This New Moon has the Sun and Moon conj. Mars in Libra and Mercury is in an exact conjunction to Jupiter. I see all this as a lot of hubris (Mercury/Jupiter) and BS (perfect for an upcoming election) Anger (Moon, Sun to Mars) and acting not in one's best interest. The New Moon configuration squares GWB's Saturn and is just past a square to the US Mercury. I think it will be a long two weeks, but I don't think we will have a hard time knowing who to believe. The Mercury/Jupiter with a square from Saturn is going to make it hard to get away with lies. The bloggers will be working overtime the next 2 1/2 weeks. Mercury/Jupiter and Saturn demand the truth, so look for embarrassing outings of lies.

As to Harold Ford, I just read he crashed a Corker fundraiser. I wonder if that isn't a bit of hubris on his part. Good lead in to the next 2 weeks Sally. I'm one of those who hopes we can get the house so we can at least try to stem the destruction going on, but will the dems act like dems?

Sally, thank you for this troubling commentary on our current situation.
I got on line after seeing a small box in the local paper reporting that the US has sent notice to "hundreds of detainees" that they no longer have access to the US courts. That notice hit me harder than all the points i have been crying and yelling about. The utter bleakness of the announcements caused me to hate the fact that Bush, Chaney, Gonzalez and the rest of the disgraceful law makers(breakers) are free to choose what to eat today, free to determine where they will go. They should be in prison or at the very least afraid of every moment, constantly looking over their shoulder in fear of god itself. And to think that we have thrown this all away for $40,000 cars and $2.00 a gallon gas. And to think we have allowed our government to be dismantled and sold to rich, fat pigs because we were too lazy to inform ourselves.

Good article Sally.

Harold Ford is NOT a Liberal by a long shot, more
of a good ole' boy.

I had the exact same reaction you did Clymela, it felt like a stone had hit my heart. I can't help but feel like these are nasty abusive people who are getting a great deal of pleasure out of their fake power. They enjoy torture, enjoy making people suffer, innocent people and if not stopped they will do it to us.

I agree WV, Harold Ford is not a liberal and it would not bother me if he lost. The enemy you know is better than the enemy you don't know. He is a nasty piece of work, maybe that's what comes out of Tennessee in terms of their politicians.

OK, the above post is NOT Clymela's it's Sally. My mistake, I just knew I would do that one day.

I will take Harold Ford versus a Republican any day of the week. Let's don't go overboard. Geez.

Clymeia, I too had that horrid feeling when I saw that article in my paper.

It was also interesting that the SF Chronicle did a little piece on the Green woman running against Pelosi (saying Pelosi is no better than a repub since she is so conservative, while the repub running against her is bleating that Pelosi is a wretched liberal and too dangerous to allow in the Speaker's chair....

There will be more and more pollution of democratic party platforms (re abortion and guns) as more moderates flee the GOP...and sign on as Dems

A poster I made, which hangs over my desk at work, reads: LOOKING FOR MEANING IN ALL THE UNFULLFILLING PLACES: DRUGS SEX POWER CONSUMERISM----MEANING FOUND "CREATIVITY".....Pick any catagory. The people in the USA are hungry for real meaning and thus a cause....If it can get there attention, I believe there will be a groundswell of suprising proportions. And I'm getting a cheer uniform ready....Rah rah ree, kickem in the knee. Rah rah rass....8-)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001471.html

On Nancy Pelosi

from the article...so finally, a dem is getting 'positive' coverage...

Dismissed by her critics as too liberal, too elitist and too lacking in gravitas, Pelosi, serving her 10th term, has proved to be a tough-minded tactician who has led her caucus from the political center and kept the fractious House Democrats in line. Pelosi and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) rarely work together, and the Democrats voted along party lines 88 percent of the time last year -- the most unified voting record in 50 years -- according to a Congressional Quarterly study. By hanging together, the Democrats have thwarted many GOP initiatives, including the centerpiece of Bush's second-term agenda, restructuring Social Security.

BTW, If I was in the financial trouble the USA is in and I had Japan in my back pocket, the next move I would expect is Japan to arm itself through purchases from uncle sam. I've not looked at Japan's chart yet.

Honest, Sally, I was reading the post and was so surprised to see my name and I sat here thinking "I didn't write that. Did I?" I was actually relieved to read on and get it explained.
Nancy Pelosi does not come over well on TV. I think that she is a much better leader than Ried over at the senate. She fights and does seem to remember who sent her. She is however wealthy and privileged and so not one of the "sisters". I really like that she has had five children.
I am so grateful for the support I feel here.

You know, Nancy Pelosi said "I must be doing something right in my job or they wouldn't be after me." That certainly rings true. I don't know if she was born into wealth, however the Kennedys were, but they have always seemed to remember who sent them and why they are there, so perhaps she can get the job done. I've heard her say some things off the cuff that was pretty impressive. She was the first person to use the word "insane" to describe this president.

This ad is difficult to watch but I think effective.

http://claireonline.com/multimedia/ads/MichaelJFox.jsp

I ony wish Nancy Pelosi were consistent about her bravery. Unfortunately she falls apart at times acting as if she's terribly afraid someone might acuse her of something. I'm thinking of her over-the-top comments about Hugo Chavez calling Bush the Devil at the UN. She should have kept her mouth shut rather than jump to the defense of Bush. Let the Republicans defend him - which by the way they didn't do. Rangel did the same thing. Why did they think it was necessary to throw themselves in front of Bush in order to 'save' his face? I don't think they were offended at all although they feigned it well. They were afraid they would be accused of being a Chavez lover, just like they're accused of being Al Qaeda enablers. No Democrat ever gets thanked for kissing Bush ass. Well, maybe Lieberman, but then he's not much of a Democrat is he.

Even Sherrod Brown and Harold Ford voted for the new enemy detainee (torture) bill, in the house. Sad. No, scary. That is the scariest piece of legislation I have seen in my lifetime.

Sally,
The GOP will continue to hold both the House and Senate because they have control of the voting machines. Were it not for these vulnerable machines, Dems(Dums)would be able to claim the seats they rightfully win. The voting apparatus the glaring problem that the Dums can't get their hands and heads around. BTW do you see any chance that Karl Rove will be rendered unable to call shots sometime?

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now we know what we know, why is Blair still in office?

As more evidence of his role in the Iraq debacle emerges, it beggars belief that the Prime Minister hasn't been impeached

Henry Porter
Sunday October 22, 2006

Observer

Over the course of little more than a week, we have learned that civilian casualties so far in the Iraq war may be more than 600,000; that Britain's Chief of the General Staff believes the conflict could break the army apart; that a federal solution to the growing chaos involving the effective dismemberment of the country is being openly discussed in America; that the US Iraq Study Group, headed by Republican grandee James Baker, is recommending that the US military withdraws to bases outside Iraq and seeks Iranian and Syrian help; and that Britain is now the number one al-Qaeda target, partly, it seems clear, as a consequence of events in Iraq.
There should be at least one universal response to this in Britain. Why is Tony Blair still Prime Minister after leading his country into such a disastrous war? Any large company would by now have got rid of a managing director guilty of a mistake on that scale. Any institution you care to name would have done the same. Why is Blair immune from the normal requirements of high office?

Why, instead of being allowed by the cabinet to establish six new policy committees designed to entrench his legacy

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329606902-102273,00.html

US 'arrogant and stupid' in Iraq

Mr Fernandez said failure in Iraq would be a regional disaster

A senior US state department official has said that the US has shown "arrogance and stupidity" in Iraq.

Alberto Fernandez said in an interview with al-Jazeera TV that there was room for "strong criticism" of US policy.

But he added that the situation in Iraq was not just a failure of US policy, but a "disaster" for the region.

His remarks come on a day when US President George W Bush said US troops were changing tactics to deal with the insurgency.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6074182.stm

October 22, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Obama Is Not a Miracle Elixir

By FRANK RICH
THE Democrats are so brilliant at yanking defeat from the jaws of victory that it still seems unimaginable that they might win on Nov. 7. But even the most congenital skeptic has to face that possibility now. Things have gotten so bad for the Republicans that were President Bush to unveil Osama bin Laden’s corpse in the Rose Garden, some reporter would instantly check to see if his last meal had been on Jack Abramoff’s tab.

With an approval rating of 16 percent — 16! — in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Congress has matched the Democrats of 1994 or, for that matter, Michael Jackson during his own version of Foleygate. As for Mr. Bush, he is once more hiding behind children in an elementary school, as he did last week when the monthly death toll for Americans in Iraq approached a nearly two-year high. And where else could he go? Some top Republican Congressional candidates in the red state he was visiting, North Carolina, would not appear with him. When the president did find a grateful campaign mate at his next stop, Pennsylvania, it was the married congressman who paid $5.5 million to settle a lawsuit by a mistress who accused him of throttling her.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/opinion/22rich.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Yes indeed WV why isn't Blair out of there, what is going on in these two countries, including Congress and the MP's? Why do they continue to protect these two? and Who is it that protects these two?

Shannon, if the GOP didn't own the machines GWB would never have been president.

Lunoscura, they ALL seem to take leave of their senses and their mouths on a regular basis. I wondered too why they all rushed to stick up for as Chavez said "the devil"

I know that Harold Ford voted for the torture bill, and that's why I do not trust him as a democrat. I'm not sure anymore who to trust as democrats.

I forgot Shannon, there isn't any "soon" aspects to knock Karl off his perch. About the only hope I can see for right now, is his progressed Moon at 29 Cancer is being squared by this New Moon and Mars right through the elections that could put him off his mark a bit. Saturn has been inconjunct (but now passed) his Mercury so he has been making some mistakes, but not serious ones. The best chance to dump Rove was back in the spring with Fitzgerald's investigation and Saturn oppose Rove's Mars, but Fitzgerald just disappeared and so did Rove's troubles.

Remember that Falcon base ammo dump that got blown up and we said there were no casualties? Well, surprise, surprise, it seems we LIED about that too. LOTS of casualties according to some foreign sources. Granted the one link I'm posting is probably slanted against us. I figure a number somewhere in between is most likely - but not zero casualties.

http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/105534

Even so, it's interesting to read the foreign blogs. We aren't too popular over there it seems.

I think Keith Olbermann may have inspired the media to wake up. I was impressed by Jack Cafferty of CNN recently. He had a special about the upcoming elections including the voting machine problems. It was the first time I saw the mainstream media ever give the story any substantial play. Cafferty spoke very frankly about his disdain for the current crop of leaders. Maybe the media is finally waking up for sure.

Sally, all--
I don't particularly like Ford here either (esp. because his uncle is a well-known psychopath/grifter/thug who was finally removed from office via a bribery sting) but I CANNOT vote Repub, not this time, so I'm going to hold my nose and vote for Ford.

And also, re the voting machines, I remember a posting somewhere on the internet about the voting machines that stated we all should vote Repub on Election Day because the resulting overages and/or ridiculous margins of victory would clearly point out fraud. I don't remember where I read that but it is an interesting thought. Anyone else remember that?

After Pat’s Birthday

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/
Posted on Oct 19, 2006

By Kevin Tillman

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

Revealed: the man who really invented the aeroplane

Tomorrow marks the centenary of a Brazilian's pioneering flight.

By Hugh O'Shaughnessy
Published: 22 October 2006
Forget Orville Wright and his brother Wilbur. Start thinking instead of Alberto Santos Dumont, the Brazilian pioneer aviator and the man who really invented the aeroplane

That is the attitude here in Brazil, as the country prepares to celebrate the centenary tomorrow of the world's first powered flight. On the afternoon of 23 October 1906 in Paris, in front of an expert panel from the Aéroclub de France, the son of a coffee magnate from Sao Paulo took to the air in the 14bis, or 14 Mark II, a marvel of bamboo and piano wire.

Leaving the ground under its own power, the contraption wobbled for 60 metres at a height of 3 metres before landing on its undercarriage and coming to a rather graceless halt. It was to modern eyes an ungainly machine whose 24 horsepower motor was at the rear and whose guiding surfaces stuck out in front. Santos Dumont himself stood upright in a basket sited in front of the wings.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1919121.ece

From Drudge...

MAGAZINE SHOCK: REPUBLICANS WILL HOLD CONGRESS
Sat Oct 21 2006 18:05:12 ET

BARRON'S COVER Survivor!
The GOP Victory

By JIM MCTAGUE

JUBILANT DEMOCRATS SHOULD RECONSIDER their order for confetti and noisemakers, BARRON's claims in their next edition. The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in 12 years -- and perhaps the Senate, as well. Even some Republicans privately confess that they are anticipating the election-day equivalent of Little Big Horn. Pardon our hubris, but we just don't see it.

Our analysis -- based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data -- suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect the Republican majority in the House to fall by eight seats, to 224 of the chamber's 435. At the very worst, our analysis suggests, the party's loss could be as large as 14 seats, leaving a one-seat majority. But that is still a far cry from the 20-seat loss some are predicting. In the Senate, with 100 seats, we see the GOP winding up with 52, down three.

Developing...

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

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ignite22oct22,0,4402778.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Bush's family profits from 'No Child' act
By Walter F. Roche Jr.
Times Staff Writer

October 22, 2006

A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act.

With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and other backers, Neil Bush's company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally.

At least 13 U.S. school districts have used federal funds available through the president's signature education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, to buy Ignite's portable learning centers at $3,800 apiece.

The law provides federal funds to help school districts better serve disadvantaged students and improve their performance, especially in reading and math.

But Ignite does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will not be available until next year.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ignite22oct22,0,1512349,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-senate22oct22,0,6106714.story?coll=la-home-nation

Three states could swing Senate control
In Tennessee and two other closely contested races, candidates court disaffected GOP voters.

By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

October 22, 2006

In his paint-splattered sweatshirt and battered baseball cap, Chris Foust stopped by on his lunch break last week to listen to Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., the Democratic Senate nominee, at a downtown rally.

Foust, a soft-spoken regular churchgoer who worries about illegal immigration and opposes gay marriage, usually votes Republican and backed President Bush in 2004. But he's grown disillusioned with Bush, especially over the Iraq war. And after Ford finished his energetic speech at the noon rally, Foust decided to support him in next month's election.

"He seems like he's an honest guy," said Foust, who works for a commercial painting company. "He seems like he has a genuine concern for people."

Disenchanted, usually Republican-leaning voters like Foust may decide not only the tight Tennessee contest between Ford and Republican Bob Corker, but the battle for control of the Senate as well.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-senate22oct22,0,3216285,print.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

LA TIMES ENDORSEMENTS

Schwarzenegger for Governor

The governor has learned how to work with the Legislature and chart a moderate course for California.
October 15, 2006

AFTER HIS HISTORIC ELECTION in the 2003 recall, followed by some early promise and a disappointing sophomore year, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a solid, pragmatic governor who has steered a moderate course for California. He deserves a sequel.

Wow!
wv's post at 12:21 is a must read.
The Ignite "TROJEN" PURPLE COW"!
If I lived in a state that had purchased them ( TX, VA, NE, see article.........Travieso, Cybear,...............I would contrive a reason to explore it in the classroom for myself and then write about it.
Did anyone else see Larry King's interview with Poopy ( oops I meant to type Poppy.) & Doro; which ran Weds. & again last night?
She is a dead ringer for Laura, looks, mannerisms, W married a girl like "dear old sis"!
SHe has written a bio of dear old daddy.....who hasn't read the WOodword book, thus frustrating Larry;'s efforts to discuss it on air. WHat skillful disciple of Neptune that man is......Is Neptune really Old scrtach, and not Pluto?
QOP

How the House voted to take away your rights
of Habeas Corpus...and to let W arrest you and
throw away the key...

http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_keyvote_member.php?vote_id=3906

How the Senate voted. Remember, all those who
voted for the Bill have failed their Oath of
Office to uphold the Constitution...

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2006-259

Keep track of the ne'er do wells...

http://www.govtrack.us/users/yourmonitors.xpd

wv,
I got an e-mail from Mike Michaud, my Me distric 2 rep. stating that he voted yes, at first BUT NO in the final count. ( I was watching on Cspan......BOTH VOTES, and checked the House website afterward!

After reading this same list one Smirking Chimp, I called Mike's office in BAngor to check.
A VERY INDIGNANT Aide told me that yes he voted yes at first, having been handed the multi-paged bill 5 min. before the vote took place. ( Routine Repug proceedure!) After time to read the bill asnd many indignant calls from constituants, he voted NO in the final vote!
I know Mike, As Dem leader of my town, I have walked in parades with him, I was the ONLY Dem. to show at a town meeting he had set up in our area, so had 2 hours of quality time with his aid & have attended other town meetings, which here in Washinton COunty ME, are intimate enough to be a conversation group with plenty of time to chat.
There is NO WAY THIS MAN endorses torture, the loss of habeous corpus, or is even vulnerable to blackmail!. He favors Impeachment if the climate for success exhisted.
SOMEONE IS RUNNING A DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN ON MIKE! He is as popular with the local repugs, so his reelection should be assured........I don't know who is running against him but I will make it my businewss to find out, because I suspect its the source of this problem!
........I have posted this on SC, guess I better visit some of the other blogs!
QOP

I'll bet most all of you saw the handwriting on the wall when the towers were hit and this incursion into the Middle East began. I haven't gone back to read the archives, but Sally, i'll bet you wrote something very instructive then, something that needs to be revisited. (Is there a way to pull up your posts from that time?)

It's pitiful that we have a choice of Ford or Corker in Tennessese. Both are entirely removed from the electorate by their respective ideologies. In these parts Corker is part of "The Family." Sound like mafioso? It is. Both Corker and Ford are self-interested power brokers.

Pitiful.

karen

POQ

You will note I used two different sources

You can get both the Senate and the House on
this source. Check to see how they listed it.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd

Reflections on the Eve of
Another Rigged Election

Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor
The Crisis Papers
October 17, 2006

The Bush administration can not allow the Democrats to take control of either house of Congress. And they are in a position to prevent it, regardless of the will of the American voters.

These are the two controlling facts that make all other conditions of the coming election trivial in comparison, or even irrelevant. The failure of the media and even the Democratic Party to acknowledge and deal with these facts in no way diminishes their significance. Quite the contrary.

And why can’t the Busheviks allow the loss of even one house of Congress to the Democrats? Such a loss might, of course, result in the halting and even some reversal of the Bush/GOP agenda. But that is the least of their concerns. Far more important would be the reestablishment of Congressional oversight -- of investigations, with the penalties of perjury and contempt of Congress, into vast array of crimes committed by the Bush administration. Among these crimes are bribery, the disappearance of billions of dollars in Iraq, war crimes, the disregard of acts of Congress, lying to Congress, and fraudulent elections. In a new, Democratic, House of Representatives, the incorruptible Henry Waxman, as the new Chair of the Government Affairs Committee, would doggedly examine and expose the corruption of the Bush Administration, and John Conyers, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, would, at long last, energetically investigate the issue of stolen elections. Accordingly, Bush and his partners in crime face far more than a curtailment of power; they face possible indictment, prosecution, and prison sentences for their crimes.

http://www.crisispapers.org/essays6p/rigged.htm

Smirky(psychic/psycho or Diebold stockholder?) "predicts" GOP win in midterms....again!!!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=2594994&page=1

New Moon in Libra
Saturday, October 21, 2006
10:14pm PDT
28º 40'

"I try, in my work, to represent myself as though I am the other. We are the other. "
Orhan Pamuk, 2006 Nobel Prize winner for literature.

Because Libra rules all forms of relating, I believe it might be worth beginning with the most important of all human relationships: our stewardship of this planet. I'd like to quote from an October 8 NY Times science article titled, "An Elephant Crack-up", which highlights humanity's undeniable role in the horrific demise of the all-important social fabric of elephant life; especially among adolescent male elephants that have witnessed first-hand violence against their relatives, and have in response become rampaging killers of humans. "…in Elephant Breakdown, a 2005 essay in the journal Nature, Gay Bradshaw and several colleagues argued that today's elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma. Decades of poaching and culling and habitat loss, they claim, have so disrupted the intricate web of familial and societal relations by which young elephants have traditionally been raised in the wild, and by which established elephant herds are governed, that what we are now witnessing is nothing less than a precipitous collapse of elephant culture… It has long been apparent that every large, land-based animal on this planet is ultimately fighting a losing battle with humankind. And yet entirely befitting of an animal with such a highly developed sensibility, a deep-rooted sense of family and, yes, such a good long-term memory, the elephant is not going out quietly. It is not leaving without making some kind of statement, one to which scientists from a variety of disciplines, including human psychology, are now beginning to pay close attention."

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

What does everyone think about Barack Obama running for President in 2008? I really like him a lot, and think he'll make an excellent President, but I don't know if the American public is ready to have a black in the White House. If he does decide to run, I'll be voting for him. So far, he is the best potential Presidential candidate. My love affair with Hilary has ended. She says whatever it takes to get elected; in other words, I think she puts her ambitions ahead of what's good for the country. I prefer someone with the courage of their convictions; I have seen her do too much back pedaling.

I looked briefly at the placement of Barack's planets (Aug 4th, 1961; no time given), and there were no aspects to the sun, except a square from Neptune, which is kind of worrisome. Of course, since no time was given, I don't know where his midheaven is, or if any planets are in aspect to it. I also didn't look at other Presidents to see if they had strongly aspected suns, or what was the most common denominator in their natal charts that fated them to be Presidents. Maybe Sally could take a more detailed look after the Nov. elections if Barack decides to run.

PatQOP

By Press Release
Rockland Courier-Gazette Endorses Hay Bright (D) In Maine U.S. Senate Race

Citing her strong and consistent support for ending the Iraq war, the Rockland Courier Gazette has endorsed Democrat Jean Hay Bright for U.S. Senate. She is running against Republican incumbent Olympia Snowe

wv,
This is what I found......
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2006&rollnumber=508
Michaud is on the NAys list with the rest of the "good Guys"!
Unless I am not doing it correctly it was the last action before the recess, and it wasn't HR6166, but after going through the senate it became S 3930. OK he vor=ted yes on HR 6166 before it was sent up to the Senate..that's the one he had 5 min. to read before
the vote!
That's how the repugs have been getting away with murder ( literally) last minute oresentation of bills, stealth votes called in the middle of the night.
OK so it's not disinformation, but conspiracy!!!!
Yes Hay Bright is terrific! But I;'m seeing too many Olympia lawn signs & bumper stickers..........
Hay Bright's sign is red, white blue & her name in GREEN! She was a green, but the Maine Gereens were a little clickish, so she switched, which says to me: results are more important than ideology in her value system!
QOP

I have loved the Peaceful Warrior books by
Dan Millman...now the movie...

http://www.myspace.com/thepeacefulwarrior

Denmark 'happiest place on earth'

Must be a Dane.....
If it is happiness you are seeking a move to Denmark could be in order, according to the first scientist to make a world map of happiness.
Adrian White, from the UK's University of Leicester, used the responses of 80,000 people worldwide to map out subjective wellbeing.

Denmark came top, followed closely by Switzerland and Austria. The UK ranked 41st. Zimbabwe and Burundi came bottom.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5224306.stm

From the twilight zone where Bush warps reality on a whim here's the latest talking point: Bush tells Staphanopolous that they've never said 'stay the course'...

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/22/bush-stay-the-course/

Guess who the joke's on:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8493098426180726284&pr=goog-sl

In the video I posted above you can see exactly how easily Bush lies. We know he's lying for a fact so just watch how easily it comes out. How matter of factly and even convincingly he says it. We've seen him lie many many times just like that. Not a flicker of shame or a stutter or anything.

Raj,

remember the article about the Bushes buying land in Paraguay? Here's more, which makes me even more suspicious that they're doing it to escape being prosecuted for their crimes:

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/george-w.-bush/we-hate-to-bring-up-the-nazis-but-they-fled-to-south-america-too-208549.php

[snip]
The Paraguayan Senate voted last summer to “grant U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction.”
Immediately afterwards, 500 heavily armed U.S. troops arrived with various planes, choppers and land vehicles at Mariscal Estigarribia air base, which happens to be at the northern tip of Paraguay near the Bolivian/Brazilian border. More have reportedly arrived since then.

more...

The Next War

By Daniel Ellsberg.

10/22/06 "Harpers" -- -- A hidden crisis is under way. Many government insiders are aware of serious plans for war with Iran, but Congress and the public remain largely in the dark. The current situation is very like that of 1964, the year preceding our overt, open-ended escalation of the Vietnam War, and 2002, the year leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In both cases, if one or more conscientious insiders had closed the information gap with unauthorized disclosures to the public, a disastrous war might have been averted entirely.

My own failure to act, in time, to that effect in 1964 was pointed out to me by Wayne Morse thirty-five years ago. Morse had been one of only two U.S. senators to vote against the Tonkin Gulf resolution on August 7, 1964. He had believed, correctly, that President Lyndon Johnson would treat the resolution as a congressional declaration of war. His colleagues, however, accepted White House assurances that the president sought “no wider war” and had no intention of expanding hostilities without further consulting them. They believed that they were simply expressing bipartisan support for U.S. air attacks on North Vietnam three days earlier, which the president and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had told them were in “retaliation” for the “unequivocal,” “unprovoked” attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on U.S. destroyers “on routine patrol” in “international waters.”

more

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15371.htm

===
Robert Fisk: We've all been veiled from the truth

By Robert Fisk

We are supposed to look through the veil which Lord Blair placed in front of our eyes so that lies will become truth, so that what is true will become untrue. And thus we will be separated from the truth. Which is why Blair himself now represents that "mark of separation". O tempora! O mores!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15375.htm

===

UK gives Iraq 12 months to be ready for handover
· Blair to meet Iraqi leaders in Downing St today
· Former envoy warns that 'only bad options' remain

Patrick Wintour and Michael Howard
Monday October 23, 2006

Guardian

Tony Blair will put pressure on the Iraqi government today to demonstrate that its security forces will be ready to take over from the British army in southern provinces within roughly a year.
Amid mounting international concern over escalating violence, Mr Blair is expected to use today's Downing Street talks with Iraq's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, to discuss plans for an exit strategy for British troops, with some ministers openly contemplating withdrawal inside a year.

In an attempt to demonstrate that the British army will not be bogged down in Iraq indefinitely, the defence secretary, Des Browne, said yesterday he expected that Iraq's security forces would have the capacity within a year to take over from British forces, a point also pushed home by the Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells. Mr Howells said: "I would have thought that certainly in a year or so there will be adequately trained Iraqi soldiers and security forces - policemen and women and so on - in order to do the job."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329607345-103550,00.html

US and Iraq
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scuttling to victory

Editorial
Monday October 23, 2006

Guardian

Americans, Iraqis and many others must have wondered just what George Bush meant in his weekly radio address on Saturday when he insisted: "Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging. Our goal is victory." The president's comments can only be counted as bizarre at a time when concerns about the deteriorating situation have reached a "tipping point" due to a combination of events on the ground in Baghdad, Amara and elsewhere - and the impending decimation of the Republicans in the November 7 Congressional elections. Mr Bush's nonsensical message, a variant of his stock line about "staying the course", is likely to be quickly forgotten. The phrase that will be long remembered is that of Alberto Fernandez, head of public diplomacy at the state department: he told al-Jazeera that US policy in Iraq had suffered from "arrogance" and "stupidity".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329607241-103682,00.html

wv, thanks for the Peaceful Warrior link. What a breath of fresh air for these times.

|> What does everyone think about Barack Obama running for President in 2008?

Yes, Obama can give a rousing speech...but his popularity proves only that liberals are as easily manipulated as their conservative counterparts.

Obama voted with the right-wing lunatics who believed government had a more intimate relationship with Terry Schiavo than did her husband, Michael, and more right to decide her fate than she [her wishes made clear enough to have been upheld by nine different judges].

Obama voted with the corporati on "the bankruptcy bill."

Obama's first order of business after being elected was to personally request that Joe Lieberman be assigned his mentor.

Obama stumped for Lieberman on many occasions, including against Lamont [no fan of his, either. My dream "anti-war candidate" isn't a guy who wasted no time jumping to Israel's defense as they were destroying Lebanon. Lamont insisted "they must defend themselves against Hamas." IMO, Lamont is just another say-anything-to-get-elected pol. I feel ill every time I hear him referred to as "the anti-war candidate"].

from David Sirota: Despite his anti-war positions as a candidate in 2004, Obama's second vote as a U.S. Senator was in support of confirming Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State. He also voted to confirm John Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence, despite Negroponte's involvement in Iran-Contra and other situations that clearly raise questions about his ethics and discretion. Obama also voted for a bill to limit citizens rights to seek legal redress against abusive corporations. During the bankruptcy debate, he helped vote down a Democratic amendment to cap the abusive interest rates credit card companies could charge. And now, Obama cast a key procedural vote in support of President Bush's right-wing judges.

http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/05/whats-happened-to-barack-obama.html

Check out Obama's voting record, and then send it to everyone you know who THINKS they like him. We have no business laughing at those who believe dubya is the second coming if we're just as easily fooled [and equally as foolish]...vcz

JUST SAY NO TO OBAMA!

WELCOME BACK VCZ! I have missed you and your
opinions.

And I couldn't agree with you more. I wrote to
Obama last year telling him how much I liked his
speech at the covention in '04, but that wasn't
enough, and if he had Presidential ambitions it
would take a lot more that Illinois voters to
put him in office. I added that he was too Republican for me, and reminded him that he was
elected as a Democrat.
I don't trust him either. It is his every day
votes that count, and I for one am keeping an eye
on him.
The only politico I trust is Kuchinich. All of
the rest are flawed beyond any support from me.
Especially the Clintons.
We really need more political parties. As Nader
said, there is not a dime's worth of difference
between the two we got. They are both eating from'
the same trough.

I disagree about there not being any difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, although I believe there is corruption in both parties. The Republicans have done away with Habeas Corpus and have eroded our civil rights, which is something the Democrats have not ever done. The Republicans have sactioned torture which is something the Democrats have never done. The Republicans have openned the government to religious fundamentalists, which the Democrats have always fought against, and the Republicans have done away with many social services by simply starving them of funds, whereas the Democrats have never done that.

As bad as the Democrats are, it's more about weakness and being sellouts to corporations and lobbyists, which is bad enough, but they are not identical to the Republicans. When Ralph Nader can name one sitting Democrat who has been accused of pedophilia, rape or voter fraud then I'll start paying attention to him again. I used to admire him but all I see now is that he's a bitter man who paints everyone with the same brush, no matter what

After a voting lifetime of voting Democrat I am voting all Green this year except for Governor where I am voting for Angelides (California). I made this decision as I read through the voter guide and the Green candidates were the only ones who were straight to the point.
Obama gives me the creeps. There is a level of dishonesty about him that seems to curl about him like greasy smoke. And yes for Kuchinich although I never get to vote for him.

The Exodus: 1.6m Iraqis have fled their country since the war

By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 23 October 2006

Iraq is in flight. Everywhere inside and outside the country, Iraqis who once lived in their own houses cower for safety six or seven to a room in hovels.

Many go after they have been threatened. Often they leave after receiving an envelope with a bullet inside and a scrawled note telling them to get out immediately. Others flee after a relative has been killed, believing they will be next.

Out of the population of 26 million, 1.6 million Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5 million are displaced within Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In Jordan alone there are 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a further 450,000 in Syria. In Syria alone they are arriving at the rate of 40,000 a month.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1919327.ece

That would be 20,000,000 Americans if it were happening in this country. Something to think about.

Lunaoscura

Granted the Democrats haven't taken away civil
rights. However Clinton gave away the airwaves,
so that practically all radio and television in
America belongs to six very rightwing companies.
And they can own up to five radio stations in a
market and three TV stations. That was one of the
greatest crimes against America ever as far as I
am concerned.
I listen only to classical music via satellite
and occasionaly NPR when in the car. I listen to
BBC3 often whilst on the computer, or Jazz 100
from Toronto.
Now many of these same companies are trying to
take over the internet. My Democratic congressman
voted against 'net neutrality', so I wrote to him
saying is was obvious he needed Verizion's money
more than my vote.
Bill Moyers show last week was a great eye-opener. Hope you saw it.
I am not a fan of Ralph Nader, but it was his
quote I chose to use.

Some of the stories that make television stations
in the hands of a few a bad idea

http://mediamatters.org/index

WASH POST: DIEBOLD TOUCHSCREEN SOURCE CODE DISCOVERED STOLEN IN MARYLAND!

ALSO: State Report Finds Sensitive Voter Registration Database Vulnerable to 'Across-the-Board Access'

Diebold, State Election Director Lamone Continue State of Denial…

Guest Blogged by John Gideon (with additional snark provided by Brad Friedman)

The Washington Post is reporting in Friday editions that the FBI is investigating the "possible theft" of Diebold electronic touch-screen voting system source code in Maryland.

While the Maryland State Board of Elections admits that the disks contained "the software…used in Maryland in the 2004 elections," Diebold denies everything. Of course. They gave their catch-all apologia — the software is for "versions…that are no longer in use in Maryland" — although they were forced to acknowledge "the version of one program apparently stored on the disks is still in use in 'a limited number of jurisdictions.'"

The disks feature logos from Ciber Inc. and Wyle Labratories, Inc., two labs that test voting machines and software (sort of) for Diebold. Both firms deny the disks are theirs.

According to the article…

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3644

wv,

I can't say I disagree with you at all, as I made clear in my post that I think the Democrats aren't blameless. But I do disagree with Nader about both parties being identical.

And I hope that in our coming revolution, which I hope will be a bloodless one we can rebuild our government with many parties, like they have in France and other countries. The two party system does not represent all Americans, or for that matter most Americans. Our country has changed, so our parties should change to reflect that dynamic.

If We All Vanished Tomorrow

What would *really* happen if all humans disappeared? The Earth grins at the thought

- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, October 20, 2006

Of course you already know. Of course you can merely look out the window and see the traffic and the plastic and the smog and the bad haircuts and the war and the Paris Hilton and the Bush and say, well duh.

But imagine the result anyway. Imagine for a moment that every human on the face of the planet was suddenly whisked away to the divine gurgling ether in one big blast of cheery Armageddon nothingness, all the Bible-waving True Believers carted off to a giant sex-free harp-filled cosmic Wal-Mart while the rest of us leap to the next luminous transformational echelon of timespacelove.

What would happen, really? How would the planet respond if all bipeds disappeared tomorrow?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/10/20/notes102006.DTL&type=printable

This is pertinent to the discussion about Democrats and Republicans, the mess we're in and what must happen to stop it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15371.htm

Gee, I see that I haven't been doing my homework on Obama. Thanks for enlightening me. It's just that when he speaks, he comes across as very balanced, broad-minded, and a person of integrity, and a fighter for the poor, and downtrodden, but I didn't know much about his voting record. I myself do not like Leiberman, never have. Kuchinich was also my first choice in the last election,because I thought he espoused most of the values of the true Democrats, but he never got much support from the Dems, and didn't have a good showing in the Primaries. He needs to be marketed much better (yes, like a product) to increase his popularity with the voters. It's a tough call all around, because you have to be all things to all people, or at least to most people to win; so I agree with the person who says that we need more than two parties, but not sure that will ever happen. I don't forsee it in the near future, so sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, and vote for the lesser of the two evils.

Clymela, that was a rather strong reaction to Obama. What are the reasons?

One more thing I forgot to mention about Obama. I was checking out his bio on Wikipedia, and I noticed that his middle name, which he does not carry, is Hussein; which means that his Kenyan father, might have been Muslim. However, he himself is Christian. I was just wondering why he dropped his middle name.

Crystal, I think it is the shocking way he has voted against all the things that would help real people in their real lives. Like voting against a bill to reel in the usurious interest rates, the voting for the war are two that come to mind but really it is just something I "see" when watching him.
And...the fact that Time, etc. are pushing him-the big money guys like him. That is enough.

I hope she’s wrong too! This is a clip from the weekly forecast at http://www.thecosmicpath.com/index2.htm Do any of you supergreat astrologers agree with her thinking here?

Mundane: Expect the Bush boys to invade Iran. Trigger event on Wednesday. Invasion by the weekend. Cheney and his energy buddies divided up a map of the Middle East oil fields of Iraq and Iran well before 9-11-2001 took place. That Mercury in Scorpio stationing on top of Jupiter in Scorpio is “be afraid, be very afraid” as well as acting on Jupiter in Scorpio plans. As the midpoint of Mercury and Neptune’s station is setting off a pile of stuff, as well as triggering our lovely fixed t-square ~ the energy shoots out into the Taurus leg. Taurus is land! Taurus is value! Taurus is wealth! Valuable earth will be ours! The fixed t-square shoots out into critical points in the charts of both the USA (Sibley July 4, 1776, 5:10 pm Philadelphia, PA) and Iran (proclaimed an Islamic Republic on BBC radio on April 1, 1979, 3:00 pm Tehran, Iran or when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in Paris on Feb 1, 1979, 9:33 am, Tehran, Iran.). I hope I am wrong.

President Plays Down Father's Concerns Over Upcoming Elections

Reuters
Monday, October 23, 2006; A04

President Bush gently admonished his father for saying he hates to think what life will be like for his son if the Democrats win control of Congress in the Nov. 7 election.

"He shouldn't be speculating like this, because -- he should have called me ahead of time and I'd tell him they're not going to [win]," a smiling Bush said during an interview broadcast yesterday on the ABC program "This Week."

It follows the recent release of a book, "State of Denial," by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, which says the 82-year-old former president, George H.W. Bush, was "anguished" over how the Iraq war has played out, although he has dismissed that account.

Earlier this month, the elder Bush was reported to have told the audience at a Republican fundraiser in a Philadelphia suburb that "if we have some of these wild Democrats in charge of these [congressional] committees, it will be a ghastly thing for our country."

He was also quoted as saying, "I would hate to think . . . what my son's life would be like" if their Republican Party lost its majorities.

The two men have rarely appeared together in public in recent years. But they praised each other at the Oct. 7 christening of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier being to be named the USS George H.W. Bush, after the 41st president.

Though the elder Bush has said his job is to stay on the sidelines, that did not stop him from raising a warning about the prospects for a Democratic takeover of Congress.

Asked whether he had thought about the possibility, the president told ABC: "Not really. . . . I'm a person that believes we'll continue to control the House and the Senate."

Polls show Democrats running ahead. They must pick up 15 House seats and six Senate seats to take over Congress.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

No wonder the U.S. and Israeli gov'ts are buddies!
They have so much in common!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1928362,00.htm

The US is a complex adaptive system ripe for change. In "Out of Control" Kevin Kelly writes about what makes systems work or fail. (Not a dry systems book by a long shot!) He summarizes this at the end of the book by writing the "Nine Laws of God". The study is largely based on nature. Here is a link to the summary, six of the laws, and a link to the contents at the bottom.....Maslow said we should study psychologically healthy people and raise our children that way. The concept of copy success. In "Out of Control" Kelly tells us how healthy systems work....................................................http://www.kk.org/outofcontrol/ch24-a.html.................... Distribute being. The spirit of a beehive, the behavior of an economy, the thinking of a supercomputer, and the life in me are distributed over a multitude of smaller units (which themselves may be distributed). When the sum of the parts can add up to more than the parts, then that extra being (that something from nothing) is distributed among the parts. Whenever we find something from nothing, we find it arising from a field of many interacting smaller pieces. All the mysteries we find most interesting -- life, intelligence, evolution -- are found in the soil of large distributed systems.

Control from the bottom up. When everything is connected to everything in a distributed network, everything happens at once. When everything happens at once, wide and fast moving problems simply route around any central authority. Therefore overall governance must arise from the most humble interdependent acts done locally in parallel, and not from a central command. A mob can steer itself, and in the territory of rapid, massive, and heterogeneous change, only a mob can steer. To get something from nothing, control must rest at the bottom within simplicity......................................................................... Maximize the fringes. In heterogeneity is creation of the world. A uniform entity must adapt to the world by occasional earth-shattering revolutions, one of which is sure to kill it. A diverse heterogeneous entity, on the other hand, can adapt to the world in a thousand daily minirevolutions, staying in a state of permanent, but never fatal, churning. Diversity favors remote borders, the outskirts, hidden corners, moments of chaos, and isolated clusters. In economic, ecological, evolutionary, and institutional models, a healthy fringe speeds adaptation, increases resilience, and is almost always the source of innovations.

Honor your errors. A trick will only work for a while, until everyone else is doing it. To advance from the ordinary requires a new game, or a new territory. But the process of going outside the conventional method, game, or territory is indistinguishable from error. Even the most brilliant act of human genius, in the final analysis, is an act of trial and error. "To be an Error and to be Cast out is a part of God's Design," wrote the visionary poet William Blake. Error, whether random or deliberate, must become an integral part of any process of creation. Evolution can be thought of as systematic error management................................... Seek persistent disequilibrium. Neither constancy nor relentless change will support a creation. A good creation, like good jazz, must balance the stable formula with frequent out-of-kilter notes. Equilibrium is death. Yet unless a system stabilizes to an equilibrium point, it is no better than an explosion and just as soon dead. A Nothing, then, is both equilibrium and disequilibrium. A Something is persistent disequilibrium -- a continuous state of surfing forever on the edge between never stopping but never falling. Homing in on that liquid threshold is the still mysterious holy grail of creation and the quest of all amateur gods.

Change changes itself. Change can be structured. This is what large complex systems do: they coordinate change. When extremely large systems are built up out of complicated systems, then each system begins to influence and ultimately change the organizations of other systems. That is, if the rules of the game are composed from the bottom up, then it is likely that interacting forces at the bottom level will alter the rules of the game as it progresses. Over time, the rules for change get changed themselves. Evolution -- as used in everyday speech -- is about how an entity is changed over time. Deeper evolution -- as it might be formally defined -- is about how the rules for changing entities over time change over time. To get the most out of nothing, you need to have self-changing rules................................................................. http://www.kk.org/outofcontrol/contents.php

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003286588

Must-See Video: The Iraq War in 8 Minutes

A new video shot for a London newspaper and the BBC by an embed with the U.S. Army, suggests, in chilling words and images, the absurd position of the U.S. in Iraq, as the people we try to train -- you know, our comrades in arms -- seem more intent on lobbing grenades at us.

Hi folks! Using the 5:13 pm chart of the US I see the US Vertex (gate of destiny) in the 8th hse of cancer at 26*, conjunct the part of fortune and venus. Tr Pluto is in position to quincunx the vertex several times in the coming months. I expect Pluto, at home directing the 8th house to continue facilitating the transformation desiring (venus in 8) for its better good (part of fortune) US.

Tim,

Would you please elaborate on your last post re Pluto facilitating the transformation?

You gotta listen to this guy!!!!!

http://weeklyradioaddress.com

shadowhawk. . .lots of stuff popping on this. Here's another link in addition to the one i posted above http://moderate.wordpress.com/tag/middle-east/iran/

Raven-LOL. Thanks for the link.

Hi Luna, my read on this is: The planets in the 8th transformational house of change are ruled by the moon in aquarius, always feeling good about looking forward and feeling good about reinventing itself. The moon support is constant as a ruler of cancer, but comes in sporadically as the moon quincunxes the venus-part of fortune-vertex conj. N Pluto, in the 2nd hse of values, adds to the jerkiness of it by opposing (teeter totter relationship) the conjs and by being retrograde so the Pluto component is hidden from view. Also Pluto is in capricorn ruled by Saturn in Libra, so the Pluto effect would be one of harmonius but constant transformation. Also Sun, Saturn. and chiron form a T-Square which is relieved in the second hose of values, also ruled by Saturn. This Saturn influence on values makes me think crystalization and hardening of the values arteries, but I digress....The Tr Pluto quincunxes I think will introduce(vertex) the US to wise (Pluto) needful relationships (moon) which will facilitate the desire (8th hse) for transformational change. All this bodes well as changes is all gassed-up, warmed-up, and ready to go.......This is actually my 1st attempt at political astrology so I hope you veterans will gently help.

Der Spiegel, October 23, 2006

The $35 billion hidden cost of war

... More than 3,000 American soldiers have suffered brain damage in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In half of these cases, the trauma will lastingly affect their capacity to think, their memory, their mood, their behavior and their ability to work.

Many of the victims are hardly adults, barely even 20. And many of them will require special treatment for the next five, six or seven decades. A joint study conducted by Harvard and Columbia unversities estimated that the cost of caring for them will be at least $35 billion.

Many of the soldiers affected haven't just suffered brain damage. They've also been mutilated so badly or have have suffered so many severe burns that the term "polytrauma" has become a common one for military doctors.

The number of soldiers with these types of mulitple injuries is so high that US government had to create four so-called "polytrauma rehabilitation centers" last year -- in Palo Alto, California; Tampa, Florida; Richmond, Virgina; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

There, the "latest generation of America's heroes" -- as the injured soldiers are called in a statement issued to their relatives -- is shielded from the public.

more...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,443754,00.html

Shy I thik you were the one who posted the michael j. fox ad. You're not going to believe what Rush said:
www.huffingtonpost.com
(see the third item in far right column)

sorry, here's the huffington link for post above:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

"The $35 billion hidden cost of war ... More than 3,000 American soldiers have suffered brain damage in Afghanistan and Iraq. In half of these cases, the trauma will lastingly affect their capacity to think, their memory, their mood, their behavior and their ability to work."

It absolutely boggles the mind that a handful of old males are ALLOWED to strike such damage & destruction to so many others for so many centuries. What IS that?!?!?!?! I mean, what IS THAT?!?!?! ...what kind of system or brain washing or drugs or hypnotism or a something that ALLOWS that & from where does it come?!?!?

Could this story be Rove's October surprise? Meaning, will KKKArl use this to counteract any Dem seat gains?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2601085&page=1

The video I posted is above at 10/22 @ 10:44 pm. It is a mindblower, as is the M. J Fox video, but of a different sort. I don't have the technical skills to evaluate it, but if this fellow's correct, it sure puts wire-tapping on a new level.

Arrogant and Stupid...

Steve Bell is cruel...and funny as hell...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/0,,337484,00.html

ICM poll
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iraq: voters want British troops home by end of year
Fresh pressure on Blair as public back calls for early withdrawal

Julian Glover, Richard Norton-Taylor and Patrick Wintour
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Guardian

A clear majority of voters want British troops to be pulled out of Iraq by the end of this year, regardless of the consequences for the country, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today.
In a sign that public opinion is hardening against Britain's military presence in Iraq, 61% of voters say they want British troops to leave this year, even if they have not completed their mission and Washington wants them to stay.

Only 30% now back the prime minister's commitment to keep troops in Iraq as long as is considered necessary.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329608463-111381,00.html

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A negotiated withdrawal
There can be no victory in Iraq. The only choice is between an honourable exit - and a scuttle

Patrick Seale
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Guardian

The choice for the US and Britain in Iraq is no longer between staying or leaving. It is a choice between an honourable exit and a scuttle - an undignified withdrawal, probably under fire, as occurred in Vietnam a generation ago. Few policy makers in Washington and London are yet prepared to accept this gloomy conclusion. Some still believe that some form of "victory" can be salvaged. But the facts on the ground are unforgiving. So far the war has killed 3,000 US soldiers and cost the US tax-payer at least $400bn. Iraqi casualties are so horrifying as to suggest genocide.
Bush has attempted to discredit the recent Johns Hopkins study that estimated the number of Iraqi deaths caused by the war and occupation at 655,000, as it is a devastating indictment of his policies, but no serious scientist has challenged the figures or the methodology on which they are based.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329608443-103677,00.html

"...Only 30% now back the pm's..."

The reptilian tyrannosaurus rex tyranny of the minority rexes... jes like here.

Joanna, most likely we are not going to GO to hell...this IS hell.

VCZ...we are so glad you are back! And I couldn't agree with you and WV more about Obama....he is charismatic but votes like a damned rethug. Well...expect to see many more of these in the dem party now.

Crapmasters on drugs, these rethugs.

I say let Rove try to steal this election. All he is doing is fermenting greater eventual backlash against him and his sorry employers, the narcissistic Bush family and their self-serving friends. There will come a time when he will be totally powerless to enact his crooked plans and methodology.

Or put another way, a valve in which pressure is building must eventually be opened, or else it will blow. People are indeed finally starting to wake up to reality, which itself hasn't even begun to come fully into focus. But it will.

A few more years of Conservative Republican ineptitude and inaction in government will seal that party and movement's fate, even if it takes several years from 2008 onward to sweep them away into history.

Re: Obama... I'm not really buying into all the hype. He's obviously got the charm and charisma, but he really should have a more solid progressive record and experience (in my opinion, anyway). If he merely echos the voting record of the general status quo, I don't see how he's an improvement over what we have now.

On the other hand, even a "feel good" Centrist Presidency would be better than the wanton Reactionary Fascist Presidency we have now. Problem is, we are entering a time when we won't be able to "coast along" as we more or less did into a decline under Reagan. The feel good part will need to come from working for change.

There is perhaps a case to be made for a leader who follows the will of the people and rises to meet the occasion, even when his personal views at first do not suggest intention or interest in a transformative shift in his policy. The best, most recent example of this is President Franklin Roosevelt's shift from Center-Left to Socialistic Left when the Great Depression brought America down into a deep, sustained economic crisis. Perhaps this might also be the destiny of a President Hilary Cinton or a President Barak Obama.

Personally, I'm still holding out for Gore, that is, if he really wants to be dealing with a very bad case of "buyers' remorse" in 2009.

I know this is in England but how long before it reaches here?!

"The drinks are on Big Brother. The British government has announced that it wishes to send nationwide a previously localized program of mandatory fingerprint scanners at the entrance of every pub and club in major UK cities. Under such rules If you want to have a drink in the trendiest places in the UK you will have to be fingerprinted."

http://www.infowars.net/articles/October2006/231006prints.htm

One thing that worries me during this election are all the planets in Scorpio - Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Sun. If anything, I interpret this as the idea of something hidden coming to light, but with a violent and unwielding reactions from others.

Of course, this depends on the natal, but I wonder how this will play out on Nov. 7th. Watch! Something hidden will be revealed that will disrupt campaigns or voting.

wv, interesting article regarding the celebration of flight for the Brazillian - Just goes to show, those who have media and influential money contacts, get the glory.

Here in little old NZ, there is a claim to flight that pre-dates orville & wilbur. No-one ever heard of the guy because he was just doing it for himself. 25year old Richard Pearse first flew March 31, 1902 - 21 months before Kittyhawk.
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html

And on another note, Obama has Never given me a good feeling. And the way he's being pushed right now is very odd don't you think?

Who's pushin' this Obama crap anyway... suddenly, it's obama this & obama that! What?!!?!?! The skinny wet-behind-the-ears nincompoop has practically NO experience IN anything or AT anything... I KNOW THAT 'cause he's too young to have any experience. And who's pushin' him?!? What's on THEIR agenda?!? Jeeezzzzzzz I detest feeling the attempt of manipulation by crass self-serving assh*les.

Joanna

I am with you on Obama. I was still living in Chicago when he was elected. He seems like a nice personable guy, possibly very smart, and very wet behind the ears. He could fool us, but I have a hunch the expereienced pols would have him for a snack if he ran.

Frankly, I think the appeal is his skin color, would anyone treat him like the 2nd Coming if he were a nice blond farm boy from Nebraska? I am not saying for a minute that his race disqualifies him, it doesn't, but NEITHER does it automatically qualify him.

I watched a very interesting segment on CNN tonight call the Broken Government I think. It traced the rise of the neoconvicts from about Newt Gingrich time on, (even he was tossed under the bus by them). CNN showed a prety intense look into the ugliness and dirtiness of Delay and others. I was actually surprised. If the news media is finding some gumption, then maybe they are no longer afraid. There were republicans and conservatives who were exrpessing extreme dismay at the thug like tactics of the repug neocons, and some even hoped the Dems will get elected!!

If we are ever going to take back our government, the Dems and "true conservatives," etc will need some real back bone to stand up to the dirty tricks of the present gang. We don't need a wide-eyed choir boy that will be slaughtered in a pres race. I suppose Obama could be a hidden weapon, but I'd sure as heck feel better if soemone with real governing and yes international expereince ran for the Dems in 08.

Frankly I'd like to see Gore give it another go, win, (again), and open up a BIG investigation into all of the voting fraud for the last 6 yrs.

Swamp

* Lie*berman blasted on all sides at debate

...sat between his Dem & [necroporn] rivals in Mon's final CT Senate debate — & got it from both sides as well as from hecklers. ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061024/ap_on_el_se/connecticut_senate;_ylt=Ah1xCQnwVlx5c7uBvheETjyyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

* Obamamania

Two thoughts about Senator Obama.

First, he has the look of a future President, the brains of a future President, the idealism of a future President, the talent of a future President, the charisma of a future President, he may well deserve to be a future President, and he may be a future President.

Second, Senator Obama may be the least qualified person in the history of national politics to have his name mentioned as a future President for an election coming in two years, because he has credible national experience for a period measured barely in months.

Senator Obama has close to zero national security experience, close to zero national defense and foreign policy experience, close to zero national political experience, close to zero national legislative experience and close to zero experience being tested in the crucible of brutal national politics.

It is not his fault; it just is. ... http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/2137

Travieso
Re "Of course, this depends on the natal, but I wonder how this will play out on Nov. 7th. Watch! Something hidden will be revealed that will disrupt campaigns or voting."

Here's the answer to your query.
From the Financial Times
Voter chaos predicted at US polls
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a98a912c-62e7-11db-8faa-0000779e2340.html

In an attempt to see what outcome astrologers are predicting, nothing much came up on Google.
Except this from
http://gryphonastrology.wordpress.com/
(You'll have to scroll down a bit to read the passage relating to Nov 07)

And you may not like what you read.

"The Moon will make only one aspect in its trek through the sign of Sagittarius. That aspect is a trine to Saturn in Leo in about 13°. Given that it will be 13 days between the square and the election on November 7, one wonders if the Republicans will not go home with a majority after all is said and done..."

And by hook or by crook and some help from all that stuff in Scorpio it could happen.

All riiiiiight!!

* Much to the dismay of the bush Crime Family and the Flying Monkey Right, their most fervent nemesis, talk-show host Mike Malloy, will return to progressive airwaves on Mon, Oct 30--a whole week-&-one-day before the mid-term elections. When you consider the corruption/scandals oozing like slime from the right over just the past week-&-one-day, Malloy's return is not a moment too soon.

Mike Newcomb, a Pheonix physician & award-winning radio host, has joined Sheldon & Anita Drobny, the original co-founders of Air America Radio, to form the progressive Nova M Radio Network,Inc. which will feature the popular Malloy nightly from 9 pm - midnight ET on 1480-AM KPHX Phoenix, the nation's 5th largest city & 15th largest radio market; & on 1380 KDXE-AM Little Rock, Ark. More info on podcasting, Internet streaming & archives will be posted in the interim on the Nova M site & on Malloy's website.

Earlier this week, Malloy said, "We're starting out on two stations, but we're already getting requests from affilliates over a wide spectrum, such as Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Madison, Ann Arbor... This is for real," Malloy said. "We're in it for the long haul. We just sat down together & said 'Okay, dammit--We've had enough of this. We're gonna fight back!'" ... http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/2121

Rev. Lowery ( who presided so delightfully at Coretta King's funeral,) on whether Obama is experienced enough to be pRES. " HE'S CERTAINLY BETTER QUALIFIED THAN THE CURFRENT PRESIDENT!"
I too wonfe who is throwing him at us & WHY??
Swamp, I watched Broken Goverfnment too. Itg was a good fillin for me as the 90's were spent in a vagabond/gypsy mode trying to find enough job to survive.
Travieso,One thing that worries me during this election are all the planets in Scorpio - Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Sun. If anything, I interpret this as the idea of something hidden coming to light, but with a violent and unwielding reactions from others.

Yes with Mercury & Jupiter conjunct my Scorpio sun, (6 H) and Venus, Mars in libra square my progressed saturn in the 12TH, I am having a violent unyielding reaction!
My painting ( that you looked at online
http://www.elegantequineart.com/ ) auctioned for
$200.!!! Tattersall's Sales Pavillion is NOT exactly WALMART!~ Unless it was a little old lady on a Govt. dole who bought it; may the purchaser,
suffer abcess teeth, boils, and incontinence from now, 'till he dies, and goes to hell!.................... THEY really did take out $70. for the scholorship fund, leaving me with $130. minus shipping $106. That's $ 1.50 perf hour for my labor!!!!!!!!! Betsy, got a spare bedroom ? I'm moving to CHina.
At the same time my $224.00, Canon scanner printer copier, arrived minus usb cord ( doesn't everyone have several lying around the house?) extra $11.00 and 3 day wait for that. AND it isn't going to print ANYHTHING from my "antique, classic software programs! So I need minimum $2,000. for an upgrade!
Sally, I did buy 2 lottery tickets after seeing still another rainbow in my backyard.
QOP

October 24, 2006
Seats in Danger, Democrats Proclaim Their Conservatism

By KATE ZERNIKE
MACON, Ga., Oct. 19 — Listening to Congressional candidates in middle Georgia, it is easy for someone to think that he is in a different year and, possibly, a different country.

Democrats defend themselves against accusations that they are rubber stamps for their party’s leadership. Democrats are defending the war in Iraq. And Democrats — yes, Democrats — strive to align themselves with the president.

“I agree with George Bush on this one,” Representative John Barrow ends his new advertisement in favor of abolishing the estate tax.

Charles S. Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, said, “It’s a bit of a return to yesterday.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/us/politics/24dems.html?pagewanted=print

October 24, 2006

Editorial

Trying to Contain the Iraq Disaster

No matter what President Bush says, the question is not whether America can win in Iraq. The only question is whether the United States can extricate itself without leaving behind an unending civil war that will spread more chaos and suffering throughout the Middle East, while spawning terrorism across the globe.

The prospect of what happens after an American pullout haunts the debate on Iraq. The administration, for all its hints about new strategies and timetables, is obviously hoping to slog along for two more years and dump the problem on Mr. Bush’s successor. This fall’s election debates have educated very few voters because neither side is prepared to be honest about the terrible consequences of military withdrawal and the very long odds against success if American troops remain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/opinion/24tues1.html?pagewanted=print

Iraq and Your Wallet

October 24, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

For every additional second we stay in Iraq, we taxpayers will end up paying an additional $6,300.

So aside from the rising body counts and all the other good reasons to adopt a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, here’s another: We are spending vast sums there that would be better spent rescuing the American health care system, developing alternative forms of energy and making a serious effort to reduce global poverty.

http://donkeyod.blogspot.com/

Could this be the canary in the coal mine for the US economy! I wonder how much longer before the giant SUVs start disappearing, which won't be soon enough for us commuters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/business/24ford.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1161662400&en=16ecfd2dcb74c6be&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

Ford Posts Loss of $5.8 Billion, Worst Since ’92

[snip]
The dire straits in Detroit represent the continuing fallout from the auto companies’ too-long reliance on gasoline-consuming sport utility vehicles, as well as their failure to develop new cars and trucks to fend off their Asian competitors, particularly Toyota and Honda of Japan and Hyundai of South Korea.

Those foreign companies have built factories in the United States during the last two decades and focused on fuel-efficient vehicles, even as they added S.U.V.’s and pickup trucks to compete in Detroit’s last stronghold. That two-part approach paid off in record sales for the Asian makers this summer, when gasoline prices soared above $3 a gallon on average nationwide.

The rapid shift in the preferences of American consumers has been especially hard on Ford and Chrysler, which have been slow to wean themselves away from big vehicles and the outsize profits that such vehicles typically produce.

wv, add this http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4279402.html for a more complete story about how much of that $6300 a second goes to KBR and Halliburton. The article above is not for the faint of heart.

and luna. . .
i remember talking about the "big 3" laziness and ineptitude some ten years ago. There has had to be collusion between the oil industry and automakers given the fact that they were bailed out how many times (with taxpayer dollars) in the eighties and nineties. And here i thought we'd be using the magnetosphere by now. errrrrrrrr

karen,
It sure looks like karma time for them. I'm with you. I really do think the big bad ass car industry in this country is a barometer for the consumerism in this country. I'm sure some of their losses are due to awareness of global warming.

The only way they can make a comeback is to go hybrid. Too bad they were more interested in profits because they could have lead the way. Now they lose. And frankly, I'm relieved it's finally come because it sure took a long time.

MotherJones.com / News / Feature

Is Google Evil?
Internet privacy? Google already knows more about you than the National Security Agency ever will. And don’t assume for a minute it can keep a secret. YouTube fans--and everybody else--beware.

Adam L. Penenberg
October 10 , 2006

Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two former Stanford geeks who founded the company that has become synonymous with Internet searching, and you’ll find more than a million entries each. But amid the inevitable dump of press clippings, corporate bios, and conference appearances, there’s very little about Page’s and Brin’s personal lives; it’s as if the pair had known all along that Google would change the way we acquire information, and had carefully insulated their lives—putting their homes under other people’s names, choosing unlisted numbers, abstaining from posting anything personal on web pages.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/11/google.html

Yes, you can come to see me in China. Come on out.bjt

Olbermann

Bush Owes Us an Apology

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

Olbermann keeps getting better...

Bush (Finally) Going to Vietnam (35 Years Late)

WASHINGTON - President Bush will visit Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, the city once known as Saigon that was the capital of U.S.-backed South Vietnam, during a trip to the communist nation next month, the White House said Monday.

Bush will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' forum in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Nov. 18 and 19. He will also stop in Singapore and Indonesia during his trip, the White House said.

Bush will meet with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and President Nguyen Minh Triet, an economic reformer who has pushed for his country's membership in the World Trade Organization. The communist nation had hoped to join the trade body before the APEC forum, but it is unlikely that Vietnam will be able to join before December.

Lunaoscura............Suv's are just arriving at their downfall.....we artists are the canaries in the coal miones. In other societies we were respected and consulted for our heightened sense of awareness, by those who kept the books! Thats why I posted what may seem like a personal rant! I've been smelling the fumes ( is that sulpher?) for about 16 years now.
I've decided that the sentimentality liberals are as bad as the closed conservatives! There really is a difference between liberals and progressives!
Thanks Betsy, Could I afford to take your out to dinner in China on $12.00 per day?
QOP

All those 100s of 1000s dead, maimed, poisoned, tortured, children set on fire, in Vietnam, so it can all lead up to bidness as usual in the figure of bushaholic?! Amazing... simply amazing. I really utterly detest man's[sic] world... I didn't "chose" to be here... it makes me soul-deep sick... so why would I chose that? I didn't.

JoannaO dear,
You are here to cheer the rest of us our missions..... You do a great job of it. Have heart.it's tough!
I truly believe that my son Eric chose such a tough mission, that his soul decided to abort it and return again!
Man's time is waning.............be patient.
And Men who post here don't take offense, you are enlightened and excepted.
QOP

I *KNEW* this at the time, and the KNOWING was reinforced when Israel attacked Lebanon.
Wonder if the French Intelligence pays more than $1.50 per hour?

October 24, 2006 -- A senior French DGSE -- Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure -- intelligence officer has told WMR that Lebanon's ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a car bombing arranged by Israel's Mossad.

http://waynemadsenreport.com/
QOP

Oh and this VERY Interesting blurb! farther down in Wayne Madsen

October 24, 2006 -- There is something afoot, in a very Shakespearean way, in the White House. Preparing for a post-election massacre of the GOP and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, two factions are emerging within the White House. One is the neo-con faction surrounding potential scapegoat Vice President Dick Cheney.
must read!................
QOPSP ( that's scorpionic, smoldering Phoenix!)

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0%2C%2C1929023%2C00.html

Schröder causes a stir with controversial memoirs

Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder is ready to provoke domestic as well as international controversy with the launch of his memoirs which lift the lid on his seven years in office.

His much-hyped Decisions: My Life in Politics goes on general release in Germany later this week and contains an attack on both his successor, Angela Merkel, and criticism of the “god-fearing” politics of … George Bush.

Mr Schröder is candid about his dealings with Mr Bush who, even in private meetings, would constantly refer to his Christian beliefs. Mr Schröder said he became distrustful of decisions based on one-to-ones with God. Such decisions were not open to debate or criticism, he said, “because doing that would be to betray God’s orders received during prayer”.

Sally, great article ... very "on point". About the great uproar. Well, it's gonna be that they steal the election and the dems don't get either of the two houses. Bush and Rove have already announced it, over and over. It's a done deal. They've already dealt with 3 election cycles where massive fraud was committed and they know how to damage control it ... the polls were wrong, too bad folks, you lost again, the dems don't have a program, the country is redder than you thinK, who woulda thunk it, this just proves that the country is behind Bush and the liberal media isn't telling the right story, yada, yada, yada. The sheeple don't want to believe the system has been hijacked, those that know it keep hoping, hoping, hoping for change. It's no accident that our cities are spread out into far flung suburbs. When the cities were packed, it was easy to connect and participate in marches, etc. Now we all live in our little individual bubbles. Even if I wanted to go out and protest, boy would I sure look stupid standing on the street corner BY MYSELF!

So, here I am ... hoping, hoping, hoping.

For a giggle: scroll down to the photo http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=162x6794

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Mind_games_part_1_The_things_1024.html

Mind games, part 1: The things they carry

PART I, The things they carry: Mental health disorders among returning troops

The same administration that many claim sent US troops overseas without sufficient intelligence, planning, numbers, or armor is equally unprepared to deal with the wars’ psychic toll on service members, RAW STORY has learned.

A former commander-in-chief describes today’s overextended, under-equipped military as nearing the “breaking point.”

In Afghanistan, insurgent attacks and bombings are surging this year, as the Taliban rapidly regains power and popularity.

In Iraq, where US troops are, by the administration’s own admission, struggling unsuccessfully with an increasingly bloody insurgency, US and civilian casualties are rising by the day. This past Sunday, the Associate Press reported that this month is on track to be the deadliest one of the war yet. It is already the deadliest since November 2004, when 92 American Marines were killed and another 500 wounded over the course of Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah.

Even before this latest surge in violence, the men and women returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Afghanistan’s Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) were seeking treatment in droves.

In August, the Veterans Administration (VA) released a report showing that almost one-third of the nearly half-million vets from these two conflicts are seeking treatment from VA facilities. Of these, a full 35% received a diagnosis of a possible mental disorder—a tenfold increase in 18 months. (View full VA PowerPoint presentation.)

Some of this increase in demand among returning service members can be traced to the military’s demonstrable preference for keeping troops deployable rather than discovering and treating mental health issues. A must-read piece from the Hartford Courant earlier this year indicates that the military, which is now in the midst of a recruiting crisis and with no end to the war in sight, is not looking hard enough for signs of mental illness in prospective and active service members. Nor is it willing to acknowledge what it finds, especially if that means removing another warm body from an over-stretched unit, letting the public see the negative consequences of an already unpopular war, or paying for treatment or compensation.

The investigative reporters who researched “Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight” concluded, from studying military investigative records and interviewing troops’ family members, that the military was sending troops into combat, or re-deploying them, despite knowing that they were suicidal or had other signs of mental illness.

More…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

Spinning the Course
The latest rounds of spin from the Bush administration are really straining the credulity of the press corps and the public.

First, over the weekend, we were asked to believe that the president's strategy in Iraq has never been to "stay the course." This in spite of all the times in the past that Bush himself has used the phrase, which happens to accurately define his approach.

And now, as of this morning, we're being asked to believe that staying the course (or whatever you want to call it) is working, and that Iraqi security forces could be largely self-sufficient within 12 to 18 months.

Again, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

More...

More Obama stuff

Well it loks like we're not the only ones who are questioning what's so special about Obama. Wash Post op ed says same thing. What I find really interesting that if an intelligent personable freshman FEMALE senator said what Obama says-word for word- she wouldn't be given a second glance, or rather both sides would comment on her youth and lack of expereience,or looks as not being serious enough, etc and she sure as heck wouldn't be considered a poential for 2008.

It is time that America elected a female pres. regardless of race, etc, Unfortunately, I am not a big Hillary fan, in part because I think the conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh would never ever let up, and it would paralyze her ability to lead. Does anyone remeber his asinine never-ending comments about Janet Reno's looks? (from Mr. Gorgeous himself) The conservative pundit attack on Hillary would never stop over any angle.

Some rethug just went on and on (it was in the Wash Post a couple of days ago) about how ugly Hillary is, how could Bill have married anyone so ugly etc etc. It was really disgusting. Of course Pudgy-the-whale Hastert is such a fine figure of a man, and let's not forget the handsome Duke Cunnugham's multiple chins, booze nose, and trim waist line. No one ever comments on how the guys look.

ah a little feminist venting here. doesn't mean there aren't plenty of good guys, (including my sons :)

Swamp

I've been reading the posts and just wanted to stop in and say:

1 - John Edwards only had 1 year in the Senate so maybe choosing Obama as VP wouldn't be so far off the mark... I didn't check his voting record but assume he's trying to play it safe from the beginning of his political career while he's feeling things out. Does he stick with the Repugs much and on the worst issues?
2 - As far as Ford (and other American car co's) losing money, I feel bad for the workers (who generally get paid well) but not for the companies. Serves them right for killing the electric car!!!! And siding with the oil companies!!!
3 - Pat QOP, Congratulations on selling your painting. Sorry it was for a lower than hoped for price because I remember seeing it and know it was worth much more. Have you ever tried selling on E-bay? Do you show your work at galleries, horse venues, even restaurants, hospitals, M.D. offices? You are just so talented (as is JudiGem). I have painted myself and have studied art from way back in high school. I think I can spot good work.

Well, Mercury is going retrograde this week through Nov. 21 or so (I'm not including the shadow period). It usually doesn't affect me but I am working with a client who signed a contract to purchase 3 separate properties last time Mercury was Rx and all 3 deals seem to be falling apart (after long delays based on both of our lack of experience and the fears of the banks and insurance companies in post-Katrina New Orleans). What do I tell my clients, though? Don't sign a contract until Mercury is out of Rx? It won't fly with most of them and I can't be responsible for them passing up what might seem to be the right deal for them.

I've been reading the posts and just wanted to stop in and say:

1 - John Edwards only had 1 year in the Senate so maybe choosing Obama as VP wouldn't be so far off the mark... I didn't check his voting record but assume he's trying to play it safe from the beginning of his political career while he's feeling things out. Does he stick with the Repugs much and on the worst issues?
2 - As far as Ford (and other American car co's) losing money, I feel bad for the workers (who generally get paid well) but not for the companies. Serves them right for killing the electric car!!!! And siding with the oil companies!!!
3 - Pat QOP, Congratulations on selling your painting. Sorry it was for a lower than hoped for price because I remember seeing it and know it was worth much more. Have you ever tried selling on E-bay? Do you show your work at galleries, horse venues, even restaurants, hospitals, M.D. offices? You are just so talented (as is JudiGem). I have painted myself and have studied art from way back in high school. I think I can spot good work.

Well, Mercury is going retrograde this week through Nov. 21 or so (I'm not including the shadow period). It usually doesn't affect me but I am working with a client who signed a contract to purchase 3 separate properties last time Mercury was Rx and all 3 deals seem to be falling apart (after long delays based on both of our lack of experience and the fears of the banks and insurance companies in post-Katrina New Orleans). What do I tell my clients, though? Don't sign a contract until Mercury is out of Rx? It won't fly with most of them and I can't be responsible for them passing up what might seem to be the right deal for them.

I even checked then opened a new window before I clicked again!

World briefing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time for Bush to talk to Iran and Syria

Simon Tisdall
Wednesday October 25, 2006

Guardian

Whatever else James Baker may recommend in his much-anticipated report on future US strategy in Iraq, it seems certain he will urge George Bush to open direct, high-level talks with Iran and Syria.
Such a dramatic shift would have implications stretching far beyond Baghdad's bloodied streets, affecting everything from the Israel-Palestine conflict to the fate of British forces in southern Afghanistan.

Mr Baker started this particular hare running in an interview on October 8. "I believe in talking to your enemies ... It's got to be hard-nosed, it's got to be determined. You don't give away anything, but in my view it's not appeasement to talk to your enemies," he said. That contradicted Mr Bush's instinctive view. But the president is short of political capital these days and fresh out of ideas on Iraq. Since the Baker intervention, the idea has been gaining traction.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329609618-114659,00.html

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have turned Iraq into the most hellish place on Earth
Armies claiming to bring prosperity have instead brought a misery worse than under the cruellest of modern dictators

Simon Jenkins
Wednesday October 25, 2006

Guardian

British ministers landing in Aden in the 1960s were told always to make a reassuring speech. In view of the Arab insurrection, they should give a ringing pledge, "Britain will never, ever leave Aden". Britain promptly left Aden, in 1967 and a year earlier than planned. The last governor walked backwards up the steps to his plane, his pistol drawn against any last-minute assassin. Locals who had trusted him and worked with the British were massacred in their hundreds by the fedayeen.
Iraq's deputy prime minister, Barham Salih, was welcomed to London by the BBC on Monday with two documentaries recalling past British humiliations at the hands of Arabs, in Aden and Suez. It was not a message Salih wanted to hear. His government is retreating from its position in May, when it said that foreign forces should withdraw from 16 out of 18 provinces, including the south, by the end of this year. Tony Blair rejected this invitation to go and said he would "stay until the job is done". Salih would do well to remember what western governments do, not what they say.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329609495-103677,00.html

Sharon;

I wasn't impressed with John Edwards either and for the same reasons,lack of experience, etc. I think he was a mistake, as was Kerry. I am a diehard Dem but for godsakes nominate someone who can a) win b.) have the guts to fight back hard when something as revolting as the Swiftboaters act starts up.

I think Wesley Clark would have been a better veep choice than Edwards, and who on earth didn't figure the East Coast Lib thing would cost Kerry the job,or at least keep the margin small enough so the voting fraud could be gotten away with.(I met him in person by the way and he did have very good "vibes"). Al Gore is still my "man". How about a Gore-Clinton ticket? wouldn't that be a kick!

Swamp

$12.50=100RMB Plenty.bjt

An option to Google would be www.ask.com it's a good alternative.

Just a quick astro note on Rush Limbaugh and his disasterous and cruel attack on Michael J. Fox. Saturn just passed an opposition to Rush's Mars. Saturn to Mars can really kick a person in the rear. Not only did he have to apologize on air, all the networks have been running the incident and calling attention to Rush making fun of him. So many of Rush's listeners called in complaining he had to apologize and it called attention to the stem cell research. It was such a mistake for Rush and the GOP and has had such a great outcome.

Oh, by the way, Joe Lieberman has Saturn coming to a square to his Mars. I am still looking for him to fall before the election. This week and next are good times for Lieberman watch.

Keep hoping Marta, right now there is a ton that keeps backfiring on the GOP.

http://salon.com/news/feature/2006/10/25/generals/

U.S. generals call for Democratic takeover

Disgusted with the leadership of the Iraq war, two retired generals say the GOP must go. Plus: More than 100 current military personnel join a campaign to get the U.S. out of Iraq—now.

Oct. 25, 2006 | WASHINGTON —Two retired senior Army generals, who served in Iraq and previously voted Republican, are now openly endorsing a Democratic takeover of Congress. The generals, and an active-duty senior military official, told Salon in separate interviews that they believe a Democratic victory will help reverse course from what they consider to be a disastrous Bush administration policy in Iraq. The two retired generals, Maj. Gen. John Batiste and Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, first openly criticized the handling of the war last spring, when they called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

“The best thing that can happen right now is for one or both of our houses to go Democratic so we can have some oversight,” Batiste, who led the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, told Salon. Batiste describes himself as a “lifelong Republican.” But now, he said, “It is time for a change.”

Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004, agrees that Democratic control of Congress could be the best way to wrest control from the Bush administration and steer the United States away from a gravely flawed strategy in Iraq. “The way out that I see is to hand the House and the Senate to the Democrats and get this thing turned around,” Eaton explained, adding that such sentiment is growing among retired and active-duty military leaders. “Most of us see two more years of the same if the Republicans stay in power,” he said. He also noted, “You could not have tortured me enough to vote for Mr. Kerry or Mr. Gore, but I’m not at all thrilled with who I did vote for.”

An active-duty senior military official who also served in Iraq said that, among a surprising number of his otherwise “very conservative” colleagues, there is hope that Democrats will gain control of Congress. “I will tell you, in the circles I talk to, the only way to enable or enact change is to change the leadership,” he said.

More…

MediaMatters for today

http://mediamatters.org/

Sharon, a friend of mine signed the contratct for her home when Mercury was retrograde. I was worried but all went very well and I later learned that a deal started earlier will often be completed satisfactorily during the Mercury retrograde. I have come to think that we must be cautious of something that starts during the retro period because there will probably be factors that meet the light of day later. The retro period can also reveal things we were unconscious of earlier. Also, I don't experience Mercury retrograde as so ominous-not like Mars retro in Scorpio say. And it is so regular a part of our lives that I usually warn myself that if someone is trying to fix the computer during the retro period there will pobably be more to cover than first expected.

Iraq invasion 'pure failure', Blix says
Associated Press

Copenhagen — Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on Wednesday described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a “pure failure” that had left the country worse off than under the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein.

In unusually harsh comments to Danish newspaper Politiken, the diplomatic Swede said the U.S. government had ended up in a situation in which neither staying nor leaving Iraq were good options.

“Iraq is a pure failure,” Mr. Blix was quoted as saying. “If the Americans pull out, there is a risk that they will leave a country in civil war. At the same time it doesn't seem that the United States can help to stabilize the situation by staying there.”

War-related violence in Iraq has grown worse with dozens of civilians, government officials and police and security forces being killed every day. At least 83 American soldiers have been killed in October — the highest monthly toll this year.

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Mr. Blix said the situation would have been better if the war had not taken place.

“Saddam would still have been sitting in office. OK, that is negative and it would not have been joyful for the Iraqi people. But what we have gotten is undoubtedly worse,” he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Blix led the UN inspectors that searched for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He came under heavy fire from Washington when he urged U.S. President George W. Bush to allow the weapons inspectors and the IAEA to continue their work as a way to stave off a war.

Ultimately a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq and no weapons of mass destruction were found.

I've found this to be a great search engine:
http://clusty.com/

U.S. population may hit 400 million by 2043

Demographers envision more ethnic diversity, scarce resources by then

Now that the nation officially numbers more than 300 million, what next?

What will 400 million look like?

If demographers are right, we’ll hit that mark by 2043. They and other futurists envision a typical American neighborhood that year will be something like this:

More than likely it’ll be located in the South or West, despite scarce water resources and gas prices that make $3 a gallon look like a bargain. Barely half of the community’s residents will be white, and one in four whites will be senior citizens. Nearly one in four people will be Latino and multiracial Americans will be commonplace.

“We’re going to be growing for the next 50 or 100 years, but it’s not because of the birthrate,” said John Bongaarts, vice president of the Population Council, a nonprofit in New York. “If the birthrate were to drop we’d have a very different future ahead. If we were not living longer and had no migrants we wouldn’t be growing at all.”

The U.S. will keep getting more racially and ethnically diverse — by 2043, it will be about 15 percent non-Hispanic black, 8 percent Asian and 24 percent Hispanic.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15360313

Capitol Hill Blue

Parts of Dems' name missing on Virginia voting machines

October 25, 2006 4:09 AM

Coincidence? The name of the Democratic challenger to incumbent GOP Sen. George Allen is mysteriously cut off on the summary page of voting machines used in some parts of Northern Virginia -- the area where the Democrat is expected to run strongest.

As it turns out, the machines are made in Texas and the problem, it seems, just can't be fixed before the election in two weeks.

Reports Leef Smith in The Washington Post:

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/10/parts_of_dems_n.html

Follow the election...

Google Bomb The Elections: Source Code
by Chris Bowers, Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 12:17:56 PM EST

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
--AZ-01: Rick Renzi
--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
--CA-04: John Doolittle
--CA-11: Richard Pombo
--CA-50: Brian Bilbray
--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
--CO-05: Doug Lamborn
--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/10/24/121757/70

For some a dream ticket...
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4226/1804/1600/goreobama.jpg

Little-known media psychology firm sees Gore landslide, Clinton flop

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday June 1, 2006

A new behavior prediction tool by a media psychology firm is forecasts a landslide victory for former Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the 2008 presidential election should he run for office -- but says if Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wins the Democratic nod, any potential Republican challenger will emerge victorious, RAW STORY has learned. More from their release (hat tip Political Wire:

#
These are among the surprising findings reported by Dr. James N. Herndon, a media psychologist with Media Psychology Affiliates. Using a new research tool called Affective Encryption Analysis, Dr. Herndon led an investigation into the likely outcome of the 2008 Presidential election.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Littleknown_media_psychology_firm_sees_Gore_0601.html

Interesting to note that 2043 is also the same year that Pluto moves into Pisces. Global, weather/climate and environmental issues will take center stage.

I'm not sure if all of those projected trends in the MSNBC article I posted above will hold true. Certainly, the US is becoming more racially diverse, and divisive barriers that seemed so pervasive as short as 10 years ago have dramatically broken down over the past 10 years -- since Pluto entered Sagittarius.

I suspect that this trend will continue well beyond 2008. Certainly, if not Barak Obama, there will eventually be room for many others like him in politics, as the stubborn old Cheneys, Lotts and Hasterts of the current political scene pass away, along with their narrow-minded ideologies.

I think the article downplays the effect the resource/energy crisis will have upon growth and even life itself in the Southwestern US, however. You can't build or travel much without cheap energy. And without water, you're dead as dead can be. I understand that Arizona and Nevada both have several new housing developments where people have actually purchased homes, but can't live in them because there is simply no groundwater to draw from.

Florida on the other hand, may have more than enough water. Too much, as a matter of fact, if the ice caps melt away.

More suburb/exurban commuting... whoopee. So maybe the average drive time will only be four hours one way, instead of two? Of course, there's no mention of the trains/railways being built that would at least make it all enjoyable.

People are fleeing by the thousands from the Midwest each month, which, ironically, if not for its' devestated industrial-era economy, might very well be the most resource-balanced and livable region in the country, a few months of snow and ice notwithstanding.

Honestly, I think there are going to be quite a few surprises (many good, some "challenging") ahead that will upend many of these trends.

Neo, scary huh.

WWF says the earth will not be able to sustain the worlds population after 2050...........

"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.

"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.

"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061024/sc_nm/environment_wwf_planet_dc

And the sheep still sleep....

2 weeks until the elections....Hmmm, I am really beginning to wonder if the lunatics are going to stage another attack to save there asses.

You know how they keep saying that they will keep the house and senate. They're up to something and I think there is more to it than fraudulent voting machines.

And the sheep still sleep....

Gore Vidal Assured Military Would Prevent Staged Terror
Literary giant says 9/11 allowed to happen, slams Bush administration coup de 'tat of American freedom

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | October 24 2006

Controversial and prolific author, political commentator and essayist Gore Vidal is assured that the military's growing revulsion at the Bush junta's policies would ensure they would try and prevent any false flag staged terror attack, while slamming the end of Habeas Corpus and the administration's coup de 'tat of America on a nationally syndicated radio broadcast.

Speaking with the Alex Jones Show, Vidal decried the end of the foundational bedrock of "due process of law," and expressed his astonishment at the recent loss of Habeas Corpus with the passage of the Military Commissions Act, the most egregious assault on the Constitution since the USA Patriot Act of 2001.

"Wow - I didn't think I'd live as long to see that one go, that's Magna Carta - the spirit of Runnymede runs no longer in our republic," said Vidal.

Vidal stressed that the framework for the USA Patriot Act was erected with Bill Clinton's Omnibus Crime Bill, a massive expansion of offenses that would mandate the death penalty, passed in the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/october2006/241006gorevidal.htm

Worth watching...

9/11 The Truth - Pakistani Connection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up6QCYIbv5A

fact is, there were plenty of warnings about 9/11, even international warnings. This fact has come out again and again. Ashkroft stopped flying in commercial planes as a direct result of these warnings. All were ignored. Not one garnered a meeting with Richard Clark, or Cheney or Condi. Not one. So why are we still debating whether it was allowed to happen? It's a FACT that it was allowed to happen. Cheney, Bush, Condi, Rumsfeld all knew it was planned and they deliberately weighed the consequences and chose to ignore the warnings from a group that had already carried out many terrorist attacks in the world. Terrorism has been a normal occurence for decades. Arafat made his name as a terrorist 30 or 40 years ago.

They're pretense that terrorism was unheard of before 9/11 is just that. Pretense!

Voice of the White House October 23, 2006

TBR News.org – October 23, 2006

“Your story about the Iraqi Resistance attack on Forward Base Falcon on 10/11 October is causing spastic colon at the DoD, and certainly here. The Pentagon has rushed out a sort of “rebuttal” to Harring’s charges, excerpts of which I will include here. Off the record, this attack, which destroyed tons of badly-needed small arms ammunition and badly damaged many vehicles and several helicopters, not to mention inflicting significant casualties on the troops, is certainly known to have happened. Pentagon brass, in conjunction with the White House, ordered a complete blackout on any news until they could make an “evaluation” of the mess. Our campaign to take over complete military control over Baghdad and stop the religious and political massacres before the mid terms has completely collapsed and this Falcon business is the final straw. The Pentagon’s Lincoln Group types have put out pages of the silliest nonsense I have ever seen and sent it around to “friendly blogs” (i.e., the Government pays them off.. There are more of these paid finks lurking on the Internet than you realize) and many foreign newspapers. (They don’t want a word about this to appear anywhere in the U.S. media BTW)

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/print.asp?ID=5376

I'm trying to be optimistic, Cybear. ;-)
The 2040s really could be a tremendously challenging time in a positive way, if we have collectively evolved enough to approach it from the proper perspective.

As I've stated in the past, we have enough information -- and have had enough information -- to project what sorts of challenges and issues we may be facing in the coming decades. I believe it is possible to even see well in advance to where things may come to a head in astrological terms.

We can see the Uranus-Pluto Opposition coming up in 2046-2048, at the same window of time that oil, environmental and population issues are expected to peak.

None of us can say what exactly will happen. There will certainly be surprises. But what I think seems really so disturbing to many of us right now is that we aren't even preparing for the crisises that we know are imminent, sitting quietly in the room with us, staring at us, even as we ignore them. Much less do we try to anticipate the other issues that may possibly crop up.

There are a number of individuals right now who have a huge amount materially, and even emotionally, invested in the status quo, and are fighting to maintain that at all cost. Even where it would cause them great harm.

Take Ford, for instance, which rode and fought to keep riding its status quo of gas guzzing vehicles for years. Ford's executives were complacent, even arrogant about that complacency, scoffing at inovations and efficiencies implemented by Toyota, Honda and European auto makers. Americans would never go for those little cars, they probably thought to themselves. Why invest more money in developing a new product when what we have is working right now?

But how times have suddenly changed! The fuel efficient hybrids and SmartCars are in such heavy demand now, people are spending up to a year on a waiting list to buy one. Meanwhile, dealership lots are littered with the monstrous hulks of Hummers, Excursions and other SUVs that generously power themselves directly through one's bank account. Now, a totally unprepared Ford struggles to respond to a relatively sudden shift in consumer consciousness. They are totally unprepared to face a crisis that will exact grievous, devestating costs from them.

You might say that our present political institutions, parties, governments and such are soon to meet a similar fate; suddenly forced to fight for their survival in the midst of a crisis that they did not anticipate, all for complacency, if not smug arrogance and fear of change.

I think the long term challenge for our civilization will prove to be whether we can think ahead, progressively and proactively, rather than manage from one crisis to the next. We will be and are even now being tested. How will we respond?

http://servesecurityreport.org/ivas.pdf

We believe this system poses significant risks, as described in this
excerpt from our article:

In summary, we see three main risks:

1. Tool One exposes soldiers to risks of identity theft. Sending
personally identifiable information via unencrypted email is considered
poor practice. No bank would ask their customers to send SSNs over
unencrypted email, yet Tool One does exactly that. This problem is
exacerbated by potential phishing attacks.

2. Returning voted ballots by email or fax creates an opportunity for
hackers, foreign governments, or other parties to tamper with those
ballots while they are in transit. FVAP's system does not include any
meaningful protection against the risk of ballot modification.

3. Ballots returned by email or fax may be handled by the DoD in some
cases. Those overseas voters using the system sign a waiver of their
right to a secret ballot. However, it is one thing for a voter's
ballot to be sent directly to their local election official; it is
another for a soldier's ballot to be sent to and handled by the DoD -
who is, after all, the soldier's employer.

Please help us circulate the document.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/25/worse_than_union_busting.php

Worse Than Union Busting

Mary Beth Maxwell

October 25, 2006

Mary Beth Maxwell is executive director of American Rights at Work, a national labor policy organization in Washington, D.C. The organization recently launched a website: antiunionnetwork.org.

A television ad playing in Michigan this September seemed innocent enough: an adorable little girl in braids, a schoolroom filled to the brim with the latest, colorful learning aids and enthusiastic students eager to learn. But wait, the pigtailed girl is giving a report on union malfeasance. The teacher appears shocked to hear that her union dues support worker-friendly political candidates. Seriously?

The nationwide arrival of commercials like this one—often accompanied by full-page newspaper and radio ads—should raise eyebrows. This isn’t a promo for a new parody on the next installment of "Saturday Night Live" or "The Daily Show." The TV spots are the handiwork of a powerful, well-financed web of extremist, conservative organizations and well-paid spin doctors on a mission to dismantle labor unions.

The ads beg the question: Who’s willing to invest millions to undermine the right of teachers, nurses and other workers in America to earn a decent living and protect their interests in the workplace? The answer is far less innocent than ponytails and reads like a page torn out of Christopher Buckley’s bestseller, Thank You for Smoking .

The over-the-top mudslinging by the Center for Union Facts, the National Right to Work Committee and other anti-union groups is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over our eyes, hiding the real crisis in the American workplace. Too many workers in the U.S. still can’t adequately provide basic necessities for their families, protect themselves from workplace hazards or take care of themselves when they get old or sick. The firings, intimidation and harassment that often befall workers attempting to exercise freedoms of speech and association by forming unions are threats to our democracy. When faced with union organizing drives, 30 percent of employers terminate pro-union workers, 40 percent threaten to close a worksite if a union prevails and 51 percent coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery and favoritism.

The motives behind assailing organized workers are both financial and ideological. Union-busting is big business. Just ask Center for Union Facts founder and D.C. mercenary lobbyist Rick Berman. He’s the mastermind behind the ads and has earned a living attacking other public interest groups—like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Centers for Disease Control—for clients including the alcohol and fast food industries. Although he won’t reveal who is bankrolling CUF, attacking unions seems to be the source of his latest windfall.

More...

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/25/watching_the_vote.php

Watching The Vote

From faulty electronic voting machines to voter challenges and intimidation, there's plenty of concern this year about whether every vote cast will be counted and whether every voter who can legally vote will be allowed to. According to Barbara Arnwine, the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, this election "poses significant challenges for voters more than any time in recent history, with an estimated 30 million voters using new machines for the first time." Fortunately, the Lawyers' Committee and other civil rights groups are organizing efforts to watch the November 7 voting process like hawks. Read on to find out how you can join their effort.

Here's the latest press release from the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, which is launching a national 1-866-OUR VOTE voter assistance hotline and poll location web site www.MyPollingPlace.com .

1-866-OUR-VOTE is the only national voter assistance hotline staffed by live call center operators trained to provide state specific assistance to all voters. Lawyers, poll monitors and additional volunteers will be mobilized in 16 key states across the nation to assist voters in the days leading up to the election and on Election Day. Led by People For the American Way Foundation, the NAACP, and the Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, Election Protection (EP) has operated in every election cycle since 2001, and is the nation’s most far-reaching nonpartisan effort to provide voter assistance and protect voter rights. The services will include bilingual assistance for areas with a heavy concentration of Spanish-speaking voters.

Trained volunteers will staff the Hotline providing immediate, state specific, assistance to callers. Call center operators will inform voters and solve problems on issues such as voter identification requirements, voting machine malfunctions, problems at the polling place, and voter intimidation. National call centers will be located in Washington, New York, Baltimore and San Francisco. Local call centers will be hosted in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Minnesota.
While the toll-free hotline will be available to voters nationwide, EP’s ground operations will be concentrated in precincts most at risk for disenfranchisement, including low-income communities, African American and Latino communities, and areas with a history of voting irregularities. The coalition will operate in Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Minnesota:

Much more...

Here is more info on how controllers destroy what has worked or what will work...............................http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110008319 *snip* .......That's because these planning trends run completely counter to Jacobs's vision of cities as dynamic economic engines that thrive on private initiative, trial and error, incremental change, and human and economic diversity. Jacobs believed the most organic and healthy communities are diverse, messy and arise out of spontaneous order, not from a scheme that tries to dictate how people should live and how neighborhoods should look..........And another article about control, "spontaneous order", and enlightened self interest.........http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2006/Kleinorder.html .........*snip*.... The key to social order at the roller rink is this coincidence of interest. I do not intend to promote your interest. I am not necessarily even aware of it. Still, by looking out for myself I am to that extent also looking out for you. My actions promote your interest.

Skating on the floor of the roller rink is an example of what Friedrich Hayek called spontaneous order. The process is beneficial and orderly, but also spontaneous. No one plans or directs the overall order. Decision making is left to the individual skater. It is decentralized.

The contrast is centralized decision making. Again, intuition tells us that the only way the complex social good can be achieved is by central planning. Yet Hayek tells us that sometimes another way it can work is "decentral" planning. He tells us, in fact, that, often, decentral planning is the only way it can work.End snip .....Notice how these examples support Kevin Kelly's reports of how systems work.....A dictatorship would be the most central political control of all.....Notice in the experiment of the United States, the decentralized nature of the country...........Given enlightened self interest promotes a plurality of good. I would hope for a leader who promotes and facilitates this concept......Currently we are living in an economic climate where what is most scarce (supply and demand) is held to be worth the most. Where: *snip*

The scarcity belief is the fundamental trick in system that is enslaving the world and killing the planet; it must be revealed and transcended. Opposing it will not work; it will only make is stronger. The world ego will defend this status quo at all costs because the economic order of the world runs on its fear of scarcity and it fears nothing more than scarcity! End snip....http://www.remoteviewer.nu/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3128 ....The last article quoted has a great deal more to add on a broader consciousness of scarcity topic.

Cybear, I liked your post. The unexamined life soon becomes unlivable. However, I believe there is room for hope. The bigger one projects their dark side the closer they come to an unbearable crises as the world reciprocates. It is said one has to have a break-down to have a breakthrough. For the US our break-down is coming, for surely we are projecting what is wrong with us. When we understand our dark side we shall heal to a more enlightened order which will include an empathy for others included in our fate. Then perhaps we shall become a world leader again...My personal fantasy is that that will include scientific breakthroughs such as zero point energy.

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2006/10/sunday-rant-culture-of-planning-ii.html

Strauss & Howe's saecular theory (which takes in the work of dozens of other historians who've proposed historical, economic, and cultural cycles in the past) postulates that the past 500 years of Anglo-American history has unfolded in a repeating cycle of roughly 80 years (it’s gotten slightly longer as lifespans have increased). The events change from cycle to cycle, of course; but the essential forces of history, the priorities and personalities of recurring generational groups, and the similar consequences resulting from each phase of the cycle conspire to keep it turning back over itself through time. Certain types of events and characters emerge and converge, again and again. Things that seem impossible in one part of the cycle seem equally inevitable in others. Lessons that the passing generation once knew are forgotten, and must be learned again. (Our Roaring 20s great-grandparents could have given us an earful of caution about the 90s, for example.) For people who want to surf the waves of time and opportunity, the saecular theory has proven to be a surprisingly useful tide table.

The complete cycle (or saeculum) comprises four phases (or seasons) each lasting about 17-22 years:

1. High -- a spring of extreme conformity, communal focus, large-scale planning and building, economic security, institution-building, and extreme optimism. What was once radical now becomes firmly codified establishment dogma throughout the culture. As it ends, people become more sophisticated and curious about the world. (1945-1964)

2. Awakening -- a summer of social experimentation, expansion of individual rights, inner-directed growth, devaluation of old establishment institutions, emergence of a new set of social ideals. Old dogma is destroyed; and the dominant values and aspirations of the next era emerge before disillusionment eventually sets in. (1890-1910, 1964-1980)

3. Unraveling -- an autumn of institutional and infrastructure neglect, culture wars, economic bubbles, sex scandals, drug prohibitions, fanatic religious movements, political corruption, runaway corporatism, and general decadence. With the old consensus intellectually, economically, culturally, and physically in tatters, things begin to fall apart, preparing the way for the new. (1910-1929, 1980-2001)

4. Crisis -- a winter in which the world is politically, economically, and physically (and usually violently) remade, with a new establishment and new institutions built around the ideals and values that emerged during the previous Awakening. Individual rights are at low ebb. Attention is outer-directed as communal priorities, teamwork, and conformity re-emerge, and people re-engage with the larger society. (1773-1794, 1844-1865, 1929-1945, 2001-2020?)

Looking at this cycle, the current disarray in our planning infrastructure is apparently right on schedule. We've been here before -- in fact, a lot of people have noticed how much of our current political and social landscape does in fact look like the 1930s. The theory tells us quite specifically how we got here, and points to both the opportunities and concerns that we're likely to encounter going forward.

More...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/25/BAG78LVGRC1.DTL
Grass-fed beef, organic vegetables and seafood from sustainable fisheries have made it possible for Bay Area foodies to make fine dining an act of social conscience for quite a while.

Now they can feel virtuous about one more thing: the grub they leave on their plate......(more)
--------
Well, as usual, much of the future growth of the world starts in the SF Bay area....here is a story that ran this morning about recycling food scraps into fuels...

the last good fun news a couple of years ago was about how buses and ferries are running on used Krispy Kreme donut frying oil....boy, it really smells good, too!

So, don't forget, when the projection of 2043 arrives, say happy 100 to me, but by then, much of the stuff starting now will have changed the world in ways we cannot fathom yet.

The Strauss/Howe article is right on, isn't it though?!!! thanks for that Pat C...

Anyone else notice that the 80 year periods are more or less synonymous with the Uranus cycle?

KKKArl says it again--the GOP will keep their seats, so shut up, move along, nothing to see here:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Rove_dukes_it_out_with_NPR_1025.html

My pleasure judi! That blog is consistently good. I recommend it.

What a good lesson it would be for the world to be able to actually watch Rove and Bush and the rest of them have their karma bill handed to them by the fates and have it be a very public unravelling so the world can watch it. May it happen so they can serve a purpose by being an object lesson in the real consequences of evil deeds. Something parents and teachers can point to in order to teach civics lessons, humanitarian lessons, and accountability lessons.

lunaoscura, amen to that!

..........

MediaMatters for today

http://mediamatters.org/

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorials/110

At This Point, the Only Way the Republicans Can Maintain Control of the House is to Steal the Vote in Key Races

Another Stolen Election Headed Our Way? We Talked with Mark Crispin Miller About What Voters Can Do to Prevent It

http://www.OstroyReport.blogspot.com/#102606

Sally, I apologize if you've already posted something about the Tennessee candidates astrological indications of a win or loss for Dem Harold Ford Jr. and Rep Bob Corker. Here's an article about the early voter turnout being very high there, but there's the wedge issue of banning same sex marriage which may account for it.

http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=5589548

Turnout high in first few days of early voting in Tennessee
Oct 25, 2006 01:55 PM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A contentious U.S. Senate race and the controversial issue of banning same-sex marriage are among the reasons for the heavy voter turnout statewide in the first few days of early voting, election officials say.

Through Tuesday, more than 280,000 people had cast early and absentee votes statewide, according to the Tennessee Division of Elections.

State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said Wednesday that the early voting figure is "39% more than we had at this point four years ago."

Early voting began Oct. 18 and continues through Nov. 2. The general election is Nov. 7.

Thompson said the national spotlight on Democrat Harold Ford Jr. and Republican Bob Corker, who are vying to replace Bill Frist in the U.S. Senate, has gotten the attention of many voters.

Selling Satan: Iraqi War Dead and the Collateral Damage to America's Soul

By Phil Rockstroh

History reveals: What a nation inflicts upon the world -- its own people will, sooner or later, inflict upon each other. There is no need to warily scan the horizon line for its arrival, because we're already living in the midst of the angst and emptiness we have wrought. Ergo, when dreams mean nothing -- when words and images are rendered meaningless -- our lives reflect these dismal states.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15401.htm

High-flying lifestyle of the CIA's rendition men
· VIP status for agents who transfer terror suspects
· New book reveals disturbing details

Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday October 26, 2006

Guardian

In January 2004 a crew of CIA agents checked into the five-star Marriott Son Antem golfing resort in Palma for a well-deserved rest. The agents had just flown from Rabat in Morocco to Afghanistan and back to Algeria - a gruelling 8,000-mile journey - and were looking forward to luxuriating in the hotel's spa where, as the brochure put it, they could "journey to deep inner peace".
But as the crew were basking in comfort at US taxpayers' expense there was little peace for their cargo. In the hold on that day was Benyam Mohammed, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee alleged to be one of the world's most dedicated jihadists. In Morocco, Mohammed would later allege, he had been doused in hot liquids, subjected to incessant loud noise and had his penis slashed with a scalpel.

The details of Mohammed's treatment emerges in Ghost Plane, a new book by investigative journalist Stephen Grey describing the CIA's clandestine system of international terrorist transfers known as extraordinary rendition.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329610782-110878,00.html

Steve Bell - funny as ever..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,,1931842,00.html

Bush's policy quagmire
The president is already signaling he'll disregard James A. Baker III's recommendations for reshaping U.S. policy in the Middle East. But will Baker sit still?

By Sidney Blumenthal

Oct. 26, 2006 | The post-midterm-elections politics over Iraq have already begun. Many serious factors weigh on President Bush's mind as he speaks about his quagmire. Besides the state of the war and the stability of the Iraqi government, the one that he stresses repeatedly and spontaneously is the commission on Iraq policy chaired by former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton and, most important, James A. Baker III, the elder Bush's close associate and his secretary of state, who is scheduled to report to Congress and the president after the elections, when, presumably, one or both houses of Congress will fall to the Democrats. A new Democratic House (and perhaps Senate) will be receptive to Baker's proposals. But will Bush?

Baker, the ultimate cold-eyed realist and authority figure who field-marshaled the strategy in Florida that secured the presidency for Bush, has publicly suggested in the past three weeks that he will offer policy changes. Since then, Bush has plunged into rhetorical contortions to explain that he is "staying the course," that he is altering his "tactics" and, finally, that he never said "stay the course." He has adopted the Groucho Marx doctrine: Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes or, in this case, ears?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/10/26/iraq/print.html

From Salon

For Allen, a new round of racial questions

Just as George Allen seemed to emerge -- not exactly unscathed but still in the lead -- from "macaca," the "N-word" and the awkward way he has addressed his Jewish heritage, the Washington Post is raising new questions about the Virginia senator's racial sensitivity or lack thereof.

In a front-page profile this morning, the Post's Bill Turque identifies one high school football teammate of Allen's who says the future senator used what the Post calls "anti-black epithets" and another who links Allen to a racial incident in school.

On the morning that Allen's Palos Verdes High School was to play basketball against the only majority-black school in its conference, students arrived at school to find spray-painted graffiti that included the words "Kill Whitey," says Tim Good, an Allen classmate who now works as an accountant in Torrance, Calif. Good says that other former students have told him that Allen was responsible for it.

Allen declined to speak with the Post for its story; as we've noted recently, his staff is pretty much keeping him away from reporters in the final weeks of the campaign. But as the Post notes, Allen has said previously that he was involved in some sort of incident in high school. "I did something wrong when I was young that I regret," he said in a 2000 interview with the Post.

Although Allen leads Democratic challenger James Webb in most recent polls, his lead is slim, hovering right around the outer edges of most polls' margins of error. Not surprisingly, Webb holds a dramatic advantage among African-American voters.

-- Tim Grieve

Kerry, Kennedy pony up for 2006

Earlier this week, a spokesman for John Kerry dismissed calls for Kerry to share more of his war chest with Democratic candidates as the handiwork of "cowards" who "hide behind anonymous Web sites." It seems that Camp Kerry has had a change of heart: As the Boston Globe reports, Kerry and Ted Kennedy now say they're each giving $500,000 to the Democrats' House and Senate campaign committees.

-- Tim Grieve

Something good to be done.

http://pol.moveon.org/phone/volunteer/c4c.html

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/26/bill-maher-impeach-bush/
Bill Maher – Impeach Bush

http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/article_825.html
The U.S. has just lost two more wars

This guy nails it in this blog.
It's a lengthy but very insightful trip into the red-state mindset and why that state exists:

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2005/12/what_the_left_b.html

Amen!

Tim Robbins: Life and Politics and Elections Submitted by Joan Brunwasser

If you want to start an interesting conversation with Tim Robbins, just ask him what he thinks of President George W. Bush."I believe he was never really elected," said the 48-year-old Oscar-winning actor in an interview during the Toronto Film Festival. "It was stolen in 2000, it was stolen in 2004 and I'm not sure that they haven't already cooked the next election in their little computers and figured out how to keep power."

READ this copy of a post by the moderators at DU, I am asking you to read this because you need to know blog sites are being watched. You indeed must be careful of what you say.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2487403

Thank you for the warning, Sally. I'm sure all liberal blogs are being monitored.

Sally, i find this curious. I rarely read DU, much less post there, but I can't imagine what kind of threats would require this response. Be that as it may, however, what's chilling to me is that our internet conversations are being so closely monitored. Yes, i know we've talked about all of this but why? Shouldn't we be putting OUR TAX DOLLARS toward scrutinizing shipping ports, for example?

This just angers me, as i'm sure it does most of those on this board.

This is what people in power do when they are very insecure about their ability to maintain that power. It is bad for us in a sense, but what often comes next usually isn't all that favorable for them, no matter how severe their attempts are to crack down on the masses.

History, after all, is littered with the ruins of oppressive regimes that once sought to dominate forever. Power, however, when tightly gripped, slips away remarkably fast.

This time and its' ugliness, too, shall pass.

Chomsky On "Terrorism"

By Saad Sayeed

"What I write causes extreme anger for the very simple reason that I use the U.S. government's official definition of terrorism from the official U.S. code of laws. If you use that definition, it follows very quickly that the U.S. is the leading terrorist state and a major sponsor of terrorism and since that conclusion is unacceptable, it arouses furious anger."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15416.htm

===
Collaborators of Catastrophe: Inside the Ministry of Truth

Storytellers of the American Narrative

By Manuel Valenzuela

The role of the fascist media is to protect the fascists, to smear those exposing truths, to ignore movements seeking truth to criminality, to enable the activities of the Bush cabal and to grant life to the manipulative mechanisms of the state. Its role is to keep the masses obedient, ignorant and subservient to the state.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15411.htm

===
The Fault Lies In Ourselves

By Paul Craig Roberts

When people no longer understand that civil liberties are more important than political agendas, they have lost sight of the belief system that protects them.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15410.htm

The Republicans give up on DeWine campaign.

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2006_10.html#198634

Thursday, October 26, 2006

RNC: DeWine, you're on your own

The Republican National Committee confirms it will not be on the air in the final week of Mike DeWine's campaign, canceling its ad reservations throughout Ohio.

Aaron McLear, RNC spokesman, says the party will continue its on-the-ground efforts and staff support for Ohio Republicans, and says he understands DeWine has about $2.8 million available for his own commercials.

But no more money for RNC ads as of Tuesday. The party canceled its air time reservations.

Tim, Brilliant posts and I agree, but I think the breakdown will be global. If the US goes, so does most of the world, which may not be such a horrible thing. It would force the human race to finally realize that we are not above nature, we are part of it. But anything can happen during the next 30 years, look at what has change in the last 30 years. Zero point energy....maybe, maybe not.

Sally, Mercury is going Rx and they are trying to monitor or shut down communication. Are we losing freedom of speech???

Up next, Mindcrimes.

Cybear, I have to agree. There is massive debt out there connected to massive debt connected to.....I don't think assets identified by paper will be worth much when the right catalyst causes a crash. Peace!

More Truth than poetry in this cartoon

http://cserver.rbma.com/content/Babin?date=2006-10-25&referer=http://www.dailyink.com&uid=tet1vp&token=p87sg&size=large

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610260010

Saddam Hussein verdict postponed until two days before U.S. election: Will the media turn a skeptical eye?

Summary: While it cannot definitively be said that the reason the senior Iraqi court in charge of Saddam Hussein's trial postponed its verdict in the case until two days before the November elections so that it would influence the midterms, the postponement suggests several obvious questions, including, most importantly: Given the Bush administration's history of timing national security-related actions to the political calendar, has the date for the verdict's release been set to provide maximum political benefit for the administration and congressional Republicans?

ALLEN'S REVENGE: EXPOSES UNDERAGE SEX SCENES IN OPPONENT'S NOVELS
Thu Oct 26 2006 20:05:37 ET

Sen. George Allen, R-VA, unleashed a press release late Thursday that exposed his rival's fiction writing, which includes graphic underage sex scenes.

The press release, as provided by the Allen Campaign:

WEBB’S WEIRD WORLD

The Author’s Disturbing Writings Show a Continued Pattern of Demeaning Women

· Some of Webb’s writings are very disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians in the U.S. Senate.

· Many excellent books about the United States military and wartime service accomplish their purposes, and even win awards, without systematically demeaning women, and without dehumanizing women, men and even children.

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

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ferguson24oct24,0,2375550.column?coll=la-opinion-columnists

NIALL FERGUSON
Niall Ferguson: America's Brittle Empire
The U.S. doesn't have the necessary military manpower or fiscal solvency of its imperial predecessors in Iraq.
Niall Ferguson

October 24, 2006

YOU WOULD HAVE thought 300 million Americans would be enough to rule the world — or at least a couple of medium-sized failed states. The population of Iraq is 27 million, that of Afghanistan 31 million. Yet the same week that the U.S. population officially passed the 300-million mark, we heard two startling admissions that testify to the scale of crisis facing Washington's unspoken empire.

Asked Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program whether the situation in Iraq was comparable to that in Vietnam at the time of the 1968 Tet Offensive — an event popularly (though wrongly) perceived as the beginning of the end for the U.S. defense of South Vietnam — the president conceded the comparison "could be right." And on Thursday, the spokesman for the U.S. military command in Iraq confessed that the Army's latest effort to quell the escalating civil war in central Iraq "has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence" — military-speak for "has totally failed." A year ago, these admissions would have been headline news. Today, people just shrug. That Iraq is Washington's new "quagmire" has become conventional wisdom.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ferguson24oct24,0,2375550.column?coll=la-opinion-columnists

Just watch this.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5770984395481454022&q=john+f+kennedy

William Rivers Pitt | Andy's Election

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102706A.shtml

William Rivers Pitt writes: "In the summer of 2005, my friend Andy Stephenson passed away due to pancreatic cancer. Andy had devoted years of his life to sounding an alarm over the unbelievable flaws in the new electronic voting machines that had been foisted on the American public by the Help America Vote Act ... Andy Stephenson lived and died trying to warn us about these things. The good news, for Andy and for us all, is that these news reports are drawing much-needed attention to the problem. The bad news, simply, is that the problems still exist, and may come to determine who holds power in America after January."

check this out--anybody wanna explain this to Smirky? His inaction on his beloved Military Commissions Act amounts to a "pocket veto" which cannot be overridden.....not that I'd expect them to start playnig by the rules, but still.....

http://electbarnhill.com/2006/10/24/presidents-inaction-may-equal-pocket-veto/

Garry, the link takes you to a site that says the page is no longer there.

* When was it that some people in this country began to feel they had a right to make their religious beliefs public policy for the rest of us--engage in a cabal against the rights of others in the name of their particular views? How did the private decision-making process become a matter to be raked over in media discussions by people who know little about the circumstances of or the consequences for the parties involved? ... http://www.findingavoice.com/mt/archives/000331.html

How indeed. Now I INSIST that MY views be made policy, rules & laws for everyDAMNbody, & that for starters every insane breeder fundie or wannabe insane breeder fundie undergoes forced sterilization. No ifs, ands or buts... all of 'em do things MY way, & god told me that MY way was god's way, & how I LOVE to have control & dominion & punishment over YOU (Ooo!... makes my you-know-what stick straight up with that thot), so that you can't have a way that's right for you whatsoever much less YOUR way at all... only MY righteous way exists! MY WAY!! MY WAY!!! MY WAY!!! ME ME ME ME ME...!!!

Karen's latest What's New on Planet Earth is posted! http://www.whatsuponplanetearth.com/latest.htm

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3675

Touch-Screen Votes Reportedly Hopping to Republicans During Early Voting in Texas, Missouri and Arkansas

We didn't much report on these incidents back in 2004 because they seemed anectodal at the time and couldn't be independently confirmed. After two years now of thousands of such reports from '04 - almost always showing votes hopping to Republican candidates only - and still the Voting Machine Companies and Elections Officials saying "it never happened," it seems appropriate to report a few of these incidencts as we hear of them before Election Day, during Early Voting, so folks can look into them.

Here are three different reports over the last day or two of touch-screen votes flipping from Democrats or Libertarians over to Republicans.

More...

Why isn't a very loud "Yes indeedy... it did TOO happen! Why isn't that just as good as sayin' it didn't?! Then we act on "it did happen" & royally kick the liars to Mars... but not back. I see no point whatever in playing this little necroporn n' perv game, do you?

Lunaoscura, all, here's the text from that link I posted yesterday--I apologize, it's quite lengthy, but is good reading.

President’s Inaction Equals ‘Pocket Veto’
by Pat Shannan

Talk show host Alex Jones’ brief interview last week with an
unknown caller has sent constitutionists and legal
researchers scurrying for the law books.

“The Military Commission Act is not law!” the man barked.
“The ‘pocket veto’ clause of the constitution has already
nullified it.”

He then pointed out to the national radio audience exactly
what the part about “pocket veto” in Article One, Section 7
of the U. S. Constitution means. Indeed, it appears that
President Bush’s signing of the infamous “6166,” which in
effect eliminates the 4th Amendment protection of citizens
in their homes and a whole lot more, is moot. He was too
late.

Now Jones and many others are wondering, who in an official
capacity is going to point this out and enforce it?

Here is what the law says and what happens when a sitting
president sticks a bill passed by congress into his pocket
instead of signing it and sending it back:

A Pocket Veto occurs when the President fails to sign a bill
within the 10 days allowed by the Constitution.

Congress must be in adjournment in order for a pocket veto
to take effect.

If Congress is in session and the president fails to sign
the bill, it becomes law without his signature.

Now to the current specifics.

From the U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 7: “…If any
Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to
him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had
signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevents
its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.”

Since Congress cannot vote while in adjournment, a pocket
veto cannot be overridden. A pocket veto is a legislative
maneuver in American federal lawmaking. The U.S.
Constitution requires the President to sign or veto any
legislation placed on his desk within ten days (not
including Sundays). If he does not, then it becomes law by
default. The one exception to this rule is if Congress
adjourns before the ten days are up. In such a case, the
bill does not become law; it is effectively, if not
actually, vetoed. Ignoring legislation, or “putting a bill
in one’s pocket” until Congress adjourns is thus called a
pocket veto.

Congress passed 6166 on September 29th, presented it to the
President on October 10th, and adjourned on October 13th.
Bush signed it on October 17th, the week after Congress had
adjourned, thereby rendering it “vetoed” by constitutional
standards.

On September 6, 2006, President Bush asked Congress to pass
the Military Commission Act of 2006. This Act – among other
things – sought to re-define U.S. obligations under Common
Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, international treaties
signed by every country in the world. Common Article 3
places an absolute prohibition on inhumane treatment of
detainees during an armed conflict.

Specifically, the President wanted Congress to replace the
absolute prohibition on inhumane treatment of Common Article
3 with a “flexible” standard, which would assess on a case-
by-case basis whether particular conduct would amount to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Human Rights First
criticized the Administration’s proposal for adding
ambiguity to an otherwise clear standard of Common Article
3, and would open the door to more Abu Ghraib-style abuses.

In response to the administration’s proposal, more than 45
retired senior military leaders wrote to members of the U.S.
Senate expressing their opposition to redefining Common
Article 3 on the grounds that it would compromise the safety
of U.S. Service men and women. They were joined by Former
Secretary of State Colin Powell and former U.S. Chairmen of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Vessey, Hugh Shelton, and
William Crowe, who also sent letters expressing their
opposition to redefining Common Article 3.

Spearheaded by Republican Senators John McCain, John Warner,
and Lindsey Graham, the Senate Armed Services Committee
passed an alternative bill, sponsored by McCain, Warner, and
Graham, that preserves Common Article 3. The Administration
then agreed to negotiate with the key Senators, and a
compromise was reached on September 21, which preserved the
meaning and requirements of Common Article 3. Human Rights
First welcomed this aspect of the compromise. Human Rights
First opposed the final version of the Military Commissions
Act, however, because it contained a number of provisions
that raised serious concerns about compliance with the
Geneva Conventions and with fundamental fair trial and due
process principles. Among the most troubling aspects of the
Military Commissions Act are provisions that purport to:

Grant unprecedented and unchecked authority to the Executive
Branch to label as “unlawful enemy combatants”, and possibly
to detain indefinitely, an overly broad range of people,
including U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents inside
the United States

Deny independent judicial review, through habeas, of
detentions of U.S. legal permanent residents and non-
citizens

Limit the sources of law to which the courts may look and
the scope of review on appeal

Narrow the scope of the War Crimes Act and seek to eliminate
accountability for past violations of the law by the
president and his administration.

Permit evidence obtained through coercion to be used in the
military commission proceedings, with certain limitations.

Permit the introduction of classified evidence against the
accused even if the accused has not had the opportunity to
review and challenge the “sources, methods, or activities”
by which the government acquired the evidence.

Restrict full disclosure to the accused of exculpatory
evidence

Give the Secretary of Defense authority to deviate from time-
tested military justice standards for fair trials

Courts have never fully clarified when an adjournment by
Congress would “prevent” the President from returning a
vetoed bill. Some Presidents have interpreted the
Constitution to restrict the pocket veto to the adjournment
sine die of Congress at the end of the second session of the
two-year Congressional term, while others interpreted it to
allow intersession and intrasession pocket vetoes. In 1929,
the United States Supreme Court ruled that a bill had to be
returned to the chamber while it is in session and capable
of work. A three-day recess of the Senate was considered a
short enough time that the Senate could still act with
“reasonable promptitude” on the veto. However, a five-month
adjournment would be a long enough period to enable a pocket
veto. Within those constraints, there still exists some
ambiguity; Presidents have been reluctant to pursue disputed
pocket vetoes to the Supreme Court for fear of an adverse
ruling that would serve as a precedent in future cases[1].

For matters regarding the authority of the federal
government, the place to start the analysis is with the
United States Code. In 1 U.S.C. § 106a, we find the
following:

Section 106a. Promulgation of laws

Whenever a bill, order, resolution, or vote of the Senate
and House of Representatives, having been approved by the
President, or not having been returned by him with his
objections, becomes a law or takes effect, it shall
forthwith be received by the Archivist of the United States
from the President; and whenever a bill, order, resolution,
or vote is returned by the President with his objections,
and, on being reconsidered, is agreed to be passed, and is
approved by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, and
thereby becomes a law or takes effect, it shall be received
by the Archivist of the United States from the President of
the Senate, or Speaker of the House of Representatives in
whichsoever House it shall last have been so approved, and
he shall carefully preserve the originals.

Attorney and constitutional expert Harmon Taylor of Dallas,
Texas harbors some consternation about the federal courts
disregarding the constitution in recent years and ruling on
federal statutes and court precedent.

He points out, “This language is curiously silent regarding
the “10-day Rule” set forth in Art. I, § 7, cl. 2. It is
also noticeably silent about adjournment and any effect that
adjournment may have on the “’10-day Rule.’

”Therefore, the next source to check is judicial
construction, and the best starting place for that is with
Supreme Court opinions. While Clinton v. City of New York,
524 U.S. 417 (1998), specifically addresses and thwarts
executive law-making efforts via the so-called “Line Item
Veto,” and, so, is not directly on point with our current
question, it’s very helpful on the applicability of Art. I,
§ 7, cl. 2, generally, thus, the “10-day Rule,” in
particular. The Court cites the law-making procedure in
full in n.28. Clinton, 524 U.S. at 438-39 n.28. Even more
importantly, the Court identifies that the “veto” power
being analyzed is read in terms of the whole context. This
is the point raised by n.29.

Applying that to the present circumstance, it’s difficult to
picture how the Supreme Court would read the whole of Art.
I, § 7, cl. 2 for purposes of “veto” analysis but then read
only part of it for purposes of a question under the “10-day
Rule.” So, where all of Art. I, § 7, cl. 2 is material,
then both the “10-day Rule” and “adjournment” are material
procedural facts in determining whether an act by the
“congress” and presented to the “president” actually
produced federal law.”

Taylor also pointed out to us that a separate new question
arises as to whether the congress may enact legislation
inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions to which the
federal government is a signatory. In the recent case of
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, __ U.S. __, 126 S. Ct. 2749 (2006), the
Supreme Court clearly identified several variances between
the “military commission” process being utilized by the
present administration and the trial process contemplated by
the Geneva Convention. Should it turn out that the most
recent legislation implements that same, or a very similar,
“military commission” trial process, already characterized
by the Court as “illegal,” then the question arises as to
whether legislation that strays from the Geneva Convention
standards is federal law.

“The answer may seem intuitively obvious,” Taylor said, “but
this one will take some additional study and reflection.
Your conclusions are correct, constitutionally speaking,” he
said, referring to President Bush’s delayed signing of the
bill, “but you can bet that the Supreme Court, if it comes
to that, will do everything it can to avoid making a
constitutionally based decision.”

Indeed. Even as the most amateurish constitutional
historians realize, we have not been able to keep the
republic Ben Franklin feared we could not 220 years ago.
Now it seems we may have to be concerned with that
piece of philosophy from Mao — the one about
“Power coming out of the barrel of a gun.”

===
Christian Zionism: An Egregious Threat to U.S. - Middle East Understanding

By The Council for the National Interest

Christian Zionism, a belief that paradise for Christians can only be achieved once Jews are in control of the Holy Land, is gathering strength in the United States and forging alliances that are giving increasingly weird shape to American policy toward the Middle East.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15421.htm

===
The Armageddon Lobby

Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine

By Rammy M. Haija

With nearly 10 per cent of US voters declaring themselves as Zionist or dispensationalist Christians, and another 35 per cent constituting mainstream Christianity, the Christian Zionist lobby has targeted both voting pools for its purpose of assembling a pro-Israel constituency among American voters through the promotion of biblical and dispensationalist doctrine.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15422.htm

Robert Fisk: Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb

Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on Lebanon

Published: 28 October 2006
Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians?

We know that the Israelis used American "bunker-buster" bombs on Hizbollah's Beirut headquarters. We know that they drenched southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands of bomblets which are still killing Lebanese civilians every week. And we now know - after it first categorically denied using such munitions - that the Israeli army also used phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be restricted under the third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which neither Israel nor the United States have signed.

But scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used against targets in Lebanon.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1935945.ece

October 27 / 29, 2006

My Own Private Nightmare
The Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition
By MAHER ARAR

Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who is barred from entering the United States, delivered his acceptance speech for the Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award in a pre-recorded videotape. This is a transcript of his speech, which was viewed at the award ceremony hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies on Oct. 18, 2006 in Washington, DC.

http://www.counterpunch.com/

October 26, 2006

If Enron's Skilling Gets 24 Years in Prison, How Many Should Bush and Cheney Get?

The Crimes of Greed vs. the Crimes of Government
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

During my professional lifetime, liberals and the left-wing have focused on failures and misdeeds of the private sector, while libertarians and conservatives have focused on the failures and misdeeds of the public sector or government. It turns out that both sides are right.

The Enron case and the other accounting scandals of this new century are testimony to misdeeds driven by private sector greed, just as the unjustifiable war in Iraq is testimony to the abusive behavior of government.

http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts10262006.html

Hamas official (and Dr.) asks if violence is a "Palestinian Disease?"

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17447366.htm

Has anyone else seen this? Apparently the Smirky One signed a new bill invalidating the Posse Comitatus Act on the same day he signed the MCA, October 17th. Anybody got a chart for that day in DC? I'd like to know the aspects for these 2 "laws".

http://www.hightimes.com/ht/news/content.php?bid=1112&aid=24

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

Garry, the lunatics are up to something big.

ANd the sheep still sleep..

October 29, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Dying to Save the G.O.P. Congress
By FRANK RICH
IF you happened to be up around dawn on Tuesday, you could witness the death rattle of our adventure in Iraq live on CNN. Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the American commander, were making new promises from the bunker of the Green Zone, inspiring about as much confidence as Jackie Gleason and Art Carney hatching a get-rich-quick scheme to sell a kitchen gadget on “The Honeymooners.”

“Success in Iraq is possible and can be achieved on a realistic timetable,” said Mr. Khalilzad. Iraq can be “in a very good place in 12 months,” said General Casey. Even a child could see how much was wrong with this picture.

If there really is light at the end of the tunnel, why after three and a half years can’t we yet guarantee light in Baghdad? Symbolically enough, television transmission of the Khalilzad-Casey press conference was interrupted by another of the city’s daily power failures. If Iraq’s leaders had signed on to the 12-month plan of “benchmarks” the Americans advertised, why were those leaders nowhere in sight? We found out one day later, when the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, mocked the very idea of an America-imposed timetable. “I am positive that this is not the official policy of the American government, but rather a result of the ongoing election campaign,” he said, adding dismissively, “And that does not concern us much.”

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/opinion/29rich.html?pagewanted=print

Garry, Fine howdy-do, yes? But, the Posse Comitatus Act is full of loop holes; always has been. They don't really need to rewrite or invalidate it. All that is needed is a national emergency.

£3.68 trillion: The price of failing to act on climate change
Landmark report reveals apocalyptic cost of global warming

Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
Sunday October 29, 2006

Observer

Britons face the prospect of a welter of new green taxes to tackle climate change, as the most authoritative report on global warming warns it will cost the world up to £3.68 trillion unless it is tackled within a decade.
The review by Sir Nicholas Stern, commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and published tomorrow, marks a crucial point in the debate by underlining how failure to act would trigger a catastrophic global recession. Unchecked climate change would turn 200 million people into refugees, the largest migration in modern history, as their homes succumbed to drought or flood.

Stern also warns that a successor to the Kyoto agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions should be signed next year, not by 2010/11 as planned. He forecasts that the world needs to spend 1 per cent of global GDP - equivalent to about £184bn - dealing with climate change now, or face a bill between five and 20 times higher for damage caused by letting it continue. Unchecked climate change could thus cost as much as £566 for every man, woman and child now on the planet - roughly 6.5 billion people.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329613556-102285,00.html

Sometimes there's a delicious irony in watching karma manifest. We were all on tenderhooks and hypersensitive to Rove's October Surprise, like abused children who know their parent is going to beat them up again. But now it looks like Michael J. Fox is turning out to be the real October Surprise, backfiring on Rove and his tactics.

Thank you limbaugh! And thank you Rove for sending your attack dog out to destroy Michael J. Fox! How delicious, whether we win or not. It couldn't have worked better if it was planned!

One more comment. The ads for stem cell research now include Sheryl Crow who had breast cancer, while the opposition ads feature perfectly healthy people who talk about 'cloning' which is more of the be very afraid message of the neo-cons.

Let's see, on one side are hugely popular people who are suffering from diseases that could be cured with stem cell research and on the other are perfectly healthy people who are against it. I will wildly guess they're finding it impossible to get sick people to include in their ads opposing stem cell research.

The nausea factor, AKA Rush Limbaugh

I am amazed that seemingly caring, intelligent adults give this fat tub of lard any credence. His latest attack, this time at Michael J. Fox, made me want to heave into the trash can. Fox is a man who once seemingly had a charmed career, life, etc, always seemed to be the nicest of people, and is now wasting away from a horrible disease. Even the dumbest SOB would have compassion not to mock him, regardless of “political” views. Gee it’s too bad stem-cell research advocate Christopher Reeve is dead, Rush could have had a ball making cripple and wheelchair jokes and suggesting that Reeve really could breather w/o a ventilator. Who sponsors Rush? Who pays for this public vomit-fest that Rush call his “program”? Gee I am so glad the Christian right supports Rush’s programs, he is such a good example of a “Christian”.

I have been posting to MSNBC and anywhere else I can to remind viewers that Rush has a long acquaintance with drugs, i.e. illegal prescription narcotics and addiction, and of course his latest airport snafu over Viagra, (gross!!) in someone else’s name. Maybe that’s what makes him such a medical “expert” about meds. I wish some pundit would publicly remind Rush of the same and embarrass the hell out of him, (if that is possible, probably irony or sarcasm doesn’t compute is Rush’s drug soaked brain.)

Thoroughly disgusted somewhere outside the Beltway, and leaving DC behind-

Swamp

A politician we can all be proud of: Al Gore has become an advisor to the U.K. on global warming:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/29/21390/652

Britain is to send the author of today's landmark review on global warming to try to win American hearts and minds to the urgent cause of cutting carbon emissions - as it emerged yesterday that the government has already signed up former US vice-president Al Gore to advise on the environment. (more)

My brother-in-law just sent me a fantastic Jackson Browne anti-war song that I'd like to share with you -

"Lives in the ballance"

I've been waiting for something to happen For a week or a month or a year With the blood in the ink of the headlines And the sound of the crowd in my ear You might ask what it takes to remember When you know that you've seen it before Where a government lies to a people And a country is drifting to war

And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends-- These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone There are lives in the balance There are people under fire There are children at the cannons And there is blood on the wire

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion The same time they sell us our wars I want to know who the men in the shadows are I want to hear somebody asking them why They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are But they're never the ones to fight or to die And there are lives in the balance There are people under fire There are children at the cannons And there is blood on the wire

The Big Dog
http://www.devalpatrick.tv/?bcpid=86311306&bclid=15810061&bctid=284947402

..........

Jim Webb of Virginia answering the right wing cripples
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Webb_fires_back_in_book_controversy_1029.html

Why won't the media cover this outrageous October Surprise?

By Joshua Holland
Posted on October 27, 2006, Printed on October 30, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/joshua/43579/

Earlier in the week I wrote about the likely death sentence to be handed down in Saddam Hussein's show trial just two days before the mid-term elections. If you missed it, read it here.

When I wrote that, I didn't know for a fact that most observers expected the trial to take far longer. But, according to Scott Horton, an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Law School who has visited Baghdad several times, that does appear to be the case.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/43579/

Steve Judd...

30 October

And so Mercury’s retrograde, conjunct Jupiter, and the spin and rhetoric on the web is unbelievable. The danger of further warfare in the gulf is negligible, not because of a lack of military firepower, but because it’s a total no-brainer for the populations of those military powers. This coming three weeks will see changes that will be suspicious, to say the least. This is the nebulous time, the transition from one state of energy into another. And this particular Mercury retrograde, in Scorpio squaring Neptune and Saturn, is the progenitor of the fear and terror tactics currently being used to keep populations cowed down. Let’s give it three weeks and see where we are….

from DU

Broward Co., FL: Votes for Democrats are registering for Republicans

Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen -- the final voting step. Election officials say they aren't aware of any serious voting issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don't know how widespread the machine problems are because there's no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database of machine problems.

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist. More

Discuss this topic (178 comments) · Posted by seafan

This is no laughing matter
This is no laughing matter. It's a big piece of the GOP's pre-propaganda, laying the crucial groundwork for a post-election drive to tag the Democrats as the major perpetrators of election fraud in the US.

MCM

October 29, 2006
U.S. Investigates Voting Machines' Venezuela Ties
By TIM GOLDEN

The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez.

The inquiry is focusing on the Venezuelan owners of the software company, the Smartmatic Corporation, and is trying to determine whether the government in Caracas has any control or influence over the firm's operations, government officials and others familiar with the investigation said.

The inquiry on the eve of the midterm elections is being conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius, the same panel of 12 government agencies that reviewed the abortive attempt by a company in Dubai to take over operations at six American ports earlier this year.

Read more.

link to above story...

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/

wv, so so amusing. Bush was the one pushing the Dubai port deal, fresh and documented.

Only the wild-eyed fringe will buy the Chavez story. Oh, that's right. We're governed by the wild-eyed fringe.

If the republicans start screaming voter fraud the Democrats should invite them and the courts to count all the votes, to stop everything and investigate ALL THE ALLEGATIONS and to insist the Republicans back up their accusations with evidence. The Democrats should immediately insist on appointing bi-partisan groups to every single contested state to get the bottom of the allegations.

I agree Lunaoscura, but this goes back to the old IOIYAR axiom(it's okay if you're a Rethug)...also, we don't own the media like the GOP does.....

Blaming Chavez! Ha! The dog ate their homework!
Sounds like the thugs are setting themselves up for another comical backfiring. (How DO all those clowns fit in that tiny little Volkswagen?)

Let's shine a flashlight into this latest ratcorner and watch them scatter. (must be running out of feed down there in the basement).

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/10/11/jupiter.spots.ap/index.html?eref=rss_space

Jupiter's smaller spot getting redder

The little brother to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is getting redder and stronger.

Both spots are actually fierce storms in Jupiter's atmosphere. While the Great Red Spot -- at three times the size of Earth -- is much more noticeable, strange things are happening to the smaller spot.

Just a little more than a year ago, the Earth-sized spot was a pale white. Now it matches the reddish hue of its bigger sibling and boasts 400 mile per hour winds, according to new data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Scientists aren't quite sure what's happening to the smaller storm, nicknamed the Little Red Spot or Red Spot Jr. but officially called "Oval BA."

It probably gained strength as it shrunk slightly, the same way spinning ice skaters go faster when they move their arms closer, said NASA planetary scientist Amy Simon-Miller. Her findings from the Hubble data were published in the astronomical journal Icarus.

As the storm has grown stronger it's probably picked up red material from lower in the Jupiter atmosphere, most likely some form of sulfur which turns red as part of a chemical reaction, she said.

The color change took astronomers by surprise. And now they figure more surprises are in store as the solar system's largest planet goes into hiding from Earth's prying eyes until January, moving behind the sun.

"We found that Jupiter tends to do interesting things behind the sun and we can't see it," Simon-Miller said.

What a joke! I don't think the wild eyed fringe is as effective these days. SUsan COllin's aid is sharing the joke with me these days!
My computer has crashed, except for my outlook ex-press. I miss going on line after supper.
However reading the Dell Horoscope mag's story about the Nov. 5th full moon, I'm already howling.and I can't wait to read the article posted here! ( at the library)
The moon is 12 taurus, my sun is 13 taurus,......... then there's all that scorpio stuff in my 6th H. with uranus sq. & Saturn in Leo squared from the other direction. So my life is a mirror image of Was. DC on this full moon.
I'm curious to see the results!
A restaurant ( female owner)was invaded in Camden Me, by 2 Dept. of Interiors officials. ( I've been saying that they are up to no good!!!)
Someone tipped them off; that she had a framed stuffed seagull on the wall!! She bought it 20 years ago, the date on the back of the "VICTORIAN" FRAME SAID 1854. ( making the death of the bird date back to then!) tHE VIOLATION?? A LAW FROM 1918 FORBIDDING THE SALE OF A PROTECTED BIRD SPECIES. shE WAS LOOKING AT 6 MONTHS OR $500., BUT sEN. sNOWE INTERVENED AND THEY COMPROMISED BY DONATING THE BIRD TO THE pENOBSCOT mARINE Museum!!
Scary!
QOP

I meant to say."WHere's Grover Norquist when we need him??"
QOP

Congressman Duncan Hunter announced today that he will run for the Presidency in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Hunter

No comments necessary for this one. What would they be saying if it were Clinton's luncheon?

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/10/gop-invited-known-porn-star-to-dinner.html

Warning, yong republicans blogging.

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/late-night-shots/last-weeks-shots-the-best-of-lns-211127.php

More Steve Bell...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/0,,337484,00.html

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2006/2204

Will a shocking new GOP court victory and Karl Rove's attack on Ohio 2006 doom the Democrats nationwide?

COLUMBUS---With a major GOP federal court victory, the Ohio 2006 election has descended into the calculated chaos that has become the trademark of a Karl Rove election theft, and that could help keep the Congress in Republican hands nationwide.

Through a complex series of legal maneuvers, and now a shocking new decision from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the GOP has thrown Ohio's entire process of voting and vote counting into serious disarray. The mess is perfectly designed to suppress voter turnout, make election monitoring and a recount impossible, and allow the Republican Party to emerge with a victory despite overwhelming evidence the electorate wants exactly the opposite.

The disaster in Ohio began immediately after the theft of the presidential election here in 2004. Though the majority of Ohioans are registered Democrats, the gerrymandered state legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. Soon after John Kerry conceded, it passed House Bill 3, a draconian assault on voter registration drives, voting rights and the ability to secure reliable recounts of federal-level elections.

In brief, HB3 stacked a virtually impossible set of requirements onto the voter registration process. As elsewhere nationwide, voting has traditionally involved citizens coming to the polls and signing a poll book. Upon a signature check from a poll worker, a ballot has been given. A similar process has been in effect for absentee ballots. There is no recent evidence this method has encouraged significant voter fraud.

But the GOP's HB3 has imposed a series of draconian requirements for voter ID, including the demand for certain documents very difficult to obtain by many poor, homeless, elderly or other largely Democratic demographic groups.

To further complicate matters, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who is now in charge of the same election in which he is the GOP nominee for governor, has added some additional, entirely arbitrary disqualifying factors of his own. Blackwell was the state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in the 2004 election, which he also ran while making the key decisions that gave Bush-Cheney a second term in the White House.

More....

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00493.htm

U.S. Election Fraud 2006 Risk Assessment Update

Pat QOP if you have XP
Click on Start Menu and then under system tools
one of the options is 'restore' put a date prior to your crash and see
if it restores everything to that date.

Congressman…..call me!

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

http://avi-rubin.blogspot.com/2006/10/uconn-voter-center-report-diebold-av-os.html

Conn VoTeR center report: Diebold AV-OS is vulnerable to serious attacks

A powerful new report was released yesterday about the Diebold AccuVote Optical Scan voting terminal (AV-OS). This is a thorough and independent security analysis of the machines that will be used in Connecticut to count votes on November 7. It is based on hands-on experimentation with the system, and is thus more like the Princeton study of the Accuvote TS than my team's earlier source code analysis. Like the Princeton team, the UConn researchers had no access to any internal documentation from the vendor, no source code, or any other information that would have given them an advantage over a random attacker who happened to get access to the machine. Everything they needed to know to perform the attacks was done by reverse engineering the system and observing its behavior. The evaluation was done as part of an evaluation on behalf of the state of Connecticut. They should be commended for not only allowing, but for requesting this study. The report published on their web site explains the attacks in enough detail to be convincing, but some low level details are reserved for another copy of the paper that is only available from the authors by request.

The authors show that "even if the memory card is sealed and pre-election testing is performed, one can carry out a devastating array of attacks against an election using only off-the-shelf equipment and without having ever to access the card physically or opening the AV-OS system box." The attacks presented in the paper include manipulating the count so that no votes for a particular candidate are counted, swapping votes for two candidates, and reporting the results incorrectly based on biases that are triggered under certain conditions.

More...

Congressman: Superhighway about North American Union
Paul says goal is common currency, borderless travel, bigger bureaucracy

WASHINGTON – Rep. Ron Paul, a maverick Republican from Texas, today denounced plans for the proposed "NAFTA superhighway" in his state as part of a larger plot for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American Union.

"By now many Texans have heard about the proposed 'NAFTA Superhighway,' which is also referred to as the trans-Texas corridor," he said in a statement. "What you may not know is the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving forward without congressional oversight or media attention."

The ultimate goal, he says, is not simply a superhighway "but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and virtually borderless travel within the union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether."

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. should not engage in the construction of a NAFTA superhighway, or enter into any agreement that advances the concept of a North American Union.

"I wholeheartedly support this legislation and predict that the superhighway will become a sleeper issue in the 2008 election," says Paul. "Any movement toward a North American Union diminishes the ability of average Americans to influence the laws under which they must live. The SPP agreement, including the plan for a major transnational superhighway through Texas, is moving forward without congressional oversight – and that is an outrage. The administration needs a strong message from Congress that the American people will not tolerate backroom deals that threaten our sovereignty."

FULL STORY: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52684

THANKS WV i WILL TRY IT! I had to go take down my painting show this afternoon,,and am working ( with a paintbrush ) on some Christmas prints,.....on premise that with that wicked sat nept, etc., etc., sq my n. sun, uranus, & moon, I am not meant to be doing mechanical things right now.
But I will give that a go when I get home from the library.
QOP

I am not ready for this:

31 October
Mercury retrograde in Scorpio – always the desire to know more, to plumb the depths, to discover the hidden: – and being currently conjunct Jupiter, this is amplified. The secret of Mercury Rx is to know when to dance, and now is a good time for fencing and dancing. By the time of the 5th through to the 8th though, just as the USA elections bite, there will be five planets including Mercury Rx, all in Scorpio, all squaring Neptune. Absolutely awful time for a clean upfront election. The implications of this suggest a lack of transparency and a great deal of confusion, possibly due to situations developing around the 5th, probably outside of the USA, with the outcomes not becoming obvious until early December. Shades of 2000
--from Steve Judd

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