Thank you, Cap'n Sally. May we move ever closer--fast!

Sally...will read this in a second...just looked at the graphic on rawstory of the hurricane hitting the east coast of Australia....looks pretty awful....

Sally the 29 deg. Cancer is conj. my midheaven at 0 Leo. Saturn has been on my natal pluto at 5 Leo....

I have been very depressed by the money situation I am in, but it didn't start until the Monday last eclipse. And then...I got two big jobs to do ..one has returned from Navy limbo from January, the other comes from a former associate in SF who moved to Cleveland. Prfect Merc retro redo! Or redux!

But the depression was particularily strong yesterday, and I didn't think it was just about me....it seems more to be the acknowledgment in world consciousness (which is where I tend to focus) of this enormous wave of sludge cresting. Which can also describe the enormous hurricane hiting Australia, also. Wither way, I didn't like it at all (it was strong around noon PST) It was .....'boy, the world isn't going to like this' and I didn't know if that meant another people killing disaster or the release of somekind of knowledge which is terrible and dreadful and rivets people completely.

Lou Dobbs poll on the resdident's policies

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

Three polls up at dailykos.com. You can vote on Dean, Reid and Pelosi. Do go see.

I can only speak from my own personal experience, but 29 deg Cancer contains quite a bit of turbulance (enhanced for me by 29 deg Uranus, thankfully in sextile).

Well Sally, I know you're not an eonomist, but give this some thought. Yes, they are using our money to conduct wars for multi national corporations, using our money to enforce policies we're against.

What would happen if we didn't give them our money on April 15?

Pallas, if I may comment on the tax thing. If we don't pay our taxes, they can come and take us away--and will! I remember eons ago when Joan Baez was urging everyone to not pay their taxes. She wasn't paying hers. What she forgot to add was that she was extremely wealthy (thanks to those of us who paid the price of her tapes, records and concerts) and could afford top-notch tax lawyers. They set aside funds in a special (interest-earning, I'm sure) account so she wouldn't get busted. She could have taken some of her big bucks and set up an organization that would advise--for free--people who also didn't want to pay their taxes. I never contributed another $1 to Joan Baez after that.

The point is not to protest in a way that will get you into very deep and hot doo-doo, but to get Senators and Congresscritters to quit ok-ing every military expenditure that is put before them. We've just got to keep working and working at that. And keep

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

Do you believe that the low approval ratings for the president and Congress are a result of:

Poor communication

Poor policies

[I must feel very strongly about this as my incomplete message just went flying outta here.]

And keep pressing them to be junk-yard dogs when it comes to what the military $s are actually being spent for. Particularly those expenditures that are aimed toward making our troops as safe as possible.

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/03/20/ap2608541.html

Update 8: FBI Agent Slams Bosses at Moussaoui Trial

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 testified Monday he spent almost four weeks trying to warn U.S. officials about the radical Islamic student pilot but "criminal negligence" by superiors in Washington thwarted a chance to stop the 9/11 attacks.

FBI agent Harry Samit of Minneapolis originally testified as a government witness, on March 9, but his daylong cross examination by defense attorney Edward MacMahon was the strongest moment so far for the court-appointed lawyers defending Moussaoui. The 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent is the only person charged in this country in connection with al-Qaida's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

MacMahon displayed a communication addressed to Samit and FBI headquarters agent Mike Maltbie from a bureau agent in Paris relaying word from French intelligence that Moussaoui was "very dangerous," had been indoctrinated in radical Islamic Fundamentalism at London's Finnsbury Park mosque, was "completely devoted" to a variety of radical fundamentalism that Osama bin Laden espoused, and had been to Afghanistan.

Based on what he already knew, Samit suspected that meant Moussaoui had been to training camps there, although the communication did not say that.

The communication arrived Aug. 30, 2001. The Sept. 11 Commission reported that British intelligence told U.S. officials on Sept 13, 2001, that Moussaoui had attended an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. "Had this information been available in late August 2001, the Moussaoui case would almost certainly have received intense, high-level attention," the commission concluded.

But Samit told MacMahon he couldn't persuade FBI headquarters or the Justice Department to take his fears seriously. No one from Washington called Samit to say this intelligence altered the picture the agent had been painting since Aug. 18 in a running battle with Maltbie and Maltbie's boss, David Frasca, chief of the radical fundamentalist unit at headquarters.

They fought over Samit's desire for a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer and belongings. Maltbie and Frasca said Samit had not established a link between Moussaoui and terrorists.

More...

Sally,
That was illuminating to point out the that the aspects can mean diametrically opposed things, depending on ones viewpoint.

The President lied again on Live TV today! To a high school student no less! Who asked him about the deficit being passed on to his peers. pRez went into a solioquey about the importance of their getting an education, and that they could get Pell Grants to do that!!!!!
Pell Grants were voted out of the budget just last week. ( OF COURSE I REALIZE THAT WAS THE FAULT OF THE 10 DEMS IN CONGRESS............................)

He also indicted himself! He said " It is MY JOB to keep the American people safe!" In the next breath he said
" My job began on 9/11 2001!" Sooooooooooo
If he had been doing his job properly in the beginning..........3,000. people would not have died that day! IMPEACH!

Happy Spring!!!!!!
My early girl tomato plant, made it through the winter without getting whitflies or fungus moths and has several beautiful big blossoms! The yellow pear tomatoes produced later into the season and have given birth to a lot of little seedlings in the pot! I hope I can work with the soil, they weren't too tasty, maybe correcting the ph will help!
PQ

I apologize if these links have already been covered...I've spent the past couple of days away from this forum.

Truthout.com has a couple of articles that are interesting. I've been wondering why SO much money is needed to wage war on a small country...perhaps this answers that question....
Iraq: Permanent US Colony
By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 14 March 2006

Why does the Bush Administration refuse to discuss withdrawing occupation forces from Iraq? Why is Halliburton, who landed the no-bid contracts to construct and maintain US military bases in Iraq, posting higher profits than ever before in its 86-year history? ...........

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031306A.shtml

And more smoke and mirrors.....Operation Swarm of Lies
By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Report

Monday 20 March 2006

The stated mission of Operation Swarmer, launched late last week in an area just northeast of Samarra, in Iraq, was to "break up a center of insurgent resistance" and to disrupt "terrorist activity," according to the US military.

Comprised of over 1,500 US and Iraqi soldiers, 50 US attack and transport helicopters airlifted the bold force into a flat area of farmland filled not with fighters belonging to the "center of insurgent resistance," but with impoverished farmers, cows, goats and women baking bread. The first drop of soldiers onto the ground from this air-operation doubled the meager population of 1,500 souls living in the 50 square-mile area.

US troops acted bravely, snatching up 48 "suspected insurgents," then promptly releasing 17 of them. They were precise in their operations, and did not detain a single cow or goat.

What did the military say about why no resistance was met?

"We believe we achieved tactical surprise," said Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, the spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division.

Fallaciously hailed as the largest air assault in Iraq since the Anglo-American invasion three years ago, Lt. Col. Loomis said that two days into the operation his forces "continue to move" through the area, and "tactical interviews began immediately." According to Time magazine reporters:

"Four Black Hawk helicopters landed in a wheat field and dropped off a television crew, three photographers, three print reporters and three Iraqi government officials right into the middle of Operation Swarmer. Iraqi soldiers in newly painted humvees, green and red Iraqi flags stenciled on the tailgates, had just finished searching the farm populated by a half-dozen skinny cows and a woman kneading freshly risen dough and slapping it to the walls of a mud oven. But contrary to what many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. ("Air Assault" is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no air-strikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What's more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the US and Iraqi commanders."

Of course, the US military claimed that two local leaders of the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were to have been in the area, but alas, they were not to be caught up in Operation Swarmer or any of the "tactical interviews."

Meanwhile on Sunday, fresh from a relaxing weekend at Camp David, Mr. Bush said of Iraq, "I'm encouraged by the progress," while talking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.

Bush, his comments sticking to the talking points of his administration which surround this three year anniversary of the launching of Operation Iraqi Freedom, nearly mirrored those made recently by General Peter Pace. Pace, as you recall, when asked on "Meet the Press" about Iraq, said things were "going very, very well from everything you look at."

Operation Swarm of Lies is part of yet another Cheney administration media blitz to put a happy face on this horrendously failed misadventure in Iraq. All too aware of the plummeting US public support for the war effort, and with approval ratings for the so-called president at an all time low, Bush had been sent out on the campaign trail to apply fresh gloss to the tattered sheen of the US occupation of Iraq. Sticking with their talking points of having Iraqi forces take over security responsibilities, the primary purpose of Operation Swarm of Lies was obviously to send the message to Americans that the US military are allowing Iraqis to "take the fight to the enemy."

But this operation of mass distraction has served other purposes as well.

Operation Swarm of Lies served well in diverting media attention in the US from US/UK covert operations in Iran last Friday.....

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032006R.shtml

Barbara Boxer on Larry King, essentially saying,
who should I believe? my lying eyes or the pResident?

And Allan Simpson, former Senator and good friend of Cheney has organized a group of high power behind the scenes king makers for an "Iraqui Study Group" - attacking Barbara Boxer as being "emotional". " We dont need any of that"

that sonuvabitch.

______

Shylurker,
If Baez could put her tax money in trust - there must be a way to do it = because as long as the democrates and republicans have that money, the wars are going on.

Do you realize that Iraq is a country the size of Rhode Island and 2 trillion dollars have been spent there? What could 2 trillion dollars do here at home?

those bastids.

I hope they plan on manning those "embassies" with blackwell "contractors" (they probably do, their plan likely included having the private hotels and compounds built using the American taxpayers money) because what American kids are going to VOLUNTEER to go there?

I don't know, Pallas, but it would only take a fraction of that amount to lock Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice and Co away in prison for a couple of life sentences each.

I'm being nice. Really, I am.

Killing Children: The "My Lai phase" of the Iraq war

by Mike Whitney

What goes through George Bush's mind when he sees the dead bodies of Iraqi women and children loaded on the back of a pickup truck like garbage? Is there ever a flicker of remorse; a split-second when he fully grasps the magnitude of the horror he has created?

WARNING - GRAPHIC PICTURES

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12404.htm

The 50 Billion Dollar Robbery:

Where has the 50 billion dollars of reconstruction money gone?

By BBC

Following the Iraq war, billions of dollars of Iraq's money was directed to American companies to rebuild the country. But much of it remains unaccounted for, and Peter Marshall has been investigating startling allegations of post war profiteering.

Real Video - 14 Minutes

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12389.htm

Pallas, actually Iraq is the size of California... but your point is the same, no matter the size... the money is going from our pockets to the US Treasury and then to Cheney's favorite charity - Halliburton... and others who are building the swanky 14 'enduring' bases... one of the bases I think is the size of Rhode Island :-) just kidding -- but they aren't building anything for the people of Iraqi, and they robbing our entitlement programs to pay for it...

Sally, you commented in your article that House passed biggest budget ever... I'm shocked, shocked I tell you... that the media is not picking up on this (well the Guardian picked up on Bush raising the debt ceiling to 9 trillion dollars, maybe they'll get the budget! but that's across the pond... nothing here) and they brought back something called 'speed' voting to pass the thing... you're right, they're spending like drunken sailors and our grand children will be paying it off...

the lies coming the other direction? think that might have anything to do with Iran? with UK not jumping in with Dubya --- they're giving Tony a fit right now... just wondered what you think...

thanks for the article and your time...

U.S. Companies Profited As Iraqi Children Died

By Callum Macrae and Ali Fadhil

A financial scandal that in terms of sheer scale must rank as one of the greatest in history.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12408.htm

The bodies are piling up

By Cindy Sheehan

Today George said that the temptation to abandon "our" commitments is strong. Did he have a mouse in his pocket? I never made a commitment to preemptive war. I didn't authorize Congress to abrogate their responsibilities to declare war. I didn't give the orders to invade a country that was absolutely no threat to the USA. I also didn't give the orders to use depleted uranium and wmd in Iraq. I wasn't the one who devoted myself to torture and imprisoning people without due process.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12422.htm

Dark Pearl

By John S. Hatch

It's quite normal for a son to want to follow in his Daddy's career footsteps and to dream of exceeding the accomplishments of the old geezer. But what if you're Genghis Jr., or Attila Jr., or George II? That can complicate matters a little. How to outdo Daddy's deeds when he was so devilishly good at what he did? How many people can a Vlad Jr. impale? You almost have to have a plan. In modern times you need a PNAC.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12423.htm

Why do we hate * ? Let me count the ways!
How do I have a dialogue with SUOB Simson? He isn't a Senator any more!
If there really was progress in Iraq, wouldn't it be safe for the media to go get pictures of all those wonderful schools we are building!?
PQ

Did Marines Commit Crime in Iraq Civilian Deaths?:

A bloody videotape shot by a local Iraqi journalism student has prompted the Pentagon to launch a criminal investigation into an incident that left at least 15 Iraqi civilians dead in the city of Haditha.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12421.htm

===
One Morning in Haditha":

U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes last November. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A TIME exclusive

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1174682,00.html

===
Iraqi police say U.S. troops executed 11, including baby:

Iraqi police have accused U.S. troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12409.htm

Pakistani Taliban take control of unruly tribal belt
· Militia inflicts major blow on 'war on terror'
· Music and films banned as Islamic court takes over

Declan Walsh in Peshawar
Tuesday March 21, 2006

Guardian

A powerful new militia dubbed "the Pakistani Taliban" has effectively seized control of swaths of the country's northern tribal areas in recent months, triggering alarm in Islamabad and marking a big setback in America's "war on terror".
The militants are strongest in North and South Waziristan, two of seven tribal agencies on the border with Afghanistan. Strict social edicts have been handed down: shopkeepers may not sell music or films; barbers are instructed not to shave beards. Yesterday a bomb blew up a radio transmitter in Wana, taking the state radio off the air.

Militants collect taxes from passing vehicles at new checkpoints, and last week an Islamic court was established in Wana to replace the traditional jirga, or council of elders. Rough justice has already been dispensed elsewhere. A gang of seven alleged bandits were executed in Miran Shah in December and their bodies were hung from a post in the town centre.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329438785-103595,00.html

Archbishop: stop teaching creationism
Williams backs science over Bible

Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Tuesday March 21, 2006

Guardian

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stepped into the controversy between religious fundamentalists and scientists by saying that he does not believe that creationism - the Bible-based account of the origins of the world - should be taught in schools.
Giving his first, wide-ranging, interview at Lambeth Palace, the archbishop was emphatic in his criticism of creationism being taught in the classroom, as is happening in two city academies founded by the evangelical Christian businessman Sir Peter Vardy and several other schools.

"I think creationism is ... a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories ... if creationism is presented as a stark alternative theory alongside other theories I think there's just been a jarring of categories ... My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329438915-103602,00.html

Comment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Europeans should beware of wishing for US failure in Iraq

The chaotic outcome of Bush's war is feeding US economic nationalism and isolationism, which are a threat to Europe

Francis Fukuyama
Tuesday March 21, 2006
The Guardian

Many opponents of the Iraq war both in the US and Europe have felt a not-so-secret sense of schadenfreude at the developing chaos in Iraq. While many might intellectually support the emergence of a stable, democratic, pro-western government in Baghdad, "success" in this matter would be seen as a vindication of all of the baggage that the Bush administration loaded on to this project, including its unilateralism, use of force and incompetent execution of the war's aftermath. Many would therefore be happy seeing Washington suffer a setback, to deter such interventions in the future.
But people should be careful what they wish for. A domestic nationalist backlash against the policies that led to the war is brewing, with implications for how the US will deal with Europe and the rest of the world down the road. Like it or not, American power and involvement are necessary to the proper functioning of world order, and the kind of role that a post-Iraq United States may play is very much up for grabs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1735629,00.html

"Iraqi police have accused U.S. troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad."

That has to be some of Rumsfeld's recruits from the jails - who cares if serial killers are let loose on Iraq.

I'm sorry to say it, but I'm convinced by their recent actions that if the democrats get in they won't do a damn thing about impeaching Bush Cheney and Rumsfeld for crimes against humanity.
They'll "look for solutions" to let them off the hook.

Latest news by some former govt. experts is that Bush's war has destabilized the whole Middle East.
And some polls have poor george down to 27%.

"Do you realize that Iraq is a country the size of Rhode Island and 2 trillion dollars have been spent there? What could 2 trillion dollars do here at home?"

Not to be picky Pallas, but Iraq is quite a bit bigger than Rhode Island. Rhode Island is about 1545 sq miles, including water, wheras Iraq is about 168753 sq miles.
Here is a website that list nations in order of their land mass. It says Iraq is slightly more than twice the size of Idaho.
http://www.mrdowling.com/800area.html

That said though, your point is absolutely right on as far as wiser spending of hard earned dollars!

Okay. Iraq is twice the size of Idaho.

Does it have 26 million population?

2 trillion dollars divided by 26 million.

And they dont have electricity, running water,
safe streets, oil for their use, or streets that aren't pockmarked with bullets and potholes from bombs since George Bush liberated them.

How much is 2 trillion dollars divided by 50 states?

And Boxer said if it goes on another year it will be 4 trillion. Wow, Cheney's stock options just keep going up and up.

If they would just put george on trial for his crimes, he could be fined his personal fortune to
lessen the cost to the entire population for the next 100 years.

And that's what they're talking about. Your children and your grandchildren. Well if your children are 3 years old or 10 years old and they're already figuring on their children making up for bush's shortfall....we're talking about the next 100 years, no healthcare, no school assistance, no programs..so that his oil associates and pharmaceutical and KBR and Halliburtion could profiteer enough that your heirs will be paying off the debt george ran up - on purpose....

The Ceo of what used to be known as MCI is in jail as is Tyco CEO for similar Nero fiddling...in the case of MCI for 20 years ---and nobody died in a phony war - they just stole everybody's money.

There's no difference.

think I'll send this to my representative Wexler.
I dont hear him making noises about impeachment either.

You are so right in all of his Pallas.

And speaking of Tyco, we had fits today trying to comply with a recent government mandated switchover of a fire sprinkler monitoring service (in a commercial building my parents own.) The new company, ADT, won the nationwide 'bid' over a local company and its right hand does not know what its left hand is doing. After a search online I find they are ..... a subsidiary of Tyco International! Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!!! Electronic Globalization at your service!

Pat Paquette has written an interesting article on Iran
http://pisces-chronicles.blogspot.com/

Alan Simpson is a nasty old scold.....'emotionalism' huh, we don't need all this 'passion and emotionalism'....no, we don't need nasty old scolds who have the temerity to talk like that to a US Senator because she is a woman, either...whatta wad he is.

'what we need is much MORE passion, not less....passion to do something about this mess ....then maybe people can settle down and do something that will resolve the problems. Didn't you love all the 'wad's calling in to ask what plans the Dems have to get out of Iraq? Like they have anything to do with being able to get out of it...they still have no majority in either house, how are they going to do ANYTHING until after the election?

I'm beginning to believe this is deliberate on their part....don't get caught up in the distractions....

And hey, Bush id succeed in Iraq....he did everything he wanted....as Greg Palast said in his piece (www.gregpalast.com...so stop thinking it has anything to do with the house, the senate, or the American public.

If I were a witch, I'd put a spell on each dollar these guys have made in profits....for every dollar they earned thru the death and dismemberment and torture of anyone for profit, a pound of flesh will have to be given....collectively....!

Saw this on Kos:
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&
name=ViewPrint&articleId=11299

The American Prospect cover story on Al gore.

Pat Sharp, perspective is interesting. Just take the aspects on any given day and let's say we have a thief who watches astrology and all the aspects are hitting his chart in a positive way and he robs a bank, but the same aspects are hitting the bank negatively, the thief wins, the bank loses all on the same aspects. Six months later the pattern could be reversed, the thief is caught and the bank is happy. The landscape, so to speak, is ever changing.

In late 1997 (when GWB's name started being bandied about for President) he began a new chapter of his life, in February of 2005 (right after his second Inaugural) the first square happened to that beginning and the first challenge on how well he was doing in his seeding phase. February 2005 was also when his problems started mounting, indicating he hadn't faired too well in his beginnings and it was a time to start making adjustments for a better opportunity of success, he did not, he still has time but if he doesn't make changes in the next six months his new beginnings would or could mark up to a failure.

If you look at the US as the bank and this administration as the thief, they started on a good day for them and bad for the US, that tide is turning.

Jo, I was happier I think when I believed there was a conspiracy to take over America. It at least made me feel there was intelligence, deep thought behind their agenda. Now I still think it is a conspiracy backed by stupidity. No intelligence, no thought just like Iraq. It's just as we believed, arrogant hubris. This group isn't collapsing only the US, they are collapsing the entire world with their inept handling or bungling. Halliburton and friends plus the Carlyle Group could make a ton of money, all the money in the world for what? They are killing innovation, creativity, problem-solving. Their idea of utopia is boring and dull due to the lack of their own creativity. How creative is it to blow things up? Once they've enslaved the human race (those they haven't killed off) they will simply turn their weapons on to each other until what? The last man standing? No thought, no innovation, no creativity, no joy, no intellectual curiosity, just left with a bunch of ignorant dumb louts that couldn't think their way out of a paper bag.

Did you hear Bush say today that he "never said Saddam was connected to 9/11" Patting himself on the back, like a good boy, because he was "careful" not to say anything like that. Now why would he be careful and conscious of that? Guess it's because someone told him to be careful. Like I said, left with ignorant louts.

So true Sally, every word...

Like Jo said, Cap'n Sally.

It could be said, then, that the grand and solemn dance of the Universe is perpetually attempting to create balance. The robber and the bank are great examples of that play.

This was a thought-provoking article, Sally. I wonder if a correction will come as a result of the Earth attempting to balance Herself? Katrina showed us how inept this administration is in the face of the unexpected. Given the fact that the poles are melting, forcing the oceans to change, something will have to resist the coming deluge to attempt balance. That resistance, of course, will be the land.

Another intriguing aspect of your article was the mention of the U.S. (us) being told internationally-sourced lies. I wonder if this might have something to do with the Iranian Bourse. The beginnings of this venture was to take place yesterday, but i can find no evidence that it did. Hmmmmmm.

karen

Karen,

the opening of the Bourse has been postponed...

according to a diary at dKOS and comments at this website...

red flags for me with all of this...

was talk of a 'Bourse' a ploy to checkmate USA? Has it been put on hold?

let me know if you find a reliable source discussing it please...

this may also, some think, be ploy to sell gold. Who knows with all the three card monte games going, huh?

WhaddaHOOT!! Miss Sally & Jo... countless thousands of years of evolution & develop for... bushaholics & fellow addicts. Ain't Life grand?!?

Pallas... I'm with you. I believe I'll pay local/state taxes, but not federal. If I go to jail, it isn't being bombed, poisoned or shot out of my body as have been the Iraqian Peoples et al. It helps that I don't have anything really BUT my butt. I can imagine a scenerio of "meeting my maker" & She says: "How come you subsidized these monsters to do their monstering?" Then I'd have to say: "Well... I was worried about MY butt." If Cindy Sheehan, for instance, can go to jail, I can do no less. With enuf of us refusing to pay for omnicide at the claws of lunatics, there won't be enuf spaces of detention to hold us all. Noooo... the killers will have to hidey-hole up in their own self-made prisons (even tho luxurious). It's possible that my own pluto/saturn in the 10th is at last getting ready to manifest its purpose.

That's Spring Equinox, Miss Sally... ;O)

Anyone watching the press conference on the tee-vee? Some DUers are claiming he's in melt-down. What are you seeing? Thnx.

Shylurker, I don't know about melt down, but I kept tuning him out. Sounded to me like more of the same broken record. He sure is a smarmy little weasel with those darting beady eyes...ick before coffee too!

Poll: Do you agree with you-know-who that everything's peachy-keen in Iraq?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080261/#survey

Thanks so much, Morgana. I did finally get to see a little of it (on c-span), but I couldn't tell how much of the jerkiness was the result of transmission, how much from . . . Well, you catch my drift.

WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY GOING?!?! Maybe THIS is where....

Iraq: Permanent US Colony
By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 14 March 2006

Why does the Bush Administration refuse to discuss withdrawing occupation forces from Iraq? Why is Halliburton, who landed the no-bid contracts to construct and maintain US military bases in Iraq, posting higher profits than ever before in its 86-year history? (to read the rest)...........

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031306A.shtml

I followed a link of DKOS piece on a list of Congress Critters who got freebie flights on Corpo planes... my my my check out this list(s) very informative, bad for some Repuglike Dems.

http://www.fecinfo.com/cgi-win/x_PrivateSummary.exe?DoFn=

Man Overboard

By Ruth Marcus
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; A17

I have a new theory about what's behind everything that's wrong with the Bush administration: manliness.

"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University, which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House. Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute.

Manliness, he writes, "seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk." It entails assertiveness, even stubbornness, and craves power and action. It explains why men, naturally inclined to assert that "our policy, our party, our regime is superior," dominate in the political sphere.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001416_pf.html

Blair wants battle of ideas with terrorists

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday will call for a global, interventionist approach to confront terrorism head on and win a battle over values and ideas.

"This is not a clash between civilizations, it is a clash about civilization," Blair will say in a speech this afternoon, according to extracts released by his official spokesman.

"'We' is not the West. 'We' are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. 'We' are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts," he will say.

The speech, due to be given at a Reuters Newsmaker event, is the first of three that Blair plans to deliver on terrorism and the significance of Iraq and Afghanistan. The second will be given in Australia and the third in the United States.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?id=2006032108290002436521&dt=20060321082900&w=RTR&coview=

Folks,
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14232549p-15054692c.html
Here is the latest on the Bird-Flu. At the end of the article it shows the flyways. The wild birds will bring the bird-flu here via Alaska this year.

On the 16th my husband [Chris is a social psychologist] heard Dr. Ira Longini, a professor of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine for U of W, talk about the coming bird-flu at a local statistians meeting. http://www.sph.emory.edu/bios/ILongini.php
1)Dr L quoted a virologist(he didn’t catch the name)that there is a 50/50 chance for the human-to-human strain to happen no matter what anyone does.
2)The fatalities of 55% are not a given either, just what has been observed in SE Asia ; however, it may well be that only the most serious cases have come to the attention of public health authorities there, so the actual mortality rate probably would be less. Dr L did say that most deaths could be prevented if there were enough respirators to keep them breathing.
3)There is some Tamiflu stockpiled by WHO, which might be enough to deal with an initial outbreak, if it is caught soon enough, but not enough to treat people in a full-scale pandemic, which would happen if the disease were to go beyond the initial cluster or clusters.
4)The Vice-President's office has taken an interest in this, as they should, but they are not solely responsible for dealing with it. (Thank the Goddess!) At the Federal level, The Dept. of Homeland Security and the CDC, for instance, also have responsibility, as well as state and local authorities.
Chris said that he is a bit less worried, given there's a reasonable chance a human pandemic possibly could be "nipped in the bud" by prophylactic use of Tamiflu by WHO, if the surveillance system works well enough, along with widespread immunization, which would help even if the vaccine is not a perfect match. At least there is a rational hope of that plan working. In any case, I think it is prudent to try to prepare for 2-3 months of voluntary quarantine, and possibly without having reliable electricity, food or water from the usual infrastructure.

You got that correct, wv... & it's only PART of it.

* [bushadruggie] Proves His Harshest Critics Right

On 3/17, Wm Rivers Pitt wrote that bush is "deranged, disconnected, & dangerous." In his 3/20 Cleveland speech, bush proved Pitt right.

bush gave a delusional speech that shows he is detached from reality. "We're going to help the Iraqis build a strong democracy that will be an inspiration thruout the Mid East, a democracy that'll be a partner in the global war against the terrorists."

Has no one told bush that the Iraqis cannot even agree to form a govt?

The day before bush's delusional Cleveland speech, Iyad Allawi, the former pm of one of our make-believe Iraqi govts, said that in Iraq the casualty rate from the sectarian strife is so high that "if this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

The day of bush's delusional speech, Patrick Cockburn, present on the scene in Irbil, Iraq, gave a much more truthful acct of the situation. Writing in CounterPunch, he reported:

"Iraq is a country convulsed by fear. It is at its worst in Baghdad. Sectarian killings are commonplace. … The scale of the violence is such that most of it is unreported. … Unseen by the outside world, silent populations are on the move, frightened people fleeing neighborhoods where their community is in a minority for safer districts. There is also a growing reliance on militias because of fears that police patrols or ckpts are in reality death squads hunting for victims."

Not a word of this reality from our delusional [rez-rot].

The fantasy Iraq that bush painted was only his warm-up. He went on to tell his Cleveland audience that America cld not be safe unless Iraq was a democracy. What a weak, pitiful, vulnerable place bush's [ameriCO] must be. Unless a small, devastated Mid Eastern country is a democracy, America cannot be safe. Who in the Cleveland audience cld possibly have believed this utter nonsense? http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=8737

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&before_9/11=foreignIntelligence

Complete 911 Timeline: Foreign intelligence agency attack warnings

Karen and Jo, in Dec. 2000 right after the Supreme Court appointed Bush as President, Saddam Hussain said he was shifting his oil dollars into the Euro and out of the US, it wasn't given a lot of play then but I did think when I first saw it that Saddam had signed his fate with that comment. A couple of weeks ago another little article, again not much play, that Syria, Iran, Lybia, China and Russia were threatening to shift their oil dollars to Euro's and the threat of war toward Iran has increased. The threat of the Iranian Bourse could explain the Democrats willingness to play along with this would be dictator in the WH. Without telling us the truth, our politicians might be playing a game of "he who owns all the toys wins." The problem is this President has alienated the rest of the world and our long term foreign policies since Nixon has set up a long term alignment against the US, and the UK recently said they may not be up for war with Iran. This is why Bush was in a panic that we wouldn't offend the UAE because they might not like us. We, the US, have been placed between such a rock and a hard place with a string of corrupt and greedy politicians for 50 years, we need all the friends we can get. If Bush cannot deliver then the US will be taken and soon.

Don't Impeach; Impale

By Will Durst, AlterNet. Posted March 15, 2006.

Impeachment just isn't proper punishment for the evil, cowardly, imperialistic slime buckets of the Bush administration.

I don't know about you guys, but I am so sick and tired of these lying, thieving, holier-than-thou, right-wing, cruel, crude, rude, gauche, coarse, crass, cocky, corrupt, dishonest, debauched, degenerate, dissolute, swaggering, lawyer shooting, bullhorn shouting, infrastructure destroying, hysterical, history defying, finger- pointing, puppy stomping, roommate appointing, pretzel choking, collateral damaging, aspersion casting, wedding party bombing, clear cutting, torturing, jobs outsourcing, torture outsourcing, "so-called" compassionate-conservative, women's rights eradicating, Medicare cutting, uncouth, spiteful, boorish, vengeful, noxious, homophobic, xenophobic, xylophonic, racist, sexist, ageist, fascist, cashist, audaciously stupid, brazenly selfish, lethally ignorant, journalist purchasing, genocide ignoring, corporation kissing, poverty inducing, crooked, coercive, autocratic, primitive, uppity, high-handed, domineering, arrogant, inhuman, inhumane, insolent, know-it-all, snotty, pompous, contemptuous, supercilious, gutless, spineless, shameless, avaricious, poisonous, imperious, merciless, graceless, tactless, brutish, brutal, Karl Roving, backward thinking, persistent vegetative state grandstanding, nuclear option threatening, evolution denying, irony deprived, depraved, insincere, conceited, perverted, pre-emptory invading of a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, 35-day-vacation taking, bribe soliciting, incapable, inbred, hellish, proud for no apparent reason, smarty pants, loudmouth, bullying, swell-headed, ethnic cleansing, ethics-eluding, domestic spying, medical marijuana-busting, kick-backing, Halliburtoning, New Deal disintegrating, narcissistic, undiplomatic, blustering, malevolent, demonizing, baby seal-clubbing, Duke Cunninghamming, hectoring, verbally flatulent, pro-bad- anti-good, Moslem-baiting, photo-op arranging, hurricane disregarding, oil company hugging, judge packing, science disputing, faith based mathematics advocating, armament selling, nonsense spewing, education ravaging, whiny, unscrupulous, greedy exponential factor fifteen, fraudulent, CIA outing, redistricting, anybody who disagrees with them slandering, fact twisting, ally alienating, betraying, god and flag waving, scare mongering, Cindy Sheehan libeling, phony question asking, just won't get off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling, two- faced, inept, callous, menacing, your hand under a rock- the maggoty remains of a marsupial, oppressive, vulgar, antagonistic, brush clearing suck- up, showboating, tyrannizing, peace hating, water and air and ground and media polluting which is pretty much all the polluting you can get, deadly, illegal, pernicious, lethal, haughty, venomous, virulent, ineffectual, mephitic, egotistic, bloodthirsty, incompetent, hypocritical, did I say evil, I'm not sure if I said evil, because I want to make sure I say evil…

EVIL, cretinous, fool, toad, buttwipe, lizardstick, cowardly, lackey imperialistic tool slime buckets in the Bush Administration that I could just spit.

Impeachment? Hell no. Impalement. Upon the sharp and righteous sword of the people's justice.

Listen to Will Durst's Will & Willie Show, Monday through Friday, 7-10am PST, on KQKE, 960 AM. Or listen long distance at quakeradio.com.

-------------------------------------
"Anybody work here in this town?"

http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/mcewan/33831

Woodward's Plame Leak Deep Throat

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032106J.shtml

He is referred to as "official one" and he is the mysterious senior Bush administration official who unmasked the identity of an undercover CIA operative to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003 and conservative columnist Robert Novak a month later. The identity of this official is shrouded in secrecy. But Woodward tape recorded the interview he had with "official one" and gave a copy of the tape and a transcript to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollar
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

WASHINGTON — A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros.

The United Arab Emirates said it was considering moving one-tenth of its dollar reserves to the euro, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the decision by the United States to force Dubai Ports World to transfer its ownership to a ‘US entity,’ the UK Independent reported.

“Is it protectionism or discrimination? Is it okay for US companies to buy everywhere but it is not okay for other companies to buy the US?” said Hamad Saud Al Sayyari, the governor of the Saudi Arabian monetary authority.

The head of the United Arab Emirates central bank, Sultan Nasser Al Suweidi, said the bank was considering converting 10 per cent of its reserves from dollars to euros.

“They are contravening their own principles,” said Al Suweidi. “Investors are going to take this into consideration (and) will look at investment opportunities through new binoculars.”

The Commercial Bank of Syria has already switched the state’s foreign currency transactions from dollars to euros, Duraid Durgham head of the state-owned bank said. The decision by the bank of Syria follows the announcement by the White House calling on all US financial institutions to end correspondent accounts with Syria due to money-laundering concerns.

Syria’s Finance Minister Mohammad Al Hussein said: “Syria affirms that this decision and its timing are fundamentally political.”-Khaleej Times Online

http://www.middleeastforex.com/index.php?section=147

for a little levity...actually a VERY funny flick...

http://www.current.tv/pods/supernews/PD03165?WT.mc_id=GPR&title=oscars

Do you agree with President Bush that real progress is being made in Iraq?

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080261/

So far: yes 16% no 84%

Thanks Pat C! And Sally. . .there are other equally interesting articles doing a google, all reporting on divestment from the dollar to the euro, Brazil included.

The bourse remains in the planning stages. I'm guessing its release will coincide with the crash of the dollar.

In all cases the currency is being manipulated. Those who once seeded the dollar are now seeding the euro.

Gold and silver tra-la-la
Euro is hot
Dollar not.

I feel a new, gruesome nursery rhyme coming on. . . .

karen

Signs of the Times for Tue, 21 Mar 2006

Signs Editorial:

More Evidence Neocons Are Destroying Bill of Rights

Monday March 20th 2006, 12:38 pm
Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire
I don't know how much more evidence we need to demonstrate there is a plot underway to dismantle the Bill of Rights. Now we learn that soon after "the dark days" of nine eleven, "lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack," according to US News & World Report. "Meeting in the FBI's state-of-the-art command center in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the lawyers talked with senior FBI officials about using the same legal authority to conduct physical searches of homes and businesses of terrorism suspects–also without court approval," that is to say in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment. You know it is bad when the FBI-with its long and infamous history of trashing the Bill of Rights-resisted this effort. "FBI Director Robert Mueller was alarmed by the proposal," two officials told the magazine. "Mueller was personally very concerned … not only because of the blowback issue but also because of the legal and constitutional questions raised by warrantless physical searches." Apparently Mueller was so concerned he made it a point "to leave Washington-and sometimes the country-so as not to get pulled into the political crossfire. When Gonzales testified February 6 [before the Judiciary Committee], Mueller was on his way to Morocco." Of course, we are told by neocon cheerleaders in the corporate media the Bush White House and the Justice Department are only interested in "warrantless physical searches" against possible "al-Qaeda" bad guys. Most Americans have nothing to fear-that is so long as they do not fear the trashing of the Constitution. But then, considering most Americans are woefully ignorant of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and know more about cartoon characters, the absence of such fear should not come as a surprise.

OpEdNews.com

Original Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mike_whi_060123_iran_92s_oil_exchange_.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 23, 2006

Iran’s Oil Exchange threatens the Greenback

By Mike Whitney

The Bush administration will never allow the Iranian government to open an oil exchange (bourse) that trades petroleum in euros. If that were to happen, hundreds of billions of dollars would come flooding back to the United States crushing the greenback and destroying the economy. This is why Bush and Co. are planning to lead the nation to war against Iran. It is straightforward defense of the current global system and the continuing dominance of the reserve currency, the dollar.

The claim that Iran is developing nuclear weapons is a mere pretext for war. The NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) predicts that Iran will not be able to produce nukes for perhaps a decade. So too, IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei has said repeatedly that his watchdog agency has found “no evidence” of a nuclear weapons program.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_mike_whi_060123_iran_92s_oil_exchange_.htm

Hi Everyone:

I hope that you all will listen to Keven Phillips on "Fresh Air" today. He talks so profoundly about so many of the issues we have talked about here.

The introduction is particularly interesting as it opens with a person from Ohio asking Bush about the "End Times".....in which he doesn't really give an answer. This was taken from the speech he gave yesterday. Very fitting considering the topic of Phillip's book.

He also covers the financial (political and personal) situation we are in today and is mighty frightening. He is so direct,intelligent, and honest and sums it all up so nicely. I wish the American fundamentalists will listen. They are the ones who need to hear.

The audio won't be available until 3:00 p.m. ET...one minute from now. It's only 27 minutes long.

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13

Signs of the Times for Tue, 21 Mar 2006

Pissed Off Patriots
Actor Charlie Sheen Questions Official 9/11 Story
Alex Jones & Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
March 20 2006

Actor Charlie Sheen has joined a growing army of other highly credible public figures in questioning the official story of 9/11 and calling for a new independent investigation of the attack and the circumstances surrounding it.

Over the past two years, scores of highly regarded individuals have gone public to express their serious doubts about 9/11. These include former presidential advisor and CIA analyst Ray McGovern, the father of Reaganomics and former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, BYU physics Professor Steven Jones, former German defense minister Andreas von Buelow, former MI5 officer David Shayler, former Blair cabinet member Michael Meacher, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds and many more.

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/chains/signs20060321_PissedOffPatriots.php#98a7c646f6adfbb3379235eda3c

Thank you JoAnna, Oregon
Jo
Shylurker
and Judi G.-- What a shock that must have been when your grand daughter bit you! It must have really hurt but would have the effect of a very deep accupuncture with several points being "hit" at once. Mighty healing!

I hold specific accupuncture points in my hands and wrists everyday since I have the instruction book "Touch For Health." and can muscle test if I have to. Mostly I just work them automatically. It does help but it is extremely unnatural for one to use ones hand and wrists repeatedly for prolonged periods of time with tremendous speed. That is the source of the problem...the speed....it's not normal! We aren't robuts...we are human. Such is the natrue of the modern production line.

McCain is a phony SOB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Schwarzenegger fundfest, fingers point at McCain

- Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Sacramento -- A high-priced fundraiser Monday night in Beverly Hills for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger featured special guest Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose appearance Democrats and some government watchdogs say skirted the federal campaign finance law he helped enact.

McCain, the maverick Republican who once called Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' fundraising conduct "disgraceful,'' was the star attraction at an event that allowed guests who contributed or raised $100,000 or $50,000 to take photos with the governor and attend a private reception, according to the invitations.

Some of the money was expected to go to Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign and some to the state Republican Party.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/21/MNGD8HRJ721.DTL&type=printable

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feinstein urges regime change -- Rumsfeld out
She wants troop levels cut, focus shifted to training
- John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

President Bush should replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with new leaders in charge of the war effort who will start pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, a downbeat Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Monday.

"I say it's time to change course, to bring in another team," the California Democratic senator told 350 business leaders in San Jose. "We should not be putting American soldiers in the middle of a civil war with targets on their backs.''

Feinstein has criticized Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq for more than a year, but Monday's speech was the first time she had called for him to be fired.

"Secretary Rumsfeld is a very strong leader, and I don't believe he listens to many people, and that's a problem," she said. "It's time for him to go.''

Feinstein has been attacked by many California Democrats for her vote three years ago to allow Bush the use of military force in Iraq and for her ongoing reluctance to call for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11927856/

Iraqi diplomat gave U.S. prewar WMD details

Saddam’s foreign minister told CIA the truth, so why didn’t agency listen?

In the period before the Iraq war, the CIA and the Bush administration erroneously believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding major programs for weapons of mass destruction. Now NBC News has learned that for a short time the CIA had contact with a secret source at the highest levels within Saddam Hussein’s government, who gave them information far more accurate than what they believed. It is a spy story that has never been told before, and raises new questions about prewar intelligence.

What makes the story significant is the high rank of the source. His name, officials tell NBC News, was Naji Sabri, Iraq’s foreign minister under Saddam. Although Sabri was in Saddam's inner circle, his cosmopolitan ways also helped him fit into diplomatic circles.

In September 2002, at a meeting of the U.N.’s General Assembly, Sabri came to New York to represent Saddam. In front of the assembled diplomats, he read a letter from the Iraqi leader. "The United States administration is acting on behalf of Zionism," he said. He announced that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that the U.S. planned war in Iraq because it wanted the country’s oil.

But on that very trip, there was also a secret contact made. The contact was brokered by the French intelligence service, sources say. Intelligence sources say that in a New York hotel room, CIA officers met with an intermediary who represented Sabri. All discussions between Sabri and the CIA were conducted through a "cutout," or third party. Through the intermediary, intelligence sources say, the CIA paid Sabri more than $100,000 in what was, essentially, "good-faith money." And for his part, Sabri, again through the intermediary, relayed information about Saddam’s actual capabilities.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.

The sources say Sabri’s answers were much more accurate than his proclamations to the United Nations, where he demonized the U.S. and defended Saddam. At the same time, they also were closer to reality than the CIA's estimates, as spelled out in its October 2002 intelligence estimate.

More....

Pat C., Thanks for the Woodward update. I looked all over google yesterday trying to find something new to no avail.This must have been what I heard brief mention of a few days ago. It continues to get even more complicated. So much fanageling and manipulation all the time.

All one can do is sigh ( and almost laugh) when we hear statements from Cheney such as "he wouldn't trust Edward Kennedy with national security" - He said this to a crowd in Ohio yesterday.
Is he implying that we can trust him after their colossal failure of 9/11? What a fool!

Speaking of Woodward/Cheney:

While googling yesterday for other Woodward information, I came accross references to a very recent speeches Woodward has given in which he states quite confidently that Bush is encouraging Cheney to run for President in 2008. Woodward predicts that this will transpire. I wonder if that is why I keep hearing the pundits and experts say there really isn't any viable Republican candidate yet for 2008. Can you imagine that!
Which reminds me that Frist may run.
I have been wanting to say this for the longest time, but doesn't Bill Frist have the most awful pallor about his face. He looks ill....or maybe he looks that way all the time. Like a ghost. I'm not being critical but so many of the Republican men have this pale look about them, like they don't eat their vegetables. Have you every noticed? He is a doctor....you would think he would have a nice pink glow about him. I don't think he is all that popular with any other than those in Tennessee.

Beverly, you're most welcome, and I couldn't agree with you more! The word I would think of to go along with the strange palor is insipid.

BTW Beverly, Cheney also made the Kennedy remark on CBS on Sunday morning as well.

Here is one reference regarding a Cheney run for president in 2008 from February, 2006
The original statement from Woodward was made in August, 2005

If anyone would know, Woodward would. Heaven help us. I'm hoping their reign of terror will be done by then.

http://www.ovaloffice2008.com/2006/02/dick-cheney-bob-woodward-still-thinks.html

Beverly, Light of any kind and in any form must be anathema to neo-cons. Like vampirism (sustaining one's life force by taking the life force energy of others).

On a serious note though, the human body is a reflection or manifestation of the spiritual light that shines through the aura. Pink undertones can't show through the muddy browns and grays of negative energy or the lurid red of violent energy.

Maybe you are seeing them with your etheric vision.

http://tinyurl.com/z9rkq LAT 3/21/06

Agent Faults FBI on 9/11

The man who caught Zacarias Moussaoui testifies that higher-ups blocked his efforts to determine whether there was a larger plot.
By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui weeks before Sept. 11 told a federal jury Monday that his own superiors were guilty of "criminal negligence and obstruction" for blocking his attempts to learn whether the terrorist was part of a larger cell about to hijack planes in the United States.

During intense cross-examination, Special Agent Harry Samit — a witness for the prosecution — accused his bosses of acting only to protect their positions within the FBI.

snip

Samit wanted to seek a criminal search warrant, and later one from a special intelligence court. But officials at the FBI headquarters refused to let him, because they did not believe he had enough evidence to prove Moussaoui was anything but a wealthy man who had come to this country to follow his dream of becoming a pilot.

He said that as Washington kept telling him there was "no urgency and no threat," his FBI superiors sent him on "wild goose chases."

For a while, Samit said, they did not even believe Moussaoui was the same person whom French intelligence sources had identified as a Muslim extremist. Samit said that FBI headquarters wanted him and his fellow agents to spend days poring through Paris phone books to make sure they had the right Moussaoui.

Samit said that when he asked permission to place an Arabic-speaking federal officer as a plant inside Moussaoui's cell to find out what Moussaoui was up to, Washington said no.

And he said that when he prepared a lengthy memo about Moussaoui for Federal Aviation Administration officials, Washington deleted key sections, including a part connecting Moussaoui with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Samit said he was so frustrated and so convinced that attacks were imminent that he bypassed FBI officials in Washington and met with an FAA officer he knew in Minneapolis. But he said FAA agents never got back to him, and never asked to see a pair of small knives, similar to box cutters, that Samit had found in Moussaoui's pocket and in his car.

Samit further described how he took it upon himself to cable the Secret Service that the president's safety might be in jeopardy. He recounted in the cable how Moussaoui had told him he hoped to be able to one day fly a Boeing 747 from London's Heathrow Airport to New York, and how he also hoped to visit the White House one day.

Samit said he warned the Secret Service that those desires could spell disaster. "If he seizes an airplane from Heathrow to New York City," Samit alerted the Secret Service, "it will have the fuel on board to reach D.C."

Samit said he never heard back from the Secret Service either.

And yet, the agent said, he never officially complained to the FBI hierarchy.

"Street agents don't call headquarters and request that supervisors be removed from cases," he said. "I didn't agree with them, but they are in charge."

But Samit said his immediate boss in Minneapolis, FBI Special Agent Greg Jones, did urge Washington to be more receptive.

Samit said he once overheard Jones on the phone with headquarters, telling FBI superiors that Minneapolis was trying to keep Zacarias Moussaoui "from flying an airplane into the World Trade Center."

More...

This article describes a favorite ploy of Bush-Rove so well. It was in WaPo the other day. Sorry, I don't know how to link to it so here is the whole thing (not terribly long really). It's something like "Bush Uses Straw Man Tactic" by Jennifer Loven.

"Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day," President Bush said recently.

Another time he said, "Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free."

"There are some really decent people," the president said earlier this year, "who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of health care ... for all people."

Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions.

When the president starts a sentence with "some say" or offers up what "some in Washington" believe, as he is doing more often these days, a rhetorical retort almost assuredly follows.

The device usually is code for Democrats or other White House opponents. In describing what they advocate, Bush often omits an important nuance or substitutes an extreme stance that bears little resemblance to their actual position.

He typically then says he "strongly disagrees" — conveniently knocking down a straw man of his own making.

Bush routinely is criticized for dressing up events with a too-rosy glow. But experts in political speech say the straw man device, in which the president makes himself appear entirely reasonable by contrast to supposed "critics," is just as problematic.

Because the "some" often go unnamed, Bush can argue that his statements are true in an era of blogs and talk radio. Even so, "'some' suggests a number much larger than is actually out there," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

A specialist in presidential rhetoric, Wayne Fields of Washington University in St. Louis, views it as "a bizarre kind of double talk" that abuses the rules of legitimate discussion.

"It's such a phenomenal hole in the national debate that you can have arguments with nonexistent people," Fields said. "All politicians try to get away with this to a certain extent. What's striking here is how much this administration rests on a foundation of this kind of stuff."

Bush has caricatured the other side for years, trying to tilt legislative debates in his favor or score election-season points with voters.

Not long after taking office in 2001, Bush pushed for a new education testing law and began portraying skeptics as opposed to holding schools accountable.

The chief opposition, however, had nothing to do with the merits of measuring performance, but rather the cost and intrusiveness of the proposal.

Campaigning for Republican candidates in the 2002 midterm elections, the president sought to use the congressional debate over a new Homeland Security Department against Democrats.

He told at least two audiences that some senators opposing him were "not interested in the security of the American people." In reality, Democrats balked not at creating the department, which Bush himself first opposed, but at letting agency workers go without the usual civil service protections.

Running for re-election against Sen. John Kerry in 2004, Bush frequently used some version of this line to paint his Democratic opponent as weaker in the fight against terrorism: "My opponent and others believe this matter is a matter of intelligence and law enforcement."

The assertion was called a mischaracterization of Kerry's views even by a Republican, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona.

Straw men have made more frequent appearances in recent months, often on national security — once Bush's strong suit with the public but at the center of some of his difficulties today. Under fire for a domestic eavesdropping program, a ports-management deal and the rising violence in Iraq, Bush now sees his approval ratings hovering around the lowest of his presidency.

Said Jamieson, "You would expect people to do that as they feel more threatened."

Last fall, the rhetorical tool became popular with Bush when the debate heated up over when troops would return from Iraq. "Some say perhaps we ought to just pull out of Iraq," he told GOP supporters in October, echoing similar lines from other speeches. "That is foolhardy policy."

Yet even the speediest plan, as advocated by only a few Democrats, suggested not an immediate drawdown, but one over six months. Most Democrats were not even arguing for a specific troop withdrawal timetable.

Recently defending his decision to allow the National Security Agency to monitor without subpoenas the international communications of Americans suspected of terrorist ties, Bush has suggested that those who question the program underestimate the terrorist threat.

"There's some in America who say, 'Well, this can't be true there are still people willing to attack,'" Bush said during a January visit to the NSA.

The president has relied on straw men, too, on the topics of taxes and trade, issues he hopes will work against Democrats in this fall's congressional elections.

Usually without targeting Democrats specifically, Bush has suggested they are big-spenders who want to raise taxes, because most oppose extending some of his earlier tax cuts, and protectionists who do not want to open global markets to American goods, when most oppose free-trade deals that lack protections for labor and the environment.

"Some people believe the answer to this problem is to wall off our economy from the world," he said this month in India, talking about the migration of U.S. jobs overseas. "I strongly disagree."

http://votetrustusa.org/

California Voters File Lawsuit to Halt Use or Purchase of Diebold
Electronic Voting System

Illegal Computer Code, Security and Disability Access Problems Cited

Plaintiffs Include Dolores Huerta, Avi Rubin, Doug Jones, Disability
Advocates

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE DEFIANT WAR
When it began three years ago, few people could have anticipated that the combat in Iraq would last so long or that the enemy would become a stubborn and resilient insurgency
Cindy Sheehan's year of living famously

- Vicki Haddock, Insight Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006

The sun is rising over a house in the Berkeley Hills, and in its modest studio apartment, America's most compelling anti-war activist is making her bed, apologizing for the clutter and running late.

Cindy Sheehan was up much of the previous night while emergency room doctors treated her daughter for a painful cyst, but sleeping in is out of the question. Soon a car will whisk her off to a Canadian TV interview, to be followed by a local TV interview, and finally, fixing spaghetti for her three adult children in Vacaville -- her home before the death of her soldier son Casey and the political trajectory of her anguish propelled her to divorce, to estrangement from friends, and to a frenetic campaign to end U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

[Listen to a podcast about Cindy Sheehan]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/19/INGEQHOQAA1.DTL&type=printable

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/032106.html

Our Web Site & Three Years of War

A Retrospective
March 21, 2006

Editor's Note: Over the past three years, we have tried to provide a truthful account of the Iraq War, from the early days of "shock and awe" to the present drift toward "civil war." In doing so, we have always tried to look past George W. Bush's happy talk and Washington's conventional wisdom to track the logic -- or illogic -- of the administration's policies.
Simply following that trajectory revealed outcomes far more troubling and far less favorable than U.S. officials and media pundits led the American people to believe. As the Iraq War enters its fourth year, we have pulled together links to a collection of our Iraq War stories written as the tragedy unfolded:

Audiotapes from top-level Iraqi meetings confirm that Iraq was WMD free by ’92:

“Documents Show Saddam's WMD Frustrations”

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Exasperated, besieged by global pressure, Saddam Hussein and top aides searched for ways in the 1990s to prove to the world they'd given up banned weapons.

"We don't have anything hidden!" the frustrated Iraqi president interjected at one meeting, transcripts show.

At another, in 1996, Saddam wondered whether U.N. inspectors would "roam Iraq for 50 years" in a pointless hunt for weapons of mass destruction. "When is this going to end?" he asked.

It ended in 2004, when U.S. experts, after an exhaustive investigation, confirmed what the men in those meetings were saying: that Iraq had eliminated its weapons of mass destruction long ago, a finding that discredited the Bush administration's stated rationale for invading Iraq in 2003 — to locate WMD.

The newly released documents are among U.S. government translations of audiotapes or Arabic-language transcripts from top-level Iraqi meetings — dating from about 1996-97 back to the period soon after the 1991 Gulf War, when the U.N. Security Council sent inspectors to disarm Iraq.

Even as the documents make clear Saddam's regime had given up banned weapons, they also attest to its continued secretiveness: A 1997 document from Iraqi intelligence instructed agencies to keep confidential files away from U.N. teams, and to remove "any forbidden equipment."

Since it's now acknowledged the Iraqis had ended the arms programs by then, the directive may have been aimed at securing stray pieces of equipment, and preserving some secrets from Iraq's 1980s work on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Saddam's inner circle entertained notions of reviving the programs someday, the newly released documents show. "The factories will remain in our brains," one unidentified participant told Saddam at a meeting, apparently in the early 1990s. <==== this offhand remark is the basis of the claim that Iraq planned to revive their WMD program someday. Bit of a stretch if you ask me since Saddam didn't say yes.

At the same meeting, however, Saddam, who was deposed by the U.S. invasion in 2003 and is now on trial for crimes against humanity, led a discussion about converting chemical weapons factories to beneficial uses.

When a subordinate complained that U.N. inspectors had seized equipment at the plants useful for pharmaceutical and insecticide production, Saddam jumped in, saying they had "no right" to deny the Iraqis the equipment, since "they have ascertained that we have no intention to produce in this field (chemical weapons)."

Saddam's regime extensively videotaped and audiotaped meetings and other events, both public and confidential. The dozen transcribed discussions about weapons inspections largely dealt with Iraq's diplomatic strategies for getting the Security Council to confirm it had disarmed.

Scores of Iraqi documents, seized after the 2003 invasion, are being released at the request of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (news, bio, voting record), who has suggested that evidence might turn up that the Iraqis hid their weapons or sent them to neighboring Syria. No such evidence has emerged.

snip

"We played by the rules of the game," Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said at a session in the mid-1990s. "In 1991, our weapons were destroyed."

More...

Question to the insightful astrologers:

If I remember correctly, GW and many of those who work in his adminstration have planets in the 12th house. Is it at all possible that these people could be tried for war crimes and be sent to prison? I thought somebody said Rove had a 12th house Jupiter. I would love to see this point to excessive jail time. A girl can dream can't she??

Also, I think you said upthread, Sally, that Bush stated recently that he never connected Saddam with 911? I am so sure that he did, as did Cheney.

Dear GoldenSilence,

What a fantastic comment about ethric vision.
I don't know what that means or if you are just being sarcastic in view of the subject matter.
But don't you see that pallor in Frist and other republicans? John McCain is another good example. Even DeLay for that matter when he is out of the hot Texas sun. It's not the aura I see but the coloring or lack of coloring in the skin. So many of the look anemic.

This is so interesting. I just left the library 45 miles away and on my nephew's internet in his garage while he replaces the muffler on my car. What fun!

Beverly,

I am serious, although I sincerely hope I don't come across as coming out of left field. The physical body is a reflection of our aura which itself is a composite of three interlinked bodies which are not readily visible to our physical eyes. These bodies are the etheric body, the astral (or emotional) body and the mental body which are separate but which function together by influencing each other.

It's possible that your perception of the pallor seems to be more acute than it is for most people. You may be seeing on an etheric level without even being aware of it. And you may be perceiving more too. How they look to you could be a reflection of their warped and unevolved mental and emotional states. Unevolved in the spiritual sense, not in the human personality sense.

Be still my heart!
Wolf Blitzer just interviewed Helen Thomas, & will again in this Situation Room segment 7-8 pm EST. At press conference rez asked her a question today / first time in 3 years! It was contentious, but they tried to make it humerous.
Then Lou Dobbs interviewd Randy Rhodes, Mark Simone, & Doug MacIntyre. It was a wonderful fast paced, humerous, HONEST, NATURAL conmunication among intelligent human beings.
PQ

wv, speaking of "manliness" thought you would get a kick out of this article --so funny and probably true

http://susiemadrak.com/2006/03/20/07/01/you-mean-they-really-are-whiny-ass-tit-babies/

Apologies if anyone has already posted it and I overlooked.

Oops! That link should be

http://susiemandrak.com/2006/03/20/07/01/you-mean-they-really-are-whiny-ass-titty-babies/

Sorry about that. My earlier (incorrect) link read "tit" instead of "titty".

Not to worry Goldensilence, I caught it and left one of the copies of your excellent and lovely post. And Beverly, it's not just you I too see the pallor and know several others who see it as well. Yes Abilene, they do have 12th house planets and that could indicate retention in a hospital or prison, but not everyone with 12th house planets will be confined in their lifetime, still it crossed my mind when I saw the Sun and Saturn in the 12 in his chart.

Hi Sharon,what Bush said was "he never said Saddam was responsible for 9/11" he also said he "was very careful not to do so." What he did say in the run up to the war, in everyway possible (he and Cheney) was Iraq had something to do with the terrorists. They could not have been more clear in trying to make sure the American people made the connection. I had several arguments with people over that before the war, I insisted they were parsing words and Iraq had nothing to do with it, but people believed "the President" said he did.

Therefore, Sally, some, hopefull many will remember that they heard or read that he made an association between Iraq/Saddam (to many that is the same thing) and 911, and they just might realize what a liar/manipulator he is (or at least be confused about this).

About the pastiness, I call it the white bread look - (and Joanna O calls it the pinkboyz malebot white supremist look, or something like that) - commonly found in people who eat a lot of bleached flour, white sugar, meat, and drink homogenized milk, alcohol and soda...people who are probably nutritionally starved and also constipated. Their hunting, golf and beach tans only disguise it superficially. They are probably also indoors much more than outdoors plotting and scheming. It's especially prevalent though in winter in D.C.!

Hi.

It has been a long while since I've posted anything. Have stopped by a few times to read what is going on, but have been doing other things.

I have a project I've been working on lately, and I'd like to share the beginning with you all.

Rather than take up any more space here, go to:

http://www.geocities.com/abakan1/winkingfrog.html

and click on the latest entry for March 21.

Sending best wishes.

OG

Someone mentioned Schwarzenegger. His enthronement was connected to Enron. Enron and the repugs got hold of California and almost bankrupted several municipalities through the "free market" trading and used that mess to get rid of Davis who was no friend of the common folk but at least was not part of the fascist cabal that has been building and planning for decades now. Schwarzenegger is afraid of losing now and is trying to act nice but he is part of this.
I still don't think that these folks are stupid bumbling idiots. I think they are very deeply vicious, and evil. I know that we are supposed to stop with the Nazi analogy already but look at what they have been able to do with the Christian fundalmentalists, the voting machines, the war,Bush even copped to perpetual war today when he said that getting out of Iraq would be the job of future presidents, this administration has allowed for the total devastation of New Orleans. I wish that they were bumbling fools. I fear that they are letting facts hang out because they have worse surprises in store. I hope I am wrong just depressed in this long second Saturn return (my natal Saturn 4 Leo 07) but I am sickened by all that has transpired and this is only the beginning of the second term
This site is the most exciting and informative site. I am delighted and amazed by the level of conversation here. Sally your essay inspires and helps me to keep on with the activitiies and plans that I know are creative and loving just the approach to take when facing dark forboding.

As to The Liar in Chief's denial about linking Iraq and Al'Quaida...

BUSH: "First, just if I might correct a misperception, I don't think we ever said -- at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein."

That is false. In fact, almost exactly three years ago he did just that:

"The use of armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." [President George W. Bush, Letter to Congress, 3/21/03]

And that is just one time...there are many, many other quotes on tapes.

I am so weary of this inept gang of mafioso thugs. Thank you WV for all those wonderful words to help me traverse through this Saturn Return and Opposition to my Sun time for me.

The good news: I found some water purification pellets right where Sally told me to look. Now I'm going to get a barrel to trap the rain water. Only question...how many pollutants in the water can never be eliminated. Who would know? Perhaps my garden center.

And thank you all. Sally, AWers...

Friggin cold here in NJ.

Your project is wonderful, Old Granny, and the excerpt from Seth is so eloquent and true. When I married my husband 4 years ago, we put a quote on our invitations about the interdependence of all things - I will find it and type it here as you will all love it. Most human beings really are not worthy, because of the way we treat other life, even in regard to killing the insects that do nothing to hurt us (of course, there are some that do hurt us by carrying disease or biting us,etc.). I think that people do tend to think that we will destroy the earth, not realizing that it is ourselves we will destroy while the earth and its species go on without us. The lyric you quote from Sting has a particularly beautiful melody that goes along with it, probably one of the more beautiful pieces of modern music.

Old Granny,

How wonderful to hear from you... your eyes? they are much improved?

Sharon so eloquently spoke of your work, I can add nothing... save I am very happy for you and for us... have marked the links... namaste

hello to you dear Sharon... please post your piece, I look forward to seeing it... I knew you and your husband were recently married... had no idea you are such newly weds :-) namaste

Hi Jo (I recognize you even without your name).
Good to have you around here again.

Actually my husband and I have some problems. He had and has some growing up to do, as do I. But he avoids taking care of things on a consistent basis, prefering to put what he wants to do first, and he doesn't always know how that relationships means relating - often going from work to tv to sleep, etc. I get tired of asking him to "pay attention" and, lately, with Mars opposing all of my Pisces planets, angry & bitchy (he has Uranus at 22 Gemini, squaring my Mars/Venus and, although Mars isn't there yet, it will be soon).

Sorry to dump my problems here on your guys but if anyone has any advice, I'd be grateful. I suppose the best advise is patience and love, but I wonder if he will ever meet me as the full partner I want to be with. It's not easy, but I don't want to give up on us, unless one day I see that I have to. (He's just about to go through his 2nd Saturn return, with his Saturn at 18 Leo, Mars at 16, and Pluto at 12, and my mercury and moon will be involved, at 18 Leo and 17 Aquarius. Also, I have venus at about 24 Pisces and Uranus is approaching. What might help us is that his moon-Chiron conjunction are at 25 Scorpio trine my Mars/Venus, and t. Jupiter is moving toward his moon)

Namaste,
Sharon

Morgana posted this site and it's really interesting.

http://www.fecinfo.com/cgi-win/x_PrivateSummary.exe?DoFn=

check out Evan Bayh's trips.
Every time he opens his mouth I think he's a republican.

If you look at his "gift" trips, about 1/2 of them are to DLC meetings. ! And some to American Enterprise Institute (founded by the Cheneys you know).

Biden, not one DLC meeting nor Wexler either.

Haven't had time to go thru them all....but those trips do tell you a lot.

Woodward had a lot of private time with Bush in interviews and apparently they "bonded". It's possible that it was Bush himself who leaked Plame to Woodward -

Now two questions:

exactly what is a "Bourse" . Is it a stock exchange for oil?

and who and what the hell is the "Aspen Institute "funding most of these trips?

Yes that was me... am at my daughter's and my name wasn't in the slot...

thanks for recognizing me Sharon! I guess we all have our 'voice'... sorry to hear you're having troubles... I have no advice, but will take a look in the morning at the transits you mentioned. others with more expertise may have something to offer... namaste

In what is a not-too-subtle dig at Bush's subpoena of their search records,
Google is making their own nasty dig at 'W' before the gag orders go into
effect.

I don't know how long it will work, but go to http://www.Google.com not
the advanced search) and type in the search word: asshole(pardon my language, AW'ers)

Then hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button on the right below the Search. The result is, well, more perfect than you could expect.

Ya gotta admire Google's nerve.
But hurry up. Do it right now. Then pass it on!

((((Sharon)))) What comes to mind is all the trauma you both have just been through from Katrina. Hang in there and take care of yourself.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/21/1418243

Fmr. GOP Strategist Kevin Phillips on American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century -- transcript

.................

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12426.htm

The March Of Folly, That Has Led To A Bloodbath
The Iraq War: Three Years On

By Robert Fisk

.................

http://donkeyod.blogspot.com/2006/03/tell-it-russ.html#links

Tell it Russ!!

..................

http://salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/22/peakoil/

The oil is going, the oil is going!

Today's Paul Reveres of "peak oil" aren't waiting for Washington to save us from apocalypse. They're already planting gardens and drafting city plans for the days when oil is gone.

.............

http://donkeyod.blogspot.com/2006/02/effectiveness-thing-by-paul-krugman.html

Fly Into a Building? Who Could Imagine? By MAUREEN DOWD

.............

http://donkeyod.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-grip-on-reality-by-tom-friedman.html#links

A New Grip on 'Reality' by Tom Friedman

.............

Ooops the Dowd link should be

http://donkeyod.blogspot.com/2006/03/fly-into-building-who-could-imagine-by.html#links

Pat C,
There doesn't seem to be a day sponsor for the peak oil article at Salon.
When your link didn't work, I went to my bookmarked Salon site/ no go!
That is the direction of our life style up here!
My friend has a buggy, & can get a pony if needed. Others use draft hourse & wagons to work their farms now! ( friend says ponies eat less & are easier to care for!) We're not that far removed form 19th century life up here! One house I looked at 15 years ago didn't yet have indoor plumbing!
OG love yoiur website!.........Gtfreat contributions all!
PQ

Something interesting happening here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/water/story/0,,1736511,00.html

Profit-takers vs the Impoverished. Perhaps this is the start of a new trend, which will snowball as humanity recognizes ownership by a few of the earth's resources is cruel and unnatural.

Pat, check your mail.

Shy, that's a very interesting article indeed!

Hi Pallas
The word "Bourse" is the French word (widely used also throughout Europe among non-native speakers of English when using the language) for "stock exchange", though not for any particular type of exchange trading specific types of precious metals, commodities, or financial instruments such as company shares or bonds.

...So you would have to specifically refer to an "oil bourse" or "commodity futures bourse", "gold bourse", etc., but chances are if someone simply refers to a country's 'Bourse', he/she would mean it's own national equivalent of our NYSE (or broadly put "Wall Street").

Beverly, Re. Woodward saying he thinks Cheney will be nominated 2008 rethug candidate ... just goes to show you that they truly have those voting machines locked up (as in "hacked"). Even rethugs don't like Cheney. His approval rating is in the toilet (which is where he belongs too!). We can look forward to another stolen election unless Diebold and ES&S are put out of business and the sourcecode is transparent and unhackable.

AAarrrrhhhhh!

Sweet Jesus!

Bump: China Tops Iraq, Osama in QDR
I'm bumping this post from ten days ago back to the top, because of the impending QDR roll-out [UPDATE 12:33 PM: It's online now]. According to today's Washington Post:

The United States is engaged in what could be a generational conflict akin to the Cold War, the kind of struggle that might last decades as allies work to root out terrorists across the globe and battle extremists who want to rule the world, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.

The strategic vision outlined in the QDR has won high marks from defense analysts for diagnosing the problems the U.S. military will likely face. However, it is less successful in translating those concepts into concrete military capabilities, the analysts say...

The strategy does call for devoting resources to accelerate a long-range strike capability directed at hostile nations, and for new investments aimed at countering biological and nuclear weapons -- such as teams able to defuse a nuclear bomb. But it makes relatively minor adjustments in key weapons systems, with the biggest programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter and the Army's Future Combat Systems escaping virtually unscathed. This leaves less room for investments in innovative programs and forces to address the types of problems that the QDR identifies, analysts say.

For months, now, word has been leaking out about the Pentagon's every-four-years master plan, the Quadrennial Defense Review.

Finally, we’re starting to see some excerpts from the big document itself, thanks to Inside Defense. My quick, subject-to-instant-revision first impression: Rumsfeld & Co. are focusing more on China than they are on Osama.

Very roughly speaking, there are two factions jockeying for control in the Pentagon. One thinks that the U.S. military is going to spend a big chunk of the next twenty years hunting down terrorists and stabilizing screwed-up states. The other believes that China has to be smacked down, before it bulks up to superpower status.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002110.html

Don't you think they are playing both sides on China? Astounding after they have been doing the big giveaways for so many years now.

............

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/22/a_time_for_heresy.php

A Time for Heresy -- Bill Moyers

Garry, thanks for the google tip! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Loved it!

GALLUP POLLING DROPS CNN AFTER 'LOW RATINGS'; FULL MEMO REVEALED
Tue Mar 21 2006 19:01:37 ET

The GALLUP polling company has dropped CNN as its outlet for electronic distribution.

GALLUP, CNN and USA TODAY have been polling partners since 1992.

"CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past, and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted," GALLUP claimed in an internal memo, obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

CNN tells TVNEWSER.COM, which first reported the split: "We want to make it clear that the decision to not renew our polling arrangement had to do with GALLUP's desire to produce their own broadcasts and not about CNN viewership figures. In fact, GALLUP had negotiated with us for four months in an effort to extend the partnership."

**EXCLUSIVE**The full memo, by Jim Clifton, Chairman & CEO of GALLUP:

We have chosen "not" to renew our contract with CNN.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2cnn.htm

Hey Marta, glad you liked it! GO GOOGLE!!!

Now here's a new site about the creepy cat-killer that I discovered on my 'spirtual' hometown(Memphis TN)'s Knight Ridder online edition, check it out, it's run by Dems:

http://www.veryfancyfrist.com/

Informative if nothing else!!!

Good reminder from Palast, via Rense.com:

http://www.rense.com/general70/pp.htm

okay, I haven't shared any grandchildren stories lately... promise this is only one for today, maybe the week...

Youngest grand and I were talking last night... bedtime chatter. "Grandma, if you could have any power in the world, what would it be?" Well, I think I would like to be able to fly, and you... well, he said "I would like power over matter... so that I could zap Bush and his buddies into statues, and sell them on e-bay."

He will be ten next week... but he has known forever that BushCO is a gang of pirates.

Sorry... didn't check the name slot! that post about grand was mine!

dKOS

Oglala Sioux Stand up to SD abortion Law

by Sunfell

Wed Mar 22, 2006 at 09:12:26 AM PDT

Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe at Pine Ridge, SD, says that she is going to stand up to Gov. Rounds' ban of all abortion in the state of South Dakota.

According to an Native American Times article by Tim Giago, Ms. Fire Thunder was "incensed...that a body made up of mostly white males would make such a stupid law against women."

"To me, it is now a question of sovereignty," she said to [Tim] last week. "I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."

This is worth keeping an eye upon. Hats off to a courageous leader- Ms. Fire Thunder. Here's more info about her.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/22/111226/795

Cecilia Fire Thunder... go get 'em gal!

The women are going to have to stand up to BushCO.

Send Mz Cecilia some light and love!

Here's this from DU:

Oglala Sioux Tribe
Box H
Pine Ridge, South Dakota 57770
(605) 867-5821
Fax: (605) 867-1373

Make sure to put Ms. Fire Thunder's name on it.

That's all from DU

Poll: What to do about the revolving door (in this case, senate staffers to gubmint)?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Opportunity to vote is on the front page with the picture of nuclear power plants. Shudder.

I left Cecilia a voice message. I'm so proud of her!!

It wouldn't be a pretty picture if all those white men try to enforce their stupid law on the people of Pine Ridge. That's the land of Wounded Knee, and it is remembered.

I hope she joins in with all the other women in an even bigger statement to this lunacy, but even if she doesn't she has spoken quite loudly already.

From the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept:

Newt Gingrich to write a book for INTEGRITY HOUSE.....lol link here:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6317626.html

Thank you GoldenSilence for you excellent explanation about "seeing." I meant to ask you to explain but was not very direct about it not knowing how to form the question I guess. It could very possibly be a matter of not being aware that I see more than most folks having pretty good eyes. Strange that I used to wear glasses as a teen and young adult. My eyes have gotten better over the years!

Marta,

You are absolutely correct about the voting machines and every time I make a supposition about how I would like voting to go in 2006/08 it always nags at the back of my mine that nothing is going to turn around until we have a tamper free system with a paper trail.

But Woodward's statement is so BOLD because it flies in the face of the public sentiment and totally out of context concerning current political museings for 2008. It is Bush who is doing the encouraging of Cheney and we all know he doesn't live in the same reality as the common man.

Hi Jo,
Did you happen to listen to "This American Life" last Saturday? The subject was superheros and the question of which is best:

being invisible or being able to fly.

The segment about the lady undercover agent being turned down by the C.I.A. with out reason was very interesting. She is truly a superhero with an extensive list of mastered skills such as martial arts, stunts, metaphysics...and on and on with several academic degrees thrown in. Incomprehensible to me that one person could master all that she has. It's an amazing interview and being turned down by the C.I.A. really through her for a loop.

I'm not sure if you can listen free or if you have to by the program for a small fee.
http://www.thisamericanlife.com
"Superheros"

Great post, Pat C! I was trying to alert about the poll but got so excited about Ms. Fire Thunder that I got my example wrong (revolving door from gubmint to industry). I just sent a very modest (wish to heck I could do more) contribution to Ms. Fire Thunder for use in health care, and thanked her for her wisdom and bravery. Wow!

Garry, Palast is saying the same thing Kevin Phillips is saying.....that it was all about oil.

A Randi Rhodes quote "How come you got our oil under your sand?"

....and she won the election over Russell Means.... (-: (-: (-: (-:

Water Wars: Argentina
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/article_1149311.php/Argentina_fires_drinking_water_supplier

Did any of you know that this war is now "legal?"
There is a NZer who was serving in the British Army and refused to go back to Iraq on the grounds that the war was illegal. They are now court martialing him.
In a pretrial hearing, an english judge just ruled that because the United Nations in 2005 authorized the presence of troups in Iraq, the war IS legal and therefore his trial can proceed.
I can only assume Bolton must have engineered this as a CYA move for the cabal.

Kiwijeanie,
I had not heard of the war being made legal until you mentioned it. So much is going on I can't keep up with even the minimum.
It seems so strange that you should report about the New Zeeland soldier since experts here in America are looking for ways to offer amnesty for the thousands of soldiers who are AWOL from the American Military.
See "Talk of The Nation" for today, 3-22-06 if you want to listen free to the hour program with the experts about this subject.

Frankly, I was amazed to hear that there are thousands. I thought a handful at the most.
http://www.npr.org
~~~~~~~~
I am anxious to find out how DeLay fared in court today. At 4:26 p.m. here, nothing in the news as yet. Ronnie Earl want to re-instate some of the dropped charges. Both sides are in Texas court today presenting their sides.

I really shouldn't say "that amnesty wants to be offered" but rather that legal analysis is being conducted to see if it is a possibility.

Beverly, seems like it is not good news. I did not read the whole article but the "statesman" article headline says case dismissed. Unfortunately this page link requires registration, but I circumvented by accessing though google.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/22delay.html

Thanks Kiwi,

They wanted a registration when I clicked on your link. I will be able to find it somewhere tomorrow without a lot of hassle.

I really didn't think anything would come of it since the charges being discussed today were not applicable under the Texas law at the time they were committed. I have to admire Earl's perserverance though.

Russ will be appearing on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" tonight. The show will be on at 10:00 pm Central (11:00 Eastern) and rebroadcast two hours later, as well as tomorrow at 7:00 pm Central. Hope you can tune in to see Russ!

Poll now:

Do you believe that the media is to blame for the rising public opposition to the war in Iraq, as members of the Bush administration claim?

www.loudobbs.com

High Levels Of Radioactive
Material Found In Groundwater

3-22-6

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- High levels of a radioactive material - nearly three times the amount permitted in drinking water - were found in groundwater near the Hudson River beneath a nuclear plant, the owner said Tuesday.

The groundwater does not intersect drinking supplies, and although the strontium-90 is believed to have reached the Hudson it would be safely diluted in the river, said Jim Steets, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast.

The strontium - which in high doses can cause cancer - was found in a well dug in a search for the source of a leak of radioactive water at the Indian Point complex, about 30 miles north of New York City.

The test well is among nine dug in an attempt to pinpoint the leak. Contaminated water was first found in August.

Entergy's finding matched tests by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the same sample, Steets said.

The sample also yielded tritium, another potential carcinogen, at levels well above the drinking water standard. High levels had been found earlier in another test well. The nuclear commission announced Monday that it would investigate releases of tritium at Indian Point and other plants.

Neil Sheehan, a commission spokesman, said the agency still believes the radioactivity - given that it is not in drinking water - is well below the level that would "pose a risk to public health and safety."

Smirky does Monty Python or Monty Python does Smirky. Whichever way it goes, this is a pretty wry series of posts:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x729909

http://news.aol.com/dailypulse/032206?id=20060322102309990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

How would you rate Bush now?

How will history judge Bush?

More news from this part of the world.
Headline: "Another DHB is railing against the Government's bird flu recommendations." It seems the health boards from various districts (DHB's) are using common sense and wising up to the global 'buy Tamiflu' mantra that our government got suckered into.

Nice video (13 mins). Do view it if you have the time:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-29385328971143264&q=al+gore

More electronic voting woes, this time in Chicago....

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002587.htm

in addition to more fallout from Texas' recent vote...
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002592.htm

Pat C -- I took that AOL poll earlier and just checked back out of curiosity.... with over 300,000 people voting (and still counting)I thought the results quite interesting. Since I don't think AOL to be either left or right I would think these results must be of interest -- athough I'm not an expert in poll taking.

How would you rate Bush's presidency now?
Very unfavorably 67%
Very favorably 18%
Somewhat favorably 9%
Somewhat unfavorably 5%
Total Votes: 306,248

How will history judge Bush's presidency?

Very unfavorably 62%
Very favorably 19%
Somewhat unfavorably 10%
Somewhat favorably 9%
Total Votes: 303,951

Not surprisingly, it shows that Bush literally failed every single other poll question asked after these two questions.

The final poll question as to how history would judge Bush (although very few people bothered to do this one) shows a comparison of Bush with various other prior presidents indicates that history would judge him unfavorably -- even Nixon beat him in this poll. (His father beat him too by a huge margin -- ouch.. that has to hurt!)

http://news.aol.com/dailypulse/032206?id=20060322102309990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

Steve Judd:

21 March - I’m back, Mercury is still retrograde, so anything I say will be wrong, but sod it, I can’t keep quiet any more. I loved Blair at first; he did wonders for the health service, the schools and the police numbers. Then he lied about WoMD, and continues to lie to this day. I thought the Neptune/Jupiter/Mars aspect in Jan would see him off, and when it didn’t I predicted the Saturn/Neptune aspect imminent in Aug/Sept would. But I can’t wait. He sickens me with his love of murder and war. What America does with [rez-rot] is up to the American people, but here in the UK, Blair’s closest allies are preparing exit strategies. His cronies – Straw, Prescott, Brown et al – are enmeshed in his web of lies, so who will uphold the decency and integrity which the UK used to stand for? Come on your Majesty, you can kick him out, he’s betrayed the British people, slam him in the tower for treason. Where are the calls for impeachment from within his own party, or are they all that scared of him? Blair, you are a liar, a hypocrite and a disgrace to the British people. You have the blood of tens of thousands of innocents on your hands. Just GO.

22 March - Less than four days until the end of the Mercury retrograde, and then I think things will really start happening quite fast. As Mercury stands still it conjuncts Uranus for a week, which I think will bring a sudden surge of events and actions into people’s lives from this Sun onwards. The temptation now is to get irritated, frustrated and act impulsively. But do that and you become the puppet as opposed to the puppeteer. Now you can visualise, dream, decide and plan even, but not act. Zip the lip, grin and bear it, there’s novelty and excitement being dangled as the carrot next week for those of us who can contain ourselves.

23 March - Sorry to keep harping on about it, but this Mercury retrograde is a real stinker. It’s particularly hitting the generation born in 1964 and 65, but everywhere I’m seeing a lot of people with their backs against the wall one way or another. There does seem to be a lot of people around with either the flu or colds, which perhaps fits the idea of having Mercury in Neptune ruled Pisces. I think that the current sense of frustration and impotence is going to burst, bubble like, on Sun and Mon, leaving a new energy in its place, an energy based on wiser use of time. Prepare for more efficiency and effectiveness come next week. Makes me sound like someone from N Korea, doesn’t it? But don’t rush – you won’t be doing yourself any favours.

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apocalyptic president
Even some Republicans are now horrified by the influence Bush has given to the evangelical right

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday March 23, 2006

Guardian

In his latest PR offensive President Bush came to Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday to answer the paramount question on Iraq that he said was on people's minds: "They wonder what I see that they don't." After mentioning "terror" 54 times and "victory" five, dismissing "civil war" twice and asserting that he is "optimistic", he called on a citizen in the audience, who homed in on the invisible meaning of recent events in the light of two books, American Theocracy, by Kevin Phillips, and the book of Revelation. Phillips, the questioner explained, "makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this? And if not, why not?"
Bush's immediate response, as transcribed by CNN, was: "Hmmm." Then he said: "The answer is I haven't really thought of it that way. Here's how I think of it. First, I've heard of that, by the way." The official White House website transcript drops the strategic comma, and so changes the meaning to: "First I've heard of that, by the way."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329440592-103677,00.html

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rancid relationship
Britain's close alliance with the United States has become nothing but one-way traffic

Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday March 23, 2006

Guardian

A senior British military commander in the invasion of Iraq said the other day that Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, should be tried for war crimes. He was speaking in private and, I assume, did not mean to be taken literally. But there was no mistaking the anger in his voice.
It reflected a deep fury at the decision to disband the Iraqi army after the invasion, a decision that was the formal responsibility of the US proconsul Paul Bremer, but, according to British officials, was actually taken by Rumsfeld - and is now regretted even by the neocon warriors in Washington. It also contradicted orders given by British military chiefs to their commanders in the field.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329440593-103677,00.html

Norman Kember freed
· Multinational forces storm house
· Kember in reasonable condition
· Straw 'delighted with happy ending'

James Sturcke and agencies
Thursday March 23, 2006

Guardian Unlimited

Norman Kember, the British peace worker kidnapped in Iraq last November, has been freed, the Foreign Office confirmed today.
Mr Kember, 74, and two Canadian colleagues, Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and James Loney, 41, were rescued by a special forces unit which stormed the house where they were being held.

The Christian Peacemaker Team workers and an American, Tom Fox, whose body was found last month, were kidnapped by a previously unknown organisation called the Swords of Righteousness Brigades on November 26.

The multi-national operation to free the hostages, involving British, Iraqi and other coalition forces, is thought to have taken place north of Baghdad.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said Mr Kember, a retired professor and former medical physicist from Pinner, north London, was in "a reasonable condition" in Baghdad's Green Zone.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329440942-103550,00.html

Idol of hard-right tipped as Israeli kingmaker

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 23 March 2006

It is worth visiting one of the more bizarre recreational haunts of Jerusalem if you want to hear the authentic tones of the diehard, Soviet-born, supporters of Avigdor Lieberman. It is important to do so because Mr Lieberman, a far-right settler born in Moldova, could be the surprise of the Israeli election on Tuesday. Polls show he could be a coalition kingmaker with around 10 seats in the Knesset.

To the scores of hard-up migrants queuing for their complimentary thermal massage at the premises of the Ceragem firm, close to Mahane Yehuda market, Mr Lieberman is political idol. As leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party (or "Israel Our Home"), he wants Israel's border with the northern West Bank redrawn. That would mean nearly half a million Israeli Arabs losing their citizenship, putting them on the other, Palestinian side, of the separation barrier. He wants remaining Arab citizens to pledge loyalty to Zionism or lose the right to vote. This week, he said that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan for partial withdrawal from the West Bank would "perpetuate Hamas rule for the next century" and cause "ultimately, the end of the state of Israel".

Because of his policies, not to mention opposition charges of past association with criminal elements, his success has appalled liberal commentators. In yesterday's Haaretz newspaper, Uzi Benziman described his world view as "fascist".

But, queuing for her massage at Ceragem's, Anya would disagree. Speaking for many of the electorally crucial 900,000 Russian-speaking voters from the former Soviet Union, she said: "Lieberman's is the only Russian party. He is engaged in our problems and, for better or worse, he raises the important questions."

For Anya, who declined to give her surname but who has lived here with her family since arriving from Belarus from 1991, these questions include better social security for elderly, and often poor, recent immigrants. Did she want Mr Lieberman, a former transport minister, to be in the cabinet? "Of course, that's why I'm voting for him."

Eduard Zubkov, 67, from Ukraine, said he liked Mr Lieberman's "toughness", contrasting it to the present government's willingness - temporarily - to reopen the Karni cargo crossing in the face of a mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza. "They opened it without anything changing. That's not tough."

And what about the armoured raid on the Jericho jail last week? "Yes. I approve of that. But one action is not a policy."

Having grown up in the city of Kharkov during the Second World War, Mr Zhukov added: "When I came here, I saw there was a war. And I know very well that, if your enemy attacks you, he should be destroyed."

Mr Zubkov then asked: "Can you imagine if Stalin had been in charge? He was a very tough ruler." Stalin, he said, "may have been a sadist who liked killing people," but he "did many things correctly," like wiping out illiteracy in the Soviet Union. "No democracy could have done that at that time. The problem with democracy is that it always gives power to mediocrity."

Yuri Bregman, 63, said he was torn between the two rival stars of the right. "I think Lieberman supports the wishes of the Russian-speaking people but I also know [Benjamin] Netanyahu is a very good economist," he said.

But, while he recognised that deep Israeli-Arab opposition to being reassigned to a Palestinian state made the problem "complex", he thought that it was a "very great" plan.

For Mikhail Pierich, 67, a party worker at the local Yisrael Beiteinu HQ, Mr Lieberman appeals: "First, because I want my children and grandchildren to be real Israelis and not to have an inferiority complex for being Russian; secondly, for his ideology; and thirdly, because I trust him. Whatever he says, he does."

Part of what disturbs Mr Lieberman's opponents, however, is the dance in which he has so far rejected overtures to join a right-wing "blocking majority" that could stop Mr Olmert taking office. He could be angling for a cabinet seat. "Instead of saying nyet to Mr Lieberman," Uzi Benziman wrote, "the heads of most parties are courting him."

It is worth visiting one of the more bizarre recreational haunts of Jerusalem if you want to hear the authentic tones of the diehard, Soviet-born, supporters of Avigdor Lieberman. It is important to do so because Mr Lieberman, a far-right settler born in Moldova, could be the surprise of the Israeli election on Tuesday. Polls show he could be a coalition kingmaker with around 10 seats in the Knesset.

To the scores of hard-up migrants queuing for their complimentary thermal massage at the premises of the Ceragem firm, close to Mahane Yehuda market, Mr Lieberman is political idol. As leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party (or "Israel Our Home"), he wants Israel's border with the northern West Bank redrawn. That would mean nearly half a million Israeli Arabs losing their citizenship, putting them on the other, Palestinian side, of the separation barrier. He wants remaining Arab citizens to pledge loyalty to Zionism or lose the right to vote. This week, he said that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan for partial withdrawal from the West Bank would "perpetuate Hamas rule for the next century" and cause "ultimately, the end of the state of Israel".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article353016.ece

Kathleen, I've long thought that Bush's numbers were much lower than advertised. He wasn't elected by the voters in either term and he doesn't represent the majority of the American people or their best interest. It stands to reason his poll numbers could never have been high. I met more people who looked at leaving the country under Bush terms than at any other time. As a matter of fact, I can't recall ever hearing the kind of fear, anger, and disappointment that I've heard since Bush took Office.

http://tinyurl.com/zb63u --NYTimes

March 23, 2006

Roberts Dissent Reveals Strain Beneath Court's Placid Surface

snip

Justice Souter, usually mild-mannered to a fault, said in Footnote 4 that "in the dissent's view, the centuries of special protection for the privacy of the home are over." By invoking a "false equation" between inviting the police into the home and reporting a secret, he said, the chief justice "suggests a deliberate intent to devalue the importance of the privacy of a dwelling place."

Chief Justice Roberts responded in turn. The majority had mischaracterized his position on privacy and "seems a bit overwrought," he said in a footnote.

In a concluding paragraph of his dissent, he said: "The majority reminds us, in high tones, that a man's home is his castle, but even under the majority's rule, it is not his castle if he happens to be absent, asleep in the keep or otherwise engaged when the constable arrives at the gate. Then it is his co-owner's castle."

Justice Souter also attacked as a "red herring" a warning by Chief Justice Roberts that the rule the court was adopting would hamper the ability of the police to protect victims of domestic violence.

Justice Souter said the law was clear on the right of the police, despite any objection, to enter a home to protect a crime victim. But that issue "has nothing to do with the question in this case," he said.

The discussion by Chief Justice Roberts of the implications for domestic violence cases might have been an effort to win, or a failed effort to hold, the vote of Justice Breyer.

When the case was argued on Nov. 8, Justice Breyer raised the issue of domestic abuse. Addressing Mr. Randolph's lawyer, Thomas C. Goldstein, he said, "I haven't seen anything on your side that wouldn't prevent many cases of domestic spousal abuse from being investigated." He added, "Quite frankly, it bothers me a lot."

More...

re AOL --- it is usually RED... I avoid the site for security reasons... Morgana or someone else may have more info ---

Morgana, Roberts' position will, I trust, make DiFi just pleased as punch. Initially, she even liked Scalito. Arrrrrrgh.

The Aftermath Of A Massacre

Have American troops been killing unarmed civilians in Iraq?

Must watch BBC Reports

This is the account of a nine year old survivor. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest then in the head, then they killed my granny.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12443.htm

===
What's Become of Americans?

By Paul Craig Roberts

If this story is true, under Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush's leadership, proud and honorable U.S. Marines have degenerated into the Waffen SS. Those of us raised on John Wayne war movies find this very hard to take.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12434.htm

===
Death Squad Democracy

By Mike Whitney

In a larger sense, the "alleged" sectarian violence is consistent with what we have seen in previous CIA-run operations in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Negroponte are alumna of those conflicts (which, according to Cheney, succeeded quite admirably) so it's probable that they would apply what they have learned about counterinsurgency to the ongoing war in Iraq. The El Salvador-experiment proved that the masses can eventually be terrorized into compliance.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12438.htm

Helen Thomas Asks President Bush Why He Went to War:

Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas asked President Bush what some analysts called the most direct questioning he's ever received on his reasons for invading Iraq.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12437.htm

===
Bush makes false claim about Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda :

Olbermann: "Who does the President think he's F'n kidding?"

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/03/20.html#a7595

Courage...on the big issues.

http://www.dixiechicks.com/

New Song: Not ready to make nice. Just turn your speakers up. Ready to go.

Nice to have you back, ladies.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/032206a.html

State after State Repudiates Bush

By Sam Parry
March 23, 2006

George W. Bush’s admission that he expects to leave the Iraq War mess behind for his successor to clean up underscores why he is facing a historic collapse in polls across the country, with tracking surveys now showing him with net negatives exceeding 20 percentage points in more than half the states.
According to SurveyUSA.com, which tracks Bush’s approval ratings in all 50 states, Bush’s support in the March readings plunged to double-digit net negative numbers even in some staunchly Republican states: -12% in South Carolina, -17% in Indiana, -18% in Virginia, and -19% in Tennessee. In Bush’s home state of Texas, public disapproval topped approval by 14 percentage points.
All told, Bush – dragged down by the Iraq War, his inept Katrina response and the exploding federal debt – has higher disapproval than approval numbers in 43 states. Bush is at -10% or worse in 37 states; -20% or worse in 26 states; -30% or worse in 13 states; and a staggering -40% or worse in six states.
The March readings show Bush with positive numbers in only seven states (and then by mostly narrow margins): Nebraska +1%, Mississippi +2%, Oklahoma +2%, Idaho +3%, Alabama +5%, Wyoming +7%, and Utah +13%.
While SurveyUSA.com’s averaging of the numbers for the 50 states fits with recent national surveys showing Bush with about 35% approval and 60% disapproval – a net negative of 25 points – the state-by-state numbers highlight the pervasiveness of Bush’s political troubles.
More....

Tom DeLay's Day in Court

The lawyers on both sides of Tom DeLay's case pled their cases yesterday at the court of appeals, and now they wait for a decision on whether a conspiracy charge that a judge dropped back in December will be reinstated. A decision is expected in a month or so, at which point we should have a trial date.

DeLay was typically sanguine about his chances, saying that prosecutor Ronnie Earle's strategy is to "drag this out past the November elections and then drop the charges like he did before." (WaPo, Houston Chronicle, USA Today)

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000163.php

http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16464/index1.html

The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll

Pat C... I LOVE the Dixie Chicks! Thanks for that site! Such energy behind the song... just the way I feel. I ain't gettin' over it either. Be very good for women to cease this very moment their co-dependent enabling of The Boyz & their predictable everlasting Cycle of Violence. Screw em!

You're so welcome Joanna. It's filled with a feeling of earned wisdom.

You're so welcome Joanna. It's filled with a feeling of earned wisdom.

Oops.

What a trip! The power is off & the computer still works!!!!
Power just went on again. We seem to be having more power outages than we used to?????????? This one encompased 3 counties. Enron clone?
PQ

What a trip! The power is off & the computer still works!!!!
Power just went on again. We seem to be having more power outages than we used to?????????? This one encompased 3 counties and lasted an hour. Enron clone? No matter what they do to my house toward energy savings, my bill keeps climbing!
PQ

Sorry for 2
PQ

One more hit on us:
Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal, which he sent to Congress on Monday. See:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11235990/site/newsweek/
His plan would let people set up private accounts starting in 2010 and would divert more than $700 billion of Social Security tax revenues to pay for them over the first seven years.

The War Lovers

By John Pilger

For me, one of the more odious characteristics of Blair, and Bush, and Clinton, and their eager or gulled journalistic court, is the enthusiasm of sedentary, effete men (and women) for bloodshed they never see, bits of body they never have to retch over, stacked morgues they will never have to visit, searching for a loved one. Their role is to enforce parallel worlds of unspoken truth and public lies. That Milosevic was a minnow compared with industrial-scale killers such as Bush and Blair belongs to the former.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12446.htm

===
It's Criminal

By Scott Ritter

The rallying cry of the Democratic Party must become impeachment. Given the magnitude of the crimes committed by the United States in Iraq under the direction and leadership of President Bush and his administration, there is simply no other recourse that can bring a halt to the madness in Iraq, and the insanity being planned in Iran and elsewhere.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12447.htm

===
Peace elusive in Iraqi city of Samarra

By Tom Lasseter
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Staff Sgt. Cortez Powell looked at the shredded jaw of a dead man whom he'd shot in the face when insurgents ambushed an American patrol in a blind of reeds. Powell's M4 assault rifle had jammed, so he'd grabbed the pump-action shotgun that he kept slung over his shoulders and pulled the trigger.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12458.htm

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the rhapsody, the bitter legacy of Israel and the left
Liberals were once happy to overlook the country's crimes, seeing only a model democratic state

Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Friday March 24, 2006

Guardian

With the bizarre, not to say unique, events in Jericho last week - surely the first case of a jailbreak intended to keep the prisoners inside - Israel has again shown an impressive indifference to outside opinion. "The whole world is against us," says an endlessly popular Israeli song, and many Israelis would add the chant of Millwall fans: "No one likes us, we don't care."
There has, indeed, been a dramatic turn in opinion. It's very hard to recall the esteem and goodwill in which Israel once basked, not least on the broad liberal left, where there is now a received view that Israel has deserved this change in affections: that Israel and Zionism are vicious now, having been virtuous once. The view may be almost universal - but is it true?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329441722-103677,00.html

Apparently, I'm on Harry Reid's mail list since I just got an email regarding his and Frist's current entanglement. Here is one small excerpt from it, which I thought was interesting (amusing, also):

"[Quoting Frist here:] That he, as leader of Senate Democrats, would not rule out impeaching President Bush over the wiretapping program.

"[Reid's response to the Frist quote above]: Quite frankly I'd probably rule it out because the only President who could possibly be worse than George Bush would be Dick Cheney."

At least the word has been used. Every litle step helps.

correction to above: 'little'

Rhode Island gets it!
http://www.thewesterlysun.com/articles/2006/03/23/news/news8.txt

And what's up with this?
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=62875

Joshua Micah Marshall is starting to weight in on it over at talkingpointsmemo.com

Poll needs y'all's hep: Is it time for Dixie Chicks to return to Lubbock radio?
http://www.kcbd.com/global/category.asp?c=4401

Could this explain everyone's frustrations??

http://www.reconnections.net/feeling_stuck.htm

"...You are not stuck. You are constrained...
"...There are unseen forces, holding you steady, as you continue to run a new kind of energy.
It is not possible for you to move forward, in EGO...........and make any progress. The constraining forces will block your movement at every turn. The power to be willful has been taken away from you. If you keep trying to access it, you'll only end up hurting yourself more. It IS possible for SPIRIT to get you through this. The same unseen forces that hold you steady can and will lift you up, out of your pits of despair. They just need to know that you won't use your power willfully...............out of ego.......rather than faithfully, from a place of trust and allowing.

Trudy

Happy Anniversary!!!!! :smile:

Great Job!!!!

You have really written very very well!!!

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