a little piece from our resident movie guy on the whole stern flap

the history of the israel-palestine conflict

impressive. kinda why political philosophy matters. ideas of legitimacy and such
now bush is claiming our enemies have no soul. here. third paragraph from the bottom.

Q Mr. President, why are you and the Vice President insisting on appearing together before the 9/11 Commission? And, Mr. President, who will you be handing the Iraqi government over to on June 30th?
THE PRESIDENT: We will find that out soon. That’s what Mr. Brahimi is doing; he’s figuring out the nature of the entity we’ll be handing sovereignty over. And, secondly, because the 9/11 Commission wants to ask us questions, that’s why we’re meeting. And I look forward to meeting with them and answering their questions.
Q I was asking why you’re appearing together, rather than separately, which was their request.
THE PRESIDENT: Because it’s a good chance for both of us to answer questions that the 9/11 Commission is looking forward to asking us, and I’m looking forward to answering them.
Let’s see —
Q Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on for a minute. Oh, Jim.
Q Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve got some “must calls,” I’m sorry.
the rest is here
 
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing that it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
 

UIC graduation is Sunday, May 9th 2004. more info here

perhaps it is the least of all the bad shit dubya has foisted upon us, but it is really the only one that we can do something about now. the mess in iraq and the inattention before 9/11 are horrible, but relatively spilled milk. i do not think we should leave iraq, but i am getting closer to that. there is also nothing that can be done about the failures of the administration before 9/11. but free speech is the base of our democracy, and the new fines on indecency and the unequal application are truly troubling. and perhaps these fines are now most useful in limiting speech because the broadcast companies are so focused on profit over public good
obama is meeting with the lt gov right now. just walked by, all alone, asked if he was on time.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

time to apply the internet like a crowbar and open up chicago/illinois politics. at least that is what I hope democracyforillinois.com can be. i guess im positioned pretty damn well too, workin in a rare bubble of progressive politics, the lieutenant governor’s office.

what should be part of the Democrat’s foreign policy vision, UCTR. UCTR stands for Universal Cooperative Threat Reduction. the right way to confront terror. my idea, but it is definitely not original. we simply need to truly join with all nations to combat terrorism. first, we must confront all of the reasons that it occurs. we must understand that we will not end it, but must instead work to make the whole world safer from it. we must not think of ourselves as somehow more important to protect, because true cooperation depends on all people working to protect all others. it seems that conflict will arise, especially over debate over the causes. but is that not the battle we want to fight, an aggressive one focused on ideas of justice and human rights? groundwork laid late in this article.

more tax stuff. long article from newsweek, and a short one about good basic fixes

it is time for us democrats to seriously demand a new president, because he is not doing what is best to keep us safe. clarke proves it. people like me have been saying all along. we were always questioned as to whether we thought attacking iraq was a good idea or not. most of us said that we did not think it was the right way to protect us, along with other arguments we would throw on top. because of the way it transpired, folks asking us and our everything but the kitchen sink answers, i dont think people ever went away thinking about whether attacking iraq actually made us safer than the alternatives. but we said that from the beginning. now an insider agrees. now it begins to come out, the relatively unbelievable about this administration, what we had always seen in our alternative news sources.
we dean democrats. we who did not give up on the system, but we who would not lie down, and were sick that so many had. we must charge ahead. we will not allow him to bring it to us again, like kerry wants bush to do. this is our country. our brothers and sisters who died and still do, on 9/11 and in iraq. we have said it all along. bush is not doing the right thing to protect us. his ilk, who dominate the corporate media with his phrases, do not own the flag or decide what is patriotic. he and they have overstepped, tumbled forward really, and are about to fall. we who have said it all along, need to remind others and each other. we were right. we stand for our country and its people, against those who wish to divide or destroy us, abroad and at home.
ode to the internet: it is this tool that allowed us to find the information the corporate media did not report. it is this tool that allowed us to find each other to protest. it is this tool that allowed us to find and support such a great candidate as Howard Dean. it is this tool that allows such a greater democratic national and international discussion, via email and blogs. it is this tool that lets me hear and compare our media to the BBC. it is this tool that gives the rich and powerful nightmares.