brainrow

Okay, I think I know what happened.

The Republicans sent out a flyer — or maybe it was a television ad — and it got a great response. It said something like this: “You can tell a lot about a man by the enemies he makes.” And then it showed Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and me.

They may have shown me wearing a John Kerry campaign button. If they didn’t have a photo of me with a button, they could easily Photoshop it in. They probably explained that I’d given money to John Kerry’s campaign and to the Democratic National Committee. Maybe they quoted some of my political blog entries.

Anyway, the flyer or ad or whatever must have been a huge success, pulling in big contributions from Republican fat-cats, or persuading undecided voters to vote for Bush because I was against him. That’s the only way to explain this letter I’ve received from George W. Bush, thanking me for my “great help on my campaign in Ohio.”

“Your state played a critical role in this election, and the Vice President and I were fortunate to have your help in campaigning in Ohio.” Bush writes. Gosh, this looks hand-written. He addresses me as “Dear Michael E.” George W. and I are on a first-name-and-middle-initial basis now.

This explains the White House Christmas Card. I feel sick that Bush carried Ohio, and even worse to think I might have played a role. And yet, it’s nice to be recognized as a major player.

There’s only one other explanation I can think of for George W. Bush sending me a letter of thanks. Incompetence. But these are the folks shaping the nation’s defense against international terrorism. They’re the people selecting federal judges. They’re the people shaping national health, educational, environmental and science policies. They’re the people making the key decisions about when and where to send American soldiers into harm’s way. They’re going to reform the tax code and fix Social Security. Surely, such people can maintain an accurate database of the names and addresses of their political supporters.

So let me apologize to my fellow Kerry voters for my role in getting Bush elected. I’m so very, very sorry.

But if, by some strange chance, I should soon be appointed to a federal judgeship, then it wasn’t my fault. (I’ll try hard to do a good job.)

Lists of relief organizations providing aid to tsunami victims:

From MSNBC: How to help.

From the Christian Science Monitor: Where you can donate.

From Google: Tsunami Relief.

I have great confidence in the Red Cross, so I went straight to their website, www.redcross.org.

A total of 66 television stations refused to air “Saving Private Ryan” this past Veteran’s Day. They were running scared over possible sanctions from the FCC.

In a court case, the FCC is claiming its jurisdiction extends well beyond broadcast TV and radio, and includes cable TV, satellite broadcasts, and the internet.

Mediaweek reports that FCC Commissioner Michael Powell told a Senate committee in February that indecency complaints were rising sharply.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”

What Powell did not reveal — apparently because he was unaware — was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 — 99.8 percent — were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

With the First Amendment under seige by a focused and determined enemy, “The First Amendment Project” seems well-timed. It’s a four-part TV series produced by Court TV and the Sundance Channel. The first two episodes air tonight.

I’ve had the experience, occasionally, of saying something that gave deep offense when I had no such intention. So maybe Clear Channel had only the best of intentions when they posted this billboard. (Found via Hetty Litjens, again.)

Innocent or not, it gives me the creeps.

My earlier link to the “Followership Logo” is no longer valid, but here’s the image:

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: There is nothing wrong with that lightbulb!

(Joke swiped from The Bush Survival Bible and hacked up by me. It seemed appropriate in light of the recent news that Donald Rumsfeld would be staying on as Secretary of Defense.)

The message “you’re welcome here” is not welcome at the major U.S. television networks. The story from Alternet, via Hetty Litjens.

The Rev. John Thomas, who serves as general minister and president of the United Church of Christ (UCC), is having a hard time figuring out why the same broadcasters that profited so handsomely from airing the vicious and divisive attack advertisements during the recent presidential election are now refusing to air an advertisement from his denomination that celebrates respect for one another and inclusiveness.

…viewers of the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks won’t see it because, in this age of heightened focus on so-called “moral values,” quoting Jesus on the issue of inclusion is deemed to be “too controversial.”

The UCC ad shows black-shirted bouncers on a rope line, deciding who gets into a church, then shows the text “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.” Apparently the networks feel more affinity for the bouncers.

I got a White House Christmas card yesterday. Quite a surprise — I’ve never received one before. It’s a pretty card, with a painting on the front depicting the Red Room of the White House decorated for Christmas.

The card was mailed from Crawford, Texas, and paid for by the Republican National Committee. I’m sure they mail out millions of them, but I don’t think everyone gets one. So, why me?

Have I ever, by word or deed, given the RNC any reason to believe that I would want to hear from them? What have I said or done to lead anyone to believe I’m a supporter of George W. Bush?

I feel dirty. I have some dreadful sin on my conscience, and I don’t even know what it is.

Via Hetty Litjens: here is Dubya, the Movie.

Only one actor can play him.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. Then you’ll really cry, when you realize that this is our president.

Thomas Friedman on Thanksgiving Day:

In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.

…I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for…

If I can’t be …, then I want to be just a simple blue-state red-state American. I want to take time on this Thanksgiving to thank God I live in a country where, despite so much rampant selfishness, the public schools still manage to produce young men and women ready to voluntarily risk their lives in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to spread the opportunity of freedom and to protect my own. And I want to thank them for doing this, even though on so many days in so many ways we really don’t deserve them.

Predictions: Colin Powell will write a book.

Shortly thereafter, the White House will launch a program of character assassination against Mr. Powell. They will object to certain passages in his book. What those passages might contain, no man can say.

My mystic psychic prognosis: the objectionable passages will raise doubts about George W. Bush’s honesty, his competence, and/or his intelligence.

Okay, I confess. I’m not really psychic. I’m just imagining a repeat of the White House response to books from former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill and former anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke. This White House has a limited playbook, and they always go back to the classics.

He may be a crook, but he’s our crook:

Moving to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay, House Republicans want to change party rules to ensure that DeLay retains his post if a Texas grand jury indicts him as it did with three of his political associates.

An indictment is not a conviction. Tom DeLay hasn’t even been indicted yet. But current Republicans seem awfully willing to change the rules to get whatever they want, whenever they want it. Ultimately, that’s the problem with Alberto Gonzales and his torture memos. Tailoring the law to suit current convenience is no law.

Still trying to understand the election. Still trying to come to grips with an America so completely different from the one I thought I lived in.

A few more maps to try to shed some light. The population-adjusted cartogram in shades of purple is really interesting—why, there’s hardly any red at all!

Tom Negrino on Condoleezza Rice:

Rice was arguably the most feckless, ineffectual, and powerless National Security Advisor in modern history. Under her watch, America suffered the worst terrorist attack in our history. Did she work to find out why, root out the problem, and make sure that it never happened again? She did not.

Rice is an extraordinarily gifted person, but we all have our weaknesses. It’s uncanny that all her weaknesses seem to be in the area of her job.

Personally, I don’t think she is the problem. It’s hard to do good work providing advice to a man who doesn’t take advice.

People who have had an impact on the lives of the Iraqi people: Saddam Hussein. George W. Bush. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Margaret Hassan.

Only one person in that list has ever cared about the lives of ordinary people in Iraq. Margaret Hassan didn’t work for Saddam Hussein. She didn’t work for George Bush or Tony Blair. She was a true humanitarian worker, employed by CARE International. She had lived in Iraq for thirty years.

Now it appears she is dead—murdered by kidnappers who would like us to believe they are Iraqi patriots, insurgents fighting the hated American occupation of Iraq.

By murdering this true friend of the Iraqi people, they have unmasked themselves. There can be no doubt that these killers are enemies of Iraq.

At last, a logo for those who admire George W. Bush’s leadership.