The Tao of Politics, Chapter Six

Matt,

Great analysis of the tao or ying and yang. It is two forces--opposing each other--cause and effect in other words.

It's also a recognition that we have both 'women and man' emotions in each of us regardless of our gender, but Bush and his proponents put the masculine emotion on to look "strong" while ridiculing the feminine version of compassion and diplomacy; then the feminine version is (was) out of necessity brought back later. (Hense you have Bush behaving NOW like Kerry said he would do at the get go. But to me, Kerry was both last year--strong yet diplomatic and compassionate.)

Link to two short excerpts from longer articles explaining the media situation in America today. Great link to send to those who don't know about this problem but might spend 30 seconds to learn a little.

"Today, at the start of the 21st century, five multimedia conglomerates -- Viacom, Disney, News Corporation, Vivendi Universal and AOL Time Warner - exert unprecedented power in marketing messages and products to young people. Here are excerpts from interviews with media critics about the marketing/media 'forcefield' of these conglomerates."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/themes/mediagiants.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/giants/

This one allows you to easily researh the holdings of the media giants. Another good one to pass on.

Masculine and Feminine exist within the same sphere, complimenting each other, compromising with each other, and through this are born stars, galaxies, planets, and the son or daughter dear to your heart.
The interaction exists at the molecular level, in the plant, animal and even mineral kingdoms. When the relationship moves too far in either direction, difficulty arises.

The most obvious example is reproductive rights. in attempting to control the reproductive process and decisions inherent, patriachal systems try to control and dictate options the woman has.

The more society tries to control reproductive rights, the worse imbalance will become. Nature will fight back, to restore itself. There are actually less boys being born today than 100 years ago, and the ratio is increasing.
Its not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

Humanity had spectacular cultures, where Feminine and Masculine existed on equal planes, Minoan, Norse, American indiginous societies, many more.
Maybe one day we shall see a return to the higher levels of life.

Color me surprised!

More corruption and a coverup in Ohio!

http://www.swingstateproject.com/2005/07/oh-02_huge_news.php

More Jean Schmidt stuff

http://www.dailykos.com/

New charges in coingate.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x386545

Ohio, poor Ohio, is becoming the playground for the rich and corrupt.

ThinkProgress and Time magazine::
an update:
the leak story may be bigger than we think:

Leaking Scandal Encircles More Administration Officials Than Previously Believed
Today, Time magazine reports that White House official Karl Rove and others may have learned “about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts.”

continue~
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/31/growing-scandal/

Shows another reason Hackett is smart and just right for the job!
**************

excerpt of news item from
www.Ohiohonestelections.org

###Sunday, July 31, 2005
Paul Hackett Campaign Worried About Election Fraud

(From the July 24, 2005 Hamilton Journal News by Bill Rentschler):

"It is a sad and depressing commentary on the state of our democracy that David Woodruff, campaign manager for candidate Paul Hackett in Ohio’s special 2nd Congressional District election on Aug. 2, is worried sick about obtaining an honest, accurate vote count."

"Woodruff is convinced a scrupulously accurate vote count will give his underdog candidate a majority in the balloting and send him to Congress."

"But Woodruff is not just wringing his hands over the prospect of vote fraud; he is taking aggressive action to stave it off and preserve the sanctity of the ballot for every voter. For several weeks, Woodruff has been recruiting and training a hard-nosed cadre of lawyers, off-duty cops and sheriff deputies, and citizen activists to guard the polls against vote fraud in every precinct in the sprawling seven-county 2nd District."

Sparrow,

And while your on this vote topic....check out this:

http://www.iwilltryit.com/fixed1.htm

On2Victory,

I saw that too. Yes, I think this treason is catching up to them because the media doesn't like their own sitting in jail--even if they think she's in cahoots with them.

~Bu$h broke Iraq.
Now he's going to cut & run:
in Bu$hWorld, GWoT became GSAVE this week...
(so what happens now to "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here"??? Forget that, that was last month's GOPer slogan.)
Bu$h says its a "struggle" now, no longer a "War on Terror"....
reason for the name re-deux: Bu$h doesn't HAVE enough spare troops to be "at war" in Iraq. So we no longer will stay until the job is done...we just conveniently change the definition of "the job", hand over Bu$h's mess to the Iraqi's, but keep just enough US troops there to keep the permanent bases we've built, ready for the next neocon-oil mission in the middleeast:::

Drawing Down Iraq
Drastic troop cuts are in the Pentagon's secret plans.

By Michael Hirsh and John Barry
Newsweek

Now the conditions for U.S. withdrawal no longer include a defeated insurgency, Pentagon sources say. The new administration mantra is that the insurgency can be beaten only politically, by the success of Iraq's new government.

Indeed, Washington is now less concerned about the insurgents than the unwillingness of Iraq's politicians to make compromises for the sake of national unity. Pentagon planners want to send a spine-stiffening message: the Americans won't be there forever. U.S. domestic factors are also forcing President Bush's hand. The Bush administration wants to pre-empt growing public pressure for withdrawal, which could give the insurgents a Vietnam-like strategic goal. Military planners, meanwhile, are deeply concerned about driving away Army careerists and recruits if current deployments are forced into 2007. If the U.S. Army has to do another rotation into Iraq in the fall of 2006 to keep force levels up to their current 138,000, it "goes off a cliff," says retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

The question is whether the insurgents will see the U.S. plan as a rush to the doors. And whether they and Iraqi militias will come to dominate the country in the vacuum left by U.S. forces, leading to civil war. A too-rapid withdrawal could even hand a victory to foreign jihadists streaming into Iraq. "What we have is a plan of action for pulling our troops out, not a strategy for success," says Andrew Krepinevich, a Washington strategist.

continue~
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8770418/site/newsweek/

Sparrow,
Why do those pesky Ohio republicans have so much trouble remembering who they know?
Thanks for your previous posts.
More Coingate and Schmidt:

http://www.thenewpolitics.com/2005/07/hackett_shames_.html

Sparrow,
Do you think Jean could be Roberts' long lost cousin since they both have such good memories?
I'm tired of Ohio! Is there room in Ann arbor for me?

It's about sex; it always was.

It's about the physical superiority of the female body that can give birth to, and feed, the young of the next generation. Who falls asleep after orgasm? The energized being after orgasm is a woman - and she is the only being necessary to stay alive after an orgasm to escape predators who might attack and kill vulnerable humans in the act of sexual intercourse, because she could be pregnant and it's necessary for her to survive to produce the next generation. Except for their sperm, males have always been expendable in an evolutionary sense.

It's about the fact that women can use both halves of their brain at the same time because they have a cord at the back of their brains that connect the halves which enables communication between the right and left brain hemispheres in female brains - they use both sides of their brain at the same time, which means they can interpret the sounds (not language/words) of voices and body language - originally needed to be able to care for babies, 'cuz reading body language and distinguishing sounds of contentment all the way up to stress is necessary, even as they converse with someone at the same time. (Modern studies indicate gay males have that cord, too, which is probably why women like to have conversations with gay men - they understand women and communicate on the same level!) The really smart men can switch back and forth between the two hemispheres of their brains, but they can't use both sides of their brain at the same time; only women have that dual function. The disconnect in communication styles is very much a reality because women can impart knowledge and gather knowledge at the same time.

Even Genesis had to acknowledge that with the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Immortality. They couldn't change immortality (it's in the DNA; specifically, mtDNA is only passed to the children of both sexes from the mother). Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge first - women had knowledge first. She gave knowledge to men, and what was Adam's response when asked who gave him the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge? 'She gave it to me, and I ate,' Adam whined. Men have been blaming women for the knowledge they gained from women all these centuries, in other words, and most men haven't used that knowledge wisely. Ancient paleolithic cave paintings do not depict wars. They depict animals and hunting scenes, but not war. That was a later invention by men.

When the patriarchal religions began some 3000 years ago, it was still a time of transition when agrarian and settled societies were coming into being. Up until that point (between 3-5000 yrs ago) men had apparently not made the connection between sex and the emergence of a baby some nine months later. All men knew was that women had the power to give and sustain the life of the young. Paleolithic cultures made statues of women - as far as I know, only one male figure was found, and that was in the late 1980s, and he was dubbed the Brno man from the site where the figure was found. All the other statues were of female figures, commonly called 'Venus figurines' by archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians. Why so many figures of women? Because women's bodies were "magic" - they could produce offspring of both sexes and their breasts fed the next generation. So much power in one body! The cult of sexualizing breasts as sex objects for men is a 20th century phenomenon. The only reason female mammals have mammary glands is to feed babies; that is the only function of breasts. Check your dictionaries for the definition of 'mammal.' When men sexualized women's breasts, the male doctors decreed bottle feeding was best for babies.... only to have research prove mother's milk is best for babies all these years later.... Mother Nature still knows best how to make and feed babies, and it didn't take any fancy-schmancy laboratory scientist to prove it!!!

It's thought that most or all societies at the time were matrilineal and matriarchal. Celtic societies reckoned their relationships through matrilineal relationships. When I was in a Native American Lit class in college, one of the men who was a Native American said women "owned" everything, the children and the property. To give men something to do, they became the hunters. When caucasians landed on these shores, many of the 'great white fathers' had their noses put out of joint because they had to deal with the women elders of the tribes! Besides the paleolithic digs, Catal Huyuk and other areas are thought to have had matrilineal and matriarchal cultures until the white invaders from the north conquered them and made them patriarchal cultures over time. Look to the poetry about Inanna and The Epic of Gilgamesh for ancient references to matriarchal cultures.... all of which pre-date the Old Testament of the Bible.

However, once the connection between sex and producing babies was known, it became somehow vitally important for men to make sure that women were the monogamous beings in a relationship... and some religions instituted polygamous marriages - which meant one male's DNA would be going forward with the next generation by having sex with more than one woman - but all of that is contingent upon women being monogamous, having only one sexual partner; it does not depend on men being monagamous. Family groupings of primates, herds of horses, cattle, sheep, etc., were the first role models for men.... one dominant male, many females. The only difference is that a dominant human male over a herd of women became a life-long "bond" through man-made laws invented in patriarchal cultures; in the wild, the dominant male is ousted by a younger male on a cycle of about every two years on average.

Male children came to be valued highly in ancient patriarchal cultures... boys are born weaker and less well-developed than girls, they have a higher mortality rate than girls, and they develop more slowly - girls usually speak sooner, develop faster. I didn't invent those statistics! What was true in ancient times is still true today, according to my college biology prof who told the class he envied women because women have estrogen (his wife was a nice woman, too). Exceptions to the rule noted, in general, women are physically better off than their male counterparts because they start out with advantages that males don't have. Most males do catch up, but they also develop later than females.

At the absolute base level, the whole modern flap about abortion is centered on the archtypal fear that a male isn't strong enough to control the female(s) with whom he'd like to sire children. Never mind that Mother Nature naturally aborts most fertilized eggs because they are not viable - they don't connect to the placenta properly, etc., and a miscarriage results, and most women never realize that fact because they don't even know they are pregnant, just that they are late by a day or two (I've read estimates as high as 80% of all pregnancies fail to produce a full-term fetus). Never mind that women (and remember, women were the midwives and usually the first doctors in any community many centuries ago) have known which herbs would induce an abortion - thus limiting the number of pregnancies she had. The Inquisition and later witchcraft trials took care of the "problem" of knowledgeable women who could help other women with some form of birth control - and be doctors for everyone at the same time with their knowledge of herbs and how human bodies function.

I remember when Ashley Montagu was on Johnny Carson. I think it was when he published his book entitled The Natural Superiority of Women. He created quite a stir for a while! (To his credit, Montagu also tried to get the horrific practice of female genital mutilation stopped. He deserves kudos for that effort!) Women have physical superiority on their side to be able to procreate our species, but in modern times many women have given up any attempt at developing their intellect; the feminist movement tried to remedy that situation, and the backlash against women with knowledge has been in full force since 2000. I've also read about the theory that men have created great art, music, literature, etc., because they had to compensate for the fact that they couldn't produce and nurture human babies, so they created other things instead. The points are quite valid, IMHO, and I admire those men greatly, even if they had no clue that in the collective subconscious they were trying to compensate for their inability to produce and nurture babies. They used their knowledge in positive ways that have been aesthetically pleasing to millions of people who appreciate their intelligence and their creativity.

This brief synopsis aside (I don't have time to write a book right now!), strip away centuries of man-made laws and artificial social and cultural conventions, and at the bottom level is sex... The males who are well-developed mentally, emotionally, and physically are able to deal with the procreative potential women are born with, and they accept the fact that women can produce babies and feed babies and that by Mother Nature's laws they are expendable, and those positive examples of genuine manhood make up for it by being creative in other ways. They are the "good guys" of this world, and there are so few of them who are even heard nowaday. I heartily wish there were more men like them!!! They understand that difference doesn't mean unequal, just different, and they contribute to society in creative and positive ways that are sometimes not appreciated until long after they are dead. (I know what good guys are like; my father was one, and I still miss him thirty years after his death.)

Instead, the harsh reality is that we currently have a nation dominated by men who, deep in their insecure psyches, cannot deal with the fact that Mother Nature made them expendable. They are not well-developed mentally or emotionally, sometimes not physically. They are not creative in any sense, so in the absence of any genuine intellectual or creative pursuits, they have to dominate - women, children, other men, ethnic groups they deem less than they are, other countries.... name it, and they only thing they can think of is how to acquire and keep dominion over the beings or property they deem lesser than themselves, and only because they were born inadequate and never developed beyond a toddler stage emotionally. In their nihilism they seek power for the sake of power and have no idea how to wield power with any sense of justice or fairness; they just seek power to dominate for the sake of doing so.

IMHO.....

Thanks for the great thread header, Matt! You have to be one of the "good guys" to give a nod to the Divine Feminine, and I appreciate it more than you know....

Ok since I seem to be alone here, I'll ask another question. How could the Cincinnati Enquirer endorse this woman after talking about her connection to Tom Noe? Well, as Indy often says ..Got hypocrisy?

good insight, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Talk of troop reduction in Iraq cheers, troubles experts

By Philip Dine Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
07/31/2005

WASHINGTON - The administration's talk about sharply reducing the number of American troops in Iraq starting as early as next spring gets a strong endorsement from military experts, both those who support the war and those who question it.

But they also say there is much more to the "trial balloon" floated by U.S. officials last week than the situation on the ground, which Gen. George W. Casey, commander of American forces in Iraq, says is stable enough to draw down the troop level.

One key factor cited from across the political spectrum is the mounting strain on the U.S. military, particularly the Army, Marines, National Guard and Reserves, whose members are facing multiple deployments to Iraq.

"The U.S. military is pretty tapped out," said Michele Flournoy, a senior Pentagon official in the Clinton administration and now an expert on military strategy and planning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "There are military strains that are causing them to think about whether they can manage in Iraq with fewer forces."

continue~
http://tinyurl.com/98av8

Great read, Nonny! Thanks. That must have taken some time to write!

I love reading here on Sundays - love Matt's articles and the responses both. Don't have time to contribute today as the weather at my house is as perfect as it comes!

Regarding the inevitable Republican vote fixing in Ohio, I don't see what all the poll coverage will do if the fraud takes place in the machines. It's in the tally -

What's that saying about he who counts the votes? Anyway, I want Hackett to win this as much as anyone, but I'm not holding my breath for a fair election in this country in any district, unless we get a paper trail for every vote, and every election is recounted by hand after the voting.

Nonny, imagine all that was lost at Alexandria.... men still fear women. They still fear us.

Here's food for thought, something to hope for:
The belief systems of the age of the Mother (Matriarchy), the age of the Father (Greco-Romans), and the age of the Son (Judeo-Christian) have come and gone, leaving their impact on us.

This current age heralds the return of the Daughter. The Daughter, who will be stronger, wiser, healthier, happier and more spiritually connected to all of life around Her, is coming into Her own."

I picked it up off of a Feminist Astrology site which I can't seem to find again at the moment....

http://www.matrifocus.com/

It's from one of the articles on this site - I think it was called "The Daughter Returns in Darkness" or similar. Sorry! Think it's interesting, though.

I'd forgotten my roots, my identity, my name, woman. Thanks, Matt and Nonny!

"

Posted by: NonnyO at July 31, 2005 04:27 PM

Thank you so much for the nuts and bolts documentation to balance my more poetic argument.

Posted by: kay at July 31, 2005 04:31 PM

I think we need to flood the Cincinnati Enquirer with LTEs suggesting all the reasons not to vote Republican in this election.

Knock off the female chauvanist sow crap please.

People fear other people when the other people are controlling and abusive.

How about we all try to address out own personal issues and stop blaming others...

Blaming others is what the Neocons do.

Penis envy Amy and Nonny-O?

No?

Then cut the crap.

Posted by: Amy at July 31, 2005 05:47 PM
Nonny, imagine all that was lost at Alexandria.... men still fear women. They still fear us.
Posted by: Amy at July 31, 2005 05:55 PM

I know.... I could weep buckets for what was lost at Alexandria. I'm unnervingly frustrated thinking about what we may be losing in Iraq in the way of ancient monuments and other art works, thanks to the stupidity of one power-mad egocentric male bent on destroying the area for the sake of oil... the Fertile Crescent, the Cradle of Civilization....

It didn't take all that long to write. Editing down took longer. How does one condense all the books one has read about ancient civilizations on up to the Renaissance??? However, in the ancient Goddess trinity of Maiden, Mother, Crone, it is the duty of the Crones to pass on their knowledge.... In most cultures it is the duty of the grandmothers and the grandfathers to give their knowledge to the youngest members of their family, their community.....
~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for the nuts and bolts documentation to balance my more poetic argument.
Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at July 31, 2005 06:08 PM

I like your poetic style for the thread better, Matt.

My penchant for asking "And before this was what?" and "What came before this?" has led me to genealogy, histories of people who came before my ancestors, mythology, archaeology, anthropology, psychology, literature, ethics, aesthetics, etc..., and once the artificial constructs of each civilization are stripped away, it leaves the only purpose every being has in the chain of things, whether it's our species or any other: procreation of the species, i.e. sex. Without sex, our species dies off. All the other stuff (especially the religious and legal laws invented by the patriarchs to control female sexuality) are artificial constructs....

Posted by: kay at July 31, 2005 04:21 PM

Kay,

Yep, lots of room in Ann Arbor for you. But we really need your help in Ohio.

I remember hearing that Toledo wanted to become a part of Michigan because it's their city who gets ignored in tht state budget.

Is that true?

Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at July 31, 2005 03:50 PM

On 2 victory,

What really bothers me about this is the fact that 9 months ago, Bush stood like a cowboy while the media and the GOP hacks called Kerry a coward for wanting diplomacy and target points.

Now, instead of getting a logical and the best outcome for the Iraqi people, Bush is cutting and running.

Let's hope we can throw that to the people in 06 and o8.

The culture of corruption and the culture of "tough cowboy" is now officially the culture of cowards and toddlers too--(break something then hide it behind the couch, just like a two year old!)

Oh, Indy! You are too funny! :-)

Who was being controlling and abusive? I wrote a sketchy historical overview and a couple of personal comments. Amy provided enlightened comments and a link to a neat web site.

High school biology class, early 1960s, I learned that human beings have four basic drives: food, shelter, clothing, sex.... and when the first three are accomplished, human beings have sex. Most of the other species (at least land creatures in their own ways) share three of those drives: food, shelter (at least when they have babies to protect), sex; and some creatures (think sea) share the drives for food and sex. At the basic level of our being, we are all animals.

Blame the patriarchs for what has transpired throughout history, especially regarding women? If the shoe fits.....

:-) Got uterine envy? :-)

From Democratic Underground--

Saturday, June 25, 2005
“With the stated goal of reclaiming the issue of faith from the Christian right, a new political organization for religious progressives launched Wednesday.”

“For years, we’ve been hearing the name of Christianity be used to speak about hatred, division, war and greed,” said Patrick Mrotek, the Jacksonville, Fla., health-management consultant who founded the group. “We believe we can no longer stand by and watch the language of our faith used in that manner, and we think it is time to reclaim our faith.”

“The alliance (www.christianalliance.org ) says it is “founded firmly on the teachings of the Gospel” and “will stand for pursuing economic justice; responsible environmental stewardship; equality for gays and lesbians; honoring the sanctity of childbearing decisions through effective prevention, not criminalization of abortion; seeking peace, not war; and achieving health care for all Americans.”

http://www.ohiohonestelections.org/index.php?p=taliban-...

If you haven't seen this site on Santorum yet, it's great! We should spread the word to all PA voters...

http://www.santorumexposed.com/

{{{ Unless I am very much mistaken, someone has finally (!!!) written a piece of advice with some common sense about the upcoming elections....!!!}}}

Rep. Jan Schakowsky | Democratic Dos and Don'ts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073105G.shtml
The turf is favorable, but we've been there before - in 2000 and 2004. What should progressives do as we approach the 2006 elections to capitalize on Americans' sense of unease and discontent?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/31/AR2005073100339.html
UN Nominee Called 'Damaged Goods' by Top Democrat

http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=db050730
Yesterday's Doonesbury to finish off the series on Rove.... (Click on Previous button all the way back to the beginning of the week if you missed it...)

5,000 US Troops Have Gone AWOL:
Getting Out of Iraq...One Way or Another
http://www.counterpunch.com/patrick07302005.html

US Forces Recruiting Overseas
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073105A.shtml
From Pago Pago in American Samoa to Yap in Micronesia, 4,000 miles to the west, Army recruiters are scouring the Pacific, looking for high school graduates to enlist at a time when the Iraq war is turning off many candidates in the States.

Cheney's boundless Iraq profiteering:
Things are going well in Iraq for the invaders. Well, at least for some people, such as US Vice-President Richard Cheney. He is receiving more than $US1 million ($A1.3 million) a year from Halliburton, the company of which he was CEO from 1995 to 2000, in "deferred remuneration" while he is VP. He is worth every penny.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9614.htm

Not a Matter of Religious Belief
The aggressors present their aggression and violence as noble.
by Abid Ullah Jan
"Righteous murderers may claim they're spreading democracy and defending human rights, but clearer heads and common sense can distinguish faith based motivation of fanatics, who have killed 128,000 people so far because God told their commander in chief to go to war from those who stand up to their tyranny and injustice irrespective of their religious belief."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9613.htm

Feinstein to Figure Into Roberts Hearings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073105C.shtml
John Roberts would replace the first woman on the Supreme Court at a time when interest groups are more focused than ever on the court's position on abortion. Only one female lawmaker will question Roberts publicly and then vote on whether his nomination should advance to the full Senate.

New York Times | The Roots of Prisoner Abuse
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073105D.shtml
This week, the White House blocked a Senate vote on a measure sponsored by a half-dozen Republicans, including Senator John McCain, that would prohibit cruel, degrading or inhumane treatment of prisoners. Besides being outrageous on its face, that action served as a reminder of how the Bush administration ducks for cover behind the men and women in uniform when challenged on military policy, but ignores their advice when it seems inconvenient.

Exclusive: Secret Memo—Send to Be Tortured
By Michael Isikoff
This memo appears to be the first that directly questions the legal premises of the Bush administration policy of "extraordinary rendition"—a secret program under which terror suspects are transferred to foreign countries that have been widely criticized for practicing torture.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9620.htm

Sparrow,
I don't know if Toledo has considered becoming part of Mich. I do think that there was a discussion of that in the past though. Just my daughter lives there. I'm in North Central Ohio, near Mansfield, hometown of Sherrod Brown. We hope Sherrod will oppose DeWind(oops-that's a typo, but on second thought it fits DeWine) next year for senator. He is a previous Ohio sec. of state and he led the Democrats in the fight against CAFTA. If anyone is interested in encouraging him , I ran into this site while reading about Paul Hackett:

http://runsherrodrun.com/

Posted by: sparrow at July 31, 2005 07:29 PM

sparrow, I second that.
I refuse to believe that 9-11 entitled Bu$hCo to use the US military for his own political purposes, but that is exactly what he has done.
Of all the thousands of unfair rovian propaganda tools that the bu$h crowd used, none raised my bp more than the disgraceful way they constantly use the military as props for their political agenda. There are far too many instances to list, from the flight-deck stunt down to the lowest example of all, those mockery "purple heart" bandaids on the craven at the RNC. It makes me wonder how a young wounded Iraq war vet must feel, accepting his/her own purple heart medal from a CIC who sanctioned his own conventioneers parading those disgusting bandaids mocking a purple heart vet from a previous war. That still steams me, to this day.
But Bu$hco has always used the military as props, nothing new there. This latest news that the US will be down sizing its forces in Iraq by March should be interesting to watch the "spin" in the next few months.
The whole world knows if the US withdraws troops, it won't be because Bu$h suddenly thinks it is the right thing to do. It is only because Bu$hco has run out of enough boots to replace those already over there. Its because he has to, not because he wants to.
But Bu$hco will never admit that he broke the military by over-stretching its capacity, so this "down sizing" will be spun 100 different ways, just like all the reasons Bu$hco gave for invading Iraq in the first place.
I don't know if this country will begin to hold them accountable beginning with Mr. Fitzgerald, or with the elections of '06 & '08. But sooner or later, this Republican Culture of Corruption that has taken over our government must be held accountable.

"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."
[Rev. MLK]

Kay,

Where in Central? Dayton area?

On to Victory,

The only reason Bush hasn't started the draft is because they KNOW they'll lose and it would take a lot more fraud to keep 06 if they did it now.

But will it be enough to keep the draft at bay in 07 or will they then be too worried about 08.

Perhaps, they really do realize they've lost the war and so they just as well cut it and move to the next winning war--Iran was it? Or someone told me Venezuela was coming too!

On to Victory,

The amazing thing to me is that things SEEM so black and white; yet we still had 50 percent of the population who just didn't get it!

They pretended torture was a few...

They pretended it was Clinton's fault 9-11 happened...

They pretended it's just politics and they both suck...

They pretended they wanted a nicer election process then OUT came the swiftie liars and they soaked it up like a sponge!

The list goes on!

So what do we do NOW to work towards 08 and who do we trust or believe in?

Hey guys Christys Bubba, has been in a serious a car accident, celebrating his birthday, all I know is he has got a fractured skull and has been taken to the LSU Medical Centre for surgery.

Christy Mum posted at http://rebellenation.blogspot.com/ just now.

Sparrow,
No I'm not near Dayton. I'm from North central near Mansfield, a little town called Shelby. Originally from the Portsmouth area though. , which I hope will soon call Paul Hackett their congressman. Scioto County was Ted Stricklands's district but due to redistricting by the Republicans , Ted represents one half and Portman represented the other. I guess Scioto leaned a little too Democratic so it had to be split.

Kay,

I hope the people in Ohio can recover their gov't from the corrupt forces. Sure, right now, it is really Republican corruption, but Ohio has a longstanding tradition of being corrupt.

That's pretty sad!

Kay...

I see you!

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&address=&city=mansfield&state=oh&zipcode=

And where is Hackett's area?

So what do we do NOW to work towards 08 and who do we trust or believe in?

Posted by: sparrow at July 31, 2005 09:36 PM

Ooops, I meant 06

Christy,
If you read this please know that we are all praying for you and your family.I hope all is going as well as can be...We are here for you if you need anything.

We hope Sherrod will oppose DeWind(oops-that's a typo, but on second thought it fits DeWine) next year for senator. He is a previous Ohio sec. of state and he led the Democrats in the fight against CAFTA. If anyone is interested in encouraging him , I ran into this site while reading about Paul Hackett:

http://runsherrodrun.com/

Posted by: kay at July 31, 2005 09:00 PM

Kay, Sherrod sounds great! Speaking of Hackett, though... would it be unrealistic to think of him possibly running for senate should he lose the election on tuesday?

Native--

He is running for U.S. house right? Not Ohio House?

Christy,
If you read this please know that we are all praying for you and your family.I hope all is going as well as can be...We are here for you if you need anything.

Posted by: sunflower at July 31, 2005 10:04 PM

http://www.democracycellproject.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=809&pid=3079&st=0&#entry3079

Native--

He is running for U.S. house right? Not Ohio House?

Posted by: sparrow at July 31, 2005 10:07 PM

right

Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at July 31, 2005 09:19 PM

Yet in the construction industry, contractor organizations are still sending me newsletters that tell me the "truth" in Iraq - that everything is going well, and that all the mayhem is a "liberal media invention," etc.

I've never felt so much hostility toward my own industry.

BTW, Christy - best wishes to you and your SO.

Lao Tse writes about Masculine and Feminine in almost universal language, it is manifest in everything around us.
Too much of either results walking off the path, or Tao.

The most succesfull cultures this planet witnessed have been nearly full partnerships between men and women, one day i hope we see them again.

Indy, why so nasty and mean to friends? In a friendly, ACADEMIC conversation yet? Why are you calling me a sow? I don't remember calling you personally any derogatory names that would prompt that kind of personal attack.

I'm surprised and disappointed, to say the least.

And my husband says to tell you that he sees me naked every night, and I am definitely NOT a sow.

I understand that your comment was designed to silence any discussion of a feminist view of our history, and I see that, as usual, the typical male weapon you used to silence us was very effective.

Got controlling and abusive, anyone?

Saudi King Fahd dies -state television
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-01T072858Z_01_N0193422_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SAUDI-KING-DC.XML

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Fahd died on Monday and Crown Prince Abdullah was swiftly pronounced monarch of the world's largest oil exporter and key U.S. ally.

"With deep sorrow and pain, the royal court... mourns the death of The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd due to illness," said an official statement read out on Saudi state television

The most succesfull cultures this planet witnessed have been nearly full partnerships between men and women, one day i hope we see them again.
Posted by: Toolmaker at August 1, 2005 02:12 AM

Which cultures were you referring to as having full partnerships? The reason I ask is that the acquaintances I have who are fundamentalist Christian are constantly talking about how they have a "full partnership" within their marriages, but their respective roles are different. Of course, I see it differently....

Humanity had spectacular cultures, where Feminine and Masculine existed on equal planes, Minoan, Norse, American indiginous societies, many more.
Maybe one day we shall see a return to the higher levels of life.

Posted by: Toolmaker at July 31, 2005 02:19 PM

Toolmaker, sorry, I missed this first post - now I see what you mean about balanced cultures.

Well said.

Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at July 31, 2005 09:19 PM

OTV,

I always enjoy your posts so much, you have no idea how much it helps me learn when I can gleen
a little from vets' (in politics)perspectives.
Especially yours, because you have been studying all this for over 5 years. I indeed appreciate it when you share, I hope you will be doing more of it.

OTV, that horrible purple band-aid taunting and mocking the Republicans did that night at their convention made me mad, too, and raised my bp. That was the night I said "$crew this", flipped off the t.v. and went to find out anything I could in how to connect with the Kerry campaign. I had watched Kerry for months, being above board and respectful of an administration that didn't deserve that respect, only to see them cruelly trashing him in public. It was the most disgusting thing to see. I don't care what they would have done after that, that was the night they "done me in". I will never support them again. Grrrr. Still makes me mad to this day.

And, there was a gal named Heidi who was the widow of a man killed in the 9-11 attacks. She had supported them until then, too. That same week, she got turned off, and joined the Kerry effort, and she campaigned with them on the road after that.

Sometimes I get a feeling that the Republicans (my OWN view, not that of the DCP) are akin to
the Romans of old, who used to thrill at gladiators being tossed to the lions. I mean it.
I am serious. Same mentality. IMHO.

Sparrow and NT4K,
Hackett has not had the political experience to run for Senator at this point I'm afraid. He has served on city council and that's it. Also he lives in south west Ohio and has had no state wide exposure before this. In Ohio it is very hard to be elected if you are from the southern part or do not have lots of name recognition. Of course this try at the vacant congressional seat is giving him nation wide exposure , so who knows! I have been very impressed with his honesty and straightforward manner. I'm sure his future will be bright no matter what he chooses.

But I'm praying for victory on Tuesday! Wouldn't that just send a message to Bush after Hackett called him a s. o. b. and the RNC funneled $500,000 to Schmidt? That would be enough to turn her red dress blue!

London bombing attempt revenge for Iraq
BY LETTA TAYLER
STAFF CORRESPONDENT

LONDON -- Bombers in the botched July 21 attacks here were avenging the deaths of Muslim civilians in Iraq, one suspect reportedly told authorities, as British and Italian police seized eight more suspects yesterday and extended their probe to Saudi Arabia.

The startling admissions by the suspect, Osman Hussain, during a closed-door hearing in Rome were published in Italian media yesterday as Britain and Italy remained on high alert for attacks.

The July 21 bombers were shown hours of footage of dead Iraqi civilians and grieving Iraqi widows in preparation for their attacks aboard three subways and a bus, Hussain, 27, was quoted as saying at the hearing in Rome, where he was captured Friday.

"We were told we must do something big," Hussain reportedly said.

Hussain's remarks provided an rare glimpse into training of Britain's homegrown terrorists. They mesh with investigators' discoveries of inciteful material in an Islamic bookstore in the northern British city of Leeds that was a hangout of three of the July 7 bombers. That material allegedly included depictions of civilian casualties in Iraq.

Recent polls show two-thirds of Britons believe the July bombings were linked to Britain's role in the Iraq war, a connection Prime Minister Tony Blair has dismissed as "nonsense."

One Italian paper quoted Hussain as insisting the blasts were intended to scare, not kill, while another quoted him as saying the bombers were prepared to blow themselves up.

British investigators have said that if the July 21 bombs had detonated properly, they would have been as lethal as those that exploded July 7, killing 52 mass-transit passengers and four bombers.

Hussain said the July 21 bombers had no links to al-Qaida and had not been aware of plans for the almost identical July 7 attacks. Security experts told Newsday it would not be unusual for foot soldiers to be kept in the dark about larger plots and said it was likely the planners had several more potential bombers on the loose in Britain.

Authorities are investigating possible links between the first bombings, allegedly committed by three British citizens of Pakistani heritage and a longtime British resident from Jamaica, and the second round, in which most suspects are Britons of East African origin.

Hussain, who reportedly was born Hamdi Isaac in Ethiopia, lived as a teenager in Italy and gained asylum in Britain by falsely claiming he was from war-torn Somalia. He reportedly told investigators he was recruited for the July 21 attacks by Muktar Said Ibrahim, one of three other alleged bombers seized Friday in London. He said he met Ibrahim in a London gym. Ibrahim taught the cell how to assemble explosives, he reportedly told a Rome magistrate Saturday.

Scotland Yard is believed to be investigating a Saudi link to the bombings after learning that Hussain made a call to Saudi Arabia just before his arrest in Rome. Ibrahim, 27, reportedly visited Saudi Arabia in 2003.

Washington has close ties to Saudi Arabia, though it is the homeland of Osama bin Laden and most of the hijackers involved in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Italian police arrested one of Hussain's brothers yesterday in the Italian city of Brescia on suspicion of destroying documents of interest to the probe. Authorities had detained another of Hussain's brothers Friday in Rome for allegedly holding false documents.

Those arrests heightened fears of possible sleeper cells in Italy, where President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi yesterday signed a law granting authorities sweeping new powers to track and detain terror suspects.

The seven other suspects were arrested in Brighton, south of London. Twenty-one suspects are being questioned in the July 21 attacks.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

Well, well, well....this morning on the news was a clip of our illustrious leader, strutting onstage at the Boy Scouts gathering. What a sight. Funny how getting to speak at a Boy Scouts meeting can make ya feel like a man. If you get a chance to catch the clip on CNN Headline news, take it. It will make your day.

Truth....

Strutting in front of boy scouts? Um...sounds like Bush is still petrified of facing the voters.

This is in response to the topic of men and women and the calling people of sows etc.

where did the mythological creatures go?
by Buck Young (Portland)

A long, long time ago, the Earth belonged to the creatures of the wood. By creatures of the wood I mean gnomes and elves, fauns and faeries, goblins, ogres, trolls and bogies, nymphs, sprites, and dryads. They tended it and took care of it, played in it, danced and sang in it, cared for wounded animals, worked out disputes between species, sat on mushrooms discussing matters of import and drinking Labrador tea, rode down streams on leaves and bark, and parachuted from trees with dandelion seeds. This was the world into which mankind was born. These early days, when man was but a newly arrived dinner guest who hadn't yet taken over the entire house, are fairly well documented in the literature and folklore of the world, so there's no need to go into it here. What I am interested in, and what I am asking you to be interested in, is the question, "Where did all the gnomes and elves, fauns and faeries, goblins, ogres, trolls and bogies, nymphs, sprites and dryads go?"

The friction between man and the wood creatures began with the discovery of agriculture. With the discovery of agriculture, civilization arose and spread. The forests were cleared to provide wood for shelter and fields for pasture and crops. Mankind had set up camp. No longer just a visitor in someone else's world, he pushed the wild back from his newly built doorstep.

At first this wasn't a problem. There weren't many people and everyone else felt that it was only fair to allot them their own little half acre to do with as they wished. Some of them even decided to help out. Gnomes moved into the barnhouses and helped out with the gardening chores. The devic spirits of the vegetables helped the humans better organize their crops and plan rotation, and taught them the correlation between planetary and lunar cycles and the agricultural year, plant radishes when the moon is in Cancer, harvest when the moon is in Taurus. Many trolls felt that the heaping piles of manure were a change for the better, and decided to stick around too The rest of the wood creatures just backed off into the wood, occasionally playing mischievous tricks on the new settlers, like turning the milk sour, rearranging furniture tipping the cows, tickling people's faces in their sleep, and occasionally stealing babies and leaving bundles of wood in their place.

But man's dominion spread (and spread and spread and spread), and the forests got smaller and smaller and smaller. Things got real crowded in the woods, and things were getting worse in civilization. Most farmers weren't listening to the devic spirits anymore. People found that they could increase their output by disregarding the needs of the Earth. They were raising productivity and killing the soil. Petrochemicals were just a step away. Most of the devic spirits and the gnomes fled. The trolls stayed.

Today they live mostly under bridges and in the shallow, mucky ditches beneath the metal grating on farm roads that cows are afraid to cross. Be sure to honk your horn before driving over one of these. A troll may be hanging from the grate, swinging over its living room, as they are apt to do after rolling in muck and manure, If you don't give a warning honk, you may run over its fingers, and it's not a great idea to get either your name or your license plate number on a troll's shit list.

Now there is little wild land left at all, and even that is shrinking at an unprecedented rate. There is simply not enough space for all the gnomes and elves, fauns and faeries, goblins, ogres, trolls and bogies, nymphs,sprites, and dryads.

So where are they?

Are they dead?

No.

So where did they go?

The answer is a bit surprising. They didn't go anywhere. We did. Early humans had an intuitive knowledge of their role in nature, just as bears and raccoons and mice and every other critter does. They understood, from the ways of the wild around them, that nothing ever comes from nowhere and nothing ever just disappears. Things change form. Death is necessary for life to continue. They offered up their kills as sacrifices to the gods of nature. They offered praise, prayer, sacrifice, and song to the spirits of the wild, to brother buffalo, brother deer, brother fish, and brother tree.

Now we know that everything that has ever existed continues to exist, in one form of another, and as for as we can tell, they were more aware of that back then than we are now. So the sacrifice, song, praise and prayer did not ensure the immortality of the slaughtered, either in body or in spirit. That was already taken care of. What it did ensure was the continuance of the connection between the spirit of the slaughterer and the spirit of the slaughtered. Killing is risky business. The membrane separating the internal from the external is not necessarily as thick or as dearly defined as we have come to believe. Every time we kill, we risk killing the reality of that thing inside ourselves as well as outside. We risk breaking the connections that lead in and out of the membrane. Taking life to feed life requires a keen understanding of the natural law of give and take. When we lost that understanding, gave up the songs, the sacrifice, the prayers, the praise, we lost the connection. Saying grace is not enough.

When we lose those connections, everything becomes dead - fish, rivers, frogs, mice, even each other. There is no way they can reach inside us any more. The five senses we are left with are not enough. We have given up those connections in exchange for the freedom to clearcut forests with skidders, turn cows into milk machines and chickens into egg factories. We can experiment on animals, club seals, wear mink coats, exterminate passenger pigeons, dodo birds, whales, bear, dolphin and condor. Not a twinge of guilt. The lines have been severed.

And we are all under the impression that it is the forests, the creatures, the spirits, and the wildlands that are disappearing from the universe and not us. Not so. Thinking that is like thinking that if you stand on the end of a limb and saw that limb from the tree, the tree will fall and you will remain standing. Bugs Bunny might be able to get away with that, but we can't. When a marionette cuts its strings, the puppeteer doesn't collapse to the ground. When a spider severs the lines that connect its web to the trees, the forest doesn't fall away.

It is we who have fallen away from the real world into a world where we may carry out our twisted sterile dreams without threatening the Earth and its inhabitants. Ever wonder why the trees and stones and rivers and streams, the birds, the snakes, the bears and the frogs no longer talk to us as they did in the early tales of the Native Americans, the Hindus, the Africans, the Bible? It's because we're not around to talk to any more Every clearcut, every vivisection, every mechanized slaughter of cow, pig, or chicken moves our dreamworld farther and farther from the tree, making a reunification, which is still possible, more and more difficult.

Somewhere not so far from here, in the real world, the ancient forests are still standing, the buffalo roam the prairies, the sky is full of condors, the deer and the antelope play, and dodo birds wander the sandy beaches, bumping into things.

Where there are still wildlands in our dreamworld, strong connections still exist. Bridges, tunnels, and portals. Occasionally a traveler will get lost in the wilderness and find himself in the real world, returning the next day to find that a hundred years have passed, or never returning at all, There are more ephemeral connections as well - brooks and waterfalls where you can still hear voices from the other side, if you listen carefully enough. When they sit by these waters they hear loud clanking and screams.

When they eat psilocybin everything stops glowing, and condos rise where forests stand. Our children can see their world in their dreams. Their children see ours in their nightmares.

And there is another connection. Sometimes agents from the other side infiltrate our world in an attempt to expedite the reunification. Believe it or not, they miss us over there. Sometimes - more often than you might think - they send souls over to our world to be born as human babies. Sort of like a socialist, communist, or anarchist entering the American political arena and running for office in an attempt to effect change from the inside. There are quite a lot of them actually - gnomes and elves, fauns and faeries, goblins, ogres, trolls and bogies, nymphs, sprites, and dryads - running around in human bodies, doing crazy things like writing on walls, working in co-ops, running inns in the mountains, talking to themselves in the streets, making pottery, illustrating children's books, spiking trees and blowing up tractors. They are planting bio-dynamic gardens, sitting in the back yard naked, arguing with Satan. They are in asylums pumped full of thorazine, in the classroom on Ritalin and lithium. They live with Indians. They run recycling centers. They are starting revolutions, corrupting the young, inventing paranoid conspiracy theories, making up religions. They're directing movies, gobbling acid, drinking heavily and writing poetry.

The transition from their world to ours is not an easy one. Intricate rituals and incantations are involved. The transition is not easy on the soul. A great deal is lost. They may have no idea who or what they are at first. They may or may not find out. They will know that they are not like everyone else. They will know that this world is not theirs. They will faintly remember something better, where things made sense and worked like they ought to, where love and magic had the power to heal.

They will know that what makes other people happy does not make them happy, and that what makes them happy makes them happier than anyone else alive. They will see things others cannot see, hear things others cannot hear, feel things others cannot feel, and know things others do not know.

They will laugh a great deal or cry a great deal or both. They will love humans individually, but have a hard time with humanity as a whole that may occasionally approach loathing. They will have a handful of very close friends, and often be very lonely. They will be unhappiest when forced to act like a human and do the things that humans do, want the things that humans want, or when they are convinced that they actually are one.

Things will not be easy for them. Because of their memories of the other side, the world will seem to them to be a wondrous calliope with just a few teeth missing on one of the cogs, and because of this tiny deficiency, the music is all off key, the horses are crashing into each other, and the children are frightened, bruised and crying.

The solutions will seem obvious and no one else will listen. They will be repeatedly punished for shouting FIRE! in a crowded theater when the buildings are in flames no one else can see. They will get slapped on the wrist for pointing to the EXIT signs when everyone else is running around screaming and trampling each other.

They will be zealous, fanatical, and didactic about their beliefs. They will feel utterly confused. They will have ecstatic visions and babble incoherently. They will be extremely articulate. They are prone to long periods of silence. They have no idea how to say what they really mean.

They will spend a lot of time with children and animals. They will become drunkards and dope fiends, organic gardeners, Essene soapmakers, carpenters, madmen, magicians, jugglers and clowns, lunatic physicists, painters and scribblers, travelers and wanderers.

They will dress in bright colors, frumpy sweaters, or all black. They will smoke too much and drink too much. They will eat only macrobiotic foods. They will develop addictions to Mountain Dew. They will often be accused of living in their own fantasy world.

They will make great lovers. Yeah, even the trolls.

They will spend too much time either making love or thinking about it. They will speak to inanimate objects.

They will have much brighter eyes than everyone else. They will expect their magic to work in this world and their love to heal, and they will be crushed by this world, and often they won't expect it.

It will come close to killing them.

They will visit the places where the connections still exist: the waterfalls, the mountains, the ocean, the forests. They will draw on all the power they have, and sometimes, sometimes, the magic will work. And everything will be wondrously easy. The teeth will grow back on the calliope's cog, the tune will right itself, the horses will bob gracefully up and down, around and around, and the children will giggle and sing with cotton candy stuck to their cheeks and noses.

They will spend their days trying to reconnect a branch that millions are still busy sawing away at. Often it will be more than they can bear.

While the rest of humanity is busy working on new and more efficient ways to lay waste to the Earth with the push of a button, they are saving it, a handful at a time.

They will share a common conviction that they are the only sane individuals in a world gone mad.

They're right.

Posted by: pagan boar and sow at August 1, 2005 12:02 PM

Beautiful, thanks.