The new laws against drunk driving in Arizona are very severe which is one reason we’ve decided to stay home New Year’s Eve. This state has one of the most severe laws in the nation regarding driving while drinking. In June the state passed a new law that requires ignition-interlock devices for first time offenders, increased fines and a minimum of 45 days in jail for DUI convictions where the blood alcohol is .20 or higher. (See chart to calculate…
We have all been reading about the CIA destroying the video tapes of their interrogation of two al-Qaida suspects in order to keep them from being seen and to conceal their probable torture methods. This happened after a federal judge had ordered that such information be preserved and following evasive responses from the Bush administration about it’s knowledge and role in the matter. The videotapes were made in 2002 and showed the CIA’s interrogations of the two prisoners. The CIA…
Readers of this blog know that I have never been a fan of Senator Joe Lieberman because I have always seen him as a fraud. (3/29/07) He represented himself as a Democrat only to get elected, but has consistently voted, as well as supported, the Republican agenda. Joe never saw a tort reform bill he didn’t like and was a consistent friend of George Bush as well as the Republican agenda. The only thing Democratic about the Senator is the…
The Huffington Post had an interview with Thom Hartmann that was not only politically interesting, but had some good insight on communications. Hartmann has written a book Cracking the Code involving communications. Regarding politics, he says that the Bush administration was totally sleeping at the switch regarding the threat of terrorist activity. He was quoted as saying: "There’s considerable evidence that before the 2001 attack, whether it was intentional or not, nobody was paying attention and everybody was asleep at…
The Sunday newspaper published a letter to the editor which was a brief, but accurate, summary of why our dollar growing weaker. The writer pointed out that our national debt has doubled in the last seven years. He writes that the federal reserve prints more dollars to cover the United States’ deficit spending and thus devalues the dollar through inflation. He notes that the oil producing countries of the Persian Gulf are considering the abandonment of the dollar as their…
The International Herald Tribune (10/26/07) had an editorial which began: "President George W. Bush waited until he had vetoed a relatively inexpensive children’s health insurance bill before asking for tens of billions of dollars more for his misadventure in Iraq. The cynicism of that maneuver is only slight less shameful than the president’s distorted priorities. Bush keeps throwing money at his war, regardless of the cost in blood, treasure or children’s health care." It goes on to point out that…
Arianna Huffington has written in her blog about Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The rise of Disaster Capitalism, compares it to Alan Greenspan’s book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World. Huffington joins the many other critics of Greenspan’s spin of history in order to cover his compliancy in the disastrous Bush economic policies. She refers to his book tour as the "Greenspan embarrassment tour" and goes on to say: "Greenspan’s book is another in the…
I admire Arianna Huffington’s clarity of expression, use of apt metaphors and her ability to go to the heart of issues. In her latest blog entry she discusses the ad Moveon.org ran about the testimony of General Petraeus regarding Iraq. The ad spells out clearly the concealment of facts and the false representations made at the time of his testimony. As a result, Rudy Giuliani was up in arms for "character assassination on an American general who is putting his…
The State Children’s health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is under attack by George Bush. The program began in 1997 which provides federal funds on a matching state fund basis to give health care to children unable to afford it. It was directed at families whose income was too high for Medicaid, but too low to afford private insurance coverage. According to the New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 357:1036 September 6, 2007) it has been enormously successful. Some 6 million have…
Nate (Nathaniel) Washington died recently (August 18th) at 93 years of age. (See obituary) Nate practiced law in Grant County with Jim Wickwire. He was a man of many accomplishments. He was born in Coulee City. His dad died in a drowning accident when he was young. While attending Ephrata high school he was captain of the football and basketball teams as well as student body president. He attended the University of Washington during the depression only with the help…
