The Deets

I’m a huge fan of Dre’s work and the work of some of the people Dre has helped get started in the music industry, BUT I’m NOT a fan of the Dre Day posters that end up pasted all over my neighborhood when Dre comes to town.

If Dre wants to use posters as a marketing tool, fine, but make sure they come down after the event. If not, they end up being nothing but graffiti. This is especially so when they end up pasted to private businesses or public property like they were recently in Minneapolis.

Show a little more respect for the towns you visit by cleaning up after yourself.

-Ed

Related: It looks like a local company, Burlesque Design, may be responsible for polluting their own city with posters. As they slyly put it: “In the weeks before this year’s Dre Day, suddenly, Dr. Dre was popping up all over the Twin Cities! Who knows how he got there, but everywhere you went, if you looked hard enough, you’d see the venerable Dr. Dre peering back at you.”

Or do they?

Yahoo! News - Poll: Evangelicals Oppose Gov’t on Schiavo: “More than two-thirds of people who describe themselves as evangelicals and conservatives disapprove of the intervention by Congress and President Bush (news - web sites) in the case of the Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a national debate.”

To me, it looks like the most hardcore of the religious base (see the 4ft cross?) are turning on him. That could be a problem, because they’re likely the most motivated campaign volunteers as well.

Notice Hindrocket’s comment that the notorious Schiavo memo was sent to all 55 Republican senators:

Power Line: March 2005 Archives: “And who would send an anonymous missive to all 55 Republican Senators, commenting on political tactics and strategies? That seems very odd. Who would send a memo to Senators like Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe, to the effect that ‘the pro-life base will be excited?’ That requires an extraordinary level of political obtuseness.”

Here’s what the Washington Post actually reported:

Congress Steps In on Schiavo Case (washingtonpost.com): “An unsigned one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party’s base, or core, supporters.”

Did they say ALL? No. Does Hindrocket’s use of the word ALL lend credibility to his attempted debunking of the memo? Yes. However, he had to make up this ‘fact’ in order to help make his case.

Fact based debunkings tend to hold more water, Hindrocket.

It looks like the political grandstanding is starting to wind down at the presidential level:

Yahoo! News - Schiavo’s Parents Suffer More Setbacks: “Meanwhile, President Bush suggested that he and Congress had done their best to help the parents prolong Schiavo’s life, and the White House said it had no further legal options.

‘I believe that in a case such as this, the legislative branch, the executive branch, ought to err on the side of life, which we have,’ the president said. ‘Now we’ll watch the courts make their decisions.’”

Apparently, it’s only okay to have a well-regulated militia if you’re the United States of America. And it’s especially troubling for countries with large supplies of oil to be able to defend themselves.

Yahoo! News - Rumsfeld Questions Venezuela on Rifles: “‘I can’t understand why Venezuela needs 100,000 AK-47s. I personally hope it doesn’t happen. I can’t imagine if it did happen it would be good for the hemisphere,’ the defense secretary said.

Rumsfeld appeared with Brazil’s vice president and defense minister, Jose Alencar, who declined to offer similar criticism of Chavez. Alencar would only say that Brazil respects the right of self-determination of other countries.

Venezuela says its military has about 100,000 troops, plus 30,000 reservists. The United States is concerned that the weapons are intended for domestic militias or foreign guerillas.”

It looks like the Bush brothers have politicized themselved into a corner on this one. While they planned to to look like heros to the religious right by “doing all the could do” to help save Terri Schiavo’s life, the right-wing is now putting the responsiblity (and thus imminent blame) squarely on Brothers Bush.

Coalition Calls Upon Bush to Save Schiavo’s Life by Using Police Powers: “‘There are two people in the United States who can save Terri Schiavo’s life right now. The president of the United States and the governor of Florida have the authority to use the police services at their disposal to take Terri into protective custody, restore her food and hydration, and arrest anyone who would interfere,’ said Dr. Paul Schenck, executive director of the National Pro-Life Action Center on Capitol Hill. ‘For the sake of Terri’s life, we cannot afford to wait while the courts dither over jurisdiction.’”

Here are some ad figures to ponder:

Iraq Checkpoint Killings Unchecked: “Since the beginning of the invasion in March 2003, the U.S. military has killed more than a dozen journalists in Iraq � more than the Iraqi resistance has. There have also been scores of civilians killed � including women, children and families � at US military checkpoints across the country. Yet not a single soldier has been charged or disciplined in any of these cases, and the internal investigations have become a conveyor belt for exonerations.”

I have to ask: “Who has asked Colleen’s ‘we’ to call the White House?” God? The same God that ordered George W. Bush to bomb a country that hadn’t attacked us? The same God that told George W. Bush that we need to drill in a national wildlife refuge? The same God that kept George W. Bush from sparing the life of death row inmates in Texas?

Dear Friends,

May God reward you!
Colleen

Mercury is HEAVY, thus settles immedately downwind of coal plants. Does this make the Bush administration’s industry-backed plan to use ‘Cap-And-Trade’ ignorant or evil?

Today show report on controversial mercury rule … [Media Matters for America]: “The Boston Globe also noted that the rules have been criticized for allowing ‘hot spots,’ or high regional levels of mercury pollution. The EPA plans to employ a ‘cap-and-trade’ scheme for mercury similar those that have been implemented to regulate other pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide. But unlike those pollutants, mercury is too heavy to disperse into the atmosphere, and high concentrations can endanger humans in the particular areas where they build up.”

It turns out that some non-Bush Texans have found a Link between Mercury Levels and Autism. It kind of makes me wonder why we’re going to take decades to clean up what the EPA has told us can be done today.

Sarah Hassell makes a great point in her letter to the editor today:

Letters from readers: “Really small government

Can someone please explain to me how gay marriage in any way threatens the institution as a whole? Or how banning gay marriage is in accordance with the right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ guaranteed to all in this country?

I fail to see how the marriage of two people who love each other is any of my business or how it affects anyone else. Aren’t Republicans supposed to be for small government? Apparently the ban backers want government to be just small enough to fit into our bedrooms.

Sarah Hassell, Minneapolis.”