Nurture the Soul

Polly,

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend--

Larry wants to know if you have eaten any large animals lately...

Polly,

Thanks for that cheerful thought. 'cept the weasels already inhabit the White House and can be seen roming through the halls of Congress.

At night, I hear they go to the Hawk and Dove to drink a little bloody Mary and plan their next bloodbath against us.

So...I guess you're safe pinned under the snow mobile.

Speaking of feasting on small critters....

Crazy Train
by Ozzy Osbourne

Crazy, but that's how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it's not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing
Driving me insane
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I've listened to preachers
I've listened to fools
I've watched all the dropouts
Who make their own rules
One person conditioned to rule and control
The media sells it and you live the role

Mental wounds still screaming
Driving me insane
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I know that things are going wrong for me
You gotta listen to my words
Yeah

Heirs of a cold war
That's what we've become
Inheriting troubles I'm mentally numb
Crazy, I just cannot bear
I'm living with something that just isn't fair

Mental wounds not healing
Who and what's to blame
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush sought on Saturday to dispel concerns about the readiness of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces, declaring himself "encouraged" even though his top generals say the number of battalions that can fight insurgents without help has dropped.

"I'm encouraged by the increasing size and capability of the Iraqi security forces. Today they have more than 100 battalions operating throughout the country, and our commanders report that the Iraqi forces are serving with increasing effectiveness," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Bush has said that creating Iraqi security forces able to defend their own country is a prerequisite to an eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

One of the few measures the Pentagon has offered the public to judge the capabilities of Iraqi security forces has been the number of battalions that can go into combat with insurgents without the help of the U.S. military.

During congressional testimony on Thursday, Gen. George Casey, top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. John Abizaid, top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the number of such battalions had dropped since July to one from three, out of the roughly 100 Iraqi battalions.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sought to play down the new estimate on Friday, saying, "Its relevance is minimal."

Bush also sought to repair any damage. He said on Saturday the U.S. military and its allies are "constantly adapting our tactics to the changing tactics of the terrorists."

"We're training more Iraqi forces to assume increasing responsibility for their country's security," Bush added.

More than 1,900 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, and the American public is expressing growing uneasiness over the war in opinion polls.

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll published last week found 63 percent of respondents said some or all of the U.S. troops in Iraq should be withdrawn, and a record-high 59 percent said the invasion was a mistake.

Bush cited the killing of al Qaeda's Abu Azzam as a sign the U.S. strategy in Iraq was defeating a violent insurgency.

As a result of what he called an "increasing number of more capable Iraqi troops," Bush said the U.S. military was keeping a better hold on cities after offensives against insurgents are complete. He said Iraqi units are left behind to prevent the "terrorists" from moving back in.

He also pointed to the decision this week to turn over security responsibility for one of Iraq's largest cities, Karbala, to Iraqi soldiers, as a sign of progress.

He warned there would be more violence before an October vote on a new constitution. "More difficult and dangerous work still lies ahead. The terrorists have a history of escalating their attacks before Iraq's major political milestones," Bush said.

What's an ice weasel?

What's an ice weasel?

Posted by: Amy at October 1, 2005 10:52 PM

LOL!!! Amy, you are too adorable for words!

Polly is a brilliant woman, adventurous, and a tireless activist, as you know.

What you don't know is that she is well known in Andersonia for her wiles.

It's best if she tells you about the ice weasels.

Freedom poem
by Ron Carnell

I was fifteen when Grandfather died,
his twisted body vanquished by too many years,
his mind confused by too many diluted memories,
his spirit still as strong and indomitable
as the day he first killed another man
to protect the life he loved.

It was hard for me to see the war hero he had been
within the wasted remnants of a wispy old man,
his flesh sunken between fragile bones,
his smooth, soft skin bleached paler
than the sheets that wrapped him
like a premature burial shroud.

It was hard to see the war hero he had been
until Grandfather opened his rheumy eyes,
the blue as pale as a winter sky,
as hard and cold as tempered steel.
When he opened his eyes and looked into your soul,
only then could you see it. Then you would know.

Those eyes were a pool of profound strength,
with unwept tears of pain and death floating
just below their placid, unbroken surface,
like ocean debris trapped within swift currents
and forever forbidden to emerge,
forbidden to pollute the sea that was his life.

But, still, the soiled debris was a part of him.
Grandfather survived the German occupation of his land,
fought life and death struggles in an Underground
that would not, could not accept the domination of others.
And when it was over, when he had outlived the death,
he had moved to a new land, a land of new-found friends.

In America, Grandfather built a new life,
while never forgetting the lessons of the old.
His melodious French was replaced with broken English,
the rifles with shovels, the knives with hammers.
But nothing ever supplanted his implacable courage,
nothing ever usurped his enduring strength.

Grandfather was a warrior, but he was also a teacher.
I listened to his words, saw his examples,
learned from the stories and histories he shared.
He showed me that courage and strength aren't independent qualities,
but rather are the inevitable results of abiding love.
"What you truly love," he would say, "can never be surrendered."

And Grandfather, more than most, loved Freedom.
I have since learned there are many who say it,
but few who really feel it.
And fewer still who understand it.
Grandfather once told me he never fought for Freedom.
He said, instead, he fought against domination.

We were sitting in the old wooden swing,
its paint as wrinkled and weathered
as the skin of my grandfather's aged face,
the sound of the river flowing through his yard
a backdrop for a classroom
with neither desks nor chalk boards.

"A man can never take away your Freedom," he told me.
"They can only take power and make you pay a higher price
when you choose to exercise it.
Hitler wanted to make that price a man's death.
There is always a price to be paid for Freedom,
but when the price becomes too high, a man must fight."

I remember he paused then, his irregular breath
like a clipped whistle as it wheezed past swollen nostrils.
I was used to his long lulls, a habit so many found irritating.
Grandfather was giving me time, I knew,
to ponder, to absorb, to believe.
And I knew, too, in knowing him, there would be more.

When he finally continued,
Grandfather's voice was almost a whisper.
"It works both ways," he said, leaning closer,
his minty breath an envelope around my face.
"A man can never take away your freedom,
and a man never grant it either."

Grandfather's voice had many tones within it,
and I had learned them all through the years.
"The laws of this country are good ones, mostly,"
he said in a reverent tone, an awed tone
that spoke of important lessons
to be learned.

"But you must always remember that its Constitution,
and all the laws Congress has passed since then,
don't give you one bit more Freedom
than you already have.
Laws are made by men. Laws change.
Your Freedom is part of you. It's forever."

I remember nodding my understanding,
and I remember Grandfather's hand falling to my shoulder.
He squeezed briefly, and I can only assume he was pleased.
It would be another two years
before he would lay in a death bed of virgin white,
and another two decades before I would really understand his words.

The Freedoms written within our laws are always conditional.
Freedom of the Press is amended by libel statutes,
and Search and Seizure laws are cast aside for Probable Cause.
All the laws, all the guarantees,
exist only at the whim of the courts and Due Process.
Grandfather understood.

Any government based on unconditional Freedom
would necessarily be a government of unconditional anarchy.
Our laws don't grant people Freedom.
Our laws only set the price that must be paid
when a citizen chooses to exercise our Freedom.
But the Freedom comes from within.

Grandfather was not a religious man, but he was a Godly man.
And I think he knew.
Our Creator gave us not only our existence,
but he granted us Free Will,
that we might choose between good and evil.
And that power of choice is what Freedom is really all about.

There will always be a price to pay for Freedom.
The price is set by the hand of man, by the laws we make.
When we are wise and good, the price is one we can bear.
And when we are neither wise nor good,
there will always be men like Grandfather,
with the courage and strength to fight for what they love.

Hey Polly,

Do you think there are ice weasels up my way?

If there are, I'll be sure to rent a snowmobile this winter. (lol)

No Place for a Poet at a Banquet of Shame

by SHARON OLDS

Laura Bush
First Lady
The White House

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or the breakfast at the White House.

In one way, it's a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of finding new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in terms of the desire that poetry serve its constituents--all of us who need the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers.

And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been dear to my heart. As a professor of creative writing in the graduate school of a major university, I have had the chance to be a part of some magnificent outreach writing workshops in which our students have become teachers. Over the years, they have taught in a variety of settings: a women's prison, several New York City public high schools, an oncology ward for children. Our initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically challenged, has been running now for twenty years, creating along the way lasting friendships between young MFA candidates and their students--long-term residents at the hospital who, in their humor, courage and wisdom, become our teachers.

When you have witnessed someone nonspeaking and almost nonmoving spell out, with a toe, on a big plastic alphabet chart, letter by letter, his new poem, you have experienced, close up, the passion and essentialness of writing. When you have held up a small cardboard alphabet card for a writer who is completely nonspeaking and nonmoving (except for the eyes), and pointed first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to the first letter of the first word of the first line of the poem she has been composing in her head all week, and she lifts her eyes when that letter is touched to say yes, you feel with a fresh immediacy the human drive for creation, self-expression, accuracy, honesty and wit--and the importance of writing, which celebrates the value of each person's unique story and song.
So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I thought of the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach program. I thought of the chance to sell some books, sign some books and meet some of the citizens of Washington, DC. I thought that I could try to find a way, even as your guest, with respect, to speak about my deep feeling that we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to invade another culture and another country--with the resultant loss of life and limb for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their home terrain--did not come out of our democracy but was instead a decision made "at the top" and forced on the people by distorted language, and by untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live in the shadows of tyranny and religious chauvinism--the opposites of the liberty, tolerance and diversity our nation aspires to.

I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear witness--as an American who loves her country and its principles and its writing--against this undeclared and devastating war.

But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I sat down to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.

What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food from the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration that unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the extent of permitting "extraordinary rendition": flying people to other countries where they will be tortured for us.
So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.

Sincerely,
SHARON OLDS

from Congressman Jim McDermott:

MY RECENT TRAVELS TO THE MIDDLE EAST

I have just returned from an eight-day fact-finding trip to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.

I visited the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Ramallah as part of a study mission by influential Seattleites and religious leaders representing the Israel Policy Forum, St. Mark's Cathedral (of which I'm a member), and Temple De Hirsch Sinai. Among them were Senior Rabbi Daniel Weiner, The Very Reverend Robert V. Taylor, and Seymour D. Reich, one of America's most prominent Jewish leaders and the new president of the Israel Policy Forum.

When we were there, the Gaza Strip disengagement had just finished, and I wanted to see firsthand what impact that event was having. My overall impression was that it had gone well and that the majority of the Israeli people were more optimistic than before about the future -- that is, unless Ariel Sharon loses his party's upcoming vote of confidence and power returns to Benjamin "never again" Netanyahu. That outcome could bring the peace process to a screeching halt.

My trip to Jordan was more eventful. I hate to tell you this, but I left feeling more pessimistic about the situation in Iraq than when I'd arrived. Here are a few insights I gained in conversations with Jordanians and Iraqi refugees:

-- Over and over I was asked to explain why the U.S. invaded Iraq. They simply do not believe the WMD/al-Qaeda/spread-democracy explanations. Many of them instead believe that the neoconservatives in the U.S. are actually employing a divide-and-conquer strategy to weaken strong Arab nations. (See the News of Note section for more on this opinion.)

-- They disagree with the prevailing wisdom that the insurgency in Iraq is coming mainly from outside the country. "Where do you think the Iraq Army went when they all got laid off after the invasion?" they said. "They went underground."

-- They predict that eventually the Sunni and the Shi'a will come together as Arabs and fight against the Persians because ethnic animosity in the region goes back hundreds of years longer than Sunni vs. Shi'a vs. Kurd.

In sum, the Jordanians and Arab leaders I met left me with the impression that the Middle East situation is infinitely more complicated than anyone in the press is reporting and that the United States simply doesn't know where it's going with its Mideast policies. I plan to write more about my visit in the near future once the most urgent work on Hurricane Katrina relief is done.

On another note - Robert Fisk has a book out

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article314587.ece

Also: Got polled by Zogby and very very interesting - don't want to let the cat out of the bag til he gets the results

Click here: The cost of war: Eyes Wide Open Photo Gallery by n at pbase.com or http://www.pbase.com/kayakbiker/cost_of_war

An exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq War. These images were taken at St Catherine's campus in St Paul, Minnesota on October 1, 2005.

Yet another great gallery of pics taken by Bert of Vets for Peace, Mpls