"Diminished Violence Holding" and Other Fairy Tales

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Friday October 27, 2006 · 11:59 AM PDT

2006/10/27 · 11:59

A new AP story is out reporting the U.S. Military's "good news" out of Iraq. These guys may not be good at stabilizing a country, but they sure are good at spin.

The military is reporting

a five day trend toward diminished violence

in Baghdad. Read More

Dear Senator Obama

sophiebrown

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Thursday June 29, 2006 · 11:36 AM PDT

2006/06/29 · 11:36

You are a hero of mine, and I have great hopes for your future in American politics. I know the speech you made yesterday about religion was intended to generate positive discussion and make people of faith feel more welcome in progressive politics. Those are both good things.

But I was really troubled by your suggestion that democrats are wrong to question the role of religion in the public square. You are right that many democrats are uncomfortable with mixing religion and politics. But that's not because they are intolerant or hostile to religion. It's because injecting religion in politics has a great potential for causing harm, fueling divisions and reducing the quality of democratic life and discourse. That makes many people, including many people of faith, uncomfortable. If you want to discuss the future of religion in the public square you have to be willing to discuss the dangers of mixing politics and religion. Otherwise, this issue will only divide us.
Read More

Rove did not Forget!!

sophiebrown

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Saturday October 29, 2005 · 9:00 PM PDT

2005/10/29 · 21:00

Dear Mr. Fitzgerald,

After watching you on C-Span Friday, I am prepared to start the North Idaho Chapter of your fan club. You were so good! You made me proud to be Irish, and proud to be a trial lawyer.

You did not mention Karl Rove yesterday, and you said your investigation was still open. But Rove's champions have been all over the news insinuating that you are thinking twice about charging him with perjury.

Now, I respect your judgment a lot, and I know you have to take a lot of things into account in making these decisions, but I just can't believe that you feel the evidence shows that Rove innocently forgot his conversation with Cooper. You are way too smart for that!

See, I am a trial lawyer too (though not as skilled a one as you, I am sure). And I know that you have to take a common sense look at the facts you have, and to consider how you will present them to a jury.And you have to think about whether defendant has a plausible story, and what inferences can reasonably be drawn from the evidence. Read More

what about dobson?

sophiebrown

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Thursday October 27, 2005 · 9:12 AM PDT

2005/10/27 · 09:12

The news today is all about how the radical right "won" on Miers. But remember, there was a group on the far right that supported Miers' appointment. After all she was an evangelical Christian and Dobson assured them that she would reverse Roe v. Wade. According to Dobson, Miers was good enough for them. I don't think the religious radical right (a larger group than the ideological radical right) really understood the idealogues' objection to miers (I am not sure I understood it, to tell you the truth.)

What does Dobson say now when he goes on the radio?

Does he talk about executive privilege? That's my best guess, because he is a republican operative.
Read More

Girls Just Want to Stay Home

sophiebrown

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Tuesday September 20, 2005 · 8:11 AM PDT

2005/09/20 · 08:11

I read an article in the NYT that really depressed me. It reports that a huge chunk of ivy league women plan to leave their jobs (they all plan to go to law school) when they have children.

The article kept me up last night. I figure it might be cathartic for me to try to explain why.

First a disclaimer. I went back to work as a partner in a law firm when my son was 4 months old. I had no choice. My ex-husband had problems with substance abuse and I was the steady income. But even so, the decision to combine work and mothering was right for me and for my son, and if you ever met us and sat down to hear about those early years you would agree. Read More

Ewa Beach, Race and Little League

sophiebrown

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Sunday August 28, 2005 · 4:14 PM PDT

2005/08/28 · 16:14

Hawaii just beat Curacao in extra innings to win the Little League World Series!!!!
Hawaii was down 6 to 3 coming in to the bottom of the sixth and final inning, but then tied it up to put the game into extra innings for the first time since 1971. In the bottom of the seventh, Michael Mamea scored a walk off solo home run to win the series for Hawaii and the U.S.

I grew up in Hawaii so I have a real soft spot for Hawaii teams. But this team was special.

These boys are from Ewa (pronounced "Eva") Beach, a dusty red dirt rural community on Oahu miles and lifesyles away from the glitz of downtown Honolulu. Most of the people who live there children and grandchildren of sugar workers or more recent immigrants from Asia and the South Pacific. Read More

Good Greedy Christians

sophiebrown

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Thursday July 28, 2005 · 10:55 AM PDT

2005/07/28 · 10:55

WAPO has an interesting investigative piece about a San Diego event planner who received a multi-million dollar no-bid contract federal in the months after September 11. Sunnye Sims was working out of her modest San Diego apartment when she landed the enormous contract, which required her to set up meeting facilities in hotels throughout the country to interview and hire airport screening personnel.

The report offers mixed reviews of Sims' performance. But something which does not appear to be in dispute is that she paid herself $5.4 million for nine months of work. She also gave herself a six figure pension.

This is the part of the story that got my goat:

[below] Read More

Bureau of Reclamation

sophiebrown

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Monday July 04, 2005 · 10:10 AM PDT

2005/07/04 · 10:10

Happy Fourth of July from the Bureau of Reclamation!

Here at the Bureau, we are reclaiming Independence Day from those who would turn this national day of unity into feast of divisiveness. We know that love of country can and must takes many different forms and that no one party can claim a monopoly.

We are reclaiming the symbols of America's heritage. The flag. The Statue of Liberty. We know that these images once stood as beacons of hope for the poor and displaced people everywhere and that they inspired a vision of freedom and individual rights that captured the imaginations of the entire world. Read More

one man, one million votes

sophiebrown

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Monday May 09, 2005 · 8:26 AM PDT

2005/05/09 · 08:26

On the eve of the post-Taliban elections in Afghanistan, commentators warned of the threat that tribal leaders would try to control the electorate.

[E]lders of the Terezai tribe announced on Khost's radio station that all tribe members must vote for Hamid Karzai; tribal families who voted against Mr. Karzai would have their houses burned down.
Deference to tribe is a common attitude all across southern Afghanistan, where the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, live. Individuals such as Sayid Amir, an astrologer waiting for loaves of bread at a bakery in Qalat, know that the new Afghan Constitution allows them full personal rights. But he still says he must defer to his tribal elders with his vote.
"It depends on our tribal leaders," he says. "Yes, I know it is my right to choose whom I want. But in my region, the tribal leaders will all get together and choose whom they will vote for, and then everyone will vote for that person."

Election observers and others worked to counter this threat by voter education efforts. One commentator described this threat as "very undemocratic behavior."
Read More

mothers day is about peace

sophiebrown

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Saturday May 07, 2005 · 7:42 PM PDT

2005/05/07 · 19:42

Julia Ward Howe, the woman who penned the words to The Battle Hymn of Republic and worked as a nurse on the battle fields of the civil war, had had enough of bloodshed and destruction and wrote this "Mothers Day Proclamation" in 1870:

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."

sophiebrown

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Friday April 22, 2005 · 9:26 PM PDT

2005/04/22 · 21:26

(btw, that rhymes)
I live in Northern Idaho, near the Washington-Idaho Border. There are two colleges -- University of Idaho and Washington State University -- in two border towns, Moscow Idaho and Pullman Washington. Total population in the region is about 65,000.

Today Noam Chomsky spoke at Washington State University. The arena sat 3500 and it was packed. There were people of all ages, including many students, many buying chomsky's books at the tables outside.
The air was full of excitement. It felt like a rock concert. Read More

Who Are You Calling Fringe?

sophiebrown

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Friday April 08, 2005 · 10:29 AM PDT

2005/04/08 · 10:29

I am a middle aged baseball mom. I have a small business that I run out of my home, which allows me to spend more time with my family. I volunteer substantial time and energies to my son's school and to my church. I pay my bills, I pay my taxes, I return my library books on time. I have dear friends across the political and religious spectrum. I hope -- and believe --that I am seen in my community as a person of integrity. If my mom were still living (she died in 1992 following a long battle with cancer -- I was one of her primary caregivers) she would be very proud of me.

I joined Move-on in the months before the Iraq war. I was full of anxiety and foreboding as I watched my government head blindly into the conflict. Few or none in the mainstream media or in the democratic party seemed willing to raise the obvious questions or the inconvenient facts. Move-on provided information and community and opportunities to raise my voice with others to speak what we all now know was the truth about that terrible misadventure. Read More

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