30 July 2006

Kind words from a customer in the UK...

...who picked up a pair of shirts to sport on the other side of the Atlantic:

"My husband and I received our "Impeach Bush and Cheney" shirts yesterday and are extremely pleased! We couldn't believe how quickly they arrived to the UK. The shirts are excellent quality. I'm an American and my husband is English. We both strongly oppose Bush and Blair's war policies and would like to see the back of both of them. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to show the world how we feel! I highly recommend your service and products to everyone who is opposed to these war-mongers."

19 July 2006

Interesting point from George Lakoff...

...professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley, who has written extensively on "framing," a communication technique that the GOP expertly uses to influence voters. Lakoff thinks that, by belittling Bush, many Democrats are missing the bigger picture:

Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush's plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush's "failures" and label him and his administration as incompetent...The idea that Bush is incompetent is a curious one. Consider the following (incomplete) list of major initiatives the Bush administration, with a loyal conservative Congress, has accomplished:

*Centralizing power within the executive branch to an unprecedented degree
*Starting two major wars, one started with questionable intelligence and in a manner with which the military disagreed
*Placing on the Supreme Court two far-right justices, and stacking the lower federal courts with many more
*Cutting taxes during wartime, an unprecedented event
*Passing a number of controversial bills such as the PATRIOT Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Medicare Drug bill, the Bankruptcy bill and a number of massive tax cuts
*Rolling back and refusing to enforce a host of basic regulatory protections
*Appointing industry officials to oversee regulatory agencies...

These aren't signs of incompetence. As should be painfully clear, the Bush administration has been overwhelmingly competent in advancing its conservative vision. It has been all too effective in achieving its goals by determinedly pursuing a conservative philosophy.

It's not Bush the man who has been so harmful, it's the conservative agenda. (full article here)

13 July 2006

Some great bits from MLK...

…from his “autobiography,” which was put together and edited superbly by Clayborne Carlson.

Early on in the bio, King shares a candid introspection from his college years. “I revolted…against the emotionalism of much Negro religion, the shouting and stamping. I didn’t understand it, and it embarrassed me. I often say that if we, as a people, had as much religion in our hearts and souls as we have in our legs and feet, we could change the world.”

He also reveals an inclination toward pantheism, a nature-themed interpretation of divinity. “Every day I would sit on the edge of the campus by the side of the river and watch the beauties of nature. My friend, in this experience, I saw God. I saw him in birds of the air, the leaves of the tree, the movement of the rippling waves…”

As a college student, MLK contrasted capitalism with communism, and was generally a champion of the former, though he was not afraid to address its shortcomings. “Capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity.”

06 July 2006

Today is W's birthday...

...but if I was the one who was blowing out the candles, here's the present I'd be hoping for: