As we all know, celebrities die in threes.  

James brown died on Monday, Gerald Ford yesterday, so who will be next?

I have a few options here- but feel free to offer your own.

Dear Mr. Gore,

I have a question for you.

If the supreme court had done thier job correctly, you would have been President on Sept. 11, 2001. Dspite your best efforts, you were not able to stop those planes. 

What would you have done?

What would you have done with the $400+ Billion that George W. Bush has spent in Iraq?

What would you have wanted to do, if the Entire World would have listend to your ideas?  When billions around the world had thought of themselves as Americans, on that one day, how would you have led the world as their President?

Would you have continued to read the book about the goat?

How would you have garaunteed security in Afghanistan?

What would need to happen for you to consider military action?

How do you think you could have done all of this and made improvements on global warming?

What would life in Iraq be like?

What do the following Republican efforts have in common?

*Attacking a decorated veteran, leveling accusations of falsifying records, accusations with no basis in fact
*Changing Republican House rules so that an indicted Representative will be able to keep their leadership position
*Allowing doctors to violate their Hippocratic Oaths by denying patients information about their medical choices
*"Starve the Beast" tax cut policies, designed to incrementally bankrupt the government, jeopardizing much-needed and highly-respected social safety-net programs
*Billions of dollars of corporate tax giveaways passed in the 11th hour, on the weekend before a presidential election
*Congressional leaders refusing to allow the opposition the chance to even review legislation before it is brought up for a vote
*The entire Texas redistricting battle
*Republican lobbyists and religious leaders acting in collusion, scamming millions of dollars from Indian tribes
*Enron
*Bill Frist actively campaigning in Daschle's district to defeat him
*Everything else they do  

The answer, following the jump.

The diary below-thread about therapeutic abortion was chilling to me, I recommend the article.

It brings up a question which I consider now and then.

Say Kerry wins the election and Democrats win the senate.  If it were realistically possible, would you be willing to accept a political compromise of accepting tighter controls on abortion in exchange for a viable universal health care system?

Here's my thinking- I understand the moral objections to abortion, and though I am pro-choice all the way, I am also disappointed by the pro-choice advocates' refusal, even fear, of admitting to the difficult moral choice that abortion is.  This is a complicated, profound decision and I am pro-choice in large part because the Pro-life camp has framed the debate in terms that make the decision to have an abortion more traumatic than it needs to be.  This should be the most private and respected decision a woman makes, period.  

However-

If there was a garaunteed support structure in place for all children, pre- and post- natal, and thier parents, meaning they would never need to be concerned about health care, would women be less likely to opt for abortion, for either financial/ quality of life reasons, or because they knew they could put their child up for adoption and it would be taken care of?

There's lots of possible contingencies- for example, let's say that universal health care covers emergency contraception, so no woman would be forced to carry a pregnancy to term if she did not wish to.

The question is purely academic, but I find it interesting because it forces me to consider where my true values lie- and I think the Left suffers from a debiltating lack of clarity as to what precisely it stands for.  I believe the ascention of the Right in America has more to do with their ability to project a definitive identity.  I believe the Left holds the more morally positive positions, but we suck at projecting ourselves that way.

So- in very crude terms, the question is, would you trade abortion for universal health care?

Please feel free to "nuance" your response as much as you like.

I just read the excellent Sontag piece from the NYT Sunday magazine, and in it she mentions, and shows one example, of uncropped versions of the torture photos from Abu Grahib.

Does anyone know where I could find versions of these? Or even just the "complete set" of photos that have been released?

Thanks!

 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Sounds like a good idea for November doesn't it?

I especially like the part about "all people being created equal"  -seems relevant to the discussion about gay marriage.  I think that bit about Governments being created to secure rights, rather than curtail them, is pretty cool.

The real meat in this is the part about how it is a citizen's duty to alter the government  when it engages in  "a long train of abuses and usurpations" pursuing "absolute Despotism."

And hey, another funny thing- it actually mentions, later on, that these abuses were being perpetrated by some dude named George!  Isn't that wierd?

I think we should look into this, it might help us out.