My name is Catherine Morgan, I'm a writer, nurse, mother, and founder of "The Political Voices of Women". This is a blog dedicated to inform and educate the voting public through articles, ideas, and links. It's also a way of giving myself a voice, rather than just sitting back and watching politics and my opinion go by.
--- I am now also at the Care2 Election Blog.
President Bush awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former CIA director George Tenet during a ceremony at the White House, December 14, 2004. Tenet faced accusations of hypocrisy from former espionage officials on Monday for not speaking out earlier against the White House’s push to invade Iraq, which he describes critically in his new memoir. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
NEW YORK — The backlash has built up even before the official release of former CIA Director George Tenet’s memoir, with criticism about his version of the run-up to the Iraq war, interrogation techniques and other events.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday disputed Tenet’s claim that the Bush administration, before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, never had a serious debate about whether Iraq posed an imminent threat or whether to tighten existing sanctions. — read full article
I don’t feel sorry for Tenet. He has a book deal, while the troops and their families are really suffering.
BAGHDAD - Five U.S. troops died in weekend attacks, pushing the death toll past 100 in the deadliest month for American forces since December, the military said Monday as a wave of violence battered Iraqi civilians including a suicide bombing at a Shiite funeral. — read full article
NBC’s Brian Williams, right, moderates the first Democratic presidential primary debate of the 2008 election hosted by the South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, SC., Thursday, April 26, 2007. From left: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson., Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Joe Biden D-Del., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton, D-NY and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio and Mike Gravel, former U.S. senator from Alaska. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) see: photo gallery of debate
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Just in case you missed the Debate last weeks….her is a little “recap montage”.
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A post from Kim Ponders at BlogHer, really makes me wish I didn’t miss the debate. Well, maybe that’s going too far…but this is a good post…see sample below.
In lack of any substantial message to debate, I thought I’d give a general run-down of my view of the evening:
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Most hilarious: Mike Gravel
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Bushiest eyebrows: Chris Dodd/Joe Biden (tie)
You can read Kim’s interesting and humorous take on the debate at BlogHer, for all the action that you might have missed if you didn’t see the presidential debate tonight.
US Vice President Dick Cheney addresses The American Heritage Foundation 13 April 2007. Doctors examined Cheney’s left leg on Tuesday and found that a blood clot discovered last month after a nine-day trip to Asia was “gradually resolving,” his office said.(AFP/File/Jeff Haynes)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, speaks about funding for the Iraq war in Washington, DC. US President George W. Bush and Democrats looking to pull US troops from Iraq waged a pitiless war of words Tuesday over a bill that funds the conflict but aims for an April 1, 2008 withdrawal.(AFP/Getty Images/Mark Wilson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday of pursuing a defeatist strategy in Iraq to win votes in the next election - a charge Reid said did not warrant a response.
The two sparred hours after President Bush said he will veto the latest war spending bill taking shape in Congress, which includes a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq.
Cheney, after attending the weekly Republican policy lunch on Capitol Hill, lashed out at Reid. “Some Democratic leaders seem to believe that blind opposition to the new strategy in Iraq is good politics,” Cheney said. “Sen. Reid himself has said that the war in Iraq will bring his party more seats in the next election.
“It is cynical to declare that the war is lost because you believe it gives you political advantage,” Cheney said. –read full article
It seems to me that it is even more cynical to assume people that believe the war in Iraq is lost, are only saying that to get a political advantage.
An unidentified person straightens a flag that tipped over due to wind and rain on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Tuesday, April 24, 2007. The flags, one for each American soldier lost in Iraq, were placed at the UNO Pep Bowl and names of the fallen were read, during a Tribute To The Fallen 2007 event. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Iraqi firefighters douse fire which swept over cars at the site of a car bomb that exploded in a parking lot nearby the Green Zone area in central Baghdad. US President George W. Bush and Democrats looking to pull US troops from Iraq waged a pitiless war of words Tuesday over a bill that funds the conflict but aims for an April 1, 2008 withdrawal.(AFP/Joseph Eid)
Iraqi children walk past a three-mile-long concrete wall around Baghdad’s Sunni enclave of Adhamiyah. A suicide truck bomber attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint on Tuesday and killed 13 people, a day after a similar bomb attack on a US military patrol base left nine soldiers dead.(AFP/Ali Yussef)
I remember the good old days…..when walls were coming down….now they are going up. What does that say about us? It seems we are going backward and not forward?
US armoured vehicles secure the area where two car bombs exploded in a parking lot nearby the Green Zone area in central Baghdad. A suicide truck bomber attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint on Tuesday and killed 13 people, a day after a similar bomb attack on a US military patrol base left nine soldiers dead.(AFP/Dave Clark)
HOW CONSUMERS (YOU) CAN FORCE THE GAS/OIL INDUSTRY TO LOWER PRICES.
STOP BUYING YOUR GAS FROM ANY STATION THAT IS AN EXXON OR A MOBILE.
The best way consumers can help bring the price of gas down…..would be to boycott it. But, it is impossible to do that, none of us can stop buying gas. So, what we can do? Well, I glad you asked…..The next time our cars are on empty, and we are going to have to spend a fortune to fill-up the tank anyway….just go to any station that is NOT an EXXON or MOBILE.
This isn’t a new idea…..it has been circulating around via email…..and that is where the idea for this post came from. Just think of the impact we can make on the industry. Because, this isn’t just an “oil prices are high” problem…..this is a “monopoly” problem……Exxon and Mobile where the two largest companies…..and now they are one company ExxonMobile. So back in the old days when gas stations tried to keep their gas lower in order to compete for your money…..they now don’t have to be bothered with that little detail. How many of you have an Exxon on one side of the street and a Mobile on the other? They don’t have to compete for your money….because they are both the same company…..they don’t care whether you go to Exxon or Mobile, either way you line their pockets.
So…..TWO STEPS to facilitate lowering gas prices:
1. STOP buying gas from any Exxon or Mobile station.
2. START telling everyone you know to STOP buying gas from any Exxon or Mobile station.
An interesting side note: While gathering research for this post I came across an interesting article from The Huffington Post that was written a few weeks ago by Robert F Kennedy, Jr. — it’s very interesting, you should check it out.
Our planet’s prospects for environmental stability are bleaker than ever with the approach of this year’s Earth Day, April 22. Global warming is widely accepted as a reality by scientists and even by previously doubtful government and industrial leaders. And according to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there is a 90 percent likelihood that humans are contributing to the change.
The international panel of scientists predicts the global average temperature could increase by 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that sea levels could rise by up to 2 feet.
Scientists have even speculated that a slight increase in Earth’s rotation rate could result, along with other changes. Glaciers, already receding, will disappear. Epic floods will hit some areas while intense drought will strike others. Humans will face widespread water shortages. Famine and disease will increase. Earth’s landscape will transform radically, with a quarter of plants and animals at risk of extinction.
. . . . . . . . . 2008 - Global oil production peaks sometime between 2008 and 2018, according to a model by one Swedish physicist. Others say this turning point, known as “Hubbert’s Peak,” won’t occur until after 2020. Once Hubbert’s Peak is reached, global oil production will begin an irreversible decline, possibly triggering a global recession, food shortages and conflict between nations over dwindling oil supplies.
. . . . . . . . . 2050 - Small alpine glaciers will very likely disappear completely, and large glaciers will shrink by 30 to 70 percent. Austrian scientist Roland Psenner of the University of Innsbruck says this is a conservative estimate, and the small alpine glaciers could be gone as soon as 2037.
After months, the White House has announced the implementation of “Plan B” sanctions against Sudan to compel the government to bring an end to the violence.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Children in Sudan are press-ganged, coerced to join armed groups, raped and used as forced labor or sex slaves, according to a new report by humanitarian groups.
The report, Sudan’s Children at a Crossroads, concentrates mainly on Darfur, where a conflict has been raging for four years, and southern Sudan, emerging from 20 years of war.
“Children in Sudan continue to endure some of the most inhumane treatment found anywhere in the world,” said Kathleen Hunt, chair of the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, on Wednesday.
“Despite the end of the war in the south and recent signs of hope for a strengthened peacekeeping force in Darfur, many Sudanese children are not faring any better than they were four years ago,” Hunt told a news conference on the report, compiled by six humanitarian organizations. — READ FULL ARTICLE
Pictures and Links:
A refugee holds a barbed wire in front of the Turkish Red Crescent Hospital in the Darfur city of Nyala, February 2007. Gunmen killed five Senegalese peacekeepers in Darfur in the deadliest attack to hit the embattled contingent since it was first deployed in the western Sudanese region in 2004, a spokesman said Monday.(AFP/File/Mustafa Ozer)
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) soldiers, seen here on 14 February 2007 in Umm Rai. UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday opens high-level talks here with the African Union (AU) on Darfur that could clear the way for deploying a sizable UN force in the strife-torn Sudanese region.(AFP/File)
The children of Sudan are its future - Save the Children — This photo is the “Pulitzer Prize” winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan famine. The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards a United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away.
The vulture is waiting for the child to die so it can eat it. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, not even the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.
Three months later he committed suicide due to depression.
How many more years must Sudanese children and mothers suffer?
Even Though I’m Getting Sick Of The Imus Story — There Are A Lot Of Important Issues Being Brought To The Surface Because Of It. - by Catherine Morgan
I’m so glad I signed up to get a morning update in my email about what the bloggers at The Huffington Post are talking about. I really didn’t want to read (or blog) about Imus any more, it seems like enough is enough already. Although, I think some of the discussion that is coming out of this debate is very thought provoking. For example, at todays Huffington Post Blog I read this:
Individuals who hide behind the anonymity afforded by the Internet are seeking to squelch the First Amendment right of people whose identities are readily known and who, unlike their cowardly critics, put their names and credibility on the line each and every day on matters of public concern. Left unconfronted, it is a dangerous practice in the making. – read full post
Although I disagree with some of the author’s (Michael Smerconish) choices of venue….The O’Reilly Factor in particular…..I have to say; I did see him on the night he is referring to, and I found myself agreeing with more of his statements than disagreeing.
Personally, I chose to post on the topic of Imus without giving much of my own opinion. Partly because I wasn’t 100% sure how I actually felt about it. Of course as a woman I was very offended by the Imus comments, but I am equally offended by comments made by Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter (just to name a few). But, the main reason I didn’t comment was for the exact reason Michael Smerconish has brought up in his post today.
Even though I am not a “known personality”, I am not anonymous on my blogs - which in retrospect I’m not sure I would have done if I knew the truth about the blogosphere when I began blogging. Even a little guy (gal) like me can be subject to personal attacks, so I really tend to weigh the benefits of posting my opinion to a particular story, against the possible backlash of what I now know are referred to as TROLLS. On some occasions (such as this Imus story) I find myself more willing to support my opinions in responses to comments, than in the actual post. This isn’t because I am afraid of these so called TROLLS, just that I don’t intend for my blog to become successful due to a willingness to create controversy. I would rather have less controversy, with less readers; than more readers because of stirring up unnecessary controversy.
Anyway, I hope that when this whole Imus story is forgotten, some of the issues it has brought up can be addressed and possibly rectified.
*Funny little tid-bit to this post…..At the time I was preparing this post, I was also having my own little troll at the current post at the time…..Six Bombs Kill 45 People……I say it is funny because……For the most part I get very few “troll” type comments on my site, so getting one on the same day I was writing about them was an interesting coincidence.
Iraqi kids look at a destroyed mini bus destroyed after a suicide bomber blew himself up in northwest Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 15, 2007. At least 8 people died in the blast and another 11 were wounded, an official at the Khazimiyah Hospital said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) — 45 Killed In Baghdad Despite Crackdown
Iraqi soldier stands on guard after a mini bus exploded in central district of Karrada in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 15, 2007. A parked bus exploded in the central district of Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 15, police and hospital officials said. The blast damaged several cars and nearby shops. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed )
BAGHDAD, April 15 — At least 34 people were killed in Baghdad on Sunday in another day punctuated by car bombings and suicide attacks on civilian targets of the kind that the two-month-old American security crackdown has so far been unable to restrain. READ FULL ARTICLE
Radio personality Don Imus, right, waves goodbye to Rev. Al Sharpton, left, after they appeared face-to-face on Rev. Sharpton’s radio show, in New York Monday April 9, 2007. Imus issued another apology for referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as ‘nappy-headed hos’ on his morning show last week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
As the dust settles following the controversy, it is time to confront the fact that Don Imus’ remarks go far beyond one bigoted commentator. They are further proof that we must change the media system itself if we’re going to reduce hate on the public airwaves, improve journalism and media content in general.
………less than 10% of TV and radio stations are owned by people of color or women. But instead of addressing this national disgrace, Bush’s Federal Communications Commission is actually trying to let the largest companies buy up even more stations.
According to one industry study, only 2.5% of radio stations have a person of color in the role of general manager, and only 4.4% have a racial or ethnic minority in the role of news director. The percentage of women in these jobs isn’t much higher. No wonder shock jocks like Imus have been able to keep their jobs for so long. – READ FULL ARTICLE AT THE HUFFINGTON POST
In this photo provided by CBS, Vice President Dick Cheney appears for a taping of CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ in Washington, Saturday, April 14, 2007. The interview will be broadcast Sunday morning, April 15, 2007. (AP Photo/CBS Face the Nation, Karin Cooper)
WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney says he is “willing to bet” that Democratic lawmakers will back down and approve a war-spending bill that doesn’t call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. — READ FULL ARTICLE
NBC’s Brian Williams, right, moderates the first Democratic presidential primary debate of the 2008 election hosted by the South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, SC., Thursday, April 26, 2007. From left: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson., Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Joe Biden D-Del., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton, D-NY and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio and Mike Gravel, former U.S. senator from Alaska. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) see: 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, speaks about funding for the Iraq war in Washington, DC. US President George W. Bush and Democrats looking to pull US troops from Iraq waged a pitiless war of words Tuesday over a bill that funds the conflict but aims for an April 1, 2008 withdrawal.(AFP/Getty Images/Mark Wilson) 
An unidentified person straightens a flag that tipped over due to wind and rain on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Tuesday, April 24, 2007. The flags, one for each American soldier lost in Iraq, were placed at the UNO Pep Bowl and names of the fallen were read, during a Tribute To The Fallen 2007 event. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Iraqi firefighters douse fire which swept over cars at the site of a car bomb that exploded in a parking lot nearby the Green Zone area in central Baghdad. US President George W. Bush and Democrats looking to pull US troops from Iraq waged a pitiless war of words Tuesday over a bill that funds the conflict but aims for an April 1, 2008 withdrawal.(AFP/Joseph Eid)
Iraqi children walk past a three-mile-long concrete wall around Baghdad’s Sunni enclave of Adhamiyah. A suicide truck bomber attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint on Tuesday and killed 13 people, a day after a similar bomb attack on a US military patrol base left nine soldiers dead.(AFP/Ali Yussef)
US armoured vehicles secure the area where two car bombs exploded in a parking lot nearby the Green Zone area in central Baghdad. A suicide truck bomber attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint on Tuesday and killed 13 people, a day after a similar bomb attack on a US military patrol base left nine soldiers dead.(AFP/Dave Clark)
Our planet’s prospects for environmental stability are bleaker than ever with the approach of this year’s Earth Day, April 22. Global warming is widely accepted as a reality by scientists and even by 
A refugee holds a barbed wire in front of the Turkish Red Crescent Hospital in the Darfur city of Nyala, February 2007. Gunmen killed five Senegalese peacekeepers in Darfur in the deadliest attack to hit the embattled contingent since it was first deployed in the western Sudanese region in 2004, a spokesman said Monday.(AFP/File/Mustafa Ozer)
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) soldiers, seen here on 14 February 2007 in Umm Rai. UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday opens high-level talks here with the African Union (AU) on Darfur that could clear the way for deploying a sizable UN force in the strife-torn Sudanese region.(AFP/File) 
image from 
