Polly Sigh

Out of Many...One.

"We The People of these United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

So begins the Preamble to The Constitution of The United States of America…One Nation…Our Nation. We are one people…Americans. We are the proud children of every civilization which has risen and fallen since the dawn of time and as such, we must have a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.

We are a free people, whether born within the borders of this Nation or upon the shores of distant lands, we have the natural right to live within our society under the principles and doctrines of The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and the current Amendments to The Constitution unencumbered by the personal values of those who wish to change the very core of our Government for transient causes, partisan political gain, corporate interests or theocratic ideologies in their desire for us all to live within the confines of their limited systems of belief or thought.

Our democratic principles were created for the common good of all Americans therefore we are all equal in stature and status upon the scales of law. Within the law, and bestowed upon us all by our natural rights, resoundingly exists our freedom to make our own individual decisions based on conscience without ideological, cultural or theocratic burden of any other within our society and without suppression of these natural rights by our government.

As Americans, it is not only our right, but indeed our responsibility and duty as citizens to educate and enlighten ourselves and our fellow Americans as to the inner workings of our democracy, to question those who We the People have entrusted to govern in our stead and to protest when our elected officials attempt to degrade, subjugate, deny or subvert the rights of even one American within our diverse society or any foreign nation around the world.

Knowledge is power.

The Founding Fathers of this great Nation understood all too well that if tyranny and oppression are to be defeated from beyond our borders or from within our own Government, it is the We the People who will be the last line of defense in securing, protecting and preserving our Democracy.

The greatest challenge we as citizens face is to maintain our voice, and indeed the voices of all Americans by ensuring free and fair elections so that the will of the people can be honorably and honestly recorded and enacted.

We all possess the strength within ourselves to speak up for our rights. To do so, we must find our individual voices and the words to express our insights and concerns in a simple, clear and concise language so that it may be understood by our fellow Americans. In expressing ourselves using this language within our communities, we create an environment of understanding, tolerance and inclusion within our democratic system of government and when we share our insights, learn from each other and work together with our fellow Americans we shall once again be united and empowered to restore our Nation to a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people as was intended.

Welcome to your democracy in action.

Just wanted to say that I very much enjoyed your column, Polly, as well as the terrific quote from Teddy R.

And to Indy: I could echo many of your sentiments exactly....and I wish that such sentiments were felt by all on both sides of the political aisle......then, perhaps, we could all work together for productive, progressive, hopeful, and necessary change.
- Michelle

~*~ Character is shown in peace no less than in war. As the greatest fertility of invention, the greatest perfection of armament will not make soldiers out of cowards, so no mental training and no bodily vigor will make a nation great if it lacks the fundamental principles of honesty and moral cleanliness.
—Theodore Roosevelt ~*~

~*~ We must remember that the test of our religious principles lies not just in what we say, not only in our prayers, not even in living blameless lives--but in what we do for others.
--Harry S. Truman ~*~

French prepare for referendum on EU constitution

(It's time to cook dinner, argue some more, go to bed, then get up & vote & wait - the "nons" are in the lead - if they prevail, dollar up, euro down - temporary chaos & fragmentation.)

PARIS — Europe's landmark new constitution faces a make-or-break referendum in France on Sunday, when a polarized nation decides whether to boost or block the next giant leap forward in a half-century of efforts to unite the continent. ...

Wow - I have been talking with friends in France for the last couple of hours who will vote "oui" and "non" and both had good reasons.

This huge. Netherlands is next. 25 countries have to agree in order to pass the new EU constitution. OUI - good counterbalance to W's power. NON - too much globalization & sending away of jobs lately, signs of nondemocracy.

There are dilemmas all over the world - we ignore them at our peril.
Here is the best article on the topic, which I've been following avidly, in English & French.

Very good Australian analysis.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15425026%255E2703,00.html

Headed off to the Folklife Festival.
& next weekend is a big Children's Gathering for Peace.
& soon we will launch not 10,000 cranes (the Japanese origami birds for peace) but 10,000 KITES for peace!! 10,000!

We should not have to promote world peace.
It should just exist.
A week from tomorrow Kit comes from the UK and will spend a month with us. He worked for our cause last year & just finished with the UK election. Right after that, the French guy who stayed with us two summers comes with his mother to NYC and they exchange flats for 3 weeks with some Americans from NYC who will stay at their place in Paris. Then we go visit both of them in the fall.
It's called personal diplomacy.
Governments aren't doing it.

DiAnne,

Ours certainly isn't. The one-to-one learning process is so powerful though--almost as powerful as the one-to-one followed by the one-to-self.

If every one of us could learn from others and contribute from personal wisdom--gained from reading and thinking and writing--we would come to great truths.

Kind of like we do here...

Thanks Polly for your usual list of good suggestions. As we are often reminded, we live in an age of irony. I find one of the greatest ironies of the fundamentalist effort to set up a theocracy is that it is only BECAUSE of the separation of church and state that some of these extremist churches can exist at all. The power-mad preachers forget that several thousand years of the history of the interaction between the church and the state show that it is bloody difficult, in the most literal sense possible of bloody, for the followers of anyh one religion to impose their beliefs on the followers of any other religion. Our founding fathers had seen what a mess comingling the state and a state-sponsored religion could create, and they wanted nothing to do with it. By insisting on this separation, they made it possible for the United States to be at once the most religious country in the world, with hundreds and hundreds of different factions, but at the same time maintain the peace of civil society. If Dobson and Frist and the rest of them have their way, they will (here comes that irony, ka-boom) be destroying the very structure that makes it possible for them to exist in the first place.

Polly Sigh, wonderful post. I think the whole notion of "conservative" merits discussion in today's climate. I say this because the people bent on destroying Social Security and imposing restrictions on personal freedoms and killing the United Nations and invading other countries are anything but conservative.

Yet, they take pride in calling themselves conservatives! This is a badge of honor they wear. Real conservatives must cringe every time they hear one of those Fristian radicals call himself conservative. I think we should stop using the word conservative to describe these people. They are extremist activists. Activist extremists. Something, but not conservative.

Conservatives are slow to change. They don't believe in rushing into change based on feelings, and they are reluctant to make changes just for the sake of change. For a conservative, change should be slow, and unavoidable. Necessary, and a sure success. Conservatives are pragmatists, realists.

It used to be that "liberals" were the ones thought to be ruled only by emotions and feelings, bereft of common sense, ignorant of the real facts. That's hard to believe now, isn't it? We now have over half a country that doesn't give a fig about facts, even the most glaring, blatent facts.

I propose that we stop using the word conservative in a negative way and start hammering home the fact that these neocons and their fanatical faux religious cabal are anything but conservative. We need a better name.

And let's remind America about the value of real conservatism.

That's so very true, Karen....

Only we can decide what to do with the time that is given us --- and if each one of us, in our own unique, individual ways, will light a candle of hope and peace in our hearts and in our actions each day, then that one flame can grow to a flame that lights a nation and hopefully, one day, the world.

~*~ "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi ~*~

You won't believe this... I can hardly type for the tears in my eyes. Vets checking in at DU outnumber those checking in at Freeper HdQtrs, about 300 to one.

If your heart can stand to be overcome with gratitude, check out all the military heroes who are on the side of truth and sanity:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3734985

"We are the stewards of their sacrifice." W Clark

DNC Memorial Day Radio Address
General Wesley Clark

May 28, 2005

(As prepared for delivery)

"Good morning, I’m Wesley Clark. This weekend across the country, we take time to remember those who fought and died in our Nation’s wars to keep America free.

On Memorial Day this Monday, I will remember those in uniform who served in World War II and inspired me to enter military service in 1962.

Like others of my generation, I will walk by the Veterans Memorial in downtown Little Rock and I will remember the names of friends and school mates who fought alongside me. They selflessly gave up their freedom to fight for the freedom of others.

Today, America continues to faces a national security challenge. As Democrats, we are resolved to meet that challenge and defend America from danger.

Meeting that challenge starts with making sure that our men and women in the armed forces are equipped to be the most effective fighting force in the world. In every way possible, we need to support them and make sure they get the tools and training they need to do their dangerous job as safely and effectively as possible.

That means our men and women on the frontlines should be paid fairly and their families should be taken care of while they are fighting overseas. We should create a military that our young people will be proud to be a part of.

Democrats want to ensure Americans in uniform receive the benefits they deserve. We should allow reservists and National Guard members to receive health insurance through TRICARE, the military’s health care system.

We also should keep our promises to American veterans and provide the medical care they need.

Democrats stand for a strong foreign policy that uses all the tools at our disposal. Democrats want to expand America's active duty forces by 40,000 so we can effectively fight the war on terror.

Although our budget is tight, it should reflect our priorities, and our priority is to our men and women in uniform.

This Memorial Day, the country will come together to honor those veterans who fell from the line, making the ultimate sacrifice for our country, those who fought and came home sadder and wiser, and those who were left behind. We are not just the beneficiaries of their bravery.

We are the stewards of their sacrifice. Thank you for listening."

Rothschild | Stripping Rumsfeld and Bush of Impunity
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052805X.shtml

Dear Polly Sigh....

Reading the above article made me sigh with weariness and wonder when/if the people in the current administration will ever be held accountable for their many crimes against humanity in the rush to control the oil in Iraq....

Grab a cuppa java, Ms. Sigh - the article is long and detailed....

NonnyO,

Yes, they will.

Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052805A.shtml

Nonny --

It's true that the struggle for the soul of a nation is an exhausting one. Even I find myself occasionally experiencing a tiny sense of fatigue.

At these times, we must take a break from our work, and tend to our own souls. Then we return to the fray with renewed determination.

Such is the life of a freedom fighter.

Thank you for all your effort, and for providing the link to the above article. We must stay informed if we are to fight the forces that would claim our democracy.

Keep the faith.

Amy,

I read some of the posts on DU and am prompted to write this memorium of my Uncle Harold:

Harold was from small town Pennsylvania. He was a very popular, athletic and talented young man. According to my father, Harold was always the first picked for sports competitions, and was certainly one of the most popular and gregarious young men in his high school. Harold is now 70 years old and lives alone in NYC. I met him about twenty years ago and remember a gentle, quiet, softspoken man with a tender smile and warm handshake. He is now a shell of a man who is afraid to speak with others. Harold was brutalized by the Korean War and returned home without a job and without the motivation to pick up his life where it had left off before going to war. As a veteran, Harold is at risk of losing his benefits if he accepts monetary gifts. Therefore he absolutely refuses any money from my father. All the while he has seen his veteran's benefits whittled away. He does not have a phone and prefers it that way. Harold is one of the thousands who though they lived through a war, are actually some of its most tragic victims. Every year when I put my flag out the veterans, I put my flag out especially for my Uncle Harold.

Once again shocked [shocked] (not)
_____________________________________

Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.

The civilian analysts, former military men considered experts on foreign and U.S. weaponry, work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), one of three U.S. agencies singled out for particular criticism by President Bush's commission that investigated U.S. intelligence.

snip

Pentagon spokesmen said the awards for the analysts were to recognize their overall contributions on the job over the course of each year. But some current and former officials, including those who called attention to the awards, said the episode shows how the administration has failed to hold people accountable for mistakes on prewar intelligence.

[au contraire, mon chere, it's just business as usual for BushCo]
_____________________________________

Analysts Behind Iraq Intelligence Were Rewarded
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701618_pf.html

Here is the Memorial Day story of my dad:

My dad joined the National Guard & his unit went to the Pacific from Pierre, South Dakota. He had just finished high school but the only job he could find was for peanuts, on a farm, where the working conditions were brutal. He was the oldest of seven. His name was Roger, he lived for the drum & bugle corps and big band music. He had the looks of a movie star, but I don't think he was aware of it.

He was always a voracious reader. When I'd come home from college, he'd go through my suitcase & at first I was upset. Then I realized that he was looking for reading matter that he hadn't been through yet. He read more than any human being I have encountered since or before. He was a music teacher for delinguents, then on Indian reservations, but was always accused of being "too soft" on the kids.

The night before his funeral, I found a biography that he had laboriously typed, even though he had Parkinson's disease. I reproduced it, with photographs, and distributed it at his funeral.

He never advanced beyond Private First Class, which he attributed to his Methodist upbringing and failure to indulge in drinking, smoking and card playing. I think, rather, that he was painfully introverted, had his nose in a book whenever possible or was looking for ways to indulge his obsession with music. He did not know how to suck up to his superiors or hang with the right people. He was not a group person, which I think I have inherited! & he was completely unique and original and thought for himself, which I hope I've gotten some of too.

He was in the Army band and hoped to go to music school when he returned, on the GI bill. The Army was segregated then but during his basic training in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he would find ways to get together with the black troops to play his saxophone. He would be kicked off public transit because he tried to sit with his black friends on the back of the bus. He was completely mystified by racism.

He fell in love in Australia but never returned and married my mom instead. He had delayed stress syndrome and depression so severe that he had a series of shock treatments at the VA, then had a memory lapse so severe that he didn't recognize us for awhile and someone else had to pick out his Christmas presents for us. My mom had to support 3 kids on a part-time job so we got US government commodities, which we'd bring home from the Court House in a wagon. We ate alot of corned bread and spam while he as in the VA for quite awhile.

As kids, we would find his paranoid cartoon drawings, which showed his co-workers saying ad things about him. He was obsessed with building a fallout shelter for us and equipping it. After awhile, he was too stressed to continue with teaching and took on a garbage route. My mother had to work as well, so my dad would take my little brother with him on the route & at age 2, he soon had all the stops memorized. We actually ate pretty well, as he'd meet some of the grocery truck drivers and they'd give him past code bread, milk and produce, which we'd freeze.

During the race riots in the late '60s, he was glued to the tv and he started to get really paranoid, talking about how it would be father against son, etc etc. We had many arguments about the Vietnam war, as I know he had very mixed feelings. We used to ask him about WW2 but he would always answer in the abstract and was evasive.

I know that he voted Democrat always (though my mother at the time voted Republican). I remember one time when we were at my redneck great uncle's place (mother's side of the family) and we found out that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. Uncle Hank said, "Hallelujah, they finally got the son of a bitch!" and my dad said we were leaving. He didn't say a word on the way home & wouldn't go back there after that.

In his autobiography, he revealed something he'd never told anyone - on the beach (at Darwin?) he saw a planeload of guys bail and they were too close to the ground and their parachutes didn't open, leaving carnage all over the beach. I pretty much assumed that was part of what the delayed stress syndrome was about.

The G8's position (lack of position, rather) on climate change has been leaked.

In 2000 words, the world's richest nations have NO PLAN. They don't care about the planet.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1494434,00.html

My Dad was in Korea between WWII and the Korean War--he was a doctor there. I know he had to deal with the carnage of the worst train wreck in Korea and hundreds of bodies.

One of my students gave me a gift of some coasters that said "Wonderful Korea" on them. My Dad was visiting and I used them. He picked one up and grunted and said "There was nothing wonderful about Korea."

It's the only time he ever mentioned his service to me.

Karen

My dad used to avoid the topic so I found out most from the autobiography, which he'd typed little by little when my mother wasn't home, & then hid in the top of the closet.

He would tell us though, "eat your food. I've seen kids with arms about as big around as your fork." He was referring to the Philipines.

He would also tell us that he once found an iguana in his hammock, and that some guys took the biggest potato on the ship, carved "Hungry Hall" into it, & put it on his tray. (He was a tall skinny guy who could eat like a horse, & I don't think I inherited his metabolism!)

Amy we are very greatful, very greatful to have Republicans at our site and especially you. I will not direct any post to you. But I do have an absoloute right to disagree with anyone at this site and will continue to do so even at times people with people I consider to be friends like Casey,tutterfly, otter,indy, Suz and even oncall at times. The purpose of this site is to broaden our horizons, not to argue or personalize and I sincerely did not mean to do that and apologize if that is the way you read it.I think the phrase we should challenge each other and at times disagree but not be disagreeable.I did not mean to be disagreeable.
If all we do is come here and agree 100% we are preaching to the choir and will never expand our base.That is a recipe for disaster.We all come here with different backgrounds and life experiences and that is the true beauty of this site.

My wife knows first hand about the Clinton economy and as a Texan who constantly heard my Congressman and my Senator come to town and constantly oppose every aspect about the 500 billion dollar defecit reduction plan that cost the Democratic party control over Congress(which they controlled until '94) and was unanimously opposed by every single Republican. Phil Graham's exact words, The Clinton budget will push the US economy into the ditch". I honestly believe that that it is revisionist histor to claim that the Republican party had anything to do with the 1993 deficit reduction plan that while it was not singly responsible for the Clinton economy Greenspan spoke highly of and gave Clinton credit for finally cutting the defeict and pushing down interest rates. Yes there were other international economic factors involved I just strongly believe that this nation's economy is better served with Democrats controlling the budget. I believe they are better stewarts of the budget and take seriously the deficit and that is something that we should be absolutely proud of. And yes people like Robt Byrd does abuse thhe budget for his local pork projects, we can all agree on that.

My comments were not a slam against you but Chuck and I (and after our meeting Chuck I believe you will agree) that Dems need to be more upfront about and boast about how much better Dems handle the economy and how impt sound economic and corporate policies are to our lives. I am proud that Dems fight for a balanced budget, worker rights, a living minimum wage,sound consumer and environmental policies, the ADA, FMLA, SS and Sarbanes/Oxley. Corporations and corporate profits are not our enemy, they are necessary engines to a strong economy. Corporate abuses like Haliburton, Walmart and Enron are inexcusable and are the exception to sound corporate governance. There are some consistent honest Republicans in Congress who believe in consumer rights as well as well as corporate growth. Unfortunately the one's I have met in my community and the few Chamber of Commerce meetings I have attended do not understand that a strong US economy requires both. They unfortunately think of only tax cuts, and corporate liability shields, not govt services or consumer rights.

Secondly my family has expierienced personally the economic hardship of working at a very high level in several fortune 500 companies, seen the massive massive layoffs and the extreme length of time and difficulty of getting rehired. We are Jewish and went to local Christian networking organizations and saw the massive numbers of local CFOs, V.P. and top executives at high levels taking 1-2 years to get hired at 80% of their wages and reduced benefits since 2001 so I am alittle sensitive when I hear criticism of what was for my family and numerous friends, a better more economically secure life under Bill Clinton.
I think we know something personally about healthcare benefits and their structure, their explosion in corporate costs and what they are doing to corporate profits and how that trickles down to employees.

Again I believe that there is nothing wrong with being pro RESPONSIBLE business, pro growth pro employment and pro enviroonment and I was excited that my party party and my candidate had taken that position and presented a sensible pro business pro consumer healthcare plan last year. I was totally disappointed and those that saw my post last summer know that at the JK site I strongly urged that our candidate make his healthcare and economic plan more prominent in his campaign. I watched the Peter Hart focus groups in Ohio and heard women business and working class people comment that they had not heard anything of JK's healthcare or corp tax policies. As bloggers we kept up with, as a blogger I just want to make sure that that message is never forgotten.

"Third, don't talk to me about Clinton's legacy. You and many others need to read some non-partisan criticism of that administration - Kitty Kelley's book "The Family" might be a place to start if real documents are too daunting. Or just use google, and start with the topic "Media Conglomeration." Yes, the Clinton economy was good. That is another issue, and was not only or even necessarily attributable to Clinton. We had a Republican congress and senate for much of that time, and the technology boom and inflated earnings were also contributors to the boom effect. And things became good under Roosevelt, but he didn't kiss up to the corporate power elite the way Clinton did. Why don't YOU do a little reading on a non-partisan progressive website."

Amy we are all here to be educated and I will gladly read any book on conservative or progressive economis and share my thoughts with you, just please please don't ask me to read Kitty Kelley's trash. Do you read the weekly magazine Liberal Opinion? Do you read Paul Krugman or Kevin Phillips they were strong supporters of clinton's economic policies? Those are opinions I follow but I have a completely open mind and would love to share thoughts and new sources of ecomomic policies, conservative, moderate or liberal about what we folks can do to attract more people to our cause. That is the single reason I come to this site, and I am perfectly Ok if I ruffel a few feathers. I just don't think that we should drive folks away, and I belive there are many here,who either work for, have family or friends or neighbors working for mutinational corporations. My point: we should not generalize and say all large corporations are bad. Unfortunately our 527s require that we raise tons of monet to compete with the swiftboat liars and I am not about to unilaterally disarm in the name of principles.

By the way there was a troll called mk that came here several weeks ago that made nasty comments to oncall when he asked him to read Jim Wallis'God's Politics. He slammed Jim Wallis but said he couldn't bother to read an opposing view. We should never follow that myopic path.Personally I think that we should read and discuss our opponent's books and writings to expand our horizons starting with Newt's latest.

JK in '08.

post to DU:

740. I'm a Vietnam Vet

I spent too long over there not to learn that our country shouldn't make the same mistake again. Many innocent persons died on both sides.

I have been a vocal critic of the Iraq War and will continue to do so. Forums such as this are where our voices will be heard.

A former JK blogger named Mary from Rhode Island asked me to let people know that John Conyers hosted a panel on media on Tuesday and it's being aired tonight.

It had Randy Rhodes, David Brock & others. It may also be archived on C-span for watching on the computer. It's on right now on the east coast and may be rebroadcast - not sure about other time zones.

Yikes! I looked on their site & all I saw was "Road to the White House" - Jeb Bush in Savannah - talking about moral issues. Spare me!

I just got back from the grocery store where there was a tabloid with Bush on the cover standing in a soup line! Don't we wish.

JK in 08'..for sure! BTW,John and Teresa married 10 years this weekend..HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to them.

Florida County Urged to Ditch Voting Machines
http://ar.atwola.com/link/93179288/102974477/aoladp?target=_blank&border=0

MIAMI (May 28) - Miami-Dade County's elections chief has recommended ditching its ATM-style voting machines, just three years after buying them for $24.5 million to avoid a repeat of the hanging and dimpled chads from the 2000 election.

Elections supervisor Lester Sola said in a memo Friday that the county should switch to optical scanners that use paper ballots, based on declining voter confidence in the paperless touch-screen machines and quadrupled election day labor costs.

Fifteen of Florida's 67 counties chose touch-screen machines after the 2000 election fiasco. The machines have caused problems during at least six elections, including the September 2002 primary, when some polls could not open and close on time and Democratic primary results for governor were delayed by a week.

Miami-Dade would be the first place in the nation to ditch the iVotronics machines for paper-based balloting, said Ken Fields, a spokesman for Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., the company that makes the devices.

Sola said it would cost $9.4 million to $12.3 million to equip the entire county with optical scan machines.

His report was forwarded to the county commissioners who must decide whether to get rid of the machines. The touch-screen machines will be used in elections while the issue is decided, officials said.

Patti
So one year ago today, John & Teresa were dining at Canlis in Seattle. John had spoke in the rain on the waterfront. I had to help procure umbrellas. Ben Doko & I had been limo drivers for the day & at this time, you & I were meeting Teresa & John in the Westin. We followed Congressman McDermott in & we made it to the velvet rope. We were dancing at the back of the room to Johny B. Goode. I got "Tour of Duty" autographed, & a picture of Bush with a forked tongue & John kissed me on the cheek when I told him I was a blogger!!

Yes Dianne,great memories! What sad times we live in now.

My grandfather served in World War II. He was part of the D-Day invasion. He never spoke of the war. What I know of his experiences I've heard second hand. My uncle served in Korea and was wounded, but did come home and start a family. I had a great uncle, whom I never met...he served with Eisenhower in Europe and reportedly they were friends. I have a friend who is in the Marine Corps....he served in Afghanistan and has been on two tours in Iraq.
All of those in our families, and those who are our friends, who have served so valiantly, those who have returned home with battle scars on their bodies and even deeper scars in their souls, and those who gave the last full measure on a field far from home....they are all heroes…..those we know and love, those we never knew, those who are with us still, those who have passed from this world into a more peaceful eternity, and those who have left us in body yet remain forever in our hearts -- may we remember them always, may we honor their sacrifice and courage, and may we commit our lives to the great cause of peace so that, one day, green grasses may grow on battlefields and cover the bloodsoaked stains of sacrifice and war, and may flowers grow and may children play and may future generations honor these precious warriors by extending a hand of peace and not the fist of war.
Plato wrote: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." May we go forth in this new millennium and commit ourselves to setting forth a new tomorrow where only the dead must know the true horror of war, where the living honor the sacrifices of those who served by fighting for and preserving peace so that future generations may only read and remember the wars of the past, and ensure that the sacrifices of those gallant ones remain the breath of hope and peace in each rising sun and in each twilight of every day on every ocean and every plain.

Hastert directs millions to birthplace
Earmarked money skirts procedures

By Dan Morgan
The Washington Post
May 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - When Scott B. Palmer received an honorary degree in 2002 from his alma mater, Aurora University in Illinois, he urged the graduating class to "give back to our university, to our community and to our country."

As chief of staff to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Palmer runs a congressional office that has been able to do just that for Aurora, the birthplace of his boss and the largest city in his boss's home district.

Hastert has earmarked $24 million in grants for Aurora-based nonprofit groups since becoming speaker in 1999, using an obscure section of the big federal spending bills passed each year.

Read more...

The link to the Hastert article would help...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8020280/

Here is a really interesting article on the origin of the filibuster and how bloggers and Googlers play a big part, through support of single issue causes etc.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/29/INGJPCTEAP17.DTL

That article comes from Andree, who's been really busy because the French referendum on the EU Constitution is going on today. It's 2 PM there so the polls should close in about 8 hours.

What's happening is that people are turning out in droves even at French embassies in the US & Mexico (where French living there vote), in French polynesia, Micronesia etc. and certainly in France where it's a huge and polarizing issue (I've been following it in French for 3 weeks).

I think it's a really important election because people are really voting on whether they think the EU is viable and alot of frustration about high unemployment, rapid immigration, outsourcing is feeding into something that may not have as much to do with that as they think. It's hot!

Here is the first good article on the subject I've seen in the American Press:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/29/international/i070626D76.DTL

Here is the first report:

Done! We all went to the poll station this morning, and it was OVER PACKED!!!!!

It’s been a long time since I haven’t seen so many people voting : grannies, very young voters, families with prams and kids, middle-aged people... They were all there, and we had to wait for at least 15 mn, which is a lot here....
Strangely enough, no one took time to get into the booth. People took their bulletin, put it in the enveloppe while on the line and dropped it into the box. No one said a word...

I had my mother on the phone, who told me that it was the same in her area, and that if she had been able to vote with her feet also, she would have done it. She is mad at the socialists and Fabius who broke their party line. All her friends who knew the war are dashing to the polls as well. At 12 p.m, 25,8% of people had already voted. It’s 5% more already than for Maastricht.

We should have the results very late, because the polling stations in Paris do not close until 10 p.m, and 8 p.m for the rest of the country.

Michelle
Wonderful to read..

Patti
I refuse to be so sad because of "them" .. then they win.