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Season's Misgivings America
Back on Decembers new Moon, the Moon was in the US 12th House, things that are hidden, clandestine groups, confinements, incarerations and opposed the US Uranus. The other shoe is in free-fall, when and where it lands is the stuff popcorn it made for.
The Full Moon draws close, same day as Bush's much touted last gasp pull the political patootie out of the flames Iraqi election so he can declare VICTORY. The Full Moon opposes not only the Sun but also Pluto whose just waiting for the Sun to join in a cosmic dance of death and destruction. The full moon in Gemini in the 7th House of open enemies having absorbed the fiery energy as it conjuncted the US Mars at sunrise ignites, upsets, impels the people.
Morgana Seawalker on Dec 11 | Link
Comments
Thank heavens Morgana, I was getting itchy for astro info. Fantastic piece, as usual. Posted by: M. on December 11, 2005 02:49 AMWhoo, Morgana! You have quite taken my breath away! 'Awesome' comes to mind, so I'll leave it at that while I go read your jam-packed analysis again. Posted by: shylurker on December 11, 2005 03:03 AMMorgana, wonderful article. Do I detect a touch of Mars in the overall tone? Must read it again to absorb everything. Posted by: Teresa on December 11, 2005 04:15 AMBrava Morgana, From the "The Truthseeker" http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=3909 "Telephone logs recorded by the National Security Agency and obtained by Congress as part of an ongoing investigation suggest that the vice president may have used the Oval Office intercom system to address President Bush at crucial moments, giving categorical directives in a voice the president believed to be that of God......
"A highly placed NSA official who has reviewed the information released Tuesday said Cheney masked his clipped monotone, employing a deeper, booming voice..... "Said the NSA source: "It sounded as though the speaker, who identified himself as God, stood away from the intercom to create an echo effect..... More.... Posted by: Trudy on December 11, 2005 05:24 AM"The King of Peace Is Born." How many tines do you think we'll hear that one from the fundies this year? Keep singing in your awesome voice, Morgana. Posted by: shylurker on December 11, 2005 05:55 AMStellar Morgana, you do give me much to think about and more puzzle pieces than you can imagine. Thank you, we all thank you Posted by: Sally on December 11, 2005 06:05 AMTrudy, I was laughing with you and it wouldn't be a surprise. IF he is drinking again, and IF he is taking some type of drug I think he might believe god was talking to him. And why not, the new President or Prime Minister of Iran believes he might be the returning Savior of the Muslim faith, so why shouldn't our President have god talking to him too, after all, we are bigger than Iran. I am certain Sharon has heard from him, we are just waiting for Buddah to weigh in. Posted by: Sally on December 11, 2005 06:12 AM
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182 Posted by: wv on December 11, 2005 02:56 PMWow! This packed a punch, a whollop! Thank YOU, Morgana! I just hope that we the people are not so asleep, or so mind-numbed (by the constant propaganda) that the opportunity to force a change -- either through elections or revolution -- will not pass seeing us further entrenched in fascism. Trudy, maybe this is why mad-hatter Barb Bush has it in for Cheney (another rumor). Wonder what we ringsiders will see during this "clash of the titans." There was a program recently with a psychologist who explained 'group-think' in our current lexicon. It rang the bells of truth within. He talked about 20 somethings and with all the group activities mom and dad had them in since young. For them the psychology of achievement means getting along within the group, not individualistic growth to achieve, Ding! Why many groups can be lead around by the nose. I am not a groupie of any group, not online or yoga or brooklyn hipsters or even the artists. I do my thing and circle each group forming my own opinions, choosing which person can be a friend to me if merits are earned in integral ways, which artist really likes ME not the job that can be gotten by knowing me, etc. Be careful of conforming to please the group-think mentality. It's an under the radar kind of grab. Thanks all for the fine articles. ps dontcha just love how nosy and pushy Babs Bush spawnwer of all evil is? She is the Don of that family no doubt about it. A bad reincarnation of George Washington in pearls. Posted by: bhakti on December 11, 2005 04:12 PMBhakti, I couldn't agree more with the "group think" it seems to control us from grade school on and throughout our lives. It's an ever present danger. I am concerned about New Orleans, it seems to be slipping off the radar. This is a list of Representatives to write and try to keep it on this American City on the radar. What happened in NO can happen to all or any of us. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=106x25412 Posted by: Sally on December 11, 2005 06:16 PMPluto in Libra.........(group think on steroids!) Sally Most of the people named in your Congressional note have been named the most crooked politicians
CREW has also launched a new website, www.beyonddelay.org, which details the tainted thirteen’s violations and encourages visitors, through the website, to contact their member of Congress to ask for an investigation of these members. The 13 members are: -- Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) -- Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA) -- Rep. Tom Feeney(R-FL) -- Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) -- Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) -- Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) -- Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) -- Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) -- Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) -- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) -- Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) -- Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) -- Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) “CREW was compelled to research and release a report on these corrupt members because the ethics committees in both the House and Senate are completely inert," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. "Americans send their representatives to Washington to make laws, not to break them. We want to be clear with our report Beyond DeLay, that no one, not even Members of Congress are above the law." Over the past year, the issue of Congressional ethics has taken on new resonance. Where questionable conduct was once shrugged off as Abusiness as usual," now both the public and the press are demanding greater accountability from Members of Congress. Leader Tom DeLay's ethics transgressions are just the tip of the iceberg. At a time when a recent Gallup Poll reports only that 36% of those polled express approval of Congress, people are taking a harder look at the actions of their own representatives. "It is time for our representatives to take their constitutional obligation to police themselves seriously, an obligation that members of both political parties have ignored to the detriment of the American people," Sloan said today. *** Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit, progressive legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions.
Great article, Morgana! Pat QOP -- Being of the Pluto in Libra generation myself, I'd say that's a pretty dead-on description of my contemporaries. We are very much the "Neo-Urbanites/Neo-Socialites". It's almost a direct reverse to the Pluto in Cancer/Leo generations' exodus from inner cities to paved over farmland topped with generic "ticky-tacky" housing developments in the suburbs and rural areas. I guess with the suburbs all developed out now, we've got to set up somewhere. We might as well reclaim the old, abandoned, burned out urban cores, which incidentally and interesting enough, many developers are starting to turn their attention to. -- On another note entirely, this seems to be an interesting Jupiter in Scorpio/Pluto in Sag project -- The truth about the Avatar of the Age of Pisces?: Poll needs lotsa help: Ban gay marriage in Massachusetts? Glad I was on target Neobuckeye! How BushCo raised that dirty money http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/10/114820/90 The. Biggest. Scandal. Ever! Phony Front Companies Cycle Millions Back to GOP! Brent Wilkes & Mitchell Wade - Bagmen in the Successful Plot to Take Over the United States and Enrich GOP Officeholders I hope you are sitting down when you read this. The Duke Cunningham scandal goes much deeper than just the $2.4 million in bribes being reported by the media. There is a lot the media is not telling you. Ever wonder why the Republicans have SO much money in every national election? And what did the Dukester do to get his Rolls-Royce, anyway? Whose Lear Jet was he flying around in? The answers to those 3 questions turn out to be The. Biggest. Scandal. Ever! The. Biggest. Scandal. Ever! on the flip! Sherlock Google's diary :: :: If you were a totally crooked neo-con former CIA financier Republican who hangs with the corrupt Delay-Abramoff crowd, what would be the most unethical, diabolical way to funnel SO much money to the Republican Party and neo-con schemes that you could take back the government from the Democrats? Easy! With your corrupt Republican buddies, form a slew of your own brand-new Defense Companies, submit bids on things the Pentagon never even asked for to the Delay/Cunningham network and Bingo!--those contributions to the GOP and K Street will flow in like never before. You can then even give to Presidential candidates like George W. Neo-Con. Then you and your criminal gang take over the United States of America with your ill-gotten gains. Once in power, you can use your connections to weasel your way iuto intelligence agency contracts so you can help said Neo-Cons cook up a case for the Iraq War by a phony analysis of some aluminum tubes. The War on Terra is on! Even more money for you and the GOP then. It's a simple plan--one even the average American can understand. Here's how Wilkes and Wade, with the help of the Culture of Corruption, made all of themselves wealthy with taxpayer money. The MadCowMorningNews has learned that California Republican Congressman Randy `Duke' Cunningham steered $500 million in defense contracts in less than a decade, according to the company's own website, to a start-up San Diego software firm which--and here's the beauty part--doubled as a lobbying firm. The lobbying firm then gratefully kicked back--at a bare minimum--hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to a Jack Abramoff-directed Washington D.C. lobbying and consulting firm run by two former senior staffers of Texas Republican Tom DeLay. It offered, in other words, one-stop shopping. While the focus was on the $2 million in bribes paid to Cunningham after his guilty plea, the question of just what the Congressman had done for all that long green received scant media attention. But as the extent of the damage to America's national security wrought by the bribes which crossed Cunningham's greasy palm begins to come into focus, the fraud being revealed is orders of magnitude greater than has been hinted at so far. Here's how it worked: Money budgeted for U.S. Defense went in at the ADCS end of something called the "Wilkes Corporation" for services which the Pentagon protested it never requested, and out the other end came a magical cornucopia of bribes, kick-backs, campaign contributions, yachts, Lear jets and Rolls Royce's. Over the course of almost an entire decade, from 1994 to 2001, Cunningham's Appropriations Committee repeatedly added funding to the Pentagon budget for a previously non-existent (prior to 1995) software company, ADCS, owned by the "Wilkes Corporation," a private company (natch) owned by San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes. More.... Posted by: Pat C on December 11, 2005 09:28 PMMorgana, you compose and conduct such earth moving music. Thank you for being out there and bringing your poetry to all of us! I'm really hoping for a bright and happy Fitzmas! Posted by: Pat C on December 11, 2005 09:37 PM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What happened was, the heavens and all spirits of goodness, along with Buddha and Shiva and Allah and Kali and a few others, well, we were having some margaritas and playing poker and tossing around recent headlines, when Allah chimed in that this Focus on the Family group -- a real scab on my big toe for years, I gotta tell you -- well, they just decided to yank all their accounts from a bank over the bank's support of gay rights," said Jesus, dressed in black Diesel jeans, Hugo Boss motorcycle boots and a snug tank top featuring a large OM symbol across the chest. Posted by: wv on December 11, 2005 09:39 PMhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/25/AR2005112500963_pf.html Do Not Forsake Us President Bush flew into New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. His staff had to fire up giant generators to bathe St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square in floodlights, as a backdrop for his promise that he would "do what it takes" to rebuild New Orleans. "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans," he said, "and this great city will rise again." Then the lights went out, and the president left. Vast swaths of the city have been in darkness ever since. It would be unprecedented and indefensible for the federal government to leave an American city to fend for itself in recovery. But when we talk of the federal government's role in rebuild- ing New Orleans, it's important to understand its direct culpability in the destruction. At the site of the worst urban disaster in American history, we are a city obsessed. Rebuilding New Orleans is our breakfast-table conversation, our lunchtime chatter, our pillow talk. But while we talk, we also wait. For a settlement on our homeowner insurance policy, for our children's schools to reopen, for a sign that our neighbors will come back. Above all we are waiting for Congress and the federal government to decide that New Orleans deserves strong levees -- stronger than the sorry system, designed and built by the Army Corps of Engineers, that collapsed, wrecking our neighborhoods. We want word from Washington that a great American city will not be left to die. More.... ~~~~~~ Drowned city cuts its poor adrift The waters have receded but the mainly black, low-income citizens of New Orleans are now the victims of rising rents, forced evictions and plans that favour the better off, reports Peter Beaumont
While some in the city are overtly racist, what is happening in New Orleans is only racist by default. The discrimination is against the poor, who once made up an unusually high percentage of the population for a US city. It just happens that the vast majority of them are African Americans. One who is not is Sonia Fabiola, 54, a house cleaner from Guatemala whose story is typical in a city where thousands are being evicted by private landlords keen to cash in on doubled monthly rentals after the loss of 200,000 homes to the storm. And it is being fuelled by a property boom. 'We were one of the 25 most underpriced markets in the United States,' Arthur Sterbcow, president of the region's Latter & Blum estate agents, told Reuters recently. 'We were as far away from what they called a housing bubble as you get. Now we've had three record-breaking months in a row.' It is a boom that has fuelled unscrupulous practices of which Sonia has been a victim. A resident in a low cost private complex in the Terrytown district, Ms Fabiola, who was evicted from her apartment last Wednesday after a struggle to remain, had been the victim of constant harassment since her return home, allegedly with the connivance of some members of the police. It is a story of pure Rachmanism. She had been threatened, had her rent cheque refused, her electricity cut off and seen her absent neighbours' flats cleared of all their possessions, while rubbish was dumped outside her door. But in a state with some of the poorest tenants' protection laws in the US, her fight to remain was hopeless. And that is likely to be a massive problem in a city whose rents have doubled and trebled in some instances. 'I came here from my own country to get away from corruption and this kind of behaviour,' said Ms Fabiola, 'and now I am treated like this in the United States. It is terrible. No one sees how the poor people here are being treated. I have never missed my rent in the 20 years I have lived here, and now I am being treated like this.' http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1664630,00.html?gusrc=rss Posted by: Pat C on December 11, 2005 10:20 PMThose are pretty damning articles, Pat C. Thanks for posting them. The worst thing of all is the GOP's gross financial abuses, since money now lies at the very root of power in the US. As long as Republicans maintain a chokehold around the flow of money, from whatever corrupt source it originates, there is very little hope for the abandoned people of New Orleans, or anyone else who isn't a rich, elitist, spiritually and morally bankrupt buddy of Tom DeLay, Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney. Whatever hope we have yet for the Dems is long lost on the Grand Old Party. When it can finally no longer retreat from reality and reform, it must be totally liquidated and wiped from meaningful existence within American politics... hopefully to be replaced by a number of more representative parties (which I would also hope would be the ultimate fate of the Democratic coalition). Posted by: NEOBuckeye on December 12, 2005 07:38 AMYou're most welcome Neo. http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1134323377121060.xml BATON ROUGE -- The 82nd Airborne is "trained to deploy anywhere, at any time, to fight upon arrival and to win," according to the mission statement of the famous Army division based at Fort Bragg, N.C. It's a force capable of launching a strategic mission into any area of the world with 18 hours of notification, so the question for many people is why it took President Bush five days to order the 82nd on the ground to deal with the lawlessness and human suffering that spread across New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina. The implications are politically charged. Was Gov. Kathleen Blanco too flustered and overwhelmed by the situation to communicate effectively with President Bush? Or was the White House more focused on political maneuvering than helping the citizens of New Orleans? Blanco will face the controversy on a national stage Wednesday when she testifies before a congressional committee investigating the government's preparation and response to Katrina. Her appearance is preceded by her administration's recent release of thousands of documents, including e-mail messages, reports and hand-scribbled notes, that were requested by House and Senate panels. In her 16-page overview of those documents, no topicconsumes the governor more than the policy decision of bringing federal troops such as the 82nd Airborne into New Orleans to supplement National Guard units. The documents show that the White House delayed its decision to deploy federal troops while it pressured the nation's senior National Guard official to persuade Blanco to accept the president's hand-picked commander to run the entire response effort. The records also reveal a Democratic administration in Baton Rouge seized with anxiety that the media, swayed by a Republican spin machine, would make it appear that the relief effort would improve overnight if the president took control, and that Blanco was dragging her feet to invite federal help. "The (White House) spin is that this (is) state and local fault," Blanco Chief of Staff Andy Kopplin e-mailed to Blanco's top aides on Sept. 4. More... Posted by: Pat C on December 12, 2005 03:30 PMCommunity - I briefly alluded to it in my article, now there's this, though I think they've still got it cockeyed they might be on track. What do ya'll think? Democrats Test Themes for `06 and `08 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051212/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_one_community Posted by: Morgana on December 12, 2005 05:08 PMOk, take a look at Bush today ... what a buildup to the Full Moon! http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Art/COVER/051212/N1_Bush_10a.jpg Posted by: Morgana on December 12, 2005 07:07 PMThe pic above is running on the MSN splash page. Posted by: Morgana on December 12, 2005 07:08 PMMorgana wonderful article If i were to add the other desire is improving infrastructure. Of course then we are up against the corporation and i include the corporation of california in that. Posted by: tseka on December 12, 2005 10:18 PMIt looks like another scandal is set to take off and the name on the indictments will be Diabold. The president "O'Dell has stepped down. If anyone sees the date of his arraignment let me know http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002149.htm Posted by: Sally on December 12, 2005 11:47 PMOhhhhh yes! Diebold biting the dust wouldn't that be fine? Will it be soon enough? Here's another one from Raw Story. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Diebold_CEO_resigns_after_reports_of_1212.html Diebold CEO resigns after reports of fraud litigation, internal woes The chief executive officer of electronic voting company Diebold who once famously declared that he would “deliver” Ohio for President Bush has resigned effective immediately, RAW STORY has learned. “The board of directors and Wally mutually agreed that his decision to resign at this time for personal reasons was in the best interest of all parties,” the company’s new chairman said in a statement. Diebold’s chief operating officer Thomas Swidarski will take O’Dell’s place. “This has been a very challenging year for the company,” Swidarski said. “We are beginning to make progress to improve some of our performance issues, reduce our cost structure by addressing inefficiencies in our manufacturing supply chain and software development processes, and instill price discipline throughout the company.” DEVELOPING: MORE SOON…........ Posted by: Pat C on December 13, 2005 01:14 AMI don't have a link for you, but the word on Diebold is that O'Dell's resignation is merely just the tip of the iceberg. Diebold is brimming with corruption on such a severe scale that its' exposé could quickly match or even surpass that other late, great paragon of GOP/PNAC-backing enterprise -- Enron. Anyone want to bet me their life savings and a billion dollars in Asian-owned US promissory notes that this slimy trail doesn't lead from Diebold's home office in Canton down to the Ohio GOP's headquarters and the Governor's Mansion in Columbus? And into the DeLay-Abramoff Machine, The Bush-Cheney-Rove White House Machine, and the rest of the rancid GOP infrastructure? Sally, you did mention a major political upheaval for Ohio after the turn of the year. Perhaps this is a seed -- maybe THE seed -- now sprouting after years and years of lying in waiting for its time to bloom. The same seed, which was planted, when this band of sad, pathetic souls opted for the path of darkness, rather than the path of the greater good. Funny thing, it is to see Ohio's Attorney General Jim Petro running TV ads for governor before the GOP primaries are even in sight. He's supposedly trailing the Reactionary Right-Wing Christofascists' favorite, Ohio Secretary of State -- and 2004 Ohio Bush campaign Chariman -- Ken Blackwell, for the GOP nomination. State Auditor Betty Montgomery is a somewhat distant third. Big dreamers of political dreams, all of them. Dreams that will be shortly oblitterated, and hopelessly broken, along with their political careers. Posted by: NEOBuckeye on December 13, 2005 01:45 AMOh Neo, this is one of those times that I feel in my laughin' place. After the 2004 election I said basically that the voting problems would be the gift that would keep on giving to Ohio and they would not be done with Blackwell and the Repug's voting corruption there. And so they are not done and whoops, they aren't done yet, in fact the whole thing will start heating up after the 1st of the year. Even today, with Taft's approval ratings hovering around 17, he is trying (and has gotten through the Ohio House) to enact voting laws that would make it virtually impossible for "the people" to ever win again in that state. What amounts to a new 21st Century Jim Crow laws is on the Senate docket right now. That man hasn't even seen the rage Ohioans will level at him, but he will. I think it will take about a year and a half for the state to rise up against Taft, they cannot get him out of there fast enough. Posted by: Sally on December 13, 2005 02:24 AM
http://www.astrowisdom.com/thisfullmoon.htm Posted by: wv on December 13, 2005 02:47 AMWell, Sally, I've got a free front row seat just for living here. There is definitely something in the air, and the recently announced Ford plant closures will only add to that effect. The front page of at least one of the buckeye newspapers carried the story on the Republicans "ID-before-Voting" scheme that this party of pretenders, cowards and charlatans is trying to ram through the state legislature in order to keep itself in power, and the Dems and everyone else out. I guess when you can't govern with honest ideas and vision, govern with an iron PATRIOT fist. And when you can't convince people to vote for you, conspire to keep them away from the polls in the first place. Such is the post-modern Republican Party's modus operandi. Posted by: NEOBuckeye on December 13, 2005 03:23 AMKeep us informed NEO I think Ohio is going to get really interesting with their 10 degree Pisces Sun (Uranus moving that way) and oh my goodness, Ohio's Sun inconj. their Natal Uranus something "titanic" is brewing for your state government. Whatever could it be? Posted by: Sally on December 13, 2005 04:15 AMThe Global Exchange's list of the "Most Wanted Corporate Violaters of Human Rights Abuse." http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/corporateHRviolators.html Posted by: Sally on December 13, 2005 04:24 AMDon't forget the 24 degree Gemini Moon of Ohio. A little Pluto thrown in with a full moon is contributing quite nicely to the action. Posted by: jm on December 13, 2005 10:48 AMhttp://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20010205&s=bugliosi None Dare Call It Treason In the December 12 ruling by the US Supreme Court handing the election to George Bush, the Court committed the unpardonable sin of being a knowing surrogate for the Republican Party instead of being an impartial arbiter of the law. If you doubt this, try to imagine Al Gore's and George Bush's roles being reversed and ask yourself if you can conceive of Justice Antonin Scalia and his four conservative brethren issuing an emergency order on December 9 stopping the counting of ballots (at a time when Gore's lead had shrunk to 154 votes) on the grounds that if it continued, Gore could suffer "irreparable harm," and then subsequently, on December 12, bequeathing the election to Gore on equal protection grounds. If you can, then I suppose you can also imagine seeing a man jumping away from his own shadow, Frenchmen no longer drinking wine. From the beginning, Bush desperately sought, as it were, to prevent the opening of the door, the looking into the box--unmistakable signs that he feared the truth. In a nation that prides itself on openness, instead of the Supreme Court doing everything within its power to find a legal way to open the door and box, they did the precise opposite in grasping, stretching and searching mightily for a way, any way at all, to aid their choice for President, Bush, in the suppression of the truth, finally settling, in their judicial coup d'état, on the untenable argument that there was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause--the Court asserting that because of the various standards of determining the voter's intent in the Florida counties, voters were treated unequally, since a vote disqualified in one county (the so-called undervotes, which the voting machines did not pick up) may have been counted in another county, and vice versa. Accordingly, the Court reversed the Florida Supreme Court's order that the undervotes be counted, effectively delivering the presidency to Bush. More... Posted by: Pat C on December 13, 2005 12:47 PMOne more article on the stolen election topic: http://www.democraticunderground.com/crisis/05/041_ep.html Posted by: Patricia on December 13, 2005 03:41 PMhttp://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2005/12/12/ap2386603.html Byrd Warns Frist Against 'Nuclear Option' Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia said Monday he doesn't expect Democrats to filibuster the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, but he still chastised Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for threatening to stop any such effort through a drastic parliamentary effort that has been dubbed the "nuclear option." "If he ever tries to exercise that, he's going to see a real filibuster if I'm living and able to stand on my feet or sit in my seat," Byrd said in a Senate debate with Frist, R-Tenn. "If the senator wants a fight, let him try it," said Byrd, the Senate's senior Democrat. "I'm 88 years old, but I can still fight, and fight I will for freedom of speech. I haven't been here for 47 years to see that freedom of speech whittled away and undermined. " ... ~~~~~~ http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3302869 The new machismo It's macho time in America. So there you have it, Dr. Dean. A massive and ongoing crime is being committed against our democracy – a democracy which has now, in effect, been set aside and shut down. A democracy which can only be restored if we the people rise up and take it back. Where, in this coming struggle, is the Democratic Party? Is it an ally of the people and a defender of our Constitution? Or is it an accomplice to the crime? The American people are entitled to an answer. Continuing silence by the Democratic party is, in effect, an answer. But it is not the answer to which the free citizens of a democracy are entitled. ++++++++++++ The sad answer is, judging from the actions of the Dem Party in 2000/2004 is that they are accomplices. If anything is to be done then the people will need to take action - forceful action - or nothing will change. Democracy is a sham in the USA. Peace and strength to you all. Jase. Posted by: Jase on December 13, 2005 05:09 PMI think these days... if the Natural World survives... will be known as the Idiot Micro-Dick Wars. Talk about eternally childish & infantile. Posted by: JoannaOregon on December 13, 2005 05:54 PM* Missing Link: How Right-Wing Neo-Cons Created `Democratic Leadership Council' [DLC] http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3028neocon_dems.html * The Democratic Leadership Council's role in losing the 2004 election http://www.unknownnews.org/050104a-cr.html * Guardian Talk USA What do you think of george w bush? A thread originally begun by hoib (Rest In Peace) in 2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To The Warmongers I'm back again from Hell Young faces bleared with blood, For you our battles shine But a curse is on my head, http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2005/11/to-warmongers.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1128-20.htm [...]But such motivating fear can be a bad thing, too. When response to the imagined threat moves beyond the adrenalin rush that usefully heightens perception, to an inhibiting construction of defenses or to actual attacks against the dark, then, considered individually, what the person has fallen prey to is clinical paranoia. Considered socially, what we have in such reaction is the politics of terror. Alert to one monster, we create another. The United States is now undergoing a great reckoning. With collapsing confidence in the government, obsessive debate about the war, rising contempt for the president, shame in relation to the plight of our young soldiers, acrimony at holiday tables -- ''I told you so" versus ''What would you have us do?" -- the nation confronts the all-too-human fact that our frightened responses to Al Qaeda, at home and abroad, have done us far more damage than the nihilist terrorists ever could have. Our communal dread, instead of sharpening our responses, made them reckless. cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://driftglass.blogspot.com/ [...]For the last thirty years, in order to gain control over the levers of power, the Party of God has raised a steady, fanatical war not against some particular policy, but against the legitimacy of government and of civil and secular society itself. A war against tolerance. A war against peace. A war against human rights. A war against civil rights. A war against labor. A war against women. A war against children. A war against the Prince of Peace (hat-tip to Jimmy Carter for that one.) A was against kindness and commonwealth. A war against every authentic American value we have. And it has been that alliance of thieves, con men, Armageddonists and bigots that call themselves the Republican Party – BoBo’s Party -- that has waged this war, carefully, deliberately and each in single-minded pursuit of its own particular and despicable agenda. Hey, asshat, didn’t you get the memo? Destroying our faith in institutions? Undermining our confidence in our ability to unite and solve out common problems? That. Was. The. Fucking. Plan. Asshole. Because there was no other way for theocrats and thugs to take over the United State than for them to rip the throat out of the whole idea of what the United States and pee on it as it bled to death. All while apologists for those selfsame rat-bastards -- like BoBo -- “look with alarm” at the prostrate nation bleeding out, scratching their fat asses and wondering aloud, “Lawd have mercy! Whoever could have done such a thing?!” cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's the secret behind bldg a multibillion-dollar business empire that has instant name recognition? You might think it depends on a CEO who's ruthlessly competitive & drives company workers relentlessly. Well, Jim Sinegal isn't your typical CEO, & Costco, the business he founded, is not your typical store. While it may be unorthodox, nobody cld say Sinegal's business strategy isn't working. About 45mn shoppers visit Costco, & for some of them the experience borders on the spiritual. Shopper Jose Davila put it this way: "This is the best place in the world. It's like going to church on Sunday. You can't get anything better than this. This is a religious experience." And Sinegal isn't just interested in taking care of his customers. He wants to take good care of his employees. "It's a good place to work; they take care of us," said one Costco employee who spoke with "20/20" correspondent Bill Ritter. And when Sinegal walks into one of his stores, he's treated like a celebrity. His employees seem to genuinely like him. And the feeling's mutual. "The employees know that I want to say hello to them, because I like them," he said. Just Jim Unlike the stereotypical CEO, Sinegal doesn't try to distance himself from his employees. He even wears a name tag — but not one that says "Jim, the CEO" or "Jim, Costco Founder." It just says Jim. He easily cld be mistaken for a stock clerk. His philosophy is simple, he said. "We have said from the very beginning: 'We're going to be a company that's on a 1st-name basis with everyone,'" he said. That also incl answering his own phone. "If a customer's calling & they have a gripe, don't you think they kind of enjoy the fact that I picked up the phone & talked to them?" he said. The son of a steelworker, Sinegal began in the warehouse business, loading mattresses. Sinegal's working-class values are ingrained in Costco's corporate culture. That may in fact be the key to the company's success. "Our code of ethics says we have to obey the law. We have to take care of our customers, take care of our people. And if we do those things, we think that we'll reward our shareholders," Sinegal said. He certainly has rewarded them. This yr's sales total more than $52bn from 462 stores in 37 states & 8 countries. Costco is now the nation's 4th-largest retailer, selling everything from crab legs to flat-screen TVs to caskets — & even a Picasso painting. Part of Costco's genius is its simplicity. A typical Wal-Mart stocks more than 100,000 items, Costco stocks only 4,000. Stocking only hi-quality goods, Costco attracts the most affluent customers in discount retailing — with an average income of $74,000. Ray Dinari, a criminal defense lawyer & loyal Costco shopper, said: "I think I spend over $20,000 — $25,000/yr buying all my products here from food to clothing — except my suits. I have to buy them at the Armani stores." The secret to Costco's profit is simple, too. Its margin on each item isn't very high — but Sinegal says they make it up on volume. To give you an idea of the incredible volume, Costco sold 90,000 karats of diamonds & 26mn rotisserie chickens in 2004. Costco is also the largest seller of fine wines in the world. And during this holiday season, it will sell $16mn worth of pumpkin pies. ... con't http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/story?id=1362779 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The alcoholic is like a tornado roaring his way thru the lives of others. Hearts are broken. Sweet relationships are dead. Affections have been uprooted. Selfish & inconsiderate habits have kept the [Gaian] home in turmoil. We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enuf. He is like the farmer who came up out of his cyclone cellar to find his home ruined. To his wife, he remarked, 'Don't see anything the matter here, Ma. Ain't it grand the wind stopped blown'?'" pg 82 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Halliburton WatchHalliburton announces 284 percent increase in war profits ... the Pentagon awarded $70mn in "award" fees to the company, along with four ratings of ... http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/earnings072205.html Bechtel awarded Iraq contract: War profits & the US "military ...Thus, Bechtel’s exploitation of political connections & war for purposes of profit is not of recent vintage. The company began working in the Persian Gulf ... http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/bech-a29.shtml WHO MAKES THE WAR PROFITS The General Chemical Co averaged a profit for the 3 years before the war of a little over $80,0000/yr. Came the war, & the profits jumped to ... http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/War-Profits.htm Company's Work in Iraq Profited bush's Uncle... war-related profits have trickled down to a familiar family name — bush. ... Company officials acknowledge the war is an economic boon to the firm. ... http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0223-05.htm Profits of war - Independent Media TVProfits of war. By: Dan Briody · The Guardian ... But how did the company run in the 90s by Dick Cheney secure a deal that guaranteed it millions in profit ... http://www.independent-media.tv/itemprint.cfm?fmedia_id=8275&fcategory_desc=Dick%20Cheney%20and%20Halliburton Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Book extract: The ...Profits of war Halliburton has become a byword for the cosy links between the WH & Texan big business. But how did the company run in the 90s by ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1266328,00.html Ideas & Screening | Reuters.comWar profits 28 Apr 2004 ... The company cited soaring demand for its combat aircraft & govt info/technology services. ... http://www.investor.reuters.com/GoTo.aspx?docid=4819&.t=companyoftheday Kellogg Brown & Root Subsidiary Of Halliburton Company | War ... war profits from its financial ties to businesses (such as Kellogg, Brown, ... a subsidary of Halliburton Co) being awarded corrupt billion dollar ... http://www.singingmountain.org/y2003dec13b.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Clear Strategy – for Disaster by Ray McGovern http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=8202 The bromide-heavy speech that President George W. Bush gave Wednesday at the Naval Academy presents a clear strategy for continued quagmire and eventual disaster in Iraq. Despite the gathering storm of opposition to the administration's approach to the war in Iraq, the speech was long on tired clichés and bereft of new ideas, calling to mind the words of Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." The problem is that this hobgoblin has consequences. Bush's renewed warning of a future "Islamic empire from Indonesia to Spain" at first seemed to me as outlandish as President Ronald Reagan's warning that the Russians planned to land in Nicaragua in order to invade Texas. Now it seems that Bush's concern may become self-fulfilling prophecy, since the course he is on could hardly be better designed to usher in an eventual Islamic, rather than American, "empire." cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Charley Reese http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=8203 [....]The president, for example, says we are succeeding in Iraq. To know whether that is true or not would require, first of all, a definition of "success" and then an extensive trip to Iraq to see if conditions on the ground meet the criteria for success. The president has gone to Iraq only once, for a photo opportunity. He spiraled in, in the dead of night, spent an hour or two in the heavily fortified Baghdad Airport, and then spiraled out, never, so far, to return. Since he is so obsessed with the war, one has to wonder why he has not made several trips to the country. Leaders of other countries have done so. It's hard to lead from the rear. If things are going as swimmingly as he says, travel to Iraq should not present a great risk. What a great photo op it would be if he would go out on a night patrol with one of our units. In fact, his action of not going undercuts his words. His not going says that regardless of what he says, it is not safe for him to put his feet on Iraqi soil. If that is the case, then we don't control Iraq. cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/ We don't have an accurate count of Iraq's casualties because Marla Ruzicka -- who was trying to get some transparency about the impact of this war on Iraqi people and families -- was herself killed near Baghdad. We do know that Iraq's casualties are in the many tens of thousands. However, we do have a very accurate count of the number of U.S. military killed in this war. Here is a breakdown by state: Alabama 34 Alaska 5 American Samoa 5 Arizona 51 Arkansas 29 California 221 Colorado 30 Connecticut 18 Delaware 8 District of Columbia 3 England (U.S. Citizen) 1 Micronesia 2 Florida 93 Georgia 62 Guam 1 Guatemala (U.S. Citizen) 1 Hawaii 6 Idaho 14 Illinois 84 Indiana 43 Iowa 25 Kansas 21 Kentucky 32 Louisiana 48 Maine 9 Maryland 32 Massachusetts 33 Michigan 67 Minnesota 27 Mississippi 34 Missouri 30 Montana 10 Nebraska 20 Nevada 13 New Hampshire 7 New Jersey 42 New Mexico 14 New York 100 North Carolina 44 North Dakota 10 Northern Mariana Islands 3 Ohio 102 Oklahoma 36 Oregon 34 Pennsylvania 106 Puerto Rico 18 Rhode Island 8 South Carolina 32 South Dakota 11 Tennessee 46 Texas 190 Utah 9 Vermont 14 Virgin Islands 3 Virginia 60 Washington 40 West Virginia 14 Wisconsin 49 Wyoming 6 Then, when you have a bit of time and can think about what this "war of choice" -- as Richard Haass has appropriately called it -- has cost America in terms of the lost contributions of these people, stroll through the names and neighborhoods of this list here. -- Steve Clemons -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- latimes.com WASHINGTON — The FBI has reopened an inquiry into one of the most intriguing aspects of the pre-Iraq war intelligence fiasco: how the Bush administration came to rely on forged documents linking Iraq to nuclear weapons materials as part of its justification for the invasion. cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor. So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation. In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military. ...they wonder how Col. Ted Westhusing -- father, husband, son and expert on doing right -- could have found himself in a place so dark that he saw no light. ...In the military report, the unidentified colonel told investigators that he had turned to Michelle, Westhusing's wife, and asked what happened. She answered: "Iraq." http://www.unknownnews.org/0512021127Westhusing.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CIA is set to be sued by an American civil rights group over controversial "torture" flights for terror suspects. The activist body American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is taking the US intelligence agency to court to try to prevent people accused of terrorism being flown to countries outwith American jurisdiction. It emerged last week that Edinburgh is one of several Scottish airports being used as a refuelling stop for the secret flights. ACLU says the CIA has broken international and US law and is acting on behalf of a man allegedly abducted and flown to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan. The group claims the "innocent man" it is acting for was held by the CIA in a jail known as the "Salt Pit", a disused factory outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, reputed to serve as a centre for CIA detention and interrogation. In a statement, the civil rights group said: "The lawsuit will charge that CIA officials at the highest level violated US and universal human rights laws when they authorised agents to abduct an innocent man, detain him incommunicado, beat him, drug and transport him to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan." (cont) http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=2346172005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Despite pretty words about democracy and freedom, george w. bush's "victory" plan in Iraq is starting to look increasingly like an invitation to genocide, the systematic destruction of the Sunni minority for resisting its U.S.-induced transformation from the nation’s ruling elite into second-class citizenship. (cont) http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/113005.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How and why "decent men" became Nazis. Written by an American journalist of German\Jewish descent. Mr. Mayer provides a fascinating window into the lives, thoughts and emotions of a people caught up in the rush of the Nazi movement. It is a book that should make people pause and think -- not only about the Germans, but also about themselves. "What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know it doesn't make people close to their government to be told that this is a people's government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing to do with knowing one is governing. What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it. "This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter. (cont) http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ambassador de Sade bush rewarded one of his loyalists with the ambassadorship to Italy--despite his past as the founder of an cult-like teen rehab clinic. Among [rez]'s appointments of GOP activists to important posts, [it's] done worse than Melvin Sembler, the Ambassador to Italy who cldn't speak Italian. Unlike the FEMA chief, who had real responsibilities, Sembler sometimes found himself a 5th wheel around ["his own"] embassy. As the Wash Monthly has reported, the scandal that claimed Scooter Libby's job last mo may have sprung from secret Rome mtgs between neocons, an Iran-Contra figure & an Italian intelligence boss who later pushed phony WMD docs--all behind Sembler's back. But where Melvin Sembler, 74, demands attn is as an object lesson in how cruelty can be redeemed by the transformative power of political donations. For 16 yrs, Sembler, with his wife Betty, directed the leading juvenile rehab business in America, STRAIGHT, Inc, before seeing it dismantled by a breathtaking array of institutional abuse claims by mid-1993. Just one of many survivors is Samantha Monroe, now a travel agent in PA, who told The Montel Wms show this yr about overcoming beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, & the confinement to a janitor's closet in "humble pants"--which contained wks of her own urine, feces & menstrual blood. During this "timeout," she gnawed her cheek & spat blood at her overseers. "I refused to let them take my mind," she says of the program. The abuse took yrs to overcome. ... con't http://www.alternet.org/story/27725/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Revolt of the Generals The immense significance of Rep John Murtha's November 17 speech calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq is that it signals mutiny in the US senior officer corps, seeing the institution they lead as "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth", to use the biting words of their spokesman, John Murtha, as he reiterated on December his denunciation of Bush's destruction of the Army. A CounterPuncher with nearly 40 years experience working in and around the Pentagon told me this week that "The Four Star Generals picked Murtha to make this speech because he has maximum credibility." It's true. Even in the US Senate there's no one with quite Murtha's standing to deliver the message, except maybe for Byrd, but the venerable senator from West Virginia was a vehement opponent of the war from the outset, whereas Murtha voted for it and only recently has turned around. So the Four-Star Generals briefed Murtha and gave him the state-of-the-art data which made his speech so deadly, stinging the White House into panic-stricken and foolish denunciations of Murtha as a clone of Michael Moore. It cannot have taken vice president Cheney, a former US Defense Secretary, more than a moment to scan Murtha's speech and realize the import of Murtha's speech as an announcement that the generals have had enough. (cont) http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn12032005.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...Earlier this week, General Electric Television (NBC) gave the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh a couple minutes on the happy morning Today Show to pitch an article that starkly depicts the militaristic madness of boy-king George. Hersh quotes a number of current and former military, intelligence, and administration officials to reveal an increasingly detached and messianic president who is "impervious to political pressure even from fellow Republicans." According to insiders, Bush believes "God put me here" to occupy Iraq. A "Pentagon adviser" told Hersh that Bush is "not going to back off" the occupation" because the president sees his illegal and immoral Iraq policy as "bigger than domestic politics." By Hersh's informants' account, "bigger" means "divinely inspired." It's also hard not to observe that Bush justifies his defiance of democratic mass opinion by claiming a special, direct, and higher relationship between the president as Commander-In-Chief and the supposedly loyal soldiers of his curiously terrorist "war on terror." Most U.S. citizens want a quick exit from Mesopotamia. A rising number of the nation's Congresspersons are calling for a timetable for the pullout of troops. And, for what it's worth to U.S. policymakers, more than 70 percent of the Iraq's lawmakers and more than 80 percent of that nation's populace want U.S. and British forces out. So what?, says Bush, appealing above the heads of the mere citizenry (the supposed masters of policy in a democratic society) to the noble and virtuous mercenaries and gendarmes of U.S. empire. (cont) http://dissidentvoice.org/Dec05/Street1203.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Israel: We prefer Assad Israel told the United States it fears the outcome of regime change in Syria. At a strategic-dialogue meeting this week among senior officials, Israel laid out for the United States three scenarios if Bashar Assad is toppled: chaos, an Islamist regime or another strongman from Assad's minority Alawite sect. Israel fears all those options, saying Assad provides a measure of stability. U.S. officials told their Israeli counterparts that toppling Assad could be "transformative" and dismissed concerns about an Islamist regime taking his place. http://jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=270 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...There's nothing new in this; Bush is simply following a well-thumbed playbook. For example, in 1953 the CIA bankrolled Islamic fundamentalists and secular goon squads to destabilize the democratic government of Iran – which selfishly wanted to control its own oil – and pave the way for the puppet Shah, as the agency's own histories recount. In 1971, CIA officials admitted carrying out more than 21,000 "extra-judicial killings" in its "Phoenix" counter-insurgency operation in Vietnam. (The true number of victims is certainly much higher.) In 1979, the CIA began sponsoring the most violent Islamic extremist groups in Afghanistan – supplying money, arms, even jihad primers for schoolchildren – to destabilize the secular, Soviet-allied government and provoke the Kremlin into a costly intervention, as Robert Dreyfus details in his new book, Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam. Later, Saudi magnate Osama bin Laden – whose family firm helped kick-start George W. Bush's business career – joined the operation, and his men were sent to America for "anti-Soviet" terrorist training, as Greg Palast reports. And of course, these examples only scratch the scorched-earth surface of America's double-dealings in this deathly shadow world. This bi-partisan policy has been remarkably consistent for more than half a century: to augment the wealth and power of the elite, American leaders have supported – or created – vicious gangs of killers and cranks to foment unrest, eliminate opponents and terrorize whole nations into submission. The resulting carnage in the target countries – and inevitable blowback against ordinary Americans – means nothing to these Great Gamesters; it's merely the price of doing business. Bush's "incompetence" is just a mask for stone-cold calculation. (cont) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=FLO20051201&articleId=1378 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indiscriminate Killings of Civilians http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAD20051201&articleId=1381 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a CA [necroporn], can no longer smooth over his bluster/lapses in judgment with a See's Candies party assortment. The 8-term congressman & decorated Navy pilot resigned his seat Mon after tearfully confessing to accepting at least $2.4mn in bribes from [offense] contractors that incl $100,000 in cash, a Rolls-Royce & a 42' yacht. He pleaded guilty in fed court & awaits sentencing 2/27. ... con't http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120301046_2.html?nav=hcmodule -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the 40-seat turboprop landed in St. John's one recent Friday evening, there was no reason to believe ghosts were involved in the procedure. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration recorded everything anyone would need to know, it seemed, about the fixed-wing, multi-engine plane, registration number N196D, built in 2003 and registered as a corporate jet. The corporation is identified as Devon Holding and Leasing Inc., headquartered at a downtown address in Lexington, N.C. And that is when the ghosts appear. There is no Devon Holding and Leasing Inc. at 129 W. Center St. in Lexington, N.C. There is no phone listing. The city offices have never heard of it; neither has the Chamber of Commerce. The law offices of James A. Gleason are at 129 W. Center St., but five days of inquiries there failed to yield an answer to this simple question: Does anyone in this office know of a company called Devon Holding and Leasing? It is almost certainly a CIA shell company, existing on paper only, and the turboprop was likely carrying a "ghost" prisoner to a country where torture is used during interrogations. (cont) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry, prime minister, your legacy will be a disastrous foreign war In his old age it will seem monstrously unfair to him, but Tony Blair will be remembered for one terrible misjudgment http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1657905,00.html Max Hastings Monday December 5, 2005 [...] By now, you will have perceived where this line of thought is heading. Galling though it must be to him, Blair's legacy will be Iraq. It is plain that, whatever the outcome, it will not be a happy one. Whether or no the coalition forces swiftly depart, the saga will drag on for years, poisoning western relations with the Islamic world. It is unlikely that Iraq can be sustained as a unitary state. Much more bloodshed is to come. No amount of massage can alter the fact that this was a war of choice, not necessity. Blair, intoxicated by the sensation of standing shoulder to shoulder with the most powerful man on earth in doing a good deed, committed Britain on a false prospectus and in the caravan of gross incompetents in Washington. The consequences threaten to be interminable, not least in this country's increased vulnerability to terrorism. It is hard to imagine any political historian, never mind the British public, attributing our involvement in this shambles to anything beyond the misjudgment of one man, the prime minister. Posterity will be no more impressed by Blair's professed honourable intentions than by those of Anthony Eden in Egypt, half a century ago. The memory of Blair's government will be dominated by this disastrous foreign war, rather than, for instance, by his maintenance of a successful economy at home and brilliant speeches to successive Labour party conferences. In his old age, all this will seem monstrously unfair to him. He is a man of vastly more substance and parts than John Major. He possesses genuine star quality. Yet the hubris bred by his extraordinary public stature induced him to commit a folly more damaging to the national interest than any act of Major's. Blair is left today, struggling with increasingly clumsy haste to create achievements that will outlast his tenancy of Downing Street. Yet events in Baghdad negate them all, and are beyond his control. Does he himself perceive this? Of course not. His behaviour suggests a diminishing grip upon reality, as well as on power. All the trappings of office are still there to reassure him, the police outriders and deferential flunkeys, the cosy embrace of Chequers. But now, these are all for nothing. Blair is running a race before an audience that is already drifting away from the stadium, and in which he is competing vainly against events. The Blair legacy is sealed and witnessed beyond amendment or codicil, and a tragically ugly one it is. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/11/domestic_milita.html Yesterday, Walter Pincus reported in The Washington Post about the Defense Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), certainly one of the more mysterious Pentagon agencies, and one that is at the center of the Defense Department's expanded programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States. [...]It is the military's equivalent of the FBI and intelligence community's post 9/11 shift, and Wolfowitz directed the sharing of reports on ambiguous activity. This new reporting mechanism -- called TALON for Threat and Local Observation Notice -- applies to seven reporting categories:
Under well-worn intelligence oversight rules, military intelligence units are restricted from collecting information concerning "U.S. persons," but the post 9/11 reality is these restrictions are increasingly meaningless. What is more, the post 9/11 redefinition of "counter-intelligence" opens the way for the military to conduct domestic surveillance. Military law enforcement organizations such as the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), the Army Criminal Investigations Division (CID) and its domestic counter-intelligence brigade, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) have increasing domestic duties that straddle the world between "counter-intelligence" and law enforcement, and are the main sources for TALON reporting to CIFA. cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When one looks at the seven TALON reporting categories, it is clear that what is to be collected is broad enough to encompass virtually anything the military feels is a threat. "Non-specific threats" and "other suspicious activity" can be interpreted to include just about anything. "Elicitation," for instance, is defined in TALON documents as:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ... The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the Govt Accountability Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage. The govt's lead investigative agency is known for its general incorruptibility & its thorough, in-depth analyses. Its concurrence with assertions widely dismissed as "conspiracy theories" adds crucial new weight to the case that Team bush has no legitimate business being in the WH. Nearly a year ago, senior Judiciary Committee Dem John Conyers (D-MI) asked the GAO to investigate electronic voting machines as they were used during the Nov 2, 2004 prez election. The request came amidst widespread complaints in Ohio & elsewhere that often shocking irregularities defined their performance. ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20051204/cm_huffpost/011483;_ylt=AszschTxD4KVT6OjaknmgONVZ0YC;_ylu=X3oDMTA4MzQ0N2p2BHNlYwMxNzA0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;O) ;O) ;O) ;O) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zombies Attack george bush - Joe Dante's brilliant anti-war horror show. Just when things looked like they couldn't get any worse for [rez], here come the zombies to vote him out of office. They arrive courtesy of Joe Dante's Homecoming, a 1-hr movie made for Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series that airs tonight & tomorrow & will be rebroadcast thruout Dec. One part satire of soulless Beltway insiders, 1 pt gut-crunching horror flick, Homecoming kicks off when the flag-draped coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq burst open & the reanimated corpses of dead vets hit the streets, searching for polling places where they can pull the lever for "anyone who will end this evil war." The mandate for Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series was to give 1-hr slots to name-brand shock auteurs such as Takashi Miike & John Carpenter, granting them total artistic control in exchange for low budgets. So far, most of the directors have squandered their creative carte blanche on extra boobs & more blood, but Joe Dante has elected to do something actually terrifying: engage with the real world. His characters seem like people we've just watched on MSNBC. There's David Murch, a political consultant for an unnamed [necroporn rez] who sounds exactly like bush. His new girlfriend, Jane Cleaver, is a bullying pundit cloned from Ann Coulter's DNA. There's also a James Carville look-alike & a Jerry Falwell doppelgänger, complete with quivering jowls. Dante delivers the thrill of watching familiar figures spin the issues & dole out doublespeak, yet he doesn't stint on the satisfaction of seeing them have their brains eaten afterwards. He's the 1st horror director to take the bits of media flotsam & jetsam that have been drifting around—-the flag-draped coffins at Dover AF Base, the talking-head cable shows, the internment camps, the OH & FL recounts, the "Mission Accomplished" banners-—& make something electrifying out of them. ... con't http://www.slate.com/id/2131378/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Politics is the art of controlling your environment.' That is 'Politics is the art of controlling your environment.' That is one of the key things I learned in these years, and I learned it the hard way. Anybody who thinks that 'it doesn't matter who's President' has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid War on the other side of the World -- or been beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property -- or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons -- or locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower. That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted. - Hunter S. Thompson -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Masked Man By Chris Floyd Published: December 2, 2005 http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/12/02/120.html The recent revelations about the virulent spread of death squads ravaging Iraq have only confirmed for many people the lethal incompetence of the Bush Regime, whose brutal bungling appears to have unleashed the demon of sectarian strife in the conquered land. The general reaction, even among some war supporters, has been bitter derision: "Jeez, these bozos couldn't boil an egg without causing collateral damage." But what if the truth is even more sinister? What if this murderous chaos is not the fruit of rank incompetence but instead the desired product of carefully crafted, efficiently managed White House policy? Investigative journalist Max Fuller marshals a convincing case for this conclusion in a remarkable work of synthesis based on information buried in reams of mainstream news stories and public Pentagon documents. Piling fact on damning fact, he shows that the vast majority of atrocities attributed to "rogue" Shiite and Sunni militias are in fact the work of government-controlled commandos and "special forces," trained by Americans, "advised" by Americans and run largely by former CIA assets, Global Research reports. We first reported here in August 2003 that the United States was already hiring Saddam's security muscle for "special ops" against the nascent insurgency and reopening his torture haven, Abu Ghraib. Meanwhile, powerful Shiite militias -- including religious extremists armed and trained by Iran -- were loosed upon the land. As direct "Coalition" rule gave way to various "interim" and "elected" Iraqi governments, these violent gangs were formally incorporated into the Iraqi Interior Ministry, where the supposedly inimical Sunni and Shiite units often share officers and divvy up territories. Bush helpfully supplied these savage gangs -- who are killing dozens of people each week, Knight-Ridder reports -- with U.S. advisers who made their "counter-insurgency" bones forming right-wing death squads in Colombia and El Salvador. Indeed, Bush insiders have openly bragged of "riding with the bad boys" and exercising the "Salvador option," lauding the Reagan-backed counter-insurgency program that slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians, Newsweek reports. Bush has also provided a "state-of-the-art command, control and communications center" to coordinate the operation of his Iraqi "commandos," as the Pentagon's own news site, DefendAmerica, reports. The Iraqi people can go without electricity, fuel and medicine, but by God, Bush's "bad boys" will roll in clover as they carry out their murders and mutilations. For months, stories from the Shiite south and Sunni center have reported the same phenomenon: people being summarily seized by large groups of armed men wearing police commando uniforms, packing high-priced Glocks, using sophisticated radios and driving Toyota Land Cruisers with police markings. The captives are taken off and never seen again -- unless they turn up with a load of other corpses days or weeks later, bearing marks of the gruesome tortures they suffered before the ritual shot in the head. Needless to say, these mass murders under police aegis are rarely investigated by the police. The Bushists may have been forced to ditch their idiotic fantasies of "cakewalking" into a compliant satrapy, but they have by no means abandoned their chief goals in the war: milking Iraq dry and planting a permanent military "footprint" on the nation's neck. If direct control through a plausible puppet is no longer possible, then fomenting bloody chaos and sectarian strife is the best way to weaken the state. The Bushists are happy to make common cause with thugs and zealots in order to prevent the establishment of a strong national government that might balk at the ongoing "privatizations" that have continued apace behind the smokescreen of violence, or at the planned opening of Iraq's oil reserves to select foreign investors -- a potential transfer of some $200 billion of Iraqi people's wealth into the hands of a few Bush cronies, The Independent reports. cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace: "It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it." Rumsfeld: "But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it." Pace: "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it." http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/nataffdaily/story/8909037 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war ...It was damning stuff -- just the kind of evidence the Bush administration was looking for. If the charges were true, they would offer the White House a compelling reason to invade Iraq and depose Saddam. That's why the Pentagon had flown a CIA polygraph expert to Pattaya: to question al-Haideri and confirm, once and for all, that Saddam was secretly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. There was only one problem: It was all a lie. After a review of the sharp peaks and deep valleys on the polygraph chart, the intelligence officer concluded that al-Haideri had made up the entire story, apparently in the hopes of securing a visa. The fabrication might have ended there, the tale of another political refugee trying to scheme his way to a better life. But just because the story wasn't true didn't mean it couldn't be put to good use. Al-Haideri, in fact, was the product of a clandestine operation -- part espionage, part PR campaign -- that had been set up and funded by the CIA and the Pentagon for the express purpose of selling the world a war. And the man who had long been in charge of the marketing was a secretive and mysterious creature of the Washington establishment named John Rendon. (cont) http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/8798997 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the House, Bush is a liability, the Hammer's been indicted and the once-united GOP juggernaut stumbles toward an ugly divorce ...It has gotten so bad for Republicans around Washington that even their usual trump play -- the dirty kick in the balls -- has abandoned them. It wasn't long ago that Republicans could pull a Roy Cohn and pin the scarlet letter even on legless war heroes like Max Cleland and get away with parading them through the public arena as commies and traitors. But when they tried the same thing in Congress on the day after the budget bill, trotting out feckless freshman Rep. Jean Schmidt (a wrinkly, witchlike woman with a penchant for dressing like a harbor buoy) to denounce war critic and Vietnam veteran Rep. John Murtha as an unpatriotic coward, the ploy blew up in their faces almost immediately. The whole country reacted with an audible collective retching sound, "Mean Jean" was savaged on SNL and she had to spend three days hiding from reporters; meanwhile, Murtha spent the weekend getting fellated by Tim Russert and other media heavies, who feted the Democrat as though he were a cross between Audie Murphy and the pope. Overnight, it seemed, Republicans had lost a yard off their fastball. The party has been riding a terrific formula for political success in the past five years: Don't compromise, crush your enemies, ruthlessly enforce discipline and then keep the soldiers happy by handing out campaign money and George Bush largess at election time. While everyone was winning, the internal contradictions were kept well-hidden. Even the hard-line deficit hawks and Goldwaterites didn't seem to mind racking up $3 trillion in new debt over five years, just as long as Georgie could produce a W for them by making a few appearances before the polls opened. Now Bush is stumbling around Washington with spears sticking out of him, and his soldiers are running for the hills, looking for a fresh horse to ride. The old days of everyone in the party getting laid and paid are over. The fatal hidden paradox of Bush's political success has finally come back to bite him, exposing this damning riddle: How do you give away the entire national treasure and also keep the fiscal conservatives in your party happy? It should always have been impossible; now it really is. (cont) http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/8898189 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lyn-lear/paging-frank-rich-gao-c_b_11483.html Links to recent articles about US torture: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1660182,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1659242,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1659057,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1657839,00.html http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,388571,00.html http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,388609,00.html http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,388805,00.html http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,388652,00.html And this interview with former US State Department aide (to Colin Powell) Lawrence Wilkerson is quite good: http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,388857,00.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- " Once billed as a major strike in the war on terrorism, the case against Sami Al-Arian crumbled Tuesday when jurors rejected federal charges that Al-Arian and three co-defendants operated a North American cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad" http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBI6ZY5XGE.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Posse Gathers" regarding "Bush War Crimes" http://www.counterpunch.org/brecher12062005.html "Voting Machines Under Scrutiny" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/06/AR2005120601518.html Condi "Rice's Rendition" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/opinion/07wed1.html?hp Arnold Schwarzenegger as "The Reimaginator" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/06/AR2005120601219.html New BARDA agency would be exempt from FOIA (open government) laws http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2647 Justice Department staff saw DeLay's Texas redistricting as illegal (but they were overruled anyway by guess who). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120101927_pf.html Paul Craig Roberts writes in "Rendition Unto Ceasar" that Condi Rice's "Trust Me" to Europe is truly incredible. http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12062005.html John Ryan sums up the recent Harvard debate of Dershowitz vs. Chomsky http://www.counterpunch.org/ryan12072005.html Louis Proyect writes "Debunking Bob Woodward" http://www.swans.com/library/art11/lproy31.html The Beeb reported a few excerpts from Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize Lecture (and posted a video of it) but here's a link to a text transcript of the entire thing: http://www.counterpunch.org/pinter12072005.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=20032 And the latest absurd rape defense, this time from Canada, is called sexsomnia as reported in the Toronto Sun http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2005/11/30/pf-1330499.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cheney at the Alamo by Christopher Deliso balkanalysis.com Things would have been better for George W. Bush had his vice president just been more, well, vice presidential. In a modest, supportive role, as an influential facilitator of the president's policies rather than an aggressive shaper of them, Cheney could have remained both worthy of respect and suitably distant, as would appear to befit his job profile and his professional experience. As such he could have put his personal stamp on the office, in the manner of predecessors such as the earnest technocrat (Al Gore) or the hapless comic sidekick (Dan Quayle). Alas, Cheney adopted another persona entirely: that of the malevolent power behind the throne, becoming the man of a thousand undisclosed locations and constant apocalyptic admonitions to war without end. Becoming the president in everything but name, Cheney and the neocons with whom he sympathized crafted the disastrous war in Iraq that is now dragging down Bush's second term. That Cheney would seek such a role isn't hard to understand. After all, when candidate Bush once upon a time asked the elder statesman to suggest a possible running mate, Cheney nominated himself. In various other fields of human endeavor, such opportunism from a trusted elder would be seen as crass exploitation. To this day it remains unclear as to whether George W. Bush knew exactly what he was getting into by taking Cheney's advice – and whether the former even considered that someday he might need to be gotten out of it. Writing in the Financial Times on Dec. 2, Philip Stephens states succinctly how the uncompromising stance of the vice president in upholding the CIA's right to torture at will has ruined the credibility of America (that alleged shining example of democracy and human rights) abroad. For Stephens, the government's "denials" of running covert torture operations "are rendered virtually worthless by the stance of Dick Cheney, the vice president." Noting that Cheney would like to exempt the CIA from legislation against "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" of detainees, Stephens poses this rhetorical question: "Why would the CIA need an exemption, if it did not employ torture?" Of course, Cheney does have his supporters – though they don't include the majority of senators or congressmen or the majority of Americans in general. The main ones are the neocons, whose ruthlessness and pathologies are well known already. Aside from them, torture-supporters include those patriotic sorts who dare not withhold any weapon from the government's arsenal if it'll help win the war against the terr'ists faster (as if torturing people ever expedited the acquisition of a truthful answer, anyway). However, while the sponsor of the legislation, John McCain, will not move an inch from his position on the moral high ground, neither will Cheney, a scoundrel holed up in the last refuge of amorality. Is it this battle, then, that could finally result in the removal of the Bush administration's dark overlord? Is Dick Cheney, in his truly outrageous defense of an indefensible principle incompatible with all American values (not to mention in his role in both the Plamegate and Nigergate scandals) being forced to hunker down in an ideological and political Alamo of his own making? For George W. Bush, part of the good fortune of being perceived as a blank slate is that he can be erased and rewritten endlessly. The average person will always have some measure of sympathy for his mediocrity, because the mediocre is usually not too far from home. Sheer malevolence is another story. Despite all the disaster and death Bush's wars have brought over the past few years, my guess is that the average Joe would probably not mind having a beer with George W. But it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to sidle up to the bar next to Dick Cheney (except maybe Judith Miller). That Cheney has thus far survived despite it all owes first to the administration's conventional wisdom that internal discord is a sign of weakness, and that termination, implying terminal discord, thus means terminal weakness. This is why the president continually refused to allow gentle Secretary of Death Donald Rumsfeld to resign following the Abu Ghraib torture scandal and the disastrous course of a war that the latter had incompetently planned. However, despite the indictment of his chief of staff, Lewis Libby, the vice president has so far brushed aside all criticism. It looks as if Cheney is going to fight early termination all the way. If it really is a siege, it looks like Cheney's planning to take a lot of people with him – whether they want to go or not. Perhaps Stephens was overly optimistic in arguing that Condoleezza Rice, allegedly the most powerful secretary of state in the modern age, is going to neutralize the influence of the most powerful vice president of all time, a man who can bend whole constitutions single-handedly and effortlessly deflect political missiles. Because at this moment, Rice is being put through the wringer over the latest torture-related scandal to hit the administration – alleged secret American torture camps in Europe and elsewhere. On a fence-mending tour of the Continent this week, Rice has been forced to defend the indefensible – a position that Cheney still relishes. In fact, Rice's tactic has not been simply to deny the allegations (though there has been some of that), but to actually argue for the legitimacy of American actions. As she "robustly defended the CIA's extrajudicial seizure, transportation, and interrogation of thousands of suspects," r Posted by: JoannaOregon on December 13, 2005 06:05 PMSorry, guys... didn't mean for that long piece on cheney to be posted. Must be very tired. Posted by: JoannaOregon on December 13, 2005 06:23 PMBrad of bradblog says the securities fraud lawsuit against Diebold will be filed within the hour. Stay tuned Posted by: Pat C on December 13, 2005 10:25 PMEXCLUSIVE: SECURITIES FRAUD LITIGATION FILED AGAINST DIEBOLD, INC! Eight Current and Former Executives Named as Co-Defendants, Including former CEO O'Dell and New CEO Swidarski The above was - Blogged by Brad on 12/13/2005 @ 12:15pm PT... Posted by: Pat C on December 13, 2005 10:34 PMEXCLUSIVE: SECURITIES FRAUD LITIGATION FILED AGAINST DIEBOLD, INC! The BRAD BLOG can now report that a Securities Fraud Class Action suit has been filed against Diebold, Inc. (stock symbol: DBD) naming eight top executive officers in the company as co-defendants. The suit has been filed by plaintiff Janice Konkol, alleging securities fraud against the North Canton, Ohio-based manufacturer of Voting Systems and ATM machines on behalf of investors who owned shares of Diebold stock and lost money due to an alleged fraudulent scheme by the company and its executives to deceive shareholders during the "class period" of October 22, 2003 through September 21, 2005. The suit was filed today in U.S. Federal District Court in Ohio and alleges the company "artificially inflated" stock prices through misleading public information designed to conceal the true nature of Diebold's financial and legal situation. The defendants are also alleged to have attempted to disguise well-known and ongoing problems with Diebold's Voting Machine equipment and software. Additionally, the suit alleges insider trading by defendants resulting in proceeds of $2.7 million. Remedies are sought under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The suit, filed by the law firm SCOTT+SCOTT on behalf of Konkol and the plaintiff class, names former Diebold CEO and Chairman, Walden O'Dell as a co-defendant along with seven other current and former officers of the once-venerable company including the new CEO Thomas W. Swidarski who was named yesterday as the new CEO replacing O'Dell after his sudden surpise resignation yesterday. News of the pending litigation was first reported as imminent in an exclusive report by The BRAD BLOG late last week. Complete details on the suit filed moments ago are now available... FULL EXCLUSIVE REPORT:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5354245-103682,00.html Posted by: wv on December 14, 2005 02:49 AMThanks Morgana! I can't wait. I just can't wait. Sharon, I'm glad you found AAIUSA interesting. More from www.aaiusa.org/countdown/countdown.htm this week on the murder of Gibran Tueini in Lebanon and bill board ads now appearing in North Carolina. On December 7, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius honored the professionalism and courage displayed by many of today’s leading Arab journalists. “The best of the Arab journalists are my heroes,” he wrote. “They are risking imprisonment and death to tell the truth.” Just five days later, Gibran Tueni, publisher of the venerated Lebanese daily An-Nahar, was assassinated in a massive car bomb. Tueni recently won a seat in the Lebanese parliament and was regarded as one of the leading critics of Syria’s military and intelligence presence in the country. Long before the world attention that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Tueni sparked debate about Syria’s role in its neighbor’s affairs. Publishing an open letter to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2000, Tueni wrote, “You must realize that many Lebanese are uncomfortable with Syrian policies in Lebanon and with the presence of Syrian troops in the country…Many Lebanese consider Syria's behavior in Lebanon to be completely at odds with the principles of sovereignty, dignity, and independence.” In a powerful eulogy, The Daily Star’s Michael Young wrote, “In killing Tueni, the murderers hoped to strike a mortal blow at Lebanon's most prestigious newspaper. For them, the real danger has always been independent thought—against which they can only muster media that threaten, crowds that threaten, and security services that best them both by implementing the threats.”
“Don’t License Bigots, North Carolina” The Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License (CSDL), an organization which advocates linking driver’s license eligibility to immigration status, has announced an inflammatory and misleading billboard campaign in North Carolina and New Mexico. The ad depicts an individual whose face is covered by a Kufiya (the traditional male headdress in some Arab countries) carrying a grenade and a North Carolina driver's license as well as two figures wearing military fatigues and reads “Don't License Terrorists, North Carolina.” The slogan is repeated in disjoined Arabic letters incorrectly written left to right. The billboard unfairly conflates the question of immigration and national security and casts a shadow of suspicion on Arabs and Muslims, unfairly equating them with terrorism, and encouraging an environment that can lead to prejudice and hate crimes. In doing so, the ad utilizes false stereotypes and racist rhetoric to promote an anti-immigrant agenda. The shameful lowering of the bar on public discourse has ... On another note has anybody researched the origin of the Rapture Movement? This nut case, John Nelson Darby, a disenchanted Irish Anglican priest, broke off from the Church of England in 1827 and started a sect which eventually became known as Dispensational Theology. The movement lost favor in Britian, but gained a foothold here in the US through the preaching and support of Dwight L Moody and the Scofield Reference Bible published by Cyrus I. Scofield ( another nut case)in 1909. Scofield had undergone a religious conversion and was later ordained as a Congregationalist Minister in Dallas Texas (of course!) in 1883. Scofield used notes gathered from Bible meetings here and there and inserted them into the King James version of the Bible leading many fundamentalist Christians to believe that these notes were the word of God. (Scofield's rather dubious past includes being arrested and convicted for forgery.) Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson all advance this Dispensational Theology which is not, has never been in the Bible. The closest the Bible has ever come to such a confabulation is from Thessalonians 4:16-17, and not even here does one see any mention of anybody being left behind. Rather the opposite. All will be united with God always. Posted by: Beasley on December 14, 2005 03:49 AM goodgrief, what was all THAT???? Full moon madness from another website? ??? Posted by: judi G on December 14, 2005 04:07 AMI should add...not alot of astro info in all of it? In fact, I can't even READ all that stuff...snark., How about more relection and less newsboy standing on the corner hawking papers? Crap...I'm sick with a cold and testy. Posted by: judi G on December 14, 2005 04:14 AMNo Judi, it's only me skipping along my thoughts tonight. I've always wanted to get to the bottom of the Rapture Movement. Hate it. And the stuff from AAIUSA is not related to the latter stuff on the Rapture. Or were you even referring to my above post? Don't know.
So I'm looking at the Iraqi elections and I get off on George and just ran his transits for the election day for him, noticed the whole T Pluto trine his We live in interesting times. Posted by: Morgana on December 14, 2005 04:24 AMBeasley...didn't read the rapture stuff you posted (I but I might)...it is such hysterical money making crap, isn't it? I was refering to all the posts which didn't appear to originate from this web site...joannaoregon, susique,jamsitty...they just plopped down and I have no idea where they came from, even though I know who JoannaOregon is, FOR SURE! But who posted them?. It just gets to be too much....altogether too much posting of stuff, INMHO, without comment or direcion in regard to where it fits with astro. It is political astrology here, but with too much political and too little astrology. Except for the original idtems, of course... but hey, 'tis a full moon.... And Beasley.....maybe Falwell, Robertson, and all of the nefarius ilk of the wing nuts are reincarnations of the original nefarius Dispensational guys. This country, btw, has a history of cyclical religious orgies of misbegotten means and ways of torturing people in the religious sense....from the Salem witch trials on down to us, about every 30 years (hmmmm...must be Saturn, that old debil)....anyway, religious frenzies, sometimes resulting in people dying. Morgana...yeh!!!!! That "we live in interesting times" is actually a Chinese curse makes it even more interesting.... Posted by: judi G on December 14, 2005 05:14 AMJudi, you might be right. The US Neptune is in the 9th house. In Virgo no less. Talk about confusion! Virgo is a tidy, fussy, play by the book of rules sign. It get high on details. Neptune likes to go oceanic...go with the "spiritual" flow...even alcoholically. Result: Messy, messianic rigor. Posted by: Beasley on December 14, 2005 05:24 AMOMG Saturn bring it on. Have Bush in the background with his last speech on Iraq. Wow where's the popcorn. Posted by: Morgana on December 14, 2005 04:21 PMRepublican Congressman Says Totalitarian Regime a Danger By Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/5573 Former Republican Congressman and CIA official Bob Barr says that there is a danger recent developments describe a trend of America slipping into a totalitarian society and that the Bush administration are doing everything in their power to see that this happens. During a radio interview with host Alex Jones, Barr outlined where the country is heading. "Basically, as long as you smile when you demand to see somebody's ID at gunpoint sitting on a bus I guess it's OK for the government, that's sort of the way they operate. It can be a totalitarian type regime." "I think it's a real danger where we have the military becoming involved in all sorts of domestic matters and we have the government being able to seize very private personal records on people without any suspicion that they've done anything wrong. This is a dramatic turn of events that has accelerated greatly since 9/11." Barr made comments very similar to those of current Republican Congressman Ron Paul in stating that natural disasters could be used by the government as a pretext to abolish posse comitatus. "If we have the military involved whenever there's a windstorm, rain or tornado then what we are doing is that we are undermining the entire basis on what our constitutional representative democratic form of government was founded." Barr said that legislation like the Patriot Act and its imminent re-authorization and expansion were more of a threat to the American way of life than any terrorist attack. "Even when the leaders in Washington say we're not going to let the terrorists change our way of life, they are implementing policies that do precisely that." Barr elaborated that the manipulation of fear was a key cornerstone in the government's coup de 'tat on constitutional liberties. "They're using people's fear of another terrorist attack to move forward with various government programs that the government has wanted to gather and put in place for many many years. They're using the fear which is now driving public policy in this country which is very unfortunate and very un-American. Our leaders are shamelessly playing on that fear to implement and grab power." "It's my impression, to be honest with you, and this is confirmed by a lot of folks who are involved very heavily in regulatory matters involving firearms, that it is more difficult dealing with this administration than it was dealing with the prior administration." Barr is currently working with the ACLU and others in trying to prevent the sunset clauses of the Patriot Act from being renewed, which could happen as early as this week. Posted by: Pat C on December 14, 2005 06:50 PMHe sees clips. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001659351 President Bush Clarifies His Newspaper Reading Habits, Sort Of Morgana, On the first day of winter, December 21st transits are George at 16Aries15, Dick at 12Pisces25, Busch at 8Capricorn12, Mesopotamia 18Pisces4, and Laura at 23Pisces29. The progressions for that day are: George at 27Taurus56, Dick 19Aries43, Busch 2Cancer20, Laura 12Capricorn5, and Mesopotamia 0Leo11. To see what chance the police have in any of these relationships I looked up the asteroid constable#8237 [natal is 13Tau3]. On 12-21-05 it is progressed to 3Gemini29, and transiting at 17Libra21. I’d say they don’t do squat, it’s mostly women and the public who take care of them. The trans George opposite natal Saturn makes me think the pRez is the one to take the fall or get killed for Dick’s doings. Dick lives happily ever after on his billions; probably a tropical island he’s already paid for. The Merry Widow, Laura will have to move as well if she wants to enjoy her millions. Who'd want her though? Does anyone remember the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Lifeboat"? Dick reminds me of the evil German U-boat Captain. Except now Cheney has dubya to take the rap and get thrown overboard. Posted by: Jill G on December 14, 2005 07:27 PMBeasley--my natal Neptune (and those of all born @ 1936) is in Virgo. In my life it has manifested itself as a rational plan toward idealism (well, I do have the Sun in Aquarius) but many shifts as to what is really ideal. (Also, with Neptune in the 5th, I really love musicals. Speaking of ideal--I have always know that if I could get the right flowing lovely dress, I could dance like Ginger in Top Hat, Gay Divorcee, etc.) Posted by: Barb on December 14, 2005 09:18 PMFrom Salon's War Room: http://salon.com/politics/war_room/
It's an easy way to report something you don't really know: Do a story detailing the rumors that this thing or that thing might be happening. The great unknown in Washington at the moment is the fate of Karl Rove. And here comes the National Review's Byron York with a column reporting out the rumors about what might or might not happen to him. York says that rumors of a Rove indictment have been "flying around Washington in the last few days." Then he dismisses the rumors as tales "based on someone hearing that someone else had heard something, or that someone had gotten a sense that something was about to happen and told someone else." Then he says no one really knows what's happening. But then he says that it's true that there is a "growing nervousness among people who support Rove's side in the case." Having covered all the bases -- whatever Patrick Fitzgerald ends up doing, York will have predicted it -- York spells out what he seems to know: that Fitzgerald has presented to a new grand jury evidence he has obtained recently as well as evidence he presented earlier to the grand jury that indicted Scooter Libby; that "most observers" see in Fitzgerald's latest work signs that he might be planning to indict somebody; and that the time is about right for Fitzgerald to have bought off -- or not -- on Robert Luskin's 11th-hour arguments on behalf of Rove. This isn't news, exactly. Similar rumors and conclusions have been floating around liberal blogs like Talk Left and firedoglake, and Raw Story has had a series of stories in which it claims -- a little implausibly -- to have anonymous sources that are feeding it information from the investigation that the mainstream press can't get. The truth is, we'll know more when we know more -- when Patrick Fitzgerald decides he's got something to announce, when some lawyers close to the case decide they've got something they need to leak and spin, or when Bob Woodward, Robert Novak or any number of White House officials who could shed some light on Plamegate finally decide to do so. We're not holding our breath. At a speech in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, Novak declined again to name the "senior administration official" who first leaked Valerie Plame's identity to him. If people really want to know, Novak said, they ought to ask George W. Bush. "I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak said. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't. So I say, 'Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.'" -- Tim Grieve Posted by: Pat C on December 15, 2005 12:07 AMOof. Glug. Help. Drowning in too many news article posts-seems more relevant to DU format. Jus' sayin'. Since I don't have tee-vee service, I don't know what that medium is reporting re Blanco's appearance today before a House Committee. What's reported over at DU, though, sounds like she hit 'em hard when she needed to. Is that part of this Full Moon thing, Morgana, and will it reverberate among the people? Posted by: shylurker on December 15, 2005 02:29 AMFor how long would you like to see the controversial sections of the Patriot Act extended? Ten years Made permanent Scrapped now Posted by: Pat C on December 15, 2005 02:55 AMHere's a fun poll: Rate mean Jean (the witch from OH that Hatch almost beat for House Rep). http://www.mountainastrologer.com/planettracks/lunation.html snip... The Sabian symbols for this Full Moon indicate opportunities for a big breakthrough if we trust our instincts and act with integrity. For the Sun at 24° Sagittarius: "A bluebird perched on the gate of a cottage; the reward which meets every effort at integration into a social environment for those who remain true to their own selves." And for the Moon at 24° Gemini: "Children skating over a frozen village pond; the use of inhibiting circumstances for the development of character and a transcendent approach to the environment." New truths come to light around this Full Moon, showing us where we have been operating on blind faith or limited information. "In whatever place you find truth, with whatever name it may be labeled, take it ... To become liberated from sectarian, conventional, and authoritarian narrowness is to regard every inspired book as a Bible... by remaining open to truths from different sources and fitting them together like mosaics, we get eventually some sort of pattern." More... Posted by: Pat C on December 15, 2005 03:33 AMSuji, yes there are right-wing (only fewer and fewer) who would and could put a positive spin and in some ways there is a positive side to all this. There is always something positive to find in every disaster (and this administration is a disaster) and there is an esoteric meaning to all that's happening. It has to do with an awakening of a higher consciousness, doesn't mean we have to like the innocent lives sacrificed or harmed and it does mean the faster the collective knows we are all part of one another the faster this will be over. The one good thing that has come from this, those with eyes to see and ears to hear, is the truth of the last 200 years (over that) is coming out. The lies we've been told and believed about our country, how our country has hurt others badly for a long time. All that we've experienced is akin to leading up to a crescendo of dramatic change. I talked to a young man last night, a friend of one of my daughters, he's 29, was in the military and got out right before Iraq started. He was a conservative and voted for GWB (now regrets that) he believes a revolution is at hand, he says he sees nothing but anger coming from people in all walks of life. That young man said all his friends are questioning what they believe, what this country actually stands for, what is the Constitution, what provides our freedoms and what do we actually do to stand up for other people, other countries freedom. This is a good thing, and we wouldn't have done it without this applied restrictive pressure from our government. We wouldn't be questioning leadership if there was someone who would stand up and be a leader, if that happened we would just follow him/her and never find answers within ourselves. You and most everyone on this panel seek those answers and have been for years and we don't grasp the slowness of others. But every disaster brings us (as a collective) closer to our understandings of one another, every scandal, every failed attempt (like this stupid War on Christmas) every falling poll number, all bring us closer together as a people and further away from greed, selfishness, disconnectedness, lies and closer to our truths. That's one of the reasons we mark them as astrologers and always keeping our eye on the bigger picture, the little successes. I've tracked this period of time since Dec. 12, 2005 and regular as clockwork, there has been a disaster, scandal, something that is hard to stomach and makes the mainstream news, and a few more awaken. It's been almost three months since Katrina, the end of December into January will find us with another disaster and/or scandals shaking more awake. We are moving into the long journey of the presidency. I don't mean George Bush, I mean the office and the pressure on that office and all of us will bear witness. Posted by: Sally on December 15, 2005 05:29 AMhttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GL15Dj01.html SPEAKING FREELY Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. Observing political and economic discourse in North America since the 1970s leads to an inescapable conclusion: the vast bulk of legislative activity favors the interests of large commercial enterprises. Big business is very well off, and successive Canadian and US governments, of whatever political stripe, have made this their primary objective for at least the last 25 years. Digging deeper into 20th century history, one finds this steadfast focus on the well-being of big business in other times and places. The exaltation of big business at the expense of the citizen was a central characteristic of government policy in Germany and Italy in the years before those countries were chewed to bits and spat out by fascism. Fascist dictatorships were borne to power in each of these countries by big business and they served the interests of big business with remarkable ferocity. These facts have been lost to the popular consciousness in North America. Fascism could therefore return to us, and we will not even recognize it. Indeed, Huey Long, one of America's most brilliant and most corrupt politicians, was once asked if America would ever see fascism. His answer was, "Yes, but we will call it anti-fascism." More... Posted by: Pat C on December 15, 2005 03:16 PMOh Sally, I couldn't agree more with your above post. Wonderful insights. I remember being so angry and full of despair about the state of the United States after the 2000 elections. Then the 2004 elections came. Would the people ever wake up? What you have written is virtually what my guides have imparted to me when I've ranted and raved about the situation in this country. So many scales falling away from our eyes. Posted by: Patricia on December 15, 2005 04:17 PMYes indeed Sally and Patricia! Merry Fitzmas House Defies Bush and Backs McCain on Detainee Torture
By Peter Savodnik These Democrats add that Dean should stick to the pledge he made after becoming chairman not to delve into party policy and to let office holders such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) craft the Democrats’ agenda http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1214-05.htm Vandana Shiva Takes Fight Against Monsanto to Hong Kong Indian environment activist Vandana Shiva and French anti-globalisation crusader Jose Bove Wednesday launched a campaign against US food and seed giant Monsanto on the sidelines of the global trade talks here. The duo also handed a petition to officials of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to oppose the trade dispute filed by the US, Argentina and Canada under the rules of the multilateral organisation on genetically modified (GM) food. The petition - which Shiva claimed has been signed by 135,000 citizens from over 100 countries and 740 organisations representing 60 million people - was to be given to WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, who instead sent a representative. "The petition asks the World Trade Organisation not to undermine the rights of countries like the European Union to take appropriate measures to protect their ecology and environment from GM Food," Shiva said. The backdrop for the short event were placards and posters that read, "WTO: Hands Off Our Food" and "Monsanto Plunders and Kills Peasants and the Planet". More.... Posted by: Pat C on December 15, 2005 06:39 PMWE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIIEEEEE! Yesterday evening, here in Northern Virginia, the MSM was wringing it's hands and issuing dire predictions of a TERRIBLE ice storm due mid-morning on Thursday (today). Well, I figured no big deal. The horses at the farm have a large roll bale and access to water. We have plenty to eat in the freezer. If it happens it happens. This morning they cancelled schools (with nary a snow flake seen)in at least 5 counties. The morning paper had an article on how well prepared VDOT was for this dire emergency. We have received approximately 1/2 inch of snow and NO ice. I'm willing to bet there is not one loaf of bread or gallon of milk left in Food Lion or Martins. Goddess,the American people are such morons. Fear, Fear, Fear......No wonder Bush and his minions can lead us around by the nose. Posted by: Patricia on December 15, 2005 07:30 PMPat C, ALERT: U.S. PROPOSES DOUSING WILDERNESS AREAS WITH HERBICIDES www.organicconsumers.org/blm.htm Posted by: Pat C on December 15, 2005 11:03 PMAhhhhhh Pat POQ thank you so much for the image you have shared of this full moon....you have woven a sense of silence and wonderment around my heart Posted by: tseka on December 15, 2005 11:04 PMhttp://www.organicconsumers.org/blm.htm Posted by: Pat C on December 15, 2005 11:04 PMhttp://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/anniversary/moyers.htm IN THE KINGDOM OF THE HALF-BLIND Oh, Lord in Heaven! BLM wants to spray herbicides in wilderness areas?!! I'm trying to think of why they want to do this? It just completely sickens and scares me. There is a reason (not the ones given)they want to do so. The nuts have truly taken over the asylum that is our "government". Thanks so much for the update about NOLA, Pat QOP. I trust Sharon will know more and fill us in. Your wonderful description of your Maine snow reminded me of that line , "Shine on, your crazy diamond!" Long time. Posted by: shylurker on December 15, 2005 11:47 PMPat weaves such beautifully animated pictures so very often. It's such a pleasure to see them here. It's one of the reasons AW is great...the wonderful commenters. ~~~~~ Patricia, stunning isn't it? Posted by: Pat C on December 16, 2005 12:08 AMPoll: Any reason for the US to ever engage in torture? Do go vote. Posted by: shylurker on December 16, 2005 12:12 AM
by Kristen Lombardi
Pick Your Underdog by Kristen Lombardi http://villagevoice.com/news/0550,lombardi,70931,6.html Re: BLM spraying herbicides in western states....something seems amiss here. This seems pretty inconsisent with previous BLM policies. Much of the west uses free range -cattle and sheep to control grasses, reduce fire danger. All of my youth wandering back country i would encounter Basque with big herds of sheep....i'm wondering if maybe we have shot ourselves in the foot here. Sierra Club (sorry if i step on toes, i've worked with them a fair bit as eviro lobbist doing GMP with Natl Park service here and have been in the trenches with em for probably 30 years) have gotten logging roads closed down in Wash and Oregon that provided easy access for fire management now they are nearly over-grown. Those of us who live on the boundries of wildernesses in the west sometimes wonder about the balance...then we see stuff like this and knock our heads against the wall. Fighting wildfire by air just costs too much in lives and resource. i don't know the answers but we all need to look as far down the road as we can see....because with limited resources people choose expedient and not always what we want. AND the dollars available in future are going to be even less. Posted by: tseka on December 16, 2005 12:53 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/comics/fiore/ Posted by: wv on December 16, 2005 12:58 AMGOP May Attach Arctic Drilling to Pentagon Budget http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121505Q.shtml With a budget-cutting measure stymied by stiff resistance to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling, Congressional Republicans began exploring Wednesday a new tactic to win approval of both $45 billion in cuts and the drilling plan. Lawmakers and senior aides said they were seriously considering tacking the drilling proposal onto a Pentagon spending bill that must pass before Congress heads home in the next few days. Posted by: Pat C on December 16, 2005 02:20 AMWell, I went to Snopes to check out the BLM herbicide spraying article and there is no reference to it. Posted by: Patricia on December 16, 2005 02:42 AMPoll: What do you think about the roving billboard about (Mean Jean) Schmidt? Do go vote http://www.wkrc.com/Default.aspx Posted by: shylurker on December 16, 2005 03:51 AMPatricia The BLM's Draft PEIS for Herbicide Vegetation Treatments is available in electronic form at http://www.blm.gov/nhp/spotlight/VegEIS/. The BLM is accepting public comments postmarked by January 9, 2005. To provide written You may recall we had some terrible wildfires a couple of years ago with loss of life. Since then both BLM and Forest ervice have increased their use of herbicides. The above will guide you to the PEIS the draft environmental impact statement.
i'm curious if any of the astrologers see any change in this pattern of american behavior that is can we hope that we will begin to think of the seventh generaton anytime soon? Posted by: tseka on December 16, 2005 04:32 AMAnd there was a wonderful documentary on the Inner Passage, Pat POQ sigh one of the rare moments i wish i had a television. The inside passage is my homeland- among the Salish peoples there....you have made me long for the north tonight. And have carried a sudden wave of pictures into me thank you. Posted by: tseka on December 16, 2005 04:43 AMi'm curious if anyone has felt a particular Pluto/Sun influence these days in their lives. Pat PQ,Shy & all, Yes! We are SO happy about the new funds appropriated to fix the levees. Thank you, Pat, for calling it to my attention. I immediately called my husband who was with a friend who is in the process of rebuilding, which is something of a risk. They were thrilled. I went online to check the local paper. The plan is to bring the levees to Category 4 standards by June. Our Senators are still pushing for a Cat. 5 plan, of coures, but someone was quoted as saying this will at least protect the area from future devastation and keep flooding down to a managable level. The mayor also seems very elated. I was asked to participate in a survey tonight probing for whether I'd support the mayor's re-election vs. an assortmetn of other candidates. It;s a very difficult decide as I don't know how anyone could have done that much of a better job under the circumstances. At the same time, something tells me that he won't be re-elected and that it's time to give someone new a chance. One question really threw me...what would I think of a mayor who brought in the FBI to investigate school board corruption. I wondered if this was something he actually did because our school board was in bad shape. At first I thought, how sneaky & slimy to do such a thing, especially if it were undercover. Yet, why allow a corrupt school board to go unchecked? I couldn't decide on an answer. I don't think they'll get the bill passed with the Artic Drilling plan attached. Thanks you, everyone, for your continuing care about New Orleans. The NY Times had an editorial yesterday called "Death of an American City." It was terribly depresssing, implying that N.O. was slipping away while Congress stalled, which is why today's news was so great. This full Gemini moon with it's aspects to the Sag. sun and Pluto seems to have created a breakthrough. It's great to hear all of you speak of the beauty and stillness inherent in a snow covered landscape. I grew up in New Jersey and remember it well. Posted by: Sharon on December 16, 2005 05:12 AMHooray for NOLA!! Thank you so much, Sharon. This thing has been eating away at me, so I can only imagine how those of you who live/lived there must feel. Let us all join, spirits strong, in projecting the vision of a restored, enhanced, rejuvenated and protected NOLA! Posted by: shylurker on December 16, 2005 05:27 AMWe can't celebrate this one yet, but if we all push our senators (and promise eternal gratitude or whatever it takes to Feingold), maybe we can rescue our country, too. They are reporting over at DU that Feingold has the votes to stop the so-called (Orwellian-speak at its best) Patriot Act renewal. Please, folks, let's get on this one right now! Posted by: shylurker on December 16, 2005 05:31 AMIt seems to me that it'd be a shame to let the NO mayor go. He's met the monsters & dealt with them... probably overcoming considerable fear. He has valuable experience now. Posted by: JoannaOregon on December 16, 2005 06:20 AMOh, this is rich: Pat QOP, do you know more about this? Astrologers, how do the US and Venezuelan charts mix? Posted by: shylurker on December 16, 2005 12:49 PMSeems to me that this is really quite something to remark upon, eh shy?... the indigenous americans (south & north) getting together without "inviting" the "white" supremacist men into the negotiations. I haven't seen anything on the american Indians' reaction to necroporn/bushaholic legislative wheelin's n' dealin's bilking millions of dollars from the casinos... I'm sure the american indians are not pleased about that whatsoever... tho they know "white" boyz always lie... particularly THESE ones. Posted by: JoannaOregon on December 16, 2005 05:31 PMThey did it! They did it! They stood steadfast and defeated the damned thing! Hooray for us! Hooray for them! Hooray for the Founders! YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! Posted by: JoannaOregon on December 16, 2005 06:03 PMHOOOOO HAAA! There is a god and she's had enough. Come a ti yi yippee yippe yay. Posted by: Patricia on December 16, 2005 06:06 PMAnd now it appears Smirky&Co may have done something illegal. Who'd a-thunk it? Just think; only one(1)U.S. Senator stood up and voted against the original Patriot Act (what a name!) in 2001 after 9/11. Now, four years later, 47 smart, REAL Americans in the Senate stood up and prevented the reaffirming vote. Americans ARE waking up, and sooner rather than later everyone else (except of course for the hardcore wingnuts)will be waking up and smelling the coffee too. It helps too when the MSM is finally reporting secret illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens by the NSA. Posted by: Grizzly on December 16, 2005 06:31 PMShylurker, do you watch Dobb's? Does he always site those polls even when it's not what the government wants to hear? Like the 75% don't torture result I just read? Posted by: Jill G on December 16, 2005 06:36 PMJill G., I haven't a tee-vee service, so I don't know what goes on the tee-vee land unless I read about it. And, once again, you can vote on whether to scrap the "Patriot (i.e., UnAmerican) Act" or keep it for this or that or the other time interval. Do go vote: Jill G. - Yes, I watch Lou Dobbs on CNN frequently and he does show what the poll results are. Posted by: Kathleen on December 16, 2005 09:15 PM68% of CNN voter want it shelved for good!!!! Shy, I also recieved a beautiful Christmas card from Mike Michaud, my Me. 2nd. district Rep. ( D of course). It depicts a folk art painting of the WH at night, with skaters and carriages in front of it. There was a physical impact as I drew it out of the envelope.............such beautiful artwork, and SO the way we were or "thought" we were!!!! I wonder how many he sent out, as surely the message is winging out to the Universe! PS I agree with Joanna O that Mayor Negan deserves to continue on. He has poured his heart and soul into restoring NO, and I don't think anyone else would give it the same energy! Vote http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10491945/ Was President Bush right to authorize NSA eavesdropping on Americans? Eric Francis has a great take on this Full Moon and the events today in Washington, give him a read ( scroll down to the box midway down the splash page) http://planetwaves.net/index_555.html Posted by: Morgana on December 16, 2005 10:23 PMVolusia County, FL Dumps Diebold Too! Poll: Should federal aid to help businesses affected by Katrina also be extended to individuals? Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. Go vote: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10498176/#survey Posted by: shylurker on December 17, 2005 12:06 AM"Securing America without Destroying Liberties" http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121605R.shtml "The Patriot Act has gone too far. Secret renditions should be stopped. Torture must be outlawed. Our military should not spy on our own people. The Senate has spoken: Let us secure our country, but not by destroying our liberties." - US Senator Robert Byrd Posted by: Pat C on December 17, 2005 01:30 AMThis combination should be read...Eric Francis on 9/11:http://planetwavesweekly.com/book/chapter17.html and this email I just got from Mark Crispin Miller in which one of his readers offers a frightening alternative view: Jonathan Simon Morgana...I had gone to Planet Waves because of your post....I've sent that email I just posted on the Eric Francis' contact email.... Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 01:33 AMI totally agree with Miller's reader. It ain't over at all. This is really something too!! http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_340.shtml Ex-FBI translator's case may reveal Plame's crucial CIA role this new evidence suggests that the leak may not have been done in the spirit of good, old fashioned Washington hardball after all: A good case could now be made that outing Plame was an intentional act pepetrated to protect real criminal activity. Posted by: Pat C on December 17, 2005 01:44 AMhttp://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=10798 From: Emery, Edie Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 11:09 AM Subject: CNN statement regarding Mr. Novak "After 25 years of serving as a CNN commentator and program host, our colleague Bob Novak's tenure on the network will come to a close (effective 12/31). Through the years, Bob has offered incisive analysis for much of CNN's programming, including Crossfire, The Capital Gang, Inside Politics, Evans and Novak, The Novak Zone, and Novak, Hunt and Shields. Bob has also been a valued contributor to CNN's political coverage. We appreciate his many contributions and wish him well in future endeavors," said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. Edie Emery, CNN PR Posted by: Pat C on December 17, 2005 01:51 AMNovak's gone to FOX Faux News seems appropriate doesn't it. CNN didn't let him back on the air after his walked out on Bayou Boy. Posted by: Morgana on December 17, 2005 01:56 AMPat C...it is simply stunning...like all the pieces suddenly moving...into place, to get us deeper into the puzzle. I think it is time to seriously look at troubling dates...and 12/21 is fast approaching. Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 02:02 AMActor John Spencer died today of a heartattack...he would have turned 59 on Tuesday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10498378/ Talk about that Saturn return. He was a really good actor. Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 03:11 AMMorgana, that thing about water seeking its own level explains Novak completely. Turd seeking its own level is more apt. I don't know where my brain is today...my art rep is in surgery right now (speaking of which: the rising was 8 Cancer. Sharon's moon is 9 Cancer, and the T. moon was 11 Cancer. How about that? And her rising is about 10 Pisces, putting T. Uranus in her 12th house of confinement/hospitals. T. Jupiter just went over her Saturn at 3 Scorpio (the process of discovering the problem) and is heading for her Venus/Merc at 14 Scopio. Pretty interesting.) And in all of that, I forgot to go to my granddaughter's Xmas play....completely left my mind. Like a fog descended on me.... Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 03:16 AMJudi, I do too. Posted by: Pat C on December 17, 2005 03:25 AMPoll needs lotsa votes: Are unions harmful or helpful to 'Murka? http://www.foxnews.com/business/index.html#poll Posted by: shylurker on December 17, 2005 02:20 PMMorning Shy, don't think we can turn the tide on that poll. It's a repuglican propaganda channel. Posted by: Morgana on December 17, 2005 03:12 PMAnd hey, everyone of the faux news viewers would be a chained slave today if there hadn't been unions, huh....they just don't get it. Those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it. Unions came about because of abuses by wealthy industrialists....like that couldn't happen again, right? (and conversely, Unions abused their priveleges and featherbedded and pulled stuff also....illegal money stuff which brought many of them down.) It works both ways. Abuse is abuse no matter who is righteously declaring themselves to be....right. Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 03:37 PMIf you haven't heard or seen by now Bush's radio address today was a neato example of Saturn splat on his Mercury/Pluto conjunction is the 1st, he admits to spying on his own people. I love hearing the media report him as "King George", and folks talking about impeachment. Murka' might just be waking up really cranky! The Primetime Sunday speech should be a doozie as well, Saturn will still be sitting there. btw Morning AW!!! Posted by: Morgana on December 17, 2005 04:36 PM9-11 An Inside Job?
Sally, is this gut wrenching turn of events -- the fascist in chief admitting he broke the law by authorizing spying without oversight and that he will continue -- what you were talking about when you said we would all soon feel the heavy burden of the office of president? I'm not sure of your exact words. But it looks like we are due for a showdown. Shrub just gave a giant FU to the nation, declaring himself king. Posted by: Larry on December 17, 2005 05:10 PM...not only that, Larry, he is going to keep on doing it, as he says.....in actuallity, he has no real boundries when it comes to his own powers. That seems to be what you get with meglomaniacs Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 06:46 PMTwo polls, at bottom of window with picture of the capital, second one not doing too well. http://www.nbc6.net/news/5553503/detail.html Posted by: shylurker on December 17, 2005 06:59 PMShy...that poll is ahead 46% for no on the patriot act Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 08:37 PMShy...that poll is ahead 46% for no on the patriot act Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 08:38 PMI've gotten spoiled, Judi G. I want it to be 70% "No". Ms Morgana, ma'am: What do you think will be the result of this latest outrage, clearly showing he thinks he's above even the law. You know, as in OUR law. Posted by: shylurker on December 17, 2005 08:59 PMShy...that poll is ahead 46% for no on the patriot act....and bush is such a dictator...as he always said he wanted to be... I love the story from Raw Story about Sen Clinton telling Cheney to 'go to Iraq'.... At least he didn't say to her what he said to Leahy.... So here he has this middle east tyrip planned out and DIDNT schedule Iraq (she's been twice).... what, is he scared of car bombs? Posted by: judi G on December 17, 2005 09:46 PMJudi G - what do you see as troubling for 12/21? Certainly the date has the symbolism of numbers so beloved by the Illuminati/BFEE.... Posted by: Kathleen C. on December 17, 2005 10:21 PMMs. Morgana, could you (or someone) please run that Winter Solstice chart through astrocartography software? I'd love to know about that, particularly at the point we are now--which is most troubling in terms of what Smirky&Co will do to avoid the many major legal predicaments in which they have put themselves. Many thanks! Posted by: shylurker on December 18, 2005 01:46 AMSmirky is making it sound like this "leak" about his secret wire tapping of Americans has endangered our security and has made it easier for the terrorists to attack us. He thinks he's protecting the country...like a good American. It takes too long to follow the law. I think King George just stepped in his own fecal matter big time and is trying to say it isn't his. His polls went up slightly....shudder. Posted by: Beasley on December 18, 2005 02:54 AMShy, scroll down to the very bottom of my article there are charts for the new moon, full moon, and Winter Solstice 12/21/2005 Yule. :) Posted by: Morgana on December 18, 2005 03:20 AMoh oh, sorry shy, Astrocartography, I have the software but somehow haven't been able to save the image might be licensing. Posted by: Morgana on December 18, 2005 03:22 AMPoll (and I wanna see 70%): Should the NYT have published the info about Smirky&Co and their illegal spying? You'll have to scroll down a bit. Please go vote. Posted by: shylurker on December 18, 2005 04:41 AMAwwww, Morgana, thanks so much for trying. I'm such a dunce, I guess, that I need "a visual"--y'know, where the Mars line is (shudder), the Saturn line (oh, yuh), Neptune, etc. At some point in the past, there was a place (widgetsworld ??) where you could get an astrocartography freebie, but I think that's gone now. Anyway, many thanks to you, Mz Morgana, as always. Posted by: shylurker on December 18, 2005 04:44 AMAstrodienst has a free cartography location for where in the world to go for the best ( & worst ) vacation. In the free horoscopes section. Could you make that work? Shylurker -- I just took the pool (400,066 people voted!) and it is now at 69% saying we needed to know what the New York Times printed! You just may get that 70% and then some! Posted by: Kathleen on December 18, 2005 06:24 AMOPPS! I meant "poll" not "pool" -- sorry just tired! Posted by: Kathleen on December 18, 2005 06:26 AMThanks, Pat QOP. I made "Wint Sol" a male and it was interesting to see that Mars line pass right through Washington, DC. Oh, dear. Pugnacious rattling and shaking, I reckon. Thanks also, Kathleen, for the good news that the poll is at 69%. Posted by: shylurker on December 18, 2005 11:06 AMVermont's interested in Venezuelan oil, too! And the Vermont governor seems to think keeping the people of Vermont from freezing to death is more important than Washington politics. Poll: Should Congress permanently extend the [so-called] Patriot Act? (We're in good company on this one. Really good.) Posted by: shylurker on December 18, 2005 04:58 PMI was wondering if anyone could give me some astro advice. I just had Transitting Uranus pass my IC which is conjunct natal Venus in Pisces. I don't know how to interpret this. Could someone give me an idea of this transit? I would really appreciate it. Peace and cheers. Posted by: Travieso on December 18, 2005 05:10 PMHey Trav, some thoughts and guesses: are you moving or redecorating? Are deep layers hidden in the subconcious coming to the surface? Are issues with either with women =mother or women friends, emotions, art, money, values changing or expanding in brand new or unexpected ways? Working in a revolutionary way in your home, or computers, media in the home. IC is the base of character in one's chart. Hey everyone. long time no chat. The energy of the collective is so powerful if we stay in sattva or living dharmacly. So much undercover stuff is coming to light. In my personal life the shakti literally put the contract sent to the wrong zip code (by a very controlling contractor) into my mailbox anyway to let me see how many lies the contractor told me. Then I had to let them know, oh so sweetly, how busted they were. Another business connection has been a bully and is connected with the RW in a big way through a partner. Finally, I had to tell this person to back off. Saw the biggest, hugest hawk in the Brooklyn gardens and the next day found out no one else wants to deal with this person either, not just me. Angry and mean loses the race now. My actions were praised and I can decide if they are worthy to be in business with me. The tables shifted. Another collegue who I sometimes teach for in one of the art colleges here as a low cost favor lifted the illustrations from one of my books spread by spread. Guess what, now that I am a judge for a book an award, the book came to my house for me to know. Next year, I add 1000% to my price. Be happy, the light is really here. Posted by: bhakti on December 18, 2005 06:47 PMThanks bhakti, Yes, I'm about to build a garage apartment in the back and redo the kitchen and bath. About women, I have always worked with women. I think because of my moon in the second house. Thanks Bhakti for the "winter solstice" gift. Posted by: Travieso on December 18, 2005 07:30 PMFBI Agents Visit UMass Dartmouth Senior Researching Communism http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121805C.shtml A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book." He was visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said. The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list." Posted by: Pat C on December 18, 2005 11:26 PMhttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FRIST_CHARITY?SITE=MATAU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Frist Used AIDS Charity to Pay His Inner Circle as Consultants Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns providing the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful’s nonprofit. Posted by: Pat C on December 18, 2005 11:37 PMPulling our country back from the brink. Here's one plan: I just got back from seeing "Syriana," a really hardhitting, profound and tragic movie that paints the U.S. like the greedy slimes that we probably are -- murdering whomever gets in the way of our economic interests...in this case, oil. My sister-in-law saw only part of it (she was tired and fell asleep; it's pretty tense and takes a lot out of you) but walked out saying it was like a Superman movie where you have the evil villains against the good guys, only in this case, the evil villains are not just fictional, there were way too few good guys (and they became victims) and everyone else were just innocent sheep led to slaughter. It's an upsetting movie but I'm glad it's out there as the iluminati have to be exposed. Shy, I briefly looked at that website and caught the term "Orweillian" to describe Bush's approval of domestic spying, and recommendations as to what we can do to "watergate" him. I'm tired now but will get back to it tomorrow. Posted by: Sharon on December 19, 2005 04:21 AMI agree with you .
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