Astroworld

WV, I've noticed that McCain's blond "dead ringer for his wife" is missing. Wonder what will happen when Saturn finally turns around to come back to his Sun. Usually transiting Saturn conj. the Sun means the end of a process. Should be interesting.

Please excuse my apparent rudeness, in not reading the new article before posting this. But, I do think this is very urgent. emptywheel has just made a copy of an important letter available:

"To the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives:

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) strongly opposes S. 2248, the "FISA Amendments Act of 2007," as passed by the Senate on February 12, 2008. CCIA believes that this bill should not provide retroactive immunity to corporations that may have participated in violations of federal law. CCIA represents an industry that is called upon for cooperation and assistance in law enforcement. To act with speed in times of crisis, our industry needs clear rules, not vague promises that the U.S. Government can be relied upon to paper over Constitutional transgressions after the fact."

So even the CCIA thinks this deal stinks. Sooooooooooo . . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/03/03/shorter-google/

Thanks for that Shy, I wonder if that will have an impact on Congress. They need to access a true constitutional attorney, not one of their stooges

Sally, an upcoming event....I got this as an email...there is much more, equating this event to the ones in Hawaii (which I was at the effect of in a big way, as a child) in 1948 and again in 1953. These strikes send a far more powerful message that peace marches do. Note that none of the 3 candidates support the strikes (yet).

Longshoremen Vote To Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In aFebruary 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting,
"One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their opposition tothe war in Iraq."

This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to
undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. It is doubly important that this mobilization of labor's power is to take place on May Day, the
international workers day, which is not honored in the U.S. Moreover, the resolution voted by the ILWU delegates opposes not only the hugely unpopular war in Iraq, but also the war and occupation of Afghanistan (which Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican John McCain all want to expand). The motion to shut down the ports also demands the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the entire region, including the oil sheikdoms of the strategically important Persian/Arab Gulf.

The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. The ILWU should be commended for courageously taking the first step, and it is up to working people everywhere to back them up. Wherever support is strong enough, on May 1 there should be mass walkouts, sick-outs, labor marches, plant-gate meetings, lunch-time rallies, teach-ins. And the purpose of such actions should be not to
beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!

There should be no illusions that this will be easy. No doubt the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) bosses will try to get the courts to rule the stop-work action illegal. The ILWU leadership could get cold feet, since this motion was passed because of overwhelming support from the delegates despite attempts to stop it or, failing that, to water it down or limit the action. And the U.S. government could try to ban it on the grounds of "national security," just as Bush & Co. slapped a Taft-Hartley injunction on the docks during contract negotiations in the fall of 2002, saying that any work stoppage was a threat to the "war effort," and threatened to occupy the ports with troops!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/opinion/03krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Deliverance or Diversion?

Diversion it is, Pat C!

http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/03/first-monday-the-siegelman-case-a-political-prosecution-exposed/

First Monday: The Siegelman Case — A Political Prosecution Exposed

Could it be that Microsoft is at the bottom of these students that freak out & shoot up a campus!
It sure doesn't work for beans!

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1073&thisview=item

Going to church in Texas How are evangelical Christians going to vote?

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

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1076&thisview=item

Texas flea market The Real News visits a flea market in Austin to find out how people plan to vote

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1071&thisview=item

Gaza conflict escalates
Sameh Habeeb: More than 100 Palestinians killed in Israeli attack

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804?printable=true¤tPage=all

Major leak on Gaza

...........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030302814.html?nav=rss_politics

Wiretap Compromise in Works -- FISA Update May Hinge On Two Separate Votes

...........

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/todays_must_read_288.php

And for Bush, a complete roll-over by the Dems is not enough. As always, the bully wants (and likely will get) more....

From TPM Muckraker: Today's Must Read

..........

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/the-early-word-off-to-the-polls/

COLUMBUS, Ohio — With a flood watch in effect in southern Ohio and an icy mix predicted for northern parts of the state, like the heavily populated Cleveland area, the storm system that is sweeping eastward and northward (think Vermont) has stirred serious worries about what had been anticipated as a high turnout at the polls in four primary states today.

Some voters acted as though they were stocking up the pantry ahead of a storm, by heading to their election offices yesterday. Here in Franklin County and elsewhere, lines formed and offices were kept open into the evening hours to accommodate the crowds.

On a day like today, as the storm hangs over the region through the evening, much will depend on the campaigns’ ground game. Both Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have the backing of several high-powered unions and organizations that are engaged in that get-out-the-vote effort. While the coalition of unions backing Mr. Obama may be the larger, Mrs. Clinton has also had the benefit of Gov. Ted Strickland’s operational knowledge and his supporters in the state.

More at the link.......

Good video's PatC, I loved the guy with the beard at the end when a question interfered with his preconceived ideas, he says "interview is over." I wonder what happens to us (the human race) when we can't answer a question in our own mind and just want to shut the door. It's very interesting. Austin is a pretty liberal town and they were sure all over the place, except Clinton came out ahead, I counted.

WAR AND PEACE

GAZA ETHNIC CLEASNING IS NEARING ITS COMPLETION: The Gaza Palestinian Holocaust, brutally and wantonly conducted by the terrorist outlaw state of Israel, is being aggressively pursued while American Warcast Media pushes a never-ending stream of political entertainments. Please spend a moment or two every day reflecting on this and passing the news that Israeli terrorists have nearly finished the job of pushing the residents of Gaza out of the zone.

Death Score since Saturday:

Israel 3 Palistine 140

Great links, PatC, and I'd like to add one:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/03/04/iran-contra-20/

It seems that while Darth and Kindasleazy are having a mighty struggle over Hamas/Israel, etc., King Abdullah is taking a third approach (and winning). Just amazing stuff.

Looks like the possibility of having a better world or moving toward one is out of the question. Karl Rove (in the person of HRC) has not left the building. Eventually we will get past this pettiness, at least I hope so.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/4/21311/85811/447/468408

The above was from Michael Mandeville

Truce or Bloodbath

By Azzam Tamimi

A recent poll published in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz suggested that 64% of Israelis favoured a negotiated truce with Hamas. But in the past few days, a military onslaught that has so far claimed more than a hundred Palestinian lives, mostly women and children, has made it clear that the Israeli leadership is not interested in any peaceful exit from the current predicament..

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19452.htm

Why Isn't Iraq in the 2008 Election?

By Noam Chomsky

The highly regarded British polling agency, Oxford Research Bureau, has just updated its estimate of deaths. Their new estimate a couple of days ago is 1.3 million. That's excluding two of the most violent provinces, Karbala and Anbar. On the side, it's kind of intriguing to observe the ferocity of the debate over the actual number of deaths. There's an assumption on the part of the hawks that if we only killed a couple hundred thousand people, it would be OK, so we shouldn't accept the higher estimates. You can go along with that if you like.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19453.htm

"I loved the guy with the beard at the end when a question interfered with his preconceived ideas, he says "interview is over."

Sally did you see the printing on his hat? :-D Too funny! He proudly wears the name, "GOD". At least they are consistent.

shy, great article on Iran Contra.

Do we really think Hillary is Karl Rove?

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/society-owned-caught-middle

The Society Of The Owned: Caught In The Middle

Let's return, once more, to our metaphorical intersection from parts two and three of the series. Except, where we once imagined a doomed pedestrian just preparing to cross the intersection, let's consider a group of pedestrians stuck in the middle of the intersection. When the started across the intersection, they had the green light. As far as they knew, it was safe to cross. But — as often happens — the signal changed when they were just halfway across. Now, traffic whizzes by them, heedless to their plight as they find it impossible to finish the journey to the other side of the street, and difficult to go back whence they came.

It's not a stretch of imagination to think of those pedestrians as representing the middle-class, buffeted by the credit crises on one side and the subprime crises on the other, and finding themselves caught in the middle, with no real options except to hope the signal changes again and they can either continue to the other side of the street, or make a hasty retreat.

More at the link...

Re: VOC moon

Not a good comment for an astrology website, but I was thinking that maybe if you don't believe in astrology, it doesn't own you, and there is something that is stronger, i.e. the use of free will to accomplish whatever we set out to do.

Crystal, astrology is a map of the probabilities/possibilities as the energy is set to move. It's like the current of the river as we all sail our boats. You always have free will. You can alter your own course with choices, but it's work to do it. It can be done.

Republicans want to bring immunity back to life and the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (TX-16) said over the weekend he was ready to make the deal. We must stop him.

Call Rep. Reyes right now and demand he stands with the Democratic majority and against telecom immunity.

Intelligence Committee Chairman,
Rep. Silvestre Reyes
(202) 225-7690

Suggested Script:

"As the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Reyes must stand with Speaker Pelosi and the majority of House Democrats against telecom immunity.

I am depending on Chairman Reyes to stand up to President Bush and protect America without granting a get-out-of-jail free card to companies that broke the law."

Please report how your call went:
www.DemocracyforAmerica.com/ReyesCalls

Make sure Chairman Reyes hears from you today. He needs to know we are counting on him. He needs to know that if he won't stand up to President Bush, then DFA members will find someone to replace him who will.

Rep. Reyes can still make the right decision. As Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Reyes could lead the nation by proposing reforms that will make America safer. Or Chairman Reyes can be a lap-dog for the President and grant telecom immunity against the leadership of his own party. Let's make sure he makes the right choice.

Take action right now!

Interesting comment from the Early Word article in the NY Times in an earlier post

Bob from Kentucky, I wholeheartedly agree. Sen. Clinton is a ‘do and say anything’ politician. The only thing that mystifies me is how she’s convinced feminists to rewrite her history to make her a victim they can identify with, all for the sake of supporting her.

— Posted by Denni

WV it is good to see you back.....

Perhaps the fact that Hillary is a career politician by personality type confuses people. She is a firm believer that she owes something to the country; at least 1/3 of all presidents have been these career types in terms of personality. She therefore doesn't feel she needs to defend herself; she feels that the obvious fact that she is giving her life to service should be enough for people; but the problem is, people don't understand personality types. BTW, only 2 presidents have had the type of personality which Obama has, that is...idealistic type. Hillary is the perfect career pol, the one who works hard at trying to make things work.

Hillary is not a do and say anything pol. She undoubtedly runs everything thru her filters like all of us do. I don't even know how those ideas get started, but I will say.... I can watch and listen to Hillary speak and not want to change the channels. I first experienced this with Dubya, and still to this day have not listened to him for more than a couple of minutes in 7 years without becoming nauseated. Surprise surprise, apparently Obama makes me feel the same way. So what is it that I am picking up, since I don't believe most of the stuff written about any candidate so far unless I have somek ind of personal connection which gives me more info (as I have on McCain, and I am able to listen to him on tv without throwing up, even if I don't AGREE with him)....I am going on my own psychic read? Probably.

And since I happened to post that on Nancy's Blog, a number of people said the same thing happened to them. This isn't about Astrological takes, this is something more fundamental. Basically, Obama is the astrological and physical type I would normally have said hooray to....what IS it that I and others are getting here?

Judi it's probably his mercury/neptune square which *belies* his phony calm.
From the looks of his chart he grew up in an atmosphere of lies and evading direct truths.
There are many more aspects to support that.
He'll let whatever projection the american unaware wrap around him. He's a liar by ommission. A sneak. A creep. It's what he's always done.
We've evolved not at all and learned nothing from having suffered under bush. The average citizen is as unperceptive as ever.
I think he's not only going to cheap us all in a number of ways, and the people of this country will feel just as 'used' as before, but in new unprecedented ways.
(turniing social securtiy into private accounts the was bush could not however he tried) he's about to keep the back door open for the corporate thieves and the dark forces of Blackwater.

:-)

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/04/cheney-may-have-leaked-secret-video-in-gitmo-case/

Cheney may have leaked secret video in Gitmo case.
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr have alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney’s office leaked a secret video of Khadr in Afghanistan to CBS’ 60 Minutes after a judge denied a prosecution request to play the video in court. Former Gitmo chief prosecutor Col. Morris Davis told Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler — Khadr’s lawyer — that Cheney’s office may have been involved. Kuebler said that if proven, the leak is a “clear violation of the protective orders that are in place” in the case.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/03/04/will-dick-finally-get-busted-for-his-leaks/

Will Dick Finally Get Busted for His Leaks?

Gay-marriage battle moves to Calif. high court

State justices hear arguments on what makes matrimony
Activists for and against gay marriage mobilized Tuesday outside California's Supreme Court in San Francisco.

updated 12:23 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 4, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - Four years after San Francisco ignited a heated national debate by briefly allowing gay marriage, California's top court hears arguments Tuesday about whether matrimony should be limited to a man and a woman.

The hearing brings into focus the highest-profile U.S. fight over gay rights in recent years and the outcome could end up influencing legislation and litigation in other states on a matter that has been a hot-button issue in election campaigns.

"California's a bellwether state. What happens here, blows east," said Larry Bowler, a retired deputy sheriff from Sacramento, who opposes gay marriage, outside the courthouse.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23465812

I think there's an inmate missing from the asylum.

Seems to me that some of our contributers are very close to crossing the line from comment to attack.
I don't want anyone assassinated. I would have loved to see some intelligence and backbone in the American public during the past eight years. I would have loved for America to care about other people and to have prevented the attack and occupation of Iraq with all the deaths of Iraqi citizens. I would have loved to see Bush and company impeached.
I wish that I could have found Obama charming but I do not. Hillary is definately more centrist than I but she will always be better than what we have just lived through and we aren't allowed any other choice.

It goes without saying, Clymela what we are left with in terms of options. Hope you don't misunderstand and think I wish harm on Obama. I don't believe you think that but just am stating this to cover the bases.
In terms of competence Hillary has a strong arm and know she will add strength and help to the millions without healthcare and 'some' relief to those facing foreclosure. I believe she will be of genuine service to educating kids k-12 and up first, in this area, corporatists last and will save the dept of education.
Obama will leave millions languishing as before.
This is all such a shame.

I've given a lot of thought the last 8 years to "emotions and feelings" around particularly GWB. When he announced he was running for President I felt as if someone hit me. I felt frantic and had a horrible visceral response everytime I saw him or heard him. And yet people I knew and respected believed him to be the 2nd coming. While I do absolutely believe he's been the worst president ever, and feel I was right about my assessment of what was coming, and I think it's bad, it isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be at this point.

I have not been able to ever figure out why I was so physically revolted by this man and others were not. I wondered what made my impressions more valid that someone else. I still wonder that. I don't have any of those profound emotions over these candidates, not even John McCain that I did in 2000. Oh there are little things, I cannot tolerate hearing Hillary's voice and laugh, it's grating to me as are her dirty politics as usual trick she and Bill pull, but that isn't necessarily proof to me that she would be a bad president. I don't think Obama is the great orator that he's painted, and I don't think he debates worth a darn, but that doesn't say he would be a bad president. And McCain to me is just "oh please." I will say and this will get me in a lot of trouble, I don't like Kucinich at all and never thought he would be a good president even though he's made a career out of running.

The experience argument doesn't hold water in terms of feelings or who to vote for; that would have been Dodd or Biden or Richardson. Heck it would have been Kerry in the last election.

I just wish I knew what the emotions and feelings boil down to; I don't think they boil down to who is going to be the best or worst of candidates for the Presidency. A lot of us thought GWB would be the worst and he was, but what of those good and yes, smart people who thought he would be the best? Good or bad, right or wrong, like or dislike this country gave away their power to GWB and we are in danger of doing the same thing with Clinton, Obama or McCain and the truth is we don't know if they will be good or bad for the country (although I don't think McCain would be particularly good, I think he's out of his realm)

The astrology suggests that whoever wins will be a one term president and whoever wins cannot resolve the issues this country is dealing with thanks to GWB and this war and the economy. Most countries struggle with a woman as a leader (Andrea Merkle has had her challenges in this area) so I doubt that Hillary is going to be able to bring respect for the US to this country and I think her "warrior" mindset could further damage our standing, but that might be true of anyone at this point.

I would just suggest that no matter who we support or who wins that we not give our power away whether we like or dislike them. Acknowledge our feelings without making the person good or bad and keep your objective eyes out no matter who wins.

I just wish for all of us we didn't have to go through another 4-8 years of side-trips and heaving sighs because this is a continued disregard and irrevelance of the people who continue to slip though widening cracks. Nary a word about our rights and liberties returned to us.

My first choice was actually Biden. Then Dodd.
Then Gravel. Then Edwards..Then Kucinich...because he is the one freshly yanked offstage.

Obama is making statements previously mentioned that do not bode well for us.

I plan to write someone, anyone in than be privately responsible and ignoring my instincts in this case.

That has been very disturbing to me PatB that neither candidate, no any candidate for that matter has said a word about the Patriot Act and restoring our rights. I don't know if it will be brought up in the General Election but I wish it would get out their. It really bothers me because there is no healing until that is done. At least Edwards and Dodd and Gravel and Kucinich talked about it.

I have to delete any comments regarding the use of words that can be misunderstood regarding the "long term health" of any candidate. All blogs are being monitored for just such verbage. I hope you all understand and try to use different language in attempting to express yourselves. Passions run high in elections and this one will be particularly so just pull out your dictionary in order to use a different and in some cases convoluted expression

The resolution to arrest Bush Cheney passed 2 -1 in Brattleboro VT!

& the faschists at CNN smirked and joked about it like a bunch of low IQ adolescent boys.

qop, I've got to find the the report on that! How does that work?

........

Sally here is an article from earlier this week by Jeffrey Rosen a ConLaw professor at GWU, who reported that Clinton joined with 13 other Democrats to defeat a bill co-sponsored by Obama that would have rolled back some of the worst excesses in the Patriot Act.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01rosen.html?_r=3&scp=2&sq=jeffrey+rosen&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

PatC, does this help?

http://tinyurl.com/2nahw3

Re:qop's post.

Sorry , how rude of me! I'm multitasking tonight and fighting off acold!
I saw it reported on CNN, but after I posted found it here!
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/davidswanson/392
Brattleboro, Vt., voted today in support of a measure calling on the town's police force to arrest and indict Bush and Cheney. The vote was 2012-1795.

Marlboro, Vt., passed a similar measure at its town meeting today at which the vote to indict Bush and Cheney was 43-25-3. That's 43 in favor and 3 abstaining. Thus Marlboro beat Brattleboro to it by a few hours. In Brattleboro, the indictment question was on the primary ballots for both parties.

Thanks you two!!

.......

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/

TPM Election Central

Texas Battle Heats Up: Clinton Camp Allleges Obama Locking Out Hillary Backers By Greg Sargent - March 4, 2008, 8:56PM

The Hillary campaign just held an "emergency" conference call in which they made a sharp allegation: They say that Obama caucus goers in Texas are "locking out" Hillary supporters from participating.

The tone is strikingly urgent on the call, with Hillary campaign lawyer Lyn Utrect saying that what's been happening is that "the Obama people have managed to take control over the precinct conferences and shut doors when people in line were supposed to be allowed in to participate."

In a sign of just how tense the battle in Texas has become, an Obama lawyer, Bob Bauer, crashed the call, and battled it out pretty aggressively with Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson that went on for several minutes.

Wolfson, separately, sought to confer added urgency by noting that this was the first time that such a call had been convened by the Clinton campaign. More in a bit.

Ooops! Well, need to empty my browser, so here's yet one more, PatC.
Apologies, qop.

http://tinyurl.com/2sto4w

Thank you shy! That's a good one, and I always did love Vermont.

http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/15450538/detail.html
US House District 10
Candidate Votes Percent Winner
Dennis Kucinich (D) 13,649 55%
Joe Cimperman (D) 6,954 28%
Thomas O'Grady (D) 1,467 6%
Barbara Ann Ferris (D) 1,360 5%
Rosemary Palmer (D) 1,334 5%
Precincts Reporting - 0 out of 641 - 0%

Well, good on Kucinich, qop! Congrats to you.

Thanks for posting the score on Kucinich, Pat QoP....glad to know he didn't get buried as was suggested.

I wish he didn't look like an unhappy elf.

Sally, I had the same experience as you write about when GWB was running, from the beginning before election time....I KNEW what was coming and couldn't accept it, thereby causing considerable mental and emotional grief. Gut shot. Kind of like the USS Cole was.

But the CO climate is a very different political climate than SF is, and we had much to laugh about here, while you guys have the really fanatical evangelicals in surrounding areas .... I know, as a friend of mine has a daughter in CO Springs, who says everyone in CA (and especially SF because we are big supporters of gay marriage) is going to hell because they didn't like or vote for GWB. She has pretty much disowned her parents (my friends) for registering as independents and voting for dems....but she STILL thinks gwb walks on water, 8 years later.r. I fear, my dear Sally, that 20 years from now they will still consider him as so many people still consider Reagan....pretty close to walking on water.

In the stories coming out about TX Obama supporters 'locking out' Clinton supporters at caucuses, here is a story about a tv anchor in NM who quit when her story about Republican Heather Wilson paying GOP staffers to go to caucuses was killed by her radio station.....so it looks like this is a tactic at caucus states. too bad...
http://f-brilliant.blogspot.com/2008/03/kkob-radio-news-anchor-laura-maccallum.html

Piping in here briefly on my perspective on the Obama/Clinton thing.

When Obama was first running, I was actually very suspicious - who in the media is pushing him and why? And I felt very uncomfortable.

Tonight, I watched Obama speak (we actually get cnn,fox,cnbc,bbc,&fox coverage here in NZ if we pay for it - courtesy of mr fox himself-mr. rupert murdoch)

And actually, I got a whole different feeling from listening to his speech tonight.

And my thought was - this is the man made for the times - this age of globalization that we have found ourselves in. An intelligent man of mixed ethnicity and culture - the product of a white anthropologist and a black unversity student from Kenya, whose formative years of upbringing brought him more of a global perspective than any US president ever before him.

My thought also went to - Many will feel very uncomfortable with him because he is the pivot point - the harbinger of US change that is surely coming - which will be very tough for many people.

The visceral reaction I had to Bush from his first campaign an subsequent 'selection,' I'm sure, was because of intuition for the mess the globe finds itself in now - not just militarily, but on an economic level as well.

Just as much, I feel strongly that Obama is not the solution, but the first step toward the way out. We're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy.

And someone that has inbred tools to be a mediator/peacemaker when necessary, to reach across party lines, that can be a facilitator to changing the way the US interacts around the globe, is in my view the only possible way forward if there is not to be a total meltdown. Financial and/or brutal chaos in the US, if not globally.

We can change, or circumstance will force us to change.

As much as I would like to think otherwise, I see Hillary primarily as a man in a skirt with all the old establishment guard, some corrupt, behind her.

Kiwi, sorry, I disagree....I'm not afraid of change, I welcome it...as long as it is a change that works for the good of most people, not for the good of the wealthiest few.

Hillary is known, well known, in NY to work with all people (meaning her constituents) whether they are dem or repub. She does reach across the isle. And if there are corrupt people behind her, then there are corrupt people behind Obama. Do we actually KNOW first hand who is behind either of them? His advisors are all conservatives. As my astrology teacher said years ago, this GOP win will continue for a very long time.

I see this year as the midlife crisis year of the era which came out of another powerful year...1968, which was the end of a time when the forces for change were silenced and the dreams died. It is possible this will be a year when that will reverse, but I'm not holding my breath. I think the decade of the 2020's will bring real change...and real change brings real dangers. It is a good thing sometimes to be afraid of change.

I really also find it strange that another woman would call Hillary a man in a skirt. I find that really disrespectful of a woman who has already been maligned on so many levels. Would you also say that Obama is a white man mascarading as a black man for political gain?

Re very recent posts about Obama and the times we live in.

Have to agree that the big changes are some years away and after tonight's results and events leading up to this eventful day I've decided I'd like to know who judigem or others think McCain will pick as his VP. Because s/he is going to be a big player in the coming years.
Does this suggest I think McCain will cruise in?
Nope but will get there.

No way is Hillary going to beat him and Obama has barely had a taste of what's ahead for him should he get the nomination.
Like he's already got the Canadians - well at least the Canadian Prime Minister - working against him.
Any guesses how many last minute decision making voters were swayed by the remarks alleged to have been made by one of Obama's associates while in Canada? I'm picking - heaps - particularly in Ohio

Hi JudiGem, not trying to pick a fight, just writing what I felt tonight in my gut - and possibly it comes more from a global rather than a US perspective.
As far as the skirt comment - no disrespect meant at all - in fact I respect Hillary quite a lot. Its just that it's still a 'man's' world and women still have to play by the set rules. I would say that most top female politicians on the global scene over the past decades fall into that catagory too.
I guess I meant that statement from a male/female internal energy level rather than external gender per se. :)
Words are so inadequate sometimes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3210168
Dennis Kucinich has beaten back his (congressional) primary opponents

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-cooper/its-3-am-and-hillarys_b_89936.html
be sure to read all the comments, some very interesting ideas put forth.........................

While we're going 'global' we're dyin' here.
'Global' seems to include utter abandonment of the people who live HERE, with the added bonus of the destruction of our founding principals. The word 'change' is bereft of content and meaning and remains UNDEFINED. To us, Global means disappearance of our livelihoods and nothing to replace them but a queasy feeling the gov't intends to use youth in service of itself and invest nothing in intellectual treasure and continue dumbing the country down to a bald pate. If it's so "global" that implies some ability to participate, right? The u.s. gov't is a now parasite on it's people.
To date we are expecting change to mean further alienation and uprooting than we already are experiencing. We are dealing with a powerful Fascist movement.
Bush was 'change' and he leveled our society and destroyed the meaning of diplomacy and a tradition of massacre.

We did not choose Hillary OR Obama. Rupert Murdoch et al engineered this blah pair for our consumption. It's not real and has nothing to do with who we are or how we feel.
Every decent person speaking of returning our rights and liberties has been systematically eliminated like a bug with a tissue.
So if 'change' and 'global' come about with nothing to base it upon in terms of our constitution and freedoms then those terms mean enslavement. Onlookers haven't a clue.

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

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

Last update - 16:53 01/03/2008
An invention called 'the Jewish people'
By Tom Segev

Israel's Declaration of Independence states that the Jewish people arose in the Land of Israel and was exiled from its homeland. Every Israeli schoolchild is taught that this happened during the period of Roman rule, in 70 CE. The nation remained loyal to its land, to which it began to return after two millennia of exile. Wrong, says the historian Shlomo Zand, in one of the most fascinating and challenging books published here in a long time. There never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened - hence there was no return. Zand rejects most of the stories of national-identity formation in the Bible, including the exodus from Egypt and, most satisfactorily, the horrors of the conquest under Joshua. It's all fiction and myth that served as an excuse for the establishment of the State of Israel, he asserts.

According to Zand, the Romans did not generally exile whole nations, and most of the Jews were permitted to remain in the country. The number of those exiled was at most tens of thousands. When the country was conquered by the Arabs, many of the Jews converted to Islam and were assimilated among the conquerors. It follows that the progenitors of the Palestinian Arabs were Jews. Zand did not invent this thesis; 30 years before the Declaration of Independence, it was espoused by David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and others.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959229.html

...and now, another 6 weeks (at least) of being dragged comatose through an energetically empty competition dreary enough to ensure mummification of the facial muscles.
This is a very bad joke.

Louis de Wohl

The recent publication of Benson Bobrick's The Fated Sky will help to emphasise Louis de Wohl's place in astrological history as the astrologer that Churchill's government employed to assess and counteract the predictions that Hitler's astrologers might be making. Dennis Elwell, in his interview with Garry Phillipson, recently stated that it was de Wohl's book The Secret Service of the Sky that initiated both his and Ronald Davison's introduction to the noble art: "Imagine - the planets as spies in the sky, leaking secret information! It appealed to my Scorpio ascendant".

Dr Felix Jay, who wrote this article for The Traditional Astrologer magazine in 1998, was intimately acquainted with de Wohl and offers a deep insight into the character of the man and his astrological involvement in war propaganda and British politics. Felix Jay died in 2004, a great veteran of astrology having explored it over a long period of time in a wide variety of cultures.

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/wohl.html

OPEC set to snub Bush

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080305/ts_afp/opeccommoditiesoiloutputprice_080305102624

Good for OPEC, not good for us.

This is a Josh Marshall article and a good one to think about. Some people like and need a good fight, I don't know why but they do. Perhaps our country is a collection of people like that, but the fact of the matter is it's going to come down to a fight.

...A lot's getting said tonight. And a lot of it is baseless speculation. But the one thing that rings true to me is this: The Clinton campaign got rough and nasty over the last week-plus. And they got results. That may disgust you or it may inspire you with confidence in Hillary's abilities as a fighter. But wherever you come down on that question is secondary to the fact that that's how campaign's work. Opponents get nasty. And what we've seen over the last week is nothing compared to what Barack Obama would face this fall if he hangs on and wins the nomination.

So I think the big question is, can he fight back? Can he take this back to Hillary Clinton, demonstrate his ability to take punches and punch back? By this I don't mean that he's got to go ballistic on her or go after Bill's business deals or whatever else her vulnerabilities might be. Candidates fight in different ways and if they're good candidates in ways that play to their strengths and cohere with their broader message. But he's got to show he can take this back to Hillary and not get bloodied and battered when an opponent decides to lower the boom. That will obviously determine in a direct sense how he fares in the coming primaries and caucuses. And Obama's people are dead right when they say, he doesn't even have to do that well from here on out to end this with a substantial pledged delegate margin.

At the end of the day, the (SCROLL DOWN TO THE FINAL THOUGHTS ARTICLE)

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1085&thisview=item

One Texan explains why she voted for Clinton
A soldier's mother talks about the elections and the war

........
http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1089&thisview=item

One Texan explains why she voted for Obama
It's about the youth

It's not about me. It's about our broken system.

Wed Mar 5, 12:15 AM ET

By Ralph Nader

All Americans should have a chance to improve their country. They should not be shut out of their government by two major parties that, in varying degrees, have turned Washington into corporate-occupied territory.

With polls showing most people think our country is going in the wrong direction and that 61% of Americans believe both parties are failing, a resurgent democracy means that voters must have more choices on the presidential ballot.

My campaign for president reflects many years of accomplishments for the health, safety and well-being of the American people. That opportunity to diminish fatalities, injuries and diseases through life-saving consumer, environmental and workplace safety laws came largely in the '60s and '70s. In those decades, elected officials in Congress and in the White House were willing to listen, conduct hearings and sign into law proactive measures, such as auto safety laws, that put the people first.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080305/cm_usatoday/itsnotaboutmeitsaboutourbrokensystem&printer=1

The exit polls last night said that 20 percent of the people polled said race was a factor in their voting decision and 8 out of 10 of that 20 percent voted for Sen. Clinton. She won by about 18 percent. Race is a problem that everyone is afraid to talk about or address.

This morning Hillary said she would consider either being on Obama's ticket or visa versa, at this point, no matter what Obama has the delegates for the nomination, there are a ton of people who will not vote for Obama in the GE and a few less who will not vote for a woman, particularly this woman. The round of opinions this morning is Clinton went dirty tricks negative on Obama, and to continue his momentum he will have to go negative on her. Either way it's a no win. The under 45 group went for Obama in record numbers across the country and the Democrats will lose them permanently and it will be a gain for the GOP or third party (unlikely at this point) or most likely back to apathy and a GOP government for as far as the eye can see. Hillary is praising Karl Rove on Fox this morning, that should tell us something as to the direction. The DLC (Clinton's backers) are splitting this party in half.

It's been a brutal campaign for both candidates and Obama is a Leo and I expect licking his wounds today, but he doesn't have time for that. Just like Hillary has been, Obama is on the defensive and both of them will be after the remaining states with a fury unless someone stops this, and the Dems will lose in Nov. to McCain unless someone stops this and soon. The fact is, at this point neither Hillary or Obama or the Dems are winners, loser is written all over their party and all over them. They may win some battles but they are losing the war.

This was posted on Salon, and what we have come to thinking.

http://www.nathanielturner.com/rulesforradicals.htm

Prolgue: Rules for Radicals

There are no rules for revolution any more than there are rules for love or rules for happiness, but there are rules for radicals who want to change their world.

And from Freeperville (circa December 4, 2000) of all places, the rules: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a2c81004877.htm

Always remember the first rule of power tactics:

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.

The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.

The seventh rule is: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment...

The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

The ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative...

The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. you cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying "You're right--we don't know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us."

The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
That is the stuff of winning campaigns. I have no real respect these days for any major Democratic campaign that does not know, adapt and use these rules for their own good. Lord knows that Republicans use them against Dems.

Oy. Hillary hearts Rove? Obama/Hillary/Hillary/Obama ticket? How about an anchovie smoothie with raisins and chocolate chips.

Kill me now.

So far we've got a pile of bones to pick over.
This dangerous lack of content.

Give us one coherent idea with substance and a bottom to it. Words we hear are like ghosts. Who what when where how and why, shoved aside as an unprecedented exhausting nomination process (which historically has been a SWIFT process) promises to diminish to further time-wasting over the two states that were excluded.
Ah yes, lawsuits too!
Hillary, Obama, McCain, Nader should all go to hell for putting our nation through this.

This is what I mean by a tedious meaningless fight...the fight itself..all these strategies and gymnastics is the distraction from meaning.
While the soul of this country shrivels, dessicates from people shoved in front of us without our permission as they yammer on til the end 6 months from now, AUGUST!!!

patb, you left out the most important ingredients for that anchoviue smoothy. Chopped garlic, and a little ochra!
Hillary made a BIG freudian slip this morning.....( her victory speech last night? I went to bed!)Citing her expericence she said she did something ( experienced) when the Bus.........auh, Clinton Administration .........
Watching the visuals of the ceramony on the WH porch ...verifies our certainty that the fix is in. Bush came out twice, too soon, and went back inside, like an eager sophomore waiting for her prom date.
Now they are out after lunch; all buddy buddy! (Where is McCain's Chiron? This is balm for S Carolinaa 7 years ago! CLEARLY!

Oh dear..........His eh eh eh, was about 2 octaves higher than it usually is!
Ha ha, Asked about the VP choice Bush said
"I would just advise him to be careful who he picks to vet the choice!?
CNN characterized it as one of his more interesting Press conferences........... "They must have had a good lunch, he was a little "rambunctious!"
And Fredricka. promises a more in depth analysis, later in the show!
Re: campaigning for Mc. He will be busy, he does have a "day job". AND I have A LOT TO DO BEFORE I LEAVE."
THEN HE SAID "I'LL BE IN CRAWFORD CUTTING BRUSH."
?????????
Look for someone more articulate than I to write it up. I lost the Dish 3 times due to the ice storm here!

Bush tap dances while waiting for McCain. And the TV commentators go delirious!

Today, President Bush is meeting with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for lunch at the White House, where he is expected to endorse his presidential bid. He was so excited for the meeting that, while waiting for McCain to arrive, Bush stood outside on the North Portico and entertained the press corps by tap dancing, doing a goofy walk, winking, and smiling. Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/05/bush-dances-again

KiwiJeannie, no wasn't picking a fight....but I was questioning what was behind the man in the skirt comment. At this point, I am questioning every thing.

This morning got an email from a friend (former rethugs/evangelicals) containing a major HIT piece by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann (vaguely think I know who she is). It was funny almost, totally and completely unrelentingly negative. Boy, I thought, they must be REALLY worried she will win something.

Hi Everyone,
I,too,had violent reactions to Bush during his first campaign and the disgust has only deepened in the last eight years. As for Hillary and Obama, I think they are the perfect
duo served up to us as "change", designed to give us the illusion the people actually are heard, to make us think we've conquored the darkness. I do not believe Obama will or even has the intention of ushering in a new "Camelot", and I do not believe Hillary is
a successful warrior queen. Either one of them or both of them will just continue the descent of madness.

If there is a descent into madness, it will be the fault of the electorate as usual. I don't see things in such a dire way. Besides, I thought we had already descended into madness courtesy of the madness of king george. so that is just a lot of hyperbol, I think.

They own him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/03/05/BL2008030501742.html

Bush's (Mixed) Blessing

Pat, interesting...if 79% of the electorate wants change and McCain wins, what are we to think of the system? pretty much answers the question about change, I think. Or Diebold machines!

In the same discussion on the “Rules” this was also posted.

Those are rules for the model of community organizing that Alinsky founded and which still exists, in more or less the same form, in organizations across the country. (It’s worth noting that the Alinsky model has been criticized by both the left and right. The right have attacked Alinsky as a radical and a communist. Some sociologists on the left have noted that his confrontational method of organizing is essentially a privileged tactic that is unlikely to be used by the poor or minorities, for fear of arrest or persecution.)

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama studied at the altar of Alinsky.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401152.html

Obama was trained in the Alinsky style of community organizing when he was doing his thing on the south side of Chicago. Hillary wrote her senior thesis on Alinsky’s teachings – a thesis that is kept under lock and key at Wellesley.

Alinsky was big on confrontation and conflict. Making the opposition uncomfortable, catching them off guard, sit-ins and public standoffs. He also was big on “agitation” – as he put it, “rubbing raw the sores of discontent.” His style was not inspiring hope – it was finding grassroots activists’ core anger – about the system, about unjust practices, about discrimination, about politicians – and exploiting it, feeding it, and making people angry enough that they were motivated to take action to change their situation.

Obama does this to some extent, but his practice seems to be more inspiring hope than inspiring rage.

Obama has said this about Alinsky: “Sometimes the tendency in community organizing of the sort done by Alinsky was to downplay the power of words and of ideas when in fact ideas and words are pretty powerful. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal.’ Those are just words. ‘I have a dream.’ Just words.”

Here’s another piece that talks about Obama’s connection to Alinsky, and the points of divergence.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/bobamasunlikelypoliticaledu.html

Judi,

"Or Diebold machines!"

YES.

The incongruity here is that your average Joe rethug Voter is likely not to show up for voting day much like the paltry 1/4 repug to 3/4 dem turnout of late.
Watching anything with bush in it is unbearable unless he's doing a jig off a cliff.
Then I might enjoy 100 instant replays.
Whatever chesspieces Rush Windbag & the rest imagine the high excitement is over is just that, their twisted delusions about what is happening.

Like the rest of this 2-year long heavy handed flu with another 9 months to go with 4 meaningless candidates I can't take anymore.

As the buddhists say: Nothing Happens.

Nothing Happens....yes, so true. It is, as Terry Southern called it, Flash and Filigree.

while the people behind the curtain are pulling the strings and every candidate is beholden to someone or some entity.

Or like the Family Guy's version of hell...
The Brady Bunch or somesuch on every damn channel for eternity.

Patb, I could take the Family Guy on every channel!!! it is hysterical.

'Fraid not Judi, it would be too stimulating intellectually and we know that is dangerous.

Hillary Clinton has been so slimed by Rush Limbaugh I am still gasping!

And Wolf Blitzer, is making sure it gets around. Tune in to the Situation Room and I'm sure you will hear it several times!
I have called Sen. Collins office. Tomorrow, I will call EVERY FEMALE SENATOR..................
Rush said " Hillary is on top now; a position she is familiar with."
This is so sick & debauched, WHAT must the mature adults in other countries around the world think of us?
Sen. Clinton is a US Senator! She is a former First Lady!
They are so carried away with themselves they have descended into the 4th level of HELL instead of being the 4th estate!
This is so much worse than Imus gaffe, limbaugh MUST be fired too. And wolf blizer at least needs a good swift kick in the you know what!
I have e-mailed cnn, called cnn......will find limbaugh & call there tomorrow!
I am far from a prude, .......Funny you never know what your flash point will be until it happens.
This is my tea in the harbor to the Corporate Media!

I wouldn't get to excited about the small numbers of repug voters coming out to vote in the primaries. There wasn't much of a contest there, but the election is an entirely different story. Many more may come out for that one.

Well PatC, maybe more but so many are divided in their various extremes, some of it depends on McCain taking aboard a rabid religioso as vp, gelded tho he may be. He may find one that hasn't been popped yet for boylove or crossdressing.
I do believe participation will be down in significant numbers.

Dems are hardly any better. A bit of rough stuff in TX just in case we thought rethugs were the only thugs. The blogs would be barroom brawls complete with bloody noses and flying teeth if these people could get at each other. Anticipate this venom over Obama this and Hillary that will probably erupt into the same violence we claim to abhor and be above, and so to the darkside goes our dignity. Never seen anything like this, everybody's falling into a pit.

qop give them a piece of what'fer.
But we know all that hate is building up in their arteries and might do the job we cannot.

You know what they say about Nesferatu, when he's flapping away at your window he can't come in without an invitation.

Raven, I agree with you, at least I've questioned the last several months if that could be true. I don't get a sincerity from either one of them. I found the early on debates with all the candidates to be really surreal and that's when I started thinking this might be a set up. I would agree that I let my mind be overworked in trying to figure out what's happening here, but there is something that just doesn't quite add up for me and I don't know what it is. I can point to likes and dislikes I have about the candidates but that isn't what I mean. I still feel as if we are in the rabbit hole and don't know exactly what's going on. I cannot make myself get past that this is some kind of game and it's not real.

Sally, I feel the same. There is theatre as our country is hollowed out.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/05/7482/
Obama Glosses Over Colombian Attack in Ecuador; Clinton Calls for Escalation Against Venezuela
by Robert Naiman

ok that does it. Not that there was any question before about who these two frauds really are.

So Clinton wants to escalate against CHAVEZ??!!! How transparently LOATHSOME.
Obama "smooth as glass" doesn't think one of bush's sluts invading a sovereign country is a big deal?
Who does he think he is this coiled creep snake in a basket??!!!

They're worse than swine. What pretenders.
The masks are OFF dear friends.

guess bush's legacy is in excellent hands.

QOP, what I would like to know is why Maine's stance has not been on MSM, they are practically standing alone on this. Is there anything in the state that indicates the people back their state government on the "Homeland Security" threat or any state that refuses to play along. This government says people in Maine cannot fly? What on earth is going on here and where is Susan Collins on this?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/5/135043/3580/134/469722

Hell Sally, most of us in the state can't afford to fly at this point! The airports are to bring tourists into the state!
I suspect Gov. Baldacci's initiative is to run the clock out on the Bush Adm. He's NOT going to use state funds to support this issue, they're insufficient and earmarked for other things.......
He has been in talks with the Premier of New Brunswick Ca. about culteral exchange & commerce!
I asked him last year if he would consider succession, ..He didn't answer but, by the twinkle in his eye I could tell he might consider it!
WHen he was in DC as COngresman, he stayed in that boarding house run by the "Christian Fellowship,*
* Wayne Madsen's The Christian MAfia."

They tried to get a rumor goiing about his dinner with a young intern, but it didn't stick!
He's too lirul, and he's 1/2 Lebanese for gods sake! AND Aquarius! Not quite one of the "good ole boys".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baldacci
Collins; a Bush syncophant! To be replaced by Tom (not as liberal as I'd like),Allen in Nov.

And then there's Vermont.

The Brattleboro Resolution Mar 3

The Brattleboro vote took place during the Tuesday's Vermont primary election. Bush supporters launched a major campaign to discredit the referendum resolution and the organizers. Yet the resolution passed by a vote of 2012 in favor to 1795 against.

In Vermont, more than 40 town councils voted in favor of impeachment. Throughout California and in the other states of the union, the grassroots movement has put impeachment on the table through referendum, resolutions, demonstrations, rallies, newspaper ads and door-to-door petitioning.

In the next two weeks, ImpeachBush.org is joining with the anti-war movement for mass protests around the country. We are organizing buses, car caravans, printing placards and banners and making sure the call for Impeachment resounds on this coming 5th anniversary of the criminal war in Iraq. These will be locally and regionally coordinated mass actions in cities and towns throughout the country.

qop that is shocking tho not surprizing, since 37 states are resisting national id.
From the beginning of this 1 1/2 years ago Skeletor has been threatening (now making good on them) states would suffer withholding of fed funds for non-compliance.
This will be very interesting to watch unfold, and think many individual states will stand against this and lend courage to resist this latest attempt to stick their fingers into every aspect of our personal lives that makes us autonomous and free, to move about and control our money.
They have some pretty long term plans for us.

QOP How on earth could Susan Collins be replaced? I thought Leiberman was campaigning for her. I would think that would put her return in the bag, he was so good for Al Gore.

Oh, that wasn't nice was it, I actually think it would be awful to not be suited for anything but politics or not want to do anything else.

Good plan, run the clock out on them. How's your cold?

Did you see this, it seems as if the NAFTA situation came from what the Hillary camp said not from the Obama camp. It got all mixed up and Harper is in a heap of trouble for it.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080305.wharpleak0305/BNStory/National/home

My cold comes and goes like the temp. up here. I think it is largely allergy from confinement in a closed space with the hot air heat! ( cat hair & dust, in spite of my efforts)
I'l comment later on the race for Collins Senate seat here in Nov. I've got some drawing to do....

Oh, my my. Hard times are affecting even the Carlyle Fund.

http://tinyurl.com/2joegc

http://www.cnn.com/
Blast damages Times Square military office
An explosion caused minor damage to a military recruiting station in Times Square early today, police said. The Associated Press reports the blast was caused by an explosive device. No injuries were reported. developing story

This is the best account of what went down with the Canadian government and Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxZP24dX_nY

Notice what the reporter says, and pay close attention to the comments of McCain and Clinton.

Interesting.

We were set up from the first Bush residency, perhaps before. And, there is nothing to suggest that the same will not continue. For some time i've been trying to find the devil in the details. But, it seems the devil is us. When i hear people projecting their god-forsaken visions of continued war for the sake of some *astardized version of safety, i feel a psychic blow.

The root basis of our past prosperity is connected soley to war. Therefore, it makes sense that all of the presidential hopefuls would want to continue exacting war throughout the world to maintain even resurrect our falling dollar.

I support those organizations that attempt to create a sustainable future. I like to think of it as one of my continued acts of subversive activity :)

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/19106551/a_new_hope

Rolling Stone endorses Obama

Hi Karen, your message this morning is so to the point in that what we can do is focus on creating a new right livelihood for ourselves, our families and this country. This is so important in keeping our seat and confidence.
Especially needed to divert the power and flow of events back to the people and the states, communities we live in. Thanks for that.

I'm becoming more aware through my own flailing about that maybe we can trust ourselves to do the right thing when the time ripens in the moment. This anger comes from the helplessness of the losses we've experienced in just the last 5 weeks. Anger in my own case is symptomatic of heartbreak and an ineffectual powerlessness that refreshing our country after 8 years of madness and misery may not happen after all.
That this opportunity has been denied us once again.

It is not an enjoyable feeling, this ineffectual anger which I recognize as part of a grief process. So what now that some pin their hopes on what feels unreal and frightening to others. It is hard to see a way to reconcile this in my heart or make sense/friends with this. Some are comforted, others like myself feel the ground has given way entirely.
Stephanie Austin in the feb/mar Mountain Astrologer says in part, "in the 1960's...the role of Uranus the cosmic imperative was "Question Authority"; this decade, it's "Question Reality", what if life is but a dream?"

This all has become an unnecessary and protracted drain on our energies, and the rest of us are questioning how on earth we came to this point feeling quite robbed and at a loss.
From this point I know words mean little and will have to find a resting place until the time for action arises naturally. The last thing my heart wants to do is create further defenses and go to the next stage of grief which is acceptance and work with what unfolds since this is a battle to wake up.

patb, Have you read Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now? I think I recall that you said you were interested, and I think it will help you realize your anger and grief are issues you can deal with in a truly healing way and very quickly. You can find that still place in an instant and at any time.

You're right. Living this reality without questioning it is nuts, and very bad for our health.

MaineImpeach "Constitution in Crisis" event - on Maine Public Radio Network and MPBN website‏
From: Maine Campaign to Impeach (maineimpeach@earthlink.net)
Sent: Wed 3/05/08 7:37 PM
Reply-to: maineimpeach@earthlink.net
To: psharpart@hotmail.com
Maine Campaign to Impeach
Will we reclaim the U.S. Constitution?
Our Constitution In Crisis
What Does A Broken Democracy Look Like & How Do We Fix It?

Sponsored by Maine Lawyers for Democracy and
Maine Campaign to Impeach

If you missed the live Portland event on Feb. 26, it will be broadcast on the "Speaking in Maine" program, Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) Radio and internet.

This two-hour forum on the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government, held recently in Portland, features five of the eight First District Congressional candidates: four Democrats and one Republican. Introductory remarks were presented by featured speaker John Nichols, Washington correspondent for the "The Nation" and author of "The Genius of Impeachment."

The initial, on-air broadcast on MPBN public radio stations will be tomorrow, Thursday, March 6 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

But since most people can't listen at that time -

The broadcast also will be available for on-line listening any time you wish after 3 PM, March 6. Log onto www.MPBN.net, choose "Audio on Demand", then choose "Speaking in Maine".

Enjoy!

And feel free to send your reactions to us at

MaineImpeach@earthlink.net
If you can find it tune in. It'a making history I think!

lunaoscura, I was avoiding the word "my" anger and grief, because this is also a collective dilemma, feelings go 'through' us, and the only thing I can call mine is "this" perspective that has a sense of responsibility for the turf wider than my own Little Idaho.
Each one of us is on-the-spot right now.
To admit vulnerability is not a weakness, but rather a path to being genuine through being open. Expressing vulnerability is a good thing, it is courageous and human.
It doesn't necessarily imply a lack of awareness or running off for another remedy.
I don't think going through a process is to be avoided, otherwise we wouldn't know how to walk or talk.
You could say I have "spiritual credentials" but find it ludicrous to think such a thing or believe me or you or anyone else have anything but right now, which is saying alot. There are times of huge learning and discipline and times of falling off the horse. No big deal.

OK patb,

I won't mention it again.

hahahah...patb and luna. sometimes a cigar, groucho said, is just a cigar.

AFL-CIO Gearing Up to Go After McCain

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 7:30 PM

WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO's leaders on Wednesday found a presidential candidate they can agree to focus on: Sen. John McCain.

The nation's largest labor federation announced at its executive council meeting in San Diego that it would continue to remain neutral in the Democratic race between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, but would begin training its political resources on McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee.

Political director Karen Ackerman said the opening salvo will be to link McCain to President Bush, who endorsed the Arizona senator on Wednesday.

McCain "voted for every free trade deal that exports jobs, he voted against S-CHIP, he votes for national right to work bill, he voted against raising minimum wage," she said. "There is no jobs programs, his health care program is one that's based on individual health accounts and not in any way universal health care. So on every single measure on economic issues that working families care about, McCain really stands with the Bush administration policies over and over and over again."

(I got this as an email, but I think it is from Truthout source)

Put those coffee mugs down.

[Meet the Press - online chat]

MATALIN: I'm going to bet on McCain in the general

CARVILLE: You got it. What do I get?

MATALIN: You get it everyday. You're living the dream.

(LAUGHTER)

RUSSERT: Thank God this is the W-e-b.

...and sometimes transiting uranus conjuncts/catches mars going too far and then pulls back. I'm just paying attention to what I'm doing and why. (the why is not astrology).

It's ok lunaoscura, we all need (and usually get) reminders. Tolle is lovely.

Stephen Colbert does a wrap up from Tuesday’s Semi-super Tuesday primaries and wishes his buddy a Huckabye-bye.

Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary, appears to give his enthusiastic endorsement of the democratic process and to dismiss Colbert’s charge that the Democratic party is destroying itself from within, but just won’t give an enthusiastic endorsement of a specific candidate, no matter how many ways Colbert tries to wheedle it out of him.

SC: Are you endorsing Hillary Clinton?

RR: No, I decided not to endorse this round.

SC: So, you’re endorsing Barack Obama?

RR: No, I’m not going to endorse anybody. Because I’ve been a friend of Hillary…

SC: But you’re leaning, you’re leaning towards Barack Obama…

RR: …for so many years, I don’t want to endorse anybody, I think that would be inappropriate.

SC: Okay, let me put it this way: if we were at a restaurant together and the waiter brought around the dessert cart, and the choice was ladyfingers or Black Forest cake, which way do you think you’d lean?

RR: Quite seriously, either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would make a great president.

SC: Let me put this a different way. If I were a waiter and I were to offer you two different slices of pizza, and one was half-Hawaiian and you weren’t entirely sure what it was going to taste like. And the other was plain with cheese and had been under a heat lamp for 35 years, I mean, it had seen everything. Which would you go for?

RR: I don’t think I’d be terribly excited about either of those slices.

SC: Which movie would you rent? “Big Momma’s House” or “Medea’s Family Reunion”? Be careful, they are both about strong women who are actually black men.

RR: Um, gosh. I think I’d try both of them out.

Hmmmmm, apparently Obama is now winning Texas because of the caucases.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/030608a.html

Judigem,

"If I were a waiter and I were to offer you two different slices of pizza, and one was half-Hawaiian and you weren’t entirely sure what it was going to taste like. And the other was plain with cheese and had been under a heat lamp for 35 years, I mean, it had seen everything. Which would you go for?"

LOL!

http://murray.senate.gov/tankers/index.cfm

Sign her petition.

http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=294366

We are at risk of losing a major part of our aerospace industry to the Europeans forever.

And I am outraged that the Pentagon is not only going to:

stand by and let it happen but that it’s the Pentagon that made the decision in the first place. I’m referring, of course, to the Air Force’s decision on Friday to award one of the largest military contracts in history to the French company Airbus – over the American company Boeing.

With this $40 billion contract, our Air Force is beginning the process of rebuilding our aerial refueling tanker fleet. And the planes we are purchasing will be used for the next 30 years or more.

We’re Handing Airbus Control of our Technology

As we learn more about this decision, I grow more astounded at its shortsightedness.

More at the link...

Luna, isn't Stephen Colbert a scream? too too funny.

From Daykeeper Journal for tomorrow:

snip

The national chart, set for the exact conjunction of the Sun and Moon at 12:14 pm in Washington DC, shows Cancer rising, with that conjunction almost exactly on the midheaven—the point that reflects our nation’s stature in the world. Apparently, many neighbors around the globe have been paying close attention and hopefully many will likewise be pleased. Still, it’s Pisces there and may not be a WYSIWYG situation (What You See Is What You Get).

The exact Mars-Pluto opposition remains provocative, with Mars just above the ascendant (in the house of clandestine activities and confinement) and Pluto, significator of power and transformation, in the sixth house. In political astrology, the sixth is commonly associated with national defense and the military, but also with all things related to health and labor. Are we looking at covert military action? Or movement toward universal health insurance? A flu epidemic? Or a resurgence of the political muscle of the working class?

snip

The Mars-Pluto opposition falls on the midheaven in countries abutting a vertical line that bisects the globe from Finland through South Africa, slicing through the Ukraine, Romania, Greece, Egypt, Zaire and all the countries between. It is not far from Belgrade and Kosovo, where unrest is intense. It precisely spans the horizon in charts for Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Then there may be clues further afield if we look at this opposition as “the fullness” of the initiatory conjunction on January 13, 2007. (You may want to check your journal to see what was happening In your life in mid-January.) Thanks to the internet, it is now easy to see was happening then. On the 13th, martial law was declared in Somalia; an 8.2 earthquake in the northwest Pacific brought widespread tsunami warnings; two-thirds of Venus' southern hemisphere suddenly brightened as something triggered aerosols to form at a furious rate and scientists announced they now think that Venus was once much more Earth-like and awash with water until an eco-disaster struck.

snip

The Sabian symbol for the Sun-Moon conjunction at 18° Pisces: In a gigantic tent, villagers witness a spectacular performance; the collective appeal of a well-staged and exciting display of skill and/or oratory. “What takes place,” says Rudhyar, “is the use of personal achievement and conviction to bring a crowd to a state of enthusiasm sufficient to make it forget its boredom with everyday routine or its familiar sins of commission or omission.” The implication, he continues, is that “the time has come for the individual to date to present himself and his works to his community for applause, or for the purpose of attracting a following.”

Wondered about dickDick, and why the silence of late? He's been building a new home!

http://wonkette.com:80/363302/cheneys-new-house-is-cia-adjacent

Yes, karen, DIck "Dick" just doesn't give up. Makes one wonder how vast is the info he's trying to hide. I also wonder if the underground passage connecting his "house" to the CIA is wide enough for boxcars to transport all those files to help Dick "Dick" with his important work and to feed his insatiable shredders. On the other hand, continuing in fantasy mode, I guess his being Fourth Estate does not expire 1/20/09--and possibly nevah.

Sheesh!

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1102&thisview=item

Whose side are you on?

Jim Hightower looks at the election results and says people are tired of getting the "shaft"

It's the "nevah" part (along with that vast tunneled network of black-arts espionage) that has me digging a new garden this year, Shy. Geez, i got a mini farm goin'. But, i also know if things get even more rough -- which it appears is happening -- then these gardens may be feeding a whole lot of people, even some that just decide to help themselves.

Essay on 2012

by

Matthew

Those who have interpreted the year 2012 as the beginning of the end of darkness—never mind the totel end of the world!—have misinterpreted its significance. Most simply stated, 2012 heralds Earth’s entry into the Golden Age, and between now and then is a time of transition from life as you have known it into life totally in harmony with all of Nature.

Everything in the universe is energy vibrating at one frequency or another, and when Earth was in prime health, in times you know but don’t remember, all of her life forms were vibrating harmoniously. When she was near death more than six decades back, there was no harmony whatsoever, no balance of Nature—there was hardly sufficient light to sustain any kind of life, including Earth’s own. What is happening now, with the help of stabilizing forces, is the transformation of your world—Earth’s rejuvenation and return to balance—reaching completion in 2012.

http://www.matthewbooks.com/mm/anmviewer.asp?a=83&print=yes

"and it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is ..." Anybody remember Joe Cocker and The Fish? Anyway, looking at all the bickering and fighting all over the internet reminded me of it. It's divide and conquer folks. "This is how they do it (another song ... )". And it's all meant to enslave us. Here's a Zeitgeist movie you may want to check out ... part of many. YouTube keeps on deleting the Zeitgeist series and people keep on posting them. See them while you still can. There a whole series on the World Trade Center, the Federal Reserve, Religion (which I'm going to check out) ... Very compelling. Knowledge is power. Use it or ...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPPFgHF9VR4&feature=related

New Moon in Pisces
Friday, March 7, 2008
9:14am PST
17º 31’

©2008 Lisa Dale Miller
All rights reserved

This year, the Pisces New Moon features a celestial contest to determine which jam-packed constellation will be most influential:
transcendent, blissful Sun/Moon/Uranus in Pisces or Venus/Neptune/Mercury/Chiron/North Node in “wake up or else” Aquarius. Add the hard-nosed intensity of Pluto and Jupiter in “show me reality” Capricorn, and the compassionate action of Mars in Cancer, and we’ve got ourselves a New Moon ripe for direct revelation of these most basic, yet paradoxically intertwined truths:

We are nothing and everything; full and empty. All dualistic existence is interconnected and sourced in that which abides beyond duality. We can actively awaken to this realization of essential connectedness through the relinquishment of hatred, fear, violence, and greed. This and each successive moment presents an opportunity to choose love and peace.

Can you feel the waves of peace building all around us? People are actually serious about accepting nothing less than peace; nothing less than radical change. Aquarius and Pisces are combining to foster unconditional love, total compassion, and absolute oneness. It is time to break down the walls of separation; walls built with hatred, suspicion, and ignorance. Humans are duty-bound by our awareness of suffering. It is time to lift the Neptunian/Piscean veil of denial from our eyes and see how we are all responsible for the continued violence, hatred and suffering in this world.

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

wv, how synchronistic of you. That's what the zeitgeist clips are about. Showing how we are constantly manipulated and herded and divided. What's "Behind the Veil", so to speak.

In order to see how we are responsible "for the continued violence, hatred and suffering", we must have knowledge of how we are manipulated. Otherwise it's difficult for the scales to fall off our eyes.

I think this is why the Chinese outlawed Falun Gong. They knew they'd lose control of "the people" if they allowed it to proliferate. People were waking up and becoming immune to the normal prods.

Marta, year is 1967, April, and SF has BIGGGG peace (anti Vietnam )march and it was Country Joe MacDonald (not Joe Cocker, who was a drunken Englishman who fell of the stage when I saw him perform in Phx, but was still WONDERFUL) who led the anthem of the antiwar movement.

I was there, and sang along with him at Kezar stadium in Golden Gate Park after a long march from downtown SF. It was the beginning of the mini golden age of SF. THAT didn't last long.

The song is still around, though....as is Country Joe...

Marta, Joe Cocker put himself on the map singing "Try with a little help from my friends" which was Ringo Starr's ditty from the Beatles years. He also scored really big with another song which had to do with people dying....and it is a very beautiful one...."I see my light come shining, from the west down to the east..." That one was "I shall be released"

Someone posted a question, and I'm not sure that it was this thread, about when the Uranus -Venus eclipse of the sun happened....I know that it was on my birthday (or the day after) but I cannot for the life of me remember what year....but I am going to wager a bet... either June 6,7,8 of 2003 which was my 60th birthday. I know that what I felt was unlike anything that happened before, that is, until Aug 1, 2005, when I felt the same energy of total joy and peace. It was SO amazing, as if every bird in the world was singing....lasted for me about 18 hours. I never again when back to the severe depression I had most if not all of my life.

So far, I'm not feeling that re the article on the Pisces moon. But Pisces/Virgo energy is exceedingly difficult on Geminis.

Ha....all that energy in Aquarius opposes all my freestylin' center of attention Leo in the 10th (MC,Venus,Pluto,Moon North Node and Chiron),...no, I'm definitely not feeling very compassionate! I'll leave that to the Cancerians and Pisceans! Good luck!

Everything in the universe is energy vibrating at one frequency or another, and when Earth was in prime health, in times you know but don’t remember, all of her life forms were vibrating harmoniously. When she was near death more than six decades back, there was no harmony whatsoever, no balance of Nature—there was hardly sufficient light to sustain any kind of life, including Earth’s own.
-------
So basically, we have most of us either been born into or lived thru this time of living in purgatory. 2012 is a new birth, which sounds more positive to me. And how would we know what that was like if none of us had ever experienced it? Sure wish it was true, because that would be a wonderful gift to the grandchildren.,,,.

Karen, you didn't catch my error, so I probably should just leave it alone, but I meant to write that Dick "Dick" is the self-declared Fourth Branch (you know, the Legislative, the Judiciary, the Preznit and Dick "Dick"). The Fourth Estate used to belong to the press, but, well, we know what they did with that distinction.

Keith O:

One of the larger frustrations of this primary season has been how the media, in their collective need to create a dramatic narrative, have consistently overstated outcomes of the primaries. For example, Obama may get more delegates than Clinton in Texas, but all of the mainstream media talked about Clinton’s big victory stopping the Obama momentum juggernaut. Very dramatic, but hardly reflective of the reality. At different times, they’ve predicted the impending death of both candidates’ campaigns and floated the idea that one or the other should drop out for the sake of party unity. And all of them have been making John McCain’s snoozer campaign (did any of you watch his speech when he secured the nomination? *yawn*) to be far more credible than it is (he loses against either one in head to head match ups). On Wednesday’s Countdown, in the midst of their post-primary analysis, Richard Wolffe admits to Keith Olbermann that the media coverage leaves much to be desired, if you’re looking for honest reportage.

(Crooks and Liars)

The Fourth Estate? Yeah, they dicked with it.

Aw, shucks! Well I like both Joe Cocker and Country Joe and the fish! And I also love both those songs! So thanks for a) settin' me straight and 2) reminding me of another good song that we should all be singin'!

Here is an alternative look at the candidate status from Alternet:

The charter hate Hillary club members also delight in constantly harping on the supposed mounds of Clinton negatives. The point supposedly is that this alone is enough to set the Democrats on a train wreck course with her as the nominee. But the polls also have consistently shown that voters like her for her strength and experience. When they assess her positions on health care, jobs and the economy, and in dealing with the sub prime crisis, without the filter of distortions and twisting, her positions are sound, reasonable and workable, and much better than anything offered by any of the other candidates.

The polls show something else and that's that in a head to head race with McCain Clinton loses by a few percentage points or is statistically even with him. This too is supposedly proof that Clinton will sink the party. But these are the same polls that showed Clinton losing virtually every contest in every primary. These are the same polls that did not factor in that Clinton tactically and strategically picked the primaries that she chose to make a major effort to win and then proceeded to do just that.

There are more primaries ahead, but despite all the fervent hopes and delicious dreams of the hate Clinton club members, she will win more primaries -- Pennsylvania being the most likely. That will further strengthen the case that she can and should boldly make and that's that she can win the big states and make the White House race a real contest. In other words, there are more bad nights in store for the hate Clinton club members.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).

http://www.gregpalast.com/300-million-from-chavez-to-farc-a-fake/

Colombia's Bush buddy Uribe is trying to cover for his crimes by spewing bull.

This past weekend, Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla chief in the jungle, opened his laptop – and what did the Colombians find? A message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which they’re using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!

That’s what George Bush tells us. And he got that from his buddy, the strange right-wing President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.

So: After the fact, Colombia justifies its attempt to provoke a border war as a way to stop the threat of WMDs! Uh, where have we heard that before?

The US press snorted up this line about Chavez’ $300 million to “terrorists” quicker than the young Bush inhaling Colombia’s powdered export.

What the US press did not do is look at the evidence, the email in the magic laptop. (Presumably, the FARC leader’s last words were, “Listen, my password is ….”)

I read them. (You can read them here) While you can read it all in español, here is, in translation, the one and only mention of the alleged $300 million from Chavez:

“… With relation to the 300, which from now on we will call “dossier,” efforts are now going forward at the instructions of the boss to the cojo [slang term for ‘cripple’], which I will explain in a separate note. Let’s call the boss Ángel, and the cripple Ernesto.”

Got that? Where is Hugo? Where’s 300 million? And 300 what? Indeed, in context, the note is all about the hostage exchange with the FARC that Chavez was working on at the time (December 23, 2007) at the request of the Colombian government.

Indeed, the entire remainder of the email is all about the mechanism of the hostage exchange. Here’s the next line: “To receive the three freed ones, Chavez proposes three options: Plan A. Do it to via of a ‘humanitarian caravan’; one that will involve Venezuela, France, the Vatican[?], Switzerland, European Union, democrats [civil society], Argentina, Red Cross, etc.”

As to the 300, I must note that the FARC’s previous prisoner exchange involved 300 prisoners. Is that what the ‘300’ refers to? ¿Quien sabe? Unlike Uribe, Bush and the US press, I won’t guess or make up a phastasmogoric story about Chavez mailing checks to the jungle.

To bolster their case, the Colombians claim, with no evidence whatsoever, that the mysterious “Angel” is the code name for Chavez. But in the memo, Chavez goes by the code name … Chavez.

Well, so what? This is what . . . . Colombia’s invasion into Ecuador is a rank violation of international law, condemned by every single Latin member of the Organization of American States. But George Bush just loved it. He called Uribe to back Colombia, against, “the continuing assault by narco-terrorists as well as the provocative maneuvers by the regime in Venezuela.”

Well, our President may have gotten the facts ass-backward, but Bush knows what he’s doing: shoring up his last, faltering ally in South America, Uribe, a desperate man in deep political trouble.

In the summer of 1995, an Iranian man named Majid Yourdkhani allowed a friend to photocopy pages from “The Satanic Verses,” the Salman Rushdie novel, at the small print shop that he owned in Tehran. Government agents arrested the friend and came looking for Majid, who secretly crossed the border to Turkey and then flew to Canada. In his haste, Majid was forced to leave behind his wife, Masomeh; for months afterward, Iranian government agents phoned her and said things like “If you aren’t divorcing him, then you are supporting him, and we will therefore arrest you and torture you.” That October, Masomeh also escaped from Iran and joined Majid in Toronto, where they lived for ten years. [...] Their son, Kevin, was born in Toronto, in 1997, a Canadian citizen. [...] In December, 2005, however, the Yourdkhanis learned that the Canadian government had denied their application for political asylum, and Majid, Masomeh, and Kevin were deported to Iran.
Upon their return, the Yourdkhanis say, Masomeh was imprisoned for a month, and Majid for six, and during that time he was beaten and tortured. After Majid was released, the family paid a smuggler twenty thousand dollars to procure false documents and arrange a series of flights that would return them to Canada.
Then, on the last leg of the journey, the family ran into someone else’s bad luck. On February 4, 2007, during a flight from Georgetown, Guyana, to Toronto, a passenger had a heart attack and died, and the plane was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Puerto Rico. American immigration officials there ascertained that the Yourdkhanis’ travel documents were fake. The Yourdkhanis begged to be allowed to continue on to Canada, but they were told that if they wanted asylum they would have to apply for it in the United States.
They did so, and, five days later, became part of one of the more peculiar, and contested, recent experiments in American immigration policy. They were locked inside a former medium-security prison in a desolate patch of rural Texas: the T. Don Hutto Residential Center.

More at the link....

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/03/080303fa_fact_talbot

holy hell Pat C.....it is like a Russian novel from the 19th century.

Very astute Judi. It sure does.

and now for the 'fini on W.F. Buckley courtesy of Alternet, and the conservative movement whose sole (soul) job it was, it seems, to "stand[ing] athwart history, yelling Stop."

Yep, that's actually a bona fide quote from the man himself. If that sounds a bit anachronistic as the grand rallying cry for a modern political movement, you're -- ahem -- still not getting it, I'm afraid. The thwarting and reversal of progress is precisely the point of conservatism.:
Let's Pay Tribute to the Spectacular Wrongness of William F. Buckley
By David Michael Green, AlterNet. Posted March 5, 2008.
(snip)
The man himself put it best: "Some of my instincts are reprehensib
Yep, William F. Buckley was a smart man, all right. One can't help but think that he saw the handwriting on the wall, block letters growing every day more boldly vivid and fluorescently bright such that they have now taken over and indeed become the wall.

Conservatism has ruled America for three decades now and never more than in the last seven years. Backward, deceitful, polarizing, warlike, arrogant, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, destructive, intolerant, ignorant, lethal and incompetent -- it's just plain ugly, isn't it? Ergo -- as you might have said, Bill -- Americans have awakened sufficiently from their Buckley-induced stupor to now join the rest of the world in embracing this ideology about as much as they might welcome a whopping good case of leprosy. And with roughly the same results if they did.

Eighty-two years old, one can't help but think that smart Bill Buckley got out while the getting was good, just months before the election that would seal forever the fate of his destructive little life's project.

Perhaps he had actually come to believe his own words from an earlier time: "Some of my instincts are reprehensible."

They say he died at his desk, about to write another essay. Maybe it was entitled "The Achievements of My Life as a Conservative." And maybe it was sitting there staring at that very, very blank page that killed him.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/78662/?page=1

Shy, i'm a lady, i never point out mistakes (guffaw, while sitting unpetitely with my legs spread, a glass of red wine to my lips).

William F. Buckley. . .what a character, cloaking KKK beliefs with erudite righteousness. Do you think women swooned to his throbbing prose? Or was it KKCarl who kneeled under his gaze?

I can't believe a self-respecting woman would ever swoon over ol' out-of-focus-face Buckley. And certainly no self-respecting man, such as Gore Vidal, would. I know it's petty and awfully lame of me, but I'm so glad Vidal outlived WmF.

So, Cheers! Karen, and do have another glass.

Everybody here probably has heard about the bombing of a military recruiting stand or kiosk in Times Square. Done when streets seemed deserted--nobody hurt.

Interesting just now on CNN news a "reporter" said something about surveillance film the NYPD had released showing the guy on a bicycle who probably left the bomb. Introducing the film, she said, "the bombing AT THE"--then caught herself and said "in Times Square."

Is there a protocol to play down the fact that the target was a military recruiting facility?

Mayfly,

I watched this story in the news last night and they were trying to imply that the Pink Code ladies who've taken up residence outside the Marine Recruiting office in Berkeley were endangering the troops and somehow fostering violence. Two loud mouthed (I mean that literally)women who were obviously pro-war went charging into the Mayor's office claiming the violence in NY was the fault of the peaceful resisters and that it put the troops in jeopardy. My head spun around at the audacity of those women to even utter those words.

Pink Code said they have sat outside that recruiting station for months and months and have never advocated violence. It's like everything gets reduced to what the Republicans want to talk about. Two irate women can actually dictate what the slant of th enews coverage will be. The MSM just eats it up with their pretend balanced coverage

Well Luna, you don't expect the MSM to be unbiased, do you? We all know what team THEY bat for ...:)

lunaoscura, thanks. I didn't see that part of the story on tv. I remember back during the Vietnam war, attacks on recruiting centers (often blood carried in and spilled in the office and also attempted destruction of records) were commonly reported for what they were--actions against the war.

Marta, yes indeed they bat for the Home Team. I've been very interested in the political imprisonment of Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, and they neoCons there who railroaded the Gov. and (ahem) overlooked serious documented charges against Republicans, constantly refer to the Repug/neoCons as "the Home Team."

Amazing, and deeply disturbing, info related to telecom retroactive immunity has appeared today over at emptywheel's blog. Be sure to look at the "Comments", too, as many are very educational. Where are the investigations, Senators/Congresscritters?

http://tinyurl.com/2ov4l5

http://tinyurl.com/33wmsv

Obama Adviser Says: I ‘Strongly’ Believe Telecoms ‘Should Be Granted I

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/07/obama-brennan/

From MCM, and I pretty much agree.

Here, from Thom Hartmann, are some interesting bits of audio that make it pretty clear that the Obama/Clinton rift is highly pleasing to some very powerful entities.

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/03/gop-prolongs-agony-and-ge-likes-it.html

First, it's highly pleasing to the GOP--as well it should be, not only because it works to their advantage, but because the GOP itself has helped create the civil war now tearing up the Democrats. As several recent items have made crystal clear, Rush Limbaugh helped get out the vote in Texas and Ohio, so as to give a boost to Clinton and prolong the agony. And, thanks to Thom, we can now hear from Michael Reagan that the GOP does not want anyone to talk about the matter. (Reagan made this point, of course, off-camera.)

And the Obama/Clinton rift is also very pleasant to at least one sector of "the liberal media." Thanks to Chris Matthews' big mouth, we now know that his bosses are enjoying the Democratic Party's agony as much as Rush does.

Perhaps it's only that they like the brawl because it makes for lots of "drama," and, therefore, higher ratings and more advertising dollars. Or maybe it's because GE, a mammoth weapons manufacturer, has a vested interest in the war, which Bomb-Bomb would prolong forever (and no doubt extend as well). Let us not forget what happened on Election Night 2000, when "Neutron Jack" Welch, GE's CEO, barged into the studios of NBC News, demanding that they second FOX's (bogus) claim that Bush won Florida.

It's a combination that would tickle Mussolini. So it's not enough to say that it spells trouble for the Democratic Party--for that party has, of course, done absolutely nothing to confront the far right and/or question corporate power. It's not, in short, the leading Democrats, but We the People who are most at risk because of GE/GOP and its mammoth cohorts in the media and all throughout the world economy.

Three House committee chairs have written a joint letter in support of investigations into this apparent massive spying on Americans and gutting of the Fourth Amendment.

http://www.eff.org/press/releases

Here's a better link. Sowwy:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/03/06

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/what-is-to-be-done/

What is to be done?

End of the week bedazzlement:
http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html

Hahaha...first time I ever heard of WF Buckley was about 1965/66, when I started working for the May Co. in LA, downtown LA. I was drawing men, pillows, etc....but not women. Anyway, one of the female models who worked there worshipped WFB.....that was the first time I'd ever heard of him. I took one listen and thought, who the f*** is this self important idiot?

No wonder he went to bloody MASS every day!!!! He must be writhing in some kind of black box reserved for dangerous minds at this point.

Hopefully.

Pat C....Krugman scared...Wall street and the hedge funds should be scared. Maybe there's room to lodge them all under Dick Dick's new house and tunnels. And the veils are lifting from the Bomb bomb campaign. Not too long before we get the real thing, the real boom booms I'd bet.

You know what is sad to me? Obama is most likely a believer in 'changing DC'....most likely all of the people who believe and want this to happen believe it can be done. But when you have the reality of political DC hit you in the face, it has got to be pretty horrifying to a political neophyte.

I guess I'm not a political virgin anymore.

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic captained my our own beloved BUSHMAN! ... CRAP!!!!!

Pat C....wow...this was a link from your article http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/07/obama-brennan/

Startling statements from former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio's defense documents alleging the National Security Agency began building a massive call records database seven months before 9/11 aren't the only accusations that the controversial program predated the attacks of 9/11.
According to court documents unveiled this week, former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio clearly wanted to argue in court that the NSA retaliated against his company after he turned down a NSA request on February 27, 2001 that he thought was illegal. Nacchio's attorney issued a carefully worded statement in 2006, saying that Nacchio had turned down the NSA's repeated requests for customer call records. The statement says that Nacchio was asked for the records in the fall of 2001, but doesn't say he was "first asked" then.

I am very familar with the Nacchio and Qwest situation from the inside out. Nacchio was afraid of law suits if he turned over information if customers to the government, however the fact that he cooked the books and destroyed people's lives who lost their pensions and all the money they put into stock is quite true. Joe is not a victim here. While I am appreciative that for a time our phone records remained sealed I have no respect for him whatsoever. Not a nice man and has never been a nice man, not even when he was with AT&T.

Bush to Veto Bill Banning Waterboarding

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030808Z.shtml

Dan Eggen, writing for The Washington Post, reports: "President Bush today will veto legislation meant to ban the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics and will argue that the agency needs to use tougher methods than the US military to wrest information from terrorism suspects, administration officials said."

Oh, no! The Carlyle Fund is facing liquidation. Oh, boo-hoo, what are those super-rich #^$(@&@^!@ investors going to do? Oh, boo-hoo.

http://tinyurl.com/36j3f9

She did it again. emptywheel has discovered that the telecoms simply re-wrote parts of the law in their communications to lawmakers. This is just sumpthin' else.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/03/08/or-his-designee/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/al-de-gore_b_90064.html

Al de Gore?

Faced with intractable opposition to his plans for political reform, Charles de Gaulle retired in 1953 to his Colombey estate, wrote his wartime memoirs, maintained his contacts and awaited the crisis he knew would occur because of the inherent weakness of the Fourth Republic.

In 1958 it happened. Charles de Gaulle held a press conference to let the country know he was “at its disposal” and, just 10 days later, his offer was accepted. He won an election, extricated the country from its Algerian morass, forged the beginnings of a united Europe, righted a declining economy and won a referendum on a new Constitution establishing the Fifth Republic that survives to this day.

After a wretched “loss” in 2000 (consider how many different small matters had to go wrong—the butterfly ballot, the purging of voting rolls and intimidation of black voters, the presence of Ralph Nader on the ballot, a Supreme Court committing the ultimate right wing activism, a decision specifically stating it was not to be precedent, and so on), Al Gore similarly left politics while maintaining his contacts. He wrote two books, won an Emmy Award, the Nobel Peace Prize, and produced an Oscar-winning film from a serious slide show on global warming.

Like Barack Obama, Gore was right about the Iraq War from the start. Although he patriotically kept silent for awhile about Bush being asleep-at-the-switch prior to 9/11 so the country could rally, he eventually called him out about that first instance of gross negligence and incompetence. When he was Vice President, with a broad national security portfolio (unlike Hillary, he actually HAD security clearance!), they caught the millennium terrorist who planned to blow up the LA Airport.

More at the link….

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-hurowitz/gore-to-the-rescue_b_90320.html

Gore To The Rescue?

The Superdelegates just might save us.

I'm hoping that they will rescue the Democrats from two candidates with big vulnerabilities and unite Hillaryites, Obamaniacs, and former Edwards supporters like me, behind a candidate who can truly bring us all together.
I'm talking about Al Gore.

Until recently, I didn't think Gore would run or even should run. He's making a huge difference around the world on stopping the climate crisis. And, like most people, I thought one or the other of the candidates would have shown the strength to unite Democrats behind their banner and show that they would lead a transformative presidency.

Unfortunately, neither Hillary nor Obama has yet succeeded on those counts, meaning that it's time to look for someone who can while it's not too late for them to enter the later primaries and earn some modicum of popular legitimacy.

To be sure, both Clinton and Obama have their strengths (and I prefer Obama between the two), but they also have major chinks: while she's a sincere person who will fight hard for progressive change in the White House, I worry about her electability. And while Obama's inspiring and potential game changer, I worry about his priorities: in the past, he's been willing to vote for horrible legislation like Bush's 2005 energy bill in the name of "bringing people together" - showing a disturbing willingness to sacrifice his principles on the altar of abstract theories about politics. To what extent he would actually work for a progressive agenda is a major unknown. Also, why is he behind McCain in the polls despite the generally glowing press coverage and grassroots movement behind him - is there something about him that's turning people off despite all the journalistic gushing?

In contrast, Gore would electrify Democrats hungry for somebody who could bring the positive qualities of each current front-runner together - without their negatives.

More at the link....

http://tinyurl.com/yr2klg

Security contractor Blackwater ends bid for Calif. training site

[snip]
The company had planned to convert a former chicken ranch into a camp that would host weeklong training courses for law enforcement and military personnel. The initial proposal for Blackwater West included 11 firing ranges, a driving track and a helipad in a valley tucked into rocky desert mountains.

Tiny Potrero, home to about 850 people, found itself split by the plan, with environmentalist and anti-war factions ardently opposing those who welcomed the prospect of an economic boost for the area. In December, voters recalled five members of a local planning board who supported the project.

"I feel giddy," said Jan Hedlun, a planning group member who led local opposition to the project. She said word was spreading fast as opponents celebrated by faxing around copies of Bonfiglio's letter, which was posted online Friday by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

more...

Oh Boy!
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer.html

Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. ( WAYNE MADSEN'S CHRISTIAN MAFIA!) Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection. "A lot of evangelicals would see that as just cynical exploitation," says the Reverend Rob Schenck, a former leader of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue who now ministers to decision makers in Washington. "I don't....there is a real good that is infected in people when they are around Jesus talk, and open Bibles, and prayer."
more....................
I arrived at this through DU.....
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Laelth/22
Why Obama must be destroyed: Updated at 6:37 AM

and why Hillary Is Willing To Do It.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0832645120080308

Banks face "systemic margin call," $325 billion hit: JPM

Wall Street banks are facing a "systemic margin call" that may deplete banks of $325 billion of capital due to deteriorating subprime U.S. mortgages, JPMorgan Chase & Co, said in a report late on Friday.

JPMorgan, which sent a default notice to Thornburg Mortgage Inc. after the lender missed a $28 million margin call, said more default notices and margin calls were likely. The Carlyle Group's mortgage fund also failed to meet $37 million in margin calls this week.

Posted on SLN

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/78885/

On December 20, 2007, President Bush signed routine postal legislation. In a “Signing Statement”, the President claims Executive Power to search the mail of U.S. citizens inside the United States without a warrant, in direct contradiction of the bill he had just signed.

Mehlman, Rove boost McCain campaign

By: DAVID PAUL KUHN | 03/08/2008 07:08 AM
McCain is getting much more than Bush’s endorsement and help fundraising.

He’s getting his staff.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/8911.html

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/03/terror-roundup.html

Terror Roundup Saturday...
Is it me or does this level of threats and "suspicious packages" as well as actual attacks appear higher than normal?

More at the link....

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

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/03/we-have-a-f---.html

We have a F--- Constitutional Crisis!
This is called an impeachable offense, another one - one of many ignored by Congress:

"President Bush quietly has claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant.

Bush asserted the new authority Dec. 20 after signing legislation that overhauls some postal regulations. He then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open mail under emergency conditions, contrary to existing law and contradicting the bill he had just signed, according to experts who have reviewed it."

I just want Congress to collectively answer two questions: Is the president above the law? Or is it that only George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are above the law? Just think of this as a civics lesson and try to explain your reasons for violating your oath of office, turning your back on the Constitution and country alike to the future, to your grandkids, to history itself really.

More at the link....

Soooo, what's in the stars regarding Waxman's success in pursuing inherent contempt proceedings for Bolton & Meirs?

http://tinyurl.com/2podcb

(Hope this isn't a dupe.)

Awesome shy! And now for my big hope!

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/02/15/al-gore-to-the-rescue.aspx

Al Gore to the Rescue?
Andrew Romano
Stumper's Take: He foresaw global warming. He "took the initiative" on the Internet. And he knew exactly how Iraq would turn out. Who's to say that Al Gore hasn't known all along that the Democratic race would descend into some weird state of gridlock--and that only he, the Goracle, could rescue the party from civil war? Read on for the what if's...

By Eleanor Clift

Al Gore on the second ballot: A scenario that a few weeks ago seemed preposterous is beginning to look plausible to some nervous Democrats looking for a way out of the deadlock between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It goes like this: We love them both, but neither is a sure bet when it comes to electability. It's not about gender and race, each has more mundane vulnerabilities. Hillary's negatives will drive white men to John McCain; Obama's inexperience will require a gut check on the part of voters. What if the super delegates decide not to decide, denying either candidate the requisite number of delegates to secure the party's nomination. Democrats want to win. The new rallying cry: Gore on the second ballot.

More at the link...

Videos at the link.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/08/carlson/

Tucker Carlson unintentionally reveals the role of the American press

(updated below – Update II)
The most interesting part of the controversy over Obama advisor Samantha Power’s referring to Hillary Clinton as a “monster”—one might say the only interesting part—is that immediately after Power said it, she tried to proclaim that it was “off the record.” Here was Power’s exact quote:
She is a monster, too –- that is off the record –- she is stooping to anything.
But the reporter who was interviewing her, Britain’s Gerri Peev of The Scotsman, printed the comment anyway—as she should have, because Peev had never agreed that any parts of the interview would be “off the record,” and nobody has the right to demand unilaterally, and after the fact, that journalists keep their embarrassing remarks a secret.

It’s extremely likely, though, that had Power been speaking to a typical reporter from the American establishment media, her request to keep her comments a secret would have been honored. In one of the ultimate paradoxes, for American journalists—whose role in theory is to expose the secrets of the powerful—secrecy is actually their central religious tenet, especially when it comes to dealing with the most powerful. Protecting, rather than exposing, the secrets of the powerful is the fuel of American journalism. That’s how they maintain their access to and good relations with those in power.
Illustrating that point as vividly as anything I can recall, MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson had Peev on his show last night and angrily criticized her publication of Power’s remarks. Carlson upbraided Peev for her lack of deference to someone as important as Power, and Peev retorted by pointing out exactly what that attitude reflects about Carlson and the American press generally (via LEXIS; h/t Mike Stark):

CARLSON: What—she wanted it off the record. Typically, the arrangement is if someone you’re interviewing wants a quote off the record, you give it to them off the record. Why didn’t you do that?

More at the link….

Mass Grave Discovered North of Baghdad

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030908Z.shtml

The Associated Press reports: "A mass grave containing about 100 bodies was discovered Saturday in a region north of Baghdad that has seen years of intense fighting between Shiites and Sunni extremist members of al-Qaida in Iraq."

WPost Sunday, March 9, 2008; 6:56 AM

WASHINGTON -- Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

The Pentagon's inspector general found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

More AP: Water Makes US Troops in Iraq Sick

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030900292.html?tid=informbox

Interesting site

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs/print

Shy, I don't think inheritant contempt proceeding is a dupe BUT.................................
if you click on the link again & go back & read the 1934 case that sets precedent...............
You will see that acting as Senate President for the hearing......was the VP of the USA!
What results do you think CHeney would bring us?
We've been sitting here for 6? 7? years watching them move their chess pieces in to the pertinant squares. Now that we have reinforcements........... are we checkmated?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_XnvZAcM0U&eurl=http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/2008/02/why-are-the-bee.html

What If The Disappearance of the Bees is Caused By...

Interesting "take" on the dupe comment, QOP.

What I had intended was simply that I might have submitted the post twice. Ever since Cap'n Sally wrote about the twins, I think some of us have been at risk for making duplicate posts. We're so suggestible.

You know the weekend is always a cesspool of stinking rot news. Here's another water story.
Luna, you've probably already spotted this one, but i'll post anyway. . .

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88022663

Time to stop selling drugs!...........
They say there are 6 pharmaceuticvals identified in the water in DC. But they don't say, which ones...... Haven't we been saying for years "There must be something in the water they're drinking down there." One of them has to be prozac!

The KBR contaminated water in Iraq. I saw a doc. about that on Link TV 3 4 years ago! ( I think I may have posted it.)
Whoopie it fnally made it into the Washington Post!!

Hi Everyone,
I just rented a DVD called September Dawn. Interesting movie about the Mountain Meadows massacre of a wagon train from Arkansas and Missouri by Mormons on orders from Brigham Young. It's a true story that is still covered up. What piqued my curioisty was the date of the massacre: Sept 11, 1857 at dawn. I was wondering if there might be any astrological similarities to "our" Sept 11. If I was any good at it I'd try it myself. Any takers?

Heads up! This one is now going around (Clintons and Dubai).
http://tinyurl.com/28a3ze

Now for a change of pace a good belly laugh!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/09/snl-spoofs-hillarys-3am-_n_90597.html
Two weeks after "bitch is the new black," and just one week after Hillary Clinton's surprise appearance on the show, SNL is at it again: this time, opening the show with a spoof of Hillary's 3AM ad. The sketch, seen below, depicts a 3AM phone call between Senator Clinton and a very inexperienced President Obama, who calls Hillary in the middle of the night for advice on what to do about Iran and how to fix the heating in the White House.

Oh Raven, that is interesting. What is it with that date??

Are you aware of this news Sally or are you too busy holding those twins?
DENVER – 9Wants to Know has learned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is investigating Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham for the third time in the past year.
( A BUSH APPOINTEE!)
He is being investigated for improper judicial conduct after his full name and personal cell phone number appeared on a list of clients from a Denver prostitution business.

The business called Denver Players or Denver Sugar was shut down in January after IRS and Denver Police investigators served search warrants at the brothel on Fillmore Street.

Nottingham ascended to chief judge in 2007 and presided over the insider trading trial of Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=87702

Predictions are we will have to endure "The Very Great U.S. Depression," which of course will be worldwide.

http://tinyurl.com/2z9phg

Hoo boy!

Raven, re: your post on that wagon train massacre. Did you notice that the year 1857 also adds up to the year 2001 in numerology. Both add up to 3, so 9/11/1857=9/11/2001= 5

Now that can't be a coincidence!
Wonder what time it occurred. That would really be uncanny if the time of day corresponded too.

Adios bowtie boy!!

Tucker Canceled; Other Programming Changes Ahead

tucker_3-6b.jpgInsiders tell TVNewser Tucker Carlson's 6pmET show Tucker is getting the axe, but Carlson stays on as a political contributor to all MSNBC shows at least through the 2008 election. The official announcement, expected tomorrow, will include details about who will replace Tucker at 6pmET as well as other political programming additions. Sources say the network is going to beef up its schedule with more NBC News talent.

In recent days, Jossip, as well as other blogs, ratcheted up the talk that Tucker would be replaced "for a new project." In its 33-month run, Carlson's show has had two names, four time slots and multiple formats. At 6pmET, it builds on its Harbdall lead-in on some days, but loses audience on others.

Carlson is expected to host the show through next week, with his new role and title to take effect March 17. We're told he'll also be reporting from the campaign trail. ... [TVNewser]

Unbelievable! A video of an electron moving along. Go here, then click through to the main site and watch the video. It's short, but amazing:

http://tinyurl.com/36meqg

PatC: that is exactly what I thought!
Crystal: No I hadn't put that together...That is very interesting. Do you know the energy of 3 years, and of 5?
I thought the movie very relevant to 9-11- 2001
in that it was about religous intolerance( to put it mildly), the villaization of a group of people fueled by the Mormons' grudge against Missouri, the use of the Piutes to carry it out ( and then when the Piutes backed out, the Mormons dressed up like them to do the massacre) in order to have someone else to blame, etc. In the special features there are interviews with the descendants of the victims. (The Mormons spared children under 8 and then stold them), I beleive the time of day is at dawn. Probably have to check an atlas for the actual time of sunrise.
Kinda spooky,eh?

Toxic Barium in Drinking Water

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/dw_contamfs/barium.html

Barium in Chemtrails

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okB-489l6MI&feature=related

Actually this is pretty interesting!
More than ya wanted to know...

Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the
Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on
the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is
why it moves around on our Roman calendar. This year, Easter will fall on
March 23.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but
that is pretty rare. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever
see the rest of our lives...and only the most elderly of our population
(95 years old or above) have ever seen it this early before. None of us
have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier.

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228
(220 years from now). The last time it was this earl y was 1913 (so if
you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that).

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285
(277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.

So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year.

Hope you get lots of chocolate eggs.

Trouble in Ohio from Repubs voting as dems...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031008J.shtml

(some of them followed Rushlimburger and voted for Hillary in order to let McCain win more easily.)

There is so much misogynation going on.

I think that should be misegenation..

Yes & Dennis needs help again! Hear him tell the same story from his viewpoint!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x103049

Oh MY!
Clinton campaign finance committee member switches to Obama (OMG!)

I voluntarily left thE Hillary Finance Committee after I discovered more than $3,000 in unauthorized charges from HRC campaign on my own VISA card! And that set off a wave of overdrafts and $400 in bank charges that I was stuck with. And thE compliance officer Allison Wright at Hillary VA headquarters refused to reimburse me for the charges. And the senior finance reps who I notified about more than $3, 000 in Unauthorized Visa Charges: never once aplogized or empathized with my plight...Much less send me a "sorry for all the trouble" note and a check!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4994900

There is a pattern in this about money with the Clinton campaign...where is it coming from? Would Hillary even be involved in something like this? seems like it is the person running the finance side of it and whoever it is should resign.

Did you see the Eliot Spitzer headlines? http://www.sfgate.com/

A reader comment from Capital Hill Blue.
Under It's not the sconomy stupid it's the stupid war.
unrelated topic!...........
It's estimated that there are 80 million Americans now on the Prozac class of drugs which allows them cope. The trouble with this dulling of the "fight or flight" mechanism creates a nation of almost bovine, docile creatures. Even fluoridation has been linked to the altering of brain chemistry. Some of the strongest brain related pharmaceuticals have derivatives of fluorine as part of their chemical structure. As little as one part per million is thought of as being too much for the human brain.

So the recent disclosure that city water supplies are testing high with a "devils brew" of trace pharmaceuticals, along with heavy metal toxicity is not surprising. I'd hate to think of what a percolated sample of a city landfill might show.

The fall of the Roman empire was tenously linked to the lead found in their dishware, goblets and even the clay pipes they used to transport water throughout developed cities within the empire. If humanity survives then archeologists just might link the rampant use of brain chemistry altering pharmaceuticals along with massive pollution as the undoing of peoples in the 21st century.

Yep, it just might be the water... : |

Carl Nemo **==

Pat....absolutely true....Pat C posted the thing about barium in the water, and http://www.sfgate.com is running the story on the chemicals in the water right now.

It is funny how all those things invented to help people live better turn out to be a recipe for disaster. Well not funny....we need another Rachel Carson. And the bees are the first indications of what we might be facing.

Did you watch that you tube that PatC posted about the bees? I think it is up on this post a way.

http://www.cnn.com/
(CNN) -- New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is under investigation for allegedly meeting with a prostitute in a Washington hotel, two sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.
art.spitzer.ap.jpg

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, with his wife, Silda, by his side, apologizes to his family and to the public.

One of the sources said Spitzer is identified in a criminal complaint as "Client-9," and that Spitzer's alleged involvement was caught on a

FEDERAL WIRETAP!!!!!!!
THERE YOU GO; ONE DANGEROUS DEM RUBBED OUT. not that I think he should have done it! What an idiot! Gee, I manage to have a fairly pleasant life with out spending $1,000. on a prostitute.
Hell I don't even get steak & caviar........
Why we need a WOman as CIC!

Naomi Wolf on why Obama got her vote ...

I saw the movie Rendition last night. It's heartbreaking.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/why-barack-obama-got-my-v_b_89017.html

Response to shylurker posting on March 10, 2008 at 2:23 AM on the video of the electron: What drives this electron?

Consider:
Strike a match – ageless atoms push
light/photons going off in all directions.

Where is the atom’s power coming from?
No fourteen billion year old batteries found.

Current scientific findings:
United States and Japan’ Super-Kamiokande study finds that the atom’s age is beyond measure – ageless, Stanford Labs created mater out of energy reported in 1997 [the opposite of the atomic bomb the release of energy from matter], Superconductivity - is a phenomenon whereby certain metals, metal oxides and ceramic compounds exhibit the property of zero electrical resistance when supercooled to a temperature near absolute zero, and add your video noting that the inferred speed of that electron is roughly equal to the speed of light; we must reexamine the arena of the atom.

Combining all the above: Ageless atom’s electron requirements, used to drive light/photons without batteries, must be supplied from a huge, external, super-cooled source that could exist 14 billion years without degradation. Extrapolating one atom’s requirement to all the atoms in our Universe - if our Universe was the size of a drop of water, we would require an ocean of energy filled space to fuel all our atoms.

Major Implications: This huge ocean of energy that drives our atoms has more than enough power to fuel the Big Bang Explosion IN energy filled SPACE and existed before the Big Bang.

Source: Excerpt from my web article: "Everything you wanted to know about the Big Bang but were afraid to ask"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030901867.html?hpid=topnews

Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say

The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.

Their findings, published in separate journals over the past few weeks, suggest that both industrialized and developing nations must wean themselves off fossil fuels by as early as mid-century in order to prevent warming that could change precipitation patterns and dry up sources of water worldwide.

Using advanced computer models to factor in deep-sea warming and other aspects of the carbon cycle that naturally creates and removes carbon dioxide (CO2), the scientists, from countries including the United States, Canada and Germany, are delivering a simple message: The world must bring carbon emissions down to near zero to keep temperatures from rising further.

more...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVNkthqWXZuZD9P6lr9Kh3AxSkBQD8V8P6QO0

EU Report Cites Climate Change Threats

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Climate change will worsen tensions and instability between nations competing for arable land, water and other resources, according to a European Union report.

The report prepared for a meeting of the 27 EU leaders said member nations must lose no time in preparing for the impact of climate change on the security of Western Europe.

The report to the EU leaders — a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press — says climate change will trigger humanitarian crises, political and economic instability, border disputes, ethnic tensions and "environmentally induced" migration of millions of people from Africa and the Middle East to Europe. It urges the EU to put climate change high on the international agenda.

The EU leaders hold their spring summit in Brussels, Belgium on March 13 and 14.

The report drafted by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign and security affairs chief, says the EU must become much more assertive in reversing global warming, boosting global warming research and increasing international cooperation on climate change.

The report said the EU was well equipped to push others to combat climate change because of its multilateral approach to global politics and its experience in conflict prevention and management.

Geraldine Ferraro http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifeandculture/ci_8489268

"I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama's campaign - to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against," she said. "For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.

"I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he's going to be able to put an end to partisanship," Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. "Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that's the way our country is."

I bet you that someone is trying to sell a water filter set-up to municipalities. Really!! Trace amounts of chemicals!? and we only hear about this nothing relevant that might help us ground our imaginations in the real time world we live in. I am just so cynical. We hear about certain mintal conditions for days only to find out that some compny is coming out with a drug to address just that very problem. I think this is one of those things.

Secret video as Bush sings farewell.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vYJqSWLCB60

Blackwater's Employment Investigated

House oversight committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman expanded his effort yesterday to investigate private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide, calling for a wide-ranging federal inquiry into the company's employment practices.

In letters to the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration and the Labor Department, Waxman (D-Calif.) questioned Blackwater's classification of its workers as "independent contractors" rather than employees.

That designation, which the government has questioned in the past, has allowed the company to obtain $144 million in contracts set aside for small businesses and to avoid paying as much as $50 million in withholding taxes under State Department contracts, he said.

A Blackwater spokeswoman called Waxman's allegations "completely without merit" and said the company regrets his "decision to publicly air misleading information." An IRS spokesman declined to comment. .. .. .

http://tinyurl.com/ypbjjc -WPost

Judi, that Ferraro piece is really good.

What do we do about this "Great U.S. Depression Thing"? Store food, water & buy gold & silver? I know we've talked about this before in the last few years but the time seems to be getting closer.

Brought a smile to my face. Hope it works for y'all

Hillary Clinton has executive experience in the same way that Yoko Ono was a Beatle.

I got a good chuckle, Stan.

Does anyone else have questions regarding the timing of the Spitzer outing? Given he was ready to introduce legislation to secure the right of every woman to choose?

And, just who in the heck ordered this wire tap?

I'm having a hard time with this on several fronts. One is my belief that prostitution should be legalized, but that ain't gonna happen anytime soon since it's such a convenient illegality for those booger-little-boy-republicans.

Clymela, you may be on to something. However, i hope that filtration innovation does exist! This is something i wouldn't be cynical about given drug effects on humans and wildlife alike.

Military personnel are going to have their day in Congress. This proceeding -- to begin on March 13 -- will be aired on Pacifica media.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19501.htm

AGain, who will listen? What will change? With questions swirling around Iraqi oil revenues, and with Cheney drooling with the Saudis over such magnificent windfall profits will our descent into madness continue unabated? This world NEEDS an intervention. I hope Matthew is on to something, that Beings of wisdom put a smackdown on practitioners of inhumanity.

HOLY MOLY....check out this piece on McCain

http://www.wcltam.com:80/news/special/articledetail.cfm?articleid=23261

Whoa, Judi. . .and this from a republican. I listened to an interview last night on FreeSpeech television that was about this very thing -- McCain's dubious tales of torture. His other sordid exploits, detailed here, are really no surprise. His public personna is blatantly false. He's a bad actor, and his continual usage of the phrase "my friends," is rather chilling to me.

The article on the coming "Great Depression of 2008" that Shylurker posted upthread

http://tinyurl.com/2z9phg

is the type of thing that gets my attention and makes other things pale by comparison. There are also videos on youtube about this, stretching from updates by Manoftruth, a Harvard business school grad who talks about what's coming down the pike and wants to sell you his DVD for $26, to media reports and personal reflections.

I'm not sure what the right things to do to prepare for this possibility are, but here are some thoughts, many of which have been mentioned over & over. I don't want to scare anyone, but I don't want to be in denial either. I just think that it's time to start taking this seriously and planning a little (which some of you are already doing, but I haven't done too much, other than stocking up on canned food a bit - we do have room for a garden & have some nice neighbors).

Apparently, it's a process and can take a few years to really set in, like it did in the 30s. Here are my thoughts:

- have plenty of canned food, bottled water, and a garden (you can always buy 2 extra canned items each time you shop).

- know where you can live if you, G-d forbid, lose your home or apartment. Do you know someone who has a home that's fully paid for who you can bunk with, or has an extra cabin or vacation home? If not, be prepared to live in tent cities, etc., but shelter is shelter.

- get to know your neighbors & community members, talk to the open-minded ones about these possibilities, plan strategies together (have regular meetings?). Maybe find them by advertising on Craig's list or the local health food store.

- if you don't live in a friendly community, think about moving to one.

- think about getting a gun as there will be looting.

- it's been mentioned quite a lot here over the years here at this site that it would be smart to buy Euros, gold, silver (in my opinion, coins that can be buried might be the best), but gold is pretty expensive right now. I'm not sure what the best recourse is in that respect.

- think positively, pray, be gentle, loving, draw the right people, places & circumstances to you.

Please let me know, y'all, if you have any thoughts about this. (I'm a transplated Northerner who lives in the South but I think y'all is such a friendly term, like "you guys"). I'm also going to be posting this on Starlight News.

Karen, here's the strategy on the Spitzer thing:

If JFK, RFK, and MLK were alive today they would have been dragged through the mud hogtied to the back of the MSM pickup and had their careers destroyed BEFORE their assassinations roused love and sentiment for their kind and courageous humanitarian aims.
All KINDS of riots and political blowback moved against the republicsns (so how do the rethugs stay in power and avoid public outcry?)

You got it: Divide and conquer.

The LAST thing the rethugs want is public passion against them. In the old days they'd just shoot political threats. Now they know the best tactic is to have guys like Spitzer shamed and run out of town on a rail, by the very people who elected them. That way, no progressive acts can take root and make a state resist the Feds. No riots. No movements that gain traction.

FISA and the IRS at it's finest.