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A Brief HoneymoonThe AARP's governing body should have seen it coming. During last year's campaign to promote President Bush's prescription drug plan, AARP members were assiduously courted for support. While the rank and file had misgivings about the benefits,the governing body of AARP swallowed the bait hook,line and sinker. The revenue derived by AARP from insurance companies and others also played a role. So, for a while the AARP basked in the sunshine.The honeymoon didn't last long. Now that AARP is critical of the president's plan to privatize Social Security,it has fallen from grace. AARP members are being castigated by the Republicans. According to Charlie Jarvis, president of the conservative lobbying group, USA Next, "They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts." It would be interesting to see if AARP could be bamboozled into toeing the line.Link to Maureen Dowd's column in The NY Times.maureen dowd

State's right under attack by zealotsOregon voters' enlightened measure to allow terminally ill patients the right to seek medical assistance in executing end of life decision has been under attack from various conservative groups ever since it was enacted in 1997.The Bush administration took special interest in it and former Attorney Genral Ashcroft zealously pursued steps to nullify the act. The Justice Department took the tack that use of Federally controlled drugs by physicians to comply with the desire of patients seeking assistance under the Death With Dignity Act violated Controlled Substances Act.The appeal against lower court ruling in support of the act was filed by the attorney general in November 2004--on the day his resignation was announced by the White House. Now, the case (Gonzales vs. Oregon 04-623) will be heard by the Supreme Court. It would be interesting to see how the justices deal with it.In issuing ruling against the original suit filed by the Justice Department, Judge Richard Tallman of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stated: "The federal drug control law "was enacted to combat drug abuse,.........." "The attorney general's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority." Judge Tallman further stated that the attorney general was seeking to "alter the usual constitutional balance between the states and the federal government."The Supreme Court will decide whether Congress could override a State's right to allow assisted suicide. Based on the current make up of the court, at least three justices (Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas) are almost certain to be on the side of the Bush administration. This is a case where the so called "swing vote" would be a crucial factor in a 5:4 decision."A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist."---Stewart Alsop

Democracy according to President G.W. Bush"Baghdad Burning", The Riverbend Blogriverbend

What does our opposition to it tell about us?An article by Robin Cook in The Guardian(UK) on February 11th reads "If not in Darfur then where ?"Mr. Cook (former Foreign Secretary, who resigned his seat in the Parliament in protest against Britain's participation in the war against Iraq) wrote: "Now Condoleezza Rice has been using her contacts in Europe to lobby privately for the Darfur atrocities to be referred anywhere but the international criminal court. Apparently she has suggested that Darfur could be brought under the remit of the existing UN tribunal for the genocide in Rwanda. This is desperation. The only common feature between Darfur and Rwanda is that they are both in Africa. It is also irresponsible. The Rwanda tribunal is still struggling under an impossible workload and is in no position to provide an expeditious remedy to Darfur's continuing violence."Torture of prisoners in the news, againThis time it is Bagram, Afghanistan.Links:Guardian ICCGuardian Bagram

The Blues and a few who gave it meaningB.B. KingLeadbellyJohn Lee HookerMuddy Waters"Son" HouseI am not a blues man in a strict sense. Spend more time listening to the music of Bach and cool sounds made by jazz greats like Thelonius Monk, Art Tatum, Bill Evans. Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan and Ben Webster. But there are times when the blues feel just right and I dig into my small collection of CDs by legends of the blues. Even have a classic vinyl LP, "Memphis Harmonica Kings 1929-30, the complete recordings of Noah Lewis and Jed Davenport. I can close my eyes and see black men singing their hearts out, the cotton fields of Mississippi, the road gangs, and tar paper shacks. They made great music, and the conditions under which they made them! Awesome.Chicago blues are faster, louder and often include more than banjo. Banjo was the right instrument for the Delta blues singers and their haunting songs.There are others who came later. I like Junior Wells, Charlie Musselwhite and Buddy Guy--different but good. Soundtrack of the The Blues Brothers is a great CD to have.I am listening to Rainy Highway, Charlie Musselwhite in "Rough News" (Virgin Records). The weather is wet here in the San Francisco Bay area.

Women were excludedItem: Only men were allowed to participate. However, there is hope for the women of Saudi Arabia; they might be allowed to vote in the next election four years from now.(Currently, women do not have the right to drive a car in Saudi Arabia.)Item: BBC reported that in the first round (of three) of elections at municipal level held on Feb.10th in Riyadh, 148,000 out of 400,000 eligible men registered to vote.Item: Islamist candidates claimed victory and the opposition complained about fraud.February 12th issue of The Asia Times contains an interesting report on Saudi Arabia. AsiaTimes

March of the Hypocrites"Bush's Sex Scandal" is the title of a column in today's NY Times by Nicholas D. Kristof. Amidst the draconian cuts in social programs in the president's budget, there is one that has been allocated almost three times the funding it received in 2001--- "abstinence only" sex education!This is another payoff to his conservative base by the president. No surprise there. But Kristof's article makes holes in the argument that the abstinence program has been a success.Abstinence(Before sex)"Dennis: Look, even if you did get pregnant, I'd marry you.Odette: Do you believe in centralized government or states' rights ?Dennis: What?Odette: I just want to know the kind of guy I'm marrying.Dennis: I'm starting to get the distinct impression you don't want to do this anymore."From Sarah Kernochan's 1998 film "Strike"(also released as "All I Wanna Do")

Sub-contracting TortureIn recent weeks we have seen reports in the media about aircrafts that fly in the night to ferry prisoners (suspected terrorists) to countries which pay no attention to Geneva Convention.The most comprehensive article I have read appeared in the Feb.14-21 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Jane Mayer's "Outsourcing Torture" contains fascinating details of this clandestine operation run by our government. The program is called "extraordinary rendition".Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Morocco are reported to be among those taking part in doing our dirty work for money and/or favors. Strange bedfellows! They sure are.What happens to those who do not survive the torture during interrogation ? Are their bodies dumped in the ocean as done in Argentina during the "Dirty War" ? See footnote.As a point of interest, the executive order under which the Bush administration authorized the rendition program was established during President Clinton's term. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and now this. Can we continue to claim moral superiority over our enemies ?Footnote: In 1981, Jacobo ben Nathan Timmerman, who published a newspaper exposing human rights violations by the Argentinian military junta, wrote "Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number" describing his experience in the hands of goons of the junta. Quite a few high ranking officers of the junta were graduates of U.S. Army's School of The Americas.Between 1976 and 1983, 20 to 30,000 Argentinians "disappeared".Vanished

Another vindication for the late Dr. Charles Darwin!I had thought of taking a break from blogging today but this was too good to pass up."Monkeys go ape for a little allure" is the title of a tongue-in-cheek article by Robin McKie, Science Editor of The Observer (Guardian),UK. In a nutshell,the article is about findings by researchers at Duke University,NC, that male rhesus monkeys are prepared to 'pay' to view pictures of female monkey bottoms. Not a surprise, is it, to those who are on the side of Darwin's evolution ? We inherited the trait.Monkeys

Only in America ?No, I could think of it happening elsewhere--Saudi Arabia for example. It made me laugh but it also made me wonder about the quality of people who represent us. And this guy is a Democrat !The story in The Guardian,UK, and widely reported elsewhere stated that a bill put forward by Mr. Algie Howell (D), a member of the lower house of Virginia State Legislature, to ban undergarments from being visible over the waist line, was rejected.The bill would have imposed a $50.00 fine for behaving in a "lewd and indecent manner". We should be glad that good sense prevailed in the Virginia State Legislature. I felt like exclaiming "Ya Habeebi" (not a dirty word,see footnote) as an Iraqi blogger often does.GuardianYa Habeebi: Oh my dear! My beloved!"Of all the strange 'crimes' that human beings have legislated of nothing, 'blasphemy' is the most amazing - with 'obscenity' and 'indecent exposure' fighting it out for the second and third place."---Robert A. Heinlein (US science-fiction writer, 1907-1988)