Render unto Science...

FAMILIES LEARN OF RECRUITERS' LISTS -- AND HOW TO OPT OUT

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-recruit7aug07,1,5560462,full.story?coll=la-headlines-california
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As the military struggles to meet recruitment goals, activists are intensifying efforts to educate parents about how they can delete their teenagers' names from directories that schools are required to provide recruiters under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Their message is simple: All parents or students have to do is put in writing that the school may not release their contact information — name, address and phone number — to the military...

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How Bush thinks: intuition over intellect

AS SOMEBODY WHO doesn't have the slightest feeling one way or another about baseball star Rafael Palmeiro, I have to say that it seems pretty clear Palmeiro has used steroids. Palmeiro recently tested positive for steroid use. And then there's former teammate Jose Canseco's allegation that he and Palmeiro both used steroids, which is impossible to verify but would seem to explain why Palmeiro's annual home run total nearly doubled after Canseco joined him on the Texas Rangers. None of this is ironclad proof, but it seems the simplest way to reconcile the available data.
President Bush, though, doesn't see it this way at all. When asked about Palmeiro's positive steroid test, Bush — who knew Palmeiro when the president owned the Rangers — replied, "Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him. He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the Klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him."
This statement perfectly crystallizes Bush's thinking. Facts don't matter to him...

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-chait5aug05,0,6079158.column?track=hpmostemailedlink

Rich Liberals Propose Funding Think Tanks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080600848_pf.html – finally!

Matt,

Yesterday Marc from Paris & I went to a renovated school (now consisting of shops) and looked at photos of kids in the 1940s and 1950s learning about evolution. If the theory was good enough then, why isn't it now.

It was nice to see the B&W photos of kids learning and playing with realistic models of dinosaurs. As a therapist who also had PhD-level research training, it's painful to be told by fundamentalist Christian homeschooling parents that their children are not to be exposed to dinosaurs and to see toy Noah's arks instead, when we receive some funding from all taxpayers.

If Bush is for it, I'm against it.

How do people who don't believe in evolution explain mutations and how can they justify using pharmaceuticals - isn't it unnatural.

& I presently marvel at the universe yet wonder if God's design was "intelligent" when I see what humans hath wrought. Even as a kid, I sometimes wondered (as when learning about Hiroshima, Auschwitz, cancer, etc.) - is this the best he can do?!

Nice Matt...very well thought out and written.

Namaste!

As for the resolution of a unified field theory, Einstein's Planetary Physics (very large objects) and Quantum Physics (very small objects) are being mathematically united by ground breaking theories in mathematics, physics and planetary sciences.

Quantum physics defines the four forces of our universe as: electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces, and gravity.

In String Theory, all of these forces are accounted for except gravity. Gravity, in String Theory, is considered a carrier particle that can travel between dimensions.

'Super String Theory' was united into 'The Theory of Everything' but even this had some fundamental problems. Many of the problems have been resolved by Dr. Edward Witten in his 'M-Theory'.

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

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory

Strings and branes and things, oh my!

Did somebody mention string beans?

Posted by: aimzzz at August 7, 2005 10:28 AM

Yes, and you had better be eating your's after your operation...get well soon! =]

;)

Indy
How could you explain unified field theory to W?
He should believe it if you merely sounded sincere and were a friend of his, like the guy denying being on steroids.

Perfect Lesson for The Bush Administration:

"Those whom the gods would destroy they first make all powerful."

How could you explain unified field theory to W?
He should believe it if you merely sounded sincere and were a friend of his, like the guy denying being on steroids.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 7, 2005 10:43 AM

Okay...you asked for it...

W, let me tell you about String Theory and how this unifies decades of work by Quantum Physics and the life's work of Albert Einstein.

Ya' see...there are these scientific like fellas and ladies with degrees hanging on their walls...yes there are lady scientists W...they are much smarter than you and me. They figured based on Newtonian physics...you know the fella who had the apple hit him in the head that discovered gravity? Yes W...that is funny...the apple fell out of the tree and hit him in the head...okay W...its not THAT funny...Well then Einstein...yes W...that crazy looking German guy...who figured that energy (E) was equal to the mass of an object(M)...how much it weighs...and the speed of light(c2)...which is really really quick...see its there...then its already over there...stop turning your head W...you can't see light move...its really really fast...yes W faster than the space shuttle.

Okay, so this Einstein fella, he cifered that E=MC2 and that gravity was not just 'cause of all this mass of an object, but actually creates a "well" in the fabric of space time...what's that W? No, I am not saying space is made of fabric and no gravity does NOT come from the well on your ranch...we are talking about really really big things...no W...even bigger than the White House...no W even bigger than Texas...no W you are not getting it yet...

Okay, let's try this again...you like saying nuclear...no...not nookular W...Noo-clee-ar...oh forget it...

Look...so these really sharp fellas and ladies cifered that they had to explain what happened with really really small things...and Quantum physics tries to explain the behavior of even smaller particles. These particles are things like electrons, protons, and neutrons. Quantum physics even describes the particles which make these particles! What's that W? How do we know? Through experimentation W...no W not in those test tube thingys...much much smaller. Oh, you do remember the model of the atom in high school? No W atoms are not that big...we are talkin' really really really small...like your IQ...

That's right; the model of an atom that you were taught in high-school is wrong. Yes W...wrong...I know you feel that nice scietific like fella in the lab coat was telling you the truth, but we have learned a lot since you went to school.

The electrons don't orbit like planets; they form blurred clouds of probabilities around the nucleus. What are protons and neutrons? They're each made of three quarks, each with its own 'flavor' and one of three 'colors'. No W you can't have a Quark-cream cone...W if you want me to explain this you have to stop snickering...okay, let's not forget the gluons, the even smaller particles that hold this mess together when they collect and form glueballs. No W, not the paste you used to eat in school...No W, NASA did not invent gluons... Why weren't you told about this already?

You took math and physics in high school and college didn't you W? Oh...I see...you forgot you went to college???

I guess you'll have to ask Karl about that one W...

You know what W? Let's just go chase some armadillos, you like to chase them armadillos don'tcha' W?

That's what I thought...

Yeehaw yippie ay'yeah!

You rendered a great article there, Matt. Always starts the Sunday off right.

Media links to Cindy! Thank goodness there are lots of them.

http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&gl=us&ncl=http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/07/news/letter.php

And Ralph has posted a poll in the forum. Please go do the poll too.

http://www.democracycellproject.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=820&hl=

Matt,

Maybe it's because I'm a former homeschooler, but I personally see nothing wrong with the idea of talking about the intellegent design as long as it's not done in a science class. OR if it is done in the science class, as long as they say, "We have no evidence to support that hypothesis."

But in science, every hypothesis is just that. And the scientist will search out facts to support the hypothesis. Therefore since there is no scientific support yet, they should not teach it as a reality but as anunsupported hypothesis.

Cindy is waiting for Bush to see her. I wonder if she knows about Halliburtens 284% war profits...

You see..before I started blogging, I thought the "blood for oil" was just an over-the-board-leftist-liberal-socialist idealogy.

NOW I see how blind I was.

http://halliburtonwatch.org/news/earnings072205.html

Long but worth it:

The Veterans for Peace National Convention wraps up today at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas.

Thursday and Friday saw the vets check-in, and attend workshops that varied from Stan Goff’s ‘Gender & Militarism’ to ‘Speaking Truth to Power’ which featured Ann Wright, Coleen Rowley, and Jesselyn Radack.

Friday night featured keynote speakers and entertainers at Lynch Hall, on campus. They all had great things to say, and Cindy Sheehan was no exception.

Here is what she had to say:

Cindy Sheehan: It’s so great to be here.

Last year when you guys had your convention in Boston, my son had only been dead a few months, and we were really honored because the Santa Barbara chapter took my daughter’s poem A Nation Rocked to Sleep, (and they did it again this year), and I remember Michael Cervantes, he brought the booklet over to our house and showed it to us, and I never dreamed in a year I’d be standing here in front of you as one of the speakers at your convention, I never dreamed I’d be doing this at all, but isn’t it weird what life hands you…

I never heard about Veterans for until, I can tell you the exact day I heard about VFP, it was May 4th, 2004, and my son had been dead exactly a month, and I was watching CNN, and something came on, it was a report on Arlington West in Santa Barbara, and we lived about 6 hours north of Santa Barbara, and it was the May 4th before Mother’s Day, which was May 8th, and VFP was going to put it up on Sunday, every Sunday, so I called my husband and I said, “There’s only one place I want to be on Mother’s Day this year, I want to be at Santa Barbara. I want to go and see Arlington West.”

When we went, the first time we went, there was a little over 700 crosses, now there’s over 1,800 crosses.

And I’m glad to hear everybody else’s words, because somebody’s gotta stop those lying bastards. Somebody has to stop them.

I got an email yesterday - - If you guys heard I just had a story published that talks about - - it’s called Where Do I Live?, it talks about an Iranian-American who got the shaft because a recruiter liked him, and the recruiter falsified his paperwork, so he ended up in prison. He’s been in prison since November without due process. Another mother whose son was found dead in Iraq, they told her that he died from a drug overdose. Three months later, they got the toxicology report; no drugs. She was devastated, she said, “I know my son, he did not do drugs.” She was told that her son’s wife and his battle buddies said in a report that yes, her son abused drugs in Iraq. But when she got that report it said categorically that no, he did not abuse drugs. So how did her son die?

And then there’s Kevin and Monica Benderman. Kevin did exactly the right thing and got 15 months in prison. Whereas like Dahr (Jamail) said, the war criminals in Washington, D.C., they don’t even lose a night’s sleep. Then we have this lying bastard, George Bush, taking a 5-week vacation in a time of war. You know what? I’m never going to get to enjoy another vacation, because of him.

My vacation probably - -this is really sad because I have a really cute dress I was going to wear to the banquet tomorrow night, but I’m either gonna be in jail or in a tent in Crawford, waiting until that jerk comes out and tells me why my son died.

Anyway, I got an email, I kinda got off track, a man emailed me yesterday, I get contacted by all kinds of people with their stories, and he said Cindy, I read everything you write, I read it on LewRockwell.com, he said, “I get tears in my eyes, but today I cried real tears, and I screamed, because my dear sweet nineteen ear-old cousin was killed in Iraq.”

And he said, “Cindy, why didn’t I save him? Why didn’t I knock him out, why didn’t I take him to Canada?” and I wrote him back and I said, “You know what? We all think that.”

I said to my son not to go. I said, you know it’s wrong, you know you’re going over there. You know your unit might have to kill innocent people, you know you might die. And he says, “My buddies are going, I have to go.” He said, “If I don’t go someone’s going to have to do my job, and my buddies will be in danger.”

So what really gets me is these chickenhawks, who sent our kids to die, without ever serving in a war themselves. They don’t know what it’s all about.

30 of our bravest young men have already died this month, and it’s only the 5th of August. And the tragedy of the marines in Ohio is awful.

But do you guys remember back in March when we were having our 2nd year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq which was pre-empted by Terry Schiavo, so that’s all that was on the news, not 5,000 of us in Fayetteville, Wolf Blitzer said it was insignificant, but they put Terry Schiavo on, and I wrote something then called The Amazing Hypocrites and I asked why does she deserve life more than my son, and the Iraqi people? And more than the other people that this war has killed.

But do you think George Bush will interrupt his vacation and go visit the families of those 20 marines that have died in Ohio this week? No, because he doesn’t care, he doesn’t have a heart. That’s not enough to stop his little ‘playing cowboy’ game in Crawford for 5 weeks.

So, as you can imagine, the grieving parents who lost - - lost, I don’t like to use that word, whose child was murdered, it’s extremely difficult, you can’t even get a small scab on our wound, because every day it rips open. Every day, I don’t know why I do it because I already know that war is ugly, I already know that war is hard. But I open up the DOD site to see, who became an angel, while I was sleeping.

And that rips my heart open, because I know there is another mother whose life is going to be ruined that day. So we can’t even begin to heal.

---------------------------------------------------------

So anyway that filth-spewer and warmonger, George Bush was speaking after the tragedy of the marines in Ohio, he said a couple things that outraged me. Seriously outraged me. And I know I don’t look like I’m outraged, I’m always so calm and everything, that’s because if I started hitting something, I wouldn’t stop ‘til it was dead. So I can’t even start, cause I know how dangerous that would be, but George Bush was talking, and he never mentioned the terrible incident of those marines, but he did say, that the families of the ones who have been killed can rest assured that their loved ones died for a noble cause.

And, he also said, he says this often, and this really drives me crazy, he said that we have to stay in Iraq and complete the mission, to honor the sacrifices of the ones who have fallen.

And I say, why should I want one more mother to go through what I’ve gone through, because my son is dead. You know what, the only way he can honor my son’s sacrifice is to bring the rest of the troops home. To make my son’s death count for peace and love, and not war and hatred like he stands for.

I don’t want him using my son’s death or my family’s sacrifice to continue the killing. I don’t want him to exploit the honor of my son and others to continue the killing. They sent these honorable people to die, and are so dishonorable themselves.

So, as many of you have heard, and I didn’t mean to cause any problems with the convention, but I was writing an email to everybody, and I was so mad, like I said, and I just had this brainstorm, I’m going to Dallas, I don’t know where Crawford is. I’ve been in Texas, Casey was stationed at Fort Hood. I drove from northern California to Fort Hood one time, it took like, 30 hours. And I thought, I could be driving for days to get from Dallas to Crawford!

But I don’t care, I’m goin’. And I’m gonna tell them, “You get that evil maniac out here, cuz a Gold Star Mother, somebody who’s blood is on his hands, has some questions for him.”

And I’m gonna say, “OK, listen here, George. #1, you quit, and I demand, every time you get out there and say you’re going to continue the killing in Iraq to honor the fallen heroes by continuing the mission; you say, ‘except Casey Sheehan.’”

“And you say ‘except for all the members of Goldstar Families for Peace’ cuz we think not one drop of blood should be spilled in our families’ names. You quit doing that. You don’t have my permission.”

And I’m gonna say, “And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for.” And if he even starts to say ‘freedom and democracy’ I’m gonna say, bullshit.

You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that, you don’t tell me my son died for ‘freedom and democracy.’

Cuz, we’re not freer. You’re taking away our freedoms. The Iraqi people aren’t freer, they’re much worse off than before you meddled in their country.

You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine…

(massive round of applause)

And if you think I won’t say bullshit to the President, I say move on, cuz I’ll say what’s on my mind.

So, what’s gonna happen? I started this, I thought it was gonna be just me and my sister driving to Crawford, but it kind of mushroomed and people from as far away as Dayton, Ohio are coming, to help us, to stand behind us, because I travel all over the country, I speak, I write, I get feedback on my writing, and just in the little over a year that I’ve been doing this, I’ve seen a major turnaround in this country.

People don’t just want to hear it, they want to know, what can we do? What can we do to get him out of power? And I’m gonna say the ‘I’ word. Impeach. And we have to have everybody impeached that lied to the American public, and that’s the executive branch, and any people in congress, and we gotta go all the way down and we might have to go all the way down to the person who picks up the dogshit in Washington because…

We can’t let somebody rise to the top who will pardon these war criminals. Because they need to go to prison for what they’ve done in this world. We can’t have a pardon. They need to pay for what they’ve done.

So anyway, I’m gonna go to Crawford tomorrow, and I’m gonna say I want to talk to him, and they say, he’s not coming out, I’m gonna set up my tent there until he comes out to talk to me.

And I have the whole month of August off, just like him. It’s just the way it worked out, I was supposed to go to England tomorrow to do some Downing Street things, but Conyers cancelled, so hey, I have a lot of free time on my hands, and I’m gonna stay until he comes out and talks to me. And if he quits his vacation and goes to D.C., I’ll pull my tent up, I’ll go to D.C., and put it on the White House lawn, and I’ll be waiting for you guys when you get there September 24th.

Another thing that I’m doing is - - my son was killed in 2004, so I’m not paying my taxes for 2004. If I get a letter from the IRS, I’m gonna say, you know what, this war is illegal; this is why this war is illegal. This war is immoral; this is why this war is immoral. You killed my son for this. I don’t owe you anything. And if I live to be a million, I won’t owe you a penny.

And I want them to come after me, because unlike what you’ve been doing with the war resistance, I want to put this frickin’ war on trial. And I want to say, “You give me my son, and I’ll pay your taxes.”

I live in Bacaville, come and get me if you can find me there and put me on trial, because like Camilo (Mejia), Camilo knew what was right. And he went to prison for that. And Henry David Thoreau he went to prison, he refused to pay his poll tax, and Emerson, I call them HT and RW, and RW came to visit HT and said what are you doing here, buddy? And HT said, why aren’t you here? This is the only place for a moral person in an immoral world.

It’s up to us, the people, to break immoral laws, and resist. As soon as the leaders of a country lie to you, they have no authority over you. These maniacs have no authority over us. And they might be able to put our bodies in prison, but they can’t put our spirits in prison. And I know that Camilo came out a much stronger person, he’s one of my heroes, it’s great a row of heroes in front of me here.

And everyone gave such great testimony this evening, I have to wonder, why do we keep doing this to each other? Why do we let this continue time and time again, why do let it happen? And it’s because our country, is so good at demonizing people, I still have relatives from WWII that still call Japanese people ‘Japs’. And we demonize the Iraqi people, where, most of this country doesn’t even think we’re killing innocent people.

Because, “Oh Cindy, don’t you remember what happened on September 11th?”

“Yeah, but, were any of those people in Iraq? And the people who flew those planes into the Trade Center, where they from Iraq?”

When I was growing up, it was ‘Communists’. Now it’s ‘Terrorists’. So you always have to have somebody to fight and be afraid of, so the war machine can build more bombs, guns, and bullets and everything.

But I do see hope. I see hope in this country. 58% of the American public are with us. We’re preaching to the choir, but the choir’s not singing, if all of the 58% started singing, this war would end.

I got an email the other day and it said, “Cindy, if you didn’t use so much profanity… there’s people ‘on the fence’ that get offended…”

And you know what I said? “You know what? You know what, god-damn-it? How, in the world is anybody still ‘sitting on that fence’?”

“If you fall on the side that is pro-George, and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out.”

But whatever side you fall on, quit being on the fence.

The opposite of good is not evil, it’s apathy. And we have to get this country off their butts, and we have to get the choir singing.

We need to say, bring our troops home now. We can’t depend on the people in charge binging our troops home. Because you don’t plan on bringing the troops home when you drop so much of the reconstruction money into building permanent bases.

I was hoping to come to the banquet tomorrow night, but unless George comes out and talks to me, I’ll be camping at Crawford.

Thank you.

----------------------------------------------

(No copyright for non-commercial use. Pass it around. -r.)

Click here if you want to read it with the links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x145548

Cindy will be on CNN coming up in a minute..or two!! She's on a "RANT",says Wolf!!

The gutless likes of Wolf Blitzer have no place minimizing the grief and anger of the mother of an American soldier. Particularly in a world where citizens are daily subjected to the mindless dribblings of talking heads like Wolf.

Maybe he doesn't care if we were lied into a pointless war. But I bet if his kid got killed over there, he'd goddamn well have an opinion that was mightily important.

Pompous puke... I think Wolf is about to receive another rant.

Great stuff, guys! "How Bush Thinks" is kind of like an oxymoron though - Bush - Think - opposites, right?

Anyway, this comes from John at Vets for Progress

Re:  Bush’s Advocacy of Teaching “Intelligent Design” as Science
 
The prima facie evidence against intelligent design rests in the Bush White House. How could an 'intelligent designer' give us the Bush Administration? The Bush Administration's perverted policies can only be explained via a theory of evolution; the evolution of economic greed and political dissemblance.

Good to see Cindy Sheehan getting some press.
August is a slow time & a bit of a news lull, so it's good timing.

This is a spectacularly good article about Bush's "european length" five-week vacation at the ranch, how it coincides with the anniversary of the briefing he got about terrorism, & about how no one wants to do "ranch duty."

Now published in IHT as well as NYT, it'll be read by travelling businessmen and Americans abroad all over the place and highlight the secretive and selective public image of "our leader".

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/07/news/letter.php

Dianne,

Great point!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5195654,00.html

Justice Stevens makes a major criticism of the death penalty law as highly flawed. Justice Stevens is possibly the most liberal Supreme Court Justice and is 85.

Wouldn't they like to replace him with a neocon social conservative winger?!

What is IHT?

And Not my Prez... please, please don't even hint at what you just said. This is exactly why they stole the last two elections--changing of the court.

IHT is International Herald Tribune - sorry!
If you're travelling, sometimes it's the only thing in English and I really like it. There is some link with the New York Times.

Not my prez either...

It's ok. I just didn't know. So is that paper very well respected?

Sparrow
As far as I know, the International Herald Tribune is a well-respected paper. The article I linked to originally appeared in the New York Times. They have some of the same editorials.

I also like the Guardian and the Independent in the UK. I think they're perfectly credible, but they're considered liberal, like SF Gate or Seattle PI or Washington Post here.

I'm on the phone to my mom in North Dakota:

"If Bush is a Christian, I'm a devil."

"I'm not going to subsidize Bush, the war or anything that is negative."

"Bush is trying to get all of his disciples onto the Supreme Court."

Posted by: Sparrow at August 7, 2005 03:58 PM

NMP,

Lol!

Reminder...please post something for Dick here:

http://www.democracycellproject.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=818

He'll be 59 tomorrow.

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS!

I just attended a "pot luck" dinner after the church service here in rural red. Although I
am non-denominational (very much so) I attend this church because I have relatives in the ministry here. They are the pastors.

We had a pot luck to get together and wish a member of the congregation a happy birthday. The subject of politics, world affairs, and this administration came up at my table. We sat there for way over an hour after dinner and talked. The ladies I was speaking with have been backing away from the Kool Aid this past year. They are seeing things themselves, and as one lady put it "It's like a jigsaw puzzle, but bit by bit it is starting to make sense."

She also is aware of Poppy Bush's involvement way back in "corporate" government structure like his father before him and his son after him. They were both aware that there is much corruption in our government, and in this administration.

It did my heart good to be able to tell them about Karl Rove and his position as one of, if not the highest, presidential aide, major Republican party builder and presidential architect, slanderer and dirty works man behind the smoke and mirrors. They had put alot of things together, but were unaware of how much influence Karl Rove has, and what kind of character he has shown in the past.

I told them about the Downing St. Memo and all that it means.

I told them about Cindy and Casey Sheehan, and about her peaceful but no nonsense attempts to confront George W. Bush, and how she is being treated by the secret service in Crawford.

I told them about Iran.

I told them the pattern of terrrrrra tapes, bombs in London, and how the media spin manipulates people's minds back into fear status when they get to thinking about things and putting two and two together, and Dubya's poll numbers sink to record lows for any sitting president.

One of the ladies is so in the know she said she wouldn't be a bit surprised if we "terrorized" ourselves to keep us "in line".

We talked about the Patriot Act, and how it slowly takes away our freedoms.

One of the ladies said she had heard that we were becoming a country governed by large corporations.
(Try the world.) That gave me the lead to tell them what the word fascism means (corporate run government). The same lady said we are quickly moving in the direction of becoming a police state.

This church is the closest I could find in my area to non-denominational, but it is a denomination, and could be considered VERY conservative, even "Fundie".

One of the ladies said she wouldn't have been able to receive this a year ago. (What she doesn't remember is that a year ago we had a talk, and I put little thoughts into the conversation at that time.)

She is highly educated, with two post graduate degrees, one of them in theology, and she has been a pastor and principal of a Christian High School before she moved here.

I am feeling pretty happy about that today. Keep it up, folks. You guys shared with me, I have in turn shared with many others who go to their jobs and their neighborhoods and share with their friends.

See how grassroots works? (Yay team!)

The topic of discussion today in this "Fundie" church was Rove, corruption, the Downing St. Memo, the outing of Valerie Plame and possible treason by a senior aide in the White House, and much much more................

Pompous puke... I think Wolf is about to receive another rant.

Posted by: KerryOn62 at August 7, 2005 01:40 PM

Make that two.

Sheehan Confronts Bush at ranch today.

Sheehan wanted to speak to Bush directly at his ranch but she was met by two high level aides - NSC advisor Steve Hadley was one - talked with her.

The protest was on the homepage of AOL news for most of today with a picture of Sheehan, an article and a poll.

The protest also made Reuters and the Associated Press.

The last I heard Sheehan will stay near the Crawford ranch at least for this week trying to speak to Bush.

“Why Us,” Ohioans Ask

Ohioans are asking why their troops are dying in such large numbers; the answer is closer to home than most realize.
By Stewart Nusbaumer

On Monday six Marines from Ohio were killed in Iraq, on Wednesday an additional fourteen more. In their shock and grief, Ohioans ask, “Why us?” With the funerals soon to begin, “why us” will be asked even more.

There is an answer, a rather simple answer. Reserve units are shipped to Iraq and serve in the combat zone as whole units. When a particular unit is hit hard with casualties, the wounded and dead are from the geographical area in which the reserve unit is located. In this case, the reserve Marine battalion is headquartered in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb; that is why Ohio has been clobbered with grief this week.

During the Vietnam War, the last time significant reserve units were activated, they served in scattered units, filled in for personnel where they were needed. They were not, then, concentrated in specific units, and therefore vulnerable to high numbers of sudden casualties.

But this military deployment answer sounds like what a librarian would tell a high school student. It barely touches upon the truth. It is a satisfactory answer for only those who would never bother to ask the question, which is unsatisfactory for those in Ohio asking the question.

An Occupying Power

There is another, broader answer for Ohioans, “Why us?” Our troops in Iraq are an occupying force. The ramifications of this are hard for many if not most Americans to grasp.

Let’s say the United States deteriorated into a brutal dictatorship and France grew tired of the dictator’s abuse and killing of Americans, it also didn’t trust the dictator with its arsenal of weapons, so it invaded and overthrew the brute. Fine, although Americans were somewhat embarrassed that they were freed not by their own actions, but by the actions of a foreign people. Embarrassed, yet still pleased to start a new era.

The French military, however, did not leave America. Soon the French liberators began to look like French occupiers. Americans turned suspicious that the foreigners were occupying America to steal our natural resources, possibly to control our industry. Americans grew resentful of the foreign occupying force. “We’re not children,” Americans said amongst themselves, “we can take care of our own country. Who are the French to think we need them?” So embarrassment turned to distrust and then dislike if not hatred of the French.

Some Americans took the matters into their own hands. With the infusion of motivated British fighters, a small group took up arms and started killing French soldiers. They called themselves Freedom Fighters. Within a year the rebels had become a sizable force and quite effective at killing the French. In fact, on one Monday they killed six French Marines, and on Wednesday they killed fourteen more French Marines. While the French families grieved, the American Freedom Fighters celebrated.

Although most Americans sympathized with the Freedom Fighters, they were too scared to say so publicly. Anyway, a lot of them felt ambivalent. There were a few Americans, however, who publicly opposed those “fighting against our national unity,” stating publicly that they wanted the French troops to remain -- but only for the time being, they claimed. These were mostly Americans making money off the French troops and those who had acquired political power under the foreign occupation, and their extended families. They argued: “America is not ready to stand on its own yet, we need French troops for security.”

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http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1129

A few other things to mention about the Crasford protest. The AOL Poll is of this afternoon is overwhelming in support of Sheehan (although the question is kind of harmless IMHO):

The Bush/Republicans are getting stomped in this poll (again):

Was the grieving mom's protest at the Bush ranch appropriate?

Yes 71%
No 29%
Total Votes: 217,300
Note on Poll Results

If you haven't already done so, you should sign the Out of Iraq petition at: www.outofiraq.org There are only about 25,000 signers at this point and there needs to be many more than that. If someone knows of a better Anti-War petition somewhere please post the link.

Lastly, the Secret Service threatened the protesters in Crawford, saying that the S.S. vehicles drive very fast (speeding??? recklessly??) along the road and they "might" hit a protester "accidently". I thought this was total BS and called the McClellan County sheriff about this. I told them that apparently the S.S. are breaking the law and speeding along the side roads.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at August 7, 2005 04:38 PM

Great job, Truth! That's always so exciting! Keep up the great work!

Repost from previous thread. I posted this on the wrong thread a minute ago. D-U-H.

Link to get Cindy Sheehan's email address.

Please send her an email to encourage her and thank her. Go into this site, and scroll down until you get to Cindy's email address.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/sheehan3.html

Also, Cindy Sheehan has asked everyone to notify the media of the secret service's attempt to intimidate her in Crawford. They have told her and her party to be careful because the social service's cars drive fast back and forth along that street. They have even said it is possible someone could get "run over" there.

I read a post on After Downing St. dot Org last night and a man said that that's how the secret service tries to discourage people, by intimidating them, and by very casually mentioning something that could be a law or a new (BRAND new, as in made while they were standing outside Crawford) law, then waiting for the protestors to break that little law and then they arrest them.

In honoring Cindy's request:

Most of major media's contact information:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

OPINION:

Why Bush Won’t Be Impeached

Clinton was impeached for lying about sex; George Bush is not impeached for deceiving and misleading Americans and manipulating intelligence which has led to the death of nearly 2000 Americans.
By Mark Biskeborn

On 19 December 1998, the House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton. The investigation committee charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice. Kenneth Starr was appointed to the Office of the Independent Counsel to investigate Clinton's Whitewater land transactions, but finally brought charges against him for sexual misconduct.

The Impeachment Process

The President can be removed from office through the process of impeachment. If Congress feels that the President has committed acts of "Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors" (U.S. Constitution) they can impeach him with a majority vote. Out of a total 435 congressmen, 231 are currently Republicans, 201 Democrats. An impeachment resembles a legal indictment, not a conviction, however, and not enough to remove the President from office alone.

The case then goes to the Senate. Overseen by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Senate reviews the case and votes whether or not to convict the President. If they vote in favor of conviction by a two-thirds margin, then the President is removed from office. However, this year, Republicans hold a 55-senate majority since the 2004 elections.

A Futile Investigation

Since Starr could not link Clinton to any violations related to Whitewater, he later submitted to Congress the Starr Report, which led to Clinton's impeachment on charges arising from the Monica Lewinsky scandal. (By the way, United States Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. worked for Starr during his tenure as solicitor general). With the approval of Attorney General Janet Reno, Starr expanded his investigation into Clinton's conduct.

Starr began his hounding investigation of Clinton in 1994 and the Senate acquitted him on 12 Feburary 1999. When Clinton left office at the end of his term, he enjoyed one of the highest after-term, public approval rating (60%) of any U.S. President for performing his job.

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The Case to Impeach G.W. Bush

Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about his sex life. Compare Clinton’s case to the current movement in Congress to impeach G.W. Bush.

Considerable evidence has emerged that Bush deceived and misled the Congress and the American people as to the basis for taking the nation into war against Iraq. Evidence has come to light that Bush manipulated intelligence so as to allege falsely that Iraq posed a national security threat to the U.S. In this case, Bush most likely committed a felony by submitting a false report to Congress on the reasons for launching a first-strike invasion of Iraq. And to add insult to injury, Bush's war in Iraq has only resulted in a drastic (four times more) increase in terrorist bombings.

Even though 89 Congressmen have requested that President Bush answers questions regarding the Downing Street Memo, the President refuses to discuss the subject.

Several attorneys specialized in international law have written that by the standards of the Nuremberg trials and international law, the war in Iraq is a crime against the people of the U.S. and against the world.

We have to apply these laws to everyone equally; otherwise we no longer abide by the rule of law. After three months since the surfacing of the Downing Street Memo (May, 2005) and other evidence that Bush has committed high crimes against the U.S., Congress has still not begun any real impeachment procedure. Congress, Democrats in particular, has become a door mat for the Bush Administration. Likewise, the corporate media no longer serves to seek out and expose the truth. Both the Congress and the mainstream media seem to fear losing their corporate sponsors.

The founders of the United States designed impeachment as a means to call to account the President and his high ministers, to bridle the Executive if he engages in excesses. It enables Congress and Senate to bring about an inquest into the conduct of public servants and to curb the President of swollen power.

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Under fear and trembling of terrorism, the American people have allowed the U.S. Governement to transform itself from the Republic its founders designed, and into an Imperium whose main mission aims to increase military power and supernational corporate profits through a "war on a continual and global scale," as Bush says; "Mission Accomplished." This certainly is not the America the Founding Fathers had in mind when they designed it. Is it really what we want now?

Most Americans haven't yet figured out that it's not the Middle Eastern terrorists who are the main danger to U.S. democracy but rather those in Washington who pretend to be defending our society. The latter are stealing both our money and freedom, not to mention the lives of U.S. soldiers by the thousands.

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http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1123

Posted by: ralphdh at August 7, 2005 05:33 PM

Good for you, Ralph!!!

Thanks!!!

Cindy said they were "speeding" by. You can get the whole story by going into the links supplied by Suz and myself on this thread and last night's thread. The posts at After Downing St. dot Org give a little more information. The link Suz posted today from Cindy herself was very descriptive.

She wants us to please notify the media of this.

A terrific blog for Cindy. Check out the footage.

http://thebillboardproject.blogs.com/

I don't know for sure how or why the universe was created, I wasn't there. I don't know how or why mankind arrived on this planet, because I wasn't there. I still consider my existance as miraculous, and I'm grateful for it. I'm mostly grateful that I'm not required to fathom the mysteries of the universe, because, quite frankly, I really have other things to do. As far as evolution is concerned, a lot of the kids who were being taught evolution during the fifties in those pictures that were mentioned above were going home to their parents who were telling them it was only a theory, and that they should take it with a grain of salt. Then on Sunday mornings, those same kids were being taken to Sunday School where they were taught that God created the earth in 7 days. It was confusing to them- I know that, because I'm a child of the 50's. It also made me, and lots of other elementary schoolers of that generation, resent science as a whole. I grew up simply not caring for it- it conflicted with my religious beliefs. When the classroom science teacher started out every new school year with something I considered a lie, I truly was not interested in anything else she said all year long. At least, that's my excuse for the "D" I got in 10th grade biology.
At any rate, what bothers me most about the debate now is that the Republicans are using it again to paint our party as Godless liberals whose views just aren't in sync with anyone in this country who attends regular church services. And we're encouraging this. I say this because I was listening to Jerry Springer's replacement on Friday morning on Air America, and he seemed to use the entire show to ridicule anyone who might even consider "intelligent design" to be possible. Before the show was over he made the statement that the use of the word "theory" in scientific circles actually meant fact, which is just B.S. A theory is a theory because it either cannot be proven or has not yet been proven. The guest host, however, said that since both gravity and evolution were called theories, and we know that gravity is a fact, evolution should also be considered a fact. Any scientist who claims the word theory means fact should go back to school and take some English classes (something which a lot of scientists made "D"s in, just as I did in Biology.) Evolution will always be a theory, because unless we're able to invent a time machine someday, it really isn't provable. Gravity is something else altogether. Unfortunately, every time I eat chocolate cake and step on the scales the next morning, it proves itself to me in a very disturbing way.I believe in Gravity, and I don't give a hoot about either evolution or intelligent design- I'm happy I'm here, I tend to believe God had something to do with it somehow, and that's enough for me.
I do not, however, want this to become an election issue. We Democrats need to take our government back, and we're not going to do it by ridiculing anyone's religious beliefs. That's what was being done on Jerry Springer's show on Friday. I was listening and hoping against hope that some regular churchgoer who was sick to death of the war in Iraq hadn't decided to tune into Air America that morning for the first time to see what "the other side" was really like. If he had, he'd have switched the dial directly back over to Rush Limbaugh. We have to pick our battles wisely, and this isn't a wise battle to get into. We have to stop this insane war, we have to get Bush out of the White House, we've got to restore our civil rights. And we're letting them drag us into their trap again. We need to stop this stuff before it's too late.
re

Posted by: ralphdh at August 7, 2005 05:33 PM

Ralph,

Hey, Welcome to the blog-side of town. We're glad to hear your voice out here!

Evolution will always be a theory, because unless we're able to invent a time machine someday, it really isn't provable.

Posted by: Linda Enterkin at August 7, 2005 05:52 PM

This is not entirely true Linda.

Through genetics, we have been able to define what lines of animals and plants evolved from others. Since life has been thriving on the planet for so long, most dinosaur DNA has been fossilized, but every once in a while scientists get lucky and find ancient DNA preserved in ice or amber...yes just like in 'Jurrasic Park'.

Our human "roots" can be traced back by mitochondrial DNA. Males are traced with the Y chromosome.

This is scientific FACT.

“We share a common ancestor -- a man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago. That's only about 2,000 generations... We're all effectively members of an extended family.”

Mapping the Human Race's Journey

April 13, 2005 · On Wednesday, the National Geographic Society in partnership with IBM is launching the "Genographic Project" -- a five-year effort to collect and analyze more than 100,000 DNA samples in order to trace the origins and movement of the human race.

Dr. Spencer Wells, the program's director and a Society "explorer-in-residence," tells NPR's Alex Chadwick the Genographic Project will be the largest and most comprehensive public database of anthropological genetic information ever compiled. He calls the DNA molecule a "time machine" that can answer the most basic questions of human history: Where did I come from, and how did I get here?

"DNA can help us go all the way back to the beginning," he says. "We can go back to the very early days of our species, to infer where we come from and how we got to where we live today."

By studying patterns in DNA, scientists will be able to map the migration of the human species -- and may pinpoint where the original humans came from in Africa, and how humans spread and diversified as they moved to distant parts of the globe.

Wells says some ethnic groups, like the San Bushmen of Namibia, have retained closer genetic lineages to the earliest humans. But in spite of the tremendous diversity of human beings, we are all "effectively members of an extended family.

"The amazing thing to come out of all of this is how closely related we all are," Wells says. "We share a common ancestor -- a man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago. That's only about 2,000 generations."

Eventually, those who volunteered their own DNA for the project will be able to go to a Web site to discover what Wells calls a "personal journey."

"You're going to be able to... figure out the journey of your Y chromosome if you're male, and the mitochondrial DNA if you're female -- the journey your ancestors took from those very early days in Africa to where you live today," he says.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4597357

Genographic Project director Dr. Spencer Wells

Human evolution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article forms part of the series
Human Evolution

Human evolution is the process of change and development, or evolution, by which human beings emerged as distinct species. It is the subject of a broad scientific inquiry that seeks to understand and describe how change and development took place. The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, but most notably physical anthropology and genetics. The term "human", in the context of human evolution, refers to the genus Homo, but studies of human evolution usually include other hominids, such as the australopithecines.

Contents
1 History of paleoanthropology
2 Before Homo
3 The Homo genus
3.1 H. habilis
3.2 Homo erectus
3.3 H. ergaster
3.4 Homo heidelbergensis
3.5 Homo sapiens idaltu
3.6 Homo floresiensis
3.7 H. neanderthalensis
3.8 H. sapiens
4 Additional notes
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

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

Ardipithecus
Sahelanthropus tchadensis
Orrorin tugenensis
Australopithecines
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus africanus
Australopithecus anamensis
Australopithecus garhi
Paranthropus
Paranthropus boisei
Paranthropus robustus
Paranthropus aethiopicus
Homo
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Homo ergaster
Homo antecessor
Homo heidelbergensis
Homo sapiens idaltu
Homo cepranensis
Homo rhodesiensis
Homo rudolfensis
Homo georgicus
Homo floresiensis
Homo neanderthalensis
Homo sapiens

Indy- I haven't said that evolution is not a fact- some theories do turn out to be facts, but I don't really accept that it's provable by the tracking of genetic patterns back to a single individual in Africa some 60K years ago. And by the way, that particular route has bolstered a lot of Christians in their belief that God created a single human (Adam) and that that's where we came from, which isn't what evolutionists are trying to prove at all. I do believe that evolution is taking place now- I think it's been proven that changes take place within species over a period of years, I have no doubt about that. And, I certainly think evolution is a rational, possible explanation of some of the genetic information that we now have, but even evolution has yet to explain how life began , even in the smallest form, in the first place. I also think that aliens landing on our planet and settling it is rational and possible, and there are a lot of other theories that could possibly make sense. There's something to ponder in all of the theories, if that's what we want to spend the few years we have on this planet doing. But arguing about it is divisive, and a bit silly as far as I'm concerned. ( No, I'm not saying you're silly, please don't get me wrong.) I'm just saying that the Repugs are evidently thinking of making this an issue in the coming election, and they know that if they can trap our party and it's spokesman into another dogmatic argument that will alienate churchgoers, that's all to their good. They've already got the abortion issue on their side to keep the churches in line, but some of the congregations are getting a bit weary of losing their children to the war. The natives are getting restless. So, now it's down to Democrats being athiestic evolutionists who don't believe in God at all. And Air America, which I listen to regularly, needs to stop and think about what they're doing. This is a fringe issue- no, it's not really an issue at all. So whey let the Repubs magnify it and use it to their advantage? It's all about politics and getting our power back to me- and every time I see us alienating the red staters for no real reason at all, and arguing evolution vs creationism is really of no practical value that I know of, it scares me.

I haven't said that evolution is not a fact- some theories do turn out to be facts, but I don't really accept that it's provable by the tracking of genetic patterns back to a single individual in Africa some 60K years ago.

Posted by: Linda Enterkin at August 7, 2005 06:58 PM

Ah...but WHY do you not accept it?

Because you do not understand the process of tracking DNA?

DNA is genetic code. It is simply based on the combination of four amino acids which have been labled A G C T. It is these four building blocks that create the strands of DNA present in every living being on this planet that we know of right now.

That is exactly why there is a problem...many who do not comprehend science simply dismiss it as hogwash because of their lack of interest or becuase they do not understand it.

Just because we close our eyes or deny it does not mean the truth will go away...

Or is the Earth FLAT?

This section presents a brief and simple overview of DNA.

Genes can be loosely viewed as the organism's "cookbook";
A strand of DNA contains genes, areas that regulate genes, and areas that either have no function, or a function we do not (yet) know;
DNA is organized as two complementary strands, head-to-toe, with bonds between them that can be "unzipped" like a zipper, separating the strands;
DNA is encoded with four interchangeable "building blocks", called "bases", which can be abbreviated A, T, C, and G; each base "pairs up" with only one other base: A+T, T+A, C+G and G+C; that is, an "A" on one strand of double-stranded DNA will "mate" properly only with a "T" on the other, complementary strand;
The order does matter: A+T is not the same as T+A, just as C+G is not the same as G+C;
However, since there are just four possible combinations, naming only one base on the conventionally chosen side of the strand is enough to describe the sequence;
The order of the bases along the length of the DNA is what it's all about, the sequence itself is the description for genes;
Replication is performed by splitting (unzipping) the double strand down the middle via relatively trivial chemical reactions, and recreating the "other half" of each new single strand by drowning each half in a "soup" made of the four bases. Since each of the "bases" can only combine with one other base, the base on the old strand dictates which base will be on the new strand. This way, each split half of the strand plus the bases it collects from the soup will ideally end up as a complete replica of the original, unless a mutation occurs;
Mutations are simply chemical imperfections in this process: a base is accidentally skipped, inserted, or incorrectly copied, or the chain is trimmed, or added to; all other basic mutations can be described as combinations of these accidental "operations".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA#DNA_in_brief

Hey All, We are finally online--dialup!-here at this most restful and beautiful place.

Matt--wonderfully thoughtful piece!

Polly is right on this week too--we know!

I don't think I can say how badly we need this respite, and thanks to all who continue to fight for democracy while we take a long overdue series of deep breaths.

This is the longest vacation we will have taken, and the first with our long-suffering kids, in over two years. We will continue to check in, but we are also going for long swims, reading books, and spending time with our old friends who are also here on the Cape with us.

Love and gratitude to all of you--and we are follwing Cindy Sheehan's stand as well, so please keep the support for her, and Diane and Ann Wright going.

Tomorrow (Monday) is Dick's birthday--his 59th. He has been fighting for democracy and truth for over 40 years now. We plan to give him a day of sailing, rest, and a beer or two--beyond that I can't say (it's a secret!).

If you like, wish him a happy birthday in the forum.

Love to all. Vacations are great...

Please Read Cindy's incredible heart-torn letter to the warmonger-thug-in-chief!

AN OPEN LETTER TO GEORGE BUSH

November 4, 2004

Dear George,

You don’t mind if I call you George do you? When you sent me a letter offering your condolences on the death of my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq, you called me Cindy, so I naturally assume we are on a first name basis.

George, it has been seven months today since your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, my big boy, my hero, my best-friend: Casey. It has been seven months since your ignorant and arrogant lack of planning for the peace murdered my oldest child. It has been two days since your dishonest campaign stole another election…but you all were way more subtle this time than in 2000, weren’t you? You hardly had to get the Supreme Court of the United States involved at all this week.

You feel so proud of yourself for betraying the country again, don’t you? You think you are very clever because you pulled the wool over the eyes of some of the people again. You think that you have some mandate from God…that you can “spend your political capital” any way that you want. George you don’t care or even realize that 56,000,000 plus citizens of this country voted against you and your agenda. Still, you are going to continue your ruthless work of being a divider and not a uniter. George, in 2000 when you stole that election and the Democrats gave up, I gave up too. I had the most ironic thought of my life then: "Oh well, how much damage can he do in four years?" Well, now I know how much you have damaged my family, this country, and this world. If you think I am going to allow you another four years to do even more damage, then you truly are mistaken. I will fight for a true vote count and if that fails, your impeachment. Also, the impeachment of your Vice President. The only thing is, I'm not politically savvy, and I don't have a Karl Rove to plan my strategy, but I do have a big mouth and a righteous cause, which still mean something in this country, I hope.

All of this lying, fooling, and betraying must be “hard work” George. You really think you know what hard work is?

George, let me tell you what “hard work” really is.

Hard work is seeing your oldest son, your brave and honorable man-child go off to a war that had, and still has, no basis in reality. Hard work is worrying yourself gray and not being able to sleep for 2 weeks because you don’t know if your child is safe.

Hard work is seeing your son’s murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you’re enjoying the last supper you’ll ever truly enjoy again.

Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son…your first born…your kind and gentle sweet baby.

Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big “baba” into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both.

But, Dear George, do you know what the hardest work of all is? Trying to digest the fact that the leader of the country that your family has fought for and died for, for generations, lied to you and betrayed your dear boy’s sense of honor and exploited his courage and exploited his loyalty to his buddies. Hard work is having your country abandon you after they killed your son. Hard work is coming to the realization that your son had his future robbed from him and that you have had your son's future and future grand-children stolen from you. Hard work is knowing that there are so many people in this world that have prospered handsomely from your son's death.

George, I must confess that I and my family worked very HARD to re-defeat you this time, but you refuse to stay defeated. Well, we are watching you very carefully. We are going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American people into a disastrous war and for mis-using and abusing your power as Commander-in-Chief. We are going to scream until our last breath to bring the rest of our babies home from this quagmire of a war that you have gotten our country in to: before too many more families learn the true meaning of Hard Work. We know it is going to be an uphill battle, knowing how Republican Congress is, but thanks to you, we know the meaning of Hard Work and we’re not afraid of hard work at all.

The 56,000,000 plus citizens who voted against you and your agenda have given me a mandate to move forward with my agenda. Also, thanks to you and your careless domestic policies, I am unemployed, so this will be my full-time job. Being your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life and it will bring justice for my son and 1125 (so far) other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed. By the way, George, how many more innocent Iraqis are your policies going to kill before you convince them that you are better than Saddam? How many more of their cities are you going to level before you consider that they are liberated? If you really had any moral values, or if you were an honorable man at all you would resign. My son was a man who had high moral values and true courage. Humanity lost a bright light on April 04, 2004. I will live the rest of my life missing Casey desperately. Thank you for that, George. Have a nice day.

God Bless America!! We surely need it!

Cindy Sheehan
Broken hearted mother of a True American Hero: Spc Casey Austin Sheehan, KIA 04/04/04 Sadr City, Baghdad
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always."

- Gandhi

Indy- I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've managed to get this far in life without truly caring what anyone else particularly believes about the origins of life. It's one of the very few things that doesn't bug me about George W Bush. He really isn't in control of the curriculum of public schools anyway- that's pretty much up to local school boards, so his beliefs don't influence my life one way or the other on that issue. What people do with their lives, how they live them, is much more important to me than what they believe about how they got here. You and I agree on most political issues, and I'm sure that you live your life ethically and morally, and so do I. The fact that you believe wholeheartedly in evolution is important to you, but I'm not sure why it's important to you, or to the people at Air America, that everyone else comes to believe the same way that they do. That just eludes me, because it really is no determiner of how we're going to live our lives or react to our fellowmen. As a matter of fact, it's possible that believing in evolution might tend to make someone reject the idea of the dignity of life, and treat their fellowman in a negative way. I know that's not true with you- I've read enough of your posts to know that, and I know it's not true of most of the people that I know that do believe in the theory of evolution. So, I don't know why I threw that in, it was just a quick thought and I probably offended someone :-) But it is an argument that could be made, and probably would be made by those on the Christian right. As far as my opinion goes, I'm pretty much able to accept the absolute fact that I don't know a lot of answers, and I'm able to be happy with that. I've found that doesn't win too many friends though- because it confuses people about who you are. I just truly hope Air America doesn't make such an issue of this that they raise it to a national discussion, because, if they do, it's going to be one more wedge between us and those who attend church regularly. That's all I'm trying to say- as long as Bush doesn't make an all out effort to legislate intelligent design classes into our schools, we should just let him mouth off and ignore him. Otherwise, it'll rouse his minions on the news networks.

Karen,

Thanks so much to both you and Dick for all you do and have done for us!!! Enjoy your time at the Cape - and relax (how could you not?).

Happy birthday Dick- and Y'all have fun up there. Come back rested and relaxed- you're important to all of us.

Posted by: ralphdh at August 7, 2005 05:33 PM

Good for you, Ralph!!!

Thanks!!!

Cindy said they were "speeding" by. You can get the whole story by going into the links supplied by Suz and myself on this thread and last night's thread. The posts at After Downing St. dot Org give a little more information. The link Suz posted today from Cindy herself was very descriptive.

She wants us to please notify the media of this.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at August 7, 2005 05:46 PM

I would contact not just the Media about the Secret Service's threats, intimidation and apparently reckless driving habits - I would call your Congresspeople about this: THIS KIND OF THING IS OUTRAGEOUS!!! I am also tempted to drop a comment on the White House comment line.

www.outofiraq.org

sign that petition etc.... forward that petition etc...

Ya know, all this intelligent design talk would give a lesser monkey serious self-esteem issues.

The Evolution Revolution

www.outofiraq.org

sign that petition etc.... forward that petition etc...

Posted by: ralphdh at August 7, 2005 08:06 PM

Ralph,

I'm copy/pasting the url into here because that way all someone has to do is click on a link. The blog-side doesn't quite work with links the same as the forum.

Please sign Ralph's link.
http://elandslide.org/elandslide/petition.cfm?campaign=iraq1

Thanks Ralph.

not our mOnKeY!

The Evolution Revolution

Posted by: monkey at August 7, 2005 08:42 PM

Brain envy Monkey?

Opposable toes are highly underrated.

Got Grip?

Got Grip?

Posted by: Indy at August 7, 2005 08:45 PM

No, but I am saving up for one... my Kool-Aid chugging in-laws say I need to get one.

Opposable Dumbs

Opposable Dumbs

Posted by: monkey at August 7, 2005 08:49 PM

Sorry to hear that...

Any chance for gene therapy to help them evolve into a conscience?

John Kerry & Wesley Clark were right.

George Bush & Tony Blair were wrong.

CIA Commander: We Let bin Laden Slip Away
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080705A.shtml
Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora - intelligence operatives had tracked him-and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK.

Truth Shall Prevail
I'm reading through the posts - good work you did today. You had done your homework over time & it's paying off.

I have my car with all the bumper stickers and usually in Seattle it's ignored. But in the last 2 days I have had 3 cars stop and want to talk to me and discuss things, such as at the gas station or when I've pulled into a parking lot. I wonder if these are people who are more fed up than usual with what's going on with the government?!

Wherever we live, we can raise a little consciousness.

Linda, Indy etc

I'm enjoying the evolution discussion too. For me, the best arguments were just the things I learned in school - about how mutations work, how DNA works, how animals turned out to have different features merely by living on various different islands in the Galapagos, & just the logic of the various arguments. If we took a hardcore literal approach then we might believe that the earth is only 5000 years old, or that the sun is stationary (that's one I actually ran into a few days ago!) Those didn't make sense to me even in elementary school.

Matt, beautiful piece today. Thanks.
Karen and Dick and dial-up - welcome to my world. Enjoy your holiday.

I love Sundays, such lofty discussion.

I taught Sr. Biology in Ontario, and we taught intelligent design in that class. I don't see the big deal, frankly. The subject was approached not as part of any religious dogma, but as a possibility of the first event, or possibly that which causes evolution or other development to happen - rather than anything to counter or compare to evolution. There were several theories discussed in that unit, as I remember.

I loved teaching it. I saw it as an opportunity to teach tolerance, understanding, and open-mindedness. I used to drag in all my artwork and show how it had developed over the years, how each creation developed from the previous ones.... It was also a good opportunity to discuss the limitations of the scientific method.

The unit was taught only at the senior level - it requires a certain level of maturity to be able to discuss these kinds of ideas without the discussion getting stuck in religious dogma. We discussed the different ways in which belief can color our exploration of the material world, rather than on any suggestion that this was "science" in the way that evolutionary theory is science.

The secret is to have good curriculum writers.

The Democrat Credo:

Shoot self in foot.
Reload.
Shoot self in other foot.
Repeat.

Progressives?

You cannot even progress past an offensive stereotype that is over 150 years old.

Regressives is more like it.

The Civil War was the most brutal and painful divide in our Nation's history and yet some here find it entertainment fodder.

You have lost one of your strongest supporters and Patriots.

I will always fight for America...it is my homeland.

In the South are the wonderful warm hospitible people Polly Sigh's Post degrades are my family and friends.

The South is my home and always will be.

I will no longer fight for or with those that have such blind double-standards.

Who needs the Neocons to divide our Nation...some of you Democrats do very well on your own.

Those who have not lived in the South would not understand...and never will.

The greatest Leaders of this Nation are from the South...from Washington and Jefferson...Madison and Monroe to LBJ...Carter to Clinton...and Lance Armstrong...our latest world hero from the South...and lest you forget...your Dem Vice-Presidential Candidate of 2004 and your Dem Presidential Candidate of 2000.

Other great Americans from the South (just so you know who else you insult with your short-sightedness)

Hank Aaron
Rosa Parks
George S. Patton
Andy Griffith
'Black' Jack Pershing
Louis Armstrong
Stephen F. Austin
John Grisham
Gene Autry
Woody Guthrie
Pocahontas
Edgar Allan Poe
James K. Polk
William Wyatt
Henry Harrison
Elvis Presley
Daniel Boone
Patrick Henry
Jim Bowie
John Henry "Doc" Holliday
Sam Houston
Will Rogers
Paul "Bear" Bryant
Howard Hughes
Wilma Rudolph
Jimmy Carter
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
Babe Ruth
George Washington
Jesse Chisholm
Thomas Jefferson
Sequoyah
William Clark
Andrew Johnson
Henry Clay
Lyndon B. Johnson
Bill Clinton
Andrew Jackson
Barbara Jordan
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Helen Keller
Richard Taylor
Francis Scott Key
Zachary Taylor
Gordo Cooper
Martin Luther King, Jr
Jim Thorpe
William Harrison
Davy Crocket
Robert E. Lee
William B. Travis
Harry S. Truman
Merewether Lewis
Harriet Tubman
Jefferson Davis
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons)
James Madison
Loreta Velazquez
Frederick Douglass
James Buchanan
William Faulkner
Booker T. Washington
George Washington
Nathan Bedford
Ava Gardner
James Monroe
Hank Williams
Dizzy Gillespie
Audie Murphy
Woodrow Wilson
Charles Goodnight
Chester Nimitz
James Oglethorpe
Chuck Yeager
Quanah Parker

But some here at the DCP in their ignorance find it amusing to make fun of a culture and a life-style that they could never understand.

The South used to be full of democrats...perhaps the kind of profiling and stereotyping Polly Sigh and others promote is the reason you Democrats have lost the South.

Indy whistlin' Dixie...

So long Defeatist Dems...you bring it upon yourselves.

Remember the Dem Credo above.

Bigotry is NOT an American principle.

Got Hubris?

Indeed...you do.

Thanks, DiAnne,

The most exciting part was having them tell me they know something is wrong - very wrong, and in some instances they struggle with ideas that were planted in their brains by corporate media spin. Did I mention I told them about the major television networks, spin, propoganda, and who owned the networks?

Like, one of the lies she wrestled with was that she thought the left, the Democrats, are godless athiests who want nothing but a large orgie across America. They want to "ban us from prayer, take the bible away from us." That gave
me a chance to tell her about the constitution and how important it is to keep church and state seperate, and why. And on and on.....

I couldn't believe I had actually acquired that much knowledge in a year's time, and could lay it out in terms that anybody could understand. I didn't have to be witty, or extremely articulate, I just told my story, and it made sense. And they were Verrry Interested, hungry even, for the information. We had to be kicked out of the church at the end of the afternoon so they could lock up, our table was still feverishly discussing this stuff.

The lady who is a minister but doesn't have her own church right now, with the two post graduate degrees, said this about the Christians who drank the Kool Aid and bought the lie hook line and sinker --

"We were duped."

YAYYY!!!! Now, if we just had the staff to do it, we could reach every church in America. People will wake up - it takes about a year from the first time they hear it. They are very ugly and defensive at first, and may attack verbally. But, it gets their attention, and they start paying attention, then they see it for themselves and start doing their own homework, then they are convinced.

I know I talked to that same lady in the church parking lot last fall. Her name is Jane.

Jane said she thinks the government's plan is to strip us of everything, then control us. She said "If I couldn't see it for myself in alot of instances, I would think I was nuts and paranoid". I said "Welcome to my world".

I KNOW we could reach at least 1/3, if not 1/2 the religious and the fundies. And I think we could do it by offering the 95/10 plan as a large alternative to abortion. It could be presented as an alternative plan, and nothing would need to be said about Roe vs. Wade, either way. It would seem to me that alot of people would be thrilled to hear about a pro-active program to eliminate the need for so many abortions. Then they would feel their consciences were clear to vote Dem.

The people are not stupid. They are uneducated. How can we get a group started that could set up mailings to churches, clergy, the same way Rove has done? Who will do it? How can it be paid for? That is the ONLY way to reach rural America, and (if the '04 election was WON, not stolen), rural America took '04 for Bush.

When will the Dems get organized?