politics

President's Statement on H.R. 199, the "USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005"

(Thanks to The Carpetbagger Report for pointing this out)

Chron.com | Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil Bush's software program

It has always bugged me when people make a charitable "gift" with strings attached. If you're still controlling it, then it's not a gift. It's a bribe. An attempt to control the "receiving" organization. If you're going to give a gift, then give it. Don't use it as bait to get what you want. Even if "all you want" is recognition.

A Different Perspective » The Farcical End of the American Dream

Godly Leadership | CrossLeft

Pilgrim at CrossLeft.org has written a post bemoaning the lack of a progressive leader who can galvanize the left into a cohesive voice against the abuses of the current administration. S/he looks somewhat longingly back to the 70s, asking what happened to the activists of days gone by.

President Signs the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act

... Counterfeiting hurts national security, as terrorist networks use counterfeit sales to sometimes finance their operations.

firedoglake: Action Steps for the Feingold "Censure Bush" Proposal

Apparently, this weekend, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), announced that he was going to introduce a proposal to censure the President over the warrantless wiretapping. The article linked above is a call to contact your senators, to let them know you support this resolution.

I cam across these two stories today

GOP moves to kill deal about the Dubai Ports World deal, and

Republicans Kill Request for Spy Program Inquiry - Los Angeles Times

'Gay' penguins book frozen out in Missouri libraries

The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » The radical gay penguin agenda must be stopped

OK. So, apparently, a book has been removed from the children's section of a library because it tells the story of two male penguins who adopt an abandoned egg and raise the chick. This is apparently too close to encouraging homosexual behavior!

The Steep Price of Grace, Sojourners Magazine/February 2006

Larry Rasmussen wrote this article at Sojourners in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Deiterich Bonhoeffer. (You may need to register to read the article. It's free) It may seem strange that I, rather than Wendy, should be posting this. I guess I was lucky enough to find the article first.

Anybody who's spent any time at all reading the posts here will know that I am no fan of the current administration. My default reaction on hearing any news related to Bush or Cheney is one of mistrust.

Having said that, however, I think that liberals do themselve a disservice by going after Cheney like attack dogs. In doing so, they appear to be no better than the republicans who went on the witch-hunt against Clinton when he was president, over the Lewinski incident. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now. Nobody, as far as I know, has said that this was anything but an accident. Gleefully jumping on the fact that Cheney didn't have some obscure $7.00 addendum to his hunting license is not helping anyone. Questioning the timeline of how things happened is more reasonable, but, in my opinion, the effectiveness of this has been blunted by these earlier attempts to find anything even vaguely off to pounce on.