rockets than gas centrifuges used to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs.
[...]

Ryder is said to have brought two scientists to the NIE meeting at Langley to debate the tubing issue, one from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the other from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Though the prevailing view among physicists and engineers at both labs was that the aluminum tubes were more likely intended for Iraq's conventional artillery program, the scientist that Ryder brought from Oak Ridge leaned the other way – that they were more likely used for the nuclear program, though he did not rule out artillery use, sources say.

The White House's harder line that the tubes were really suited only for the nuclear program was driven by CIA analyst Joe T. (Langley has asked that his full last name not be disclosed for his protection), though he is said to have received the blessing of senior CIA officials like Robert Walpole and Tenet himself. The former Oak Ridge engineer works in a CIA unit known by the acronym WINPAC, which analyzes intelligence about dual-use technology and export controls.

"He was the spark plug for them on the whole issue," said David Albright, a physicist who helped inspect Iraqi nuclear sites last decade. "But most scientists at the labs disagreed with him," arguing that the tubes Iraq sought were too thick for gas centrifuges, and had a coating that would flake off in the corrosive gases of centrifuges. However, they were ideal for artillery rockets, they argued, and matched ones Iraq had previously used for rockets.

"The debate over whether Baghdad was trying to acquire nuclear weapons pretty much came down to the tubes," said one Energy official. "Yet even though DOE voted against the tubes, Ryder still argued that the program was being reconstituted."
[...]
Bonuses that big are rare, and Energy insiders say they cannot recall previous intelligence chiefs receiving as much bonus money as Ryder, who is said to be close to Abraham.
[...]
Yet despite Ryder's alleged outstanding performance, Abraham didn't keep him in the top position. In February, he was replaced by CIA official John Russak. By July, Ryder had been relocated to another department – energy assurance.

I have to confess that I cheated by going directly to Shakespear's Sister for today's Downing Street Update

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to mention Ryder's Reward when you contact these media outlets and politely ask them to cover the Downing Street Memo today:

(A) ABC Nightline. email: nightline@abcnews.com

(B) NBC News. email: nightly@nbc.com phone: 212-664-4971 fax: 212-664-4426

(C) Wall Street Journal. email: wsjcontact@dowjones.com phone: 212-416-2000 fax: 212-416-2658

(You already know all the emphasis was mine)

Oh My

It's a real lesson in life to discover what brings people here. Today it is granny licking.

Support the Troops

Demand an answer about why they are in Iraq and what lengths the Bush administration went to to get them there. The Downing Street Memo would be an easy place to start getting this process moving.

"Disneyfication"

By the Disneyfication of public spaces, we are referring to the conversion of wildness into commodity. Disneyfication involves making the unexpected predictable and homogenizing experiences. The public is seen as customers.

Yellowstone Park?

This summer, for the first time ever, Disney will begin operating tours in Yellowstone National Park. Tours will cost between $5600 and $7800 for a family of four.

That's an awful lot of money to spend on a generic vacation of our own public playground, but it is only part of the Bush plan to privatize everything in the public domain.

When Ronald Reagan's budget director called for de-funding National Parks, it was part of a concerted effort to "Starve the Beast" -- the "Beast" being the government. The Bush Administration is completing Reagan's agenda. Bush's tax cuts for the rich and unbounded military expansionism all but ensure that there will not be adequate funding for the maintenance of public spaces. Without adequate funding, this administration will be able to say -- with a totally straight face -- that there is no money for education, Medicare, Amtrak, interstate highways, National Parks, etcetera, and everything will, of necessity, have to be privatized.

"I think we'll come up with a long-term solution to the Amtrak problem," said Burns spokesman James Pendleton.

"Essentially what this says (to the Bush administration) is 'We don't agree with you,'" Rehberg said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "We think you're wrong in Montana. The state of Montana realistically couldn't afford (to help pay for Amtrak.) There's just no way we could do it."

Sure they didn't know that throwing our money away on all that unnecessary war and giveaways to the wealthy would put us in a tight spot. Right. Max, who overplayed his own hand to our great detriment had this to say

"over my dead body."

"We have our work cut out for us, but we're going to do whatever it takes to keep Amtrak in Montana," Baucus said in a prepared statement.

I made an awful lot of contacts with all three of these fellows over the years, at best, I would say they are out of touch. At best.

Conrad, Max and Denny have all played their parts setting the system up this way, and they have a lot of nerve grandstanding for the home folks when they have done nothing but clear the way for the takeover of our public spaces.

Attractions that catch your eye and would otherwise draw you to them will, quite literally, be off-limits unless you have purchased the required pass or booked in advance.

Post Coital Extraction

Sometimes it's messy and awkward. Rehberg has just reduced The Giacometto Group's role to pimp.

Sign This Petition

The Bradblog has all the details in case you missed them.

There are only two reasons not to sign the petition.

1.)You already signed. Yaaay!

2.)You like the idea that the President can lie and waste our soldiers and money while creating serious problems for our nation. Boo!

Sign it now.

*update* I forgot about this $20,000.00 bonus to Thomas Ryder for agreeing on the nuke claim.

Can't Keep Up

1669 Don't forget to sign Congressman Conyers petition to the President.
Shakespear's Sister explains why this is so important, as if you didn't already know.

Precipitation

It is the second day of June and we have already recieved 1.17 inches of rain! Naturally, I've spent the better part of today watching the wheat grow.

Winning

1668 Dick and Rumpy are pleased.

Impending Ice Age?

NASA calls it A Chilling Possibility.

Best Comment

Bu$hie not only wears the Freudian slip, but the Freudian dress and pumps, too.

Actually the whole thread is good, but Kelly really cracked me up with that one.

OINK

$289,200.00 yr + benefits and Secret Service protection for made up jobs they could not compete for in the free market.

Why are the Cheneys such big Welfare Queens?

Schweitzer on the Highline

Governor Schweitzer is touring the Highline to promote support of the Amtrack rail. Maybe he should point out that

America today has a railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of.

Bush Denies Lame Duck Status

The White House Rose Garden was elegantly draped with a banner that read "America loves President Bush" under a crystal blue sky with a single puffy heart shaped white cloud, one keen reporter was apprehended while filming Jeff Gannon/Guckert simultaneously blowing kisses and urinating in the bushes before the unnamed man was stripped, hooded and boarded on a plane headed for Saudi Arabia.

Laura Bush's placid smile remained unchanged as she gazed upon the Secret Service or somebodies impersonating the Secret Service beating and kicking a noticibly annoyed Helen Thomas. The rest of the press corps sucked contentedly on their pacifiers and gulped ice cold Evians as they waited for the Boy King to be led to the podium by his closest friends and trusted advisors Carl Rove and Scotty Mclellan.

Carl busied himself with the status of the boy king's zipper as Scotty licked the milk off his face before departing to leave Junior beaming in the hazy glow of the cameras.

"You love me", he began. "You love me. You really love me. America loves me. Everybody loves me."

Everything is great, it's fine and wonderful. Couldn't be better.

Social Security makes terrorists win. It's bad, really bad.

You love me. The boogeyman is gonna get you, you love me don't forget the boogeyman."

As for public doubts about his handling of the Iraq war amid rising U.S. casualties, Bush said he was pleased with the progress being made there and expressed optimism that Iraqi forces will be sufficiently trained to allow him to start bringing U.S. troops home.

"Iraq is great, really great, it couldn't be better. Those people don't understand that torture is freedom, up is down, censorship is knowlege and bombs are peace." He paused to bow at the thunderous roar of applause before delivering the much awaited good news that The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of onetime accounting giant Arthur Andersen for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents because of flawed jury instructions. and that the Tsunami victims really didn't need much aid, so the money could be redirected towards building upscale beach resorts.

Junior beamed for a full five minutes before calming the cheering crowd of reporters. When the exuberance started to wane he flashed the evil librul media his very best victory signs and waddled out of sight while they all repeated "We love President Bush, that is NOT toilet baper stuck on his heel!"

Lame Duck President

The Noon News reported that Bush's popularity was falling and that some people were calling him a lame duck.

DOH!

Will it take them another year to report that he is the most despised person on Earth?