Things you have to believe to be Republican: *

• Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war with him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
• Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
• A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
• Jesus loves you, and shares your hate of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
• The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay, and adding involuntary extensions of duty.
• If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
• Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
• HMOs and insurance companies have your best interests at heart.
• Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
• A President lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A President lying to start a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
• Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
• The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George W. Bush's cocaine conviction is none of our business.
• Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host, in which case it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
• You support states' rights, which means Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.
• What Bill Clinton did in the '60s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Feel free to pass this on. If you don't sent it to a bunch of other people, we're likely to be stuck with Bush for 4 more years.




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* with thanks to my friend Ann, who thought I "might" enjoy this. :-)

Today is Dad's birthday.

He would be 66 today. Here's the obituary from the Palm Beach Post:

ROBERT M. TOUCHBERRY, PUBLISHER, DIES AT 58

CAROLYN KELLEY
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATE: January 21, 1997


Robert M. Touchberry, the owner and operator of the Treasure Coast's Senior Journal and Business News, died Saturday in Stuart. He was 58.

A civic leader, Mr. Touchberry reached more than 20,000 seniors, environmentalists and politicians on the Treasure Coast through his publications. They shared his support for Martin County's Comprehensive Plan and quality of life. "He was very outspoken regarding his vision for Martin County," Janet Gettig, Martin County commissioner said.

"He was well-respected among the large group who shared his ideas," she said.

Mr. Touchberry was president of The League of Senior Voters. Known as his "brainchild," the league served as a forum for seniors to address topics of interest to them on the Treasure Coast including: Health care, crime and transportation.

The 10-year Stuart resident also served as board director for Meals on Wheels and participated as a member of the Martin County Chamber of Commerce.

He is survived by his mother, Elizabeth Touchberry Bullock of Raleigh, N.C.; two sons, Keith of Sebastian, and Eric of Ann Arbor, Mich.; two daughters, Karen Jo Sullivan and Lisa Ann Hudgins, both of Elgin, Ill.; brother, William of Raleigh, N.C.; six grandchildren; and his fiancee, Kathleen Comstock of Jensen Beach.

Visitation will be from 3 to 5 p.m. today at the Wallace and White Funeral Home. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Wallace and White. Martin Memorial Hospital Chaplain Robert Franklin Spencer will officiate.

At the request of the family, contributions can be made to Dogs and Cats Forever, 2180 Midtown Road, Port St. Lucie, Fla. 34952.
****
He was into another new and different phase of his life when he died, becoming an activist for seniors and for the environment. Here's a PB Post "People to Watch" piece about him:

ROBERT TOUCHBERRY

NISHA PULLIAM
DATE: June 17, 1991
PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post

The large retired population in the tri-county area of Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River has an advocate in publisher/editor Robert Touchberry. He uses his monthly publication Treasure Coast Fourth Season as a means of informing and educating seniors to the joys, dangers and necessities of the retired lifestyle.

Touchberry has been in the newspaper business for 44 years, mostly in management and sales. His decision to publish a senior's publication was given impetus after a visit to his aunt in Tequesta.

A solar hot water system had been installed and it seemed to be sliding off the roof. Touchberry couldn't get in touch with the installers and called a plumber, who found the pipes went straight into the ground . . . to nowhere. "She had been had. The bottom line was a growing concern that seniors, a primarily trusting group, are awfully easy to take advantage of."

Touchberry, who says the journal is not a philanthropic organization, started his journal three years ago. Its 40 pages keep seniors up to date on what is going on in their world.

"We use Maturity News Service out of Washington that keeps us up to date on legislation that affects the senior community."

The journal carries columns out of Jacksonville germane to Medicare and features regular columns from local physicians, St. Lucie and Martin County Council on Aging directors Gene Rifkin and Pat Scarlett and officer Martin Jacobson of the Stuart Police Department.

Jacobson keeps the readers advised of security information and warns them of scams that prey on seniors.

Features pay tribute to people over 60 who have a positive impact on the community, and there is a calendar of activities and meetings.

Physicians who do and do not accept Medicare were listed in two issues of the magazine, "and you couldn't find a copy of them anywhere."

"Human interest stories on the senior side are different than if you are 23 or 40 years old and still involved with jobs, families and work," he said. "I don't think we will ever get back to the family doctor, but I would like to see us get back to that plateau of faith and trust. And I think the symposiums are directed toward that."

The dialogue was so successful, another is planned for October.

When Touchberry heard Meals on Wheels was operating $10,000 in the red, he organized a fund raiser for the group.

He invited mostly retired entertainers to perform and rented the Port St. Lucie High School auditorium. The show raised close to $5,000 for the organization.

At 50-plus, Touchberry has had run-ins with his own mortality through several small heart attacks and circulatory problems and is heading into the fourth season of his own life, where he will join the majority of his readers. "I'm doing the best thing I can possibly do, because if I'm not here tomorrow, I will have left the best magazine that has ever been published on the Treasure Coast for seniors."

Personal: Married, four children.

Car: 1987 Pontiac Grand Am.

The best thing about the Treasure Coast: Its people and the marvelous combination of sand, surf, rivers and land that nature gave us in Florida.

The worst thing about the Treasure Coast: The attitude of blowing up the highways so other people cannot get in. And what we allow to happen because we are not paying attention, sort of a Twilight Zone in reverse.

My greatest asset: I like people . . . and I certainly hope they like me.

My biggest weakness: Never knowing how to say no.

My biggest accomplishment: The complimentary letters that come in from readers of the Fourth Season.

My personal hero: Harry Truman, because he took responsibility seriously.

The best part about seniors: They work hard at being happy and I don't know of any other age group that knows you have to work at being happy.

The worst part about seniors: The current perception of seniors. I know of very few folks in their 70s who do not have full thinking capacity. They are active and involved, with few of them off fishing and playing golf all the time.

Favorite midnight snack: Pizza.

Last good book I read: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

Last good movie I saw: Dances with Wolves.

Most embarrassing moment: Being invited to make a speech at the Ohio Publishers convention and discovering the other guest speaker was the recipient of the largest ticker tape parade at that time and the first genuine hero of space about to run for public office, John Glenn. Our biographies were listed side by side in the program and there was no way to compete with that caliber of hero.

If I couldn't be publishing the Fourth Season I'd be: Retired from the military playing golf. I made a choice of going into the news business instead of accepting an appointment to West Point.

My personal philosophy: Most of us go through life trying to create one hell of an epitaph. Whatever endeavor we are involved in-- whether or not it makes money-- work hard at it as long as it generates the initial thrust of what it is about in the first place.

Any other words of wisdom: Once you say you are going to do something for the public, that is a tremendous responsibility. Set about doing it the best you can.

Maybe I'll write more about him later.

President Bush: Flip-Flopper-in-Chief

The Marriage Inequality Amendment Won't Make It to the Senate Floor

But it's not too late to view Tom Tomorrow's explanation of the lie (and the bigotry) at the root of the push for a constituional amendment.

Andrew's Adventure (and Dad's anxiety)

Drew is off kayaking with boys and dads from his scout troop.

The Box Turtle: the Religious Right's New Instrument of Fear

"It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife."

-- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), advocating a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in a speech Thursday to the Heritage Foundation. attribution

Watch this new ad on the difference between Edwards and Cheney. Powerful.

More on Abu Ghraib (a.k.a. Abu Ga-ray-eff, in Bushspeak)


U.S. News obtains all classified annexes to the Taguba report on Abu Ghraib

Keep in mind that most of these prisoners were just rounded up anonymously and forced into detention. The International Red Cross estimates that 70% to 90% of the prisoners were innocent. Remember, too, that our troops suffered in the horrible conditions at Abu Ghraib.

Oops! I forgot to mention another good Paul Krugman column. Thanks to Julie for pointing it out.

Recommended Reading

No surprise that the Senate Intelligence Committee's report blames the CIA for intel failures before the war. Or that rightwingers are using it to absolve the Bushies of any responsibility. There are a couple of things everyone needs to remember, however.

Foremost is that the Shrub team was focused on Saddam from the time they moved into the White House. Paul O'Neill saw it; Richard Clarke saw it. The Project for a New American Century wrote about it in 2000. Given their obsession with Iraq, what can the CIA really be faulted for--not giving them a better excuse to do what they were going to do anyway?

Second, the report doesn't analyze the Shrubbies' use of the intel. And the committee will not take up the issue, if at all, until after the November election. Sen. Dick Durbin wrote a nice piece in the WaPo to remind everyone that the committee's mission is not accomplished.

From the Would They Really Stoop That Low? Dept., John Judis reports in the current issue of The New Republic that the Shrubbies are putting a lot of pressure on Pakistan to deliver a "High-Value Target," a top al-Qaeda or Taliban person, during the Democratic Convention. Check out his story on the July Surprise.

In happier news, economist Paul Krugman reviews Kerry's health care plan and finds it do-able. Certainly better than what we can expect under the Shrub, of course, but let's not damn the senator with faint praise.

[As an aside, I try to link to articles that you can read without registering or subscribing. Both the WaPo and the NYT want you to subscribe--it's a good, free thing--but truthout copies articles under Fair Use laws, so truthout is easier to link.]

During the intermission we had our birthdays, we acquired more fish and a gecko for Jackson, we went to Cedar Point (so now teenagers can't gape at me with their brightly colored dental work glistening, incredulous that I've never been, because now I have), we won our school board election by a landslide (that's two consecutive years of winning by a 3-to-1 margin, uh-huh uh-huh), we've camped, we've endured fireworks withdrawals, and we've survived the annual Normal Park yard sale, that joyous time of year when bargain hunters descend on our neighborhood like locusts. The Recreation Park pool is open, thanks to the fundraising efforts of some caring, hardworking neighbors. Oh, and Elvisfest is here. (I really miss the Frog Island Jazz and Blues festival.)