Apologies for the short diary but I am at work. I hardly ever diary anyway, so quit complaining.
I work in a media relations office. We received this ProfNetquery today:
E-mails have been circulating on the Internet saying that Obama has surrounded himself with "Israel-hating advisors." I'm looking for experts who can comment on the veracity of those allegations. Contact: Unnamed Reporter, unnamedreporter@coxnews.com.
Funny, because I was just ragging on Jimmy Kimmel last night about how terrible I think his late night show is. Well, I'm sure it's just as bad this morning, but I have to give the guy some credit.
There was a song called "Dear Mr. President" on the pop artist Pink's last album, I'm Not Dead:
I take issue with criticism of the remarks made on Don Imus' radio show as an insult. Yes, to call the wonderful women of the Rutgers basketball team "hos" is denigrating, shameful, sexist, misogynist, and classless.
But "nappy-headed" as an insult? Uh...no! I refuse to accept this. Because nappy hair is GOOD!
Not much to say - I am exhausted - except it was a blast, it was awesome to meet some Kossacks, I have confirmed that we are supremely cool people, RenaRF is a great, laidback, effective organizer, and for each conservative there are at least 5,000 liberals/progressives/Democrats/leftists in this country, at least according to the attendance of this protest. I'll accept that.
Gonzales/Bush Justice Dept. accuses someone of suppressing vote, you'll never guess who:
MACON, Miss., Oct. 5 -- The Justice Department has chosen this no-stoplight, courthouse town buried in the eastern Mississippi prairie for an unusual civil rights test: the first federal lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act accusing blacks of suppressing the rights of whites.
The action represents a sharp shift, and it has raised eyebrows outside the state. The government is charging blacks with voting fraud in a state whose violent rejection of blacks' right to vote, over generations, helped give birth to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet within Mississippi the case has provoked knowing nods rather than cries of outrage, even among liberal Democrats.
I am not sure about how other representatives in New Jersey stand on this issue. Perhaps it is somewhat telling that Rothman was the only Democrat present who mentioned impeachment, at least according to this account from the local daily newspaper of a DFA meeting in northern New Jersey.
Speaking before an audience of Iraq war dissenters and presidential critics, Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, pledged to support an inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Bush over the war in Iraq.
Crown Heights. Teaneck. Jacob the Jeweler. Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman. Louis Farrakhan. Those are some of the things that come to mind when I think about the relationship between American blacks and Jews.
I was watching "Washington Journal" one day this week as I do every morning. The calls to Washington Journal entertain me so, with their range of voices, all angry, desperate, hysterical or sad. Extreme lefties and righties, political junkies, highly-educated experts, people who don't know much of anything, racists and wingnuts, 9/11 and New World Order conspiracists, pragmatists.
Since the recent spark in Mideast conflict, there have been a wide range of calls. A few made me cringe. One of these was from an African American woman who complained about Israel's influence in U.S. politics and said the only solution is to vote out every single Jewish American politician.
It's one of those sleepless Friday nights...I've been surfing the web and reading Wayne Madsen's site. Without commenting on his credibility, I'll say his stories are certainly interesting reads. This time, rather than simply take everything he writes with a grain of salt, I decided to do some research into his sources. Well, one source. I kind of took a "click this link" approach where I started with one footnote, number 91 of 105, and clicked through to my little hearts delight. I was reading an article about Israeli Art Students and 9/11, simply taking it in, and for some reason I honed in on this nugget:
***UPDATE***: Something is either wrong with what I'm doing or with Blogger where these photos are hosted, but there is no problem seeing them on my blog HERE, so I guess that means it's me. I will work on it at my leisure but between my blog and Puckish's great diary, you will have a good picture of how yesterday's event went.
So I did go to the World Can't Wait rally yesterday. I have to say, it was the smallest best protest I have attended. There weren't very many World Can't Wait staff and volunteers but since so few people attended, partially due to the rainy weather, they seemed to do a good job managing things. It was a very intimate organic atmosphere. Not very many grandstanders or major celebrity. The energy was damned good for a rained out event, and as the weather grew worse the crowd only got bigger.
For anyone who's checking Kos before they leave in the morning (like me), I figured I'd use my diary for today to repost this one from yesterday:
I posted a diary a couple of days ago, here. In it, KarenDC suggested that all Kossacks who want to meet up in D.C. do so at Caribou Coffee. I'm not from DC but from her description I take it she means the location at 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, which is basically cater-cornered to the Old Executive Office Building and one block away from the mall and the White House.
9:30 a.m.
Caribou Coffee
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Directly across from the street that runs next to the Old Executive Office Building and in front of the White House. Using the Metro, just get off at Farragut West and walk down 17th to Pennsylvania Avenue--it will be on the right halfway to the Mall.
I posted a diary a couple of days ago, here. In it, KarenDC suggested that all Kossacks who want to meet up in D.C. do so at Caribou Coffee. I'm not from DC but from her description I take it she means the location at 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, which is basically cater-cornered to the Old Executive Office Building and one block away from the mall and the White House.
Caribou Coffee
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Directly across from the street that runs next to the Old Executive Office Building and in front of the White House. Using the Metro, just get off at Farragut West and walk down 17th to Pennsylvania Avenue--it will be on the right halfway to the Mall.
I wasn't going to go because it is supposed to rain, and I was supposed to have a root canal today. I figured I would be sore in mouth, attitude, and light in the pockets. But wonderfully, all I had to have was a cavity filled, so I am leaning toward going again.
Wow, I just spent 40 minutes doing a very linky diary on this and for some reason all my Firefox windows just CLOSED. I'm really pissed. Serenity now, serenity now...
OK, here goes an abridged version:
World Can't Wait is a group specifically formed with the following objective:
We seek to create a political situation where the Bush administration's program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking U.S. society is reversed.
They are organizing a rally in Washington, D.C., for Feb. 4 - this coming Saturday. I'm going - are you?
Man, if I don't see some viciousness in the upcoming 2006 campaign cycle - from the Democrats - I'm going to be pissed.
F*#k the high road. F*#k the middle road. We need to get LOW.
I don't want to see any color commercials from the DNC. I want all slow, grainy black-and-white footage of Jack Abramoff coming out of court looking like a 1930s hitman.
J. Dorrance Smith, the nominee, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in a closed session to answer questions about an opinion article in which he accused U.S. television networks of helping terrorists through their partnerships with Al-Jazeera.
But silly Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan is being a liberal obstructionist:
"I have deep concerns about whether or not he should be representing the United States government and the Department of Defense with that kind of attitude and approach," Levin said after Tuesday's hearing.
We need to go after the propaganda on all fronts and I praise Carl Levin for his actions. Read on...(*)
I sent this e-mail to 34 of my friends, family and acquaintances, even people I know are Republican and even those I know are apathetic. Feel free to crib from it or copy it and send it to EVERYONE YOU KNOW. Cause IT'S NOT OKAY.
DON'T GO TO WORK OR SCHOOL ON DECEMBER 7, THE NATIONAL STRIKE FOR TRUTH DAY
To my friends, family and acquaintances,
Killing and torture are being committed around the world in YOUR NAME. And IT'S NOT OKAY.
This week, Senate Democrats forced a shutdown to try to get to the bottom of "Phase II" of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on intelligence used in the Iraq War. Why has Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas stalled on Phase II? Probably because the purpose of Phase II is to investigate whether anyone in the current administration deliberateiy manipulated intelligence to justify an invasion of Iraq.
Full e-mail text is below. Many thanks to Kossack Anglico, whose diary I cribbed from. Doing all I can to spread the word to those outside of the liberal blog community.
When I heard Seymour Hersh would be in New Jersey, I got so excited. I subscribed to the New Yorker solely for Hersh's reportage on the military and national security. With the confluence of events this week - approaching the deadly 2,000 fatality milestone in Iraq, Fitzmas, and the general unraveling of the Bush administration - I knew that Hersh's talk would be something special.
I was wrong. It was more than special. It was transformative. Going into the lecture hall, I was optimistic, expecting indictments today and feeling better than I have in a long time. Leaving, I was horrified and saddened. Hersh did more to bring Iraq to me than any report I've read. He talked about the overwhelming generosity of Arab people, talked about how if you visit the Middle East, you will never pay for a meal because the people are that gracious. I nearly was brought to tears during the lecture as he related accounts from his sources describing in detail the horrors that the United States has brought to the Middle East and the Arab world.
So I did go to the World Can't Wait rally yesterday. I have to say, it was the smallest best protest I have attended. There weren't very many World Can't Wait staff and volunteers but since so few people attended, partially due to the rainy weather, they seemed to do a good job managing things. It was a very intimate organic atmosphere. Not very many grandstanders or major celebrity. The energy was damned good for a rained out event, and as the weather grew worse the crowd only got bigger. 
