No Touch Monkey!

WASHINGTON -- The Census Bureau has provided specially tabulated population statistics on Arab Americans to the Department of Homeland Security, including detailed information on how many people of Arab backgrounds live in certain ZIP codes.

The assistance is legal, but civil liberties groups and Arab American organizations say it is a dangerous breach of public trust and liken it to the Census Bureau's compilation of similar information about Japanese Americans during World War II. SeattlePi.com

A sullen President George W. Bush is withdrawing more and more from aides and senior staff, retreating into a private, paranoid world where only the ardent loyalists are welcome
article via Capitol Hill Blue

President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

article via Capitol Hill Blue

Dear Editor,

I believe that Amendment 2 should not pass. As I read the letters published in your paper, I see that many argue that Gay Marriage will destroy the institution of marriage. I have read that America itself will fall because our very foundation of "Traditional Marriage" is crumbling. I have seen concern in regards to telling children about why that child has two Dads, and I must respond that such concerns about the loss of values, moral decay and the corruption of children is rationalistic fantasy.

Passage of Amendment 2 is discrimination plain and simple because it is treating one group of people less well than others on the grounds of their sexual orientation.

Sexual Orientation is NOT a choice one can make. It is a physical trait as real as skin and eye color, and any negative action you take against a class of people with the trait "Homosexuality" is an action of discrimination.

Now Homosexuals are not asking for special treatment, they are asking for the same rights as everyone else. Where would America be today if everyone were not granted equal treatment?

Women, where would you be today if you were not granted the equal right to vote and to work and earn the same amount as the men?

People of color, where would you be if you were still not allowed to eat with the whites or granted the right to equal education, and equal job opportunities?

On the issues of moral decay and family values your arguments ring hollow. Just admit it, it is your fear of homosexuality that drives this amendment. It is your lack of tolerance that is breaking up the Nuclear Family, and wrecking homes. Your nonaccpetance of homosexuality is keeping millions of your own family members in the closet, keeping your own blood in tormented fear of being found out. You, who vote for this amendment, are a cause of the disintegration of the American Family.

The bottom line is this: if you vote for this amendment, YOU, the voter, are personally responsible for making another human being less than you are. By playing word games with definitions YOU are actively taking away rights from another person, YOU have turned human beings into second class citizens, and it is YOUR example of intolerance and fear that negatively influences the future generations far more than the allowance of equal rights of a group of people.

By turning a blind eye, by voting for the Amendment 2, YOU are continuing the legacy of discrimination. YOU are a dragging weight on the future where equality is granted for everyone regardless of race, religion and sexual orientation.

By voting for Amendment 2, YOU bog us down in 19th century politics, divert precious mental and physical resources away from a national will to complete Great Achievements such as the conquering of AIDS and the uplifting of our fellow Brothers and Sisters worldwide, and yes, hopefully, one day the settling of our respective differences and the abolition of War.

Vote NO on Amendment 2

Though it is frequently listed as a good edible, I do not recommend it, since it is known to cause stomach upsets in some people, even when thoroughly cooked. In my area (east-central Illinois), it usually has a bitter and unappetizing taste, anyway.

Hello Mr. Favazza,

My name is Mark Plattner and I live in the Clifton Heights Neighborhood. I just got a flier on my door today and as I read it I decided that I have a few comments for you.

Bans on Gay Marriage and Civil Unions are legalized discrimination. Once upon a time Blacks were not allowed to marry Whites because it would have ruined the institution of marriage.

Gay marriage and civil unions will not wreck the American Family. Getting married too quickly, not trying to reconcile differences and quick fix culture lead to divorce which leads to broken families and bad feelings cause more damage than having a married gay couple live next door. In the United States, all people of all races, all religions and all sexual orientations should be allowed to marry, and if you support this ban, no matter how you rationalize it, you may as well be calling Gays, "niggers".

On the issue of Abortion.
I see you have 8 children. I have none, I don't want any. If I accidentally impregnate my wife will you take this child off my hands and raise it as your own because she can't have an abortion? There is an old saying: "If you save a live, you are responsible for taking care of it." Are you ready to do that for all of your constituents?

I think the world already has too many unwanted children. Forcing people to have them against their will, will do more to damage the child growing up, as well…having a gay couple live next door.

On the issue of St. Louis Residency Rule:
This is an interesting one. The voters said that St. Louis Police Officers have to live in St. Louis. Well, why is the will of the people to decide where their police officers live? Shouldn't the officers themselves determine their own lives? Your opponent Barry attempted to overturn this allowing the officers to live outside of the city, and in the process earned her the Police Officers' Association's endorsement, yet you say this is a bad thing. I say that a Happy Cop is a More Vigilant Cop.

The Police Officers Association bothers me all the time for money, I would hazard a guess that they know more about the well being of City Police more so than the locals who are forcing them to live within the city.

In conclusion, when it comes time to vote I will indeed "Make August 3rd Independence Day" by emancipating myself from your wrong-headed, surprisingly right-wing, "Democratic Maverick" bigotry and vote for someone other than you.

Sincerely,

Mark Plattner

Moses went up to the mountain, high
To find out from God, "Why did you make us, why?"

Secret words in a secret room:

I say, "A Whomp bob a loo bop a whomp bam boom!"

"I did not put you here to suffer.

I did not put here to whine.

I put you here to love one another,

And to get out and have a good time,

Now, Now, Now."

Said by some to be more dangerous than Osama bin-Laden, he has been condemned as a "war maniac," called a "moron" by the Canadian prime minister’s chief spokeswoman, ridiculed as "The English Patient" for his struggles with language, and likened to Adolf Hitler. 

Of all the labels hung on George W. Bush, the hardest to shake may be the comparison with Hitler.

Perhaps the clearest likeness between the two men lies in their use of emotionally induced hypnosis to plant in the mass consciousness an image of themselves as protectors of their subjects from threats to national survival both inside and outside the fatherland. 

In a June, 2003 article written for The Nation about Bush’s "mastery of emotional language, especially negatively charged emotional language," clinical psychologist Reanna Brooks observed that "Bush creates and maintains negative frameworks in his listeners’ minds with a number of linguistic techniques borrowed from hypnosis and advertising to instill the image of a dark and evil world around us." 

His subliminal messages to justify religious war against "evildoers" are right out of Madison Avenue. Writing in The New Yorker of July 12 & 19, David Greenberg tells how Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, "himself an evangelical, laces the President’s addresses with seemingly innocuous terms that the devout recognize as laden with meaning: ‘whirlwind,’ ‘work of mercy,’ ‘safely home,’ ‘wonderworking power.’" 

Aspiring political hypnotists would do well to study Hitler as an introduction to Bush.

Link

via-Information Clearing House

SAN DIEGO — The government said Tuesday it will not renew a contract with Titan Corp. to provide up to $250 million worth of counseling services for soldiers and their families, citing concerns raised in an audit.

The San Diego-based security and defense information company was given the job of setting up a 24-hour counseling service to help solve a range of problems — from finding a mechanic to marital strife.

When you use nicotine gum like Nicorette®, you bite it and "park" it between your cheek and gum. That way, the lining of your mouth can absorb the nicotine.

If you want to control the amount of nicotine you use — or if having something to chew will help you occupy the time you once spent smoking — you may prefer this method. For best results, use Nicorette on a regular schedule to help prevent cravings in advance.

As a news organization, Monkeywire generally refrains from advocacy, but every once in a while we make an exception.

The following is in response to the news, released over the weekend, that President Bush is succeeding in watering down the Endangered Species Act. ( See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26242-2004Jul3.html )

thanks for your attention and support,

Carrie and Joe
Co-editors, Monkeywire.org