I was just as impatient - Elbow Toe

Read my interview with Elbow Toe

Mayor slams ‘dishonest, war-mongering’ Bush

During a rally held in Salt Lake City yesterday, thousands cheered Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson as he blasted George Bush as a “dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president.”

The protest against Bush’s Iraq war policies was held prior to the president’s arrival Wednesday night in Salt Lake City to give a speech to the national convention of the American Legion this morning.

Utah is considered to be the “reddest” state, showing that there is growing debate about the Iraq war even in friendly Bush territory.

“A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president,” Mayor Anderson told the crowd, estimated by organizers to number between 4,000 and 5,000

Sad day for radio and the nation in general. Mike Malloy was fired by Air America, right in the middle of the week he was subbing for Randi Rhodes. The only shows I listen to anymore are Randi and Sam Seder. I’m not sure of the status of Seder.

Mike’s statement on mikemalloy.com

The U.S. secretly agreed to the “real demands” set by the group behind the August 14 kidnapping of two Fox News journalists in Gaza, according to a report in the pan-Arab newspaper al Hayat.

The announcement that the two journalists had converted to Islam as a reason for their release was only a camouflage to conceal the fact that the U.S. had agreed to the hostage-takers’ demands, according to the sources cited in the article. A few days ago the Rafah crossing was reopened for a few hours daily, and the Israeli forces stopped shelling residences of activists in the past few days, noted the paper’s sources.

Farewell Address

Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17, 1961.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.