MOMocrats

Dreams of a Mother: Have Something to Eat

What I dream for the world is that we all eat a good meal, three times a day, with two small snacks. By good I mean nutritious and tasty. By all, I mean ALL. Every last person.

Being hungry is a primal worry. If anxiety had a sound, it would be the gurgle of stomach juices rumbling in an empty stomach. Every new mama has "Failure to Thrive" engraved on her heart as Fear About Your Infant #1. When a baby loses weight instead of gaining it. When you can see the ribs on a toddler. When a kid is peckish. Refuses to eat or has problems eating or gaining weight. When your mama looks at you and clucks, "You're looking thin. Are you eating well?", no matter how old you are. Invariably you'll hear or perhaps you've said, "Here, have another helping."

Indiana Republican Mom for Hillary Clinton

I always love the international perspective on the 2008 presidential campaign I get from Justin Webb's America blog.  Justin is a friend of mine who also happens to be the BBC's North America editor.

Pretty much since the beginning of this presidential campaign, Justin has been traveling around the country to shed light on our process for his viewers and listeners in Great Britain.

Today, he's got a great post up called "Republicans for Hillary."

It's a quick video interview with "Darlene" from Indiana, a lifelong Republican and fan of George Bush.

She's voting Democratic today and she's voting for Hillary.

You go, Darlene!

Dockworkers Display War Opposition Strength in Historic Ports Shut Down

Rank and file members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which includes some 25,000 men and women, took matters into their own hands on Thursday to protest the war in the largest one day strike since the invasion of Iraq.

All along the West Coast, ILWU members shut down the ports, grinding business to a halt.

J.B. Powell at The Huffington Post described Friday the estimated effect on business.

"A spokesperson at the Port of Oakland citing John Martin and Associates economic analysis, said that $1.2 trillion in business activity flows from West Coast ports each year. She reported that it costs between $50,000 and $100,000 for each ship delayed for a day from docking. Officials, she said, planned for the strike and diverted ships, but the action kept at least one ship from docking in Oakland. There are 29 ports up and down the coast."

Acting on a motion from a a recent caucus of members, the workers defied the wishes of even their own International union's officials who argued against the strike, but said they supported the members' right to protest. Jack Heyman, a local officer of the ILWU who wrote the resolution to strike, said in a Democracy Now broadcast Thursday the action of the ILWU members directly demonstrates the power of resistance workers possess.

"Well, what this action was was raising the level of struggle from protest to resistance, and we’re hoping that these kinds of actions will resonate to other unions and workers. It’s already catching on with some of the port truckers. Actually, they’ve been doing actions for quite awhile. While it’s not mainly based on the war—I think they’re very much affected by the high price of fuel—they’ve been shutting down ports over that issue, but also immigrant rights, because many of them are immigrant workers. And I hope that this will be an example to other workers that we have the power, we’ve got to use it. And that’s how we can bring this war to a halt."

Telling of the committment to speak out, ILWU member Angela Benjamin, brought her 8 year old son, George, to the rally, missing a day's pay to show her support for the war opposition.

"My father was a Vietnam Vet and he died in 1969," Benjamin said. "So it's important for me to be here to protest this war. I have a personal idea about what's going on."

-Christine Modern English

Go Read It: Hillary's "Obliterate Iran" Remark and the Overseas Response

Maybe the one big piece of news that came out of the otherwise content-free ABC News debate was Clinton's stance on the "what-if?" situation where Iran uses nuclear arms to attack Israel. Clinton spoke about maintaining an "umbrella of deterrence" and that the U.S., under her lead, would "obliterate Iran"--with nuclear weapons, if need be--to protect our ally Israel.

It wasn't a mistake, she said it again when interviewed a few days later.

Contrast this with Governor Bill Richardson's more reasoned comments on Iran:

Clinton's remark disappeared into the ether, we were all so rightly annoyed at the overall vapidity of George Stuffin'envelopes and Chuck Gibson's moderation of that so-called debate.

But the international press certainly sat up and noticed--go read it here.

Dick Cheney's "Quagmire"

Please watch this video of Mr. Evil himself, Dick Cheney, in 1994.

Even Dick himself didn't think invading Iraq was a good idea: "How many dead Americans is Saddam worth?...Not very many."

Spread the word and donate to moveon.org.

Guest Post: Karoli of Drums & Whistles on Torture

The MOMocrats are pleased to welcome guest contributor, Karoli, who blogs about life and the web at Drums and Whistles and about politics at Bang the Drum.
 

While CNN and the other Sunday talking heads obsess over the 'bitterness' speech, and the Clinton/McCain campaign continues to flog it, let's talk about the real reason to be bitter:  President George Bush ADMITS he knew about torture authorization after his top advisors got together and discussed in excruciating detail how best to carry it out. During an interview with ABC News last Thursday, President Bush admitted that he knew that "The Principals" discussed and approved the torture of so-called "high value" al Qaeda suspects:

"Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

Think about this when you hear those trial balloons for Condoleeza Rice to be the VP candidate with McCain (wouldn't THAT be an incredible irony?):

The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.

Why Condoleeza Rice Should Not Be Eligible for VP:

Because she's a war criminal.

This makes me sick.  I am shaking, visibly, as I write, with tears stupidly coursing down the bridge of my nose.

Our president signed off on illegal methods of torture.  There's a long article about it at dailykos, a well-written one, but here's the pdf, too, for brevity's sake.

We're all tarred with this.  I'm so ashamed.  I'm so ashamed.

*covers face with hands*

John McCain's New Career: Gangta Rappper

Senator John McCain is looking for a new line of work. Based on extensive psychological testing and a career aptitude test, it appears that Gangsta Rapper is the line of work he's best suited to.

Here's the evidence:

• has a really bad temper/is a hater
• has a posse: his main pimp daddy is Lindsey "Little Jerk" Graham
• has been in knock-down drag-out brawls before.
• has experience shaking down senior citizens/once beat up Senator Strom Thurmond.
• uses racist slang for people ("gook")
• his ride is ghetto-fabulous, pimped with spinnaz, yo
• is a master of misogynist invective: he's gone off on his wife, calling her a c**t. Said that Chelsea Clinton was fathered by Janet Reno, thereby smearing 3 women with crap-ass misogyny and tarring Reno and Hillary Clinton with the lesbophobic brush. So saying "bitch" and "ho" should be no problem.
• he's willing to engage in an unending rap war with the gang-bangers from the other coast
• he can sing, kinda.

Cynematic's personal blog is P i l l o w b o o k. Sometimes her tongue is buried deep in her cheek, although that sounds like a description of a medical problem somehow, doesn't it?

Reason #1,938,640 to NOT Vote for McCain

Photo credit: AP/Mary Altaffer

He's got an itchy trigger finger (from the Huffington Post):

WESTPORT, Conn. — Republican Sen. John McCain refused Wednesday to rule out a pre-emptive war against another country, although he said one would be very unlikely.

The likely Republican presidential nominee was asked Wednesday at a town-hall style meeting if he would reject "the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war," a reference to Bush's decision to invade Iraq without it having attacked the United States.

Pre-emptive and potentially unilateral--weren't these what got us into our present quagmire, genius?

Given that he recently tossed off crazy figures for the duration of U.S. occupation of Iraq ("100, 1,000, 10,000 years"), John "Bomb Bomb" McCain seems to think we're made of money and infinite service people to send overseas to fight. THIS IS SHEER INSANITY.

This is firing up turbocharged rocket thrusters on the Handbasket to Hell Express.

Let's stop the madness, here and now.

Cynematic's peacenik blog is P i l l o w b o o k.

Nancy Pelosi Proves That MOM(ocrats) Don't Take No Shit.

Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful woman in government, just made my knees buckle with her firm, rooted-to-the-ground stance against Bush on the forced Colombia trade agreement vote.

Also, I think I might have to send her a love note.  And some chocolates. 

That, and my undying pledge of affection oughtta do it.

(I have a sneaking suspicion that tomorrow during the vote I'll be doing my best to not lick the C-Span coverage on the TV screen when she's speaking - see, the screen is wearing a fine layer of dog hair and dust, but I can still make out the images, and that's all that matters.)