Astroworld

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html

USA 2008: The Great Depression

Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive – a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis

[snip]
Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story.

Michigan has been in its own mini-recession for years as its collapsing industrial base, particularly in the car industry, has cast more and more out of work. Now, one in eight residents of the state is on food stamps, double the level in 2000. "We have seen a dramatic increase in recent years, but we have also seen it climbing more in recent months," Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for Michigan's programme, said. "It's been increasing steadily. Without the programme, some families and kids would be going without."

But the trend is not restricted to the rust-belt regions. Forty states are reporting increases in applications for the stamps, actually electronic cards that are filled automatically once a month by the government and are swiped by shoppers at the till, in the 12 months from December 2006. At least six states, including Florida, Arizona and Maryland, have had a 10 per cent increase in the past year.

more...

Watching this country, the US with all it's abundance and wealth, implode so needlessly is heartbreaking. It's like watching a teenager who is a talented genius with all the potential for being an outstanding asset to the world become a Meth addict and fall into a black hole, eaten up by pustulent wounds and rotted teeth. The whole world suffers because of such a selfish choice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/30/AR2008033002138.html

States Are Hit Hard by Economic Downturn
Many Cutbacks Felt by Most Needy

NEW YORK -- In Illinois' Cook County, women in poor neighborhoods no longer have access to free mammograms from two mobile vans testing for breast cancer.

In Michigan, hikers will find about 20 campgrounds closed, and scientists are ending their studies of fish populations in the Great Lakes.

In New Jersey, state workers are being laid off, and at least one town is canceling its traditional Fourth of July fireworks.

And in California's San Fernando Valley, Everardo Orozco, 53, who has AIDS, exhausted his medical benefits and can no longer afford the drugs that are keeping him alive.

more...

I've heard of Ezra Pound. Probably read something by him, but can't remember what. I'll have to investigate further.

Sally, sorry to be so tardy in getting back to you on the Venus Rx issue, but I had to search for a little book that I bought aeons ago, called "Retrograde Planets" by Grace Inglis. I came across it in a quaint little occult (funny how they don't use that word anymore) bookstore in NYC called Mason's Bookshop. It's the same place that I had a close encounter with Shirley Mc Claine, but that is another story. The funny thing about the book is that I don't think she wrote a word of it, except for the Preface. There's a smiling blonde woman on the back flap holding some flowers, whom I assume is Grace, and her signature is on the front page, but it was published in India by an Indian publishing house called Sagar Publications, and from the way it was written, I would say an Indian astrologer(s) wrote it. She gives credit to a Manik Chand Jain, so I believe he is the true author. Anyway, I am sure it's out of print now. It is crammed full of information, and examples, and there's a chapter entitled "Retrogradation and Sex Relationship", wherein he discusses VenusRx amd Mars Rx, since these are the sex symbols, but he only delineates the effects of Venus in a man's chart, and Mars in a woman's. He doesn't explore Mars in a man's chart or Venus in a woman's chart. I have done some research on my own, and I'm not going to give all the details here, but I found Mars Rx in one man's chart, and both his father and son had the same, so it seems to indicate an inherited sexual propensity.

About Venus Rx in a man's chart, he describes the natives as sexual deviates, and says "one of the greatest contributors to marital discord is the retrograde Venus in the horoscope of the husband. The effect of this Venus retrograde is usually disastrous to a happy marriage.....and in some cases (if the rest of the horoscope assists), turns the victim into a homosexual".

My own experience - I dated a guy who had Venus Rx natally. He had a kind of fragile beauty (tall, skinny, blond, blue-eyed), but in matters of intimacy, he was effeminate in the extreme, so I really had to pose the question to him. He claimed not to be homosexual, and I had no indication to the contrary, but he said that his previous girl-friend had accused him of being one, and once in high-school, on a class visit to England, a gay man had made advances towards him. He may have been a closet gay, I don't know, but he was a very nice man, and we remained friends. He is now in his 60s and remained single. I couldn't help thinking that he would have made some man a nice wife.

By the same token, I dated a gay guy (lucky me) unbeknownst to me, and there was nothing effeminate about him, but I noticed the way he looked at men, and when he introduced me to his friends, I had my doubts, so I asked, and he denied, denied, denied. He finally admitted that he "used to be gay". Now this man did not have Venus Rx, so I will conclude that Venus Rx indicates some peculiarities in the male sex related to effiminacy, and possibly homosexuality.
There are also references in the book to other articles on the subject of Venus and Mars retrograde.

Sometimes you have to be careful of one book detailing one aspect. Mars in Gemini could also say the same thing but not all Mars in Gemini are gay. the Signature astro aspect for gay is the Moon, such as Moon conj. Saturn, Saturn in Cancer or the 4th house or Moon in Capricorn in the 10th Moon and Saturn conj. with Mars in harsh aspect. Chiron needs to be in there as well as a harsh aspect. So there are a lot of things to look for, it isn't a good idea to make a judgment based on one aspect. Although I confess to a proclivity to looking at Mars in Gemini and thinking "unfaithful" that hasn't always born out to be the case I've learned the hard way.

Nasa sends us an April Fools card.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080401.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day

http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_barbara__080401_america_s_silent_kil.htm

America's Silent Killing Fields

America's silent killers are deadly, and do not discriminate. They target babies, the elderly, teenagers, young adults, middle-age housewives, and businessmen alike. They poison livestock, pets, and wildlife, and the people behind them deny complicity in the carnage. Who or what are these silent, deadly killers? They are the beautiful, green, uniform, and seemingly beneficial, killing fields of genetically modified (GMO) crops. The people behind them are the U.S. government, the Rockefellers, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, and Syngenta.

How it Began

Eugenics is a dirty word, yet particularly applicable to America's killing fields and their inception:

Henry Kissinger drafted the controversial NSSM-200 in 1974, called “the foundational document on population control issued by the United States government.” According to NSSM-200, elements of the implementation of population control programs could include: the legalization of abortion; financial incentives for countries to increase their abortion, sterilization and contraception-use rates; indoctrination of children; mandatory population control, and coercion of other forms, such as withholding disaster and food aid unless an LDC implements population control programs.

NSSM-200 also specifically declared that the United States was to cover up its population control activities and avoid charges of imperialism by inducing the United Nations and various non-governmental organizations to do its dirty work. (Human Life International, 2008)

In 1970, Henry Kissinger said, "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people." How do you control food? By consolidating agricultural interests into what was to be termed agribusiness, creating genetically modified organisms out of heritage seeds with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, patenting the new seeds, and making sure that these new seeds are force-fed to U.S. farmers as well as the rest of the world. By holding the patents on these seeds and requiring farmers to purchase new seeds every year, the control is complete. Also, by controlling how these GMO seeds are created, other more sinister uses come to mind. But first, you must convince the world of your good intentions. This is accomplished......

More at the link...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_earl_ofa_080401_ten_troubling_questi.htm

Ten Troubling Questions I Asked Obama to Answer before McCain Asks Them

Talk about sad & disgusting!

http://www.alternet.org/

Food Bills Getting You Down? Try Dumpster Diving
By Nicole McClelland, AlterNet
Environment: If you're disgusted with our culture of waste, wasting resources, wasting money, then swallow your pride and start sifting through supermarket trash.
Our Forefathers were too busy fighting the British to go dumpster diving.

qop, a few decades ago when I worked as a waitress in a high end restaurant I was appalled at the amount of clean and perfectly good food that was thrown away every single day. Whole pots (two feet deep) of soup, lbs of salad makings, gallons of cooked vegetables and other side dishes like mashed potatoes, pasta and rice. All the food that's pre cooked or pre-prepared for each day, as well as day old bread and rolls because they were getting stale. When I asked the restaurant owners if they would give it to soup kitchens or the homeless they told me it was against the law and that they didn't want to get sued by anyone.

Dumpster diving may turn our stomachs but I know first hand that the food they discard is edible and if restaurants were allowed or even encouraged to give it to the needy no one would go hungry. Restaurants usually never wait till the food has gone bad before they throw it away.

The article in my post from 10:49 PM is written, I have learned, by a black conservative. He posed some strong questions, but now I'm questioning his agenda.

I worked in an upscale restaurant too, luna as a bartender..........just 9 years ago..........The employees ate well, yes it was still against the law to give it to the homeless, but the chef & the owner were trying to find a way around that. (Portland Me is above average in compassion for the needy/Pisces State Taurus City!)
I also spent 8 weeks in a restaurant in Philly doing a mural. ( 1978) ( I had made settlement on my house, apartment wasn't available for a month & was crashing on a friend's sofa.........so I LIVED at the rest.) the owner a Scorpio & Culinary Institute Grad. ran a very tight ship and there wasn't that much left over or thrown out!
Part of the waste problem today is sloppy careless planning, just like almost everything runs today!
The standing up to the waist in garbage in a dumpster behind a market is a disease breeder.
Rats STLL carry the plague, the reason we haven't had a problem with it is that people have not had to resort to this extreme until now.
BTW, Canada's minimum wage just went up to $9.00 per hour. In spite of the fact that $1.00 Canadian = $1.00 American, there are still many bargins there. Kitty litter almost twice the amount for 3.00 less....... SO they earn more and spend less at the grocery. ( meat & dairy are high but produce is cheaper than here!)
It's the planning.................

http://www.soothesayer.com/

April 2008

Thank you, Sally, for this new and interesting post. Look at all the comments about food! I'm thinking Cancer must be activated someway. Pluto opposite?

When I first moved to Atlanta in 1949, I lived in a lower middle-class neighborhood of small houses and back yards. Many, many people were from the surrounding countryside and had come to the "city" (Atlanta really was little more than a town then) to work. Almost every backyard sported a beautiful vegetable garden. Even corn, which takes a lot of space, was part of the bounty. These gardens were year-round, too. In the winter there were greens, and turnips. In the summer, there was every delight: corn, tomatoes, melons, beans, squash, and more.

Some people kept chickens, and a few kept rabbits. I wish we could go back to that.

Oh, it just occurred to me that a post about money is basically a post about the requirements for survival, for example, food.

You are right Mayfly about the gardens, you could spot them in nearly every small city, at the rate things are going we might be able to spot them again. Mars is in Cancer and Mars is in his fall in Cancer, thereby producing all kinds of anxiety over our resources such as are they drying up? will there be enough? will we be able to get by? all manner of concerns with Mars transiting Cancer and going over the US Venus, Jupiter, Sun, Mercury and soon to square the US Saturn. I wonder if any of us will be able to breath a sigh of relief until this administration changes.

In the meantime, we are changing and changing dramatically. When Pluto goes into the US second house in Capricorn our values and what we've always been taught to believe will simply be shifted away and we will change. Out of that we will learn not to equate success with money, we will learn that we do not live in a world of scarcity, that we are all interconnected, that humans are not superior to other animals, we will learn that the world is not ours to exploit, that we don't live in a world of "us vs them" that the stock market is not good, neither is individual selfishness. Those are some of the things we will learn.

We hopefully will begin to look around for ways to work together to improve society. My grandmother used to tell me that "you can easily count the number of seeds in an apple, but you cannot count the number of apples in a seed." So I would hope we would all start planting seeds.

Sally, from your mouth to the ear of the Devine.

Sally, I love your grandmother!

Oh thank you Luna, I so loved her too. She was always peaceful and calm and carried a quiet efficency around her. I thought her to be very wise and with great dignity no matter what. I did indeed love her.

Good lord. This is the front page of Salon. Oy.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/04/02/depression/

The Great Depression: The sequel

Is it coming to a soup kitchen near you? Here's how we'll know if the current recession is turning into something much worse.
By Andrew Leonard

"Good Lord" is right PatC. We absolutely need a leader we can get behind. I don't see anyone who will actually stop this, and how on earth do we stand up?

I'm still wishing and hoping for a draft of Al Gore. I'm a dreamer.

http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/?p=985

Elizabeth Edwards Smacks John McCain's Healthcare Plan. Hard!

Her husband may be out of the game, but Elizabeth Edwards has not left the field.

Last week Elizabeth Edwards observed that she had one thing in common with John McCain - neither one of them would be covered by the Republican’s proposed health care plan. An observation the McCain campaign quickly, and foolishly, attempted to brush aside, with a flippant and rather insulting response. The LA times reported:

“Douglas Holtz-Eakin, senior policy advisor to McCain, said Saturday that Edwards’ comments were disappointing and that they revealed she did not understand the comprehensive nature of the senator’s proposal.”

Let me tell you, there is not much about the health care politics that Elizabeth Edwards does not understand. And today, the McCain campaign is learning that the hard way.

More...

More about food ?????????
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/dining/02cheap.html?th&emc=th
WHILE grocery shoppers agonize over paying 25 percent more for eggs and 17 percent more for milk, Michael Pollan, the author and de facto leader of the food intellectuals, happily dreams of small, expensive bottles of Coca-Cola.........

I guess Michael Pollin isn't living on a fixed income! I can't afford to shop at our local farmers market, have to grow my own instead.
( The tomato plant in the living room has blossoms, I hope the friend who will cat sit can keep it growing while I am away!)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/2/75955/21681/423/488756

Elizabeth Edwards says that NY magazine article is FALSE

snip

Elizabeth Edwards also said that both she and John most likely will not be endorsing any candidate at this time and instead will just vote privately in the North Carolina primary and most likely will not publicize their votes. She said that all that talk (particularly from Time magazine, Andrea Mitchell, etc) about them endorsing a candidate is not true either.

I thought her interview was telling in that she attacked John McCain and not either Hillary or Obama. She said that both of them would make great presidents.

http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/agflation

Agflation

great link PatC

Thanks Sally. I yearn for the day when such links tell a completely different story.

...........

http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=9912

The US Attorney who wasn't fired: How Bush pick helped prosecute top Democrat-backed judge

The Permanent Republican Majority, Part IV: How corporate-GOP interests sought to topple Democrats in Mississippi

Since the deregulations of the Reagan era, the electoral strategy of the Republican Party and the interests of the corporate lobby have become intimately entwined.

Karl Rove – President George W. Bush’s former Deputy Chief of Staff and campaign maestro – capitalized on this alliance in Texas in the early 1990's, when he made campaigning against "activist judges" a cornerstone of Republican victories. He then applied the same technique in Alabama, where he and Republican consultant William Canary began systematically working in 1994 to elect pro-business judges.

As reported in Raw Story’s The Permanent Republican Majority - Part One, Canary reemerged in 2002 as the advisor to Alabama Republican gubernatorial candidate and now governor, Bob Riley. Canary’s wife, Leura, meanwhile, used her position as the US Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama to investigate Riley’s Democratic opponent, incumbent governor Don Siegelman, helping ensure his defeat and leading to his prosecution on bribery charges, conviction, and imprisonment in 2007.

More at the link....

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

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Part_II_How_Bush_US_attorney_0401.html

The Diaz Case and Mississippi politics

The Diaz indictments were unsealed in July 2003, just a few months before the Mississippi gubernatorial elections between Republican Haley Barbour and Democratic incumbent, Ronnie Musgrove. Barbour won, making him only one of two Republicans to be elected as Governor of Mississippi since the post Civil-War reconstruction of the late 1880s.

Barbour's campaign focused heavily on Musgrove's ties to trial lawyers and advertised the fact that Paul Minor had donated $112,000 to Musgrove's previous campaign. President George W. Bush even appeared in Mississippi in 2003 and suggested that “one way to make sure this is a good state in which to create jobs is to have a governor who's willing to take off the -- take on the plaintiffs attorneys and fight for real, meaningful litigation reform. … You don't want the greatest wealth accumulation in any state to be in the hands of plaintiff's attorneys.”

Diaz was acquitted during the first trial in August 2005. Like Siegelman in Alabama, however, Diaz was indicted again almost immediately. Lampton’s own position as a US attorney may have been under threat at the time of Diaz’s first trial, because his name appears on the Department of Justice “to-fire” list by March of 2005.

More at the link....

Elizabeth Edwards went onto the Today Show and Joe Scarborough's program this morning to go after John McCain's health-care plan -- and in the course of doing so debunked the NY piece that claimed that the Edwards weren't endorsing Obama because he allegedly was "condescending".

Here's the Scarborough video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23914511#23919149

Here's the Today video:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23914511#23914511

In both cases the debunkings of the NY article are about a minute before the end of each clip and prefers Hillary's health plan.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lily-koppel/dear-diaryi-want-to-be_b_94511.html
This is a wonderful uplifting karmic story!
Be sure to click on the link to the Red Diary Site as well!
.......................
Three years ago, late for work at The New York Times, I stepped out of my Upper West Side apartment building to encounter a dumpster filled with old steamer trunks plastered with vintage travel labels. Unhesitatingly, I climbed up and into what felt like my own movie.
I wonder if Lily Koppel is Ted's daughter?

Oh qop, I loved that article! This particular article was really touching.

"This weekend, on the phone, Florence and I were gabbing like teenagers about the book party, where the red carpet will be rolled out for Florence and the sleuth that helped me track her down. She admitted, "My friends have to take me seriously now. I'm no longer an invisible older woman.""

Here's the blog. http://www.RedLeatherDiary.com/

Ezra Pound:

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

http://www.naturalnews.com/022915.html

Thirty-Six U.S. States to Face Water Shortages in the Next Five Years

At least 36 states are expected to face water shortages within the next five years, according to U.S. government estimates. Available freshwater supplies are dwindling across the country due to rising temperatures and droughts, while increasing sprawl, population and inefficient resource usage are leading to rising demand.

"Is it a crisis? If we don't do some decent water planning, it could be," said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the American Water Works Association. Rising temperatures due to global warming have increased evaporation rates across the country and reduced the availability of important water sources. One of these is the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which supplies a significant portion of California's water. Across the West, similar trends are expected to reduce flows of the Colorado River, which supplies water for seven states.

Meanwhile, rising sea levels are expected to cause saltwater to infiltrate freshwater aquifers in coastal states, rendering that water unusable.

more...

Hi Sally, 'bout them seeds ... last year, when I started my veggie garden I planted some cilantro and was blessed with massive amounts (to much to handle). Well, some of it went to seed and I didn't realize it until I was cleaning out the garden. I put the cut cilantro in a bag, stuck it in the a/c closet (nice and dark) and pulled the bag out a couple of months later. The seeds had dried, gave the bag a couple of swats on the ground to dislodge the seeds and kept them. Full circle, just planted them 2 weeks ago and THEY"RE GROWING NEW CILANTRO! Hah! I can't begin to tell everyone how gratifying it was. My neighbors got inspired and stuck some papaya seeds in the ground last year and they also were rewarded with munificence! Amazing ...:)

?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080402/ap_on_el_pr/obama_gore

Remember when they used to run at the mention of Gore? When they would laugh at those of us who 'never got over it'? How times change!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/02/obama-says-hell-consider-_n_94683.html

Obama: I'd Hire Gore

WALLINGFORD, Pa. — Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday he would give Al Gore, a Nobel prize winner, a major role in an Obama administration to address the problem of global warming.

At a town-hall meeting, Obama was asked if he would tap the former vice president for his Cabinet to handle global warming.

"I would," Obama said. "Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He's somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I'm already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now."

more...

"This rejection of Ted Olson’s story by American Airlines, the Pentagon, and especially the FBI is a development of utmost importance. Without the alleged calls from Barbara Olson, there is no evidence that Flight 77 returned to Washington. Also, if Ted Olson’s claim was false, then there are only two possibilities: Either he lied or he was duped by someone using voice-morphing technology to pretend to be his wife.17 In either case, the official story about the calls from Barbara Olson was based on deception. And if that part of the official account of 9/11 was based on deception, should we not suspect that other parts were as well?

The fact that Ted Olson’s report has been contradicted by other defenders of the official story about 9/11 provides grounds for demanding a new investigation of 9/11. This internal contradiction is, moreover, only one of 25 such contradictions discussed in my most recent book, 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press."

Much more at: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8514

Perhaps this will put to rest the idea that cell phone calls were made on 911. Every time the Jersey Girls fly, they attempt to phone each other on their cell phones. So far they have had one "successful" call lasting less than a second.

Cell phone calls made above 8000 feet require a special transmitter on board the aircraft. Not in 2001, and not today.

Marta, I loved your "seed" story. There is a book out there that tells folks how to save seeds so they have the heirloom seeds that are so valuable.

You know Pat C, I always thought Olsen was lying. At the funeral of supposedly his wife he was the coldest looking fish I ever saw (my apologies to the fish) The story did not ring true, glad they are looking into it. But I wonder what did happen to flight 77 and why they had to lie about it. People saw it go overhead and crash into the Pentagon, or thought that's what they saw. Wonder if we will ever ever have the truth of 9/11, maybe we will if Barbara Olsen's body shows up.

Hey Marta, That's the miracle of seeds....you save them, plant them next year and they grow! Free food! From unrecorded time! That's what Monsanto & the other corps are working to disrupt.
Paul Bremer's constitution for Iraq made it a felony to do that!
Here's more on food.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/articleCommentPost.cfm?id=1512712#comments
TRENTON — Farmers from across the state gathered at the Statehouse yesterday to voice their opposition to Gov. Jon Corzine's proposal to dissolve the state Department of Agriculture.
skip................

The crowd stood in the rain and chanted slogans such as “Save the Garden State” and “Keep the New Jersey Department of Agriculture” while booing any references by the speakers to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the agency that would assume oversight responsibility for many of New Jersey's farming programs if the Department of Agriculture is eliminated. ( Put it in the hands of the Feds....right!) Corzine has attended Bildeberg!
It's tragic, some of the best farm land in the country!

"I always thought Olsen was lying. At the funeral of supposedly his wife he was the coldest looking fish I ever saw (my apologies to the fish) The story did not ring true, glad they are looking into it."

You speak my mind exactly Sally. Exactly.

She is still on the Social Security rolls. Interesting.

This was posted over on Starlight News by a different Sally.

http://www.911researchers.com/node/1140

When a death certificate is filed Social Security is notified electronically as mandated by law. Assuming the media reports are factually correct about 9/11 victim Barbara Kay Olson, why is she not listed in the Social Security Death Index? Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Ford are listed as well as Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt who died this past January but no Barbara.

http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/

RICHARD M NIXON b. 09 Jan 1913 d. 22 Apr 1994
SS# 567-68-0515 Issued: California

RONALD W REAGAN b. 06 Feb 1911 d. 05 Jun 2004
SS# 480-07-7456 Issued: Iowa

GERALD R FORD b. 14 Jul 1913 d. 26 Dec 2006
SS# 372-28-6532 Issued: Michigan

EVERETTE H HUNT b. 09 Oct 1918 d. 23 Jan 2007
SS# 126-05-4970 Issued: New York

I don't know PatC.
I just tried my son & my cousin, I KNOW they're gone, and yet the result came up ( nothing found)
I didn't type in either SS # not having them.

Luna, Al Gore might consider Obama for some cabinet role....I think THAT would be more fair.

Pat C....now how wonderful that someone is talking about the Ted Olson connection to 9/11. I mean, it has been well reported that many people were 'alerted' NOT to fly that day....Ted Olson saved the bush presidency, how come he wasn't alerted? the presidents father was alerted, the mayor os SF, Willie Brown was alerted....and NOT Ted Olson?

.....and technological stuff like that, cell phones in airplanes, which, I thought, weren't even allowed as they could interfere with navigation ..... of course, his wife on board the crashed pentagon plane (if it did) was the power behind the smearing of Hillary, too. Very powerful woman who was very close to Lynn and Darth Cheney. VERY close, they were members of this get Hillary cabal. Maybe this all was a plot in one of Lynn C.'s books....and they made it come true. hahahahah.

Sally, Pat C....the body shows up....yeh, somewhere in Patagonia, about 30 years from now maybe....

Was any info ever released on DNA from the Pentagon wreckage? I always wondered about that. It is like that part of it never was reported.

Pat C., did you mean to say in the post debunking the Obama/Edwards story that Elizabeth Edwards prefers Hillary's plan? It didn't make sense, the sentence
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23914511#23914511

In both cases the debunkings of the NY article are about a minute before the end of each clip and prefers Hillary's health plan.

Sally and Qop, What Monsanto is doing is totally against the universal law of abundance which is a gift from God(dess). We will all reap that one unless we all start saving seeds. When you open a watermelon, canteloupe, etc. just put the seeds to dry and save them in your fridge (actually I just saved them in a flowered cardboard box) ... if the crap hits the fan, you'll be way ahead of the game!

Judi, I did goof up on that sentence. I was trying to say that Elizabeth Edwards liked Hillary's health care plan better than Barack's plan. She said Hilliary's was truly universal.

I do wonder what the consequences are for the truth coming out on all those conspirators.

1968

http://www.infoplease.com/year/1968.html

Timeline

http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/1968/reference/timeline.html

I don't think I like any of their health care plans including Edwards, and I am curious about the German plan. Some friends who went from here to there said it was outstanding. I have a hard time understanding why we are spending 10-12 billion a month on the war in Iraq and that seems to be ok while our own country is seeming to fall apart.

I am wondering who these candidates worked with to come up with their health care plans and I would love to see a socialized health care plan not written by a politician, I know the military has one as does the government. What is their plan? I've not seen it. Years ago, the military had an excellent plan (don't know if they still do) but it seems to have slipped. Government workers and Congress do have an excellent plan, I would like to see that one.

QOP are you ok? Maine is being hit hard with snow and more on the way. The other day you said you had gotten in provisions and I think wood, did it miss you, hope so. Just wanted to know if you were all right, with electricity and a solid roof. Last year with all the snow Colorado received there were plenty of caved in roofs.

Sally, both Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards talk about the health plan that Congress has as what they want for the country. If I remember correctly, Barack Obama has said it's a non starter, and would never make it through the House and the Senate.

Hope you are safely snuggled in with your cats qop!

Thanks Sally; I'm OK just Booored with it!
Here on the coast we haven't had big amounts just regular daily snow events. The wind is more of a problem. My Gallery sign leg broke and then it blew over. I didn't even get a full year out of it!
I got my car back with a new head gasket after 2 months without one. Boy am I a Jack Kerouac Gen! Don't take my car!
And I am about to drive it to Fla. My Mother needs surgery, & I'm driving because I need to take my art equipment & reference as I have to have the book finished by June,
I wouldn't set foot on a plane! I don't trust the work ethic of the current group, the profit oriented CEO's..
I'll take my chances with I 95, they didn't finish it until the 70's......& I'll drive fast over the bridges!
I had the Congressional Health plan when I was a VISTA. It was wonderful & very comprehensive. If I find my old papers ( with the details)I'll send them to you!

"Emergency" Bill Tries to Make Electronic Voting More Accurate, but Will It?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040308O.shtml
Steven Rosenfeld, of AlterNet, reports, "Efforts to improve the machinery that will count the 2008 presidential vote fell prey to a classic Washington compromise on Wednesday, when a House committee approved a bill giving money to both opponents and supporters of controversial paperless electronic voting systems."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/03/mukasey/

Glenn Greenwald

Why doesn't the 9/11 Commission know about Mukasey's 9/11 story?
Last week, during a question-and-answer session following a speech he delivered in San Francisco, Attorney General Michael Mukasey revealed a startling and extremely newsworthy fact. As I wrote last Saturday, Mukasey claimed that, prior to 9/11, the Bush administration was aware of a telephone call being made by an Al Qaeda Terrorist from what he called a "safe house in Afghanistan" into the U.S., but failed to eavesdrop on that call.... (snip)

...the Attorney General's FISA falsehoods themselves are extremely newsworthy, but it is the story he told about the pre-9/11-planning call from Afghanistan itself that is truly new, and truly extraordinary.

Critically, the 9/11 Commission Report -- intended to be a comprehensive account of all relevant pre-9/11 activities -- makes no mention whatsoever of the episode Mukasey described.

snip

Yesterday, I contacted Lee Hamilton, the 9/11 Commission Vice Chairman, to ask him whether the Commission was ever told about Mukasey's alleged Afghan Terrorist 9/11-planning telephone calls and/or the Bush administration's failure/inability to eavesdrop on such calls. Hamilton refused to comment... (snip) It's unacceptable for Hamilton to refuse to comment on Mukasey's claims. The whole purpose of the 9/11 Commission was to ensure that there was full-scale investigation and disclosure of all facts relevant to the 9/11 attacks, including the Government's actions and inactions in preventing that attack from occurring.

snip

UPDATE: Philip Zelikow, the 9/11 Commission Executive Director (and former Counselor to Condolleeza Rice), obviously has no idea what Mukasey is talking about, as he replies by email ... (snip) That's polite Beltway talk for saying that nothing like what Mukasey described actually happened. Does anyone on TV other than Keith Olbermann care that the Attorney General of the United States just invented a critical episode about 9/11 that never actually happened -- tearing up as he did it -- in order to scare Americans into supporting the administration's desired elimination of spying restrictions and blame FISA supporters for the 9/11 attacks? We still ought to hear from Hamilton and/or Kean.

More at the link....

Be aware of the MMM (Medical Mainstream Media) pushing a pack of lies. Do your own research into various causes for ills such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and more chronic illnesses such as cancer. I was just reading that high cholestrol levels are not necessarily the culprit in heart attacks (something I have always suspected), and that some of those statin drugs that are prescribed by doctors to lower cholestrol, might even be increasing the risk for heart attacks. There are certain herbs, fruits and vegetables that can give you the antibodies to fight these illnesses, but they can't be laced with pesticides. I think the medical community should devote its time and money lobbying more for organic farming, and practising preventative holistic medicine, rather than for vast sums of money for R&D. There is also a need to create lifestyles that reduce stress in the workplace and in everyday life. I bet if some of these changes are implemented, there wouldn't be so many sick people in America.

I think as far as health plans go, Obama might have the one that Congress uses, because whenever he touts his plan, he always says that every American can have the same health care available to him and his family, and members of Congress.

Sally, I don't know about Germany, but compared to the US, many Western European countries have superior healthcare, and it doesn't cause them to grow broke. The Scandinavian countries come to mind, e.g. Sweden amd Denmark. America really needs to get its priorities right - another reason we need sweeping(radical)changes in government. You know that old saying -a new broom sweeps clean.

I meant "go broke" in previous post. Didn't have time to proof.

I was just watching Pete Peterson, head of the Blackstone Group, on charlie Rose talking about what America needed..
.#1....for people to save money.

Ha...not so easy at our poverty level.

He also said the healthcare system is massively bad, partly because of the fact that it is 'inconsistent'. He mentioned that now MRIs are given routinely for everything....we have 8 times more MRI machines than Canada has. He said some counties, some states have 6-8 times higher rates of back surgery, prostate surgery....etc. Because, I would assume, there isn't enough oversight....he said, a mild joke, that we have red states, blue states, but do we have prostate states?

At any rate, he said our system really needs overhauling but didn't say which plan would work. He is an old line U of Chicago Republican...the kind that appears to be consistent, intelligent and honest, measured. Like the old days...and he is also concerned about the American dream and the fact that America is in deep doo doo. Lots of it because all people involved in finance areas now are only looking at short term....profits, plans, etc. And that china and india have looming problems which need solving also.

You are absolutely right Crystal about the Scandianvian countries, their taxes are high but they don't seem to care about that because of what they receive for their taxes. We've been sold a bill of goods about the government keeping taxes down. The sales tax in this country has shot up in the last several years, not to mention the gas tax, we are also double taxed. It's insane here, we are insane here.

QOP the Vista medical plan sounds terrific, I think I will look for that on the web. I just think this government is loath to give the people a break on anything and they always act as if they've given us a great deal when it's our money.

http://www.drjudywood.com/articles/why/why_indeed.html

WHY did the twin towers fall.....from the viewpoint of a structural engineer. very extensive website.

for the conspiracy people...of course, I found this site...so I must be one of them. My cousin's husband is a structural engineer...he said they fell because of the planes hitting. My alter ego, Dr. Judy Wood, says...well, check it out.

JudiG, I love it, do these people really believe that folks making $7.00 to $15.00 an hour, with or without a family, can save money?

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSWNAS674720080403

Southwest was going to outsource maintenance to El Salvador.

Sally, they (or Pete Peterson) have been saying for years that this country has a low saving rate....well YEHHHHH....because we live on the credit cards. Our income is stagnant...etc. And everyone wants to live like Donald trump and they use credit cards to do it, get in trouble, well, you know the drill. And people like Peterson just might be very removed from what goes on now in this country. I don't know, just a kind of surmise.

from the new What's Up on Planet Earth alert:

Here is what is occurring: The lower vibrating energies are in extreme fear now, as they are aware (but rarely consciously) that they are departing. They are grasping to hold onto something. They are grabbing a shore and the shore is us. We feel good to them as we vibrate higher. We are loving and understanding. Thus, they are clinging onto us in desperation, and unfortunately, our understanding nature makes us very vulnerable.

Because of the new boundary situation with less density and boundaries present, they are really in our spaces. Having this kind of lower vibrating and very fearful and extreme energy within our spaces can feel scary, out of control, and even create panic and anxiety. The antidote can be simple ….we need to show love to these energies while we most assuredly refuse to allow these energies to continue their dance. We need to extricate ourselves from them, as they will most certainly pull us down into their space.

_________

this is why I am not playing the politics game right now. This is why I'm not posting or listening or reading anything going on....

Well it used to be that if you saved money you could actually have enough to go on a vacation or to buy something. You didn't need credit cards if you were conscientious about saving a little every month. But now if you want to get a decent education you have to go into debt or forget getting one. Anyone starting off in the professional world is already in deep debt so where do they get the extra income to buy a car or a new refrigerator when you have to pay for the education that you needed just to get a job that paid better?

What happened was that the price of things, including houses were geared to a one income family. Someone realized that working women could be considered a two income family and prices went up in search of the ever increasing profit margin. Most working women throughout history have been forced to work because there was no net to catch them or help them out. Even the minimum wage laws were passed to PROTECT women and children from being exploited in a man's world. Now they use the same law to exploit people!

Right, Sally, regarding Scandinavians getting something for their tax dollars--when I was recruiting electronics engineers here in the States, once in a while a client would call me to fill a job in Canada. This was rare, because the company had to prove they couldn't find a Canadian to fill the job, before they could hire outside their country.

When I found a suitable candidate, I would explain up front that their income tax would be higher (and usually could estimate how much). The dollar salary was about the same in Canada as in the US. But, then I would add what they were getting for their tax dollars--the biggest item being full medical coverage. Being engineers, the candidates did the math and I never had anyone turn down a job in Canada for economic reasons.

Just to get the ball rolling today............
Postponing my Flas trip becasue the surgery hasn't been scheduled yet & the other family members are going down later in the month.

This photograph struck me as very funny in a twisted and sick kind of way, so I apologize for my reaction beforehand. The world leaders all turn away from Bush trying to be subtle about it, but it looks as if the spot where Bush is standing could have a pile of dog poop which they are trying to ignore because they're in polite company. Note that many of them look like they're checking the floor and even under their shoes in case there's more dog poop.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3104242

Sorry, I just found it funny.

No apologies needed!
THAT GAVE ME A GOOD BELLY LAUGH!
NOT SICK & TWISTED; HEALTHY!

Lunaoscura that was great! He was probably standing there cutting farts, gossip has it, farts are his fav way of greeting heads of state.

On the other hand the picture sure speaks volumes about how the rest of the world feels towards America.

OK, this makes two shuns in the same meeting! Once is maybe an accidental tableau, but twice in the same day?!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3104054

They might do this if McCain gets elected, but I don't see them doing it to Hillary or Obama. I think both of them are quite popular in Europe.

Hi everyone,
Have been really busy lately but have been trying to keep up with you all. I found the earlier posts interesting...the ones regarding food and housing. I'm a Realtor and work part time in a grocery store so I guess i feel like I'm on both fronts.
It's heartbreaking when I have to meet the "owners" at their house and tell them the bank is offering cash for their keys if they leave the place clean. One owner didn't even know about the cash deal, I just negotiated it for them and was able to get them $2000.
Customers at the grocery store are starting to compalin to employees about prices. The tension seems to be every where.
Judygem's post re: what's up on planet earth felt right.
I wonder how we, as a nation, really are to come together, to unite against this coup of our country. How does a people unite for the common good when this country was established by people seeking their own fortunes?

Hi Raven,

Sometimes I think the country could break up into the separate states as separate countries. Maybe with a token federal government where each state would be considered a different county (perhaps like the European Union)or maybe not. Already many states are taking independent steps to address their ecological concerns as well as the unique problems each one has even in defiance of Bush's administration. States might even join together to create an autonomous country with their neighbors. People could still pay taxes but only to their state, and instead of the states getting federal money the federal government would get a little bit from the states just to function like the UN does now, only without a Security Council and with all states having equal representation.

As I've said before I'm a science fiction fan, so I find myself having flights of fancy about the future. It's not so far fetched since every state already has it's government and its National Guard now.

Sally, thank you so much for posting about an interesting subject; the money picture is very important for everyone to study. Could you post a link for the farmer info you have in the first paragraph of this article? This is all I could find about corn for 2008.
US Crops of 2008 (Corn planting is only down 8% while soybeans are up 7%)
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/ProsPlan/ProsPlan-03-31-2008.pdf
Corn Growers riled by policy (NAFTA and US corn syrup vs Mexican sugar in your sodas.)
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:pvyoI2pWCbQJ:www.bilaterals.org/article.php3%3Fid_article%3D10973+corn+farmers+2008&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=us&client=firefox-a

I sure hope everyone has a way to catch and purify water and grow your own victory garden. Seems the Fed'l Reserve is going to collapse and leave Americans with bartering if the Dems don't swoop into office and quickly undo all the neocon larceny of the blue-collar and middle-class! Now, if I just knew how to hook up solar panels....

Thinking about "to the point of exhaustion" as Sally very well put it, and JudiGem's thoughts about stress, and Raven and others on that topic.

Some dear friends of mine now are going through a very stressful time not untypical of people in their early '50s. Their older generation--after a prolonged illness--has just died and they have been dealing with family relationships, medical care, funeral arrangements, estate settling, etc.

But it occurs to me that they are dealing with all this against a background of stress that is pervasive in the US now. I, for example, have pretty much "let go" since I'm in my later crone years, but still, since I love my country, I feel that background hum of stress--America off the rails, going in the wrong directions--the sorrow of it.

The traditional normal stresses of life are amplified now and we are all feeling it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040304136.html

AG Ashcroft Never Signed Off on Yoo's Memo

The Justice Department concluded in October 2001 that military operations combating terrorism inside the United States are not limited by Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, in one of several secret memos containing new and controversial assertions of presidential power.

The memo, sent on Oct. 23, 2001, to the Defense Department and the White House by the Office of Legal Counsel, focused on the rules governing any deployment of U.S. forces inside the country "in the event of further large-scale terrorist activities" by al-Qaeda, a Justice Department official said yesterday.

Neither the attorney general at the time, John D. Ashcroft, nor his deputy, Larry D. Thompson, were aware of the 81-page memo when it was written and sent to the Pentagon in March 2003, according to several former senior department officials. The Pentagon was told in December 2003 to disregard the legal advice in the memo after Justice Department lawyers raised objections.

The memo was written by John C. Yoo, then a deputy in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, who also wrote or co-wrote many of the key legal opinions that asserted an expansive view of presidential power in the Bush administration's early years. Now a California law professor, Yoo has defended his work as a "near boilerplate" defense of presidential prerogatives and said subsequent criticism has been motivated by politics.

More at the link....

Luna, that was good, I wonder if he got it, probably not. They look more anxious to get him out of their pics than we are to get him out of the WH

Sally and all,

These photos of Bush are making the rounds today! Here's another thread in DU which has a another photo of them further down that shows that Bush definitely got it. He looks pissed, probably already planning to get even with them. The second photo is further down. It's comment #8

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3108021

Marta,
Not just seeds!
I cut the top off a beet I was going to cook last week, & stuck it in the dirt in a flower pot! It's sending up leaves, so soon I can cut them off & cook up a mess of beet greens! It won't grow beets again but it will produce seeds! It really is a miracle, one we are too far removed from in many instances.!

I don't know where you live Raven, but I have noticed the tension and snappish in my part of the country and when people are nice it seems to be forced. No one is very happy.

qop I don't know if I can or should even discuss seeds and planting with you. You obviously have a fantastic green thumb. I coax and talk and pamper and I still don't have the results you do. Amazing.

That link on DU now shows the 3 photos of him being shunned by the same world leaders three different times.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3108021

It gone beyond being embarrassing for us. If our next President doesn't transcend this man then we might as well give up being part of the world community. We're becoming pariahs!

To The Point of Exhaustion -- perfectly titled, Sally. It's highly interesting that Pluto is directly impacting the Fed's Sun, and will keep doing so, for at least awhile. It's evident, as well. The hems and haws of the Sag spokesmen who aren't convincing anyone of the voracity of the decisions to further entrench, er i mean enrich the Fed. Problem is, when you have no employment who generates the money? Maybe, the Fed really doesn't care. That brings up the topic of slave trading. Maybe that's the key. Maybe -- heading into sci-fi land for Luna :) -- we've all become commodities. Yet, if Pluto does its job, perhaps the Fed will pass the way of the dinosaur before we do.

Raven, so good to see your words this morning!

Pat qop -- i keep meaning to share that everytime i change out a calendar page, an immense joy greets me. Your art sparkles, that's for sure!

Sally,
My secret method is to scream full volume, at the cats, blow cigarette smoke all over the house, and
Catch the watering just at the last minute!
Maybe pampering the plants, & whispering sweet nothings is over kill?
The Aries cat Newbie can't wait to go out in the morning until it is light. He gets on the TV, claws at the lace curtain, etches the window glass with his claws ( & or the front door glass, worse than chalk on a blackboard.)
He is beginning to get it now! He backs away when I start to bellow "No!"
Of course you should discuss seeds & planting..........It's the commonwealth! Just as you share your wisdom astrology, writing skills with all of us...
"Seeds R Me" seems to be a large part of my life's mission! Being Taurus, at times my guides have dragged me protesting, kicking, & screaming to this place (time) And I'm just beginning to "Get it"
I have cheated this winter using Miracle Grow liquid plant food, because the ice prevented me from getting into the shed, ( when it's gone I won't buy more. But the window boxes & flower pots I use, have garden dirt in them fetilized by Espoma products.
I posted this several yars ago. Here it is again. Made from the same Soth Jersey resources that gave it the Garden State name!
http://homeharvest.com/orgfertespoma.htm
The Great Blue Heron is back for the season yesterday........even if it DID SNOW AGAIN!

http://firedoglake.com/2008/04/05/pull-up-a-chair-93/

Pull Up A Chair…

It has been a long week, at the end of a lot of long weeks, at the end of what feels like a lifetime of long months of wading through some craptastic excuses for behavior and subversion of justice. Just when you feel like you've hit the bottom of the well of disgust, something drags you further down to a depth you didn't even know existed.

So this morning? Let's talk about anything cheery or proactive.
What community initiatives have been started in your area? What actions have been taken that have caught your eye? Here's one on rape awareness that caught mine -- via a link from LGM -- and I'm not certain it's my style, but I can see the appeal for folks who haven't openly talked about their own survival story. It's not an easy conversation to begin, and the people involved in making the shirts to get the conversation started? Just some folks who thought it was important and set about making it happen.

More at the link...

British officials are very concerned that Petraus will try and convince Washington that Iran must be attacked:

http://tinyurl.com/67ybbs

I got it QOP. I can do that, I can do all of that and miracle grow is on my list today because I want to grow some tomatoes. More snow? Geeze, you guys must be bored with it, enough is enough.

Karen, it's hard to talk about it as an astrologer because it does frighten people, anyone it's too much to take it all in. However
you are right they are going the way of the dinosaur and more than likely take us with them, but they are going these elite. We will just be surprised who are the elites and who considers themselves to be one. Nonetheless, these would be captains of high finance (dumber than rocks) absolutely are going all around the world and like us, they are scared to death.

Pat C as to your article above, I did hear of an innovative new idea on the news the other night and the restaurant is just a few blocks down the street from me. A young couple has opened a small restaurant for breakfast and lunch, the menu is pretty simple (sandwiches, small pizza, salads, muffins, breakfast type menus as well.) but you can have all you want and IT COSTS NOTHING. There isn't a price on anything, you pay what ever you have or feel you can, if you cannot pay you can do dishes or sweep or chop lettuce, whatever to pay for your meal. They've been open a few months and are making money hand over fist. It's a fabulous place to start a conversation over race, poverty issues (you can have a homeless person sitting next to an upper middle class)politics, education inequality, it's amazing what they talk about. Love the place, anyway I think that's an innovative idea.

Blackwater seems to be making it into our future whether we like it or not. Protecting government officials ensures they're here to stay.

http://tinyurl.com/6xy38e

State Extends Blackwater's Deal a Year

By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
Friday, April 4, 2008; 10:52 PM

WASHINGTON -- Amid investigations into fatal shootings of civilians and allegations of tax violations, Blackwater USA's multimillion-dollar contract to protect diplomats in Baghdad has been renewed, the State Department said Friday.

A final decision about whether the private security company will keep the job is pending, the department said. Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater is one of the largest private military contractors, receiving nearly $1.25 billion in federal business since 2000, according to a House committee estimate.

Blackwater provides security for diplomats in Baghdad, where the sprawling U.S. Embassy is headquartered. Its private guards act as bodyguards and armed drivers, escorting government officials when they go outside the fortified Green Zone.

Iraqis were outraged over a Sept. 16 shooting in which 17 Iraq civilians were killed in a Baghdad square. Blackwater said its guards were protecting diplomats under attack before they opened fire, but Iraqi investigators concluded the shooting was unprovoked.

more...

Ha! QOP, loved the beet green idea ... have to try it. Meanwhile, I have 8 tomatos on the vine ... had to get rid of a beautiful uninvited guest I found when I started counting them. I thought, huh! That's sure one strange looking tomato ... bent down closer ... OMG! it's a monster! A beauty though. Green with chevron stripes and itty bitty feet each firmly grasped on the chosen vine. I swatted it with a bamboo stick. Heck! He swatted right back! Had to cut off the vine. Couldn't bear to kill it ... dropped it off on the curb still stuck to his meal ... Don't know if I'd already posted this ... as you can see I'm still impressed!

Good thing you deported it OR NO tomatoes!
I had a whole gang of exotic looking catapillers on my carrot leaves last summer. I cut off those leaves and carefully laid them over on the other side of the yard, away from the garden patch. Then looked them up. They were MONARCH Butterflies to be!
They were yellow with green stripes.....and a few weeks later I had lovely butterflies fluttering around the yard.
Several years back the Irving station gave away free wilfdflower seed packets with every fill-up.
O broadcast them ove rthe rather barren sewer mound, sloping down towards the stream on the North side. Last year the area was covered with a nice variety of flowers attracting butterflies & BEES!
Love it!

Hi everyone,
Sally,I live in Santa Barbara County...everyones way tense. But then alot alot of people are having tough times. and they just seem to be getting tougher.
Ya know, Lunaoscura, it had occured to me not to long ago that we may be going the way of the USSR.....it was huge, geographically and bureacratically, and it got downsized...into several bits. Maybe even more to come. Then I thought maybe the distant future might hold the same for US...maybe it will be carved up into regions. Maybe smaller is better. Denmark is a great example of a small successful country. Then I heard someone else mention similar ideas. Interesting, eh?
Thank you Karen!
Blessings to you all.

Hi JudiGem,
Regarding your post about vibrational energy (apr 3) …. I too have been feeling very much along those lines lately.
In fact, symbolically, I feel that Everything external lately is a reflection of how mankind has been using personal energy. On the outside its about how we are affecting our world – global warming, peak oil, recent price increases and financial meltdowns, all a form of some sort of energy exchange. On the inside its all about energy polarities and responsible use of our personal energy exchange. Love vs hate, greed vs generosity, selfishness vs compassion, political right vs left, etc.etc.etc. In other words, how can we responsibly (pluto in cap?) get the greatest energy benefit by using the most effective source available.
It seems we really are on the threshold of entering a new ‘energetic’ age, and much as our forebears had to adjust their lifestyles from ‘agricultural’ to ‘industrial,’ we are in the process of changing from an ‘industrial’ lifestyle to an ‘energetic’ lifestyle.
Its all about learning new ways to use our global energy – whether it be internal love hate stuff, or external oil food and other earth consumables. And sadly, some among us are Very slow learners.

regarding the photos of georgie - they are probably all multilingual and speaking to each other in everything but english so he can't understand them!

QOP, funny about the Monarch butterfly caterpillars. I had a similar experience some years back. Near the kitchen door I had a big clay pot filled with the most beautiful curly parsley. It could have graced a seed catalog. There was another parsley patch a few feet away, but this pot was by far the most luxuriant. I went out one morning to find three big green and yellow caterpillars hanging on to the bare stalks. They were so fat they looked like they would have to either burp or burst. I looked them up in my insect book and immediately pardoned them for parsley-cide.

In his great old organic gardening book, "Gardening with Nature" Leonard Wickenden says that insects don't attack every plant--they will concentrate on one. I've found that to be true. I still had parsley from my less spectacular patch.

umm,
I had parsley too, they didn't go there?
This year I'll have to plant an extra patch of carrots for the monarchs!

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_125124.asp

La-Z-Boy, Whirlpool Moving Hundreds Of Jobs To Mexico
Workers at Dayton, Cleveland Facilities Get Notices

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-jobs-economy-story,0,5376541.story

Job losses escalate

Monthly drop worst in 5 years

U.S. employers slashed a net 80,000 workers from their payrolls last month, the third consecutive monthly decline and the biggest one-month drop in five years, as the nation's increasingly troubled economy continued to slump, the Labor Department said Friday.

Unemployment rose from February's 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, above the 5.0 percent experts had been anticipating, and also the highest rate since September 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. Unemployment touched its low for the economic cycle one year ago, when it hit 4.4 percent in March 2007.

The shrinkage in last month's job market was worse than the painful 50,000-job loss economists had been anticipating and made it increasingly likely that the nation has entered a recession, probably in December or January.

Because of statistical limitations, a recession can't be formally identified until several months after one takes hold. Between the housing market's ongoing implosion, the turmoil hampering credit markets and the manufacturing sector's continuing decline, however, bad financial news has continued to accumulate, and the number of economists still on the fence is dwindling.

More at the links...

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/03/31/daily49.html

snip

The figures also showed the national unemployment rate jumped from 4.8 percent in February to 5.1 percent in March.

Construction lost 51,000 jobs nationally in March. That sector has declined by 394,000 positions since September 2006.

Manufacturing and employment services also lost jobs last month, according to the bureau. Mining, food service and health care added positions.

The net job losses for March show the turbulence in the economy, which has been hit by the slow housing market and financial problems spurred by foreclosures and subprime mortgages.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143475-page,1/article.html

Bill Would Double Cap on H-1B Visas

A bill introduced in the U.S. Congress would double the number of immigrant worker visas available each year under the H-1B program.

Microsoft today praised a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress that would double the number of immigrant worker visas available each year under the H-1B program.

The Innovation Employment Act, introduced by Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, late Thursday, would increase the cap in H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year. In addition, there would be no cap on H-1B applications for foreign graduate students attending U.S. colleges and studying science, technology and related fields. Currently, there's a 20,000-a-year cap on visas for graduate students in all fields.

The legislation would increase the H-1B cap to 180,000 in 2010 to 2015 if the 130,000 cap is reached the year before.

More at the link...

Just want to say how much this site/island of sanity/ means to me. Thank you so much, Sally and all posters.

You know something, May(fly)? I was thinking about you today, and how i would like to know you. I'll bet i'm not the only one who's thought that. And, i echo your appreciation, for I've felt that for a long time. It's a haven here. . .thank YOU, Sally.

And yes, i keep meaning to respond to Judi's post. I've felt the same, yet i'm daily thankful for the beauty that surrounds me, the love that permeates most every aspect of life. And, it is that Love i give energy to, for it is the only thing that sustains me.

The earth, planting, larva stories just have me chuckling. As you all know, i try to "farm" big time. Am hoping this year there's enough to can AND to give away.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/grains-gone-wild/

Grains gone wild

The financial crisis gets most of the attention from the business press — but in terms of sheer human impact, the current food crisis may well be a bigger deal.

"Governments across the developing world are scrambling to boost farm imports and restrict exports in an attempt to forestall rising food prices and social unrest. … The moves mark a rapid shift away from protecting farmers, who are generally the beneficiaries of food import tariffs, towards cushioning consumers from food shortages and rising prices.
But economists warned that such actions risked provoking an upward spiral in global food prices, which have already been pushed higher by rising demand from emerging markets like China and India and pressure on land from the growing production of bio-fuels."

What I don’t quite understand is why food prices have spiked so dramatically.

More at the link...

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/04/its-official-al.html

It's official, Alabama is the Soviet Union...
When I lived behind the iron curtain, my parents taught me never to talk anyone about anything. This caveat was not restricted to the typical warning given by regular parents to their regular children about the regular concerns of every day life.

No, the lecture I got, as did so many others like me, was a sober lecture given by Soviet parents to their Soviet children, who had to begin schooling in big brother's tactics at an early age. One wrong word could send an entire family to a work camp or prison. This was not the fear of over-protective parents, or even parents who have to live in a reality of constant Amber alerts blaring across their screen and fear that some sick, lone pedophile will abduct their child in broad daylight, as so often happens in the West these days. No, this was the reality of life under the Soviet regime, knowing that everything was watched, everyone was listening, no one could be trusted, and children were often the targets for inquiry into what their parents say behind closed doors. Friends were the next best thing, which may explain what we are about to hear out of the halls of the state legislature of Alabama.

Alabama is the Soviet Union

Although the whole of the United States appears to be collapsing into this type of model, Alabama in particular appears to be leaping in that direction at a faster pace. When I first blogged about the subpoenas that were served en masse to Democrats in the Alabama state legislature last month, it was crickets from across the blogs of both isles, the corporate press, and the general public. Now the New York Times has thankfully noticed this very brazen act of political intimidation and I hope that others might follow. Here is the news from Soviet Alabama today:

More at the link....

Remember the blogger we had back in 2003,4 around the time of the run-up to the election '4, who lived in Alabama, and told stories. about having to be careful what you said to the neighbors............ That person is long gone, even before we had this new site/

I do qop. There is also a poster on Salon, from Alabama, who was stopped in his car, had his computer confiscated, and jailed for no reason I knew of.

.......

Helen Thomas weighs in.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/357783_helenthomas06.html

Posted on Starlight News by Judith:

"Is McCain floating Jeb’s name out there because he plans to choose him for VP? This would explain Georgie’s happy little jig when he was waiting for McCain at the White House. When George feels glee it’s always bad news for the world.

http://tinyurl.com/5utff2

McCain will seek Jeb Bush’s help on education

Republican Presidential candidate John McCain said Thursday he has turned to former Gov. Jeb Bush for ad-vice on edu-cation policy and will continue to do so if he wins the November election."

Jeb Bush Feb. 11, 1953 8:12pm Midland, TX

We've discussed several times on this board that Jeb Bush could be a likely VP pick for McCain. And anyone who has ever played chess and watched how this campaign has been run on both sides could easily see that possible, probable outcome. The set up between Hillary and Obama is too pat, too scorched earth and no one trying to stop it all. The Dems picking the two least likely candidates to ever win in the US and way too easy to pick off in the General Election. Insiders have repeatedly stated that there is only one party, the money party with a left and right wing and our money is tied to wars and oil.

Has anyone ever thought that the polls are bought and paid for to say whatever they want, we've discovered the last 8 years that the elections can easily be stolen. If McCain picks Jeb as his VP I will guarantee that McCain will be president for a time until Jeb moves into that office. Eventually we will have to actually remove the Bushes from office.

I saw an interesting interview with John Kerry and he said the reason that he was so slow in responding to the swift-boating of his career was based on the advice he was getting from his advisors, including Bill Clinton, Kerry was swift-boated alright from the inside his party and out. It isn't an accident that he's distanced himself from the party insiders.

If Jeb is chosen to be McCain's VP, I wouldn't give a plug nickle for McCain's long term prospects, he is on borrowed time as it is. The energy around him is extremely stressful and it won't get better through the summer and fall.

It is extremely important that masses of people vote this fall for who ever the candidate ends up being. As dire as the predictions seem, they aren't bad, out of this mess in 2008 will come the final shift into what's of real value to us, chaos to be sure but I believe the human race will prevail. Survival is our most basic instinct in the Animal Kingdom and the rest of the animals haven't thrown the human race out yet.

I guess we should vote for the candidate with the most wrinkles?
'Frozen face' might not be the only hazard – now tests show toxins can spread to the grey matter

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/
check out #2 under Most Popular in Life ^& Style
re: dangerous food additives......
I tried to make a timuurl, but it didn't work?

This morning on the Chris Matthews show, Andrew Sullivan told the panel that he predicted Yoo and Rumsfeld, and a couple of others will face indictment on war crimes. Of course that won't happen if "Jeb" has anything to say about it.

http://www.waff.com/Global/link.asp?L=99318

Something else to look forward to in 2012:

"May the Sangha of Sri Lanka rise up to the challenges of the time and may the powers that be, namely and most importantly the educators and scholars take upon themselves the task of maintaining Sri Lanka's leadership in Buddhist Studies. This can easily be a major objective of the preparations for the next major event in the history of Buddhism – the 2600th anniversary of the attainment of Buddhahood in 2011-2012."

http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10418

Came here to post this, and saw your post shy.

Tibet Vows Trouble-Free Olympic Torch Relay

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040608D.shtml

Reuters reports that "Tibet's Communist Party chief promised a trouble-free Olympic torch relay through the region, even as security forces struggled to stamp out violence in a nearby ethnic Tibetan area."

PatC would love to see Richard Gere show us what he's made of and take out full page ads worldwide 30 days before the 8-8-08 Olympics calling for a boycott against it until the Tibetans are given their freedom and the high Tulku they've kidnapped is returned to his family and given his rightful seat.

May we all hiccup and transform our consciousness.

We know only too well what the Chinese mean by "stamp out." Oh, shudder!

Oh geeeez! I just have to see that whole post again!! ;-)

"PatC would love to see Richard Gere show us what he's made of and take out full page ads worldwide 30 days before the 8-8-08 Olympics calling for a boycott against it until the Tibetans are given their freedom and the high Tulku they've kidnapped is returned to his family and given his rightful seat.

May we all hiccup and transform our consciousness."

Yoo’s memo hints at martial law

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/040608a.html

Yoo’s Memo Hints at Bush’s Secrets

The Pentagon’s declassification of a five-year-old memo authorizing military interrogators to use brutal methods to extract information from prisoners at Guantanamo Bay sheds new light into the dark corners of the Bush administration’s legal theories that put the President and his subordinates beyond domestic and international law.

In the March 14, 2003, memo – which was released this past week – administration lawyer John Yoo cited the principle of national “self-defense” in combating terrorism as grounds for justifying harsh treatment of detainees up to and including death.

Yet, as Yoo advanced his argument for virtually unfettered presidential war-time powers regarding the treatment of prisoners, the memo also pointed to other still-secret documents suggesting the administration was prepared to take its authority even further, into domestic military operations that would brush aside constitutional protections.

More at the link….

Newsworthy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080406/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_penn

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3257824
Former lawmaker favored to win California House race once held by late Rep. Lantos
The Associated Press
Published: April 6, 2008

SACRAMENTO, Calif.: A former congressional aide may be heading back to Washington, nearly 30 years after she was shot and left for dead on a Guyana airstrip while on a fact-finding trip into the Jim Jones cult.

Democrat Jackie Speier is the favorite to win a special election Tuesday to fill the House seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Tom Lantos, a San Mateo Democrat.

It is her second try for the seat once held by her boss, Rep. Leo Ryan, who was killed by Jones' henchmen in the same 1978 attack that seriously wounded Speier.

woah!

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Obama.html

Would You Like Change With That?
An Analysis of Obamamania

Interesting article PatC and I expect more than a few truthful observations. Sadly it looks as if none of these candidates can bring us change, but perhaps if we stop looking for what kind of change can they bring and start looking at what kind of change we might bring then maybe together we can get to somewhere better.

John Yoo would be shat out the bowels of Hell for being too evil even to the eyes of Mephistophiles.

Obama is a hologram.

Last words of Dith Pran of the "Killing Fields":

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/multimedia/20080320_DITH_PRAN_LAST_WORD_FEATURE/#section1

May his heart be light and his cup full.
Hear! HeaR!

Hi All

I have been avoiding weighing in on this, but oh well....I think Obama is a fraud. Sorry. He is a creation of his handlers and the media. He says nothing, never has, has done even less. He lied about his father’s position, (not a poor Kenyan, but well to do and well-placed), lied about his father having been sponsored by the Kennedy’s to come to America, lied about the timing, trying to link his history with the Civil Rights movement, etc etc Has attended a church for years that spews racism and hatred, let’s not pretend that this is the only time Wright has said things like that, (has anybody checked to see if this is one of the Black churches getting involved with the Moonies?)
You can’t even say he’s really even a senator because for the very brief time he’s been in the senate he’s mostly been running for office. Having moved from Chicago not too long ago, I keep connected to Chicago politics. Obama’s association with slime ball Tony Rezka is revolting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP-YoB5mnZs&feature=PlayList&p=2D39ECF2B4A99BF8&index=4 I could post endless links, this one kind of hits you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP-YoB5mnZs&feature=PlayList&p=2D39ECF2B4A99BF8&index=4
I am familiar with this area of town, this isn’t a You Tube hype Tony Rezka is under indictment, this is Obama’s district, the two are linked together. There’s no way in Chicago Obama did business with this slime ball for years, real estate deals with his wife etc and didn’t have a clue to what anybody in the “know” in Chicago did. Or if he really didn’t have a clue, then he darn sure isn’t smart enough to be president. This guy was on his campaign finance committee for crying out loud. Sorry folks, but I think we are being had again. If and when Obama clinches the nomination, this stuff and some even more shocking stuff is going to blast the air waves. An unlike the Swiftboating, Obama is going to be in no position to refute most of it. The Larry Sinclair scandal is probably next. We are going to end up electing senile Repug McCain who has sold his soul to the Bushes to be the Repug nominee. Karl Rove must be howling with laughter. Gag

Sigh
Swamp

Sorry here's the other link I menat to publish
http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/757340,CST-NWS-watchdog24.article
swamp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/07/climatechange.carbonemissions

Climate target is not radical enough - study

Nasa scientist warns the world must urgently make huge CO2 reductions

One of the world's leading climate scientists warns today that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.

In a startling reappraisal of the threat, James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls for a sharp reduction in C02 limits.

Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 - the most stringent in the world - should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if "humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed". A final version of the paper Hansen co-authored with eight other climate scientists, is posted today on the Archive website. Instead of using theoretical models to estimate the sensitivity of the climate, his team turned to evidence from the Earth's history, which they say gives a much more accurate picture.

The team studied core samples taken from the bottom of the ocean, which allow C02 levels to be tracked millions of years ago. They show that when the world began to glaciate at the start of the Ice age about 35m years ago, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere stood at about 450ppm.

"If you leave us at 450ppm for long enough it will probably melt all the ice - that's a sea rise of 75 metres. What we have found is that the target we have all been aiming for is a disaster - a guaranteed disaster," Hansen told the Guardian.

At levels as high as 550ppm, the world would warm by 6C, the paper finds. Previous estimates had suggested warming would be just 3C at that point.

more...

Sally, draft Al Gore on the second ballot?!?!?

..........

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1169&thisview=item

"Iraq looks like Vietnam without water"
Winter Solider Vietnam organizer Bill Crandell compares wars

Bill Crandell was an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam in 1967, was injured and by 1968 was one of the organizers of Vietnam Veterans of America. He delivered the opening statement at Winter Solider Vietnam.

and

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1299&thisview=item

Steps Backward: Women’s rights in Iraq
Alive in Baghdad: Iraqi women rights activists targeted by militias

Baghdad, Iraq - Women in Iraq are enduring great hardships. Since the fall of Saddam, despite attempts to improve women’s rights, many feel their rights are slipping. Under Saddam women were considered to be equal under the law. With the collapse of the government after the invasion in 2003, militias have gained greater and greater ground.

The militias have not only been involved in ongoing criminal activity, many have ties to Islamist groups, such as the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, or Al-Qa’eda in Iraq. These groups in particular have targeted women, preventing them from working, and enforcing strict dress codes. This week Hayder Kamal interviews an activist for women’s rights who discusses her work improving women’s knowledge of their rights. During 2004 and 2005 she worked to encourage women to vote and understand the constitution and the importance of voting and being involved in political life.

More at the link....

PatC, it would be great to have Gore elected on the second ballot, maybe there is a chance. However if that is something the Dems want to do, why are a bunch of them pitching a fit that it could all go to a brokered convention?

Swamp, of course he is a creation of his handlers and the media, they all are, and you could see that the minute he gave the convention speech in 2004 for Kerry. They were all talking about he "should run for President" you could easily see what they were up to then.

But I do think he is the best hope for getting the populace out here to do something instead of waiting for it to be done for us and he is only the best hope because of his ability to inspire this country, I think that's a shock to all of them including him.

Sally, the Clinton people don't want that, and the Obama people don't want that. That's for sure. I wonder how many people like me are out here?

The thing is PatC, there isn't anyone out there to trust. I just think vote for who you think is the best candidate, but vote, at least the numbers of the people who are interested will be recorded even if the vote is skewered and they all need to know we are out here and we are watching. That to me is one of our biggest points of power for the people. I would like to see Al Gore but all I've read and what I've heard from people I know in the government in other parts of the world, Al is as tied to big business more than all the rest, but I do think he will start the clean up on the environment. I do not nor am I looking for a savior of me or the people, the problems are way too far gone and it will take everyone to even begin to get back on track.

I am certainly not a fan of Bob Barr but there are some real interesting astro facts at play relating to the American Revolution with his announcement (I've written about them before) I have meetings all day to day but will get back tonight to go over them.

I'm looking forward to that Sally!

...........

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/06/mukasey/index.html

Glenn Greenwald

The Associated Press fails to reveal Mukasey’s favorite color

In the short time he’s been Attorney General, Michael Mukasey has become one of the most divisive political figures in the country. He’s been in the middle of numerous controversies, steadfastly defending even the most radical Bush policies—from torture to warrantless spying—and demonstrating himself to be as blindly loyal to the White House as his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, and every bit as willing to subvert the powers of the DOJ for political ends.

snip

In the midst of these swirling and growing scandals, The Associated Press yesterday distributed a lengthy profile of Mukasey, by AP writer Lara Jakes Jordan, that appeared, as most AP articles do, in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless other papers. In it, we learn that Mukasey’s mom and dad taught him to keep his head down and work hard. He “grew up in a lower-middle-class Bronx family as the son of a Belarus immigrant.” As a child, he worked in a laundromat and as a messenger boy.

snip

No critics, criticism or controversies were mentioned or even referenced. The only people quoted about Mukasey’s performance were his two bestest friends—Rudy Giluiani and Reagan-appointee Judge Lamberth.

snip

This is why the Founders bestowed constitutional primacy to a free press. Just think about what the Government might be able to get away with—the kind of creepy propaganda they would be able to disseminate—without our ornery watchdogs serving as a vigilant check on the behavior of high political officials.

More at the link…

The last thing from me about this election.
It has come to a brokered convention because the dems allowed Fl and MI to become null & void. 2.5 million voters who came out for nothing.
Obama doesn't want MI back in the tally. In other words, the energy of the voters mean nothing to him either.
From day one when I saw that face of his I felt nothing. Flat. Empty. Unreal.
This is a "race" with nothing inside but a charade of gestures that will take us to a bad place unrecognizable to our hearts and minds.

But we already knew that.

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1301&thisview=item

Blackwater in Iraq: Contract renewed
AP: State Department to renew Blackwater USA's license to operate in Baghdad for another year .

This is the kind of thing that isn't being addressed. How do you know who a candidate is if this isn't addressed? Focusing on race is a distraction. We should be focusing on matters of life and death, the Constitution, and our money.

Well, Pat C Obama has already said he intends to retain Blackwater and it's sewage. Let's just not discuss conscience. Welcome to the world of hurt behind the deadpan and capped teeth.

Just can't wait to see what sort of filth he has in mind for a veep.

Probably the same kind of filth Hillary has in mind. All filthy Democrats good call PatB! :)

Hillary is in bed with Blackwater as well. Probably sharing the vodka.

Hey no problem for Florida and Michigan, Hillary is changing the rules for them so she can win. You know she'll get her way.

Obama or Hillary, how about that Bob Barr!

Heck we'll likely have McCain and Condi, oh won't that be fun!

Morgana, we have to do it ourselves. Why wait for the piano to drop on our heads.

Instead, why not talk about Jupiter and uranus and mars and violence instead of what's in front of our faces.

http://tinyurl.com/4lk8te

A SAMPLING OF MISCONCEPTIONS &
OUTRIGHT LIES ABOUT ELECTIONS

"We wouldn't be able to get enough people to count real ballots" is just bogus, when viewed in the context of all the energy and money the whole rest of elections are piled high with.

"These voting machines work."

"Well, they work well enough."

"They have been federally certified."

"They have triple redundancy."

"If anything was wrong, the logic & accuracy test would show it."

"If anything went wrong, it was the fault of the voters. They don't know how to vote."

"If anything went wrong, it was because the pollworkers did something wrong."

"Corporations own the counting software, and it's a trade secret, so citizens can't know it, or know about it. Same with the results of the certification testing."

"No one handles your ballots except election officials, and state police who transport them."

"Everything that might be vulnerable is locked up at all times."

More at the link....

One more misconception & outright lie:

The people choose their candidates. Illusions, Illusions, and thieves scurrying behind the see-through curtain.

If only the outcome were more benign.....

Just in case the impression was made by ommission I'm FOR one of these baleful "choices", (or if anyone cares) my apologies.

At the thought in particular of BillC in the WH my next thought is qualifying for a prolonged mental hospital stay and other ingenious ways and places to ride out the turbulence certain to come from that scenario.

The other thing is the flickering suspicion BillC is deliberately undermining Hillary and she honestly doesn't realize it. Just like in the old (recent, current) days.

See, Hillary IS competent. Our lives will probably improve because of her, while the bag of methane (corporate) also expands.
However, she will help stem the flow of mortgage disaster and devastation to several million people. She will also bring us damn decent Health Coverage.

Obama on the other hand, is smoking pot out of a glove compartment. He'll bring lots more sorrow than Hillary will.

LOL I'll smoke with Obama's got, not into tossing back Vodka with Hills. Either one of them is better then McCain. I don't think Obama will bring any more sorrow then Hillary, just different dramas. We've seen what the Clinton's will bring us, more Mark Penn's, Wolfson's, and our favorite Ragin'Cajun boy, Carville. Another economic house of cards. The lies, they all lie. Poor old Hill's got busted yet again for her over active imagination, oops didn't vet the source her bad. And we can see how well they run their campaigns good indicator how they'll run the government.

I'll take Gore in a heartbeat, but alas, he has moved on to bigger and better hunting grounds.

Either one will be fine with me just get it over already.

Meanwhile in my neck of the world protesters decorated the Golden Gate Bridge gearing up for the Olympic Torch relay in Wednesday. The State Department is helping out local law enforcement. I am so glad I telecommute.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4605478&page=1

Really. Obama's scarier.

I wish there was a way to apply for a World Citizenship. The more aware I am of the world and its citizens the more I see we are really all the same, and from the same source. The things that separate us are artificial things like patriotism, religion, cultures and languages which are nothing more than superficial things which we do based only on where we're born. They seem so important and are causes for wars and violence and death yet it's all just the luck of the draw as to where we're born.

PatB, we have lived through George, now that is scary. Obama, Clinton, aren't in the same league of scary. I'm tired of fear, not into its debilitating affects. Either one is better then Bush, or any GOP'er on the landscape.

Never said nor implied any comparison with the gwpinhead admin..
It is what it is.

Watch this video of some very creative protesters on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with immense banners bringing attention to Tibet. I think the olympic torch is supposed to be carried across the bridge. This is much more dangerous than it looks!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/07/tibet-protestors-climb-go_n_95505.html

Jeremy Scahill on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now reminding us of how dangerous these private militias are and no one but the likes of us is talking about it. There is an article in Mountain
Astrologer about Pluto entering Capricorn-not uplifting but really more in line with what I sense coming up. I imagine the private militias doing the bidding of the business class.
This just doesn't hit the newspapers or the evening news. I think that America should be afraid but no one except those of us on the radical edges knows.

Here are more photos of the Golden Gate Bridge protesters and also protests against China's violence against Tibet during the Olympic Torch relays in France and England

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Olympic-Torch-Relay-Golden-Gate-Bridge-San-Francisco-Olympic-torch-relay/ss/events/sp/040708olympictorch/s:/afp/20080407/ts_alt_afp/uschinaunresttibetrightsoly2008bridge_080407202604/im:/080407/photos_ts_afp/b01f3198ac4dc1f97f6ae7fee8d47e32/;_ylt=AinGsRApSBtSwxkqgCeiIRTZa7gF#photoViewer=/080407/photos_ts_afp/5f682c0c9b78f6907cf2b1fa8ed8aff8

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Bill+Gates+H-1B&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Bill Gates wants caps on H-1B visas scrapped. Several articles and video of his testimony to the slobbering US government.

He thinks a rich China and a declining US is actually a good thing. I wonder how well he would have done working out of a Chinese garage when he was a teen? Don’t you?

I guess we are all intact then, still status quo, which means scary & depressing but not life threatening.............
As I was driving home tonight, across the blueberry barrens, ( like being on top the earth, no trees, although it's not that far above sea level, you can see for miles.)
When in the sky at 7PM, there were 9 big planes with chemtrails in the sky..........5 coming from (probably Bangor International, flying northeast,( the route to Europe, I've seen it from above and from down here. and several going south west.
( I haven't seen that many planes in the sky at one time since 9/11 & 12, with the commercial flights diverted to Canada & Norad flying protection on the border!
WHen I got out of my car at the market, they were directly overhead & NOT that high in altitude................... Big ones 747's at least!
??????? If I were running an airport, I would stagger my passenger flights At least 10 min. apart! Not flying almost in formation!
At least Hillary has an imagination, thats more than you can say about Condi, "WHo could imagine anyone flying planes into buildings" Rice!

Wow.

Furthermore the overseas commercial flights are already pretty high in the sky by the time they fly over my house 79 miles from the airport.........

Just for Fun!
Last night was Starwars on Family Guy and....:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6UoVlfGnv8

:) :) :)

Gee, is it Obama bashing night? Think I'll skip it.

thanks.

I know there probably isn't one soul who is a basketball fan on this blog, but since I'm the principal on this blog I am going to Rock Chalk Jayhawk KUUUUUUU just a bit. I was born and raised in Kansas and every Kansas child knows that Dr. James Naismith, KU and Phog Allen are the fathers of the true religion in Kansas - basketball. My grandfather played for Dr. Naismith (the game's inventor) and my father played for Phog Allen one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time and the inventor of sports medicine. Kansas University won the National Basketball Championship tonight against Memphis in a heart stopping overtime game. I've talked to my brother and sister and cousin tonight and all my children and every KU fan I know and I just want to end the day by saying ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK KUUUUUUUUUUUU.

Yaah Jayhawk!
Nice to have such a positive!
We used to have a strong focus on basket ball here, everything else stopped during the season........ I had a 13 year old art student who missed the occassional art class because his team being bussed to Canada to play other school teams.
I suspect NCLB & lack of funding have cut that back. ( or I might just be missing it, being so busy here.)

This was a comment posted under Robert Fiske's
The Fearful Lives under the Land of the Free April 5 Common Dreams ( originating out of Portland).................
In the Spring of '05, at our local Democratic Fund Raising Contre Dance........My son and Nancy hit it off and danced several dances together! Like me she is blunt & outspoken, so has not won an election but her agenda is in
the right place!( she's very WASP middle aged!)
...............................................
{Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party USA coordinating committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport in Bangor Maine,as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago.

“An official told me that my name had been flagged in the computer,” a shaken Oden said. “I was targeted because the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan.”

Oden, a long-time organic farmer and peace activist in northern Maine, was ordered away from the plane. Military personnel with automatic weapons surrounded Oden and instructed all airlines to deny her passage on ANY flight. “I was told that the airport was closed to me until further notice and that my ticket would not be refunded,” Oden said.}

i know it’s old news, but why is the government maintaining a database of political dissidents in the US ? and how does a peace activist, environmental activist equate w/ a fundamentalist islamic terrorist in the mind of cheney/bush ? (of course the bin laden family was being flown out of the US as these events unfolded).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=556971&in_page_id=1770

Life on Mars: Stunning 3D photos show the Red Planet's mountain ranges for the first time

These stunning pictures reveal for the first time the planet Mars's stunning mountain landscape.

The 3D photographs were taken by a high resolution stereo camera on board the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and beamed 43million miles to Earth.

They show Hebes Chasma, an enclosed trough, almost five miles deep, in the Grand Canyon of the Red Planet.

see photos...

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK KUUUUUUUUUUUU.

Great pictures luna.

https://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisepisode=133

Mercenaries in Iraq immune to law

Journalist Jeremy Scahill on "Corporate Pillaging and Military Contractors" panel at Winter Soldier

Please, DRAFT AL GORE.

wOW, Luna, those pictures are amazing. I wonder if they will be photographing them one day and see a sign saying "yankee go home."

Good grief QOP that's terrible about Ms. Oden, every day it becomes more and more like a police state. Why on earth would they need Ms. Oden?

I think it's intended to frighten and make examples to anyone who would do what she did.

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002819

Horton is doing some crucial reporting. Today is another must-read.

Scott Horton/Harpers, April 8, 2008

A Tale of Three Lawyers

On Thursday in the National Press Club in Washington, a crowd gathered to witness the presentation of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling to Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz. The story of Matthew Diaz... is a story of courage, fortitude, conviction and suffering.

snip

Matthew Diaz served his country as a staff judge advocate at Guantánamo. He watched a shameless assault on America’s Constitution and commitment to the rule of law carried out by the Bush Administration. He watched the introduction of a system of cruel torture and abuse. He watched the shaming of the nation’s uniformed services, with their proud traditions that formed the very basis of the standards of humanitarian law, now torn asunder through the lawless acts of the Executive. Matthew Diaz found himself in a precarious position—as a uniformed officer, he was bound to follow his command. As a licensed and qualified attorney, he was bound to uphold the law. And these things were indubitably at odds.

snip

Diaz resolved to do something about it. He knew the Supreme Court twice ruled the Guantánamo regime, which he was under orders to uphold, was unlawful. One of the crimes the Administration committed was withholding from the Red Cross a list of the detainees at Guantánamo, effectively making them into secret detainees. The decision to withhold the information had been taken, in defiance of law, by senior political figures in the Bush Administration. Diaz was aware of it, and he knew it was unlawful. He printed out a copy of the names and sent them to a civil rights lawyer who had requested them in federal court proceedings.

Diaz was aware when he did this that he was violating regulations and that he could and would, if caught, be subjected to severe sanction. What he did was a violation of law, even as it was an effort to cure a more severe act of lawlessness by the Government.

snip

Diaz was charged, tried and convicted for disclosing “secrets.” For the Bush Administration, any information which would be politically embarrassing or harmful to it is routinely classified “secret.” In this fashion the Administration believes it can use criminal sanctions against those who disclose information it believes will be politically damaging. The list of detainees at Guantánamo, which by law was required to be disclosed, was classified as “secret.”

Diaz spent six months in prison and left it bankrupt and without a job. In addition to his sentence, the Pentagon is working aggressively to have Diaz stripped of his law license so he will not be able to practice his profession. The Bush Administration has sought to criminalize, humiliate and destroy Diaz. Its motivation could not be clearer: Diaz struck a blow for the rule of law. And nothing could be more threatening to the Bush Administration than this.

More at the link....

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/08/8152/#comment-246501
Truckers Hit the Brakes
by Barbara Ehrenreich
HAs anyone head ANYTHING about this?

From qop's article:

snip

"At least one of the truckers' tactics may be translatable to the foreclosure crisis. On March 29, Hayden surrendered three rigs to be repossessed by Daimler-Chrysler--only he did it publicly, with flair, right in front of the statehouse in Augusta. "Repossession is something people don't usually see," he says, and he wanted the state legislature to take notice. As he took the keys, the representative of Daimler-Chrysler said, according to Hayden, "I don't see why you couldn't make the payments." To which Hayden responded, "See, I have to pay for fuel and food, and I've eaten too many meals in my life to give that up."

Suppose homeowners were to start making their foreclosures into public events--inviting the neighbors and the press, at least getting someone to camcord the children sitting disconsolately on the steps and the furniture spread out on the lawn. Maybe, for a nice dramatic touch, have the neighbors shower the bankers, when they arrive, with dollar bills and loose change, since those bankers never can seem to get enough.

But the larger message of the truckers' protest is about pride or, more humbly put, self-respect, which these men channel from their roots. Dan Little tells me, "My granddad said, and he was the smartest man I ever knew, 'If you don't stand up for yourself, ain't nobody gonna stand up for you.'" Go to TheAmericanDriver.com, run by JB and his brother in Texas, where you're greeted by a giant American flag, and you'll find--among the driving tips, weather info, and drivers' favorite photos--the entire Constitution and Declaration of Independence. "The last time we faced something as impacting on us," JB tells me, "There was a revolution." "

qop, I haven't heard a thing on the news.

Gore has an new and updated video/slide show on the Climate Crisis. It's 27 minutes long. He says that in order to fix the climate crisis we must fix the Democracy crisis.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/243

When you watch the video you can click on the little screen icon in the upper right corner and the video will enlarge.

God! I love that man! He looks great in this video!

lunaoscura, thank you for that heartfelt new presentational plea by Al Gore to get cracking on solutions. Were we only so fortunate to have him as our rightful president.
It doesn't appear too likely we could draft him this time around with the momentum what it is and shreaks that would accompany aborting two candidates. The washington power brokers just wouldn't allow such a thing.
We could take him very seriously and have this be a citizen movement as chunks of our economy fall into the sea. ie., educating our kids in the green sciences as well.

patb, We'd be eight years into working on solutions to the climate change problem. Instead Bush has bastardized the EPA and environmental initiatives, destroyed the Superfunds for cleaning up toxic waste, rewritten environmental rules so polluters can choose to clean up their waste and emissions if the mood strikes them and expanded the use of coal and oil. Lucky us.

I still say, without reservation, Draft Gore.

.......

I think this is huge.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/08/hamilton/

Hamilton denies Mukasey's claim about 9/11

"I am unfamiliar with the telephone call that Attorney General Mukasey cited ... The 9/11 Commission did not receive any information pertaining to its occurrence"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqiranobama

Did anyone watch the Iraq Senate hearing today? I saw a part of it. That Ryan Crocker sure is a croc alright. He couldn't satisfactorily answer any of the questions put to him by the Senators, and he was as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof - stammering and stuttering, twiddling his thumbs. Petraeus let him take all the heat.

I literally can no longer listen to anyone talk about the so-called war in Iraq. I want to vomit when I hear someone talk about our losses knowing as I do that we have caused the deaths of at least a million Iraqis, have driven even more into a life as unwanted refugees, that we have destroyed their society, committed genocide. I feel crazy when i hear politicians pontificating while they lie. I don't care who the politician is what party I just can't stand the lies and the cruelty anymore.

clymela,

Word!

They drain all the life energy out of me too. I feel like they're using up all the oxygen in the room all the time. They're like insatiable vampires who live off of everyone else's energy, especially the victims of their wars.

Yeh! My Brother told me about having to evict a homeless man from the hotel parking lot where he works.
He looked into his eyes and he was "one of us" And then another employee feared for my Brother's safety & called the cops who drove him away. WHich of course cut short my Brothers diplomatic negotiation...........
I missed the hearings, except snatches told me by my daughter as she did errands listening to NPR.
Huff Po has a fairly comprehensive recounting, with videos.

Sometimes I feel sorry for Ryan Crocker when ever I see him on the Hill. He stammers and stutters and has a hard time stringing sentences together and I wonder if every time he has to testify if he doesn't think "today would be a good day to quit."

Watching even a little bit of the hearings was painful. The lies, the attacking the wrong people, George Bush should be in that seat not the Generals. I did see a guy scream "bring them home" and then security took him out but he was an echo of what I wanted to do. This is an insane circle that just goes round and round and with no end, just as they planned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09conserve.html?th&emc=th
As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation
Out on the farm, the ducks and pheasants are losing ground.
Skip to next paragraph
The Food Chain
A Struggle for Land

Articles in this series are examining growing demands on, and changes in, the world’s production of food.
Previous Articles in the Series »
Multimedia
Losing AcresGraphic
Losing Acres
Enlarge This Image
Melissa Lyttle for The New York Times

Paul Devlin works at a bakery in Tampa, Fla. The bakery’s owner said the price he paid for flour had doubled since October.

Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government’s biggest conservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurning guaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres as are in Rhode Island and Delaware combined. ..................
At my local supermarket yesterday, I tried to buy Eccopanne bread, a pricey favorite made from semolina with sesame d=seeds on top. One of the clerks told me thay HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET IT LATELY!
And did you know......now that we are required to have passports to get back from Ca. or Mexico...........making them has been outsourced AND if you renew your old passport, they don't return it! ( They keep it guess someone somewhere has a racket selling used old passports??????????)
I had hoped to keep my stimulus $ in the countyr by getting a passport!
You are right Sally An insane circle that just goes round & round..............
Nothing in the NYT about the truckers strike!
I am going to listen to NPR today they are live broadcasting the hearings........

"The Olympic flame is intended to demonstrate peace and solidarity among the peoples. In ancient times lighting the torch marked the period during which weapons were put down during the Games and acts of war were forbidden. The fact that it was the Nazis who reintroduced it in 1936 shows how susceptible such a symbolic act is to propaganda. China's dictatorship can't be compared with Hitler's regime. But one has to welcome the fact that demonstrators are now preventing the Communists in Beijing from using the torch relay to present themselves like Leni Riefenstahl did, with terrifying mastery, in her propaganda film 'Olympia.' The torch relay was intended as a triumph but has become a gauntlet for the Chinese -- and given their stubborn attitude in the Tibetan conflict, they only have themselves to blame."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,546078,00.html

China doesn't give a rats ass about what the world thinks. These demonstrations remind me of the ones that people all over the world had whenever an American President traveled around. Nixon even got pelted with tomatoes or something in South America. It became routine and expected. The US hasn't given a rats ass about what the world thinks for a very long time. That's why I wish there really was a way to become a World Citizen in a real and legitimate way. With a passport and everything.

Buzzflash has an article questioning why Amb. Crocker is parsing his words. No "permanent bases," instead we have "enduring bases"

"Enduring Basis" is going to be getting on our nerves like "Homeland Security." It makes me feel evil just using the words. I guess not them.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/344

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1314&thisview=item

Did Petraeus part ways with the neocons?
The Real Story examines General Petraeus' testimony and the contending forces in Iraq

Luna, these Olympics are a stamp of approval to the Chinese. I believe they should never have been given the Olympics.

Menendez's challenge to amb. Cocker on how much "progress" has come to everyday Iraqi life:

Some of Menendez’s figures are downright infuriating. This is what $25 billion has gotten us:

43% of population lives in absolute poverty
prior to war 19% of children suffered malnutrition; today 28%
last year 75% elementary-aged kids went to school; now 30%
prior to war 50% lacked access to clean water; now 70%
only 50 of 142 primary health care centes are open to public
Ambassador Crocker’s response is exactly what you would expect:

“Security conditions made it difficult to bring projects to closure in a timely fashion.”

What a tangled web we weave.

This was most comprehensive Countdown seen in awhile, everybody was there with comments from Clinton and Biden. Particularly, Obama's comments were crisp, clear and spot-on correct. Fantastic! (giving credit where it's due):

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/08/countdown-former-nsa-director-picks-apart-petraeus-crocker-propaganda/#comments

Pat C, where can we find Richard Gere and send comments to him about those fullpage ads boycotting the Olympics?

patb, go here. http://www.gerefoundation.org/ Beautiful site.

And here. http://www.healingthedivide.org/contact_us.html

Pat C, thanks for those sites & will go there as soon as down 'n dirty deck-swabbing is done & can concentrate.
We need to be reeeaal careful that this doesn't have an "American" face on it. Lest we forget 2 weeks ago Chavez said the u.s. is sullying the chinese olympic opportunity.
And we thought Chavez cared about humanitarian causes and people getting a fair shake! Until the Chinese wave a few billion cool ones under his nose, then he just forgot about the Tibetans?

Lunaoscura, oh, China DOES care bunches about their image to the world. "Saving Face" is a big deal to them.

Whoa NEllie!
Look at this on MSNBC!
"The Man Who Pushed America to War" ( excerpts)

"Third, Chalabi had political impact that was virtually unheard of for a foreigner. He used his personal magnetism, lobbying skills and tactical abilities to merge U.S. policy with his own ambitions. The U.S. Congress passed a law written largely to achieve his vision and to boost the fortunes of his political vehicle, the Iraqi National Congress. He had a battery of supporters on Capitol Hill. U.S. senators like

Trent Lott, John McCain, Sam Brownback,
Joe Lieberman, and Bob Kerrey ( all our favorite people)

became his champions. But even more important, he knew how to manipulate the key aides who work anonymously in the back rooms to make Capitol Hill run. He courted key Republicans like Trent Lott’s Randy Scheunemann and House international affairs staffer Steve Rademaker, as well as Senate Democratic aides like Chris Straub and Peter Galbraith.

He was funded by The State Dept the CIA & the Defense Dept.! That's OUR money!
We knew this back in 20002 thanks to Noam Chamsky................

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24017398/
from the previous post. A good thing I bookmarked because I couldn't trace how I got to it! I thought it came from DU?? wasn't there.

Chavez is not a nice guy. Nice guys, with power, are hard to find.

Froomkin

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

No Exit

Well, it's official. Getting out of Iraq is now exclusively the next president's problem.

That's the only serious conclusion that can be drawn from yesterday's Senate testimony by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. The two standard-bearers for President Bush's war engaged in an absurd tap-dance that nevertheless made it clear that U.S. troops aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Consider:

While asserting that "the way forward on reduction should be conditions-based," Petraeus and Crocker were unable or unwilling to say what those conditions might be.

While insisting that the U.S. commitment in Iraq is not open-ended, they described no circumstance in which it would end.

They refused to consider any hypothetical scenarios, except for their own.

They refused to acknowledge that reasonable people might disagree with them.

And, as they demonstrated yesterday and in their testimony last September, no matter what the situation on the ground, they are able to use it as an argument for staying the course.

More at the link....

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/blackwater-bulk.html

Blackwater is bulking up their air power, using a shell company

Private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide has purchased a light attack counterinsurgency aircraft, and over two dozen other aircraft, under the name of an obscure aviation company.

An Embraer Super Tucano was placed on the U.S. civil aircraft registry on February 21, 2008 under the name of EP Aviation LLC. Additionally, 28 other aircraft have been registered to this company, most over the past few months. The list includes 14 Bell 412 helicopters, as well as a number of fixed wing aircraft.

While Blackwater hasn't advertised this news, neither is it keeping it a state secret (EP Aviation isn't the sneakiest way to hide connections to Blackwater owner Erik Prince). A spokesperson for Blackwater, in fact, confirmed to Danger Room that EP Aviation is an affiliate of Blackwater.

More at the link....

Pat C, about Chavez, no illusions here. (sarcasmic tongue-in-cheekiness)

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Diaz_placeholder_0408.html

Mississippi Justice: Bush US Attorney targeted my wife, supporters and friends

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/281

FEC 'Toothless,' 'Neutered,' and 'A Paralyzed Enforcer' -- But, Hey, Who Needs Election Oversight?

No surprise here, but it is confirmation of what many suspected. Even down to details (how many times somebody could be slapped, etc.), discussions about "enhanced interrogation" involved Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, etc.

Apparently it is true. Chilling, just chilling to read:

http://tinyurl.com/5glldk

Shylurker, that article reminds of the Hannah Arendt's phrase...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/BanalityEvil_Herman.html

The concept of the banality of evil came into prominence following the publication of Hannah Arendt's 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, which was based on the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem. Arendt's thesis was that people who carry out unspeakable crimes, like Eichmann, a top administrator in the machinery of the Nazi death camps, may not be crazy fanatics at all, but rather ordinary individuals who simply accept the premises of their state and participate in any ongoing enterprise with the energy of good bureaucrats.
Normalizing the Unthinkable
Doing terrible things in an organized and systematic way rests on "normalization." This is the process whereby ugly, degrading, murderous, and unspeakable acts become routine and are accepted as "the way things are done." There is usually a division of labor in doing and rationalizing the unthinkable, with the direct brutalizing and killing done by one set of individuals; others keeping the machinery of death (sanitation, food supply) in order; still others producing the implements of killing, or working on improving technology (a better crematory gas, a longer burning and more adhesive napalm, bomb fragments that penetrate flesh in hard-to-trace patterns). It is the function of defense intellectuals and other experts, and the mainstream media, to normalize the unthinkable for the general public. The late Herman Kahn spent a lifetime making nuclear war palatable (On Thermonuclear War, Thinking About the Unthinkable), and this strangelovian phoney got very good press. ~

more..

Ah, yes, lunaoscura. With the possible exception of Colin Powell, though, how many people actually thought the people supposed to have been in that room were anywhere near 'normal'?

Shylurker,

They aren't normal! But my point was more towards their selling the torture as a reasonable kind of action. Supposedly Americans are caring people, yet there was no real objection to the torture because the neo cons did their best to make it 'normal' or 'acceptable' and they went so far as to even make it seem 'vital' and 'necessary'.

Hell! The American people are still debating it as if it were some intellectual exercise or as if there were any merit to torture. How many times do people use the ticking bomb excuse? It's standard. IT's a straw man that waves in the wind like a scarecrow and makes so many fear for their lives!

No, the people in that room were/are not normal, lunaoscura, but they appeared normal to many. And it was so easy, once the torture pictures at AbuGhraib were released, for so many to react with maybe a frown and then a shrug. How have those "so many" been so easily indoctrinated and can that be reversed?

http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/03/blackwaters-world-of-warcraft.html

Blackwater’s World Of Warcraft

Need a private-label armored vehicle? A detachment of Chilean infantrymen? A special forces “engagement team”? Erik Prince’s expanding global private army is at your service–and the war in Iraq was just the beginning.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/ED8L101F5U.DTL

Longshoremen to Close Ports on West Coast to Protest War - all of them, on May 1st.

I have pondered and pondered Shy how people en masse could consider these people normal. I don't understand it, I just don't understand at all. Even Ashcroft, whom I consider fringe at best, said "history will not judge us well." I've wondered if it's like a movie or video game to people and they really don't know what's real and what's an illusion anymore.

Excellent clip PatB from Olbermann, I think there were a lot of senators, including Obama and Hillary, who made some excellent points, even several republicans. They must be getting a ton of cards and letters from everyone and maybe beginning to look a little beyond the stupid party lines and take notice. Maybe someone read the definition of "war crimes" and who could be charged with them.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/04/09/how-did-yoo-manage-to-leave-out-youngstown-steel/

How Did Yoo Manage to Leave Out Youngstown Steel?

snip

In the framework of our Constitution, the President's power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker. The Constitution limits his functions in the lawmaking process to the recommending of laws he thinks wise and the vetoing of laws he thinks bad. And the Constitution is neither silent nor equivocal about who shall make laws which the President is to execute. The [343 U.S. 579, 588] first section of the first article says that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States . . . ." After granting many powers to the Congress, Article I goes on to provide that Congress may "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

More at the link....

Fiore has it right on Olympic Torch...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/04/09/fioretorch.DTL

Fiore's work is always exceptional. Thanks, wv.

Over at emptywheel's blog, they are discussing the revelation about who approved torture, down to the very details of how it would be conducted. As noted in comment #56, Junya was accurate in telling us that only a few bad apples were involved in torture--he just neglected to say that those few bad apples were top level people in the WH.

http://tinyurl.com/6e8vra

The real reason why Chalabi so endeared himself to the neo-cons, was because he promised to be very accomodating towards Israel, if he were to be put into power in Iraq.

If there is any truth to this, I hope Katie is replaced by Roger Mudd, or is he too old now? Remember him? I thought he was such an amiable fellow, and should have been chosen to replace Walter Kronkite, instead of Dan Rather.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20080410/en_tv_eo/0358be71_ab724d86_92a7_bd186ba65e1f

"Progressives purged en masse from Obama's delegate list" Does anyone know if this is true?
http://tinyurl.com/5lvz9c

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/10/europe/EU-GEN-Hungary-Climate-Change.php

Climate change could lead to global food crisis, scientists warn
The Associated Press
Published: April 10, 2008

BUDAPEST, Hungary: Scientists warned Thursday that climate change in coming decades will cause more floods in the Northern Hemisphere and droughts in the south and in arid areas, which may lead to a global food crisis.

Areas that will suffer water shortages include the Mediterranean Sea basin, the western U.S., parts of southern Africa and northeastern Brazil.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri said at the end of a meeting in Budapest that the rising frequency and intensity of floods and droughts could lead to a food crisis.

"This is a serious concern," Pachauri said. "We may see a decline in agriculture production, but as could be expected with higher incomes and population growth, we could get an increase in demand for food."

An IPCC report presented at the meeting said the decline of water quantity and quality would have a negative impact on health and result in more areas affected by water stress — the shortage of water for drinking and agriculture.
Today in Europe
Britain reprimanded for dropping Saudi arms deal inquiry
On the trail of a missing aviator, Saint-Exupéry
Thousands of students march in Paris and tear gas wafts

Some 250 million Africans could be afflicted by water stress by 2020, unless action is taken to mitigate climate change, experts said.

While the proportion of heavy rainfalls will very likely increase, so will the areas simultaneously affected by extreme droughts.

The report also referred to the problem of glaciers and mountain snow melting around the world.

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told reporters that Himalayan glaciers which "provide tens of millions of people in India and China with drinking water" are "potentially disappearing".

One of the co-authors of the IPCC report said water issues would be one of the main problems of climate change.

more...

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/04/don-siegelman-names-names-and-press.html

Don Siegelman NAMES NAMES—and the press goes deaf!

“I mention the vote stealing in every interview. 60 Minutes cut it out. Don Abrams didn’t want to go there either. I have told the story to the Washington Post and LA Times.

The hook is Rove’s fingerprints are found there too. First, in that Rove's friend Jack Abramoff hires Dan Gans, who was in charge of " electronic ballot security" in Baldwin County, Alabama, where the votes were stolen. Gans, working for the Alexander Strategies Group, claims credit for the win on his website, which he then takes down when Abramoff gets arrested. The second is Rove's business partner, Kitty Mc Cullough (a/k/a Kelly Kimbrough) is given credit for the electronic vote switch by the state Republican Party.

More at the link....

Here is an authoritative, blow-by-blow account of the theft of Gov. Siegelman's re-electoral victory in 2002.

If you want to read Prof. James Gundlach's statistical analysis of the vote-theft in Baldwin County, mentioned below, you'll find it in Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008, the new collection of essays that
Ig Publishing is bringing out this week.

Election Night 2002:
That's the Night That the Lights Went Out in Bama

The changing of the guards: Bay Minette, election night

http://baldwincountynow.com/articles/2007/07/19/local_news/doc469fbb5bd2a7f444039407.txt

Lynn Hayes has a good article on McCain
http://astrodynamics.blogspot.com/2008/04/john-mccain-president-hothead.html

Apparently the story I posted upstream a bit about Obama wiping progressives off the list of CA delegates was true, because the campaign has now restored them, according to this:

http://tinyurl.com/6kgpja

Is our system corrupt or what?

"Eternal vigilance." Yep.

Krugman

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/opinion/11krugman.html?_r=1&ex=1365652800&en=14fdde4138b80e46&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Healthcare Horror Stories

Shy, I don't have the link, but there is some more coverage on Talk Left.

Thanks, Pat C. I found it.

http://tinyurl.com/5zc5l3

Sheesh!

Eleanor Clift's (of the McLaughlin group) take on why Bill is working so hard to get Hillary elected.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/131524

Actually, a lot of people think that Clinton is sabotaging Hillary's candidacy ... hurting more than helping.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pope_to_skip_White_House_dinner_0411.html

Pontiff not attending dinner in his honor, White House says

The White House has scheduled a dinner next week in honor of Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to the United States, but one guest will be conspicuously absent from the proceedings: the pope himself.

There are no competing events listed on the pope's schedule, and the White House was unable to explain Benedict's absence from the dinner.

The pontiff will be greeted by the president and first lady upon his arrival to the US Tuesday and participate in a Rose Garden appearance and Oval Office meeting with President Bush the next day. A dinner scheduled for later Wednesday night didn't make it onto the Benedict's schedule, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Friday.

More at the link....

I think the comments made about small town Pennsylvaina citizens could be one of those Macacan moments for Obama. We’ll see.

I think he made those comments on Sunday in California....for astrological purposes.

Just an observation - Bill , Hill, amd Chelsea are beginning to sound like the proverbial 3-ring circus. Send in the clowns. Please.

Hey PatB, re your April 9th 3:24 post, the "goals" in Iraq were not geared towards the people of Iraq from day one(but I think we all knew that?)

In order, I think those gials were as follows:
Remove Saddam because he's "evil"(and "guilty" of wanting to price his oil in Euros, not dollars)

Steal the oil away from the Natives for Big Oil
(as evidenced by the looting of their museums due to guards not being placed there but in front of the Ministry of Oil and also by the mission's name, "Operation Iraqi Liberation"--what do those initials spell?)

And lastly, create an open ended conflict/sinkhole(to enrich Hallibruton, Raytheon, Blackwater, etc. etc., like the greedy soulless "War Pigs" that the elites really are) while simultaneously keeping the Middle East unstable and keeping oil prices higher than ever.

I guess I'd better sign off before Gee DUHbya sends some goons to "export Democracy" to my ass......

love y'all and Namaste
Garry

PS: I have been doing and feeling much better, down 37 pounds thanks to Weight Watchers!! I'm headed back to my "hot" weight of about 180(I'm 6'3") and just feeling better than in years. I've even been able to sleep some without my sleep apnea mask, so here's hoping I can throw that and my blood pressure medicine away by July. Wish me luck y'all! I've sorely missed my cyber-family of smart cookies here!!!

H'yeah Garry, referring to the money earmarked toward recovery of rebuilding Iraq. Pretty tough during a s***storm.
(honorable mention to the near million Iraqis slaughtered).

It is true, you can't build when you're so gosh darned busy destroying.

This is fascinating. The salmon did not appear this year (referred to by a poster to this thread) and the Cascades are rumbling. I'm skeeeert.

http://tinyurl.com/6xj8dz

Hiya, Garry. Great that you're feeling so much better.

& here on the eastern coast, the Lobstermen are rumbling.............
The Coast Guard gave them 2 weeks to pull their traps, ( allegedly) to make way for the weir/dragger fishermen.
One man had down 800 traps that took him 3 MONTHS to put down.
At the end of 2 weeks the Coast Guard went around and cut all the traps loose from their bouys. Thats a loss of thousands of dollars........
Looks like he 1%rs' wil have to do without lobster dinners, the fishermen are going to join the truckers & dockworkers in their strike!
Another independant small business enterprise foiled! The State DID vote for Obama/ Romney in the caucus!
GOOD JOB GARRY! Not easy to do!

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/

Obama and the white working class - Joan Walsh

........

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/11/mukasey/index.html

More on Michael Mukasey's false 9/11 and FISA claims - Glenn Greenwald

.......

Garry, good to see you posting!

.......

qop, what do you mean making room for their dragger fisherman?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_nancy_to_080411_the_myth_of_verified.htm

The Myth of Verified Voting: How GOP strategists & J. Abramoff transformed America's elections & the reform movement

In 1995, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Republican strategist Grover Norquist launched the "K Street Project." (i) Named for the Capital Hill street housing many lobbying firms, the Project gave lobbyists direct access to Washington lawmakers through weekly policy and strategy meetings. The most infamous K Street lobbyist was Jack Abramoff, who worked for the firm Greenberg Traurig. Abramoff, now in prison, took money from his American Indian tribe clients, and laundered it to Congressional Representatives in return for legislative and policy favors aligned with the Project's political agenda.

But this was not just any money laundering enterprise. Abramoff's dry cleaner was converting money to election fraud.

In 2002, the New Hampshire GOP received three $5,000 checks, just in time to pay $15,600 to a telemarketing company that jammed the phone lines of the Democratic Party's get-out-the-vote campaign in the morning hours of the election.

The three $5,000 checks? One each from two separate Abramoff tribal clients and the third from K Street loyalist Tom DeLay's ARMPAC.(ii)

The phone jamming trick, contributing to GOP Senator Sununu's narrow win, shows the magical rabbits that can pop out of a hat when Capital Hill lobbyists focus their attention on elections.

In its heyday, the K Street Project held election "reform" dead center in its crosshairs. Project activities like New Hampshire's phone jamming, Ohio's "Coingate" and Tom Delay's Texas "PAC-gate", spun lobbyist money into election fraud gold. K Street masterfully laundered funds to influence election campaigns, policies, and processes around the nation. The Project functioned as one big money-laundering-for-election-fraud apparatus.

K Street's most influential project was the 2002 sweeping election reform known as the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA), whose architect, former Congressman Bob Ney, is also now in federal prison. (iii) HAVA was brilliantly subversive, spinning money into a sparkling, rich, complex and intricate golden gateway to perpetual election fraud.

More at the link....

"The California audit examined systems from Diebold Elections Systems, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems.... found that they could introduce a computer virus to any of the three systems, which would then spread throughout the county and ultimately skew the vote count...... About a quarter of the votes cast in the upcoming election will be on electronic voting equipment with no paper trail, Wagner said. And even the states that keep paper records are not necessarily checking their results. Only about a third of all states have records that are regularly audited....the ability to check whether your voting system has been hacked is of paramount importance. "Security is not the most important thing," he said. "What's more important for elections is auditability." McMillan, PC World

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144431/us_presidential_election_can_be_hacked.html

U.S. Presidential Election Can Be Hacked

This year, the U.S. will pick a new president using electronic voting machines that can be hacked, security experts said Thursday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

As the November election approaches, the question before officials is not how to fix known bugs in their e-voting systems, but rather, how best to check them for fraud, said David Wagner, an associate professor with the University of California, Berkeley's computer science department.

Wagner was part of the team that audited California's voting systems during the state's review of electronic voting, and the problems his team found affect counties across the U.S. "The three systems we looked at are three of the most widely used around the nation," he said during an e-voting panel discussion at the show. "They're going to be using them in the 2008 elections; they're still going to have the same vulnerabilities we found."

More at the link....

"Bush OKs Torture. Media Yawns" Oh, Cap'n Sally, will Murcans never get outraged? Have they just become that numb and neutered?

http://tinyurl.com/6rk542

Garry,

I think it's great that you've lost weight and gotten healthier! You're inspiring! But isn't 180 lbs at 6'3" too thin? Shouldn't you be 200 lbs or so at the very slimmest?

Thanks for the kind words everybody!

And hey LunaO, the weight range considered "healthy" for my height is 160 to 200, so I set my goal in the middle of that range.
I've been 160 before, and I loved being that thin(think Mick Jagger or Scott Weiland) but 180 is a more "normal"-looking weight on me, imo.

Love all'a y'all!
G

It isn't just the US COast Guard & the Maine Lobstermen..............

At 0700 Hours (PST) and 0800 Hours Atlantic time the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat was attacked by officers from two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers the Des Groseilliers and the Sir Wifred Grenfell.

Captain Alex Cornelissen informed the boarders that the Farley Mowat is a Dutch registered ship in international waters and that Canada had no legal right to restrict the free passage of the vessel through international waters.

The ship was in the Gulf of St. Lawrence well beyond the Canadian twelve mile territorial limit.more...................
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3265759

Uh! Just remembered.......Rev SUn Moon owns the biggest seafood distributorship in the country.
Sorry can't provide links read it a while back!Lets see....lobstermen are entrprnurial small businessmen (captains of their own ship, literally & figuratively) The results from dragging & seining....go to the factory industrial corporate complex!
I'm too busy to google tpoday if anyone wants to take it on. I betcha there is a straight line bewteen these dots!

http://donkeyod.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/the-sad-true-mccain-record-on-veterans/

The Sad, True McCain Record on Veterans

"Praise the Lord, but pass the ammunition!", and that's exactly what Bush does in his 'faith based initiatives'. It's amazing what you can get away with if you call yourself religious and say it's in the name of God Hisself.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1354729

Polygamist sect gets millions from U.S. government in loan, contracts
Saturday, April 12, 2008; Posted: 08:04 PM

Apr 12, 2008 (McClatchy Newspapers - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- -- American taxpayers have unwittingly helped finance a polygamist sect that is now the focus of a massive child abuse investigation in West Texas, with a business tied to the group receiving a nearly $1 million loan from the federal government and $1.2 million in military contracts.

The ability of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, to operate and grow is largely dependent on huge contributions from its members and revenue from the businesses they control, according to a former accountant for the church, and government officials in Utah and Arizona, where the sect is primarily based.

One of those businesses, NewEra Manufacturing in Las Vegas, has been awarded more than $1.2 million in federal government contracts, with most of the money coming in recent years from the Defense Department for wheel and brake components for military aircraft.

A large portion of the awards were preferential no-bid or "sole source" contracts because of the company's classification as a small business, according to online databases that track federal government appropriations.

more...

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/It39s-Obama-stupid-Carter-and.3976738.jp

It's Obama, stupid: Carter and Gore to end Clinton bid

DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de grâce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.
Falling poll numbers and a string of high-profile blunders have convinced party elders that she must now bow out of the primary race.

Former president Carter and former vice-president Gore have already held high-level discussions about delivering the message that she must stand down for the good of the Democrats.

"They're in discussions," a source close to Carter told Scotland on Sunday. "Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence."

An appeal by both men for Democrats to unite behind Clinton's rival, Barack Obama, would have a powerful effect, and insiders say it is a question of when, rather than if, they act.

More at the link....

Here's another section from the polygamists story I posted above. Religions can be corrupted to the core by their leaders, and it's the followers who suffer. And affidavit complaints by some of the followers go back to 2005 at least!
Pluto in Capricorn for sure! Corruption, sex, power and war profiteering only now being brought to light. I wonder if we'll be seeing more of this kind of exposing.

[snip]
John Nielsen, who worked for the company when it was Western Precision in Hildale, said in a 2005 affidavit that he and other FLDS members were made to work for little or no wages, even as the company was bringing in lucrative government contracts and other work.

At the same time, $50,000 to $100,000 in company profits were going each month to FLDS "and/or" Jeffs, Nielsen said in the affidavit, filed as part of a civil lawsuit.

He said he and other sect members thought their working for free or for extremely low wages would bring them redemption. Instead, Nielsen said in the affidavit, he was found to be "wanting" by the sect's leadership, ordered off the property and separated from his five young children and his wife. She was "reassigned" to another man, becoming the fourth of his six wives.

"It broke my heart," Nielsen said in the affidavit. He declined to comment when reached by phone Friday.

more...

It's really horrible luna. How is this allowed to exist in a democracy?

Re FLDS
It’s always interesting to me how most of these sects come up with complicated rituals and rationales for sex abuse, pedophilia and incest. The cult in Waco was another example. There were conservative type seven trying to defend the Waco’s based on their guns and anti-government stance. But few people talk about all of the horrible sexual abuse that was going on in that sect too. I’m willing to bet form the Moonies to the Scientologist you’ll find something similar, deep inside the cults. In fact I believe there’s been articles abut at least the Moonies. Maybe that’s the big attraction for pappy Bush. It is stomach turning.

Swamp

Here's a wonderful Op-ed in next month's issue of Vanity Fair by Robert Kennedy Jr.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/rfk_manifesto200805

The Next President’s First Task

[snip]
We know that nations that “decarbonize” their economies reap immediate rewards. Sweden announced in 2006 the phaseout of all fossil fuels (and nuclear energy) by 2020. In 1991 the Swedes enacted a carbon tax—now up to $150 a ton—and as a result thousands of entrepreneurs rushed to develop new ways of generating energy from wind, the sun, and the tides, and from woodchips, agricultural waste, and garbage. Growth rates climbed to upwards of three times those of the U.S.

Iceland was 80 percent dependent on imported coal and oil in the 1970s and was among the poorest economies in Europe. Today, Iceland is 100 percent energy-independent, with 90 percent of the nation’s homes heated by geothermal and its remaining electrical needs met by hydro. The International Monetary Fund now ranks Iceland the fourth most affluent nation on earth. The country, which previously had to beg for corporate investment, now has companies lined up to relocate there to take advantage of its low-cost clean energy.

more...

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-13-voa20.cfm

Dalai Lama Threatens to Resign if Tibet Violence Worsens

The Dalai Lama has threatened to resign as leader of Tibet's exiled government if violence in his homeland spirals out of control.

The Nobel Peace laureate made the comment Sunday at a news conference in Seattle, Washington, where he has been attending a five-day "Seeds of Compassion" conference.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader denied Chinese claims that he has called for Tibet to split from China and that he is behind the recent turmoil. He said the whole world knows that the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence or separation.

Also Sunday, the Chinese media accused the Dalai Lama of encouraging violence in a drive for the region's independence.

More at the link...

...........

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120811337378710989.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

U.K. Treasury Chief to Visit China

Amid widespread protests of China's actions in Tibet, U.K. Treasury Chief Alistair Darling and a group of senior bankers will travel to Beijing on Monday to strengthen financial links between the two countries, a Treasury official said.

The visit comes at a sensitive time for Britain, given both the negative effect of the financial crisis on the reputation of London as a financial center and after a series of demonstrations in Britain in support of an anti-government uprising in Tibet. Mr. Darling will bring up the "difficult" topic of Tibet when he meets Chinese officials, including the country's vice premier Wang Qishan and Premier Wen Jiabao, the official said.

Top of the agenda will be promoting the U.K. as a financial center. "Despite the recent turmoil in global financial markets and the difficulties facing the banking system, London remains the world's leading financial centre with real expertise to offer and the rise of China as a genuine world economic power promises significant opportunities for British business," Mr. Darling said in an emailed statement.

More at the link...

DNC Suing To Force FEC Investigation Of McCain

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/04/democrats_mccain_financing_que.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/04/14/BL2008041401428.html

Bush OK'd Torture Meetings - Froomkin

President Bush says he was aware that his top aides met in the White House basement to micromanage the application of waterboarding and other widely-condemned interrogation techniques. And he says it was no big deal.

"I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved," Bush told ABC News' Martha Raddatz on Friday. "I don't know what's new about that; I'm not so sure what's so startling about that."

It's true that it has been widely assumed and occasionally reported that the CIA's use of brutal interrogation techniques could be traced back to the White House on a general level. But it was most definitely new last week when ABC News reported that a group of Bush's top aides, including Vice President Cheney, took part in meetings where they explicitly discussed and approved -- literally blow by blow -- tactics such as waterboarding. And while Bush has previously defended these tactics -- vaguely, and insisting against all evidence that they did not amount to torture -- he had not, until now, acknowledged that he personally OK'd them beforehand.

If you consider what the government did to be torture, which is a crime according to U.S. and international law, Bush's statement shifts his role from being an accessory after the fact to being part of a conspiracy to commit.

More at the link....

PatC, this fits in with Sally's article, and is part and parcel of the shock and awe spectacle this administration is a proponent of. If we stretch it out and apply it to today's economy (i'm also referencing your above post about Darling's visit to China) then one could say this shock and awe is being applied liberally to our economies. Yet, YET -- this doctrine will accomplish little other than rile people to violence. Witness Haiti and other enslaved third-world entities. It can and would happen here, as well.

Karen, I've thought all along that the people have been being distracted from the real theft that has been going on for the past seven years. The real theft is almost beyond comprehension for most sane people. If a list can be compiled, what an event that would be! It's stunning! I use to call them "junk bond raiders" because of the method they use to slash and burn their possession. Most people looked at me with an expression of complete puzzlement, but I truly believe that's exactly what they are like. Slash and burn, slash and burn. They not only took the treasure, they sold us to other countries as well.

Here's one of the latest feats they have foisted on our children.

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/progressreport

A Textbook Case of Misinformation and Bias

Last week, the Center for Inquiry, a Hudson, NY think tank, announced that "a civics textbook used in many secondary schools around the country contains inaccurate and misleading statements, in particular in its analysis of certain constitutional law issues, including school prayer, and global warming." The Center had been notified by Matthew LaClair of Kearny, NJ, a high school senior whose Advanced Placement (AP) Government class uses American Government, written by James Q. Wilson and John DiIulio, Jr. The Center's critique is forcing the book's publisher, Houghton Mifflin, and the College Board (which runs the AP program) to review the book, now in its 11th edition. According to President Bush, Wilson "may be the most influential political scientist in America" and DiIulio is "one of the most influential social entrepreneurs in America." Wilson is the Ronald Reagan Professor for Public Policy at Pepperdine University and the chairman of the Council of Academic Advisors of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor, was the first head of Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives but later became disillusioned with the "Mayberry Machiavellis" inside the White House. By co-authorizing this textbook, DiIulio threatens to jeopardize his impressive academic record on criminal justice and American public life.

GLOBAL WARMING 'ACTIVISTS': The Associated Press reported that LaClair "was particularly upset about the book's treatment of global warming." It is no wonder: the 10th edition he and students across the nation are now using has "a large number of clearly erroneous statements." The book claims that "the scientific community is divided over the issue" and that "activist scientists say that the earth is getting warmer; skeptical ones note that the earth's atmosphere has been getting cooler.".......

More at the link....

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/04/14/torture/print.html

Radio silence on Bush's torture admission

The president concedes that he endorsed White House torture discussions, but media takes a pass.

Apr. 14, 2008 | ABC News reported a few days ago that a group of so-called Principals -- including Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice -- met dozens of times in the White House to "discuss and approve" specific interrogation techniques to be used against suspected terrorists.

Initial reports indicated that Bush was "insulated" from the "series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved." Bush eventually dispelled the notion that he was out of the loop, though, and said -- arguably, bragged -- that he endorsed the Principals' work from the outset. The president told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz, "I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

I realize that Barack Obama's making some clumsy comments about economic blight and the culture war may be mildly interesting, but this is a fairly big deal. Torture is, you know, illegal, immoral, un-American, etc. As Dan Froomkin noted today, "If you consider what the government did to be torture, which is a crime according to U.S. and international law, Bush's statement shifts his role from being an accessory after the fact to being part of a conspiracy to commit."

And yet, major news outlets have decided not to bother mentioning these revelations to the public at all. Froomkin observed, "There was no mention of Bush's admission in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. There was nothing on the major wire services. And nothing on CNN, CBS or NBC."

More at the link...

Found Eckhart Tolle's date of birth 2-16-48 here:

http://www.librarything.com/author/tolleeckhart

"somewhere in germany" time unknown for now.

Most interesting, at age 29 when he said he had "enlightenment experience" his progressed mercury passed over his sun from it's former natal retrograde approach from pisces.
Stopped travelling when prog jupiter went retrograde, achieving sweeping recognition now, as saturn goes direct in his chart.
Good study. You can see his retreat into depression from retrograde pluto, saturn and mars across from his sun in aquarius. Nobody "got" him and he didn't quite "get" them, pressure notwithstanding.

I love potatoes. Baked, boiled, mashed, fried, chipped or hashed - for breakfast, lunch, snacks or dinner.

http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSN0830529220080415?feedType=RSS&feedName=inDepthNews&rpc=22&sp=true

As other staples soar, potatoes break new ground
Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:59am EDT

By Terry Wade

LIMA (Reuters) - As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato -- long derided as a boring tuber prone to making you fat -- is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world.

Potatoes, which are native to Peru, can be grown at almost any elevation or climate: from the barren, frigid slopes of the Andes Mountains to the tropical flatlands of Asia. They require very little water, mature in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice.

"The shocks to the food supply are very real and that means we could potentially be moving into a reality where there is not enough food to feed the world," said Pamela Anderson, director of the International Potato Center in Lima (CIP), a non-profit scientific group researching the potato family to promote food security.

Like others, she says the potato is part of the solution.

The potato has potential as an antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and diesel, and more cropland being sown for biofuel production.

To focus attention on this, the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato, calling the vegetable a "hidden treasure".

Governments are also turning to the tuber. Peru's leaders, frustrated by a doubling of wheat prices in the past year, have started a program encouraging bakers to use potato flour to make bread. Potato bread is being given to school children, prisoners and the military, in the hope the trend will catch on.

Supporters say it tastes just as good as wheat bread, but not enough mills are set up to make potato flour.

more...

The potato is a real treasure in our future because it's nutritious and can be grown everywhere and is one of the solutions.

http://www.mvproduce.com/spudfacts.html

THE NUTRIENT-DENSE POTATO

The potato is a nutrient-dense food. It provides good nutritional return for the calories. Why is nutrient density important? Our need for calories has probably decreased by one-third since the turn of the century because we aren't as active. But in general we still need about the same amount of nutrients as we did then. This means that in order to get all the nutrition we need without consuming too many calories, we must include many nutrient dense foods like potatoes in our diets. A medium-size potato (one third pound or 150 grams) has only about 110 calories, four to five percent of the average adult's total daily intake of calories, but provides much higher percentages of our needs for many nutrients. (See 'Nutrition in a Raw Potato') For a real potato lover, a medium-size potato may not be enough of a good thing. But even a 250-gram potato (a little over one-half pound) has only about 160 calories, and the larger size gives you a real nutrition bonus. The potato gives us a wide spectrum of valuable nutrients, including complex carbohydrates, often lacking in the American diet.

The potato is a good source of vitamin C and hard to get B6 and has long been known to be a storehouse of minerals. Exact needs for all minerals are not established yet. But, for example, the potato contains valuable supplies of such essential trace elements as manganese, chromium, selenium and molybdenum.

more...

Oh! And vodka is made from potatoes!

http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/italy-embraces-corruption/#more-2435

Italy embraces corruption

In an object lesson for the American left, Italy has re-elected one of the most corrupt politicians because the left failed to present a persuasive alternative vision. John Hooper, The Guardian:

Early results indicated that he [Silvio Berlusconi] would be able to govern comfortably for the next five years with no help from the centre-left. In the senate, projections indicated that Freedom Folk and its allies would get 167 of the 315 seats - 25 more than the [center-left] DP and its ally, the anti-graft Italy of Principles party. In the 630-seat chamber of deputies, Berlusconi’s followers were forecast to have a majority of 63.

More at the link....

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1346&thisview=item

Election brings sweeping change to Nepal

Maoists' landslide victory means country's monarchy could soon be abolished.

Celebrations continued in Kathmandu on Monday, as Nepal's former communist rebels strengthened their lead in early election results. Supporters took to the streets of the capital for a victory rally. Early results showed the Maoists winning 100 out of 179 constituencies where counting was complete, and leading in most other areas. The election commission said that with more than two-thirds of the 240 directly elected seats allocated, the Maoists held a comfortable majority. Final election results are still a few weeks off. Earlier, former US President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center sent 62 observers to monitor the election, said the results indicated a major transition for Nepal.

JIMMY CARTER, CARTER CENTER: If the Maoists do continue to gain substantial status among the candidates, which we don't yet know, then my hope is that the United States will recognize and begin to do business with the Maoists.

NKWETA: Although the rebels ended their 10-year insurgency in 2006, the United States still considers them a terrorist organization. The election of the Maoists could put the country on the brink of sweeping change, including sacking the unpopular King Gyanendra and the abolition of the monarchy.

American Hegemony Is Not Guaranteed

By Paul Craig Roberts

Why does the US assume that only it can initiate aggression, boycotts, freezes on financial assets of other countries and bans on foreign banks from participation in the international banking system? If the rest of the world were to tire of American aggression or to develop a moral conscience, it would be easy to organize a boycott of America and to ban US banks from participating in the international banking system.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19739.htm

Financial Collapse Will End The Occupation

And it won't be "A time of our choosing"

By Mike Whitney

The Iraq War signals the end of US interventionism for at least a generation; maybe longer. The ideological foundation for the war (preemption/regime change) has been exposed as a baseless justification for unprovoked aggression.. Someone will have to be held accountable.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19742.htm

Weekly Weather Forecast

April 14, 2008 - April 20, 2008

by Kathy Biehl

Significant Planetary Aspects for:

Aren’t you tired from running around? Stop a moment. Go on; take a break. It’s okay, really. You can spare the time. Catch your breath; have a snack; sip a refreshing beverage. Look at the patch of earth around you; really look at it. Take it in with all of your senses. Smell the air; feel it against your skin; listen to its subtle movements. Put your hand on a stone or tree trunk or even the pavement, until you feel not just its warmth, but also a subtle, gently throbbing energy in it. Take off your shoes and socks and stick your feet in the dirt. (It’s okay. There really is time.) Wiggle your toes in it. Close your eyes and feel the energy flow between you and the ground. Ah.

http://www.thecosmicpath.com/doc/weekly.html