Not making nice

Activists get good at saying "no" and "why not?"
At times it comes out, "Hell, no!" Sometimes it is more like,"No, thank you very much." Today's post celebrates a few nay-sayers and questioners in the current news.

Sing it out - My Monday blog spotlighted some great entertainment news. Sunday Night the singing group Dixie Chicks won a Grammy music award for their song, "Not Ready To Make Nice." And TXSHARON, a blogger who's never ready to make nice in her irreverent blog, Bluedaze, linked to a funny cartoon about the Dixie Chicks.

Speaker Pelosi and women and men in the House say, "We will debate this." - The New York Times story about the House debate on the war in Iraq ends with this section on the possibility of cutting funding for the war. Outspoken Rep. Maxine Waters does not make nice about it. To quote,

As the debate proceeded, the rumblings of the far more complicated debate on financing began to surface from several Democrats who are urging the party to consider reduced war financing. Such a step is precarious, particularly for lawmakers outside Democratic strongholds.
Not so for Representative Maxine Waters of California, who leads the 75-member Out of Iraq caucus. Ms Waters called the resolution a first step in “reining in this president and his misguided policies.”
As her voice rose, she said she had no choice but to oppose continuing to funnel money to this “war giant whose appetite cannot be satisfied.”

Independent Maine Senators say, "Why not debate?" - Meanwhile Senators are not able to have a similar debate, because of procedural roadblocks put up by the Republican leadership. Maine's two independent Republican women Senators spoke out forcefully against the turn of events. The Washington Post story quoted Senator Olympia Snowe on the subject:

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, a moderate Maine Republican, fumed that she had been assured by GOP leaders that the Monday setback would be temporary. Her support for the McConnell position, she said, "was always predicated on the expectation that we would move forward," adding: "No one ever entertained the possibility that it would be a dead end."
Snowe called McConnell and Reid's inability to come to terms "inexcusable," adding that "the House of Representatives is preparing to debate and our Senate is deadlocked. It sort of marginalizes the U.S. Senate as an institution. We can't even determine how to go forward procedurally with a nonbinding resolution."

A top general says "I don't think so" to the administration - CNN reports that General Peter Pace has questioned the Iranian linkage to Iraq militias.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace appeared Tuesday to question Bush administration assertions that the Iranian government is supplying weapons to Shiite militant groups in Iraq.
"We know that the explosively formed penetrators are manufactured in Iran," Pace told Voice of America during a trip to Australia about what senior military officials call EFPs.
"What I would not say is that the Iranian government per se knows about this. It is clear that Iranians are involved and it is clear that materials from Iran are involved, but I would not say, based on what I know, that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit," Pace said.

Daughter of the South moves to the head of the Harvard line - Drew Gilpin Faust will be the new leader of Harvard come July of this year. Characteristically, she does not use her first name, Catherine. A New York Times article headlines, "A ‘Rebellious Daughter’ to Lead Harvard"

Recalling her coming of age as the only girl in a privileged, tradition-bound family in Virginia horse country, Drew Gilpin Faust, 59, has often spoken of her “continued confrontations” with her mother “about the requirements of what she usually called femininity.” Her mother, Catharine, she has said, told her repeatedly, “It’s a man’s world, sweetie, and the sooner you learn that the better off you’ll be.”
. . . What would her mother, who never went to college and died in 1966, have to say about her appointment? “I’ve often thought about that,” she said. “I’ve had dialogues with my dead mother over the 40 years since she died.”
Then she added with a rueful smile, “I think in many ways that comment — ‘It’s a man’s world, sweetie’ — was a bitter comment from a woman of a generation who didn’t have the kind of choices my generation of women had.”

Students to peak out - U. S. News and World Report covered the resurgence of SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, on college campuses. Shades of the Sixties! I was unable to find evidence that Harvard has a current chapter.

Blogger speaks out - Margaret at Margaret's Wanderings posts an ironic "Happy Valentine's Day" about civilian killings in Lebanon.

Technorati tags: war blogging current affairs news news and politics politics activism writing women
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about my love of books and reading.
My “dreams and dreaming” post today at Good Second Mondays is about images and dreams.