Archive for April 25, 2010
“Decision Points” — By W.
“Decision Points“ — that would be the title of W.’s memoir — due out in November.
Mr Bush has said he is not writing a traditional memoir but an account of key decisions in his life. The cover features a photo of then-President Bush alone with his thoughts, standing in the Rose Garden Colonnade, wearing a dark suit and holding a briefing book, his head turned slightly from the camera.
According to Crown Publishers, “Decision Points” will offer “gripping, never-before-heard detail” on such historic events as the September 11, attacks and the 2000 presidential election along with Bush’s decision to quit drinking, his relationship with his family and other personal details.
Look at Bush swaggering in that cover shot. If that’s any indication, I don’t suppose we’re going to learn anything new. In fact, if books written by previous Bush administration officials give a clue, he’ll rewrite history. Not only that, notice, on the jacket, how the words, “Decision Points” are smaller than “George W. BUSH.” It’s as if his decisions aren’t the point, he is.
Oy. Don’t get me started.
Oh, and per the article linked to above, Laura Bush’s memoir comes out May 4. Watch. The purported “liberal media” will treat her like a celebrity.
Fox “News” Raises Questions About Obama’s “Accent”
Just got this tweet (8:03 p.m. ET),
raising questions, obviously, about President Obama’s “accent” — in this 33-second clip of him speaking at a memorial service in Beckley, WV today, eulogizing the 29 miners who died at the Upper Big Branch mine earlier this month.
Listen and see what you think. Is there an “accent” there?
This would be the Republican party talking and oh my God, it’s come down to this – to criticizing 33 seconds of an Obama speech.
Yeah, I know, they’re speaking to their old, angry, white audience, trying to insinuate that Obama is the “other,” and “not one of us” (perfect timing huh, with the new Arizona immigration bill being front and center?) but this all they have folks.
Break Time
I live in a small house — 1,100 sq. ft. — so space and how to use it is always on my mind. I’ve also been interested in architecture most of my life so this video is right up my alley. It’s about a man in Hong Kong who redesigned an old, 330 sq. ft. apartment using space in ways that took an incredible amount of creativity and imagination. He has some super ideas.
“A Tiny Apartment Transforms Into 24 Rooms”
We Aren’t Hearing Much About This From the Pro-Oil Media
We aren’t hearing much about this in the pro-corporate, pro-oil media: “Devastating” amount of oil leaking from rig off Louisiana coast:
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Oil is leaking from the ruptured well of a large rig that exploded, burnt and sank in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, the US Coast Guard said Saturday.
The Coast Guard estimated that up to 1,000 of barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons (158,987 liters) were spewing each day from a riser and a drill pipe, prompting further concerns of damage to Louisiana’s fragile ecosystem, already stressed by hurricanes and coastal erosion.
Officials confirmed the discovery a day after the Coast Guard said that no oil appeared to be leaking from the well head.
As if the people in that region aren’t dealing with enough already.
We Need to Add a Second Bill of Rights
Just watched Capitalism, a Love Story. It should be required viewing for every American citizen. Our country really has been stolen from us — not by President Obama, by the way, but by the banks. And it’s been happening slowly but surely for 20 – 30 years. One person in the movie even went so far as to say that what happened during the last weeks of the Bush administration, when the banks were bailed out, was a financial coup d’etat.
Anyway, I am ashamed to say that I had no idea Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed adding a “Second Bill of Rights” to the original Bill of Rights. Unfortunately he died before there was any movement on that but these are the rights he wanted to add, as proposed in a speech he gave on January 11, 1944:
It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
Imagine.
The Hubble Turns 20
The Hubble space telescope headed into space on April 24, 1990 and has since sent back breathtakingly beautiful pictures, like this:
Antennae Galaxies
Approximately 500 years ago, two galaxies collided together to form the Antennae galaxies in the constellation Corvus. They are the nearest and youngest example of galaxies fusing together to form what astronomers call interacting galaxies. In this process, billions of stars and star clusters are formed.
Time magazine is celebrating Hubble’s birthday with a photo montage. Check it out.
Quote of the Day
Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi on QVC, 4-24-10 @ 11:20 p.m. ET, talking about the QVC payment option known as “Easy Pay.” “Easy Pay” allows customers to charge an item and have payments appear on their credit card statement in equal increments spread out over two or three or more months: “You’re right about Easy Pay. It almost feels like you’re getting something but not paying for it.”
Is it any wonder there’s so much debt out there what with BS notions like this being thrown around?
Good Morning
It’s a good morning because we’ve got some of this going on in the backyard right now:
(Source.)
