As you hopefully heard, the Supreme Court essentially said we have a President not a King, and that international human rights should be protected.

Cheif Justice Roberts had recused himself from the Hamdan vs Rumsfeld case for having already ruled on it before.  But should Scalia also have stepped down?

Happy Filipino-American Friendship Day everyone! 

As we all know, Americans choose to celebrate Filipino-American Friendship Day by lighting fireworks (a misguided but well intended tribute to Asian cultures) and waving American flags. 

It is important that we take a moment to reflect on the meaning of this day, the meaning of indpendence (as well as forced inter-dependence). 

Today is the 37th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion (ok, I'm a day late; I messed up on the one-post-per-24-hours rule.  Apologies).

What was Stonewall and why is it important to remember?

It's been a while since I posted a starkly political poem here at DailyKos.  

This one's for all the Lefties out there!

Yesterday I had the good fortune to catch Rep Sherrod Brown speaking outside the  Hoover plant in North Canton, OH.  

From his  website, he was going to be "holding a news conference on Monday to shed light on how products made with sweatshop or prison labor takes jobs away from working Ohioans."

The event showcased a little bit of the good, and a little bit of the bad, of Ohio politics (and I dare say US politics in general).

So yesterday Fearless Leader made a surprise visit to Iraq.  He had been hunkered down in Camp David to spend a whopping two days mulling over the Iraq debacle.  That was the cover story.  Apparently only Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice knew he was leaving.  This was his first visit to Iraq since Nov 2003.

His visit has been called brave, courageous, and a good move.  Unfortunately, it's not so optimistic for the soldiers who get back door drafted and sent back for even longer tours. 

We get to Nixon below the fold.

Originally published at Venus Pudica

ManifestA: young women, feminism, and the future

By Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards
Published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000
$15.00

I'm a . . . power, postmodern, Girlie, pro-sex, Prada, academic, gender, radical, Marxist, equity, cyber, Chicana, cultural, eco, lesbian, Latina, womanist, animal rights, American Indian, Indian, international, diva, Jewish, Puerto Rican, working-class, Asian-American, philanthropic, bisexual, transsexual, lipstick, punk rock, young, old . . feminist."

What exactly is the current state of feminism? The media keeps proclaiming it dead (an accusation they have made for thirty years now). Second Wavers can't seem to get a lock on the newer trends. Yet Third Wavers see feminism everywhere they look. Something is rotten in the state of women's movement.

Huzzah!  The third edition of the Carnival of Socialism is up!

I am hosting this edition in my blog (a great honor).  See, every two weeks a different blog hosts the carnival, and features links to articles by other bloggers.  It's a great way to promote blog readership and community.  

Follow below the fold for a quick description of this edition.

A brief look at some of the moments when people have chosen to publicly stand up and (directly) question the administration.
Originally posted at my own blog.

I have several bumper stickers on my and as a result am very aware of people seeing them and also very aware of others' stickers.  I usually let out an angry chuckle (and sometimes a little curse) when getting cut off by a Jesus Fish bumper.  But today I was driving down 77 S and traffic was rather steady.  At one point, there were two other people with stickers near me.  One was for Strickland for Governor, the other had two old Nader stickers (one read End War - Vote Peace - Nader).  IN addition to my Out Of Iraq Now, the Celebrate Diversity, and the Human Rights Campaign sticker, it made quite a selection. 

This book review originallu published at www.YPSL.org

Feminism Is For Everybody

By bell hooks
Published by South End Press, 2000
$12.00

In the introduction, bell hooks (who chooses not to capitalize her name) writes that she has trouble explaining what feminism is about to people who have only heard about it third hand, believing feminists to be a lot of angry lesbians. She wanted a little book to be able to hand them and say "this is what feminism is about." That is what {u} Feminism Is For Everybody sets out to be.

Moving beyond stereotypes of crew cut hair and Birkenstocks, hooks defines feminism as "a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." By that definition, men as well as women have something to gain by feminism. And by defining patriarchy as the problem, not men, she sets the record straight about feminism's aims.

My brother was watching tv today and he happened upon the movie Sneakers, which I admit I have not seen.  But a bit of dialogue caught my ear, something pretty interesting.

Are you familiar with online "memes," those little quizzes a person takes and answers about themselves?  A right popular one is the Political Profile meme.  You answer like 20 questions and it breaks down your score by Social Issues, Personal Responsibility, Fiscal Issues, Ethics, and Defense and Crime.  You get a Conservative percent and a Liberal percent.  For example, mine looks like this:

**Your Political Profile:**

Overall: 10% Conservative, 90% Liberal

Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/...

Ok, so no one here really thinks Fearless Leader's arguments for WMD ever really held water, and well, facts seem to play that out.

However, there are a disturbing high percentage of people still swallowing some version of the story (and they can't ALL be bought off by the GOP, can they).  

So it is time to set the final word on WMD arguments (or at least try to).

 Welcome to the fourth (and final) installment of my poetry series!  If you haven't already read them, I suggest checking out the first two selections as well as this one.  Thanks to everyone kind enough to leave me comments - they have all been thoughtful and very helpful.

While reading about the so-called Israel/Palestine conflict, I became increasingly aware of the fact my stance was neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine (and not even pro-America) but rather pro Justice.  

In experiencing it from this view point, I wrote a series of poetyr on the subject.   The series title is "Four Views of Palestine as Seen from America."

The series won First Place in the Kent State Stark Diversity Award (poetry division).

I will post one poem from the series each day.  This is the fourth (and final) poem, called What Pushes You.  

Hope you enjoy!

Welcome to the third installment of my poetry series!  If you haven't already read them, I suggest checking out the first two selections as well as this one.

While reading about the so-called Israel/Palestine conflict, I became increasingly aware of the fact my stance was neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine (and not even pro-America) but rather pro Justice.  

In experiencing it from this view point, I wrote a series of poetyr on the subject.   The series title is "Four Views of Palestine as Seen from America."

The series won First Place in the Kent State Stark Diversity Award (poetry division).

I will post one poem from the series each day.  This is the third poem, called Waiting.  It was originally published at www.PoeticInjustice.net

Hope you enjoy!

 While reading about the so-called Israel/Palestine conflict, I became increasingly aware of the fact my stance was neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine (and not even pro-America) but rather pro Justice.  

In experiencing it from this view point, I wrote a series of poetyr on the subject.   The series title is "Four Views of Palestine as Seen from America."

The series won First Place in the Kent State Stark Diversity Award (poetry division).

I will post one poem from the series each day.  This is the second poem, called What Walls Do.  There was an eery feeling after writing this poem, inspired by the illegal wall in Israel, because I penned it just as certain people began clamoring for a wall to be erected along the border to Mexico.  

Hope you enjoy!

While reading about the so-called Israel/Palestine conflict, I became increasingly aware of the fact my stance was neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine (and not even pro-America) but rather pro Justice.  

In experiencing it from this view point, I wrote a series of poetyr on the subject.   The series title is "Four Views of Palestine as Seen from America."

The series won First Place in the Kent State Stark Diversity Award (poetry division).

I will post one poem from the series each day.  The first poem is called Denial Is Just Another Tool In The Box.  It was first published at www.LeftHook.org under the title Denial.

Hope you enjoy!