SETTING UP

Karen and Suz,

Good to see so many men working on the site.

Godspeed, and watch your backs.

Please please take LOTS of pictures.

~~ ** ~~ ** ~~ **

This in from DiAnne,

Andree is "a fun, intense, smart little person and Amy was very very nice, her husband too. He's more quiet but takes alot in.

We were on the blog briefly last night & I'll take a peek at that & news but like I say, it's very slooooow, so say hi to everyone! My French friends are keeping me up to date on the hurricane and informing me that Bush wants to go into space.

The big news over here seems to be Kate Moss the model losing contracts and the German elections being kind of a stalemate. Europe seems to be going to the right just as US but more slowly, and they don't have the strong religious overlay, though I would say they are far from exempt from it!

Each place has its own problems but they do alot of things right over here too. They do know how to live in many ways."

Thanks for your contribution. I'm looking forward to the rally/concert on Saturday.

Enjoy it Matt. And do come back and tell us about your experience at the march and concert.

Like your website.

While passing out flyers for the rally, I ran into a business man from Germany. I can't describe how excited he was to see action against the War and though he is not able to stay for it, he was just as thrilled to be able to go home and tell the German people that Americans are still fighting against Bush's war policies.

He made some interesting comments to me that I'd like to share with you:

1. German people still support and love Americans but they are "critising" their friends because they want to help.

2. Germany donated a 'slew' of food for the victims of the hurricane, but as far as he knows, the food has been turned down.

3. This president uses 9-11 to incite fear like McCarthyism.

4. This president appeared to have "gone to war despite the advice of their allies, just to shove the fact that 'America is free--free to be incompetent and free to do what they want' even if it doesn't agree with the diplomatic efforts of the world.

Uli said to us, "Keep fighting and keep up the hard work. We're counting on you."

Ginsburg: 'Any Woman Will Not Do' for Job
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/092205WA.shtml
Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an audience Wednesday that she doesn't like the idea of being the only female justice on the Supreme Court. But in choosing to fill one of the two open positions on the court, "any woman will not do," she said.

from a kos poster:

GAO Speaks (and it doesn't look good)
by agent change
Thu Sep 22nd, 2005 at 16:16:09 PDT

In case we were lacking in enough indicators for poor leadership and fiscal irresponsibility, this is from a GAO Report released yesterday.

link to GAO report: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05882.pdf

"We found numerous problems with DOD's processes for recording and reporting costs for the Global War on Terrorism, raising significant concerns about the overall reliability of DOD's reported cost data. As a result, neither DOD nor Congress (1) can reliably know how much the war is costing and details on how appropriated funds are being spent or (2)have historical data useful in considering future funding needs."

Seems to me that the release of this report should be a big story. Why is it buried in the back pages of a single newspaper?

http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/001846.asp

Seems to me that the release of this report should be a big story. Why is it buried in the back pages of a single newspaper?

http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/001846.asp

Posted by: dwahzon at September 22, 2005 08:35 PM

Dwahzon,

That was a rhetorical question, right?

right... unfortunately

The Goldmine that is Chuck Spinney

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chuck_Spinney

Check out the Spin of the Day tab to the left.

The first thing a fascist government does...

Dispose of all opposition.

Got Despot?

This diary needs some recommends, por favor...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/22/174856/667#2

Thanks Karen et all for all the effort.
U.S.A.TODAY made quite a statement on page 10A,"THEY LIED",with pictures of the whole cabal and what they said and when. Next page listed all the DEAD. My heart-felt thanks and prayers will be with you all....just be safe!
Dianne,nice to know you had a great time..hugs to our French friends from afar.

Thoughts and prayers to all in the path of Rita, from someone who knows just how much it blows.

Aaron Brown just announced:"HOUSTON,WE HAVE A PROBLEM. If you're not out NOW stay put,we've run out of gas."
Wonder where Bush 41 and Barbara escaped to? Kennebunkport ?

Forgot to tell you how to donate to Operation Ceasefire concert:

http://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/Ceasefire/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=840

This may be a silly question, but has FEMA been accountable to anyone fiscally?

Or, like everthing else, has there been no accountability?

Yall are gonna LOOOOVE this

washingtonpost.com
Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 23, 2005; A06

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general.

Timothy E. Flanigan, general counsel for conglomerate Tyco International Ltd., said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that Abramoff's lobbying firm initially boasted that Abramoff could help Tyco fend off a special liability tax because he "had good relationships with members of Congress," including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

Abramoff later said "he had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" about the issue, according to the statement by Flanigan, who oversaw Tyco's dealings with Abramoff and his firm and received reports from Abramoff about progress in the lobbying campaign. Flanigan's statement is the latest indication that Abramoff promoted himself as having ready access to senior officials in the Bush administration.

A White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy, said Rove "has no recollection" of being contacted by Abramoff about Tyco's concerns.

Abramoff was indicted last month on unrelated wire fraud and conspiracy charges and has lost many of his high-stakes lobbying clients. He was hired in 2003 by Tyco when the company was in turmoil. Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig, promoted him as Tyco's savior on the tax issue, according to Flanigan's statement and others familiar with the process.

Tyco -- whose executive L. Dennis Kozlowski had just departed under an ethics cloud -- was worried that the Bush administration might embrace legislation promoted by Democrats that would impose higher taxes on domestic-centered companies that had moved offshore to cut their tax bills. The legislation was motivated by popular anger over such offshore moves, and carried the additional penalty of barring such firms from receiving federal contracts.

Lobbying disclosure statements filed by Abramoff listing his work for Tyco cite the "Executive Office of the President" as one of his lobbying targets on the tax and contracts issues. Others were the Department of Commerce, the General Services Administration and Congress. Greenberg Traurig records submitted to Tyco describe specific contacts with the White House legislative office, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Rove's personal assistant at the time, Susan Ralston, formerly worked as Abramoff's secretary. It could not be learned yesterday whether she was among those contacted by any of the 14-person Greenberg team recorded as working on the Tyco account.

The Bush administration was never enthusiastic about the tax penalty, but both the House and Senate approved language in 2002 denying federal contracts to companies largely based in the United States but incorporated in tax havens.

Tyco was among a raft of companies, including Ingersoll-Rand and Noble Corp., that hired an army of lobbyists to stall the legislation and ultimately kill most of it. House Republican leaders argued that corporate flight was merely a symptom of a much broader problem with the U.S. tax code that should be treated in a larger tax reform package.

Abramoff remains the focus of a lengthy investigation by a task force led by prosecutors at the Justice Department and including investigators at the Internal Revenue Service, the Interior Department and General Services Administration. The probe was initially focused on whether he bilked Native American tribes that paid him tens of millions of dollars in lobbying and other fees, but has since widened to include other matters.

Flanigan, who is still at Tyco while awaiting a committee vote on his nomination, said in his Sept. 15 written statement that he would "consult with DOJ ethics officials . . . and apply normal recusal standards" about the Justice Department's investigation of Abramoff.

Flanigan said he would recuse himself from any Abramoff investigation involving Tyco. Portions of his statement were first reported in the Los Angeles Times.

The ties between Tyco and Greenberg Traurig have already been investigated by a special counsel appointed by Greenberg to examine Abramoff's activities at the firm. According to knowledgeable sources and Flanigan's written statement, Greenberg has promised to repay three-quarters of a $2 million fee that Tyco paid, at Abramoff's direction, to a firm called Grassroots Interactive.

The fee was supposed to finance a letter-writing campaign by Tyco suppliers against the offshore tax bill, but Greenberg concluded that $1.5 million of it was "diverted to entities controlled by Mr. Abramoff" and misspent, according to Flanigan's statement.

Andrew Blum, a spokesman for Abramoff's law firm, declined to comment, as did Jill Perry, a spokeswoman for Greenberg Traurig.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092202204_pf.html

Hey I just found something so shocking im not even gonna copy paste it here

I dont know WTF .. just read it

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=3604

Going now to see if i can find follow up

Here is the original source of that article

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1846.htm

Posted by: Christy at September 23, 2005 01:09 AM

Oh, Yikes!!! If true, I wonder why there has been no mention in MSM infotainment news???

Everything will take a back seat to Hurricane Rita news this weekend, including the WA DC peace rally this weekend, and the full Senate voting on the Roberts nomination that will happen next week. With the exception of the first two or three days of decent reporting from NOLA (mostly) when Katrina hit, MSM is back to being a propaganda mouthpiece....

I saw an evening news broadcast from a reporter in NO (can't remember which network, I was channel surfing), rains had started and wind was whipping around fiercely. By daylight I expect to hear the levees have broken again. The traffic snarl getting out of Galveston and Houston must have been a nightmare. At the 10 p.m. (Central Time) news/weather, Rita had been downgraded to a Cat 4, and projections were that it will hit land north of Galveston, and west of Lake Charles, LA, right about the TX-LA border. Either way, Hurricane Rita is so huge there's bound to be a deluge of rain all over tha region for quite a while, no matter what category it is when it hits land. I hope everyone is out of NOLA, because I really fear the levees will break again....

Besides listening for news about Rita tomorrow, I'm going to write to networks and ask that they also cover the DC peace rally, and I'm going to compose a letter to send to senators about why I think they should vote no on the Roberts nomination (and try to edit it down to a few sentences..., but I really want to write a 30 page rant!).

Everyone in the path of Rita: Be SAFE!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050923/ap_on_re_us/katrina_changing_attitudes_hk4
Poll: Storm Changed Americans' Attitudes
{{{ Ya THINK?!?!?}}}

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050922/ap_on_hi_te/eu_internet
EU Insists It Won't Regulate the Internet

Writing from a MacDonalds and this one is very high tech with Wifi and Mp3 players. I think they have to have that in order to attract anyone because the food is still the same hi-fat low-quality mush.

We're able to get alot of hurricane news, such as footage of cars travelling very slowly around Houston, going nowhere fast. CNN International doesn't seem to bad, and there is BBC and then quite alot in French and then things like Al-Jazeera or in Polish or some other language.

Saw W's ugly mug - his speech about Iraq, Afghanistan and hurricanes made even less sense from over here in Europe. Even though it's much closer to the middle east, gas is much higher and there are middle eastern businesses, people and advertising everywhere - Bush's "take" on it seems even more abstract and retarded, at the same time.

On one report, they said that Bush is trying to make a new attempt to look competent in the face of disaster, such as by going to Texas to try to mastermind the management but it's kind of a lost cause because his public opinion ratings are plunging precipitously.

My local mail looks as though people are either going to DC or mounting a big protest at home in Seattle. Need to find out what is happening here but there will be a huge protest in Hyde Park in London. There were posters all over even last week.

xo to all

For today, our job is to inform. Many people do not know what is happening in DC this weekend and we need to tell them that a huge mobilization is commencing, and we will not stop speaking out, or standing up, or asking questions, or demanding that this government listen to the will of the people--

WE WILL NOT STOP. WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.

Gather the copious amounts of information you have. We all know so much more truth than the average American citizen, beacuse of our shared learning here at the DCP and elsewhere. We are blessed with community and good researchers.

Put it all together in your own brief but clear message to those around you. Send it in. Write a letter to the editor pointing out what is about to happen to the Bush administration and do remind them that, as the media, they might want to illuminate the truth for their readers and viewers.

Over the weekend we will be sending in stories, photos, and maybe even some video. Our purpose is to get the messages out there quickly. Please contact us to take on a particular blog or msm channel.

We can do this. Let's get going.

TBR is a pseudo-news source site that has been described as highly unreliable. I would not rely on any information derived from that site or on sites which used it or rebroadcast items from that site.

UK scientist slams U.S. climate 'loonies'

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A leading British scientist said on Friday the growing ferocity of hurricanes hitting the United States was very probably caused by global warming and criticized what he termed U.S. "climate loonies" over the issue.

Sir John Lawton, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution which advises the government, made what the Independent newspaper said was a thinly disguised attack on the stance of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration.

"The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms is very likely to be due to global warming," Lawton told the newspaper in an interview.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/23/climate.scientist.reut/index.html

Chickenhawks everywhere...

Top Democrats won't attend anti-war rally in Washington

BY STEVEN THOMMA

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - As the anti-war movement arrives in Washington this weekend, many top Democrats are leaving.

Nationally known Democratic war critics, including Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and John Kerry of Massachusetts, won't attend what sponsors say will be a big anti-war rally Saturday in Washington.

The only Democratic officeholders who plan to address the rally are Reps. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and John Conyers of Michigan.

Today's leading Democrats head a party divided over the war, and many leaders are wary of standing with anti-war activists, who represent much of the party's base. The divide between anti-war activists and Democratic leaders underscores a challenge the party faces in the 2006 congressional elections and beyond. Some activists say that Democrats such as Clinton and Kerry who criticize the war but refuse to demand a timetable for withdrawal are effectively supporting the status quo - and may not merit future support.

En route to Washington for the rally, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan protested outside Clinton's New York office. "She knows that the war is a lie, but she is waiting for the right time to say it," Sheehan told about 500 cheering supporters. "You say it or you are losing your job."

Spokesmen for the Democrats who are skipping the anti-war event all said they had schedule conflicts. But some leading anti-war activists aren't buying it.

"There are a lot of people here who are wondering, where are the Democrats?" said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic House member from Maine who's now the national director of Win Without War, one of several groups that are organizing three days of protests against the war in Washington starting Saturday.

"The Democratic Party has an identity crisis on this issue. We need voices. We need leadership," Andrews said. "But fear is driving them."

The rally comes at a time when a growing number of Americans want a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, a proposition that both President Bush and many leading Democrats reject.

A poll this week by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of Americans want to keep troops in Iraq until it's stabilized, but the ranks of those who want to set a timetable to withdraw have grown to 57 percent from 49 percent in July. (Evidently some people chose both answers.)

At the same time, a growing number of grassroots Democrats are dissatisfied with their party's leadership in Congress. The percentage of Democrats who are happy with their leaders dropped from 64 percent in May to 49 percent now, the Pew survey found.

Dean, who rallied anti-war activists with his fervent opposition to the war during his 2003-2004 presidential campaign, already was scheduled to spend the weekend meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, spokesman Josh Earnest said.

"His views on the president's handling of the war in Iraq are well documented," Earnest said. The anti-war rally, he said, is "not something the party was involved with."

Kerry planned to be in his home state this weekend, a spokeswoman said. At Brown University on Monday, the senator ripped Bush's conduct of the war, saying the president should admit "countless" mistakes in the war and proclaiming that "real leadership stands up to special interests and sets the course for future generations."

Feingold was scheduled to be out of town, a spokesman said. Feingold is the only national Democrat weighing a 2008 presidential campaign who's endorsed setting a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

Clinton also didn't plan to attend, a spokesman said.

"Our job is to make them pay a price for continuing to support this war," said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, another group that's organizing the anti-war weekend in Washington.

Sixty-six members of Congress have formed an "Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus" that wants either immediate withdrawal or a timetable to withdraw. None of the party's congressional leadership and none of the likely candidates for president are members.

Anti-war organizers said they expected 100,000 people Saturday. A rival group plans a rally Sunday in Washington to show support for the war.

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/12715225.htm

Bush to see Rita preparations in Texas Friday

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, criticized for a slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, will visit Texas on Friday to get a first-hand look at emergency preparations for Hurricane Rita.

Bush drew heavy fire for the federal government's failure to adequately prepare for Hurricane Katrina last month, and for delays in getting federal resources to New Orleans even as stranded survivors on rooftops pleaded for help.

This time, the White House is scrambling to show Bush in command.

"He will stop to get a firsthand look at the preparations that are under way for Hurricane Rita and to show our support for the first responders as they get ready for the response to Hurricane Rita," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Thursday.

He did not say where in Texas Bush would be going, saying the schedule was still in flux.

Asked how Bush's presence would help the state prepare for the storm, McClellan said: "Well, I think we're going to have as minimal a footprint as possible. We're not going to get in the way of the ongoing preparations that are going on."

Bush will also visit the U.S. Northern Command, which is headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The Northern Command, created in 2002 to head the military's land, sea and air defense of the United States, is headed by Navy Adm. Timothy Keating.

Bush said last week the federal government and the U.S. military need broader authority to help handle major domestic crises like hurricanes.

More incompetence & cronyism...

Bush has ChevronTexaco lawyer head fed's oil price gouging probe

Good news: Democratic governors have embarrassed the federal government into acknowledging the oil price gouging issue, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced a formal probe.

Bad news: President Bush made sure to preempt any real investigation into price gouging by his financial backers in the oil/gas industry when last year he appointed a former ChevronTexaco lawyer, Deborah Majoras, to head the FTC.
--snip--
Thus, the question of the day: Will Majoras recuse herself from being involved in the probe?

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=7A079CED-A552-6200-CF4C39A76CD5A5E4

And while on the subject of cronyism, here's an interesting article about how corporatism plus cronyism = fascist...

International Perspective, by Marshall Auerback

Neither compassionate, nor conservative
September 20, 2005

“Couple a multi-state disaster of Katrina's magnitude, (including some of the poorer and less well-governed states in the union), add on a dysfunctional federal bureaucracy that had deteriorated in recent years, and a chief executive whose motto seemed to be, until yesterday, the buck stops there, and we get a helluva mess."
– Richard Murray, Houston-based public policy expert quoted in the Washington Post

“The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of ‘compassionate conservatism,’ the lack of concern for the ‘underprivileged’ his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.”
– Frank Rich, NY Times

Describing the President’s panicked political response to his falling poll numbers as “compassionate conservatism”, (as New York Times columnist David Brooks did last Sunday, “A Bushian Laboratory”, September 18, 2005), borders on the ludicrous. Mr Bush has now overseen the fastest increase in domestic spending of any president in recent history. Furthermore, he has never resolved the inherent contradiction between his so-called “compassionate” spending policy and his small-government tax policy (which was ostensibly designed to “kill the beast” of Big Government once and for all, according to the President’s conservative apologists). And his casual dismissal of the remnants of civilian authority in the Gulf basin – “It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces -- the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice” – evokes something more along the lines of Mussolini-style fascism than any coherent, mainstream conservative, philosophy.

Read the rest here ===> http://www.prudentbear.com/internationalperspective.asp

It's definitely worth the time to read it.

DW... CNN is a highly unreliable news source.

So is ABC, NBC, CBS, Foe news,the NYTimes, the Washington post, and basically anything murdoch owns for that matter.

BTW.. those people are all listed in phone directories for thier towns, all with unlisted numbers.

oops!

HCA subpoenaed, may involve Senate leader

55 minutes ago

CHICAGO (Reuters) - HCA Inc.,HCA.N> operator of the largest chain of U.S. hospitals, said it received a subpoena from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York requiring it to produce documents.

HCA said it believes the subpoena relates to the sale of HCA stock by Senator William H. Frist, the Republican Majority Leader. The company said it intends to cooperate fully.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050923/bs_nm/hca_dc_1

Edward Kennedy (Mass.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.)

Praise them.

As to the rest who voted for Roberts...

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

Yes Kerry and Edwards too!

YOU ARE ALL FIRED!!!

Edwards is no longer a sitting senator. Him we can keep.

I insist.

Water flows over New Orleans levee
Army engineer: 'It's a wait and see and hope for the best'

Friday, September 23, 2005; Posted: 10:36 a.m. EDT

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Water washed over a levee in New Orleans' hard-hit 9th Ward on Friday as Hurricane Rita swept towards the region, the Army Corps of Engineers said.

new thread

Hurricane Rita update:

Monumental screw up here. Rick Perry, Tx Transporation Dpt or FEMA fail to anticipate massive gasoline shortages along evacuation routes scores of cars stuck in bumper to bumper traffic running out of gasoline and water being abandoned.There is literally no gasoline at any gas stations w/i 100 miles of Houston, anywhere.
Our governor is in desperate political shape b/c of 2 failed specials sessions where we got neither property relief or money desperately needed by ct order for schools. But why with all of our hurricane planning did no one anticipate a need for gasoline with storeage facilities aling evacuation routes? Reports coming in of 20-30.
yes 20-30 hour drive times to go 240 miles from Houston to Dallas.

Very sad news to report. A nursing home bus 2 blocks from my house with 45 elderly patients explodes outside Dallas killing 20. Fortunately for the time being my mom seems safe.

I have been yelling at my mom's nursing home since tuesday afternoon to evacuate. Last night they called to say that FEMA took their 3 buses and gave it some other nursing home so they couldn't leave til 11 pm last night, the absolute worst time traffic wise. Sounds like bs but my mom seems ok so far just freaked out over a 20-30 bus trip. The storm may be veering to Pt Arthur or Beaumont. We are safe 50 miles north of Houston with our new Dem friends who tell me they agree with my theory of Faux News being programmed into business ventures and a discussion of how to stop it.

But Chuck/Indy someone needs to find out why neither FEMA, Rick Perry nor TX DPS offices didn't anticipate folks running out of gasoline during evacuation and having to abandon their cars.Is it Katrina mass spychology b/c we had 200,000 Louisiana folks here and panicking after what they saw in N.O.? Its hard to evacuate a city of 4.5 million and we need to think of that if something else should happen to a very large American city.

I also anticipate W bragging how great Gov. Perry did and bush making every conceivable effort to try and salvage Gov Perry's desperate political campaign with billions from Congress to save his failed budget shortfall. Again my paranoid theory.

Indy

Kerry said two days ago he opposed Roberts.

What is YOUR problem?

AS for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Feinstein and Biden are also part of those who voted AGAINST Roberts.

All who now sit in the People's House are so far removed from the plight of the American people they need to be removed.

We have done it before and we will do it again.

MY Problem is I am an American who has had enough bastardization of OUR Constitution, OUR rights, and OUR Liberties.

If you want to roll over DAMN SPOT, please do so in your basement otherwise feel free to join in the reconstruction of OUR Nation.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

Good luck with the rally and I guess we need a back up plan; who really understands the mind of a politician; please bear with

I am using an alien keyboard

Having a nice discussion of separation of church and state: I have talked to quite a few French and they say a head of state should not be a religious spiritual leader as well: that is completely separate from matters of state or it is getting into dangerous territory

Also scandalized and appalled that the government would allow questioning of evolution, which has scientific support; that the US can be simultaneously engaged in science and have judges and politicians who work counter to science:

Have watched more foreign news as well: they have their own reporters with their own footage even from helicopters so can get direct hurricane news that is not derivative from ours:

I have not encountered any antiAmericanism as there is full awareness that we are more diverse than media stereotypes and that we have been completely hijacked. That part is shocking; to them and to me: