Astroworld

Morgana,

Is there a spell to to drive people to sanity?

Well there should be, mostly the right-wingers are prayerfully making us all insane.

A diary on DKOS really exemplifies how the energy is playing out in the Democratic Party collective.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/7/121132/8090/663/451904

All, I've added two more links at the end of the article with the 1999 Fixed Grand Cross Solar Eclipse which has been set off by the current eclipse.

Sally will be about in a while to dicuss the impacts she sees. Meanwhile take a look and ponder the events set off in 1999 and where we are today.

Sledgehammer is right!
The US moon falls on my MC. ( with the t NN)
Inthe USA chart that s in the 3rd. house transportation with all that stuff! I need a new head gasket/motor! I'm grounded.

Meanwhile.......too new to be posted on CNN website yet, huge mafia round up in NYcity! something like 80 family members! Time to send Cuomo to DC!

Oh My Gosh! Atlantis just took off 2:45 pm est Cape Canaveral, Florida.

I've added a link to the lift off chart at the bottom of the article.

And this.....
http://firedoglake.com/2008/02/06/lieberman-has-superdelegate-status-stripped-because-of-mccain-endorsement/
Thanks to Zell Miller, there is a rule to deal with Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman's endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.

Meanwhile the 'Conservative' Repugs pac is coming unhinged, Laura Ingraham was reportedly to have ripped McInsane to shreds minutes before, follow0up speaker Mitten's withdrew, the crowd gasped and wailed. Sen. Macaca supporting McCain, some other guy is up now ... preceeded by boos from the crowd thinking McInsane was up next. These are unhappy campers.

McInsane was boo'ed loudly, some clapping, some cheers, but the boo's you could hear.

The Repugs were upset? That must be karma: Just look what they've done to us and our Constitution in the past seven years! And ain't it grand that Karma went a-calling on Joe-Ho, too?

Yup. Can't wait for the seating of the next Congress bye bye committee chairmanships bye bye. Lieberman disgusts me.

Well, there's another take on your posted link from DU, Morgana (i.e. Clinton's running out of money and Obama flush).

With the dirty politics (like republicans voting in the democrat primaries to help insure we have a weak candidate(s), for instance), I wouldn't be surprised if someone on the other side decided to throw some money at Obama thereby perhaps helping tip the hat at making sure he becomes the Dem candidate. It would be a cheap buy ... what's $7 million to these guys?

Then you orchestrate Obamamania on the media every day to make it seem like, wow! he's all that! Create/manufacture enthusiasm beyond what is reality. If I were a repub and I wanted to have a game plan, all I'd want to do is make sure the dem candidate is Obama, because Clinton would be a stronger candidate against McCain for sure. Even I, who swore I'd never vote for her ... may have to bite my hand (er, tongue, foot, whatever) and pull that lever.

I agree with several posters here, somehow I don't think the repubs will step aside, they have too many tricks left in the bag (like making sure they go against Iran) and all the other dirty stuff they have in store for us. Lying and manipulation have gotten them so far ... they aren't going to stop now. It's the old, by hook or by crook crowd! The end justifies the means.

In the end, as progressives, we have two flawed, hard to sell (no broad appeal, no concensus) candidates. Both of whom are beholden to corporations (how could they not be - they have to raise money). Obama is no better than Clinton on that stuff. And, in anycase, as someone pointed out in another post, nobody's getting elected that doesn't have AIPAC branded on their forehead and their butt, for good measure (not until we have publicly funded elections, that is).

Anyway, remember that these guys are the masters of propaganda and deception. They are the sheepdogs herding the sheeple to exactly where they want them to be, right into their pen).

Marta, have you got any better ideas? Like how to move forward? That is not a picture of defeat that I would want to project to the universe.

Marta - I repeat my post from yesterday

Obama's Israel Shuffle

The 'pro-Israel' crowd saw Obama as a potential threat. He's done his best two-step to prove them wrong." />

Justin Elliott"
/>
February 01" /> , 2008" /> Last week, when Barack Obama became the first major candidate to break the silence on the situation in Gaza, he didn't criticize Israel, whose blockade of a civilian population has been roundly condemned by human rights organizations, nor did he call for restraint from the United States' top ally in the Mideast. Instead, he fired off a letter to U.N. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad with a resounding message—one that could have been mistaken for words straight from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) website. "The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks against Israel.… If it cannot...I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all," Obama wrote, adding he understood why Israel was "forced" to shut down Gaza's border crossings.

http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2008/01/obamas-israel-shuffle.html

Posted by wv | February 6, 2008 11:56 PM

I won't be voting for him or Hillary...

Morgana, I don't view it as a defeat. We need to get beyond the tried and true and start anew. Cooperating with the stagnant mess is not going to get us out of anything (yeah, I cooperate too - I went and voted in the primary for Edwards (JUST IN CASE).

If we want to believe, maybe we should visualize the dregs getting cleaned out with an avalance of water and good old clorox (or how 'bout borax - it's green). Visualize a new beginning, a real change, not just status quo mirages (this is hard to do ... I haven't figured it out, but maybe it's not necessary). I'm sure when the time comes we will be shown or find the/a way).

In any case, holding on to old, outworn paradigms is not going to cut it. Maybe we all just need to release our attachment to "the way things were" in order to prepare ourselves for "the way things will become". Maybe that's why all the sh*t is seeping up from the ground over the past years. Maybe that's why Bush has been karmic for this country. We can no longer say we didn't know what OUR COUNTRY has been doing IN OUR NAME. I have no idea.

I have seen that Edwards had 26 delegates pre supertues. I wonder how many he has gained since then? People all over the net keep saying they voted for him. They aren't broadcasting that info
omn CNN, slnce they have driven him out! But Howard Dean is worried about the convention,........that may be partially why.

wv, saw the article ... I rest my case.

QOP, I'd write in Edwards even if has dropped out. Now that would be a hysterical change in the status quo ... let the old pols and bobble heads go on an on 'bout the horse race and the people quietly write in Edwards as the consensus candidate... And he wins. Wouldn't that be a hoot! Sweet revenge for 2000.

Marta, each of us could do something singular and concrete and see it through, I think.
It's all too big, too slippery and that in itself brings fear and helplessness. (Poster child right here!).
My instinct is to stay in touch with Kucinich, Edwards, Dodd and those we know are not sellouts and be open to direction from that as a start. Ask what we can do to help.

It's clear to me Obama is full of s***, and who would like to see him appear at the railing of the ship if we're drowning to do the right/obvious thing. I wouldn't. The second he entered the senate he started his habit of selling out 4 years ago. Right away. I know in my soul he won't stop harm coming to the citizens of this country. He's a weak man who says nothing with this empty authority.

The next item on our two-item menu is Hillary.
New York seems to like her and so there must be a reason for that. I heard also that she was against NAFTA and didn't approve of that at the time BC pushed that though. I wonder what Cuomo, the good man with the beautiful soul has to say about her, if anything. Who does she hang out with? (BC's strange sellouts and cruel decisions in his second term made me deeply distrustful of HIM ever since).
Kind of amusing how the Kennedys are split. See? That's how open this whole thing is. I do so like Robert Kennedy Jr.

Daily I go back & forth processing this thing.
Internally I've processed Obama out and doubt my instinct about him will change from this point.

Of one thing I'm sure. We have to buy ourselves some time over the next 4 years to get some progressives in and bluedogs out. I sense Obama will be in our way, much the same way Pelosi's inaction lost us so much time and energy until we realized what she was really doing in that role. The the menu has only two items to choose from.

The Super Tuesday Tornado outbreak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Tuesday_Tornado_Outbreak_of_2008

Seems rather synchronistic with the new moon power in Aquarius.

Marta, not sure what case you are making, but no never mind I still dream of a Gore surprise, and my black hooded robe will suffice for a burka.

Nancy is LAME............see interview with WOlfman! ICK!

ONLY SUPERDELEGATES represent sombody!
regular delegates are Sh--!
SHE actually said "honoring the Constitution of the US?" OH BOY! Delusional as W

GOP to Religious-Right Faithful: "Too bad, Suckers!"

Cuomo, the good man with the beautiful soul has to say about her, if anything. Who does she hang out with?
His wife is Kerry Kendedy who along with brother Bobby Jr. & Kathleen Kennedy endorsed Clinton!

Nancy Pelosi to rank & file Progressives:
Too bad suckers!

Poll in the Bangor Daily News
Clinton: 185 37.53%
Obama: 308 62.47%
9 bear in mind a majority in the state doen't have internet access &wouldn't be participating in an online polling.

The Bush Bust of '08

“It's All Downhill From Here, Folks”

By Mike Whitney

"I just saw a picture Bernanke stripped to the waist in the boiler-room shoveling greenbacks into the furnace.” Rob Dawg, Calculated Risk blog-site

On January 14, 2008 the FDIC web site began posting the rules for reimbursing depositors in the event of a bank failure. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is required to “determine the total insured amount for each depositor....as of the day of the failure” and return their money as quickly as possible. The agency is “modernizing its current business processes and procedures for determining deposit insurance coverage in the event of a failure of one of the largest insured depository institutions.” (http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2008/fil08002.html#body)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19307.htm

Don't write Romney off yet. I have a feeling he'll be back. Remember, he only SUSPENDED his campaign, he didn't drop out, so he could re-enter anytime, but I think he got his orders from the Repub rank and file, which will eventually happen to the DEMS when the DNC decides who their candidate will be.

The Republicans are waiting to see who emerges as the Dem. nominee. They also know that Mc Cain is not in good health, and that they may need someone else to take over on short notice, so they have Romney standing in the wings.

The best advice I can give to everyone, is to take their political blinders off and read between the lines. Be still, and observe, instead of foaming at the mouth, because you will miss what is really happening.

I saw where Hillary had a lot more Super Delegates than Obama, so if it comes down to that, then Hillary will get the nod.

Morgana, I remember you telling me about the Super Delegates, but who are they, and how do the candidates get them? And at what point in the process do they come on board?

American Jewish Leader Says Bush Committed To Firmly Dealing With Iranian Nuke Program :

Wednesday, a senior American Jewish leader said US President George Bush is committed to firmly dealing with the controversial Iranian nuclear program even as he enters his last year of office.

http://snipurl.com/1z7zs

===

Cable Cutting Mayhem: 5th Undersea Internet Cable Cut :

It began with two undersea telecommunications cables that served as data links between Europe and the Middle East being cut, but it's now escalated with a further three undersea internet cables being cut, with major disruptions to internet services.

http://www.idm.net.au/story.asp?id=9297

Nancy is LAME............see interview with WOlfman! ICK

qop, the sound we hear from Pelosi will be the sound of the strings of her latest facelift giving way (whipping of cables snapping wildly on the golden gate bridge) if she does anything remotely animated with her face.

What betrayal. What a bald faced liar!

Or is that bold-faced?

Good advice there in your article Morgana, and some wise words. If the Repubs win in Nov.(heaven forbid), I think it will end up being a Romney/Huckabee duo, because from what I'm observing, I don't know how far into the New Year Mc Cain is going to make it, maybe long enough to make some bad decisions if he's elected. The Repubs know what's coming down the pipeline, so they are consolidating, but let's hope the Dems win.

SUperdelegates according to Nancy............ they take a concensus from the peons, ordinary delegates that we chose, and convey it to the convention with value added ( their "superior" knowledge & wisdom) I think they are the Legislators who have earned the seniority to be committee leaders; braintrusts like Steney Hoyer!
Lieberman was one, ( who was going to endorse McCain, ) except thank God the Dems made a special ruling after Zell Miller did it., So superdelegateship denied to Mojoho.
Good advice, read between the lines.etc.1

Crystal, virtually all of their contenders are weak, including Romney. Only 33% showed up for the primaries as Shy brought to our attention, while dems were 66%.
So what "were" the weakest dem picks are now stronger than their ship of fools, now they have a problem they may not overcome.

I just found this - interesting info on how the super-delegate process works for selecting candidates if push comes to shove.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080207/pl_afp/usvotedemocratssuperdelegates_080207143748

Oh I meant to say but got distracted...
Delegates HC 855
overall BO 861

Where are the others????????

Been awhile since I've looked at Obama's chart and have to say this guy's definitely not out even if he doesn't make the inaugural.
'09 is really powerful especially w/his progressions as is 2013.
So confusing.

I was just listening to the news, and one thing I can say for sure - this eclipse brought a lot of violence with it, both from nature, and man, or is Mars playing a part in this?

Year of the Rat? How about some standing still? QOP I think you will really like this.

http://gawker.com/5002790/when-grand-central-stood-still

Sally thanks for reminding me of the old time politics, I remember the 68' Democratic Convention, the protests.

That GWB's 1st Inaugeral activated those eclipse points and now we can see how they have played out.

Wow intense months ahead of us!

"Intense months ahead"? What about the Constitution? Will the Constitution survive until/if BushCo goes? I am skeeered here. Thnx.

Jeez wv and Crystal, you're on a roll. Thanks for posting the FDIC stuff. I've been so concerned about it that a few months ago I sent an email to my whole family, friends and clients and met with my bank and changed all my accounts to POD (payable upon death). It's the only way to have more than $100,000 FDIC insurance on your funds at any one bank and it's only applicable to your parents, spouse (legal), children, and siblings. So, in my case, I could potentially have my 100k, my two kids, another 200k, my 4 bros, 400k, parents, 200k, etc. Unfortunately, if the sh*t hits the fan with 65 banks failing the most likely thing that will happen is our currency will crash and will be worthless. Welcome to the Amero, wouldn't that be convenient. They've already gotten everything ready to do it and between Iran and a crashed currency they'll find a way to ostensibly "sweeten the pot" and convince people it's the only way to go. *uckers! Sorry, Sally. My bad.

I keep on thinking I should go buy a gun. I've already got seeds, but I hate to break it to everybody, stuff takes a long time to grow (I found out last winter (your summer), pests are now super pests because of the massive pesticides around, my bread sucked, I don't have a cow and there are no coffee beans in my back yard. Let's not even talk about my best buddy, my glass of wine at night. Oh, and tobacco doesn't grow that well in Florida. Too humid. P-O-T might be an escape hatch/option, but with sinsemilla, I cain't get any seeds, even if they still existed. Now, if that doesn't make you laugh and cheer you up, I don't know what will!

National Delegate Totals
Democratic Delegates
Delegates won: Total 2,025 needed
Hillary Rodham Clinton 823
Barack Obama 741
John Edwards 26

This is why I don't trust astrology....because it sure is open to interpretation. From Richard Nolle's latest Feb 2008 column:

With so many unknowns in terms of the candidates' birth data, it's going to be very difficult to repeat my success in calling past Presidential elections. The last two times, there were good data to work with and fewer prospects to evaluate. For 2008, there's far more uncertainty in the data, and no certainty at all as to who the candidates will be in the first place. (I'm writing this before the first caucus, let alone the first primary.) Lacking adequate data this time around, I see no alternative but to fall back on my planetary party theory; namely that Jupiter is associated with the Republicans, and Saturn with the Democrats.

I know, I know, lots of people believe it's just the reverse; mainly on the theory that the GOP is the party of the conservatives and therefore falls under the dominion of Saturn, while the Democrats are the party of the liberals and therefore align with Jupiter. I say the Democrats are the party of fear and pessimism, the party that proclaims itself the protector of the common people - who need protection from the wealthy and powerful, of course. If that's not Saturn, nothing is. The Republicans on the other hand are the party of hope and optimism, the party that freed the slaves and opposes big government because it takes freedom and power from individuals. What else is that, if not Jupiter? Each party claims a beast of burden as its totem: the Democrats a donkey, the Republicans an elephant. If Jupiter doesn't fit an elephant better than a donkey, and vice versa for Saturn, then nothing makes sense in this world.

As a registered Libertarian, I have no dog in this fight. Frankly, I think both the major parties lack any real agenda today, other than to gain and hold power. But I look back on their history, and I can't help thinking that, in their origins, the Republicans and Democrats are described by Jupiter and Saturn respectively. Take the Republican Party's foundation, on February 28, 1854: a stellium (alignment) with the Sun, Moon and three planets in Pisces, one of the two signs ruled by Jupiter in ancient astrology. Contrast this with the founding of the Democratic Party on May 21, 1832: the sign with the highest count (the Moon plus Uranus along with the Moon's south node) is Aquarius - one of the two signs ruled by Saturn in ancient astrology. If you don't buy this reasoning, look at the history of US elections.

The 2008 election has been compared to those of 1928 and 1952, two years in which there was no sitting Vice President who assumed the mantle of leadership for the party in power. Both those elections featured a Sun-Jupiter opposition, which favors the GOP. In both cases, the GOP candidate emerged victorious: Herbert Hoover in '28, Dwight Eisenhower in '52. The election of 2000 featured a Jupiter-Pluto opposition, with Saturn not in any major alignment; again, an edge to the GOP, whose candidate (George Bush) won by one vote. Likewise 2004, held under the auspices of a Venus-Jupiter conjunction. Jupiter is out of alignment as the election is held this year, its fleeting conjunction with the Moon the night before being broken by the time voting starts. That leaves the year's signature aspect, the Saturn-Uranus opposition, as the dominant celestial feature of the 2008 election. And there's no way to read that as a Republican winning the election, as far as I can see: a Democrat, most likely, or maybe a third party or even bipartisan surprise, that's where the US gets its next President. As to who it will be in particular, I really don't have enough information to be sure this time: no candidate for certain, and no published birth time for two of the three top Democratic contenders. I figure a Democrat is more likely than a third party is more likely than a Republican, in that order. The strongest (or least disadvantaged) potential candidates, judging from less than sufficient data, look like John Edwards, Barack Obama, John McCain and Michael Bloomberg (in no particular order). But that's the best I can do with the incomplete data I have on hand. Just remember 1928, and what followed: 2008 will be déjà vu all over again, in many respects.

Whoa, Judith, 1928 was the year before the Great Depression started. According to a lot of the astrology posted both here and at Starlight, 2009 is supposed to be a whopper. I don't think I have enough grass/lawn to feed a cow... that's a problem.

Funny that Nolle put Edwards at the top of the list of the candidates with best chances. I guess the best planetary alignment in the world won't stand up to the schenanigans we've seen. Just ask Gore. We could still write him in though, right (Edwards)? Funny too that Clinton wasn't even mentioned in the list.

hahahah Marta, well Clinton wouldn't be, as her birthdata is inconveniently not solid, perhaps that is why. I can think of other reasons which seem obvious. But it does appear that it ain't that easy to maintain an even keel as an astrologer since all people are biased.

I still like astrology for psychological analyses. Politics seems really iffy, based on our last 8 years. woulda shoulda coulda....can't predict.

FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'

By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive. Posted February 8, 2008.

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does -- and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU.

But there may be more to it than that.

One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law. InfraGard is "a child of the FBI," says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.

"At its most basic level, InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector," the InfraGard website states. "InfraGard chapters are geographically linked with FBI Field Office territories."

In November 2001, InfraGard had around 1,700 members. As of late January, InfraGard had 23,682 members, according to its website, http://www.infragard.net, which adds that "350 of our nation's Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard."

To join, each person must be sponsored by "an existing InfraGard member, chapter, or partner organization." The FBI then vets the applicant. On the application form, prospective members are asked which aspect of the critical infrastructure their organization deals with. These include: agriculture, banking and finance, the chemical industry, defense, energy, food, information and telecommunications, law enforcement, public health, and transportation.

.........

The ACLU is not so sanguine.

"There is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations -- some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers -- into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI," the ACLU warned in its August 2004 report The Surveillance-Industrial Complex: How the American Government Is Conscripting Businesses and Individuals in the Construction of a Surveillance Society.

InfraGard is not readily accessible to the general public.

Its communications with the FBI and Homeland Security are beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act under the "trade secrets" exemption, its website says. And any conversation with the public or the media is supposed to be carefully rehearsed.

........

"We were assured that if we were forced to kill someone to protect our infrastructure, there would be no repercussions," the whistleblower says. "It gave me goose bumps. It chilled me to the bone."

http://www.alternet.org/rights/76388/?page=entire

See more stories tagged with: fbi, shoot to kill, infragard
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-kendall/avoiding-a-convention-tra_b_85635.html

Avoiding a Convention Train Wreck

Anyone who thinks the battle for the Democratic nomination isn't heading for a train wreck hasn't looked closely at the results of Super Tuesday.

Paul Kane from the Washington Post has done the math:

The continuing Clinton/Obama saga

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080208/ap_on_el_pr/obama_taxes

Found on the internet (comment section on article posted by Crystal (yahoo)

Right-wing talk radio anti-McCain-iacs like Rush Limbaugh are promoting their listeners to donate money to the Clinton Campaign since the withdrawal of Mitt Romney and the news that Hillary had to loan her own money(5mil) to her campaign. Within 24 hours the Clinton Campaign received nearly $4mil in new donations to partially pay herself back and meet her campaign payroll.

RUSH LIMBAUGH (13,500,000 daily listeners)says,
"We've got to make sure she's the nominee if the Republican Party is to be unified. What more loyal thing could I do than to run a fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton?
"the reason for raising money for Hillary is because that my party is relying on fear and loathing of Hillary to get the nomination, to unite Republicans."

"if Obama is the nominee, we are doomed." continued Rush.

Kind of odd this whole thing. Supposedly Rush hates McCain, yet he's still trying to throw/influence the election? Anyway, just goes to show you how stupid our whole system is - insane. We need public elections. None of this would be possible if we publicly financed elections.

Obama has promised to push publicly financed elections if he is elected, but I doubt everyone will be in favor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/business/08trader.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&ref=business

Bond trader says, "I am buying things at 10 to 15 cents” on the dollar." THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT CATHERINE AUSTIN FITTS PREDICTED IN HER NAVIGATING THE HOUSING BUBBLE CD SERIES!!!!!

A 30 year republican serving divorce papers ... get ready for the same to happen to Democrats (all in good time). After all, let's not forget that no progress has been made since 2006 (remember, that's when the "grown-ups" took over - some grownups!) ... not to be negative, and I'd be more than relieved and happy to be proven wrong. The end of the article is the kicker.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_debra_cr_080208_serving_divorce_pape.htm

"God has a way of waking people up."
Comment from a relative of a sugar factory explosion VICTIM.
Parent Company of Dixieland Sugar is located in SUGARLAND TX, HOME OF DELAY!
Interesting watching the faces of those tornado victims in TN, listening to the proseletizing of the C O Chief! And they are all good white christians so he got there pretty fast!..............
2 disgruntled females in shoting incidents ( NZ plane highjacked and pilots shot)
2 men fed up with the legal restrictions impeding their "capitalistic enterprises"
The potential shooter at the superbowl, caught before he acted; had been denied a liquor license. Pluto meet Saturn!

February 8, 2008, 12:22 pm

Anti-Obama Film On the Way

By Leslie Wayne

A conservative group -– Citizens United -– that has produced a film now in distribution attacking Hillary Clinton called “Hillary, the Movie,” has its sights set on a new target: Barack Obama.
The group has budgeted about $1 million to produce a documentary film about Mr. Obama that is set to be distributed this summer. At the moment, Citizens United has its researchers poring over Mr. Obama’s records as a community organizer, state legislator and United States senator in the same way that it scoured Mrs. Clinton’s record with a highly critical eye and a sharply conservative point of view.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/anti-obama-film-on-the-way/

Hope ya'll don't use aspartame (or any other man-made sweetening products (including stevia, as far as I'm concerned).

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ken_stol_080206_santa_fe_pediatricia.htm

Marta, Why not stevia? ( woman made) I have a lovely plant sitting in my window, was planning to use it.
And can you grow hops in Miami? Or is it too warm for that?
Beer prices have DROPPED $2.50.
"Let'um all get drunk & they'll go back to sleep!"

Lieberschnitzel Stripped of Super Delegate Status:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/07/liebermans-superdelegate-status-stripped/

QOP, my apologies ... I went on the assumption that stevia is another man-made sweetener. If it's plant based, I don't see why not! Love plants! As far as hops, I don't know if they'd grow in Miami ... I'm not much of a beer drinker ... though that could change under the right circumstances! I'm thinking of downsizing from a cow (unrealistic). But a (small) goat might be good with the added bonus that I wouldn't have to cut my grass! Free fertilizer! Nevermind ... just kidding.

Just went for my very first acupuncture session. Dr. Cheng informed me that I am out of balance (no kidding!)... Once he started putting needles in me I really honed in on a lot of other pain that I've stored in and around my body. Nothing like "keeping it all in". I must have years of sludge sitting in me (especially around my joints). Hopefully the good doctor will help me get rid of it!

This group of vets sure doesn't like McCain, and is actively critical of him.

http://www.votevets.org/mccain.html

[snip]
McCain maintains the war was a good idea.

At the 2004 Republican National Convention, McCain, focusing on the war in Iraq, said that while weapons of mass destruction were not found, Saddam once had them and “he would have acquired them again.” McCain said the mission in Iraq “gave hope to people long oppressed” and it was “necessary, achievable and noble.” McCain: “For his determination to undertake it, and for his unflagging resolve to see it through to a just end, President Bush deserves not only our support, but our admiration.” [Plain Dealer, 8/31/04]

Senator McCain: “The war, the invasion was not a mistake. [Meet the Press, 1/6/08]

Asked if the war was a good idea worth the price in blood and treasure, McCain: “It was worth getting rid of Saddam Hussein. He had used weapons of mass destruction, and it's clear that he was hell-bent on acquiring them.” [Republican Debate, 1/24/08]

McCain defended Bush’s rationale for war. Asked if he thought the president exaggerated the case for war, McCain said, “I don’t think so.” [Fox News, 7/31/03]

McCain has been President Bush’s most ardent Senate supporter on Iraq. According to Michael Shank of the Foreign Policy in Focus think tank, McCain was at times Bush’s “most solid support in the Senate” on Iraq. [Foreign Policy in Focus, 1/15/08]

McCain voted against holding Bush accountable for his actions in the war. McCain opposed the creation of an independent commission to investigate the development and use of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. [S. Amdt. 1275 to H.R. 2658, Vote # 284, 7/16/03]

McCain praised Bush’s leadership on the war. McCain: “I think the president has led with great clarity and I think he’s done a great job leading the country…” [MSNBC, Hardball, 4/23/03]

more...

Strange sightings in the sky over Florida - not your typical UFO, more like a fireball? Just one more weird thing that blew in with the eclipse. Read the comments under the 2nd article that I post. Apparently this has occurred before. Might it be aliens?? Haha. I was thinking that it might be that satellite that they said would crash into earth somewhere, but no one seems to be able to verify this. It's posted on YouTube also, but I didn't look for it there.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/strange/news-article.aspx?storyid=101832

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/east-lake-orient-park-fl/TDQTJ4PRS45BDOCA4

I was thinking that it might have been debris from the Atlantis Shuttle.

I just had a weird experience. A neighbor came to the door, wanting to beg, borrow, buy, cigarettes.
(at 8pm). I was talking to my daughter on the phone at the time and stayed on the line with her. This guy came to the door last week wanting to use my phone because his car was broken down & he was not going to work.
WHY ME? I called my friend/neighbor, retired librarian & she didn't know who he was.............
His name he said is Gene & he has worked at inland Seafood down the road for 12 years. That is when they came to town. He is small pale watery blue eyes, redish hair.........
In view of the news today it makes me uncomfortable. I will ask the Police chief/ town manager Mon. who he is......
Meanwhile the moon is waxing in Pisces, good time to plant something thru Sun. Parsley has more vitamin c than oranges, good budget boost!
I'm planting kitty wheat & chard tomorrow!

Morgana, do you see anything unusual in that Atlantis chart that you posted? Strange that they would want to launch on a solar eclipse. I actually heard a report that some debris came loose, and fell off the shuttle. Hope we don't see a repeat of what happened on Feb 1, 2003 when the shuttle Columbia re-entered the earth's atmosphere, and that was on a new moon too, though not an eclipse. Does anyone know when the Atlantis is supposed to return to earth?

Just thought of something else - as Sally keeps referring back to 1999 with the eclipse. 1999=1, and so does 2008=1

QOP, I would be very careful who I open my door to. That guy sounds spooky.

qop, there is SO MUCH MERCURY going on right now. Did a horary for a client and found an easy 14 mercury themes. On top of that, sun/neptune, moon/uranus pisces.
His girlfriend was going to visit a guy with suspected mental problems.

mercury, neighbors, addictions, wanting to use your phone...I'd ask the cops check him out TONITE so they can visit him this evening! Please do that PatQ just to be proactive.

Myself, brain freeze/fried. Just when I think
I've settled this or that about these people and this election, etc., I'm filled with self-doubt and wonder if I've been unfair/deluded/or here's another illusion of mine popped and the joke is on me.
On top of that but in keeping with the transits, another mysterious food reaction.
I almost wish I could enjoy a good wine/beer/manhatten or whatever, but the magic left the wine, as it were, 25 years ago. More unpleasant than pleasant for me. Wah.

qop, I probably read too many "true crime" books, but there are many weirdos around, so please don't take any chances and just avoid this fellow.

I made a curtain & called 911, My friend Jamie is on tonight. He who escorted me home from teaching at the high school, the night my lights failed.
Yeh, he thinks he knows him & he's harmless & has been having car problems, but he will cruise past & ask around the other cops, for more info.
From his viewpoint, the entire past year has been lots of action & action for the state police.
It's really nice living in a small town!
Thanks for urging me to do that patb! I will sleep easier.
moonsiren, Now it's our turn to be getting all the calls from the candidates. So tired of being cast as an unwilling participant in this reality show created by MSM!

hi everyone,
Haven't posted in ages, but lurk regularly.

QOP, fyi, just wanted to update you on the NZ plane incident: It was a 33 yr old Somali woman, (presumably here because of refugee status) with a history of mental instability. She was was wielding a knife on a relatively small plane. One Pilot's hand was injured, the other pilot's foot. Details are still coming out.
Aloha to all, kiwijeanie

QOP glad you are taking no chances, always best to be safe not sorry. I did not know parsley had more vitimin C than Oranges but how much Parsley do you have to eat to make up what say one orange provides?

PatB, I wouldn't worry about the confusion over the election, we have been spun so much in our lives we hardly know what or who to believe. I have a friend of mine who is near 80 and she said "take a look around, no matter who is elected have you ever really seen anything change." You just have to trust your own instincts and when you vote go with those.

Gee Sally,
I don't know. Portland paper had a recipe for cream of parsley soup couple of years back. I think they said something like.......1 cup of parsley has more C than 1 orange.
I use it as often as I can in soups, with basil for pesto, or just chew on a bit of it raw. It's FREE nourishment!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/technology/09free.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

"While such services have been emerging for years, their rapid adoption has been an important but largely overlooked driver of the $44.6 billion hostile bid that Microsoft made to take over Yahoo this week.

That proposed deal would give Microsoft access to Yahoo’s vast news, information, search and advertising network — and the ability to compete more squarely with Google.

But a merger would also allow Microsoft to adapt its empire to compete in a world of low-cost Internet-centered software."...........

The primaries today:

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/08/648157.aspx

Saturday, Feb. 9:
-- Louisiana primary: 56 delegates at stake. (37 proportional by CD, 15% threshold; 19 based on statewide vote, 15% threshold.) Independents cannot vote. Polls open at 7:00 am ET and close at 9:00 pm ET.

-- Nebraska caucuses: 24 delegates at stake. (16 delegates selected as a result of the caucuses proportionally by CD, of which there are 3, 15% threshold; other 8 are selected at the June 28 state convention based on preferences of state convention delegates, 15% threshold.) There is same-day registration at the caucuses, and they operate similar to how they do in Iowa. Caucusing begins as early as 11:00 am ET and they end as late as 9:30 pm ET.

-- Virgin Islands territorial convention: 3 delegates at stake. (Proportional by statewide vote, 15% threshold. There are actually 6 pledged delegates, who will be seated at the national convention, but their votes only count for half.)

-- Washington caucuses: 78 delegates at stake. (Multi-tiered caucus. 51 proportional by CD, no threshold; 27 elected at state convention by the 51 CD delegates and those 27 will be selected proportionally by the statewide vote.) Voters sign a party declaration same day as the caucuses. Caucusing begins at 4:00 pm ET, and we should have results no later than 9:00 pm ET.

Sunday, Feb. 10:
-- Maine caucuses, 24 delegates at stake. (16 proportional by CD of which there are 2, 15% threshold; 8 proportional by support at May 31 state convention.) There is same-day registration at the caucuses, and they begin as early as 1:00 pm ET, and results should start to come in around 6:00 pm ET.

Parsley and oj and Vit C. Nice page. Just scroll down until you hit the comparison table:
http://tinyurl.com/oeccr

GOOD RESEARCH WORK SHY!

And now for something to send to all the illegals bashers (I almost wrote 'bushers) you know. Or, who's to blame?
http://tinyurl.com/27sqmm

You're welcome, QOP. I'm so happy you called about that guy. I slept better last night knowing you were safe.

shy, it is just what they are trying to do here as well. Globalization is evil. I have to wonder what form of humanity these cheap labor conservatives are made of.

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

http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name=krugman_obama_and_health_care

Krugman, Obama and Health Care Mandates

Paul Krugman posted a blognote responding to my earlier comment criticizing his column on Obama and mandates. I posted this response on his blog, which I have pasted below.

I would summarize our difference on this issue as being whether an actual mandate is the only and best mechanism to prevent free-riding on community rated health insurance (everyone pays the same fee, regardless of their health). We don't disagree that healthy people would have the temptation to engage in such free-riding (wait until you get sick to sign up) without some enforcement mechanism:

I appreciate Paul’s response. Let’s quickly try to sort out some issues. First, I completely agree that Obama’s criticisms of the Clinton proposal for including mandates were both bad policy and really bad politics. We absolutely need a mandate-like mechanism to prevent freeloading.

More at the link...

Thanks Shy, this is great. I love parsley and mint and chew on them all the time. I don't have anyplace to grow too much but parsley and mint can me grown in pots. Thanks a lot for the link

qop, yay! We're all in one piece this morning!
Really relieved you followed up, what a fine line between feeling foolish and doing the right thing just to cover the bases.

Aren't we all on-the-spot right now like qop was last night?
Could have been this fellow was having a nicotine jones and his car broke down, doesn't have the cash to fix his car with the snow and the long stretch between home and shops.
Or, was he 'casing the joint' for his next victim...doing all the things our mom warned us about.

Where is the truth, where is the lie? We didn't HAVE THIS DILEMMA about Kucinich or Dodd or Biden, did we. We didn't feel imperiled by taking someone at their word did we. We saw and heard money where their mouth was. WE FELT WE COULD SLEEP AT NIGHT with any of those guys at the helm didn't we.
Just like PatQ!

I am creeped out by Obama's near-religious rah-rahs. THAT IS NOT HEALTHY, it is creepy.
Is Hillary Illuminati? Or is she waiting for her moment to help the suffering in this country?
I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not trust this unknowable slightly dangerous edgey reality. I will not vote so long as I feel this way. They both scare me, whether it is justified or not. I have the willies. I am paranoid and frightened once more.

There. Said it.

If I may put my 2 cents in about vitamin C. Watercress has a very high content of vitamin C, but not too many Americans seem to use it. It can be used in salads, and sandwiches. It's particularly delicious in cheese sandwiches (grated cheese/butter/mustard).

On another topic, listening to my local NPR radio in the car this morning:

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/14/valentines_day_labor_conditions_at_us

Look out for my next post - its going to be a long one, and has to do with the recent eclipse, and the truths that it is now bringing to light e.g. the above article which was done a year ago, but was being discussed this morning because of the approaching Valentine's Day.

(((((Patb))))))) breathe. I know I'm feeling much the same way you do. Yesterday's accupuncture certainly helped release some of it. I feel calmer today. I read something yesterday that really jogged my mind. Something to the effect of "we need to release our attachment to things (and in this case our attachment to how we view how things should work might also be appropriate)." To let go of our attachment allows the creative to come in. We know that things aren't working. So perhaps it's time to let go of our attachment to how things should be, or were (at least in our minds, that is, because if there's one thing that's become clear to me over the past several years is that the sh*t that's going on now has been happening FOR A LONG TIME - we just weren't conscious of it). So new things can come in. Fighting for the past won't make our future. Letting go creates the space for new things to take their place.

Sounds grandiose (but simple). Look at the now as an opportunity to "change our minds".

I know I've been wallowing in fear, anger and dejection. Morgana picked up on it quite well a few posts back. I keep on trying to tell myself to breathe. When I'm sitting outside and it's a beautiful day and I'm busy mulling over all the catastrophes looming on the horizon I'm starting to remind myself of the gift of Now. Now the sun is shining, Now I get to enjoy my family and friends. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I realized that it's really terrible to put a black cloud over Now, when Tomorrow hasn't happened yet. (BTW, I keep on having to remind myself of this over and over and over, but well ... you know how it is ... bad habits die HARD.) I'm finding that planning for armageddon is a full-time job that impedes my ability to live in the now and makes me feel powerless and frantic. I've arrived at the conclusion that, in anycase, you can't plan for this stuff (not really). In the end, if the crap hits the fan, anything I do today to prepare for some cataclysmic tomorrow will be like putting a bandaid on a severed carotid artery.

So, I take a deep breath and release and come back to Now.

...Also of interest are the latest blapablaps the repugs are tossing about. The idea they are now deliberately thrusting the mess they created into the hands of the dems so they can regroup for 2012.
This isn't deliberate. They have impoverished themselves. It's that simple. A woman, a black, no way. Now it's 'way'. Suprise.
What we're hearing from Matthews, et al is that this is a purposeful failure. Yeah. Sure.
For us this has little to do with woman or black. Instead of an elevator that goes to 30 floors, we have an elevator that may have only 5 floors.
We want those who reflect our inner richness and decency. What will it take karmically to have that pumping through our society's veins, an insistence on the real and fundamentally coherent and right. We're too program-able.

Ok, here is half of my promised post, because the other half is going to take some research, and it's taking too long.

The recent solar eclipse in Aquarius seems to have the theme TRUTH linked to it, and with Merc. retrograde, you will be seeing that things that were just glanced at in the past, are now going to be given much closer scrutiny. Something that QOP wrote in one of her posts here, caught my eye, and it has to do with the sugar factory explosion that occurred at the Imperial Sugar Co. refinery in GA on Feb. 7th - "God has a way of waking people up."
Comment from a relative of a sugar factory explosion VICTIM.

If this is not Uranus the Awakener(ruler of Aquarius) at work here, I don't know what is, so look for the TRUTH behind the explosion to be revealed.

The man who shot and killed 6 people at the City Council meeting in MO, on Feb. 7th because he lost a lawsuit against them, left a one-line note. It said - the TRUTH will come out.
I am in no way condoning his violent act, but that's the way he saw it.

Watch for this TRUTH theme to continue for the next 6 months, or however long the effects of the eclipse last, because it is going to impact the elections. You are going to see supporters demand the truth from their candidates, and candidates demand the truth from their rivals, and many things might be revealed that were previously unknown. So moving forward we are going to see a battle waged for TRUTH.

My next post will be about a big whopper concerning that fireball in the sky that I posted about earlier on, that is just now coming to light.

Marta, thanks for that hug, boy I needed one.
Sure, there's the Now which I come back to.
The last few weeks have brought a sea change where Edwards was led off the plank by these pirates.
I am evaluating at this point what it is we're left with. There is no longer choice until further notice so far as I'm concerned. This too leads us back to where we are right now, straight up, no ice.
I'm also aware surprising solutions reveal themselves in a less than perfect setup. Choices now may or may not grow into their sanity. It's a gamble, and there's the artery that might gush.
I am sick of 8 years of this feeling and we have to find happiness in the moment and trust in our lives. As my teacher said, "there is no such thing as continuity or security", something that, like him, led him through treacherous mountain passes and precious losses to bespread buddhist teachings the world over. There were dear unspeakable sacrifices which were the cost of this gift to the world.
Sometimes all that's left is a sober surrender to circumstances, but with awareness, and like you say an ability to appreciate the moment, the gaps when surrounded by danger.
Certain actions like the ones in CA are stemming the tide and an example for us all.
I'm a bit worn out before the battle at the moment. People pulling together is an enormous comfort.

When you experience the now you are only then experiencing the Real. I recommend reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. In the simplest and easiest terms I've ever read you will understand that every time you make yourself experience the now is the time you become your true self which is your higher self, connected to the All, God, Goddess, Creator or whatever you want to call the One.

And then read A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, also by Tolle. You will stop being afraid.

lunaoscura, I will do that. I will read those books, thank you very much for that.
Hard to believe I'm an 'old' practitioner. But I'm not standing on credentials. When you're both deeply human (you don't get a binky to suck on), and aware of a larger more profound reality, you don't get to be off the hook particularly. I am open to include new reminders of the way things are, despite some profound experiences in keeping with Tolle's, obviously I need reminding.

patb, we're all learning how to go sane no matter what level we may be. That's why I asked Morgana if there was a spell for going sane. It was a semi-serious question.
There's no time like the present with all the uncertainty to get more in touch with the Real, and with what Crystal is talking about, the Truth. In a way the more we fear and worry the more we are likely to reach for our higher self. Sometimes I think our higher selves set it up that way.

I don't know if any of the posters here saw a horrific crash on the news that took place here in central FL in the early hours of Jan. 9th, along a 14 mile stretch of I-4 that runs between Tampa and Orlando. The scene of the 70 car pile-up looked like a war zone with mangled burnt-out vehicles strewn all over. There were big rigs, tankers, tractor-trailers, pick-up trucks, you name it. A lot of them caught on fire and burnt to a cinder causing the asphalt to melt. Luckily, only 5 people ended up dying, with 38 injured. You can probably find reports and pictures on the internet, but I'll post 1 link at the end. Anyway, the cause of the chain-reaction pile-up was a blanket of dense fog, that some people described as pea-soup. And really, when they showed it on TV, that morning, it was not white, or gray, but a yellowish green, which led me to believe that it was not just fog, but a mixture of fog with smoke, and this was even before the vehicles caught on fire.

Yesterday I posted links to that fireball in the sky that I mistakenly thought was sighted on Feb.7, because I couldn't find a date on the report, but it turns out that the fire ball was sighted just before dusk on Jan. 7, almost a month ago, which was 2 days before the accident, and occurred in the same Polk county where the fireball was sighted. I only realized this when I saw a report about it this morning on the TV, and they mentioned that it happened around the time of the 70 car pile-up, but we are just now learning about it.

In the link that I posted earlier, there is a video where you can hear people calling in to 911 to report the sighting, and it was reported that it was heading south towards Tampa. So, did the authorities investigate to see where this fireball might have landed, or exactly what it was? I have a feeling that it landed in that field alongside I-4 where the HWP claimed they were doing a control burn which got out of control. So, they are either covering up what really landed in the field, or nobody went to investigate, so they didn't know that it had set the field on fire. I think we'll be hearing more of the truth now. Perhaps these fireballs fall to earth more often than we know, but nobody notices them.

It couldn't have been that satellite that was supposed to fall to earth, because it was before then. There was a report a little while ago that had mentioned an asteroid out in space. I was wondering if a piece of it broke off, and headed to earth, or was it something like what landed in the Andes mountains, I think it was in Peru, where people who went to look at it fell ill afterwards. Who knows? It's a mystery. Is there something going on here that we don't know about, and will these occurrences become more frequent? All kinds of objects are being sighted in the sky these days. May be a prelude to 2012.

http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/what-caused-florida39s-fatal-70-car-pileup-on-i-4.aspx?googleid=29026

I would like to add Marta to the people talking about practices of the higher self by finding quiet within and reminding ourselves not to get caught up in the craziness. We're all referring to the same thing. Tolle just puts in such a way that it's all very easy to understand (and to realize we've all been practitioners all along.

I think so, lunaoscura. It's not a straight line on a graph, or some panacea cure-all. But it is learning how to discern. It is refreshing ourselves and being able to rest. In my case, like a lizard in snatches, 3 years, two months/just one week off in all that time. I'm just weary for understandable reasons.
There isn't much that escapes my notice, and all kinds of things come from that which need exposure of defense mechanisms, then compassion for myself and everyone else. There's much I don't say.
People have a tendency to not allow themselves to go in and through and out again.
I trust myself to come back.

all you sugar junkies....if you want OFF sugar, buy some olive leaf (caps or liquid) and follow instructions. It is a big fighter of candida.

(I did it, no sugar cravings)

If you do want sugar to sweeten something, try this:

Agave Nectar. It is made from the heart of the agave plant, same thing tequila is made from. It is very low glycemic index and never 'sugars up' into crystals. It doesn't raise your blood sugar, even diabetics can use it. AND it is delicious.

end of commercial...find it at good markets and health food stores.

I'd prefer not to mention what this is about. But check out this particular url. Crazy? real? anxiety provoking? (yes)
Sent it to a friend in LA who had heard about it on a local radio show...

http://yowusa.com/radio/cttc/2008/cttc-0108-83/2.shtml

Hey all, watching the returns. CNN just said that NASA would have an announcement 6pm est, 3pm pst about damage to the shuttle Atlantis.

The following is from Mark Crispin Miller and his thoughts reflect some of mine as well.

"It's ironic (not to say bizarre) that Barack Obama strikes so many people as
"progressive." First of all, because he's simply not progressive; and, secondly,
because the press has so far treated him much as it treated Ronald Reagan
back in 1980 (and, by and large, forever after): i.e., apolitically, uncritically,
with lots of emphasis on his success as a "communicator" and almost nothing
on his actual positions, or the interests back of him.

If the media knocked off the Reagan treatment of Obama, more of us might
have a clearer sense of where he's really coming from. That he (too) belongs to
Wall Street, and is in the pocket of a nuclear power company called Exelon
(and lies about it), and has named Zbigniew Brzezinski as his top foreign policy
adviser, and stumped for Lieberman, are just a few examples of his true character,
politically speaking. If this sort of thing got proper coverage, we would all be
better off.

It is, of course, a great thing that Obama has inspired so many people to get into
politics. Those people should, however, know exactly who it is they're fighting
for, and what "change" he is likely to create.

What follows is an email that my father, Jordan Miller, sent Keith Olbermann,
dealing with the media's Obamamania. While I'm far more concerned than he
about the Clintons' anti-democratic campaign practices, I think he makes a
solid and important argument about Obama's treatment by the press.

MCM

Dear Keith:

Since you're a man of rationality and good humor, I'd like to discuss a couple of points about the Clinton/Obama phenomenon which may or may not have occurred to you.

First of all, it's pretty obvious that there is a bias in favor of Barack Obama which, by definition, involves some denigration of Hillary Clinton. For example, last night , candidates began their speeches after the polls had closed, and nearly the whole time Sen. Clinton spoke, she was surrounded by various images of Sen. Obama. When he spoke he, quite naturally, was surrounded by images of himself.

Secondly, a comment made by you or Chris Matthews (I think it was you, actually) about Sen. Clinton, as she mounted the stairs to the dais, was something to the effect of "Oh, there she goes clapping." This is especially ironic when you realize that this put-down could be as easily applied to Obama inasmuch as he claps almost constantly when he gets at the podium.

These are two small examples, but I think they typify the contrast in the pattern of treatment afforded the two candidates.

What's disturbing here is that the media in general have overwhelmingly helped create the hype that itself has become part of the Obama juggernaut. I know many Obamans and nearly all speak in general, globular terms about why they like him: "He's the future," "I believe he'll bring change," "African -Americans deserve a chance," to name just a few.

One retired bookseller wrote to a friend of mine about his attending an Obama rally and he mentioned how many people had tears in their eyes. They were all involved, he wrote, "not in a political campaign, but a MOVEMENT" (caps his).

And there's the rub. It's SUPPOSED to be a political campaign, not a movement, because we need pragmatic ideas, rational thought by politicians of good will and good sense. Obama's youth is part of his appeal since he stands on that side of the generational chasm and, even though I question his rhetorical style and intellectual maturity, I do understand the enthusiasm he evokes: his youth, his race, the symbolism of his race. Loving Obama is a form of reparations, which it ought not to be. And not only do you and your colleagues in the media underscore these aspects of his appeal, but you also, consciously or unconsciously, demean Clinton's advantages. And, most notably, your denigration of her is almost never about her political positions or ideas, but about her laugh (a "cackle"), or her incessant clapping, as I mentioned earlier, which, by implication, is some sort of silly, girlish ploy.

Obviously, pundits are meant to make judgments, but let them do so on the basis of political concepts or ideas; let them discuss those ideas, compare them, parse them. But don't turn political punditry into an episode of American Idol or, worse yet, turn the bumper-sticker idea of "Change" into whatever one wants it to mean or use "Hope" as a new brand of worshipful Faith, a form of religiosity which has been all too prevalent in our country these past seven years. Obama should be required to join the political discourse and his audiences need to think about what he says as well as take him to their hearts.

There's no substitute for the process of rational thought, and I very much fear that you and your colleagues during this campaign have aided and abetted the deterioration of that process for a complex of reasons, most of them all too subjective.

Yours sincerely,"

Luna, thanks for the recommendation ... I am in the process of reading Tolle's book (the latest one),(which I obliquely referenced in my post to Patb) ... fascinating. Helpful.

Judigem, does that mean that I have to go back to planning for armageddon (re. your post on Project Camelot)? Aaaaahhhhhhhgggggrrrr! or Eek! for short! Ok, back to NNNNoooooowwwwwww!

Judigem, as a further comment on your Project Camelot article ... it would explain why the US is being raped and pillaged. After all, if the "elites" were really planning for armageddon, why bother with infrastructure (that won't be needed anymore), education, etc., etc. It would also explain why the stock markets have crashed so much and so many trillions imploded over the past two decades. Great way to suck money out of the system to use to build these "secret underground hubs". Just a thought.

The "X" Files (a TV show) (funny coincidence?) has a segment in the last season where the "elite" show up to be taken to their "safe" haven. It doesn't quite turn out the way they thought though. They get vaporized. Oh, well.

I don't know who they went to vote/caucus for in Nebraska (and I don't care), but this illustrates how desperately people hunger for change:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/177760.php

The saddest event of today was the low turnout in LA particularly New Orleans. There was some energy around Edwards but he is gone and although Clinton and Obama campaigned there, the attitude was "you are US Senators, what have you done for us lately." There is widespread depression and hopelessness there. They are looking for solid answers not just "I bring hope" or "stick with me I'll get it done."
That's what they are getting from the two Dem candidates.

Gee, I thought I was the only person who thought Hillary "cackled" when she laughed, but I guess I'm not alone.

Sally, the reason why the turnout was low in LA, especially New Orleans, is probably because the population is half of what it used to be, with those that have died, and the ones who have taken up residence in other states.

Louisiana vote results are starting to come in now:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#LA

No Crystal that's what I first thought but they said this was based on residents of LA registered since Katrina or in the last two years. Those numbers were down, now maybe a ton of them moved again in the last year or so, I expect they have, but the interviews conducted said people were just sick of the promises by politicians. I can't blame them

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/02/clinton-will-ca.html

Clinton Will Call on Edwards as President

I am sure everyone heard that Obama "routed" all the states today, winning big. However, Hillary Clinton gave her best most inspiring speech of her campaign tonight in Virginia. It was outstanding and extremely well received at the Jackson/Virginia Dinner. Obama is speaking soon, we'll see if he can come up to the high bar Hillary set.

He's on now Sally.

Here's his speech for those who prefer (or have no choice but) to read it:
http://tinyurl.com/2mrwwo

Mr. Merriman over at StarIQ writes about all the stocks stuff which usually makes my eyes glaze over. But he does look beyond what to me is the stupefying world of investing to the political and social issues that concern all of us. He's posted his column for the week over at StarIQ (Cap'n Sally has it on the right-hand sidebar so you can click on through). The last paragraph of his article under "MarketWeek" is one I hope you'll read and then comment on. It interested me.

Barack is my Senator, 4 days younger than me, and I can totally relate to him. He is doing the best he can and it's a hell of a lot better than what anyone else has tried to do in a long, long time.

PatC, I need to thank you from the bottom of my thudding heart for your Mark Crispin Miller letter. It's everything we needed the words for and am relieved other people can see what's all too obvious which is the grave threat brought by those who just refuse to be forthcoming about who they really are. All the more scarey to realize our population has learned so little about character in the last 8 years.

Shy, Hillary's statement of 'calling on' Edwards gives pause. Since he's not endorsed anyone (which in a previous post I expressed the hope he would not endorse anyone and thereby define himself as a true progressive) if he has the smarts we know he has he will recognize that as "fishing" on her part.
In this article a poster mentioned she might be considering Evan Bayh as a VP. Remember him? He was the guy licking Robert's boots with his tongue at the supreme court nomination hearing.
He made me wretch in disgust. Who she picks will show me what she's really made of and will decide whether or not I bother to vote this time out.
If she picks anyone like that guy I'm throwing in the towel without question.

PatC, I meant YOUR post about Hillary 'calling on' Edwards. Sorry.

Shy, your question sent me scrambling to the 1968 charts (Convention, election, Kennedy and King's deaths) this is a shift for sure (from the intent of the people) In 1968 Saturn and Uranus were inconjunct from Aries to Virgo at 25 degrees. Those of us around for the 1968 Democratic Convention remember the violence and the anger at that convention as people erupted over Dr. King and RFK's assassination and the Vietnam war, those protesters were desperately trying to break from the "old" to the "new," trying to break up the status quo. Since that time there was a Saturn/Uranus conjunction in Feb. 1988 of Saturn and Uranus at 29 degrees Sagittarius following each other into Capricorn, more trying to make a break with the 1988 Election between Bush I and Dukakis (a Washington outsider) the break between what had been failed. Now we have the opposition between Saturn and Uranus, (Virgo/Pisces)and again we are trying to grab the brass ring of change and this opposition will be supported by a trine and sextile from Jupiter giving change a chance. If we fail in 2008 to go from the "old" way of doing things to the "new," 2012 could see a clean sweep from the WH and Congress and a strong third party or even a free for all for the Presidency with the two party system gone.

One of the problems of the super-delegates is, if they are attached to the candidate who doesn't get the nomination, that's this country's clue that the new President isn't going to get concensus in Congress and it will be a fight all the way. The super-delegates need to line up with the final nomination.

The GOP is doing the same thing, McCain the old and Huckabee the new face. The Dems have Hillary the old and Obama the new face. We have to figure out who is really "new" beyond the face, do they match up? That's the 64 thousand dollar question. If the Dems win, Hillary or Obama are going to need to have a consensus from Congress to do what needs to be done in order to even begin to carry out the hopes of this country.

Obama talked about "change" in his speech tonight but we need to listen carefully to what change means to him, not what it means to us, because I think no matter who wins we are about to see change in a big way and we are not about to attempt a change in political parties, we are about to change the way of life we have called America, whether it's Hillary or Obama or McCain or Huckabee, the change is there.

By the way, if you haven't heard Obama's speech try to find a clip of it (Feb. 9th Jackson/Jefferson dinner in Virginia) toward the end he says what change means to him and what hope means to him. If you did hear the speech listen again. I'm not sure the Obama fans will like all they hear.

patb, you're most welcome. I feel the same way. Miller is a voice of reason to me. He has been speaking and writing about the voting machines for years, dedicating his time and energy to get us to do something about them. He is right that nothing else matter without an honest vote count.

Sally, I never really know what Obama is saying. I feel he is speaking in code that is intended to be unclear to those who aren't informed of just what that code is, and I don't like it at all. Which part are you thinking of?

http://thepage.time.com/obamas-speech-to-virginias-jefferson-jackson-dinner/

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/2008/02/beware-of-the-s.html

White Devils Speak with Forked Tongues

Beware of the sweet murmurings about Barack Obama being shopped about by conservative pundits, warns David Seaton. They are up to no good. It is a spider's web being spun, a deceitful, deceptive snare worthy of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He quotes overripe opinion-column testimonials to Obama's idealism and protean appeal by David Brooks, George Will, and Peggy Noonan, and asks:

Why do they "like" Obama so much?

More at the link....

On the other hand, this is really a powerful endorsement and well worth the read.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/9/20452/39020/1008/453585

"Income statistics, however, don’t tell the whole story of Americans’ living standards. Looking at a far more direct measure of American families’ economic status — household consumption — indicates that the gap between rich and poor is far less than most assume, and that the abstract, income-based way in which we measure the so-called poverty rate no longer applies to our society".....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/opinion/10cox.html?th&emc=th

W. Michael Cox is the senior vice president and chief economist and Richard Alm is the senior economics writer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Mr Cox and Mr Alm have earned the full fledged scorpionic fury of the 3 fates via this scorpio moon. They will be getting a letter along with the NYT!
Yes I have 2 vcr's both given me by the kids! Neither one records just plays.......& I am too busy working to increase my food budget to sit here and watch movies!!!!!!
Re: statistics/ AP ipsos poll called me from Ontario the other evening.The call was short lived. When they heard I was over 65 they said thank you & hung upo quickly! An hour later on CNN Jack Cafferty was quoting THAT poll with statisitcs on Bush's favor/disfavor. if they were not eliminating people over 65 his rating might have been 15 instead of 30!

Terrific posts all! Just want to check in and say thank YOU and a big group hug!

Interesting conversation on detachment and living Now. I would like to add a dimension to this discussion. I've noted, in my very brief time here, that those who hold positions of power are apt to practise being Now, the dark side of the equation. Able to read a situation/people and detach emotionally allows many of those in power to aggragate even more power/control.

The aggration of power, and misuse thereof accelerated during Pluto's passage in Sag. Now, we will see a dissemination of that kind of Power in surprising ways. For instance, those who believe they share in the privilege of power may see their bank accounts disappear when FISA implodes. Only one example.

I'm also curious about the effect of the churches during the passage of Pluto through Cap. In the south, the minister informs the citizenry. (This may be true throughout the US.) They think AND VOTE in accordance with the minister's pronouncements. (Have you ever wondered why the bush administration has championed distributing funds to churches for social work?)

Sally, any insight here?

Cap'n Sally, thanks ever so much for exploring and clarifying the Saturn-Uranus aspects from 1968 forward. 1968 was one amazing year and brought to a head the significance of Pluto crossing over my midheaven. We used to call it "The Late, Great '68." Everyone who was paying attention had severe whiplash once that year was past.

I haven't seen the video yet of Obama's speech last night, but I did find the written text and posted it above a bit. Here it is again:
http://tinyurl.com/2mrwwo

He seems to be calling for a change from going down this rotten road to hell we've been on for some time (the last seven years have made that painfully clear) to returning to the better road that is paved with the best intentions of the Founders, Jefferson in particular, and FDR and JFK. Don't I wish!

Let us not forget, either, that Dr. Dean set in motion just a few years ago following his defeat (and will we ever know who was involved in the sliming of Dr. Dean?) the mechanism that would allow the grass roots to have a greater voice and decision-making role in the Dem process. He deserves some whoppin' major praise and gratitude from all of us.
http://tinyurl.com/2lvcpg

Sorry Shy, I was listening to the wrong speech and now I have to find it again. He was articulating (in a pretty short sound bite way) what he means by hope, what he means by change, it was an extremely rousing "globalization" speech. The speech struck me as pretty odd. I don't think people are listening to what he says so much as thrilled to have someone different, to be able to believe in a different way.

I have friends however who truly believe he is the anti-christ, is that the same kind of frenzy on the right we felt on the left when GWB was elected. As I said in my post script to Morgana's article, "I don't know if he will be a good or bad president or even if he will be president, but he is going to emerge from the 2008 convention stronger than when he went into it and he will have a huge impact on the US. I do know this much, this government is not going to turn over for Obama and do his bidding now, even if he becomes president, nor will they for Hillary.

Oh Sally I hope you do find that speech. I don't know where to begin. I would certainly like to see it.

Well, here is a free trader that seems to prefer Obama to everyone else.

http://www.tradediversion.net/archives/2008/02/is_obama_better.html

What must be the karma for this man?

Blunt brags about blocking healthcare for "more kids".

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/09/blunt-brags-about-blocking-health-care-for-more-kids/

Ho Boy. The room is absolutely spinning.
Maybe if we crawl flat on the floor this vertigo will go away. Maybe the room will flip and we'll discover we've been on the ceiling, or the wall all along.

This is absurd. This is madness. This should not be. We should not even have these questions. Where are our instincts and why are they seemingly inoperative? Maybe they are operative and the answer lies right here in the dilemma. Just disgusting.

Is it just the sun conjunct neptune? After we've experienced 40-50-60 of them doubt that's the case.

I agree with Merriman's take on election day, and it's quite possible that we will have 2 Presidents in the first 4 year term - Hillary, and Obama, but who gets to go first, or what the circumstances will be for the change over, I'm not sure, but my guess is that Hillary gets to go first.

PatC, re freetrader article, one would ask where Monsanto seeds fit in here and whether or not Obama is in with them, and what that means for our bee population. What is the position of France since they have been first to end GM crops. They have connected many dots.
It could simply be a matter of ignorance on Obama's part rather than evil intent. (there's a limit to how spooked I'll allow myself to get). His sun/mercury/neptune suggests he may also be led easily and "go along" without full understanding.

Anyone?

Crystal, realistically speaking, I think what Merriman meant with the saturn/uranus opposition (this election being the first of 5 saturn/uranus oppositions) that this is the very beginning between 11-08 and '10 of a clearer (god help me) shove away from this sick status quo. Progressives will probably get a toe-hold.
I don't think he meant Hillary & Obama in a Mixmaster (hit liquify). Although that sure is how it feels right now.

Forgive my reiterating. I believe Obama will unwittingly allow the creepmeisters to sneak in the back door without full understanding of what he is doing.
I think this is why he scares me. His judgements are half-assed and therefore a bigger threat than we or even he and his supporters may realize.
Even with the benefit of the doubt, his motives may not be as decisively skewed as is Pelosi's...but we may experience side-effects of his decision-making that will shock our sensibilities. One of those "how the heck did THAT happen"Satories).

We knew prices for food, gas, etc., were surely going up and rapidly as the economy tanks more and more due to greed. But here's another BushCo failure--the wheat reserves are w-a-a-a-a-a-a-y down. Is it too late to turn this mess around?

http://tinyurl.com/22mo9g

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080209/ap_on_re_eu/france_biotech_crops;_ylt=Ajzx4Gnm8Grc_LkY_880ldes0NUE

France bans robo corn!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/08/iraq.women/index.html

Violations of 'Islamic teachings' take deadly toll on Iraqi women

Patc, that is wild! I didn't know anything about this latest development between France & Monsanto, let alone this article from yesterday! That is pure serendipity!

Oh yes patb.......France was determinedly against GM crops back in 2003 & before; before our Congressional braintrusts remanamed that popular food "freedom fries"!

yes, qop. That's what I thought...that this was very old news. So why this new business with Monsanto (if it matters).

...Word from Kristo just up! Run toward our demons..love it!

http://kristo.com/papa.html

Well, well, ol' Huckabible doesn't seem to be enjoying a taste of what Gore and Kerry, and all the rest of us, had to swallow over the past two elections.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/177830.php

Remember that particular night of the returns when Kerry had no updates for what seemed like hours and hours? That was the when I slapped the keyboard so hard that the "L" key went flying across the room.

This should come in handy in case you know someone who still is in deep denial about what waterboarding actually is (i.e., torture):

http://tinyurl.com/28urzm

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/edwards_aide_john_having_priva.php

Edwards Aide: John Having Private Endorsement Discussions With Hillary, Obama; "Greater Than 50% Chance" He'll Endorse

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTrp83Ld88ds&refer=home
Wheat Surges to Record as U.S. Supply May Drop to 60-Year Low
"We have a limited supply, and we got confirmation of that this morning,'' said Jamey Kohake, a broker at Paragon Investments in Silver Lake, Kansas. ``We had the early frost last year and drought pretty much worldwide, and we kept demand at a rapid pace, so our stocks started to dwindle.''

That's what I thought...that this was very old news. So why this new business with Monsanto (if it matters).
profit for Monsanto: old news, new news, profit all the time!
They just don't stop pushing their product on,anyone they can muscle!

Oh Obama, won a Grammy for his book: beat out both Carter & Clinton!

Clinton news
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080210/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_campaign_manager

"That was the when I slapped the keyboard so hard that the "L" key went flying across the room."

Shylurker, you crack me up. I especially enjoyed that post about your friend and her cake frosting misadventure. Hahahaha. I myself have had similar mishaps in the kitchen, but it's my favorite part of the house.

Yes, Crystal, the "L"eft or "L"iberal part of me just couldn't take it any more. Made it kinda challenging to post here, until I finally got a new "L" key. You know, I may have gotten a whole new computer.

My friend said her granddau's party was much enjoyed and all the little 3-year olds loved the cupcakes. Made a great story, too, didn't it?

http://www.thecityedition.com/Pages/Archive/Winter08/2008Election.html

Bamboozling the American electorate again

Bush-Cheney strategy involves G.O.P. crossover voting to take out Hillary, marketing newcomer Obama, an "independent" ticket, and maybe even martial law...
Updated February 10, 2008

Evidence of a covert campaign to undermine the presidential primaries is rife, so it's curious that the Democractic Party and even some within the G.O.P. have decided to ignore the actual elephant in the room this year. That would be Karl Rove. After rigging two previous presidential elections, this master of deceit would have us believe that he's gone off to sit in a corner and write op-eds.

Not so. According to an article in Time Magazine, Republican party activists have been organized to throw their weight behind Barack Obama, the democratic rival of frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Early in Obama's campaign, major G.O.P. fundraisers and at least one indicted criminal flushed his coffers with cash - something the deep pockets haven't done for any candidate in their own party. With receipts topping $100 million in 2007, the first-term senator from Illinois is doing well, considering few Americans had even heard of him before 2006.

The Time magazine article goes on to explain that rank and file Republicans in red states have switched their party registrations, enabling them to vote in Democratic primaries. The G.O.P. didn't even compete in the Nevada primary, where Obama subsequently picked up many rural counties, and in Nebraska, the mayor of Omaha publicly rallied Republicans to caucus for him on February 9th. Called crossover voting, the tactic is playing a crucial role in the Rove push to deprive Clinton of the Democratic nomination. Even with his usually reliable arsenal of dirty tricks - paperless electronic voting equipment, waitlisting, swiftboating, etc. - Rove would be hard pressed to defeat Clinton in November, since she's popular nationwide and has promised an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. If the contest isn't close, the vote-rigging won't matter.

More at the link....

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_02/013094.php

FRANK RICH....I've never quite understood Frank Rich's popularity among lefties. He's always struck me as a guy who has an OK prose style but otherwise does little except regurgitate conventional wisdom at far greater length than it deserves. And when it comes to the Clintons, he's completely unhinged. Check out today's column where he complains about Hillary's pre-election special on the Hallmark channel:

The campaign's other most potent form of currency remains its thick deck of race cards. This was all too apparent in the Hallmark show. In its carefully calibrated cross section of geographically and demographically diverse cast members — young, old, one gay man, one vet, two union members — African-Americans were reduced to also-rans. One black woman, the former TV correspondent Carole Simpson, was given the servile role of the meeting's nominal moderator, Ed McMahon to Mrs. Clinton's top banana.

So Hillary chooses a black woman to moderate the show and Rich insists that what she's really doing is putting her in a "servile role"? Jeebus. The guy's got a serious screw loose. And the rest of the column is no better, just a 1,500 word harangue of tired anti-Hillary screechiness. Andrew Sullivan probably loves it, but why would anyone else want to read this nonsense?

http://tinyurl.com/25hk4r

Obama Defeats Clinton in Maine

Hillary and Obama were interviewed separately tonight on CBS 60 minutes.
He is so cool. The more I see the man up close and personal, the more I like him. Anyway, he made a great comparison of himself to Google, as an answer to crticism that he hasn't been around long enough, and therefore still wet behind the ears. I tell you, for being as inexperienced as his critics claim, he runs a damn good campaign.
Oh, watch Hillary's face closely when Katie C asks her if she likes Obama. Mouth says one thing, face says another.

Nevertheless, I still feel that she will win the nomination by fair or foul means. And Hillary fans, do not despair. I think she'll more than make up for her losses now, with big wins in Texas and Ohio in March.

There is one major discrepancy that I find when she says that she is better prepared than Obama to handle the onslaught from the Repubs. She has almost broken down in tears on 2 occasions so far, just on trivial issues, so I am not sure how she is going to handle the attacks when the competition gets really fierce!

Being a woman, I feel I must defend Hillary, even tho I joined the Obama side of the caucus today.
I have been single for 35 years now. I have not cried much! ( except for disappointments over my love life from time to time.) I imagine myself traveling around trying to get elected president, exhausted,with my husband causing major damage to my efforts.........I'd cry too! Bill must be very trying to be married to, charming tho he may be.
Thatcher & Albright were probably married to boring, stiffs!
It's snowing again........Direct TV went out and the cat is draped over the TV playing with the floating logo!
We had 45 to the caucus
to 18 last time. Several were Independants before. Youngest attendee? 30's.....
10 for Clinton, ( 6 women, 4 men) 4 undecideds, & 31 for Obama, ( 15 women & 16 men, 3 of them former Wash insiders!) ( extra clout from my viewpoint!) So much for the statisticians.

QOP, I sure don't envy you having to go out in that weather to vote. Hope you didn't have to stand in line outside. Thanks for the report.

PatC, in keeping with the crossover voting tricks I wonder when the surly Nader will make his selfish reappearence.

Here in Boulder CO dems are getting robocalls for Obama disguised as coming from the democratic office with exactly the result Rove was after, anger at the candidate.

Sally, wonder how the Dec 08 approach to Rove's sun of pluto/mars setting off his numerous cardinal oppositions and squares might effect our gossamer-haired doughboy?

QOP, I didn't know that there was a Mr. Albright. Margaret Thatcher always spoke very fondly of her husband, Dennis, and he was very supportive of her in the role of Prime Minister, but more in a behind the scenes way, like the power behind the throne type of thing, so I assume they had a good marriage.

Someone made the remark that the only place Hillary is seen with Bill, is at Fundraisers, and after all that has happened between them, I suppose they might have a less than ideal marriage, but she has chosen to stay with him for whatever reasons, so I don't have much sympathy for her. It's not like she would have to go to a shelter for battered women if she left him.

I have been single by choice, all my life. My fairy-tale upbringing didn't prepare me for the harsh realities of life, but I'm a fast learner. I gave up on men a long time ago, and I've never been happier since. I am much too independent, fussy, and nit-picking (I've been accused of being too fastidious) to share my accommodations with anyone, so I enjoy my own company, and sometimes, that of my friends. I think I've added at least 10 years to my life by remaining single, and it has never stopped me from doing anything that I wanted to or didn't want to do. Inspite of all this, the single life is not for everyone, and I'm sure there are marrieds who are just as happy as I am. The chief disadvantage of being single is financial insecurity, but for me, the alternative is worse. However, I've managed to remain objective towards both sexes.

Looks like Ray Merriman has answered my question re youth getting involved

http://www.stariq.com/marketweek.htm

As the next four passages of the Saturn-Uranus opposition unfold through July 2010, their voices will likely become louder and louder, and they will demand more change and accountability of their leaders. As this two-year aspect takes place, I think you will see the youth becoming more and more involved, just like they did 45 years ago when this aspect last occurred. But on Election Day itself, I think the Saturn part of this aspect reigns… unless somehow the youth become active agents for change in the next couple of weeks, and show up to vote at the primaries and get someone in who is not recognized as “part of the Establishment.”

I didn't think the whole FISA-telecom immunity, etc., matter could possibly get more interesting, but it just did. Do check this out. If we lose our Fourth Amendment rights AND the Rule of Law while BushCo is playing this heavy-duty, very suspicious, game, well . . . . . . . . !!!!

http://tinyurl.com/3b2lzk

PS "emptywheel" is the best in the business.

Looks like elections might be by foul means. This time it affected Huckabee, last time it was Gore and Kerry, next time it could be Hillary and Obama

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/177863.php

Yes I'm watching with great interest.......Gov. Baldacci is friends with Hillary, our Dem "operatives" in Milbridge, have sustained the party here for YEARS......SHe is the clerk of registrars, he is on very friendly terms with the COngressmen. They are simple honest folks, but could have misplaced enthusiasm. They were in the CLinton camp. Even tho Obama wonthe popular vote Ican see it drifting the other direction when it comes to the convention, unless there is a stern directive for the superdelegates.
We have just had a 3 hour power outage, so I couldn't do proper follow on info. WInd is howling out there like a son of a gun!
The caucus was a breeze.....40o no snow, town hall holds several 100, there were only 45 there.!
We lost a loyal Dem.
During the Dean Meetups, last election, a romance developed among us. They went kayaking together then discovered their retired parents lived in the same Fla. Town. He had health problems, she took care of him..........When I asked after him today. SHe laughed heartily and said " Oh he left me for another woman!" So much for entwining your life with another............
SHe was the prize, good looking, new house off the grid, financially comfortable, he not so much!

Oh, my gosh! Parts of VA, NC and SC are on fire! Be safe, y'all!!

http://tinyurl.com/2jnkpz

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/12753
Above, you can watch a the local story that led the news last night here in Colorado - a local news story that is likely coming to your state as the Democratic National Convention approaches. What we have on our hands is a potential back room effort to use undemocratic "superdelegates" to anoint a Democratic presidential nominee - with many superdelegates potentially using their power in defiance of how their states and communities voted.

Guess we're OK here in Maine the superdelegates are pledged to support the popular vote winner. ( didn't read the article before posting! oops)

I have some real concerns about the Fires in VA and the Carolinas, have a lot of friends there. I've tried to contact a few and haven't heard back as yet. Some of them are posters on this board. The Feb. 6 Eclipse fell across a Pluto/Venus opposition in the VA state chart. I just said to a friend of mine today I was surprised VA had not been hit by something, well now they have. It also fell across the Carolinas Pluto. If the weather gets worse it might leave a door open to Gore leading into the convention for a draft. The weather is going to be a huge concern for the rest of the year in this country.

Rachel Maddow said last night if the superdelegates would override the people she thought there would be pitchforks and torches in the streets. Pat Buchannan agreed.

Forgot to say........
A woman stood up at the caucus and stated that the bible says "A family shall be governed by a man!"
Therefore a country "shall be governed by a man also."
xian vote for Obama an uncalculated statistic?

When God created Man she was only joking. Jeez, can't they take a joke?

Sorry that just popped into my head. I heard it way back in my youth when women were fighting for equality. I don't hate men. Well, maybe neo-cons and Republican men.

I loved it Luna, that is hilarious. I suppose the same way men are angry at women, women are angry at men. Not all men just the incompetent, violent, self-absorbed types.

This is what one set of incompetents are doing or not doing in Washington. I hope Harry Reid is soon removed by another candidate, they could take a whole group with them.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18349197/the_chicken_doves

Okey Dokey, here it is. Why I don't trust the slippery slidey slime snail trail of Obama:
Hint: Obama hearts Lieberman

http://boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/03/31/obama_rallies_state_democrats_throws_support_behind_lieberman/

WSJ today MUST READ

Clinton v. Obama: The Lawsuit
By THEODORE B. OLSON
February 11, 2008; Page A19

What splendid theater the Democratic Party presidential nominating process is shaping up to be. And they are just getting started. The real fun would be a convention deadlock denouement a few months from now, the prospect of which is already quickening the pulses of scores of Democratic lawyers who have been waiting more than seven years for an encore of their 2000 presidential-election performances.

.... .. We all know full well what could happen next. The array of battle-tested Democratic lawyers who fought for recounts, changes in ballot counting procedures, and even re-votes in Florida courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 would separate into two camps.

Half of them would be relying on the suddenly-respectable Supreme Court Bush v. Gore decision that overturned the Florida courts' post-hoc election rules changes.

The other half would be preaching a new-found respect for "federalism" and demanding that the high court leave the Florida court decisions alone.

Would the U.S. Supreme Court even take the case after having been excoriated for years by liberals for daring to restore order in the Florida vote-counting in 2000?

And, would Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, the dissenters in Bush v. Gore, feel as strongly about not intervening if Sen. Obama was fighting against an effort to change a presidential election by changing the rules after the fact?

Will there be a brief filed by Floridians who didn't vote in their state's primary because the party had decided, and the candidates had agreed, that the results wouldn't count? ...

.. continued

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120269002843257513.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The neocons are oh so joyful.

Hmmmm. Laws and rules aimed toward preventing terrah are suspected of being used to obtain competitive corporate info:

"At least two global corporations have directed their executives not to carry confidential business material on laptops overseas. One law firm has instructed its lawyers crossing U.S. borders to carry only "blank laptops," preferring the risks of having their docs hacked while accessing them over the internet to the risks of government search and seizure."

More here:
http://tinyurl.com/36t7zs

Walt Kelly meet Barak Obama at the beach

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/12749

Here's Dharmaruchi's take on Obama:

"For Barack Obama, I think it indicates an unexpected (Uranus) shadow side (8th) to him. He is seen so strongly as a figure of light by many people, and there is always a shadow side to this phenomenon. I know I’m coming across as quite critical of the man. I think there could be a lot of good stuff that he does. But there is also this big shadow thing being created, just like with Bush. It’s almost as though in people’s understandable longing to get away from Bush, they are doing the same thing on the other end of the political spectrum. Bush is the shadow, Obama is the light, and they go together. Bush is demonised by the same people who are worshipping Obama. Pluto in Sagittarius is having one last laugh."

How lovely! First thing I read here is Theodore Olson, the Ted Olson who gave Bush the 2000 election, lovely, lovely, lovely seeing the hate mongers words here.

Who the heck is Dharmaruchi and why should his opinion matter?

What a negative way to start the day.

Bash bash bash..

Can anyone explain why NOW they are trying these "top bad guys" at Gitmo, with the final outcome "capital punishment"? They've all been there for quite a few years!??

qop, my question too. What torture them for years and then kill them? Humanity at its finest, right?

The whole Gitmo thing stinks to high heaven. Of course this is an election year, and Mc Cain is running, so it's the right time for the Repukes to be doing this. Next, you will hear that they killed Osama Bin Laden in some remote cave, although I believe he's been dead for a couple years now.

And in case you thought all Arab terrorists were Muslims, here's a Christian one:

You could call George Habash, a Palestinian leader who died in Amman on Saturday at the age of 82, the godfather of Middle East terrorism. If you assumed that Palestinian or Arab extremism somehow sprung entirely from Islam - from the puritanical Wahabbi intolerance and so forth - take a close look at Habash's first name. He was a Greek Orthodox Christian, who sang in his church choir as a boy back in the Palestinian town of Lydda.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080128/wl_time/terrorismschristiangodfather

Not at all, Morgana. Dharmaruchi is quite a nice guy over at astrotabletalk. He really doesn't have an axe to grind but is disseminating the astrology. There are some who intuit 'something missing'. This isn't a matter of like vs don't like, black or white.

I've not heard of Ted Olsen, but there is a fair article at boston.com about his endorsement of Lieberman.

There is a difference between wanting to understand the whys and wherefores of any 'personality' phenomenon, especially when too little is known and unproven, as was the case with gwb.

I saw that too QOP and wondered the same thing, why? I doubt if they had anything remotely connected to a fair trial and anything they said was probably under torture, this is insane. Maybe the administration isn't getting enough death in Iraq these days, but it's sick really sick. There is absolutely no point in doing this.

I agree with Morgana, Ted Olson has absolutely nothing of value or credibility to say as far as I am concerned and I do not know the other person.

We will be reading a ton of stuff about Hillary and Obama in the months to come, probably about McCain as well only not as much. Who ever the Dems put up is going to get skewered over and over again and the majority of it will be made up or taken out of context. I sure as heck don't make up my mind over what Rush Limbaugh, Fox News or Ted Olson thinks or anyone like them. They all have a record to access and I look at that, including words and actions in the past.

I've said before and will say again, don't tie our ego's to anyone candidate, don't give our power away to anyone or their opinions, try to see the candidates if possible, read their record and know that no one has the whole answer for us. The one thing I know Obama is right about is the "we are the leaders we've been waiting for." Because we are those leaders and it's up to us to pay attention to what all are doing.

The Dems as a group and the GOP have completely caved in to GWB, that should tell us something. Why they have I don't know but they have, I want to forget the candidates and take a look at what is going on in Washington while we are being diverted.

Maybe better to stay off this one for while...

You are right PatB, there is something missing with all of them and we cannot put our fingers on that missing piece from them all. There isn't a need to attack one candidate over the other because they are all lacking, and have been in every election I remember over the last 40 years, but no one can ever get to the bottom of it. Probably because what's lacking is honesty. However, we will end up as one of these people (including the long shot Huckabee or Gore if he would hopefully step in) as our president, the next 4 years will be critical for the world in general and the US in particular. Let's not bash the individuals and try to keep it to issues.

Ted Olson is a very big neocon, and it's valuable to see what he wrote and published because he doesn't publish this way unless he has a reason. His reasons are always meant to help his very dark neocon cause. They always tell you what they are doing, and if you know what they are doing, they can't surprise you.

Neocons are the equal and opposite to democracy.

That's why I posted it.

And Ted Olsen's wife, allegedly died in one of the 91/11 planes! Forget which one.

I agree with that PatC and I have seen the neo-cons attacks postulated in just that way. I am sure they are trying to sew seeds of chaos in the Democratic Party just as they are being sewn in the GOP, only the GOP is already chaotic. Huckabee is demanding a recount in Washington State and I don't like him but I don't blame him for doing so. Some guy there decided Huckabee wasn't going to win and so he decided not to count 13 percent of the ballots in spite of the fact there was only a 2 percent spread between McCain and Huckabee. This election season is going to be a free for all. I just don't want to take my eye off the ball of the issues that need to be addressed by these people in arguing over which will be better. None of them have addressed the Patriot Act, or the Sub-prime mortage issues or the banking issues. Like I said, I am a cynic and I need more than "hope" from Obama and "trust me" from Hillary. And I would need a ton of stuff from McCain besides "I want to be President and stay in Iraq for 100 years."

Sally, in the interest of understanding what IT is, outside the context of a bash, is an endorsement of Lieberman which is simply factual and a bit tough to overlook. Fini.

I don't think Rove left the White House early to spend more time with his family. His specialty is dirty tricks and manipulation of information in elections. He's been busy.

It's beyond me why those voting machines are still operating in the United States. They have been proven to be junk, and they are owned by a very conservative republican private company.

While our fair 'leaders' (no they're not our friends or anyone's friends) are busy caving and allowing the latest scapegoating and executing of Gitmo prisoners,

...the state of Illinois is in the process of banning the death penalty. Here are the states that have come to their own opinion and actions regarding execution, AK, HI, IA, ME, MA, MI, ND, NJ, RI, VT, WV, WI.
States are quietly deciding their own laws about what's appropriate with the environment, abortion, health care and education.

Walt Kelly Meet Barack Obama at the Beach article - as usual, the comments were much more interesting than the article. Maybe in the future I'll just skip the articles and read the comments.

Huckabee is the first republican to be bitten by the election free-for-all snake, ignored by our own democrats for 8 years. It has now become marionetting dem and dem and rep and rep. They did not ban the irrational paperless voting machines no matter how much evidence of corruption was presented. They allowed this heist then and they're allowing it now with Gitmo and everything else we associate with sanity.
May the entire system crash in chaos. It already has.

See the rats jumping ship..good riddance.

House Republicans Approach Record Departures

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021108O.shtml

Rob Hotakainen, writing for McClatchy Newspapers, reports, "In the last week of January, five members of Congress joined the hottest demographic group on Capitol Hill: Republicans who are heading for the exits."

Well, well...

Conyers On the Edge of Starting Impeachment:

http://www.democrats.com/node/15645

And he is meeting with Code Pink members....several month ago he had them carted away by the Capital police!

Ted Olson is the lawyer who argued in front of the Supreme Court to deny the recount of the votes in Florida in 2000. A real charmer.

WIth all the spying going on via the telecoms and just plain old fashioned "bugs", I doubt that Conyers will begin impeachment hearings. Too many are compromised and those who aren't can always wake up with the old horse head or threat of one. And how would those that aren't even go through the process of successful impeachment if everything they're doing is monitored?

Just a depressing hypothetical to start your week!

Ted Olson's wife was an Ann Coulter type shill for the Republican party and was killed because she was on the airplane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.

Ted Olson's wife was behind the book on Hillary Clinton which was a total smear job....they (a little cabal of DC righties) had hired a rightwing author who was a closeted gay writer named David Brock, who had smeared Anita Hill for this Olson group (darth and lynn cheneys in this) He also broke Troopergate. But he had a change of heart down the road, and wrote a tell all book called ''Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative,''

He recanted all his slimy scandal ridden books. The history of anti Hillary literature is huge...she might hold a record on this!

But, I, too, am confounded by obamamania. I don't get it. I don't see the charm, although I do see his intelligence and real ability to speak (or orate). I just keep seeing how he supports conservatives and conservative thinkers and Lieberman, and Reaganthinking. Scares me.
Don't trust this at all, which means, I don't trust anyone who supports these people or issues, which is, of course, middle america. But I already knew THAT. But if he becomes the nominee, I support him. But the mania part of this reminds me that mania is dangerous!

My book is on Amazon....about Hillary. No smears, just some illustrations from her life.

Hillary Clinton: An American Journey: An American Journey (All Aboard Reading) by Laura Driscoll and Judith V. Wood

Our congressman in San Mateo County, Tom Lantos, died this morning at Bethesda Naval hospital. He was the only survivor of the Holocaust in congress. He was rescued by Wallenberg, and escaped from two prison camps. Raw Story has the story....

Shy, yeah, I also doubt Conyers will see this all the way through. Recall the old Inherent Contempt option?

For further "just when we thought there was hope with Waxman", view this if the link works:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013108A.shtml

If you are looking for news of investigations, you've got that here. However, if you are looking for an indication that Congress will move forward to address evidence of violations of federal law by Bush administration officials, that was conspicuously absent.

We are sitting ducks in the face of fascism.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_says_hed_be_glad_to_0211.html

McCain and Rove forge an alliance.

Lantos died???? Oh man. That is the passing of a giant. May his journey be direct and blissful.

sob

Lieberman moves closer to attending GOP Nat'l Convention: Soon...

developing story, no link, at Raw Story

Which of the two dem candidates (other than the ones eliminated) have said anything about restoration of our constitution and bill of rights? If so, where.
Anyone know?

http://www.amazon.com/Hillary-Clinton-American-Journey-Reading/dp/0448447878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202758942&sr=1-1
Judi, Is the cover a painting or a photo

I just received this from a friend in an email.

did you know that
Huckabee's campaign manager is Ed Rollins? That brings the actual motivations of
the Huckabee campaign into serious questions. Something is going on beyond just a
simple fundamentalist attempt at power. Rollins was Reagan's campaign manager and
chief adviser when he was Governor!

It's all been carefully choreographed1 And Rove is now going to advise McCain!

Now for non-candidate news................

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/11/usa.theairlineindustry
The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as "blackmail" and "troublesome", and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington's requirements.
sitting ducks you got it!

Sally, my last email from WV at 8:26 am yesterday, Sunday. when did the fires start?

Pat QOP, it is a photo, the cover. my illustrations are also photo realist watercolor...obviously not photos, but work with photos in use thru out the book.

A really well know illustrator Ken McCall did the Obama companion book. This is the first one I've done.

Congrats Judi!!

Judi, I have an e-mail from wv at almost 1pm Sun. and I talked to him before that. I think he's safe.

If it's true that McCain has enlisted Rove's help, then he is truly a desperate man and an even bigger fool than I thought even he was capable of being. Given the ugliness that Rove used to sabotage him in the 2000 SC primary, and the fact that he would even consider Rove's help after that speaks volumes about McCain's lack of dignity and honor. If he'd sell his soul to the devil for power, imagine what else he'd sell.

Meanwhile, I don't quite get "Obamamania" either, although I certainly understand the longing for a "champion of the people". Still, I don't quite get the vibe from Obama that I get when I listen to the old recorded speeches of Martin Luther King, John and Bobby Kennedy. There was a genuine spirit and fire in those men that has been missing (or more likely has been supressed) in the American landscape for many years. Al Gore has managed to tap into it somewhat, though, but he's not running for office.

I think about Obama, that even if he really did turn out to be everything that people imagine and hope for him to be, the country is still in such a mess that it would take at least 4 consecutive presidential terms via a repeal of the 22nd Amendment and a total revolution against the corporate power structure to undo the damage that Bush, Cheney and the NeoCons have done to the US and the World itself these past 8 years. That being said, we've gotta start somewhere.

I don't know that Hillary would be any better or worse, and so I don't trust her any more than I trust Obama. I am very concerned that she and Bill are too "buddy-buddy" with the Bushes, though. The Bushes, the way I see them, are the very agents of decay that helped to get us into this mess. They aren't the source of all of our problems, but as long as we permit them to roam free in anyplace but prison cells, the US will continue to experience the systematic corruption of our politics and political structures.

That being said, with Pluto now in Capricorn, I think they - the Bushes - will eventually be cast down, and the corrupt interests behind them will also be exposed and dealt with. This is the beginning of the battle against the very monied elites who control everything - the media, our governments, our systems of transportation, even the very food and water that sustains our lives. At stake is nothing less than the future of humanity and life on Earth. The monied elites have become so corrupt with lust for power, dominance and control that they are destroying everything just to try and satiate their insatiable greed from one fiscal quarter to the next.

Refreshing, it is, to see people, particularly in the young, up and coming generations finally standing up and taking interest in the direction of our collective future. They will certainly have a decisive role in the imperative overturning the status quo in the 2010s.

Thanks Pat QOP....I've been out and about a lot, and doing work. I designed the logo (an armilary) for Catherine Austin Fitts website www.solari.com, now I'm working on letterhead and cards. I've never done design work before, but finiding it fun.

I visited with a very old boyfriend (meaning we are both old, but were at Art Center together in the 60's) who has just been invited to be the artist in residence for August 08 at the deYoung museum. He does just amazing assemblages, really large pieces in metal, BART tickets, CDs, found objects (using the great color and graphics of things like Arizona Tea cans cut up and pieced into color field pieces)....I am so excited that good things do happen when you get OLD....hahahaha, right Pat QOP?

This has happened today also, speaking of violence coming up:

Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta is in a critical condition and has been put into an induced coma, after being shot by rebel soldiers.
Mr Ramos-Horta was shot in a pre-dawn attack on his Dili home, and later airlifted to Australia for treatment.

Later Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao declared a 48-hour state of emergency, including a night-time curfew.

Mr Gusmao, who was targeted in a separate incident but was unharmed, described the events as a coup attempt.

Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado and another rebel died in the attack on Mr Ramos-Horta.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd pledged to send more peacekeepers to East Timor.

He said the "attempt to assassinate the democratically elected leadership of a close friend and neighbour of Australia's is a deeply disturbing development".

'Under control'

The attack on Mr Ramos-Horta happened at about 0700 on Monday (2200 GMT Sunday).

OK, good, about WV...

Good news! Leahy has said he will join Dodd in filibustering this FISA get-out-of-jail-free card to the telecoms and BushCo. If you have a moment, do call your Senators over this:
http://tinyurl.com/2flxab

We have a giant brush fire here now too in Sebring(Highlands County) FL. There's no lightning around, so I don't know what's causing these fires. Very strange.

Neo, I have made sure you are logged in and Kiwijean also posted a couple of days ago and I didn't catch it, she wanted to tell everyone hello and I hope she sees this. Kiwi, I have logged you in and there won't be any issue with you posting from here on in or you Neo

Oh, my goodness! NeoB and KiwiJ, how I have missed you!

Many of you may have seen this but this is what GWB is doing when he isn't ordering Gitmo prisoners put to death. It looks as if he doesn't want to be bored these last few months. If you fly to Europe you may not get back

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6989/

Whoops forgot the link

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6989/

Neo, I agree with you about Obama and those of us that were there when the Kennedys and King were alive know he doesn't have what they had, the heart and power of their words and actions have been unmatched these last 47 years. But lots of people get some kind of inspiration from him and the karmic aspects he has would say he's the man for the time. No matter whether he wins the Presidency or not he will emerge as a strong voice in America going forward, I just hope he can deliver something. Read a good article from the Financial Times about the election. It was pretty funny

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c003b86-d7ff-11dc-98f7-0000779fd2ac.html

Judi G, your pic for the Clinton book is just fantastic. Congratulations on landing such a big fish as Hillary Clinton, that should help business.

It's wonderful to have you back NeoBuckeye and Kiwijean! I'm a long time admirer of both of you.

Hi Neo & Kiwijean, missed you.............
Do you have further news about that woman that attacked the 2 pilots. in NZ?What was her motive? & are they recovering from injuries?
Michelle Obama just did an interview with Larry King. She's quite an impressive woman! Another 2fer?

Hey everyone, thanks for the kind words of welcome! I have missed chatting with you too - this last year has been pretty busy with all sorts of issues.

QOP, actually, my recent posting was to you about the NZ 'hijacking' incident.

It was a 30 something year old Somali woman, a former refugee, with a history of mental problems. The plane was a small domestic one and somehow she managed to get on with a knife and demanded to go to Australia. There was no gun involved, but both pilots were injured in the course of restraining her - one got his hand cut up and the other his foot.
NZ has now officially begun reviewing the criteria for accepting refugees.

There have been so many political problems in recent years here too - alice in wonderland type - whats up is down and whats down is up!
The govt developed a real soft touch and open arm policy for refugees of any sort, including scammers, yet they put my husband, a college educated american married to a 6th generation NZer through all sorts of nonsense!
Don't get me wrong; a few compassionate refugees are one thing, but its really hard for average hard NZ working people to support so many dependent refugees with a totally different culture and language in a country of only 4mil people. The taxes here are outrageous just to support decisions like this, and many young NZers are moving to Australia because the taxes are lower and there are better business opportunities.

kiwijeanie, great to see you back! Sorry to hear about your frustrations in NZ. We are having similar problems here in the US. You may have heard. (understatement)

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

Ex official cuts State Dept. on oil law

Published: Feb. 11, 2008 at 10:36 PM

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Iraqis are "not invested" in the draft oil law and it's the U.S. State Department's fault, a former top department official said in a newly leaked memo.

Manuel Miranda, who recently left his post as director of the Office of Legislative Statecraft in Baghdad, issued a scathing critique of the U.S. diplomatic corps' ability and capacity to engage and assist Iraq's fledgling government.

His memo to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said it wasn't a question of the State Department's capabilities or sense of duty, but rather whether it was the right organization for the job at hand. Miranda was overtly pro-Pentagon, cheering the military surge "but putting the effort to stand up the (government of Iraq) in more competent hands," he wrote.

"This is especially true in the areas of legislative reform and the rule of law," he added. .. more

http://tinyurl.com/2r4qgg

Not much different from the problem in Lewiston Maine, several years back. They had a flood of refugees from Somali, who kept sending for their relatives to join them until the Mayor tried to put a stop to it. ( on the basis of town budget, ) and wound up with a really bad name, white supremicists, civil rights marchers.etc.
If it had been a group of white refugees from NJ he would have done the same thing. ( on the basis of budget!)
I talked to a Native Mainer man at the caucus, who was very proud to be voting for Obama, ( proud for his state to be this forward thinking.) I made a joke about would he have voted for me a WOman from NJ, .........Unfortunately he didn't get it!
Took me seriously and said it depended on my issues......A second gold star for him if not a belly laugh!

Yoo-Hoo! It's great to read your words Neo and Kiwi!

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/2/12/5659/60807

Hillary Questions Exelon, Rezko and MSNBC

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?last_story=/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/12/amnesty_day/

Glenn Greenwald

Amnesty Day for Bush and lawbreaking telecoms

The Senate today -- led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus -- will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration's years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans. The long, hard efforts by AT&T, Verizon and their all-star, bipartisan cast of lobbyists to grease the wheels of the Senate -- led by former Bush 41 Attorney General William Barr and former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick -- are about to pay huge dividends, as such noble efforts invariably do with our political establishment.

snip

That's really the most extraordinary aspect of all of this, if one really thinks about it -- it isn't merely that the Democratic Senate failed to investigate or bring about accountability for the clearest and more brazen acts of lawbreaking in the Bush administration, although that is true. Far beyond that, once in power, they are eagerly and aggressively taking affirmative steps -- extraordinary steps -- to protect Bush officials. While still knowing virtually nothing about what they did, they are acting to legalize Bush's illegal spying programs and put an end to all pending investigations and efforts to uncover what happened.

How far we've come -- really: disgracefully tumbled -- from the days of the Church Committee, which aggressively uncovered surveillance abuses and then drafted legislation to outlaw them and prevent them from ever occurring again. It is, of course, precisely those post-Watergate laws which the Bush administration and their telecom conspirators purposely violated, and for which they are about to receive permanent, lawless protection.

What Harry Reid's Senate is about to do today would be tantamount to the Church Committee -- after discovering the decades of abuses of eavesdropping powers by various administrations -- proceeding in response to write legislation to legalize unchecked surveillance, bar any subjects of the illegal eavesdropping from obtaining remedies in court, and then pass a bill with no purpose other than to provide retroactive immunity for the surveillance lawbreakers. That would be an absurd and incomparably corrupt nonsequitur, but that is precisely what Harry Reid's Senate -- in response to the NYT's 2005 revelations of clear surveillance lawbreaking by the administration -- is going to do today.

More at the link..

This is encouraging.

http://www.slate.com/id/2183930/fr/rss/

Obama the Lawyer President
HOW WOULD HE CHOOSE JUDGES?

But this isn't.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5681

WA GOP Chair, Esser the Suppressor: ‘To w-i-n the election, we have to keep as many of these loudmouth leftists and shiftless deadbeats away from the polls as possible’

The Man Who Stopped Counting GOP Caucus Votes…in His Earlier Days…

Huckabee Today: ‘This is Not What We do in American Elections…That’s How They Used to Conduct it in the old Soviet Union’

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5683

‘Inconsistencies’ Reported in Results from Snohomish County, WA’s GOP Caucus

Caucus Votes, Not Delegates, May Have Been Used to Derive Evergreen State’s Still-Incomplete Results

ALSO: State Party Chair, ‘Esser the Suppressor,’ Closely Allied, Beholden to McCain’s State Campaign Chair…

PatC beat me to it (again). P-l-e-a-s-e follow the link she's posted at 3:16 above. Absolutely disgusting what the Dem-controlled Senate will most likely be doing today. A few patriots--Dodd and Feingold, et al.--did their best. The rest of the Dems are caving, big time.

I'm so tired of signing fruitless petitions shy. I sign 'em, and they (the dems) ignore 'em.

I think both Edwards and Gore are being smart to hold onto their clout. Both have power to leverage to see to it that we, the people, and the planet get something of what we need out of the candidates.

Sources: Gore has no plans to endorse

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/12/sources-gore-wont-endorse-2/

(CNN) – He's the most prominent Democrat yet to take a side in the presidential election, but two sources close to Al Gore tell us not to expect the former vice president to endorse either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama any time during the primary season.

more...

PatC it's always the same bluedogs..the same 12 that ruin the vote every time.

Ken Salazar is our dem bluedog and how I regret voting for this parasite. He ignores feedback from people like me and sends back obtuse form letters. Now the problem of getting rid of him.
Mark Udall is another from CO, votes "occasionally" like a democrat, just enough, but where it really counts. We thought he was retiring but no. He wants more.

A few patriots--Dodd and Feingold, et al.--did their best. The rest of the Dems are caving, big time.
WHat was that definition of insanity????
I didn't call my Senators because they Are both ENDORSING McCain..........

On the lite side.with the earth trine, activating mine.I bought a fabulous jacket for 3 bucks at our local faith based recycle store!
Straight out of the museum at Wlliamsburg, a rust
brocade with a crewel work pattern in buttercup yellow, & greens.......I happen to have rust colored suede cloth for a pair of slacks.........NOW I need an executive type gathering to attend!
Ialso convinced the overworked, disatisfied, clerk at the store to vote in Nov.! ( FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER LIFE; 30 SOME YEARS..)

Our blue dog Congressman is learning some new tricks! He is on the Impeach bill and voting very statisfactorily, generally...

I'm watching them vote on the Feinstein amendment on cspan 2 Is it a rerun of a done deal?

From what I've seen, Obama showed up today for the vote on throwing away the Fourth Amendment and the Rule of Law (the equally applied kind, I mean). McCain did too. Not so, Clinton.

Here're the Dems who just slapped America right across the face (Dodd-Feingold would've stripped immunity from the bill):

"The Senate voted on the Dodd/Feingold amendment, which would have stripped retroactive immunity from the surveillance bill just now. The final tally was 31-67; crossing over to vote nay were Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Evan Bayh (D-IA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jim Webb (D-VA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

"Presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) were present for the vote – voting nay and yea, respectively."

http://tinyurl.com/3agl63

America, we loved you!

Wonder how Clinton and Obama voted on FISA today, eh? Did they show up?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/12/115220/287/428/455206

Jim Webb (D-VA) was one of the Democratic senators to cross the aisle and vote in favor of retroactive immunity.

Good for Obama. Did Clinton vote?

Clinton DID NOT VOTE on FISA today! Did the dog eat her homework?

GRRRRRRRRRRR!!

Yes, patb, either the dog ate Hillary's homework, or she's too busy campaigning to care enough about our rights.

Yes, thanks to Hillary, my Senator (Landrieu), and the 11 others, now the government's got our number--quite literally.

Senators, thank you very much--for nothing.

Apparently Clinton is flying all over the place today because she is not concerned about losing today's 3 states, she's worried about making a strong win March 4 in Ohio and Texas, or she's out of the race in 3 weeks.
(the race is more important than her senate DUTIES...one day, folks.)

Well, at least Obama cares enough about this vote to show up.

Man! I hate Dianne Feinstein! She's just a total traitor to everything that's American and decent. She's been hoodwinking her constituents from the days of the Patriot Act in 2001 when she went over to the dark side big time. She's so pro Bush she has his butt stuck to her lips. Bleh! Puke!

"...not if but when martial law is declared..."

Read at least the last 4 paragraphs of this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2852341

Not to worry Lunaoscura, CourageCampaign.org has become a force to be reckoned with in CA.
You're in CA aren't you? Is she untouchable?
Can she be challenged in 2010?

Here's a bit of encouragement everyone:
There are 25 loyal Dems in the Senate, and about 175 in the House. This fall, we will pick up 5 Dem seats in the Senate, and about 40 in the House.

The political system, the Pentagon, and the SecDef have all obstructed Bushco’s expansion of the crisis.

And the public is more and more aware of the crimes.

Those aren’t inconsiderable oppositions to tyranny. Bushco is TOAST. We will recover.

patb,

From what I gather Feinstein can't be recalled in California. She was just re-elected without even bothering to campaign in 2006. She has 5 more years. She's as safe as she can be in her Senatorship. Barbara Boxer may consistently vote pro Democratic but she won't even answer questions about Feinstein or say anything against her. I guess she thinks that would be anathema to the Party and thinks she needs to concentrate on fighting the Republicans. She may have a point. Why waste time eating our own and letting the other guys slip through.

Howard Dean is on it too............With his loyal followers from 4 years ago, working the progressive grassroots. I could "touch" that when I did the voter history collection last fall.
His brother Jim is running Democracy for America still, ( free to do things Howard might not being DNC chair.)
They are finding and recruiting people to run for these Dem. positions. Our Obama delegate used to vote Repug!
"We will recover."

Chris Dodd give hope

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/dodd_its_up_to_the_house.php

Dodd: It's up to The House
By Paul Kiel - February 12, 2008, 2:54PM

Speaking to a conference call of reporters this afternoon, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) said that, reflecting on the string of defeats in the Senate today, he thought the House was the best hope for stripping retroactive immunity from the final surveillance bill.

"We've lost every single battle we had on this bill [in the Senate].... We're not getting anywhere at all" he said. "The question now is can the House do better." After the bill passes in the Senate, as is expected late today or tomorrow, the bill would head to a conference. There, conferees from both houses will try to hash out the significant differences between the House and Senate versions, the issue of retroactive immunity chief among them.

However, Dodd said, if the final bill emerging from that powwow does contain retroactive immunity, he said he'd "absolutely" filibuster that bill; he'd use "whatever vehicles we can" to stop it.

The Senate had "just sanctioned" the "single largest invasion of privacy in the history of the country," he said. When asked why he thought so many Dem senators had crossed over, he replied: "Unfortunately, those who are advocating this notion that you have to give up liberties in order to be more secure are apparently prevailing. They seem to be convincing people that you're at risk politically or we're at risk as a nation if we don't give up rights."
(the end)

lunaoscura, why not multitask!?
How could one effect the other when some wear the mask of their party and sabotage it from the inside? They are the most insideous!
I don't see voting them out is infighting when it's our duty to get rid of these imposters selling out the very ground we stand on~! They are Corporatists..do you want Corporate rule, Fascist rule? They are the ones in the way and have been for the last 8 years.

Oh, Lunaoscura, please address that line of reasoning. It only works when times are NORMAL. These times don't fit that logically.

Get a progressive loaded in the chamber.

Go Dodd! You are our shining star! Filibuster those swine!

I was angry enough at the telecom immunity vote that I e-mailed Sen. McCaskill's office with this:

Please convey to Sen. McCaskill my deep regret for having voted for her in 06. Based on her voting record, she is really not that much of a Democrat and almost indistinguishable from Jim Talent. Be assured that she will not get my vote in 2010.

I'm wonder too what kind of advice Hillary is getting that she felt she could skip this vote that is so important. Apparently the fiasco in SC and FL weren't enough to make her look really bad.

I believe that Benjamin Franklin said something to effect that if you are willing to give up rights for security then you will have neither rights nor security.

Remind me....why did we vote in more Democrats in 2006?

Despite its title, the following story is not just for Arizona voters or Ron Paul supporters, but for the citizens of every state. It's a detailed (and poignant) firsthand account of someone trying to do her civic duty in a polling place completely insecure and riddled with corruption.

Ms. Zucker's writing comes straight from the heart, and is a little rough. So read it carefully, so that you don't miss any of its revelations.

MCM

To Arizona voters & Ron Paul supporters: A story from inside the Election Process

by Jeneen Zucker

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=029892&From=News

Teresa, call your state dem office (democratic affairs) ask for the deadline a challenger can apply to oust your bluedog McCaskill.
Even tho it's 2010 the deadline is closer than it may appear in our rear-view mirror.

Thanks patb. McCaskill just barely squeaked out a victory. I just noticed too that my addition is off. She stands for reelection in 2012 not 2010. Wonder if her office caught that?

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174893/john_feffer_the_growing_military_industrial_complex_in_asia

The Growing Military-Industrial Complex in Asia

Asia's Hidden Arms Race
Six Countries Talk Peace While Preparing for War

pat b,

I always live to fight another day. What I meant to say is that I understand what Boxer's reasoning might be, which doesn't mean that I accept it. Wrong is wrong no matter what party we find it in. Besides I'm getting further and further away from the middle ground in politics. The older I get the more determinedly progressive I get. It must be that paradigm shift in consciousness we're all going through.

Yes, things do get sorted out don't they lunaoscura?

Here's a lovely article on Obama's Japanese connection:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080212/pl_afp/usvoteobamajapan

And here's a nice article on Obama's sister:
http://tinyurl.com/3739t8

She's part Indonesian and Buddhist!

Shy, bet his mom had a lot of 'splainin to do!

That was a nice find Shylurker. I enjoyed reading it! Very cosmopolitan family it seems.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/how-the-spooks-took-over-the-news-780672.html

How the spooks took over the news

Steny Hoyer is Pelosi's right-hand man. (Actually, she has two, and the other is one Rahm Emmanuel, but let's ignore that for the moment.) Steny Hoyer's guy in MD was one Al Wynn, dim Dem. Our guy, whether you knew it or not, was actually a female named Donna Edwards, alert Dem. Steny Hoyer poured tons of money into the campaign of his guy, Al Wynn. Our candidate, the much more betta one, Donna Edwards, won hands down today in MD.

Doesn't make up for the destruction of the Fourth Amendment and Rule of Law, but it does lift the spirits. And, hopefully, will result in the restoration of the Fourth Amendment and Rule of Law.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/13/0166/99800/1017/455626

Hi all! Whew It's not easy staying trans political during such an important election.
With Pluto having played in the Galactic Center, I would think whichever candidate represents the US plutocracy might lose. Not TOO Cynacal I hope. Like I said "whew".

Looking for advice tonight on what criteria to use to pick a personal astrologer for myself. FWIW, I have Neptune conj Sun in 12 in Libra. Neptune in 12 I understand can cause some illusory and confusing effects for an astrologer. As the US goes through its breakdown throws I think the fascism will increase. Time for a reading!!!

Just received this good news!

We just beat a Bush-Democrat.

Donna Edwards won a stunning victory against Rep. Al Wynn. DFA members were there for Donna from the beginning, delivering the people-power that put her over the top. You lead, and together with progressive partners SEIU, Emily's List, and others, we put a Bush-Democrat out of work.

Contribute $20 right now to fund our aggressive campaigns to elect a progressive Congress.

www.DemocracyforAmerica.com/PrimariesMatter

Ha! Ha! Shy...you beat me to it! Just cleaned up the kitchen, got this email from DFA. We really can suck the cretans out the porthole.

Go DFA!
BUT! no wonder the Corporate Media is blathering on & on about the election!
Look what they are avoiding!
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5685

Valerie Plame Wilson Describes Sibel Edmonds Disclosures as 'Stunning'
Says She Has Been Following Recent Blockbuster Series in British Paper Concerning U.S. Nuclear Secrets Espionage, Allegations That Her Cover Company, Brewster Jennings, Was Exposed by a Former High-Ranking State Department Official as Far Back as 2001...

http://www.atimes.com/
Asia Times functioning again.Some interesting articles there.

No one seems to be posting articles from this website,lately.
So here it is Lots of very good articles to read!

http://baltimorechronicle.com/

In case no one was noting the time the Fourth Amendment and Rule of Law were stripped, this article says the Senate failed us "just before 6:00 pm ET" yesterday.

http://tinyurl.com/379yrc

Anybody care to do some astro analysis on this? It would be nice.

From Krugman http://tinyurl.com/yqr36s

The Credit Crunch Hits Students

.......

On a lighter note, my DH is walking around saying “Obama Rules!”. He’s a happy camper today.

Oh but the rule of law is very much present in the House, at CNN, (both channels) cspan..they've conscripted Waxman for trivial matters at our expense! ( taxpayers) That would be Clemmons, murderous, traitorous,endangering the country, USE OF STEROIDS! Horrors!
I left a message for Madame Speaker asking why they didn't have Monsanto on the stand for bullying companies who label their products BGH (bovine growth) hormone)free because that is endangering our children! Roger isn't except as a bad role model! Ben & Jerry's is the latest to feel the whip lash from Monsanto!
Un freaken-believable!

Oh student loan crunch? I have to turn over my student debt to hardship deferrment again.
The clerck at the bank ( my regular bank made the loan...) was very cavalier about it.
( They've been pressuring me for several years to this point!)
SHe said airily, if I keel over tomorrow, no problem the Govt will pay it off; my kids won't be liable. I got the distinct impression that the recession had set her ( & the bank's policy) free from the norm!

This is fascinating........

The man who says he's JFK's son
Born exactly two years before Dallas

MARSHA LEDERMAN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
February 13, 2008 at 5:00 AM EST

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080213.wjack13/BNStory/National/home
the picture does look like JFK!

Boy QOP, I don't know, sure resembles Teddy. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if it's true.

I looked up a photo of Ted Kennedy and put them side by side. They look more similar to each other than Ted looks to the rest of the Kennedy brothers.

Here's the photo of Ted Kennedy that I used. It's a good one because their faces are turned in the same direction so you can see the jowl similarities as well as the thick hair and the eyebrows. Their chins look identical.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02072008/gossip/pagesix/mystery_of_a_jfk_son_859613.htm

I am afraid that Obama will get the nomination and then the GOP will bring out what ever they have and he will lose the race and we will get McCain who will die or get sick, etc and we will end up with Huckabee. Just a little virus fueled fantasy but this morning while listening to everyone at MSNBC fawn all over Obahma I then heard an ugly anti-Clinton joke played as if it were legitimate news-this was so raw and shocking that I am now convinced that the GOP wants, really wants Obama to get the nomination.

Spring is here in Boulder! Gorgeous bucolic day. Our two buck deer are here for their apples & peanuts. One has one antler (Call him Benny). He comes right to our window when he's either being dominated by other males or wags his tail in anticipation. The other male is a noble beast,younger and vital but has a broken leg which he holds up (he's using it more than 6 weeks ago) and the two get on together, partners this winter. Although they've been wintering in my yard, have taken care not to indulge in cartoon fantasys of hand-feeding etc.. That wouldn't be in their survival interests.

Other topic: AL Salazar (brother and mgr. of Kenny Bluedog) will be tomorrow night's entertainment at the Progressives meeting 1/2 mile from my house. Boy, are they ready for him!
My take on these guys, once they've turned there are NO second chances, because once re-elected after a few votes to "show us they've changed" they can't be trusted once dirty, always dirty. They've got the mark of the beast.
Mark Udall is sneakier, has given us a few token votes with his party, but votes with Bluedogs the rest of the time..the ones that REALLY COUNT. So he doesn't deserve the Senate.

Clymela,
The GOP is going to go after whoever is the nominee. Obama has a We campaign, Hillary has a Me campaign. We the People have to fight the GOP it is not one person it is us, we are the leaders we've been waiting for.

That said, both Obama and Hillary were at the bottom of my Presidential wish list. I do think Obama has pulled in million plus new Democrats whose vote in November will be needed to beat the McCain Bush machine.
Hillary has spent a lifetime getting prepared for this step and her governmental knowledge is second to none, she knows how to negotiate and knows the terrain.
Obama, he's got corporate connections, so does Hillary. Obama is shaking the status quo boat, whether he makes real progress or whether Hillary does will still be up to the People to elect a Senate and Congress to support them.

That high-pitched sound you hear from the direction of Monticello? Thomas Jefferson just hit 10,000 RPM. Over at Montpelier, James Madison is at the redline.

The Virginia House of Delegates just passed a resolution honoring the memory of conman and bigot Jerry Falwell.

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?081+ful+HJ347

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

and for some more humor....

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/13/91048/6937/330/455296

Some levity in the presidential thread, courtesy of Bill in Portland, Maine:

[Beep!] Hello, this is Barack Obama reminding you to come out and caucus for me on Sunday. Together we can bring hope and change to America. Thank you.

[Beep!] Hello, this is Hillary Clinton. If you agree that we need a new direction in America, please caucus for me on Sunday. I have the experience needed to hit the ground running on day one. Thank you.

[Beep!] Hi, Barack again. Did Hillary just call you? Look, she and I were friends before the primary season and we'll be friends after. But right now she's just acting crazy, understand? Vote for me and I may let you stand next to me at my inauguration.

[Beep!] Hillary here. Barack's feeding you a line 'o crap and he knows it. Not only will I let you stand next to me at my inauguration, but I'll give you the cabinet position of your choice. You have to admit, that's pretty sweet. Love ya!

[Beep!] Hey, it's Barack. Love ya more. Wanna be my VP?

[Beep!] Oh, he's not gonna make you vice president and he knows it!

[Beep!] Will too!

[Beep!] Will not!

[Beep!] This is Chelsea Clinton. Have you seen my mom or my dad? I'm supposed to be at a rally with 'em but there's no one here. Today's Nebraska, right?

[Beep!] Hi, this is Oprah. Despite what the Clinton campaign says, I am not going to crush your skull between my thighs if you don’t vote for my man Barack. That would let you off too easy! Hint hint.

[Beep!] Hi, Barack again. That wasn't Oprah. That was Hillary pretending to be Oprah. You see how these people work? I think it's... Oh, wait, it was Oprah. Never mind. Vote for me!

[Beep!] Hi, this is Chuck Norris. I'm hiding behind your bathroom door, and as soon as you come in to pee I'm gonna break every bone in your Defeatocrat body. I'll start with your femurs.

[Beep!] Hi, this is Mike Gravel. Chuck's hanging by his underwear from a hook on the back of your bathroom door. The police are on their way. Wish I could stay but I've gotta stop a meteor that's hurtling toward Earth. Have a nice pee.

I keep wishing we had a candidate that would jerk this county to the Left as far and fast as the Bush administration jerked it to the Right. Both the candidates are as Centrist as they come, which in normal times would be great. But right now it just feels mediocre, like giving a very sick person too little medicine which doesn't kill but it also doesn't cure. Maybe we can get some fire-in-their-bellies Congresspeople who will create some initiatives that the next President can sign into law. It's still the job of Congress to run the country right? It's hard to tell anymore

Forewarned is forearmed.

Obama boasts a dedicated, high-powered inner circle

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/news/article/9934/obama-boasts-a-dedicated-high-powered-inner-circle/

.......

HSNi taps Genachowski
Exec will fill general counsel, senior veep spots

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111737946.html?categoryid=18&cs=1

.........

AT&T Takes Shape as Lobbying Giant

http://www.saveaccess.org/node/775

I guess now that he is pulling ahead, everybody wants a piece of the Obama action.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_on_el_pr/obama_endorsement

Very well said, lunaoscura. Just enough to keep the patient alive until 2012. Both promoted for their perceived weaknesses, neither resonate with my heart/mind, with respect for those who feel otherwise.
Like you, I don't feel much like gambling or partaking of these candidates du jour.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't. Sigh.

I guess now that he's pulling ahead, everybody wants a piece of the Obama action:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_on_el_pr/obama_endorsement

WOW-thanks for the intelligent, pungent feedback. I love this site and all you wonderful people. And yes no one who lives at alevel of consciousness I find comfortable is going to run for president-run for the hills perhaps. Still I do care and yes my choices have been Kucinch,Edwards, Clinton, Obama. The astorlogy for the election looks to me as if this will not be completed on that day.

Great to see you here again Clymela!
The election's so covered with ooz. Even repugs signing up as dems to screw up the primaries, funny how we're accustomed and more immunized even from trollish tractics as well.
Even sites like Crooks & Liars have ceased tolerating those disruptions.

Get the sense the raw meat-eating has-beens have lost a good deal of clout, (thank gawd for sensory adaptation) and enough of us are just bone-weary. Not to say they're not still busy bees, just don't see we'll let them carry off our country like before. Now we'll fight.

At this point I'm writing in Kucinich. That's all there is to it. Whatever Hillary or Obama result it feels too bad either way, up-to-here with marketing ploys however clever they may be.

Thanks Sally....about my Hillary Clinton book. I did the art last May. At that point, Obama and Hillary hadn't even said they would run. But I presume the fact that one of them is 'black' (hey, his mother is white, so doesn't that count?) and the other is a woman, and both are an historical first must have occurred to the editors and publishers. It was a fluke that I got chosen, as I've never done a book before. But since this is a book for young readers, and both Obama and Clinton have big books out, that choosing to do them for young readers would be a no brainer.

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/02/john-mccain-and.html

John McCain and the Forever War
"I have wounds to show you…"
—William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus

In his January 28 State of the Union address, George W. Bush told Congress, America and the world that "The surge is working" and "al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq."

Mr. Bush must not have been watching NBC six days earlier when his "main man" in Iraq General David Petraeus said, "there is no light at the end of the tunnel that we're seeing." And one has to wonder how Mr. Bush, if forced to, would square al Qaeda being "on the run" with the February 5 statement by his Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell that al Qaeda "remains the pre-eminent terrorist threat against the United States" and that he is "increasingly concerned" that al Qaeda in Iraq "may shift resources to mounting more attacks outside of Iraq.”

Mr. Bush would likely be mystified as a prehistoric man witnessing a rocket launch to know what the chief architect of his surge strategy had to say concerning whether or not it is "working." In the fall of 2003, when the Iraq situation was just beginning to unravel, neoconservative warfare guru Frederick Kagan wrote that combat which does not achieve the political objectives of an armed conflict—precisely the condition we have in Iraq—is merely "organized but senseless violence."

More at the link....

I must have missed this in American MSM

12/02/2008 15:51 Irish Times

United Nations Report
4 million Iraqis struggling for food - UN

Four million Iraqis are struggling to feed themselves, and 40 per cent of the country's 27 million people have no safe water, the UN said today.

Iraq has annual economic growth of around 7 per cent, according to UN estimates, and a national budget of €33 billion, buoyed by oil exports of 1.6 million barrels per day.

But insurgency and sectarian attacks have displaced more than two million people and left nearly twice as many hungry.

"Four million Iraqis cannot guarantee they're going to have food on their table tomorrow," the United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, David Shearer, said as he unveiled a €182 million appeal to donor governments for 2008.

The United Nations says the number of displaced people has roughly doubled since 2006 to nearly 2.5 million. High unemployment has left many others unable to feed themselves.

The Iraqi government said it would for the first time give €27.5 million from its own coffers to the aid appeal.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0212/breaking68.htm

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/conyers_introduces_contempt_re.php

Conyers Introduces Contempt Resolution, Call for Lawsuit against White House

More about food!
In Defense of Food: Author, Journalist Michael Pollan on Nutrition, Food Science and the American Diet
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/13/in_defense_of_food_author_journalist

Conyers is getting augmented by Robert Wexler of FL actions as well. Today Robert put Condi Rice on the hot seat and it was smokin'. OUch!

Wexler's chart shows a strong connection to the u.s. chart that bears a look. He was born 1-2-61 in New York City. Look familiar?
Think Fitzmas. He was born 1 1/2 weeks after Patrick, special prosecutor who backed away from the Abramoff case as soon as it got too hot for Cheney. At the time PF's progressed mars got to the LAST DEGREE of gemini, not the 1st degree of cancer, and Eric Francis didn't think that was of particular importance. But I recall corresponding with him and saying, "there's something here about the 'last minute', it's the last minute before a backoff".
Wexler hasn't this issue in his chart. He's also among that grouping in the Cleanup Crew generation in early virgo specifically 61-62 group.
His chart put a smile on my face. He's the real deal.

Oh patb! That just made my heart happy!

PatC, if THAT makes you happy go to:

http://wexlerforcongress.com

..you might become delirious!

Here's the youtube link of the hearing today:

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

Talk about a wind bag; just saw Mc Cain tonight on the news speechifying - stumbling over his words, saying "betray" when he means "portray", totally disconnected. He must be taking medication for his condition, which is causing a disconnect between his brain, and his tongue. I mean, Huckabee could talk circles around him. If this is all the GOP has to offer as their nominee, it's real pathetic. I guess he will be more or less, just a figurehead for the Republican Party policies - nothing new there.

This has been a long time coming:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080213/lf_afp/australiapoliticsnativeaborigineapology_080213151055

Oh joy patb. I got so fed up with TV today I turned it off, and called Palosi & Conyers..( got right through)
It was steroids all the way. I wanted to sew & watch TV through the hideous weather! I'll check out the u tube!

Oh patb, I am delirious! And Australia!!! WOW! This is all such great great news!

Woo boy! Ain't this the truth?
http://tinyurl.com/37nczs

Ol' Harry has been busy making sure retroactive immunity for breaking the law and trampling on the Constitution is safe and secure and enabling the stripping of the Fourth Amendment to boot. It's time he was put out to pasture around Searchlight, NV, or whatever the name of that place.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/216648/

Election is about future, not feelings
Gene Lyons

I sent the article about the superdelegates, Pat C, to my friend in Seattle (a Quaker political activist) and he said he's written 5 separate letters to superdelegates in WA state telling the to LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE.

The apology to the Australian aboriginals and the stolen generation comes way late, because John Howard and his party refused for over 30 years to make that apology. So a new prime minister said it was time. And it was, a long time ago. But it is done now.