morning all. took four days off, no market, no current events, no bush, no iraq, just my better half, some good food, and fun. just remember, always split aces and eights.
No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch
The Guardian
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.
Sen. Ted Kennedy addressed a gathering organized by the Alliance for Justice. Kennedy spoke about the Bush administration's lack of respect for the rule of law. Following his remarks, a documentary film titled Quiet Revolution was screened. The film chronicles 30 years of Republican efforts to turn back the clock on civil liberties.
Federal prosecutors have told Bernard B. Kerik, whose nomination as homeland security secretary in 2004 ended in scandal, that he is likely to be charged with several felonies, including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping. Kerik's indictment could set the stage for a courtroom battle that would draw attention to Kerik's extensive business and political dealings with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who personally recommended him to President Bush for the Cabinet.
The government contractor that set up a billion-dollar-a-year federal reading program for the Education Department and failed to keep it free of conflicts of interest is one of the companies now evaluating the program.
Bush will hold a Rose Garden press conference today at 10 am to slam Congress’ efforts to push a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. CNN’s White House correspondent Elaine Quijano reports:
President Bush is showing no signs of blinking in his opposition to any kind of timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals in Iraq. And essentially, Soledad, that’s the message we expect to hear once more from the President today when he delivers remarks in the Rose Garden.
Iranian diplomat seized in Iraq released By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer 26 minutes ago
An Iranian diplomat in Iraq seized two months ago by uniformed gunmen has been released, Iran reported Tuesday, while in Baghdad a senior foreign ministry official said his government was "intensively" seeking the release of five Iranians detained there by the U.S.
The developments came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the next two days would be "fairly critical" to resolving the dispute over a British navy crew seized by Iran.
The Iraqi official also said Iraq had exerted pressure on those holding the Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who was released Monday and returned to Tehran on Tuesday. The official would not say who had custody of the diplomat.
A senior government official, however, said Iraqi intelligence had held the Iranian diplomat. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Sharafi was seized on Feb. 4 when his car was intercepted by vehicles carrying armed men in the Karradah district of Baghdad. The gunmen, who wore Iraqi uniforms, forced him into one of their vehicles and sped away.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency confirmed Sharafi's release but gave no indication of the circumstances surrounding his Feb. 4 disappearance or his release. In January, the U.S. military seized five Iranians in a raid in northern Iraq, accusing them of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents and militias in Iraq.
Two days after the raid, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said President Bush approved the strategy of raiding Iranian targets in Iraq as part of efforts to confront the government in Tehran.
Iran had insisted that the five detained Iranians were engaged exclusively in consular work.
In the “latest evidence of stepped up sectarian and insurgent killings outside Baghdad,” a “truck bomber carrying food supplies killed eight Iraqi schoolgirls and a baby in the northern oil city of Kirkuk on Monday as suspected Sunni militants executed 21 Shiite workers north of Baghdad.”
The embassies of the United Kingdom, Germany and Portugal, located in the same building in northeast Caracas, were evacuated Monday due to a bomb scare on the British mission.
The action coincided with the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Falkland Islands war. ...
“Despite repeated requests from a House committee chairman and government investigators, the Pentagon has failed to hand over its official assessments of the readiness of US-trained Iraqi security units to take over key functions from the US military.”
Can you believe this? How about this toy for little girls?
Tesco condemned for selling pole dancing toy by COLIN FERNANDEZ - More by this author » Last updated at 23:13pm on 24th October 2006 Comments (51)
Mother of two Karen Gallimore was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11, when she came across the 'toy'
Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of "destroying children's innocence".
The Tesco Direct site advertises the kit with the words, "Unleash the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peekaboo pole inside the tube, slip on the sexy tunes and away you go!
"Soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance Dollars".
The £49.97 kit comprises a chrome pole extendible to 8ft 6ins, a 'sexy dance garter' and a DVD demonstrating suggestive dance moves.
The kit, condemned as 'extremely dangerous' by family campaigners yesterday, was discovered by mother of two Karen Gallimore who was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11.
Mrs Gallimore, 33, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, said yesterday: "I'm no prude, but any children can go on there and see it. It's just not on."
Dr Adrian Rogers, of family campaigning group Family Focus said yesterday that the kit would "destroy children's lives".
He said: "Tesco is Britain's number one chain, this is extremely dangerous. It is an open invitation to turn the youngest children on to sexual behaviour.
"This will be sold to four, five and six-year olds. This is a most dangerous toy that will contribute towards destroying children's innocence."
He added: "Children are being encouraged to dance round a pole which is interpreted in the adult world as a phallic symbol.
"It ought to be stopped, it really requires the intervention of members of Parliament. This should only be available to the most depraved people who want to corrupt their children."
Tesco today agreed to remove the product from the Toy section of the site, but said it will remain on sale as a Fitness Accessory, despite the fact that the product description invites users to "unleash the sex kitten inside".
Also on sale on the Tesco website is a strip poker game, "Peekaboo Poker" which is illustrated by a picture of a reclining woman in underwear.
The card game is is described as a game that "risks the risque and brings a whole lot of naughtiness to the table.
"Played with a unique pack of Peekaboo Boy and Girl playing cards, the aim of the game is to win as many Peekaboo chips as possible and turn them into outrageously naughty fun."
The pole dance kit is the latest item to fuel allegations that major retailers increasingly sell products which "sexualise" young children such as T-shirts with suggestive messages.
In recent years Asda was forced to remove from sale pink and black lace lingerie, including a push-up bra to girls as young as nine.
Next had to remove t-shirts on sale for girls as young as six with the slogan "so many boys, so little time."
And BHS and others came under fire for selling padded bras embellished with a "Little Miss Naughty" logo and t-shirts with a Playboy-style bunny that said "I love boys...They are stupid."
Tesco last night denied the pole dancing kit was sexually oriented and said it was clearly marked for "adult use".
A spokesman added: "Pole dancing is an increasing exercise craze. This item is for people who want to improve their fitness and have fun at the same time."
“The world needs at least 4 million health care professionals, the director-general of the World Health Organization said Tuesday.” The crisis is “most severe in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 24% of the global burden of diseases but has only 3% of the health workforce.”
Multitasking is fundamental to 20 something's and geeks, wonks, etc., born as long ago as 1960 and before.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that any legislation including CUTTING the PURSE strings for "SURGES" (in Vietnam lingo ESCALATIONS), which will spike with the next phase in the PNAC hegemonic play book (NUKING IRAN), will put an and to the WARMONGERS ambitions, PERIOD!!!
What ended the Vietnam "POLICE ACTION" was the implosion of the military due to civic uprsingings linked to the DRAFT and GI's refusing to carry out futile missions, RAMPANT FRAGGING!!!
The Pentagon Papers helped, the paranoid self destruction of the UNITARY EXECUTIVE contributed, Cronkite's coverage of student protests made a difference, but SIR NO SIR! made perpetual war untenable.
Today there is BLACKWATER, et. al., NO DRAFT, corporate media stenography due to military targeting of UN-embedded journalists and BLUE DOGS who have their reelection aspirations tied to FORTUNE 100 company's campaign contributions. Besides they have an addictive dependence on DoD contracts that employ a large number of their constituents, without which their state's would go bankrupt.
THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH is that if IMPEACHMENT IS OFF THE TABLE so is PEACE and JUSTICE. GET IT?????????????
I can live with perpetual war leading to MARSHAL LAW in NYC, I'm a lemming.
I never watch TV but I happened to have it on this morning...and I got to see President WarHappy.
blech
He was telling the press and the public that he was going to veto the war funding bill...that was the 'breaking news'
and now because of the democrats, the troops won't be rotated because some of the newbies won't be trained...oh hahahahaha didn't Mr.Warhappy send troops over there recently without training to cut costs? I read that.
I never watch TV but I happened to have it on this morning...and I got to see President WarHappy.
blech
He was telling the press and the public that he was going to veto the war funding bill...that was the 'breaking news'
and now because of the democrats, the troops won't be rotated because some of the newbies won't be trained...oh hahahahaha didn't Mr.Warhappy send troops over there recently without training to cut costs? I read that.
think maybe you had it right the first time alice. these guys can't carry sams (fill in the blank). why is it that ultra progressives are ultra boring and so misguidedly altruistic.
Why is Air America giving airtime to an undercover operative of Karl Rove? The attack on Move On.Org is unconscionable!!! I am sure that this guest (John???) was a big supporter of Ralph Nader -- the man who was responsible for handing this country to the neocons. This John character and his band of fellow travelers are the neocon equivalents on the progressive side. As a Wisconsin native (now living in Chicago), it really pains me that this kind of drivel is coming from Madison.
Ecuador's decision to adopt the U.S. dollar has been ``a complete failure,'' hurting economic growth and exports, President Rafael Correa said.
Ecuador adopted the dollar as its official currency in 2000, a year after defaulting on $6.5 billion in debt. The move attracted investors, revived the banking system and helped slash inflation to 2.9 percent last year from 108 percent in 2000.
Use of the dollar is now hurting exporters, limiting job creation, crimping economic growth and only benefiting the financial and oil industries, Correa said in Guayaquil tonight, where he gave details about his economic plan.
``We've stabilized at price levels that are far too high,'' Correa said. ``The dollar has been a complete failure.''
Evidence of Ecuador's weak economic growth is masked by high oil prices, Correa said. The country's non-oil trade deficit in 2006 was six times higher than in 2000, he said. ...
I receive just receive this email from a friend. Apparently, the right-wing group Move America Forward is not happy with Anti-War Protesters. Here it Is:
You've become so despicable in your actions that America is now turning against you. You are failing.
You promised 100,000 marchers for the "March on the Pentagon" but your march was a total bust with only a few thousand protestors turning out to show solidarity with the terrorists, and speaking out against the fight for freedom.
Leading anti-war senator, Barack Obama, announced this weekend that Congress will not insist on a timetable for withdrawal and surrender in Iraq after all. You've even turned off the more moderate members of your community who have helped me to be able to get this message sent out to you.
We will no longer tolerate the anti-war crowd subjecting America to more terrorist attacks as a result of the defeat-retreat-surrender policies you advocate.
You already have blood on your hands for emboldening the terrorists to kill our troops, we won't let you endanger innocent American citizens here at home.
When you burn American soldiers in effigy you show us which side in the war on terror you stand on, and it's obviously not with America and our military men and women.
We won't back down as you try to appease the forces of Islamic terrorism. We won't allow you to dishonor our troops as you try to reignite a Vietnamized-culture in America.
Sincerely Yours,
Melanie Morgan Chairman, Move America Forward www.MoveAmericaForward.org
thanks edna. check out their video. they put a face on fight them over there before we fight them over here. sadly, when we fight them over here, it appears that they will be armed with 20 megaton hydrogen bombs, which last time i checked don't quite fit in a suitcase.
Your comment that Obama said (or predicted) that the Democrats would cave in as soon as Bush issued a veto were off of the mark in a number of ways. In the first place it is not true the the CNN statements matched the alleged AP statements. In fact there is a big contradiction.
Take a look at the DailyKos thread dealing with this here.So the real question is did Obama really say the key thing that the AP article claims he did. There is reason to think that he did not because even though the AP article is full of quotes that are similar to the things that Obama said on CNN that say day, the key statement that was made the focus of the AP article where Obama is paraphrased as saying the after a veto congress would "quickly" respond with a bill "without timelines" is not supported by any direct quotes.
There is a lot of discussion about this odd fact in the above thread, and in the end many posters agreed that the AP article is very suspect, and is probably a hit on Obama designed to keep him from looking good next to Hillary on the anti-war front.
The bottom line is that the old style print media will do this sort of thing to any Democrat and we just can't accept letting them paraphrase what candidates say.
Since there is a transcript of the CNN interview and none of the AP interview we should accept that. And it is just nonsense to suggest that Obama said on CNN what the AP article claims he said in its interview.
The USS Nimitz set sail Monday to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which took part in Gulf war games last week with a third US carrier, the Pentagon said.
The new battle group will be in position by "late-to-mid April," but there will be no overlap with the Eisenhower's presence in the Gulf, so the number of US carriers there would stay at two, a navy official said on condition of anonymity.
The nuclear-powered Nimitz and its flotilla of destroyers, cruisers and missile-carrying frigates has weighed anchor in San Diego, California.
"It's already departed," the navy source said on condition of anonymity.
The Nimitz is to support US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Navy said, amid a spike in tensions over Iran's seizure of 15 British marines and sailors and an ongoing standoff over Iran's nuclear program.
The Eisenhower took part this week in war games in the Gulf with the carrier USS John S. Stennis. The Stennis and the Eisenhower wound down their show of force involving 15 warships in the Gulf on Thursday.
The two-carrier deployment in the Gulf was the highest level US naval presence in the strategic oil shipping channel since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
the kids were on a school camping trip that lasted over the weekend. last wed, the wife and i realized that we were going to be alone over a weekend for the 1st time in 18 years, so we booked a flight to vegas. seems the other thing you leave in vegas is your money.
with so many pubes in the race, what are the chances they will self destruct by the time they decide who to run?
is there a generic mechanism to pull them together the way bushwa did in 2000. i always thought they accomplished that because the neocons were a personality cult much like jim jones.
Romney would start Iraq war again, says spokesperson David Edwards and Mike Sheehan Published: Tuesday April 3, 2007
Mitt Romney's press secretary, Kevin Madden, tells Chris Matthews on MSNBC's 'Hardball' that the 2008 GOP White House hopeful supports President Bush's decision for pre-emptive war in Iraq. Madden then answers several of Matthews' Iraq questions evasively, focusing instead on Romney's tough stance on fighting "the global jihad."
At one point, Madden says of Saddam Hussein, "All the intelligence pointed to the fact that he may have had weapons of mass destruction and ... we had to act," which triggers a contentious back-and-forth between Matthews and Madden.
Madden later pans Democrats: "When you look at people who just use words like 'hope' and 'wish,' that's not what's going to eradicate Islamic fascism across the globe; that's not what's gonna help us challenge the terrorists."
sure is. first time i ever saw someone rapell downwards head first.
their stage was a set of interconnecting cubes that kept going up and down so they could disappear things and make new things appear. the stage was circular with 360 degree seating and behind the seats was a continuous screen that was covered with constantly changing visuals. each seat had a set of speakers in it to complement the main sound system.
blah blah blah said... ac = atlantic city. got it. hows it compare?
April 3, 2007 11:32 AM
well!
AC is smaller and grotty, you don't wanna wander off the boardwalk at night...but it's right on an ocean beach, which is swell. It's not an easy comparison. The poker action is pretty happnin', and the sportsbook is ALL ponies. Lots of restaurants, and funky kiosks and piers. The Sands will be imploded soon to make way for some Carl Icahn monstrosity...
Richardson First Candidate To Sign Medical Marijuana Bill Yahoo News | April 3, 2007 10:41 AM
New Mexico doctors are allowed to prescribe marijuana to help some seriously ill patients manage symptoms including pain and nausea under a bill signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson on Monday.
"This law will provide much-needed relief for New Mexicans suffering from debilitating diseases," Richardson, a Democratic candidate for U.S. president in 2008, said at the signing ceremony. "It is the right thing to do."
Top Researcher Predicts Major Hurricane Season Yahoo News | DAN ELLIOTT | April 3, 2007 11:15 AM
The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should be "very active," with nine hurricanes and a good chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast, a top researcher said Tuesday.
Forecaster William Gray said he expects 17 named storms in all this year, five of them major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. The probability of a major hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast this year: 74 percent, compared with the average of 52 percent over the past century, he said.
Fake Niger Letter Was Foundation Of The Case For Iraq War The Washington Post | Peter Eisner | April 3, 2007 09:12 AM
It was 3 a.m. in Italy on Jan. 29, 2003, when President Bush in Washington began reading his State of the Union address that included the now famous -- later retracted -- 16 words: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Like most Europeans, Elisabetta Burba, an investigative reporter for the Italian newsweekly Panorama, waited until the next day to read the newspaper accounts of Bush's remarks. But when she came to the 16 words, she recalled, she got a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach. She wondered: How could the American president have mentioned a uranium sale from Africa?
Memo To Bush: 57 Days < 119 Days » The US News Political Bulletin reported this morning that “White House strategists are now pulling out all the stops to blame the Democratic majority in Congress for a potential delay in funding the Iraq war. … White House aides have adopted a new gambit — referring to the number of days since Bush requested funding for the troops in an effort to keep up the pressure.”
This morning at his Rose Garden press conference, President Bush highlighted this new gambit, saying it has been 57 days since he sent Congress his funding request. If Congress fails to act soon, Bush said, “the price of that failure will be paid by our troops and their loved ones.” Watch it:
During the reign of the Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Bush submitted two major supplemental spending requests. Each request experienced a delay far more than 57 days with hardly a peep of anger from the Commander-In-Chief. Details below:
February 14, 2005: Bush submits $82 billion supplemental bill May 11, 2005: Bush signs the supplemental Total time elapsed: 86 days
February 16, 2006: Bush submits $72 billion supplemental bill June 15, 2006: Bush signs the supplemental Total time elapsed: 119 days
After the 119 day delay, Bush did not say an “irresponsible” Congress had “undercut the troops” or that military families had “paid the price of failure.” Instead, Bush told the conservative-led Congress, “I applaud those Members of Congress who came together in a fiscally responsible way to provide much-needed funds for the War on Terror.”
Thanks for your wonderful sense of humor and keen insight on critical issues!
Still working on my free ongoing benefit auction for the Earth to help us fight this propaganda soaked media and this weird Neo-conservative government.
We got a big jump and two listings last time when we announced it on your show. We now have $11,000 in pledged donations and it has only been a few weeks.
Our latest listing are New Orleans Musician's Fund and Fisher House Veteran's Services. There is a press release with all the details on the site. We are unfunded still and can use support even if it is just visiting the site and browsing. That will help a lot.
Sellers sell all types of items and donate 1-100% or the sale directly to their critical charity. We take no fees and will be supported through sponsorships and grants.
House conservatives pledge allegiance to Bush veto. “In a letter sent to the White House on Monday, House GOP members assured President Bush that they would support his decision to veto the emergency supplemental spending bill. ‘We are greatly concerned about the extraneous and excessive non-security related funds contained within the Global War on Terror supplemental spending bill currently under consideration in the Congress,’ the letter read. ‘If you choose to veto this measure over this spending, we will sustain your veto.’”
2 whole paragraphs Posted by ro on April 2nd at 10:55am in in the news 9/11 affected me deeply, as I know it did many Americans. The falling of the twin towers served to remind me that many of the assumptions Americans have about their lives are rooted in false feelings of security. In light of this reminder, I have begun doing exactly what this country, at its best, allows for me to do: inquire. Investigate. America is great in so many ways, one of which is the freedom to speak, and indeed think, freely. I have, of late, begun exercising the rights bestowed upon me by the democratic system I value, and the exercising of these rights has taken the form of an inquiry into what happened five years ago, an inquiry that resists the dominant explanations and that dares to entertain ideas that push me to the edge of what is bearable. I have come to no conclusions and, given the scope of the subject, will not for some time.
If the very act of asking is so destabilizing for people, than I have to wonder whether the fabric of our democracy is indeed so raveled it is beyond salvage. My own belief is that the act of asking is itself reparative, because it brings to life the values on which our constitution rests. I am, therefore, pledging my allegiance, hand over heart, trying, as always, for a rigorous truth.
Americans least concerned about global warming. “More than two-thirds of the world’s people are worried by global warming with Americans (57 percent) among the least anxious even though their nation is the top source of greenhouse gases, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.” Brazilians topped the list, with 87 percent concerned about climate change.
“It is the common people, who must, under God, save us.” - Sam Adams, patriot and rebel against British rule in America. (1)
Baltimore, MD - The goldfish in our pond had a pretty rough time this winter. The great blue heron, a majestic bird, which is usually found on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, was eating them for dessert. I would chase the herons away, whenever I could, but they kept coming back, and back, until they got them all, except a few too small to bother with. If you’re the low creature on the food chain, like the goldfish, your fate isn’t pretty. As a metaphor, the story of bird-eats-fish fits in with the present state of our America. Today’s America is a place where the ethos of the Vulture Capitalists reigns supreme. ...
FBI gathered ‘purely political intel’ on war critics. “A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show…The revelations, combined with protester accounts, provide the first public evidence that Washington-based FBI personnel used their intelligence-gathering powers in the District to collect purely political intelligence.”
toniD said... FBI gathered ‘purely political intel’ on war critics. “A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing new about that shit. Back in the 60's, the FBI did much worse shit than that!
Back in those days, Hoover gave his pigs carte blanche to go after hippie leftists. In Chicago in 68, FBI thugs were turned loose in the crowd and they beat the holy virtual shit out of any poor fucker that got in their way!
They'll kill ya! said... toniD said... FBI gathered ‘purely political intel’ on war critics. “A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing new about that shit. Back in the 60's, the FBI did much worse shit than that!
Back in those days, Hoover gave his pigs carte blanche to go after hippie leftists. In Chicago in 68, FBI thugs were turned loose in the crowd and they beat the holy virtual shit out of any poor fucker that got in their way!
************
I remember very well. First of all, I am from Chicago. Secondly, I did march in a few protests. Yes I am that old!
Sloan: Harpooning Blackstone Group Blackstone Group's bid to go public has exposed some interesting tax games. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Allan Sloan Updated: 11:09 a.m. CT April 3, 2007 April 3, 2007 - If you're wondering why people like me keep writing about Blackstone Group, the big private-equity player, there's a simple answer: The whale that comes to the surface gets harpooned. And whales don't get much bigger than Blackstone, which lately seems to be bidding on every asset in sight.
When private-equity firms and hedge funds kept low profiles, they were well out of harpoon range. They benefited from an enormous tax loophole that few but the cognoscenti knew about and a nice legal loophole that's familiar to people in the world of partnerships but that I'd never heard of until last week. These things have now emerged into public view, thanks largely to Blackstone's bid to become a publicly traded company. The harpoons are flying-as well they should be.
Let's start with the tax loophole. Hedge funds and private-equity funds charge substantial fees to their investors, but what's made some hedgies and private-equity folks into billionaires is that they get a "carried interest" in the profits earned by the funds they manage. This piece of the action-or "carry," as it's known-is typically 20 percent, sometimes even more.
But instead of being treated as a fee, which it is in substance, the carry has been treated as a long-term capital gain. At current rates, that means paying 15 percent to Uncle Sam, as opposed to a top rate of 35 percent.
What I've learned since writing last week's column is that people have been playing this tax game for many years. That doesn't make it any less outrageous, of course. I hope that Congress, which is making noise about this, actually does something instead of just talking.
"p.s. heard "Frampton Live" the other night driving back from Joshua Tree and totally thought of you--it's so cool we've known each other that long :)"
shot inside CNN headquarters complex By MARYANN MROWCA, Associated Press Writer 9 minutes ago
ATLANTA - A man and a woman were shot inside the building complex that houses CNN's headquarters in what police described as a "domestic situation."
The two were arguing when the man pulled out a gun and shot the woman, Atlanta Police Officer James Polite said. He said the man was then shot by a CNN security guard. Their conditions were not immediately released.
CNN reported that the offices of its Internet operations, CNN.com, were immediately evacuated and that a suspect was in custody. Video footage showed police pointing guns at a man lying on the ground inside a building.
An announcement over the building's public-address system said there had been gunfire "with potential casualties by the escalators" near the main entrance of the building, facing Centennial Olympic Park.
"I heard four or five shots. I really didn't see it. I got out of there quick," said Jas Stanford, 27, who had been helping take down a stage in the park that was used for Final Four festivities.
The CNN complex also includes the Omni Hotel, a large atrium and a food court. It is connected to Philips Arena, the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.
In the food court, Trina Johnson, 44, of Atlanta, was with her daughter on a family outing.
"All of a sudden we heard a big boom. We thought it was an explosion," Johnson said. "We didn't see the gun. Everybody just started running."
I was in Iraq for 14 months spent 5 months in Tal Afar and 9 in Ramadi. Sen McCain and a posse of Senators and Reps showed up and wanted to the full dog and pony show. And the word was that he wanted his photo op that day. He wanted to go out a spot where we had lost four people with one IED a few days before. Many senior level officers called it what it was, a publicity stunt and it wasnt allowed to happen. All and all many of the senior officers did not come away from their meeting with him and his posse with favorable opinions of the double talk express. They basically thought he was a glory hound.
Grover Norquist: “The base isn’t interested in Iraq. The base is for Bush. If Bush said tomorrow, we’re leaving in two months, there would be no revolt.” Garance has details.
At the eleventh hour, the United States and South Korea signed the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (Korus FTA), the second largest free trade deal since NAFTA. President Bush and big business claim victory, but democracy has lost.
It is a sad day for peoples' movements around the world who are fighting to preserve human dignity amid growing corporate power over our lives and democracies. At 3:55 pm on April 1, 54-year old Heo Se-Wook, a union member of KCTU, attempted suicide by self-immolation as an act of resistance against the Korea-US FTA negotiation. He is in critical emergency condition at the Han-River Sungshim Hospital. ...
The Current Occupant decided to go for a walk one fine spring morning, and he strolled down the White House drive to the main gate and chatted with the cops in the guardhouse and then strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue and through Lafayette Park to Christ Church and turned and looked at the White House through the trees and then it dawned on him that he was alone, no Secret Service in their dark suits and their earpieces with the curly wires. Nobody had tried to stop him from leaving. They just let him wander away.
A couple of kids in Capitals jackets walked past, and then a cop, and an old couple, and nobody stopped; they glanced his way and nodded and moved on. He thought, “It’s true what Laura says. I’m different in person than the way the media portrays me.” Some folks sat in lawn chairs holding signs, GET OUT OF IRAQ and STOP THE TORTURE and so forth. He walked in among them to get a closer look and said to the GET OUT OF IRAQ man, “What would you say to the president if you could talk to him up close and personal?”
“I’d tell him that I’m afraid for my country. We’ve accepted lies without protest, we’re ignoring what we’re doing to the planet, we’re bankrupting the nation, we’re stuck in a senseless war and we can’t even take decent care of our own people.”
“Well, everything has its ups and downs,” said Mr. Bush.
He walked away and sat down on a bench. His brother Jeb had phoned from his Florida condo. He was trying to write a book and earn some dough and figure out what to do next and he wasn’t hopeful. Decent governor, smart, good man. But the family name was mud, the country was Bushed. The lecture circuit had more or less dried up for Republicans, as Donald Rumsfeld was discovering. Nobody wanted to pay to hear an upbeat story about how we’re winning in Iraq, and he wasn’t getting good offers for his memoirs. Giuliani and McCain were bucking a strong tide. Lots of negatives for Republicans. It was like when Al Capone Jr. applied for accounting school: There was distrust to overcome.
His approval ratings were down to a faithful remnant who believed that he was God’s chosen president as prophesied in Nehemiah, the one whose reign is the beginning of the Tribulation. And he had seen new polling data showing an 85 percent correlation between his 2004 voters and the more than half of all Americans who cannot say how long it takes the Earth to make one orbit around the sun. They had voted for the man they thought didn’t know either. And that’s how he would go down in history: the slacker, the dummy.
And now Congress had discovered the power of the subpoena. The firing of the U.S. attorneys was a mess. He should have said no way, Jose, to the Leahy committee, but instead the geniuses on the staff had him offer up Karl Rove to testify in private, no oath, no transcript, which was a joke, of course, and it only got the Democrats riled up more. And using the Patriot Act to slip the new appointments through without Senate confirmation — boy, who was calling the signals on that one? Hello!??? They were like, “Let’s run this around end,” and he was going like, “No way,” and they were like, “What’s the problem?” and he was like, “Duh, you really want me to tell you?” But they went ahead and did it and now every Republican with a re-election race in 2008 was looking for cover. Sununu was shaky. Even Coleman, the biggest bootlicker in the Senate, was playing coy.
Not much chance of him riding a motorcade through cheering throngs in foreign cities, the way other presidents had finished up. Too bad about that. But he still had Laura, and he had Dick. Dick was his insurance policy against impeachment. No chance, not with Gunner waiting in the wings.
It was time for his soup and sandwich and his 1:30 nap, so he headed home. There was a new cop at the gate and he didn’t recognize Mr. Bush either. He waved him away. “I need to go in there,” said Mr. Bush. “I’ve got a job to do.” That was all the guard needed to hear. He had the man taken into custody on suspicion of intent to do harm. The case is being investigated.
— Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country, including KANU, 91.5 FM, in Lawrence.
"He has'nt been seen since, the guard when questioned mentioned him being taken away by the DC CIA staff and them mentioning him being taken to a 'secure' place for interrogation.
So far theres no indication the White House has noticed him missing."
Conyers to Goodling: Time to talk. “House Democrats on Tuesday asked a top Justice Department aide to come to Capitol Hill for a private interview in the next week on the firing of federal prosecutors. They said she cannot simply refuse to testify on the matter,” the AP reports. “Monica Goodling, who has said she would assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid appearing at Senate hearings, must tell Congress which specific questions she’s refusing to answer, Democrats said in a letter to her lawyer.” Read the full letter at The Gavel.
RANT coming at you ... may be my last so enjoy ;-))
When it comes to Pres. Election Campaign $$$$$ decides ... cry if you must but its a fact.
So here is a piece of news cause some just don't get it: Carrying on endlessly about your least favorite, Hillary Clinton and her 26 Mil, and bashing her to bits, wont help your fav. candidate and wont keep the GOP candidate from moving into the White House in 2008.
So Candidates of both sides have already raised a ton of campaign money. ALL OF THEM but of course only Hillary Clinton can be bought acc. to the nitwits ....just came across the usual type nonsense article at HuffPost. Check for yourself. Pretty embarrassing even to some of the HuffPost borgs.
Other Dem candidate have done pretty well, too. Obama accumulated close to 26 Mil I read ... but that is a completely diff. story. Why? Who knows. Who cares.
While netwits and TV tweeties are getting their knickers in a twist about HC, again: Repub Mitt Romney leads the GOP pack with 23 Mil dollars or so raised in no time at all.
And that comes as no surprise to me at all cause I alread predicted that he will get the GOP nomination .... and IMHO Romney will double this amount in no time also cause that what happens in GOP Real Politik ..... unless the Press Club refuses to play which I doubt will happen. ... Unless bogus Margaret Carlson is still hopelessly in love with "daddy Fred Thompson the goodlooking Republican with gravitas." Who cares what he stands for. Does he have a Health Plan? Duh? Does Romney? Does Saint McCain? Is the Pope Polish? It all depends on the Press Club pre-election dance ...
Are we thrilled that Dem hopefuls get their act together early this time in the money department? Is the pope ....? Anyone remembers Kerry's totally embarrassing plan to postpone the 2004 nomination party cause he lacked $$$$? Guess not.
Bet nobody remember's Coulter of the 90s Arianna Huffington's husband featherweight Michael either. Who made immigration his campaign issue and almost beat Feinstein in 94 by spending the most $$$ ever in California campaign history - 30 Mil. He never said a peep about anything cause as we know from his short stunt in the House he had nothing to say. He always refused to debate - but his TV ads showed his face 24/7 months and months ahead. I used to think: Who is that? What is he selling? A week before election time Arianna's illegal nanny saved the day. AH immediately left her mansion in Santa Barbara "cause we must help Newt Gingrich." Shameless lot.
At election time money rules. So beat up on Hillary Clinton if you must. But be prepared for another 4 or 8 years of GOP rule. AFAIK and read on the net some "progressives" are just fine with that. Not most but some.
I don't feel that way. I want the Dems to win in 2008. Cause when it comes down to it I always worry about the Supreme Court. THE SUPREME COURT. The Supremes decide life for you when everything else fails. But Looks like I am the only one who remembers 2000, too.
I understand some of what you were saying in your rant. I have to read it again because I don't think I grasped what you wanted to say in it.
Everything in this world, lately, seems to be moving bi-polar. Like an alternate universe. I'm still trying to grasp the big picture of what is happening. All I know is that it scares me.
Blair Calls For Direct Calls With Iran AP | TARIQ PANJA | April 3, 2007 01:48 PM
Britain called for direct talks with Iran over 15 captive Britons Tuesday after speaking for the first time with the chief Iranian negotiator. The announcement followed the sudden release of an Iranian diplomat in Iraq that raised new hope in resolving the standoff.
In a statement late Tuesday, Prime Minister Blair's Downing Street office said "both sides share a desire for an early resolution to this issue through direct talks."
John Kerry: McCain Approached Me About Joining Dem Ticket in 2004 by Jonathan Singer, Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 10:30:45 AM EST
Note: You can now read the rest of the interview with Senator Kerry here.
On Monday afternoon I had the chance to speak with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 2004. During the interview, which covers a range of topics and which I will be posting later this afternoon, an item of particular interest jumped out at me: According to Sen. Kerry, it was John McCain's staff who approached his campaign about potentially filling the Vice President slot on the Democratic ticket in 2004. Take a listen to and a look at the interchange...
If you're having trouble with the Odeo player you can download the .mp3 file here.
ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran April 03, 2007 5:25 PM
Brian Ross and Christopher Isham Report:
A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.
The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.
It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.
U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.
Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.
Jundullah has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan.
The leader, Regi, claims to have personally executed some of the Iranians.
"He used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members.
"Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," Debat said.
Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan.
Last month, Iranian state television broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack.
Warming ruling squeezes Bush from both sides Justices say government must explain refusal to act on car emissions
MSNBC and NBC News Updated: 5:58 p.m. CT April 2, 2007 WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to explain why it has refused to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from cars, putting the Bush administration under pressure from an unusual coalition of environmental groups and leaders of the auto industry to move quickly on global warming.
In a 5-to-4 decision, the court rejected the administration’s argument that it had no legal authority to limit carbon dioxide released from new cars. In a ruling described as a landmark victory for environmental activists, it decided that the EPA does have such authority and that it must give better reasons for not using it than the “laundry list” of “impermissible considerations” it has offered until now.
“We have ended the administration’s denial of reality and defiance of the law,” said Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of Connecticut, one of 12 states that joined a similar number of environmental groups in suing the Bush administration for its refusal to regulate emissions tied to global warming.
Massive security contractor faces growing protest in rural California town over 842-acre base Miriam Raftery and Muriel Kane Published: Tuesday April 3, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- Potrero, California boasts a broad swath of meadowland that currently houses derelict chicken coops.
Surrounded by the Cleveland National Forest, the property boasts a former chicken ranch and includes an environmentally sensitive, protected agricultural preserve southeast of San Diego.
But if private security contractor Blackwater USA gets its way, this 850-strong community will soon host an 824-acre military training base, replacing the erstwhile chicken ranch with fifteen firing ranges and an emergency vehicle operator’s course the length of ten football fields.
A RAW STORY investigation has already led to the removal of one lawyer connected to the project. The inquiry has also discovered that California congressman Duncan Hunter -- ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee -- is a client of the firm, Blackwater USA, a massive US security contractor in Iraq, and minutes of a planning meeting raise questions about whether Hunter was involved in lobbying for the project.
At a Feb. 8, 2007 planning meeting, Vice President for Blackwater West Brian Bonfiglio said Hunter was one of the firm's clients.
Cheney Lurks Behind Shrub At Bush Press Conference YouTube | April 3, 2007 04:26 PM
From Talking Points Memo:
Bush: The bottom line is this: Congress's failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return to the front lines. And others could see their loved ones headed back to the war earlier than they need to. That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people.
Let's put aside for a sec the more transparent ruse here -- that the Dems are failing to fund the troops, when in fact they passed a bill doing just that. Instead, check out how Bush is still asserting that the approach being used by the Congressional leadership -- that is, tying troop readiness standards and a withdrawal deadline to funding -- is "unacceptable" to the American people. Or at least that he "believes" (weasel word) that it's unacceptable to them.
Special counsel needed for U.S. Attorney probe? Sens. Patrick Leahy and Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today asking “whether a special counsel is necessary” to handle discussions between Capitol Hill and the Justice Department about White House liason Monica Goodling’s role in the firing of eight U.S Attorneys. Leahy and Whitehouse write that “the office of the Attorney General appears to be hopelessly conflicted” regarding Goodling. TPMmuckraker has more.
I'm watching this movie called "In The Company of Strangers"
A bus breaks down in the wilderness. Eight elderly women, average age 71, are stranded at a deserted farmhouse. The have only their wits, their memories, and eventually some roasted frogs' legs, to sustain them. Through the long days and nights this remarkable group of strangers share their life stories and exchange intimate thoughts; turning the crisis into a magical time of humour and spirit. Featuring non-professional actors and spontaneous dialogue, this memorable film dissolves the barrier between fiction and reality, weaving a heartwarming tale of friendship and courage.
Company of Strangers, The Still from the film The Company of Strangers (photo by Ron Diamond/courtesy Toronto International Film Festival Group). The Company of Strangers (directed by Cynthia Scott, 1990) is a disquisition on the process of female aging. The film's skeletal fictional narrative and a rambling, leisurely pace obscure the intricate and heterogeneous details in its representation of "people who are old." The film carves out a space for old women who refuse to become invisible in our culture and who, in their association with thresholds, passages and margins, are rendered, above all, figures of ambivalence. The film presents the aged female body as a visible sign of degeneration and impending death, but it does so by rejoining that same body with the tenacity and vitality that belong to life.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A freelance videographer walked out of federal prison today after spending more time behind bars than any other journalist for refusing to testify to a grand jury.
Joshua Wolf, 24, in a deal with prosecutors, posted online the unaired videotape that he had refused to give federal authorities, defense lawyer David Greene said. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who had jailed Wolf for 226 days, had approved his release earlier in the day.
"Joshua Wolf has complied with the grand jury subpoena," prosecutor Jeffrey Finigan said in court papers filed today.
Wolf spent more than seven months in a federal prison in Dublin, Calif. after refusing to obey a subpoena to turn over his videotape of a chaotic 2005 San Francisco street protest during the G-8 summit.
The government is investigating how a San Francisco police officer's skull was fractured during the melee and who set a police car on fire.
The footage Wolf posted today does not show those events, Greene said.
Prosecutors said they were not inclined to seek his grand jury testimony, though they left open the possibility that he could be subpoenaed again later.
"I will not under any circumstances testify before a grand jury," Wolf said as he left the prison.
Wolf's lawyers had argued that the First Amendment gave him the right to refuse the subpoena for unaired video.
The judge, however, cited a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not entitle reporters, or anybody else, to withhold confidential sources or unpublished material from a grand jury investigation or criminal trial.
No federal shield law protects reporters, unlike California's shield law, which allows reporters to keep sources and unpublished material secret.
Wolf's incarceration time surpassed that of Vanessa Leggett, a Houston freelancer who served 168 days in 2001 and 2002 for refusing to reveal unpublished material about a murder case.
Speaking hours after arriving in Lebanon, Pelosi indicated President George W. Bush's administration was singling out her trip to Syria, but ignoring that of other members of Congress.
"It's interesting because three of our colleagues, who are all Republicans, were in Syria yesterday and I didn't hear the White House speaking out about that," Pelosi said, referring to the Sunday meeting of congressmen Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt with President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus.
"I think that it was an excellent idea for them to go," said Pelosi, who is due to meet the Syrian leadership tomorrow. "And I think it's an excellent idea for us to go as well."
The United States has poor relations with Syria, accusing it of interfering in Iraq and Lebanon and sponsoring terrorists - charges that Damascus denies.
Bush added, "I am genuinely concerned about their reputations now that this has become a, you know, a Washington, DC focus. I'm sorry it's come to this. On the other hand, there had been no credible evidence of any wrongdoing, and that's what the American people have got to understand. We had a right to remove them; we did remove them. And there has been -- there will be more hearings to determine what I just said -- no credible evidence of wrongdoing."
ooh what an ass...so their reputations were fine before this...being fired uncermonously didn't mar them at all!!!
I'm crying all over the place...this movie is amazing...the family photos they show in between the ladie's stories....They're talking about the medications they take now...
Tribune Co. Bought by Sam Zell Col. McCormick rolling over in his grave
Real Estate investor Sam Zell will soon be the new CEO of the Tribune company. The media company has agreed to a buyout offer from Zell worth 8.2 billion dollars. Upon announcing the deal, Zell stated that the company will be selling the Chicago Cubs at the end of this season.
Your brilliant blogger won't go into details or discussion about the positives or negatives regarding this sale. The fact is that the Tribune company was in deep trouble and a brilliant business mind such as Zell can only be a great improvement to a company terribly hit by the increasing number of people getting their news from the Internet as well as the scandals plaguing Tribune owned newspaper the Los Angeles Times.
What makes this business deal so intriguing is that the Tribune Company, which was viewed as a leading voice of anti-Semitism as well as pro-Fascism during the first two World Wars, is now finding itself headed by an American Jew.
Editor's Note: Despite his disastrous Middle East policies, George W. Bush doesn't want any interference -- or assistance -- from anyone. First, he rejected the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's recommendation of a gradual military withdrawal from Iraq; now he is berating Democratic congressional leaders for their efforts to extricate the United States from Bush's serial miscalculations.
In this guest essay, the Independent Institute's Ivan Eland notes that the Founders always favored a more assertive Congress:
President Bush has scolded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Syria. In the President’s opinion, shared by others, the U.S. government should speak with just one voice overseas. Yet that view flies in the face of both the text and the spirit of the Constitution. Before the rise of the post–World War II imperial presidency, the powers among the branches of the U.S. government were much more balanced—as the Constitution originally intended.
In fact, suspicious of European monarchs’ propensity to wage war with the blood and treasure of their citizens, the Constitution’s framers actually gave more powers in foreign affairs to the Congress than the President.
The Congress was given the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, declare war, raise and support armies, provide and maintain a navy, regulate the armed forces, organize, arm, and discipline the militia, and call them forth to resist invasions.
In contrast, the Constitution gave the President only two unilateral powers in foreign affairs: the chief executive was designated the commander–in–chief of the armed forces and militia (narrowly construed so as not to imply that the chief executive was commander–in–chief of the nation), and was allowed to receive foreign ambassadors and ministers.
Since March 16, AlGore.com has grown by more than 250,000, to an amazing 555,392 members. However to ultimately succeed and convince our elected leaders to do what needs to be done, we have to grow much bigger still.
In addition to increasing the size of our movement, we want to be constantly alert to any opportunities where AlGore.com members can help build momentum to solve the climate crisis. Sometimes these actions will take place on AlGore.com - but there are dozens of other groups doing great work. One of those organizations is Step It Up 2007.
Step It Up 2007 has organized a National Day of Climate Action on April 14. They've already scheduled more than 1,100 rallies in all fifty states - locations vary from the melting glacier on top of Mt. Rainier, to the levees in New Orleans, to underwater in an endangered coral reef off the coast of Florida, to your neighborhood park.
You can find the rally closest to your home, or if there isn't one nearby, host one yourself by visiting:
http://stepitup2007.org/
One simple message will unite these rallies - "Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises - the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate."
This reduction in CO2 may seem far-fetched, but it is within our grasp. Now we need our elected leaders to take the bold steps necessary to make it happen. Rallies in all 50 states are sure to further that goal.
Participating in, or even hosting an event is easy. Take the first step and sign up by visiting:
White House ok’d GOP Syria delegation? From a local Pennsylvania paper, via Greg Sargent:
[T]hough Bush administration officials have been criticizing Pelosi, it’s not clear what role the White House and the U.S. Department of State played when U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts and two other Republican congressmen met with Syrian President Bassar Assad.
Pitts is a Chester County Republican who represents Lancaster County.
Gabe Neville, Pitts’ chief of staff, said Monday the conference between Assad and the three Republicans was intended to be “low profile.”
“It was done in cooperation with the administration,” he said.
The belief that we are pluriforms of God voluntarily descended to this prison world, voluntarily losing our memory, identity and supernatural powers (faculties), all of which can be regained through anamnesis (or, sometimes, the mystical conjunction), is one of the most radical religious views known in the West. But it is known. It is regarded as the Great Blasphemy: replication of the original sin mentioned in the First Book of Adam and Eve and in Genesis. For this pride and aspiration (we are told by orthodoxy) our original fall and exile and punishment, our being taken from our home the gardenland and put into the prison, was inflicted on us. "They wish to be equal to - like - us," the Elohim say, and toss us down. Yet I have reason to believe that this, "the Great Satanic Blasphemy," is true.
First, we are here voluntarily. We did not sin and we were not punished; we elected to descend. Why? To infuse the divine into the lowest strata of creation in order to halt its decomposing - the sinking of its lower realm. This points to a primordial crisis in creation in the total macrocosm (hexagram 12, as illustrated here). The yin form two (dark, deterministic) part was splitting away from the yang or form one. In conventional terms, heaven (upper realm) and earth (lower realm) were separating, carrying the lives within the lower away from their form one (upper) counterparts (this can be viewed as the Godhead itself falling apart, into its yang and yin two halves, with the lower form universe as God expressed physically in time and space). The solution was for the divine (yang, light, form one) to follow the lower realm down, permeating it and thus reuniting the cosmos into one totality. To do this, elements (in ancient terms, sparks) of light advanced (descended) into the dark kingdom, the immutable prison world; upon doing so they shed (and knew they would shed) their bright nature, memory, identity, faculties, and powers, and fell under the dominion of the delusion that the dark kingdom is real (which when severed from the upper realm it is not; i.e. the world we presently live in doesn't exist). There they have lived as prisoners of the master magician, lord of the dark realm who poses as the creator (and who may not know of the light god, the true creator, his other half). But the light god and his pluriforms, the descending (invading) sparks, have cunningly distributed clues in the dark realm to recall to the drugged and intoxicated sparks of light their true nature and mission (and true source of home). Upon encountering these cryptic clues the forgetful sparks of the upper realm, now prisoners in and of the lower realm, remember, regain their powers and faculties, and link back up with the upper realm and the light god; they are the light god in pluriform, his way of invading the lower realm in disguise. The light god (the divine) has now crucially occupied critical stations in the sinking lower realm, and begins the reannexing of it back into the totality composed of both realms. The sinking ceases; the master magician is stripped of his autonomy and assimilated to the yang part of the Godhead as its passive counterpart, and once more there is one macrocosm ruled by the yang or active (creative) light god assisted by the now receptive yin (dark) side. The divine has triumphed at all levels; the prison is burst, and the vast, light-filled garden kingdom restored as the home of all creatures. These now whole creatures, composed equally of yin and yang, are what I term homoplasmates: The yin part is home (as we know ourselves to be now, only), and the light or yang part is the plasmate or energy part (vs. the physical). Thus renewed and complete microcosms mirroring the renewed and complete macrocosm are achieved. Reality is imparted to the otherwise irreal lower realm, and the upper realm now extends physically into the realm of matter. The integrity of the Godhead is restored; its two halves function in harmony; and the primordial split (or crisis) is resolved - healed.
This is a view compounded of Zoroastrianism, Brahmanism, Gnosticism, Taoism, the macro-microcosmos of Hermes Trismegistus and other mystery religions, and not very much of orthodox Christianity. Christianity can be added if the pluriform microsparks of light are considered plural saviors or Christs comprising a single mystical corpus that is distributed widely in time and space in the dark realm but possessing only one psyche that is somehow also God, the yang or light god.
I have read the above cosmology over, and find no fault in it. In fact, I am amazed. It is in a sense acosmic, and certainly Gnostic, but the Taoist overlay is novel and pleasing; the Taoist overlay redeems it from the flaws of conventional dualist religions and the problems therein. Instead of stressing moral aspects ("good vs. bad"), it stresses epistemological ("real vs. irreal," which I can understand). The lower realm sinks not because it is corrupt or evil or somehow has rebelled but because, as shown in hexagram 12, it is the nature of yin to sink, as it is the nature of yang to rise. The pre-Socratics (and Plato in "Timaeus") were aware of this; v. the model of the winnowing fan and the concept of the vortex. Yang must assimilate yin to keep the totality intact; i.e. yang must renounce its natural tendency to rise and must descend. It cannot expect yin to rise, because yin is not wise; it is only noos that can understand that it must compensate against its own natural tendencies, and do what is unnatural to it. Yin is, so to speak, thick, unthinking, not noos [mind] but soma [body]; noos and soma (or psyche and soma) are the total universe organism. Descending into the yin realm is a sacrifice on yang's part, which through its bright or wise nature it realizes it must make, but it pays a great cost in terms of suffering: loss of memory and identity, abilities, and faculties: It becomes pseudoyin, literally disguised in the yin realm as if it were actually yin, even to the point of forgetting (until reminded), that it is not. This is the agony we face here in this irreal and dense yin realm, we yang traces: This is not our home. We are voluntary exiles here, alienated and alone, violating our own natures for a salvific purpose - a necessary purpose. Yin would not understand this, and until anamnesis sets in for us, we in our distress do not understand the reason either. Eventually it will be revealed to us; meanwhile we ache with longing for our proper home, dimly remembered but deeply felt for. Thus we suppose we are being punished; it feels like punishment, and we make the error of assuming we have sinned. On the contrary; we have renounced joy now, to produce greater joy later, for the good of all creation; we are the Godhead itself suffering the need to be what it is not, to ensure the ultimate stability of krasis (as Empedocles termed it): the unity of love.
Lest any Christian reject this, let him now read the Fourth Gospel in connection with this, and see for himself the similarities.
Lest any Taoist reject this, let him now see that hexagram 12
has turned to hexagram 11, Peace:
The upper trigram, in descending, has forced the lower trigram to rise. Disorder no longer reigns; heaven and earth are not pulling apart. There is harmony.
Moral: It is the ethical requirement placed on the yang traces by their own bright nature to abandon their natural tendency to rise, to escape what is heavy and dark and sinking; they must go in pursuit of the falling part of the cosmos, for the benefit of those and that which otherwise would be lost. This is the highest law: to violate one's own nature for another's good. And the most difficult - and painful - law to fulfill. Because of this need there is distress in the cosmos, distress for the innocent especially. My cosmology simply presents it as a fact. To escape it we would have to allow the cosmos to decompose. Could we do that? The tragedy is that by the very nature of the sacrifice we make we are occluded from knowing why. This is part of our sacrifices: our yang understanding. We must take on the dullness of yin to save the cosmos; we sacrifice the knowledge of why we sacrifice, and assume guilt - spurious guilt - in its place. This is asking a lot.
But consider who we really are. Or once were and will be again. Who else can do it? There is no one else. There is only yin, which does not know. The part of the organism that knows must help the part that doesn't know, but this means abandoning its own knowing. It becomes what it helps, a dreadful irony, one that hurts. But it is only temporary, just for a little while. And then we go home for all eternity.
Have you ever wanted to have enough of everything that you could share freely with everyone else, without worrying about spending your resources "efficiently" and "responsibly"?
What "insurance" could you buy that would keep you safer than living in a world where people actually cared about each other?
Perhaps you should find yourself some like-minded friends, stop talking about how bad traffic was and start discussing tactics.
Or swear to yourself that you will never, ever again do anything but chase your wildest dreams, every moment of your life.
This week's NYT Science Times section featured an interesting interview with Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychology professor who specializes in the study of evil and the conditions which spawn it. He is most notorious for the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, in which he created a fake prison in the Psych department basement, using student volunteers as prisoners and guards. The study was supposed to run for two weeks, but his girlfriend was so horrified by the cruelty that the fake guards were inflicting on the fake prisoners, that she pressured him to pull the plug after only six days. Some highlights from the story and interview:
His Stanford Prison Experiment… showed how anonymity, conformity and boredom can be used to induce sadistic behavior in otherwise wholesome students. More recently, Dr. Zimbardo, 74, has been studying how policy decisions and individual choices led to abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq….
(…)
[Zimbardo describing the Experiment:] By the end of the first day, nothing much was happening. But on the second day, there was a prisoner rebellion. The guards came to me: “What do we do?”
“It’s your prison,” I said, warning them against physical violence. The guards then quickly moved to psychological punishment, though there was physical abuse, too.
In the ensuing days, the guards became ever more sadistic, denying the prisoners food, water and sleep, shooting them with fire-extinguisher spray, throwing their blankets into dirt, stripping them naked and dragging rebels across the yard.
1) An unmistakable 1500 year cycle in temperature oscillations is present.
2) CO2 of 15 times existing concentrations was recorded in the past.
3) Very recent data indicate that cosmic radiation from deep space directly increases cloud formation, which directly affects warming.
4) The sun’s magnetic field changes the cosmic radiation reaching the earth.
5) “Global Warming” is mostly due to water vapor(clouds: ~95%).
6) The highest solar activity in the last 1000 yrs has been recorded recently.
7) The sun is now burning hotter than in the last 1000 years.
8) Govt/private studies calculate Kyoto could cost US $348 billion by 2012.
9) Those same studies predict Kyoto could cost the world 1 trillion by 2012.
10) Those same studies predict that 1.3 million jobs will be destroyed.
11) Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, and Neptune’s moon are verified to be undergoing ‘global warming’ coinciding with the earth.
12) In the year 1000 A.D., earth’s climate was much warmer than it is now.
13) Vikings raised crops and cattle in Greenland 1000 years ago.
14) A recent poll of climatologists showed that 90% agreed with the statement: “scientific evidence indicates variations in global temperature are likely to be naturally occurring and cyclical over very long periods of time.”
Jaxxor turned up with an ear infection or irritation a coupla hours ago.
i massaged in some ear ointment and he seems to be responding to treatment. whatever it is it turned the inside darker or perhaps thats bruising from him scratching it. he's stopped scratching at it and shaking his head repeatedly.
getting set up to do some cabinetry restorations for the new school here.
Dotter is having a B'day soon.
just hanging with the new hood kids, Purple, blue and jet black hair this week. we were comparing our black leather jackets, theirs have more zippers, mine have bigger pockets with flaps over the zippers.
So when i built my boat i named it after her, and because so many of us trollers are on a first name basis, i became "Sunshine Jim" to differ me from all the other Jims in the fleet when we radioed each other.
Same with the deckhands if they stayed around to get to know the gang in the fleet with me. i had great deckhands usually.
The US has completed major military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf within a short distance of Iranian territorial waters. This naval deployment is meant to "send a warning to Tehran" following the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747, which imposes major economic sanctions on Iran in retaliation for its non-compliance with US demands regarding its uranium enrichment program.
The US war games off the Iranian coastline involved the participation of two aircraft carriers, the USS John Stennis carrier group and the USS Eisenhower with some 10,000 navy personnel and more than 100 warplanes. The USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier group, which is part of the US Fifth Fleet, entered the Persian Gulf on March 27, escorted by guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54).
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Several key military appointments were made in the course of the month of March. Of significance, Admiral. William J. Fallon, was appointed Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 16 by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. It is unlikely that Admiral Fallon would activate a military operation directed against Iran, within a few weeks following his appointment as CENTCOM Commander.
Meanwhile, another major military appointment was implemented, which has a direct bearing on Iran war preparations. Admiral Timothy J. Keating Commander of US NORTHCOM was appointed on March 26, to head US Pacific Command, which includes both the 5th and the 7th fleets. The 7th Fleet Pacific Command is the largest U.S. combatant command. Keating, who takes over from Admiral Fallon is also an unbending supporter of the "war on terrorism". Pacific Command would be playing a key role in the context of a military operation directed against Iran.
George. Hey, universe here. Great eternal karmic engine of all that ever was and is and will be everywhere for all time, yadda yadda yadda. We have to talk.
Weirdest thing. I've been fighting this nasty rash, you see, this itchy painful scabby thing, very unusual, uncomfortable and annoying as all hell, as you might imagine. Not sleeping well. Tea tastes funny. Divine timeless luminous glow is flickering like a bad bulb. Haven't seen anything like this since, oh, the Crusades, or the Salem witch trials, or 'Nam. So weird.
But I think I've figured out the cause, GW. Turns out it's a person. Human. Pale and smirky and not all that articulate. You feel me?
Let's get to the point. All sources are telling me that you are more than a little outta control. Way out of line. Off-leash and lost and drunk on dreams of global supremacy and in deep need of major karmic spanking, a divine colonic. The various world deities are shooting me urgent e-mails left and right. We gotta have some words, brother. Are you sitting down? Thinking cap on? Pretzels out of reach? Excellent.
Word is you're reborn Christian. Great. Didn't quite get it right the first time, is what they say, what with all the inebriants and daddy's silver spoon and dodging Vietnam and, hey, nothing snags those God-fearin'-fundamentalist votes more than claiming you rediscovered Jesus while recovering from another gin bender on Dad's yacht, am I right? Fine and good. Whatever works, I always say.
Problem is, Jesus is a little piqued. He's right here with me, right now, and he's drumming his fingers on the table, eyes aflame. He has a question: "Just what in the heck do you think you're doing in my dad's name? Did you miss the part about 'Thou shalt not kill?' You dare invoke me and my father and call yourself a forgiving Christian and yet you stomp around the globe like you own it?" Christ, he is not happy.
He also wants to know what's with those hardcore evangelical Christian missionaries marching into Iraq. Sure, the food and aid they bring in is wonderful and needed, but the Bibles? The sanctimonious preaching? Billy Graham spawn Franklin Graham's bilious Islam-bashing ideology? What's up with that? Who you trying to kid?
Which leads us right to the thing with the prayer cards. What the hell is this? Some sort of sanctimonious pamphlet being handed out to U.S. soldiers in the battlefield, which they're supposed to tear off and send to you to let you know they're praying for you? Oh dear. Are you serious?
Let me get this straight: Soldiers who are right now in the line of fire -- basically thousands and thousands of poor, undereducated young kids, baffled, stunned, patriotically misled -- praying for you and the success of your corporate regime? And not the other way around? Jesus has two words for you, Dubya: Step off.
Well of course Buddha's here too, BTW. Always the chuckling one, always laughing at the divine absurdity of it all, the delicious tragicomic pageant. He's still laughing, but it's this sort of dry, resigned laugh of cheerless exhaustion. You know what I'm saying, George?
See, lots of people believe Buddha is the one who taught Jesus many of those lessons about surrendering the ego, about compassion and nonviolence and inner peace. All about how desperate attachment to greed and power and oil only leads to suffering. About how everything is connected, and if you irrevocably despoil one thing, you despoil everything. Simple truths, Geo. Always the most profound, you know?
Thing is, Buddha takes it a little personally when one of his greatest students is slighted and mistreated and deliberately misinterpreted in the name of violence and power expansion and empire. But then he just laughs. Damn, he's so good at seeing the big picture. He knows, in the grand scheme, you are pretty irrelevant. Aren't we all? Well, except me.
Whoa. You hear that? That singing? That gorgeous, overwhelming sound, like an ocean roar? Like volcanoes erupting? Goddesses. Fiery ancient ones, they are, most existing long before the guys. They're eternal mothers and life givers and major destroyers.
Oh, man, they think you are so full of it. You have aggressively dissed women's rights, slammed choice, shown noxiously little respect for women in general and for the divine feminine cause overall. Wow. These are some of the most powerful and divine forces around here, Geo, representing some of the most basic, immutable laws of nature and time, and they are probably the most saddened by you, the most appalled and sickened. Isn't that interesting? Think about it.
There's Mohammed. Allah. Oh, man. He has such the headache right now. He looks terrible. Keeps banging his head against my walls, over and over, repeating, "This is so not what I meant, this is so not what I meant, this is so not what I meant." He's talking about the fundamentalist terrorists, slaughtering in the name of some martyrdom. But he also means you, George.
He thinks you need an inner hajj. That's a pilgrimage, George (we all realize that, until you bought the presidency, you'd never really been anywhere outside the U.S., so you don't know much of that "furriner" lingo). It's a journey, to find the self. See what you're really made of, divinely speaking. Because there are lots of doubts right now around these parts about what you might -- or might not -- find.
That skinny guy sitting quietly over in the corner sipping herbal tea and reading and sighing heavily? Gandhi. Nonviolence works too, bucko, he wants to remind you. True, it's far more difficult and requires far more internal fortitude and intelligence and calm. Not really your forte.
Peace is always harder than rage, he knows. Smashing and killing is always easier than reasoning and diplomacy. War is the last refuge of the small-minded and the lost. Pretty basic stuff, really. He's just sad you don't seem to get it.
Remember what Gandhi said when a reporter asked his opinion of Western civilization, and he said he thought it would be a good idea? I'm thinking that's aimed right at you, GW. But now he's just shrugging. I think he knows what awaits you, later, in the next life, if you keep this up. Uh-oh.
So, then, Dubya, here's my prayer for you: May you be suddenly reinvigorated with shocking amounts of divine sight. May plentitudes of epiphanic illumination and wet soapy awareness scrub your soul clean of the demons of self-righteousness and war and smirky pretense. (Translation: Go commune with Shiva for a change, and stay the hell away from Cheney.) May you go through a major spiritual crisis of meaning and love, some sort of "Christmas Carol" thing where angry ghosts show you shocking truths that make you shudder and recoil and whimper. And may they do it quick.
Word is you were very hard on yourself in preparing for this war, George. Word is you gave up sweets. Gosh. My prayer for you: Go back to the sweets. Suck sweets until you faint. Drench yourself in sweetness and ecstasy and lush sticky perspective until you're eyes roll around in your head and you begin speaking in tongues other than simpleminded drawl. Do it, Dubya. Do it now, before it's too late.
As the United States government becomes more belligerent in using its power in the world, many people are longing for a “second superpower” that can keep the US in check. Indeed, many people desire a superpower that speaks for the interests of planetary society, for long-term well-being, and that encourages broad participation in the democratic process. Where can the world find such a second superpower? No nation or group of nations seems able to play this role, although the European Union sometimes seeks to, working in concert with a variety of institutions in the field of international law, including the United Nations. But even the common might of the European nations is barely a match for the current power of the United States.
There is an emerging second superpower, but it is not a nation. Instead, it is a new form of international player, constituted by the “will of the people” in a global social movement. The beautiful but deeply agitated face of this second superpower is the worldwide peace campaign, but the body of the movement is made up of millions of people concerned with a broad agenda that includes social development, environmentalism, health, and human rights. This movement has a surprisingly agile and muscular body of citizen activists who identify their interests with world society as a whole—and who recognize that at a fundamental level we are all one. These are people who are attempting to take into account the needs and dreams of all 6.3 billion people in the world—and not just the members of one or another nation. Consider the members of Amnesty International who write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience, and the millions of Americans who are participating in email actions against the war in Iraq. Or the physicians who contribute their time to Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins Sans Frontieres.
While some of the leaders have become highly visible, what is perhaps most interesting about this global movement is that it is not really directed by visible leaders, but, as we will see, by the collective, emergent action of its millions of participants. Surveys suggest that at least 30 million people in the United States identify themselves this way—approximately 10% of the US population. The percentage in Europe is undoubtedly higher. The global membership in Asia, South America, Africa and India, while much lower in percentage of the total population, is growing quickly with the spread of the Internet. What makes these numbers important is the new cyberspace-enabled interconnection among the members. This body has a beautiful mind. Web connections enable a kind of near-instantaneous, mass improvisation of activist initiatives. For example, the political activist group Moveon.org, which specializes in rapid response campaigns, has an email list of more than two million members. During the 2002 elections, Moveon.org raised more than $700,000 in a few days for a candidate’s campaign for the US senate. It has raised thousands of dollars for media ads for peace—and it is now amassing a worldwide network of media activists dedicated to keeping the mass media honest by identifying bias and confronting local broadcasters.
New forms of communication and commentary are being invented continuously. Slashdot and other news sites present high quality peer-reviewed commentary by involving large numbers of members of the web community in recommending and rating items. Text messaging on mobile phones, or texting, is now the medium of choice for communicating with thousands of demonstrators simultaneously during mass protests. Instant messaging turns out to be one of the most popular methods for staying connected in the developing world, because it requires only a bit of bandwidth, and provides an intimate sense of connection across time and space. The current enthusiasm for blogging is changing the way that people relate to publication, as it allows realtime dialogue about world events as bloggers log in daily to share their insights. Meta-blogging sites crawl across thousands of blogs, identifying popular links, noting emergent topics, and providing an instantaneous summary of the global consciousness of the second superpower.
The Internet and other interactive media continue to penetrate more and more deeply all world society, and provide a means for instantaneous personal dialogue and communication across the globe. The collective power of texting, blogging, instant messaging, and email across millions of actors cannot be overestimated. Like a mind constituted of millions of inter-networked neurons, the social movement is capable of astonishingly rapid and sometimes subtle community consciousness and action.
Thus the new superpower demonstrates a new form of “emergent democracy” that differs from the participative democracy of the US government. Where political participation in the United States is exercised mainly through rare exercises of voting, participation in the second superpower movement occurs continuously through participation in a variety of web-enabled initiatives. And where deliberation in the first superpower is done primarily by a few elected or appointed officials, deliberation in the second superpower is done by each individual—making sense of events, communicating with others, and deciding whether and how to join in community actions. Finally, where participation in democracy in the first superpower feels remote to most citizens, the emergent democracy of the second superpower is alive with touching and being touched by each other, as the community works to create wisdom and to take action.
How does the second superpower take action? Not from the top, but from the bottom. That is, it is the strength of the US government that it can centrally collect taxes, and then spend, for example, $1.2 billion on 1,200 cruise missiles in the first day of the war against Iraq. By contrast, it is the strength of the second superpower that it could mobilize hundreds of small groups of activists to shut down city centers across the United States on that same first day of the war. And that millions of citizens worldwide would take to their streets to rally. The symbol of the first superpower is the eagle—an awesome predator that rules from the skies, preying on mice and small animals. Perhaps the best symbol for the second superpower would be a community of ants. Ants rule from below. And while I may be awed seeing eagles in flight, when ants invade my kitchen they command my attention.
In the same sense as the ants, the continual distributed action of the members of the second superpower can, I believe, be expected to eventually prevail. Distributed mass behavior, expressed in rallying, in voting, in picketing, in exposing corruption, and in purchases from particular companies, all have a profound effect on the nature of future society. More effect, I would argue, than the devastating but unsustainable effect of bombs and other forms of coercion.
Deliberation in the first superpower is relatively formal—dictated by the US constitution and by years of legislation, adjudicating, and precedent. The realpolitik of decision making in the first superpower—as opposed to what is taught in civics class—centers around lobbying and campaign contributions by moneyed special interests—big oil, the military-industrial complex, big agriculture, and big drugs—to mention only a few. In many cases, what are acted upon are issues for which some group is willing to spend lavishly. By contrast, it is difficult in the US government system to champion policy goals that have broad, long-term value for many citizens, such as environment, poverty reduction and third world development, women’s rights, human rights, health care for all. By contrast, these are precisely the issues to which the second superpower tends to address its attention.
Deliberation in the second superpower is evolving rapidly in both cultural and technological terms. It is difficult to know its present state, and impossible to see its future. But one can say certain things. It is stunning how quickly the community can act—especially when compared to government systems. The Internet, in combination with traditional press and television and radio media, creates a kind of “media space” of global dialogue. Ideas arise in the global media space. Some of them catch hold and are disseminated widely. Their dissemination, like the beat of dance music spreading across a sea of dancers, becomes a pattern across the community. Some members of the community study these patterns, and write about some of them. This has the effect of both amplifying the patterns and facilitating community reflection on the topics highlighted. A new form of deliberation happens. A variety of what we might call “action agents” sits figuratively astride the community, with mechanisms designed to turn a given social movement into specific kinds of action in the world. For example, fundraisers send out mass appeals, with direct mail or the Internet, and if they are tapping into a live issue, they can raise money very quickly. This money in turn can be used to support activities consistent with an emerging mission.
The process is not without its flaws and weaknesses. For example, the central role of the mass media—with its alleged biases and distortions—is a real issue. Much news of the war comes to members of the second superpower from CNN, Fox, and the New York Times, despite the availability of alternative sources. The study of the nature and limits of this big mind is just beginning, and we don’t know its strengths and weaknesses as well as we do those of more traditional democracy. Perhaps governance is the wrong way to frame this study. Rather, what we are embarked on is a kind of experimental neurology, as our communication tools continue to evolve and to rewire the processes by which the community does its shared thinking and feeling. One of the more interesting questions posed to political scientists studying the second superpower is to what extent the community’s long-term orientation and freedom from special interests is reinforced by the peer-to-peer nature of web-centered ways of communicating—and whether these tendencies can be intentionally fostered through the design of the technology.
Which brings us to the most important point: the vital role of the individual. The shared, collective mind of the second superpower is made up of many individual human minds—your mind and my mind—together we create the movement. In traditional democracy our minds don’t matter much—what matters are the minds of those with power of position, and the minds of those that staff and lobby them. In the emergent democracy of the second superpower, each of our minds matters a lot. For example, any one of us can launch an idea. Any one of us can write a blog, send out an email, create a list. Not every idea will take hold in the big mind of the second superpower—but the one that eventually catches fire is started by an individual. And in the peer-oriented world of the second superpower, many more of us have the opportunity to craft submissions, and take a shot.
The contrast goes deeper. In traditional democracy, sense-making moves from top to bottom. “The President must know more than he is saying” goes the thinking of a loyal but passive member of the first superpower. But this form of democracy was established in the 18th century, when education and information were both scarce resources. Now, in more and more of the world, people are well educated and informed. As such, they prefer to make up their own minds. Top-down sense-making is out of touch with modern people.
The second superpower, emerging in the 21st century, depends upon educated informed members. In the community of the second superpower each of us is responsible for our own sense-making. We seek as much data—raw facts, direct experience—as we can, and then we make up our own minds. Even the current fascination with “reality television” speaks to this desire: we prefer to watch our fellows, and decide ourselves “what’s the story” rather than watching actors and actresses play out a story written by someone else. The same, increasingly, is true of the political stage—hence the attractiveness of participation in the second superpower to individuals.
Now the response of many readers will be that this is a wishful fantasy. What, you say, is the demonstrated success of this second superpower? After all, George Bush was almost single-handedly able to make war on Iraq, and the global protest movement was in the end only able to slow him down. Where was the second superpower?
The answer is that the second superpower is not currently able to match the first. On the other hand, the situation may be more promising than we realize. Most important is that the establishment of international institutions and international rule of law has created a venue in which the second superpower can join with sympathetic nations to successfully confront the United States. Consider the international effort to ban landmines. Landmines are cheap, deadly, and often used against agrarian groups because they make working the fields lethal, and sew quite literally the seeds of starvation. In the 1990s a coalition of NGOs coordinated by Jody Williams, Bobby Muller and others managed to put this issue at the top of the international agenda, and promote the establishment of the treaty banning their use. For this, the groups involved were awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. While the United States has so far refused to sign the treaty, it has been highly isolated on the issue and there is still hope that some future congress and president will do so.
At the Kyoto meetings on global climate change, a group of NGOs coordinated by Nancy Keat of the World Resources Institute joined with developing nations to block the interests of the United States and its ally, big oil. The only way for the United States to avoid being checkmated was to leave the game entirely. In the World Trade Organization, the second superpower famously shut down the Seattle meeting in 1999, and later helped to force a special “development round” focused on the needs of poor countries. That round is currently underway—and while the United States and others are seeking to subvert the second superpower agenda, the best they have achieved to date is stalemate.
And finally, while George Bush was indeed able to go to war with Iraq, the only way he could do so was to ignore international law and split with the United Nations. Had he stayed within the system of international institutions, his aims likely would have been frustrated. The French and the Germans who led the attempt to stop him could not, I believe, have done what they did without the strength of public opinion prodding them—the second superpower in action.
Now we all know that the Bush administration has decided to undermine, in many cases, the system of international law. Some argue that by pulling out, the administration has fatally damaged the international system, and ushered in a new era where the United States determines the rules—hub and spoke style—through bilateral deals with other nations. The result, some will say, is that the second superpower no longer has a venue in which to meet the first effectively. In my view this is an overly pessimistic assessment—albeit one that members of the second superpower need to take seriously and strive to render false by our success in supporting international institutions.
International law and institutions are not going away. Too many parties want and need them. First, individuals around the world are becoming more globally aware, and more interested in international institutions. Global media, travel, and immigration all contribute to citizens being aware of the benefits of consistent approaches to everything from passport control to human rights. It is striking, for example, that up until the final days before the war, a majority of the US population wanted the president to deal with Iraq in concert with the United Nations. Second, business organizations want global rule of law. Global trade is now central to a vast majority of businesses and almost all nations—and such trade requires rules administered by multilateral bodies. Third, most nations want a global legal system. In particular, European nations, wary of war, outclassed in one-on-one power confrontations with the United States, have become strongly committed to a post-national world. They are pouring collective national resources of enormous magnitude into continuously strengthening the international system.
The key problem facing international institutions is that they have few ways to enforce their will on a recalcitrant US government. And this is where the second superpower is a part of the solution. Enforcement has many dimensions. When the United States opts to avoid or undermine international institutions, the second superpower can harass and embarrass it with demonstrations and public education campaigns. The second superpower can put pressure on politicians around the world to stiffen their resolve to confront the US government in any ways possible. And the second superpower can also target US politicians and work to remove at the polls those who support the administration’s undercutting of international law.
Longer term, we must press for a direct voice for the second superpower in international institutions, so that we are not always forced to work through nations. This means, as a practical matter, a voice for citizens, and for NGOs and “civil society” organizations. For example, the Access Initiative of the World Resources Institute is working to give citizens’ groups the ability to influence environmental decisions made by international organizations such as the World Bank. The Digital Opportunity Task Force of the G8 group of nations included a formal role for civil society organizations, as does the United Nations Information and Communications Technology Task Force.
Overall, what can be said for the prospects of the second superpower? With its mind enhanced by Internet connective tissue, and international law as a venue to work with others for progressive action, the second superpower is starting to demonstrate its potential. But there is much to do. How do we assure that it continues to gain in strength? And at least as important, how do we continue to develop the mind of the second superpower, so that it maximizes wisdom and goodwill? The future, as they say, is in our hands. We need to join together to help the second superpower, itself, grow stronger.
First, we need to become conscious of the “mental processes” in which we are involved as members of the second superpower, and explore how to make our individual sense-making and collective action more and more effective. This of course means challenging and improving the mass media, and supporting more interactive and less biased alternatives. But more ambitiously, we will need to develop a kind of meta-discipline, an organizational psychology of our community, to explore the nature of our web-enabled, person-centered, global governance and communication processes, and continue to improve them.
Second, and ironically, the future of the second superpower depends to a great extent on social freedoms in part determined by the first superpower. It is the traditional freedoms—freedom of the press, of assembly, of speech—that have enabled the second superpower to take root and grow. Indeed, the Internet itself was constructed by the US government, and the government could theoretically still step in to restrict its freedoms. So we need to pay close attention to freedom in society, and especially to freedom of the Internet. There are many moves afoot to censor the web, to close down access, and to restrict privacy and free assembly in cyberspace. While we generally associate web censorship with countries like China or Saudi Arabia, tighter control of the web is also being explored in the United States and Europe. The officials of the first superpower are promoting these ideas in the name of preventing terrorism, but they also prevent the open peer-to-peer communication that is at the heart of the second superpower. We need to insist on an open web, an open cyberspace, around the globe, because that is the essential medium in which the second superpower lives.
Third, we must carefully consider how best to support international institutions, so that they collectively form a setting in which our power can be exercised. Perhaps too often we attack institutions like the World Bank that might, under the right conditions, actually become partners with us in dealing with the first superpower. International institutions must become deeply more transparent, accessible to the public, and less amenable to special interests, while remaining strong enough to provide a secure context in which our views can be expressed.
And finally, we must work on ourselves and our community. We will dialogue with our neighbors, knowing that the collective wisdom of the second superpower is grounded in the individual wisdom within each of us. We must remind ourselves that daily we make personal choices about the world we create for ourselves and our descendants. We do not have to create a world where differences are resolved by war. It is not our destiny to live in a world of destruction, tedium, and tragedy. We will create a world of peace.
Glenn Beck is a far-right radio shock jock who also hosts a show on CNN's Headline News network, and is now doing commentary on ABC's Good Morning America. Beck has a long record of promoting hate speech and extremism, on the air, against gays, Muslims and others.
2. What has Glenn Beck said specifically?
Beck asked the first Muslim-American member of the US Congress to prove he wasn't working with terrorists simply because he's a Muslim-American.
Beck said the word "faggot" on his show, and tried to diminish this anti-gay slur by calling it simply a "naughty name."
Beck called Barack Obama "colorless", "very white" and that "he might as well be white".
Beck fantasized, on the air, about assassinating filmmaker Michael Moore.
Beck said he "hates" the families of the victims of September 11: "I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims.... when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up!' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."
Beck called the residents of New Orleans who stayed behind during Hurricane Katrina "scumbags." He also said the following about the Katrina victims forced to relocate to the Houston Astrodome: "[W]hen I saw these people and they had to shut down the Astrodome and lock it down, I thought: I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims."
Beck compared former President Jimmy Carter to David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, suggesting that Carter believed in Holocaust denial theories, when he most certainly does not.
Beck compared US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to Adolf Hitler, suggesting that her health care proposal is akin to Hitler's plan to euthanize babies and the elderly.
3. What can I do about Glenn Beck?
First, contact the companies who are financing Glenn Beck's hate speech by advertising on his show. They include Best Buy, Ford, Office Depot, and Welch's. Tell them that you do not appreciate them associating their brand with people who use the word "faggot," and who think that Muslim-Americans are terrorists sympathizers simply because of their religion. (Click on each company to contact them).
Also, call the companies at the following numbers : Best Buy (612-291-1000), Ford (800-392-3673), Office Depot (1-888-GO-DEPOT), Welch's (978-371-1000) and ask them why they support Glenn Beck's racism.
Next, contact CNN. Tell them that you are outraged that they would provide a microphone to someone broadcasting hate speech against entire classes of American citizens. And before CNN responds that this is simply "an opinion show," ask them if they'd give David Duke "an opinion show" to rail against blacks and Jews? Unlikely. Then why is CNN treating gays and Muslims with a different standard?
When you contact the advertisers and CNN, make sure to be cordial, and not to use any foul language or any insults. Simply be professional, and they will listen.
4. Is anyone else upset about Glenn Beck's hate speech?
The top gay and lesbian anti-defamation group in America, GLAAD, has called on CNN to stop Beck's anti-gay hate speech against gays.
Three top Muslim-American and Arab-American organizations have called on ABC to drop Glenn Beck because of his anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry.
Media watchdog Media Matters has been chronicling Glenn Beck's hate speech for a year now - they have 116 entries about Beck's extremism.
GOP delegation comments on Syria trip. “In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Damascus,” the three Republican congressmen visiting Syria “said they had talked about ‘ending support for Hezbollah and Hamas, recognizing Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, and ceasing interference in Lebanon.’ ‘We came because we believe there is an opportunity for dialogue,’ the statement said. ‘We are following in the lead of Ronald Reagan, who reached out to the Soviets during the Cold War,’ it added.”
More on WH ‘cooperation’ with GOP Syria trip. Greg Sargent notes, “It’s unclear what this GOP chief of staff’s description of ‘cooperation‘ between these members of Congress and the administration means in practice. It could end up amounting to nothing at all.” Reporter Christopher Allbritton offers one possibility:
I spoke with a source at a Western embassy in Beirut about this, and the source said the Republicans had been discouraged from going, just as Pelosi and her delegation had been. But, the source said, if a Congressional delegation is determined to go to Damascus, the U.S. embassy in Beirut would help them out.
Syria mediating between Iran-Britain over sailors: FM Published: Wednesday April 4, 2007
Syria is mediating between Iran and Britain over the British sailors detained by Tehran 13 days ago, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
"We hope that a satisfactory solution will be reached for the 15 British sailors taken prisoner in Iran," Muallem told Kuwait's Al-Anbaa newspaper.
"Such a solution requires quiet diplomacy and Syria is undertaking such diplomacy between the two countries," he said.
Muallem said he did not beleive that the crisis over the sailors would result in a joint US-British military strike against Iran.
Envoy to meet detained Iranians in Iraq 14 minutes ago TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's state media reported Wednesday that an Iranian envoy will be allowed to meet five Iranians detained by U.S. forces in northern Iraq since January — a possible sign of further progress toward ending a British-Iranian standoff.
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morning all. took four days off, no market, no current events, no bush, no iraq, just my better half, some good food, and fun. just remember, always split aces and eights.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2046991,00.html
Call that humiliation?
No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch
The Guardian
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.
ToniD!
Bibi!
Sunshine!
Catherine!
Alice!
Ono!
Anybody that I missed!
Where art thou?
The GOP's Quiet Revolution
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040207B.shtml
Sen. Ted Kennedy addressed a gathering organized by the Alliance for Justice. Kennedy spoke about the Bush administration's lack of respect for the rule of law. Following his remarks, a documentary film titled Quiet Revolution was screened. The film chronicles 30 years of Republican efforts to turn back the clock on civil liberties.
Ex-Partner of Giuliani May Face Charges
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040207O.shtml
Federal prosecutors have told Bernard B. Kerik, whose nomination as homeland security secretary in 2004 ended in scandal, that he is likely to be charged with several felonies, including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping. Kerik's indictment could set the stage for a courtroom battle that would draw attention to Kerik's extensive business and political dealings with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who personally recommended him to President Bush for the Cabinet.
reuters today reports:
Blair says Iran row at critical stage
now recall that operation bite (the invasion of iran) is scheduled to start this friday.
coincidence?
Contractor hired to assess its own failed program
The government contractor that set up a billion-dollar-a-year federal reading program for the Education Department and failed to keep it free of conflicts of interest is one of the companies now evaluating the program.
Good Morning, edna, blah blah blah, anonymous.... :)
Good Morning All!!
Slept in Edna, Heh
Bush will hold a Rose Garden press conference today at 10 am to slam Congress’ efforts to push a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. CNN’s White House correspondent Elaine Quijano reports:
President Bush is showing no signs of blinking in his opposition to any kind of timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals in Iraq. And essentially, Soledad, that’s the message we expect to hear once more from the President today when he delivers remarks in the Rose Garden.
LINK
Iranian diplomat seized in Iraq released By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
26 minutes ago
An Iranian diplomat in Iraq seized two months ago by uniformed gunmen has been released, Iran reported Tuesday, while in Baghdad a senior foreign ministry official said his government was "intensively" seeking the release of five Iranians detained there by the U.S.
The developments came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the next two days would be "fairly critical" to resolving the dispute over a British navy crew seized by Iran.
The Iraqi official also said Iraq had exerted pressure on those holding the Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who was released Monday and returned to Tehran on Tuesday. The official would not say who had custody of the diplomat.
A senior government official, however, said Iraqi intelligence had held the Iranian diplomat. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Sharafi was seized on Feb. 4 when his car was intercepted by vehicles carrying armed men in the Karradah district of Baghdad. The gunmen, who wore Iraqi uniforms, forced him into one of their vehicles and sped away.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency confirmed Sharafi's release but gave no indication of the circumstances surrounding his Feb. 4 disappearance or his release. In January, the U.S. military seized five Iranians in a raid in northern Iraq, accusing them of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents and militias in Iraq.
Two days after the raid, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said President Bush approved the strategy of raiding Iranian targets in Iraq as part of efforts to confront the government in Tehran.
Iran had insisted that the five detained Iranians were engaged exclusively in consular work.
LINK
In the “latest evidence of stepped up sectarian and insurgent killings outside Baghdad,” a “truck bomber carrying food supplies killed eight Iraqi schoolgirls and a baby in the northern oil city of Kirkuk on Monday as suspected Sunni militants executed 21 Shiite workers north of Baghdad.”
LINK
Embassies evacuated for bomb scare
The embassies of the United Kingdom, Germany and Portugal, located in the same building in northeast Caracas, were evacuated Monday due to a bomb scare on the British mission.
The action coincided with the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Falkland Islands war.
...
“Despite repeated requests from a House committee chairman and government investigators, the Pentagon has failed to hand over its official assessments of the readiness of US-trained Iraqi security units to take over key functions from the US military.”
LINK
Can you believe this? How about this toy for little girls?
Tesco condemned for selling pole dancing toy
by COLIN FERNANDEZ - More by this author » Last updated at 23:13pm on 24th October 2006
Comments (51)
Mother of two Karen Gallimore was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11, when she came across the 'toy'
Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of "destroying children's innocence".
The Tesco Direct site advertises the kit with the words, "Unleash the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peekaboo pole inside the tube, slip on the sexy tunes and away you go!
"Soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance Dollars".
The £49.97 kit comprises a chrome pole extendible to 8ft 6ins, a 'sexy dance garter' and a DVD demonstrating suggestive dance moves.
The kit, condemned as 'extremely dangerous' by family campaigners yesterday, was discovered by mother of two Karen Gallimore who was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11.
Mrs Gallimore, 33, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, said yesterday: "I'm no prude, but any children can go on there and see it. It's just not on."
Dr Adrian Rogers, of family campaigning group Family Focus said yesterday that the kit would "destroy children's lives".
He said: "Tesco is Britain's number one chain, this is extremely dangerous. It is an open invitation to turn the youngest children on to sexual behaviour.
"This will be sold to four, five and six-year olds. This is a most dangerous toy that will contribute towards destroying children's innocence."
He added: "Children are being encouraged to dance round a pole which is interpreted in the adult world as a phallic symbol.
"It ought to be stopped, it really requires the intervention of members of Parliament. This should only be available to the most depraved people who want to corrupt their children."
Tesco today agreed to remove the product from the Toy section of the site, but said it will remain on sale as a Fitness Accessory, despite the fact that the product description invites users to "unleash the sex kitten inside".
Also on sale on the Tesco website is a strip poker game, "Peekaboo Poker" which is illustrated by a picture of a reclining woman in underwear.
The card game is is described as a game that "risks the risque and brings a whole lot of naughtiness to the table.
"Played with a unique pack of Peekaboo Boy and Girl playing cards, the aim of the game is to win as many Peekaboo chips as possible and turn them into outrageously naughty fun."
The pole dance kit is the latest item to fuel allegations that major retailers increasingly sell products which "sexualise" young children such as T-shirts with suggestive messages.
In recent years Asda was forced to remove from sale pink and black lace lingerie, including a push-up bra to girls as young as nine.
Next had to remove t-shirts on sale for girls as young as six with the slogan "so many boys, so little time."
And BHS and others came under fire for selling padded bras embellished with a "Little Miss Naughty" logo and t-shirts with a Playboy-style bunny that said "I love boys...They are stupid."
Tesco last night denied the pole dancing kit was sexually oriented and said it was clearly marked for "adult use".
A spokesman added: "Pole dancing is an increasing exercise craze. This item is for people who want to improve their fitness and have fun at the same time."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html
“The world needs at least 4 million health care professionals, the director-general of the World Health Organization said Tuesday.” The crisis is “most severe in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 24% of the global burden of diseases but has only 3% of the health workforce.”
LINK
sounds like president custer is giving a news conference on iraq at 10. pushing to get support for his suicidal surge mission.
anybody care to hazard a guess about how many of our soldiers will be used as window dressing?
LR:
Regarding the IMPEACHMENT OFF THE TABLE :
"As long as Pelosi says ..." WRONG!!!
Multitasking is fundamental to 20 something's and geeks, wonks, etc., born as long ago as 1960 and before.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that any legislation including CUTTING the PURSE strings for "SURGES" (in Vietnam lingo ESCALATIONS), which will spike with the next phase in the PNAC hegemonic play book (NUKING IRAN), will put an and to the WARMONGERS ambitions, PERIOD!!!
What ended the Vietnam "POLICE ACTION" was the implosion of the military due to civic uprsingings linked to the DRAFT and GI's refusing to carry out futile missions, RAMPANT FRAGGING!!!
The Pentagon Papers helped, the paranoid self destruction of the UNITARY EXECUTIVE contributed, Cronkite's coverage of student protests made a difference, but SIR NO SIR! made perpetual war untenable.
Today there is BLACKWATER, et. al., NO DRAFT, corporate media stenography due to military targeting of UN-embedded journalists and BLUE DOGS who have their reelection aspirations tied to FORTUNE 100 company's campaign contributions. Besides they have an addictive dependence on DoD contracts that employ a large number of their constituents, without which their state's would go bankrupt.
THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH is that if IMPEACHMENT IS OFF THE TABLE so is PEACE and JUSTICE. GET IT?????????????
I can live with perpetual war leading to MARSHAL LAW in NYC, I'm a lemming.
CAN YOU????????????
==================================
See:
airamerica.com/ ... maddow 23287
or
therandirhodesshow.com/ ... t109235
.
I never watch TV but I happened to have it on this morning...and I got to see
President WarHappy.
blech
He was telling the press and the public that he was going to veto the war funding bill...that was the 'breaking news'
and now because of the democrats, the troops won't be rotated because some of the newbies won't be trained...oh hahahahaha didn't Mr.Warhappy send troops over there recently without training to cut costs? I read that.
have a good day everyone!
im off to see to the wizard!
-conbo
I never watch TV but I happened to have it on this morning...and I got to see
President WarHappy.
blech
He was telling the press and the public that he was going to veto the war funding bill...that was the 'breaking news'
and now because of the democrats, the troops won't be rotated because some of the newbies won't be trained...oh hahahahaha didn't Mr.Warhappy send troops over there recently without training to cut costs? I read that.
have a good day everyone!
im off to see to the wizard!
-conbo
oops
-conbo
Have a great day, #... :)
What is this show? Who are these people talking? Where's Sam?
Thanks for the "Quiet Revolution" link.
I found that you can view the movie too. It's here, at the Alliance for Justice.
Oh ok, I heard...
You're welcome.
Thanks for the links.
think maybe you had it right the first time alice. these guys can't carry sams (fill in the blank). why is it that ultra progressives are ultra boring and so misguidedly altruistic.
Why is Air America giving airtime to an undercover operative of Karl Rove? The attack on Move On.Org is unconscionable!!! I am sure that this guest (John???) was a big supporter of Ralph Nader -- the man who was responsible for handing this country to the neocons. This John character and his band of fellow travelers are the neocon equivalents on the progressive side. As a Wisconsin native (now living in Chicago), it really pains me that this kind of drivel is coming from Madison.
"the other day the Democrats raised taxes" --Bush
(gasp) can you imagine? a government taxing its people to pay the deficit? scandelous!
tiffany
Correa Says Ecuador Dollar Policy `Complete Failure'
Ecuador's decision to adopt the U.S. dollar has been ``a complete failure,'' hurting economic growth and exports, President Rafael Correa said.
Ecuador adopted the dollar as its official currency in 2000, a year after defaulting on $6.5 billion in debt. The move attracted investors, revived the banking system and helped slash inflation to 2.9 percent last year from 108 percent in 2000.
Use of the dollar is now hurting exporters, limiting job creation, crimping economic growth and only benefiting the financial and oil industries, Correa said in Guayaquil tonight, where he gave details about his economic plan.
``We've stabilized at price levels that are far too high,'' Correa said. ``The dollar has been a complete failure.''
Evidence of Ecuador's weak economic growth is masked by high oil prices, Correa said. The country's non-oil trade deficit in 2006 was six times higher than in 2000, he said.
...
I receive just receive this email from a friend. Apparently, the right-wing group Move America Forward is not happy with Anti-War Protesters. Here it Is:
You've become so despicable in your actions that America is now turning against you. You are failing.
You promised 100,000 marchers for the "March on the Pentagon" but your march was a total bust with only a few thousand protestors turning out to show solidarity with the terrorists, and speaking out against the fight for freedom.
Leading anti-war senator, Barack Obama, announced this weekend that Congress will not insist on a timetable for withdrawal and surrender in Iraq after all. You've even turned off the more moderate members of your community who have helped me to be able to get this message sent out to you.
We will no longer tolerate the anti-war crowd subjecting America to more terrorist attacks as a result of the defeat-retreat-surrender policies you advocate.
You already have blood on your hands for emboldening the terrorists to kill our troops, we won't let you endanger innocent American citizens here at home.
When you burn American soldiers in effigy you show us which side in the war on terror you stand on, and it's obviously not with America and our military men and women.
We won't back down as you try to appease the forces of Islamic terrorism. We won't allow you to dishonor our troops as you try to reignite a Vietnamized-culture in America.
Sincerely Yours,
Melanie Morgan
Chairman, Move America Forward
www.MoveAmericaForward.org
Watch on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yS4vSWx6Bc
email Move America Forward:
info@moveamericaforward.org
thanks edna. check out their video. they put a face on fight them over there before we fight them over here. sadly, when we fight them over here, it appears that they will be armed with 20 megaton hydrogen bombs, which last time i checked don't quite fit in a suitcase.
Mornin gang! eya EEP!
Sam Rayburn?
is that his name?
doing some good news coverage so far.
a little dry, and slightly motor mouthed. not bad for a first show.
Your comment that Obama said (or predicted) that the Democrats would cave in as soon as Bush issued a veto were off of the mark in a number of ways.
In the first place it is not true the the CNN statements matched the alleged AP statements. In fact there is a big contradiction.
Take a look at the DailyKos thread dealing with this here.So the real question is did Obama really say the key thing that the AP article claims he did. There is reason to think that he did not because even though the AP article is full of quotes that are similar to the things that Obama said on CNN that say day, the key statement that was made the focus of the AP article where Obama is paraphrased as saying the after a veto congress would "quickly" respond with a bill "without timelines" is not supported by any direct quotes.
There is a lot of discussion about this odd fact in the above thread, and in the end many posters agreed that the AP article is very suspect, and is probably a hit on Obama designed to keep him from looking good next to Hillary on the anti-war front.
The bottom line is that the old style print media will do this sort of thing to any Democrat and we just can't accept letting them paraphrase what candidates say.
Since there is a transcript of the CNN interview and none of the AP interview we should accept
that. And it is just nonsense to suggest that Obama said on CNN what the AP article claims he said in its interview.
Fred in Vermont
eya Fred
AP is controlled by the corp media barons.
lotsa articles on that out there.
most of the wire services are currupt in terms of honest news coverage!
Lee Rayburn is the name...
"and a little hot"
snicker!
Lee rants about the fixed elections!
welcome to the Mil/industrial/media complex.
90% owned by 5 corps?
my sister told me she heard Romney is going to choose Jeb Bush as his running mate.
i gag.
SunshineJim said...
AP is controlled by the corp media barons.
that might be, but i think ap is over the edge. i find it to be more like a print version of faux news.
i can't recall the last time i read good news about dems from ap.
bibimimi troll'p said...
my sister told me she heard Romney is going to choose Jeb Bush as his running mate.
i gag.
ack, you write like a troll :)
Did you listen to the indignant shrub.
"how dare you go against my wishes"! " I will veto, veto until you send a bill "I" want"!
"I have the right to fire the attorneys."
If there ever was a reason to impeach, this is it.
God, I hate that man and his admin, of evil!
Jeb Bush.
SOS and worse.
ethically challenged,
another bent son of the bush dynasty.
just remember, always split aces and eights.
April 3, 2007 9:15 AM
were u in AC? I was...
i gag.
ack, you write like a troll :)
April 3, 2007 11:15 AM
true.
MAJOR hearsay. but effective tactic to remove that Mormon taint. (sounds painful, no?)
Published: Monday April 2, 2007
The USS Nimitz set sail Monday to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which took part in Gulf war games last week with a third US carrier, the Pentagon said.
The new battle group will be in position by "late-to-mid April," but there will be no overlap with the Eisenhower's presence in the Gulf, so the number of US carriers there would stay at two, a navy official said on condition of anonymity.
The nuclear-powered Nimitz and its flotilla of destroyers, cruisers and missile-carrying frigates has weighed anchor in San Diego, California.
"It's already departed," the navy source said on condition of anonymity.
The Nimitz is to support US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Navy said, amid a spike in tensions over Iran's seizure of 15 British marines and sailors and an ongoing standoff over Iran's nuclear program.
The Eisenhower took part this week in war games in the Gulf with the carrier USS John S. Stennis. The Stennis and the Eisenhower wound down their show of force involving 15 warships in the Gulf on Thursday.
The two-carrier deployment in the Gulf was the highest level US naval presence in the strategic oil shipping channel since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
LINK
Mormon Candidates?
"People whose religion requires them to wear special underwear, I do not trust."
edna ellen poe
SunshineJim said...
Jeb Bush.
SOS and worse.
but they're both SO handsome in that 'family tree doesn't fork' kinda way!
I've seen the Nimitz. That ship is huge!!! About 3 football fields long! Like a floating island.
*
I'm going to be busy in the mornings for the next few months!!!
see ya in the evenings!
*
If there ever was a reason to impeach, this is it.
God, I hate that man and his admin, of evil!
April 3, 2007 11:16 AM
======================================================================
There ya go again with the Crazy Talk...
ha ha ha ha ha ha
it wouldn't surprise me at all to see bush strutting around like that adolph fella before much longer.
Someone on CNN said that Mitt Romney got alot of his money from the Mormons.
Hurtgen for certain!
Hitler = Strut
Bush = Swager
Same thing
strutting around like that adolph fella before much longer.
April 3, 2007 11:23 AM
he'd look hot in the jackboots and black jodhpurs
bibimimi: were u in AC?
not sure where that is.
the kids were on a school camping trip that lasted over the weekend. last wed, the wife and i realized that we were going to be alone over a weekend for the 1st time in 18 years, so we booked a flight to vegas. seems the other thing you leave in vegas is your money.
I signed Impeachment Petition!Pass it on!
Bush = Swagger
Same thing
April 3, 2007 11:25 AM
and gonzo does the electric slide
Politics!
the newest American Pro Sport!
Is he drunk or sick?
Can you imagin Thompson, with that horrid voice, as a president? Yech!
we got to see "love", the cirque de soleil tribute to the beatles. wow.
bibimimi: were u in AC?
not sure where that is.
Atlantic City, my lad. I thot u were on the East Coast.
I'm going to Vegas in July. Oddly enuf, I have family there.
we've got to fight these assholes on the economic battleground.
we're weak on all the basics of organising. fund raising being our weakest activity.
Can you imagin Thompson, with that horrid voice, as a president? Yech!
April 3, 2007 11:28 AM
INEBRIATED in Chief
ac = atlantic city. got it. hows it compare?
we got to see "love", the cirque de soleil tribute to the beatles. wow.""
cirque de soleil is amazing eh?
with so many pubes in the race, what are the chances they will self destruct by the time they decide who to run?
is there a generic mechanism to pull them together the way bushwa did in 2000. i always thought they accomplished that because the neocons were a personality cult much like jim jones.
Romney would start Iraq war again, says spokesperson David Edwards and Mike Sheehan
Published: Tuesday April 3, 2007
Mitt Romney's press secretary, Kevin Madden, tells Chris Matthews on MSNBC's 'Hardball' that the 2008 GOP White House hopeful supports President Bush's decision for pre-emptive war in Iraq. Madden then answers several of Matthews' Iraq questions evasively, focusing instead on Romney's tough stance on fighting "the global jihad."
At one point, Madden says of Saddam Hussein, "All the intelligence pointed to the fact that he may have had weapons of mass destruction and ... we had to act," which triggers a contentious back-and-forth between Matthews and Madden.
Madden later pans Democrats: "When you look at people who just use words like 'hope' and 'wish,' that's not what's going to eradicate Islamic fascism across the globe; that's not what's gonna help us challenge the terrorists."
Video here
good sounding "empty rhetoric"
ACK!
cirque de soleil is amazing eh?
sure is. first time i ever saw someone rapell downwards head first.
their stage was a set of interconnecting cubes that kept going up and down so they could disappear things and make new things appear. the stage was circular with 360 degree seating and behind the seats was a continuous screen that was covered with constantly changing visuals. each seat had a set of speakers in it to complement the main sound system.
what can we do about it?""
good question Lee.
so...
organise or die?
great performers and costumes as well.
blah blah blah said...
ac = atlantic city. got it. hows it compare?
April 3, 2007 11:32 AM
well!
AC is smaller and grotty, you don't wanna wander off the boardwalk at night...but it's right on an ocean beach, which is swell. It's not an easy comparison. The poker action is pretty happnin', and the sportsbook is ALL ponies. Lots of restaurants, and funky kiosks and piers. The Sands will be imploded soon to make way for some Carl Icahn monstrosity...
Richardson First Candidate To Sign Medical Marijuana Bill
Yahoo News | April 3, 2007 10:41 AM
New Mexico doctors are allowed to prescribe marijuana to help some seriously ill patients manage symptoms including pain and nausea under a bill signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson on Monday.
"This law will provide much-needed relief for New Mexicans suffering from debilitating diseases," Richardson, a Democratic candidate for U.S. president in 2008, said at the signing ceremony. "It is the right thing to do."
LINK
Top Researcher Predicts Major Hurricane Season
Yahoo News | DAN ELLIOTT | April 3, 2007 11:15 AM
The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should be "very active," with nine hurricanes and a good chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast, a top researcher said Tuesday.
Forecaster William Gray said he expects 17 named storms in all this year, five of them major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. The probability of a major hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast this year: 74 percent, compared with the average of 52 percent over the past century, he said.
LINK
Fake Niger Letter Was Foundation Of The Case For Iraq War
The Washington Post | Peter Eisner | April 3, 2007 09:12 AM
It was 3 a.m. in Italy on Jan. 29, 2003, when President Bush in Washington began reading his State of the Union address that included the now famous -- later retracted -- 16 words: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Like most Europeans, Elisabetta Burba, an investigative reporter for the Italian newsweekly Panorama, waited until the next day to read the newspaper accounts of Bush's remarks. But when she came to the 16 words, she recalled, she got a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach. She wondered: How could the American president have mentioned a uranium sale from Africa?
LINK
Impeach!
Memo To Bush: 57 Days < 119 Days »
The US News Political Bulletin reported this morning that “White House strategists are now pulling out all the stops to blame the Democratic majority in Congress for a potential delay in funding the Iraq war. … White House aides have adopted a new gambit — referring to the number of days since Bush requested funding for the troops in an effort to keep up the pressure.”
This morning at his Rose Garden press conference, President Bush highlighted this new gambit, saying it has been 57 days since he sent Congress his funding request. If Congress fails to act soon, Bush said, “the price of that failure will be paid by our troops and their loved ones.” Watch it:
During the reign of the Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Bush submitted two major supplemental spending requests. Each request experienced a delay far more than 57 days with hardly a peep of anger from the Commander-In-Chief. Details below:
February 14, 2005: Bush submits $82 billion supplemental bill
May 11, 2005: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 86 days
February 16, 2006: Bush submits $72 billion supplemental bill
June 15, 2006: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 119 days
After the 119 day delay, Bush did not say an “irresponsible” Congress had “undercut the troops” or that military families had “paid the price of failure.” Instead, Bush told the conservative-led Congress, “I applaud those Members of Congress who came together in a fiscally responsible way to provide much-needed funds for the War on Terror.”
LINK
Good Pesach,
Thanks for your wonderful sense of humor and keen insight on critical issues!
Still working on my free ongoing benefit auction for the Earth to help us fight this propaganda soaked media and this weird Neo-conservative government.
We got a big jump and two listings last time when we announced it on your show. We now have $11,000 in pledged donations and it has only been a few weeks.
Our latest listing are New Orleans Musician's Fund and Fisher House Veteran's Services. There is a press release with all the details on the site. We are unfunded still and can use support even if it is just visiting the site and browsing. That will help a lot.
Sellers sell all types of items and donate 1-100% or the sale directly to their critical charity. We take no fees and will be supported through sponsorships and grants.
The site is htttp://www.classifiedcircles.org
Hey Lee just wanted to let you know how much we miss hearing you in madison. Any chance of a new show
blah blah blah said...
cirque de soleil
*
That is too cool! I've really wanted to see that show...lucky duck... :)
toniD said...
Richardson First Candidate To Sign Medical Marijuana Bill
April 3, 2007 11:45 AM
EXCELLENT.
Great show today! Love Lee's comments about money and politics and political whores. We so desperately need campaign finance reform.
Does anyone know if Lee Rayburn has a website? He's got a good take on stuff.
My thanks to Sam for leaving us with a good sub.
I got off on the 13th floor!
eya Carolyn
if you are still here...
went to the site, i see some potential for improved presentation.
be glad to discuss it.
House conservatives pledge allegiance to Bush veto. “In a letter sent to the White House on Monday, House GOP members assured President Bush that they would support his decision to veto the emergency supplemental spending bill. ‘We are greatly concerned about the extraneous and excessive non-security related funds contained within the Global War on Terror supplemental spending bill currently under consideration in the Congress,’ the letter read. ‘If you choose to veto this measure over this spending, we will sustain your veto.’”
LINK
Why all of a sudden are they saying Conservatives rather than Republicans. Are they spliting the republican party?
And if it just the House Conservatives....does that mean there will be republicans voting against the prez?
Rosie O'Donnell's blog...
2 whole paragraphs
Posted by ro on April 2nd at 10:55am in in the news
9/11 affected me deeply, as I know it did many Americans. The falling of the twin towers served to remind me that many of the assumptions Americans have about their lives are rooted in false feelings of security. In light of this reminder, I have begun doing exactly what this country, at its best, allows for me to do: inquire. Investigate. America is great in so many ways, one of which is the freedom to speak, and indeed think, freely. I have, of late, begun exercising the rights bestowed upon me by the democratic system I value, and the exercising of these rights has taken the form of an inquiry into what happened five years ago, an inquiry that resists the dominant explanations and that dares to entertain ideas that push me to the edge of what is bearable. I have come to no conclusions and, given the scope of the subject, will not for some time.
If the very act of asking is so destabilizing for people, than I have to wonder whether the fabric of our democracy is indeed so raveled it is beyond salvage. My own belief is that the act of asking is itself reparative, because it brings to life the values on which our constitution rests. I am, therefore, pledging my allegiance, hand over heart, trying, as always, for a rigorous truth.
http://www.rosie.com/
Could he have meant "month" and not "day"?!?!?!
blah blah blah said...
lets hope war with iran doesn't start at 5:45 tonight...
seriously, i would expect gonzo to be gone by the end of the day.
March 20, 2007 1:00 PM
Anonymous said...
Could he have meant "month" and not "day"?!?!?!
blah blah blah said...
lets hope war with iran doesn't start at 5:45 tonight...
seriously, i would expect gonzo to be gone by the end of the day.
March 20, 2007 1:00 PM
April 3, 2007 12:45 PM
Hold on! I have good news for you!
You are going to die!
That is a 100% probability.
You are going to die and when you do, I am going to stop by and take a nice long piss on your plot!
Americans least concerned about global warming. “More than two-thirds of the world’s people are worried by global warming with Americans (57 percent) among the least anxious even though their nation is the top source of greenhouse gases, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.” Brazilians topped the list, with 87 percent concerned about climate change.
LINK
Locals Protest Vulture Capitalists and the Iraqi War
“It is the common people, who must, under God, save us.” - Sam Adams, patriot and rebel against British rule in America. (1)
Baltimore, MD - The goldfish in our pond had a pretty rough time this winter. The great blue heron, a majestic bird, which is usually found on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, was eating them for dessert. I would chase the herons away, whenever I could, but they kept coming back, and back, until they got them all, except a few too small to bother with. If you’re the low creature on the food chain, like the goldfish, your fate isn’t pretty. As a metaphor, the story of bird-eats-fish fits in with the present state of our America. Today’s America is a place where the ethos of the Vulture Capitalists reigns supreme.
...
FBI gathered ‘purely political intel’ on war critics. “A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show…The revelations, combined with protester accounts, provide the first public evidence that Washington-based FBI personnel used their intelligence-gathering powers in the District to collect purely political intelligence.”
LINK
Brazilians topped the list, with 87 percent concerned about climate change.
April 3, 2007 12:51 PM
You want to see what life is like fcor those poor bastards that live in Brazil?
Read the big article about Sau Paulo, Brazil in the new Vanity Fair.
You will thank the Gods that you don't live in that frigging hellhole!
toniD said...
FBI gathered ‘purely political intel’ on war critics. “A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing new about that shit. Back in the 60's, the FBI did much worse shit than that!
Back in those days, Hoover gave his pigs carte blanche to go after hippie leftists. In Chicago in 68, FBI thugs were turned loose in the crowd and they beat the holy virtual shit out of any poor fucker that got in their way!
no my brother, you must get your own
They'll kill ya! said...
toniD said...
FBI gathered ‘purely political intel’ on war critics. “A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing new about that shit. Back in the 60's, the FBI did much worse shit than that!
Back in those days, Hoover gave his pigs carte blanche to go after hippie leftists. In Chicago in 68, FBI thugs were turned loose in the crowd and they beat the holy virtual shit out of any poor fucker that got in their way!
************
I remember very well. First of all, I am from Chicago. Secondly, I did march in a few protests. Yes I am that old!
Sloan: Harpooning Blackstone Group
Blackstone Group's bid to go public has exposed some interesting tax games.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Allan Sloan
Updated: 11:09 a.m. CT April 3, 2007
April 3, 2007 - If you're wondering why people like me keep writing about Blackstone Group, the big private-equity player, there's a simple answer: The whale that comes to the surface gets harpooned. And whales don't get much bigger than Blackstone, which lately seems to be bidding on every asset in sight.
When private-equity firms and hedge funds kept low profiles, they were well out of harpoon range. They benefited from an enormous tax loophole that few but the cognoscenti knew about and a nice legal loophole that's familiar to people in the world of partnerships but that I'd never heard of until last week. These things have now emerged into public view, thanks largely to Blackstone's bid to become a publicly traded company. The harpoons are flying-as well they should be.
Let's start with the tax loophole. Hedge funds and private-equity funds charge substantial fees to their investors, but what's made some hedgies and private-equity folks into billionaires is that they get a "carried interest" in the profits earned by the funds they manage. This piece of the action-or "carry," as it's known-is typically 20 percent, sometimes even more.
But instead of being treated as a fee, which it is in substance, the carry has been treated as a long-term capital gain. At current rates, that means paying 15 percent to Uncle Sam, as opposed to a top rate of 35 percent.
What I've learned since writing last week's column is that people have been playing this tax game for many years. That doesn't make it any less outrageous, of course. I hope that Congress, which is making noise about this, actually does something instead of just talking.
Let me show you some numbers.
Much more here
Cnn Center is being evacuated due to a shooting.
Look how cute my best friend is...
"p.s. heard "Frampton Live" the other night driving back from Joshua Tree and totally thought of you--it's so cool we've known each other that long :)"
That made my day...
Come to the edge, he said.
They said, "We are afraid."
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them.
And they flew. . .
~Guillaume Appollinaire~
toniD said...
I remember very well. First of all, I am from Chicago. Secondly, I did march in a few protests. Yes I am that old!
April 3, 2007 1:10 PM
Whoa, supersynchro (ala a/o)...
Why am I Getting This?!
shot inside CNN headquarters complex By MARYANN MROWCA, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago
ATLANTA - A man and a woman were shot inside the building complex that houses CNN's headquarters in what police described as a "domestic situation."
The two were arguing when the man pulled out a gun and shot the woman, Atlanta Police Officer James Polite said. He said the man was then shot by a CNN security guard. Their conditions were not immediately released.
CNN reported that the offices of its Internet operations, CNN.com, were immediately evacuated and that a suspect was in custody. Video footage showed police pointing guns at a man lying on the ground inside a building.
An announcement over the building's public-address system said there had been gunfire "with potential casualties by the escalators" near the main entrance of the building, facing Centennial Olympic Park.
"I heard four or five shots. I really didn't see it. I got out of there quick," said Jas Stanford, 27, who had been helping take down a stage in the park that was used for Final Four festivities.
The CNN complex also includes the Omni Hotel, a large atrium and a food court. It is connected to Philips Arena, the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.
In the food court, Trina Johnson, 44, of Atlanta, was with her daughter on a family outing.
"All of a sudden we heard a big boom. We thought it was an explosion," Johnson said. "We didn't see the gun. Everybody just started running."
Why all of a sudden are they saying Conservatives rather than Republicans. Are they spliting the republican party?""
trying for protective camoflage
Conservatives are Neocons in footie khaki pajamas
Hi Shell!
Just getting ready to go grocery shopping b4 it rains again. It's been raining here every day for a week now.
Just got 2 phone calls from work with two more days to work. One this week and one next.
Have an addiction you would like to break?
Want to quit smoking, drinking, toking, fucking strangers, driving too recklessly or picking your nose while you're blogging?
Get into self discipline.
Make it your new mantra.
Get into self discipline and watch it begin to grow and your addictions begin to shrink.
As you gain control over your Lizard Brain you will feel stronger and healthier because you will be stronger and healthier.
Only you can do it and you can do it.
Self discipline, the hobby for living.
Hi Jim,
Supposed to get a cold front through today and snow flurries tonight.
So I'm going to make a grovery run b4 the weather changes again.
Subtle thing the neos are trying to pull now.
I was in Iraq for 14 months spent 5 months in Tal Afar and 9 in Ramadi. Sen McCain and a posse of Senators and Reps showed up and wanted to the full dog and pony show. And the word was that he wanted his photo op that day. He wanted to go out a spot where we had lost four people with one IED a few days before. Many senior level officers called it what it was, a publicity stunt and it wasnt allowed to happen. All and all many of the senior officers did not come away from their meeting with him and his posse with favorable opinions of the double talk express. They basically thought he was a glory hound.
eya T,
think this is my last free morning/afternoons for the next few months during the week.
be here evenings and weekends for a few months.
Grover Norquist: “The base isn’t interested in Iraq. The base is for Bush. If Bush said tomorrow, we’re leaving in two months, there would be no revolt.” Garance has details.
LINK
Good luck with your new job Jim.
I know you'll do well.
Off to shop. See ya later!
Out of sight!
Out of mind!
Don't you just love Hillary..
I know I do..!!!
And so does California..
I am so happy we have Hillary for our nominee and not some goofy left wing weirdo..!!
You get good time from Hill and Bill...
No Crazy Talk about changing the world..
======================================================================
Poll: Clinton Takes Lead in California
Apr 3 02:29 PM US/Eastern
By The Associated Press
THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats in California.
THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS
Hillary Clinton 41 percent
Barack Obama 28 percent
John Edwards 13 percent
(all other candidates below 5 percent)
I bet Sam is going to be a whole lot happier now that he will no longer be a Professional Bitcher..
That stuff takes a lot out of you..
Sam can go back to normal..
He is one of the luck ones..!!!
It might be a good idea to blockade the Iranian ports..
What do you think???
Blockade by the USS Nimitz?
i think theres the potential for 5,680 crew and 97,000 tons of Aircraft carrier. feul and equipment to be lost in the middle of the persian gulf.
thats what i think...
The big advantage of a blockade is that is will allow Iran to fire the first shot..
After that all bets are off..
We are free to use whatever force in necessary to subdue the regime...
toniD said...
April 3, 2007 2:33 PM
Busy Busy... see you later on...I'm going with my co-worker to clean out the rest of the bookmobile...Then to my Sonora Cat Rescue meeting...
*
Hey War Dog, how do you feel about sending a donation to my cat rescue group, please?
Korean Americans for Fair Trade: Statement in Protest of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement
At the eleventh hour, the United States and South Korea signed the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (Korus FTA), the second largest free trade deal since NAFTA. President Bush and big business claim victory, but democracy has lost.
It is a sad day for peoples' movements around the world who are fighting to preserve human dignity amid growing corporate power over our lives and democracies. At 3:55 pm on April 1, 54-year old Heo Se-Wook, a union member of KCTU, attempted suicide by self-immolation as an act of resistance against the Korea-US FTA negotiation. He is in critical emergency condition at the Han-River Sungshim Hospital.
...
Crank!! Look! @-@
President Bush takes a stroll
By Garrison Keillor
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
The Current Occupant decided to go for a walk one fine spring morning, and he strolled down the White House drive to the main gate and chatted with the cops in the guardhouse and then strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue and through Lafayette Park to Christ Church and turned and looked at the White House through the trees and then it dawned on him that he was alone, no Secret Service in their dark suits and their earpieces with the curly wires. Nobody had tried to stop him from leaving. They just let him wander away.
A couple of kids in Capitals jackets walked past, and then a cop, and an old couple, and nobody stopped; they glanced his way and nodded and moved on. He thought, “It’s true what Laura says. I’m different in person than the way the media portrays me.” Some folks sat in lawn chairs holding signs, GET OUT OF IRAQ and STOP THE TORTURE and so forth. He walked in among them to get a closer look and said to the GET OUT OF IRAQ man, “What would you say to the president if you could talk to him up close and personal?”
“I’d tell him that I’m afraid for my country. We’ve accepted lies without protest, we’re ignoring what we’re doing to the planet, we’re bankrupting the nation, we’re stuck in a senseless war and we can’t even take decent care of our own people.”
“Well, everything has its ups and downs,” said Mr. Bush.
He walked away and sat down on a bench. His brother Jeb had phoned from his Florida condo. He was trying to write a book and earn some dough and figure out what to do next and he wasn’t hopeful. Decent governor, smart, good man. But the family name was mud, the country was Bushed. The lecture circuit had more or less dried up for Republicans, as Donald Rumsfeld was discovering. Nobody wanted to pay to hear an upbeat story about how we’re winning in Iraq, and he wasn’t getting good offers for his memoirs. Giuliani and McCain were bucking a strong tide. Lots of negatives for Republicans. It was like when Al Capone Jr. applied for accounting school: There was distrust to overcome.
His approval ratings were down to a faithful remnant who believed that he was God’s chosen president as prophesied in Nehemiah, the one whose reign is the beginning of the Tribulation. And he had seen new polling data showing an 85 percent correlation between his 2004 voters and the more than half of all Americans who cannot say how long it takes the Earth to make one orbit around the sun. They had voted for the man they thought didn’t know either. And that’s how he would go down in history: the slacker, the dummy.
And now Congress had discovered the power of the subpoena. The firing of the U.S. attorneys was a mess. He should have said no way, Jose, to the Leahy committee, but instead the geniuses on the staff had him offer up Karl Rove to testify in private, no oath, no transcript, which was a joke, of course, and it only got the Democrats riled up more. And using the Patriot Act to slip the new appointments through without Senate confirmation — boy, who was calling the signals on that one? Hello!??? They were like, “Let’s run this around end,” and he was going like, “No way,” and they were like, “What’s the problem?” and he was like, “Duh, you really want me to tell you?” But they went ahead and did it and now every Republican with a re-election race in 2008 was looking for cover. Sununu was shaky. Even Coleman, the biggest bootlicker in the Senate, was playing coy.
Not much chance of him riding a motorcade through cheering throngs in foreign cities, the way other presidents had finished up. Too bad about that. But he still had Laura, and he had Dick. Dick was his insurance policy against impeachment. No chance, not with Gunner waiting in the wings.
It was time for his soup and sandwich and his 1:30 nap, so he headed home. There was a new cop at the gate and he didn’t recognize Mr. Bush either. He waved him away. “I need to go in there,” said Mr. Bush. “I’ve got a job to do.” That was all the guard needed to hear. He had the man taken into custody on suspicion of intent to do harm. The case is being investigated.
— Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country, including KANU, 91.5 FM, in Lawrence.
"He has'nt been seen since, the guard when questioned mentioned him being taken away by the DC CIA staff and them mentioning him being taken to a 'secure' place for interrogation.
So far theres no indication the White House has noticed him missing."
"It's been three weeks."
Conyers to Goodling: Time to talk. “House Democrats on Tuesday asked a top Justice Department aide to come to Capitol Hill for a private interview in the next week on the firing of federal prosecutors. They said she cannot simply refuse to testify on the matter,” the AP reports. “Monica Goodling, who has said she would assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid appearing at Senate hearings, must tell Congress which specific questions she’s refusing to answer, Democrats said in a letter to her lawyer.” Read the full letter at The Gavel.
LINK
I am puzzled.
RANT coming at you ... may be my last so enjoy ;-))
When it comes to Pres. Election Campaign $$$$$ decides ... cry if you must but its a fact.
So here is a piece of news cause some just don't get it: Carrying on endlessly about your least favorite, Hillary Clinton and her 26 Mil, and bashing her to bits, wont help your fav. candidate and wont keep the GOP candidate from moving into the White House in 2008.
So Candidates of both sides have already raised a ton of campaign money. ALL OF THEM but of course only Hillary Clinton can be bought acc. to the nitwits ....just came across the usual type nonsense article at HuffPost. Check for yourself. Pretty embarrassing even to some of the HuffPost borgs.
Other Dem candidate have done pretty well, too. Obama accumulated close to 26 Mil I read ... but that is a completely diff. story. Why? Who knows. Who cares.
While netwits and TV tweeties are getting their knickers in a twist about HC, again: Repub Mitt Romney leads the GOP pack with 23 Mil dollars or so raised in no time at all.
And that comes as no surprise to me at all cause I alread predicted that he will get the GOP nomination .... and IMHO Romney will double this amount in no time also cause that what happens in GOP Real Politik ..... unless the Press Club refuses to play which I doubt will happen. ... Unless bogus Margaret Carlson is still hopelessly in love with "daddy Fred Thompson the goodlooking Republican with gravitas." Who cares what he stands for. Does he have a Health Plan? Duh? Does Romney? Does Saint McCain? Is the Pope Polish? It all depends on the Press Club pre-election dance ...
Are we thrilled that Dem hopefuls get their act together early this time in the money department? Is the pope ....? Anyone remembers Kerry's totally embarrassing plan to postpone the 2004 nomination party cause he lacked $$$$? Guess not.
Bet nobody remember's Coulter of the 90s Arianna Huffington's husband featherweight Michael either. Who made immigration his campaign issue and almost beat Feinstein in 94 by spending the most $$$ ever in California campaign history - 30 Mil. He never said a peep about anything cause as we know from his short stunt in the House he had nothing to say. He always refused to debate - but his TV ads showed his face 24/7 months and months ahead. I used to think: Who is that? What is he selling? A week before election time Arianna's illegal nanny saved the day. AH immediately left her mansion in Santa Barbara "cause we must help Newt Gingrich." Shameless lot.
At election time money rules. So beat up on Hillary Clinton if you must. But be prepared for another 4 or 8 years of GOP rule. AFAIK and read on the net some "progressives" are just fine with that. Not most but some.
I don't feel that way. I want the Dems to win in 2008. Cause when it comes down to it I always worry about the Supreme Court. THE SUPREME COURT. The Supremes decide life for you when everything else fails. But Looks like I am the only one who remembers 2000, too.
They're calling the worst extremists on the SCOTUS R.A.T.S.
(Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia) Sounds about right.
bridge....how's your cat doing?
I understand some of what you were saying in your rant. I have to read it again because I don't think I grasped what you wanted to say in it.
Everything in this world, lately, seems to be moving bi-polar. Like an alternate universe. I'm still trying to grasp the big picture of what is happening. All I know is that it scares me.
Blair Calls For Direct Calls With Iran
AP | TARIQ PANJA | April 3, 2007 01:48 PM
Britain called for direct talks with Iran over 15 captive Britons Tuesday after speaking for the first time with the chief Iranian negotiator. The announcement followed the sudden release of an Iranian diplomat in Iraq that raised new hope in resolving the standoff.
In a statement late Tuesday, Prime Minister Blair's Downing Street office said "both sides share a desire for an early resolution to this issue through direct talks."
LINK
John Kerry: McCain Approached Me About Joining Dem Ticket in 2004
by Jonathan Singer, Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 10:30:45 AM EST
Note: You can now read the rest of the interview with Senator Kerry here.
On Monday afternoon I had the chance to speak with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 2004. During the interview, which covers a range of topics and which I will be posting later this afternoon, an item of particular interest jumped out at me: According to Sen. Kerry, it was John McCain's staff who approached his campaign about potentially filling the Vice President slot on the Democratic ticket in 2004. Take a listen to and a look at the interchange...
If you're having trouble with the Odeo player you can download the .mp3 file here.
LINK
ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran
April 03, 2007 5:25 PM
Brian Ross and Christopher Isham Report:
A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.
The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.
It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.
U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.
Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.
Jundullah has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan.
The leader, Regi, claims to have personally executed some of the Iranians.
"He used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members.
"Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," Debat said.
Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan.
Last month, Iranian state television broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack.
LINK
I can't wait for the glorious moment when the first shot is fired in the Iran War!
Ya gotta love that!
I do!
War with Iran will bring out the very best in our beloved president.
The best part is that a lot of people will be killed and most of them will not be Americans.
Ya really gotta love that!
Also, when the war starts, I will be able to tell everybody that my plan came true and our government is doing exactly what I told them to do.
Does War Dog care about Alice's cats?
Will he send the donation?
All these questions will be answered on our next episode of:
War Dog, Dick? Or not?
Warming ruling squeezes Bush from both sides
Justices say government must explain refusal to act on car emissions
MSNBC and NBC News
Updated: 5:58 p.m. CT April 2, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to explain why it has refused to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from cars, putting the Bush administration under pressure from an unusual coalition of environmental groups and leaders of the auto industry to move quickly on global warming.
In a 5-to-4 decision, the court rejected the administration’s argument that it had no legal authority to limit carbon dioxide released from new cars. In a ruling described as a landmark victory for environmental activists, it decided that the EPA does have such authority and that it must give better reasons for not using it than the “laundry list” of “impermissible considerations” it has offered until now.
“We have ended the administration’s denial of reality and defiance of the law,” said Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of Connecticut, one of 12 states that joined a similar number of environmental groups in suing the Bush administration for its refusal to regulate emissions tied to global warming.
LINK
Oh, this is the biggest one I ever had. You hear that Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you honey.
Massive security contractor faces growing protest in rural California town over 842-acre base Miriam Raftery and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday April 3, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- Potrero, California boasts a broad swath of meadowland that currently houses derelict chicken coops.
Surrounded by the Cleveland National Forest, the property boasts a former chicken ranch and includes an environmentally sensitive, protected agricultural preserve southeast of San Diego.
But if private security contractor Blackwater USA gets its way, this 850-strong community will soon host an 824-acre military training base, replacing the erstwhile chicken ranch with fifteen firing ranges and an emergency vehicle operator’s course the length of ten football fields.
A RAW STORY investigation has already led to the removal of one lawyer connected to the project. The inquiry has also discovered that California congressman Duncan Hunter -- ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee -- is a client of the firm, Blackwater USA, a massive US security contractor in Iraq, and minutes of a planning meeting raise questions about whether Hunter was involved in lobbying for the project.
At a Feb. 8, 2007 planning meeting, Vice President for Blackwater West Brian Bonfiglio said Hunter was one of the firm's clients.
LINK
Cheney Lurks Behind Shrub At Bush Press Conference
YouTube | April 3, 2007 04:26 PM
From Talking Points Memo:
Bush: The bottom line is this: Congress's failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return to the front lines. And others could see their loved ones headed back to the war earlier than they need to. That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people.
Let's put aside for a sec the more transparent ruse here -- that the Dems are failing to fund the troops, when in fact they passed a bill doing just that. Instead, check out how Bush is still asserting that the approach being used by the Congressional leadership -- that is, tying troop readiness standards and a withdrawal deadline to funding -- is "unacceptable" to the American people. Or at least that he "believes" (weasel word) that it's unacceptable to them.
Video & Read the entire article here.
Bush Promises to Veto Iraq Deadline
"I'll veto it, and then Congress can get down to the business of funding our troops without strings and without delay," the president said.
huh. that is Cognress' job as defined by Mr.WarHappy. ATM without oversight.
Not surprised that Mr.Warhappy has this point of view, only surprised that he is being honest. Unitary Executive, ahoy.
-conbo
Special counsel needed for U.S. Attorney probe? Sens. Patrick Leahy and Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today asking “whether a special counsel is necessary” to handle discussions between Capitol Hill and the Justice Department about White House liason Monica Goodling’s role in the firing of eight U.S Attorneys. Leahy and Whitehouse write that “the office of the Attorney General appears to be hopelessly conflicted” regarding Goodling. TPMmuckraker has more.
LINK
Hi #, conbo...
I'm watching this movie called "In The Company of Strangers"
A bus breaks down in the wilderness. Eight elderly women, average age 71, are stranded at a deserted farmhouse. The have only their wits, their memories, and eventually some roasted frogs' legs, to sustain them. Through the long days and nights this remarkable group of strangers share their life stories and exchange intimate thoughts; turning the crisis into a magical time of humour and spirit. Featuring non-professional actors and spontaneous dialogue, this memorable film dissolves the barrier between fiction and reality, weaving a heartwarming tale of friendship and courage.
Canucklehead
Seven elderly women, between the ages of 65 and 88, and their 27-year-old bus driver are stranded in Québec's Mont Tremblant region when their small bus breaks down. Abandoning the bus, the group finds refuge in a deserted farm house. For three days and two nights the strangers join forces and skills to survive within a picturesque, benign wilderness. The urgency and potential life-threatening danger of the situation is minimized, most notably, by shifting attention away from the crisis situation and towards casual conversations which recount the women's lives. Each of the women's histories is punctuated by a series of family photographs which, along with the use of non-actresses who retain their real names and real lives, convey the authenticity of the women's stories. In the tradition of the NATIONAL FILM BOARD's Alternative Drama program, however, this documentary material is blended with dramatic elements which include a narrative premise, a loose dialogue script and a fictional setting.
Company of Strangers, The
Still from the film The Company of Strangers (photo by Ron Diamond/courtesy Toronto International Film Festival Group).
The Company of Strangers (directed by Cynthia Scott, 1990) is a disquisition on the process of female aging. The film's skeletal fictional narrative and a rambling, leisurely pace obscure the intricate and heterogeneous details in its representation of "people who are old." The film carves out a space for old women who refuse to become invisible in our culture and who, in their association with thresholds, passages and margins, are rendered, above all, figures of ambivalence. The film presents the aged female body as a visible sign of degeneration and impending death, but it does so by rejoining that same body with the tenacity and vitality that belong to life.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/media/Company1.jpg
heh
it sounds like the blog Shell.
sort of
-conbo
:)
This is the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. This man is the most disgusting man I've ever heard of. Sick! Mental monster!
Keith Richards: "I Snorted My [Cremated] Father"
ralph's ghost said...
Have an addiction you would like to break?
Want to quit smoking, drinking, toking, fucking strangers, driving too recklessly or picking your nose while you're blogging?
Get into self discipline.
Make it your new mantra.
Get into self discipline and watch it begin to grow and your addictions begin to shrink.
As you gain control over your Lizard Brain you will feel stronger and healthier because you will be stronger and healthier.
Only you can do it and you can do it.
Self discipline, the hobby for living.
April 3, 2007 2:33 PM
I made it until 9:30 and then I had to have a wee toke.
WILLOW RULES! She sent me this link just now...thank you Wil!
w000000000000000000000000ttttttttttttt
JOSH WOLF: Journalist is freed after spending record time in jail
SAN FRANCISCO -- A freelance videographer walked out of federal prison today after spending more time behind bars than any other journalist for refusing to testify to a grand jury.
Joshua Wolf, 24, in a deal with prosecutors, posted online the unaired videotape that he had refused to give federal authorities, defense lawyer David Greene said. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who had jailed Wolf for 226 days, had approved his release earlier in the day.
"Joshua Wolf has complied with the grand jury subpoena," prosecutor Jeffrey Finigan said in court papers filed today.
Wolf spent more than seven months in a federal prison in Dublin, Calif. after refusing to obey a subpoena to turn over his videotape of a chaotic 2005 San Francisco street protest during the G-8 summit.
The government is investigating how a San Francisco police officer's skull was fractured during the melee and who set a police car on fire.
The footage Wolf posted today does not show those events, Greene said.
Prosecutors said they were not inclined to seek his grand jury testimony, though they left open the possibility that he could be subpoenaed again later.
"I will not under any circumstances testify before a grand jury," Wolf said as he left the prison.
Wolf's lawyers had argued that the First Amendment gave him the right to refuse the subpoena for unaired video.
The judge, however, cited a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not entitle reporters, or anybody else, to withhold confidential sources or unpublished material from a grand jury investigation or criminal trial.
No federal shield law protects reporters, unlike California's shield law, which allows reporters to keep sources and unpublished material secret.
Wolf's incarceration time surpassed that of Vanessa Leggett, a Houston freelancer who served 168 days in 2001 and 2002 for refusing to reveal unpublished material about a murder case.
Speaking hours after arriving in Lebanon, Pelosi indicated President George W. Bush's administration was singling out her trip to Syria, but ignoring that of other members of Congress.
"It's interesting because three of our colleagues, who are all Republicans, were in Syria yesterday and I didn't hear the White House speaking out about that," Pelosi said, referring to the Sunday meeting of congressmen Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt with President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus.
"I think that it was an excellent idea for them to go," said Pelosi, who is due to meet the Syrian leadership tomorrow. "And I think it's an excellent idea for us to go as well."
The United States has poor relations with Syria, accusing it of interfering in Iraq and Lebanon and sponsoring terrorists - charges that Damascus denies.
Pelosi hopes to revive ties with Syria visit
-conbo
//w000000000000000000000000ttttttttttttt
JOSH WOLF: Journalist is freed after spending record time in jail//
booyah!
:)
-conbo
Bush added, "I am genuinely concerned about their reputations now that this has become a, you know, a Washington, DC focus. I'm sorry it's come to this. On the other hand, there had been no credible evidence of any wrongdoing, and that's what the American people have got to understand. We had a right to remove them; we did remove them. And there has been -- there will be more hearings to determine what I just said -- no credible evidence of wrongdoing."
ooh what an ass...so their reputations were fine before this...being fired uncermonously didn't mar them at all!!!
Bush on defense: We have every right to replace US Attorneys
I wonder how he keeps track of all his scandals...maybe he isn't as stupid he pretends.
-conbo
I bet Karl Rove has a flow chart for him or a puppet show everyday...something
-conbo
I'm crying all over the place...this movie is amazing...the family photos they show in between the ladie's stories....They're talking about the medications they take now...
all the music is classical that they're playing..
Shell, that's great news!!!
Wow, does he have a story to write now!!
Did Rove's Protégé Puff Up Résumé?
White House defenders now acknowledge that politics may have played some role in the firing of eight federal prosecutors, but they still insist that the first replacement -- J. Timothy Griffin -- measures up as a talented and experienced prosecutor. New evidence, however, suggests that Griffin's courtroom experience is less impressive than his official biography and top Republicans assert.
LINK
Tribune Co. Bought by Sam Zell
Col. McCormick rolling over in his grave
Real Estate investor Sam Zell will soon be the new CEO of the Tribune company. The media company has agreed to a buyout offer from Zell worth 8.2 billion dollars. Upon announcing the deal, Zell stated that the company will be selling the Chicago Cubs at the end of this season.
Your brilliant blogger won't go into details or discussion about the positives or negatives regarding this sale. The fact is that the Tribune company was in deep trouble and a brilliant business mind such as Zell can only be a great improvement to a company terribly hit by the increasing number of people getting their news from the Internet as well as the scandals plaguing Tribune owned newspaper the Los Angeles Times.
What makes this business deal so intriguing is that the Tribune Company, which was viewed as a leading voice of anti-Semitism as well as pro-Fascism during the first two World Wars, is now finding itself headed by an American Jew.
http://pauliespoint.blogspot.com/2007/04/pesach-with-paulie.html
consortiumnews.com
Bush Out of Line in Scolding Pelosi
By Ivan Eland
April 3, 2007
Editor's Note: Despite his disastrous Middle East policies, George W. Bush doesn't want any interference -- or assistance -- from anyone. First, he rejected the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's recommendation of a gradual military withdrawal from Iraq; now he is berating Democratic congressional leaders for their efforts to extricate the United States from Bush's serial miscalculations.
In this guest essay, the Independent Institute's Ivan Eland notes that the Founders always favored a more assertive Congress:
President Bush has scolded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Syria. In the President’s opinion, shared by others, the U.S. government should speak with just one voice overseas. Yet that view flies in the face of both the text and the spirit of the Constitution.
Before the rise of the post–World War II imperial presidency, the powers among the branches of the U.S. government were much more balanced—as the Constitution originally intended.
In fact, suspicious of European monarchs’ propensity to wage war with the blood and treasure of their citizens, the Constitution’s framers actually gave more powers in foreign affairs to the Congress than the President.
The Congress was given the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, declare war, raise and support armies, provide and maintain a navy, regulate the armed forces, organize, arm, and discipline the militia, and call them forth to resist invasions.
In contrast, the Constitution gave the President only two unilateral powers in foreign affairs: the chief executive was designated the commander–in–chief of the armed forces and militia (narrowly construed so as not to imply that the chief executive was commander–in–chief of the nation), and was allowed to receive foreign ambassadors and ministers.
LINK
eya A.!
that's such a cool sig pic.
love those two dogs in that pose.
SJ, you must be over-medicated, those are cats... ;)
Dear Toni,
Since March 16, AlGore.com has grown by more than 250,000, to an amazing 555,392 members. However to ultimately succeed and convince our elected leaders to do what needs to be done, we have to grow much bigger still.
In addition to increasing the size of our movement, we want to be constantly alert to any opportunities where AlGore.com members can help build momentum to solve the climate crisis. Sometimes these actions will take place on AlGore.com - but there are dozens of other groups doing great work. One of those organizations is Step It Up 2007.
Step It Up 2007 has organized a National Day of Climate Action on April 14. They've already scheduled more than 1,100 rallies in all fifty states - locations vary from the melting glacier on top of Mt. Rainier, to the levees in New Orleans, to underwater in an endangered coral reef off the coast of Florida, to your neighborhood park.
You can find the rally closest to your home, or if there isn't one nearby, host one yourself by visiting:
http://stepitup2007.org/
One simple message will unite these rallies - "Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises - the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate."
This reduction in CO2 may seem far-fetched, but it is within our grasp. Now we need our elected leaders to take the bold steps necessary to make it happen. Rallies in all 50 states are sure to further that goal.
Participating in, or even hosting an event is easy. Take the first step and sign up by visiting:
http://stepitup2007.org/
Thank you,
Al Gore
Clinton:
Bush is NOTHING like my husband
you go Girl!
-conbo
Cats!
hee!
crankr, forgive me.
White House ok’d GOP Syria delegation? From a local Pennsylvania paper, via Greg Sargent:
[T]hough Bush administration officials have been criticizing Pelosi, it’s not clear what role the White House and the U.S. Department of State played when U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts and two other Republican congressmen met with Syrian President Bassar Assad.
Pitts is a Chester County Republican who represents Lancaster County.
Gabe Neville, Pitts’ chief of staff, said Monday the conference between Assad and the three Republicans was intended to be “low profile.”
“It was done in cooperation with the administration,” he said.
LINK
My yeast infection is giving me fits tonight!
Anybody else having that problem?
Yes...cats.... :)
http://www.hetehumor.net/westvillage1/2004/nov2004/nov1/image/cats.jpg
http://www.ralfkorte.net/cats.jpg
http://www.desktoprating.com/wallpapers/animal-wallpapers-pictures/cats-wallpaper-1152x864.jpg
http://www.nicewallpapers.info/pics/animals/cats/cats_027.jpg
good to read ya.
working on the technique i'm going to use on this next project.
Evangelist Chuck Missler Disproves Evolution With Jar Of Peanut Butter [VIDEO] Posted by Bruce Wilson
Was that "smooth or crunchy"?
I really don't know what to say. Christian Right evangelist Missler's stunning scientific breakthrough has just sucked all the words right out of me.
You could take this as an April Fool's joke. But I Don't think Chuck Missler intends it that way.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/50013/
c.1978 Exegesis by Philip K. Dick
The belief that we are pluriforms of God voluntarily descended to this prison world, voluntarily losing our memory, identity and supernatural powers (faculties), all of which can be regained through anamnesis (or, sometimes, the mystical conjunction), is one of the most radical religious views known in the West. But it is known. It is regarded as the Great Blasphemy: replication of the original sin mentioned in the First Book of Adam and Eve and in Genesis. For this pride and aspiration (we are told by orthodoxy) our original fall and exile and punishment, our being taken from our home the gardenland and put into the prison, was inflicted on us. "They wish to be equal to - like - us," the Elohim say, and toss us down. Yet I have reason to believe that this, "the Great Satanic Blasphemy," is true.
First, we are here voluntarily. We did not sin and we were not punished; we elected to descend. Why? To infuse the divine into the lowest strata of creation in order to halt its decomposing - the sinking of its lower realm. This points to a primordial crisis in creation in the total macrocosm (hexagram 12, as illustrated here). The yin form two (dark, deterministic) part was splitting away from the yang or form one. In conventional terms, heaven (upper realm) and earth (lower realm) were separating, carrying the lives within the lower away from their form one (upper) counterparts (this can be viewed as the Godhead itself falling apart, into its yang and yin two halves, with the lower form universe as God expressed physically in time and space). The solution was for the divine (yang, light, form one) to follow the lower realm down, permeating it and thus reuniting the cosmos into one totality. To do this, elements (in ancient terms, sparks) of light advanced (descended) into the dark kingdom, the immutable prison world; upon doing so they shed (and knew they would shed) their bright nature, memory, identity, faculties, and powers, and fell under the dominion of the delusion that the dark kingdom is real (which when severed from the upper realm it is not; i.e. the world we presently live in doesn't exist). There they have lived as prisoners of the master magician, lord of the dark realm who poses as the creator (and who may not know of the light god, the true creator, his other half). But the light god and his pluriforms, the descending (invading) sparks, have cunningly distributed clues in the dark realm to recall to the drugged and intoxicated sparks of light their true nature and mission (and true source of home). Upon encountering these cryptic clues the forgetful sparks of the upper realm, now prisoners in and of the lower realm, remember, regain their powers and faculties, and link back up with the upper realm and the light god; they are the light god in pluriform, his way of invading the lower realm in disguise. The light god (the divine) has now crucially occupied critical stations in the sinking lower realm, and begins the reannexing of it back into the totality composed of both realms. The sinking ceases; the master magician is stripped of his autonomy and assimilated to the yang part of the Godhead as its passive counterpart, and once more there is one macrocosm ruled by the yang or active (creative) light god assisted by the now receptive yin (dark) side. The divine has triumphed at all levels; the prison is burst, and the vast, light-filled garden kingdom restored as the home of all creatures. These now whole creatures, composed equally of yin and yang, are what I term homoplasmates: The yin part is home (as we know ourselves to be now, only), and the light or yang part is the plasmate or energy part (vs. the physical). Thus renewed and complete microcosms mirroring the renewed and complete macrocosm are achieved. Reality is imparted to the otherwise irreal lower realm, and the upper realm now extends physically into the realm of matter. The integrity of the Godhead is restored; its two halves function in harmony; and the primordial split (or crisis) is resolved - healed.
This is a view compounded of Zoroastrianism, Brahmanism, Gnosticism, Taoism, the macro-microcosmos of Hermes Trismegistus and other mystery religions, and not very much of orthodox Christianity. Christianity can be added if the pluriform microsparks of light are considered plural saviors or Christs comprising a single mystical corpus that is distributed widely in time and space in the dark realm but possessing only one psyche that is somehow also God, the yang or light god.
I have read the above cosmology over, and find no fault in it. In fact, I am amazed. It is in a sense acosmic, and certainly Gnostic, but the Taoist overlay is novel and pleasing; the Taoist overlay redeems it from the flaws of conventional dualist religions and the problems therein. Instead of stressing moral aspects ("good vs. bad"), it stresses epistemological ("real vs. irreal," which I can understand). The lower realm sinks not because it is corrupt or evil or somehow has rebelled but because, as shown in hexagram 12, it is the nature of yin to sink, as it is the nature of yang to rise. The pre-Socratics (and Plato in "Timaeus") were aware of this; v. the model of the winnowing fan and the concept of the vortex. Yang must assimilate yin to keep the totality intact; i.e. yang must renounce its natural tendency to rise and must descend. It cannot expect yin to rise, because yin is not wise; it is only noos that can understand that it must compensate against its own natural tendencies, and do what is unnatural to it. Yin is, so to speak, thick, unthinking, not noos [mind] but soma [body]; noos and soma (or psyche and soma) are the total universe organism. Descending into the yin realm is a sacrifice on yang's part, which through its bright or wise nature it realizes it must make, but it pays a great cost in terms of suffering: loss of memory and identity, abilities, and faculties: It becomes pseudoyin, literally disguised in the yin realm as if it were actually yin, even to the point of forgetting (until reminded), that it is not. This is the agony we face here in this irreal and dense yin realm, we yang traces: This is not our home. We are voluntary exiles here, alienated and alone, violating our own natures for a salvific purpose - a necessary purpose. Yin would not understand this, and until anamnesis sets in for us, we in our distress do not understand the reason either. Eventually it will be revealed to us; meanwhile we ache with longing for our proper home, dimly remembered but deeply felt for. Thus we suppose we are being punished; it feels like punishment, and we make the error of assuming we have sinned. On the contrary; we have renounced joy now, to produce greater joy later, for the good of all creation; we are the Godhead itself suffering the need to be what it is not, to ensure the ultimate stability of krasis (as Empedocles termed it): the unity of love.
Lest any Christian reject this, let him now read the Fourth Gospel in connection with this, and see for himself the similarities.
Lest any Taoist reject this, let him now see that hexagram 12
has turned to hexagram 11, Peace:
The upper trigram, in descending, has forced the lower trigram to rise. Disorder no longer reigns; heaven and earth are not pulling apart. There is harmony.
Moral: It is the ethical requirement placed on the yang traces by their own bright nature to abandon their natural tendency to rise, to escape what is heavy and dark and sinking; they must go in pursuit of the falling part of the cosmos, for the benefit of those and that which otherwise would be lost. This is the highest law: to violate one's own nature for another's good. And the most difficult - and painful - law to fulfill. Because of this need there is distress in the cosmos, distress for the innocent especially. My cosmology simply presents it as a fact. To escape it we would have to allow the cosmos to decompose. Could we do that? The tragedy is that by the very nature of the sacrifice we make we are occluded from knowing why. This is part of our sacrifices: our yang understanding. We must take on the dullness of yin to save the cosmos; we sacrifice the knowledge of why we sacrifice, and assume guilt - spurious guilt - in its place. This is asking a lot.
But consider who we really are. Or once were and will be again. Who else can do it? There is no one else. There is only yin, which does not know. The part of the organism that knows must help the part that doesn't know, but this means abandoning its own knowing. It becomes what it helps, a dreadful irony, one that hurts. But it is only temporary, just for a little while. And then we go home for all eternity.
Have you ever wanted to have enough of everything that you could share freely with everyone else, without worrying about spending your resources "efficiently" and "responsibly"?
What "insurance" could you buy that would keep you safer than living in a world where people actually cared about each other?
Perhaps you should find yourself some like-minded friends, stop talking about how bad traffic was and start discussing tactics.
Or swear to yourself that you will never, ever again do anything but chase your wildest dreams, every moment of your life.
"Blue Collar-manly, coffee shop thing"
easy meat, he can read, get em going and hand em some printed out short exerpts reinforcing your points.
referenced.
let him read em and weep.
if he won't read em, he can't argue about it.
farf the CO2, we're losing oxygen!
The Expiriment!
This week's NYT Science Times section featured an interesting interview with Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychology professor who specializes in the study of evil and the conditions which spawn it. He is most notorious for the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, in which he created a fake prison in the Psych department basement, using student volunteers as prisoners and guards. The study was supposed to run for two weeks, but his girlfriend was so horrified by the cruelty that the fake guards were inflicting on the fake prisoners, that she pressured him to pull the plug after only six days. Some highlights from the story and interview:
His Stanford Prison Experiment… showed how anonymity, conformity and boredom can be used to induce sadistic behavior in otherwise wholesome students. More recently, Dr. Zimbardo, 74, has been studying how policy decisions and individual choices led to abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq….
(…)
[Zimbardo describing the Experiment:] By the end of the first day, nothing much was happening. But on the second day, there was a prisoner rebellion. The guards came to me: “What do we do?”
“It’s your prison,” I said, warning them against physical violence. The guards then quickly moved to psychological punishment, though there was physical abuse, too.
In the ensuing days, the guards became ever more sadistic, denying the prisoners food, water and sleep, shooting them with fire-extinguisher spray, throwing their blankets into dirt, stripping them naked and dragging rebels across the yard.
With Video
1) An unmistakable 1500 year cycle in temperature oscillations is present.
2) CO2 of 15 times existing concentrations was recorded in the past.
3) Very recent data indicate that cosmic radiation from deep space directly increases cloud formation, which directly affects warming.
4) The sun’s magnetic field changes the cosmic radiation reaching the earth.
5) “Global Warming” is mostly due to water vapor(clouds: ~95%).
6) The highest solar activity in the last 1000 yrs has been recorded recently.
7) The sun is now burning hotter than in the last 1000 years.
8) Govt/private studies calculate Kyoto could cost US $348 billion by 2012.
9) Those same studies predict Kyoto could cost the world 1 trillion by 2012.
10) Those same studies predict that 1.3 million jobs will be destroyed.
11) Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, and Neptune’s moon are verified to be undergoing ‘global warming’ coinciding with the earth.
12) In the year 1000 A.D., earth’s climate was much warmer than it is now.
13) Vikings raised crops and cattle in Greenland 1000 years ago.
14) A recent poll of climatologists showed that 90% agreed with the statement: “scientific evidence indicates variations in global temperature are likely to be naturally occurring and cyclical over very long periods of time.”
Lo!
My internet tubes keep going in and out because of the storm...
eya Meg!
Patrick says "Hi Uncle Jim"
say Rrrrrrr! back to the fuzzy ol pirate!
Jaxxor turned up with an ear infection or irritation a coupla hours ago.
i massaged in some ear ointment and he seems to be responding to treatment. whatever it is it turned the inside darker or perhaps thats bruising from him scratching it. he's stopped scratching at it and shaking his head repeatedly.
that's what got me looking for a problem.
what have you been up to?
finishing up some honey doo's.
getting set up to do some cabinetry restorations for the new school here.
Dotter is having a B'day soon.
just hanging with the new hood kids,
Purple, blue and jet black hair this week. we were comparing our black leather jackets, theirs have more zippers, mine have bigger pockets with flaps over the zippers.
whatever it is is kicking Jaxxors butt! he's lurking in the travel kennel. very unlike him...
poor little guy. i know i dread ear problems myself
is your kid's name sunshine?
yes it is.
she has a lovely italian middle name from her grandmother and great grandmother, Chiarina which i later found out means "shining light".
So when i built my boat i named it after her, and because so many of us trollers are on a first name basis, i became "Sunshine Jim" to differ me from all the other Jims in the fleet when we radioed each other.
Same with the deckhands if they stayed around to get to know the gang in the fleet with me. i had great deckhands usually.
think she's going to be 37 this year.
Thats cool
When is her birthday?
Time to snooze,
up at 6 tomorrow.
love ya all, 2 & 4 footed )
the 6th
Mine is the 10th
The US has completed major military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf within a short distance of Iranian territorial waters. This naval deployment is meant to "send a warning to Tehran" following the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747, which imposes major economic sanctions on Iran in retaliation for its non-compliance with US demands regarding its uranium enrichment program.
The US war games off the Iranian coastline involved the participation of two aircraft carriers, the USS John Stennis carrier group and the USS Eisenhower with some 10,000 navy personnel and more than 100 warplanes. The USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier group, which is part of the US Fifth Fleet, entered the Persian Gulf on March 27, escorted by guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54).
-----
Several key military appointments were made in the course of the month of March. Of significance, Admiral. William J. Fallon, was appointed Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 16 by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. It is unlikely that Admiral Fallon would activate a military operation directed against Iran, within a few weeks following his appointment as CENTCOM Commander.
Meanwhile, another major military appointment was implemented, which has a direct bearing on Iran war preparations. Admiral Timothy J. Keating Commander of US NORTHCOM was appointed on March 26, to head US Pacific Command, which includes both the 5th and the 7th fleets. The 7th Fleet Pacific Command is the largest U.S. combatant command. Keating, who takes over from Admiral Fallon is also an unbending supporter of the "war on terrorism". Pacific Command would be playing a key role in the context of a military operation directed against Iran.
http://www.pacom.mil/about/pacom.shtml
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20070401&articleId=5247
George. Hey, universe here. Great eternal karmic engine of all that ever was and is and will be everywhere for all time, yadda yadda yadda. We have to talk.
Weirdest thing. I've been fighting this nasty rash, you see, this itchy painful scabby thing, very unusual, uncomfortable and annoying as all hell, as you might imagine. Not sleeping well. Tea tastes funny. Divine timeless luminous glow is flickering like a bad bulb. Haven't seen anything like this since, oh, the Crusades, or the Salem witch trials, or 'Nam. So weird.
But I think I've figured out the cause, GW. Turns out it's a person. Human. Pale and smirky and not all that articulate. You feel me?
Let's get to the point. All sources are telling me that you are more than a little outta control. Way out of line. Off-leash and lost and drunk on dreams of global supremacy and in deep need of major karmic spanking, a divine colonic. The various world deities are shooting me urgent e-mails left and right. We gotta have some words, brother. Are you sitting down? Thinking cap on? Pretzels out of reach? Excellent.
Word is you're reborn Christian. Great. Didn't quite get it right the first time, is what they say, what with all the inebriants and daddy's silver spoon and dodging Vietnam and, hey, nothing snags those God-fearin'-fundamentalist votes more than claiming you rediscovered Jesus while recovering from another gin bender on Dad's yacht, am I right? Fine and good. Whatever works, I always say.
Problem is, Jesus is a little piqued. He's right here with me, right now, and he's drumming his fingers on the table, eyes aflame. He has a question: "Just what in the heck do you think you're doing in my dad's name? Did you miss the part about 'Thou shalt not kill?' You dare invoke me and my father and call yourself a forgiving Christian and yet you stomp around the globe like you own it?" Christ, he is not happy.
He also wants to know what's with those hardcore evangelical Christian missionaries marching into Iraq. Sure, the food and aid they bring in is wonderful and needed, but the Bibles? The sanctimonious preaching? Billy Graham spawn Franklin Graham's bilious Islam-bashing ideology? What's up with that? Who you trying to kid?
Which leads us right to the thing with the prayer cards. What the hell is this? Some sort of sanctimonious pamphlet being handed out to U.S. soldiers in the battlefield, which they're supposed to tear off and send to you to let you know they're praying for you? Oh dear. Are you serious?
Let me get this straight: Soldiers who are right now in the line of fire -- basically thousands and thousands of poor, undereducated young kids, baffled, stunned, patriotically misled -- praying for you and the success of your corporate regime? And not the other way around? Jesus has two words for you, Dubya: Step off.
Well of course Buddha's here too, BTW. Always the chuckling one, always laughing at the divine absurdity of it all, the delicious tragicomic pageant. He's still laughing, but it's this sort of dry, resigned laugh of cheerless exhaustion. You know what I'm saying, George?
See, lots of people believe Buddha is the one who taught Jesus many of those lessons about surrendering the ego, about compassion and nonviolence and inner peace. All about how desperate attachment to greed and power and oil only leads to suffering. About how everything is connected, and if you irrevocably despoil one thing, you despoil everything. Simple truths, Geo. Always the most profound, you know?
Thing is, Buddha takes it a little personally when one of his greatest students is slighted and mistreated and deliberately misinterpreted in the name of violence and power expansion and empire. But then he just laughs. Damn, he's so good at seeing the big picture. He knows, in the grand scheme, you are pretty irrelevant. Aren't we all? Well, except me.
Whoa. You hear that? That singing? That gorgeous, overwhelming sound, like an ocean roar? Like volcanoes erupting? Goddesses. Fiery ancient ones, they are, most existing long before the guys. They're eternal mothers and life givers and major destroyers.
Oh, man, they think you are so full of it. You have aggressively dissed women's rights, slammed choice, shown noxiously little respect for women in general and for the divine feminine cause overall. Wow. These are some of the most powerful and divine forces around here, Geo, representing some of the most basic, immutable laws of nature and time, and they are probably the most saddened by you, the most appalled and sickened. Isn't that interesting? Think about it.
There's Mohammed. Allah. Oh, man. He has such the headache right now. He looks terrible. Keeps banging his head against my walls, over and over, repeating, "This is so not what I meant, this is so not what I meant, this is so not what I meant." He's talking about the fundamentalist terrorists, slaughtering in the name of some martyrdom. But he also means you, George.
He thinks you need an inner hajj. That's a pilgrimage, George (we all realize that, until you bought the presidency, you'd never really been anywhere outside the U.S., so you don't know much of that "furriner" lingo). It's a journey, to find the self. See what you're really made of, divinely speaking. Because there are lots of doubts right now around these parts about what you might -- or might not -- find.
That skinny guy sitting quietly over in the corner sipping herbal tea and reading and sighing heavily? Gandhi. Nonviolence works too, bucko, he wants to remind you. True, it's far more difficult and requires far more internal fortitude and intelligence and calm. Not really your forte.
Peace is always harder than rage, he knows. Smashing and killing is always easier than reasoning and diplomacy. War is the last refuge of the small-minded and the lost. Pretty basic stuff, really. He's just sad you don't seem to get it.
Remember what Gandhi said when a reporter asked his opinion of Western civilization, and he said he thought it would be a good idea? I'm thinking that's aimed right at you, GW. But now he's just shrugging. I think he knows what awaits you, later, in the next life, if you keep this up. Uh-oh.
So, then, Dubya, here's my prayer for you: May you be suddenly reinvigorated with shocking amounts of divine sight. May plentitudes of epiphanic illumination and wet soapy awareness scrub your soul clean of the demons of self-righteousness and war and smirky pretense. (Translation: Go commune with Shiva for a change, and stay the hell away from Cheney.) May you go through a major spiritual crisis of meaning and love, some sort of "Christmas Carol" thing where angry ghosts show you shocking truths that make you shudder and recoil and whimper. And may they do it quick.
Word is you were very hard on yourself in preparing for this war, George. Word is you gave up sweets. Gosh. My prayer for you: Go back to the sweets. Suck sweets until you faint. Drench yourself in sweetness and ecstasy and lush sticky perspective until you're eyes roll around in your head and you begin speaking in tongues other than simpleminded drawl. Do it, Dubya. Do it now, before it's too late.
Unless, of course, it already is.
The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head
As the United States government becomes more belligerent in using its power in the world, many people are longing for a “second superpower” that can keep the US in check. Indeed, many people desire a superpower that speaks for the interests of planetary society, for long-term well-being, and that encourages broad participation in the democratic process. Where can the world find such a second superpower? No nation or group of nations seems able to play this role, although the European Union sometimes seeks to, working in concert with a variety of institutions in the field of international law, including the United Nations. But even the common might of the European nations is barely a match for the current power of the United States.
There is an emerging second superpower, but it is not a nation. Instead, it is a new form of international player, constituted by the “will of the people” in a global social movement. The beautiful but deeply agitated face of this second superpower is the worldwide peace campaign, but the body of the movement is made up of millions of people concerned with a broad agenda that includes social development, environmentalism, health, and human rights. This movement has a surprisingly agile and muscular body of citizen activists who identify their interests with world society as a whole—and who recognize that at a fundamental level we are all one. These are people who are attempting to take into account the needs and dreams of all 6.3 billion people in the world—and not just the members of one or another nation. Consider the members of Amnesty International who write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience, and the millions of Americans who are participating in email actions against the war in Iraq. Or the physicians who contribute their time to Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins Sans Frontieres.
While some of the leaders have become highly visible, what is perhaps most interesting about this global movement is that it is not really directed by visible leaders, but, as we will see, by the collective, emergent action of its millions of participants. Surveys suggest that at least 30 million people in the United States identify themselves this way—approximately 10% of the US population. The percentage in Europe is undoubtedly higher. The global membership in Asia, South America, Africa and India, while much lower in percentage of the total population, is growing quickly with the spread of the Internet. What makes these numbers important is the new cyberspace-enabled interconnection among the members. This body has a beautiful mind. Web connections enable a kind of near-instantaneous, mass improvisation of activist initiatives. For example, the political activist group Moveon.org, which specializes in rapid response campaigns, has an email list of more than two million members. During the 2002 elections, Moveon.org raised more than $700,000 in a few days for a candidate’s campaign for the US senate. It has raised thousands of dollars for media ads for peace—and it is now amassing a worldwide network of media activists dedicated to keeping the mass media honest by identifying bias and confronting local broadcasters.
New forms of communication and commentary are being invented continuously. Slashdot and other news sites present high quality peer-reviewed commentary by involving large numbers of members of the web community in recommending and rating items. Text messaging on mobile phones, or texting, is now the medium of choice for communicating with thousands of demonstrators simultaneously during mass protests. Instant messaging turns out to be one of the most popular methods for staying connected in the developing world, because it requires only a bit of bandwidth, and provides an intimate sense of connection across time and space. The current enthusiasm for blogging is changing the way that people relate to publication, as it allows realtime dialogue about world events as bloggers log in daily to share their insights. Meta-blogging sites crawl across thousands of blogs, identifying popular links, noting emergent topics, and providing an instantaneous summary of the global consciousness of the second superpower.
The Internet and other interactive media continue to penetrate more and more deeply all world society, and provide a means for instantaneous personal dialogue and communication across the globe. The collective power of texting, blogging, instant messaging, and email across millions of actors cannot be overestimated. Like a mind constituted of millions of inter-networked neurons, the social movement is capable of astonishingly rapid and sometimes subtle community consciousness and action.
Thus the new superpower demonstrates a new form of “emergent democracy” that differs from the participative democracy of the US government. Where political participation in the United States is exercised mainly through rare exercises of voting, participation in the second superpower movement occurs continuously through participation in a variety of web-enabled initiatives. And where deliberation in the first superpower is done primarily by a few elected or appointed officials, deliberation in the second superpower is done by each individual—making sense of events, communicating with others, and deciding whether and how to join in community actions. Finally, where participation in democracy in the first superpower feels remote to most citizens, the emergent democracy of the second superpower is alive with touching and being touched by each other, as the community works to create wisdom and to take action.
How does the second superpower take action? Not from the top, but from the bottom. That is, it is the strength of the US government that it can centrally collect taxes, and then spend, for example, $1.2 billion on 1,200 cruise missiles in the first day of the war against Iraq. By contrast, it is the strength of the second superpower that it could mobilize hundreds of small groups of activists to shut down city centers across the United States on that same first day of the war. And that millions of citizens worldwide would take to their streets to rally. The symbol of the first superpower is the eagle—an awesome predator that rules from the skies, preying on mice and small animals. Perhaps the best symbol for the second superpower would be a community of ants. Ants rule from below. And while I may be awed seeing eagles in flight, when ants invade my kitchen they command my attention.
In the same sense as the ants, the continual distributed action of the members of the second superpower can, I believe, be expected to eventually prevail. Distributed mass behavior, expressed in rallying, in voting, in picketing, in exposing corruption, and in purchases from particular companies, all have a profound effect on the nature of future society. More effect, I would argue, than the devastating but unsustainable effect of bombs and other forms of coercion.
Deliberation in the first superpower is relatively formal—dictated by the US constitution and by years of legislation, adjudicating, and precedent. The realpolitik of decision making in the first superpower—as opposed to what is taught in civics class—centers around lobbying and campaign contributions by moneyed special interests—big oil, the military-industrial complex, big agriculture, and big drugs—to mention only a few. In many cases, what are acted upon are issues for which some group is willing to spend lavishly. By contrast, it is difficult in the US government system to champion policy goals that have broad, long-term value for many citizens, such as environment, poverty reduction and third world development, women’s rights, human rights, health care for all. By contrast, these are precisely the issues to which the second superpower tends to address its attention.
Deliberation in the second superpower is evolving rapidly in both cultural and technological terms. It is difficult to know its present state, and impossible to see its future. But one can say certain things. It is stunning how quickly the community can act—especially when compared to government systems. The Internet, in combination with traditional press and television and radio media, creates a kind of “media space” of global dialogue. Ideas arise in the global media space. Some of them catch hold and are disseminated widely. Their dissemination, like the beat of dance music spreading across a sea of dancers, becomes a pattern across the community. Some members of the community study these patterns, and write about some of them. This has the effect of both amplifying the patterns and facilitating community reflection on the topics highlighted. A new form of deliberation happens. A variety of what we might call “action agents” sits figuratively astride the community, with mechanisms designed to turn a given social movement into specific kinds of action in the world. For example, fundraisers send out mass appeals, with direct mail or the Internet, and if they are tapping into a live issue, they can raise money very quickly. This money in turn can be used to support activities consistent with an emerging mission.
The process is not without its flaws and weaknesses. For example, the central role of the mass media—with its alleged biases and distortions—is a real issue. Much news of the war comes to members of the second superpower from CNN, Fox, and the New York Times, despite the availability of alternative sources. The study of the nature and limits of this big mind is just beginning, and we don’t know its strengths and weaknesses as well as we do those of more traditional democracy. Perhaps governance is the wrong way to frame this study. Rather, what we are embarked on is a kind of experimental neurology, as our communication tools continue to evolve and to rewire the processes by which the community does its shared thinking and feeling. One of the more interesting questions posed to political scientists studying the second superpower is to what extent the community’s long-term orientation and freedom from special interests is reinforced by the peer-to-peer nature of web-centered ways of communicating—and whether these tendencies can be intentionally fostered through the design of the technology.
Which brings us to the most important point: the vital role of the individual. The shared, collective mind of the second superpower is made up of many individual human minds—your mind and my mind—together we create the movement. In traditional democracy our minds don’t matter much—what matters are the minds of those with power of position, and the minds of those that staff and lobby them. In the emergent democracy of the second superpower, each of our minds matters a lot. For example, any one of us can launch an idea. Any one of us can write a blog, send out an email, create a list. Not every idea will take hold in the big mind of the second superpower—but the one that eventually catches fire is started by an individual. And in the peer-oriented world of the second superpower, many more of us have the opportunity to craft submissions, and take a shot.
The contrast goes deeper. In traditional democracy, sense-making moves from top to bottom. “The President must know more than he is saying” goes the thinking of a loyal but passive member of the first superpower. But this form of democracy was established in the 18th century, when education and information were both scarce resources. Now, in more and more of the world, people are well educated and informed. As such, they prefer to make up their own minds. Top-down sense-making is out of touch with modern people.
The second superpower, emerging in the 21st century, depends upon educated informed members. In the community of the second superpower each of us is responsible for our own sense-making. We seek as much data—raw facts, direct experience—as we can, and then we make up our own minds. Even the current fascination with “reality television” speaks to this desire: we prefer to watch our fellows, and decide ourselves “what’s the story” rather than watching actors and actresses play out a story written by someone else. The same, increasingly, is true of the political stage—hence the attractiveness of participation in the second superpower to individuals.
Now the response of many readers will be that this is a wishful fantasy. What, you say, is the demonstrated success of this second superpower? After all, George Bush was almost single-handedly able to make war on Iraq, and the global protest movement was in the end only able to slow him down. Where was the second superpower?
The answer is that the second superpower is not currently able to match the first. On the other hand, the situation may be more promising than we realize. Most important is that the establishment of international institutions and international rule of law has created a venue in which the second superpower can join with sympathetic nations to successfully confront the United States. Consider the international effort to ban landmines. Landmines are cheap, deadly, and often used against agrarian groups because they make working the fields lethal, and sew quite literally the seeds of starvation. In the 1990s a coalition of NGOs coordinated by Jody Williams, Bobby Muller and others managed to put this issue at the top of the international agenda, and promote the establishment of the treaty banning their use. For this, the groups involved were awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. While the United States has so far refused to sign the treaty, it has been highly isolated on the issue and there is still hope that some future congress and president will do so.
At the Kyoto meetings on global climate change, a group of NGOs coordinated by Nancy Keat of the World Resources Institute joined with developing nations to block the interests of the United States and its ally, big oil. The only way for the United States to avoid being checkmated was to leave the game entirely. In the World Trade Organization, the second superpower famously shut down the Seattle meeting in 1999, and later helped to force a special “development round” focused on the needs of poor countries. That round is currently underway—and while the United States and others are seeking to subvert the second superpower agenda, the best they have achieved to date is stalemate.
And finally, while George Bush was indeed able to go to war with Iraq, the only way he could do so was to ignore international law and split with the United Nations. Had he stayed within the system of international institutions, his aims likely would have been frustrated. The French and the Germans who led the attempt to stop him could not, I believe, have done what they did without the strength of public opinion prodding them—the second superpower in action.
Now we all know that the Bush administration has decided to undermine, in many cases, the system of international law. Some argue that by pulling out, the administration has fatally damaged the international system, and ushered in a new era where the United States determines the rules—hub and spoke style—through bilateral deals with other nations. The result, some will say, is that the second superpower no longer has a venue in which to meet the first effectively. In my view this is an overly pessimistic assessment—albeit one that members of the second superpower need to take seriously and strive to render false by our success in supporting international institutions.
International law and institutions are not going away. Too many parties want and need them. First, individuals around the world are becoming more globally aware, and more interested in international institutions. Global media, travel, and immigration all contribute to citizens being aware of the benefits of consistent approaches to everything from passport control to human rights. It is striking, for example, that up until the final days before the war, a majority of the US population wanted the president to deal with Iraq in concert with the United Nations. Second, business organizations want global rule of law. Global trade is now central to a vast majority of businesses and almost all nations—and such trade requires rules administered by multilateral bodies. Third, most nations want a global legal system. In particular, European nations, wary of war, outclassed in one-on-one power confrontations with the United States, have become strongly committed to a post-national world. They are pouring collective national resources of enormous magnitude into continuously strengthening the international system.
The key problem facing international institutions is that they have few ways to enforce their will on a recalcitrant US government. And this is where the second superpower is a part of the solution. Enforcement has many dimensions. When the United States opts to avoid or undermine international institutions, the second superpower can harass and embarrass it with demonstrations and public education campaigns. The second superpower can put pressure on politicians around the world to stiffen their resolve to confront the US government in any ways possible. And the second superpower can also target US politicians and work to remove at the polls those who support the administration’s undercutting of international law.
Longer term, we must press for a direct voice for the second superpower in international institutions, so that we are not always forced to work through nations. This means, as a practical matter, a voice for citizens, and for NGOs and “civil society” organizations. For example, the Access Initiative of the World Resources Institute is working to give citizens’ groups the ability to influence environmental decisions made by international organizations such as the World Bank. The Digital Opportunity Task Force of the G8 group of nations included a formal role for civil society organizations, as does the United Nations Information and Communications Technology Task Force.
Overall, what can be said for the prospects of the second superpower? With its mind enhanced by Internet connective tissue, and international law as a venue to work with others for progressive action, the second superpower is starting to demonstrate its potential. But there is much to do. How do we assure that it continues to gain in strength? And at least as important, how do we continue to develop the mind of the second superpower, so that it maximizes wisdom and goodwill? The future, as they say, is in our hands. We need to join together to help the second superpower, itself, grow stronger.
First, we need to become conscious of the “mental processes” in which we are involved as members of the second superpower, and explore how to make our individual sense-making and collective action more and more effective. This of course means challenging and improving the mass media, and supporting more interactive and less biased alternatives. But more ambitiously, we will need to develop a kind of meta-discipline, an organizational psychology of our community, to explore the nature of our web-enabled, person-centered, global governance and communication processes, and continue to improve them.
Second, and ironically, the future of the second superpower depends to a great extent on social freedoms in part determined by the first superpower. It is the traditional freedoms—freedom of the press, of assembly, of speech—that have enabled the second superpower to take root and grow. Indeed, the Internet itself was constructed by the US government, and the government could theoretically still step in to restrict its freedoms. So we need to pay close attention to freedom in society, and especially to freedom of the Internet. There are many moves afoot to censor the web, to close down access, and to restrict privacy and free assembly in cyberspace. While we generally associate web censorship with countries like China or Saudi Arabia, tighter control of the web is also being explored in the United States and Europe. The officials of the first superpower are promoting these ideas in the name of preventing terrorism, but they also prevent the open peer-to-peer communication that is at the heart of the second superpower. We need to insist on an open web, an open cyberspace, around the globe, because that is the essential medium in which the second superpower lives.
Third, we must carefully consider how best to support international institutions, so that they collectively form a setting in which our power can be exercised. Perhaps too often we attack institutions like the World Bank that might, under the right conditions, actually become partners with us in dealing with the first superpower. International institutions must become deeply more transparent, accessible to the public, and less amenable to special interests, while remaining strong enough to provide a secure context in which our views can be expressed.
And finally, we must work on ourselves and our community. We will dialogue with our neighbors, knowing that the collective wisdom of the second superpower is grounded in the individual wisdom within each of us. We must remind ourselves that daily we make personal choices about the world we create for ourselves and our descendants. We do not have to create a world where differences are resolved by war. It is not our destiny to live in a world of destruction, tedium, and tragedy. We will create a world of peace.
1. Who is Glenn Beck?
Glenn Beck is a far-right radio shock jock who also hosts a show on CNN's Headline News network, and is now doing commentary on ABC's Good Morning America. Beck has a long record of promoting hate speech and extremism, on the air, against gays, Muslims and others.
2. What has Glenn Beck said specifically?
Beck asked the first Muslim-American member of the US Congress to prove he wasn't working with terrorists simply because he's a Muslim-American.
Beck said the word "faggot" on his show, and tried to diminish this anti-gay slur by calling it simply a "naughty name."
Beck called Barack Obama "colorless", "very white" and that "he might as well be white".
Beck fantasized, on the air, about assassinating filmmaker Michael Moore.
Beck said he "hates" the families of the victims of September 11: "I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims.... when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up!' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."
Beck called the residents of New Orleans who stayed behind during Hurricane Katrina "scumbags." He also said the following about the Katrina victims forced to relocate to the Houston Astrodome: "[W]hen I saw these people and they had to shut down the Astrodome and lock it down, I thought: I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims."
Beck compared former President Jimmy Carter to David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, suggesting that Carter believed in Holocaust denial theories, when he most certainly does not.
Beck compared US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to Adolf Hitler, suggesting that her health care proposal is akin to Hitler's plan to euthanize babies and the elderly.
3. What can I do about Glenn Beck?
First, contact the companies who are financing Glenn Beck's hate speech by advertising on his show. They include Best Buy, Ford, Office Depot, and Welch's. Tell them that you do not appreciate them associating their brand with people who use the word "faggot," and who think that Muslim-Americans are terrorists sympathizers simply because of their religion. (Click on each company to contact them).
Also, call the companies at the following numbers : Best Buy (612-291-1000), Ford (800-392-3673), Office Depot (1-888-GO-DEPOT), Welch's (978-371-1000) and ask them why they support Glenn Beck's racism.
Next, contact CNN. Tell them that you are outraged that they would provide a microphone to someone broadcasting hate speech against entire classes of American citizens. And before CNN responds that this is simply "an opinion show," ask them if they'd give David Duke "an opinion show" to rail against blacks and Jews? Unlikely. Then why is CNN treating gays and Muslims with a different standard?
When you contact the advertisers and CNN, make sure to be cordial, and not to use any foul language or any insults. Simply be professional, and they will listen.
4. Is anyone else upset about Glenn Beck's hate speech?
The top gay and lesbian anti-defamation group in America, GLAAD, has called on CNN to stop Beck's anti-gay hate speech against gays.
Three top Muslim-American and Arab-American organizations have called on ABC to drop Glenn Beck because of his anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry.
Media watchdog Media Matters has been chronicling Glenn Beck's hate speech for a year now - they have 116 entries about Beck's extremism.
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GOP delegation comments on Syria trip. “In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Damascus,” the three Republican congressmen visiting Syria “said they had talked about ‘ending support for Hezbollah and Hamas, recognizing Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, and ceasing interference in Lebanon.’ ‘We came because we believe there is an opportunity for dialogue,’ the statement said. ‘We are following in the lead of Ronald Reagan, who reached out to the Soviets during the Cold War,’ it added.”
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Another Happie Doggie Day...
Things have been going great..
Spring weather is great for having fun outdoors..
I just love the lay in the Hot Tub and watch the birds and the clouds and the trees..
Then go out for a fun bike ride..
You guys should get outside more..!!!
I am having all the fun again..!!!
More on WH ‘cooperation’ with GOP Syria trip. Greg Sargent notes, “It’s unclear what this GOP chief of staff’s description of ‘cooperation‘ between these members of Congress and the administration means in practice. It could end up amounting to nothing at all.” Reporter Christopher Allbritton offers one possibility:
I spoke with a source at a Western embassy in Beirut about this, and the source said the Republicans had been discouraged from going, just as Pelosi and her delegation had been. But, the source said, if a Congressional delegation is determined to go to Damascus, the U.S. embassy in Beirut would help them out.
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Have you been watching Iran..???
Oh, how Evil they are...
It will do them no good..
In the end it will only bring more UN sanctions...
This kind of behavior by Iran is just the taste of what is to come if Iran were to get a Nuclear Weapon..
No one can build a case against Iran as well as Iran does that it's self..!!!
Syria mediating between Iran-Britain over sailors: FM
Published: Wednesday April 4, 2007
Syria is mediating between Iran and Britain over the British sailors detained by Tehran 13 days ago, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
"We hope that a satisfactory solution will be reached for the 15 British sailors taken prisoner in Iran," Muallem told Kuwait's Al-Anbaa newspaper.
"Such a solution requires quiet diplomacy and Syria is undertaking such diplomacy between the two countries," he said.
Muallem said he did not beleive that the crisis over the sailors would result in a joint US-British military strike against Iran.
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Envoy to meet detained Iranians in Iraq
14 minutes ago
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's state media reported Wednesday that an Iranian envoy will be allowed to meet five Iranians detained by U.S. forces in northern Iraq since January — a possible sign of further progress toward ending a British-Iranian standoff.
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