Astroworld

Wow, Sally! That is the most direct, no nonsense,
easily understood, articulate delivery of complex material I have read. I like your reference to the Chiron, Neptune, Mercury, Mars, placements in the JFK inaugural chart. It makes it so much easier to
understand the continuity of today in that framework.

On the home front, I attended the Free Soup Lunch yesterday at the Edge Center, ( through which I will be doing the Youth Civics Group).
LOCALLY GROWN, CAUGHT, FOOD, is supported,sponsored by organizations, & prepared by other groups: Work for Peace, Mano en Mano Sp/Eng Group, Organic Farmers, Food Pantry Workers,Native Mainers & people From Away, and although I didn't see any beanie clad street people such as the Obamas serve in those publicity shots, I suspect that many of us who are activists for community improvement can use the boost of a free meal from time to time, and most important...it is a coming together of community!
We all know what is coming down the pike and are prepared to stand together, share, and help each other.
Truly heartwarming!

SPECTACULAR!

SALLY!! Thank you so much for this. The assessment of Obama is right on from my perspective. I ended up feeling right at home disappointed even though the grown-up in me simply says"and,,,what did you really expect at the beginning of Pluto in Capricorn?".
Thank you so much for the update on your health at this time. I recently went through part of her chemo with my sister and so I am not surprised by your report. I am so delighted to hear that the chemo is working against the tumors.
Thank you so much. With the gratitude I am sending you love.

Incredible insight, Sally!

"We are blindsided from below the horizon and I think that describes our government in today's world. We don't even see what is costing us money and what isn't, who is stealing from us and who isn't, we simply don't see as a collective nation, much less world, at least not this year and not this government."

I too am a part of that "below the horizon" oddity of not seeing clearly. It applies to my lack of understanding about our ongoing blindness to the "other." That the "other" is somehow not human, that the "other" is the enemy. We incarcerate people with lack of means -- and primarily those of color -- so we can hide them away from a society that will not address the social issues created by the ENTITLEMENT of the wealthy.

I do not understand how Congress feels ENTITLED to healthcare on the taxpayer's dime. Nor do I understand how Congress (and all the elite) feel ENTITLED to cushy retirements on the taxpayer's dime.

I do not understand how the top 1% of the world's wealth is greater than that of all the rest, or why they feel ENTITLED to it.

Yes, thank you for this, Sally. Thank YOU for sharing your precious feel-good moments to give voice to what we are feeling.

And if -- in this Universe of abundant energy -- it is possible, let the light sent to you accelerate your healing.

Amen.

Sally, wow. Great analysis. Thank you! Glad to hear there's progress in your health!

Also, about Kennedy's speech and "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". As you so astutely said, that would fall SO FLAT after the rapine and pillage the american taxpayer has experienced over the past 20 years, not to say the last 3 years, which have been over the top.

We've already "given" to our country (our homes, salaries, benefits, pensions, well being, health, free time, vacations, sick time, the law, habeaus corpus and on and on) and have been taken to the cleaners. To be asked to give more by the piggly wigglies, irrespective if it comes from Obama, would be too much to bear and I don't see how anybody could ask the american people to bear much more with a straight face and still maintain any kind of credibility (assuming there's still any credibility left, of course).

qop, pat c, clymela, Karen and Marta thank you for your insights and the richness you bring to this little site. Marta, you are so right, we have given our all to this country and more and more we are getting precious little back. I hear that nothing will be said about SS or Medicare/Medicaid tomorrow. I heard Bernie Sanders say tonight that he was going to see to it that the GOP's ideas for cutting these social programs be brought to the floor for a debate, an honest debate and let them show their faces and vote for those cuts, he doesn't think they would and that they would try to stop even bringing it to the floor. It's a game, the whole thing is a game. I've played games with people who never seemed to get that it's just a Bridge Game or Monopoly or Go Fish and many don't see the game we are living with in our government. I am loving watching them slip slidding away.

"Humanity is at a cross-roads," Klaus Schwab, the Forum's founder, plans to say in his open remarks. "We can either continue to work as lobbyists for our narrowly defined self-interests and keep doing the same old things that got us into the crisis in the first place," or we can "act together as true global leaders, with the long term global public interest in mind and at heart."

will they listen to him?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/davos-diary-heading-to-th_b_813414.html

promising...............

"But there is something different this time around. In the past, social entrepreneurship and efforts at developing civil society were the Davos equivalent of icing on the banker/CEO/head-of-state cake. Now they are an essential ingredient, baked into the cake.

This shift stems from the growing sense, even among the elites, that our current political and economic systems are inadequate to the task of addressing the multiple crises the world is facing. As Schwab puts it, "One thing is certain: we can't keep doing the same old thing in a new era that requires new responses."
read more.............

Good Beautiful Morning beloved AWers. So wonderful to have the energy returning here. Lets try to keep up even when Sally needs to rest!! There is not another site like this that I know of.
ALERT:: if you can tune into Democracy Now! for today's edition. You can reach it via the computer at www.democracynow.org/pages/help/streaming Amy Goodman is broadcasting from Sundance Film Festival and reviewing a film titled Hot Coffee. this incredible interview goes deeply into the "Torte Reform" movement, where it comes from and who really is financing this movement. There is a chilling piece about Karl Rove-I know that he is one of the fascist generals leading the corporate destruction of our world- I feel like Amy stuck my finger in the socket-whee!! my hair is really on fire today.

Well, in the interest of bipartisanship, the Democrats might try doing more of this kind of thing.

http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/2011_0118.Cummings_to_Issa.responsible_oversight.pdf

Marta.....your words are worth repeating. Wonderful

"We've already "given" to our country (our homes, salaries, benefits, pensions, well being, health, free time, vacations, sick time, the law, habeaus corpus and on and on) and have been taken to the cleaners. To be asked to give more by the piggly wigglies, irrespective if it comes from Obama, would be too much to bear and I don't see how anybody could ask the american people to bear much more with a straight face and still maintain any kind of credibility (assuming there's still any credibility left, of course)."

And, qop....in keeping with the theme of not seeing clearly.....I've often puzzled over how accumulating so much power (to the exclusion of all else) will benefit anyone in the long run. The pampered must eat. They must have their autos/boats/planes maintained. They must have builders. They rely on all sorts of skilled workers to keep their asses pampered. And, they rely on all of the consumers to consume. If there is no money, well, how DOES that benefit them? The incredible short-sighted nature of power acquisition is beginning to be questioned? What's taken so long?!

Pat C. It's SO GREAT to see you posting here! I believe Dennis Kucinich has taken after Issa as well. Issa is another with unbridled appetites for power. In this case I believe he may end up eating crow. I sure hope so.

Will definitely get the movie Hot Coffee when it is available. Thank YOU for the heads up, Clymela.

Karen, did you read that Huff Po article thru about Davos? It sounds as if some of them are beginning to get a clue re: "They rely on all sorts of skilled workers to keep their asses pampered. And, they rely on all of the consumers to consume.
I plan to follow that meeting online, this year.
It is wonderful to see all of you gathered here.....timely......... ["We all know what is coming down the pike and are prepared to stand together, share, and help each other."]
PatC I hope now that you've managed to sign in, you will keep posting the articles you are so good at finding.
I will be watching the SOTU tonight, and comment on................
Sally, I am grateful that your test results were so positive.........sending white light against those awful symptoms...........
Morgana, I hope you are feeling well enough to comment soon. White light your way too.
Love you all!

Karen-regarding the movie "Hot Coffee" I was unclear: although the movie sounds interesting and I will seek it out what has me so excited is the Democracy Now! program today. You can access the program all the segments by going to www.democracynow.org ( I can never seem to transfer the actual link! She hangs her head in embarrassment). The show today is about the trouble developing for us through tort reform or as Nadar said "tort deform". The program really stirred up some revolutionary spirit in this conscious being!

And I am appalled. There is a firestorm on my facebook wall tonight as the corporate sponsored new neanderthal governor, Paul Le Plague reveals his intentions to turn back the environmental clock 125 years. ( at their bidding)
Almost ALL our revenue makers are based on strong protective environmental laws! Healthy fish, unpolluted natural environment………..
He ACTUALLY intends to repeal the law that keeps toxic materials out of kids products.
U N B E L I E V A B L E !

Just caught Howard Dean on ODonnell's show he seemed impressed with Obama SOTU speech, hard copy.

Glad to see PatC back, maybe Shylurker will come out again too, miss her. No sign of JoannaOregon hope she is doing ok.

I read that KO is blogging SOTU from Twitter so gotta load that up on another tab.

I have popcorn and pizza and antibiotics.

WHat? We have germs?

Boner has a jaw breaker?

Looks like David Shuster is also blogging SOTU from Twitter.

Any one going to tune into CNN and Michelle Bachmann's Tea Bagger Response? I don't think I am well enough to listen to her. Such a complete nimcompoop.

I'm on Live video cspan......... don't know if I can get CNN ON LINE?

Oh how interesting he started speaking at 9:11 pm est.

mmmmmmmmm!

Hello out there!! I have never gotten together via blog-I am not the most social person in the world but the idea of getting together with AWers just really excited me.
Morgana-Bachmann's words on how the Founding Fathers got rid of slavery just staggered me. I believe that this is intentional because most of those following the Tea Party leaders really do not know history and they will believe what their leaders tell them. I only know a handful of these folk but I have observed that they have turned to the Tea Party out of pain and confusion-they have done the "right thing", worked and never asked anything from anyone and here they are sinking. From discussions I have hadI think that these folk have no idea of their history (as I said)AND they believe that they will one day be wealthy tycoons. I know this sounds nuts but this is what i saw up close and personal.

woohoo take the oil mans money away for clean energy.

Challenging. There's the Kennedy echo.

Does anyone know what he means by saying that we are going to stop giving oil companies the billions of tax dollars and instead keep the money for investing in research and education.
Boehner looks like he may fall asleep.

AT least he's not crying!

On top of the obscene profits big oil makes the gov't gives them huge subsidies, billions I suspect. Course all those oily congress critters are surely unhappy about that!

Sorry, to come to this late I had a couple of errands to run, but I just wanted to remind everyone to find someone to sit next to that you neither like or trust and then we will be ready. I have my daughter's cat.

At first I thought they were cardboard figures, but then some of them applauded, I guess they could be automated but I am taking a leap of faith and considering that they are alive and real. Uh oh, here comes the sale for private school. Don't listen for the word "privatize" listen for the words " educational choices," or something like that.

MMFlint Michael Moore
Did he just say cut the oil co subsidies? Whoa.

OH yeh become a teacher and live a life of poverty.

MMFlint Michael Moore
Yes, become a teacher! Then wait for the documentary to trash teachers for being the problem!

ugh-I hate the "Race To The Top" talk and all the anti-union, anti-public education that goes with it. BUT!!! I love the encouragement to become a teacher because as you know that is what Steve is doing. We are counting on the deal of forgiving the student loans for five years of teaching in the "undesirable" schools in special ed-that is exactly the type of work that Steve wants and did before he heard about the loan forgiveness program.

I think that Obama looks and sounds good but the lawmakers seem VERY restrained. Boehner and the Republicans are some rude, mean people.

Morgana I may listen into creepy girl-just to entertain myself something like when my friend Marilyn and I would grab the electric fence just to see if we could let go.

Wow, taking on immigration reform, I sure didn't expect that to come up. Do you think that means Arizona too?

Let's re-build our in-frastructure, wow, what a concept. But wait a minute, the GOP says there is no money for that unless we take money away from the "gangs of NY" running the US and we cannot do that.

I am sorry, we all know what lobbyests have done to this country and we know it needs to change so get rid of them, period.

Bohner didn't look too happy about the comment to repeal the oil company subsidies and give them to "clean energy".

uh, oh, code words for privatizing education. That's big business (a new one).

did he really say lower corporate tax rates?

Wow cutting military spending? Pick me up off the floor.

$10,000 tax credit for college education. Good, if you have income. Worthless if you don't. About 1/4 of what it costs to get an undergrad degree at many colleges.

huh? what about all those military bases?
and the over 50% of patients that got staph inthe hospital have no recourse.

weak!

uuuh, oh, code words for rebuilding our infrastructure with taxpayer dollars then privatizing them. No, no, no.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for rebuilding our infrastructure.

lower corporate tax rate. Yikes. More taxes for us.

Bull. No trade agreements protect american workers.

Vetoing ear marks made the cranky old man yelling at clouds happy..(McCain)

Oh, great. Food. You mean S.510 that protects Monsanto and big agribusiness and guts the organic farmers? Those kinds of rules?

I can't believe it. Social security is on the block.

and so is medicare and medicaid.

Obiesence to the Military complex..........!

Simplify the individual tax code ... there go the deductions. Corporations get to write everything off. Individuals will pay full fare with no deductions. Hence higher taxes. Less income.

I'd like to see a standing salute to the old ladies living on $500 SS a month out in the sticks!

try me France here I come!

That's funny. The federal government is going to off load real estate just when it's in the tank, so the vultures will come flying in to get it at rock bottom, and compete with private property at the same time and lower prices even more.

The rule of unintended consequences.

Jeez qop, $500 a month. Is that possible?

Oh yes.Our Democratic chair of Milbridge died in March. Governor Baldacci came out and delivered the eulogy at his funeral ( well done)
His widow lives on about that amount. Before that they were able to take bus tours to Foxwoods or a yearly cruise. SHe CAN"T have his larger income because years ago she had some job with a pension of $54.00 a month.THAT'S what she is stuck with!

And no it is not possible to live on that even out here! Her kids help out!

KeithOlbermann Keith Olbermann
Enthusiastic, well-delivered speech w/more inspiration than policy + much of policy clanged to the floor like a knocked-over soda can #sotu

ANd in CNN world.......Nancy Pelosi is still sitting behind the PRESIDENT???????????
The text of the speech seems to be current ..or was that last years?

Tonight, protesters have surrounded the parliament building in downtown Cairo. There have been two deaths of protestors in Suez; one policeman has died in Cairo, hit by a rock. The protestors in Tahrir Square have been tear-gassed, and Twitter has been blocked within the borders of Egypt.

But this morning, as the sun burned a smoky haze off the face of this city, the streets were open and clear as I rode downtown at 8 a.m.

There had been tweets that protests would be staged in Tahrir Square and in the downtown neighborhood of Mohandeseen. These tweets were received by Egyptian authorities monitoring the hashtag #jan25, and they deployed a massive security presence to deter any demonstrations. Officers stood in groups of 6 to 8, on nearly every street corner. They blockaded the entrance to the parliament building. The teams stood quietly with folded arms watching the empty streets as the sun rose over the Nile.

Read more: http://www.theawl.com/2011/01/tonight-in-cairo-the-parl...

Doesn't Ryan look like a youg Ron Reagan?
Look at that hair!

Oh no kidding, Paul Ryan is talking to people like they are 3rd graders.

lol he's even quoting Raygun...oh geeze.

Limited gov & enterprise has made us what we are today...................Not last century
Stunning.............sorry I am cynical tonight.......when is that uranus pluto square?
O good cspan will be showing Bachman!

no problem QOP we are all cynical tonight.

Yeh, I voted for JFK...this was no JFK speech!

Cspan interviewing some of the new repubs.............Ho hum,

I did see qop, the attempt to "invoke" the image of JFK with likening energy inovation to the space innovation of the 60's encouraged by Kennedy. I am sure that connection fell flat with those of us who remember and those who don't. The speech, to me, was a great deal like last years and I thought it was an OK speech but you know "actions speak louder" Obama cannot do all of this and these speeches are a call to action and help from his party and his base because he cannot get all this done by himself, and he does not deserve all the blame for what does not get done, but I still want to see if he says "tax the richest" but gives them a bonus.

OMG I just watched three minutes of Michelle Bachman, the woman needs to get back on her meds.

I just saw Rep. Anthony Wiener (or Weiner) Dem. from NY and he panned the GOP response given by Rep. Ryan but when asked about Michelle Bachman's response, he said "Oh wow, she is clearly not in touch with the mother ship." I thought I would fall off my chair laughing, that's a perfect way to describe her or Sarah Palin.

Sally, You captured it so perfectly in your article, we really didn't need to hear the speech!
But it was nice to gather together, anyway.
I finally caught up with Bachman this am, cspan promised but put on reruns of the SOTU.
Unfortunately she sounded much too reasonable!,
stating misinformation so "competently" like my tea bagger neighbor across the stream.
If you don't know anything, you would believe everything she said!
At least our teabaggy Gov rants & spits, giving a clue there is something wrong with him.
It all goes back to early childhood education......... when they talk about improving our education system, it is all about math science & technology "to be competetive with the rest of the world". Wrong.......the poor shunned stepchild, Liberal Arts, needs equal emphasis, to create "whole-istic" people, not compartmentalized robots!
I used to know most Congressional members by sight & VOICE recognition. I don't know who most of these people are, and don't WANT to know them!
No, I don't blame Obama..........30 years of extreme destruction and he is supposed to correct it in 2?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcq3Wr4Thjw&feature=player_embedded

Statement on the You tube above.

"it's a common misconception but if you listen to 5:32 this concern is addressed. Communism still has appointed leaders, human labour, police, prisons, armies, banks, money, social stratification and did not eliminate scarcity. The Venus Project does not include any of this. Communism also did not have a solution to provide abundance. i suggest you take a look at" zeitgeistpov.blogspot.com/2010­­/12/no-this-is-not-socialism.­h­tml

Robert SHeer's opinion. WOuld love to see him debate Bachman!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/hogwash-mr-president_b_814104.html
What nonsense to insist that low public school test scores hobbled our economy when it was the highest-achieving graduates of our elite colleges who designed and sold the financial gimmicks that created this crisis. Indeed, some of the folks who once designed the phony mathematical formulas underwriting subprime mortgage-based derivatives won Nobel prizes for their effort. A pioneer in the securitization of mortgage debt, as well as exporting jobs abroad, was one Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of GE, whom Obama recently appointed to head his new job creation panel.

Last night was really fun-I had never been on the comnputer when I knew that friends were also and that they were watching the same thing thinking about the same things. Thank you so much Sally for making this possible and thank you everyone for "coming over". Great night.
Obama is definitely thin and gray.
I laughed out loud over the Weiner quote about Bachmann. What makes that even funnier are the folks who refuse to go against her. And yes QOP it is the lack of Liberal Arts particularly that allows people to fall for her crap.
Last night I was wondering if forces (unknown to us)who want to drown the Tea Party are supporting this crazy woman. I mean she is nuts and ignorant and even when Scalia goes to tutor her she still can't figure it out.
Love to you all. Thanks for a wonderful sparkling evening.

Here's that education big business ...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/why-avoiding-traditional-path-university-education-will-help-yes-help-your-children-survive-

I agree qop, 30 years of destruction is absolutely correct and no one, not even an army of someone's could help in two years.

Marta, that is an excellent article regarding the Bank of England, and I believe it to be true. If we think what is happening in Egypt and Europe won't happen here, we are sadly mistaken. The article said three years and I would say that's about right. I find it interesting that suddenly the DOW is over 12,000. Oh please, that is the result of an influx of the money we are making, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. 12,000 on Wall Street is like ten bucks for a loaf of bread.

Sally, thank you and agreed, TSHTF (the * hits the fan), coming to a theater near us, probably some time in the next 3 years. Out of destruction comes creation. It's not necessarily a bad thing, though it will be most uncomfortable to experience for all of us.

Holy *hit! You've all been goin' to town! Fun, witty posts all!

Marta, the zerohedge piece was outstanding. However, I have one critical question, and some observations. Why would gold and silver continue to form the basis for any fiat currency? Perhaps, the very notion of gold/silver/precious metals as fiat currency is flawed in and of itself. But that begs a further question..........what would the basis be?

The author is eloquent about our haggard, and absurd educational system, and how it was rigged from by elite society shapers. I would like to add, however, that know-how skills, and working with your hands is sadly and sorely ridiculed, and dismissed. Why? If one were to have life skills, it would be those that allowed you to actually produce something tangible! What student wants to go to college to learn auto mechanics, or furniture building, etc.? Rather, we DO mold students to perform meaningless and mindless tasks that require little creative, or orginal thinking.

As a result of the above, we have a multitude of life-skill deficit humans; children disconnected from how their food is produced, for example.

Yes, I can see riots coming. We've been fed pablum and when it gets taken away, the anger will be explosive. That anger will be a combination of knowing you've been duped, and having nothing to fall back on.

Karen, nobody knows how "currency" is going to fall out. Gold is in the mix because it is "tangible" and has been a storage of wealth for thousands of years. Fiat is paper. Worthless in and of itself, aside from it's potential utility at quiet moments in the can. Nice pictures, something to read, and then dispose of.

As far as our educational system. It's a total joke and another rape and pillage scheme. The really good professors have all been run off campuses over the past 20 years. Kids are being fed pablum, and their parents (the ones who can afford it) paying through the nose in college costs. If you don't graduate from a top college with a 3.8 or better, with a masters degree, phd, law degree etc. and have EXCELLENT connections, you ain't going nowhere.

There was a big article I read a few weeks ago about how law students are coming out with their degrees with top grades and no job prospects (many waiting tables, etc.) with over $100,000 of non-dischargable debt that will enslave them for the rest of their lives and that they have NO hope of most likely ever repaying.

The name of the game by big business nowadays is not to sell you a product once. No, they want a lifetime commitment from you. Big pharma says your blood pressures too high, take these FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, oh, how 'bout that cholesterol, TAKE THESE. Well education loans are the same thing. Take these loans, get educated and then pay, pay, pay for the rest of your life.

Mortgages used to be paid off. The earlier, the better. Now most people pay 4-5 times the value of their house in interest costs and keep on moving so they never save or payoff their houses. For that you might as well rent, it's less expensive and you're not stuck paying for fixing up the place, except for the fact that it's extremely difficult to rent a house (or used to be, maybe with the RE crisis that's changing) in a good school district, hence many people bought homes so they could have "free schooling" paid through their property taxes. Now that the public educational system has been gutted, they don't even get that in many places.

Anyway,..... when we start focusing on what's best for our communities, our kids, our families, our towns and cities, maybe some of this stuff will change. But as long as our elections are bought and sold by who has the most money, I wouldn't count on the rapine and pillaging to change.

"Thank you so much Sally for making this possible and thank you everyone for "coming over". Great night." Clymela............
I didn't know you had not live blogged here before, gee, we did the Dem convention in Denver in 08, as well as the SOTUs,
( & a couple of horse races LOL!)

Marta I enjoyed your thoughtful comments, I hope you will keep an making them here.

Here is the NYT editorial assessment of the speech.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/opinion/27thu4.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

Yesterday, I responded to an e-mail request for petition/phone calls re: environmental issues by I SKY with an outline of the energy & Envio ronment chapter in the "Patriot's Toolbox" ( book sent me as a candidate)
& suggestion that they go after it at it's source ( Heartland Institute), as well as get public support. I had not really read any of the book until yesterday.....................Later today I will post an outline of the material.....
It is jaw dropping, hurling, lying OUTRAGEOUS!
That they even sent it to a DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, is frightening to me, & they offered 100 copies FREE so I can spread the R W GOSPEL/TALKING POINTS.
Perhaps I should take up their kind offer & get the 100 copies.....send one to each of you, and as for the rest, it is still Jan. still 20o outside..........lot of mileage for the woodstove yet this winter!

QOP- what is this book? The Patriot's handbook? I am planning on actually reading Beck and Palin so that i can really understand what is inspiring otherwise reasonable people to consider them "leaders". Sarah Palin is really coming across as a mean girl not an international leader.

Ho, ho,ho, CLymela..........
This is a special book, published By the Heartland Institute ( R W think tank in CHicago, began in 1984, as a state based FREE MARKET THINK TANK, evolved into a National organization in 1993,......It's trajectory mirrors our ( the people's) downward track!).
As stated on the back cover of the book {& I wish I could show the image here; adorable faux hinges to make it look like an actual tool box instead of a book. I will post it on my facebook wall later today.)

part of the preface: This book is offered as a guide to public policy for PATRIOT-ACTIVISTS IN THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT AS WELL AS FOR CANDIDATES FOR PUBLIC OFFICE, INCUMBANT OFFICE HOLDERS, CIVIC AND BUSINESS LEADERS, AND JOURNALISTS ASSIGNED TO COVER THE MOVEMENT.
8 chapters providing a comprehensive collection of practical, EVIDENCE-BASED, principles in the major fields of legislation!
I suppose that otherwise reasonable people might be influenced to this way of thinking, & therefore view such as palin as a leader.

Contents.....
Close failing schools and open them as voucher schools.
Nuclear Power is part of the solution.
Air pollution is no longer a public health problem.
Global Warming is NOT a crisis.
Energy Independence is an Illusion.

Although I scanned the BACK COVER A WHILE AGO........I had only made Assumptions about the contents. Now I am Actually reading it it is far worse than I ever imagined.
It is a toolbox alright..........One for US to learn from! to battle it.

Qop, thanks for your kind comment (and Sally and Karen as well).

Patriot handbook, my foot! Thanks for sharing. Will be on the lookout for it.

thanks qop, that's a book to be mindful of but I would be careful of reading it if you have a blood pressure problem. Clymela, you are not going to love it at all. Between Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman, the newly elected tea partiers to the House of Rep. and the tea partiers dressing up like patriots they are not it shouldn't be too long before they really begin falling. I see that Sharon Angle in Nevada is thinking of running for President.

Clymela, when you read Palin and Beck let us know what you think because I cannot do it. I have read Beck a few years ago, his Christmas Sweater book is good but it's fiction, I think he should stick to that.

I heard where they think Mubarak has left Egypt with his family. The protesters seem to be gaining steam and not letting up in their quest to get Mubarak out of there. Depending on who takes over it could settle or unsettle the middle East. People need jobs, food, safety and Egypt doesn't have it at all right now and Egypt isn't the only one on the edge.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350660/Egypt-protests-Police-sprayed-water-cannon-Cairo-streets.html
It is believed that the Egyptian president's son, who is considered as his successor, has fled to Britain along with his family.

The plane with Gamal Mubarak, his wife and daughter on board left for London yesterday from an airport in western Cairo, the U.S. based Arabic website Akhbar al-Arab said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350660/Egypt-protests-Police-sprayed-water-cannon-Cairo-streets.html#ixzz1CG2XQsLi

http://www.livestream.com/democracynow/video?clipId=pla_17899535-e380-4184-94f5-f0e76cc9369d&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

This one works better!

http://www.democracynow.org/

Well, we are swirling around in the bowl..........

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22449.cfm

The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?

* By Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, Jan 27, 2011
Straight to the Source
"The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well. True coexistence is a must." - Whole Foods Market, Jan. 21, 2011

Qop, about Monsanto (who I abhore with all my heart). I'm momentarily crushed. Time to get everybody gardening in their back yard. Screw the supermarkets. Let's go around them.

I musta been feeling this ... made bread and cookies today, and all I had to do was turn the oven on and minor prep. Why? Well, the cookie dough I make extra large, and freeze it in logs so when I want fresh cookies, I just pull it out of the freezer and voila, fresh delicious cookies. The bread I make using a sourdough starter that I keep in my fridge. I make an extra large batch, make half and put the other half in the fridge. When I need bread I take it out, let it warm up, give it a shake or two, let it rise again, then shape, banneton, then oven. NO SWEAT.

Oh, and I stopped by my fresh fish place today to buy some fish and begged for some fish heads for my tomatoes which are getting transplanted sooner rather than later. I stick the fish heads in the hole, add an aspirin, a calcium pill or two, some eggshells, some compost. And you have no idea how many tomatoes I had last year! The other day I made pasta with my fresh tomato sauce from last years produce. Oh, and my freezer has tomatoes from last year that I can cook with too. I was feeling a bit lazy. Now I feel very ENERGIZED.

There's more ways than one to skin a cat, and if the supermarkets don't care about what we think. They are in for a rude awakening.

Qop, thanks for posting that!!!!

Marta, What a great idea.
Just the other day I bought store brand refrigerated cookie dough, reluctantly.
I like to have a few cookies with my noon coffee.........and too busy to bake now. Also getting food from the food pantry has left me with an overstock of peanut butter, freezer cookies here I come!
I havn't had the indoor ( or out for that matter)gardening success I have always enjoyed.
I wonder if that is the result of my polluted well since summer 09? I have a Brita filter on the tap for me & the cats,.........I will try watering the indoor pots with it too....to see what happens.
I am lucky, that our little region, 5 little villages of maybe 5,000 people has 5 local organic farms. The Sunday Free lunch uses ONLY their products. They are all so small, they have avoided the official loopholes of being labeled ORGANIC, but we KNOW them & that they are, & by flying under the radar; may avoid some of the attempts to regulate, stifle, what they are doing.

The other book these "*&%)@'s" sent me is The Obama Care DIsaster by peter ferrera.
He is GENERAL COUNCIL of the American Civil Rights Union,Dir. of entitlement & budget policy Institute for Policy Innovation, (are these appointed by Obama?) associated with Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation Nat. Center for Policy Analysis, Family Research Council,US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
At least unlike the Patriots Toolbox, he has provided footnotes for reference to his source.
I think we really need to shine the spotlight on these organizations. The public who can hardly name the Att. Gen or Sec of State, needs to hear that they are forming our destiny!

I just did a quick reread of Joke on the People. Although it is always mesmerizing listening to Obama speak, the import of Sally's words were never truer. There was no breakthrough in our current pandering to corporate interests. Sure enough, I log in to see Qop's posts dealing with this very thing.

Since our inception, wealth has attempted to twist and shape the government, bend it to their own purposes. (There is no country I can think of hasn't in the past and isn't now experiencing the same kind of manipulative force.) Now, however, the game is accelerating primarily because wealth has made incredible strides (through the banking systems and trade laws) and are now poised to grab the brass ring.

If Sally, and other astrologers are right -- and I feel they are -- this plan will backfire, literally blow up. If ancient history provides any roadmap, then, it too points to a massive shift.

Here's a question I'd like to pose to the world at large. Though each living entity on the Earth is composed of Earth's elements, are her occupants subordinate? Partners? Does the Earth need us? Or do we need the Earth?

You all know what I would answer. We need the Earth. She would be just fine without us.

Qop, get a rain barrel or two. That's what we're doing here in Dade county. The extension office (I'm a master gardener) gives talks and then sells them for a fraction of what they cost on the open market. Super easy to install and when you want to water your plants, you'll have some nice fresh water for them. Check with your county extension office. They may have them too as it's a national effort.

Also, if your dirt isn't any good you can build up with rocks, stones, 4x4's and make raised beds. To create your new (and wonderful) dirt, google creating lasagna beds. A hint: in the fall, spread a layer of newspaper, then leaves or organic stuff, green stuff, newspaper, any fresh stuff and you keep layering until the bed is full. Leave it be and let the weather do it's work and compost it all. In the spring you'll have wonderful dirt with all the nice earthworms all ready to plant.

Here's a link for the instructions ...

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=178269

Karen, I've always thought we were parasites on Mother Earth. Disrespectful parasites, at that.

Drat. That link is for the market ticker (totally different subject).... hang on, let me see if I can get a good link for you...

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/lasagnagarden.htm

Here ya go ... lasagna gardening also known as the no till method.

Qop, the cookies I made were with peanut butter and oatmeal. Yummy. Kept in the freezer wrapped with no problem. After I make them I store them in bell jars (because of the seal on the tops). Keeps them nice and fresh and I only make enough for a week or two and then use the freezer dough to make more when I run out. Works like a charm. I can't eat the store ones anymore. They're disgusting. You eat five or six and are never satisfied (that's the plan, right?). I have 1 of mine and am happy as a clam. No wonder people gain so much weight. It's all frankenfood.

I call it dog food for humans.

OF COURSE! KAren,
We need Earth more than she needs us!
Your post clicked a quick summary of my life into
place, in one of those lightening flashes.........
I came into this life with silver energy company stocks in my mouth, placed there by a conservative self made man, Grandfather.
As a kid & Anglophile, I would just wonder how that early English Royalty could put up with
being dressed and fussed over, not having to lift a finger, made me squirm with impatience
( And WHERE ARE THEY TODAY? I COULD USE SEVERAL OF THEM FUSSING OVER ME & MY ENVIRONMENT NOW!)
OH WELL........anyway, my soul journey has been a downward economic spiral, with an upward spiritual spiral.....: In the middle; in that most superficial of all fields; Home Decor, I earned the name "Nature Girl" by the elaborately coiffed decorators, and earned their respect for the gift I gave...........
And finally wound up in a place poor in material goods but rich in communion with Mother Nature.......and contemplation of how I can spread that richness.
With the National & International coverage & enthusiastic feed back, I am getting via facebook...............I am beginning to understand how to go about it!
Thanks fo being a catalyst today!

QOP and Marta-you have hit on the subject that centers all my activities and philosophy-getting and supplying real food and avoiding all frankenfood. I spend a lot of time with food to be sure that not only do I have a life-giving/supporting diet but I do it for my family.
One thing that I observed in Tennessee and years earlier in Oklahoma-America is eating from boxes- most of the food is factory produced and sold in boxes-I wonder that the preacher so intent on "saving" people haven't awakened to this issue-sarcasm intended there.

Paul Ryan is a hypocrite. In his State of the Union rebuttal he states that Social Security brings lives of dependency. Guess what? When his father died at 55 leaving him and several other siblings and his mother without any income.... guess who paid them a benefit (we the taxpayers did collectively) which he saved and used to fund his college. SOCIAL SECURITY.

He's a great devotee of Ayn Rand who excoriated any kind of welfare programs. Guess what she was signed up for (and her husband). SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE.

http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/27/tea-party-patron-saint-ayn-rand-applied-for-social-security-medicare-benefits/

My 15 year old Grandaughter just came on facebook saying " Does anyone else see what is happening in Egypt?........Holy shiiiiiiiit !
I forgive her language for noticing world affairs....... chip off!
And Raphael has given me permission to post his EXCELLENT article on the chart of Egypt!

http://raphael-astroblog.blogspot.com/

Marta, the problem with Monsanto is the seeds being blown by the wind, carried by birds etc. their seeds will cover the earth and there will not be any possibility for organic without a greenhouse, we can no longer control the earth unless we get them out of there. I don't think non-farmers or city minded dwellers understand this at all or the dangers of Monsanto, like everything else they only see the money not the damage.

As far as Egypt is concerned Saturn is sitting on their Uranus as a square, in fact it went stationary retrograde on their Uranus. Iceland is arresting bankers, there is a call for demostrations in Saudi Arabia, England has been seeing unrest and civil disobediance, Jordon is seeing demostrations as is Yemen. The Pluto, Jupiter, Uranus t-square is heating up plus we have Obama's committee saying our bankers committed fraud. Oh the world is going to heat up in every nook and cranie. Do you remember that this whole fall started with Iceland three and a half years ago. I heard a journalist say tonight that ten fifteen years ago everyone was seemingly poor in Egypt and they didn't mind so much because most were in the same boat, but now there are mega-mansions and fancy cars and they can't get jobs or food and are making 26 dollars a month, they cannot take care of themselves and they are mad because the difference between rich and poor is excessive. Sound familiar. The actions of so-called leaders are going to be called into account no matter how long it takes, the piper will be called and it won't be easy on anyone.

Just jaw dropping how the unrest in the ME is like a Santana driven wildfire. The battle lines are drawn on financial inequity with hard working educated people unable to provide food and shelter. Yes Sally it sounds all too familiar. Do our leaders think they have escaped the problem brewing in America? The cruel cold hand of Gov. Jan Brewer crushes non-whites, whilst Pennsylvania implements segregation. Isn't Monsanto a world-wide corporation so even if they were roadblocked here they could continue to pollute agriculture from say..oh Uganda which actively kills gays and witches. Meanwhile our dear friends on the East Coast are having a horrendous winter...oh what, wait..climate change..nah too cold. Australia is still experiencing flooding.
Otherwise, my husband and I are both on the other side of the pneumonia's and we've had sunshine recently so I've been snagging some vitamin D rays.
One alarmist tonight was saying that this unrest is spreading, a destabilization of the entire ME really. I imagine western governments might start getting the jitters, you know how mania's go. Wonder if we're starting a mini ice age, the currents are certainly screwed up enough at this point.

Sally, how true. Monsanto is the epitome of evil. I don't know how anybody who works there sleeps at night. They probably drink their own koolaid to justify what they do.

I gardened all day yesterday. What relaxation. Slept like a baby. All organic, of course. You should see the arugula that I let bolt last year. Growing like mad. I eat it straight out the bed when I'm out there. Yummy! Tomatoes too. All heirloom. They seed themselves. That's the miracle of the mother. She gives unrestainedly and with abundance. A bee came to visit my borage (what a beautiful plant!). They know my garden is safe. Every year they come visit.

Morgana, I'm glad to hear you and your husband are recuperating and the sun came out for a while. Try taking some apple cider vinegar with honey to speed up the recuperation process ... http://www.earthclinic.com/CURES/pneumonia.html

Can't hurt, at least.

They Are all ONE!
live streaming from Al Jazeera!

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

thanks for the link qop, i could only watch a couple of minutes i have readings in a few minutes but i enjoyed the link. Looks like they are heating up again, haven't heard anything of minimum on Jordan and Yemen. I do not see how Mubarak can last under these circumstances. I wonder if the GOP is paying attention, no one wants to be under the same rule forever and that's what they want

Just quickly, the Muslim Brotherhood is waiting in the wings to take over and have been big movers of this revolution. Not good, another group of idealogy. Read third paragraph down

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4715000

Sally-thank you so much for taking the Monsanto issue out to the point where the real evil is revealed by showing how nature works and why we are in danger. I "knew" this but with my little homebody mind I focus on taking care of "kith and kin".
Morgana thank you for pointing out that what is going on in Egypt will soon be going on here. "Highly educated people cannot make enough money to take care of their families."Yep!! that is what is going on.
Marta-I love the talk about Monsanto and the damage being done and our alternative-growing our own and cooking our own. I know that this is subjective and doesnt answer the needs of the collective but...we can make a huge difference to ourslves,family and friends. This is what has made me so excited by the neighborhood we moved to a few years back.

Marta thanks for the link. When I was a kid my mom used to give me apple cider vinegar and honey in water to drink every day. She also used to have a book of old Vermont Folk Remedies or something like that, I'd love to find that book again! I had completely forgotten the old cure.

Morgana, An old Vermont Woman, friend & mentor for many years, taught me that remedy, I think it was word of mouth lore..........
Just fascinating!
Ceres is running conjunct the sun for several days, & here we are talking about the food supply. Over on Starlight, the talk is nutrition, oil for health & cooking.........
Now back to the war.....
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22993
"Dictators" do not dictate, they obey orders. This is true in Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.

Dictators are invariably political puppets. Dictators do not decide.

President Hosni Mubarak was a faithful servant of Western economic interests and so was Ben Ali.

Clymela, if enough people start planting, baking, cooking, etc. then all of a sudden it becomes the collective. Screw the supermarkets if they don't want to listen to their customers.

I have learned so much in the past 5 years about "making/growing my own stuff" that I'm sometimes amazed at how far I've come (I don't say this to pat myself on the head, it's just that I kept on skipping from one project to another, i.e. learn how to make yogurt, yogurt cheese, plant veggie garden, take master gardener course, learn how to make bread, hot water canning, etc) that I now have amassed quite a little "body of knowledge".

Once you know how to do stuff, then you start getting smarter at how you do it so it's less time consuming, like my freezing cookie dough, for example. I guess the point I'm trying to make is change is incremental, until it's not, then it speeds up. And that's where the supermarkets are going to be left behind. If they don't put their good name on their food and it's all crap, people will go around them. I think that's the real reason S.510 was passed. I think the food processors and handlers saw that people were finding a way around them and put in legislation that they hope will kill the organic producers and backyard veggie gardeners. Maybe S.510 is the reason that the large supermarkets gave up on the organics and have decided to co-exist. I can tell you one thing though, there's absolutely NO REASON to pay Whole Food prices if you have no protection from bad food or frankenfoods/GMO contaminated stuff, etc.

Morgana, I drink a glass of apple cider vinegar in water every single day. It's my holistic vitamin! It also is a great way to keep your weight down.

Marta I missed your comments @ 2:25 & 2:33, must have been grabbing links for my own comment.
I am a master gardener too, ( tho I have never had the time to do the volunteer work necessary to earn the formal title/certificate) That summer my son was injured and came up to live.....& you are all familiar with the way I have used my time since. It was that following summer '05, that the sewer builder came into the yard with his heavy equipment, for a week. Everytime I went up to Bangor to see Eric in the hospital ( ICU) he would come in & wreak destruction to my well established garden! The several days friends covered for me & I stayed home the guy never showed up!
One day he buried the just ripening strawberries under 4' of earth. ( my first crop!) I dug them out tenderly with my bare hands in the dusk, and replanted them.......but ONLY 2 plants survived...now 5 years later, the patch has spread to about 4' in diameter, & I should get a good crop this spring ( if we have a spring this year?)
Problem is I have limited access to the raw materials for compost except for seaweed. Beyond the willow tree & all those choke cherry trees all the trees on the property are conifers. I have been going next door & taking several wheel barrows of maple leaves from my neighbor's drivway for which she is grateful. ANd a horse farm 15 miles away dumps their barn contents on the woodlot across the street, so sloooooowly I am building it back up. The woman who runs the food pantry was a MG classmate of mine, I will ask her @ the free lunch today if the Xtension is giving away rainbarrels.
AS for wind blown/ bird scattered seed......... we HAVE greenhouses, (to extend the growing season in these temps.) all our commercially sold winter tomatos, are grown locally year round. b. MOFGA; Maine Organic Farmers & Gardners Association has a BIG clout & influence on Farming here, with the big fair in September.
c. big farms are out due to the terrain, so GM seeds are outlawed in a lot of places. Since we conjoin with NH VT & NB who view GM the same way we are rather sheltered from the problem. AS long as we can remain insular ( a problem with our neanderthal in charge.) we should be OK.

OT: I decided to overturn my keyboard to shake out the toast crumbs...........
and got a free blogspot for QOP from typepad...
?????????
also linked with psharpart's blog.
scary...........
they've got my number! LOL! want me to link to facebook too.

Seaweed is an excellent source of compost and great for the garden!

http://ventnorpermaculture.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/using-seaweed-in-the-garden/

Also, you can go to your local Starbucks and ask if they can give you the used coffee grounds. Really great to add to the compost bin, dirt, etc. Free is good!

Our nearest Starbucks is in Bangor 65 miles away..no kidding, it is hard to describe how it is up here.
My capricorn farmer friend has dibs on any old food; Ie the market & food pantry, for her pigs & cows. The 4 places in town that serve coffee, probably don't have much volume in leftover grounds,........ the Bohemian Moma's bakery left because she couldn't make a profit, the
restaurant with the salad bar closed down for lack of business back in 07.............
Years ago in NJ I painted a magnificent pig in a bib, on the side of a pig farmer's garbage truck.
He went around to all the restaurants with salad bars & collected food for his pigs......
I'm pretty sure he's gone now.the expanding developments out from Philly were NOT going to allow a "smelly pig farm" any where near!.

We're still talking Ceres!

Oh look at that.I've lost my QOP IDENTITY!
PART OF THE SHIFT?

ok, no Starbucks. Well, the coffee places will produce a surprising amount of coffee grounds, though no where near what a Starbucks produces of course. Still, coffee served all day, 7 days a week .... even if it's not enough for your whole garden, you'd still get a pretty impressive amount to spread around or just add to the compost bin.

How many people live in your town, Qop? What work is available locally? Or do people commute to other areas or make money via internet commerce?

1,200 give or take, mostly take.....55% over age 55. We have lost 3 in the last 2 weeks. As far as I know no one has had a new baby in several months.!
I guestimate there are about 200- maybe 300? jobs in town; supermarket, hardware store, 3 small restaurants, library, (PO, Wildlife; Fed. Agency ) Town Office, ( Town Manager is Chief of Police too, he has a staff of one!)pharmacy ( we're lucky to have that here), hardware store, auto parts store, 1 gas station, 3 garages, 2 banks, & 3 real estate offices, marine supplies, Inland seafood, Kelco Wreaths ( the 2 biggest) FUNERAL HOME, ( busy)2 boatyards a sawmill, 5 organic farms, school, high school serves 5 communities, The cap agency paired back, by 25 employees, by building an office in Ellsworth, that's when the big restaurant closed as well as the internet cafe that served cappochino & backlava. ( sigh)
The rest all commute to Ellsworth 65 mile round trip. to Walmart/HomeDepot/Lowes........or are self employed or on welfare or SS
The good news is we are off the radar.....
Although apparently the Koch Bros & the T P are now looking our way.

Internet? Only those within 2 miles of town have high speed DSL, the rest dial up/aol! So not too many businesses of that ature. I am lucky to be within a mile of town.

Qop, very interesting, so basically, most of the jobs appear to be service jobs, providing services to the community, aside from the "food productions" of farming and fishing, if I understood correctly.

What do the Koch bros. and TP (the powers that be?) want with your town?

Our votes & our servitude!
They put big money into Mike Michaud's opponant's run for CONGRESSMAN this last election.
He is " billed' as a blue dog, because as a catholic, he opposes abortion. In EVERY other respect he is progressive. guess they wanted him OUT! ( He signed on to Kucinich's impeach Cheney act, 3 or 4 years ago.
Almost ALL businesses locally owned, fishing /farming of course totally independant, think 150 years ago.

I love everything locally owned. Especially hate those restaurant chains, maybe with the exception of the Cheesecake Factory which has fab food ...

You know we may be the only ones who can get on here....
I just talked to Pat C not only can't she post, she can't even bring up the home page.
I will facebook Morgana & CLymela.....do you have a facebook page?

Morning folks, I'm in without problems. QOP I am so sorry typepad ate your QOP logon. PatC hope you can get back on we miss your thoughts.

I have changed my settings on Facebook so I can be found...lol locked it down too tight. If you want to add me it's Morgana Seawalker.

QOP I have not tried logging on to AW with the Facebook interface, after your experience I don't think I will.

Qop, it's been a nice conversation, in any case.

I posted this on my Whitehouse blog by mistake.
Read the top two articles, please...

All of this food talk makes me hungry. I haven't been cooking as much as some of you, but still I find myself craving chocolate and something sweet. That is, when I'm not obsessively blogging or responding to threads.

Hi Carol, is there a link?

http://www.aquariusmoon.info/whitehouse

Better:
http://www.aquariusmoon.info/whitehouse/2011/01/30/its-1989-all-over-again/

Carol, with all that's going on in the world I find I am concerned with your sugar fix, did you get something sweet. It's kind of made me think of warm chocolate chip cookies as well.

With our concentration on Egypt, it's easy to forget that there are protests going on and building steam in Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iran and of all places Iraq, add all that to Egypt and Tunisia and the Middle East is building to a real boiling point. If I were Israel and the ruling family in Saudi I would lay low right now. This is the result of the US and our corporations and bankers exporting the "greed is good" mentality to the governments around the world in the last 30 years. I believe prophecy of old says the third world war begins in the Middle East. Someone or several someone's are working toward that end right now so it would seem. With Jupiter/Uranus/Pluto fanning the flames over the next several months, the world can become a tinder box real fast.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/30/peaceful-revolution-egypt-muslim-brotherhood

Amr Shalakany in Tahrir Square, Cairo
# guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 January 2011 20.42 GMT

This is a sweet, sweet revolution; it is peaceful. Tell everyone we are peaceful.

We do not owe this revolution to the Muslim Brotherhood, not to anybody. They say the Ikhwan is more organised – maybe. But this is the people on the street; this is not about any political party. Look, he says, more and more people are coming; Tahrir Square is getting more and more full.

For those of you that can access facebook TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/photo.php?fbid=189737604377414&set=a.173460612671780.38981.173343349350173&comments
UNBELIEVABLE!
someone has posted a map from Fox News of the ME.
They have ACTUALLY labeled Egypt as being up there ABOVE Saudi Arabia between Syria & Iran!

some of the comments are pretty funny!
Graduates of the Sarah Palin Preschool of Geography!
I am constantly surprised at the gullibility of the Fox News viewer. "We report, you decide" Now they just decide where countries are or are not?
But, but, but . . . if Faux news says that's Egypt, and the rest of the world knows it's Iraq, then Egypt MUST be somewhere in between, right?
(Expect CNN to start calling it Iraq/Egypt so nobody will think they're "taking a side.")

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/us/politics/31koch.html?_r=1
The Koch brothers themselves and their guests — Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, was expected to attend — were nowhere to be seen near the protest Sunday and made no public statements.

Check out this picture:
http://mondoweiss.net/images/2011/01/drinks2.jpg

http://mondoweiss.net/images/2011/01/drinks2.jpg
Check out this picture

I just realized something..
you know how you can know something and then, eureka you KNOW IT!
The cave men were setting their intentions, practicing the law of attraction when they drew the animals on the cave walls!

Carol, I checked out your website. It looks great.
I did have to try sevreal times to post, however; & it scooped my OTHER user name, which I will not say HERE in front of Typepad!

Not that anyone here needs to read this.......

http://sarthanapalos.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/a-guide-how-not-to-say-stupid-stuff-about-egypt/

but good talking points!

Well, I never set foot on a roller coaster before............first time for everything?

http://www.akashictransformations.net/page/Monthly_message#q2

"The energy of this month feels like you are being jerked forward. It is very similar to the feeling of climbing onto a roller coaster and sitting down in your seat, buckling up and when the roller coaster first starts to move, it jerks you forward. You might feel like you get pulled suddenly forward then yanked backward."..........

Hello and Good MOrning-I was out of touch for a couple of days and I get back and we have a new poster Psharpart. Now who is this says meself-early morning took me a second to recognize my old friend.Sally-I am wondering about where we are headed myself. the things I continue to think are not Egypt but wow that could come. I think of Iraq and Afghanistan and how vicious and destructive are military actions have been-killing families to get the son or daughter we believe are working against us.Carol-after an early morning stroll to the market I am going to come back to look at your site.
Love in the morning folks. I hope that PatC can get back on-I love her she is one of my best friends on the internet.

Two Million or more marching in Egypt today, if I had two million knocking at my door to leave I would certainly have to pause and think about packing. Also the King of Jordan fired his PM and appointed another with the instructions that he was to form a new cabinet. I would say he is trying to get out in front of the newly formed protesters in Jordan. If Egypt hasn't made the rest of the Middle East nervous the King of Jordan's actions certainly will.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/new-jordan-government-king-abdullah-ii_n_816755.html

so Mubarak says that he is not going although he will not run for office again. He also says the military is his and he is sending in the dread police to "clean things up". this is horrible as I understand things.
Stars Over Washington talking about the death of John Wheeler at the end of the year and just around the time all the birds and fish started turning up dead-linked to a chemical found in Iraq that the insane military scientists are excited to use as some type of population control.
Just sayin!! I have been in the house cleaning and listening-I am going to get outdoors and go for a walk-this crap is breaking my heart!!

Courage Clymela, your heart is too big & too
soft to break! Here is the I Ching hexagram I threw this AM.

29: Dangerous Depths
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

General Meaning: Exposure to passing dangers brings good fortune to those who move beyond them. Like boaters passing through white-water rapids, when you are faced with serious challenges, you must remain alert, take all available precautions, and above all, keep going forward so as to remove yourself from harm's way. Once the danger has passed, good fortune.

The positive aspect of challenges is that they offer an excellent chance to cleanse the senses and strengthen the spirit. Surviving crises brings tremendous reinvigoration, and sharpens the eye and mind for future challenges.

It is reckless to court danger, but critical to inner development not to shrink from it either. Those who respond to challenges most effectively are those who are able to establish an inner bubble of calm in the midst of the action. A calm center keeps one rooted in the moment, alert and focused. Courage at such times springs from focused attention, from a willingness to penetrate the moment of danger to its very core, so as to shape it and transform the situation.

Feb. 3, 2011, marks the Year of the Metal Rabbit. The Rabbit's peaceful nature combines with the noble, protective Metal element to usher in a gentle phase of diplomacy, personal reflection and strengthened connections with others.
and..........
http://terrawolfe.blogspot.com/
I like her description of Neptune........

{Neptune is the energy of connection with the limitless state of the universal mind. Neptune eats away at ego perception. It defies logic and rational approaches. Neptune operates on a very subtle level. It is beneath the place where we keep our conscious awareness, beneath the area where we have words}...............more

and the pragmatic........
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,742936,00.html#ref=nlint
snip...
"If the United States, in order to make us forget the last, manipulated, elections, demands fair elections in the near future, then that poll would presumably benefit forces that are critical of Israel. The Middle East is facing changes whose consequences are almost impossible to predict." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

snip.........."But fears that the Islamists will take over power, which are being fomented in some corners, are hugely exaggerated. Egypt in 2011 is not like the Iran of 1979, when radical Islamists rose to power after toppling the Shah. While it may be true that the Muslim Brotherhood would surely play a larger role in a democratic Egypt, that in no way means that the country will be transformed into an 'Islamic state.' The Muslim Brotherhood long ago abandoned that goal. The Taliban in Afghanistan or the mullahs in Iran no longer serve as role models for most Arab Islamists. Al-Qaida has also, of course, done its share to discredit radical Islam. Today the Islamists prefer to orient themselves towards Turkey's AKP government, which has shown that you can find a balance between moderate Islam and democratic principles and have success in elections." Die Tageszeitung

How Food Prices Feed Egyptian Revolt
by Danny Schechter
This is an upstairs/downstairs story that takes us from the peak of a Western mountaintop for the wealthy to spreading mass despair in the valleys of the Third World poor.

It is about how the solutions for the world financial crisis that the CEOs and Big Pols are massaging in a posh conference center in snowy Davos, Switzerland, have turned into a global economic catastrophe in the streets of Cairo, the current ground zero of a certain-to-spread wave of international unrest.

Yes, the tens of thousands in the streets demanding the ouster of the cruel Mubarek regime are there now pressing for their right to make a political choice, but they are being driven by an economic disaster that has sent unemployment skyrocketing and food prices climbing.".........

Anyone else spending double for food besides me? Heating oil is $3.38 per gal, now up a $1.00 from this time last year.
I took in $60.00 for calemndars yesterday.& spent $50.00 of it at the local market, which does not seem able to regularly stock standard items like Iams catfood, 50% of the time it is not there on the shelf.( shades of communist Russia/East Germany) However the stock of $50.00 rack of lamb & $12.00 lamb loin chops is ever present!
Our local supermarket Diva maintains a huge separate building next to her house with a swimming pool for her family of 3. SHE HAS NEVER BOUGHT A CALENDAR!..............................

Schechter!
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2011/020111Schechter.shtml

and...................
Ronald Reagan's 30-Year Time Bombs

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2011/012811Parry.shtml

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS..THE KIDS haven't a clue, they weren't present as we were, to make a comparison,& the media is unwilling to expose!

I leave you laughing!
http://www.michaellutin.com/dailyfix.htm
don't miss WOAO!

not to worry Clymela, you will be ok. It would seem that change (birth of the new) is not accomplished without chaos and some pain. Everyone who goes into the abyss for change for the new and better knows this and takes it on. There is pain and chaos everywhere right now. Food prices are skyrocketing, the Middle East is in turmoil trying to affect something better for themselves, the storms across America and Australia, the money markets due to the Feds printing money that amounts to nothing for the world, all is in chaos and yes pain for millions, including many of us on this board but something new and better will come from this, there is also an awakening going on across the world and for that we can be grateful. Send light to those who are suffering and keep the faith of a brighter day for all. This most recent turmoil in the world no matter where you are, will not begin to be over until around the end of February. More eruptions around the world from the earth and from people can be expected, so stay safe and try not to worry.

http://news.firedoglake.com/

Wow. This 19 year old kid stood up before the Iowa legislature to argue in favor of same sex marriage. Inspiring.

Yes it is coming around to individuals one at a time standing up for principles!
I gave a description of my town the other night, here is one from my friend and Dem coort. Phil, whose vanity plate still reads Dean for US!

It is about the auction Sat. night. When Phil & his vibrant little new Chinese wife, came to pick me up I was too sick to go, gave them the painting I was donating to the auction.
FRANK IS A REAL SWEETHEART OF A GUY who was appointed public defender for my son 5 years ago.
He was especially sensitive to the case!
Katherine was the producer of the book Machias Patriots that I illustrated 3 years ago.

ykos.com/story/2011/2/2/940683/-What-Its-Really-Like-(a-short-story-of-hope)-

QOP-and so you remain in my mind-I don't care what facebook,etc think to me you are QOP at any rate I loved the bit about your grocery diva-had me laughing out loud.
Sally-thanks for the reminder that this is the time of change. HMMM! this morning I hear that the military in Egypt has moved to defend the protesters and the press (do we even say "press" any more?)-I felt awful after listening to Mubarak talk about "cleaning" up the streets.

http://www.aquariusmoon.info/regreening/2011/02/03/land-food-freedom/

Anyone who wants to comment on my White House Page, now can! I accidently left on a setting which meant you had to have a previously approved comment in order for your comment to show up. It made no sense to me, and it has been removed.

Thank you CLymela, I am rather fond of QOP myself even if it is a little too close to GOP!
Here is one of my heros, not heard from in a while!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x550242
George Galloway- A Message To The Egyptian People [02.02.11]
and more heros,
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/sabrina%201/184
CODEPINK Peace Activists Join Egyptians on the Ground in Cairo, Available for Phone Calls, Interviews
better access below?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x336921

Sun/Mars conjunction at 14 Aquarius today and tomorrow will provide major upsets. Anger, frustration, killings (or attempted) confusion with Moon coming close to Neptune and then on to Chiron. It won't be a good day in Egypt for anyone. The media is being targeted and rounded up, if there is going to be a major crack down Mubarak does not want journalist to record it for the world to see. Sun/Mars in Aquarius could not be a more stubborn mis-use of male energy, unless it was in one of the other fixed signs. This conjunction also squares Egypt's solar arc Moon, emotions will run very very high.

Anyone remember the Aug. 1999 Grand Fixed cross Eclipse? The planets involved were Sun/Moon (18 Leo) Mars (16 Scorpio) Saturn (16 Taurus) and Uranus (14 Aquarius) This world including the US has been under the violent umbrella of that Eclipse ever since. It began with a violent earthquake in Turkey, the worst they had ever had. Since then we have had violent earth changes and storms, wars, fighting governments, tea-partiers, anger at different governments, a economic meltdown that is not finished, that eclipse was a message to the world to renew, rebuild, change, grow etc. To have this Sun and Mars fall on the Uranus of that eclipse will mean sudden shifts and changes for this weekend starting yesterday. As I have said before and this is true of all humanity including me, "if we do not make changes when it's time to make changes they will be made for us and we won't like the outcome."

A quick example is a 76 year old american woman living in Egypt for 15 years that was given the opportunity to get out of her apartment that is directly in the line of fire, she said she felt safe where she was and she had a kitchen knife, rolling pin, her cane and hot water to protect herself, that was four days ago. Now she is not safe at all and have called for people to get her out and they cannot get to her because she is in the line of fire and surrounded.

The changes coming indicated by that eclipse Uranus could be earth changes, weather shocks like what's happening in Australia, Mubarak could be killed or arrested, Mubarak could wipe out the opposition protesters,the Army in Egypt could suddenly turn on the protesters, more up-risings in more countries sick and tired of their corrupt governments, the possibilities are endless but it will create change and a push to humanity to continue their own changes. This might sound ridiculous to a lot of people, but I believe in the 100th Monkey theory, be nice to everyone in your environment for the next several days. Don't fight with anyone, be very pleasant to others, smile and laugh, anything you can do to appreciate life and perhaps mollify mother earth and the universe and smooth out the anger in the Middle East.

/sally-thanks for clarifying the connection to the 8/1999 eclipse. I think that explains why I shuddered so when Mubarak spoke the other day. I definitely heard him threatening the opposition and I guess we all get to watch. I don't know anything about Egypt but here it is on the TV and the confused reactions are stunning: #1 support "democracy" in Egypt #2 Mubarak should be respected he has been our friend #3 the GOP is quiet (what a bunch of sweaty little bullies-they always hide behind Mama's skirt when real grown- up trouble breaks out)#4 don't forget that Mubarak is a monster.
And....this is for everyone-does anyone know where this is coming from-Egypt, Syria, Yemen (poor Yemen the US is GUILTY of gross offenses there I think. I mean is there an organized "outside influence as there used to be with the USSR and the US?

Clymela, I believe you put your finger on the issue "outside influences" but who, who are the people always pulling the strings? With the crackdown of the international media there is no way for anyone to actually come close to the truth. I think Egypt have the right to get some freedoms from the Mubarak rule, but I also believe a group whipped them up over time and Mubarak and his special forces whipped up another group and all has been confused for everyone. The fact is someone has wanted Mubarak out for quite awhile and it could be Israel but that I don't have a tight grasp on their reasons, I can think of some reasons but they don't make much sense. Not that a lot is making sense these days in the world, but for sure someone is stirring all this up around the Middle East.

Well Clymela here is a possible answer to our questions, at least other people from other disciplines are drawing some of the same conclusions. This is a good article and I agree with this guy, we are even seeing it in Egypt as they will be forced to accept the new "violent, main torture expert" VP as the new "US Ally" an dictator. Well the "pulling the strings" group may get more over the years than bargained.

Sally-did you intend to post a link? It didn't come through if you did.
Thanks for the response-yes I am confused and uninformed but i sure am surprised that there was no (none)reporting on Egypt before the blow-up. Seems really weird to me and so the question: who are the main players and how did this news get around? How does a crowd get moving. We do know that the "press" is getting kicked around.

I believe this is an upwelling from the very core, rather than whipped up by one group or another............
Global food prices hit record high

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4721335

I found this from the USDA relative to 8/11/99......

http://search.nal.usda.gov/afsicsearch/result-list/fullRecord:1999/#ResultList=0|20|_|RANK|0

pick an article any article & you will see the seed of today! & I am sure that a lot of folks working there at the time were proud of noble efforts to deal with global hunger.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions!"

Then there is "the other side of the coin" no pun intended!
http://www.usagold.com/halloffame.html#anchor382779

Plain people around here are awakening to the truth of the situation, there is more of a consensus than there has been.
The only outstanding memory I have of 8/11/99 is teaching the Indigo children in the YWCA Art class. The tag end of the Pluto in Scorpio Gen. ages 6-12, their comprehensive overview of society, was sophisticated beyond anything I had experienced.
They are now 15 - 23 years old. They came in with a mission............anaretic T Jupiter & Uranus has been sextile their Uranus in Capricorn & trine their Pluto in Scorpio, T Neptune & Chiron in late Aquarius, square to those planets.......Now that all 4 of those transiting planets are moving on into the next sign......it's lights camera action time!
They will oversee the destruction of the existing inequality, and their younger siblings (Pluto in Sag) will reformulate the ideology into something new.........and more equitable!

http://gorillasguides.com/2011/02/04/in-which-markfromireland-throws-a-bucket-of-cold-water/

In Which markfromireland Throws A Bucket Of Cold Water …
February 4, 2011
By markfromireland

The jubilation over events in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has given rise to exhiliration and a quite remarkable amount of "analysis" in which the fluffy little bunnies now peacefully occupying Tahrir Square will triump (non-violently!!!) over an entrenched regime which has demonstrated that it is perfectly preplared to use violence against them. The exhiliration is justified, who amongst the "hominibus bonæ voluntatis" does not wish those struggling to shrug off tyranny well? The somewhat facile "analysis" now being engaged in by many is not however justified.

Have you noticed how what’s happening in Tahrir Square (Midan al-Tahrir) looks remarkably like what happened in Tehran during the "Green Revolution"? At the time of the "Green Revolution" people like me, you know people who actually live in the Middle East, regularly visit Iran, studied there, people like that were excoriated by those were absolutely certain that the Ahmadinejad molten mullahs of Qom and their President had been caught stealing an election and were now about to lose power. What was in fact a North Tehran Middle Class revolt never managed to get the working poor involved and so it went down in the dust.

The similarity to what’s going on in Egypt is striking. I have yet to see or hear either in Arabic or any other language a credible report about large numbers of the working poor taking part in the protests. Those who earn the equivalent of US$2 per day have thus far not become involved.

I hope the slum dwellers and the fellahin (the fellahin are the rural peasantry) rise up and help throw off the tyranny, but so far there have been no credible reports of that happening. Unless and until a very large proportion of the 50 to 60 million (call that around two thirds of Egypt’s population) who make up the slum dwellers and the fellahin decide to shake off ("intifada") the load of oppression from their shoulders, that the "revolution" is in their interests then this this "Revolution" does not have the depth of support needed to make anything other than very superficial change possible.

...more

Marta-are you thinking that this Egypt thing is from the middle-class, highly educated citizens who are getting squeezed? Just caught on that you have given us a link to Mark From Ireland.
Pat my grandkids are of that generation and they are amazingly sophisticated about society and how it works.

Sorry Clymela, I've been gone all day and just saw your post and yes I did intend a link. I think this is it.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6885.shtml

Marta and qop I am getting ready to read your articles. Qop, I am, surprised you don't remember the god awful quake in Turkey on 8/11/1999 it was big news. If those kids got all your attention that day they were lucky. Not just the Indigo generation but the one behind them or their children will be incredible, as will the following generations, more and more enlightenment from them all.

"Oh frabjous day callooh callay!" she chortled in her joy!
I met with Emmy the Art teacher today, to discuss the youth civics group. She's young, from Bangor ( big city), a recent Grad from U M Orono, & we are on the same page with what the kids need. ( I was afraid I'd get some fud of a conservative school marme type.)So we bounced ideas off each other, till we hammered out a great syllabus for them. First 2 news items for them. How Fed regulations are hampering the fishing industry locally ( or not, as it may be discovered?) And food insuffiency locally; Seaque into GM foods HFCS,the whole schtik! ( an area this part of the country needs enlightening about) [awkward grammer]
I DO remember the earthquake, but I tried to google a 8/11/99 timeline this AM & came up with not too much of interest.
Yes the kids DID get all my attention that day as they do everyday when I am interacting with them. And I had a vision then.......which I have carried in my head ever since, & has caused some shifts in my choices through the decade.I saw that these kids would bring about a renaissance....
That eclipse 1o from exact, sq my sun & uranus in taurus, wasn't about external events but a knowing from within, ( why I believe in Mathew's Messages!)
So here we all are, Pioneer Indigos, with Grandchildren to nurture & guide!
My Grandaughter she of the facebook post "Does anyone see what is happening in Egypt?" Hooooooooooooly * hit! was born 11/10/95, the VERY LAST DAY of Pluto in Scorpio, next day it entered Sag!

My "new neighbor" LOL!
This guy appears to be wearing a white hat,is that so Sally?
http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/04/politics/media-mogul%E2%80%99s-1m-acre-maine-buy-could-put-him-atop-us-landowner-list/

I just wanted to check in with some family stuff. I got a call from my nephew last evening. He and his wife have lost their jobs and unemployment just wouldn't come through even after my nephew patiently moved his claim from Tennessee to Kentucky. He said that he was afraid that they couldn't pay rent and then guess? They couldn't pay rent!! My nephew got a call from his beautiful wife who said "Randy!! guess what?? TN has deposited hundreds of dollars in our account. And then after that in one day there was the news that she was hired for a senior position in a big medical insurance company and they paid her a $5000 "signing bonus and then my nephew learned that his new employer finally found the money to pay him!!
I know that this long but I wanted to share it since you have certainly shared the times when this family has been challenged to keep the faith. My family here have all joined in to tell me that they will help me in the moves that Steve and I need to make in order to make our home comfortable for my sister! This is so beautiful. I am so excited to have my sister here that all day yesterday I keep "feeling" that she was here.
Love to you all and Sally thanks for the link.

Clymela, I'm so happy for you and your family! Great news indeed!

As far as Egypt, I'm a bit skeptical of these "color revolutions". The ones in Eastern Europe ended up being financed covertly by the U.S. government through NGO's in some cases, and then other despots were put in place. Look at what happened in Georgia.

As far as Egypt, how convenient that El Baradei is being "touted" as a successor. Somehow he reminds me of Chalabi (Iraq) who was "our guy" who was being pushed as a candidate to run Iran. Chalabi, like El Baradei, hadn't lived in Iraq for over 30 years and then waltzed in on the heels of the US occupation to "take the throne". Didn't work out too well for him (thank God, what a creep).

I think Ireland guy (or whatever his name is) has a point that you don't have a revolution if 2/3 of the country isn't participating. So, what,really is going on in Egypt? It's anybody's guess.

As far as the $2 a day poor person not participating, well, I'm sure that from their point of view, anything that's going to destabilize their getting that $2 a day may not be considered a good thing. Their POV is probably, the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don't.

Very interesting article on Egypt ...

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/20112310511432916.html#

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/04/guantanamo/index.html

Glenn Greenwald on Guantanamo death (recent) and short comment on Suleiman (the US' new BFF (best friend forever).

A friend posted this on my facebook today, & I thought it an appropriate follow up to my Feb 5 3:17 AM post re: Pioneer Indigos.

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams."............Kahlil Gibran
the rest...............
http://www.katsandogz.com/onchildren.html
It rained last night! Not snow, not sleet, but blessed warm rain!

Here's how our brightest minds are spending their time (and our money) ...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Tomgram-Nick-Turse-Makin-by-Tom-Engelhardt-110201-771.html

http://carlboudreau.blogspot.com/

Carl Boudreau's February 2011 blogspot

Very good article ...

Published on Friday, February 4, 2011 by The Coloradoan
With Democracy or Against It -- There's No In Between

by David Sirota

In America, politicians are rarely compelled to turn rhetoric into action. Presidents make public commitments to support legislation while quietly instructing their congressional allies to kill the corresponding bills. Congresspeople then campaign on policy proposals only to make sure their respective presidents veto the initiatives.

We all know this game -- we know its rigged rules ensure plausible deniability and prevent follow through. But as the Mideast showed this week, just because those are our rules doesn't mean everyone plays by them.

That's what the Egyptian protests against U.S.-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak really represent for us: a poignant demand that we actually embody our democratic creed -- a demand whose response shows an American government desperate to avoid walking its talk.

Remember, President Obama told a Cairo audience in 2009 that America would unequivocally back Egyptians' democratic aspirations. Citing our nation's history being "born out of revolution against an empire," he said: "We will support (democracy) everywhere."

That declaration, while admirable, was hardly courageous because it was presented as a foreign-policy version of an American campaign promise -- that is, it was issued by a politician who never really expected to be asked for attendant action. In fact, the Obama administration was so certain it wouldn't have to embody its platitudes that it was actively slashing grants for democracy-building in Egypt while maintaining military aid to the Mubarak dictatorship.

...more

If you enjoy political cartoons, check these out. Some of them are quite funny, insightful or just plain tongue in cheek!

http://www.docudharma.com/diary/24873/twiec-winds-of-change-in-the-middle-east-as-seen-by-foreign-and-american-editorial-cartoonists

Whoo!! here we go again-we are running out of inspiration-we depend on Sally and Morgana to get us up and moving. Personally i am hating this weirdness about Egypt although I am grateful to hear some truth coming out about just exactly how we have been suing the dictatorship in Egypt to do the things that "we" don't like. And then...we spend what? five days in Eygpt only to decide that we can't do anything. I read somewhere today that Obama admin is pretending that Mubarak is still in power but really he can't do a thing because we won't let him?!?!
Come on by and say hi! and tell us what you are thinking about. The other thing is the Huffington Post and AOL linking up. HMMM! says the philosopher.

That was interesting........Had the comment box without signing in, then it disappeared before I could use it, and I had trouble signing in??????
Yeh, Huff Po & Aol??????
Egypt will have to take care of itself! Iam using any influence I have dealing with the local situation where I can make a difference.
Spent almost an hour defending myself against the phone company, which raised my bill by about $10. per month. Got one of those young women who honed their teeth razor sharp and speedy, shooting down pacman in her childhood. Must have been a Repig, talked loud and fast without ever taking a breath.Assuredly 100% right! The promotion ended in Oct. and I DIDN"T CALL THEM & DECLARE MY SELF AS QUALIFYING for the "lifeline" lower rate.........which I have been getting for 10 years,,,,,,long story short, I ended calling the PUC, where I got an adult who promised to look into it and get me a retroactive reimbursement. Bottom line it cost ME MY TIME.........
I had a bad cold all week, and slept a lot.................then putting all my energy into getting this kid newspaper going as well as my artwork.

Did anyone pick up on this?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/31/clinton-ambassador-meeting_n_816146.html

It was listed in "social news" ? not world ?

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/current-events-economics-politics/all-ambassadors-called-back-to-washington/

I was wondering what was happening with that "unprecedented meeting. so it started yesterday but no one is talking. Just the DLC and Jane Harmon-both quitting. Oh! and Rumsfeld's new book. He of course blames everyone else.

Olbermann on Al Gore's channel, which I think will be big in the coming years. Not because of Olbermann but because of the internet venue, TV could be going the way of the dodo. The protesters won't leave the square they took and I heard today that thousands keep coming by to share in the protest, folks from all walks of life in Egypt. Love it, but Mubarak still isn't gone, phase two should be coming when Uranus gets to Aries. Jupiter oppose Pluto should bring religion to the fore for a change in attitude around the world. I think it's interesting that Christians have been protecting Muslims and Muslims have been protecting Christians in Egypt, gee can we actually get past dogma vs dogma. More angst is ahead for all of us as we shift and change but the changes are well underway.

Watching one of the morning shows on MSMNBC and on one panel there was a man representing COMCAST!! This may be the beginning of the end. Let us pray that Ariana is not just taking the money and running-we my really need Huffington Post now that
COMCAST is on the block and sending in their bosses to direct the conversation.

Keith Olberman is moving to Gores news channel.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/keith-olbermanns-new-job-current-tv_b51961#disqus_thread

Here it is.

http://current.com/keith-olbermann/

Here's a little Pluto destruction I can believe in!

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158370/dlc-dead

The last sentence is a little worrisome however!
( I had to give my e-mail & sign in for the FREE newsletter...worth it)

qop guess what, I got a really beautiful calendar in the mail today, it was really gorgeous. I loved it and would suggest everyone to buy one just for its uniqueness.

clymela, it was AOL that bought Huffington Post but I agree about Comcast, the guy that is the head of it is extremely conservative and sadly I hear that the AOL President is the same way. What a media mess we have.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/bloggers-readers-band-quit-huffington-post/ Here you go Clymela. Arianna doesn't see the situation as a "left/right" world but a center and she said people that don't aren't getting it. In a lot of ways she isn't getting it. I look at Egypt and there are people from all walks of life in those protests, Egypt is very far right at this point in time, those protesters ARE in the Center but the Center is left or liberal, more liberal than they have been in 30 years. So what is the center now? Where is the Center trying to go? I have to say more liberal. I would like to stop using the words left and right because I think it colors the dialogue of what is happening to the people around the world.

Just as side note I saw yesterday, Comcast has 10% share of Current TV Al Gores network. Comcast even altered Olbermanns severance contract which allows him to jump back on the air on Current TV.

On Arianna, she's rich, she's out of touch with the real world we live in. She lives in a different world and she's rolling in dough.

The GOP meanwhile are on a path of destruction destroying the rights of women, children and the elderly...oh wait do you have a drop of color in your ancestry...you are not white. Whale scum.

There goes Europe:

Icelandic volcano 'set to erupt'

By comparison, Bárdarbunga dwarves the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which shutdown most of Europe's airspace last year after its ash cloud drifted across the continent's skies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/iceland/8311924/Icelandic-volcano-set-to-erupt.html

I hope you digested your bbq before you found that news item.........
whoopee.........

And for a laugh................or cry..........

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110209101734AAYzKs5
Why would Arizona ban Karma, Canon law, Sharia law, and the Jewish laws Kalacha?

http://www.libertynewsforum.com/cgi-bin/news/YaBB.pl?num=1297267266/7

A CALL For Liberals To ABANDON Huffington

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x379210

(I have found it to be increasingly trashy!, Enquiror Online.)

oops didn't see your post above, Sally......
but yes, they are increasing their pressure on me as citizen blogger...........too bad!

JoannaO,I woke up dreaming that you had returned and made a whole bunch of posts.
So in your honor I post Darmaruci : his wisdom for the day, because he was your favorite..
http://astrotabletalk.blogspot.com/
a very thoughtful piece.

Is THIS guy ever fascinating!
listed as "homeless"!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,744582,00.html#ref=nlint

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

August 10 1961, Paris France no time

You just can't make this stuff up! He jumped out at me from Der Spiegel.
I want to work with him!
I think this will happen!

Oh joy! Great to see this board to darned active! Have had a house-full of family. Two very shiny little boys. I could just eat them up.

Clymela......Yeah!!!!!! What great news. By the way, unions are coalescing too, offering job training in all sorts of crafts. Check the AFL-CIO website, etc. There are shafts of light pouring through everywhere.

And yes, the South is an odd place sociologically and psychologically. What I have found, however, is that it is not much different than other rural areas. The church is the main focus of misinformation. Finishing high school is a feat, thus higher education (because it's out of touch for most) becomes a focus of derision. If you devalue what you cannot have, you don't feel as powerless.

Sally, your comment about determining "center" was just brilliant. Maybe part of our collective political angst is in the use of the words right, left, center. But what exactly IS center? If there is left and right of center, wouldn't that also imply an up and down?

Well!! While I was out of commission things were perking along here at my home site.
Joanna Oregon wherever you are you are always here in our hearts.
Comcast has 10% of Al gore's Current TV and arranged for Olbermann to go over to work there? OH puke! I guess that we will never be free of the uber wealthy regressives.
Huffington has grown more trashy with an emphasis on personal failures of celebrities AND it has been overwhelmed by young Libertarian opinion which makes me unwilling to participate as I did earlier.

http://my.firedoglake.com/freesociety/2011/02/08/rand-paul-smarter-than-you-think/

I’ve always liked Mavericks.

No, not the kind of phony, self-appointed, faux “mavericks” like: John McCain, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, etc, who are really nothing more than pro-War, pro-Corporatist, pro-Bankster, pro-NAFTA…..status-quo shills in disguise.

But the original thinkers, the creative minds….be it: Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, etc. Those rare voices that aren’t afraid to tear down the Sacred Cows of U.S. Corruption and speak truth to power. My how they stick out a mile away when they get the rare chance to debate on TV. The truth is sometimes, well … shocking.

Well along comes freshman Senator Rand Paul, and he has already broken all the rules and published this thoughtful, and very substantive policy proposal in the Wall Street Journal. Key Excerpts:

A Modest $500 Billion Proposal
By Rand Paul

My spending cuts would keep 85% of government funding and not touch Social Security or Medicare.

The first thing to note here is the seriousness of the proposal. This is:

Not a $35 Billion dollar cut…Not a $50 Billion dollar cut…Not a $75 Billion dollar cut … but a $500 Billion dollar cut.

The second and most remarkable point here is that Rand Paul has the compassion, unlike Barack Obama and his catfood for Seniors Alan Simpson run “Deficit Commission”, to leave untouched Social Security and Medicare — while focusing on the big ticket Sacred Cows that all Republicans and most all Democrats dare not speak ill of.

A $500 Billion dollar cut with Social Security and Medicare untouched!
I’m listening…

...more

MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

Well I kind of think Egypt got off on Murbarak as the problem and not the lack of change and growth. So Murbarak is going and Suleiman, his big buddy and supporter is coming in. Good luck Egypt. Actually I believe it's the military coming in.

Now that Egypt as a distraction is quieting down, we have Iceland's volcano's heating up. Thanks Morgana for keeping an eye on the earth changes. Isn't that the really big one in Iceland?

Pat C, you got back on, yea.

qop, I love that Arizona is forbiding Karmic law, the Gods will have a field day with that one. I remember a quote that said "you might as well invite the gods to your party of life, because if you don't they will come anyway and be in a mood to make trouble." Good luck to you Arizona, this will be fun to watch. Maybe they can ban dust while they are at it.

Karen, I love "up and down" that is a perfect replacement. Now if the Dems would get out there and start explaining that they are "up" and toward the positive and the rest is down and toward the negative (including poverty and sickness) the liberals might have a chance and folks might find "up" to be more positive. Who wants to go "left or right" that's just a crossroad and a confusing one, but up or down is far more understandable.

Marta, thanks for that article, I agree with you, I am listening too and watching what happens beyond the words. It's not what they say but what they do.

clymela, the fact that Comcast owns part of Current TV has burst my bubble today, and you are right about Huffpo, it's gotten extremely trashy. Did you hear that NYSE has joined with Deutsche so they can have the largest stock exchange in the world. Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story) gave them his tag line "To Infinity and Beyond" however like Buzz they might be just blowing in the wind, Buzz as Woody points out "is just a toy," and full of hot air illusions.

Hey Sally yes the Bárdarbunga volcano is the bigger badder sibling of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Geologists said Eyja*** would set it off and there goes the neighborhood.

Watching the transition in Egypt, yes it is a military coup and the Egyptian people are showing the rest of the ME how it's done.

HuffPo...good bye. Enquirer online yes it is.

JoannaO...hopefully she'll feel our vibes and stop by she is missed by all.

I don't see PatC about wonder if she is still unable to logon here. It was good seeing her posting again a while back.

Ok back to work for me, have MSNBC on in the background. We called Comcast yesterday to find out why Al Gores channels were unavailable to us and got the 'you are one if the last areas to have it added to your lineup. The channels should be available in the coming days...). That's cuz I live in the sticks. We get most of our news from the internet.

Oh my just heard Suliman is also out. Both Murbarak and his hengeman are out now. Wow the Egyptians have tipped the boat over!

Horrible, just horrible. Mubarak still in power. Streets are erupting! The transfer of power to Suliman just a ruse.

Damned stubborn Tauruses! Is he in or out?
Oh duh! Aljazeera, I can't tell the videos from the live streaming from the commercials on MSNBC online.
McClatchy e-mail says he's staying.

He is NOT leaving and he has supposedly turned things over to his VP the king of the torturers. what hateful vicious folk. I wonder what I would become if I had access to billions of dollars? I am grateful that my ancestors and the spirit guides have arranged since before my birth to keep me clear of such temptations but I will say that I could never,never ignore the beauty of the beautiful face of the leader of the blogs that fed this uprising.
Love to you all. I can't quite get across how much I love checking in and find so much activity from all of you.
Welcome back PatC. and Joannaoregon you are loved wherever you are.

Wow Pharaoh Mubarak says he staying. Unbelievable it just makes you go huh? What part of leave doesn't he get? Course if he leaves every other ME dictator fears for his fortunes. May be the GOP should pay attention, you squeeze the people too hard and they bite back, ya get tired of being cowed too long.

Thanks Sally, glad you saw the article.... yeah, it's all about "show me", not "tell me".

Here's a good one...

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-08-on-eco-architecture-and-urban-farming-are-you-kidding-me-with-yo

Just last summer, Broke-Ass was invited to speak on a panel at the New York Horticultural Society with such luminaries of the environmental architectural movement as Amale Andraos and Dan Wood of WORK Architecture Co.; Fritz Haeg, artist, Edible Estates; and the esteemed James Wines of SITE. Broke-Ass was supposed to be there to make intellectual distinctions between Baby Boomers' self-aggrandizing revolutions and Generation X's more practical, local movements, since this is thought to be one of her areas of expertise.

But as she sat there listening to all the ideas about how it might be a solution to move everyone out of suburban New Jersey and convert that terroir into sustainable farmland; how it would make sense to build skyscrapers that would house crops on every story; and how irresponsible it is for people to devote their yards to anything other than growing vegetables, she found herself getting extremely grumpy. Shit, she thought, am I the only person here who is actually hungry?

It was like being the scholarship kid at the prep school all over again. Was Broke-Ass the only one who took umbrage at the proposal to build rarified eco-structures that would be prohibitively expensive -- and likely be enjoyed only by yuppies interested in taking their kids there for an educational weekend field trip? What about the rest of us who live next to vacant lots full of trash and drug dealers and who stress the fuck out just thinking about how we're actually going to be able to afford fresh vegetables for dinner this week?

...more

Want to know how corrupt things are here in the U.S.? Check out these emails which were written to try to discredit a group that was working against the US Chamber of Commerce (yeah, the organization that wants to ship all our jobs off to China, India, or wherever). Absolutely disgusting. But, remember that song .... "This is how they Do It"? Well, here it is, in black and white.

http://firedoglake.com/documents/hb-gary-email-about-us-chamber-and-change-to-win/

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/10/lobbyists-chamberleaks/

More on the US Chamber scandal. Shocking, but, unfortunately, not surprising.

This is an interesting statement on "left/right" dialogue.from Peter Goodman Huff Po

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/beyond-left-and-right-its-about-reality_n_821582.html

Oh and................
now that they are conjoined with aol.............I have to LOGIN to comment............( years on end I am automatically logged in!)
& they want some info from my e-mail account so I pass on posting at Huff Po!

This thing about not right and not left bores me. How about for the people or for the banks/corporations? I don't mind the right/left terms but I am one of the youngest of those who grew up in the Cold War and for whom I suspect that the terms right/left make any really resonance. So I don't care what we call it but there is a reality to be found behind those terms.
The reality is that there is a monster difference between those who take inspiration from the US Chamber of Commerce and those who take inspiration from say Desmond Tutu or even the Beatitudes,etc.
Those who divide us by whether we are business supportive or welfare state supportive are making a false distinction. Loving humanity and caring about the "people" includes work, beautiful work that provides so much more than just income although income for those of us who are "independently wealthy" (and there is the rub)is no joking matter but supporting the people includes a dynamic business culture,etc.
Okay I realize that I am going on too long here but I woke up with this on my mind and I believe that you will at least listen. There is no reason for "us", the Lefties, to get so polarized that we just scream about WIC for instance when the "small businesses" are afraid to invest and hire workers. We can cure our own polarization and speak to many more people and hopefully help turn this ship of state (cliche!!)away from the icebergs.

The dubious human quality of separating themselves from the "other" must have psychological roots in survival. Currently, our survival depends upon whether or not we have currency. Those who have the greatest fear seem to be those who accumulate the most.

What is that fear? Fear of the "other." The other is going to take what you have. If you don't have it, you'll end up like the other. And those who fear the most are the least likely to give a hand up to the other. We use phrases like, "underserving," etc.

We bitch about others feeding at the "public trough" without understanding who takes the biggest share. And, without understanding that we pay taxes, in part, to help those who need it.

So, dear heart, Clymela, I do understand your angst. Our divisions run deep. They're fed by those who use psychological leverage to separate, then accumulate.

Then, there are the people of Egypt. We're watching a miracle, a stand against an old and cruel way of thinking. What would happen here? Would every yahoo with a gun and dreams of ominipotence stand for the constitution? One they don't' understand?

Do we have a moral compass?

Karen-I have read thought that this fear of "the other" is deep in our minds, the part that just takes care of our physical being. The writer used the image of having to go to the watering place that all the legged creatures had to use and so it was vitally important that we know almost at an instinctual level if the one coming up was friend or foe. That made sense to me and I have spent years undoing the programing I received as a child growing up in a rural community that was essentially white and Protestant and 95% Republican.
And Karen-I loved your explanation of what goes on in the South. I grew up in that mindset even though Kansas is not of the South. I think my natural rebelliousness saved me-of course there are those who would question that I was "saved" (teehee).

Hey all I flipped on the tv at 6:08pm Cairo time and apparently Mubarak had just announced he had stepped down. I didn't get the exact time, I'm guestimating from the commentators response that it occurred around 6:05pm Cairo time. Did anyone get the exact moment?

Update 11:03 a.m. ET: Suleiman came out for a few seconds and announced that Mubarak is resigning and that the Supreme Military Council has been appointed to administer Egypt.

Which makes the time 6:30 pm Cairo, Egypt.

Morgana-I was resting and awakened to the TV pictures and the voices telling me that things have changed in Egypt. I didn't get the time at all but my oh my what happiness for the Egyptians.
A long way to go and no doubt troubles ahead-look at what we have done to keep Israel safe-not only to the Palestinians but to the Egyptians. The karma we must look at now is terrifying but what did we think would happen? that we could always spend more and more money for repressing people to even greater levels of despair.
What a perfect picture of what can happen when people agree. Now to get that power harnessed and directed to building the society dreamed of.

Before we get too weepy eyed about the Egyptians, let's not forget that Suleiman (and the military) are now in power, so, much like in Iraq, with the much vaunted democracy train ... what you get may be better (or worse) than what you had.

Don't get me wrong. I'm excited about how people power ousted Mubarak. But the piggly wigglies always take advantage of everything, and they don't CARE who's in power, as long as they own the WHO. And they do own Suleiman, who may decide, along with the generals, not to leave.

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

http://www.cfr.org/egypt/egypts-post-mubarak-path/p24085

If this isn't a classic case of what I would think represents Pluto in Capricorn, I don't know what is.

The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters
By Glenn Greenwald

+++++++++ *

The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters
Aaron Barr, a top executive at computer security firm HB Gary.

There's been a very strange episode being written about the past couple of days involving numerous parties, including me, that I now want to comment on. The story, first reported by The Tech Herald, has been been written about in numerous places (see Marcy Wheeler, Forbes, The Huffington Post, BoingBoing, Matt Yglesias, Reason, Tech Dirt, and others), so I'll provide just the summary.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/11/campaigns/index.html

...more

OMG, priceless. Here's the cybercommunity talking about the Anonymous hacking of HB Gary, Aaron Barr (how do you spell "toast"?), and please check out the comments. Somebody's going to have a terrible weekend,month,year.....

Anonymous. I love it! Ya'll saw that movie, "V" for Vendetta? Well, they (Anonymous) wear the same masks when they post stuff for the internet. That movie really resonated with me.

what a day for Egypt and we will see this effect on the rest of the area and even the world. I am working on an article tracing the potential impact for all of us. These next couple of months are going to be crucial although it will be months and months before it all works out. We will see how the military goes with Mubarak, Suleiman, the Cabinet and Parliment all out.Some military guy named Tentamk (SP?) is the acting president and seems to wield a great deal of power. He was called Mubarak's "poodle" at one time, don't know if that's still the case.

Meanwhile back at home...................
I made a bunch of calls to Congress yesterday.......ONLY S Collins, & J Kerry's aids even KNEW what LIHEAP WAS!

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/allison-kilkenny/34250/the-founders-never-guaranteed-heat-for-all

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/12/musharraf-bhutto-assassination_n_822305.html
ISLAMABAD — An anti-terrorism court judge issued an arrest warrant Saturday for former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the 2007 assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, state-run television reported.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12herbert.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

"As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only"

Definitely a theme emerging. Egypt, US Chamber, Department of (Un)justice, corporate malfeasance,(thank you, Marta). The desperate state of so many being thrown under the bus. (Qop, so many give and do not fight.) Yes, Sally, I'm sure I'll gobble up your new installlment, for it's sure to give us even greater insight into the Monumental Shift in Energy now occuring.

Here is an inspiring way to begin your day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHyOdZRNUD4&feature=player_embedded

We ARE all one! "All we need is love!"
Elephant seal falls in love........!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-E6o12vWI&feature=player_embedded

In keeping with the title of Cap'n Sally Mac's piece here, I present the link below for the "conspiracy nuts" like me....and I will offer this--if the revolution is televised, it is because THEY "approved" it to be televised. Namaste y'all & much love!

Garry

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/02/googles-revolution-factory-alliance-of.html

GMO engineered trees, made me shudder. Imagine a forest of trees that will kill any insect that lands on it .... death machines for the environment (and us). Too depressing for words.

http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/pressroom.php?ID=398