motherhood, politics, faith & whatnot

Heard Bruce Fein on the Diane Rehm show — he totally rocks.

Impeach Vice President Cheney. - By Bruce Fein - Slate Magazine

We went to the local farmer’s market on Saturday. For the past year or two, there have been a couple of card tables set up urging marketers to sign petitions supporting impeachment. As frustrated and disappointed as I have been with the administration, I always kind of regarded these guys as some warmed-over hippie dudes or zealous, angry young people who were really stretching things a bit too far. But the thing is, the crap just keeps coming and coming and coming out of this administration. And this time, when we saw the tables, we really didn’t have any hesitation stopping by.

http://www.impeachbushcheney.net/

I have to admit that I’m not sure I’m in favor of impeachment. What kind of mess will we have if we impeach Cheney, then Bush. Pelosi becomes President. I like Pelosi, but I don’t necessarily want her as President, nor do I think it would really help our country. The political process might be our most powerful recourse. Of course, it would be nice if some of the elder statesmen in our country could grow some balls and stand up against this administration. (And I’m not necessarily talking about getting us out of Iraq either.) No, I don’t know how they could do this, but they the guys who should be figuring this out, and SOON.

Written in 2006. This guys represented REPUBLICANS in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Restrain20this20White20House20-20Bruce20Fein

For the record, this administration has completely trashed the US Constitution. Just ask any Constitutional Law Professor, even the conservative ones.

what the whole Imus debate has taken away is the spotlight from the fact that the Rutgers women’s basketball team had an incredible season . . .

Said Stringer: “While all of you come to talk about this great story, this Don Imus story, in the translation you have lost what this is really all about. At the beginning of the year, we were humiliated. But through perseverance and hard work, determination, ultimately they ended up playing for the national championship. And no one believed in them but them. That’s the greatest story. It’s not where you came from, but where you’re going, not where you start, but where you finish.”

With five freshmen and no seniors on its 10-player roster, Rutgers lost its first two games of the season and stood at 5-5 after 10 games. Players studied film and practiced for 10 hours daily over winter break, Stringer said, and from that point the Scarlet Knights won 22 of 25 games before Tennessee beat them in the national championship.

Along the way, Rutgers demonstrated its perseverance with stunning victories. It lost to Connecticut by 26 at home on Feb. 26, then beat U-Conn. by eight points eight days later in Hartford, Conn., to win the Big East tournament, the school’s first league championship. In the NCAA tournament, the Scarlet Knights beat No. 1 Duke, which had throttled Rutgers by 40 points in December. Stringer told her players then they were her worst defensive team in 35 years of coaching. In the Final Four, Rutgers set a semifinal record by allowing just 35 points against LSU.

“You are familiar with what you might think is the story,” said Rutgers Athletic Director Robert E. Mulcahy III, who attended the team’s news conference along with Corzine and the school’s president, Richard L. McCormick. “But the real story is not the despicable and degrading comments issued by Don Imus and his producer. The real story is about the 2007 Rutgers women’s basketball team: their incredible accomplishments, where they came from and how far they went.”

for Rutgers Players, a Great Run Spoiled

OK, so here’s my take on it at the moment. ..

I don’t think he’s a racist, but I think his comment was over the line. Most of the time he takes on politicians, journalists who are in the public arena already. These were college girls, so it’s not like they were going to come on the show and call him on stuff and banter with him about it.

I think he should have been fired not because what he said was ignorant, per se, but because of the above. NBC and CBS are businesses and just like any business they can fire for whatever they want. If he was being censored in some way by the government, then that’s another question.

I actually like Imus. He can actually be quite enlightened and is quite smart (despite making this comment, which shows mostly that he’s a flawed person, like most of us). When we say or do stupid things, there are consequences even if we didn’t really mean it or whatever.

I feel the same way about him that I do Nifong of the Duke Lacrosse case — he shot his mouth off before really checking everything out and now, he’s probably ruined his career. That doesn’t mean he’s not a good lawyer or hasn’t been an effective DA/ public servant — it means only that he’s hot-headed and probably ambitious. It’s unfortunate that he’s probably gone but that’s just the way it is.

So back to Imus, in a way, I’m glad that CBS and NBC acted so quickly because it’s maybe showing that the press/media is growing some balls again, so to speak. They didn’t challenge the administration enough about Iraq, etc. I don’t think taking more time to have more “healing” discussions would have done any good except to inflame racial tensions for those who think that while corporations may want to appear to be beyond racism and bigotry by having high profile meetings with self-proclaimed leaders of the African-American community, they, by their actions (in keeping Imus on, for example) are continuing to condone such attitudes.

I just don’t see if as a free speech issue. . .

So much more goes into the legal process than people know, but still, Nifong overstepped his bounds.

I’m glad these guys are being exonerated. I hope the national attention they are getting will go a long way to repair as much of the damage done to them and their lives as possible.

Duke Lacrosse Charges Dropped :: WRAL.com

I think I love this guy. Can he do it? I hope so. He engenders hope.

2 Years After Big Speech, a Lower Key for Obama - New York Times

Main Page - dKosopedia

The 15 British hostages were released by Iran yesterday. Phew. Maybe we won’t be in there, just yet.

Obama has raised almost as much as Hillary for his Presidential campaign. Her amount, about $26 million, I think, was record-breaking and quite a good bit ahead of the others in the race. For him to have gotten almost as much, and possibly more if you compare who the money is coming from, is amazing.

I like Edwards, too, though, and his wife had some good news yesterday, finding that her cancer is actually of a more treatable kind than they thought.

Starting this fall, Yale is offering a handful of classes online for free. I’m eyeing the Old Testament one.

Yale to Make Select Courses Available on the Internet

of Amazon.com: Jesus for the Non-Religious: Books: John Shelby Spong interviewed on the radio yesterday.
I loved everything he said.

Here’s a linkto a blurb about him and the audio file of the interview.