wooden nickels

Dennis Kucinich wins the 2003 Ghandi Peace Award...and he is also the only democratic candidate who offers a total departure from the Bush Administration's policies. He's not just tinkering with the system, he's looking to overhaul it, and all for the better.

rah rah rah!

"The numbers taking part in a march and others waiting in Trafalgar Square for a rally were a record for any weekday protest in the UK."

Britons believe Bush:

62% - is not very intelligent
53% - is insincere
62% - is not very well informed about the world
82% - does not care much about the views of people in other countries
65% - is a bad advertisement for America
63% - is foolish

I get a sick kick out of imagining just how Bush must be feeling about his trip to the UK in light of polls like these, etc. It would be hard to imagine that he would be able to shut out the news and opinions of his upcoming visit no matter how hard he tries.

I hope he feels every bit the heel that he is...!

Here's an interesting link to a National Debt Calculator.

When I looked at the page this morning, the stats were sobering:
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 16 Nov 2003 at 06:33:59 PM GMT is: $6,882,170,735,429.51. Pretty grim, huh?

A little note at the bottom of the calculator reminds us,

"The estimated population of the United States is 292,536,462
so each citizen's share of this debt is $23,525.86.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.59 billion per day since September 30, 2002!"

Somehow, I don't think a touted 27% increase in tax refunds is going to make much of a difference to my personal share of the debt, all things considered.

But, I'm wondering, too, can someone shed more light on the strategies different democratic candidates have for reducing the deficit?

excerpted from Harper's Index...

Percentage of Americans who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of this year's tax cut : 88

Average amount these Americans will save : $4

Percentage of U.S. doctors who say they have not told patients about a treatment because their insurance didn't cover it : 31

Number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last two years : 354

Number who died in Vietnam in 1963 and 1964 : 324

Rank of last year among those in which the largest number of federal records were officially classified : 1

Months before September 11, 2001, that Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force investigated Iraq's oil resources : 6

Years before Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001 that the IRS asked the SEC to investigate the firm : 2.5

Number of SEC investigations of Enron that resulted : 0

These tell an interesting (and grim) story....

heh heh. C'mon folks! Get that mind outta the gutter. I'm not talking about our naughty spots, I'm talking about George in the UK! Those Brits have my deep admiration and respect for their creative protest tactics!
The latest one is baring their arses where Bush might be seen so as to mar those photo ops!

Here is a nice quote:
"If you hear of a visit to your part of town or happen to see George W Bush, bare your arse in his general direction. Don't be afraid to wiggle it about a bit and maybe even spread your cheeks; this is a political statement you're making and you don't want to do things by halves, now do you? "

As a Green Party aficionado, I was heartened to read this article in the Nation, highlighting "practical politics" and basically discouraging another Nader presidential campaign in 2004.


The Greens would do best to focus their campaigning efforts in local politics -- unfortunately, the US just isn't ready for a Nader -- or for a Kucinich for that matter.


Incidentally, although Kucinich doesn't have a chance in hell of getting the presidential nomination, I'm fully supportive of his campaign and am hopeful that his message will get broader media coverage. In fact, I switched my party membership from Green to Democrat just so I can vote for him in the primaries. I know full well that the rest of the democrats will push to the fore, the candidate they feel has the best chance of defeating Bush, so it won't detract from the overall "get Bush out of office" tactic.


As an aside. my strategy in temporarily moving to the Democratic Party is to register my support for seeing a Democratic candidate as progressive as Kucinich. Maybe other future democratic potentials will pay attention to the fact that Kucinich's platform does have support (and the more, the better) and perhaps they'll see that shifting to the left really isn't an undesirable thing!


After the primaries, though, I'm planning on reverting my membership back to the Greens to register my general dissatisfaction with the two-party system and my support for third-parties (especially those with progressive politics), in general.


That said -- and returning back to my original point -- I still strongly believe that it's a bad idea for any progressive third-party candidate to campaign hard when the political stakes are so high. In the event that Nader (or another promising third-party candidate) were to run, I believe the best strategy is to assess the risk of voting for him/her. As an example, during the last presidential race, my good friend Tom and I made an agreement to vote strategically: if it were clear that either Gore or Bush would win California by a landslide, we'd register our support for Nader and the Green Party platform and cast our votes for him; on the other hand, if the race was looking close, we'd vote Democrat quite simply to keep Bush from getting into office.


Though it's certainly unpalatable to have to vote "defensively" like this, it's the reality of our current political world. For all intents and purposes, our's is a two-party system. The bottom line for the 2004 election is to throw all of our support to the candidate who will defeat Bush.

"The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers."

Full story here.

Is there no end to this man's evil?? This feels like we're going backwards in time.


"At 1:40 today, President Bush will sign the first ever federal law criminalizing safe abortion procedures. In doing so, he will fulfill one of his promises to the far right-wing and will become the first President since Roe v. Wade to re-criminalize abortion."

see the NARAL website for more info...