Here are three brief editorials while I wait for my computer at work to start functioning:
I was outraged to read in yesterday's Washington Post of former Surgeon General Richard
Carmona testimony before Congress that multiple times during his four year tenure (2002-2006) he was silenced and muffled by Bush's
politcal appointees from giving his
scientificly based professional opinion on controversial public health issues like stem cell research. As I've written before, this is an issue that is grossly misunderstood by the public and greatly misrepresented by Pres. Bush and large portions of the right wing (I am proud that all the
LDS Senators support stem cell research). As surgeon general
Carmona felt he had a responsibility and opportunity to educate the public on the issue, but chunks of his speeches were cut by Bush's people and his appearances were controlled by the White House. He was even instructed to mention Pres. Bush's name at least 3 times per page during his speeches! Unfortunately politcal handling of the SG isn't brand new as former Surgeons General under Reagan and Clinton both testified to feeling they didn't have free professional reign, though they both said that nothing they experienced compares to what Bush is doing.
While I am on the subject of Bush infuriating me, can you believe his response to the Scooter Libby sentencing? The story goes that a year or two ago an illegal leak of someone's name occured and a NY Times reporter was put in jail for not revealing her sources (essentially protecting Bush's people as it turns out). Bush said that once he found out who the source was he would punish and fire that person and seemed supportive of criminal proceedings. Well, it turned out that at least one of those people (Karl Rove and CIA director Richard Armitage also had) was Scooter Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney, a HUGELY important person and very close to Bush. Bush backpedaled and didn't fire him or support criminal charges, though Libby was eventually charged with obstruction of justice (I'm fuzzy on the exact details but I think that's right). A jury convicted him and a judge sentenced him to 30 months in jail. An unbelievable story in its own right if it had ended there as Libby became the highest ranking official to be convicted of criminal charges since the early 80's, but it gets worse. Just before Libby was about start serving time (he already had a prison ID number), Bush "commuted" his sentence saying it was excessive for the crime and that the evidence at trial didn't warrant this. Unbelievable! It's true that he didn't outright "pardon" him, meaning forgive the crime and overturn the conviction, but he's unintentionally opened a legal can of worms by commuting him. This essentially means that he accepts the conviction but forgives Libby of his jail time, and as a result, every person who has been or will be convicted on similar charges will argue that they deserve the same punishment Libby got. This is outrageous. This from the President who speaks so strongly for "mandatory minimum" sentences because "activist judges" take the law into their own hands and weakly punish criminals. I find such blatant hypocrisy so frustrating. You'll also notice Harriet Miers in the above photo; remember her? On the same day as what might arguably be his biggest achievement as President (confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts), Bush nominated his personal White House Lawyer to the Supreme Court. That obviously bombed, and now apparently her testimony about the justice department firings has been subpeoned, and Bush has ordered her and another advisor Sara Taylor, not to testify. Unbelievable. That's a whole other long story I won't get into.
Finally, have your heard about the outrageous news from the Dept of Homeland Security about permanent residency applications? There are a set number of green cards they give out every year (except to spouses of US citizens, there is an unlimited number of those, THANK GOODNESS!) and earlier this year a bulletin went out saying that more applications would be accepted for people from India and a couple other places. People who had been waiting 9-10 years could finally apply! People canceled trips, rushed to be married, have relatives wait on line to get documents, hired lawyers in order to get everything together by the July 2nd deadline. On July 2nd, the very day that everyone had their applications in, Homeland Security announced that they had made a mistake and the quota was already filled and there were no more green cards available. Being in the middle of a huge immigration process myself (though with the guarantee that a green card is available for Sarah) I understand the unbelievable stress, anxiety and frustration the process brings, not to mention the large amounts of money that gets spent (we've easily spent more than $1200 so far and have a ways to go) and I am beyond outraged and ashamed at the department's actions. According to a Washington Post article, hundreds of people from India responded to this terrible disappointment with a protest worthy of Ghandi, sending boxes of flowers to the department headquarters. Apparently they've received hundreds and hundreds of boxes of flowers from angry protesters. What an admirable way to channel anger and frustration. I wonder if I could be capable such a response. I hope I don't have to find out!
While having dinner with the Charland family last Sunday (he's our Bishop at Church), we heard a loud noise over their back porch patio. We looked up, and there was a hot air balloon, right above their neighborhood, maybe 30 feet (around 10 meters) in the sky! I could have thrown a baseball to them they were so close. So we put on our shoes, and with the rest of the neighborhood, we ran a couple blocks and watched as this huge balloon hovered in the air and landed in the middle of the street! What a wierd experience to watch a hot air balloon land on a suburban street completely unannounced. Apparently there was no wind and they were going to run out of gas if they continued, and there was no better place around, so they just landed. They called a truck and we watched as they brought the balloon down, folded it up and put it in away. The whole thing only took 4 minutes! We told the Charlands that they really didn't have to go through all the trouble to arrange something like that for our sending off! Read about the rest of our good-bye dinners at our family blog.
I of course am American and proud to celebrate the Forth of July, but I feel I've also picked up a countries over the years and am proud to celebrate them as well. It's interesting to me that Canada Day (July 1st) and Bastille Day (July 14th) are so close to our "national birthday." Yesterday was even Independence Day for Belarus (which is where this incredible picture comes from). 
Early July is just a good time to celebrate patriotism and have fireworks I guess. Here are some thoughts about my three countries:
I don't claim France as my country, but I married one of their girls and root for their soccer team, so I owe it to them to learn about their national holiday which they actually call le Fete Nationale. It's celebrated to commemorate the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789 and one of the major events triggering the French Revolution and all that followed. Two interestnig tidbits about recent Bastille Day events: in 1998 the national soccer team won the World Cup on July 12, triggering what must have been a wild party. In 2002, shots were fired at then President Jacques Chirac, but he wasn't hit. I really don't know much else. I do love that photo of the Ave Champs de Mars though, the site of my 18km triumph in Paris. 
Michael Gerson (a former GW Bush speechwriter, the one that wrote the phrase "axis of evil," and current Washington Post columnist) made a great point in today's paper. "It is typical of America that our great national day is not the celebration of a battle -- or, as in the case of France, the celebration of a riot. It is the celebration of a political act, embedded in a philosophic argument: that the rights of man are universal because they are rooted in the image of God." The spirit of the 4th of July reminds me a lot of the spirit of Thanksgiving, as I survey the 