In my latest diary entry, "IMMIGRATION EUPHEMISMS AND THE LANGUAGE PURISTS," I defined euphemism as: substitution, doublespeak, softened expression, polite term.

Earlier this year, the illegal immigrants working in this country staged a walk-out protest where they refused to work for one day, so other Americans, particularly anti-open border citizens, would get a sense of what things would be like without the immigrants' contributions to our society.

Singer/songwriter Neil Young was one of the most talented songwriters of our time. He goes back a ways, and was even an influential voice of the 60s. Yet now, it seems more and more likely that Neil is suffering some degree of a mental illness.

Isn't there ANY way that the Democratic Party can talk Al Gore into a 2008 run? He's really our best shot. Or is he just too WOUNDED from the 2000 election fiasco?

President Hugo Chavez made an important and constructive speech at the UN. The US corporate media is now busily casting his address as "Extremist in Nature". President Bush also made a UN speech in which he presented such a distorted view of the world's condition that one must truly question his sanity. Chavez received 5 minutes of sustained applause; Bush got brief but polite ovation.

A few weeks ago, an old friend of my called me while I was driving. She was frantic. She'd been reading the news in a late night stupor and came across an article at IndiaDaily.com  
discussing a row between government leaders over whether to reveal long-withstanding and complex communications with advanced extraterrestrial societies. Communications are based on 5-D gravity wave technology.

This is absolutely wild. Where is the world?!???!!

bill,
 

Gay Marriage: The sensible solution to this issue is for the Federal government to stay out of it. The states should provide full legal rights to gay couples in a committed relationship, but it need not be called "marriage". Civil union should be an equivalent legal bond between these individuals. Churches, of course, can continue to define marriage as a "sacrament" uniting a man and woman.  The government should actually define a committed relationship between opposite sexes as a civil union as well...and leave the religious argument about marriage to the churches to decide!

Ongoing mayhem in Iraq, ENRON buddies waiting to learn how many years they'll spend in jail, VP Cheney's former Leaker in Chief awaiting trial, gas prices soaring, hurricane season starting, and what does President Bush decide to speak out about?

In my ongoing efforts to generate grassroots involvement in  creating a better vision for development in Africa, I am passing this along: (remaining text from the Call for Abstracts)

Secretary of State Rice has to be the most out-of-touch person on the planet to tell FOX News that she was "actually having a great time here in Iraq" ..........

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

In honor of Earth Day, watch TV tonight! More specifically, watch the global warming documentary TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE on HBO. It airs tonight, 4/22 at 7 PM and will be re-shown throughout the week. My wife, Joy, was interviewed for this show, though we don't know if the footage of her made it into the show.

Via Josh Marshall at TPM:

A former White House aide under indictment for obstructing a leak probe, I. Lewis Libby, testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a closely-guarded "National Intelligence Estimate" on Iraq to a New York Times reporter in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case.

The court papers from the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, do not suggest that Mr. Bush violated any law or rule. However, the new disclosure could be awkward for the president because it places him, for the first time, directly in a chain of events that led to a meeting where prosecutors contend the identity of a CIA employee, Valerie Plame, was provided to a reporter.

Taken From NY Sun

FIXED LINK FOR THE NY SUN!!! PLUS link to PDF of court documents below! [Update] The NY sun Link is dead ending (error) BUT Raw Story has it too!

Anyone care to chat about this? +++ A bit from Raw story below...

"Imagine an enemy that says: We will kill innocent people because we're trying to encourage people to be free....."

Is this why I haven't noticed Larry Johnson posting around the liberal blogosphere much any more?