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Countdown – Special Comment – Resign

From Countdown’s Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment:

… And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and shaped it to a razor-sharp point and stabbed this nation in the back with it.

Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.

Did so even before the appeals process was complete; did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice; did so despite what James Madison—at the Constitutional Convention—said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes “advised by” that president; did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder: To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish—the President will keep you out of prison?

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental com-pact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens—the ones who did not cast votes for you. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party. And this is too important a time, Sir, to have a commander-in-chief who puts party over nation.

 
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“New” Al Qaeda

No surprises here.  The War in Iraq has produced more Al Qaeda.  Experts have been saying this for a while now.

 
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Light up the sky with Illuminations

Fireworks can be dangerous.  Be safe today and tomorrow.

 
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Conservative Liberal Frances Perkins

(This is the second part of the Texas Liberal series running this week on Where’s the Outrage? called Four For The Fourth—Alternatives To Accommodation And Assimilation.)

Frances Perkins (1882-1965), the first woman to serve in a Presidential cabinet, helped chart Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and was a champion of the initial passage of Social Security.

As Labor Secretary, Perkins served as a reformer close to the center of power. Like many reformers, Perkins could in some ways be termed conservative. She did not embrace the most radical solutions proposed to end the Great Depression.

Perkins’ mix of imagination and practical experience is a hallmark of the successful reformer. Before working in government, she worked with the poor at Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago. Perkins worked in the 1920’s for New York Governor Al Smith. Smith advocated an expanded place for government in the lives of citizens and is viewed as a “founding father” of the New Deal.

Perkins had an understanding about the lives of the poor. She knew government could help if America could begin to imagine government in that role.

Progress in politics, and in many aspects of life, is often a product of imagination. In the case of the New Deal, imagination got a strong push from the demands of the Depression.

Frances Perkins engaged in a mild form of resistance to the prevailing society. She sought to use existing tools of power in a new way. It is often these more mild reforms that are most effective. The kind of change Perkins embraced was in many ways meant to protect America from its free market excesses.

That said, Perkins’ view that government had a duty to help those most in need was revolutionary in its implications for those who got the help.

Dizzy and Louis

2 of the greatest trumpeters of all-time. Louis Armstrong may be the greatest. If so, then Dizzy Gillespie is the second greatest. Dizzy understood the theory of jazz and bop. Dizzy could take you to the board and show you why this note led to this note. Although Louis got into a tiff with Dizzy over the direction of jazz in the 50’s, on thing is clear although they both clowned on stage, they meant nothing but business when those horns met their lips.

 
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Beverly Sills dies

Beverly SillsI liked Ms. Sills.

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From Bloomberg.com :

Beverly Sills, the American coloratura soprano whose glittering vocalism, warmly projected personality and infectious laugh captivated opera lovers for the last 40 years, has died. She was 78.

The cause was inoperable lung cancer, said her manager Edgar Vincent. He said she died at her home shortly before 9 p.m. New York time.

Justin T – Love Stoned

I was at my mother’s 75th Birthday celebration.  There were about 80 – 90 invited guests.  We held the party at a new restaurant in downtown Dallas.  Everyone had a great time including my mom.   Since I was in Dallas and every waking moment was tied up, I didn’t blog which means no weekend videos.  Here are 2 vids to try to make up for the lack of vids over the weekend.

Cool video.

 
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