Vince notes that from "On Today" -- a list of events taking place today in Victoria, Canada (Victoria Times Colonist). Actions do continue in Canada and Breaking Ranks is an amazing documentary by Michelle Mason which covers war resisters who have gone to Canada including Joshua Key, Kyle Snyder and many others.
Ned Parker and Saif Hameed (Los Angeles Times) report that yesterday the Iraqi Parliament met but they still haven't approved the 2008 budget and, in fact, "postponed a vote on" it yesterday.
Reuters notes that already in Mosul today a car bombing has claimed the life of 1 civilian and left at least fifteen more wounded while 2 police officers have been shot, Baquba is the site of a discovered of 9 "bodies and 10 severed heads," two Baghdad roadside bombings have wounded eighteen people and "More than 500 people demonstrated in Abu Ghraib district . . . against detentions by the Iraqi army in the area".
Ava and I will address the State of the Union Sunday. Kat's "Cowardly Kathleen Sebelius throws in the towel" and Rebecca's "kathleen sebelius is a dumb ass" address the embarrassment that was the Democratic response (hint, when Reid and Pelosi are actually issuing strong words, you don't recruit from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood for the Democratic response). Cedric's "THIS JUST IN! BAMBI STANDS BY HIS MAN!" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! BAMBI STANDS BY HIS MAN!" (joint-post) addresses the latest on Rezko -- no link to the Times which does run a photo but insists it was just a bad 'land deal' -- that would be the land Bambi's home currently sits on. Ruth's "Bill Moyers on election coverage" notes Friday's Bill Moyers Journal and includes the following quote from the program:
Bill Moyers: Those big conglomerates may be laughing all the way to the bank with their loot but clearly many of you are unhappy with what this means for democracy. Several studies have measured your frustration. Two-thirds of you simply do not trust the media's campaign coverage. Eighty-eight percent say we focus too much on trivial issues. And seventy-seven percent of you want us to get more serious about just where the candidates stand on the issue. There is something to be done about this. Congress and the FCC could require the big media companies, on a rotating basis, to provide candidates free air time each week to debate face to face -- no journalist playing middle-man. These companies are fined for obscenities. Why shouldn't they be asked to give back some of the airwaves we've let them use for profit? Public broadcasting too. We've used our prime time too little to enable the candidates to speak freely and hold each other accountable. That would be a far better use of these air waves than another series on the British monarchy.
That's not in the transcript. Mike's "War resisters, John Edwards & more" was noted in the previous entry but Brady asked that we note "Edwards Response To The State Of The Union Address" here:
"The president tonight renewed his call for an economic recovery plan. But the plan he and Congress have offered leaves out tens of millions of Americans who need help the most. This plan would take months to have any impact, and the people I meet everyday on the campaign trail do not have months to wait. These people are hurting now and need this help now. Over the past seven years, typical workers' paychecks have failed to keep up with inflation, millions of families are facing the loss of their homes to foreclosures, health insurance premiums have doubled, and families are spending $1,000 more a year on gasoline. The State of the Union may be interesting political theater, but until we find bold solutions to the challenges facing the country, we will be stuck with the same old small, Washington answers.
"And in the chamber of the House of Representatives where the president speaks, even though this Congress stopped listening to him a while ago, they will still applaud and cheer him. The truth is that Washington is out of touch with what's happening across the country. Between now and January of 2009, Democrats must stand up to this president, stand up for what's right, so he does not continue to forget about the middle class in this country."
That's John Edwards response to the State of the Union (and much stronger than anything the "American Response" offered last night).
Maura Reynolds and James Gerstenzang's "No apologies in final State of the Union" (Los Angeles Times) is worth reading. CBS has selected segments of it (video) here. CNN has the transcript here. Text of the Democratic embarrassment can be found here.
And please read Elaine's "Caroline." Which I forgot to note and am back in the entry to note it now.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
ned parker
the los angeles timeslike maria said paz
kats korner
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
trinas kitchen
the daily jot
cedrics big mix
mikey likes it
thomas friedman is a great man
ruths report
the third estate sunday review
bill moyers journal[C.I. note: All that follows "Ava and I . . ." was added after this went up originally. The laptop was going nuts and we had to be out the door to make the first group we were speaking with.]