I will motivate you, Private Pyle, if it short-dicks every cannibal on the Congo.

Yes, I've seen the Steven Colbert White House Press Correspondent's Take Down. I just haven't written anything on it because I really had nothing else to add to the number of observations around the net that the press doesn't like being the object of ridicule, the President (and conservatives in general) don't have an inkling of the sense of humor they seem to think they have and that Colbert has balls somewhere the size of cantaloupe other than to point out that the reason the conservatives and press corps have reverted to pearl-clutching mode and progressives are standing up and cheering Colbert's routine has very much to do with absurdity of the current relationship between the press and the President.

The White House Correspondent's Dinner was BUILT on the adversarial relationship that has traditionally existed between the Executive branch and the Fourth Estate. The idea was that for one night a year they would drop the daggers and come together to laugh and share the things they have in common (disdain for the little people.)

That adversarial relationship doesn't exist under this President. Period. What's the point of putting the knives away when they're not out to begin with.

Colbert showed the Press (under the guise of comedy) what they should be doing on a daily basis.

A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars.

I was sad to hear about the death this weekend of economist John Kenneth Galbraith. I was exposed to Galbraith at a fairly young age by my father who had all manner of Galbraith's books in his big collection of political stuff. Galbraith, probably more than any other economist, was someone who made economics digestible to the average palate. Perhaps even more importantly; Galbraith presented a case that capitalism was best served when it functioned to benefit all elements of society.

The Affluent Society, probably his greatest work, shook the world when it came out in the 50's. In that book Galbraith argued that the measure of the wealth of society could not solely be sized in terms of personal wealth but also through the level of commitment to fighting poverty, public safety and infrastructure. It amounted to nothing less gauntlet drawn across the face of western society, particularly the United States. Galbraith challenged us to do better.

Just before I read of Galbraith's death I had been searching around looking for an article I'd read from Parade sometime in the late 80's. The late, great astronomer Carl Sagan had written a piece proposing a joint manned Mars mission between the United States and the U.S.S.R. The benefits to such a mission were pretty self-evident; increased cooperation between the superpowers, joint scientific advancement, etc. but what really struck me about the idea and what's stayed with me to this day is Sagan's earnest belief that man as a species is coded to find a challenge to surmount, a new world to explore. A mission to Mars would be the ultimate challenge.

While I couldn't find that article I did find this piece by Sagan published in 1992 in The Planetary Report. Sagan summarizes man's exploration of our world and ties into a call to explore other worlds but recognizes that much of the spark of imagination that focused our nation towards these goals has all but disappeared from from public policy.

But since that time, something has soured. The anticipation of progress has been supplanted by a foreboding of technological ruin. I look into my children's eyes and ask myself what kind of future we are preparing for them. We have offered them visions of a future in which--unable to read, to think, to invent, to compete, to make things work, to anticipate events--our nation sinks into lethargy and economic decay; in which ignorance and greed conspire to destroy the air, the water, the soil and the climate; in which, with over 50,000 nuclear warheads still in existence, we permit a nuclear holocaust. The visions we present to our children shape the future. It matters what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps.

I do not think it irresponsible to portray even the direst futures; if we are to avoid them, we must understand that they are possible. But where are the alternatives? Where are the dreams that motivate and inspire? Where are the visions of hopeful futures, of times when technology is a tool for human well-being and not a gun on hair trigger pointed at our heads? Our children long for realistic maps of a future they (and we) can be proud of. Where are the cartographers of human purpose?

One of the oldest running disagreements between Mrs. Wormer and myself is over the financial cost of our national space program. Mrs. Wormer, being the bleeding-heart softy that she is, feels the dollars that go into the NASA budget are obscene and would be applied much better to poverty or jobs programs. I'm hugely sympathetic to this point but I don't quite see it the same way. I don't see it as either/ or. I see both as necessary. I see both as challenges. I dream that one day we'll end poverty AND reach for the stars.

The overwhelming thing that seperates men like John Kenneth Galbraith and Carl Sagan is that they look at the world as it is, not as they'd like it to be, and see the huge problems facing mankind yet see those problems as challenges; things to be conquered while other men turn away. There is a hairbreadth's difference between man conquering space and man conquering poverty or hunger. Both are the equivalent of the effort to circumnavigate the globe, or climb Everest or fly across the Atlantic. Both will take the application of enormous resources and imagination. Both offer hope.

To get there we'll need realize that we need to have leaders again that recognize that dreams are maps.

Are you kidding, baby? I put the "grrrr" in swinger, baby! Yeah!

If Josh Bolten keep's making comments like these I might not have to work so hard to come up with quotes to match the articles --

WASHINGTON -- It's time for the White House to go on offense and "get our mojo back." Josh Bolten said Sunday in his first interview since taking over as the president's chief of staff.

They never had any mojo to begin. They just pretended they did and the Press went along for the ride.

Here's a thought for getting this Presidency on track: competent policy rather than photo ops. Yeah, right. Fat chance.

If that kid don't stop talkin' so much he'll get his tongue sunburned.

Amanda brings to our a attention a pathetic attempt at political ju-jitsu by the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. Apparently they're trying to turn their badge of cowardice into a badge of honor, or something.

Once again this demonstrates the irony-deficiency so prevalent in conservative minded Americans. You can't MOCK the fact you've been labeled a cowardly, bed-wetting chickenshit to afraid to fight a war you support whole-heartedly if your indeed ARE a cowardly, bed-wetting chickenshit to afraid to fight a war you support whole heartedly.

(Bring me Solo and the Wookiee. They will all suffer for this outrage.)

Paragon of all that is good and decent in the world, guardian of morality and voice of modern conservatism Rush Limbaugh is arrested on drug charges.

It just goes to prove you never can trust a Limbaugh...

It's a question of simian survival.

Those that know me know I'm not one to cry "racism" at the slightest turn of phrase but I have to say President Bush's statement today on the release of a Spanish version of the national anthem made me feel a little creepy:

"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English," the president said during a news conference in the Rose Garden, "and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."

......

"One of the things that's very important is, when we debate this issue, that we not lose our national soul," he said. "One of the great things about America is that we've been able to take people from all walks of life bound as one nation under God. And that's the challenge ahead of us." (CNS News)

Intended or not once you begin to talk about preserving "our national soul" you're going to sound like a segragationist railing against "race-traitors" for those in interracial marriages.

The beauty of the melting pot that is America is you may not be able to identify all the ingredients that when into the stew to begin with but the final product will be a wonderfully diverse. America is more Paella than hotdog. Sad that Bush doesn't see that.

Babalooo!

Why post a link to a song when you can link an entire album. In this case it's Neil Young's and it's pretty frickin' awesome, IMHO.

http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF23233/

Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just have to see them again!

Ron Wyden fillibusters. He wants his energy bill considered. Good on him!

Hey, pilgrim! You forgot your pop-gun!

Merle Haggard says we should rebuild America fist. Yeah, it's a country song and it's a little isolationist in tone but the video makes it pretty clear his heart's in the right place.

Don't miss the "God Bless Johnny Cash" bit at the end.

I shall call you Kodo. And you my little thief - Podo.

As a child my brother had a pet ferret named Barney. If you're not familiar with ferrets they're sort of like smelly kittens, only with more energy. Ferrets never, ever stop moving.

One Christmas the family watched Barney begin to climb his way up our Christmas tree. This was interesting because, well, ferrets can't climb trees. As he swung, repelled and scratched his way up we were morbidly fixated on Barney's trek to the top knowing it would only end in little ferret tears.

Sure enough when Barney reached the pinnacle of the tree he lost his grip, slipped and bounced down through the tree hitting practically every branch on the way down like some sort of hairy pachenko ball.

As he picked himself up he did was all self-respecting ferrets do in situations such as this: he got mad at the tree and the ground. He arched his back, hissed and let the tree know what for.

This is a characteristic of ferrets: if they run into something in the course of jumping around they get mad at it. On more than one occasion Barney would be hissing furiously at the wall for having the temerity to bump into him. In a ferret's world there are on actions, only reactions.

I thought about this for some reason as I read today that the Senate Republicans suggest we should shitcan FEMA because of it's poor response to Katrina:

WASHINGTON - Hurricane KatrinaÂ’s latest fatality should be FEMA, the nationÂ’s disaster response agency, a Senate inquiry concluded in calling for a government overhaul to avoid future failures like those the devastating storm exposed.

Eighty-six recommendations by the bipartisan panel indicate the United States is still woefully unprepared for a storm of KatrinaÂ’s scope with the start of the hurricane season little more than a month away.

Funny, it seemed to do just fine under James Lee Witt and President Clinton. Of course that was a time when disastpreparednessess was taken seriously by our leadership. The Bush administration had begun gutting FEMA even before the September the 11th attacks. They just don't see Federal disasters as a Federal problem. Better that mayors deal with such things. They're closer to the ground and all.

As I look at how Federal disaster management has changed since 9/11 I just have to shake my head. Since the country had successfully faced catastrophic hurricanes before yet failed miserably with Katrina you have to ask yourself what had changed. Rolling FEMA into the DHS and removing the cabinet position was the biggest structural change. Bush's appointment of toadies uninterested in actually preparing for disasters and responding effectively was the other.
So the natural course of action in the face of Republican incompetence is to do away the agency.

Here's an idea: split FEMA back out of DHS, restore it's director to the Cabinet and instead abolish the useless Department of Homeland Security which has proven a boondoggle. It may have been an effective agency had it come into inception under a competent President but it's become nothing but a colossal mess under the boy-President's leadership.

The question at the back of everyone's mind during Katrina was "what if this was a terrorist nuclear attack?" Clearly the Federal government wasn't prepared for any disaster significantant scale. DHS may have been tasked with preparing for natural disasters only as an afterthought but a terrorist attack would fall directly under the department's charter. They, not FEMA, failed in that duty.

But most importantly we need to get rid of the ferrets in charge of all three branches of government. As cute as they are all that hissing at walls isn't going to accomplish anything and it certainly won't keep the wall from smacking them around again.