May 2008: Context

It's the reason for reading independent reporters and bloggers; if it weren't for them, I'd be stuck with whatever stories the corporate media chooses to run, in whatever superficial and disconnected form they are presented.

Driftglass' posts are a good example. He provides this month's worth of context—with choice images, as well as choice words—here.

There's much on the dismal pre-convention Clinton camp maneuvers.

Joe Lieberman is smacked down for headlining the shindig of
anti-Catholic, anti-homo—not to mention anti-Semitic—Pastor John Hagee.

On "disgruntled employee" Scott McClellan and his memoir—

From former employees who rat out corrupt bosses, to the battered spouse who makes it out alive and at long last feels safe enough to talk about their abuser, to molested parishioners, to the child who finally can’t take another minute and spills the beans about drunken daddy, it's always the same.

First, the guilty go through great shows of public outrage.

Then comes the questioning of motives of their accusers.

Finally, broad hints and saccharine concerns about the unbalanced mental state of the whistle-blower.
...
Once 50 million pinheads and five Supreme Court Justices saw fit to stuff the business end of an electoral shotgun in Lady Liberty’s mouth, blow the back of her skull off, and hand the United State of America over to the dimwit dauphin and his reptilian regent, if a baby-faced lying stooge like McClellan hadn’t been available, the Bush Administration would have invented one.

So what do we now know about Scott McClellan?

That he sold out his country.

He lied about it.

And now he's cashing in on the misery he helped create.

The Driftglass Declaration: a 25 year statute of limitations on use of obsolete political terms—

...we can now officially stop calling these life forms "Reagan Democrats".

They are "Republicans".

Also cretins.

Mildred and Richard Loving
AP photo, 1965
Mildred Loving died on May 2. As much as she never sought public recognition, Mrs. Loving's was a life to be remembered and honored.

Driftglass observes of the history—

Why should you care?

Because the Loving Decision took place in 1967. Not 1867.
...

Because when you note the language of Loving v. Virginia, you cannot help but notice that for far too many, the essential message that God has personally conferred a mantle of superiority on Conservative White American Christian Heterosexual Male has remained virtually unchanged.

And the direct, cultural decedents of the preachers and politicians who delivered this bible-wrapped filth are still alive and well and leading the Republican Party under the same banner, but now it has a new coat of paint called "Same Sex Marriage"...

Because while it is true that things really have gotten more tolerant and more free since the days of the Loving Decision, the bad news is, a frighteningly large fraction of the American public thinks that's actually a bad thing.

Mrs. Loving saw the same connections. On the 40th anniversary of her Supreme Court case, she issued a statement recalling the background of her marriage and the couple's legal case, and concluding:

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God's plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.
...

I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.

May 2007: Oh, What A Tangled Web They Weave

Donna Garde/TX Parks & Wildlife Dept. (Giant web; large view here.)

It's no news that a key to Bushco's success is the way deceit is practiced in complicated ways, on so many levels.

And the methodology is the ultimate use of the Reaganite tactic of filling government with operatives who hate everything about government—everything except their own use of it—for power and financial profit, for themselves and their cronies.

Nowhere has this been more evident, or happened on so many fronts, than in Bushco's Department of "Justice." This month, details are coming to light regarding violation of FISA law, political use of US Attorney offices, and much, much more.

James Comey, Deputy Attorney General under Ashcroft, testifies before House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The Senate has sought Ashcroft and Comey's testimony since February 2006, after the NYT reported the administration's violation of FISA by spying on citizens. Glenn Greenwald, who covers FISA extensively, notes the committee especially wanted to question Ashcroft and Comey about a Newsweek report that in 2004 they had refused to certify the legality of an NSA eavesdropping program.

And Greenwald notes that when current AG Alberto Gonzales refused to allow them to testify—claiming the regime's usual excuse of "privilege"—he added, "You have to wonder what could Messrs. Comey and Ashcroft add to the discussion." From this same Greenwald post of May 15, just after Comey's testimony that day—

...it became clear exactly what they could "add to the discussion," and it became equally clear why Gonzales sought to suppress their testimony.

This because Comey had laid out the B-movie melodrama of the Ashcroft hospital room scene—

The White House phone call to Mrs. Ashcroft, who had banned visits to her gravely ill husband.

Comey's urgent call to FBI director Robert Mueller, enlisting Mueller to come to the hospital as backup.

Comey and security detail's race to intercept White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and then-WH Counsel Gonzalez, who were en route to get the incapacitated AG's signature.

And what's really astounding—it's not that the regime used thug tactics on its own AG—but that the illegality of what they wanted rubber-stamped was so blatant, even John "Phantoms of Lost Liberty" Ashcroft opposed it!

The day following Comey's Senate testimony, Greenwald reviews its significance, getting right to the point:

...yesterday's hearing underscores how unresolved the entire NSA matter is -- how little we know (but ought to know) about what actually happened and how little accountability there has been for some of the most severe and blatant acts of presidential lawbreaking in the country's history.
...
Beyond the indisputable crimes that were committed here -- and violating the law and engaging in eavesdropping that the Congress has prohibited are "crimes" in every sense of the word, in this case punishable with five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense -- there is still the completely unanswered question of how the President used these illegal eavesdropping powers.

As Greenwald notes, the only judge to rule on Bush wiretapping found it unconstitutional. And that ruling was in a suit brought by the ACLU on behalf of journalists and organizations presumed to be targets of spying.

And Thom Hartmann reminds us of the Republican history of spying on Dems, from Nixon to the most recently known example: an Orrin Hatch staffer's hacking of Democratic Senate computers and distribution of stolen material to friendly media. It's very likely that Hartmann is correct in inferring that the regime's push to eavesdrop has always been Nixonian "Enemies" territory, writ large—

[Bush's] administration and party have already been busted by the BBC for targeting Democratic voters in Florida and Ohio to strip them of their right to vote; have already been convicted in Federal Court of jamming Democratic phone banks on election day; have already been outed for targeting groups like the Raging Grannies and The League of Women Voters for "terrorist" surveillance.

Who was spied on first? Probably every Democratic politician in America. (We know they got Kennedy and Durban!)

Who was spied on after that? Probably every journalist and liberal author, columnist, and progressive talk show host in America.

Talking Points Memo has been on the trail of the US Attorneys firing story, with a timeline here. These were eight Republicans—appointed in Bush's first term—then fired beginning in 2004, for investigating Republican corruption and/or refusing to investigate baseless "voter fraud" charges pushed by White House/GOP operatives.

I've been accumulating a fat file of material from TPM's posts—there's so much detail to grasp, and it's complicated by how many attorneys and offices were involved. And the posts draw comments from readers in different locales, who suggest much more material to be examined. Which points to the usual problem of how much goes on at local levels that either is not covered, or is misrepresented by national media—even when local events are part of a pattern of national importance.

One of the TPM stories:

Bingo! I think we have our 9th fired US Attorney -- and one replaced in short order by one of the Bush DOJ's prime 'vote fraud' scammers.

...referring to Missouri, and replacement of Todd Graves by Bradley Schlozman. Because, as Greg Gordon reports for McClatchy,
2006 Missouri's election was ground zero for GOP.

Which is largely what the US Attorney firings were about—use of the DOJ to suppress voter rights in order to suppress expected Democratic turnout. The USA offices were one front of the plan; the Civil Rights Division was another.

As sickening as is use of the Civil Rights Division to thwart civil rights, it's also completely predictable under the Reagan Doctrine of installing appointments to steer agencies in the opposite direction of their intended purpose. And to step up the subversion, Gonzales secretly delegated aides Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling, to serve as political commissars arranging the placement of loyalists throughout the DOJ.


As for the US Attorneys—like all of the Bushco DOJ, and most importantly those appointees in place for beyond 2009—the USAs who kept their jobs are the real problem now.

In the Alabama office, Leura Canary, wife of a longtime Karl Rove intimate, has years of involvement in the outright political imprisonment of former governor Don Siegelman—prosecuted for the crime of being a popular Democrat running against a Rove crony. Raw Story's coverage of the events–and the Rove fingerprints all over them–includes this timeline. And this summary of events, which includes a photo flowchart of the nexus of Rove-Jack Abramoff-Alabama political/legal system players behind the Siegelman prosecution.

In April 2009—despite Republicans out of the Executive and a Democratic Attorney General—Siegelman's conviction has been upheld—as Scott Horton reports—by an Alabama appeals court

...consisting entirely of Republican judges, and two of the three had an active record of political engagement in G.O.P. causes. They were a distinctly hostile audience for Governor Siegelman, and many passages of the opinion, to my eyes, reflect this.

The judiciary, like the DOJ—and all other agencies—is full of operatives ready and eager to create exactly this "legacy" for Bushco.

But then, the BBC story about the image at top was aptly titled, Texan spiders spin 'monster web'.

May 2006 (II): El Sueño Americano

Andy Carvin - Boston, May 1
The large May 1 protest marches are a continuation of immigrants' marches taking place all spring. Proposed legislation—HR 4437—has fueled protests by individuals and organizations, with very well-attended events around the country.

Besides upping the ante on punishment of immigrants themselves, passage of the bill would impose penalties for anyone providing assistance to immigrants—which, as this NYT editorial points out, "would expand the definition of 'alien smuggling' in a way that could theoretically include working in a soup kitchen, driving a friend to a bus stop or caring for a neighbor's baby."

For this reason, the Catholic Archdiosese of Los Angeles opposes the legislation, as do charitable and legal groups serving immigrants. And among the grounds of the ACLU's opposition:

Under the bill, all new hires and current employees, including American citizens and legal permanent residents, would have to be verified, and, with the error rates in the current pilot programs, tens of millions of people could be erroneously denied permission to work by the federal government...[T]he collection and retention of this information in government databases poses a serious threat to personal privacy.

...the bill would further militarize the border, give extraordinary powers to low-level immigration officials within 100 miles of the border to expel -- without a hearing -- anyone believed to be a recently arrived illegal immigrant and expands mandatory detention rules to apply to all non-citizens arriving at a port of entry or "along" the border...

One good personal account—of an April march in Seattle—is here:

"We're hard workers, not criminals," said the signs. "We aren't terrorists." "Don't separate us from our families." They proclaimed "Liberty, Equality and Dignity" and showed pictures of crops that they picked. Children paraded in strollers, teenagers laughed with their friends, elderly women helped each other walk step by step. The march was mostly Latino but also Koreans, Filipinos, Somalians, marchers of every race.

It's very heartening to read about this, as I slog through the days at work. Where, it just happens, the Department is observing "Diversity Month."

The HR person in charge of this is the person responsible for the daily stream of morale-boosting messages, replete with exclamation marks. So among this month's good cheer:

May is Diversity Month!!!

Last year we celebrated with maps - this year we would like to celebrate with flags -so far I have only heard from ONE person - what country they would like to have a flag posted for!!! Please let me know the name of your unit and your country of heritage.

And: part of the excitement is that she will distribute "flavored coffees and teas from other countries!!!" — meaning, General Foods "International Coffee" and Bigelow "Chinese Restaurant Tea." "Diverse" choices made by someone who one lunchtime sees me nuking tandoori chicken, and gasps, "Oh! Be careful—that could be hot!"

As someone has responded to the flag offer, I have a good idea who that "ONE" is—I make a trip to the copier and return to find posted on the door:

WHERE WE COME FROM

Below the heading is the graphic of a tri-color flag; under the flag is a caption — "The Netherlands."

Yes, the Office of The Chairman will fly the flag of the Boers this month, as the father of Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant's was born in Holland. Seeing that "WE" are from there, shouldn't that confer on me some preferential status for emigration to Amsterdam?

Eventually, an office down the hall makes a point of posting a print of a US flag. I had no idea the occupants are not descended from immigrants and must all, therefore, be Native Americans—they've concealed it well, behind their hillbilly cover...

Divide and conquer has such a long history, and has been so effective with people like this.

At firedoglake, Pachacutec's "El Sueño Americano (The American Dream)" is a touching account of his attendance at the April march in DC. Capturing the passion of the marchers and importance of the issues now, Pachacutec also tells the pre-World War II immigration story of his Peruvian grandfather, concluding—

Anti-immigrant fervor tends to rise when economic insecurity abounds. American income inequality is at historic levels, and fat cats get fatter while working people tread water. The Republican party, riddled with weakness and undeniable failure, now stoke the old fires of racism, not only to deflect attention from its failures abroad, but also from the failures of our Reverse Robin Hood economy at home.

Enlightened immigration policy is a bread and butter progressive issue. As we protect all American workers, we protect standards of living, promote education, build a more sophisticated and internationally competitive workforce and end the race to the bottom in the domestic labor market that benefits big corporations in the short term at the expense of American strength and security in the long term. Even if you don't share my degree of personal identification with today's demonstrators, policies that support full citizenship rights for American workers are sane, smart and just. At the same time, we need to build real regulatory systems to monitor employers' behavior and hiring practices. Building walls and sending people to foreign lands, on the other hand, destroys American families.Immigration and immigration policy is not about "them." It's about us. It's about our families.

...I dedicate this post tonight to [my grandfather's] memory, to the memory of my grandmother and to the many Americans I felt privileged to join today in celebration of the American Dream.

May 2006 (I): Do Not Touch Your Dial

An irresitable invitation: Department Gals' Day Out—


Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant is in the midst of caring for the post-Caesarian puppy bounty: "I have hives so bad! I'm allergic to newsprint, with the puppies being potty-trained. I thought it would get better, but it's not!"

Mid-month, Jesus' BAA takes a day off to prep the party she's throwing at home, for her [special needs] church camper-parishioners. The day before, she announces she'll have to start hiding things tonight, because: "Deaf people are the biggest thieves you've ever seen! They take everything that isn't locked down!"

It suggests a level of psychological projection I don't want to think about.

Another day, a rapt audience of Ghengis, Cruella, and Jesus' BAA listen to Dr. G. Zuss tell an anecdote:

After the announcement that I was leaving X University to come here, a friend who's a ... [pausing to come up with a euphemism] ... liberal thinker... said, "That's the worst news I've heard since Bush won!"

Jesus' BAA gasps, "Oh, no!" as Ghengis and Cruella laugh heartily.

Which may not even have been sucking up by those two; they may have laughed to think Bush won, so the no-good librul was PO'd!

An amused Dr. G. Zuss says to Jesus' BAA, "Don't look at me that way!"

Turning red, she insists the story doesn't bother her.

Dr. G. Zuss gets sly: "Now, I know you have a Bush sticker on your vehicle!"

Which Jesus' BAA also denies, claiming she doesn't put on stickers because they make a mess. Then she goes on (and on, and on) about how her husband's vehicle is "plastered with them," and he's been asked to be the county chair for [local Rethug running for governor], but she told him not to, it's just asking for headaches...

It could mean she's toning down her political activity, since realizing the boss is somewhere vaguely left of Joe McCarthy.

And that, I gather, is mainly due to the anti-science stance of the current regime.

When not trying to impress the Chief, Cruella is busy as ever with American Idol commentary. In one morning's phone conversation with her Good Daughter:

I was in shock! She did an awful job, she deserved to go!
...Taylor has a fan base: he's never been in the bottom…
To be honest, I thought Chris would win...incredibly market-savvy: that's the kind of music people listen to...
... [Some other name I don't catch] is awesome! He's phenomenal! He's so emotional when he sings!

Another morning, after a favorite has been bumped, "I was devastated! Absolutely devastated!"

Though Idol takes up the airwaves, some news still seeps out, if not into the consciousness of Cruella and the others. The Hartford Courant publishes "Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight"

The U.S. military is sending troops with serious psychological problems into Iraq and is keeping soldiers in combat even after superiors have been alerted to suicide warnings and other signs of mental illness, a Courant investigation has found.

...Once at war, some unstable troops are kept on the front lines while on potent antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, with little or no counseling or medical monitoring.

And some troops who developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq are being sent back to the war zone, increasing the risk to their mental health. These practices, which have received little public scrutiny and in some cases violate the military's own policies, have helped to fuel an increase in the suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq... accounting for nearly one in five of all Army non-combat deaths.

Earlier in the month, Ray McGovern attended a talk in Atlanta by Donald Rumsfeld, and managed to get out some questions. Prior to that, protestors were removed—to the applause of the audience at the Southern Center for International Studies.

In this interview, McGovern says of the encounter, "I suppose the good news is that finally someone had a chance to ask Don Rumsfeld—if I were in Washington, I never would have got into a session where Rumsfeld spoke." McGovern also quotes a pre-event leaflet distributed by The World Can't Wait:

There's going to be a question-and-answer period, but please adhere to these guidelines. Refrain from using the word 'lie' in relation to the war in Iraq. Do not question the secretary’s personal responsibility for torture. And please don't discuss first use of nuclear weapons against Iran. If you violate these guidelines, you'll be immediately removed from the auditorium, flown to an undesignated prison location somewhere in Eastern Europe and tortured. Thank you for your cooperation.

From the LA Times on May 18 there's a piece by Laura K. Donohue—originally headlined "Battlefield: U.S."—currently posted by the Times as "Pentagon spies are watching you"—! It succinctly describes the ever-growing list of methods of surveillance of Americans—the methods that have come to light, that is.

But, to paraphrase the Reich-wing's, "you have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide" — you have nothing to trouble you if stay tuned only to American Idol.

May 2005 (II): The British Are Coming

Image here
We've entered a period of something like reverse Paul Revere activity, with multiple incidents of truth-telling coming from British sources.

On May 1 The Sunday Times publishes the previously classified "Downing Street memo." It summarizes the July 23, 2002 meeting of Tony Blair's cabinet. At this point—eight months before the invasion of Iraq—the British are well aware that the U.S. government plans going to war, and is at work manufacturing justification for it:

[Intelligence chief Richard Dearlove] reported on his recent talks in Washington… Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

FAIR reviews the major media's unwillingness to cover the memo story.

Unwilling, because the memo is so clearly "smoking gun" quality evidence, as understood immediately by independent writers. For example, a short summary from Greg Palast, who gets right to it: "The memo that has "IMPEACH HIM" written all over it."

Juan Cole on "The lies that led to war."

A long analysis by Mark Danner, "Secret Way to War."

Despite all efforts to the contrary, we do still have a "Constitution," which provides a process of "impeachment" for wrongdoing in office... Now, if only we had more than a small handful of "representatives" willing to uphold their oaths.

The Cannes Festival screens a feature length version of Adam Curtis' BBC TV series, "The Power of Nightmares."

The series was broadcast in Britain in October 2004 and again in January of this year. But it remains "the film US TV networks dare not show," tracing as it does the parallels between terrorism in the name of Islam and the ideology and rise to political power of the American neo-conservatives. And its conclusions are a look at how politicians are enhancing their power by instilling fear in the public.

As Curtis writes:

...although there is a serious threat of terrorism from some radical Islamists, the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organisation waiting to strike our societies is an illusion.

As the films showed, wherever one looks for this "al-Qaeda" organisation - from the mountains of Afghanistan to the "sleeper cells" in America - the British and Americans are pursuing a fantasy.

The bombs in Madrid and Bali showed clearly the seriousness of the threat - but they are not evidence of a new and overwhelming threat unlike any we have experienced before. And above all they do not - in the words of the British government - "threaten the life of the nation". That is simply untrue.

The hour-long programs can be viewed online: Part 1, 2, 3.
Transcripts of the segments are here: Part 1, 2, 3.

And Scottish MP George Galloway, called before a Senate committee "investigating" supposed profiteers of the UN Oil-For-Food program, turns the tables on senatorial grandstanding:

I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, once in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as "many meetings" with Saddam Hussein.

As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defense made of his.

I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and Americans governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas. I used to demonstrate outside the Iraqi embassy when British and American officials were going in and doing commerce.

Judith Miller writes the NYT's version of Galloway's appearance.The same Judith Miller who has been using the Oil-For-Food contracts as the basis of churning out

... a plethora of stories, chock full of innuendo and allegation but short of independent journalistic verification, suggesting that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is a bad man and perhaps a corrupt one, and that, by extension, the UN is hardly worth respecting and funding, much less including in geopolitical decision-making.

And the very same Judith Miller who was a key figure in spreading the pre-war lies of Iraq's WMD threat.

There are some noble attempts to get all these stories out, and they find the usual minority audience. But as a story more flattering to our glorious and heroic nation, the quaint picture of Paul Revere on a horse gets much better publicity.

May 2005 (I): Back In The USSA

Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant runs an annual church camp for deaf/developmentally disabled people in June. Which causes her to leave the office—for an entire week of vacation.

Though her camp may sound noble, over the years I'm trapped in a room with this woman I hear sub-text suggesting something very different—that the deaf/DD are somehow Jesus' BAA's cross to bear. It must be something like that—because all indications are that she really dislikes her charges.

Gearing up for next month, Jesus' BAA posts a plea on the lunch room bulletin board. She wants donations of "craft supplies," and her list is very specific, including:

Toilet paper cardboard rolls
Egg cartons
Empty bleach jugs
CDs (cracked, but not broken)

And more that I've forgotten, but the other items are just as pathetic. I get the strong impression that Jesus' BAA considers these things "good enough for them—they won't know any better."

The camp is named in the traditional way: by cobbling together syllables of actual words, to create a fake-Indian name. In this case, the words need to be something in the fundie-speak line. So, let's say this name is "submit-mortify-follow = Camp SuMoFo."

May 1 is the second anniversary of Glorious Leader's "Mission Accomplished" photo op.

Each photo op is always akin to a picture puzzle of the find-what-doesn't-fit kind.

But this photo op, intended as it was to be a peak moment for the regime, required an even higher degree of orchestration than usual. The ship had to be turned around to obscure its actual location; the infamous banner hung (later to be blamed on the crew); the former AWOL jetted in—to create the illusion that he had flown and landed the plane, and to have him emerge in ludicrous costume, including "enhanced" codpiece.

And the date was no accident—the regime's propagandists are still so obsessed with Commies, and their degree of psychological projection is so enormous that they gleefully embrace the symbols and methods of "the other side."

As in, Grover Norquist's Lenin fixation, reported by David Brock:

...Grover admired the iron dedication of Lenin, whose dictum "Probe with bayonets, looking for weakness" he often quoted, and whose majestic portrait hung in Grover's Washington living room.

And there's the Cato Institute's "Leninist Strategy" for Social Security. In which the writers propose "what one might crudely call guerrilla warfare against both the current Social Security system and the coalition that supports it," the latter being "the elderly… a very powerful and vocal interest group." Because "as Lenin well knew, to be a successful revolutionary, one must also be patient and consistently plan for real reform."

Matt Taibbi—who actually lived for a time in the Soviet Union—turned the table on this. Within days of the 2003 photo op, he responded with, "Back in the U.S.S.A."—

Ask anyone who’s lived in a communist country, and he’ll tell you: Modern America is deja vu all over again. And if ever there was a Soviet spectacle, it was Bush’s speech last week.

Think about it. Huge weapons on display, in foreground and background. The leader who has never fought dressed in full military regalia. Crowds of adoring soldiers and "shock worker" types dressed in colorful costumes, carefully arranged for the cameras. A terrible, excruciatingly dull speech, 20 minutes of incoherent, redundant patriotism (Bush used the words "free" or "freedom" 19 times in an 1800-word speech) and chimpanzoid chest-pounding.

On May Day.

That was Red Square every year for about 70 straight years. And now it is a most natural fit in our society.

After a Bush photo op late this the month, Clever Sister forwards freaky quotes from this source—

NIGHTLIGHT CHRISTIAN ADOPTIONS WAS INTRODUCED BY PRESIDENT BUSH AT MAY 24,2005, 2:10pm EST PRESS CONFERENCE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH. HE SPOKE OF THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE AND THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "SPARE EMBRYO."TWENTY ONE OF OUR SNOWFLAKES CHILDREN JOINED HIM IN ORDER TO PUT A FACE TO THESE EMBRYOS UNDER DISCUSSION.

Nightlight Snowflakes FAQ

Nightlight is the only agency in the country (that we are aware of)* that offers Embryo Adoption. As you consider your options you should know that another method of adoption is now available embryo adoption. By some estimates, there are over 100,000 frozen embryos in cryo banks throughout the United States. Pre born children are waiting.

[*A 2009 search shows that they've made sure of this: "Snowflakes is a registered trademark of Nightlight Christian Adoptions."]

And in Kansas one of the new versions of the Scopes trial unfolds—well-funded right-wingers working here, as in other states, for a Scopes re-write.

PZ Myers responds with a piece about much older Kansas events:

There is a geological formation in Kansas called the Niobrara Chalk. Actually, it's not just in Kansas; it extends all the way up into Canada, but the Niobrara has been exposed by erosion over much of northwestern Kansas, making it easy to dig into.

...The exposed chalks of northwestern Kansas are also old, dating to between 87 and 82 million years ago...

The inescapable conclusion is that Kansas was under water during the age of the dinosaurs...

After describing the fossil record's "genuinely weird animals—we have nothing comparable to them today—yet they were diverse and successful and found in numbers in the Niobrara Chalk," Myers goes on to say:

I've only briefly visited modern Kansas, but the Kansas of my imagination is a fiercely exotic ocean, a warm and savage sea richer than any place still extant. Try mentioning the magic word "Niobrara" to a paleontologist, or any enthusiast familiar with Mesozoic reptiles...their eyes will light up as it conjures visions of the world of 85 million years ago, a world well documented in the incredible fossil beds of Kansas. It's a powerful, evocative word that links us to a wealth of evidence and a complex, fascinating history.

Reading about the ridiculous anti-evolution trial going on there was rather depressing. It isn't just that the creationist arguments are so poor, but that they are making them in Kansas, where beneath their very feet are the relics of an ancient world that show them to be wrong. Don't schoolchildren there take pride in the paleontological wealth of their home? Do the people bury their imaginations and avoid thinking about the history that surrounds them?

And, Myers says, if there were truth in the "metaphysical codswallop" of the challengers to science education, then "the [courthouse] floor would have cracked open beneath their feet to allow a spectral tylosaur to rise up and gulp them down."