Selendy For Congress
I live in the 19th congressional disctrict and currently am represented by Sue Kelly (R) and would really like it if she got the boot. This year Janine Selendy is running against Kelly. Selendy is for a lot of good things, like expensing stock options so that corporate accounting is more honest, as well as for campaign finance reform, in addition, she is a democrat and it will help tip the House in our favor if she won.

If your in the 19th district I strongly urge you to vote for Selendy and if you can't vote, to persuade someone who can.

"When the sky is tutti-fruiti, the puppy is in the suitcase."
-Johnny D.

There is an excellent Talking Points post on Iraq. John Marshall supports regime change like me and we share the same kinds of doubts about Bush's planned invasion. He articulates them far better then I could:

There's also an issue people don't like to talk about, but which is an undeniable reality for many. Military action is easier to contemplate if it's being planned by political leaders who you support and whose values you share. One might say this is mere partisanship, agreeing with what politician X wants to do because he's a member of your party or vice versa. And there's always some of that. But it runs deeper. Following political leaders into war requires a deep measure of trust on a variety of levels: trust in their judgment, trust in their analysis of factual information that can never be shared with the public, and so forth. If your general sense of an administration is that they're not trustworthy or that they don't share your values it's difficult not let that color your opinions. Of course, to some degree it should color your opinions

I have the same problem. I really would like the US to remove Saddam from power, but...I'm not sure if Bush can do it, or at least do it right. The administration is very abrasive with other nations and has a history of wasting international political capital on brain dead moves to satisfy domestic political interest groups. The Steel Tarriffs, irrational fear and loathing for the International Criminal Court and the Canadian Lumber Quotas are just a few symptoms of this disease. Such short sighted and politically motivated moves have cost us international support (or at least getting that support very difficult). Multilateral support (for me, unlike many others on the Left) is a practical problem and not a moral one, however, it is a big practical problem. The Europeans frequently help the United States out with nation-building (Exhibit A: The Balkans, where the Europeans have been performing peacekeeping missions. Interestingly enough, during the 2nd presidential debate, W. denied that Europeans were pulling their weight ), but without international support, the rebuilding of Iraq will have to be done on our own dime. Given that all the costs of reconstruction in Iraq will be on us, I fear that Iraq won't be rebuilt at all or at least in a very half-assed way, a la Afghanistan. Which brings us to the larger issue, the problem is that this administration is isolationist at heart and doesn't really want to be involved with the rest of the world (even though Isolation has clearly been a fantasy since World War One). This has been true from the very start and failing a sudden attack on conscience; it'll be true to the very end.

Learn for Free Online
Apparently MITis offering free courses online, but you can't earn a degree or get credit over the internet. However, they do provide free information, while must people providing content over the internet are starting to charge.

JUST DOING MY PART TO CONTROL THE POPULATION....

An Open Letter About Emergency Contraception

by KATHA POLLITT & JENNIFER BAUMGARDNER
Posted August 29, 2002


The one thing that activists on every side of the
abortion debate agree on is that we should reduce the
number of unwanted pregnancies. There are 3 million
unintended pregnancies each year in the United States;
around 1.4 million of them end in abortion.

Yet the best tool for reducing unwanted pregnancies has
only been used by 2 percent of all adult women in the
United States and only 11 percent of us know enough
about it to be able to use it. No, we aren't talking
about abstinence--we mean something that works!

The tool is EC, which stands for Emergency
Contraception (and is also known as the Morning After
Pill).

For thirty years, doctors have dispensed EC "off label"
in the form of a handful of daily birth control pills.
Meanwhile, many women have taken matters into their own
hands by popping a handful themselves after one of
those nights--you know, when the condom broke or the
diaphragm slipped or for whatever reason you had
unprotected sex.

Preven (on the market since 1998) and Plan B (approved
in 1999), the dedicated forms of EC, operate
essentially as a higher-dose version of the Pill,
compressed into two tablets. The first dose is taken
within 72 hours after unprotected sex, the second pill
is taken 12 hours later. EC is at least 75 percent
effective in preventing an unwanted pregnancy after sex
by interrupting ovulation, fertilization, and
implantation of the egg.

If you are sexually active, or even if you're not right
now, you should have a dose of EC on hand. It's less
anxiety-producing than waiting around to see if you
miss your period; much easier, cheaper and more
pleasant than having to arrange for a surgical abortion
if you end up pregnant and don't want to be.

These websites will help you find an EC provider in
your area:
www.backupyourbirthcontrol.org
www.not-2-late.com
ec.princeton.edu/providers/index.html

Don't wait until you're in a crisis. Your doctor may
not be able to see you in time, and other doctors may
not want to deal with walk-ins. Many clinics and
doctor's offices are closed on weekends and holidays--
the most likely times for unprotected sex. If you live
in a rural area, the logistical difficulties--finding
the doctor, finding the pharmacy that stocks EC--are
compounded. Plan ahead!

Forward this information to anyone you think may not
know about backing up her birth control and print out
the info in this e-mail if you want to organize as part
of the EC campaign (or do your own thing and let us
know about it). Let's make sure we have access to our
own hard-won sexual and reproductive freedom!

Seven Things You Need to Know About Emergency
Contraception

§ EC is easy. A woman takes a dose of EC within 72
hours of unprotected sex, followed by a second dose 12
hours later.

§ EC is legal.

§ EC is safe. It is FDA-approved and supported by the
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and
the American Medical Women's Association

§ EC is not an abortion. The two pills you take are not
RU-486, the abortion pill, which can be taken up to
nine weeks into a pregnancy. EC does not work if you
are already pregnant and will not harm a developing
fetus. Anti-choicers who call EC "the abortion pill" or
"chemical abortion" also believe birth control pills,
IUDs and contraceptive injections are abortions.

§ EC works. It is at least 75 percent effective in
preventing an unwanted pregnancy after sex, but before
either fertilization or implantation. According to the
FDA, EC pills "are not effective if the woman is
pregnant; they act primarily by delaying or inhibiting
ovulation, and/or by altering tubal transport of sperm
and/or ova (thereby inhibiting fertilization), and/or
altering the endometrium (thereby inhibiting
implantation)."

§ EC has a long shelf life. You can keep your EC on
hand for two years, according to the FDA.

§ EC is for women who use birth control. You should
back up your birth control by keeping a dose of EC in
your medicine cabinet or purse.

What You Can Do to Help

Forward this e-mail to everyone you know. Post it on
lists, especially those with lots of women and girls.
Print out this information, photocopy it to make
instant leaflets and pass them around your community.
Call your healthcare provider, clinic or university
health service and ask if they provide EC. Spread the
word in your community if they do. Lobby them (via
petitions, meetings with the administrators, op-eds) to
offer EC if they don't.

Make sure that your local ER has EC on hand for rape
victims and dispenses it as a matter of policy to women
who have been assaulted. Many hospitals, including most
Catholic hospitals, do not dispense EC even to rape
victims.

Get in touch with local organizations--Planned
Parenthood, NOW, NARAL, campus groups--and work with
them to pressure hospitals to amend their policies.

If you can't find a group, start your own. Local
activism can achieve wonders.

If you are a writer, submit an op-ed to your local
paper. Writer or not, send letters to the editor about
EC. You can key your letters to particular stories--or
request that stories be written.

Make sure that your local pharmacy will fill
prescriptions for EC. Some states have "conscience-
clauses" that exempt pharmacists from dispensing drugs
that have to do with women's reproductive freedom.

Birth Control Pills That Can Be Used in the United
States as EC
Trivora (4 pink tablets)
Alesse (5 pink tablets)
Levlite (5 pink tablets)
Nordette (4 light orange tablets)
Lo/Ovral (4 white tablets)
Levlen (4 light orange tablets)
Levora (4 white tablets)
Low-Ogestrel (4 white tablets)
Tri-Levlen (4 yellow tablets)
Triphasil (4 yellow tablets)


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Bad Man's Bluff
According to this article, the hawks don't have to worry about Saddam's concession. All we have to do is call Saddam's bluff by pressing the insepctions to the limit. That way we might not only have war, but war with UN support. I hope the author is right, mulitlateral support would be very nice indeed.

Deflation Nation
Could falling prices send the U.S. into a Japanese-style recession? Probably not according to author, the US is in danger of deflation, but it situation is not nearly as severe as Japan's.

GOP considers more tax cuts
These fools never met a tax cut they didn't like, especially when its for the wealthy. It doesn't matter that we need to finance a war and that our budget deficit is ballooning and the national debt is predicted to continue to grow over the next decade, reality doesn't stop the like of Dick Armey. Maybe Bush will prove he has a fragment of brain lodged in his skull and say "no" to an absurd tax cut. Maybe.

Al Qaeda Fighters Are Said to Return to Afghanistan
Damn it all! Where is the peacekeeping force? Oh I forgot, Bush is too much of an anti-interventionist to actually do thing competently! We need an occupation force to support the new Afghan government or things will just slide back to the way they were before. I really hope this clown gets the book in 2004 and we get a Presiden who knows how to get win war and peace.

What to do about the Media Mess
I really like the idea of an all liberals all the time news channel. In fact I wish we would return to the days of openly partisan media outlets like we had in the early 19th century. I think it was much healthier, as it was honest (objectivity is impossible) and brought people into politics more and forced them to use their critical thinking faculties. Perhaps a channel for the Democrats will help us move back to that era. Someone better call up the "liberal elite" and have them put up some money for a Progressive Sattellite Network, perhaps we could call it "the loyal opposistion".

Bush, the Polls and 2004
An article that claims Bush will be vincible in 2004. I sure hope this is true and I hope the democrats have the brains to pick someone who
can throw the moneychangers out of the temple and return the government to the people.

brhmmm

US Jets Bomb key Iraqi air base
Could this be the opening shot of the war? It seems like the preperations have begun, at least the article implies as much.

Overview of Changes to Legal Rights
By The Associated Press
Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks:

* FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political
institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.

* FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.

* FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information
related to a terror investigation.

* RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison
jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to
Americans accused of crimes.

* FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror
investigation.

* RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans
indefinitely without a trial.

* RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being
able to confront witnesses against them.

Henry Kissinger is coming to my school as a guest speaker. I plan to do something about, something in the vain of Abbie Hoffman. If you want to understand why I'm angered by the visit, go to The Trial of Henry Kissinger.org