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Shape of things to come - Anti-abortion legislations at State Levels*The FDA's announcement to delay the decision about over-the-counter access to Plan B (Morning After Pill) should not have come as a surprise. The Bush Administration is always supportive of the religious right on issues related to sexual habits of Americans. The zealots do not see it as a protective measure against unwanted pregnancy but as a drug that will encourage casual sex. So, Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health & Human Services, stalwartly rose to defend the FDA.Plan B might eventually clear the bureacratic and political hurdles but is likely to carry restrictions that would make it dffficult for women to obtain the pills in an emergency....the very situation for which they are intended.On August 31st, Susan Wood, Assistant FDA Commissioner for Women's Health and Director of the Office of Women's Health, resigned in protest against the agency's decision to delay the ruling on Plan B.Judge John Roberts and Roe v. WadeIt does not matter what questions he is asked, answers or declines to answer during the confirmation hearings, at this time it appears unlikely that Judge Roberts' appointment to the Supreme Court can be blocked. Judge Roberts is not going to be a surprise like Justice Souter. He has been vetted and the conservatives know that they can depend on him not to be the balancing force that Justice O'Connor was. His opinion on privacy rights is on record.Marie Cocco wrote in Newsday: In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court threw out a law that prohibited the use of contraception. In the intimate realm of marriage, Justice William O. Douglas wrote for the majority, "we deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights - older than our political parties, older than our school system." It is this right - and this very case - for which Roberts has shown disdain. In a 1981 memo he disparaged it as the "so-called right to privacy." In a draft article he apparently authored for then-Attorney General William French Smith, Roberts praised Justice Hugo Black's dissent in the landmark birth control case. At his later confirmation hearing to become a circuit court judge, Roberts said he would respect precedent with regard to privacy rights. What would he do as a Supreme Court justice who can set precedent? The fundamentalist Christians, however, are not idly waiting for the demise of Roe v. Wade. They are busy enacting legislation at state levels to curtail women's reproductive rights. Ceci Connolly's report in The Washington Post, Aug.29,2005, reveals that their record is impressive. "Since January, governors have signed several dozen antiabortion measures ranging from parental consent requirements to an outright ban looming in South Dakota. Not since 1999, when a wave of laws banning late-term abortions swept the legislatures, have states imposed so many and so varied a menu of regulations on reproductive health care. Three states have passed bills requiring that women seeking an abortion be warned that the fetus will feel pain, despite inconclusive scientific data on the question. West Virginia and Florida approved legislation recognizing a pre-viable fetus, or embryo, as an independent victim of homicide. And in Missouri, Gov. Matt Blunt (R) has summoned lawmakers into special session Sept. 6 to consider three anti-abortion proposals." One wonders about the women of the states where anti-abortion legislations are being enacted. Do majority of them support what is happening? Are all of them chaste, strong in their belief that they and their sisters, daughters, friends will never be faced with an unwanted pregnancy?Or are they unaware of the implications?Links:Newsday: Marie Cocco - Pill Politics and RobertsWashington Post: Ceci Connolly - Access to abortion pared at State Level

*Increase in Poverty Rate"U.S. Poverty rate rises" reads the headline of a report filed by Reuters on 8/30/05. "The percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty rose to 12.7 percent from 12.5 percent in 2003, as 1.1 million more people slipped into poverty last year".The figures are based on data released by the Census Bureau, and reflect fourth consecutive annual increase.Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.ReutersThe Wealth DivideOn the other side of the picture is the tremendous disparity between the rich and poor. In the Unites States the richest 1% of households own 38% of all wealth.The interview with Edward Woff that appeared in the Multinational Monitor (see below) clearly describes the inequality. "MM: What portion of the wealth is owned by the upper groups? Wolff: The top 5 percent own more than half of all wealth. ...

The Bush-Cheney Team's Work In Progress*The editorial, "Destroying The National Parks", in today's NY Times is a must read for all who enjoy the natural splendors of our country and feel that they should be protected. Plan for basic management policy drafted by Paul Hoffman (who has "no park service experience" and was "a Congressional aide to VP Cheney") includes opening every park in the nation to off-road vehicles, snowmobiles and jet skis. "According to his revision, the use of such vehicles would become one of the parks' purposes." In line with the administration's close ties to fundamentalist Christians, the plan provides for "sale of religious merchandise" in the parks and exclusion from the policy document "any references to evolution or evolutionary processes".Excerpts: "Recently, a secret draft revision of the national park system's basic management policy document has been circulating within the Interior Department. It was prepared, without consultation within the National Park Service, by Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary at Interior who once ran the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyo., was a Congressional aide to Dick Cheney and has no park service experience." "Some of Mr. Hoffman's changes are trivial, although even apparently subtle changes in wording - from "protect" to "conserve," for instance - soften the standard used to judge the environmental effects of park policy." "But there is nothing subtle about the main thrust of this rewrite. It is a frontal attack on the idea of "impairment." According to the act that established the national parks, preventing impairment of park resources - including the landscape, wildlife and such intangibles as the soundscape of Yellowstone, for instance - is the "fundamental purpose." In Mr. Hoffman's world, it is now merely one of the purposes." "There are other issues too. Mr. Hoffman would explicitly allow the sale of religious merchandise, and he removes from the policy document any reference to evolution or evolutionary processes. He does everything possible to strip away a scientific basis for park management. His rules would essentially require park superintendents to subordinate the management of their parks to local and state agendas. He also envisions a much wider range of commercial activity within the parks." "In short, this is not a policy for protecting the parks. It is a policy for destroying them." "It is clear by now that Mr. Bush has no real intention of living up to his campaign promise to fully finance the national parks. This document offers a vivid picture of the divide between the National Park Service, whose career employees remain committed to the fundamental purpose of leaving the parks unimpaired, and an Interior Department whose political appointees seem willing to alter them beyond recognition, partly in the service of commercial objectives." "Suddenly, many things - like the administration's efforts to force snowmobiles back into Yellowstone - seem very easy to explain." Destroying The National Parks

Great animated strip by Mark Morford. The President, his men, and Ms. Rice. The Vice President looks especially true to life.*Mark MorfordAnd two by Tom Toles, The Washington Post:Intelephant DesignIraqi Women under the new Constitution

This guy was a presidential candidate in 1988! *Founder of the Christian Coalition and one-time presidential candidate Pat Robertson called for assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and, in the face of a firestorm that followed, issued an apology a day later. The fundamentalists, regardless of the faith they practise, are somewhat akin to rabid dogs.Reverend Terminator,Editorial, Chicago Tribune Aug.24, 2005 In an appearance on CBS' back in May, Pat Robertson expressed the view that the threat from liberal judges is more serious than Islamist terrorism:""It depends on how you look at culture. If you look over the course of a hundred years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings. I think we're going to control al Qaeda. I think we're going to get Osama bin Laden. We won in Afghanistan. We won in Iraq, and we can contain that. But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oligarchy and if we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of an oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake."Whew. His image in the CBS report (see below) looks scary; literally frothing at the mouth. One would think that he ought to be in a padded cell.CBS News, Dick Meyer

* Naked Ladies, botanical name "Amaryllis belladonna", also known as Belladonna Lillies. They grow from bulbs and lie dormant until late summer. Then you see them emerge in gardens as well as by the side of roads, highways, and trails. The plants are hardy and the blooms fragrant. The stalks and blooms are both said to be toxic. The common name, Naked Ladies, derived from their looks. A 2' high leafless stalk topped by pink clusters of flowers. Think of tall, willowy women with pink hair. Lovely--I mean both the Naked Ladies and real ladies, naked or clothed and not only tall, willowy ones. I have read that the foliage appears in spring before the plants bloom. However, no one pays attention to them until the flowers appear. Light pink is the color commonly seen in the San Francisco Bay area. They come also in red, mauve and white but I have not seen them. Naked Ladies, I © musafir A group of them © musafir Less than four weeks before the end of summer of 2005. With the shadow of war hanging over us it has been a joyless summer for families that lost their near and dear ones as well as for those who grieve for casualties of all nationalities. Such a waste of human lives. So utterly senseless. The seasons have their place. Here is an item by the late Philip Hamburger that appeared in The New Yorker some years back. "A piercing blue sky, gentle ocean breeze, low humidity, clean air. But what Seamus Heaney has called "the ache of summer" is increasingly palpable. Darkness will clamp down earlier and more suddenly this evening--one moment a rich, haunting Maxfield Parrish blue, the next pitch-black and night. Hard to face, but wouldn't you know, summer is ending and it is time for memories...Night is falling. There is a chill in the air. Winter will come. And go." Magnificent. He said so much in so few words. Philip Hamburger was a resident of Wellfleet,Massachusetts, and wrote lovingly about the Cape. He died in April 2004.Having just returned from a vacation on the coast, for me the "ache of summer" is real. But I take the seasons as they come. Not hard to do here in Northern California; the seasons are not harsh. Comments Nabanita — 2014-08-17 Enjoyed your beautiful blog on the changing seasons. Philip Hamburger's words are tinged with such a profound understanding of life. After losing my mother last year, I have seen more rainbows, watched countless tiny, colorful birds in our backyard and heard my neighbor's garden bells chime more than ever before. These must be mother nature's gentle reminders of how beautiful life is and how fleeting at the same time; that change is inevitable, just as the "ache" of summer is. I take these signals as constant reminders of Ma's presence. Memories sustain me. That is all I have.

You could have knocked me down with a feather*OK, maybe he took the books (see list) to Crawford. One of the aides selected them. Maybe they are on the bedside table. But reading them! Slay me with a dragon; "Comfort me with apples".From The Guardian,UK:"As well as brush cutting, mountain biking and fishing, the president will also be tucking into Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky during his five-week summer sojourn on his Texas ranch. The other tomes are reported to be Alexander II: the Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M Barry."There's nothing on that list that is a beach read, or even a busman's holiday," Peter Osnos, of the PublicAffairs publishing house, told the Los Angeles Times. "It's a fair bet that George Bush is the only person in the entire US who chose those three books to read on vacation."Bookworm Bush's holiday readingI have my foot out of the door for a trip to the coast. What I am carrying with me to read is much less weighty. Comments Wayne World — 2005-08-18 Musafir, I don't think he has finished "My Pet Goat " yet. Maybe I am "reading" into Bush's choices , but why would he want to read up on the deadliest plague in history?Does he know something? Wayne World — 2005-08-18 Musafir, I hope you enjoy your time away . Unknown — 2005-08-25 Isn't it clear he fancies himself a sort of modern day Alexander the Great? Ick. The fantasies of a deluded, deranged, and all too powerful old man. Be afraid.

"The Kratos Criteria" and "Unusual tactics"*Now that all details, including video tapes, have been made available there are no doubts. Charles de Menezes, shot to death on July 22nd in London, was an innocent victim. He was not running away from the police; he did not jump over a barrier; he was not wearing a heavy, bulky jacket; he was not carrying a backpack; he did not disobey orders to stop. He was shot at close range while he was sitting down in a train. He was murdered.Leaks raise sharp questions about police tacticsInquiry into the killing of De Menezes shows he was sitting down when shotDuncan Campbell, Rosie Cowan, Vikram Dodd and Mark HonigsbaumWednesday August 17, 2005The Guardian Fatal mistakes that led to innocent man being killed in Stockwell TubeBy Richard Alleyne(Filed: 17/08/2005)The Telegraph Comments Wayne World — 2005-08-18 Musafir, when this killing first happened , something told me that it would somehow end up having nothing to do with terrorism. This was such a very sad and unfortunate event.

Not really but I am off to the coast to spend a few days with friends.*There will not be much of a change in my daily routine except that instead of watching traffic through my window I shall be looking at the ocean. Shall walk on the beach, run, read, do some cooking, drink wine and watch the ocean---the Pacific is only about 50 yards from the living room. But I shall stay away from the blog. There might be a few laptops around but I do not intend to surf the 'net. There is a TV but it remains switched off. Print edition of the San Francisco Chronicle will do fine. The New Yorker magazine has been piling up, and I just began reading Jeff Greenwald's "The Size of the World", recommended by a friend. Greenwald traveled around the globe using surface transportation---land and sea. The blogosphere will survive without me.The weather at Pajaro Beach is unpredictable. I remember one blistering summer when I was packing to leave for the coast the weather report mentioned that there would be more of the same the next few days. So I decided not to take sweats and jackets. Big mistake. Less than 60 miles away but the sun never showed during my stay and it was cold enough to freeze "your buns off". I learned my lesson.There will be about twelve of us, including children and teenagers. One lone Republican in the whole crowd. Iraq and Bush could come up. The discussions, however, would not be rancorous.To my regular visitors: Stay well. Comments Wayne World — 2005-08-18 Musafir, where you are going sounds like a perfect spot to fish. I am not a big fisherman, but I find myself instinctively looking for a hook and some line whenever I am near a body of water.I hope you have a great time.Take care.

*"But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it." This essay originally appeared in The Easthampton Star, Long Island, on September 9, 2004. The acclaimed author (Welcome to Hard Times, Ragtime, Loon Lake and other works of fiction) passionately expressed his views about the callousness of G.W. Bush. Almost a year later, nothing has changed. In fact casualties have mounted. The president still blathers about Iraq and 9/11 like a record with needle stuck in a groove.The Unfeeling President"I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man."He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country."But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be."They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life . . . they come to his desk as a political liability, which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq."How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled plan for the war's aftermath has made of his mission-accomplished a disaster. He does not regret that, rather than controlling terrorism, his war in Iraq has licensed it. So he never mourns for the dead and crippled youngsters who have fought this war of his choice."He wanted to go to war and he did. He had not the mind to perceive the costs of war, or to listen to those who knew those costs. He did not understand that you do not go to war when it is one of the options but when it is the only option; you go not because you want to but because you have to."Yet this president knew it would be difficult for Americans not to cheer the overthrow of a foreign dictator. He knew that much. This president and his supporters would seem to have a mind for only one thing -- to take power, to remain in power, and to use that power for the sake of themselves and their friends."A war will do that as well as anything. You become a wartime leader. The country gets behind you. Dissent becomes inappropriate. And so he does not drop to his knees, he is not contrite, he does not sit in the church with the grieving parents and wives and children. He is the president who does not feel. He does not feel for the families of the dead, he does not feel for the 35 million of us who live in poverty, he does not feel for the 40 percent who cannot afford health insurance, he does not feel for the miners whose lungs are turning black or for the working people he has deprived of the chance to work overtime at time-and-a-half to pay their bills - it is amazing for how many people in this country this president does not feel."But he will dissemble feeling. He will say in all sincerity he is relieving the wealthiest 1 percent of the population of their tax burden for the sake of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air we breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he is decreasing the quality of air in coal mines to save the coal miners' jobs, and that he is depriving workers of their time-and-a-half benefits for overtime because this is actually a way to honor them by raising them into the professional class."And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences for God and the flag and democracy, when just what he and his party are doing to our democracy is choking the life out of it."But there is one more terribly sad thing about all of this. I remember the millions of people here and around the world who marched against the war. It was extraordinary, that spontaneous aroused oversoul of alarm and protest that transcended national borders. Why did it happen? After all, this was not the only war anyone had ever seen coming. There are little wars all over the world most of the time."But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war."The president we get is the country we get. With each president the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into and get us into, is his characteristic trouble."Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail. How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.Source: Common Dreams.orgE. L. Doctorow is an American novelist. His works are noted for their mingling of American history and literary imagination through the interaction of fictional and real-life characters. Comments Wayne World — 2005-08-18 Musafir, I know that this president doesn't care about the dead.It is merely a necessary inconvenience for him to meet with the relatives of the fallen.