Roswell! Roswell! Roswell!

Totally not crazy Jeff Peckman, alien invasion preparer, and businessman, (not sure if republican), will today show a video with real, live space aliens.

The Denver resident is pushing to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission to deal with interacting with the interstellar visitors that he claims are all over the place. Think the video might be a fake? You wish! It was totally verified by an instructor at the Colorado Film School, an institution that is apparently the expert in videos of aliens.

BTW, wanna be a space ambassador? YEP. Click and sign up. Mars bitches!

-Prodigal Son

Preznit Dignitude

Gawd, restoring honor and dignity back to the white house.

8 f'ing years of this frat-boy boolsheet.

-Prodigal Son

Bush McCain Challenge

How well did you do?



Moveon.org should play this ad through July!

Prodigal Son

Vino/Veritas

Calling all Amarillo progressives! Vino/Veritas: The Organization Formerly Known As Panhandle Truth Squad Meetup; Formerly Known As Formerly Known As; Formerly Known As D*****ng L*****ly A*****lo will kick off the summer with a house party on Friday the 30th of May at:


Casa Spacedark
7:00 pm
Friday the 30th of May

Our mascot, Howard the Star-Spangled Donkey, will be sitting on the front porch.

Snacks will be served. BYOB.

Please RSVP to panhandletruthsquad@yahoo.com for address and directions.

Come prepared to relax and talk politics with friends of a similar mindset in a Low Stress Environment.

Donations from our last meetup purchased Obama and Clinton publicity material for the local Democratic office.

spacedark

Memorial Day, 2008

It is well-known and well-lamented that our political campaigns have devolved into meaningless, absurd and increasingly abstract symbolism. The current Democratic race reached a well-documented low when Nash McCabe, a "regular voter" asked Senator Obama the infamous flag pin question: “Sen. Obama, I have a question, and I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don't.’’

It isn't absurd, of course, to expect our leaders to love this country. But McCabe claimed the question wasn't about that, that she wasn't questioning Obama's patriotism. The question was just about a stupid pin.

Not all symbolism, however, is meaningless and absurd. Today is a holiday that is rich in patriotic meaning. And I'd like to see 52-year-old Nash McCabe from Latrobe, Pa ask some questions to the malls of America, to Wal-Mart, the Texas legislature, and to our own WTAMU.

Why are you open today? Don't you think you are devaluing the sacrifices of our war veterans by refusing to celebrate this holiday? Or do you really think that throwing a sale is the best way to honor our war dead? As important as is it to buy energy-efficient appliances, doesn't the Texas legislature dishonor veterans by encouraging people to do nothing but shop on Memorial Day by changing the day to a tax holiday? Shouldn't we all be American citizens on a day like this, and not mere customers?

[Moment of silence.]

spacedark

An Open Letter to the Class of 2008

Graduates,

Up until now your life has been measured by school years, with regular, and for the most part, easily obtained goals. You'll continue to measure your life in similar ways, at least for the next few years. Eventually, however, you will be hurled into the gulf of life to sink or swim. I graduated 20 years ago this spring. I forget the exact date, it was late May or early June. Strolling across the stage at Dimmitt High School, diploma in hand, I thought I knew it all. HA! I've been served many a slice of humble pie since then.

38 doesn't exactly make me an old man, but I'm sure as hell not young anymore. 20 years is a fair amount of time and I'd like to pass on some advice gleaned from observation and personal experience:

• Don't get knocked up. Don't knock anyone up. Seriously. This is the single most important thing I can tell you. You've heard it before, but I'm telling you again. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen this happen to my friends. The summer after our senior year one of my classmates got pregnant. Then another. And then another. And on and on like that for the next few years. Nobody ever threw confetti in the air and danced when they found out. It's an unbelievably difficult way to start your adult life. So don't let it happen. This is something you have complete control over. Alright? Oh, and don't go thinking you're too good or righteous to turn up pregnant, either. I've seen more than a few holier-than-thous get the surprise of their lives. A baby you aren't ready for is going to make you completely miserable.
• Don't be in a hurry to get married. This is almost as bad as getting knocked up. Look, there's a big difference between marriage and a wedding. What you'll find yourself wanting soon, especially you ladies, is probably the wedding. It's a romantic and fun party with all your friends and afterwards you get to take a sex-filled trip to some exotic location. Well, that romance and passion die off over time. What you're left with is something akin to a business partnership...a partnership you swore to God and the world was going to last forever. The person you are right now isn't necessarily the person you'll be 4 or 5 years down the road, and that can change the kind of person you'd choose as a partner. That shift in who you are and what you want from life can destroy a relationship. I've seen it happen too many times. Just be patient...
  
• Live within your means and don't go into debt. I got my first credit card when I was 18. Despite the fact that I was broke and unemployed some bank gave me a credit card. I managed to use it infrequently for the first few years, never charging anything more than a pizza. Eventually I gave into temptation and purchased a portable CD player. It cost me about $200 and, being a minimum wage college student, it took me over a year to pay off that $200. That was my first bout with debt. $200 seems like nothing now, but at the time it might as well have been $2,000. I went through two more painful debt cycles, the most recent being when my wife and I got married (12 years ago) and we combined our credit cards. There will times when you just can't help but whip that card out: car repairs, college tuition, health expenses...but a new pair of shoes or an mp3 player? If you can't pay cash then you don't need it. Take a good hard look at the world around you right now. Your country and your fellow Americans are absolutely swimming in debt, and some people are going to be completely destroyed by it. Learn from their mistakes so you don't repeat them.
  
• Not long after I graduated from college ('93) a buddy of mine passed through town. "I'm moving to Alaska..." he says, "...and you're going with me." I thought about his proposal briefly and decided against it. It just seemed like too much, so I decided to play it safe. He went off to spend the next couple of years having experiences of a lifetime in America's Last Frontier, while your's truly frittered time away in Canyon, TX. I deeply regret not embarking on that adventure when I had the chance. I'm now Married, With Children, and an occasional nice meal is about as exciting as things get these days. Being an adult pretty much sucks, and the older you get, the worse it is. If you play your cards right, the next 10 years or so of your life will be filled with the sweetest freedom you'll ever know. Don't waste it! Don't be content with the path of least resistance. If you want to come home to settle down you will always have that option, but you will never get the chance to go back and do things over.
  

So, there you have it. There is a lot more I could tell you, but that covers a few of the more important topics. Oh, one more thing: your parents were right...about everything. Sorry.

Good luck to you, Graduates.

it was one of those weeks

Mr. Spacedark, pictured above,
with the new Superintendent of Schools
models an SBOE-approved hairstyle
for English teachers.

In Austin this week, the State Board of Education approved new standards requiring that all English teachers wear their hair in buns and always carry rulers to rap the knuckles of citizens who misuse the objective case. Texas teachers had lobbied hard for standards that reflected the twenty-first century, but, in a surprise move, social conservatives brought in Mr. Wackford Squeers, Mr. Holofernes, and Mr. The Teacher From Pink Floyd's The Wall to make their recommendations to the board. "When I have modern teachers telling me one thing and villainous, pedantic, cruel and belittling schoolmasters from ages past telling me another," said one Board member, "I figure best practices are somewhere in the middle. So I just split the difference."

In a story related to "splitting the difference," though not related to "best practices," Panhandle Regional Planning Commission is reported to be "preparing for catastrophe." In a story related to that, Barbara Miller of Miller Paper Company is reported to have risen from the grave. Not one to miss an opportunity, Ms. Miller plans to capitalize on the gigareams of paper that is required for the paperwork whenever PRPC prepares for anything. Panhandle residents are advised, should there actually be a catastrophe, to bring a pen.

In other news related to paper, though not related to people who are able to read and write, David H. Henry was pleased to find that his e-mail spam was "batting .500". Mr. Henry—who never met a sports cliché he wouldn't type—is impressed, it would seem, with those who are right half the time. This explains his vast collection of Doppler Dave memorabilia, though it does not explain his puppy love for the Emperor W, for whom the idea of being as much as half right is a dream unlikely to ever be fulfilled.

Just across from Mr. Henry in Thursday's paper, one Jancy Richards defended Intelligent Design and Ben Stein's bizarre conspiracy theory "Expelled," which blames the Holocaust on Charles Darwin. Panhandle residents prone to more pedestrian conspiracy theories wondered if Jancy's love for ID was related to her big brother Jay's position as a Fellow at the Discovery Institute. Upon hearing this theory, David H. Henry expressed in his "Opinions Others Won't Give" that those Panhandlian secularists were a bunch of Nazi-lovers. He was immediately sued by the Association of Internet Trolls, Fox News Guests, and Globe-Republican Letterwriters, Amalgamated, the members of which had already given that opinion, many, many, many times over.

It was one of those weeks.

spacedark

the senators from history

Ten years ago, I wrote a poem titled "The Senator from South Carolina". It was a "tribute," if that's the word, to Strom Thurmond (still kicking at the time), but it was really about the great, tragic and comedic history contained in the institutional memory of the Senate: something that would be lost if the well-meaning but misguided backers of term limits ever had their way.

We are, perhaps, preparing to lose another connection to the past. There will be a time, hopefully later but perhaps soon, to think back on Kennedy, but for now it might be a good time to revisit "The Senator from South Carolina":

My head was howling; ten times ten-thousand memories.
I walked down halls festooned perversely
with trappings of Power. Weak, small-minded men,
who wore their Modern garments-- those three-piece suits!
those power ties!-- like weapons. How I spit
out these words. They do not nourish me.
I was born in a cave six-thousand years ago,
helped build society in an Age of Fear.
I knew Romulus. I knew Remus.
And when confronted with the simpering Visage
of your "politicos" (how I loath
that word), I weep. I weep for your world.
I have to laugh at Modern Sensibilities
you wear so proudly like a shield with a Crest
of Thorns, a foolish coward behind it. Listen:
I spoke for gods in less egalitarian times.
I used beheadings to stifle dissent,
had men drawn and quartered, laughed at their pain,
smeared their blood on my face and condemned
their souls to Hell. I am limited
by Democracy, its creeping mediocrity.
I, who have watched the greatest of mountains erode
now walk in shadows. I am a Player, who strutted
his sixty centuries, upon that well-lit stage.
I will be heard forevermore.

spacedark

Songs that still rock

title blatanly stolen from CC McGoon at jobsanger.

Up late working. This song came across my play list. I thought it appropriate considering the current state of our economy. This song always reminds me my misspent youth. I had girl friend named Christina. She did not own a 944 or do cocaine, but we would joke about how she might one day. Also had a friend end up quitting college and dealing, though he did end up back at school eventually.

unsubstantiated fearmongering e-mail: Choose Your Own AdventureTM edition

Please use caution/wear protective armor/panic immediately if you must drive/walk/run/dine/carouse with members of the opposite sex of questionable morals on Georgia Street/in Wolflin/on the East Side/on the Boulevard/anywhere in Amarillo. There have been three/seven/an infinite number of shootings/stalkings/spitwads/blog postings aimed at innocent/guilty/nolo contendere drivers/joggers/dog walkers/aimless wanderers along that street/in that neighborhood. One by the Chrysler Building/Sears Tower/Petronas Towers that almost struck a young woman traveling with her toddler. One along I-40 and Georgia around Central Park/the Golden Gate Bridge/Lake Geneva. And today around your house/your garage/waiting for you in your living room when you get home tonight.

Police are trying to find out who this person/these people/these Republicans are. Some seem to think it may even be gang/drug/polygamy related. None/All of the victims have been hurt and they do/do not seem to be related incidents.

Please use caution. They seem to be attacking randomly/targeting you specifically.

Pass along to everyone you know.

With love,

spacedark

Bible Literacy

There has been a lot of back and forth in the AGR about evolution/ID/Creationism blahditty, blahditty.

I ran across this and thought it was funny . . . and scary at the same time.



My favourite new name for Dinosaurs? "Jesus Horses". And check that Jesuscloak(tm) flaring out in the dinowind.

And if you get a sec, check out "Things Creationists Hate".

-Prodigal Son

I walk among them, but I am not of them

spacedark

wish you were here 3

wish you were here 2

There are pot belly smokers and there are pot smokers' bellies...

spacedark

wish you were here

Homer's Backyard Ball - benefitting Make-a-Wish.

My wish: to listen to live music and drink Irish Whiskey.

Fulfilled.

spacedark

it was one of those weeks

In the summer of 2038, something happened in Bushville, Texas (formerly known as Amarillo) that had never occurred before. At approximately 3:41 in the afternoon, the wind simply stopped blowing. Until just before that hour, the wind had been gusting to around 78 m.p.h., as was typical for Bushville. At 3:40, the atmosphere coughed a few times like a car running out of gas, and then a minute later, the winds stopped forever.

The initial reaction of most people was to blame climate change (formerly known as Global Warming^TM), but the Bushville Globe-Republican had just that morning published a hard-hitting exposé exposing climate change as far left-wing propaganda. The exposé was written by Mary Cheney, Jr., CEO of ExxonConocoChevronPetroChina, and Cheney explained that the banana trees which had sprouted in Antarctica were perfectly normal if you took the long view of history, and how were the new water taxis supposed to work, anyway, without the canals that now flowed down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan?

Soon enough, the true cause of the sudden lack of wind was identified. Thirty years before, one T.B. Pickens (formerly known as Scrooge McDuck) had thrown up hundreds of windmills near Pampa. Having first stolen the reputation of the local university, and then the waters of an entire aquifer, he had now managed to suck the Panhandle dry of the very wind.

Back in 2008, there had been no shortage of blowing hot air in that part of West Texas. In the high profile trial of Potter County Shurf Mike Shumate (formerly known as employed), visiting District Judge Quay Parker had sent out a questionnaire to determine whether Shurf Shumate could get a fair trail in Potter County. Parker (whom some accused of trading on his name's resemblance to a famous Comanche chief in much the same way that perennial Democratic candidate Gene Kelly worked to be confused for the famous dancer) asked 1,000 Potter residents about their knowledge of the case and of Shurf Shumate. 130 apparently claimed total ignorance. That was about what you'd expect in Potter County but claims that the prospective jurors didn't know them any Shurf Shumate caused jaws to drop across the High Plains. To say that Shurf Shumate had a talent for self-promotion was like saying that Internet trolls sometimes fib. Since the 1990s, Shurf Shumate's picture had been plastered across billboards, television and the print media. At one point, Shurf Shumate had purchased all of the space on the triangular grocery checkout line dividers in all of the United Supermarkets in the area. He had imprinted the dividers with the words "Shumate! Shumate! He's our man! If he can't get Bubba, no one can!"

In the end, however, Potter County jurors' purported ignorance didn't really matter. Judge Quay Parker—his courtroom attire alternating between Comanche tribal clothes and a morning coat with an umbrella, pocket watch chain and derby—pointed out that the Bozo-the-Clownish Shurf Mike Shumate—who had worn a Dilbert's boss hairstyle before there was a Dilbert's boss—who made his name fighting crime through homoerotically-charged paranoid rants about a prisoner named "Bubba" who performed deviant sex acts on all the new prisoners—who was formerly known to threw bizarre and legendary parties at which lawmakers and law-enforcers were rumored to break every law they made and enforced—someone this batcrap crazy could hope to seat a jury of his peers only in Potter County.

It was one of those weeks.

spacedark

you say it's your birthday

(Amarillo) Panhandle Truth Squad is four years old today.

Baby's First Post.

The Very First Time We Made Fun of Dave Henry.

(cheers!)

spacedark

tell me headlies, tell me sweet little headlies

Glancing at the Yahoo and AP headlines--

Bush disappointed in "flawed intelligence" before Iraq war
Global warming "real" Bush says
Bush enjoys Will Ferrell impression of him

--one might paraphrase blogarillo's recent reaction when one of our trolls came out from under his bridge and suddenly began acting reasonably: "Who is this person, and what has he done with President Bush?"

Read the transcript, of course, and you see the same petulant, defensive man we've known all along.

The headlie writers apparently stopped just before the words butbutbut--.

spacedark

To The Malls, Patriots!

I got my hush money rebate. Did you get yours?

Things blogarillo could buy to help bail out mortgage bankers strengthen the wings of America's Resolve^TM:

1200 cups of iced tea from The Water Still
800 grande Coffee of the Day from Roasters
257 bowls of chicken panang from Chiyos.
112 handstamps at Wonderland
32 tanks of gas

No need to thank me, citizens. I'm just doing my part.

Secret McCain Campaign Slogan Memo Leaked

Thanks to openleft for making me spill coffee while LMAO!
-Prodigal Son

Sweet Home Obama

What do you guys want from Democrats? Billy Carter?

I won't deny that I'm concerned about November. With Obama now in a position to be called the "presumptive nominee," I worry about hardcore Clinton supporters with hurt feelings who won't come around in November. WaitaminutebeforeyoureactIwouldhaveworried
aboutthesamethingfromhardcoreObamasupportershadClintonwon.¹

And, of course, there is the perennial (or quadrennial) fear of swiftboating.

But on the efficacy of the latter², perhaps there is cause for hope, even in West Texas.

This weekend, my brother-in-law, who wears cowboys boots, a cowboy hat, owns and rides a horse, and is the working owner of a construction company, announced that he had just sent $100 to the Obama campaign.

He subscribes to at least one of the newsweeklies, so he must know that he's been told that people like him don't support Obama.

But, surely, the newsweeklies and other major media also understand by now that they know even less about "Bubba" than Obama and his campaign. Scratch that-- if they knew that, they wouldn't write these articles. But their condescending assumptions are unlikely to reflect reality. Bubba being Bubba, they may even cause a rebellious redneck groundswell in favor of Obama.

spacedark

¹Had to get that out really fast.

²I'll try to get this thesis lingo outta my system. But not today.

Yes! Masters!

spacedark

unbalanced minds make unbalanced equations

Someone tell Amarillo Globe-Republican Dave Henry that irony is dead.

"As Amarillo voters ponder another public smoking ban Saturday, it is worth pointing out the inconsistencies of trying to save people from themselves through government intervention or the ballot box.

Bexar County finds itself stuck with a needle-exchange program, a legislative shot in the arm from misguided do-gooders wanting to enable drug abusers to continue to shoot up with clean syringes...

They use them to shoot up whatever harmful substance they are hooked on, a substance that might just kill them a lot faster than secondhand smoke from a cigarette."

"Secondhand smoke." Right. Of course the argument would be that heroin is unlikely to drip into your veins while the person next to you shoots up.

If irony isn't dead, Dave will soon kill it.

spacedark

Great Branding

Ya know, it's time to start linking McCain to some sort of caricature. Something instinctive and emotional, and of course . . . unpleasant and negative.

Thankfully, this is McCain. He gives us a lot of ammo here.

What about the unstable cranky old man who would cut up your green nerf football when it went over the fence, wave his fist and shout mumbling curses through his dentures? Is that the guy we want in charge?

What do you think would stick?

UPDATE: Well, the onion beat me to the punch. Bunch a genius's over there, I laughed my a** off. Especially the hand drawn plans McCain drew. LOL.



-Prodigal Son

why don't you put on your boxing gloves, go out in the garage, and pound on the public-school teacher hanging out there for awhile?

Of course, another problem with public education is a public that badmouths teachers based on what they think they know, but don't.

1. This was a national AP article. Tenure for public school teachers doesn't exist in Texas. Oh, wait, at some point you can (theoretically) get a two-year(!) contract. Yay!

2. As a result, I've seen teachers dismissed from their positions fairly easily. Some were "bad teachers"; others were just disappeared for vague reasons no one would talk about.

spacedark

the climate in Amarillo is great; it's the weather that sucks

The Amarillo Globe-Republican Ghostly Voice^TM thinks it's really cool that the wind in the Panhandle is rivaled only by that on Rigel XII.

Could any opinion be more stupid?

Well, yeah.

The Amarillo Globe-Republican Ghostly Voice^TM also thinks it's really cool that a "terrific trio of Texas Republicans" plan to run for Governor in 2010.

As Chairman Dean sez, your coverage is "shockingly biased".

spacedark

An Antiviral Cocktail

We have all seen again this year, as in past campaign years, a variety of email missives purporting to provide information about Democratic candidates.

These are generally known as viral emails because they spread from one uneducated person to another in the same way that a virus spreads, with no accountability to the original source. These range from doctored photos to quotes taken out of context to outright fabrications. Trying to combat this tactic seems at times like the arcade game "Whack-a-Mole". Or maybe it's "Whack-a-Troll". But having seen several different messages and their impact, and having had some time to mull the proper response, here is my strong suggestion.

1. ALWAYS respond to them, but do it in a specific way. Ask those who are proliferating the messages to find the ORIGINAL references that demonstrate that their attack is true. Indicate that you might be prepared to believe the mail (note this is a tactic, but not a lie--we should be prepared to believe if given genuine evidence and reasoning), but ONLY if the ORIGINAL references are produced. This accomplishes several things. First, it forces the individual to actually think about how they know the attack to be true. Second, it makes them question other mail they may receive that is unsubstantiated. Third, it gets them to do your research for you. While it is very difficult to find the context of unreferenced material, in their zeal to prove it to you, they may do your leg work. Lastly, one way for them to find what you ask for is to ask the person who sent it to THEM, and that could start a chain of questioning that is sort of an anti-virus. Frequently, when responding, you can aide that chain by using "Reply All".

2. Check internet myth sites such as http://www.snopes.com/. While the most recent attacks may not be found there because it takes time to do the research, the myths do tend to recirculate, so if you come across one that is not brand new, you can refer the individual to the site. Of course, they may not trust the site that says it ain't so, but if they do, then their source for the mail becomes suspect for them.

3. Forward the mail message to the DNC or TDP and candidate web sites. The presidential campaigns have staff devoted to tracking these things down and providing counter-information. Candidates who don't have such resources still want to know what is being said about them.

4. If possible, write a letter to the editor showing the attack as demonstrably false. This is not a good option if you don't have the facts available, because then it is just seen as whining.

Whatever you do, don't blow them off. Sure, they are produced by propagandists and distributed through networks of the ignorant, but it is an unfortunate part of politics. It is under-the-radar swift boating, and as we learned in '04, no attack can go unanswered. The public needs to perceive us as fighting back, and needs to perceive the other side as sleazy. Again, this is a battle of perception, but we can take comfort in the reality that we are promoting perceptions that are true. A lot of this effort is up to ordinary folks like us.

it was one of those weeks

It was a week that tested all of us. Across Texas, students and teachers confronted the TAKS. The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, more than anything else, was testing people’s patience. Over the years, the rules that surrounded the test had gotten ever more draconian. Teachers—once allowed to grade papers, look at a magazine, or read a book during testing—were now under strict orders to spend the entire 4-5 hours of each test staring at the students. Computers were to be off. Cell phones were to be locked up. Rumor had it that a teacher down in Marfa had blinked two hours into her TAKS Stare, and had been called before a kangaroo court—or would that be an armadillo court?—in Austin, prosecuted by Texas Education Association officials and judged by a bewigged Margaret Spellings. In the end, all of the tests out of Marfa had to be burned, and the ashes buried. Students were forced to “re-test”; most would rather have been caned.

Meanwhile, the faith of the good Christians at the Amarillo Globe-Republican was tested again and again as the children of polygamy continued to pour into Boys Ranch. Truly and verily the reporters and editors of the AGR—to a one, wearing their religion on their bumper in the form of a plastic ΙΧΘΥΣ fish—knew that these were devil’s brats, but journalistic standards demanded more objectivity than that. So they bent over backwards, nearly as far as they had to when they printed a Letter to the Editor from a Communist¹, interviewing mothers and pretending not to judge. Thankfully, the National Day of Prayer arrived on Thursday to cleanse the reporters who were forced to write dispassionately about the Satanists and Cannibals from Eldorado.

There was, however, little doubt that Scott Camarata, pro-smoking crusader, could pass a math test. A simple one, at least. “One of one person is going to die period,” he said, “regardless of what we do.” The print barely dried on the Globe-Republican in which those words were printed before Camarata was contacted by an army of Republican functionaries. He had happened upon the perfect slogan for Republican campaigns in 2008. “One of one person is going to die,” regardless of what we do in Iraq. “One of one person is going to die,” regardless of what we do about the economy. “One of one person is going to die,” regardless of what we do about global warming. And so on.

It was one of those weeks.

spacedark

¹ Or, as they were known in the Godless portions of the country, “Democrats”.

Mission Er...ah...complished

LOL I guess I just have to laugh at this point.

First, it seems Bush didn't really mean that we'd accomplished our whole mission... but he does admit he should have been more specific.

Second Rumsfeld lying his ass off to the entire Pentagon so he won't be questioned later.

What a pack of liars, shysters, and general creeps these guys are. Clinton lied once about getting laid... and he apologized for it. Bush and his pack have lied about a million times about their machinations and they're gonna stand up and act proud of it till the day they die. And Republicans are concerned about what Clinton taught their kids. How about the lesson Bush is teaching...lie your ass off and never ever admit you are wrong and everything will be okay.

we're screwed

I'm sure we'll be first.

Unless...

Get out your pocketbooks, AEDC.

spacedark

SMU Bush Presidential Library Rejection

I'm not entirely sure what this means but it looks like the General Conference of the United Methodist Church adopted the following resolution 844-20 (submitted by Diane Smock from Greenville, SC, USA):

Submitted Text

SMU Bush Presidential Library Rejection (80089-MH-NonDis)

I hereby petition the UMC General Conference to prevent leasing, selling, or otherwise participating in or supporting the presidential library for George W. Bush at Southern Methodist University.

Rationale

We should support separation of church and state and if the Bush library goes on the SMU campus or property it will appear to the country and the world as an endorsement of that president by the United Methodist Church. Texas is a big state; surely there are other venues...

This is nowhere in the news, and I haven't heard anything from the Protect SMU mailing list. So I'm a little confused. What does this mean? How much teeth does this resolution have? What ultimate effect will it have?

spacedark

UPDATE: Impeach for Peace has apparently received a press release from Protect SMU. We're on that mailing list and haven't received it yet.

2ND UPDATE: Some more from Dallas South: "The decision now lies in the hands of the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church. The land on which the library would be built is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction. A body of approximately 290, many of whom voted in the general conference, will take a final vote on the sale of the land. The 2008 South Central Jurisdictional Conference is scheduled for July 16-19 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas."