A few days ago I asked my father if he shared my growing suspicion that my generation (those of us born after World War II) had really made a mess of things once we got in charge. My father was born in 1923, was 6 years [...]
Apparently another way in which conservatives in this country differ from the rest of us is in what they worry about. Here is Congressman John Shadegg, Republican of Arizona, (who had a few days earlier brought a staffer's 7 month old daughter [...]
Here is a video of the late Willy deVille singing Ry Cooder's song "Across the Borderline." (You may have heard other covers of the song by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Freddy Fender or others.)
Listening to the lyrics makes me realize how deeply American it is for someone to [...]
When Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan did that in Fort Hood, Tex., last week, many Americans had an understandable and, in some ways, admirable reaction. They didn’t want the [...]
I think it may be time for people of good will, who believe in treating people the way that we would like to be treated, to embrace the "political correctness" label.
Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly has taken aim at the Town of Kent' [...]
Yesterday on Fox Friends, Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson were wondering if it was time for the military to start treating Muslim-American soldiers as potential terrorists simply because they are Muslims.
Kilmeade:Do you think it’s time for the military to have special debriefings of Muslim Army [...]A few years back Jeff Foxworthy was striking comedy gold by alerting people to the warning signs that they may be a redneck. Two of my favorites: You may be a redneck if you have more than one major appliance on your front porch. You may be a redneck if [...]
I was just reading an online article about people who are in debt even though they make more than enough money to live comfortably.
"Mark," a 41-year-old executive who makes a six-figure salary but fell into debt because he doesn't believe in self-sacrifice: "I have a'" [...]
This year the Putnam Museum is the place to celebrate the Mexican Day of the Dead in the Quad Cities! [Click on the image below to see it full sized.]
The Washington Post responded in today's paper to a reader who pointed out an apparent contradiction: the editors insist that health care reform not increase the debt but call for escalation of the number of our troops in Afghanistan without any plan to pay' [...]
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } When I read that a Louisiana judge had refused to issue a marriage license [...]
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s all forms of gambling were illegal in this country (except in Nevada) and had been as long as anyone then alive could remember. My grandfather, who was born in 1890, talked about what life was like at the turn of [...]
In his newspaper column in today's Moline Dispatch, Greg Aguilar reminds of how the Quad Cities area towns of Andalusia and Cordova got their names.
Many people don't realize this fact, but the Spanish Empire reached the state of Iowa and a small piece of Illinois. Some of our area [...]
Michael Moore's response to President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:
Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Dear President Obama,
How outstanding that you've been recognized today as a man [...]
President Obama sent the following message to all those on his e-mail list yesterday.
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } People like the brick streets in the part of Moline where I live but some of [...]
People like the brick streets in the part of Moline where I live but some of them are getting difficult to drive on. 18th Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets got so bad this spring it was damaging the undersides of cars and had to be completely rebuilt -- [...]
When Pat Buchanan was on the Rachel Maddow show the other night he claimed that Sotomayor was an intellectual lightweight not qualified to be on the Supreme Court who had gotten where she was through affirmative action. Remember, he was talking about a woman who:
Coming [...]
The white male Republican Senators have had a lot to say about racism and sexism during the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor. Apparently they think the only remaining bias in this country is reverse racism by minorities against whites and sexism by [...]
An editorial in today's New York Times opposes the policies announced by the Department of Homeland Security last week "expanding its 287(g) program, which enlists local law-enforcement agencies to hunt illegal immigrants.
...many responsible police chiefs and sheriffs have stoutly opposed having immigration duties outsourced to'" [...]
(Photo by Nancy A. Youssef / MCT)Check out this wonderful piece of journalism by Nancy A. Youssef of McClatchy. An Afghanistan tribal elder, Haji Sahib Rohullah Wakil, was detained by U.S. forces in August 2002 after attending a meeting with an American commander at [...]
In a possible sign that my opinions are becoming more mainstream a new website named Mediaite, in its rankings of the most influential print/online columnists, ranked two of my favorites in the top 10. Paul Krugman is #1 and Glenn Greenwald [...]
At least seven House Democrats have pledged not to support any health care bill that does not include a public option. One of them is our own Congressman Phil Hare. As he explains in this video a bill without a public option is "like a car without a motor."
[...]
I often disagree with Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks but I think he hit a home run with today's column. The subject was the personal dignity and reticence shown by most of this country's early leaders and politicians, epitomized by George Washington.
The dignity code commanded its followers [...]
Has someone revealed themselves to be an undemocratic elitist when they expect the people selected to lead this country to be among the best and brightest, to have demonstrated competence and achievement? That is the dubious proposition advanced by Ross Douthat in his column in today's New York Times.
Palin’s' [...]
An article in today's New York Times informs us (I didn't see any mention of it in the local papers) that the Russian government is closing every legal gambling establishment in the country.
One of the largest mass layoffs in recent Russian history is to occur on Wednesday, and the [...]
Come and Buy!
St. Mary’s Gymnasium
412 – 10th Street
Moline, IL 61265
· Furniture
· Kitchen items
· Toys—gently used
· Clothing, Accessories, Jewelry
· Tools
· Crafts
Time: 8 a.m. to 3p.m. [...]
A great deal has been written about the horrible and terrible murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas yesterday, but one aspect I have not seen discussed is whether Dr. Tiller put himself at risk by being a regular church-goer. In the interest of full disclosure I [...]
Watching Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich define ever increasing numbers of Americans out of the Republican Party (Rush and Newt are now declaring racist the idea that having grown up non-white might give someone some special insight [...]
Teen TV star, Miley Cyrus, recent made some comments on her Twitter account giving her view of what Jesus, Christianity and God have to say on the subject of gay marriage
Everyone deserves to love and be loved and most importantly smile.
Jesus loves you and your partner and wants you [...]
Nicholas Kristof, in his column in today's New York Times, points out how vulnerable to pandemic our flawed health care system makes us.
Think of the 47 million Americans who lack [health] insurance. They are less likely to receive flu vaccines (which might or might' [...]
A Pew Research Center survey reveals that, in general, the more Americans go to church the more willing they are to support torture. According to a CNN article:
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- [...]
John McCain's daughter Meghan posted the following message on Twitter yesterday:
I know its been a hard day for a lot of you but Arlen Spector has made a selfish choice. This can come back and be better than ever.What Republican principle does making a selfish choice' [...]
If you had been thinking that the state-run lottery was a fair and honestly run game-of-chance in which your odds of winning were determined by the mathematical laws of probability then you may have been shocked by the news story in the Quad City [...]
Daniel from Rockford wrote me to suggest a topic for this blog. I couldn't think of anything to add to what he wrote, so I will just let him speak:
Is there much that is less patriotic than to publicly avow secession from the Union? Well, now we have a pattern' [...]
Congratulations to the Navy and to President Obama for the rescue of the ship's captain held by pirates. They negotiated and waited while that was the correct course of action and then took decisive and successful action when it was called for. President Obama early on gave authority for lethal' [...]
Check out Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman's analysis of the positions and leadership of the Republican Party in his column in today's New York Times. [...]
My 87 year old mother died Friday evening. The last few years of her life she was increasingly afflicted by dementia and so it was a long good-bye for my father, brothers, sisters-in-law, daughter, nieces, nephew, wife and me.
Here is a link to the obituary [...]
Click picture to see it full-sized.
In the part of Moline where I live there are a number of old brick-paved streets. I took the above picture a block from my house. Apparently the winter was hard on the streets around here. This is 18th Avenue betweeen 12th [...]
According to the Associated Press a Spanish court has agreed to open a criminal case that could result in [...]
Is your feeling that the bonuses received by the AIG executives whose actions helped put their company at risk of bankruptcy are unfair and wrong just an emotional reaction or is it a reasonable position grounded in your moral principles? Can you define fair and unfair compensation? Without a [...]
I don't know how much good Bill Richardson would have done as Commerce Secretary, but there is no doubt in my mind that the bill he signed on Wednesday, abolishing the death penalty in New Mexico, made the world a much better place. As the prophet' [...]
There is an interesting op-ed in this morning's New York Times:
Here’s a thought. What if illegal immigrants really aren’t America’s worst nightmare? A lot of energy has been spent insisting that they are, but are they really as dangerous as, say, zombie banks? Or' [...]
photograph by Kuni Takahashi of the Chicago Tribune. Click on the picture to see it full sized.
The woman in the bed in the picture is 28 year old Mariana de la Torre, a Moline resident for two years, until her recent return to her native Mexico. You [...]
There is a very interesting op-ed in this morning's New York Times by Jennifer Gordon proposing a change in how we handle immigrant workers.
Despite stepped-up enforcement at the borders, hundreds of thousands of immigrants still come illegally to the United States every year. Raids' [...]
Quite a few of the talking heads in the media have been claiming that Obama must be judged to have failed if he cannot get Republicans to support his proposals, even though the voters elected enough Democrats to Congress that legislation can be enacted with no Republican support in the [...]
As reported by Sam Stein of Huffington Post:
Instant public surveys on Barack Obama's address before Congress showed, by in large, that the public was incredibly receptive to his speech, regardless of political party. ...
A CBS News poll of approximately 500 people saw approval of the president rise from' [...]
I was just watching California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on This Week with George Stephanopoulos talk about the budget deal just reached in Sacremento which involves tax increases and spending cuts. George reminded Arnold that when he ran for governor he promised never to raise taxes and [...]
On his show yesterday Rush Limbaugh responded to Attorney General Eric Holder's charge that Americans had been a "nation of cowards" on the subject of race.
I, El Rushbo, am no coward. … In fact, I show bravery on race. I am totally willing to discuss it openly and honestly. How' [...]
This is a cartoon which was published yesterday in the New York Post. A lot of people were appalled by it. I have read the opinions of several right-wingers who claim it is no big deal and point out that Bush was occasionally portrayed as [...]
If you are not on President Obama's email list you may not have heard about a new websites that have been set up to allow the public to track how the stimulus money is spent and a website for posting and reading stories of how Americans are coping with our' [...]
I just took the quiz and this is what I scored. What kind of liberal are you?
You are a Peace Patroller, also known as an anti-war liberal or neo-hippie. You believe in putting an end to American imperial conquest, stopping wars that have already been [...]
A few days ago James Adkisson was sentenced to life in prison for killing two people during an armed assault at the Knoxville, TN Unitarian-Universalist church last July. Just after he was sentenced he released to the Knoxville News a four-page handwritten "manifesto" which was to be his suicide note [...]
Local conservative blogger, QCExaminer, pleads with President Obama to "diss" her. I think she is missed something important about why the president advised Congressional Republican "you can't listen to Limbaugh and get things done." It wasn't just because Limbaugh is a conservative. It was because Limbaugh was telling Republicans [...]
Ellen Beth Gill at Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog discusses the amazing Republican claim that tax cuts are a better stimulus than government spending. Why would increasing after-tax profits for businesses automatically create jobs in the current business climate? Are they Magic Tax Cuts?
' [...]My brother Dan's thoughts on the recent birth of octuplets:
How very very sad yesterday was the news of octuplets born into a family already overflowing with six children. My initial feelings of sadness, however, were soon overcome with stronger feelings as I pictured unregulated, profit motivated, fertility “doctors” artificially creating' [...]
Vital Stats:
Birthday: 1/19/09
Time: 11:50 p.m.
Sex: Male
Height: 39 inches
Length: 41 inches
Birth Weight: 250 pounds
Suspecting that many readers of this blog are not on the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey mailing list I felt that I had to pass along [...]
According the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON – Suicides among Army troops soared again last year and are at a nearly three-decade high, senior defense officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
At least 128 soldiers killed themselves in 2008, said two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the data has [...]
The only state senator we have in this part of Illinois has been signaling he might vote to not remove Govenor Blagojevich from office. According to an article in today's Quad City Times:
After hearing FBI recordings presented at the Senate impeachment trial Tuesday and the testimony of FBI agent' [...]
It is not surprising that anti-choice activists would oppose Obama's lifting of the "gag rule" which prevented US foreign aid from going to agencies which offer abortions or referrals for abortions as part of their family planning services. What is kind of surprising to me is that some of the' [...]
Please click on the photo to see it full-sized.There are 4230 tiny flag-covered coffins in the room which has a floor about 10 feet square. The small (about 1.5" X 3/4" X 3/4") cardboard boxes each with a tiny flag on its top and sides are arranged" [...]
According to a story in today's Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald newspaper:
AN AUSTRALIAN family on a mercy dash to a dying relative in the United States were detained without food or water before being sent to a detention centre and forced to spend the night with criminal suspects. Their ordeal' [...]
To Barack Obama's supporters the actions he has taken in these first few days of his presidency are not particularly surprising. After all, they are reflections of themes he stressed during the campaign. For example, his executive order instructing "federal agencies to handle requests for information from the public and'" [...]
Chief Justice Roberts came to the White House last evening and re-administered the presidential oath. Since Obama had repeated the words of oath slightly out of order during the official Inauguration doubts had been raised about whether he had actually taken the oath. Read more about [...]
My main reaction, listening to Barack Obama's Inaugeration speech, was that grown-ups are back in charge. We are no longer being told, for example, that we can have a war without sacrifice -- fought by volunteers, paid for by oil revenues from the invaded country, while the rest of us [...]
As part of the Moline Dispatch newspaper's 'What Obama Means to Me' feature Jan Anderson of Moline had the following to say:
...Because Barack Obama is an African American does not make him any more or less important than any previous presidential candidate and I question The Dispatch and their [...]
It was not surprising to me that in his column today in the New York Times, William Kristol is completely and thoroughly wrong. Everything he says is totally and demonstrably false. What surprised me was how thoroughly dishonest the column is, especially the following excerpt:
In synagogue, right after the [...]
In a very interesting article in today's New York Times, reporter Scott Shane reports that the Obama Administration, simply by acknowledging the obvious truth that waterboarding is torture, could be forced to prosecute those responsible for torture as war criminals, despite Barack Obama and Eric Holder's protestations that they [...]
Marcy Wheeler has an excellent post up at the emptywheel blog:
They're calling it a miracle--the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, [...]
Today's New York Times has an article about violent crimes being committed by soldiers returning home from multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[...]According to numerous press reports:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says her future son-in-law Levi Johnston is not a dropout as the press is reporting, but is enrolled in high school via a correspondence program. The former Republican vice presidential candidate also said daughter Bristol, is enrolled in regular high school [...]
We now find out that Bruce Pardo, the Southern California man who killed 9 members of his ex-wife's family and then shot himself on Christmas Eve, had an airline ticket and plans to come to the Quad Cities on Christmas Day. Well, if somehow he had come to see [...]
In his column in today's New York Times, Bob Herbert sums up the last 8 years.
When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be [...]
What in heavens name are all these "unanswered questions" and suspicions about possible Barack Obama involvement with the Blagojevich scandal that so many media types have been talking about? From the very beginning of public awareness of the alleged crime, when Patrick Fitzgerald announced the arrest of Govenor Blagojevich, he [...]
I have been so busy preparing for the holidays I have committed blogging malpractice -- I've had opinions and not blogged about them.
Concerning the possiblity of Caroline Kennedy being appointed U.S. Senator from New York: That would make it look like you needed to be the wife or child of [...]
When you heard Barack Obama promise to bring change to Washington what kind of change did you imagine? Did you take your cues from his criticism of our decision to invade Iraq and his promises to bring the troops home in 18 months to understand Obama to be promising change [...]
Roman Catholic Cardinal Jorge Medina criticized the flamboyant singer during his homily at a Mass in honor of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet, who oversaw the deaths of some 3,200 dissidents during his 1973-1990 rule.
"This woman comes here [...]
The Democrats in Congress who are going to vote next week to bail out the Big 3 American automakers are probably going to pay a political price for doing so. The polls and word on the street make it clear that most of the public hates the idea of [...]
Odetta sings Careless Love
A young Odetta sings Water Boy
Read a good article about Odetta's life in today's New York Times.
[...]Conservative David Brooks’ column in today’s New York Times claims that the Barack Obama’s foreign policy is not change but really is continuity of ideas developed by people in the Bush Administration.
[Defense Secretary Robert] Gates does not talk about spreading democracy, at least in the short run. He talks [...]
It is no surprise that William ”The Bloody” Kristol‘s column in today’s New York Times is wrong. Everything he said has turned out to be wrong. But this column’s wrong-headedness is immediately obvious. No need to wait for events to unfold to prove it false.
In India’s long and bloody [...]
Here in the Quad Cities, those of us who have Mediacom cable tv see 5 minute interviews with local newsmakers which are shown every hour or so on the CNN channels. I just saw an interview with our congressman Phil Hare. I was very pleased to hear him talking about [...]
Temporary Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour of Queens, New York was trampled to death Friday morning when an estimated 2,000 shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors of the Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream on Long Island at a 5 a.m. sale. How culpable are you for his death?
If [...]
In his Wall Street Journal column on Nov. 20 Daniel Henninger opined:
And so it will come to pass once again that many people will spend four weeks biting on tongues lest they say "Merry Christmas" and perchance, give offense. Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name.
This [...]
Just now, as I write this, on the Rachel Maddows show guest host Alison Stewart started her interview with Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman by thanking him for coming on the show. Professor Krugman responded, ‘Sure.’
That caught my attention because a few weeks ago someone wrote into either Dear Abby [...]
I just finished listening to the podcast of the November 10 edition of NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She was talking to Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker Magazine, who has been covering the Obama campaign for the last 2 years. Terry asked Ryan what the Obama [...]
The New York Times reports
Miriam Makeba, a South African singer whose voice stirred hopes of freedom among millions in her own country though her music was formally banned by the apartheid authorities she struggled against, died early Monday after performing at a concert in Italy. She was 76.
Read [...]
Because of economic woes many American industries, including automobile manufacturing and sales, are hurting but the firearms business is booming. According to the Guardian:
Starting in the days before the election, gun shops have been mobbed by buyers who fear that Obama and a larger Democratic majority in Congress will [...]
Barack Obama’s choice of Rahm Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff has drawn some criticism from people claiming Emanuel has been partisan and divisive. Some Republicans who have worked with Emanuel in the Congress disagree with that assessment.
According to the Washington Times Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called [...]
My brother, who is a sixth grade teacher in the public schools in the Rockford area, just emailed me about what happened in his classroom the day after the election:
The majority of students in my class, those whose parents voted for Obama, could not enjoy a moment of [...]
Thank God the election is over. We all heard candidates being accused of being unpatriotic, friends with terrorists, Muslims and socialists. I have just become aware of an even more astounding accusation. Out in Montana Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown had to defend himself against accusations that he was [...]
After reading what blogger 
The New York Times asks "
