Astroworld

Great article Morgana and absolutely on target. I wonder how many people, since the Chris Matthews dust-up with that uneducated talk show host, have now found out what appeasment means and the difference between talking and diplomacy and appeasing, because like Chamberlin in 1938, this administration has been "appeasing" other countries, terrorist countries, for the last 8 years. They need to be careful where they try to throw slime in case it lands on them.

For all the jokes about Ted Kennedy through the years and the GOP using him as a punching bag to get at his dead brothers and ruin their legacy, he has survived and remains the holder of a better and greater time when hopes ran so high for a new and improved America. He has remained a stalwart advocate for the people. Ted Kennedy has done more for the people of the US from his brother's Senate seat than anyone in the Senate and they have not been able to kill him or his spirit, the American people have much for which to thank Ted Kennedy.

You're right qop send him lots of energy. Saturn is coming to a conjunction to his Moon/Neptune at 6 degrees Virgo, and will soon oppose his 2 degree Pisces Sun (Feb. 22, 1932 - 3:58am, Boston, MA) his physical body is under a great deal of stress and I more than wish him well. The Sun rules his 8th house of transformation, and Neptune rules his 4th which is 22 degrees Pisces, Uranus is right now conjuncting that 4th house cusp. Serious aspects for a person in physical stress.

Thank you Morgana. Good stuff!

Great blessings to Ted Kennedy.

ye gods, I just came here to post an obit and wondered what the stuff is on Ted K., so went back and saw that he might have had a stroke....well, I've been out landscape plein air painting since 9 AM, so had no idea.

I came home to read my Burlingame HS bulletin and saw this:

Dec '07 passing of Bill Strauss, (his brother Steve and I were class mates 4 years earlier)...He wrote the political book with Neil Howe called The Fourth Turning http://www.fourthturning.com/, and founded the political comedy group called The Capitol Steps. The Fourth Turning is quite a cult classic.... He was quite wonderful.....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/18/AR2007121802158_2.html

AND another earthquake in China. Good grief.....

Speaking of rats (other than bush)....my little bit of humor about not insulting the rats came back to me as I was passing one of those composite pebble round canister public garbage cans.....

It was out by the pier where we were painting at the Baylands Refuge, and as I passed it, saw an ENORMOUS rat climbing straight up the sides and then jumping into the can. Trouble is for him, all that is in that can is paper bags full of paper towels full of oil paint. A tasty treat, perhaps, Morgana?

from SFGate:

Edward Kennedy's primary care physician says the senator is "not in any immediate danger" after suffering a seizure at his Cape Cod home Saturday.
Dr. Larry Ronan says preliminary tests showed the 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat has not suffered a stroke. Ronan says Kennedy was resting comfortably and would undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure.

PS...another piece of fall out from the farmlands of the world.

Because of the gas situation where farmland is now growing fuel instead of food, my oil paint is going up 30-40% in cost. So a tube which costs 32.00 will now cost 40...and why you say, is this happening?

No one can get linseed oil (flax seed) anymore, because farmers are growing gas fuels....so now it is hugely expensive (and if you think paying 32. for a tube of oil paint is easy....well, multiply it by at least 10 tubes.)

This is the fall out from food shortages, expensive oil....the rippling effect ripping everything to shreds.

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/85521/

Moyers: 'Democracy in America Is a Series of Narrow Escapes, and We May Be Running Out of Luck'

FOCUS | Burma Raises Cyclone Death Toll to 78,000
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051708Z.shtml
Peter Popham reports for The Independent UK: "The official total for the dead in Burma's cyclone disaster jumped to 78,000 yesterday, up from 43,000... Nobody knows what relation these figures may bear to reality because access to the stricken zone is tightly controlled by the military junta, though both the Red Cross and the United Nations believe the true figure is much higher even than the new official claims." And, The Washington Post's Anne Applebaum makes a plea to "Go Around the Generals": "It's straightforward: The junta cares about its own survival, not the survival of its people. Thus the death toll is thought to have reached 100,000, a further 1.5 million Burmese are at risk of epidemics and starvation, parts of the country are still underwater, hundreds of thousands of people are camped in the open without food or clean water - and, yes, if foreigners come to distribute aid, the legitimacy of the regime might be threatened... All natural disasters - from the Armenian earthquake that helped bring down the Soviet Union to Hurricane Katrina, which damaged the Bush administration - have profound political implications, as do the aid efforts that follow them. The Burmese generals clearly know this."

Yes, Acrylic paints are going up in cost too. Well acrylic.....a plastic product from petroleum?
And just as I was destined to find those old books that I illustrated 30 years ago & bring them home, and meet the descendants of one of the characters in the current book I am doing ( because I had to use the library computers, when my Brother's went down...) That beautiful cat was not mine! In spite of enticing her with left over salmon & bubba burgers every night at 10 PM, for 2 weeks....she never let me touch her! One day she demonstrated quite clearly that she would rather eat lizards then be taken captive! SO she will live in my Brother & Sister-in-laws garden and keep the squirrels away from the new shoots of the white bamboo! ( & eat dry cat food!)

Well, Miz Morgana, thank you so much for this very interesting article. I was wondering about the absence of one Prince Bandar, often called Bandar Bush. He has been absent from the nooz, and I'm wondering what has become of him. Anything astro-wise about him?

Hi Shy, I think the Bandar was sent home ages ago....after 9/11. I seem to remember that he 'retired' and another sheik replaced him as diplomat. I could be wrong.

I saw Bandar in the crowd, on W's last visit, when they adorned him with gold jewelry!

The U of FLa. is facing big budget cuts........ $14.M from the Dept of Ag.! Only $1.M from the medical college. Whose going to pay for their fancy new medical procedures if people starve to death for lack of food? More than a bit short sighted I'd say!
Or maybe they plan to let the peons starve while they search for the secret of immortality for the "privileged" few?

More on the Prince Bandar Bush front:

Almost a year ago, there were signs of a serious investigation involving Bandar and BAE Systems. Then that died down.

http://tinyurl.com/6plwf5

But over at emptywheel's place, in comments in response to her Virginia & Tom Davis article, is this excerpt posted by AZMatt at 173:

"BAE bosses held in US over corruption allegations

"Staff and agencies guardian.co.uk, Sunday May 18 2008

"It was last updated at 13:23 on May 18 2008.Two senior BAE Systems executives were detained by US authorities investigating corruption allegations, it was revealed today.

"The defence firm’s chief executive, Mike Turner, and a senior colleague are understood to have been held as they arrived in the US on business this week.

"The pair were questioned while documents and personal electronic equipment – including laptops and Blackberries – were examined before being released.

"The US justice department acted at Houston airport in Texas as part of its investigation into a £43bn arms deal between BAE and Saudi Arabia.

"The company has been accused of making illegal payments to key officials from the regime - although it has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

"There was outrage in December 2006 when the British government announced that the Serious Fraud Office was dropping its probe into the al-Yamamah deal.

"The then-attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, and prime minister, Tony Blair, insisted continuing would have caused “serious damage” to UK-Saudi relations and put national security at risk.

"However, the high court has since ruled that the SFO acted unlawfully in abandoning the case, while authorities in the US have pressed ahead."

Oh, dear.

Or maybe they plan to let the peons starve while they search for the secret of immortality for the "privileged" few

Pat QP....you wrote this....I think this is the scenario. At least I've heard that from 1) a serious ex gop official and 2) a wealthy gop woman I met who said it was all over talk radio in SF...plan to reduce world population to 500 million.

same figures from completely different people and ends of the country.

don't know what to think.

I should add to this comment that Mother Nature seems to have jump started the plan....while man just makes it accelerate.

I've posted this before, but anyone interested in Bandar's history with the bush folks should peruse the archives of The New Yorker. About 2001, a good story ran on the good prince.

Spiritual energy coming in to the world via the Middle East and the 100th Monkey dynamic
This is fascinating reading from a spiritual site.

http://www.reconnections.net/beyond_human.htm

[snip]
It is no mere co-incidence that this part of the planet is known as The Holy Land. As a centering point, and origin for many of your planet's mainline religions, The Middle East has become a primary location for the opening of the first of these Multiversal Energy Gates, through which the Ancient and the Shining Ones now regularly come and go! Through these Portals their essences pass, bringing with them a certain Radiance (Intense Energy) bleeding through from the Other Side of the Veil.

The power of this Radiance is profound, creating an acceleration in the energy fields of all who are exposed to it. The effect that it has upon the human nervous system is like the Siren's Song in the mythologies of old. It can drive people crazy, if they are not prepared to rise with it to new levels of love and allowingness.

Please note the convergence of timing between the beginning of strife in the Middle East, and the first appearance of Extraterrestrials, crash-landing upon your planet. Though many universes are using this data to explore story plots of conspiracy and intrigue, we tell you now that there are other, very expanded universes wherein this convergence of activity means so much more than mere wargames, played out in cloak and dagger fashion.

The turbulence in The Middle East, though heartbreaking and sad, serves well as a cover for this Divine Exchange of Consciousness that is occurring through these open Gates. Indeed, all areas of the world today, which are sites of continuous uprising---especially those conflicts which appear as "senseless violence"--- have been or are now being infused with incoming Radiance, as designated Energy Gates start to open. The Middle East, Africa, Britain (Ireland), Tibet, Bosnia, China............many places around the globe. The upheavals being experienced in these regions have political overtones, but the real issues are not political. They are Bio-Energetic.

For those whose hearts are open, the Radiance has very little effect, beyond the feeling of a gradual, daily increase in personal joy! When you are in Oneness, there is no objection or hindrance to being exposed to Radiance. However, if you are of a territorial or separatist mindset, or have hunger for power, these vibrations can make you crazy. What is happening in the Middle East now will soon be happening everywhere, as Energy Gates begin opening wide all over the globe. However, by that time, the vibrational flux will be so intense that control-based individuals will have a difficult time even functioning, let alone making war.

We are giving you this information---about the Energy Gates, and the non-political sourcing of these conditions, so that you can realize how important at this time is your need for OPEN HEARTS, in order to be protected and to survive in the days ahead. If that "message" becomes grounded and anchored in you.......you will be able to spread that TONE to many, many people. Not all people will understand.........but they won't need to. All they will need is exposure to the TONE of a person who is Reconnecting..........and they, too, will begin that process, on some level. It's the 100th Monkey dynamic again, do you see?

more...

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174933/mark_engler_how_to_rule_the_world_after_bush

Mark Engler, How to Rule the World After Bush

A mere eight months to go until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney leave office -- though, given the cast of characters, it could seem like a lifetime. Still, it's a reasonable moment to begin to look back over the last years -- and also toward the post-Bush era. What a crater we'll have to climb out of by then!

My last post, "Kiss American Security Goodbye," was meant to mark the beginning of what will, over the coming months, be a number of Bush legacy pieces at Tomdispatch. So consider that series officially inaugurated by Foreign Policy in Focus analyst Mark Engler, who has just authored a new book that couldn't be more relevant to our looming moment of transition: How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy.

The question Engler is curious to have answered is this: If Bush-style "imperial globalization" is rejected in January, what will American ruling elites try to turn to -- Clinton-style economic globalization? Certainly, as Engler points out, many in the business and financial communities are now rallying to the Democrats. After all, while John Edwards received the headlines this week for throwing his support behind Barack Obama, that presidential candidate also got the nod from three former Securities and Exchange Commission chairmen -- William Donaldson, David Ruder, and Clinton appointee Arthur Levitt Jr. The campaign promptly "released a joint statement by the former SEC chiefs, as well as former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, that praised Obama's 'positive leadership and judgment' on economic issues."

The United States, however, is a very different creature than it was in the confident years when these men rode high. Now, the world is looking at things much differently. Let Engler explain… Tom

Globalizers, Neocons, or…?
The World After Bush - By Mark Engler

More at the link...

The "Crescent Moon" song in the link that Luna posted, is so beautiful. Don't recall hearing it before. It's sad what happened to Karen Carpenter.

And here's a perfect example.........
Thank goodness the local faith based recycle has high quality stuff donated to them, some LL Bean merchandise still with the tags on them!

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE14Dj03.html

"By 1991 Wal-Mart replaced Sears as America's leading retailer and has never looked back since. Sears, its stores consistently seen as stodgy and old fashioned, its "all for one and one for all" marketing philosophy seen as out of step with the times, lacking in that now all-important amorphous marketing quality known as "pop", settled into a graceful, steady decline.

That was the condition of the company in 2004, when it had the misfortune to catch the attention of modern turbo-finance capitalism.

Some people, when they see some poor unfortunate lying on the ground, help the person to their feet. Not modern turbo-finance; it saw Sears lying in the gutter, decided like a vampire that there was no reason why the very lifeblood should not be drained from it.

That year, 2004, was when one Edward S "Eddie" Lampert, a 42-year-old former Goldman Sachs bond trader, showed stodgy old Sears the way the world now really works. Through his ESL hedge fund, Lampert had established a 53% majority controlling interest in Kmart, which, in the futile attempt of trying to compete with the larger and more efficient Wal-Mart to offer the lowest prices in town, had bankrupted itself. Lampert closed stores and slashed jobs, restoring the company to operating profitability."

We are going to need craftsmen & small manufacturors to make the stuff that is now plastic. Guess we'll be recycling the beginning of the Industrial Age all over again!

Interesting article Luna and I just turned on the TV and CNN came up with Larry King and he was interviewing some people who have been given the go ahead to read all the info the Vatican has on UFO's, which they have collected from other governments. You can find the documents on the nationalarchives.uk.com/ufo

It has been thought that there were several of these portals in the Middle East, one or two in India, two in Scotland, at least one in England, at least two in the US. And here we are on the eve of a Full Moon directly on the Pleiades brightest star, Alcyone. On a mundane level this Full Moon can cause headaches or injuries to the face, falling in love is also part of this energy, at least a desire to be kind. The Pleiades are known as the Weeping Sisters and there were once seven sisters, but one is said to have married a mortal and so her star fell. Some families simply cannot tolerate inter-marriage on earth or in heaven.

This Full Moon certainly highlighted Obama with an estimated 75,000 people coming to hear him speak in Portland, Oregon.

May's Full Moon turns up to be a mixed bag, Libra is at the Mid-heaven ruled by Venus which is in the 5th house and square to Neptune in the second. Bet GWB didn't even really ask the Saudi's for more oil or to loosen the prices. Venus square Neptune is an aspect of "tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies" Sagittarius rules the Ascendant and Jupiter is in a retrograding sextile to Uranus from the second to the third house. Unusual information coming forth, certainly the UFO information is unusual, the Jupiter leg could be a saving grace. There is a Mars (Gemini) Neptune (Virgo) square in the US Chart, Uranus is square that known to be violent Mars and opposes Neptune. Jupiter on the other hand is in a trine to the 22 degree Neptune in the US Chart as well as the 22 Virgo Mars in Obama's chart. Jupiter is likely throwing a protective blanket over both the US and Obama. Still and all Mercury will conjunct the US Mars and square Obama's Mars in a couple of days while the Full Moon is still active, either a sore point will be visited or a dangerous situation will be escaped because of that Jupiter Trine.

This is a critical Full Moon for all the candidates as they all have powerful and negative aspects to their personal planets. McCain's Venus and Chiron is being aspected by transiting Uranus that is aspecting the US and Obama, Hillary's Mercury and Saturn is in a negative aspect to Chiron and the Nodes, a very complex pattern is set up here with positives and negatives at the door; a potential "wounding" for all the candidates in some way, the best advice for all of us would be to open the positive door over the next couple of weeks and hold those positive thoughts everyday for as long as possible.

Here's the accurate website for those UFO documents and it wasn't the Vatican it was the UK who released them

http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

I found the reason I have to sign in every time but when I tried to post it got a msg telling me I was using a bad word or words or was bla--listed.

Bob

If you want to remain signed in don't remove cook--ies.

Bob

Weekly Weather Forecast

May 19, 2008 - May 25, 2008

by Kathy Biehl

We wrap up one phase this week and move into the next. The end has come for our time in Taurus, and with it the immersion we have had in slow, steady and tactile examination of our material circumstances. The grand finale is Monday’s Scorpio Full Moon, which reflects the Sun at the last degree of Taurus and lights up what we have been nurturing over the past month. That retrospective is longer than the usual two-week coverage of a Full Moon and tracks back to April 20, when the Sun first entered Taurus and the Moon was full the opposite sign of Scorpio. That Scorpio Full Moon occurred at the first degree of this fixed axis; this week’s takes place at the very last degree. That degree is the first indication that this Full Moon is intense and important. The second is the sign in which it is occurring, Scorpio, ruled by Pluto (who is aspecting both luminaries), holder of the most intense and penetrating energy of the zodiac. The third: As the second consecutive Full Moon in a sign, and at the last degree to boot, this week’s has a super-culmination quality. Events that crest now – and our reactions to them – spotlight what we want to continue possessing and nurturing and what we want (or have) to release. (A fuller discussion appears in my Full Moon article, which is available on the site to all readers on Monday, and in the Moonlight Ezine all month for TheCosmicPath.com subscribers.)

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

From MCM:

There's no doubt that the GOP is in big trouble, facing catastrophic losses in the House and Senate this November. But if you believe that Bush and Cheney will observe the law and honor the traditions of American democracy, and therefore let themselves be forced from power, you're living in a world of happy dreams.

The fact is that this criminal regime cannot afford to drop their guns and walk out here amongst the rest of us; and there's much evidence that they do not intend to let that happen--ever. So we had better face that evidence (i.e., unearth it, since the media has largely played it down, or tuned it out), and brace ourselves for a protracted fight; because those men are capable of anything that will maintain their death-grip on the US government.

In this new vlog, I talk about that evidence (or some of it), and what we may expect before Election Day. Here is Part One:

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

Part Two will be up shortly.

Part Two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX9IvrFYVfI

Pat C....maybe this is why no one can figure out who will win the election. Because none of them will.

Full Moon in Scorpio
Monday, May 19, 2008
7:11pm PDT
29º 27’

©2008 Lisa Dale Miller
All rights reserved

This year we are graced with a second Full Moon in Scorpio, which is part of a grand square with Sun/Venus in Taurus, Saturn in Virgo and Neptune in Aquarius. Accompanying this grand square is an equally demanding Yod with South Node in Leo as the focal planet inconjunct Jupiter in Capricorn and Uranus in Pisces. And you thought the last Scorpio Full Moon was intense? Get ready for the truth to come reigning down on us like a firestorm.

Neptune in Aquarius rules a deep longing for change. It also rules the delusion of change. Open your eyes, your ears and mind. See clearly all the way through to the truth. Reject false claims, plans, and wanna-be leaders who offer the same old wine in a brand new bottle.

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

oh boy oh boy oh boy....it is always the stuff you don't expect to make the big impact that does. from truthout:

Siegelman: Justice Scandal Dwarfs Watergate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051908R.shtml
The Anniston Star's Markeshia Ricks reports: "Almost two months after being released from a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, former Governor Don Siegelman looks noticeably healthier.... He's got color in his cheeks, a little more weight on his body and a fierce determination to not only clear his name but to do his part to expose a scandal in the US Department of Justice that he says is bigger than Watergate."

Bob, that is a funny lesson ....I have a friend who has never allowed cookies....don't think she does much online browsing because of it....

MSM Exposes secret Bush-Nazi Ties (NY Times) -- Frank Rich writes of Prescott Bush enabling Hitler

Just 36 hours after the Mississippi debacle, Mr. McCain tried to distance himself from the administration by flip-flopping on his signature issue, Iraq, suddenly endorsing just the kind of timetable for withdrawal he has characterized as “surrender” when proposed by Democrats or Mitt Romney. (When Mr. McCain proposes it, he labels it “victory.”) But hardly had Mr. McCain spoken than his message was upstaged by Mr. Bush’s partisan political speech in Israel. The president implied that Mr. Obama would have enabled the Nazis even more foolishly than his own grandfather, Prescott Bush, did in the 1930s when he maintained “investment relationships with Hitler’s Germany,” as Kevin Phillips delicately describes it in “American Dynasty.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18rich.html?hp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar/print

This was posted over at DU:

"Anne Boleyn was executed on May 19th, 1536. In other words, today is the anniversary of her execution."

Interesting.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/20/rove_fox/?source=newsletter

Karl Rove's sly deal with Fox

The GOP mastermind is billed as a top campaign analyst for the cable news network. But he has his fingerprints all over John McCain's White House bid.

Even some billionaires see the light.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/19/exxonmobil.oil

[snip]
Exxon is facing a rebellion from its investors over its hardline approach to global warming. The firm has refused to follow rival oil companies in committing large-scale capital investment to environmentally friendly technology such as wind and solar power.

The Rockefeller dynasty, whose ancestor John D Rockefeller founded the original oil business at the core of ExxonMobil, have sponsored four shareholder resolutions demanding changes at Exxon. One of these calls on Exxon's chief executive Rex Tillerson, to relinquish his role as chairman in favour of an outsider to bring in an alternative point of view.

more...

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/
The Orphan Works Bills

download the House and Senate Versions:
H.R. 5889 The Orphan Works Act of 2008

S 2913 The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008

Tell Congress Preserve Visual Artist's Copyright!

B__st___ds! This bill basically privatizes the US copyright function! It's called Orphan works, because those who can't afford to pay to copyright their work don't get protection!
They refer to the lists as "databases" because if they use "registry" it is in violation of International COpyright LAw!
Ted Kennedy simplified the copyright process with a bill years ago making the C in a circle a legal copyright!
Now that he is in the hospital they are going to vote on changing it to this excremental bill!
Who the hell is shawn bentley?

Nothing like a rousing good scolding to the house & senate!
My sinuses are dry as bone! All that heat just dried them up!
Conyers is a COSPONSOR????????
I told COnyers aid he had no business fooling around with this until AFTER Impeachment!

If John McCain isn't the stupidist SOB
on the planet he comes in a close second.
What a bloody idiot. He sees bogeymen under every bush.

Just hit the news:

Ted Kennedy has a brain tumor. Malignant.

No word yet on operability.

Malignant gliomas are a type of brain cancer diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year -- and the most common type among adults. It's a starting diagnosis: How well patients fare depends on what specific tumor type is determined by further testing.

Average survival can range from less than a year for very advanced and aggressive types -- such as glioblastomas -- or to about five years for different types that are slower growing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/20/ted-kennedy-has-brain-tum_n_102661.html

Good Morning all..............

Good morning qop.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080518_truthdigger_of_the_week_adrienne_kinne/

Truthdigger of the Week: Adrienne Kinne

On July 10, at around 4:30 am, EDT, Boston, transiting Mars and Saturn will conjunct secondary progressed Neptune in his natal 8th house. In his secondary progressed chart (Campanus, Mean Quotidian angle progression) the same group will be conjunct the East Point (90 degree square from the MC in right ascension), and conjunct the 4th in his progressed anlunar.

Many of the Kennedy family (including Ted) have served well in civil service to this country but there is one incident from his past which still sticks in the throats of many - the incident at Chappaquiddick. For those who do not have a copy of American Astrology July 1989 issue, page 32, "Chappaquiddick" by Charlotte A. Tuton handy, here is a link to a site which tells about that incident and its immediate aftermath. The Moonlanding was the next day.

In fact the period from July 19 through August 18 was a very busy time in the U.S.. Chappaquiddick, Moonlanding, Tate-La Bianca, Woodstock for interested astrologers.

August also had the collapse of the 69 Cubs and the death of the only undefeated heavyweight boxing World Champion, Rocky Marciano.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ojxv

Little Caroline Kennedy is 50! And the last surviving member of the immediate Kennedy family we were so familiar with in those heady days of Camelot. And now, in a sense, she will be alone even though she has a large extended family. It is so sad.

I've got to go back and read all the posts, but before i do i wanted to say that i thought this one of your finest pieces, Morgana. It has given me food for thought this morning and i'll mull it over after mowing (and yes, i keep making more gardens so i will never have to mow again). Anyway, thank YOU, and thank YOU, Sally. The energies you share with us are shiny gifts i treasure.

Hey Bob Nicewander!

Hi Karen, morning all! I'm looking forward to putzing in my yard next week, taking a week off to enjoy where I live. The temp's have finally cooled back down here but I see the heat wave has moved on to torment Sally in Colorado.

Caroline Kennedy is one of my favorite people.

Have a good day all!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_on_fe_st/odd_japan_parrot_returns

Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address....but refuses to talk to police.

Mawnin', all. Karen, I finally established enough flower beds that I have a modest area in front to mow (Buffalo grass, though the Bermuda just will not give up and go away), a tiny spot on the side, and a small area in the back. This year the gas-powered guy, Henry, died, so I took the chance and bought a battery-powered one, name of Newt. I was afraid Newt wouldn't be up to the job, and he does have to be pushed around lightly, but he's no wimp. No siree, not at all. So I'm no longer eating gasoline fumes, while being dragged around the yard by the mighty Henry.

Don't know if this pretty little machine will let me type (so far so good)-our very large cat used to sleep on it and ruined its keypad somehow.
I have been away-the money ran out for the cable bill and work won't let me onto "occult sites. I just wanted to say HI!! and I miss you all. There is a light on this site that I don't get anywhere else.
About Ed
ard Kennedy-he has been a deep inspiration to me. I often almost gave up working out my own destiny to the tones of shame,shame,shame and the rejection from "good people" for the sins of youth,etc. One night hearing yet another hypocrite make fun of Mr Kennedy and his failings I felt a strong light break in my heart and I took my stand beside him. I saw then that he is the giant not these piss ant hypocrites. He may have failed he may have shocked but goddamnit he has just kept on keeping on shining his light when it sometimes looked as if he was the only light left. Love and light and prayer for our Pisces leader in this time of Uranus transiting Pisces.

Clymela, that is a wonderful story. You took that stand and into the light.

It maybe that Ted Kennedy has opted for this way out, as it were....perhaps as the symbol of his health care battles over the years, perhaps this is his 'sacrifice' to the good of the whole....I think evolved souls do this.

It certainly would be easy for him to fade into the woodwork with the good wishes of the Congress and the people, and enjoy the rest of his life in a hammock. But that seems quite un-Pisces like.

I have to share this, although so completely non astrological….but one of the perks of our modern world. I have a screen from Jet Blue up, and I am watching the icon for the Jet Blue plane which left JFK about 10:45 this morning carrying my ex…and every two minutes the plane is re-oriented on the map of the US and the states it is flying over…on its way to SFO…..where I will pick him up….it is quite amazing.

At least 200,001 Reasons Hillary Should Be President
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/20/at-least-200001-reasons-hillary-should-be-president/
By Larry Johnson on May 20, 2008 at 10:45 PM in Current Affairs
A democratic election ought to be based on who gets the most votes. But not in the Alice and Wonder World of Howard Dean and the Main Stream Media. They indulge more fantasies than Heidi Fleiss’s whorehouse.

Let’s make this simple. Thirty six states actually held a primary election. You do not have to guess about the results. You don’t have to do an estimate. The results (excluding Michigan and Oregon, where the counting just started) has Hillary with 403,261 more votes than Barack. She has smoked his ass over the last four weeks. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky are needed in the fall if the Democrats hope to win back the White House. Hell, let’s ignore them. Let’s focus on states that held caucuses. You know, events where only a fraction of the eligible voters actually participated. That makes sense. Right?

Popular votes:

http://tinyurl.com/2hbf4a

Go see for yourselves. That always helps.

Man, that's close!

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6005

Exclusive: Voting Machine Company Chief Lied to Chicago Officials About Ownership, Control of Company

Sequoia Voting Systems' CEO, Jack Blaine, Sent Deceptive Letter to Windy City Officials Following 'Evasive' and 'Troublesome' Testimony on his Company's Control by Smartmatic, a Chavez-tied E-Voting Firm

Documents Reveal Officials Sought to Ensure Venezuelan Company's Divestiture of Sequoia Was 'Not a Sham Transaction Designed to Fool Regulators'; Recent Reporting

snip

Sequoia's chief executive, Jack Blaine, repeated knowingly false answers, at least three different times, in his January 18 response to Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke and the Chair of Chicago's Board of Election Commissioners Langdon D. Neal. The pair had written to the company on January 11, expressing concerns about the truth behind Sequoia's claims that they had completely divested from their purportedly "former" parent company, Smartmatic, the Venezuelan-run firm with direct ties to Hugo Chavez and his government.

Last year, as media reports revealed the true extent of Smartmatic's shadowy foreign ownership --- and with it, the direct control of some 20% of U.S. elections --- the firm came under close scrutiny by federal investigators from Treasury Department, the FBI and the IRS. In November of last year, Sequoia announced that it had "completely" divested from Smartmatic in a management team-led buyout, thus ending an official review by Treasury's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

But in January, the officials from the Windy City --- where Sequoia holds one of the company's most lucrative contracts --- had continuing concerns about whether the sale was legitimate, or simply a dodge to avoid scrutiny by federal investigators. They were right to be concerned.

More at the link....

Pat C, do note the Michigan count. Adjust for it and the closeness loosens.

Well come 2012 maybe the Democrats will have changed how they select their nominee, right now it is the delegate count, not the popular vote. Too bad so sad.

But never fear the voting machines are all rigged, and there will be marshall law, George Bush will still be in office January 21 2009. All tax paying Americans will be rounded up and put into Haliburton detention centers manned by Blackwater who is coming down your street as you read this.

Do you see Obama and Clinton in the article? NO, because I personally am sick of the Clinton's and their surrogates. So posting little ditties like this only serves to make people angry, unless we want to astrologically dissect Hillary's delusions of entitlement.

Ted Kennedy...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_on_re_us/kennedy;_ylt=AvG4KZJjTSGjjBOsF0NmyoGs0NUE

[snip]
Brian Hart of Bedford first met Kennedy in November 2003 at Arlington National Cemetery, when the senator attended the funeral of Hart's son John, a soldier killed in Iraq. He recalled Wednesday how the senator listened to his story about soldiers and their vehicles lacking proper armor. Kennedy followed up by calling a hearing later that month.

Today every military vehicle in Iraq is armored. And within six months of Kennedy's hearing, all U.S. soldiers had been issued ballistic plates for their body armor.

"He's a wonderful guy. Literally hundreds of people are alive because of his work and literally hundreds were not wounded because of his work," Hart said.

more....

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/

McCain campaign seeks supportive blog comments

All of a sudden, I have even more reason not to trust anything readers say in the comments section here. (I'm kidding. Calm down.) John McCain's campaign, it turns out, is asking McCain's supporters to go to certain blogs and leave comments that pass on the campaign's talking points for the day. They've also created a points system to provide some incentive, the Politico's Jonathan Martin reports.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0508/McCain_incentivizing_supporters_to_comment_on_blogs.html

According to McCain spokesman Brian Rogers, points can also be accumulated for campaign activities and writing letters to the editor, among other things -- it's not clear what they can be redeemed for. The campaign also provides a list of blogs it suggests supporters visit; currently included in "featured blogs" is liberal blogging giant Daily Kos, but there are no other blogs under the site's "liberal" category. The campaign might want to take a closer look at the blogs it recommends: Some don't allow comments.

Reminds me of kids, Mz Morgana. When playing a game and your side starts losing, just demand that the rules are changed right then and there! Sad, particularly since your side knew, even helped establish, and agreed to, the rules.

I am just trying to keep up with what Hillary considers a "win" I guess Johnson doesn't have that problem. First it was Caucus' don't matter, then it was small states don't matter, then it was only delegates matter, then it was only super-delegates that matter, now it's only Michigan and Florida that matter and maybe PR, even though their votes don't count in the GE, but if they vote for Hillary in the Primary she wants to count it. Her mechinations are boggling. She has lost by all measurements and he is still ahead in the popular vote. But that doesn't matter, both primaries (GOP and DEM) are about the delegate count at the end of the season, it would have to be changed at the rules committee and neither we nor Larry Johnson are part of the rules committee.

I want the Dems to be in the WH in January, I am trying very hard to overlook Clinton's lies and her attempt to completely destroy the Democratic Party so if for some reason or by some lie she gets the nomination I still want to be able to vote for her and Hillary and her surrogates are making it harder and harder every passing day.

I guess it's a matter of how bad will it be if we end up with John McCain. Personally I think that would be the worst case. If we are looking to go down really fast, that would be the way to go.

Think of all the "lovely" people we would get as a McCain Presidency came to be. Lieberman would achieve his greatest dream, and the list goes on and on and on.

If Obama is the candidate you know that
McCain will carry Ohio, Indianna, West
Virginia, Kentucky and probably Pennsylvania.
Lots of bigots in these states.

You know Liebermerde is vying for VP.
The man has no shame.

Interview with Obama today by the Tampa Tribune re the FL/MI mess:

http://tinyurl.com/693gtp

And if all this delegate math controversy has you scratching your head, just consider this:

http://tinyurl.com/3yat8t

Hahahahahaha. And good night.

That's a good one Shy, I loved Ma and Pa Kettle. Thanks for finding that.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=771&Itemid=9

Obama - Ask Hillary First!

Air American:

The issue at hand for the Democratic Party for winning in ‘08 is not losing to McCain but losing to a divided Democratic party. The first thing Obama should do if nominated is put Hillary on the ticket. Will the Republicans have a field day with her on the ticket? Yes! Is their some bad blood in the water due to some negative campaign strategies on the part of the Clintons? Probably. Can Hillary be a tough fighter able to play tough allowing Obama to stay higher above the fray? Yes!

Howard Dean said a few months ago that the loser will be the most important person in the Democratic presidential run this year. Hillary's legacy in this 08 election could place her as the healer and bring together a united Democratic party. As a winning ticket they also move this country closer to healing the racial and misogynist undertones that still have roots.

Can you picture Denver with Hillary's delegates close to half of all delegates demanding that she be included on the ticket? To some it's a crusade. If Hillary was the one out ahead - by just a little over half - wouldn't Obama supporters want the same?

Obama's offer and Hillary's acceptance of an Obama/Clinton ticket hold the healing and the power to move this country in the direction of the real change in Washington that Obama talks about. First he must bring the Democrats back together again.

Obama - ask Hillary first. And if she should say no, the offer would still have a unifying affect.

--Thom Hartmann

Links within text...

Wow! Great links and posts. Luna, the Reconnections link re-minded me of the number of incidences i've experienced throughout life and particular in dreams where there are simultaneous realities occuring at one time. For instance, one of my memorable dreams are of a multitude of -- what we term -- UFOs transversing the sky. The airspace was a highway of extraterrestrials.

Shy, you crack me up. Naming your lawnmowers. So, hmmmmm. I guess my own would be Mule. Sometimes it's stubborn, and mowing uphill, it's slow and hard to push. bwahahahahahahaha.

As anyone else as fond of Ralfee Finn as I? Here's the latest from StarIQ
http://stariq.com/Main/Articles/P0008732.HTM

Bush's Visit Fails to Jump Start Middle East Peace

US President George Bush's recent visits to Israel, timed to coincide with that country's 60th anniversary celebrations, and to the World Economic Forum, held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, were meant to consolidate the Middle East peace process. At least, that's what White House spokespersons tell us. Instead, it served to expose his partisanship like never before.

Whereas the US president's pro-Israel bias is well-known, during previous visits to this region, he has sought to maintain a flimsy façade of being an honest broker. In the past, he has used diplomatic-speak to persuade major players that he wants the best for all concerned and is sincere about getting the peace process back on track.

On this occasion, he didn't even bother to keep up the pretence. With only little more than six months left in office, it seems he's decided to reward his Christia n Zionist base with a vivid display of his true colors.

From Arab News 5/22/08
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=110158&d=22&m=5&y=2008

Interesting, concise review of the delegate and FL/MI stuff:

http://tinyurl.com/6hg6et

Classic manipulation of the Futures markets. You can bet somebody or bodies is making a killing from this.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

This administration's attempts at bringing about peace in the ME is just a sham. As I've said before, I consider the state of Israel to be an illegitimate state. All you have to do is go back and read the history of its formation. The only peaceful, and lasting solution is to dismantle the state, and integrate all factions (Jews/Christian Arabs/Muslim Arabs) into one Palestine, as it was before the influx of the European Jews, but of course it will never happen.

Why John McCain will only release his medical records "to a tightly controlled group of reporters on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend"?

by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 5/22/2008 09:41:00

It does make you wonder. McCain has to release his medical records. The timing is telling.

John McCain has learned much from his mentor, George Bush. Release bad or ugly news on the Friday before a holiday weekend:
Senator John McCain is set to release 400 pages of medical records, including documents related to his melanoma surgery in August 2000, to a tightly controlled group of reporters on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.

Mr. McCain said late last week that he had nothing to hide. Campaign officials have nonetheless said that even if nothing in the records suggests a problem with his health, a rush of news media reports focusing on the cancer surgery was not politically helpful and that they wanted to play down the information as much as possible — something that the timing of the release would seem to accomplish.
Like Bush, McCain thinks the traditional media types won't report on anything that interferes with their long weekends. It worked for Bush time and time again. This time, the press has been given a heads up, and it'll probably still work.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Kerry 2004/Carrie 2008?

by John Aravosis (DC) · 5/21/2008

A reader writes:
Instead of Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd.," I'm beginning to think [Hillary is] like Sissy Spacek in "Carrie."

And the Democratic Convention will be her High School Prom, where she can get her revenge on the delegates who laughed at her.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/22/mccain/

What's in John McCain's medical records?

He'll be releasing everything about his repeated cancer surgeries. But he won't release his psychiatric records, which hold clues to the effect of his Vietnam captivity.

Presidential candidate John McCain has survived three plane crashes, four melanomas, and more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, enduring torture and solitary confinement. There would be questions about his health and his fitness for the office he seeks even if he weren't turning 72 in August, and even if he weren't likely to be running against a man 25 years his junior.

On Friday, after repeated pledges to do so going back more than a year, the McCain campaign is set to release new information about the Arizona Republican's health history. The release, according to the campaign, will cover the year 2000 forward, a period when McCain had three of his four skin cancers removed, as well as lymph nodes and part of a salivary gland. It will not, however, include McCain's psychiatric records, which McCain allowed a select group of reporters to examine in 1999 but have never been released to the public. The new information is unlikely to quash recurring questions about McCain's age, his bouts with cancer, or how his experience in Vietnam may have affected his mind.

More at the link...

West Virginia? Who cares?

May 14, 2008 - 6:07am

So, Hillary Rodham Clinton won the West Virginia Democratic primary by a huge margin.

And your point is?

Of course she won West Virginia. Hillary was in her element, pantsuit deep in old, uneducated, white people – the kind of people who hate blacks and change and will vote for anyone as long as they’re white and willing to pander to their needs.

» 19 comments Read more

From Capitol Hill Blue

Hope you are safe Morgana, just saw the fire in you neckof the woods on CNN!

I also hope Sally is safe from the tornado near Fort Collins.

Hi qop,
Yes we are safe. We're northwest of the fire which is moving south southeast. We're keeping an eye on it, if the wind reverses direction it's a whole new ball game. The wind storm was tagging 70 mph last night, they're now gusting 45 ish.
Thanks for asking.

Geeze, Sally, I see there are tornados touching down in the Denver area! Wow, be safe, check in.

Good Morgana..........hoping the wind stays steady where it is.
Has anyone taken action on the Shawn Bentley Orphaned Works Bill of 2008. It is poised for a vote in the Senate and is being sponsored by some of the most liberal members (Leahey)
They are cluelessly, melty over this Time Warner lobbiest S Bentley, who died at 41 leaving behind a wife & kids.................
It is aimed at "HELPING" THOSE OUT THERE TO FIND & ENJOY IMAGES, THAT MIGHT REMAIN HIDDEN OTHERWISE. WTF! They can damned well google my gallery & walk into it! ( Therefore I have to throw money for advertising so they can do that!)
It is opposed by the Professional Visual Art Community at large! It will put me out of business. If I'd had to PAY & send jpegs of all 12 calendar images, it would have reduced the profit margin by 120% and taken time away from production.
No point in bothering to even do it!
I am trying to get these polititians to understand from the srtists prospective!
I am suggesting they stick with Sen Ted Kennedy's very excellent bill from 1987 which is free, & works
Ain't broke, don't fix it; throw S2913 into the trash can! Preserve Kennedy's legacy!
And I have found a cure for the common cold! I got so "hot headed" talking to them that I burned the sinus infection away! Still gone 36 hours later!
( A gallon of FLa. OJ didn't hurt!)

Cap'n Sally, Cap'n Sally, are you ok?! Pls check in, Cap'n Sally.

"Tornado Wreaks Havoc in Northeast CO"
http://www.metrowestfyi.com/story_display.php?sid=9543

Oh my gosh Morgana, be safe!

Pat I did.

........

House subpoenas Karl Rove

Associated Press

The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former White House adviser Karl Rove as part of its inquiry into whether the Bush administration politically meddled at the Justice Department.

Accusations of politics governing decisions at the agency led to the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The subpoena issued Thursday orders Rove to testify before the House panel on July 10. He is expected to face questions about the White House's role in firing nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, a Democrat.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers had negotiated with Rove's attorneys for more than a year over whether the former top political adviser to President Bush would testify voluntarily.

Brief tornado video:

http://tinyurl.com/5aw4jz

Sally, please let us hear from you.

This hatred by Dems for one candidate or the other is really wrong for succeeding in the election. It is as if it is a self-indulgent, self-destructive on our part. If we love them both, we win.

Gee, I was longing to move back out west, but every time I think about it, I see some kind of extreme weather or something else out there. I lived in San Diego for 3 years, and never had a run in with fires or earthquakes, or high winds - the worst I experienced was the occasional Santa Ana winds, but now it's those gale force winds blowing, and the wind-swept fires, and the monster waves pounding the shore. Tornado in Colorado? That must be a first. Just craziness all over the USA, or all over the world for that matter. I hope we don't get slammed with a hurricane this season. So far, the St. Pete area has been lucky to escape the worst of it.

Shylurker

Are YOU okay? There's a fire in the Santa
Cruz mountains....

Sorry, I am fine for right now, there are tornado warnings out for my area until 8:30pm. However, the tornado hit in the area of my oldest son's house missing him by a half a mile but there is another one forming in that area so I am nervous and keeping in touch with them. There is another cell moving south toward where my youngest son lives and my daughter is over there watching the twins, she's taken them to the basement but right now the roads are closed getting to either son, so here I sit. There are now six cells over the front range and we are fine right now.

Awwwww, wv, thanks so much for asking. Thanks out here in the Sacto Valley are certainly annoyingly brisk, but ok, particularly when compared with what's going on south of SF, over in CO, etc.

Everybody be safe!

Shy

Funny from things you have said I thought
you lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains...
just west of San Jose. The Sacramento
Valley is quite another thing. HOT!HOT!HOT!...especially this time of year. Maybe it is Morgana...we'll wrap you both white light...plus everyone else in the area. I lived in San Francisco for 40 years, and Healdsburg for awhile both before and after that. Two houses.

Heya wv, it's me in the Santa Cruz mountains, though we also have some other AW folk also in the area.

Keeping Sally and all her family in white light, scary situation.

Be safe and well, all of you.

(((((((Sally)))))))

Liberals Work to Change McCain's Image

http://www.truthout.org/article/liberals-work-change-mccains-image

Reporting for The San Francisco Chronicle, Joe Garofoli writes: " ... the real anti-McCain action is happening in the media, where labor and liberal activists are starting to get the national press to do what the still-feuding Democratic candidates can't: Focus on the Republican nominee."

Perhaps this is what Mars retrograde will bring us.

Ann Wright | From War to Peace - Japanese Style

http://www.truthout.org/article/from-war-peace-japanese-style

Writing for Truthout, Ann Wright discusses her experience with Japanese peace: "After World War II, Japanese men (and women) have been spared the obligation of serving in any wars. Because their Constitution (written by Americans) says war is not the Japanese national doctrine for resolving international disputes or for ensuring their national security, the Japanese people have been given 60 years of peace."

so does the day and the hour of Rove's Appearance before the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee deserve a chart?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/rove-subpoenaed.html

[snip]
The subpoena calls for Rove to appear before the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee at 10:00 a.m. on July 10.

Hello all, this is totally apropos of nothing (Sally, keep us posted on your loved ones' safety and I'd be remiss without a special shoutout to Shy)but I think everyone here should read Sue Arrigo's words at the link below:

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=137&contentid=5153

How am I you ask? Down 47 pounds with more to go, but I'm feeling much better and I'm able to sleep without the sleep apnea machine--woo hoo! Blood pressure medicine is next to go!

Namaste and Love y'all!!!
peace(it's not just for hippies anymore!)
GT

PS: I haven't been on here much lately, but have we heard from Betsy in China?

Hello all, this is totally apropos of nothing (Sally, keep us posted on your loved ones' safety and I'd be remiss without a special shoutout to Shy)but I think everyone here should read Sue Arrigo's words at the link below:

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=137&contentid=5153

How am I you ask? Down 47 pounds with more to go, but I'm feeling much better and I'm able to sleep without the sleep apnea machine--woo hoo! Blood pressure medicine is next to go!

Namaste and Love y'all!!!
peace(it's not just for hippies anymore!)
GT

PS: I haven't been on here much lately, but have we heard from Betsy in China?

Sorry 'bout the double post y'all!
GT

Well, hey, a double post is sure a lot better than none at all.

Way to go, Garry! Hooray on your progress--keep goin'!!

AND BETSY IS BACK HOME IN THE USA!

WHenI finish this book I'll e-mail, Betsy!

Yah! Good for you Garry! Keep it up! I'm back on the diet get healthy wagon after wallowing for a year after gaining 30 lbs from copd drug, I'd rather wheeze, the side effects were awful, the weight gain I think is the worst. But I too am off BP meds, loose this weight and I can toss the thyroid.

That fire is still out of control in the Santa Cruz mountains and is now threatening the town of Corralitos. Too close for comfort today.

I am happy to report that "all is quiet on the Western Front." It was quite a day here in Colorado. Blizzard conditions in the foothills and tornados on the plains. I am thankful that everyone in my family is ok, just scared and while a ton of families lost their homes and business' thankfully on one person was killed and it could have been so much worse. Colorado certainly is not used to that kind of tornado, not in this state. What is usually identified as a tornado are actually what "tornado alley" would call a dust devil

Garry I am so happy for you and so excited that you've lost so much weight. Good going.

I think we can be very thankful tonight that Morgana is also safe and sound that fire was just too close for comfort Morgana and I hope all the people caught up in this gets out safely.

A new red spot has appeared on Jupiter. This is a cool Hubble site!

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/23/

Justice's criminal division gets a new chief

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/38218.html

WASHINGTON - A Justice Department lawyer who became entangled in the scandal over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year is being nominated to take over the department's criminal division. President Bush announced his intention Thursday to nominate Matthew Friedrich to replace Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher, who voluntarily steps down Friday. Friedrich, 41, will serve as the acting assistant attorney general until he wins Senate confirmation.

Friedrich, a counselor to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, received an award for exceptional service in 2006 as one of the prosecutors who worked on the department's task force that investigated the collapse of the energy giant Enron. Before working in Washington, he was a prosecutor in Virginia and Texas for 10 years.

"Mr. Friedrich is a well-respected career federal prosecutor," White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said. "The President believes he will do a wonderful job."

Friedrich also is known for his testimony related to the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. In May 2007, he told congressional investigators about a White House request to review a 27-page GOP memo detailing alleged Democratic voter fraud in Wisconsin.

Kyle Sampson, who later resigned as then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff because of his role in the firings, asked Friedrich to look into the allegations. Sampson testified that he'd received the memo and other voter fraud complaints about New Mexico and Pennsylvania elections from the office of then-presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Democrats and two of the fired Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys accused the administration of trying to pressure Justice Department lawyers to bring voter fraud allegations to help the GOP in swing states.

More at the link...

http://tinyurl.com/5ged7y

Rove Protégé May Dig for Dirt on Obama

Timothy Griffin, a central figure in the U.S. Attorney scandal and a protégé of Republican political guru Karl Rove, reportedly has been hired to dig up dirt on likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

FirstRead, a political Web site of NBC News, cited a Republican source as confirming that Griffin was being brought onboard by the Republican National Committee to handle opposition research on Obama.

Griffin hung up on me when I contacted him at his home and asked him to comment about the report. An RNC aide told me he could neither “confirm nor deny the report.”

Griffin’s return to the RNC as an opposition researcher - a post he held during the Bush-Cheney campaigns - would seem to mark a return to a “dirty tricks” style of campaigning that John McCain has vowed to avoid.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Griffin handled “oppo” on Al Gore and, according to several RNC staffers, hung a poster behind his desk that paraphrased a line from “Gladiator”: “On my command - unleash hell on Al.”

More at the link….

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/different-kind-democracy

A Different Kind Of Democracy

A big theme in my upcoming book, The Uprising (due out this coming Tuesday), is our culture's inability to see anything other than elections - and specifically federal elections - as a major instrument of social change or democracy. This myopic view expresses itself in all different ways - the media coverage of presidential campaigns, the blogosphere's narrow focus on Democratic Party prospects in election cycles, to name just two. But as I write in my newspaper column this week, there are many other arenas of democratic expression - some far more important for social change than any election.

In the next week,there is a huge example of what I'm talking about: ExxonMobil's annual shareholder meeting. In reporting my book, I sneaked into this meeting last year with a group of shareholder activists who are using shareholder democracy as a means of pressuring and jaw-boning the largest and most powerful energy company on the planet. Their efforts, and the efforts of other shareholder activists pressuring other companies, could be as important - and maybe more important - than any given congressional or presidential election.

Like last year, shareholder activists are promoting shareholder resolutions to force management to invest more of the company's record-breaking profits into alternative and renewable energy. When you understand that Friends of the Earth estimates that ExxonMobil's operations and products are responsible for 5 percent of all human-generated carbon emissions since the late 1800s, you understand that if these activists even minimally change ExxonMobil, they will make a planet-wide impact.

Shareholder activism is a very intricate and esoteric corner of the populist uprising I describe in my book. This column summarizes how it works and why it is so important. But make no mistake about it - shareholder activism is but one example of powerful direct action that we tend to forget about in our obsession with elections, campaign gossip, and glam politics. As a progressive movement, we forget these instruments of influence at our peril. The more we ignore these tools, the more power we allow to lay idle - and the less effective our movement will be.

More at the link...

Thanks for the Jupiter link, lunaoscura. That is way cool!

The power of herbal vinegars ... fascinating. Article written by a well known herbalist. I think it's part 4, but all of them are interesting. Enjoy and Happy Memorial Day.

http://www.mountshastamagazine.com/herbal/part5.shtml

PatC, I read that very interesting article a few days ago. It brought to mind an item I read on the Mountain Astrologer's website, regarding the upcoming Uranus-Pluto Square:

--

2012: Uranus squares Pluto at 7° - 8° of cardinal signs. This is the waxing square of the cycle that started in the mid 1960s, with the conjunction of these two planets in mid Virgo. This square is a symbol of innovation competing directly with the entrenched power elite (corporate power may be challenged in a new and positive way, especially in a U.S. election year).

--
Especially the last part in "()": corporate power may be challenged in a new and positive way, especially in a U.S. election year.

Maybe this is how it begins? Activist shareholders taking control of corporations from the inside out and redirecting their focus in beneficial, rather than destructive directions. If people can successfully do this with Exxon, one of the largest and most environmentally destructive of the Big Oil companies, imagine what people taking control of say, Wal-Mart, Halliburton, or even Rupert Murdoch's News Corp could do.

I like it. Sounds like the essence of "innovation struggling against containment" or a revolution from within the crumbling, stubborn and outright oppressive and outmoded structures, Uranus (soon to be) in Aries squaring Pluto in Capricorn.

Speaking of Pluto in Capricorn...

South America creates regional union
By MARCO SIBAJA – 2 hours ago

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A new South American union was born Friday as leaders of the region's 12 nations set out to create a continental parliament.

Some see the new organization, Unasur, as a regional version of the European Union. Summit host Brazil wants it to help coordinate defense affairs across South America and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez calls it a counterweight to the United States.

"The number one enemy of the union of the south is the empire of the United States," Chavez said, claiming that the U.S. is "trying to generate wars in South America" to "divide and conquer."

Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, invited other Latin American and Caribbean nations to join the venture. "Unasur is born, open to all the region, born under the signs of diversity and pluralism," he said.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hYwXUkXjzVHgHX9w0W0_F9zJe_DwD90RJB3O0

Speaking of Prince Bandar Bush:

http://tinyurl.com/5jx2bj

Eeeeeeeeek!

(Be sure to read the "Comments," too.)

We're back to Thatcher, QOP.

I'm not expressing an opinion here, just bringing the message! This is what happened today! It's tragic!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/23/clinton-kennedy-assassina_n_103319.html

so Hillary wants Barack to be assassinated so she can be President. Way to go Hill- that's just how we women want to be recognized for our achievements. She has set back women 50 years in the respectability department.

just read the previous comments- glad you & yours are ok, Sally & Morgana. I stayed in Greeley one summer right after getting married at 21- some beautiful old trees there- gone now.

http://correntewire.com/rfk_jrs_statement

RFK Jr's Statement

Via Hillary’s campaign, RFK Jr’s statment:

“[RFK JR] It is clear from the context that Hillary was invoking a familiar political circumstance in order to support her decision to stay in the race through June. I have heard her make this reference before, also citing her husband’s 1992 race, both of which were hard fought through June. I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense.

Hillary had a bad day today and it won't get better for awhile. Chiron is squaring her natal Mercury and opposing her Saturn, with Mars squaring her Sun/Chiron midpoint. I believe Hillary's anger and frustration will increase as Mars moves toward a conjunction to her Mars/Pluto conjunction and square her Venus, then it will move on to a conjunction with her Saturn and square her Mercury. She really does believe the Democratic Party needs to be destroyed in favor of the DLC, she and her supporters have been waiting since 2004 to oust Howard Dean from the DNC and move toward what they believe to be in the best interest of the people and that is the "elites" elect the president. That after all was the original idea of the founding fathers, except Jefferson put a stop to it. This is a little part of the age old fight between the power and the people, there will be more of these fights to come, and it will be world wide, it is now.

Will Obama or anyone like him that comes along be safe or ever be safe from the "powers that be" I don't know, history would teach us that their luck hasn't been really good in that area but still "they rise."

I don't believe Clinton speaks for or represents all women any more than I believe Obama speaks for or represents all black people. Having said that, unless one is afflicted with something along the lines of Asperger's Syndrome, uttered words are rarely, truly accidental.

Maybe Clinton said it out of frustration with the way things have turned out in this election, and she probably regrets what she said. But the fact is, she said it, and her words resonate with her feelings regarding the outcome of this race.

A very interesting read SHy............including ALL comments.
Of course the 3rd point on this triangle of info, is the outing of Valarie Plame, to squelch her investigationinto weapons/ nukes in te M E!

Wow! Explosions on the moon.

http://tinyurl.com/6ye5n7

Shy, that article regarding the BAE is breathtaking in scope. I've always said that the truth of 9/11 would come out and I still believe it will. I don't know who will believe it but it will come out and what a story it is.

Yessum, Cap'n Sally. Smedley Butler said, "War is a racket." Wrote a book and made a national speaking tour on that theme. Tons of money have been made off war.

You might want to read more about General Butler:
http://tinyurl.com/9vd75

There's an excellent video accompanying this report which will give you a very good visual of what's happening in the Arctic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7417123.stm

Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice
By David Shukman
Environment correspondent, BBC News

Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military.

Scientists travelling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north.

The team found a network of cracks that stretched for more than 10 miles (16km) on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf.

The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change.

Satellite image of Ward Hunt Ice Shelf cracks

Enlarge Image
One of the expedition's scientists, Derek Mueller of Trent University, Ontario, told me: "I was astonished to see these new cracks.

"It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away," Dr Mueller explained.

According to another scientist on the expedition, Dr Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa, the new cracks fit into a pattern of change in the Arctic.

"We're seeing very dramatic changes; from the retreat of the glaciers, to the melting of the sea ice.

"We had 23% less (sea ice) last year than we've ever had, and what's happening to the ice shelves is part of that picture."

When ice shelves break apart, they drift offshore into the ocean as "ice islands", transforming the very geography of the coastline.

more...

Hillary never caused a fluff-up with me. I even liked her or at least identified with her. Yesterday I was stunned by her reference to assassination as a reason for her continued competition. I think I got a glimpse of what has driven so many people I know to hate her. I don't hate her but whew!! it is the reference to assassination and her public meetings with Mellom-Scaife and Murdoch and her voting for the invasion. Jeez what a Lady MacBeth. Chiron square the nodes?
Morgana I didn't tell you how much I enjoyed the article. I felt shame for Bush with the info about the gift of gold vs.gift of silver. How humiliating.
Hope it is cool and damp where you are as it is here in the east bay.

http://www.juancole.com/2008/05/clinton-touches-off-national-ptsd.html

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Clinton Touches off National PTSD

Senator Clinton's reference to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June of 1968 does not seem to me consequential, for all the brouhaha it has provoked. She was just saying that many previous primaries have gone on into June, including that of Bobby Kennedy before he was cut down.

The idea that she was thinking of the possibility that her rival, Barack Obama, might meet a similar fate is absurd. But I saw pundits on cable t.v. intimating that it was plausible.

I fear she inadvertently stumbled into a hornet's nest, though.

More at the link....

Hi Clymela, yes its dampish here with showers threatening, hopefully it will knock down the wild fire.

Luna isn't that astounding! And there are still people who deny global warming and say this is cyclical! What will it take to drive it home to Americans?

I heard this morning MSNBC I think, maybe CNN, they're predicting $15.00 a gallon of gas in our future. Wow. Time to buy a horse.

Wow, this falls into I didn't know that (and I probably should have).

http://tinyurl.com/6566s5

Good news about the rain Morgana!

..........

McCain bows down before the CNP

From MCM:

Just as Gov. Bush did when he ran in 2000--and what Bush told those theocrats we still don't know, as his remarks were not made public.

Although it's not notorious like John Hagee, the CNP is no less sinister than he, and far more influential. It's the de facto steering committee of the Christianist far-right, its membership including hugely wealthy theocratic mover-shakers such as Howard Ahmanson and Richard DeVos, as well as a rapt multitude of backward-looking pols and activists.

More evidence that Bomb-Bomb is no "moderate" or "maverick" but a horse (in fact, a Trojan horse) of quite a different color.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2008/03/mccain_courts_t.html

McCain Courts the Council for National Policy

Stolen elections, pathetic candidates and a supine congress, brilliant.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x137045

Direct YouTube links:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuW_slx6i2s

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAzKpkEp_Y4

If we want to know anything about the freaky weather in the world we can get it in the BBC News. Chile is having bad floods, and mudslides with bridges and roads being washed away and it's affecting the drinking water.

[snip]
In the capital, five months worth of rain fell in the space of eight hours, turning streets into rivers and forcing residents out of their homes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7418242.stm

Floods wreak havoc across Chile
By Gideon Long
BBC News, Santiago

more...

Because it's Sat. night!
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nations_poorest_1_now_controls_two

WASHINGTON—A report on growing disparities in the concentration of U.S. aluminum-can wealth, released Tuesday by the Department of Commerce, revealed that 66 percent of the nation's recyclable assets are now held by the poorest 1 percent of the population.....................

Has anyone heard much about this woman?
Just watched this interview with her and was quite impressed with her manner and what she had to say.

Indra Nooyi is one of the most powerful women in world business. First as CFO then as chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, she’s restructured the US food and drinks giant.
http://www.cnbceb.com/Articles/2008/June/43/meet-the-framebreaker.aspx

That was very interesting, kiwijeanie. I only read the words; didn't see the interview. So, she strikes you as forthright rather than saying things to make her appear "nice" and all that? Thnx.

I read about her just several weeks ago Kiwijean.
Since I am boycotting coka cola, it gave me some interesting options. ( I've opposed Pepsi since Nixon& Joan Crawford, both unsavory, boosted it up in production.
Fortunatly here in N England we have 2 small companies. Polar & Adirondack, with a wide range of fruit flavored sparkling water,SANS aspertame, sugar etc. Just fruit flavor & carbonated water, & reasonably priced, close to avoid huge trucking costs!
( in Fla. thre were no alternatives to the BIG 2.)

Former Mass. governor buying home in La Jolla

May 24, 2008

Mitt Romney is in escrow on an oceanfront home in La Jolla. The former Massachusetts governor is on a short list of possible running mates for Republican Sen. John McCain.

Romney and a few other vice presidential prospects are meeting socially with McCain this weekend. Romney dropped out of the presidential race Feb. 7.

He now lives in Massachusetts but also owns a lake house in New Hampshire and a vacation home in Deer Valley, Utah.

The question of the day: Could Romney be planning to establish residency in California with an eye on the governor's seat? Gov. Schwarzenegger is forced out by term limits in 2010. Stay tuned . .

http://tinyurl.com/6kfd6s

Someone could be writing a science fiction story of the death of a city. But in this case it's real and about Cleveland. This story made me think of cannibalism.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90745303

In Cleveland, Foreclosures Decimate Neighborhoods

[snip]
...vandals who've stripped the recently foreclosed house of its fixtures, plumbing pipes, windows and wiring.

"It's a very lucrative business. These aren't just necessarily somebody trying to get a fix or a crack head. These are professionals who come in to strip these houses," Brancatelli says. "We saw people in vans with high-powered equipment."

[snip]
Often, a single speculator would buy up multiple homes, hoping to cash in at the close, Rokakis says. He cites one speculator who bought up at least five homes in Cleveland.

She "probably received cash back on each of those properties at the close, the mortgage broker was probably a friend of hers, the appraiser was probably working in concert with them," Rokakis says. "The mortgage banker … really didn't care because he knew or she knew that she was going to take these mortgages and sell them to Wall Street.

[snip]
Cleveland's wilting economy also has contributed to its suffering city blocks. A quarter of all U.S. manufacturing jobs lost in the past 10 years have been in Ohio.... Many people borrowed against their homes for cash, lost their jobs and could no longer pay their mortgages.

[snip]
On one street in Reed's ward, 25 homes stand abandoned. Many have been taken over by drug dealers and prostitutes. In Brancatelli's 12th Ward, 200 homes were demolished last year. Brancatelli says about 1,000 should come down, which would cost the city around $5 million — money that would not be spent on roads, schools or police protection.

[snip]
...the abandonment rate has led to a decline in property values that will affect basic city services, including schools, and police and fire departments.

Come to think of it, greed is a lot like cannibalism isn't it? I'd never thought of it that way before, but now it seems so obvious.

Lieberman is a Zionist smuck!

May 25, 2008
Editorial

Joe Lieberman, Would-Be Censor

The Internet is simply a means of communication, like the telephone, but that has not prevented attempts to demonize it — the latest being the ludicrous claim that the Internet promotes terrorism.

Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is trying to pressure YouTube to pull down videos he does not like, and a recent Senate report and a bill pending in Congress also raise the specter of censorship. It is important for online speech to be protected against these assaults.

Mr. Lieberman recently demanded that YouTube take down hundreds of videos produced by Islamist terrorist organizations or their supporters. YouTube reviewed the videos to determine whether they violated its guidelines, which prohibit hate speech and graphic or gratuitous violence. It took down 80 videos, but left others up. Mr. Lieberman said that was “not enough,” and demanded that more come down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/opinion/25sun1.html?ref=opinion

from Sally on Nancy's blog:

From a blog - Makes a very valid point

Exaggerating Caucuses

John McLaughlin of The McLaughlin Group raised an interesting point last week. He said that the way the Democrats award delegates favours the winner of the small caucuses. For example, McLaughlin illustrated how in Idaho, Obama won the caucuses by a margin of 13,000 votes, and as a result picked up a net gain of 13 delegates over Hillary Clinton. But in the Pennsylvania primary, Hillary Clinton won by a margin of 200,000 votes and only picked up a net gain of 10 delegates. So that 13,000 voter advantage resulted in more net delegates going to Obama than Hillary gained by winning Pennsylvania by 200,000. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding the conflated, bizarre and backwards caucuses. Let’s not forget how the caucuses favour those voters who can spend 4 hours of their evening arguing and campaigning for their candidate. Have to work the night shift? Too bad! Sick and can’t make it? Tough luck! Can’t find a babysitter? Suck it up! The caucuses are overrun by the wealthy, the young and the activists who can afford to go and who live for such a partisan event. Caucuses thus result in strange outcomes. Washington state holds both a primary and a caucus: the caucus saw Obama win by 37 points, but the primary saw Obama win by just 5 points. Funny how when everyone is allowed to vote the results are incredibly different than when only those activist caucus-goers’ votes are counted.

Posted by Cory at 4:18 PM

LE said…
Agreed!! Here is some additional data, posted on my blog:

Clinton wins Ohio by 203,851 votes and
wins 9 more delegates than Obama

Clinton wins Pennsylvania by 214,115 votes and wins 12 more delegates than Obama

Clinton wins Texas by 100,000 votes and
wins 5 LESS delegates than Obama

Obama wins Kansas by 17,710 votes and
wins 9 more delegates than Clinton

Obama wins Hawaii by 19,512 votes and
wins 8 more delegates than Clinton

Obama wins Minnesota by 73,115 votes and
wins 24 more delegates than Clinton

Obama won far more delegates than correspond to the votes he won by. This is not only unfair representation, it strongly suggests that Obama is the weaker general election candidate. Exit poll data from states like West Virginia and Kentucky also reveal that large blocks of Hillary’s supporters will not vote for Obama if he is chosen as the nominee.

http://thefledglingblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/exaggerating-caucuses.html

Luna, the scenario in Ohio is not new. It happened (how short everyone's sense of history is) after the first king george's reign in the early 1990's. It is the exact scenario which Catherine Austin Fitts and the late Gary Webb wrote about re the mafia/CIA /HUD property and drug scams. In fact the Sopranos used it as a story arc in one season (2003 or 2004 I believe.)

It is always the result of failed economic leadership.....and Ohio is famous for it.

wv,

So does Lieberman sit around and watch EVERY YOUTUBE piece, so therefore he knows which ones should be taken down?

Interesting. I wish I had that kind of time and still be a Senator and busy being McCain's fact-check nanny and still have time to be actively pro-war. He's simply amazing isn't he!!!

Lunaoscura

I am sure he does or has someone do it for him, since he spends so much time being McCain's shadow.

I'm afraid if McCain sits down quickly,
Leibermerde would get a broken nose.

wv, oh no kidding would not surprise me to see either Liarman as his VP choice, or that other Senator who helps prop him up.

Liarman is the only problem I have to Jim Johnson (I think is the guy's name) he chose Liarman to run with Gore, what a dead weight on that ticket and he's vetting for Obama.

I'm keeping half an ear out for the Libertarian Party announcement of who their candidate will be, Bob Barr is my bet and he'd be a GOP nightmare.

Defeat the Monster!

http://tinyurl.com/6nk9p5

Time to be re-Born to Be Wild!

First MLK grandchild born in Atlanta

By S.A. REID
Published on: 05/25/08

America's first family of civil rights welcomed its newest member early Sunday.

Yolanda Reneé King — first grandchild of the late Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King — made her appearance at Northside Hospital in Atlanta at 6:47 a.m.
Pouya Dianat/AJC
(ENLARGE)
Martin Luther King III and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, didn't announce the pregnancy, or their marriage, until this past winter at the Salute to Greatness Dinner gala at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.
Little Yolanda, daughter of Martin Luther King III and wife Arndrea Waters King, weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ounces. Mother and daughter are doing fine, a family spokesman said.

The baby King takes her name from her father's older sister, Yolanda Denise King, who died in 2007.
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution( too long url)
Martin Luther King III described his new baby girl as a "precious gift from God."

"It is truly the happiest day of our lives," he said in a statement released Sunday. "I know my parents are smiling down from heaven."

Little Yolanda's birth comes two years after her parents married in Santa Barbara, Calif. The couple lives in Atlanta and had kept news of their marriage private until last winter, when they announced both their union and the pregnancy at the annual Salute to Greatness awards dinner put on by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center.
What a shame sh'll never know her Grandparents!

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/25/9189/

Family Seed Business Takes On Goliath of Genetic Modification

SOmething about this story is demanding my attention.
Lets see if it spins out into something! interesting.........
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/25/belgium.aircrash.ap/index.html
He said the plane was on a scheduled flight to Bahrain. It was not known what cargo the plane was carrying.
The plane is owned by Kalitta Air, a cargo carrier based at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Michigan, and makes regular flights from Brussels, officials said. A person who answered the telephone at Kalitta Air said Sunday morning that no one was immediately available to comment.

They fly stuff around for the Dept of Defense, qop. Hmmmmmm.

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

Posts are going up announcing that Bob Barr just got the Libertarian nod.

Anybody know of any astro info on him? Apparently, from the posts, the wing-nuts just hate him. I know he has been serving as consultant to the ACLU (of all places!) because he does care about the Constitution. As for the rest, well . . .

I wonder if Bob Barr will take all the disgruntled Republicans and ultra uptight Christian Right away from McCain. Wouldn't that be a hoot to watch!

Yes! This is how we do it:

http://www.buttecreek.org/

PG&E should pay for it, though.

If you missed HBO's "Recount" based on the 2000 election it is worth watching.
It will be repeated several times today.
1PM and 4PM...warning, it will make you
pissed off all over again!

http://www.chycho.com/?q=blog

What we should remember on this Memorial Day

[snip]
How unfortunate that we have a need for such a day, especially since “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” So stated Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.

Today, and every day, we should remember why we have sent our children to die, and to kill. We should remember that war is meant to consolidate assets for the oligarchy. We should also remember that the majority of casualties of every War have been civilians. That not only soldiers, but countless innocents have been caught between warring corporations in their attempts to increase the wealth of the privileged few.

[snip]
Today we should remember that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in over 1.2 million civilian deaths as well as creating over 4 million refugees.

We should remember that 2007 was the bloodiest year for US forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq. As for 2008, we should anticipate the casualties for this year to surpass those of previous years now that Sistani has issued Fatwas against US troops in Iraq.

[snip]
We should remember that war is neither about honor, duty, justice or peace. War is about money, greed, power, and death and destruction. It is about sacrificing our children to propagate fear.

We should also remember that we have the power to stop Preemptive Wars of Aggression that are being waged in our name and with our children’s innocence and blood, if we so chose to.

I find it necessary to report something here on this blog FWIW. It may or may not be anything of substance, but remember - I am only the messenger, and don't necessarily endorse what this guy predicts.

This guy used to live in my apartment complex a while back, and I used to try and avoid him like the plague, because he was very loquacious, and he smelled like a chimney (probably 6 pack-a-day smoker). Anyway, one day not too long ago, while walking in the neighborhood, a taxi cab pulled up alongside me, and it was this man. He handed me a piece of paper with his website address on it, telling me that he had finally put his blog up, but for some reason, when I got home, when I put the address in, nothing came up, so I threw the piece of paper out. On Saturday, I ran into him at the supermarket, and could not run away, because he was right in my face. I always thought of him as a kind of kook. He smokes a lot of marijuana, and most likely stronger stuff. Anyway, after the initial exchanges, he said:"Remember what I told you about Hillary Clinton. It looks now like she's out of the race, but don't count her out. I predicted that she will be the next president of the United States, and she'll declare Martial Law."

Well, when he was still living in our complex, anybody whom he could get a hold of to listen, and this was around 2004, he would be telling them that Hillary Clinton was going to be the president of the U.S. and she would declare Martial Law, so this was not new, but on Saturday he told me that he had had 13 visions, and that this was the last of them. Now this sounds like a stretch, but when I got home I decided to launch anew a search for his website, so I put in the search words - Hillary Clinton, president of the US, declares martial law, and sure enough I found it, so I'm supplying the link to his website for anyone who wishes to read his ramblings, and you can decide for yourselves, whether this man is indeed a kook, or if he really has a story to tell. Don't know if any of you has come across his website before.
http://theoriginalfuturefacts.blogspot.com/

Luna, your Memorial Day war post is so a propos, and what pisses me off the most about this administration, especially how non-chalant they have treated the whole thing, and never really admitted that it was a big mistake.

Fascism strikes again!
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/8-05262008-1539536.html
New York gallery owner arrested for serving drinks

The Associated Press

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. - Wine, cheese , and police?

An East Hampton art gallery owner was led away in handcuffs Saturday after she refused to stop serving drinks at an opening bash for a celebrity photo exhibit. As about 200 startled guests looked on, Ruth Kalb , generally known as Ruth Vered, after her gallery's name , was arrested on a charge of selling alcohol without a liquor license.

I was just thinking that if that guy's prediction in my earlier post is correct, Hillary's brag that she will be ready on day one, is not an empty one.

We watched a Quaker produced, "Recount" ( or very similar) at our Work for Peace Meeting back in 2004!

wv, my husband turned it on last night the Recount docu-drama, I couldn't watch it, just upset me all over again. He turned it off. We both figured we lived through it and didn't want to revisit the nightmare.

"Last night, before a packed crowd at Hay, Carter spoke of his "horror" at America's involvement in torturing prisoners, saying he wanted the next US president to promise never to do so again.

He left an intriguing hint that George Bush might even face prosecution on war crimes charges once he left office.

When pressed by Philippe Sands QC on Bush's recent admission that he had authorised interrogation procedures widely seen as amounting to torture, Carter replied that he was sure Bush would be able to live a peaceful, "productive life - in our country".

Sands, an international legal expert, said afterwards that he understood that to be "clear confirmation" that while Bush would face no challenge in his own country, "what happened outside the country was another matter entirely".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/26/israelandthepalestinians.usa1

Robert Parry sums up why I have decided that I cannot, in good conscience, support the Presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. It has everything to do with the ongoing series of free passes the Clintons have given to Bush's father, a man who should have been prosecuted by Bill Clinton's administration for his Iraq and Iran-Contra crimes:

--

"On Dec. 17, 2007, a still-confident Bill Clinton offered voters a sense of what bipartisanship meant to Hillary Clinton. He announced that his wife’s first act in the White House would be to send him and George H.W. Bush on an around-the-world mission to explain that “America is open for business and cooperation again.”

In other words, the Clintons and the Bush patriarch would clean up some of the messes left behind by a headstrong Bush son. Implicit in this picture was the Clintons giving another pass to the Bush family."

Parry provides some background on this in the first part of the article:

--

End of the Bush-Clinton Era?

(snip)

This period – roughly marked by George H.W. Bush’s rise as Vice President and then President from 1981 to 1993, Bill Clinton’s embattled two terms, and then eight years under George W. Bush – represented an extraordinary period of lost opportunities for the nation as its global power peaked and began a rapid descent.

Notable for its bitter partisanship, mindless jingoism and willful historical amnesia, this era saw the United States fail to address its bloated energy consumption, reverse the decline in its manufacturing base, stop the erosion of the middle class, provide universal health care for its citizens and wisely deploy its military might.

(snip)

Early on, some Democrats told me they supported Sen. Clinton because her election would repudiate the Bush family and its nasty brand of politics. They envisioned a hard-working and battle-tested President Hillary Clinton completing some of the reforms that Republicans thwarted in the 1990s.

However, other Democrats have come to see the Clintons as less a cats-and-dogs enemy of the Bushes than two sides of the same coin, a kind of duopoly that is more common in Third World nations where two ruling families trade power back and forth without disrupting the power structure.

In this view, Bill Clinton essentially earned his bones with the Bush family in 1993 when he swept a dustbin full of Republican scandals under the rug – including the Iran-Contra Affair, Iraq-gate and the October Surprise question.

President Clinton may have thought he was being responsible and buying some bipartisan peace. But he actually cemented an incomplete and false history of the Reagan-Bush period, thus denying the American people a thorough understanding of what their government had done over those dozen years.

Clinton also freed up the Republican attack machine from playing defense for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, enabling it to go on the offensive against Clinton and his wife. In other words, Clinton’s acquiescence to the Reagan-Bush cover-ups proved to be both wrongheaded and shortsighted.

Yet Clinton didn’t seem to learn much. Despite the pummeling he took – including suffering only the second presidential impeachment in U.S. history – Bill Clinton still kept his Justice Department on the sidelines when George W. Bush stole the Florida election and thus the White House from Al Gore in 2000. [For details, see Neck Deep.]

Then, after leaving office, Clinton made one of his chief priorities the forging of an alliance with George H.W. Bush, as they traveled around the world on humanitarian missions. This Bush-Clinton tandem became a feel-good measure of how Washington insiders gauge bipartisanship, the two ruling families working together.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton – having won a Senate seat from New York in 2000 – demonstrated another side of this elite bipartisanship. In 2002, she sided with President George W. Bush in his desire to invade Iraq and remained a staunch war supporter over the next several years.

More... http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/052508.html

--

All of which makes me wonder what's REALLY in all this for the Clintons?

Had Bill gone after Bush Sr and prosecuted him, thereby undermining, if not derailing entirely, the rise of the Republican Right-Wing in the mid 1990s, he might have evaded the entire Monica Lewinsky scandal that wounded his second term.

With the Bushes political ambitions gone up in smoke thanks every bit to Poppy's corruption and his dirty dealings, there would have been no Dubya, Rove or Cheney to challenge Al Gore's bid for the White House in 2000. Who knows what this, what likely would have been the eighth year of Gore's presidency might have been like? We can almost be certain, however, that we would be much further along in addressing our environmental and energy issues.

Thanks again, Bill. And thanks, Hillary. To paraphrase Gore, it's time for you both, and the Bushes, to go.

That's been my take on it from the beginning!
I'm having trouble with the CLinton camp claiming that caucus states DON"T COUNT!
At our caucus, (only one person under 35) it was,
15 for Clinton, 26 for Obama, 4 undecided; the caucus math gave ONE delegate to each!
When we go to vote in NOV AND EVERYONE WILL BE THERE........
THERE WILL BE 15 ACTUAL VOTES FOR CLINTON, 26-30 VOTES FOR OBAMA. HOW DOES THAT NOT COUNT??
( I'm guessing the 4 undecideds will
go for Obama, they held back, watching to see which would be the wisest way to use their votes.
I want Queen Noor for 1st Female President!
http://www.noor.gov.jo/index.htm
SHe would assuredly bring Peace to the Middle East!

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174936/frida_berrigan_the_pentagon_takes_over

Entrenched, Embedded, and Here to Stay
The Pentagon's Expansion Will Be Bush's Lasting Legacy

A full-fledged cottage industry is already focused on those who eagerly await the end of the Bush administration, offering calendars, magnets, and t-shirts for sale as well as counters and graphics to download onto blogs and websites. But when the countdown ends and George W. Bush vacates the Oval Office, he will leave a legacy to contend with. Certainly, he wills to his successor a world marred by war and battered by deprivation, but perhaps his most enduring legacy is now deeply embedded in Washington-area politics -- a Pentagon metastasized almost beyond recognition.

The Pentagon's massive bulk-up these last seven years will not be easily unbuilt, no matter who dons the presidential mantle on January 19, 2009. "The Pentagon" is now so much more than a five-sided building across the Potomac from Washington or even the seat of the Department of Defense. In many ways, it defies description or labeling.

Who, today, even remembers the debate at the end of the Cold War about what role U.S. military power should play in a "unipolar" world? Was U.S. supremacy so well established, pundits were then asking, that Washington could rely on softer economic and cultural power, with military power no more than a backup (and a domestic "peace dividend" thrown into the bargain)? Or was the U.S. to strap on the six-guns of a global sheriff and police the world as the fountainhead of "humanitarian interventions"? Or was it the moment to boldly declare ourselves the world's sole superpower and wield a high-tech military comparable to none, actively discouraging any other power or power bloc from even considering future rivalry?

More at the link....

Here's a companion piece to that!
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,555775,00.html

A number of countries want the oil that might lie beneath the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Five of them are meeting this week to establish some ground rules for the land grab.

But even as the diplomats -- Denmark, Norway and Russia are sending their foreign ministers, Canada's Natural Resources Minister is attending and the US is sending Deputy Secretary of State
John Negroponte try to remove the bile from the growing conflict, it is likely the scientists who will have the greatest say.
more...........

Oooooh, I do love this stuff! Take a walk into ultra deeo space:

http://tinyurl.com/5qaked

And let us all wish the biggest, bestest happy birthday to Miz Morgana!

Happy Birthday!
I giess thy got that fire under control?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORGANA!!

http://www.ibiblio.org/team/fun/birthday/birthday.mid

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10649.html

Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.

Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):

• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

More at the link....

Ah shucks, thank you guys you are the best!

PatC., Scotty boy has just blown the lid off Georgie Boy...wow.

qop, the fire is still burning as far as I know the mostly contained. We've had a lot of marine layer and some sprinkles so hopefully that tamped it down. Too darn close for comfort, if it had burned the opposite direction we would have been toast.

Many happy returns of the day, Morgana Seawalker, and may you have many more! Hope you found some time to relax today.

Morgana, hope the fire is drenched.

I think the charges in the book could lead to the crowbar hotel in any normal world.

Plan Mexico: Plan Colombia Heads for Mexico

By Stephen Lendman

27/05/08 "Global Research," -- It's called "Plan Mexico," or more formally the "Merida Initiative," and here's the scheme. It's to do for Mexicans what Plan Colombia has done to that nation since 1999, and, in fact, much earlier. Since then, billions have gone for the following:
-- to establish a US military foothold in the country;

-- mostly to fund US weapons, chemical and other corporate profiteers; it's a long-standing practice; in fact, a 1997 Pentagon document affirms that America's military will "protect US interests and investments;" in Colombia, it's to control its valuable resources; most importantly oil and natural gas but also coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, silver, emeralds, copper and more; it's also to crush worker resistance, eliminate unions, target human rights and peasant opposition groups, and make the country a "free market" paradise inhospitable to people;

Plan Mexico: Plan Colombia Heads for Mexico

By Stephen Lendman

27/05/08 "Global Research," -- It's called "Plan Mexico," or more formally the "Merida Initiative," and here's the scheme. It's to do for Mexicans what Plan Colombia has done to that nation since 1999, and, in fact, much earlier. Since then, billions have gone for the following:
-- to establish a US military foothold in the country;

-- mostly to fund US weapons, chemical and other corporate profiteers; it's a long-standing practice; in fact, a 1997 Pentagon document affirms that America's military will "protect US interests and investments;" in Colombia, it's to control its valuable resources; most importantly oil and natural gas but also coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, silver, emeralds, copper and more; it's also to crush worker resistance, eliminate unions, target human rights and peasant opposition groups, and make the country a "free market" paradise inhospitable to people;

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19998.htm

Morgana

Felicitations de jour.

A very Happy Birthday to the cheery Gemini with well grounded Taurus planets. I'm thinking it's going to be a good year for Miss Morgana and even an exciting one before the next birthday rolls around. She's going to find herself getting younger and younger in the year ahead and that can be dangerous for all of us when a Gemini begins to grab their youth and pull it forward. Still it's a wonderful year shaping up and no one deserves it more than Glinda the Good Witch right here in our midst. How lucky we are, a very happy and "fey" birthday to you Morgana Seawalker.

One big fat kiss and hug and your birthday, Morgana! Sounds like a darned good year for you. I have a feeling that you're going to enjoy every bit of it.

from your fellow Gem whose birth day and time remains in question.

Happy birthday Morgana!

We had some strong winds yesterday. Was it windy where you are?

Shylurker! What a great site! It sure helps to put things in perspective doesn't it?!

May 28, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

Can He Take a Frisk?

By MAUREEN DOWD
After “Rahmbo” Emanuel, the Illinois congressman dubbed “the hostage negotiator” by the Obama forces, fails to talk Hillary down, Barack Obama knows that he is left with one final roll of the dice. He sets up a secret meeting with Bill Clinton in neutral territory at Rahm’s hideaway office in the Capitol.

Bill arrives two hours late, red-faced and truculent.

“If you brought me over here to cry uncle, shame on you, Barack Obama. You and your press lackeys are engaged in a cover-up even though Hillary’s winnin’ the popular vote and the general election.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/opinion/28dowd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Thanks all. I sure hope the next year is better for all of us, I am so over the Bush years!

Lunaoscura, yep it was windy, had a tree take out a house two doors down last week.

Sally well besides having Jupiter in Taurus that adds to my plumpness, all that Taurus allows me to keep one foot firmly planted on terra firma.

I'm getting plenty of relaxation added four days of vacation time to the holiday and poof I'm off work until the next week. Course I'm also a phone call away from being called in. I do have a great job and work for some really stellar people. Because of the US economic situation my boss scaled back the staff, everyone started telecommuting and poof we survive and go on to prosper another day. I work for a mainframe software development company.

Thanks for taking a look Sally, I'll enjoy getting younger. My birthday goal is to get the weight off (advair causes uncontrolled weight gain...like I need help with that!), so am hoping to be really healthy by the time I'm sixty. I was 56 yesterday.

Hugs Karen! Happy birthday to you too! There's a few Gemini's lose on AW, JudiG has a birthday coming up as well.

Hahahaha. WV, that Maureen O Dowd column is one of her best - a laugh a minute.

Gee, I don't know what made me put the O in there - sorry, just plain Dowd if you please.

There's a snowball effect with the housing crisis that is very depressing in the long run. Detroit is just an example.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080526/METRO/805260340/&imw=Y

Home value drop hurting cities
First statewide slump since 1960s means local governments won't see usual revenue increases.
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Property values dropped statewide this year for the first time in nearly five decades, signaling that Michigan could be on the verge of its next fiscal crisis: the decimation of local government budgets.

As a result of the depressed housing market, assessed values dipped 1.3 percent across the state this spring, dragged down by a 3.9 percent fall in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, according to the State Tax Commission.

That means local governments that have been accustomed to annual increases of 5 percent to 6 percent in the revenue raised by property taxes will see no increase this year.

"This will be the biggest financial challenge in Michigan history," said Mark Vanderpool, city manager of Sterling Heights.

"The state is going to have to work with cities to solve this problem. Some will have to drastically cut services and quality of life will quickly erode."

more...

Happy Birthday again Morgana. A more
robust" wish for you today! You "vill" be healthy at 60!!!
They picked up the illustrations yesterday and I was so tired & drained I could barely make it up to bed!
New day new energy! I have a few black & white spot drawings to complete & the Cover...but 7 hours of sleep works miracles.

Talk about being overweight! Just look at this phenomenon:
http://tinyurl.com/6x4o4z

LOLcats break...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x7772483

http://sabiansymbols.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/a-conversation-by-telepathy-junes-gemini-new-moon.html

Lynda Hill is wonderful.

.....and one more short one….

Straight to the Source: An Addendum to the Scorpio Full Moon

http://sabiansymbols.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/straight-to-the.html

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hMGWbl8L60Y1Xq9MmT41qWXXDYRQD90VBBQG0

... And McClellan recalled a day in April 2006, when the unfolding perjury case against Libby revealed that the president had secretly declassified portions of a 2002 intelligence report about Iraq's weapons capabilities to help his aides deflect criticism that his case for war was weak. Some of the most high-profile criticism was coming from Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

The president was leaving an event in North Carolina, McClellan recalled, and as they walked to Air Force One a reporter yelled out a question: Had the president, who had repeatedly condemned the selective release of secret intelligence information, enabled Scooter Libby to leak classified information to The New York Times to bolster the administration's arguments for war?

McClellan took the question to the president, telling Bush: "He's saying you yourself were the one that authorized the leaking of this information."

"And he said, 'Yeah, I did.' And I was kind of taken aback," McClellan said.

"For me I came to the decision that at that point I needed to look for a way to move on, because it had undermined, I think, a lot of what we had said."

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/29/george-bush-authorized-the-leak-of-valerie-wilsons-identity/

George Bush Authorized the Leak of Valerie Wilson’s Identity

Scottie McC doesn't know it yet. But that's basically what he revealed this morning on the Today Show (h/t Rayne).

During the interview, Scottie revealed the two things that really pissed him off with the Bush Administration. First, being set up to lie by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. And second, learning that Bush had--himself--authorized the selective leaking of the NIE.

snip

Now, for the most part, this is not new. ... Scooter Libby testified that after Libby told Dick Cheney he couldn't leak the information Cheney had ordered him to leak to Judy Miller because it was classified, Cheney told Libby he had gotten the President to authorize the declassification of that information.

Thus far, though, we only had Dick Cheney's word that he had actually asked Bush to declassify this information. But now we've got George Bush, confirming that he, the President of the United States, authorized the leaks of "this information."

snip

Think of how much sense this makes. We have evidence that George Bush ordered Libby to respond to Joe Wilson on June 9, 2003. We now have Bush's own confirmation that he authorized the leak Libby made to Judy Miller on July 8, 2003--which included the leak of Valerie Wilson's identity. We know on July 10, Condi told Stephen Hadley that Bush "was comfortable" with the response the White House was making towards Wilson. And we know that--when Cheney forced Scottie McC to exonerate Libby publicly that fall, he did so by reminding people that "The Pres[ident] [asked Libby] to stick his head in the meat-grinder."

More at the link....

......and this.....

http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/blogs/daily/2008/05/more-mclellan-r.html

Remember that super highway that's supposed to link Mexico, the US and Canada without any borders? It's now called NASCO (North America's Supercorridor Coalition, Inc.)

http://www.nascocorridor.com/naipn/index.html

More earthquake activity - this time in Iceland.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/ap_on_re_eu/iceland_earthquake

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/28/9263/

John Bolton Escapes Citizen’s Arrest at Hay Festival

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/30/dnc_meeting/

The fight over Florida and Michigan

Here's what to expect when Democratic leaders meet to decide the fate of delegates from the two states' outlaw primaries. - By Walter Shapiro

Ooooh, another mystery:

http://tinyurl.com/4dhlwd

"War is a racket," as Gen Smedley Butler said, and here's a run-down of former Bushco members making tons of money off the destruction in the ME, at our expense, of course:
http://tinyurl.com/6pmrqq

Here comes the GOP slime machine....and I'm sure they are just getting started.

http://www.queerty.com/did-jeff-gannon-know-scott-mcclellan-20080529/

and

http://www.queerty.com/who-what-20080528/

Oh, my, my. In addition to poisoning us with their exports, they're also bringing down our power grids.

http://tinyurl.com/6gmjra

The last comment on the 2nd link is chilling.......
" I feel a suicide coming on."
I've been wondering about good ole' Jeff boy!
Somehow I think he WASN"T there to service Scott!
Why run all that risk when he could have just gone to Scotts home/apartment!

Scott McClellan Apologizes for Bashing Richard Clarke

As White House Press Secretary, McClellan Called Clarke's Book on the Bush Administration 'Flat-Out Wrong'

In an encounter last night in the lobby of a New York hotel, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan apologized for denouncing a former White House colleague, Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism adviser, after Clarke wrote a book highly critical of the Bush administration in 2004.

Now McClellan is facing a similar denunciation from the White House for his own highly critical book.

"I should have known how personal it would get when they went after me, well, I mean, after what I said about you," Clarke says McClellan told him in the lobby of New York's Essex House.

"I think I can forgive you now," Clarke says he replied.

"I'd like to ask you to," McClellan reportedly answered.

MORE

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4963452&page=1

That was NOT new about Condi and Rove.

Gannon was there to service the top
echelon.

Scott McClellan’s mother….one tough cookie!

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

Very interesting news and photos about uncontacted tribe sighting in the Amazon forest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080529/sc_nm/brazil_tribe_dc

http://www.survival-international.org

One more on McClellan because I really respect what he has done..this is a post on Salon that was just right to me. It is well thought and well worded by a poster called What Constitution?.

"An observation about why McClellan did it, why he did it now, and whether he is a "traitor" as has been reported as being a comment from White House "insiders":

There's a scene at the end of the movie of Tom Clancy's (now there's a lefty lib guy, huh?) "Clear and Present Danger", where Jack Ryan/Harrison Ford visits his dying boss in the hospital and confides his concerns over the illegality of the Colombian drug incursion "black op". Admiral Greer/James Earl Jones responds to Ryan's "I don't think I'll like what I find if I keep digging" comment with "Remember what you did when you came to work for me, Jack? You took an oath, and not to the National Security Advisor, and not to his boss the President. You took an oath to his boss. You took an oath to the People of the United States."

McClellan was certainly a Kool-Aid drinker, he certainly followed his orders and he certainly lied to the American people. And on reflection, maybe somewhere somehow the light went off in his head, and he realized that the country cannot function if it is accepted dogma within the Executive Branch that it is more important to be able to lie to the People in order to expand, consolidate and preserve executive power than it is to adhere to a rule of law, not of men. There he was, enabling direct attacks upon the Constitution of the United States, the public point man of a comprehensive effort to circumvent the very structure of our democracy in order to further the political agenda of the White House.

There are "traitors" here, to be sure. But McClellan isn't one of them, at least not any more. The real traitors are those who would react to McClellan's disclosures (and by the way, I've seen nobody claim he is lying about anything, just that it's "sad"...) by accusing him of being a traitor. Those within the Administration who would accuse McClellan of being a "traitor to the Administration" fail to acknowledge that the standard, the protected entity in "traitor" analysis must be the US Constitution and the People, not Mr. Bush and his hacks. If McClellan's acknowledgements of the factual activity which he witnessed and participated in at the White House falls critically upon White House personnel, that only exposes those persons' traitorous conduct toward the rule of law, the Constitution -- to which at least some of those WH folks presumably have sworn their oath -- and therefore to the People of the United States.

So I don't have much trouble appreciating what McClellan has done by publishing his book (and the reports about a mere five-figure advance simply gut the "for the money" slime), though I would have preferred him having told the truth back when Fitzgerald might have been able to obtain Rove's conviction, too. And I would certainly appreciate it if somebody would ram that "traitor" tripe back down the throats of anybody vile enough to mouth it publicly."

It looks like the timely release of Scott McClellan's book will make a Democratic victory even more likely in November.

GOOD NEWS!!!

Lieberman plays down chances of being on McCain ticket

US Senator Joe Lieberman said Thursday he had no plan to be the running mate for Republican presidential hopeful John McCain as he had already "been there and done that."

Lieberman -- Al Gore's Democratic running mate in 2000 who has since turned independent -- is backing McCain, but said he believed there were stronger candidates for vice president.

"I have been there and done that. I already have that T-shirt and (I'm) proud of it," he said during a visit to Japan when asked about the chances of a McCain-Lieberman ticket.

"I am spending all the time I can outside the Senate to help him (McCain) become our next president. He can find somebody better to be vice president," he told a press conference.

from Yahoo News

Another attempt by the Israeli gov't to keep the Palestinians under its leaden foot.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_palestinians_scholarships