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Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Downing Street Memo

No wonder Franken calls the Downing Street Memo a "smoking gun." In the debrief of the British intelligence chief after a visit to the White House:

"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

The memo is dated July 23, 2002, seven weeks before 9/11!

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Switched banks!

After 15+ years, I finally switched banks, from TCF to Bremer. I opened my TCF account when I started working there, then quit the job a couple years later when I couldn’t adjust to the archaic technologies, cumbersome bureaucracy, and dysfunctional company politics. I kept the bank accounts though, even after TCF Chairman William Cooper became chair of the Minnesota Republican Party. I guess the last straw for me was the proposed TCF Stadium for college football. Under the plan, TCF pays just 15% for the naming rights, while the taxpayers are stuck with 40%.

Bremer, in contrast, operates under a philosophy of local decision making and community investment. The employees own 8% of its shares, and the Otto Bremer Foundation, a nonprofit charitable trust, owns 92%. It is one of the largest contributors to community causes in America today. Bremer grants in the Twin Cities include: African Refugee Support Services, American Indian OIC, Asian Women United of Minnesota, Catholic Charities, Clean Water Fund, East Side Arts Council, Habitat for Humanity, La Familia Guidance Center, Jewish Community Action, Minneapolis Urban League, Minnesota ACORN, Peaceworkers, Teens Networking Together, United Way, Whittier Alliance, YWCA, and hundreds more.

Movie Reviews

I recently saw "Kingdom of Heaven", "Crash", and "Revenge of the Sith", and enjoyed all of them. They each deal with different types of intolerance: religious, racial, and political. In "Sith", I thought the scene where they’re throwing the senate seats around like Frisbees is symbolic of the loss of freedoms in the U.S.

Nutrasweet "one of the worst things"

My brother-in-law, an anesthesiologist, recently shared some warnings about Nutrasweet. Click "comments" to read the full text.

“Push back” not as bad as pushing

I don’t like the phrase "push back." It suggests that someone was pushed first, and pushing is a type of assault. Push back if you must, but it’s better to report the assault to the police!