Have you watched the trailer for the movie Dubya, starring Don Knotts? Watch it again for the first time.
Will Bunch follows up on Wenyi Wang, the woman who yelled at China's President Hu to stop killing people. It looks like that to make up for all the WH snafus surrounding Hu's special visit, we're going make him feel right at home by trampling all over the First Amendment. That'll warm his cockles. (pro-war WaPo link via Atrios)
The IMF is making noise about reorganizing. I'm trying to figure out whom to trust on that. According to the head of the fund, "the US needs to save more, Asian countries need to increase demand and allow their currencies to rise, and Europe needs structural reform." I'm sure that won't meet with any resistance at all. Shouldn't we wait until China can more comfortably take over our role as shopping basket to the world before we cut back on consumer spending. I know WalMart et al would really appreciate it if we would.
Haiti is looking at developing an alternative fuel economy a la Brazil. Again, I don't know whom to trust. Right now, it sounds good to me. Here's the NYT story on Brazil's success with ethanol. Preval is also talking to Cuba to expand their already friendly relationship.
Chicago Dyke is working against WalMart in her community:
Once again, I’m forced to post the following admonition: don’t believe the bobbleheads on the TV or radio or papers. They may tell you that “middle America” or “most people” are happy with theocracy, the war, modern wage slavery, endless corporate expansion, and the American version of “health” care, but that’s a lie. If you need the bolstering feeling that comes from seeing this with your own eyes, go to a similar community meeting. My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to tell my story about the nursing home and what a Wal-Mart where I used to live did to that community. But it seems I didn’t have to, Grandma and Joe Sixpack the grocery store employee did it for me.
Jenny Greenleaf, of the DNC, is helping out in NOLA. Read her post, Moving Sand Dunes with a Teaspoon, at the American Street.
Planned Parenthood sent an email blast out about legislation in the House (H.R. 5052) designed to stop fake pregnancy centers from setting up shop. From the petition you can sign in support of the bill:
Called "crisis pregnancy centers," they pose as women's health clinics and sources of unbiased pregnancy counseling, using neutral-sounding names and advertisements. They lure unsuspecting women with the offer of free pregnancy testing or HIV tests. Once inside, the "clinic" staff -- usually volunteers with no training -- try to dissuade women from exercising their right to choose by subjecting them to inaccurate, anti-choice propaganda and intimidation.
Scott Ritter is interviewed in San Diego City Beat. (h/t Glenn Greenwald) Be sure to read Ritter talks about Iran and what, based on his years of experience in the region, he believes to be true, but this is part caught my eye:
The other aspect of citizenship is to empower oneself with knowledge and information so that in the conduct of supervision of those whom we elect, we do so based on knowledge and information, on facts, as opposed to rhetoric, fiction and bald-faced misrepresentation of fact. It's the citizen's responsibility for this empowerment, no one else's.
And, yeah, it's hard. God, I'm busy; you're busy; we're all busy - life's a busy thing. But, you know what? I don't want to hear that people can't go out and gain access to the data necessary, because, you know what? I go to a bar on Monday night, and I watch baseball fans; I watch football fans - hell, I'm one of them. And they can give me the slugging percentage of every player coming up there. How do they know that? They spend hours reading the sports pages. If an American citizen has enough time to know all these sports statistics, they have enough time to learn about the world we live in and the role America plays and how their representatives are guiding us in this world.
So, no, I don't accept the notion that life is too complicated for American citizens to be involved. I reject that 100 percent. Democracy isn't meant to be easy.
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