Below Boston - Front Page

Stoughton Food Pantries Benefit

Liberal Linda — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:47:14 GMT

The benefit, Doin'it for Diane, was held Saturday night at the VFW. The event made close to $15,000 and the proceeds of the benefit went to the two Stoughton food pantries. The Ilse Marks Food Pantry and St. Anthony's Free Market Food Bank both operate in the town. The Stoughton Chamber of Commerce sponsored the dinner dance.

What I really wanted to win was the Private Tour of the White House and lunch with Congressman Stephen Lynch. That was one of the items up for bid in a live auction and it went for $1,000.00. We were hoping to win and go on a road trip to D.C. I'm sure we would of had a wonderful time.

IKEA donated $2,500.00 and no body was forced to eat lunch with Lynch. (it was a joke from the M.C.- only kidding)
Merchants and individuals donated items to be auctioned and raffled. Long tables were set up to display items for a silent auction. In a silent auction, you just write your bid on a list, and the next person can outbid you. It just goes on until no one is willing to outbid you. I was lucky and got a Birthday party valued at $210.00 for only $50.00. What a deal.

The hundreds of people that attended were treated to dishes from the areas restaurants. There was Italian spaghetti and meatballs, Chinese food, salads, antipastos, cheese and crackers, and pizza, were just some of the selections to taste. Coffee & donuts were provided from Honey Dew and Dunkin Donuts, pastries from Panara Bread and cookies from the Cookie Monster.

If you would like to donate:

Ilse Marks Food Pantry
121 Seaver St. Stoughton
Phone: 781-341-1994

St. Anthony's Free Market
2 Park Ave, Stoughton
Phone: 781-341-0611

Congressional Art Competition

Liberal Linda — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:57:52 GMT

Congressman Stephen Lynch is requesting submissions for the 27th annual
Congressional Art Competition.

The 9th District-Out of Iraq Coalition is contacting art teachers in the public schools and urging a theme of peace/not militarism in the Middle East.

U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, D-9th, announced the opening of An Artistic Discovery, the 27th annual Congressional Art Competition. This competition is open to all high school students who reside in the 9th Congressional District. The winner will have his or her work displayed in the U.S. Capitol for a full year. Additionally, there will be a reception in Washington, D.C., for all art competition winners and their families to celebrate the opening of the exhibit.
To highlight the talent of art students in the district, the artwork of all students who enter the competition will be displayed this summer at their local town hall or public library.

The competition is now open for submissions, and all entries must be received by May 27. Entries should be sent to Lynch's Boston District office, to the attention of Sarah Bonaiuto. Call Lynch's office at 617-428-2000 or refer to his Web site, www.house.gov/lynch, for more information on the competition.

How this all ends is totally in Hillary Clinton's hands now

Susan H — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:11:49 GMT

It can end easy or it can end hard.

Easy would be by preparing her supporters for accepting that the race is essentially over; hard would be by signalling that there will be a credential fight for seating the Michigan and Florida delegations.

We should get a sense of which path she has chosen later today or in the next few days.

Tom O'Brien Campaign Kickoff Event May 16

mdbo — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:10:52 GMT

You are cordially invited to the Campaign Kickoff for Plymouth County Treasurer Tom O'Brien.
Host committee: Congressman Barney Frank, Congressman William Delahunt, Congressman Stephen Lynch, Senate President Therese Murray.
Friday May 16, 2008 6:00 pm
Country Club of Halifax, Route 106 Halifax, MA
For more information or reservations, contact campaign Chair Mike Rothberg at 508-326-5982 or mrothberg67 {at} yahoo {dot} com
Reservations may be mailed to The Committee to Elect Tom O'Brien 18 Stonebridge Lane Kingston, MA 02364
As Treasurer, Tom has generated over one hundred thousand dollars in new sustainable revenue for the County, adopted new payment policies to take advantage of vendor discounts, and recovered revenues and taxes owed to the County. He has created new levels of cooperation and strengthened working relationships with elected and appointed officials across the county. In his first year and a half as Chairman of the Plymouth County Retirement Board, he has worked with other Board members to earn an average 11.5% return for the pension fund, adding more than $100 million to the fund as of December 31, 2007.

Tom served as the State Representative from the 12th Plymouth district for ten years and passed numerous pieces of legislation, including the O'Brien bill, which provided incentives for the movie industry to come to Massachusetts; the Baby Safe Haven bill; the Unenrolled Voter bill; and the bill which authorized the building of the new Plymouth County Registry of Deeds. Tom never missed a vote on Beacon Hill, casting over 3,700 consecutive roll call votes.

What media pundits thought of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment five years ago

Jan A — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:34:12 GMT

On the fifth anniversary of this classic photo op, with the war still raging and over 4050 killed in Iraq, let's look back at what pundits were saying about this bit of staged propaganda. Surely, they were appalled by the obviously phony theatrics and critical of Bush's premature proclamation of success. Not!

It's enough to make you barf. Anyone who takes what any of these lying sacks of hot air say seriously should get help immediately.

David Gergen on Fox "news" with Greta Van Susteren: "Well, it was a stunning backdrop. I don't -- you know, Greta, I've watched the choreography of presidential events for a long time and participated in a few. I can't remember an event as spectacular, as stunning as this, as impressive as this, since Richard Nixon returned from China 30 years ago."

Newt Gingrich on Fox "news" with Sean Hannity: "Well, somebody reminded me this afternoon of the movie Independence Day, which has a fighter pilot who becomes president of the United States. And in a sense, this afternoon you were reminded that this is a man who has served as a fighter pilot in the Texas National Guard, who has been prepared to fight for his country. Landing on the carrier must have reminded him of his father's career, also, having been, I think, the youngest pilot in the U.S. Navy in the Second World War."

More nauseating press cheerleading on flip
Miles O'Brien on CNN: "Chris Burns, I don't suppose the president was wearing a G-suit. I don't think they're going to run him through his paces too much. But a flight suit, nevertheless. I suspect he's going to have a fun day. This is about as -- it's a good day to be a president, isn't it?"

And O'Brien with Kyra Phillips:
PHILLIPS: He looks like a fighter pilot.
O'BRIEN: Yes. He's got the look, doesn't he? Yeah. That's ...
PHILLIPS: He sure does. Look at the stroll.
O'BRIEN: I'm telling you, that is the fighter pilot strut if I ever saw it. He's got it going.
PHILLIPS: Tom Cruise look at him.

Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's Hardball: "He's earned this, Chris. As you said. he flew jets in the reserves back in his college years. And so the problem is, when people accuse him of taking too much advantage of it, the mind reels back to what other presidents could have done this? Certainly his predecessor could not have done it. Bill Clinton never served in the military. Probably had a little too much beef on his bones to fit in one of those cockpits. And you just can't imagine him walk out of one of those jets on to that deck. So, the guy has earned it. He did prosecute a war successfully. And it is all show business, that's absolutely true. But you also can tell that this president really in his heart does feel joined with those people serving on that aircraft carrier."

Chris Matthews and Ann Coulter wondering which Democrats running for president might have been able to fly in that fighter jet:
MATTHEWS: OK, let me run through the names, Ann. Lieberman -- can you see him in this picture? Ann?
COULTER: What about him?
MATTHEWS: Can you see him getting into an F-18...
COULTER: Oh, no!
MATTHEWS: ... an flying onto an aircraft carrier?
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Joe Lieberman, can you see him there?
COULTER: No possibility. I -- I have...
MATTHEWS: Can you see John Edwards doing it?
COULTER: No possibility.
MATTHEWS: Can you see Dick Gephardt doing it?

Pat Buchanan on MSNBC: "It was one of those acts of symbolism and dash and daring that call to mind, frankly, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan at their best. It was class. It was beautiful...it's neat...It makes you feel young again...Well, America can not help but be thrilled by what you saw today...That's a president with nerve. That's a president with nerve...Upcoming folks, should Scott Peterson get bail tomorrow?"

My "real time" take:
I remember hearing about how the aircraft carrier was in San Diego bay and all photos were shot facing away from the visible coastline of California. I remember thinking about Bush being AWOL during his own Vietnam-era Air National Guard service and that the flight suit he was wearing looked like it wasn't adjusted very well around the crotch area. I remember hearing reports that Bush hadn't actually flown the jet onto the aircraft but merely sat beside the real pilot as he did. I remember cringing at the media's Bush worship and recalling the similar over the top odes to W during Bush's sophomoric "USA! USA!" bullhorn moment on top of the World Trade Center wreckage.

I remember wanting to kill my television.

Update: This very aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is now in the Persian Gulf waiting for Iran to make a wrong move.

Thanks to Rude Pundit for the compilation.

Reverend Wright Right on AIDS?

Liberal Linda — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:26:50 GMT

The Stoughton Democratic Town Committee had a field trip to the John F. Kennedy Library Museum. After the Museum tour we went for lunch at the Phillips Old Colony House. The luncheon conversation at my table quickly turned to the upcoming elections. Of course that's what happens when you get like minded people together in the same room. The group has both Clinton and Obama, supporters and maybe a Gore supporter too.

One of the members of the SDTC seated at my table, that attends a Black church brought up Reverend Jeremiah Wright. She thought his recent behavior maybe a symptom caused because he was getting a little senile. Someone else thought he was just getting as much as the limelight as he could, or maybe becoming a little stage-struck, or looking for his last hurrah before he retires.

The subject of Rev. Wright and his comments on HIV and AIDS came up. One of my dinner companions thought that he was totally bizarre on that subject. I personally think that Wright may have a basis for his feelings on the AIDS virus.

There are some theories of the polio vaccines being responsible for HIV. The polio vaccine is manufactured by using the tissues of chimpanzees. The vaccines are being contaminated by the virus and then being transmitted to people.
In the book "Polio An American Story", by David Oshinsky.

At the same time, however new doubts about the safety of polio vaccination in general were starting to emerge. These doubts has less to do with the differences between the Salk and Sabin vaccines than with likelihood that all polio vaccine had contained harmful simian viruses in the early years of production, between 1954 and 1963. Though long debated in scientific circles, the danger of contaminated polio vaccine did not attract widespread attention until 1992, when Rollin Stone magazine published a piece entitled: The Origins of AIDS: A startling New Theory Attempts to Answer the Question, 'Was It an Act of God or an Act of Man?'"

The "man" in question, wrote Rolling Stone, was none other than Hilary Koprowski, the former Lederle scientist, now at the Wistar Institute, who had pioneered the oral polio vaccine. The article implied that Koprowski- described as "a charming, deep-voiced man of seventy-five"-might have unwittingly transmitted the AIDS virus from monkeys to humans during his polio immunization trials in the Belgian Congo in the late 1950's, when close to a million people were given his oral vaccine. "Called by drums," wrote Rolling Stone journalist Tom Curtis, "rural Africans traveled to village assembly points. There they lined up and had a liquid vaccine squirted into their mouths." That liquid-like all polio vaccine- contained poliovirus grown in monkey kidney tissue. Curtis theorized that Koprowski's vaccine may have been cultured in a species of monkey know to be a natural host for HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS in human beings.

Edward Hooper wrote, The River, which investigates the origins and early epidemiology of AIDS and makes a case for the OPV AIDS hypothesis, the claim that the AIDS virus was accidentally created by scientists testing an experimental polio vaccine.

Edward Hooper http://www.aidsorigins.com/ for more information

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS: some key writings

With tacit admission by McCain that Iraq War was about oil - another must read article

Susan H — Sat, 03 May 2008 14:28:14 GMT

Sometimes events and statements crystallize to focus attention on a subject in a new way and that would be US foreign policy: John McCain's tacit admittance that the US involvement in the Iraq War was brought about by our dependence on foreign oil and then the superb article in The Nation dealing with startling developments in the Defense Department and State Department in how our country is realigning our foreign policy around commodity access( diminishing the importance about fighting 'idealogies' a la communism). As the article mentions Admiral Mahan, a name familar to any out there who took an interest in US History and the early 20th century, I couldn't help but think that everything 'old is new again'.

Or did it ever go out of fashion? The emphasis that Adm. Mahan placed on establishing American colonies to set up access to raw materials and markets - did it ever really get displaced?

The Nation article is a MUST read and can be found here

It would be nice to have some discussion about this on the campaign trail( or even here will do).