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Last update - 01:37 12/08/2006
Norway up in arms after author asserts Israel has lost right to exist
By Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondent

An article in a leading Norwegian newspaper last weekend lambasted Israel and Judaism and said Israel has lost its right to exist in its present form.

Entitled "God's chosen people," the article by author Jostein Gaarder in Aftenposten is raising a storm in Norway. Gaarder, author of the book "Sophie's World," links the Israel Defense Forces' acts in Lebanon to Jewish history and foresees the coming dismantling of the state as it exists today, with the Jews becoming refugees.

In an interview with Haaretz Gaarder said Thursday that he was misunderstood. "As John Kennedy declared in Germany 'I am a Berliner' ¬ I say now 'I am a Jew,'" he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=749493

Morgana, thank you so much for another beautiful article. What kind of transits do you see for November and the Democratic party?

What is it in Joey's chart that fosters a lack of self-awareness? Or did he just soak in the sense of entitlement from King George? His claim after he lost that a vote for Ned Lamont is a vote for terrorism sounds totally crazy--just like Bush or his oracle Rove.

Great article Morgana. Transiting Pluto trine Natal Saturn is an extremely powerful aspect, with strong forces coming from deep within and when they finally do break forth, the trine supports the acceptance of their stand.

I don't think Joe's independent run will be particularly successful as he once again stumbles when Saturn squares his Saturn and Mars prior to the elections. The aspect that percipitated his fall was the Saturn square his Mercury (ruler of his Mid-heaven) Pluto will square his mid-heaven before the election, and that will be a chapter closed.

Saturn in square, opposition or conjunction to Saturn is always a loss of identity, and insecurity about yourself (Israel is experience a Saturn return, they've certainly been experiencing a loss of identity) and Joe has the square coming up.

This article and the charts is so full of astrological karmic signatures it's hard to even track them all. The Dems Pluto is square their Sun, and their Sun conjuncts Joe's Mars as does the Dems progressed Uranus (progressed to the Dems Sun. (their Mecury conj. Joe's Uranus as well) Joe is going to try to shake up and even destroy the party as his ego becomes more and more damaged and raw by September, but it will be the Democratic Party itself that will shake it's self to the core. The dems will have to stand up just at the time they feel the most insecure, but with T-Pluto in a trine to Natal Saturn, the absolutely will have to dig deep. I think Joe will come back at them with a viciousness the Dems do not expect.

I am sure all this astrological jargon was boring for most folks, but thank you Morgana for these charts it sure shows the struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party, this is going to be a more titanic fight than I thought. Both of them, the Democrats and Liberman have the potential to kick the other to the curb for a long time to come.

Do you think the Dems are up to the challenge?

Lol, I don't think the Democratic leadership has a choice, the people, you, me and all who abhor what is going on in our name are taking on the challenge.

Speaking of Joebush along with what Sally said I think it's pretty interesting that Uranus sat on his South Node, had to pay the Piper. I agree with Sally, Joebush is doing a better job of painting himself as a Republican neophyte, then ever before. All we have to do is replay his words, oh big giant whaaah.

Teresa, the November elections Saturn will be trine Pluto 0.8 degrees when the polls open in Dixville Notch. The Sun 14 Scorpio is accompanied by Mars 9, Venus 17, and Mercury Rx 18 stuffed into the 3rd house, that mess squares Neptune, with the Sun and Mars trining Uranus Rx..Well it's going to be a humdinger and there's enough energy in the Mid-term election chart that will touch a whole lot of places. Me, I am an optimist, I'm looking for the American people to clean house.

Let me correct myself, the time I used for Dixville Notch, NH is 00:01 am :)

Nice, Ms Morgana, very nice. We're trying to clean house and we need all the help we can get--planetary and otherwise. Do please keep us updated.

Heya Shy thank you. I caught a blurp on DKOS by folks speculating why Dianne Feinstein didn't get Lieberman'd...she's in the crosshairs her opponents were invisble, I know, I looked for them. I didn't vote for her, nor anyone else for Senator, I will however hold my nose and vote for her in November unless the Green candidate can impress me.

My other thought, is what is with the political leaders that they are writing off California as going to Arnold who smoked his stokies with Kennyboy and Bush raped California's emergy bankrupting the state, lining their own pockets!

Hell no I won't vote for Arnie, that boy changed his spots just for the election. Not buying it.

I don't know, Ms Morgana, unless rich folks think they shouldn't have to pay taxes like us poorer ones do. Didja see this?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2774318

Pretty day. So sorry to send this, knowing exactly what it'll do to your blood pressure. When I called her SF office to vent my outrage (I'm learning from Pat QPPP), the young man answering the phone said he'd not had the time to research it and find out exactly what was going since on he'd received so many phone calls. He did sound a bit harried. I'm hoping more and more people will learn of this and pepper them with phone calls, emails and so forth.
At the same time, the Angelides people need to come alive. So far . . .

As long as there is no election fraud going on this time, I'm confident that the American people will help the Dems win Big in November.

But, I have no idea if the problem with the voting machines, etc. has been cleaned up. This worries me with Mercury Rx...

I don't honestly believe that the Democrats will
ever hear us. Certainly not the DLC, nor the Clintons.

Where are the leaders???

Not Dean, not Obama. Kucinich couldn't get anywere. Saw the '04 VP candidate on Matthews the
other night, and he doesn't hold up. Neither does
Kerry. The South wouldn't vote for Kennedy. I'm
sorry folks but there is not a leader amongst them.

Saw somewhere recently that a dark horse would
appear from the midwest. Well whomever he/she is
had better make an appearance soon.

The Democrats have allowed 3 elections to be stolen from them since 2000...t'will be interesting to see how they react to vote rigging
this time around, and you know it is going to happen, and they will sit on their hands again.

I have already informed both of my Senators and
Congressman, in writing, that I will not support
them again. I don't care if the Republicans are
in for another 10 years. We need a new Progressive
party. One with gonads! A party that is not afraid
of Rove, et al. One that will sue the bejesus out
of the Swift Boaters. One that is not afaid of the
Fascists. One that will take on the media and their lies. Demand the renewal of the Fairness
Doctrine. Take away radio and TV station licenses
for being one-sided. One that will call reporters
and columnists before Congress and make them back
up their charges and statements with facts.

Enough of playing possum! Stand up and Fight -
dirty if need be. Give the Republicans a taste of
their own medicine.

Loved your post, wv. I agree 100%.

Not only is Mercury retrograde but Mercury and Venus is squared by transiting Neptune, foggy voting and potential fraud. Mercury retrograde in 2000 in a square to Neptune certain created a mess no one has forgotten.

Thank you so much Morgana! You seem to use your incredible astrological knowledge in conjunction with a deep seated intuitive insight and the two morph into a wonderful and dramatic look at the real deal.

At this point it would be fun to get Vis Numar's insight on the Democratic Party's transits. He used to write on that regularly. Years ago, he felt it would be the end (death) of the Party. This was before the 2000 election (or right after). Well, I think he was right, it was the end of the Democratic party and now, hopefully, we can make a comeback. Our land, our people, our lives, all depend on it. Literally.

I have decided to be a poll worker this year and was selected to be a machine manager, so I get to set up machines the day before the election and see the process work and protect it from the election beginning to getting the cartridges to their rightful place and then after that I have no power what happens.

Yaaaaaaay, Laurie! Good show!

Laurie, wouldn't suprise me to see the death of the current image of the Democratic Party, it could stand to lose some of the neo-conservative elementes that have slithered in over the years.

Speaking of political unrest...check it out.

Protesters condemn U.S. and Israeli policies

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/12/mideast.protest.ap/index.html

There are predictions of new days dawning, and yet the Nov 2006 elections seem to be all fogged over. Could this have something to do with it (and forgive me, Garry, for I am trespassing on your territory here):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1898291

Leiberman's chart has Sun Conjunct the S. Node.

Sally, didn't you say in a nation's chart, that the S. Node suggested Karma Owed...in reference to transiting Chiron being on the USA S. Node...

So what is the significance of Leiberman's S. Node Sun conjunction? It's a little wide (8 degrees),but some astrologers give the "lights" (Sun, Moon) 10 degrees.

Also, I couldn't help but notice that his natal Chiron is opposing transiting Chiron. With transiting Neptune so close to crossing his ascendent and trining his Natal Moon in Gemini, maybe he'll start singing, or hearing voices from "out there." Although I do not care for his political views, I do think he is fairly principled as a human being.... except for that Venus of his lurking near Mercury in his 12th house...

hmmm...secret phoned sex? Especially when these two 12th house planets oppose his natal Pluto, Chiron conjunction in the 6th.

I have been nervous wreck these days. I pray with all the gods of peace that this new "cease fire" agreement holds. I am particularly concerned about Lebanon holding itself together and not slipping into another civil war. We will see. Still more fighting in the south...so many people displaced. And how to break Hizbollah's hold on the civilian population of southern Lebanon when, in fact, Hizbollah grew out of the Southern Lebanese population...

If Lieberman alone can actually manage to defeat the Democratic Party, then perhaps the time has come for the Dems to go the way of the Whigs. This country is in dire need of a true Liberal Left-Wing Party that answers only to the will of the people and will stand up to vanquish the mind and spirit rot of conservatism.

The GOP/NeoCon Party relies on fear and death to rule, and will eventually itself be overrun and destroyed by these very same forces. Unfortunately, that's also the fate of the US and the world unless we can muster a new hope and vision to counter and overwhelm the darkness.

* Over the past mos, the WH has convened a series of off-the-record mtgs about its policies in the Mid East with leaders of xians United for Israel (CUFI), a newly formed pol org that tells its members that supporting Israel's expansionist policies is "a biblical imperative." CUFI's Wash lobbyist, David Brog, told me that during the mtgs, CUFI reps pressed WH officials to adopt a more confrontational posture toward Iran, refuse aid to the Palestinians & give Israel a free hand as it ramped up its military conflict with Hezbollah.

The WH instructed Brog not to reveal the names of officials he met with, Brog said. ... http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20060814&s=new_christian_zionism

But Cinda Sheehan can't get a mtg? Well... and there you go. All these creeps are coalescing into one nice neat hairball glued together with snot n' soap scum, ready to be washed down the deepest drain to the Cosmic Sewage Treatment Plant.

I don't know if anyone else has thought of it, but the more I observe Joe Lieberman, the more I think that we are going to find out that Joe was placed in the Vice President candidate position as a Republican mole. (I keep thinking Trojan Horse, but I know that's the wrong analogy.) His attacks are more than just sour grapes, and more than just a poor ego. I believe Joe is a Republican operative and has been for a long time. I can't get this one out of my mind. This may be just me talking, but so much has happened, that in "normal" times would be considered so much "tinfoil" nonsense, has turned out to be true.

Anybody have any idea what were the dynamics of Al Gore choosing Joe Lieberman as his Vice President? Who suggested Joe to Al? Who vetted him, etc. Any links to articles on this subject?

Oh, Morgana and others, massive fraud and deception is right there in those aspects in the Dixville Notch chart. Only its much more obvious this time around. Tres brazen! Points to some desperation on the part of the Republicans. What are the aspects to the Republican chart for the midterms? If the Dems don't stand up this time, it may be the death of the Democratic Party, with people breaking away and forming a party that will stand up.

Indeed, Noelle... I've often thot that too... that Gore was being stuck with lieberman, he didn't like it, & became one of the reasons why he wouldn't fight for the presidency. However, "neoconmen" aren't, it is apparent, just under the cover of necroporns. I'll bet that lieberman has some really weird sexual things going on, too... & if he fits the pattern, it'll be child-porn. For decades (at least), the criminal have used sexual aberations to control various politicians, & while homosexuality isn't an aberation imo, it was considered so by the population, & still is by some. Ergo, enter "the church" which has knowingly facilitated that nonsense. All part of the same snot n' scum-ball.

Noelle-
I think Joe was added to the Al G ticket in order to counter Al's "southern-ness" for the Big East liberal types. I think it was also a DLC suggestion. We need to stop listening to that group asap. I also agree that he was/is a rethug mole. Anyone else have similar recollections about LIEberman?

Shy, by all means step into my "territory"(LOL) and do what you will, but can you post the story? When I clicked the link it says "link missing" so maybe they removed the post. What was it about?
You know I love a good "conspiracy".....

Oh and PS all---did you read the msnbc story that called those alleged Brit airline "terra-ists" "ordinary people" who mostly didn't even have passports? Oh, and GWB knew about it as early as 8/4/06, then Snarly made a comment about Lamont's win as "encouraging Al-Qaeda types" on 8/9/06, the VOILA!, on 8/10/06, the "terra plot" is foiled? SURELY this was all just a huge coincidence....right?

Then I see on Yahoo that GWB's "approval rating" on "security" is 55%.....surely another coincidence that they'd even be ready to poll this quickly, and not part of some sick PR scheme....???

Speaking of which synchronistically...

* Sunday, August 13, 2006 | A Freudian Skip...

THE whole frantic thing lately about an airplane flying along, then exploding with a liquid bomb, has a few times this week been apparent as sexual imagery -- & the 'terror' aspect representing a vast sea of anxiety around male orgasm. I will admit this is something of a classical psychological interpretation, such as if the image appeared in a dream & Freud were sitting there (imagine him nodding), but it's pretty intuitive. It is the mass anxiety part I think is meaningful now, particularly when you consider the climate of almost mandatory repression of orgasm (which of course not everyone follows)... but there is a lot of anxiety getting mixed into male orgasm energy right now, & the constant shadow of 'man as sexual perpetrator' being cast over it)... & that this one particular image of liquid bomb + airplane exploding is the current main tool of ["govt"] being used to get our Red Alert attn... with the message that we have to STOP THIS at all costs! Arrest them! Imagine you're dreaming & Rumsfeld is saying to them, "Stop! You can't explode my airplane! Don't do it!" Further, when you add the established historical fact of the lighter colored man projecting his sexuality onto the darker colored man--he's the one, he's the dirty beast--which many (such as Wilhelm Reich) have noted was pointed onto Jews & Blacks... now these supposed Muslims with their magic explosive liquid...

Well as my Aunt Josie used to say, "How about that."

eric francis

Noelle, I had very similar thoughts regarding Lieberman at the 2000 election. I can't say I felt he was a "mole" until later, what I thought was Al Gore was forced to take him as a VP Candidate.

Beasley, the Nodes require a fairly tight aspect because they aren't a planet, they're a mathematical point that moves as the earth moves, so they need not more than 2 degrees either side to be considered aspected. He will have his nodes oppose in about a year

Well, shucks, Garry! It has disappeared, hasn't it? It referenced a very recent Alex Jones (Prison Planet, I believe) prediction that there will be some terrist strike(s) in October. Sorry it was deleted; it was interesting.

* DEAD MAN WALKING / JOE LIEBERMAN

When a politician's own self interests gets bigger than his party and constituents, he's dead ~ though not yet buried : Allen L Roland on Joseph Lieberman

After his phone call Wed with Karl Rove ~ Joe Lieberman stayed the course with the Republican twin attack line of denial of mistakes and condemn the critics.

You can now begin to see beneath this smokescreen of hubris the Republican screen play for the mid term elections ~ the mob at the gates, which will do us in, is not just the terrorists (which the Cheney/Bush adm's actions have inspired) but the radical extremists of both parties who hate America and are endangering our National Security with their dissent (esp the blogosphere ~ which includes myself).

Joe Lieberman is now on political deathwatch (a dead man walking) for his own self interests have become more important than his party and constituents and his final execution will be when the Cheney/Bush crowd find him no longer useful and cut him loose ~ just like they did with Colin Powell. ... http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__060812_dead_man_walking__2f_j.htm

Here is a reminder--well, summary, actually--of another mind-boggler: Moon and his ties to the Bushes and other pols:
http://iapprovethismessiah.com/2006/08/watch-george-hw-bush-blow-birthday.html

Who has done much astro work regarding this frighteningly influential oddity?

Joanna, Sally, Garry -- you've certainly given me food for thought.

1. No wonder the GOP is flogging homosexuality as a "threat to the nation"! It could be that arousing their base is a secondary consideration. The primary consideration MAY be a fear that if homosexuality is de-stigmatized, and homosexuals are recognized as human beings with the same rights as anyone else, there would be far less opportunity to control people with blackmail. I wonder how many puppets they're dangling on that twine?

2. Obviously, the DLC places "watchers" next to people in strategic positions who are not in on the game, and whom they know would controllable otherwise. Ergo, Joe Lieberman next to Al Gore, and Immanuel next to Howard Dean. By the way, I think Dick Morris was one of the "watchers" for Clinton. The Rethugs decided to cut him loose for some reason (maybe he was found out by the Clinton Administration) by exposing his pecadillos and getting a two-fer by embarassing Clinton at the time of the 1996 Democratic Convention.

3. Gore Vidal made a comment about why the opposition party (Democratic) was not jumping up and down about the results of the 2000 election -- "breath taking corruption." Gang, the DLC is in on it. There is one class oppressing the American people and the DLC is part of that class. As far as I'm concerned, these people are viciously anti-American. They care about nothing except money and power, but have to put on a show so that people believe there is an opposition party and suppress any members of the Democratic party who want to act like an real opposition party. The DLC does not want Democrats to win; they are in collusion with the Rethugs. They keep their power as long as the Rethugs are in power. Notice, Rethugs seldom attack DLC members. I think the original "pact" took place some time in the mid-90's.

4. Was Kerry in on it with the 2004 election? His wife certainly wasn't. I don't know whether Kerry was complicit or not. I certainly question the speed of his concession after all that BS about counting every vote, but for all I know he could just be acting like a self-centered politician. He certainly was the DLC's choice and the one the Rethugs wanted to run against.

I really think a lot of stuff is going to fall out of the bag in the next year. We're going to find out a lot.

I've worked on this guy (Moon) Shy. He was in Denver in the 70's and had a cult. He had money, and plenty of it. He started a church here, built a temple and a huge domed house. It was a cult, parents had their children kidnapped from his clutches and go through de-programming sessions. Denver finally ran him out of here and I didn't hear anything about him for over 20 years until I read an article about how powerful and politically influential he was. I was shocked because I considered, we all considered him a nut, like a Jim Jones. When he was in Denver he thought he was God and was considered dangerous that's why they ran him out.

He has a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction and Mars sextile Jupiter, giving him the potential of being a billionaire, as well as a "messianic complex" his Sun is directly opposite the US Sun in Capricorn, making him the shadow of the US, the Full Moon just fell directly across his Jupiter. He was born January 6, 1920 in Jung Ju, Korea (I don't have a time) The lunar Birthday is Feb. 25, 1920 (a Chinese system) How the Bushes got mixed up with him, I have no idea, probably money, but they are very close.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon.html

Lots of links here. His chart shows very little that would stop him from doing whatever he wants, his Moon trines his NN, promising an ability to hold sway over people. It's been said that he is very violent toward women and his Moon square Mars would support that gossip, and with the Jupiter/Neptune and his belief that he can do no wrong on top of the Moon/Mars square further empowers his attitude toward women.

I am feeling like I'm in my laughin place tonight. The US Mercury is at 24'12" Cancer, transiting Pluto is right now inconjunct at 24"13' Sagittarius (retrograde) it will Station in a couple of weeks at 24"05' and come back across (slowly) the US Mercury. I've been expecting leaks and information galore to come gushing out. Take a look at this, click on the front page story and you will get a taste of what the inside story is going to be, oh how I love it, they will need more that a finger in the dyke to keep information in over the next couple of months. This is the beginning or the continuation.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PAGEONE1

Shame on all of you folks talking about being better off without the Democrats - didn't we learn anything from Raph Nader? If you're a registered Democrat you are the party. And if Dean has taught is a leson it's that of you don't like what the party is doing you can get involved and make a difference.

As for Al Gore - he picked Joe to distance himself from Clinton. It's a good example of why he ran such a bad campain, and shouldn't be given the chance to do it again.

It's sad to see what's happening to Joe, and I hope for his sake that he doesn't travel down the road of a Zell Miller. However my biggest fear is that Conn. distracts us from the task of making sure that folks like Rick Santorum don't return to the Senate in 2007.

WARNING!!! (incoming long rant)

Great writing as always Morgana! I'm getting the strong sense from all the blogs that people are thinking "NOW or NEVER" for the Dems In Nov.

They MUST finally get smart, tough, and oppositional or be branded hopelessly wussed out irrelevant enablers of Bushlamofascism throughout eternity.

The next time Mehlman, Rove, Lieberf-wad, Cal Thomas, Darth Cheney or the like says something like "Lamont winning will make the terrorists rejoice" or the "Defeatist Dems want to cut and run and play into Osama's hands by refusing to stay the course in Iraq" Dems should uniformly respond:

"Lets face`reality once and for all. The hard truth is that it is Bush and the rubber stamp Republicans who have made America so much less safe! First they invaded Iraq against the urgent advice of just about every Middle East foreign policy expert (and even W's father's own well experienced foreign policy team)

Then, showing absolutely stunning incompetence, delusional thinking, and sheer arrogance, hubris, and stupidity, W just blithely disregarded the advice of all his military experts including Sec. of State Powell and even his own army Chief of Staff Gen. Shinseki (who was forced into retirement for telling the truth) and unbelievably sent only ONE THIRD of the number of troops the experts said were required to secure and effectively occupy the country. THEY HAD ABSOLUTELY NO POST INVASION PLAN!

They then casually sat around watching T.V. as looters destroyed and stole priceless artifacts from the Iraqi National Museum; they turned millions of formerly U.S. friendly, supportive, moderate Arabs into rabid America haters due to Abu Gharib and the hell hole of Guantanamo; they poured (so far) nearly $400 BILLION down the proverbial drain along with 2700 dead American soldiers and perhaps 100,000 dead innocent Iraqis, they SIMPLY REFUSED to pay to properly armor our Humvees or even effectively body armor our own fighting troops(!!); they have made us virtual economic hostages to the Chinese who now own nearly one trillion dollars of our govt. bonds so we that can continue to deficit spend ourselves into fiscal oblivion on things like permanent tax cuts for billionaires; Cheney's buddies from Big Oil REFUSE TO TESTIFY under oath before Congressional Committees (and get away with it!) about their record breaking wartime profits, Halliburton keeps breaking its very own record corporate profits while nearly every month being accused by some govt. agency of massive fraud, abuse, and waste; and then in light of all of this the Rethugs have the unmitigated gall to tell us we must vote for them to CONTINUE TO KEEP US SAFE??!!

If their attitude and behavior was not so tragic and destructive it would be downright farcical and funny. I mean our Military and Ntl. Guard are now so weakened and overstretched that they couldn't even protect a major iconic American city from a natural disaster for which they had WEEKS of warning, and they brag about their ability to keep us safe??!!

I'm sure Osama is now sitting happily and`laughing at us and saying "Mission Nearly Accomplished" from the safety of his cave, because of Bush's utter incompetence and his bizarre refusual to seriously go after him. The American people are now finally fed up and seeing through this charade of false Patriotism and the unconscionable smearing of REAL American Patriots brave enough to speak truth to power. In Nov. the voters will surely throw these snake oil selling Rethug Rascals out, so we can finally get serious about securing America's long term strategic geo-political, economic, military, and moral "soft power" security while there is still time. We must also of course fully restore our citizens' full Civil Liberties, privacy rights, and equal protection under the rule of law."

Lieberman was not on my radar, until the evening he stood in the Well of the Senate, and shamed Bill Clinton. It is such a powerful moment of betrayal, and he was to me, clearly a servant of the dark forces ganging up on the American people. I personally felt a terrible sense of pain and difficult change for all of us. It was a deal of long term consequence. It was a shift.

Our government is filled with way too many outrageous characters who clearly threaten our Republic. The coodinated web of deceit is huge.

Beware of their ways and means of globalization. It is not being done to benefit anyone other than the mega-rich, and is not representative government.

Just hours before the UN Resolution is to take place, Beirut was hit by at least eighteen very large explosions in a heavily populated area.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/opinion/12frank.html?hp

August 12, 2006
Guest Columnist

The Spoils of Victimhood

By THOMAS FRANK

"President Bush operates in Washington like the head of a small occupying
army of insurgents," the pundit Fred Barnes writes in his recent book,
"Rebel-in-Chief." "He's an alien in the realm of the governing class, given
a green card by voters."

Let's see: These insurgents today control all three branches of government;
they are underwritten by the biggest of businesses; they are backed by a
robust social movement with chapters across the radio dial. The insurgency
spreads before its talented young recruits all the appurtenances of power —
a view from the upper stories of the Heritage Foundation, a few years at a
conquered government agency where expertise is not an issue, then a quick
transition to K Street, to a chateau in Rehoboth and a suite at the Ritz.
For the truly rebellious, princely tribute waits to be extracted from a long
queue of defense contractors, sweatshop owners and Indian casinos eager to
remain in the good graces of the party of values.

What a splendid little enterprise American conservatism has turned out to
be.

How does this work? How does the right keep its adherents in a lather
against government bureaucrats and Washington know-it-alls when
conservatives are the only bureaucrats and know-it-alls who matter anymore?

Part of the answer is that, after their crushing defeat in the 1930's,
conservatives rebuilt their movement by adopting a purely negative stance
against liberalism. They were so completely excluded from power, they
believed, that in 1955 William F. Buckley Jr. famously depicted them
"Standing athwart history, yelling Stop." Writing in the middle of the
Reagan years, the journalist Sidney Blumenthal gaped at the persistence of
this "adversarial" mind-set long after the liberals had been routed. "Even
when conservatives are in power they refuse to adopt the psychology of an
establishment," he marveled.

Here we are, 20 years later, and to hear conservatives tell it, every
election is still a referendum on the monster liberalism, which continues to
loom like a colossus over the land. Even Tom DeLay — the erstwhile "hammer"
— becomes a martyr when addressing the faithful. "The national media has
taken my own re-election as their own personal jihad," he moaned in a speech
at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. "So we're
fighting the fight of ages."

That conservatives continue, as Rick Perlstein writes, to "soak in [their]
marginalization" four decades after the election of the last liberal
president puts this victimology beyond implausible. It is more on the order
of a foundational myth, like the divine right of kings, a fiction that
everyone involved must accept as fact.

A century ago, it was conservative stalwarts, not liberal reformers, who
were the natural party of government. And they were forthright about what
they stood for as well as what they were against: They were for rule by a
better class of people, for a Hamiltonian state in which business was
unified with government. And conservatism is still for those things, tacitly
at least. Just look at the résumés of the folks the president has appointed
to the Departments of Labor, Agriculture and the Interior. Or scan one of
the graphs that economists use to chart the distribution of wealth over the
last hundred years. The more egalitarian society we grew up in is gone,
snuffed out by the party of tradition in favor of an even rosier past that
lies on the far side of the 1930's.

These ought to be easy things to deplore. They ought to arouse precisely the
kind of simmering fury that millions of Americans feel toward lewd halftime
shows and checkout clerks who don't say "Merry Christmas." But we have
difficulty holding conservatives accountable for them, so potent is their
brand image as angry outsiders. What conservatives do, as everyone knows, is
protest government, protest modernity; to hold them responsible for
government or for modernity is to bring on cognitive dissonance.

Or, rather, it might bring on cognitive dissonance. We don't know because
puncturing conservatism's marginalization fantasy hasn't really been tried.
If liberals are ever to recover, this will have to change. Against the tired
myth of the "liberal elite" they must offer a competing and convincing
theory of how Washington works, and for whom.

Thomas Frank is the author, most recently, of "What's the Matter with
Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.'' He will be a guest
columnist during August.

Maureen Dowd is on leave. John Tierney has the day off.

Thanks very much, Cap'n Sally, for elucidating the Moon astro placements. Creepy guy. Brrrrrrrr.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/

Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests
British wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says

Hey Michael from NYC, I think it's important to note an important distinction here: I think the only REAL Dems we need to support are the non-DLC-aligned ones. Noelle's post at 6:21 above is a damn fine assessment of the DLC(and Noelle, I agree with your comments about "Dick" Morris, as nowadays, he's a frequent talking head[nee "expert"] on the Faux Noose Network).

It's precisely for the reasons I stated above (and a few others, like her still being too polemical to some) that I hope Hill loses to a "REAL" Dem. Not sure the machine will let that happen, but I want her out. And remember, this is just my opinion folks.

The Alex Jones connection:

YouTube<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAHqSfDNjaI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprisonplanet%2Ecom%2Farticles%2FAugust2006%2F110806%5Fb%5FWarning%2Ehtm">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAHqSfDNjaI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprisonplanet%2Ecom%2Farticles%2FAugust2006%2F110806%5Fb%5FWarning%2Ehtm>YouTube<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAHqSfDNjaI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprisonplanet%2Ecom%2Farticles%2FAugust2006%2F110806%5Fb%5FWarning%2Ehtm

a shorter one, same ends...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAHqSfDNjaI&mode=related&search=

Thousands protest Lebanon war outside WH

Thousands of people demonstrated outside the WH to protest Israel's US-backed military ops in Lebanon & the Palestinian territories. The protests also spread to CA, where several hundred demonstrators denouncing Israel faced off against a similar number of people supporting the Jewish state in the heart of San Francisco, according to local press reports. ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060813/ts_alt_afp/mideastconflictus_060813003722

As a follow up to the Jones material, look at this...

Voice of the White House August 10, 2006
TBR News.org – August 10, 2006

“Here, as promised, is an interesting conversation that somehow accidentally got intercepted and transcribed. There are lots more where this came from!”

Transcription of telephone conversation on August 3, 2006
From

Israeli Embassy, Washington D.C. Telephone Number (202) 364-5582.

to

unidentified individual at AIPAC, Washington D.C., Telephone Number (202) 639-5201

Commenced 1821 hrs, concluded 1826 hrs.

Speaker A Reuven Azar - Counselor for Political Affairs, Embassy of Israel

Speaker B Unidentified individual located at AIPAC headquarters

A. Well, things are going as well as expected, better perhaps than expected. There is military progress there (Lebanon) and we have wonderful cooperation here.

B. For sure, but don’t forget the dangers in having too much cooperation. All right for this moment but in the long run, this can certainly backfire on us. You know, we are seen as being too much influential with the Bush people.

A. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The media is certainly not to worry about and most Americans really do not care about things there (Lebanon) The main point is that by the time the U.S. makes itself felt at the UN, we will have accomplished our goals and established the buffer we need.

B. Absolutely but…there is still the future to think about.

A. Who cares? Once we establish the buffer, the rest is just shit. It will all be hidden soon in the coming press reports of Arab ‘attacks’ on the U.S. This is for the voting in November. You know, ‘many Arab groups will for sure attack American targets.’ They (the U.S. Government) will choose so-called target areas where they need the most support. We don’t need to worry about Miami, Skokie or Beverly Hills after all. (Laughter) and this is a little crude but the public here is terribly stupid and the warning color days worked before, didn’t they?

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/print.asp?ID=4957

Blame Bush, not Bin Laden

Raffique Shah

Sunday, August 13th 2006

IF there was any surprise over last Thursday's transatlantic airline crisis it was that British security forces, working in collaboration with Pakistan's, managed to pre-empt what could have been a disaster of immense proportions. But sadly for the millions who must travel by air every day, and who have nothing to do with the root causes of a would-be mass mid-air murder, the risks have not diminished. George Bush, who has taken the world to the edge of disaster, is still around-will be for another two years-to peddle his devious non-strategies.

Conceived in the warped mind of a supremacist, Bush's bloody interventionist policy has spawned other, equally evil men and women, for whom you and I, peace-loving citizens of the world, are fair game.

Let's trace the genesis of what almost happened, or what the British authorities said was a plot to bomb 11 aircraft in mid-flight. It goes back to the symbolic 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that, five years later, has left more questions than answers. Whoever "dunnit", Bush used the attack as an excuse to launch his global war on "terrorism". I deliberately used inverted commas on the word since his first foray into one of the poorest nations on earth, Afghanistan, which was bombed into stupor before being occupied, raises serious questions as to just who are the terrorists and who are the good guys.

Because five years and thousands of lives later, the biggest, most sophisticated military machine in the world has failed to capture this one bedraggled Arab-in-a-cave. If anything, bin Laden's supporters in Afghanistan have grown stronger. Two weeks ago, when the US handed over military operations in the south to NATO forces, the latter were "greeted" with 10 dead British soldiers the following day. The Taliban is alive and kicking butt. Then there was "Eye-raq", where dumbo-Dubya went to destroy the remaining global terrorists. Instead, he has created 100 times more madmen in Iraq (as you and I know the country) than existed under Saddam Hussein. Think back: under Saddam, was Iraq ever in the kind of mess it is today?

In the meantime, stuck in the sands of Iraq, and wholly incapable of bringing any kind of stability to that once-prosperous country, Bush sought and found "terrorist nests" in "Eye-ran", Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan hell, in just about every country in which Muslims are in the majority.

Now any fool who has studied fundamentalism in religion, be it Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism or Islam knows that the one vehicle that spurs rabid fanaticism is victimisation. It was only a matter of time, therefore, before the mullahs were able to mobilise many more fanatical Muslims than we've ever had. And with Israel lending its willing, helping hand by bombing and shelling the stuffing out of the Gaza, Palestine, and now Lebanon, this disparate but focused "Mehdi army" has grown into, quite possibly, the biggest strike force in the world.

It is from these ranks emerged whoever planned and executed the serial bombings in London last year. Before Israel's occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, there was no Hezbollah. By 2000 it was able to celebrate the forced withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon. Today Hassan Nasrullah is a Mid-East hero who commands global support, even among non-Muslims. His 5,000 (maybe less) fighters have achieved what the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan failed to do in the 1967 and 1973 wars. In the eyes of Muslims, and even some military analysts, Hezbollah has already won this war.

What might have been last Thursday was a mere spin-off from this obsessive, nay, perverse pursuit of "terrorists" by Bush, who single-handedly created the biggest army of terrorists the world has ever seen. Now that air travel is a permanent risk, don't blame bin Laden, blame Bush. Worse, besides creating the threat to people's safety, he has moulded a new multi-billion-dollar industry based on fear, even hysteria. Everyone in America and Britain is frightened. They don't know what to expect, from which direction it will come. And their fears become ours, since, although we are not involved, we could well be victims in one way or other. Ten years ago most nations in the world did not need the levels of security they now do. Today, everyone is spending humongous sums on security.

Looking back at last Thursday, how easily the would-be terrorists were able to bring almost the whole world to a halt. In airports from Piarco to Penang, there was near-panic, mass confusion, and inordinate delays. Airlines, already under the financial gun, now face even leaner times. We had all but accepted airports' security personnel peeping up our apertures following 9/11. Now we shall meekly allow ourselves to be stripped of whatever human dignity remains, all because of Bush.

And you know what? The Bush-men will find other ways to strike at us, ways that no security force can conceive of, far less fight. What an unholy mess.

Bitter US-Cuban history

Basil Ince

Saturday, August 12th 2006

Cuba certainly burst into the limelight when Fidel Castro's illness was announced. The main question focused on post-Castro rule. In other words, after Castro "what?" or more appropriately, "who?" Caught off guard, the US was still able to come up with a plan leading to the democratisation of Cuba. Cubans in Florida, labelled "gusanos" (worms) by those in Cuba, celebrated what they believed to be Castro's impending demise. Cubans on the island were concerned about their leader's health and what the future held for them.

These contrasting emotions mirror the attitudes to what has transpired in Cuba since Castro came down from the Sierra Maestre in 1959. The Cold War between the West, led by the United States, and the East, led by the Soviet Union, was already in full swing. In fact, fissures had begun to appear between the main protagonists as the Second World War came to an end. But the Cold War really did not hit the Caribbean region until Castro declared that he was communist. From then, things went downhill between the US and Cuba.

It was the ideological divide that sent US-Cuban relations on the downward spiral. The US was not overly perturbed when Cuba shot 74 war criminals via revolutionary justice. Nor was there any concern because Castro was a dictator. After all, the United States had been accustomed to working with dictators during that period - Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Perez Jimenez in Venezuela, and Manuel Odria in Peru. All these leaders, right-wing dictators, had suppressed the masses.

Castro, however, was a different kettle of fish. He was a dictator of the left who believed in a centralised economy and was opposed to market economics. To free marketers, his thinking was the most dangerous of the species.

In the 1950s, there was smouldering resentment by Latin American states towards the US. It was Richard Nixon, then US vice president, who felt the brunt of this resentment when he was pelted with rocks in Lima in 1958, and whose car was assaulted with pipes and rocks by an angry mob in Caracas on that very Latin American tour. Mr Nixon returned home to a hero's welcome because the US viewed the incidents as "communist inspired."

Castro ran into problems when he expropriated land and businesses belonging to both Americans and Cubans. Nationalisation raised the Americans' ire, especially the act of expropriation without adequate compensation. The US took action. It imposed a trade embargo on Cuba which is still in effect today. The pleadings of the international community, expressed in UN resolutions, to lift the crippling embargo, have gone unheeded. So too have the cries of US businessmen eager to trade with Cuba. President GW Bush's plan for democratising Cuba includes the return of property to Cubans in Miami who plan to return to a hopefully welcoming post-Castro Cuba.

The US regards the Castro regime as a thorn in its side and attempted on numerous occasions to assassinate the bearded leader who has outlasted nine US presidents. So strong is the antipathy towards the Cuban revolution that the US engineered the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion. The conflict really hit big time during the Cold War when the Soviet Union placed missiles in Cuba aimed at the heart of the US.

Miami Cubans have become a powerful political force in US politics. Woe betide the politician running for office (in Miami) or presidential office who does not support the economic embargo against Cuba. It was Florida which swung the vote Bush's way in that most contentious election of 2000, thereby giving a conservative Supreme Court the last word.

Two of these Cuban groups in Miami are the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) and Cuba Independiente y Democratica (CID). Both these groups pressure the United States to maintain the embargo on Cuba and, in general, put the squeeze on the Castro regime. Their activities have spilled into the realm of sport. At the Pan American Games held in Indianapolis in 1987 CANF arranged for an airplane with a banner, telephone number duly inscribed, to fly over the stadium. The banner invited Cuban athletes to defect by providing a telephone number to call the immigration authorities. CID appeared at various events waving Cuban flags and carrying literature claiming abuses under Castro. It was no surprise when some Cuban boxers engaged in a scuffle with some CID supporters.

Should there be change in a post-Castro regime, one hopes Cuba does not revert to what it was when Batista fled Cuba on Castro's arrival - an economy completely dominated by the US and a country regarded by Americans as the whorehouse of the Caribbean.

Crystal is right, this is an unholy mess. There is not a government in the world or politician or media or terrorist organization or major religion (Christian, Jewish, or Muslim) that isn't in some manner connected to the military industrial complex and Lincoln warned of it over 100 years ago. They are either actively or passively doing the work of that complex and it is an unholy mess. With any luck the bracing cold water of Saturn to Neptune will help all of us see it and hope there are some decent people involved who will stand up to it.

This is the last of the Piscean Age (blind faith without reason)and there is hardly anything to do but watch the show and those who are able, help to clean up the mess.

This cease-fire UN Resolution is a joke, there isn't any commitment from either side to peace and it will all break out again soon. My hope for everyone is to step out of fear and realize this is a "dog-fight" that is their illusion of earth and doesn't have to be ours. Send light to the innocent people caught up in this and hope they send it back when it's our turn. Remember the turmoil of the first 50 years of the last century; world wars, plagues, economic depression, fight for women's rights to vote, union wars, KKK, protests and innocent people died in all that. Well here we are again, only maybe this time, the cosmos is setting the pins up again to be knocked down. Look at this whole mess in a different way, all of what is being experienced is redaction and those who fought before have come to lose, not win.

They are using up their toys and their resources, Israel hasn't won, Hezbollah hasn't won now why is that? Why is it that the majority who lost are the people? Eventually, this generation, the next generation, the one after that will ultimately stand up and say "you're done." And earth will go on. If George Bush can stay in a bubble in his crazed mind, so can we. Stay out of fear and into light because they are hell-bent on destroying themselves.

PHOENIX FIVE EARTH CHANGES BULLETIN
August 12, 2006 by MW Mandeville (Black Canyon City, Arizona)

Impeach The Gangsters Who Fabricated 9/11 & The Bogus War On Terror To Screw You

BULLETIN ITEM: Check out the latest fact check-out on the latest terrorism scams.

MWM: All you don't need to know about liquid bombs for airliners. I reccomend you subscribe to their bulletins

From: "Brasscheck TV"
Subject: Brasscheck TV: Bogus Terror Stories

NAME,

Liquid bombs made by homegrown UK terrorists
to down ten planes simultaneously...

The most chilling terror plot since 9-11?

Not quite.

To see recent examples of "Terror Plots"
and the truth that ultimately emerged
about them, go here:

http://www.brasscheck.com/videos/911/9114.html

OR - to get a much fuller understanding of
recent events, read this first and then
watch the videos (link below.)

--- Bogus Terror Stories

If you take a look at some simple chemistry...
... and examine the gaping holes in other recent
terror stories... you'll be in a better position
to judge the latest terror story out of the UK.

Three points:

1. Liquid bombs
2. London 7-7 and "homegrown" terrorists
3. What ever happened to the Sears Tower plot?

1. The reality of "liquid bombs"

Yes, it's possible to combine acetone, hydrogen peroxide
and an acid to make triacetone triperoxide (TATP),
the so-called "liquid bomb" scenario.

It's what I-D-I-O-T-S do when they want to make their
own home-made explosives.

TATP is an extremely unstable substance and prone to explode
unexpectedly - and it requires refrigeration of 10 C
or less to be manufactured with any degree of reliability.

The idea that this process could be carried out in
the cramped washroom of an airliner is fanciful at best.

That this feat could realistically be accomplished on
ten different airplanes simultaneously is as likely as...
the US government's 9-11 story or the UK London's government's
7-7 story.

You can get confirmation of this in less than a minute
by searching the terms: "triacetone triperoxide" or "TATP."

If this plot is evidence of al-Qaeda's ability to launch
sophisticated attacks against the freedom-loving West,
then we have nothing to worry about.

But meanwhile, no water bottles or lipstick on US or UK
planes.

2. Last year's UK terror story

Take a look at how the London 7-7 story - as told
by UK officials - has completely fallen apart under
examination.

The UK government said the bombs used in those
attacks were made of TATP and carried in knapsacks
by "suicide" bombers made up of young British
Muslims.

More reliable analysts - including at least one surviving
eye witness - say that there were no exploding knapsacks,
that the bombs were military-grade and that they were placed
underneath the train's carriages - and that's just the
tip of the iceberg on this story.

Even UK police investigators now admit that none of
the supposed "suicide" bombers even remotely fit the
fanatic profile and theorize they were used as "dupes"
by the real bombers.

3. Remember the Sears Tower plot?

Just a few short months ago, Americans were terrorized
by news reports that a "homegrown" terrorist cell
based in Miami was planning to destroy Chicago's Sears
Tower with the help of al-Qaeda.

It turns out the suspects had no weapons, no
bomb making materials, no contact with al-Qaeda
- and no clue. In reality, they were a group of
impoverished and mentally deficient homeless men
who'd been sucked into a whacked-out Christian
cult.

Here are video clips featuring some of the
"Bogus Terror Stories" that sweep the US and
the UK every time Bush or Blair are in trouble
politically or feel the need to stir up bias
against Muslims to justify their unpopular military
operations in the Middle-East:

http://www.brasscheck.com/videos/911/9114.html

- Brasscheck

Best Wishes, Michael Wells Mandeville,
The Hills of Arizona USA at mwman@earthlink.net

I don't know who Michael Mandeville is for all I know he could be working for the government but I do agree with him.
I also say ,as I have said ,these people who have taken over are not going to bow to something like public opinion.
I support my theory by referring to the current MSM offering-all about the supposed capture of the would be terrorists and no pictures, no reports from Beirut even though the Iraelis are bombing the s--t that beautiful city.

Bush 'helped Israelis attack on Lebanon'

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Monday August 14, 2006

Guardian

The US government was closely involved in planning the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, even before Hizbullah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross border raids in July. American and Israeli officials met in the spring, discussing plans on how to tackle Hizbullah, according to a report published yesterday.
The veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh writes in the current issue of the New Yorker magazine that Israeli government officials travelled to the US in May to share plans for attacking Hizbullah.

Quoting a US government consultant, Hersh said: "Earlier this summer ... several Israeli officials visited Washington, separately, 'to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear'."

The Israeli action, current and former government officials told Hersh, chimed with the Bush administration's desire to reduce the threat of possible Hizbullah retaliation against Israel should the US launch a military strike against Iran.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329552302-103552,00.html

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plenty more like Pluto
Astronomy is making a mockery of the idea that there are only nine or 10 planets orbiting the sun

Brian Marsden
Monday August 14, 2006

Guardian

It's time we admitted that accepting Pluto as the ninth planet was a big mistake. The announcement from the Lowell observatory in 1930 that a distant new planet had been found in accordance with the prediction by the observatory's founder was a brilliant exercise in public relations. Little heed was paid to critics who soon pointed out that the object was much smaller than Percival Lowell had claimed and that there was no way he could have made a meaningful prediction.
The number of planets has been reduced before. The ancients recognised seven - and in some languages these are still equated with the days of week. After the Copernican revolution the objects associated with Sunday and Monday were dropped and the earth added, so the total became six. William Herschel's discovery of Uranus restored the count to seven. The addition of the four tiny bodies Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta early in the 19th century raised it to 11. Most astronomy books were still counting 11 planets four decades later.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329552269-103677,00.html

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American support may no longer be enough
Israel's long-term future lies in connecting with its Arab neighbours, not a western superpower thousands of miles away

Martin Jacques
Monday August 14, 2006

Guardian

This has been a war that did not happen by accident. The kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah was merely the pretext, long since forgotten in the absurdly disproportionate response by the Israelis, and the death and destruction that their country has wrought on Lebanon. Israel has, throughout its short existence, lived by the sword, safe in the knowledge that its military power, as an honorary western nation, is far superior to that of its enemies. Israel has managed to justify this behaviour, in the eyes of the world (or at least the west), by two means: first, the insistence that its very survival always hangs by a thin thread; and second, the remorse felt by the west over the suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust.
Based on previous expectations, this was another war that the Israelis should have won. It was of their choosing, long in the planning and preparation; and from the outset they enjoyed the open support of the US. How wrong the Israelis have turned out to be. This is not a war they have won: indeed, as they have fallen so far short of their objective - the effective destruction of Hizbullah as a military force - it might well turn out to be a war that the Israelis have, in effect, lost. They surely expected that Hizbullah's resistance would crumble within a matter of days, but a month later Hizbullah appears to be as strong as ever, inflicting heavy casualties on the massive Israeli assault launched after the UN security council vote, its ability to fire rockets at Israeli cities little, if at all, impaired. Just as the US found that superiority in conventional arms was of little use in Iraq when confronted with urban and guerrilla resistance, rooted in the overwhelming opposition of the people, so Israel has discovered the same in Lebanon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329552270-103677,00.html

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bush's belief in a worldwide Islamist conspiracy is foolish and dangerous
We can only see off the serious threat we face if we separate real Muslim grievances from al-Qaida's homicidal mania

Max Hastings
Monday August 14, 2006

Guardian

George Bush sometimes sounds more like the Mahdi, preaching jihad against infidels, than the leader of a western democracy. In his regular radio address to the American people on Saturday he linked the British alleged aircraft plotters with Hizbullah in Lebanon, and these in turn with the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
All, said the president of the world's most powerful nation, share a "totalitarian ideology", and a desire to "establish a safe haven from which to attack free nations". Bush's remarks put me in mind of a proverb attributed to Ali ibn Abu Talib: "He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere."

In the United States a disturbingly large minority of people - polls suggest around 40% - remain willing to accept Bush's assertions that Americans and their allies, which chiefly means the British, are faced with a single global conspiracy by Islamic fundamentalists to destroy our societies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329552229-103677,00.html

Robert Fisk: As the 6am ceasefire takes effect... the real war begins

Published: 14 August 2006

The real war in Lebanon begins today. The world may believe - and Israel may believe - that the UN ceasefire due to come into effect at 6am today will mark the beginning of the end of the latest dirty war in Lebanon after up to 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 30 Israeli civilians have been killed. But the reality is quite different and will suffer no such self-delusion: the Israeli army, reeling under the Hizbollah's onslaught of the past 24 hours, is now facing the harshest guerrilla war in its history. And it is a war they may well lose.

In all, at least 39 - possibly 43 - Israeli soldiers have been killed in the past day as Hizbollah guerrillas, still launching missiles into Israel itself, have fought back against Israel's massive land invasion into Lebanon.

Israeli military authorities talked of "cleaning" and "mopping up" operations by their soldiers south of the Litani river but, to the Lebanese, it seems as if it is the Hizbollah that have been doing the "mopping up". By last night, the Israelis had not even been able to reach the dead crew of a helicopter - shot down on Saturday night - which crashed into a Lebanese valley.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1219037.ece

I think he's a keeper. Scroll down to Lamont "takes on Chris Wallace and Fox News" and be impressed:
http://connecticutblog.blogspot.com/

If true, this is absolutely wild, and adds one more biggie in the failure column of you-know-who's record:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/081206.html

Gosh you guys are finding some great articles. I've been sharing them around as fast as I can type! What I like is that the covert race issues involving the "white" supremacist are being aired at last... it seems the dam has broken because... well, why not?!?... nothing left for "The Other" to lose. ;O)

Like this posted by wv: "...An enduring peace in the Middle East requires two things: first, that the Arab states accept Israel's right to exist [no, that s/b 2nd or 3rd]; and second, that Israel must come to see itself as an integral part of the region. The latter requires the kind of transformation in Israeli - and western - attitudes that is not even conceived of, let alone discussed. ["white" supremacist anglo as different from semetic] Israelis typically regard themselves as superior to their neighbours, and the root cause of this mentality lies in their sense of racial superiority. Indeed it is impossible to explain Israel's attitude towards the west on the one hand and its Arab neighbours on the other without understanding its racial character and motivation. Israelis aspire to be treated on a par with westerners - that is, of course, white westerners; by the same token they have contempt for Arabs, including those who are citizens of Israel, whom they look down on as less civilised than themselves. Israel behaves in the manner of a settler colony whose people do not believe they are of the region but who none the less think they have every right to be there. ..."

I agree with above post,, Joanna O; 2-58 am..
Did anyone qwatch 60 Minutes MikwE Wallace's interview of Akminadinjad ( ?) Iran Pres. HE'S SANE!
( Wiley tho)
QOP

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/09/60minutes/main1879867.shtml

Here's the basic transcript, QOP. He's a very, very smart man, shrew & cagey, too --- the question is, should we believe everything he says? He sounds reasonable and he even promotes peace -- I would not trust him though. Yet, he makes some very good points about the U.S. and Bush.

Oh, whaddaHOOT!!!!!! ...the interview with the well-educated Ahmadinejad. He's blowing apart all the pink supremacist DISmythologies of history in the MidEast. Give him time & I'll bet he could accurately dialogue on "civilized" pink boyz last 2000 years wherever he was found killing, stealing, torturing & raping! ;O)

Now I'm even more convinced that Ahmadinejad is a Sufi... ;O)

Seems to me that the real issue is how little we can trust our own government. And, need i say, how really stupid our president appears to be and how immoral.

I want to clarify a statement I made in a previous post. I know it was Eisenhower who used the words "military-industrial complex" in a warning he gave to the nation as he was leaving office in 1961, but Abraham Lincoln had the same concerns and fears regarding the encroachment of corporate power in politics. Our forefathers had a deep fear and distrust of corporate power in government, in part they came to the new world to escape the burden and control of the British East India Trade Company (I wrote about this sometime ago)in fact all the East India Trade Companies which flourished in Europe. Lincoln shared that concern, as did many presidents, Lincoln's quote is as follows: "...Corporations have been enthroned.... An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people... until wealth is aggregated in a few hands... and the republic is destroyed."

Until Ronald Reagan the power corporations held over Democracy was a great concern of civil leaders who could truely lead.

I really had to chuckle and applaud Ahmadinjad when he talked about the 18 page letter he sent to Bush, asking how can a religious Christian, a follower of Jesus, be responsible for so much killing? The irony there is that apparently it's okay for Muslims to kill if it's a holy war! Same goes for the Old Testament where the Hebrews were given permission to kill in spite of the Ten Commandments.

Good on you, Sharon, for that post. I would like to add that I can't for the life of me find in the teachings of Jesus anywhere that he condoned violence, let along advocated it. There was the incident with the money-changers in the temple where he really got riled up and threw them out. Heh heh. But nowhere can I find any advocacy of violence. But, then, I'm a rank heathern, so, you know . . .

Thanks, Shy. He didn't condone violence --- he integrated the lower nature of man/woman into the higher nature through the power of love, fasting, meditation. It ain't easy.

* Messages from MATTHEW - Plane-bombing plot more ruse, deception; NO nuclear war in Lebanon; Zionists don’t represent most Israelis, Jews; economic outlook, resources reallocation; geophysical events, “global warming”; repeal of unjust laws worldwide; cremation, burial; US Nov election; effects of feminine/goddess energy; illness, aging outlook http://www.matthewbooks.com/mm/anmviewer.asp?a=60&z=2

That's pretty much why I've basically abandoned Christianity. I still believe in a "higher intelligence" in the Universe, but certainly not in the form of a jealous, mean spirited God who is out to strike down and condemn to eternal damnation anyone who doesn't attend church regularly on Sunday morning, doesn't hate gays, women, muslims and anyone who doesn't believe the required 5 biblical passages required for salvation.

I am so thoroughly disgusted with what passes for Christianity these days in the face of the very things people should be concerned about, like helping others less fortunate, social justice for all and equality, and caring for the environment -- as opposed to trashing the planet because Jesus is going to rapture you up and away from all responsibility for your actions. Rapture isn't even discussed anywhere in the bible, but wouldn't you know that its' adherents would find an alliance in "flat Earth" economics-driven Big Business? I can't wait until business gets the "roto-rooter" job in Capricorn that Pluto has been slamming the churches with in Sagittarius.

It does puzzle me how this group of "Christians" seem to have dropped the Beatitudes from their consciousness as well as "when I was hungry you fed me, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was naked you clothed me; when did we do that for you Lord? When you do this to the least of my brethren you do this unto me." Well that's been dropped. Some wonderful verses in Romans has been dropped and the list goes on. I think along with history future generations might find that the New Testament has been rewritten.

They are so anxious to bring the Christ they want that they've abandoned the one they have.

Thanks Joanna for posting the latest Matthew.

For whatever reason...............I have to open AW in Internet Expllorer? In Firefox ( Mac) it is so walloping
wide it takes forever to scroll back & forth!
I had a respectful discussion with a local Rabbi. ( We didn't agree on many points, but respected each other's view point. I ended the discussion with " I think all religions should be banned.."....& he agreed with me!!!
QOP

FROM CELESTINE PROPHECY AUTHOR, JAMES REDFIELD
(I received this in an email)

World Prayer Project / Live Teleconference Tuesday, 8.15.06

With thousands continuing to pray to intercede in the
violence in the Middle East, join us in what is growing to be
the largest tele-connection and prayer group in the world.

Free Teleconference
Tuesday, August 15
8-9 pm EDT
1-646-519-5883
PIN# 2230
The phone line will open at 7:55.
International callers - please see below.

Research tells us that the more people praying together, the more powerful the prayer and the greater the energy level felt by the participants.

In our tele-connected prayer on August 1, people from all over the world joined together to focus prayer energy on the Middle East. Afterward, we discussed how we can amplify our personal Prayer and creative effectiveness in the world.

With the current cease-fire agreed to, continue to visualize that all those who are participating in the tensions and conflicts move into their best and highest wisdom, where a lasting peace can be realized. Also, we also ask that those who have been harmed or who have had loved ones harmed are comforted in their time of crisis, and that the awareness of the world grow into a place where conflicts are actively
resolved.

If you possibly can, join with us as we continue to beam light toward the Middle East and other crisis areas. After a time of group prayer, discussion will focus on 1) amplifying our personal spiritual conenction, 2) dealing with personal challenges, 3) clarifying intuitive guidance, and 4) using prayer power in our personal lives.

The conference is free, with each of us dialing in and paying for our own long-distance phone charges (less than $2 in most cases). Let us know if you plan to participate, and please pass the word on to your friends who might be interested in joining us.

For those of you in international time zones, the call begins at 8 p.m. Eastern (same as New York). Click here to convert to your local time.

Blessings,
James Redfield
Salle Merrill Redfield
www.celestinevision.com

PLEASE NOTE:
During the last call, we experienced a good bit of background noise - people washing dishes, putting children to bed, cooking dinner, playing the radio. Since the number of callers is quickly growing, please be sure to press *6 on your phone (land line and cell) after you have announced yourself. This will mute any noise in your location to help keep the noise level managable.

here is more on the odious DLC......

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=03C353B6-E0C3-F084-D282233F87ACA562

peace & namaste y'all
g

more early morning reading, presented with no claims on "truthiness"

http://www.physics911.net/germanintel.htm

Well, over the past six years there has been a major reversal of the free flow of news, travel, and education of Americans. Morning talk shows focus primarily on women's issues and family training, while it use to be primarily news.

See a pattern?

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/08/12/is_an_armament_sickening_us_soldiers/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

Sickened Iraq vets cite depleted uranium

It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills -- morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves.

Four hours later, Herbert Reed will swallow another 15 mg of morphine to cut the pain clenching every part of his body. He will do it twice more before the day is done.
Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq, his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil.

There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick.

More...

The Nazis began as a religious/social service movement which is one way they got so far with their hateful plans.
And....Jesus was a jew who wanted people to lighten up and respond from their humanity to the humanity of others. At that time jews were so bound by rules that they couldn't risk acting spontaneously-that was the purpose of the story of the "good samaritan"-only the citizen of Samara could risk touching the injured man. A jew would have had 40 days of cleansing ritual to go through if that jew touched a wounded, bleeding non-jew.
As a Catholic I am convinced that the laws and rules of Christianity have been made up by rich old men to keep the hired help, the women and all other dependents on the farm as it were. Many of the rules are good for human relations but mostly the rules are there to frighten people and imprison them spiritually and mentally.
Church is the original authoritarian structure. I fear the 20-30% who are said to desire authoritarian power, who will do whatever the leader(s) tells them to do. Although they are a minority I have witnessed what this minority has been able to do with Christianity turning it into a fanatical, materialistic, fascistic thing that is a threat to women, to minorities, to progressives and on and on.

Straight talk from the military makes more sense than the lay-the-blame-on Iran propaganda:

No evidence Iran active in Iraq: US general

24 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - There is no evidence the Iranian government is stirring trouble in Iraq, a U.S. general said on Monday, playing down suggestions that Tehran will retaliate for U.S. backing of Israel's war on Hizbollah.

"There is nothing that we definitively have found to say that there are any Iranians operating within the country of Iraq," Major General William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told a news conference.

U.S. officials have previously said the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hizbollah might encourage Tehran to make mischief in Iraq to pressure the United States, which has some 130,000 troops in the country.

More...

http://tinyurl.com/ovycv

August 14, 2006
Astronomers Meet to Define 'Planet'
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:59 a.m. ET

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Nearly 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries gathered in Prague Monday to come up with a universal definition of what qualifies as a planet and possibly decide whether Pluto should keep its planet status.

For decades, the solar system has consisted of nine planets, even as scientists debated whether Pluto really belonged. Then the recent discovery of an object larger and farther away than Pluto threatened to throw this slice of the cosmos into chaos.

Among the possibilities at the 12-day meeting of the International Astronomical Union in the Czech Republic capital: Subtract Pluto or christen one more planet, and possibly dozens more.

But the decision won't be an easy one. Scientists attending the conference are split over whether Pluto should be excluded from the list of planets, Pavel Suchan of the meeting's local organization committee said.

''So far it looks like a stalemate,'' Suchan said. ''One half wants Pluto to remain a planet, the other half says Pluto is not worth being called a planet.''

Participants hope to set scientific criteria for what qualifies as a planet. Should planets be grouped by location, size or another marker? If planets are defined by their size, should they be bigger than Pluto or another arbitrary size? The latter could expand the solar system to 23, 39 or even 53 planets.

The debate intensified last summer when astronomer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology announced the discovery of a celestial object larger than Pluto. Like Pluto, it is a member of the Kuiper Belt, a mysterious disc-shaped zone beyond Neptune containing thousands of comets and planetary objects. Brown nicknamed his find ''Xena.''

The Hubble Space Telescope measured the bright, rocky object at about 1,490 miles in diameter, roughly 70 miles longer than Pluto. At 9 billion miles from the sun, it is the farthest known object in the solar system.

The discovery stoked the planet debate that had been simmering since Pluto was spotted in 1930.

For years, Pluto's inclusion in the solar system has been controversial. Astronomers thought it was the same size as Earth, but later found it was smaller than Earth's moon. Pluto is also odd in other ways: With its elongated orbit and funky orbital plane, it acts more like other Kuiper Belt objects than traditional planets.

Some argue that if Pluto kept its crown, Xena should be the 10th planet by default -- it is, after all, bigger. Purists maintain that there are only eight traditional planets, and insist Pluto and Xena are poseurs.

Still others suggest a compromise that would divide planets into categories based on composition, similar to the way stars and galaxies are classified. Jupiter could be labeled a ''gas giant planet,'' while Pluto and Xena could be ''ice dwarf planets.''

A decision on whether Pluto should be excluded or if ''Xena'' should be included on the list of planets will not be known before the end of the conference, Suchan said.

''We of course need the definition of a planet first.''

From NY Times

Religion-Related Fraud Getting Worse

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

Randall W. Harding sang in the choir at Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, Calif., and donated part of his conspicuous wealth to its ministries. In his business dealings, he underscored his faith by naming his investment firm JTL, or "Just the Lord." Pastors and churchgoers alike entrusted their money to him.

By the time Harding was unmasked as a fraud, he and his partners had stolen more than $50 million from their clients, and Crossroads became yet another cautionary tale in what investigators say is a worsening problem plaguing the nation's churches.

Billions of dollars has been stolen in religion-related fraud in recent years, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association, a group of state officials who work to protect investors.

Between 1984 and 1989, about $450 million was stolen in religion-related scams, the association says. In its latest count - from 1998 to 2001 - the toll had risen to $2 billion. Rip-offs have only become more common since.

"The size and the scope of the fraud is getting larger," said Patricia Struck, president of the securities association and administrator of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities. "The scammers are getting smarter and the investors don't ask enough questions because of the feeling that they can be safe in church."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FLEECING_THE_FAITHFUL?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahv3VdknyZ4

Lou Dobbs Wakes Up to 9/11 Lies

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/12/134344/079

Annual RNC Fundraiser Brings in 38% of Last Year's Take

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

From a poster on Salon:

Oh, Wow. Look at the author:

William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation

Military Matters: Iraq as Stalingrad
By WILLIAM S. LIND
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- In Iraq and Afghanistan, the coalitions' defeats continue slowly to unroll.

... In an interview this week with the BBC, Jordan's King Abdullah II warned that the map of the Middle East was becoming unrecognizable and its future appeared "dim."

Washington, which in its hubris ignores both its friends and its enemies, refusing to talk to the latter or listen to the former, does not grasp that if the flanks collapse, it is the end of our adventures in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also, in the long term, Israel's existence depends on arriving at some sort of modus vivendi with the region. The replacement of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the House of Saud with the Muslim Brotherhood would make that possibility fade.

To the region, America's apparently unconditional and unbounded support for Israel and its occupation of Iraq are part of the same picture. For a military historian, the question arises: will history see Iraq as America's Stalingrad?

If we kick the analogy up a couple of levels, to the strategic and grand strategic, there are parallels. Both the German and the American armies were able largely to take, but not hold, the objective. Both had too few troops. Both Berlin and Washington underestimated their enemy's ability to counter-attack. Both committed resources they needed elsewhere and could not pull back from a strategically unimportant objective. Finally, both entrusted their flanks to weak allies -- and to luck.

Let us hope that, unlike Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus, commander of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, our commanders know when to get out, regardless of orders from a leader who will not recognize reality.

http://tinyurl.com/gtjmd --UPI

From the New Yorker

WATCHING LEBANON

by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

Washington’s interests in Israel’s war.
Issue of 2006-08-21
Posted 2006-08-14

In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. “It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why we don’t have peace in the Middle East.” He described the relationship between Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the “root causes of instability,” and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end the crisis. Two days later, despite calls from several governments for the United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until “the conditions are conducive.”

The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060821fa_fact

from Wayne Madsen, a report that the British "foiled terra plot" was timed so as to thwart a coup against Blair(!)(August 14th post):

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

And after upstaging spoiled-boy, thumb-sucking Bush, Ahmadinejad -- that wily, cunning strategist -- has established his own blog, but logger-onner beware.
http://www.kxmc.com/getARticle.asp?ArticleId=33861

From Salon

The coming earthquake
Having failed on the battlefield, Israelis question their leadership and their national direction.

By Aluf Benn

Aug. 14, 2006 | Israelis are digesting their lack of success in the month-old war against Hezbollah in Lebanon -- formally ended as a United Nations-sponsored cease-fire went into force early Monday morning -- and the country is gearing up for a postwar political bloodbath and national soul-searching over goals, aims and priorities.

Israelis were surprised by the visible inability of their military, considered the strongest and most sophisticated in the Middle East, to defeat a guerrilla army of a few thousand fighters. Having become accustomed to quick victories against Arab armies, as in the wars of the past, the current reality in Lebanon has been unprecedented and unexpected.

Israelis were astonished by Hezbollah's seemingly intact ability to hit northern Israel with a daily barrage of 100-200 rockets, holding about a million people in shelters, regardless of what the Israel Defense Force was doing to the Lebanese. And they were shocked by the government's incompetence in dealing with the plight of the Israeli civilian population in the rear. The fact that Lebanon's civilians have been hit much harder was hardly comforting.

And last, but not least, Israelis were unprepared for the war in Lebanon -- which remained off the public agenda in recent years -- or for the length of the war. The world, and especially the American administration, stood by and allowed the shooting, killing and destruction to go on without turning over the famous "diplomatic hourglass" to stop the belligerents in their tracks.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/08/14/benn_olmert/print.html

Karen, boy howdy logger beware. I thought about checking out what he had to say on his blog, then thought better of it. Don't want any suits knocking on my door.

You know, since Democrats are now the new Taliban..(boy left a lot unsaid there didn't I?) Pathetic isn't it? It's a sad day for Americans.

Nasrallah Declares Victory for Hezbollah

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By LAUREN THAYER Associated Press Writer

August 14,2006 | BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah declared Monday that his guerrillas achieved a "strategic, historic victory" against Israel.

Nasrallah, speaking on the day a cease-fire took effect -- ending 34 days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel -- called Monday "a great day."

"We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without exaggeration," the leader of the Shiite militant group said in a taped speech on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV.

Nasrallah also promised Hezbollah would help the Lebanese people rebuild.

"The enemy destroyed thousands of houses in the south, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Em krischuns love porn:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Poll_Christians_addicted_to_pornography_0814.html

Hahahahahaha.

Ha,ha,
Love the ads on that xcian site too. kick heroin aiction, kick gambling addiction, porn too.
Oh poor souls!
QOP

And in Tibet, the Chinese government keeps on with its barbarous cruelty:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-2312796-23529,00.html

OMGDS Chris Mathews on Hardball, Sy Hersh, the repug talking heads, trashing absolutely trashing George Bush. Catch the rerun on MSNBC. Wow... Bushco is having a bad day. hahahahahaha

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1464

Before Social Security and the WPA, the Unemployed Exchange Association rebuilt a collapsed economy

Lots of interesting opinions...

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/friendly/signs_20060814_friendly.html

Governors Oppose Federal Control of Guard

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081406R.shtml

The nation's governors, protesting what they call an unprecedented shift in authority from the states to the federal government, will urge Congress today to block legislation that would allow the president to take control of National Guard forces in the event of a natural disaster or a threat to homeland security

I'm picturing the steam eminating from the West Wing beause I'm sure they are watching Cspan................... well at least Karl, Laura, and a few others.........
Every caller in ( to Cspan) but 2, said Wallace was condescending or disrespectful, whether they listened to or refuted what Ahmadinejad had to say. The majority agreed that a dialogue between the 2 countries would be a good thing! And a lot of them "got it" that some cultures don't talk in "sound bites"! Very interesting!
QOP

Yea, verily... wallace was enormously pompous, rude & authoritarian, but then I don't expect anything else from a pink supremacist idiot sadsack.

* Be and Let Be

People's bodies have been doing bizarre things for weeks now. We're seeing the macro/microcosm effects. There are deep disturbances in the planet body, the body politic & the body personal. It very likely will get stranger & stranger. Are you feeling crazy yet? Overwhelm is increasing for folks. It has less to do with what is going on & more to do with infant imprints of powerlessness. Nevertheless, it seems oh so real. Please take care of your self. Gentle is as gentle does.

The Sun is opposing Neptune & Mars is opposing Uranus. It can be hard to find the energy & motivation to do anything or particular things. ... http://www.in2light.com/report.html

Well, sadsacks come in all races, creeds and national origins these days.

I've been seeing it Joanna. Thank you for the good advice and good wishes.

Blessings to you.

Well, on a slightly different note...thanks Shylurker for posting the Neil Young link to YouTube (which is based here in my hometown area of San Mateo, CA and has managed to change the worldview of what is entertainment)....I thought this would be a good link for young and ....well, my age, of the 1960s: a little bit about what it was like then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30W3iRL48gQ&mode=related&search=

and 37 years ago (Woodstock) Crosby Stills and Nash sang this one: Long Time Gone (It's been a long time coming...)
I suggest that the time has come...for this bunch of fascist ruling sh*t to be gone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFCgAhZEO8&NR

CS&N had (have) athe most extraordinary harmony...we need more. Neil Had all the soul...we need more.

One shoe drops in Mexico:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-08-14T232233Z_01_N28358335_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEXICO-ELECTION.xml&src=rss

How many more to follow?

Shy ...reminds me of...oh, say...1967-68...seeing the CSN&Y videos sort of brought it all back....remember Ohio (4 dead in O-hio....)

Yessum, JudiGem. I do remember.

Yessum, JudiGem. I do remember.

I assume you posted twice because I am a Gemini? LOL.

Us'n frogs in the pot are seeing the bubles along the edge of the pot now....heading for full boil I think.

Will the Evil Empire get the upperhand? what if all people end up like Joe and DiFi...aging minds and too much money and a big dose of righteousness can do terrible things to people. And the planets tell you when.

the hardest thing to deal with is reality...reality's a bitch. People change. Maybe fascism is a disease, like Alzheimer's. good people get the big A....and some become fascist clones as their world view darkens and fear sets in. And EGO.

There isn't anything to admire anymore in our leaders.

Morgana I heard people ask if Chris Matthews had gone off his meds, then I heard someone ask if maybe he had just gone on them. Sorry I missed the program, it must have been a hum-dinger.

Shy, I just had a conversation tonight about the "crazy" energy around and it's gonna get crazier. The world is in a melt down, so I kind of expect to see a world leader someplace do a meltdown in public. Hope it's our own, that would be fun to see. Hope it's not violent, I am concerned about Mexico, particularly as their Election Commission gets closer and closer to naming their pick for President.

Saw the C-Span thing this afternoon... irk, the interviewer was so condescending and, thank God (or someone) the callers were almost unanimous in their condemnation... something to behold in America, for sure.

The 60 Minutes stooge looked like an old, stupid, pink man with little knowledge of what's really happening...

I have a feeling that they'll rule in favor of Calderon and the fascist right-wingers, Sally. And I don't see how the people of Mexico will take the outcome lying down at this point. They will fight back as they should, and Mexico will be plunged into Civil War.

I do sense something of a "charge" running through people right now, in daily interactions and also just now after reading some of the threads at DU. There's a lot of deep feelings welling up now that relate to rebellion and a growing, burning desire to sack the fascists.

It's hard to believe there's not some sort of functional measure in place to put a stop to Bush and Cheney for utter incompetence. Bush may have 2 more years, but that's also two more years that he'll be laying waste to the Republican Party and the Neoconservative methodology. With the public sentiment growing even more sour against them, the Republicans should consider themselves fortunate if they lose big this fall. For them to hold on until 2008 in the name of preserving their authority will almost certainly result in a nationwide rout.

Sally re your comment "...so I kind of expect to see a world leader someplace do a meltdown in public."

Maybe not a meltdown but following up on the comments about Howard in Aussie
"biggest parliamentary defeat of his conservative government's 10 years in office."

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia abandoned plans for tougher new asylum laws on Monday after a revolt by government lawmakers, as eight illegal immigrants were found on a remote island in the Timor Sea.
The new laws, drawn up to ease Indonesian concerns after Australia granted asylum to 43 Papuans, would have sent all asylum seekers who arrived by boat on mainland Australia to detention camps on the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru.

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard reacts to a question during a media conference in Sydney July 11, 2006. Australia abandoned plans for tougher new asylum laws on Monday after a revolt by government lawmakers, as eight illegal immigrants were found on a remote island in the Timor Sea. (REUTERS/David Gray)

But Prime Minister John Howard dumped the laws ahead of a vote on Monday in what was the biggest parliamentary defeat of his conservative government's 10 years in office.

And things are not looking too good for Olmert either.
Could be a real short term in office for him

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last update - 10:18 15/08/2006
Israel should pack up and go
By Nadim Shehadi

What is the logic that will emerge from this war? If Israel can exist only by destroying the neighborhood, then it's time to declare it a failed state. The Zionist dream has turned into a nightmare and is not viable. If the future holds more of the same, then the time has come to reconsider the whole project. Every state has a duty to defend its citizens, but also it has a duty to provide them with security and the two are different. The prospects are for more destruction, fanaticism, violence and hatred. No unilateral separation can isolate Israel from this, nor can the region or the world live with the consequences. This seems to be the only choice, and Israel must do itself and others a favor and go away.

The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza shows a country deprived of all humanity. The West Bank is unliveable, the population strangled into three prison clusters. Concrete barriers, barbed wires, bypass roads, human beings emerging like rats from underground tunnels, daily humiliation from hundreds of checkpoints. Gaza has been under siege since the population dared to elect Hamas, its infrastructure has been obliterated and its population has been driven to despair in what now seems like a dress rehearsal for what was to come in Lebanon.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750500.html

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last update - 10:13 15/08/2006
With such a left, who needs a right?
By Yossi Sarid

Despite the large number of soldiers and civilians who were killed, each one has his own, personal grave. May they rest in this frail peace. They are victims of an injured leadership that has killed many people in its desperation.

For the others - the politicians, the generals and their court reporters - a different fate lies in wait. This war has dug them all a mass grave. They themselves should resign, but they are not men of honor nor people of responsibility. An inquiry commission, even if it is a long time in coming, is required to march them off on their last political journey.

And even if their trickery succeeds in evading the public guillotine, in the coming years they will float like dead fish to the water's surface. Only the murky stream and political partisan inertia will enable them to look like live, active people.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750502.html

The new French connection

By Avirama Golan

Today Israel parts with the French ambassador, Gerard Araud - one of the most friendly and fascinating ambassadors that has served here. In this electronic era, where it is customary to think that the role of ambassador is an empty representational one, Araud succeeded in proving the importance of human touch and creativity in international relationships, especially when the nations in question have stores of distrust and disappointment with each other.

Araud arrived in Israel three years ago, at a low point of the two countries' relations. French media covered the intifada in an almost hostile manner, and the radical left led a fervent superficial struggle against Israeli policy. Against a background of violent incidents directed toward Jews, a group of Jewish intellectuals accused French society of an anti-Semitism that transfered into an irrational hatred toward Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750504.html

WV,
There is a lot to ponder in your above post , interesting opinions: sign of the times .
I have gotten down to the layer of the disappearing papyri, dealing with the conflict over Tut's tomb ( at it's discovery by British archeologists) and the missing papers that might have refuted the jews exodus from Egyht as outlined in the bible! Wow!
QOP

Talk abot syncranasity! ( sp?)
Tuned in NBC just in time to hear an interview re: A SHOW scheduled for next SUNDAY TITLED THE EXODUS DECODED!
Chills!
QOP

NEOBuckeye,

You are so right with this comment!

"Bush may have 2 more years, but that's also two more years that he'll be laying waste to the Republican Party and the Neoconservative methodology. With the public sentiment growing even more sour against them, the Republicans should consider themselves fortunate if they lose big this fall. For them to hold on until 2008 in the name of preserving their authority will almost certainly result in a nationwide rout."

And speaking for myself, no one deserves this inevitable outcome more. They keep supporting him years after it's obvious he is destroying them along with the rest of us.

Late last week there were Mexican emissaries in the US visiting and conferring with the Bush administration. They held a press conference and I listened to it on C-Span in the car. They represented the right wing “winner” and referred to some members of the Bush administration as “players” in the situation. I think that since no steps to end the protests were taken prior to that visit, and this violence is taking place now…...I can only assume they were seeking cooperation, or at the least, assurance that their actions would be condoned.

Reuters

Mexican police gas leftist lawmakers, protesters
Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:22pm ET

By Oliver Ellrodt

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican riot police used tear gas and clubs to drive back leftist legislators and supporters protesting outside Congress on Monday in the first violent clash over a fiercely contested presidential election.

Several lawmakers from the left-wing party whose presidential candidate narrowly lost the July 2 election were slightly injured when police swept through their protest camp.

Demonstrators threw rocks back at the federal police lines. It was the first time the government has deployed police to break up protests that began days after the election and have until now been peaceful.

more…

The answer for the people of both countries is leadership, and representative government, not moving people around like chess pieces. Both countries are capable of bringing prosperity to their people....but that's not what is happening.

Julia E. Sweig: Why They Hate Us

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081506Z.shtml

Julia E. Sweig writes that recovering our global standing will come not only from how we fight or prevent the next war, or manage an increasingly chaotic world. Domestic policy must change as well. Steering the body politic out of its insular mood, reducing social and economic inequalities, and decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels will help improve our moral standing and our security.

* Israel begins troop pullout from Lebanon http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060815/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel

Perhaps neptune is asking... no, telling... all of us to give up our "Special Identities" with this group or that nation/real estate or a religious cult or some elite/supreme race/color of some kind or other. I think so.

"...Syrian President Bashar Assad, meanwhile, said [ameriCO]'s plan for a "new Middle East" collapsed after Hezbollah's successes in fighting against Israel, & warned the Jewish state to seek peace or risk defeat in the future. ..."

Well, maybe some day under better circumstances where working people actually have clout, there could be international labor unions. It won't happen this way. Corporate is busy, busy, busy, and they are armed.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/14_Characteristics_Fascism.html

The 14 characteristics of Fascism

and here

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=2919

" When we speak of confronting "Empire," we need to identify what "Empire" means. Does it mean the U.S. Government (and its European satellites), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and multinational corporations? Or is it something more than that?

In many countries, Empire has sprouted other subsidiary heads, some dangerous byproducts - nationalism, religious bigotry, fascism and, of course terrorism. All these march arm in arm with the project of corporate globalization."

Big Dog on Lieberman: "His position is the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld position"

Lieberman has characterized his loss - and the need for his subsequent independent run - as liberals in the party purging those with the Lieberman-Clinton position of progressiveness in domestic politics and strong national security credentials.

"Well, if I were Joe and I was running as an independent, that's what I'd say, too," Clinton said.

"But that's not quite right. That is, there were almost no Democrats who agreed with his position, which was, 'I want to attack Iraq whether or not they have weapons of mass destruction.'"

"His position is the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld position, which was, 'Does it matter if they have weapons? None of this matters. ... This is a big, important priority, and 9/11 gives us the way of attacking and deposing Saddam.'"

Read the rest at: http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5282264

more from Big Dog (via DU)

"The Republicans should be very careful in trying to play politics with this London airport thing, because they're going to have a hard time with the facts."

"They seem to be anxious to tie it to al Qaeda. ... If that's true, how come we got seven times as many troops in Iraq as in Afghanistan?" he said. "Why have we imperiled President Karzai's rule and allowed the Taliban to come back into the southern part of Afghanistan? Why was Iraq deemed to be seven times more important than finding the al Qaeda leaders for the last five years?"

Secondly, Clinton asked why the administration and congressional leadership had opposed tighter security on cargo containers at ports and airports.

POQ

look at the Site Map, it gets even better...

Here's a video on Think Progress as well.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/15/clinton-lieberman/

The post above about the 60 Mins interview was from me... I forgot to fill out the form...

Bah. Humbug. I used to support Mr Clinton... long ago & far away... This bit alone: "...They [Democrats] felt, frankly, let down that the UN inspectors were not permitted to finish, & they were worried that we were devoting attn away from Afghanistan & the hunt for [Osama] bin Laden & al Qaeda, which was a huge, immediate threat to our security in the aftermath of 9/11, as we saw [with] this foiled British plot continues to be," Clinton said. ..." lets me know he's a duplicitous liar. It was the bushaolics that wouldn't let the inspectors finish their work & Clinton knows that.

And his "Too many people are dying"... so there appears to be some cutoff point between okay & "too many." Good thing it's "too many" women & children... they're of no-count anyway. Just "human resources" for the "rulers" to suck on.

Some of these people just have no self-respect. After Clinton's crooked penis was shown all over the world in starr's pornopuritan "investigative" report, too. Then there's mccain slavering all over bushadruggie after being fantastically smeared by the repulico machine.

http://www.democrats.com/node/9752

John Kerry was right...says George Will....

A similar article to the one posted below showed up today on www.earthchangestv.com which is a reputable website. Thought those of you who are mundane masters might find the article interesting.

Bible Scholars From The Lords' Witnesses Predict An 85 Percent Probability Of A Nuclear Terrorist Attack On The U.N. Plaza In Manhattan On June 9 Or 10

LONDON (EWORLDWIRE) Jun 1, 2006

These dates are deduced from the symbolic code of Jesus’ parables and Daniel’s visions and Joseph’s dream interpretations. A Bible research group called the Lords’ Witnesses puts forth that it has deciphered the true symbolic bible code which applies to both the Old and New Testaments. The group has found that all Bible accounts obey certain grammatical rules. In particular, the number of nouns which act as nouns in every Bible account is divisible by the number of meanings that the account has, and the number of distinct nouns acting as nouns or possessive noun chains (which contain a noun acting as a noun and other nouns acting as possessive adjectives) in each account is likewise divisible by the number of meanings of that account. Every Bible account has encoded within it the number of extra symbolic meanings that the account has. Some Bible accounts have no extra symbolic meanings; others have as many as six extra symbolic meanings.

The two noun counting rules which they believe every Bible account obeys for the first 227 little Bible stories in the four Gospels of the New Testament have been verified and found to be true in each case. The results have been presented in a paper and in the form of two lectures on DVDs to 200 academic statisticians around the world - no one thus far has been able to disprove the group's findings. For more on this, see www.truebiblecode.com/understanding49.html.

Although the work of Lord's Witnesses is not a New York Times best-seller like the Hebrew Letter Skip code of Michael Drosnin, and it is not a commercially successful fiction like the Da Vinci Code of Dan Brown, it does reveal accurately how the last true Christian church should be run, which is what might one expect from a true Bible code. It also reveals that Armageddon begins on March 23, 2008 and ends August 20, 2008. It reveals that Jesus comes down to Earth to sort out the sheep from the goats on 5 or 6 May, 2008 during Armageddon, at the end of the 1335 days of Daniel 12:12 and that the faithful sheep are raptured to be angels on 6 or 7 June, 2008 - the post tribulation rapture. After that things get really bad, and humans succeed in destroying themselves fully by August 20, 2008.

This destruction occurs because technology has overtaken morality. The purpose of Armageddon is to teach once and for all that if humans do not obey a simple set of moral laws, destruction will result - some people understand this without needing to see global genocide, but many more cannot. It is a lesson that most people do need. The sad Biblical truth is that the only way to teach the majority of free-willed rational beings that God’s commandments are simply the minimum set of laws necessary to prevent a society from destroying itself, is to give them those laws, permit them to break them and then let them destroy themselves. The sheep, the minority who do not need this lesson, are raptured in advance of the genocide and watch it all from God’s IMAX cinema in the sky as it were. For more on this see www.biblecodeintro.com.

The true Bible code reveals the true nature of Hell and the unceasing and everlasting love that God has for every person whom he ever created - the wicked and the good alike. It reveals that there will be seven terrorist nuclear bombs before Armageddon, which is the final man-made nuclear holocaust. The first of these bombs will hit the U.N. plaza in Manhattan between sundown on Friday, June 9 and sundown on Saturday, June 10, 2006. Bible Scholars have two independent scriptural interpretations which give the same date for this attack: the attack must occur on a Sabbath according to one of the interpretations, while the other interpretation also puts the event to occur on a Sabbath. The chances of this happening by accident are obviously one in seven. The chances of this not being an accident and therefore being a correct date at the least are six in seven, or 85 percent.

For a simple explanation starting from the basics and ending with a nuclear bomb in at the U.N. in midtown Manhattan during the second weekend in June, 2006, see www.truebiblecode.com/nyc.html.

The Lords’ Witnesses urges those in New York City of any religious or anti-religious persuasion whatsoever, who have faith that God can predict the future, to leave the city before the second weekend in June and read all about the group's great biblical understandings from some other place or at some time after that weekend.

For more information, visit www.lordswitnesses.com or www.truebiblecode.com.
HTML: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/wr/060106/14660.htm
PDF: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/pdf/060106/14660.pdf
ONLINE NEWSROOM: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/309608.htm
RSS NEWSROOM: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/xml/newsrooms/309608.xml

Lord Witnesses
London, N1 3DF
United Kingdom
44 800-027-2002 (phone)
44 207-288-7473 (fax)
helpdesk@lordswitnesses.com
www.truebiblecode.com

Copyright © 2006, Eworldwire, Eworldwire
Copyright © 2006, NewsBlaze, Daily News

Bah. Humbug. ...bible one of the oldest pieces of purdee propaganda in the world.

Looks like Barbaro is making it back...

A breath of fresh air
Barbaro recovering well, walking outside on grass

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/more/08/14/bc.rac.barbaro.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

Joanna, I wholeheartedly agree! But still thought that those who use mundane astrology might want to check the two August dates against the UN chart...just out of curiosity.

T'wasn't meant as a personal nudge at you, Lovi... I saw "bible" & my own natural nature of curmudgeon came barreling out, that's all.

Olmert's war – and the next one

By Patrick J. Buchanan

08/15/06 "WND" -- -- When Israel answered the Hezbollah raid that captured two soldiers with air strikes on Lebanon's airport, runways, gas stations, lighthouses, bridges, buses, apartment houses and power plants, we who questioned the wisdom and morality of what Israel was doing were denounced as anti-Israel or anti-Semitic.

Turns out we were right. In private, even Israeli army generals were raging that Israel was fighting a stupid, losing war.

Ehud Olmert, who gave Chief of Staff Dan Halutz the green light to launch the shock-and-awe air campaign, cannot survive the moral, political and strategic disaster his country has suffered.

While the Israeli Air Force was hammering Lebanon, Hezbollah rained down 3,000 rockets on Israel and fought off pinprick raids. When the Israeli army, after a month, moved in force against the real enemy, Hezbollah, Israel had already suffered irreparable damage to its reputation as a fighting nation and a moral country.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14555.htm

So Osama Walks Into This Bar

By Greg Palast

I'm going to tell you something which is straight-up heresy: America is not under attack by terrorists. There is no WAR on terror because, except for one day five years ago, al Qaeda has pretty much left us alone.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14551.htm

===
Home Front: Dispatches from the War on America

Written by Chris Floyd

While your attention has been diverted by the proxy war in Lebanon, the civil war in Iraq, the still-hot shootin' war in Afghanistan and the coming war with Iran, the Bush Regime been busy waging -- and winning -- another take-no-prisoners, give-no-quarter conflict right in the sacred Homeland itself: class war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14550.htm

===
Pitch Black Void

By Manuel Valenzuela

Make no mistake, 9/11 was, and continues to be, a war upon the American people, a psychological operation directed at our minds and hearts that was, from the very start, nothing but the catalyst needed to launch Project Empire by the delusional criminals and miscreants in power.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14554.htm

OpEdNews.com

Original Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_anthony__060815_the_role_of_fake_med.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 15, 2006

The Role of Fake Media in a Near-Fascist Society

By Anthony Wade

August 15, 2006

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"...George Orwell

As we all have our eyes fixated in Iraq, Israel, or the potential for another stolen election this year it is important to not forget the role of media in our everyday lives. So many Americans get their information from the tainted mainstream media machine run by the current government that it is a frightening prospect to merely hope the truth somehow gets through. I am sure we all know people who are seemingly good folk, but somehow they keep getting it wrong on such crucial matters such as election fraud, the war, or any number of Bush-GOP scandals. You have to realize the gauntlet of false news that is thrown at them each day, which is the basis for their political opinions.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_anthony__060815_the_role_of_fake_med.htm

OpEdNews.com

Original Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_len_hart_060815_terrorism_has_been_w.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 15, 2006

Terrorism has been worse under GOP regimes since 1980

By Len Hart

Bush's overall approval rating drops to 33 percent [Ap-AP-Ipsos], declining in nearly every issue but primarily -the lost war in Iraq and his ham-fisted foreign policy. Bush lost ground even in the GOP friendly South where some 19 percent of those who supported Bush in 2004 now say they will vote Democratic.

The old 911 magic may be gone forever. It was in those days, as you may recall, that Bush boasted: "Lucky me! I just won the trifecta". 911 propelled Bush to the heights of public approval amid promises that he would smoke out Bin Laden and bring him to justice, that he would treat the nations who nurture terrorism as terrorists themselves. In fact, he's done none of those things.

In fact, Terrorism has been worse under GOP regimes since 1980. Terrorism grew worse over the two years Ronald Reagan waged his great "war on terrorism". The number of terrorist attacks on US interests increased significantly over a period of about two years, a pattern that is repeating under Bush. [See: Total Acts of Terrorism in the U.S. 1980-98, America's Response to Terrorism, The Brookings Institute (Based on FBI Statistics)]

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_len_hart_060815_terrorism_has_been_w.htm

OpEdNews.com

Original Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__060814_gop_strategy_for_nov.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 14, 2006

GOP STRATEGY FOR NOV ELECTIONS / BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID

By Allen L Roland

Make no mistake about it , with the obvious failure of their illegal neocon war and occupation of Iraq ~ the GOP will attempt to freighten Americans into 'staying the course' not only with their failed Iraq policy but also with their thoroughly discredited and morally corrupt party in November. As such, it is time for all Americans to be skeptical, be very skeptical : Allen L Roland

The only way to combat the Mob at the Gates scare tactics by the Cheney/Bush administration, which will accelerate right up to election day ~ is for Democrats to concentrate on the Rot at the Top of the most corrupt administration in America's history.

And that means being highly skeptical of any fear-based information coming out of the Cheney/Bush administration and concentrating instead on the obvious abuses of power or the rot at the top.

Bob Herbert, New York Times, did just that last week in his column and it's worth a review .

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_allen_l__060814_gop_strategy_for_nov.htm

Morgana....I fee we are part of a world wide gestalt...the democratics vs. the plutocrats ....it isn't just in our blueness in this country...it is happening in India and it has been been happening over the last 100+ years since Hawaii was illegaly taken from Queen Liliokelani...and of course, the native peoples of any country have been supplanted, No. and So America. Nothing we can do about it ....it has happened.

I think about all we can all do is to teach the next generation about the truth of this situation. And that many people will do anything and everything in their power and use any number of people, even onto death, to get what they want.

Just saw on Raw Story that YouTube had a 6 hour shutdown...traffic increased by 20% since June....gee...I was on there all last night! hope it wasn't me...

I wanted to also mention something I read somewhere...a perfect illustration, perhaps from Arunda Roy's article from 2003 on India's being sold off piecemeal to the highest bidders....in the article I believe she mentioned some positive things happening...that after 9/11, the real Neptunian veils were being pulled away, and that people would see the hard truth. Perfect description of Neptune and Saturn relationships. Illusion vs. reality. Our illusion ihas been that we live in an ordered, fairly protected country; the hard reality is that it is run by slavemasters. World wide.

Well... & what if Israel is a "movie set," like rezaholic's "ranch" et al... that it was put in place under the given notion by olies/pluties that it was for grieving jewish peoples after WWII. Obviously, most everybody bot it & why not? What if Israel has always been meant as a toe-hold in the mid-east for its resources & to further decimate the old "enemy" of the anglo supremacist, the people of the Old Religion, pre-Islam.

...not "toe-hold"... a base... a military base... it was always meant as a military base. That's what it acts like, & that's what it does.

I'll bet "The Rulers" have passed down secret libraries & archieves just stuffed with the REAL history of the world's peoples, not their centuries of propaganda, things from the The Great Library of Alexandria even... much earlier than that. Note, for instance, the raiding of the museums & libraries in Iraq from which artifacts were whisked away. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get a gander at all that?!

JoannaO, with all due respect, why in the world would "The Rulers" want to preserve those ancient records? Better to just make stuff up and say that's what was writ long ago, doncha think?

Ahh... & the two are not mutually exclusive, shy. ;O)

Hezbollah has refused pieces of the cease fire agreement and won't disarm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/15/AR2006081500322.html

Now they aren't making this decision on their own and why would Syria and Iran think they can go up against the US and Israel? Hubris? Arrogance? Nuclear weapons? I don't think they will drop the bomb, but they think they have something and like the US they are pushing. Lord would I love to know who is behind all this, really behind it. Is it the Illuminiti, what is the push for world wide destruction?

The other odd thing, on the very day that several democrats stood up (how long have we been waiting for that) and attacked this administration, MSNBC went on the attack against Bush. Olbermann has always walked that line, but Matthews (who started on Aug. 8th, right after the Lamont win) and tonight they added Scarborough to the list of the Bush attack dogs. Something is definately up. If the Dems take back the House and Senate they are inheriting a real mess and by 2008 the GOP will be in a position to take it all back and completely crush the Democratic Party in two short years, or they will think they can.

A possible scenario is Cheney leaves, there is a new VP (perhaps McCain) Bush resigns in 2007 and McCain is president, popular enough to win 2008 and another GOP sweep in 2008.

Another possibility in this turn of events is one Morgana postulated and that is the Israel/Hezbollah was such a mess that the powers that be have decided the GOP needs the crushing and the neo cons are out.

I am sure of one thing this coordinated effort by the Dems today and MSM isn't an accident, not when Scarborough directly asks "is Bush and idiot."

There is one person with more power in the world than GWB and that person is his father. Is Sr. tired or afraid and pushing him out. It isn't hard to see that Jr. is sick and getting worse by the day.

The "cease-fire" will last, I expect, for another 6 to 10 days and they will be off and running once again.

I don't know, Sally. If the GOP gets routed this November and the Dems (Conyers and Co.) get to open the books on even a limited percentage of their dirty deeds, it seems like there's so much there waiting to be revealed that the GOP might very well collapse under the weight of its' own corruption, or be abolished entirely as a meaningful political entity. But then, I'm going purely on intuition here and not astrology. Do you see them making a sudden comeback in '08?

Indeed, both parties are corrupt and in dire need of reform, but the Republicans are so far and thoroughly gone that even the faux holy Christian moralist act seems like a caricature of itself anymore. Only the Christian "true believers" still follow it now, but their time (with Pluto) is up in 2008. I don't see how the GOP can survive much beyond that unless center-right representatives like McCain and Giuliani lead the way. But even then, the party if it survives at all, will be in chaos for years for all of the corruption and faults exposed by Bush and the NeoCons.

Loss of Power and Control... I think this is what the Greedy Oil People fear most. They know they are on the brink of losing everything they have gained (or have stolen) at least since the "Gingrich Revolution" 1994, and possibly even going back to the years of Reagan and even Nixon if too much is revealed. People who have nothing to fear don't act the way the White House and Congressional Republicans have been acting.

I'm not saying that they'll go down easy, of course. I fully expect they'll be pulling out every trick in the book and all those that aren't to hold onto control of Congress. But at what cost? To stave off inevitable revolution against them? That's where this is going. Those who now claim to be "conservatives" can go relatively quietly or they can go kicking and screaming off into the night. But eventually, for the good and survival of humanity and the planet, they certainly must go.

I suspect that Poppy Bush is worried sick about what Jr. is doing to his precious family name, if not the fact that he is making things very difficult for the oil and arms interests that Poppy represents. The very name Bush may be the most reviled name since Hitler, around the globe, if not within a good portion of the US. I'm not comparing Bush to Hitler, but he certainly embodies the shadow of the US in much the same way that Hitler embodied the shadow of Germany.

For what it's worth, at this moment MSNBC wants to know what you think about the new planet proposal: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

* Former British Ambassador Says Terror Alert Is "Propaganda"

Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray says the alleged transatlantic liquid bomb plot is staged-managed propaganda on behalf of b&b - who yearn for a "new 9/11" to absolve them of domestic political trouble. ... http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/160806terrorpropaganda.htm

* Olbermann Exposes Nexus Of Politics And Terror

During a prime time segment on his MSNBC show last night, anchor Keith Olbermann presented ten clear examples where [rez regime] had issued terror alerts days after politically damaging revelations & questioned the credibility of each of the alleged plots' authenticity in light of astounding evidence to the contrary.

Olbermann overwhelmingly documents the staged timing of terror alerts spanning back 4 yrs & ends by scrutinizing the latest alleged liquid bomb plot - an op infiltrated & surveilled for mos by intelligence agencies, yet announced to the public on a carefully scripted pre-arranged schedule. ... http://www.infowars.com/articles/terror/olbermann_exposes_nexus_politics_terror.htm

* Bomb plot opens door for Reid succession

Home Sec John Reid's assured handling of an alleged plot to blow up airliners in mid-Atlantic has strengthened his credentials to succeed Tony Blair as pm... http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1190882006

* Freedom Is an Inside Job

...We were slaves to my parent's religion, we were slaves to priests in church & nuns in school. We were slaves to whatever a doctor prescribed for us & we were slaves to what the neighbors might think. In fact, we were slaves to any adult anywhere who deigned to order us about. We were slaves to our parent's whims about how we dressed, spoke, & behaved to the extent that they could enforce them. (If there was ever a dispute, & there weren't many, our parents always sided with authority.) We obeyed because we were afraid.

Such an environment does not produce sweet fruit. On the contrary, for me it created voluminous suffering for 20 yrs of childhood & another 20 after that. It sent me on a journey of unproductive rebellion that placed a tremendous cost on my psychological resources & prevented me from pursuing my dreams & healthy relationships. The pendulum must swing just as far in both directions.

When I think about it, I can hardly believe that I got here from there; it is a world away from the oppression I once knew. As much as I hated the oppression, tho, I had internalized it & it dogged my steps everywhere like a 1-ton ball & chain. The upside of such horror is that it provided me with impetus to fight my way out. Some things have to be really bad to make one willing to do anything to make it better. This is what adversity will do for a stubborn soul determined to be free. ... http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/fontana/fontana5.html

More on DiFi's campaign co-chair's intention to vote for Ahhhhhhhhhhhnold, and more on the folks who share her intention. I'm quite concerned about this. What is this "contest" looking like from the astro perspective? Anyone?
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/ca/story/14298139p-15157073c.html

Please go to http://rawstory.com/ and click on the article "Bush frustrated by Low Support in Iraq" What a hoot. When people say this admin is clueless and in a bubble, it's not hyperbole!

What's startling to me, JoannaO ('tis you at 4:03, right?), is that he actually knows this. I wonder how his handlers let that happen.

And moving right along: another Repug krischun is in deep doo doo:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/16/104246/586

The pictures on TV now (11:30 EST) are another
example of how close to the edge we have wandered.
More in the campaign of fear being foisted on
the cognitive dissonants.

A woman with a jar of vaseline and a screwdiver..
the comedians will have a great time with that one.

Heya Shy, I agree, what's up with that? Angelides is invisible, the ads I have seen are pathetic. Hmmm seems his handlers want his to lose. Might be we should ask Uncle Teddy what's up?

Want 'him' Angelides, sorry birdseed stuck in my keyboard, keys are sticking.

From the bottom of a DKOS bit, Ned Lamont oped in WSJ.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/16/71858/3921

"Finally, entrepreneurs are pragmatic. Unlike some politicians, we don't draw a false strength from closed minds, and we don't step on the accelerator when the car is headed off the cliff."

More importantly he introduces some really great talking points that others should heed.

I'll have to go read the whole piece at WSJ.

Who says big business doesn't care about workers? Northwest Airlines helps employees prepare for the "financial setback" of being laid off.

"The four-page booklet, "Preparing for a Financial Setback" contained suggestions such as shopping in thrift stores, taking "a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods" and not being "shy about pulling something you like out of the trash."
The booklet was part of a 150-page packet to ground workers, such as baggage handlers, whose jobs will likely be cut after their union agreed to allow the airline to outsource some of their work, Blahoski said."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/4119078.html

Pat C.,
Lou Dobbs op-ed this morning resonates with that, I expect the American people to get creative to survive these idiots. I was totally unaware that all clothing is apparently brought into the country, I was aware courtesy of John Edwards that the textile industry was gone. (I'm obvisiously not a fashion maven). I really feel it's going to get back down to the community level for survival. The area I live in has experienced Loma Prieta in 89, two El Nino's and the people here are community centric. Gas prices at the cheap place $3.45, I am seeing more motorcycles and bicycles about, oh yeah, and horses, no kidding. Bartering is alive and well.

Morgana, I never thought Lou Dobbs would be a hero of mine, but he is. He has tackled the voting machines as well, as the outsourcing of all our industry. Not only is the textile industry almost all gone, but also the funiture industry. They are selling technology, and ports, and are now trying to sell the air transportation. It goes on and on. I saw this beginning during the Reagan administration. I hope people will pay close attention to the ownership of their water supply. That's in the works too.

So Ceres may become a planet, Charon, Pluto's moon a planet ? Hmm... how interesting.

Oh, and he's also calling the 911 story put forward by the administration, a lie.

Hey Pat C, how's is your Senator's racist remarks playing in Virginia ?

geeze I need to quit trying to type today. I apologize, how is it playing ?

I don't know Morgana, it probably depends on who you ask. Virginia has a split personality. He and his buddies came close to bankrupting the State. Mark Warner save the economy.

Olberman on MSNBC powered by MSN Video and thought you might be interested in it.

Click this link

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=3b35792a-ca91-4efb-a461-1d0be4e4368a&f=00&fg=email

This Angelides thing, Morgana, is a big bummer. Not long ago, as I recollect, we were taking comfort in Ahhhhhhhhhnold having Saturn going across his ascendant. Now, look at this mess! Ahhhhhhhhnold's support among the wealthy DINOs is fascinating, too. They're from the Leona Helmsley branch of the DINO Party. They don't want to pay taxes like us little people do (proportionately, I mean). I think I'm going to go back under the bed for a while.

But not before I post this.

Another Repug krisschun in deep doo doo. (Weird Oroweat ad in the middle, though.)
http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1155696925214750.xml&coll=7

What goes around, comes around...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15401689.htm

Plame lawyer plans to force Cheney, Rove testimony

LOS ANGELES, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A lawyer plans to use a legal precedent that allowed President Bill Clinton to be sued while in office to force Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove to testify in a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband.

California attorney Joseph Cotchett said he will ask a federal court to order Cheney, his ex-chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Rove to testify in depositions about their role in disclosing her classified status.

...

Cotchett, who took over as trial counsel in Plame's case on Tuesday, said legal precedent for whether Cheney and the others could claim legal immunity in the case comes, in part, from Paula Jones' sexual harassment case against Clinton.

...

Cotchett, a longtime Democratic Party supporter and legal adviser, is best known for winning a $3.3 billion jury verdict in a case involving the failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan in the 1980s.

Court documents show that Cheney has hired Emmet Flood, a lawyer from Clinton's impeachment defense team, to represent him in the Plame case.

Can we use the "K" word on this one, NEOB? (As in 'Karma').

Here's a wonderful list. Remember, whenever possible to Buy American (and keep jobs here in the USA):
http://www.apparelsearch.com/america.htm

How ironic that Cheney, who with his party, pushed for Clinton's impeachment on moral grounds must now turn to the very same legal counsel Clinton hired to defend himself, and that the same precedent the GOP established to strike at Clinton is now being used against them.

My question, however is why does Cheney need one of Clinton's lawyers? Surely, the GOP, Halliburton and Big Oil have enough of their own, right?

Does Cheney finally realize for the first time that his actions do have very real consequences, and that political opportunism does come at a price? A man so confident in the correctness of his actions would not suddenly turn to the counsel of an adversary for help. Cheney is in big, big trouble.

If you haven't seen "Who Killed the Electric Car," I recommend you see it. Very, very good film. I know it probably doesn't have wide release but I guess it will be out on DVD in the next few months. Another good one coming out is "The US vs. John Lennon"....a very relevant and timely anti-war statement.

Mexico's Partial Vote Recount Confirms Massive and Systematic Fraud (surprise, surprise)

--

Mexico’s Partial Vote Recount Confirms Massive and Systematic Election Fraud
With Less than 9 Percent of Precincts Recounted, More than 126,000 Votes Are Found to Have Been Disappeared or Illegally Fabricated

By Al Giordano
Part V of a Special Series for The Narco News Bulletin
August 14, 2006

Finally, the hard numbers are starting to come in. In the “partial recount” of paper ballots from the July 2 presidential election in Mexico, ordered by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (known as the Trife), the recount has been completed in 10,679 precincts of the 11,839 ordered by the court (about 9 percent of Mexico’s 130,000 precincts). From these precincts, Narco News has obtained the following preliminary numbers that confirm the massive and systematic electoral fraud inflicted on the Mexican people:

In 3,074 precincts (29 percent of those recounted), 45,890 illegal votes, above the number of voters who cast ballots in each polling place, were found stuffed inside the ballot boxes (an average of 15 for each of these precincts, primarily in strongholds of the National Action Party, known as the PAN, of President Vicente Fox and his candidate, Felipe Calderón).
In 4,368 precincts (41 percent of those recounted), 80,392 ballots of citizens who did vote are missing (an average of 18 votes in each of these precincts).
Together, these 7,442 precincts contain about 70 percent of the ballots recounted. The total amount of ballots either stolen or forged adds up to 126,282 votes altered.
If the recount results of these 10,679 precincts (8.2 percent of the nation’s 130,000 polling places) are projected nationwide, it would mean that more than 1.5 million votes were either stolen or stuffed in an election that the first official count claimed was won by Calderon by only 243,000 votes.
Among the findings of this very limited partial recount are that in 3,079 precincts where the PAN party is strong and where, in many cases, the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) of candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not count with election night poll watchers, one or more of three things occurred: Either the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE, in its Spanish initials) illegally provided more ballots than there are voters in those precincts, or the PAN party stole those extra ballots, or ballots were forged.

“Taqueo and Saqueo”

These preliminary recounts demonstrate mainly two kinds of fraud: “taqueo,” or the stuffing of ballot boxes with false votes as if putting extra beans inside a taco, and “saqueo,” or “looting,” that is, the disappearance of legitimate ballots cast.

A significant problem, now, for Mexican democracy (for those who claim that the election was fair, and also for those who view this evidence as proof of electoral fraud) is that there is no way to tell, inside each ballot box, which of the ballots were legal and which were not; nor which ballots were stolen and which were not.

In some past post-electoral disputes for state and local offices, the Trife electoral court has opted, based on this kind of evidence, to annul the results from those precincts where stuffing or looting occurred.

If the Trife follows the law and its own established precedents, and annuls the results in these 7,442 precincts where the fraud took place, it would reverse the official results and López Obrador would emerge the victor by more than 425,000 votes nationwide.

Specifically, Calderón would lose 1,225,326 votes from his tally, while López Obrador would lose just 556,600; a difference of 668,726. When factoring in IFE’s claim that Calderón has a more than 243,000 vote advantage, López Obrador would still win the election by those 425,000 votes plus some.

In other words, if the Supreme Electoral Court determines that only half of the problematic precincts are to be annulled, López Obrador would still be declared the presidential victor. To continue to impose Calderón, at this point, would require the court’s endorsement of results from at least 4,000 precincts that the recount has demonstrated were scenes of the electoral crimes of ballot-stuffing and ballot-theft. By failing to annul those precincts, the court would, in effect, annul the legitimacy of the Mexican State, lighting the fuse on a social conflict much larger than anything that has yet occurred in the wake of the fraudulent election.

The Clock Is Ticking

The Trife court has a constitutional deadline of August 31 to complete its computations and of September 6 to either declare the presidential winner or, alternately, to annul the elections. The court has very broad and absolute power to annul up to 20 percent of the precincts without annulling the entire election (annulment would mean that Congress would choose an interim president and new elections would be called within two years). If the Trife annuls more than 20 percent of the precincts, the entire election would have to be annulled.

López Obrador and his supporters have demanded a full recount of all precincts: “Vote by vote, precinct by precinct.” And, indeed, the results of the partial recount strongly suggest that a full recount would demonstrate that they won the election. As the tension has risen, and the deadlines approach, López Obrador supporters maintain a 12-mile encampment in downtown Mexico City, have symbolically closed government office buildings, held mass marches with millions of protesters, maintained encampments outside of IFE offices throughout the country, and this past week began “takings” of toll booths on federal highways, allowing motorists to pass through without paying.

López Obrador has already announced that if the Trife tries to impose Calderón, there will be “civil resistance” at the halls of Congress on September 1, when President Vicente Fox must give his annual State of the Union address, and that on Mexico’s national Independence Day, September 15, when the president traditionally leads the “cry of pain” from the Mexico City Zocalo, the opponents to the electoral fraud will displace Fox with a cry of their own.

Many observers viewed the Trife court’s initial rejection of a full recount as a reflection of the court’s own bias and willingness to impose Calderón as president at any cost. Others believe that the electoral court’s own established precedent of annulling precincts where ballot stuffing or theft occurred puts it in a position of having to annul those 7,442 precincts (almost six percent of all precincts nationwide), reversing the results of the election. Also, recently, one of the justices of the nation’s Supreme Court suggested in public that if the Trife doesn’t or can’t establish certainty over the result, the highest court may then intervene. In other words, September 6 might not be the final date of the legal conflict over this very tarnished election.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1914979

Pat C. You're from Virginia!!?? Hey!! I am a Virginian born and raised. My ancestors came in at Jamestown...not to mention the ones who were here to greet them.

Patricia

Patricia, I sent you an e-mail. ;-)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/claustrophobia-not-terrorism-grounds-flight/2006/08/17/1155407916000.html

Have you guys heard this?

Greetings from Tucson
Lynda

Hey Lynda! Hope your travels are going well!

The administration and a lot of the media are finally beginning to jump the shark of the scare tactics. The poor woman. It's just not sane to get a military escort to a differnent airport for a panic attack at the age of sixty. What a screwed up world this has become.

* Bush is crap, says Prescott - (UK) Deputy PM criticises US handling of Middle East, condemning 'cowboy' [rez] at private mtg

John Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the [rez rezidency], summing up [bushadruggie's regime] in a single word: crap.

The Deputy PM's condemnation of bush & his approach to the Mid East could cause a diplomatic row but it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's backing of the US over the bombing of Lebanon. ... http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1219716.ece

Neo...California attorney Joseph Cotchett said he will ask a federal court to order Cheney, his ex-chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Rove to testify in depositions about their role in disclosing her (Plame) classified status.

Joe Cotchett is terrific...I am surprised that more people don't know who he is .....his daughter and son were friends of my daughter's years ago. So I did pay attention and found that he has hosted pretty much any important dem. fund raising for anyone in the dem party statewide (and nationally). Nice man, too. He was my hero just for putting that excreable Charles Keating behind bars (John McCain was his 'boy'). BTW, Neo, since you are in PHX, check out theresort Keating build there just off Scottsdale Rd/Camelback...forgot the name of it...a photographer friend took me on a tour to show the 24K gold plated carriage lamps which line the extensive drives there. All complements of the S&L loan money of widows and children.

Seems to me that the powers that be definately want Angilides to lose. Has anyone seen the ads of Arnold's brown boots? Weird presenting him as our factory working daddy here to keep us safe and provide for us. I wonder if this is working.
I feel like throwing up.
Lou Dobbs is a mean populist who made fun of Randi Rhodes and who is racist in his intent. I agree with his populist concerns but I refuse to believe that only xenophobia and bigotry can address them.
As I have said before what I hear brewing is heartbreaking to me. This weeks Nation is all about this.
God help us! Literally!! Will we never learn? I don't care if my grandchildren are brown and I don't care if my great grandchildren speak Spanish and English. I care deeply if they live in a country with concentration camps.

Amen, Clymela.

As today is my birthday, please excuse this surely 'politically incorrect' enquiry that (since I live in Warsaw, Poland and don't use credit cards) if any of you astrologers feel like taking the time to mail me pro bono any astro-info about my current/future situation, I would be most appreciative (Aug 17, 1948 5:55 a.m. N.Y.C.). Thanks in advance.

Journalist beaten up by Chicago's finest...

http://www.davidicke.com/content/view/2749/48/

America is not free.

America is not a democracy.

NAFTA + CAFTA = HAFTA relocate to work. I don't think Bush et al are putting forward a good plan for people. If you have to change countries to work, you have been displaced at the will of the corporate elite who are making money off of your sweat, hand over fist. The poor are being exploited in unimaginable ways, and if you think the middle class of all countries are unimportant, it might be a good idea to take another look. They have been the backbone of individual freedoms.

Sadly, the ruling class have always been able to sell their tricks to the people who are least served. They have people fighting over racism when it is all about profits.....for them.

Good read here--Mexican recount results:
http://narconews.com/Issue42/article2010.html

Keep in mind, late last week there were Mexican emissaries in the US visiting and conferring with the Bush administration. They held a press conference and I listened to it on C-Span in the car. They represented the right wing “winner” and referred to some members of the Bush administration as “players” in the situation.

This is a global effort, made easier by technology, for global domination of international corporations.

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

Pat QOPPP, I hope you can get this story. It's too long to post.

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/08/17/roberts/

Rent-a-coup

In 2004, a mix of rich white men and mercenaries attempted to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. Why? Greed -- and boredom.

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Grizzly. Happy birthday to you.

And many more!

Is it Grizzly's birthday???

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRIZ!

Happy Happy Birthday to you Grizzly, one of the truly great voices of Astroworld's e-family. And many many more. Just as a side note, how is Poland's economy? I've heard that area of the world is booming nowadays.

Anyway, enjoy your day and make it your own!
namaste
G

Grizley,

Happy, Happy birthday! I wish you love, good health, peace, prosperity, joy, good friends, and whatever your heart desires today and every days of your life.

Celebrate your day in whatever way your choose. The world is a better place because you are here.

Sharon

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0633,murphy,74181,5.html

Waiting for Reinforcements

The fighting won't end: Gearing up for another wave of homeless vets

On the first Tuesday in August, Thomas Mullifield, who fought with the Army in Vietnam from 1964 to 1967 and struggled with alcoholism in the 1990s, was engaged in another battle—against the overheated, leaden air filling the residence that he and 149 other vets call home on Commonwealth Avenue in the Bronx. It was the first day of the big heat wave, and Mullifield, with a donation check freshly deposited, was trying to track down air conditioners for the New Era shelter. He found some at a Home Depot in Mount Vernon. Victory.
The rest of the $62,000 (a gift from the New York State Association of Electrical Contractors and IBEW Local 3) was already earmarked for new furniture. But who knows where the cash would come from for a new paint job on the New Era Veterans residence or for the other projects that Mullifield, who works as veterans services director there, wants to tackle at the 13-year-old shelter? "It's unending," he says. So is demand. The waiting list to get into the facility usual holds 30 to 35 names of men and women (there are eight ladies in the residence now) who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and periods in between. The logjam is a fact of life, Mullifield knows.

But what bothers him are the phone calls he's been getting lately—four or five a week—about Iraq or Afghanistan vets who have no place to stay. None live at New Era yet; they have to go through the city shelter system first. But the fact that they are out there, just as he once was, pisses him off. "I can't see a young kid going through what I went through," he says.

More...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1843263,00.html

Websites That Changed the World

Happy Happy Grizzly,

For Morgana et al,
Here is the 'take back the streets' party I went to a few weeks ago. The Village Voice wrote an article about it. Who knew (ala Rummy) I was participating in something historical; it was just the most amazing unique experience. Google 'One Night of Fire' to get more photos. NYC is on fire creatively.

http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0632,tudor,74101,15.html

Federal judge orders end to wiretap program
Says governments listening in without warrant is unconstitutional

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14393611/

Oh my the GOP is having a very bad day, and loved the British Deputy PM calling him PUCKY much more succinctly.... I'm doing a little jig today just for the sheer joy of it.

Happy Birthday Grizzly! Celebrate, celebrate !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4796909.stm

Water shortage 'a global problem'
By Imogen Foulkes

August 16, 2006 at 11:12:27

HILLARY CLINTON: IS SHE THE NEXT PRO-WAR DEMOCRAT TO FALL?

by Randolph T. Holhut

http://www.opednews.com

DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Joe Lieberman's sorry hide has been nailed to the wall, and there is rejoicing in the land (except from the lobbyists, pundits and political hacks who make up the permanent occupation force of Washington).

And while I am pleased to see a discredited, humiliated Lieberman forced to cast his lot in with his friends in the Republican Party, I won't be completely convinced that the revolution is here until Hillary Clinton's hide is nailed to the wall beside Joe's.

The conventional wisdom is that Lieberman lost because he consistently supported the Bush administration on the Iraq war. But that isn't the sole reason why Lieberman lost to Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Democratic Primary.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_randolph_060816_hillary_clinton_3a_is_.htm

WV, r: "HILLARY CLINTON: IS SHE THE NEXT PRO-WAR DEMOCRAT TO FALL?", we can only hope!

August 13, 2006 at 11:22:30

The Cult of the Antichrist

by Eileen Fleming

http://www.opednews.com

See this page for links to articles on OpEdNEws that articulate both sides on the issues in the middle east. It is the goal of OpEdNews to air opinions from both sides to stretch the envelope of discussion and communication. Hate statements are not accepted. Discussions of issues and new ideas for solutions are encouraged. .
The way to protect the USA from the violence and mayhem in the Mid East from revisiting our shores is to truthfully deal with the immorality of trusting in weapons of destruction to change hearts and minds. What is needed is imagination and intelligent leadership that reflects upon what we have done wrong and courageously seeks to right it.

The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_eileen_f_060813_revision_3a_the_cult_o.htm

I am doing a phone blitz on my friends in NY
NOT to vote for her.

OpEdNews.com

Original Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_nbc_news_060813_nbc_news_3a_bush_white.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 13, 2006

NBC News: Bush White House Pressured British Authorities To Arrest Suspects Last Week

By NBC News

NBC News
Updated: 7:13 p.m. ET Aug 12, 2006

LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.

British wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says

OpEdNews.com

Original Article at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__060816_another_view_of_uk_t.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 16, 2006

ANOTHER VIEW OF UK TERROR PLOT

By Allen L Roland

" In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more propaganda than plot. Of the over one thousand British Muslims arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. That is simply harrassment of Muslims on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Be skeptical, be very skeptical:" Craig Murray

I have learned to be very skeptical about anything the Cheney/Bush administration announces ~ particularly when it's in deep trouble with a failed war in Iraq along with immense voter dissatisfaction in the polls and a mid -term election in the near future.

It was with that in mind that I read Craig Murray's analysis of the recent UK terror plot ~ which both Bush and Blair are fully politically exploiting in an attempt to repair their severely and rightfully damaged images as war criminals.

As Britain's outspoken Ambassador to the Central
Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, Craig Murray helped
expose vicious human rights abuses by the
US-funded regime of Islam Karimov. He is now
a prominent critic of Western policy in the region.

Here's his recent take on the terror plot.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_allen_l__060816_another_view_of_uk_t.htm

You GO, WV--we need to get her out of there!!!

And re Lieberman, Daily Kos posted a piece earlier today that said he's gained Rethug support in CT to offset his Dem loss and he may still be able to win as an indy.....not good news, but check it out.....

What we know and don’t know about 9/11

Paul Craig Roberts

08/16/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- I received a number of intelligent responses from readers of my August 14 column, “Gullible Americans,” The letters deserve a reply. Moreover, some contain important points that should be shared with a wider audience. Pundits such as myself are not the only people who have interesting things to say. Considering the number of letters and the time it would require to respond individually, I am replying instead in this column.

Most readers from whom I heard understand the difference between loyalty to country and loyalty to a government. They understand that to support a political party or a government that is destroying the US Constitution and America’s reputation in the world is, in fact, an act of treason. Therefore, I did not have to read the usual drivel about how doubting “our government” is un-American.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14566.htm

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last update - 09:52 17/08/2006
Talking only to ourselves
By Daniel Ben Simon

I am trying to recall when I last saw Israeli leaders talking with Arab leaders about peace, and finding it hard to remember. In recent years, our compulsive tendency to talk to ourselves about an agreement with the Arabs has been strengthening, as though the real conflict in the Middle East were between the right and the left. The fruitless discussions between these two tired bodies have had two goals: to neutralize any possibility of change and to freeze the reality on the ground, for fear that any step toward peace will ignite a domestic war among the Jews. And if we are already fated to go to war, say our architects to themselves, it is better to have a war against the Arabs. It is torturous to think that had similar diplomatic energy been invested vis-a-vis Palestinian leaders, Lebanese leaders and Syrian leaders, perhaps everything would look different. Perhaps we would even be living in peace with them.

Is it possible that the miserable war in Lebanon and the endless slaughter in Gaza are an outcome of the lack of willingness to talk with our neighbors? When was the last time we tried to talk to the Palestinians about their future and about our future? When was the last time we sent out probes to the Lebanese about signing a peace agreement with them? When was the last time we tried to renew the truncated negotiations with the Syrians about the possibility of arriving at a peace agreement?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=751458

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

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Last update - 13:12 17/08/2006
Meanwhile, in Gaza
By Gideon Levy

The Gaza Strip has been completely closed to Israeli journalists for the last two months or so, since soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted. Not that hordes of these journalists have been gathering en masse at the Erez border crossing. Israel has been engrossed in another war, and even during normal times, it averts its gaze from what goes on in Gaza. However, the Israel Defense Forces has been operating quite energetically there recently, with no Israeli eyes keeping track of what it is doing. This week, as if with the wave of a magic wand, the media closure was lifted − which, it should be noted, is to the credit of the IDF.

A visit after this "forced vacation" reveals what one can see in Gaza, but also what one cannot see. The worst fears have proved false. We did not see scenes of horrifying mass destruction. Nor, contrary to our expectations, did we spot any signs of Nasrallah: no posters in the streets and no demolished neighborhoods, at least not in the northern or central Gaza Strip.

We did, however, see quite a lot of rubble, some inexplicable, such as the ruins of a once-flourishing sewing factory owned by Ahmed Abed al-Jawad, who makes garments for the Israeli fashion industry and has a "Jewish mentality," by his own definition. He employed 70 workers in the Muazi refugee camp, in the heart of the Gaza Strip. The bulldozers cruelly buried his life's work, and half a million shekels, he says, went down the drain.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=751458

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

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Last update - 18:49 17/08/2006
It's 'not an easy country to live in,' Olmert tells 520 new olim
By Daphna Berman and Amiram Barkat

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert greeted some 520 North American and British immigrants yesterday, applauding their resolve to move here just days after the month-long war ended and a fragile cease-fire went into effect.

In a welcoming ceremony at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Olmert admitted that life in Israel can be difficult, but insisted that immigration was key to ensuring the future of the State of Israel.

"We are not an easy country to live in and if you don't know it yet, you'll find out soon," the prime minister said. "There are many difficulties and many challenges, but this is our only home."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=751458

wv, please post the "Meanwhile, in Gaza" article. You have the same link for all 3 articles so I went to Haaretz and found the Olmert one but couldn't find the Levy column.

Thanks.

From the Magazine section

Meanwhile, in Gaza

By Gideon Levy

The Gaza Strip has been completely closed to Israeli journalists for the last two months or so, since soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted. Not that hordes of these journalists have been gathering en masse at the Erez border crossing. Israel has been engrossed in another war, and even during normal times, it averts its gaze from what goes on in Gaza. However, the Israel Defense Forces has been operating quite energetically there recently, with no Israeli eyes keeping track of what it is doing. This week, as if with the wave of a magic wand, the media closure was lifted − which, it should be noted, is to the credit of the IDF.

A visit after this "forced vacation" reveals what one can see in Gaza, but also what one cannot see. The worst fears have proved false. We did not see scenes of horrifying mass destruction. Nor, contrary to our expectations, did we spot any signs of Nasrallah: no posters in the streets and no demolished neighborhoods, at least not in the northern or central Gaza Strip.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/751776.html

Happy belated birthday Grizzly.

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2006
Breaking the law has consequences

My overall analysis of today's extraordinary federal court decision on the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program is in the post below, here. I also have an article up at Salon summarizing the importance of this ruling, here. But I wanted to emphasize in a separate post what I think is one of the most important consequences of today's events.

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (.pdf), the Supreme Court -- as Marty Lederman was the first to note -- rejected the Bush administration's principal defense for its violations of the Geneva Conventions not only with regard to military commissions, but generally. By holding that Common Article 3 of the Conventions applies to all detainees, and a failure to treat detainees in compliance with Common Article 3 constitutes "war crimes," the Supreme Court effectively found that Bush officials have authorized and engaged in felony violations of the War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. sec. 2241), which makes it a federal crime to violate war treaties such as the Geneva Conventions. That is why the administration is busy at work trying to change that law so as to retroactively legalize their conduct -- because the Supreme Court all but branded them war criminals, and the consequences of that can be severe.

And now, a federal court in Michigan -- the first to rule on the legality of the President's NSA program -- just rejected all of the administration's defenses for eavesdropping in violation of FISA, effectively finding that the administration has been engaged in deliberate criminal acts by eavesdropping without judicial approval. And as I documented previously, Hamdan itself independently compels rejection of the administration's only defenses to its violations of FISA. Eavesdropping in violation of FISA is a federal crime, punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine (50 U.S.C. 1809).

More...

Lebanon's pain grows by the hour as death toll hits 1,300

By Robert Fisk

Across Lebanon, they are systematically lifting the tons of rubble of old roofs and apartment blocks and finding families below, their arms wrapped around each other in the moment of death as their homes were beaten down upon them by the Israeli air force.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14589.htm

===
From Mania to Depression

By Uri Avnery

The brain-washing by the military commentators and the ex-generals, who dominated the media at the time, has turned the foolish--I would almost say "criminal"--operation into a rousing victory parade. The decision of the political leadership to stop it is now being seen by many as an act of defeatist, spineless, corrupt and even treasonous politicians.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14600.htm

"Look What You've Done!"
AIPAC Congratulates Itself on the Slaughter in Lebanon
By JOHN WALSH

"My fellow American," Howard Friedman, President of AIPAC, begins his letter of July 30 to friends and supporters of AIPAC, "Look what you've done"! After warning that "Israel is fighting a pivotal war for its life," by which he means Israel's wanton slaughter and all-out destruction in Lebanon, Freiedman condemns "the expected chorus of international condemnation of Israel's actions" and Europe's call for "a cease-fire immediately." Then he exults: "only ONE nation in the world came out and flatly declared: Let Israel finish the job. . That nation is the United States of America--and the reason it had such a clear, unambiguous view of the situation is YOU and the rest of America Jewry." (All emphases in the original here and below.) Here I must take issue with President Friedman since I bet that most Jewish Americans, in contrast to the AIPAC crowd, were horrified by the slaughter in Lebanon. In fact if anyone other than President Friedman wrote this, he would be accused of fabricating a Jewish plot and labeled a nutty conspiracy theorist and scurrilous anti-semite.)

http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh08162006.html

The Day After / How we suffered a knockout:

Bint Jbail will turn into a symbol of the second Lebanon war. For the Hezbollah fighters it will be remembered as their Stalingrad, and for us it will be a painful reminder of the IDF's defeat.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750990.html

===
Now recriminations begin in Israel:

The failure of the Lebanon campaign may destroy the Kadima party and its leader

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2316298,00.html

===
World Council of Churches: Israel planned to destroy Lebanon:

Israel's assault on Lebanon was planned even before Hizbullah attacked and was aimed at driving a wedge between the different faiths that have been living in harmony in the country, a delegation from the World Council of Churches said on their return from a visit to Beirut and Jerusalem.

http://tinyurl.com/m4xho

The real threat we face is Blair

By John Pilger

08/17/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- If the alleged plot to attack airliners flying from London is true - remember the lies that led to the invasion of Iraq, and to the raid on a "terrorist cell" in east London - then one person ultimately is to blame, as he was on 7 July last year. They were Blair's bombs then; who doesn't believe that 52 Londoners would be alive today had the Prime Minister refused to join Bush in his piratical attack on Iraq? A parliamentary committee has said as much, as have MI5, the Foreign Office, Chatham House and the polls.

A senior Metropolitan Police officer, Paul Stephenson, claims the Heathrow plot "was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale". The most reliable independent surveys put civilian deaths in Iraq, as a result of the invasion by Bush and Blair, above 100,000. The difference between the Heathrow scare and Iraq is that mass murder on an unimaginable scale has actually happened in Iraq.

By any measure of international law, from Nuremberg to the Geneva accords, Blair is a major prima facie war criminal. The charges against him grow. The latest is his collusion with the Israeli state in its deliberate, criminal attacks on civilians. While Lebanese children were being buried beneath Israeli bombs, he refused to condemn their killers or even to call on them to desist. That a ceasefire was negotiated owed nothing to him, except its disgraceful delay.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14590.htm

Lieberman, and the Clintons will begin having credibility issues at about the same time, the end of September. Bill will have Saturn Square his Moon (People turn against him and he will be very sad) Hillary has her second Saturn Return and it will square her Mercury (foot in mouth, if she were less popular in NY she would lose because of it) Lieberman has a Saturn Square his Saturn and going right on to square his Mars. Saturn transits are brutal on popularity people just won't overlook your foibles. Between the three of them Bill Clinton has the best chance to emerge unscathed because we believe he's done his worst and we still like him even after judging him, so there will be more latitude for him. I also would not rule out health problems for him, exhaustion at the very least, Hillary too. But Saturn on their planets will be a real drag and the public will respond to their negativity, especially Joe.

Thanks everyone for your kind words and birthday wishes! Garry: Yes, Poland's economy is doing very well, but unfortunately only a small percentage of people are really benefitting. There seems to be a higher percentage of homeless people and derelicts on the streets each month which is really a shame.

There is no significant social safety net here, and as (unlike the U.S.) there is also no tradition of a strong stable (pre Bushco.) middle class, so from my point of view it is fast becoming a two class society.

That post above was from me, Grizzly. Overtired and underslept again, I guess.

OK, is it incompetence or have they gone quite mental?
"Seymour Hersh: U.S. Helped Plan Israeli Attack, Cheney "Convinced" Assault on Lebanon Could Serve as Prelude to Preemptive Attack on Iran"

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/14/1358255

August 17, 2006, 6:00 pm
Shame
By Yossi Klein Halevi, Israel
Conversation among Israelis these days revolves around two subjects: military defeat and political scandal. While those subjects seem unrelated, they are in fact inextricable. And in the coming weeks the connection between them will become increasingly clear to the public. It is gradually seeping in here that Hezbollah won this phase of the war. We set out a month ago with three goals: to free our kidnapped P.O.W.’s, to remove the Iranian terror enclave along our border and to restore something of our shattered deterrence. All three goals failed. The United Nations cease-fire resolution didn’t include the return of our soldiers in its operative clauses – though it did place the fate of the Shebaa farms in those clauses.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah fighters are filtering back to the south and will almost certainly re-establish their strength while the Lebanese army turns away. As for re-establishing Israeli deterrence, this is how the jihadist coalition responded to the cease-fire: Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah declared victory; Syria’s Bashar al-Assad promised war against Israel and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to hit Tel Aviv with missiles if Iran’s nuclear capabilities were attacked.

http://lineoffire.blogs.nytimes.com/

New Moon in Virgo

Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006
12:10pm PDT
0º 31'

When most astrologers speak about Virgo (usually through gritted teeth and with more than a bit of negativity) they use descriptives like perfectionistic, critical, analytical, organized, discriminating, scientific, empirical, and calculating. Well, show me one person who hasn't wished to have any one of these qualities when they were badly needed! In truth, we all express our Virgo side when we strive to be our best. (Which I might add is not such a bad thing.) Sometimes, when referring to Virgo, we are lucky enough to hear astrologers use words like healing, service, sacrifice, and mentoring. Virgo is the healer, the doctor, the nurse, the teacher, the therapist, the worker, the researcher, the scientist, and the engineer. For Virgo, caring comes in the form of finding workable solutions to everyday problems. Virgo is the true healer of the zodiac because for Virgo, if something causes pain, it warrants serious attention and a real cure.

http://www.astrowisdom.com/thisnewmoon.htm

Grizzly

As a belated Birthday gift, here is a trip across
part of America by a single engine plane. Enjoy
the views....

http://silvairehair2.home.comcast.net/072806/

August 18, 2006

I See Stupid White Men. What Makes Them That Way?

By Rob Kall

second article of an undetermined number on my experience working as a volunteer in the coalition for voting integrity booth at the county grange fair. My first article was: Grassroots Sweating for Democracy.... and Paper

Last night, I spent some more time at the local grange fair, advocating for state legislation requiring the right to use paper ballots.

Again, I've found that men between the age of 25 and 50 are the least likely to be interested, the most likely to have no interest.

I'm a realist. Most of the booths at the grange are aimed at either selling something (home improvements, candy, baked goods, jewelry, cars, power tools, etc.) or they're about agrarian stuff-- animal husbandry, tractors, farming, etc.

But guys over 50 and under 25 show interest. Women show interest, even parents and grandparents carrying babies.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_060818_i_see_stupid_white_m.htm

August 18, 2006

Joke: Surgery on Politicians

By web, the

Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on.

The first surgeon says "I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."

The second responds "Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded."

The third surgeon says "No, I really think librarians are the best; Everything inside them is in alphabetical order."

The fourth surgeon chimes in: "You know, I like construction workers. Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would."

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed:

"You're al wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There are no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable.

Fiore on the enviroment...

http://www.sfgate.com/comics/fiore/

The air photos were marvelous thankyou thankyou

http://donkeyod.blogspot.com/2006/08/wages-wealth-and-politics-by-paul.html

Wages, Wealth and Politics By PAUL KRUGMAN

...so what else is new???

Flight 93 'was shot down'
by ROWLAND MORGAN

23:15pm 18th August 2006

Let's roll: but was Flight 93 shot down?

HeadlinesFlight 93 'was shot down'
The heart-thumping moment came when when passengers on board one of the hijacked 9/11 jets fought back against the ruthless fanatics hellbent on crashing the plane into the heart of America.

Jumping out of their seats to a rallying cry of ‘Let’s roll!’, they charged towards the front of the Boeing 757 and began smashing down the cockpit door to reach the hijackers at the controls.

Amid the desperate commotion, the plane rolled violently from right to left and pitched up and down as the rogue pilots tried to throw the passengers beyond the door off balance. As the struggle continued, the cockpit voice recorder captured the hijackers urgently discussing whether to ditch the plane. ‘Is that it? Shall we finish it off?’ asked one of the fanatics.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=401315&in_page_id=1770

Sound cheneydrunk/bushaholic/methrummy familiar?!? Of course it does...

* Israeli Troops Criticize War Handling
Soldiers Complain Of Short Supplies, Poor Communication, Lack Of Training

Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Lebanon say the army was slow to rescue wounded comrades & suffered from a lack of supplies so dire that they had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas. "We fought for nothing. We cleared houses that will be reoccupied in no time," said Ilia Marshak, a 22 y/o infantryman who spent a week in Lebanon.

Marshak said his unit was hindered by a lack of info, poor training & untested equip. In one instance, Israeli troops occupying two houses inadvertently fired at each other because of poor communication between their commanders. "We almost killed each other,” he said. "We shot like blind people. ... We shot sheep & goats."

In a nation mythologized for decisive military victories over Arab foes, the ["stalemate"] after a 34-day war in Lebanon has surprised many. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/18/world/main1913525.shtml

Oh my word, this fellow's really p.o'd. HAHAHAHA. Geeze what language.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/08/someone-give-george-bush-god-damn.html

Why Do We Hate Them?

By Jason Miller

Western corporate media shamelessly serve the Neocons by perpetuating a virtually endless cycle of hatred and violence. They incite and feed Islamophobia and they fabricate a plethora of false justifications for the malevolent actions of Israel and the United States. But then in a fascist nation, corporations are wedded with the state, militarism is the state's primary focus, scapegoats and enemies are essential, and the function of the Fourth Estate is to provide the propaganda to control the masses.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14603.htm

===
Why Democracies evolve into Dictatorships

By James Cooke

Liberal commentators continue to respond with hysterics or dumfoundedness at the ability of Conservatives to destroy civil liberties while thus far waging three preemptive wars (yes Lebanon is a U.S. war). It should have been clear by now- with the media and Democrats suppressing or supporting the most blatant atrocities engineered by the Republicans- that larger forces are at play.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14605.htm

Imagine a US congresscritter having the courage to put themselves in this type of situation (Mexico):
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/18/10152/5308

Comment
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The power of forgetting
The Daoist ideal of 'sitting quietly' could help us break the cycle of escalating violence

Karen Armstrong
Saturday August 19, 2006

Guardian

Zhuangzi, the great Daoist sage who lived in the 4th century BCE, told an illuminating story about Confucius. One day his favourite disciple Yan Hui triumphantly announced that he could not remember anything Confucius had taught him. "What do you mean?" Confucius asked uneasily. "I sit quietly and forget!" beamed Yan Hui. Instead of being dismayed, Confucius acknowledged that his pupil had surpassed him. The intellect, he explained, could only "tally things up", but the deepest core of the human being, whence enlightenment comes, was vacant and receptive. "The Way is found in emptiness. Emptiness is the mind's fast."
I was reminded of this story last weekend, when I learned with horror that because of the new security restrictions I would not be allowed to take a book on to my flight home from New York. How on earth was I going to "sit quietly" with an empty mind for seven hours? This Daoist ideal is alien to our pragmatic modernity. We are happy to limit our intake of food to achieve bodily health and agility, but the idea of deliberately starving our minds to achieve greater spiritual acuity is repugnant - even frightening. So is the Daoist principle of wu wei (doing nothing). We feel a duty to be active and productive.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1853698,00.html

As usual with the Guardian the comments are great.

Very, very creepy stuff:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/19/6219/49913

I wonder if our tax dollars supported these events.

Whew!!!

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last update - 11:54 18/08/2006
Death to Yuppiestan, or, Nasrallah was right
By Bradley Burston

The largest city in Israel is under attack. And not a moment too soon.

The target of these attacks is the tony metroplex that became, in the boom years of the 1990s, Yuppiestan. It is collectively and culturally the garden-gated ghettos of Tel Aviv and the surrounding center of the country, the long-envied and newly-despised upper middle class Comfort Zone of the Jewish state.

Why the anger? Because of the sense that Yuppiestan sat out this war.

Not a strictly geographical Yuppiestan, but a certain sector of the Israeli population. It is the sense that the youth of the largely secular, largely leftist, largely well-educated, largely well-heeled sections of the center, have for some time been all too happy to let the youth of the rest of the country do their fighting - and their dying - for them.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/752138.html

End of the "Cease Fire"?
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/009472.php

Shylurker-thank you for the link.
And yew I am sure it was "our tax dollars" that supported this event.
I keep ranting that these folks are serious, that they are pure evil and they intend to take over the world and kill 2/3's of us. This does not come from reading too much Rence publications but from years of listening to leftist sources and people who observe from the outside of the establishment.
I don't think that "they" can win-the world is a big place- but I do think they have already done a lot of damage and they will continue.
Look at all rhis hullabaloo over the 10 year old murder of a little girl. What on earth? No word on conditions in Mexico, no pictures from Lebanon. We are being told that the most important thing is sex and pain and murder and the press goes along because they have mortgages.

WV,
Re: Ypur post at 2.52PM

"Liberal commentators continue to respond with hysterics or dumfoundedness at the ability of Conservatives to destroy civil liberties while thus far waging three preemptive wars"
Because it is positively DUMBFOUNDING, that any upright walking being can be so DUMB!
At the local Farmers Market, I just chatted up an OHIO couple, on vacation driving a van full of Ohio Amish.. he wearing a Holiday Inn T shirt. Apparently they get paid to do this & get a vacation as well.
When I expressed disbelief that they were both planning to vote Repug. she put up the wall. " I don't talk politics when I'm on vacation. and walked away.
He at least listened, but blamed the Dems for the loss of civil liberties ( NRA!) He did express a teeny opening of doubt about the recent bomb plot scare; so I tried to support that doubt "gently"; no waynemadsen quotes, or foiled coup in Britian, stories. He is also beginning to have doubts as to the truthiness of the MSM. so I
suggested watching the Deutsch World News Journal
on Link TV, for straightforward news. Then asked if they'd heard about the near melt-down at the Swedish Nuclear Plant Of course not! Another star for German news.I think he might give it a try.
I ddi keep the hysteria at bay, hard to do, & with the small population here don't get much practice.
It's discouraging!!!!!
Oh Pat C I still can't get a salon sponsor to click on. I'm sure it's the way the security preferences are set. When I get chance I will call the guy I bought the iBook from & ask him!
QOP

Pat QOP, if you have my e-mail addy please send me an e-mail and I'll send them to you when I post them here.

BY THE LIGHT OF A BURNING BRIDGE
A Permanent Goodbye to the United States

by
Michael C. Ruppert

© Copyright 2006, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.

“Sometimes you get your best light from a burning bridge” – Don Henley, “My Thanksgiving”

THE LAST APOCALYPSE:
A Future History of Israel
By Bernard J. Shapiro
A new chapter will be published here once a month

I.History | II.The Great Apocalypse

THE YEAR IS 2050 CE
CHAPTER I: HISTORY

http://www.freeman.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/233-Arab-Lies">http://www.freeman.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/233-Arab-Lies>http://www.freeman.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/233-Arab-Lies