It's interesting to see the hours that the Moon is Void of Course during these elections (Eastern Time):

May 6, 2007 2:46 AM Moon Conj Plu V/C
May 6, 2007 5:21 AM Moon enters Capricorn

I think France is 4 hours ahead of the US East Coast. Which means that there the Moon was VoC from 6:46 am to 9:21 am in France.

But then the Moon moves into Capricorn. So will it be the feminie aspect of Capricorn which is to roll up their sleeves and fix problems, or the male energy of oppression and picking strict father figures.

Nothing is clear is it? What a fork in the road this is! You are right Sally! It's all about what the people prefer. Hopefully higher consciousness will prevail.

Let's hope that France opts for reason over reactionaryism. NeoConservatism is so very far away from being the answer to the world's problems.

Put another way, you can't get to the future by walking backwards.

Sarkozy won....

There is no future.

Darkness has spread.

The vultures circle above.

The world will not see 2015.

Oh, stop already with the doom and gloom. The world is not coming to an end.

The world of the NeoConservatives is coming to an end.

What we are seeing is the beginning of a purge. People have to see how ineffective and even destructive reactionary politics are, so they can oppose and ultimately do away with them.

France it seems, is no further advanced than the US, UK, Germany or any other country that has turned to the Reactionary Right for answers. They have none, and will find their preferred methods of war and intimidation impotent and ineffective at at a time when real, genuine progressive solutions and vision are imperative.

The world will see 2015, and then some. It will also be experiencing the Uranus-Pluto square at that time. Major, major change is coming, and it is unstoppable. People can either embrace it, or be dragged kicking and screaming into it. But change is coming. There is no need to fear it.

Speaking of fear, does anyone realize that it is nothing more than an acronym?

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

Letters to Bill Moyers on his return to PBS

Dear Bill,
I make it a point to watch your show every Thursday, now that you are back on the air. I loved the John Stewart interview, and thanks for introducing me to Josh Marshall. Both were very inciteful in their views on the corruption in our government for the past 6 years. It is about time the administration has it's collective feet held to the fire. For far too long the Republicans have made a mockery of justice and good government.

I remain hopeful that shows like yours will re-introduce our country to the values of being "Liberal" as opposed to being a "Conservative". May your show be the start of this movement to make us all more aware, and proud to be called Liberal, rather than the epithet it has become since Dubya came to office. He tried to steal the idea of compassion from liberalism, and his Iraq War has shown us all how much he lacks in compassion.

Posted by: John C | May 4, 2007 01:47 PM

more: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2007/04/coming_up_on_bmj_jon_stewart.html

Paris is 6 hours ahead of us, London 5 hours.

France 24

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/world.html;jsessionid=4E26976B985F72D5A9DBEBF9A8CC113D

You can read it either in French or English see
top of page

wv, so that means a all the voting morning hours in France were during a Void of Course Moon, right? This time stuff is confusing to me - like trying to think backwards.

Riots and Celebrations in Paris over the vote. Another split country as Royal got 47 to Sarkozy's 53 percent. France is in a mood and have been rioting off and on for over a year. Both Sarkozy and Royal have late degree planets in fixed signs and Saturn is moving toward those planets as T-Pluto is going back and forth over France's Moon, with Solar Arc Moon squaring France's natal Pluto. Saturn and Neptune went over their natal Pluto at the last opposition of these planets. Neither candidate would have had an easy time of it and the people of France will be expecting a lot of the winner. The collective mind set of the French people are in a mood to fight so they chose a fighter for their president.

This puts Russia, UK and France on the ledge of chaos. I expect Germany as well will soon follow.

Nicholas Sarkozy himself said he suffered from inscurity because of his short stature, well he will have to rise to the "occasion" France placed in his hands.

Russia, Germany, France and UK on the ledge of chaos. Is it time to go back under the bed, Cap'n Sally?

Ha! The new Napolian? Apparently the French don't learn from history either!
If the moon was void of course..........could that mean it won't stick?
QOP

I think he does have a Nepoleon complex and it won't take long before France sees it in action.

Shy, you can add Mexico and Canada to that list as well as Scotland and Turkey, Italy and Greece. The world is turning "right." The problem is that the stated "liberals" in most of these countries have so polluted the pot, so to speak that people are feeling like their only alternative is conservative, except in the US who feel their only alternative is the left. Thus far most people are so tied to one party or the other they have not figured out that the problem is not the party but the leaders in those parties and corporate and banking. A friend said to me that "God warned against the Tower of Babbel" and here we are creating it again.

I don't know about covering one's head and hiding, but I do know that fear and stopping one's life is not the answer. Maybe it alternates every 100 years, going from one extreme to the other. The fact that the world's governments seem to be swinging to the right makes me even more cautious as to the leader we (the US) will elect next, no matter what party they are from. Without exception the people in the world are so accustomed to being told what to do by their governments and we just give up. I am going back to my opinion that they are living in a world apart from us, in their own bubble and we can observe them like "The Truman Show."

Well, Cap'n Sally, NeoB would probably drag me out from under the bed anyway. I do hope, Mexico aside, that the Latin American countries moving toward bettering the lives and environment of their peoples continue on a steady and sure course. Also, there is reason here to take heart:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/6/16647/53232

Like I said Shy, France will see his problems sooner rather than later, and I believe the UK will see Brown's problems fairly quickly. The picture behind the picture is that people everywhere are looking for a leader who will actually work with and support "the people." The countries are running from one hope to another only to be betrayed by the media marketed and spun leaders. The next couple of years will show everyone we are in Alice's Looking Glass. The true betrayal is coming from Global Corporations and bankers and the puppets they put on their thrones, we, the people, are so close to discovering that fact, that's when it will get interesting. The last gasp of the Pluto in Leo is coming up as T-Pluto leaves the Sag Trine to Leo and moves to Capricorn. Our fascination with the world of illusions will be coming to an end, as will our belief in marketing and spun lies. Glitz and glamour is leaving the stage (too bad, I did like things that glitter and will miss them) and Paris Hilton is in jail as her make believe world hit reality. We will hit that point of reality too, some countries are already ahead of us. We will also work hard to bring 'Mother Earth" to a more pristine condition, so we lose some things and gain some things.

US And EU Agree 'Single Market'

By BBC

The United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership at a summit in Washington.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17656.htm

===

EU/US Merger: New Global Order By Stealth

By Steve Watson

In a sweeping move that has garnered surprisingly little attention this week the United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership that will see regulatory standards "harmonized" and will lay the basis for a merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17657.htm

===

France

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

A sharp right turn

Leader
Monday May 7, 2007
The Guardian

There never was any doubt that Nicolas Sarkozy would become France's next president. After a passionate campaign marked by record turnouts and television audiences, the rightwing challenger breezed into office with a commanding 53% of the vote, six points ahead of the woman who had warned France on Friday that there would be violence and brutality if he were elected. The French have not voted in a man they particularly like. Ségolène Royal came across as a better person. But France has voted in a president it feels it needs. It has unequivocally decided that the cure for 12 years of drift is a sharp swing to the right, and this is exactly what it is going to

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2074041,00.html

Comment

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

Voters want change. Brown has to show he can deliver it

Defeat in Scotland shows the scale of the task. But Reid's departure consigns to history the biggest hurdle: factionalism

Jackie Ashley
Monday May 7, 2007
The Guardian

John Reid has done the right thing, and it's hugely useful for Labour. It gives us the first taste of just how different politics will be post-Blair and why the "you might as well give up now, go away and slash your wrists" school of commentary directed at Labour is so wrong. Reid's decision not to challenge Gordon Brown for the leadership was clear more than a week ago, but yesterday's announcement that he will give the new prime minister space, by leaving the cabinet, is constructive, helpful and wise.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2073883,00.html

Last update - 03:05 07/05/2007


Olmert congratulates French people on election of Nicolas Sarkozy

By News Agencies

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert congratulated the French people on Sunday for the election of Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy as their next president.

Olmert expressed his confidence that Israel's relations with France will strengthen during Sarkozy's term in office.

"I am convinced that cooperation between us will be fruitful and that together we will be able to advance diplomatic activity and peace in our region," the prime minister wrote.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/856328.html

Turkey sets elections....

Summertime elections not seen to affect turnout
Saturday, May 5, 2007

SERKAN DEMİRTAŞ-ŞAFAK TİMUR
ANKARA/ISTANBUL

Turkey's date for general elections is being debated. “Beach or polls” said Friday's press reports, referring to Parliament's decision to hold the general elections on July 22. A low turnout at the polls is now feared as eight to 10 millions Turks, mainly prosperous social democrats, go on holiday during the high season that is the period between July and August.

“There is no need to worry. Turkish people are eager to participate in the elections, they will vote for sure,” said respected analyst Tarhan Erdem.

The date set for elections sparked controversy among the political parties. The Republican People's Party (CHP) argued that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) wants to take advantage of the date of elections, where millions of people will be on vacation and will not be able to vote. The Minister of Justice and government spokesman Cemil Çiçek, on Friday, criticized this idea saying, “It is unfair to say that the people neglect voting. Our people will voluntarily vote.”

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=72443

You know I would, Shy. ;-)

Sally has indeed made an excellent point about the Pluto trine. Since 1995 in Sagittarius, it has empowered the Pluto in Leo generation, and so we have seen a marked emphasis upon glitz and glamour in the world. Whether they have real wealth or not, many people, it seems want to live like kings and queens.

Consider, for instance, all of the overpriced, very Leoan suburban "castles" that we have covered the hinterlands of our cities with, houses so big and expensive that people often can't afford to furnish more than a few rooms in them. Or consider the oversized, sometimes even "monster-sized" gas-guzzling SUVs that clog our highways. So many people, it seems, want to be "king" of the road. But in either case, the mere -appearance- of wealth and prominence seems to be the key.

Of course, also as Sally mentioned, Pluto in Sag trine to Leo hasn't all been bad. The past 10 years have been a most excellent time for Hollywood, Broadway, and the drama, performance and entertainment industries in general. Who can remember a more successful time for music and movies? Think about what powerhouses the major league sports franchises and even college sports teams have become. In retrospect, this period will probably be remembered as a golden age of sorts for entertainment in general.

But starting next year until 2024, Pluto in Capricorn will empower the Pluto in Virgo generation. They will be the ones to lead the charge to restore our environment and reorganize our business and governmental structures to properly deal with practical and grounded issues, no matter what it takes.

Speaking of the world taking a lurching lunge to the Right! Here's something that I'm sure Bush would love to emulate, and probably would if he could.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/world/17185682.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_world

China orders resettlement of thousands of Tibetans

Tibet - In a massive campaign that recalls the socialist engineering of an earlier era, the Chinese government has relocated some 250,000 Tibetans - nearly one-tenth of the population - from scattered rural hamlets to new "socialist villages," ordering them to build new housing largely at their own expense and without their consent.

The government calls the year-old project the "comfortable housing program," and its stated aim is to present a more modern face for this ancient region, which China has controlled since 1950.

It claims that the new housing on main roads, sometimes only a mile from previous homes, will enable small farmers and herders to have access to schools and jobs, as well as better health care and hygiene.

But the broader aim seems to be remaking Tibet - a region with its own culture, language and religious traditions - in order to have firmer political control over its population. It comes as China prepares for an influx of millions of tourists in the run-up to next year's Summer Olympic Games.

A vital element in the strategy is to displace a revered leader, the Dalai Lama, now 71, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for advocating resistance to the communist government. The government hopes to replace him after he dies with a state-appointed successor, and in the meantime it's opened the gates of Tibet to greater numbers of ethnic Han Chinese and tightened control of religious activity.

It's pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into road-building and development projects in Tibet, boosting the economy, maintaining a large military presence and keeping close tabs on the citizenry through a vast security apparatus of cameras and informants on urban streets and in the monasteries.

more....

Well i don't care!! I don't want to go right. I see the lurch to the right as more of the reactionary consciousness that we have lived through here in the US. It didn't work here and it won't work there but many poor people of the wrong color or with the wrong accent are going to suffer.
I hate the news out of China. I bet there is much better news at the local level in the lives of the ordinary citizens. Do you think this is caused by more of us evil Pluto in Leos? Perhaps the Chinese Pluto in Virgos will restore some idea of the dignity of human beings.
China in Tibet sounds not unlike the US in our cities. Creepy.

I’d like to add a bit about some of us who were born with Pluto in Leo. In the ‘60s when we came of age, we dressed flamboyantly (though always cheaply–Goodwill was our shop of choice, and we sewed, knitted and crocheted, too), we let our hair grow (lion manes, I guess) to outrageous lengths and heights (thinking of Afros here), we flaunted past stodgy old behavioral constraints and lived as freely as we could, we cultivated our own music and poetry and plays and presented them in our own venues (usually free or as near to free as we could), we defied the rulers of the day over and over and over again, shutting down universities, freeways, Klan rallies and downtowns (even if only for a day) and on and on. I certainly welcome the Pluto in Virgo generation for the promise they hold of turning around the destruction of our planet. But I would like to add that we were onto that, too, just too early for our warnings and alternative developments to take hold. Now, sadly, it may be too late.

You are right Neo, the Virgo generation will make us all clean up our act. They will want to work harder (everyone) clean up the environment and you're right they won't care the cost. No whining with Virgo's either. There will be a bit of a repieve when Uranus goes into Aries, giving the baby boomers another hurrah. I also expect Pluto in Leo in a trine to Virgo will legalize prostitution and porn, making it all cleaned up. Virgo, like any sign, isn't all pure and decent. Scorpio doesn't try to hide their flaws but Virgo's do. Wonder if there will be an emphasis and more respect for the service industries, hope so.

Shy, in the 60's was when Pluto went into Virgo, the hippies were just sounding the alarm and letting everyone know it was coming. Transiting Pluto has been squaring the 60's Pluto in Virgo letting everyone know the time has come and in Capricorn those Pluto and Uranus in Virgo folks will get out the shovels for us all at exactly the time of my life that I don't want to work that hard. Oh well, just keep telling ourselves "we are lucky" and try to bring that lucky vibration around

Just so long, Cap'n Sally, as they can find us older folk some kind of alternative work. My deteriorating back condition pretty much rules out shoveling. Haha! I can still cheer others on, though.

Well Shy, if I have to shovel it will for sure be in my rinestone jewelry and crown. They really sparkle in the sun. I may even get out my old wedding ring and plant the diamond on my forehead.We Hippie Leo Goddess' have to shine.

Sally, d'ya think in the end Mr. Sarcophagus's fears brought about by his diminutive stature reflect the ultimate pickling of a proportionately tiny whatnot a la Napoleon?

Neo -
The best year ever for movies was 1939...

Movies in 1939
Here are Hollywood's movies in 1939.

The Academy Award Winner
Gone With the Wind

The Other Oscar Nominees
Dark Victory
Goodbye Mr. Chips
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice and Men
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights

http://members.aol.com/grbmd/year1939.htm

You may want to look at this longer list of
movies of 1939...much better than the crap that
won the Oscar this year (Departed) and last (Crash) not to mention American Beauty and Titanic
of the past few years. If it weren't for the Britsh - The Queen, Notes on a Scandal, The History Boys and Kinky Boots there would have been
nothing to enjoy over the past year.

Forgot the link...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/11XXL97GGU64I

May 2007 07:29

The two faces of Sarkozy

He made his name as a minister who was accused of dividing France with his hardline rhetoric. But last night he won the race to succeed Chirac and vowed to be 'a president of all the French'

By John Lichfield
Published: 07 May 2007

France has taken a sharp turn to the right, electing Nicolas Sarkozy by a thumping majority to be President for the next five years.

M. Sarkozy defeated the Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal by about 52.7 per cent to 47.3 per cent.

Although a centre-right President will replace a centre-right President on 16 May, M. Sarkozy, 52, represents a much harder, less compromising kind of right wing, but also protectionist, politics.

Clashes immediately broke out in Paris ­ and a dozen other cities ­ between riot police and left-wing youths protesting against M. Sarkozy's victory.

In an energetic, but sometimes disturbing, campaign, M. Sarkozy promised to cut taxes and curb trades union rights but also to restore "moral values " allegedly betrayed by successive left-wing and centre-right governments for four decades.

M. Sarkozy's wife, Cécilia, said to have left him after a split during the campaign, did not turn up to vote with her husband when he cast his ballot near his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just west of Paris, yesterday lunch-time

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2519064.ece

Thanks for the input on movies, fellow Pluto in Cancer, & Graybeard"! WV.
Yes 1939 was the year of the Grand Trine; Water depth, unconcious, & Earth pragmatism, reality based.Pluto in Cancer, Jupiter in Pisces, NN in Scorpio, + the moon 12 times,sun & inner planets once!
Uranus in Taurus, Neptune in Virgo, Mars in Capricorn. I was born with "The Wizard of Oz", & "Gone with the Wind'; ( thankfully my Father prevailed, and I WASN'T NAMED SCARLET!)
My Mother describes me as having a " larger than life personality". Throughout the years, that has been either a source of empowerment, and success, OR cause for envy and jealousy, & undermining! It is what it is, no altering possible!
Then during the 50's 60's 70's there were a number of "art fims" that have dropped out of sight entirely! .................................
( Generational exploration last summer,............ My 10 year old Grandaughter pronounced the original "Cheaper by The Dozen" weird & boring!
The message was the most efficient methods to accomplish tasks, AND family communication and love, compromises and working together. And her 12 year old Brother, LOVED 'The Life of Brian" by Monty Python.
The current stuff available to them? aggress, retaliate, escalate, all in screaming lime green & hot pink, accompanied by brain crushing noises!
QOP

I'm a lurker who only very occasionally posts here, and I just wanted to add my $.02 about this being a good time for film and drama, esp. Broadway.

In the grad school at Tisch (NYU)--Dramatic Writing Program, it became apparent to all of us MFA candidates that the future of theater would basically be "that which led people into the world of film or television." Being the resistant and idealistic Taurus rising with Venus in Aries in the 12th House that I am, I myself wrote a pretty decent but not great screenplay about a chubby gay kid whose best friend is a very Jewish, very Faygele Jesus. (It's set in pre-Columbine Littleton, Colorado too, but that's only becuase Luchatown is the place I went to high school lo these many moons ago.)

The present state of theater in the country is quietly exciting, but ONLY if you're focused on community theater. Imagine Waiting for Guffman but not waiting, and no need for a goddam Guffman to enter Stage Right, Left or from the Rafters even. I don't think it's just me, but I pretty much find whatever makes it to N(ot) Y(ummy) C(ommodities) to be ecchelley-blechel-blech, Bat man, bat man! It's all water-treading pabulum dinner theater pretty much.

Sure there's the occasional Christopher Durang or John Patrick Shanley. But for the most part it's just awful. Now, some might say it's sour grapes on my part, but on the ground in Not Yea! City is a sense of malaise and unvoiced despondency. For every Shanley or Durang there are hundreds of equally talented (and younger) voices out there, and for the most part their opportunities are geared to getting some kind of notice that will lead them into the world of film and television.

I'm a Pisces Dragon with Taurus Rising and a Cancer Moon, with a post-Kennedy birthday and my Mayan Day Sign is 6 Death. We Pluto/Uranus in Virgo types who are trying to work in theater probably are recognizing a post-Broadway/post-American future for theater. Probably also a post-Hollywood/post-globalist future for film as well. I for one am looking forward to the acknowledgment that we entered into cultural collapse long ago, even as we all get ready for wahtever bumpy ride in the night is on its way.

I do have some anger here, as you probably can tell. I feel that I sort of wasted time trying to "make something happen" in Not Yea! City for 12 years. I self-produced a show and went $8K into debt. And that's modest for most folks! I feel burdened also now with a $440/mo payment to Cuntigroup for my student loan. But today, I understand that my debt problem requires a communal and spiritual solution, and I pray UNIVERSAL DEBT FORGIVENESS. (Sorry if that seems I'm yelling it, but I do like to emphasize that notion. We are overdue for a Jubilee of our debts IMHHHHHHO.)

So maybe that's more than $.02, but that's probably all its worth.

I don't believe Sarkozy "won" the election any more than I believe bushaholic "won" the 2000, 2004 elections & all in between. With the advent of computerized vote "counting," the olies/pluties can easily do as they've pleased & they have. The problem with these "sharp turns to the right" on top of other "sharp turns to the right" on top of other "sharp turns to the right" is the health of the Earth. Oh, She'll keep on going but hospitable to Life such as human becomings? I have my doubts. So what will be will be, I suppose, but I'll be raging until my own snuff-out time. I do NOT go sweetly into the night. That's what it's been anyway... one long freakin' godamned night! Screw it!!

I may be stating the obvious, but it should be noted that Pluto in Capricorn is a worldwide phenomenon. I seem to remember reading the interpretation that with it, governments will become more repressive.

The people may want a leader who will be of and for them, but in country after country, they seem to elect leaders who are just the opposite.

The good news is that I also seem to remember reading that the people will react and revolt. The question is when.

Still, I'm not sure that we should count on the Pluto in Virgo generation to save us. I may be a Pluto in Virgo, and Barack Obama is a Pluto in Virgo--but then, you also have Pluto in Virgo leader wannabes like Senator David Vitter, a sniveling little man who never passes up a chance to make a partisan point of view. To think that this man, who represents my state, is also a Rhodes scholar is something I find frightening.

It's a very cynical time for those of us in Louisiana--even more cynical than it usually is. Only 4 per cent of the electorate turned out for a judicial election we had last Saturday during the last weekend of the Jazz and Heritage Festival. I have no idea what our Secretary of State was thinking when he set the date for this runoff. Didn't he know (or care) that folks in New Orleans are much more interested in music right now? We sure have no faith whatsoever in our politicians. And I'm not sure that this is necessarily a good thing.

re: Sen. Vitter (R-LA):

Oops--I meant "partisan talking point."

Sorry about the triple post, but the post above should read:

"[Senator Vitter is]...a sniveling little man who never passes up a chance to make a partisan (Republican)talking point."

OK--now I feel better.

Gina, Sen. Vitter is indeed a sniveling little man, odious comes to mind. But Henry Waxman is also a Virgo, in the best sense. As I said above there's positive and negative to every sign and Vitter sure brings out the negative aspect of Virgo.

In 1760 Pluto was at the Galactic Center and groups formed to deal with crazy King George in this country and several countries including France were working to extricate themselves from the East Indian Trade Companies who were history's multi-nationals. They were greedy, had bigger armies than most countries, and they were onerous. It took until Pluto had gone through Capricorn (almost) before these groups really rose up and in this country it was the Revolution, finally breaking the hold crazy King George had on this country as well as the multi-nationals world wide when Pluto arrived in Aquarius. The similarities to today are striking.

Nothing happens over-night. I can completely understand what LA must be going through right now. I've not experienced anything like that, but I have experienced massive floods where homes were wiped out and tornado's that leveled half a town. There wasn't any government help then and supposedly the last few decades and billions in tax dollars was to fix that, obviously it hasn't. In Greenburg Kansas not even their state supplies for disasters are there, they've been sent off to Iraq, this country's black hole of hell.

I believe there will be more repression heaped on top of global angry heads and I believe there will also be a rising up, a revolution, maybe even a global revolution, but not now. I do think it will take until about 2020 for folks to take back their countries and their lives and begin rebuilding. It took Germany nearly 30 years to come back from the war, my hope is it won't take us that long.

Hope LA can get that little weasel Vitter out of there.

Ooooh, Cap'n Sally, I just love it when you get on a roll like that, tying all this stuff together in a neat little package. Clarity and cogency used to express the wonderful historical and astrological knowledge you have in abundance. Many thanks.

The more all these nations look different(France, Germany,USA,UK) the more they're similar. Talking about electing a lady to the top post, only con ladies, have a chance. Merkel in Germany, con thatcher in UK, no chance for Royal in France, since she's not a con and I predict the same here,
no chance for Hillary since she is not running as
a con. So it is better for Democrats to nominate a
male to have a chance to occupy WH in 2008.

About wolf's bonus, judigem had something more to say previous blog. humpty dumpty appointing wolf to World Bank is like wolf to guard the coop.It is
totally laughably ridiculous. Here the cons want positions in govt. world orgs. for only MONEY and
POWER; cons not interested in service to the people or help the under priviliged or take up arms to defend the country, they prefer others to do the defending/fighting for them and they'll talk about patriotism 24/7, like humpty dumpty's
september 11 in every speech/press conf. This country is RIPE for a la french revolution against the cons!

Well, Sally,

Our chance to take out Vitter probably won't be till he's up for re-election in 2010. That is, unless some skeleton in his closet comes up and bites him before then.

As far as him, Wolfie, Sarkozy and all the other con men go, until then, I am ever hopeful--cautiously pessimistic in the near term, but ever hopeful for the long run.

I'm just kidding about the above blog, before anyone take seriously about what I am saying and
pounce on me. I know it's a typo above Sally addressing herself Sally unless there are 2 different Sallies!

wv, I will gladly defer to your insight in the entertainment category. While I maintain that this has been a particularly good era for Hollywood in general, (though perhaps more in the way of "Industrial Light and Magic" special effects, computer generated animation, etc.) no period of time as of yet truly rivals the era of the multitude of classics you mentioned in terms of acting.

Now back to Pluto in Capricorn, I definitely see it as a major time for organizing, re-organizing and organizations in general. Given that corporations and governments are types of organizations, it isn't hard to see that corporate power seems to be growing exponentially, while a push (almost always from higher-up) for regional and multi-national government is quietly gaining ground in many parts, our North American continent included.

On the other hand, and more beneficial for us, we have seen the emergence and growth of progressive, grass roots, "people-power" organizations like never before, such as MoveOn.org, Progressive Democrats of America, Twenty-First Century Democrats and even interactive community websites such as Democratic Underground.

Additionally, groups concerned with all aspects of our environment from local food production to global warming are mobilizing and are rapidly on the rise. Organized Labor, long in decline since reaching its' zenith under Pluto in Virgo, is now regrouping and looking to unite globally in an effort to stand up to the multinational MegaCorps. Even the movement for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney is steadily gaining ground and support, even among people who once staunchly supported Bush.

The key to power with Pluto is understanding the sign in which Pluto is currently transiting. Right now, with Pluto in Sagittarius, blind, unquestioned faith and beliefs to the extreme are the key, hence the prominence of extremists in all religions, NeoConservative ideologues, and even the market itself (i.e. economics as a religion, capitalism as the ultimate solution, etc.).

Therefore, with Pluto in Capricorn, structure and organization -- and the ability to effectively organize, and stay that way -- will be the key to power and survival. Existing organizations, including probably a lot of governments, corporations and churches (also organizations) that can't cut the mustard with Pluto, will perish, and new structures will emerge to take their place.

However, amidst the Pluto in Cap emphasis upon structures and organizations, there is also from 2012-2015, the Uranus-Pluto Square. Uranus in Aries is explosive new and revolutionary energy. Last time we saw this transit was in the 1930s, best known for the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt and the revolutionary New Deal programs, and conversely, the sudden rise to power of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany.

So what will happen this time? With Uranus involved, who knows? But one thing we can all pretty much count on is that, whatever emerges, the Pluto in Cap-empowered corporations and governments will be desperately working to contain it. Maybe, to use for their own benefit, and maybe to keep it from making them totally irrelevant. And similar will perhaps hold true for our own grass-roots groups.

I hope this pubic humiliation isn't lost on Wolfowitz. But then he would have to have a modicum of a sense of shame, so it probably is lost on him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/business/07cnd-wolf.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

World Bank Panel Finds Wolfowitz at Fault; Aide Resigns

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: May 7, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 7 — A committee of World Bank directors has formally notified Paul D. Wolfowitz that they found him to be guilty of a conflict of interest in arranging for a pay raise and promotion for Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, in 2005. The findings stepped up the pressure on Mr. Wolfowitz to resign.

The contents of the panel’s findings were not made public. People who are familiar with the panel’s report said that it reviewed extensive documents and testimony before concluding that Mr. Wolfowitz breached his obligations in arranging for Ms. Riza’s reassignment from the bank to the State Department.

The report, as transmitted to Mr. Wolfowitz, did not recommend a punishment for Mr. Wolfowitz. Bank officials, speaking anonymously because the proceedings are supposed to be confidential, said that the special committee was still working today on what to recommend.

It was not clear whether the committee, consisting of 7 of the bank’s 24 board members, would remove Mr. Wolfowitz from his post or, more likely, express a loss of confidence in his leadership in a manner that might persuade him to resign. Bank officials say that a majority of the bank board has concluded that he should go.

more...

Caution. This may make you sick so prepare for a barf bag.

George Tenet cashes in on Iraq

The former CIA chief is earning big money from corporations profiting off the war -- a fact not mentioned in his combative new book or heard on his publicity blitz.

[snip]
"...While the swirl of publicity around his book has focused on his long debated role in allowing flawed intelligence to launch the war in Iraq, nobody is talking about his lucrative connection to that conflict ever since he resigned from the CIA in June 2004. In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.

When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book."

more...

JoannaO, I'm with you on Sarko-ze-phony being "elected"--witness this relevant piece from Wayne Madsen:

May 7, 2007 -- Nicolas Sarkozy (whom our French intelligence sources have referred to as the "little French Hitler") will govern France with the help of two Silvio Berlusconi- and Rupert Murdoch-like billionaire neo-con French media moguls, Martin Bouygues and Arnaud Lagardere. Bouygues owns the TF1 television channel, which can be expected to act as Sarkozy's own version of the U.S. Republican Party's Fox News Channel. Lagardere's media group owns the Europe 1 radio network, Paris Match, several French regional newspapers, and is a major stakeholder in the French television network Canal+. Sarkozy is known to censor any news reports that are unfavorable to him and pressure publishers and editors to fire wayward journalists. With much of the French media in his pocket, expect the Franco-Hungarian Sarkozy to institute a new era of Janos Kadarist-style censorship in his nation.

The French election, from the start, has been plagued by election fraud -- bogus polling data, false exit polls, and electronic voting machine and machine counting irregularities were hallmarks of the first presidential election round. ES&S's I-Votronic machines were used in both elections across France. Only Sarkozy's party was supportive of the machines, with all the other political parties calling for a moratorium on their use. Turnout in the French election was 85 percent. With large turnouts historically favoring the left in France, the exit polling and actual polling were at odds with the turnout -- an indication of massive election fraud.

Similar polling irregularities were experienced in recent elections in Scotland, Wales, and England. In Scotland, 100,000 ballots, thought to mostly be cast for the pro-independence Scottish National Party, were declared "spoiled" in Scotland's election. That "glitch" cost the Scottish Nationalists a larger majority in the Scottish Parliament. Irregularities in Wales and England similarly affected larger margins for Welsh and Cornish nationalists. As the Bretons and Corsicans will soon discover with Sarkozy, regional nationalism is anathema to the globalist neo-con agenda, particularly the international bankers who want strong centralized control and minimal devolution of power to local and regional governments.

The electoral malfeasance of neo-cons in manipulating elections in France, Britain, Canada, the United States, Italy, Australia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, and other countries will remain a problem until the people, acting through the power of progressive, anti-globalist, and anti-capitalist governments, seize control, via whatever means necessary, of the media, the voting and vote counting process, and the opinion polling mechanisms.

So, just like our own Neo-cons stole 2000 and 2004(just like they stole 1876 for Hayes)--only the dates and the locations change.

De-Authorize the War Now, No Residual Troops

By Gov. Bill Richardson

Congress has the ability to end this war under the War Powers Act -- let's not wait or waver while more people die. And de-authorizing the war should mean removing all our troops. Every last one.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17658.htm

Row over Iraq oil law :

A draft law being considered by the Iraqi parliament would enable US companies to take control of Iraq's oil industry, oil experts in the country say.

http://snipurl.com/1jq6f

===

UK: WMD document 'must be released' :

The government must release a draft of a 2002 dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the Information Commissioner has ruled.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6627381.stm

Well Nancy Pelosi accepted the invitation to the State dinner at the WH. Harry Ried declined!
Also Dennis Kuchinich and his lovely British wife attended the British Emnbasy garden party, the only Democratic Presidential CANDIDATE TO BE INVOLVED IN THE FESTIVITIES AS FAR AS I KNOW!
QOP

Wow! This is knock your socks off stuff:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x843263

and I can't believe I posted it before Garry did.

GOOD FIND SHY!
I like the commentor on that article who said,
"If you're not paranoid you're not paying attention".....

namaste and love y'all
GLT

* Just as Tony Blair heads for the Royal Home for Retired bush-Poodles, here comes Nicky Sarkozy, pom-poms all fluffed & perfumed, stepping high to fill Tony's dainty doggie-booties. Difference is that poodles being (I believe) an indigenous French breed, we'll be getting yapping even more frantic, butt-sniffing even more craven, doggie-tricks even more elaborate than we ever got from cool-Britannia Tony.

The dewlaps of Sarko's neo-fascist owners in Wash must be drooling buckets at the hoops they're going to put their new pet thru: Sit, Nicky, sit! Attaboy! Roll over Nicky! Awright! Isn't he just too cute? Play dead Nicky! Play dead I said! Good boy! Here's your Chewy.

Yup, just as we're getting ready to dump & punish the hideous criminals who've disgraced our exec for the last 6 yrs, the cheese-eating flunkeys of the French right have decided to start kowtowing to them. Way to go cheese-eating flunkeys. Always in the avant-garde! So far ahead of us lumbering, dumpy anglo-saxon [pink] progressives. What impeccable political timing you display! What crystalline logic! ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-hendra/blair-out-sarkozy-in-th_b_47891.html

May 8, 2007, 8:04 am

Muzzling All to Hush a Few
By Katharine Q. Seelye

CBSNews.com has been getting so many vitriolic comments about Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, that it has taken the unusual step of blocking all reader comments on its stories about Mr. Obama.
The CBS decision highlights the ways in which presidential campaigns, news organizations and the general public are grappling with the growing influence of the Internet on politics. There is no rule book for resolving clashes among the anything-goes ethos of the Web, the efforts by candidates to harness it to their ends and the standards that mainstream journalism has tried to impose on what appears under its banner.
The CBS decision touched on two of the most delicate elements of this presidential campaign: racism and the safety of the candidate. Mr. Obama was assigned Secret Service protection last week.
Mike Sims, director of news and operations for CBSNews.com, was quoted on the Web site as saying that CBS could not selectively delete the ugly remarks because of their “volume and persistence.” The site plans to continue to allow comments about other presidential candidates, and a spokeswoman for CBS said it would do more to monitor the comments and would try to reopen the Obama comment section as soon as possible.
Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said, “It’s too bad that a few discordant voices would be allowed to muzzle the vast majority of folks who are interested and want to participate in the dialogue.”
Recent comments about the decision on the Web suggested that CBS is trying to pretend that racism does not exist. Others said the decision allows “cyberthugs” to deny Mr. Obama publicity and other potentially useful discussions about his campaign.

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial

'Slam dunk's' reward

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

HOWEVER HARD he may try, former CIA Director George Tenet will forever be associated with two words: slam dunk.

For the past couple of weeks, we've been subjected to the pathetic spectacle of an aggrieved Tenet explaining that he didn't really mean that the case for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk."

What he really meant was ... well, read his book for a tortured alternative explanation.

He admits that he and the CIA did get a few things wrong, but on the whole Tenet seems to be trying to downplay his central role in shaping the catastrophic U.S. invasion of Iraq.

It's peculiar that we now learn, that in July 2001 he warned Condoleezza Rice that there would be a "spectacular" terrorist attack on the United States "within weeks or months" -- and then failed to tell President Bush about it.

He posits the bizarre notion that the president isn't an "action officer" -- and that it was the responsibility of others (other than Tenet, that is) to suggest what actions the president might take.

For that omission alone, Tenet must be held culpable. There are many others, including his failure to read Bush's 2002 State of the Union speech containing what we now know -- and Tenet knew then -- to be false information about Hussein's weapons programs.

Then there's Secretary of State Colin Powell's bogus presentation to the United Nations -- which Tenet spent days helping him prepare for. "We sat there for three days trying to make sure that he said what we believed," said Tenet on "Meet the Press on Sunday. He said he had the tough job of revising a draft "that wasn't our own" and figuring out "where half the stuff" in the draft came from.

Poor George. Instead of taking full responsibility for his enabling of the administration's failed policies, Tenet is peddling a book for which he received a $4 million advance. That seems like an excessive reward for someone so centrally involved in getting the United States bogged down in the middle of a vicious sectarian battle for control of a war-ravaged country.

Translation: they got a bad case of the freepers, of course! They should try going at the freepers at their campaign-developing site instead of trying to disallow 'em at the Obama site (sound familiar?). Freepers are very bad news anywhere however... paid young mouthly nasty blogger-blats. http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm

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

"...On Sept 29, 1999, I posted an open letter at the ultra-conservative FreeRepublic.com--one of the largest &, in my opinion, most dangerous political forums on the Internet. During the 4-day period prior to my letter, these Freeper-sharks had posted no fewer than a half-doz defamatory threads about me, incl, "Moldea Blackmailed Congress During Clinton's Impeachment," "The Curious Case of Dan Moldea," & "The Evil of Dan Moldea Exposed." All of these threads wound up on search engines thruout the Internet. ..." http://www.moldea.com/FreeRepublic.html

Posters on the then-new huge UK GuardianUnlimited threads way back when blogging first got going big-time, around dyselection 1999, got a nasty mouth-full of the freeper phenomenon that generally posted in swarms... foul-mouthed, no lie too little or too big, ultra-rude, purposely very disruptive... such a thing hadn't really been experienced before in public discourse. Most folks should be acquainted with them by now... & have ways of dealing with them. Their "shock & awe” ability is mostly gone these days, but they can still get to some of the new comers.

Brownback disputes Guard shortages(WH aka Tony Snow puts the blame with the Gov)

Edited on Tue May-08-07 12:17 PM by maddezmom
Source: AP

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record) disputed claims by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that a deadly Kansas tornado exposed holes in National Guard readiness caused by the Iraq war.

~snip~

"The issue for the National Guard is the same wherever you go in the country. Stuff that we would have borrowed is gone. It's gone across the country," she said Monday.

Brownback said Tuesday that local officials and the Kansas National Guard commander all told him they have the resources needed to respond.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2838668

RFK: Rove And Rove’s Brain, ‘Should Be In Jail,’ Not In Office

Voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for prison time for the new US Attorney for Arkansas, Timothy Griffin and investigation of Griffin’s former boss, Karl Rove, chief political advisor to President Bush.

by Greg Palast

http://donkeyod.wordpress.com/

Brownback is a fine example of the habitual neocon characteristic of deciding that whatever they think up in their pea-sized brains is absolutely true-just-because-they-say-so phenomena... facts to the contrary be damned... otherwise known to the sane individual as lying.

Don't Be Fooled By Propaganda

Charley Reese

There is an ongoing slander campaign against Islam, claiming that it is a religion that promotes violence and hinting that it seeks world conquest.

Before you buy the malarkey that is being produced by people with their own agendas or prejudices or who are just plain ignoramuses, follow these few suggestions:

Compare the history of Islam with the history of Europe, which for centuries was called Christendom. An objective look will show you that Christendom wins by a landslide when it comes to violence and wars. After all, Europe and its offspring did not come to dominate the world, including the Islamic countries, because they practiced the gentle virtues of Jesus.

http://reese.king-online.com/content.php

Sally,
Anyone checked the planetary configuration for
coming October 2008 for stock market crash? Looks
like a HIGH possiblity with the market is like a runaway train here and everywhere, especially in
China, where the market is already up 77% this year in only 4 months and this is worse than a runaway train - its like a elephant stampede running amok and as it happened last March 2008,
China stock exchange can drag NYSE and other stock
exchanges with it and cause a world havoc.

Also china has been arming Darfur regime to the teeth and abetting in carrying out the genocide
without a whimper or hue and cry from the rest of
the civilized world.

Sarkozy holidays as fresh violence hits French cities

PARIS (AFP) - President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy relaxed and strategised Tuesday on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean, while back home "anti-Sarko" protestors burned cars and fought police in cities across France.

Sarkozy boarded the vessel in Malta with his wife Cecilia and their 10-year-old son Louis on Monday at the start of a three-day break to relax after the right-winger's weekend election victory.

His radical reform programme won him 53 percent of the votes to 47 percent for his Socialist rival Segolene Royal.

The new president had pre-planned the break to recover from his months of gruelling campaigning and to mentally ready himself for France's highest office.

The Sarkozys escaped the heady post-election atmosphere in Paris on board a private Falcon jet belonging to a wealthy industrialist friend, Vincent Bollore.

The yacht, a 60-metre (200-foot) vessel also believed to belong to Bollore, sailed along the south coast of Malta on Monday before returning in the evening to drop anchor just off the tiny capital Valletta.

It left early Tuesday headed towards nearby Sicily.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/france_vote&printer=1

George And Richard

President George Bush's claims about what will happen if we pull out of Iraq is almost word-for-word identical to Richard Nixon's speech explaining why we must not pull out of Vietnam.

A "precipitate withdrawal" would result in a bloodbath, destabilization of Southeast Asia, would embolden our enemies and result in more war not less, Nixon said. And that is what Bush is saying, if you substitute "Middle East" for "Southeast Asia."

Nixon succeeded not in winning the war in Vietnam, but in prolonging it until 21,000 more young Americans died in the jungles and rice paddies. Then we withdrew, and none of Nixon's predictions came true.

To draw further parallel, we got into the Vietnam War because the people who put us there: (1) didn't know the history; (2) didn't speak the language; (3) didn't understand the culture; and (4) arrogantly assumed that American firepower and technology could overcome any and all obstacles.

http://reese.king-online.com/content.php?pubdate=20070504

No Diplomatic Tango for Rice at Iraq Conference

DEBKAfile Special Report

May 6, 2007, 8:14 PM (GMT+02:00)




Instead of the one-on-one between US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and the Iranian foreign minister, the supposed piéce de résistance of the two-day conference on Iraq’s future, the occasion ended Friday, May 4, on the harsh note of the Iranian minister’s denunciation of US policy. He called for a clear US plan for the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq.

He pointedly called for the immediate release of the five Iranians US troops detained in northern Iraq in January and, even more pointedly, fought shy of any direct contact with the US secretary.

Tehran was clearly miffed at Washington’s failure to reciprocate by freeing at least one of the five Revolutionary Guards officers held in Iraq, for the former FBI agent Robert Levinson held from March 11, whom Iran released Tuesday, May 1. Neither were the clerical rulers in Tehran delighted by the disclosure by US commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, in a press briefing the day before the conference that most of the 65 roadside bombs which exploded in Iraq in April were made in Iran.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1270

I thot that was a really nice piece by Charlie Reese, wv... thanks for posting that.

Oh... well, BOTH Charlie Reese pieces. TaHA... Reese's Pieces.

A couple of good new articles here...

http://www.awakeninthedream.com/indexx.html

snip....China's foreign reserve mirage
China's latest foreign-reserves data showed that there is as much as $73 billion in unexplained new reserves. The People's Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank, now holds more than $1.2 trillion in foreign reserves, the most among the world's central banks, except the US Federal Reserve, which can create dollars at will and therefore needs not hold any foreign reserves. …snip

Snip…Globalization and hedging have merely postponed, not eliminated, cyclical inflation. Globalization has stunted wage inflation as the main transmission between monetary growth and inflation. Hedging only reassigns unit risk to systemic risk. It does not eliminate risk. Instead, excessive liquidity fuels asset appreciation beyond economic fundamentals.…snip

Snip…Banks also act increasingly as suppliers of revolving credit independent of their deposits as they obtain additional credit protection through credit derivatives….snip

Snip…The liquidity boom has been delivering strong growth through asset inflation (property, credit spreads, commodities, and emerging-market stocks) without adding commensurate substantive expansion of the real economy. Unlike real physical assets, virtual financial mirages that arise out of thin air can evaporate again into thin air without warning. As inflation picks up, the liquidity boom and asset inflation will draw to a close, leaving a hollowed economy devoid of substance….snip

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IE09Dj01.html

This article really lays it out. Continuing with my confidence in Martin Armstrong’s predictions, I see the global financial crash happening April 23, 09. Mars will be zero degrees in Aries square retrograde Pluto 3 degrees in Capricorn, or, a warlike transformation to the status quo. On that day retrograde Saturn is quincunx the moon in Aries A neurosis producing/confidence erasing aspect due to its energy on again off again nature. I'll speculate the retrograde energy of Saturn and Pluto will come-off like a sneak attack to some.

Increased liquidity/inflation is somehow also being produced through equities/stocks/Wall Street. I still have to study that one, but the entry of Wall Street into the mess is further illustration clever/greedy trading has replaced substantive/real goods trading. William Buffet has called the phenomena WMD.
The question remains, how will the US react to a big crash? Might that be the excuse given to move to the North American Union?

A must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A9uphSt5iE&mode=related&search=

humpty dumpty's lame excuses for continuing the misadventure is ridiculous even taking it verbatim from his mentor nixon; instead he should use his own lame excuse he used for VA massacre like wrong place at the wrong time, the chief thief can say the troops are at the wrong place(Iraq) at the wrong time(NOW) and quietly do the
RIGHT thing!

How predictable! Prying power out of these people's death grip is going to be very hard.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2007-05-08T143916Z_01_N24441992_RTRUKOC_0_US-WORLDBANK-WOLFOWITZ.xml

White House: World Bank can be effective with Wolfowitz
Tue May 8, 2007 10:39am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday the World Bank could continue to be effective with embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in charge.

"We believe that the World Bank can continue to be an effective development institution with Paul Wolfowitz as president," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Wolfowitz is embroiled in a scandal over a salary agreement for his companion, who also works at the World Bank. Board sources said on Monday a World Bank panel had found his handling of the promotion and pay increase for his companion represented a conflict of interest and broke rules.

The panel has made no recommendation on how he should be reprimanded, the sources said. Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy defense secretary and a key architect of the Iraq war, has been given several days to respond to the findings.

The White House said it continued to support Wolfowitz, but spokesman Tony Snow would not comment further.

"This is a World Bank matter and I refer you back to them," he said.

* "Civil Unrest"

Now comes a time in human history which can either make or break the world as you know it. The People, as a Singular Mass Consciousness, are beginning to awaken once again. There is tremendous symbolism in this, & we have come forward this day to present this unfolding story from a Oneness perspective, instead of the Separation mindset which has been so prevalent in your 3D world through the ages.

We are The Reconnections. We represent all those parts of your Expanded Self that you had to forget about in order to become human. We have never been very far from you... just far enough. Within our ranks are contained all the necessary "Bridge Concepts" which will connect you with what is known as The Multiverse, a compilation of alternative, possible/probable universes ALL OF WHICH represent levels of YOU.

The Oneself Consciousness of Planet Earth has its own "circadian rhythm"... very similar to cycles of rest & productivity that are experienced in the life of a single individual. It sleeps, it dreams... &, when timing & external circumstance unfold in a particular sequence... it wakes.

In the 1960s, your Collective Awakening was personal, individual... tho projections of responsibility for the world's problems were plentiful & quite pointed. At that time, your internal mechanism was so tender & new that it would have been quite impossible to attain Collective Oneness Perspective... even tho there were individuals present who were beginning to get in touch with that vibration. This current period of human history is unfolding differently than the 60s, because people of Earth are far better equipped to deal with the integration of Oneness Technology.

This is a time of EVOLUTION, not revolution. And even tho you feel deeply hurt by the events that have transpired in these last few years (not to mention the tragedies which occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech this very day!)... you will learn to take these energies to a completely different place... a sacred place... where the appearance of evil & frustration is transmuted, in the blink of an eye, to something healing & wise. Do not despair! You will see how quickly this can come to pass, if you only dare to believe. http://www.reconnections.net/index2.htm

A Few Reminders

By Charley Reese

A few reminders: Iraq is not our country. Our invasion and occupation are illegal, being in violation of both international law and our own traditions. We were lied into war. We are still being lied to. Both the Bush administration and the Democrats intend to maintain American troops in Iraq indefinitely.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17662.htm

When We Forget To Remember:

By Sheila Samples

Surely Americans must know that a crisis without precedent is underway in this country. The first target in the Straussian neocon's war of terror was the Constitution and, by extension, the American people. We are hurtling headlong into tyranny.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17663.htm

===

AIPAC on Trial

By Justin Raimondo

The lobby argues that good Americans spy for Israel.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17660.htm

===

I wonder if anyone else here is having the same problem as me? When I click on links to articles, I am being re-directed to another website, or given an error message. The two links in particular are the Charley Reese's "Don't be fooled by propaganda", and the other link is the one in shylurker's post at 4:50 a.m. Is anyone able to connect to these links?

Ok, I got to Reese's article, but I still get an error message when I try shy's link.

Michael Franti's video is devastating and truthful. One little dead boy reminded me of my grandson.
Talk today on KPFA about the private armies, the mercenaries, the corporate soldiers and how ominous this development is The beginnings of real fascism not just the hint.
I've been sayin and I'm still sayin: these guys are not giving in and they won't leave. I just shudder that the Democrats won't just come out and say it. They NEVER mention the embassy, the military bases in Iraq. they never talk about the theft of their oil leaving the citizens once well fed and educated to stumple around in the hell we created.
We can get rid of Bush but we won't get rid of the evil because we don't have the guts-we know that the powers that are will turn the world against us so we just go along hoping that we can get medical attention while those injured in Iraq have no pain drugs, no anethesia.
We have a few leaders-Waxman, Leahy, there are others. I want to join in something that actually moves against these death loving greedy bastards

Crystal, I was concerned that I had posted the link wrongly or something, so tried it myself. Nothing. Then I tried to simply access DU. I can't. I think they are probably having server trouble. I'll keep on eye on them and, whenever they seem to be up and functioning normally, will see if that link works or not. It's a very interesting post, though I surely can't vouch for its veracity. Thnx for letting me know you were having trouble accessing it.

Clymela, Michael also has a documentry of a humanitarian trip he took to Palestine, Israel, Iraq and other parts of the ME that is very telling and sad about what goes on there.
He is a true Bhodisattva.

But, it's not just the schrubs and weeds of the US that are the problem. It's a worldwide creeping vine that is strangling all of the lands and all of it's people. Many colors and nations involved. It's the New World Order and it's hear for the next 60 years or so. It will take that long for the sheep to wake up, figure out what the hell is going on, frak out and panice, come to there sense and do something about it.
If we could only blink our eyes or wiggle our nose to make them all go away...

Fascism arrived wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.

Isn't it great living in a city that has Pacifica!

That's Bodhisattva above.

Lack of sleep does weird things to your fingers....yawn...

'Ignotas nulla curatio morbid' – do not attempt to cure what you do not understand – is our motto for navigating "The Tapeworm Economy." The Tapeworm Economy is a politically managed economy in which a small handful of insiders extract subsidy from many outsiders. The first step to creating the future we deserve and desire is to understand how the Tapeworm really works. To help you do so, Catherine has written the definitive case study on Tapeworm Economics. http://www.solari.com/

Clymela, Shy, Neo, Timothy, and anyone else who wants to read this, I posted the above article from solari for you guys....I've known this writer for a number of years, I've posted before about her...she is a voice of hope and reason.

Crystal, it has disappeared. I guess it was a hoax and the admins deleted it for that reason.

JudiGem, thanks so much for link.

JudiGem, thank you so much for the link to Solari.
Yes, Cybear, living close to KPFA, the mothership of Pacifica is wonderful. In fact that is where I first heard Catherine Austin Fitts of Solari.
Thank you so much everyone for being here. I am strengthened by a good nights sleep.

Clymela, when I was in college I volunteer DJ'd at KPFT here in Houston. That was in the early Ray-gun days so you can imagine what took place back in those days. If we only knew the direction we were heading then....

I think we are all in the wrong business.
Heroin is "Good for Your Health": Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade
Multibillion dollar earnings for organized crime and Western financial Institutions

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20070604&articleId=5514

Charley Reese

Don't Be Fooled By Propaganda

There is an ongoing slander campaign against Islam, claiming that it is a religion that promotes violence and hinting that it seeks world conquest.

Before you buy the malarkey that is being produced by people with their own agendas or prejudices or who are just plain ignoramuses, follow these few suggestions:

Compare the history of Islam with the history of Europe, which for centuries was called Christendom. An objective look will show you that Christendom wins by a landslide when it comes to violence and wars. After all, Europe and its offspring did not come to dominate the world, including the Islamic countries, because they practiced the gentle virtues of Jesus.

As for the common practice of cherry-picking Scripture from holy writings and presenting it out of context, just check out what Christians call the Old Testament. There you will find God advocating a double standard of morality, condoning slavery, ordering the Israelites to commit genocide and committing infanticide himself on a mass scale. I don't believe you will find anything comparable in the Quran.

The word "jihad," which is so over-used these days, has, like a lot of words, more than one meaning. It means basically to struggle, but this can be personal or spiritual, or a peaceful political struggle. Only if Islam is attacked are Muslims required to defend it. As for that obnoxious propaganda term "Islamo-fascist," just recall that fascism is a European invention by nominal Christians. To my knowledge, the only fascist governments ever to exist on this planet were all European and nominally Christian.

Another canard is that Islam promotes forced conversion. Not so. Even when the Arab empire was expanding, rarely were any of the conquered people forced to convert. The Quran even forbids it, as I recall. Naturally, once Muslims were in charge, a lot of people decided it was in their own self-interest to convert, but this is just one of the sleazy aspects of human nature.

I remember when Florida elected its first Republican governor of the 20th century. I saw plenty of people crawl out from under their rocks and convert to the Republican Party, drawn by the smell of patronage. With some rare exceptions, human beings always act in what they perceive, rightly or wrongly, to be in their self-interest.

It was Christian Europe that slaughtered the Jews, and nothing remotely resembling the Holocaust is to be found in the history of Islam. In fact, during the past, when Jews were being persecuted by Christian Europe, they frequently fled to and found sanctuary in the Muslim countries. Until Israel was established, practically every Muslim country had sizable Jewish populations dating back centuries. And there are still Jews and Christians in some Muslim countries.

A final suggestion is that when you hear some individual radical Muslim being quoted, just remember he is one of a billion people and speaks only for himself and his small following. And be wary of the quotations he uses, for they are often deliberately fabricated or distorted.

If Muslims really desired to conquer the world, don't you think it's strange that we've been living in peace with them for nearly a millennium and a half, except for those times when we attacked them (the Crusades, the European colonial movement and our invasion of Iraq)? Don't forget either that some of the countries the Bush administration calls allies are themselves Muslim — Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc.

You have nothing to fear from Islam. The al-Qaida movement is a tiny percentage of Muslims and wouldn't be the force it is except for the fact that the Bush administration has gone out of its way to make all of Osama bin Laden's propaganda become true.

Here's something for a nice change of pace...

Turn up the sound...

http://www.kitelife.com/videos/demo/bethell_promo.htm

Blair will resign as PM tomorrow

Last updated at 15:00pm on 9th May 2007

Mr Blair will first inform Government colleagues of his departure at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting tomorrow

Tony Blair is widely expected to announce his departure tomorrow at his constituency in Sedgefield.

It is believed Mr Blair will first inform Government colleagues at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street before flying to his constituency in County Durham, where he kicked off his parliamentary career in 1983.

The public announcement will set in motion the procedure by which Mr Blair's 10-year premiership will draw to a close.

Both the Prime Minister and the Queen flew back to London last night, and many at Westminster expect Mr Blair to use his regular weekly audience at Buckingham Palace to inform Her Majesty in advance of his intentions.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=453630&in_page_id=1770

For those interested...listen to KPFA online...

http://www.kpfa.org/listen/

May 9, 2007

Greg Palast: The Last Muckraker?

By randyholhut

DUMMERSTON, Vt. — Bill Moyers’ documentary, "Buying the War," shown last month on PBS, painstakingly showed how most of the press willingly bought into the lies of the Bush administration and supported the worst foreign policy blunder this nation has ever committed — the invasion of Iraq.

I say most of the press, because there were a few honorable exceptions.

The Knight Ridder News Service produced the most accurate reporting, but its work was ignored because the chain didn't have a paper in New York or Washington. Journalists from beyond the Beltway — reporters such as Seymour Hersh, Robert Parry and James Bamford, independent thinkers such as Lewis Lapham and Michael Massing, columnists such as the late Molly Ivins and James Carroll — they sussed out the case that the White House was making for war early on and saw it was all lies.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_randolph_070509_greg_palast_3a_the_las.htm

PAKISTAN
New apostasy bill to impose death on anyone who leaves Islam
by Qaiser Felix
Pakistan’s government sends draft bill tabled by six-party Islamic alliance to standing committee for review. Under the bill’s terms, apostates would be sentenced to death or life in prison. Testimony by two adults is the only independent evidence needed to determine or demonstrate apostasy. Lahore archbishop is praying the bill is never adopted.

?
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – A draft bill adopted in first reading by Pakistan’s National Assembly is now before a standing committee. Tabled by a six-party politico-religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or MMA, the Apostasy Act 2006 which the government sent to the committee would impose the death penalty on Muslim men and life in prison on Muslim women in case they leave Islam. It would also force them to forfeit their property and lose legal custody of children.

During the same session, lawmakers rejected another draft bill moved by minority MNA Bhandara which sought to amend the existing blasphemy law.

“This situation is unfortunate and sad. We demand freedom of conscious, religion and expression in Pakistan, and this bill is contrary to the principle of freedom of choice”, said Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha, head of National Commission for Justice and Peace and chairman of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

“Because international human rights charters give every individual the right to change his or her religion according to his or her conscience, we hope and pray that this bill will not be passed,” Mgr Saldanha said.

Should the bill become law anyone who leaves Islam for another religion can be sentenced to death (if male) or life in prison ‘until repentance occurs’ (if female).

Section 4 of the bill says that the offender’s own confession in court or the testimony by at least two adults is sufficient grounds for conviction in apostasy cases. Testimony by non Muslims is not however admissible in certain Pakistani courts.

Section 5 stipulates that the ‘offender’ must be granted 3 to 30 days to recant the conversion and return to Islam. But even in cases where the person returns to Islam judges can impose two-year sentences as punishment for the original ‘crime’. The accused can convert and reconvert up to three times before the death sentence becomes automatic.

Under Section 8 apostates forfeit all their properties which are awarded only to their Muslim relatives. Section 9 says that they also lose custody to any minor in their care and guardianship, including their biological children.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003699882_webmckayforum09m.html?syndication=rss

Charges may result from firings, say two former U.S. attorneys
By David Bowermaster
Seattle Times staff reporter

DENNIS COOK / AP
Former U.S. Attorney John McKay, right, accompanied by fellow former prosecutor David Iglesias, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 6, 2007, before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys.

Two former U.S. attorneys said today they believe ongoing investigations into the dismissals last year of eight federal prosecutors could result in criminal charges against senior Justice Department officials.

John McKay, the former U.S. attorney for Western Washington, and David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, also said they believe White House political operative Karl Rove and his aides instigated the dismissals and ultimately decided who among the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys should be fired.

McKay and Iglesias, who were among those fired, made their assertions during a meeting this morning with Seattle Times editors and reporters. The two are scheduled to appear this afternoon along with Paul Charlton, the former U.S. attorney for Arizona, during a public-policy forum on the dismissals at Seattle University's School of Law.

"I think there will be a criminal case that will come out of this," McKay said during his meeting with Times journalists. "This is going to get worse, not better."

more...

luna, thank goddess it is going to get worse. As it seems, nothing is getting better.

Sally, great thread, great piece of astrowisdom. I spoke with my ex last night, he said that according to his sources, it was the women in France who didn't want to vote for a 'hot babe' (like Royale), they refuse to vote for anyone but an 'old cow' in politics. So once again, women are to blame. Sure wish I knew if this was true or not.

Judigem, this is a typical mail comment, this is not true. Segolen had a lot of women followers it was more the opposite case, the French males (older) have had a problem.
But The true reason for Sarkozy's win is for one the foreign immigration problem, was effectively heated up by Sarkozy and his perfect media play with the anxieties of the people, second the electronic voting machines.
But unfortunately she also did not have a clear concept and not the support of her party--males again.
Last but not least the time quality asked for Sarkozy to come like Bush, Merkel, Blair, Olmert/Liebermann,Nero,Hitler, G. de Rothschild etc.-- like during the time the French revolution had to happen. Chavez on the other hand is a sign of hope for the time quality of change to come; maybe around 2024.
Maybe this is to simplistic, I can live with this concept.

Hmmm, all of a sudden now, I get straight into AW without the delay I've been experiencing for weeks. Sure does make me wonder.........

Pentagon Film Festive courtesy of Fiore..

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

In hoc signo vinces?
http://infowars.net/articles/may2007/100507Diablo.htm

Now AW is loading fine for me too.

Last night, by chance I listened to an interview of Dr. Deepak Chopra with Alan Coomb in his radio program about his latest book on Buddha. Deep or
Deepak means Light in Hindi and true to his name his books are really enlightening indeed. Interesting statement he made is that war on terror is an oxymoron is like saying war on war.
Anyway, he also said that calling oneself war president is TOTAL idiotic, worse than being mentally ill like cho. Remember used to be secretary of war for war cabinet and then was changed to defense secretary and cabinet for defense. If that's the way to go, why do these neo
cons and rotten repugs have this ego enhancement calling their imbecile a war president? Why don't
they not GET it? Instead they should be proud to
call peace president and abhor calling anybody
war president.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurie-david/extreme-weather-once-eve_b_48070.html

Extreme Weather: Once Every... Well, Every Day Lately
Laurie David
Extreme weather is becoming the norm. It's all but taken up residence in the Top Story slot of our evening news shows. Pretty soon we'll need another category: "extremely extreme weather."

Right now we've got four different kinds of extreme weather plaguing our country. Drought in California, with the resultant wildfires bearing down on Los Angeles.

Drought-driven wildfires have already wiped out 40 homes and buildings in Northern Minnesota, while flooding in the Midwest has busted levees holding the Missouri River at bay -- with more flooding to come over the next several days. Florida is experiencing the worst drought in its history. People there are watching Lake Okeechobee water levels shrink to near-record lows with little rain in sight, and the entire watershed of the Everglades is drying out fast. There's smoke all over Orlando and the center of the state from brushfires, and Georgia's largest-ever wildfire -- which has burned over 100,000 acres so far -- is knocking on the door of Florida's northern border. And now there's Tropical Storm Andrea, a freakishly early hurricane-like storm off the southeastern coast, more than three weeks before hurricane season officially starts.

Global warming might not be directly linkable to every one of these events, but it certainly appears to be pumping our weather full of steroids and drying out our land. Just as predicted. As President Bush visits Kansas to view the aftermath of last week's killer tornado, he could do much more for the country than just paying his respects to those who've lost everything. Extreme weather is wreaking havoc on our planet, and it's high time our government got serious about solving global warming. If not, what will our newscasts look like in just two years? Keeping up with the soaring number of 'State of Emergency' declarations could become the full time job for our next president.

The weather here in MAine is a bit whacky too. Fortunately it is a relatively benign area. But every thing is just a bit out of whack! OUT OF SYNC. Which may be more symptomatic then the large attention getting exttremes.
The hummingbirds are late returning.........
Are the smelt running? The seals swam up the brook 2 days in a row.........but no humans have been there at night with flashlights to scoop them up in nets. NO SEAGULLS.............that's key. Usually they are all over, dive bombing the brook to catch the fish. The great blue heron =family isn't down there either.................
QOP

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20070510/117880002000.html

Above says Michael Moore to be investigated by chuney/bush govt. when really they(chuney and thief) must be investigated and impeached.

I am so glad you posted this. I am in the midst of writing a wiki page devoted to France, the French election and Sarkozy at http://mundaneastrology.net.

I see this and many event this year as the prologue to 2012 events. But I don't see 2012 as related to Mayan, Chinese or Nostradamus' predictions. Instead, I see it as part of the Uranus-Pluto wave that extends from 1967 through 2101. Uranus-Pluto waves connect to dramatic changes in history of 1455 (end 100 years war, Gutenberg Bible) 1530s (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium published, Reformation established) 1648 (beginning of Age of Reason, Peace of Westphalia) 1792 (US Constitution signed, French Revolution) 1848 (Women's movement established, Revolutions of 1848) and the mid 1960s (upheavals across the planet). Uranus squares Pluto between 2010 and 2017, but the event is already mirrors earthly events. In the US the liberal/conservative dichotomy is again headed toward a showdown. The issues of race, so easily ignored, are revealing themselves in different ways. And, of course, the environmental movement, founded in the 60s will reveal itself in what we do from here forward.

In keeping with this more holistic approach, make note of the year long T-square of Saturn opposite Uranus square Pluto in 2010. Here events of the 60s will meet those of the late 80s (Saturn conjunct Uranus-1989). My best guess is that Russia, now lurking in the shadows will again demand more power on the globals stage.

I could go on, but much of this info appears or will soon appear on http://mundaneastrology,net, where registered members can create wiki pages related to anything covering Mundane Astrology. At the very least you can make comments there as well.

I am watching a rerun of today's House procedings on Cspan.
They sound like the British Parliment! They're booing and razzing, noisy rowdy bunch! What a nice change of pace!!! They passsed the bill to fund the troops thru Aug 1
Bush raised 10.5 MILLION at the Wh fundraising for GOP elections.
According to waynemadsen, he started sdrinking in the AM before the Queen arrived the other day.
May 8, 2007 -- Our White House sources report that the Queen's visit to the White House yesterday was a protocol disaster. Not only had George W. Bush commenced his drinking routine early in the morning, just in time for the first mid-day visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, but his drunkenness continued well into the evening during the lavish state dinner.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
WMR has confirmed with extremely knowledgeable CIA and Pentagon sources that the former CEO who is on Deborah Jeane Palfrey's list is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during the time of his liaisons with the Pamela Martin & Associates escort firm. Palfrey's phone invoices extend back to 1996 and include calls to and from Cheney.
May 10, 2007 -- Yesterday's report on the Chinese cadaver exhibition next to Arlington National Cemetery and the perception that the Bush administration displays a "death cult" mentality brought a number of e-mail responses that are, well, "cult like." The responses to our piece claimed the cadavers on display are "beautiful" and "extraordinary." One individual suggested that human bodies dipped in acetone and then pumped with silicone and encased in plastic is much more celebratory than a bleeding man nailed to a cross. However, these responses were few in number compared to those who agree with us that such a carnie and money-making display next to America's most hallowed cemetery is affront against all things decent and proper.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
QOP

GM genes 'jump species barrier'

A leading zoologist has found evidence that genes used to modify crops can jump the species barrier and cause bacteria to mutate, prompting fears that GM technology could pose serious health risks.
A four-year study by Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a respected German zoologist, found that the alien gene used to modify oilseed rape had transferred to bacteria living inside the guts of honey bee
more.........
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,319418,00.html
QOP

kpete (1000+ posts) Thu May-10-07 11:05 AM
Original message
Troubling Bush Power Grab -- Secret Government Moved to White House Control
by citizen92
Thu May 10, 2007

George W. Bush yesterday signed National Security Presidential Directive 51

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/2007050... and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na... ordering Executive Agencies to prepare contingency plans for a "decapitating" attack on the federal govermnent.

More importantly, the NPSD and HSPD vests responsibility for coordinating the plans in the White House.

...........

Why is this important? It's a question of oversight. The national security programs run by DHS and FEMA can be reviewed by Congress.

A national security program at the White House cannot. The budgets don't have to be disclosed. The crony hires don't have to be disclosed. It's another step in the march toward government secrecy.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/10/10053/2211
Refresh | 69 Recommendations

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x860772

Published on Thursday, May 10, 2007 by The Christian Science Monitor

The UN Must Drive Middle East Peace
Global Stability Can No Longer Be Held Hostage to the Claims of Israeli Settlers.

by Helena Cobban
Early next month, the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza (and the Syrians of the Golan Heights) will have the dubious honor of having lived for 40 years under foreign military rule. Where is the final peace agreement that can end these people’s plight?

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has spoken about offering Palestinians and Israelis a “political horizon” for the eventual resolution of their conflict. But the only plan she’s offered so far would merely tweak some small details of the vast system of movement controls that Israel maintains over the Palestinians. And with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President Bush both very weak politically, don’t expect diplomatic boldness from either man anytime soon.

Yet the Israeli-Palestinian issue remains one with crucial impact on global stability. The time has come for the United Nations and other world powers to tell Washington that the near-monopoly the US has exercised over Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for most of the past 40 years needs to end.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/10/1095/

Environment: Momentum Grows to ‘Ban the Bulb’
by Lester R. Brown

WASHINGTON - On Feb. 20, Australia announced it would phase out the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2010, replacing them with highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs that use one-fourth as much electricity.

If the rest of the world joins Australia in this simple step to sharply cut carbon emissions, the worldwide drop in electricity use would permit the closing of more than 270 coal-fired (500 megawatt) power plants. For the United States, this bulb switch would facilitate shutting down 80 coal-fired plants.

The good news is that the world may be approaching a social tipping point in this shift to efficient light bulbs. On Apr. 25, just two months after Australia’s announcement, the Canadian government announced it would phase out sales of incandescents by 2012. Mounting concerns about climate change are driving the bulb replacement movement.

In mid-March, a U.S. coalition of environmental groups — including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Coalition for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and the Earth Day Network — along with Philips Lighting launched an initiative to shift to the more-efficient bulbs in all of the country’s estimated four billion sockets by 2016.

In California, the most populous state, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine is proposing that his state phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs by 2012, four years ahead of the coalition’s deadline. Levine calls his proposed law the “How Many Legislators Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb Act.”

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/10/1093/

We're all responsible for Iraq

By James Reston

05/10/07 "USA Today" -- - - It’s not enough to merely criticize the president or say you voted for another candidate. Every American citizen has a political and moral duty to do what’s right for our troops, and for our country.
By James Reston Jr.

Between those who manage the war in Washington and those who fight it in Iraq, the American people enjoy a safe middle ground. The country is both at war and not at war. The war machine in Washington hums along as it did in other great international conflicts. U.S. troops fight as vicious a war abroad as they have ever fought. But at home, there is no sacrifice, no serious deprivations, no mobilization of youth. Life goes on pretty much as normal.

In what sense then can the average American be held accountable for the chaos of Iraq? If the citizen did not participate in any decision that led to unprovoked warfare, did not mislead anyone about weapons of mass destruction, did not engage in torture or kill any innocent civilians, does that American bear any responsibility for the mayhem that Iraq has become?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17678.htm

We are not wanted in Afghanistan nor Iraq - so let's leave....

Afghan Parliment Warns U.S. Calls For Troops Withdrawl

By JASON STRAZIUSO

The proposal from the upper house of parliament, which also calls for a date to be set for the withdrawal of foreign troops, suggests that Afghan support for the five-and-a-half-year-old international military mission is crumbling amid a spate of civilian deaths.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17673.htm

Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation:

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624/

Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation:

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624/

Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation:

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624/

Why Cheney Failed In Iraq:

The failure of the usually forceful Cheney to impose a clear timetable for passing revenue-sharing measures on Maliki reflects not just Maliki's general political weakness, but also his continued dependence on partisan and divisive Shiite factions in the Iraqi Parliament for support.

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/security/article_21279810.shtml

===

Gates Contradicts Bush, Says 'I Don't Know' If 2002 War Authorization Is Still Valid:

During his questioning of Gates, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) noted that the authorization listed two purposes for the use of force: 1) to defend the United States against Saddam Hussein and 2) enforce U.N. resolutions against Hussein's government. Byrd asked Gates, since Hussein's government no longer exists

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/09/gates-authorization/

The Good American

By Scott Ritter

That we have collectively failed to halt and repudiate the war in Iraq makes us even worse than the Germans.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17683.htm

===

Impeach Bush or Get Rid of the Impeachment Clause

By Dave Lindorff

What is it about impeachment that has the Democratic Party leadership so frightened?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17684.htm

===

Hello, I have finally got a copy of An Inconvenient Truth. I have shown it all week in my short social studies classesat a small private school for foreigners in China. I have stopped and started it in different places all week long and I think I have actually seen the whole thing.
The drive from I-40 to Highway 70 near the farm spoke to me more stongly than the messages about global warming. The growing tobacco and the personal part were for me as I lived there and knew about all of it. I think I may be going home again. My students will write 2 pages in their notebooks for Monday morning and I let a student from Thailand take it home for the weekend. But changes are happening in my life as fast as the Artic ice is melting.bjt

Mother's Day for Peace : 4 Minute Video:

Through the power of compassion and womanhood, we hope to work towards peace.

http://snipurl.com/1k970

read and gag...

http://www.ichblog.eu/

And yet more:
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3166281&page=1

Is there no end to these obscenities?

And he was doing research on how TV and film affect children?
QOP

By Rob Kall
Department Of Defense To Block Troop Access To Myspace, Youtube, MTV, Blackplanet , Photobucket And More Sites
Military further blinds our already abused and betrayed troops

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=genera_rob_kall_070512_department_of_defens.htm

Aerial photos of Greensburg, KS

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050507tornadoaerials/

Whose side are they own anyhow? Pelosi and Rangel, with the Clintonistas at the DLC of course, are going to do it to us again. Here's a petition:
http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11354

Someone at CNN shares our hopes...

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/cnn_international_chyron_bush_resigns_58889.asp

Shylurker...

Most of the current Democrats are Republican
Lite. If Hillary gets in you will notice little
change in the government. Bill was one of the
founders of the DLC and served as its Chair for
a couple of years.
Why do think so many of the Republicans and their
ilk in the Press are backing her. She has already
said that she would keep troops in Iraq 'as long'
as they are needed (i.e. secure all of the oil for
American companies. It was announced today that
contrary to US plans, all gas from Tajikistan will
go through Russia.
Too, Rupert Murdoch had no trouble putting Blair
in office and will do the same for Hillary. She
follows orders. The ONLY candidate for Progressives is Kucinich, and you know that they
will never let him win.
Frankly I don't care if the Republicans win for
the next 12 or 16 years...until the American people truly wake up, and that includes Democrats,
the slide will continue. Congress has already
given up on Gonzales, if you believe the pundits.
The Idiot "Darth Vadar" is over in the Middle East
threatening Iran from the deck of an aircraft carrier off it's own coast. What a class act!
The Republicans are a bunch of lock-step Nazis,
and the Democrats are not far behind and indeed
are marching to the same drummer. It's all about
money and power.

If you missed Bill Moyers last night, I suggest
going to his website and view the program, there
as a woman on as his last guest that had more moxie than anyone I have heard in a long time.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/

Russia clinches gas pipeline deal

Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to build a new natural gas pipeline north from the Caspian Sea.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced the deal at a summit with Central Asian leaders in Turkmenistan.

The agreement ensures Russia's access to Turkmenistan's gas, and is a setback to rival US and European Union plans.

They had hoped to pipe Turkmen gas across the Caspian sea via Turkey, in order to reduce the EU's dependence on Russian-controlled energy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6649169.stm

More on Moyers...

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/archives/index.html

May 11, 2007

Voter Fraud Used to Gain Political Leverage in MO

By Project Vote

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

This an entry in a series of blogs to keep people informed on current election reform and voting rights issues in the news.

Featured Stories of the Week:

2006 Missouri's election was ground zero for GOP – McClatchy Newspapers

Controversial USA Delivered "Voter Fraud" Indictments Right on Time – TPMmuckraker.com

Reports in recent weeks surrounding the issue of so-called “voter fraud” have revealed calculated partisan efforts to suppress low income and minority voters using the full weight of the US Department of Justice. This week's featured stories outline the great lengths that the Bush administration went to in order to ensure the “wrong” people wouldn't vote – organized efforts that extended to the Department of Justice.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_project__070504_voter_fraud_used_to_.htm

Comment

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An inferior Bill Clinton

The force was with Blair when he took power, but ultimately the American was the smarter operator

Richard Sennett
Saturday May 12, 2007
The Guardian

I came to live in Britain just before New Labour took power in 1997. Even many Conservatives were exhausted by the years of Tory rule; the sheer fact that Tony Blair was a fresh face seemed the most promising thing about him. To me, who had spent time in the shambolic netherworld of the first Clinton administration, Blair appeared a better version of Bill Clinton: more reliable and balanced and much more modest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2078007,00.html

Clinton's man in California a pro at digging up dirt

Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has turned to Averell "Ace" Smith -- who earned his stripes as one of the nation's most feared political opposition researchers -- to steer her campaign in California.

Smith, 48, is genteel, soft-spoken and bespectacled -- but also is the epitome of a take-no-prisoners political operative who has built a reputation as a dogged researcher and, more recently, a winning California campaign manager, political allies and opponents agree.

"I've seen him walk into a room, and the opposition candidate will literally start mumbling," said former Democratic strategist Clint Reilly, who has run campaigns for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and former Democratic state Treasurer Kathleen Brown and has worked with Smith. "They're just totally terrified with his presence."

Smith, 48, surprised California political veterans by jumping from the role of top political researcher to the role of campaign manager during Antonio Villaraigosa's successful 2005 run for mayor of Los Angeles against then-incumbent James Hahn.

Villaraigosa credits Smith with making the "biggest difference" in the campaign's message in what became a landslide victory.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/12/MNGIMPQ12L1.DTL&type=printable

bartcopy and a few others have been harping on this for years. At long last it's made establishment press:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/world/middleeast/12oil.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

(Hint: oil pumped out of Iraq without meters. Ya think?)

The article from DU I posted somewhere above that was removed has reappeared (or part of it). Go to post # 86 here:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/05/12/wont-get-naftad-again/#comments

Oh, and be sure to ask Garry for the use of his salt shaker as this is a Flocco article.

Whooo-hooo, all! firedoglake just posted pdfs of that new NAFTA agreement. The 2-page synopsis doesn't look bad, but "the devil is in the details" and we'll need some good analysis of the entire thing. At any rate, it is available (through the link) here:
http://www.firedoglake.com/category/trade/

It would seem that the Congress is unaware of what is really happwening on the ground. Are they so concerned with the coming election that they don't pay attention to the underlying causes of the difficulty?
Fed up with requests for donations so the Dems can match Bush's campaign funs obsession, I have started writing them or calling to share my stance. ( Not one penny 'till I see more action!)
Chris V an Hollen's ( new DCCC chair) aide, DENIED that the "benchmark" we have set, that the Iraqis don't want to meet is turning over 80% of he oil revenues to the Corp Pirates.
Maybe we need to be very specific, and inform those that "don't know"? rather than generic, anti war statements?
Iraqi Oil Workers To Strike Over Privatisation Law
imc-uk-features | 11.05.2007 21:20 | Iraq | Workers' Movements | World

As efforts to secure lucrative oil privatisation contracts in Iraq for multinational companies progress, so does the resistance.

Read on for more...

Links: basraoilunion.org | handsoffiraqioil.org | carbonweb.org | iraqoccupationfocus.org | uslaboragainstwar.org

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370387.html

http://www.basraoilunion.org/

About production sharing agreements
PSAs in summary:

A contract between a multinational oil company and a host government, in which the corporation provides capital investment, in exchange for control over an oilfield, and access to a large share of the revenues from it
Lasting usually 25-40 years - and sometimes even indefinite.
A change of language, describing the state as "owner" and the foreign company as "contractor", but in practice mostly equivalent to the old-style concession agreements.
Precise terms depend on negotiation between state and company.
Often contains "stablisation clause", which restricts future governments' ability to change tax rates or pass any new law which affects the company's profits
http://www.carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=58&parent=4&link=Y&gp=3
QOP

May 13, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist

Earth to G.O.P.: The Gipper Is Dead

By FRANK RICH
OF course you didn’t watch the first Republican presidential debate on MSNBC. Even the party’s most loyal base didn’t abandon Fox News, where Bill O’Reilly, interviewing the already overexposed George Tenet, drew far more viewers. Yet the few telling video scraps that entered the 24/7 mediasphere did turn the event into an instant “Saturday Night Live” parody without “SNL” having to lift a finger. The row of 10 middle-aged white candidates, David Letterman said, looked like “guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club.”

Since then, panicked Republicans have been either blaming the “Let’s Make a Deal” debate format or praying for salvation-by-celebrity in the form of another middle-aged white guy who might enter the race, Fred Thompson. They don’t seem to get that there is not another major brand in the country — not Wal-Mart, not G.E., not even Denny’s nowadays — that would try to sell a mass product with such a demographically homogeneous sales force. And that’s only half the problem. The other half is that the Republicans don’t have a product to sell. Aside from tax cuts and a wall on the Mexican border, the only issue that energized the presidential contenders was Ronald Reagan. The debate’s most animated moments by far came as they clamored to lip-sync his “optimism,” his “morning in America,” his “shining city on the hill” and even, in a bizarre John McCain moment out of a Chucky movie, his grin.

http://donkeyod.wordpress.com/2007/05/12/earth-to-gop-the-gipper-is-dead/#more-3087

Breaking News! St. Ronny is still dead! And so is Anna Nicole! We'll keep you updated as new developments happen! You heard it here first! Now back to Paris Hilton. Will she make prison "hot"?....

‘He’s a Mouse’: Russell Simmons Speaks Some Truth on Obama

Obama's blindness to poverty-generating conditions is not restricted to the U.S. In its audaciously imperialist and power-worshipping chapter on "The World Beyond Our Borders," The Audacity of Hope criticizes "left-leaning populists" like "Venezuela's Hugo Chavez" for daring to think that developing nations "should resist America's efforts to expand its hegemony" and for trying to "follow their own path to development." Such dysfunctional "reject[ion] [of] the ideals of free markets and liberal democracy" will only worsen the situation of the global poor, Obama claims (Obama 2006, p. 315).

"Obama lamely instructs ‘developing nations' that ‘the system of free markets and liberal democracy' is ‘constantly subject to change and improvement.'"

Obama ignores a preponderance of evidence of showing that the imposition of the "free market" corporate-neoliberal "Washington Consensus" has deepened poverty, exacerbated inequality, and slowed growth across the desperately impoverished "developing world." Millions are left to live in ever-more extreme poverty as Obama lamely instructs "developing nations" that "the system of free markets and liberal democracy" is "constantly subject to change and improvement."

Obama likes to lecture the American people on the danger that their rejection of the war on Iraq will turn into support for an "isolationist" retreat from America's responsibility to counter terrorist threats with military force. One problem with this counsel is that Americans tend to support non-militarist internationalism, not isolationism. Another problem is that U.S. and world policymakers need (to paraphrase Russell Simmons) to reform the conditions that create terrorism. U.S.-led neoliberalism contributes richly and powerfully to Islamic and other forms of terrorism within and beyond the Middle East.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=204&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=34

This explains my intuitive dis-ease with Obama! Read the whole article and see which "rich guys" are sponsoring him!
QOP

More on the oil "benchmark"!
Open Letter to the Members of the US Congress who Oppose the War on Iraq

Edited on Sat May-12-07 06:07 PM by Omaha Steve
Source: General Union of Oil Employees in Basra

Sunday, May 13, 2007
Open Letter to US Congress and European Parliament

Open Letter to the Members of he US Congress who Oppose the War on Iraq

To members of the European Parliaments who Oppose the War
Read the letter here then call & or wrote your Congresspeople!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x877940#877941
Happy Mother's Day for Peace!
QOP

Wow, now THIS is either rich or hard to stomach, esp. coming from Halliburton's head Dick, but read and enjoy, from Wayne Madsen....

May 11, 2007 -- Vice President Dick Cheney, under mounting political pressure for the declining fortunes of the Bush administration, has, according to our Washington sources, been claiming that Iraq was all "Bush's idea," a reference to President George W. Bush. Cheney is claiming to his closest associates that he was unable to convince Bush not to embark on his Iraq war adventure. The Cheney defense is the latest sign that the wheels are slowly, but surely, coming off the Bush White House.

Can you BELIEVE this? Namaste and love y'all.

PS: Shy, please pass my salt shaker to anyone who needs it! It's full of healthy grind-your-own nutrient-rich sea salt....

Happy Mothers Day.

I finished my latest picturebook. It will be out a year from now.

I hang out with some amazing artists in my neighborhood who are politically active.
Check out the Youtube link. I was there behind the scenes for this shoot. These are all the musicians I know doing the acting. They ask anyone walking through the door to act. I am a grateful audience member.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v-2BB96yn4

It made it onto the Brian Leher Show.

You can view the online real player or podcast version of the Brian Lehrer Show, at:

http://www.cuny.tv/schedule/Action.Lasso?-Database=CUNYPROG&-Layout=webprogdetail2&-Response=detail2.lasso&-Operator='eq'&ProgramID=PR1008618&-Search

Brooklyn is kicking *'s sorry butt.

Hey! This is for everybody, of course, but QOP in particular:
http://groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1388

As the latest expression goes: WTF?

I've been despairing about women in the ME for so long, that the words of Queen Noor are just exhilirating:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x28574

Oh that is indeed good news Shy! I guess that is where my writer neightbor is coming from! I bookmarked that website. SInce getting the new computer I have lost all my organic farming bookmarks!
Guess I better do a screen shot of the booklist on the IBook before my dial up runs out next month!
I am glad to see Queen Noor again. After Lebanon last summer, she was visably shattered, when she appeared on Larry King Live!
And I attended a wonderful Mother's Day cookout, by the Mexican Community yesterday! The food was great, the girls danced sang and recited Mothers Day poems in their long ruffled ribbon trimmed skirts, 1/2 the attendees were back to the landers, organic farmers and the like, with tow headed kids in bare feet with dread locks! There was just a strong sense of community, joy and togetherness prevailing!
Good Morning
QOP

New Moon in Taurus

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
12:27pm PDT
25º 33'

Taurus rules our commitment to provide for our families, communities and for Mother Earth. The T-square between Sun/Moon in Taurus, Saturn in Leo, Neptune and Chiron in Aquarius beautifully illustrates the tension between our sense of personal responsibility for caretaking the environment and our desire to fulfill our own individual needs. Saturn has been asking us to rise above our personal needs (Leo) and pay attention to how those needs contribute to global warming, deforestation, and extinction of so many species on our planet. Chiron and Neptune are together awakening us to the part each of us play in contributing to the world's problems. And Sun/Moon in Taurus represents our identification to and emotional connection with Mother Earth. Venus in Cancer (loving nurturance) and Uranus in Pisces (interconnectivity) will do much to open our hearts and realize the negative impact of being in a constant state of wanting more and more.

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

Comment

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

It is not only God that will be Blair's judge over Iraq

His cravenly pro-US policy on the Middle East misunderstood Bush's real agenda and resulted in catastrophic failure

Avi Shlaim
Monday May 14, 2007
The Guardian

Tony Blair's opposition to an immediate ceasefire in the Lebanon war last summer precipitated his downfall. Now that he has announced the date of his departure from Downing Street, his entire Middle East record needs to be placed under an uncompromising lens.
Blair came to office with no experience of, and virtually no interest in, foreign affairs, and ended by taking this country to war five times. Blair boasts that his foreign policy was guided by the doctrine of liberal interventionism. But the war in Iraq is the antithesis of liberal intervention. It is an illegal, immoral and unnecessary war, a war undertaken on a false prospectus and without sanction from the UN.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2078725,00.html

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